Glyphs

I'll get around to that part 2 of ICC eventually, I swear it, lol.

Anyways, the questions I keep getting are 'What glyphs should I be using?' or 'Is -insert glyph name here- any good?' or 'Why are you covered in goat cheese and confetti?'. I'll answer most of those questions here. The last one there is left to the local authorities of the East Bay.

Ok, there are two glyphs you should ALWAYS have. No matter what. Ever. Shut up. Glyph of Consecration, and Glyph of Judgement. The third is dependent on your expertise, but more on that later. Let's go into why you should always use these two.

Glyph of Judgement: It's a 10% increase to our hardest hitting attack. I'm not going to give a reason why other than that. If you need more than that, get out a calculator, run some numbers, and beat yourself with it.

Glyph of Consecration: This one may seem a tad weird to always have. Increase consecrations duration by 2 secs may seem pointless, but it couldn't be more amazing. You'll find that it frees up our priority rotation by a good deal, saving us a GCD that could be used on another mover, and allows us to save more mana.

Now for the third major glyph. Now before we continue, let's all look at something. Look at the melee section of your character sheet. Look at the bottom. See that stat called expertise. Tell me, is it 26 or higher? No? Well...you think you can spare a gem or two to reach 26? No? Then you just won the right to get Glyph of Vengeance!

Glyph of Vengeance: In essence it's a free 10 expertise while you have Seal of Vengeance! Now you should be kosher! If you're still under 26 with this up, then it's a gear issue, not my deal. If you need help with itemization, I'll make a post after this one,

If you have hit your expertise soft cap (26 if you haven't caught on), then there's a couple of glyphs that look mighty purty to ya. Well they're all lies. It may seem like the other's are helpful, but the actual usefulness of them is either small, or nilch. The last spot SHOULD go to the only constant DPS increasing glyph, Glyph of Exorcism.

Glyph of Exocism: Offers 20% dmg. increase to our least used ability. Essentially the T8 2pc bonus on a glyph. It's not much, but it's better for sustained dps than Glyph of Avenging Wrath, the runner up for 3rd glyph.

Now the portion I'VE been waiting for. The Glyphs you shouldn't use and why section!

Glyph of Avenging Wrath: Decreases the CD of Hammer of Wrath by 50% when Avenging Wrath is up SEEMS like a great way to increase DPS, but the problem is with the ability Hammer of Wrath itself. Usable only after a mob has hit 20% hp is a short window, and relying on a 20 sec. long ability makes the window even smaller. Overall the DPS increase you'll get would be otherwise unnoticeable.

Glyph of Seal of Command: Increase mana by 8% on Judgement of Command. This glyph honestly would be amazing, if they allowed you to switch glyph set ups on the fly without changing specs. However, since they cannot, this glyph is put off into the realm of 'good for pvp only'.

Glyph of Hammer of Wrath: Decreases the mana cost of HoW by 100%. Once again, HoW is usable only near the last minute or two of a boss fight effectively, and with Divine Plea, Judgement of the Wise, and Replenishment, do you REALLY think we're going to be having enough mana issues to warrant this? No. If you answered yes, fix your rotation and maybe even your talent tree if need be. Hint: If you DON'T have Replenishment up almost 100% of the time, then your rotation is waaaaay off.

Glyph of Crusader Strike: Decreases mana cost of Crusader Strike by 15%. Once again, look above. Even if Crusader Strike is used every 4-5 seconds, you shouldn't have mana issues with this. ESPECIALLY since it's already cheap to use.

Glyph of Divine Storm: The most common one I get asked about for some reason is oddly enough this one. This glyph increases the healing done by DS by an additional 15% of the damage it causes, putting the number up to 40%. On paper this seems hawt. Don't be fooled! Let's do a number crunch here. Let's say you use DS and crit on all 4 targets for 7k totaling 28k damage. Now 40% of that is 11.2k. That's how much you heal. By yourself, thats phenomenal. HOWEVER, since I'm going for raids and such, let's do the crutch part, the split. DS splits the healing aspect into 3 seperate heals. You would heal for about 3,733.33 (repeating of course, lol. Go go Leeroy reference! Every wow blog has to have one. Read it in a book somewhere.) to each person. Now in a 5 man, that could come in handy, maybe. However, in raids, this is a gimmick. In order for this glyph to be truly effect, I would say Divine Storm would have to be able to crit for 9k at least, giving the healing aspect at least a 4800 healing after split. That number is significant enough to warrant a use.

NOW, with the introduction of T10 we see an interesting proc at 2pc. All melee attacks (white damage) have a 40% chance to refresh Divine Storm's CD. This could improve this Glyph's usefulness in many situations. The CD of DS is 10 seconds. In that time, you have at least 2 chances to refresh it, 3 if you have a fast weapon (please don't) or a high haste rating (go right ahead). So let's say the proc happens all the time at the first swing. This effectively will half the cd of Divine Storm. Healing for 5k every 10 secs? Lame. Healing for 5k every 5 secs? Now we're getting somewhere (If you heal for 10k ever 10 secs, ignore this altogether, lol. But then again that implies you're hitting each target for 12k damage, in that case send me a message so I can get some pointers, lol.). You'll get no dps increase from the glyph, but the dps increase from the exorcism one isnt all the substantial anyways.

