If you're only a "weekend warrior" and prefer an offbeat team, I think warrior + retadin could lead to some interesting games. You have some gaping weaknesses, but it's not the worst you could do, and definitely quite rare.

To follow up on rej's suggestions for fun setups that include a retribution paladin. We ran into 1 retribution paladin, 1 holy paladin, and ms warrior the other week. It is exceedingly difficult for any to them controlled for a exceedingly long time in the first minute or two of the fight. At least in the setup my group runs for fun in the 3v3 bracket. If we ran a lock would be different with that teams lack curse removal but having a great deal fun with the spriest and druid that just started.

Currently my 3v3 combination is Pally, Warlock, Warrior. We seem to be doing well against most makeups however we just cannot beat a Priest, Rogue, Mage combination. Most of our losses have been to that makeup and were running out of ideas to counteract them. Our warrior is slowed for most of the duration due to a coordinated freedom dispel and then frost nova or frostbolt slowing effects. Then add in me having to do a riverdance around pillars to avoid the MB priest. In cases where i do need to come out and heal i am open to a wide variety of cc, from sheep to a nice fear / mana burn combination. Sacrafice is dispelled too fast to be of use against the sheep. Bubbling buys perhaps 1 holy light before it is dispelled. Our warlock is SL spec and tries to CC as much as possible but with the rogue on him and the mage on our warrior and priest on me there is little to be done. Does anyone have any suggestions or should i just admit that in an evenly matched (in regards to playing ability), our combo is going to get decimated by theirs?

Try putting your warrior on the rogue. If he's mace spec (and he should be), between constant mace stuns and hamstring he's going to really limit the rogue's dps on the warlock. Non-prep rogues only have vanish and imp sprint to break hamstring, both on long cooldowns, and with intercept, even a snared warrior can keep on top of a rogue very well. Give the warlock BOF to get away from the rogue, even if it is dispelled very quickly, the warlock will only need a few seconds of BOF to break away from the hamstrung rogue and start kiting.

Make sure the warlock manages his felhunter carefully, he may want to juggle it between keeping the priest (or mage, depending on the mana situation), in combat, and also using it to dispel himself of frost nova and frostbolt slows if need be. Your team has a lot of ways to kite the rogue around and minimize his dps, which will in turn allow you to stay more mobile due to less healing required. You'll have to be diligent about keeping sheep off the warrior since he will be getting sheeped a lot if you do this, fortunately for you detect magic is being removed in 2.3 so the mage will not be able to cover his sheep with detect to thwart cleanse. Also the felhunter can dispel the warrior too, keep that in mind as an option for keeping him out of poly.

If you kite the rogue well enough he will eventually give up chasing the warlock and they will try to kill the warrior, which a combat rogue and frost mage can do very quickly, so keep an eye out for that too. Your warrior will need to be ready to intervene out of there if things get ugly, but when they stop chasing your warlock that frees him up to fear either of their dps. It should be manageable. Freeing the warlock from the rogue allows him to fear the mage much more frequently, giving you a bit of relief from poly and counterspell, and with dots up all over the place and your warrior beating on their rogue, their priest should have his hands full with dispelling and healing, leaving him little to no time to chase you around trying to manaburn. He can also fear the priest to try for a kill on either of their players if they start getting low, and it never hurts to get curse of tongues on the priest to try and get him behind on healing, many mages are slow about getting CoT off quickly, and some won't remove it at all and it costs them a game.

Basically, lockdown the rogue and kite him, and get a feel for how defensively your team needs to play, the warlock can CC the mage if you get behind on healing or if things are looking good he can CC the priest to get him behind on healing and dispels.

Ornamented (holy):

Arena armor S2 to S3:
AC: +1131
STM: +59
INT: +25
CRIT: +28
RES: +12
HEAL: +84

Arena 1h + shield S2 to S3:
AC: +405
STM: +8
INT +4
HEAL: + 45

Veterans to Vindicators (belt, boots, bracers):
AC: +180
STM: +12
INT: +9
CRIT: +10
RES: +0
HEAL: +23

Veterans to Vindicators (ring, neck):
STM: +8
INT: +6
HEAL: +14
MP5: +2

So TOTAL it's around (might have left something out)..
AC: +1716
STM: +87
INT: +19
CRIT: +38
RES: +12
HEAL: +166

Probably a small enough upgrade to buy ret gear first this season for fun and instead and wear more pve gear in arena since not many teams ever try to kill a paladin when cc/lockout is more effective.

