Ret -> Holy?Follow

First off, I HATE asking for spec vs spec, but I've hit a very tough spot.

As a 61 Ret, I get an insane crit(15.08% base, 3% on hit, all spells and Judgments with Sanctified Seals, 5% on hits/spells/seals with Conviction, plus on Judgments 25% with Fanaticism and after a Judgment, an additional 3% crit with anything.
Most importantly though, I get the two class defining spells.
Repetence, which makes soloing instances possible. I just solo'd the Stratholme Holy Water for my Paladin Mount quest by Repetence on one elite, stun->crit Sealing another elite and beating it down then the other, then killing the 4 adds before the other woke up.
And most of all, Judgment of the Wise, replenishing mana 15% instantly every Judgment, plus a few tics of .25% of max mana.

However, I have heard SO many good things about Holy.

Right now, I am attempting to solo(or at least gauge) Dire Maul. This means chasing down and killing the stupid Imp for the key first. I just got completely ruined by a Lasher and a giant leaf Elemental. No chance at all.

My questions are;
When does Holy outshine Ret in solo(if it does)? Replacing the above mentioned, as well as Retribution Aura bonuses(72/hit, 3% damage increase) the 6% with 2h weapons, Art of War, Sheath of Light/Righteous Vengeance, and SoC/10% mana reduc on instant spells...

Here is my current point setup.

Ret Build

I'm finding soloing normal mobs are a joke, even 2-3 Elites my level are handleable if 1 is a humanoid/demon/undead/giant/dragonkin.
However, I do run out of mana quickly if rushed by a ton of mobs or a few REAL tough ones.

I'm really looking to get this mount. I just up and bought a regular mount(shoulda waited... free training -.-) but I am unsure if I will be able to do this quest.

Mostly, I wish to know if Holy overtakes Ret, and if it does, will it soon or not until 80?

Yeah, couldn't even solo the leaf giant. Very disappointing that a 57 elite rapes me in an instance but I can take 2 of them my level outside :/

Guess it's LFG time.

But still curious on the Holy vs Ret.

Anyone here have a level 80 Retribution Paladin? I'd like to see how much Sheath of Light adds with decent gear.

Holy hell.

"solo" and "holy" will never be an efficient combination. I have had near wipes in instances while healing where I have been able to heal myself long enough for the tank to run all the way backc to me... but I was doing no damage during that time.

prot and ret both can solo just about anything. ret will solo things faster. prot (contrary to the above poster) can actually solo some of the things that ret can't (harder hitting elites) but will take about twice as long. I have moderate gear sets for all three specs at 80 and find ret and prot to both be very close in how fun they are and what they can accomplish. holy is my weakest gear set, but even if it was better I would still only use it for instances.

if you are looking for a solo spec with little to no downtime, ret is probably the way to go. prot is close, but solo it has more downtime. holy is not the way to go at the moment for solo. if you like groups all 3 specs are very strong and desireable in instances and raids. holy probably has an advantage here because of the loss of so many healers to DK alts.

There are problems with sacred shield though. It only absorbs 500 damage and the +50% crit chance on flash of light only lasts as long as the shield does, which is the space of time in between a lv 80 mobs melee swing, or precisely zero seconds in pvp. You can try to time it after some weak damage comes your way, like a frost nova or reflected seal of blood damage.