Sorry I got so wordy there at the end, but I'm assuming you're going to a blog to read anyways. More info later. However it's really late/early, and I'm dead tired. Peace all.

Retribution in Icecrown Citadel. Part 1

Hey all. I've taken a few cracks at the new Icecrown Citadel raid in both 10 and 25 man, and I have learned a few things about how you should operate as a retribution paladin there. This isn't going to be a full on boss guide, just a few tips as what you can expect to be doing and things you can do to make it easier on yourself and your raid. So let's get started then, shall we?

Lord Marrowgar: I find Lord Marrowgar to be a very easy encounter overall. All you have to do is make sure you dont get in front of him, lol. Now there are a few quirks to this fight to keep you on your toes.

First: He bone spikes random players and must be DPSed free. Now I have done two different variations of dealing with these. The first is have a designated spike free-er (for 10 man, since there's only 1 spike. 25 has 3.), and lo and behold I got that job. It worked alright, except for the fact I was the one bone spiked the most and had to rely on someone else to get me out, lol. The second way I've seen it done is have ranged deal with them (In 25 man, I would recommend all ranged dps jump on them, in 10 man, maybe 1 or 2.), which worked the best I would say. Partially because it didn't hurt MY dps (har har har) and it meant that the spikes could be reached quicker.

Second: He does a fire spread ability called Cold Flame. This ability is just a four way line of fire that will go from boss to wall. Simply sidestep it to avoid it. It gets a little more problematic during bone storm and there's fire going every which direction, but still avoidable for the most part. Expect SOME damage everynow and then when you barely miss.

Third: This move is unavoidable, and you will see it a few times in the fight. Bone Storm. It's a fancy name for him whirlwinding and running all over the place. He moves fast, he moves alot, and it covers a good area. You are going to get hit, but it won't hurt too much. 3.5k - 4k a hit. Now if you just stand there like an idiot, then yeah, it's going to hurt. The same could be said of any move though.

Now. What can YOU do? Well since this is a basically a tank and spank, spank away. Everynow and then move, and if you see a bone spike near the melee, position yourself so either consecration or divine storm will hit it, adding your 10 cents into the helping process. Simple boss, simple procedure, moving on!

Lady Deathwhisper: Now this is a fight! She has a simple mechanic with some rough execution. She has a mana shield that essentially doubles her HP (to about a little more than Marrowgar's), and she spawns adds after adds after adds to ensure that you don't spend the entire time beating at her shield. She also mind controls random players in 25 man. Oh, and she has an enrage timer, so now it's an execution fight with a DPS race aspect. I'm odd, and I find these kind of things fun.

The best way I've done this fight is have a couple dedicated DPS on the boss the whole time, and split the rest of the raid into left and right side group. They will deal with the adds on their respective sides, and when they kill their adds, go to the boss for a few seconds of dpsing the shield before going after the next wave. Now it's imperative to get the adds down quickly since they will get stronger, and also the more time you spend on them is less time you spend on the shield. The adds spawn at specific intervals, so if you don't kill them fast enough, you will start piling up. Once the shield is down, you go into phase 2. No more adds, and she frostbolts left and right. No real tricks from what I've seen here, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Now what can YOU do? If you're the dedicated DPS on the boss, simple. DPS the boss. If you're on the adds, pull out your good ol' Seal of Command, and go to town on them. If you get a caster that's far away from the boss, I never bother chasing him down. Let the range handle it. That's just running around time, where you won't get much damage done on the add and you won't get much or any damage on the boss. Avoid this. Get the adds near the boss down, and switch to the boss. I've only done this fight once, so if I'm missing any info, let me know, please.

I'll finish part 2 at a later time, since I have a rather full plate atm. I shouldn't even be writing this right now, lol.

Libram Swicthing

I changed my mind, I'll do the post now.

Today I'm going discuss (once again, as the title implies) Libram switching. A very simple concept that I don't see many paladins use, or at least that I notice, I'm sure there are a bunch out there.

As it is now, there are two seals that Retadins should be using: Seal of Command and Seal of Vengeance. Some say Seal of Righteousness is a better seal over Command, I have yet to do the proper testing on it. However, since SoR doesn't have a good libram for overall dps (extra 94 sp for JoR only? woopdeedoo), and I'm talking Librams, I'm leaving it out. Plus for the average mob sizes these days, SoC can do outrageous damage. I have on a few occasions broken 10k dps on trash in Heroic Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron with it, although I usually average out anywhere between 6k - 8k dps on those mobs, depending on how the Random Number Generator is liking me that day. Now, let's continue.