You're not really going to miss the season to season upgrade I'd think as a Paladin. Or as anything but melee really, since cloth isn't getting another armor boost. Can just as well buy offspec gear first.

I actually sort of wish they would allow you to buy other class sets for arena points right now, because even if someone wanted to try Ret in 2.3, there is no way to prepare for it aside from the 5k you could have in advance. And even with 5k points, you are going to be way behind in resilience compared to other people when the gates open.

Apologies to PvE ret paladins who are using S2 gear for raiding, but I really think they should re-itemize back to S2 at least. I'd like to prepare a Ret set for 2s and 3s with the extra points I have, but it is hard to get started with this resilience problem.

I have been stuck at 1700 in 2v2 and 3v3 on my retribution paladin, Raun - Eredar, since I have been in the arena. I try to seperate him from pve entirely and wish to leave blacksmithing to obtain a season 3 weapon. In the past I was not concerned with class combinations and played mainly with my friends. With the introduction of the personal rating system, however, I wish to assemble an arena team that will give me the best chance at achieving 1850. What bracket and class combination would be the best choice? Any advice is appreciated.

There really isn't a "tried and tested" setup for a Retribution Paladin. I've never seen a high rated (2100+) Ret Paladin lineup. You however have the most leeway on a 5v5 team. Warrior, Ret Paladin, Mage/Warlock, Resto Shaman, Holy Priest or Holy Paladin. Something like that. Some setups do well against double melee/physical but others don't.

There's been some theorizing about a 2s team of Enhancement+Ret Paladin but with the nature of 2s and how class makeup dictates the battle I imagine it will be highly frustrating even if successful.

I think that, late in the season, pretty much any skilled DPS+Healer team with solid gear should be able to brute force their way to 1900 in 2s.

My suggestion would be to start making friends with an over-geared resto druid now.

EDIT: and if you get really desperate, there's always the option to spec holy and find a decent team just to get you to 1850. I hit 2K in 5s during s1, with only 1 piece of arena gear, so as long as you have a decent healing kit, you should be able to make things work.

I have a question about the Mystical Skyfire Diamond. With the announced hidden cooldown of 45 seconds, is it worth using this metagem over the one, with 12 int and the manarestore-procchance or the one which gives you 18 stamina and stunresistance?
Currently I'm using the Powerful Earthstorm Diamond mainly because of the stunresistance, the 18 stam are an neat bonus. But often the greatest problem for me in 5vs5 is to get the heals out fast enough, so I thought the Mystical Skyfire Diamond would be worth a try, but with these cooldown I'm unsure. Thanks in advance.

The proc rate is being buffed to compensate a little bit. It will probably still be the only show in town. The numbers I've seen on the Int/Mana gem are really unimpressive and it's only worth it if you get to spend all your mana in the first place.

I had a fight last night that lasted over 30minutes. Would like to ask some of you more experienced holy paladins what to do in this situation. I'm normally protection spec but started going holy for arena.

2v2
US: Kigale - Orc Survival Hunter with Scorpid Pet, Lucient - Belf Holy Paladin 41/20/0
THEM: Tauran Restore Druid, MS Orc Warrior

We were on the BEM arena. Fight pretty much played out with them annhillating the scorpid asap. Avoiding our mana buring strat. Ive kept him up as much as i can even to the point of boping it. But eventually it falls behind with the druids: Cyclone, cyclone, feral charge, feral stun, cyclone, cyclone, charge again combo. Cant get the viper to stay very well unless i use my HoJ followed by a torrent right after he fires. Mean while i have to constantly keep the hunter up with Freedom and Heals. The druid would often shift to protect his mana pull but when he got low for the most part he could run away to his hearts content and drink. I drank 4 full mana bars during this fight duration, the hunter drank 2 and resummoned his pet 2 times. We just couldnt get any where and neither could they.