When to use what:

Seal of Command: AoE mobs, or enemies with less than 200k hp (this is implying that you are in a group of 5, and you're assuming that they are well enough geared). I tend to not count any form of boss in that mob number, since keeping SoV up on them is rather important. Now the cutt-off on target hp is debatable, that's just how I personally feel. When using this seal, always attack your kill target (kerr-duh). Expect some aggro, as the cleave can hit some unexpected enemies, such as casters in AoE mobs that the tank doesn't quite have enough hold of. Remedy this by practicing basic threat prevention, either jump into the fray a few seconds after the tank has used an AoE threat ability, or jump in a second or two after the tank and pop your Hand of Salvation.

Libram(s): Libram of Reciprocation is the one I currently use. It's...meh. It's got a 15% proc rate, and as I'm writting those words out, I'm suddenly glad I put the word 'noob' in my blog name. For those of you who don't know, Libram of Reciprocation is the first level 80 libram you can get. It USED to offer 173 haste proc on judgement, but was redesigned shortly after to crit. Still a piece of crap, considering its intended use for AoE mobs. However, it still has a use. To make things easier, I'm going to list good accompany Librams, and why.

Libram of Reciprocation: 15% proc on Judgement to increase critical strike rating by 173. Very specific use in my opinion. AoE mobs are a no, better with Libram of Discord. Single target, or a target with an add or two. Not great, but like I said, it has it's uses, unless you have Libram of Three Truths.

Libram of Discord: The best with AoE mobs. Increases damage done by Divine Storm by 226. Contrary to popular belief, SoC can proc off DS, it still only affects 3 targets though, not 3 per DS hit. Best used with mob sizes 4 or larger.

Libram of Three Truths: Best libram to use with less than 4 target in my opinion. 44 strength per Crusader Strike, stacking up to 5 times, totaling 220 str. Usually you'll get 2 CS' in before mobs of that size die, but 88 str. with a 100% proc is still better than Reciprocation.

Seal of Vengeance: The boss seal. It has a slow build up, making it horrid for targets with low hp, but once you get your 5th stack, you get some very nice numbers. Unlike SoC i don't feel like I have to justify why you should use this seal, but when to us it is a bit different. Anything below 200k hp while in a 5 man group. Reason being is that you most likely won't get vengeance stacked up fast enough to make good use of it while was the bursty effect of SoC provides enough DPS to cover it. That's honestly about it.

Libram(s): I currently use Libram of Valiance, as I'm sure almost all you ret's out there do. Simple enough mechanic with a large proc rate and low ICD (if any). It's almost 100% uptime providing 200 str. is very very hawt. However, with the introduction of Libram of Three Truth's we now have an issue. Which one to use? I can almost guarantee that Valiance will be up faster giving you a big str. boost early on. But the problem with Valiance is that it can go away, no such problem with Three Truths. Three Truths will reach it's maximum in about 20 seconds, providing you use Crusader Strike right as it comes off its CD. With GCD interference you may be looking at 22ish or so seconds. I have yet to do any testing with Three Truths yet, as I saving up NOW for Shadowmourne and I bought my first Primordial Saronite last night (1 down, 24 to go!). Meaning this post is still incomplete, and I will be coming back and editing this information at a later date.

Macros: This is the handy part. The goal for this is also very simple. When you switch a seal, you switch a libram. The tricky part is that changing librams activates the GCD in combat. That sucks greatly. However, there is a way around this. If you cast the Seal first and equip the Libram second, you aren't hindered by the GCD. So your macro should look something like this:

/cast Seal of Vengeance

/equip Libram of Valiance

Very simple, highly effective.

For thickheads, here's an outline:

/cast -insert seal name here-

/equip -insert libram name here-

OK, like I said earlier, this post is going to be subject to change as I test more and I get more info. Thanks for reading for my first post guys! So far that's...no one I think...But hey, gotta start somewhere.

First Entry

Hello all.

As the title suggests this is my first of hopefully many entries into this Retribution Paladin discussion blog. What I intend to do with this blog is share the information I have gathered over the past couple years of playing a retadin. Now I'm not going to say that I am the go to end all fountain of knowledge regarding this class, but I am pretty damn good, and I want to make all the other rets pretty damn good as well.

Do be warned, I tend to make a mockery of english grammar. It's my firm belief that I have been using it for so long, that if I wanted to be rough with it and treat it like my bitch, then I will. So expect the occasional 'ain't', 'lol', 'cya', 'anyways', and other things that would make an english teacher grimace.

I am going to end my first post here, leaving it as a pure introduction post. This way people searching for info don't have to sit through a paragraph of two of pure drivel. For those who want a reference as to who I am in wow, here's my armory link:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aggramar&n=Ixvang

At times I may have a different libram on, more on that one later. I think that should be what my first official post will be about. A simple one, one that most people are aware of, but I still find the occasional pally who doesn't. Anyways, till my next post, take care.