Ended up losing due to a nasty chain of intimidating shout, cyclones, charges and stuns, while the hunter was being pummeled. I came out of it in time to save him but was in range for a stun, so i attempted that. The orc resisted it causing us to lose the fight. Either way though i dont see any end to this fight. 2.3 MAY help the hunter alot. Could possibly burst down the warrior with the deadzone and instant wyvern sting changes. But as for now im clueless. They were very well played i wish i could remember their names.

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but figured you guys would be the best to ask.

Hello Everyone,

Well, first off a little about my experience with arena, at the moment, I'm specced for protection with my main (10/41/10) after being coerced back into it by my old guild, and currently holding out for the Ret changes in 2.3, so I can go back to the talent tree I've always enjoyed the most.

The problem of course, being that Retribution is often thought of (And to an extent, rightly so.) as the red-headed stepchild of the Paladin. My Arena experiences, has always caught me stranded at 1600 (Highest Rating.) as ret, where it seems I hit a wall. (I have had very little 3 v 3 and 5 v 5 experience, since, well, honestly it's a royal pain to find people to go with, when I can go.)

However, with the coming of 2.3 I am intending, once again, to pick up my old 2-H and give it a whirl, with a new team in mind. However, here's where my question comes in.

How do you guys think, an all paladin 3 v 3 or 5 v 5 team would do? I have considered taking 2 Retribution, 1 Protection, and 2 Holy Spec Paladins for a 5 v 5 team, and 2 Retribution and a single Holy Paladin for a 3 v 3 Team, but am a bit concerned with their possibilities for advancing past 1600+

Also, with the heavy Resillience trend, and looking at the Season 3 gear. (Which seems to me, to be an actual worse suit of armor for burst/steady DPS damage for Paladins than the Season 2 is.) I'm not sure exactly how well the 2.3 Paladin would do *in* the arena's come season 3, compared to the improvements available for other classes in their S3 gear.

Hey they are removing spell damage and armor pen from the Retribution gear and re itemizing that into strength. ^^

Here is the link:

WoW Forums -> SEASON 3 RETRIBUTION: Complaint Compilation

This is going to change things; however, i am not sure if its for the better espcially if there is no other change. I am not quite sure how to gauge this one.

I clamored for a change in that vein before but if they just take the AP and SD and slam the ilvl all on Str then I really doubt it's going to be a worthwhile upgrade. A mechanics change is needed rather more than a pure itemization one.

Edit: Upon further thought it's probably a minor change and they're talking about a small swing. The Season 3 set took a hit in Str from Season 2 but +Dmg stayed the same. Fair enough.

I had the pleasure of fighting Krona's team (The World of Warcraft Armory) in 3v3 several times this season. His makeup of warrior/ret pally/resto shaman works quite well, as evidenced by his rating. That is probably the most successful ret pally makeup I've seen, at least in 3v3.

I was just wondering wat people preferences are between Scarab of infinite cycles and essence of the matyr, also with the nes trinkets coming out next season will peoples preferences change?

Im trying to establish which trinket, essence of the matyr or scarab of infinite cyles, would be better for my 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 team.

Any advice would be great, thx in advance

I know this isnt really answering your question, but I find that both trinkets do pretty bad in Arenas. The scarab doesnt proc often enough to be worth it (though when it procs, it can really help alot) while the extra +healing from essence is barely noticeable when you'r healing someone through MS. Plus it takes yet some extra to focus to activate it.

I'm defenitly going for one of the new trinkets next patch to replace my current Spyglass.

Now to answer your question, if I were forced to choose one of those, I'd go for the scarab.

Seems like you'd lose to almost any team with a priest pretty easily (2-3 mana burns and you are done for the match). Even if you DPS them, your vulnerability to kiting/CC will probably let the priest ignore your damage most of the time, and a mage can't really kill a good holy priest solo if they know how to use LOS. If the priest is teamed with a warrior or rogue they can also easily dispel your freedom and just endlessly kite you.

Warlocks should also give you trouble since they can easily CC your team and drain mana. I think any of the normal warrior/healer teams will also give you trouble if they are decent players.

I guess I've got a challenge on my hands then. That's what I like to hear.

I restarted 2v2s with a hunter and we ran into a mage/pally (holy) team in the 1700s.

I have no idea how they got up that high. I suppose they would be a nice counter to most 2 dps teams, but as a drain team it was laughable.