Retribution Concordance (RetCon) 5/21/13| 5.3 - Who ordered the Mogu'gai Panda?
This original post is always a Work In Progress. That said, it aims for a high degree of accuracy at any given time. "Game experience may change during online play."
Please Do Not Ask for the following- BiS item or item comparison. You can discover this for yourself via any of the available tools.
Do not expect answers to these questions.
Welcome to the Retribution Concordance (RetCon) for 5.3. This information is thanks to the frequent posters on these boards, who are too numerous to name. All credit is due to those who have spent hours researching and testing - any errors in typing or comprehension are mine. Please PM me for suggestions, typo reports, or other corrections.
[top]MoP/5.0 Changes
- Expertise cap decreased. Exp cap also appears to remove all parry. Note that you may still be Blocked from the front.
- Prime Glyphs are removed.
- T13 2-piece changed to +15% damage to CS.
- Librams were removed.
There is no cookie cutter build. Talents are compressed and often situationally useful.
All movement affecting.
- Speed of Light - +70% move for 8 sec (45 sec CD)
- Long Arm of the Law - +45% move for 3 sec after a Judge hits
- Pursuit of Justice - +15% move at all times, plus an additional 5% for each current HP, up to maximum of 3 (15% flat + 15% at 3-5 HP = 30% total bonus).
PoJ is the generic winner (other talents may have situational superiority).
PvP or Trash CC
- Fist of Justice - 6 sec stun, 20 yd range, 30 sec CD (an upgrade that replaces HoJ).
- Repentance - incapacitate enemy for 1 min. 15 sec CD. 1.5 second cast (reduced by haste).
- Burden of Guilt - Judgment slows target by 50% for 12 sec.
Whiel FoJ and BoG appear designed for PvP, they could have raid usage depending on fight gimmicks. Repentance has relatively generic utility as Dungeon or Raid trash CC. No generic winner/recommendation.
Healing or damage mitigation.
- Selfless Healer - Judgment hits reduce FoL cast time and mana cost by 35%, increases effectiveness only if used on others by 35%. Stacks three times (instant cast, double effect). Stack lasts 15 seconds or when used.
- Eternal Flame - Consumes up to 3 Holy Power to place a protective Holy flame on a friendly target, which heals them for (4,260 + 37.7% of SP) and an additional (391 + 4.5% of SP) every 3 sec for 30 sec. Healing increased per charge Holy Power. Replaces Word of Glory.
- Sacred Shield - No Mana Cost. Produces shield that absorbs 343 (+ 117% SP) damage per 6 seconds. Can be cast on others. Only 1 active at a time.
Selfless Healer may have solo utility (for instant cast) or situational boss utility. EF (loss of HP) produces a loss in DPS and therefore would be undesirable during the typical boss fight (healing/survivability may be worth it on a gimmick fight). SS no longer requires mana. At 30k AP we'll have 15k SP. This means 21k shields every 6 seconds as long as we have the GCD to keep it running.
Only using SS during entirely empty GCD can still lead to approx 20% up-time. That is significant free damage reduction. For this reason, and the ability to prioritize more highly on a survivability fight, SS is the recommended PvE talent.
Vague Hand or PvP utility.
- Hand of Purity - Reduce target's damage taken by 10% and harmful periodic (DoTs) damage taken by 70% for 6 sec. 30 sec CD
- Unbreakable Spirit - When DivShield, DivProt, or LoH are on CD, spending HP reduces CD by 1% per HP spent. Max 50% reduction.
- Clemency - Hand of Freedom, Hand of Protection, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation can be used twice each before incurring their cooldowns.
Lackluster tier, providing possible marginal PvP utility. Unbreakable Spirit is the generic PvE recommendation (more ability to reduce/avoid damage). Should a gimmick fight benefit from one of the Hands, Clemency would be superior.
DPS increasers.
- Holy Avenger - all HP generating abilities deal 30% extra damage/healing, and generate 3 HP for 18 seconds. 2 min CD.
- Sanctified Wrath - Avenging Wrath lasts 50% longer (30 sec). During AW HoW CD reduced by 50% (3 sec).
- Divine Purpose - Abilities that cost HP have a chance to proc DivPurp effect. DivPurp effect causes your next HP ability to consume no HP and cast as if 3 were used. Finisher used at 3 HP has 25% chance to proc, fewer HP reduce this chance (8% for 1, 16.6% for 2).
All good DPS increases. SimC and spreadsheet disagree on generic winner, but margins are narrow (1-2% total DPS variance). Potentially player choice as to which works best with your playstyle.
AW CD is 2 minutes. This matches HA perfectly. Synchronizing the two will enhance the utility of HA. However, faster AW also bolsters SW. Both benefit greatly from this reduced CD and are likely to remain competitive.
New DPS ability.
- Holy Prism - De/buff target. Costs 5.4% Base Mana. Enemy takes 14523 to 17750 (+ 142.8% SP) Holy damage and radiates 9794 to 11969 (+ 96.2% SP) healing to 5 nearby allies. Ally is healed for 14523 to 17750 (+ 142.8% SP) and radiates 9794 to 11969 (+ 96.2% of SP) damage to 5 nearby enemies. 20 sec CD.
- Light's Hammer - 10 yard AOE. 3268 to 3993 (+ 32.1% SP) Holy damage to enemies and healing to allies every 2 sec for 15 sec. 1 min CD.
- Execution Sentence - Enemies take damage per sec for 10 sec, then burst damage. Allies are healed every sec for 10 sec, then burst healing. 1 min CD. Total Damage: 12989 base + 593.6% SP
Execution Sentence is superior for single-target Boss fights. Multi-target fights incline towards Light's Hammer. T14 breakpoint is somewhere between an average of 1.5 and 1.7 targets for LH to do more damage than ES. If 2 out of 3 LH casts can get 2 targets for full duration, LH wins. More than 2 targets or 2 targets every cast for full cast cause LH to win by a landslide.
No longer exist.
- Glyph of Avenging Wrath - heals 1% of max health every 2 sec for 20 sec.
- Glyph of Divine Protection - reduces magic reduction of DP by 20% but adds 20% physical damage reduction.
- Glyph of Divine Storm - heals caster for 5% max health.
- Glyph of Double Jeopardy - Judging increases damage of next Judgment by 20%, but only if 2nd Judge used on different target.
- Glyph of Harsh Words - Your Word of Glory can now also be used on enemy targets, causing Holy damage approximately equal to the amount it would have healed. Not supposed to work with Eternal Flame.
- Glyph of Immediate Truth - increases instant damage of SoT by 30%, but reduces Censure by 50%
- Glyph of Inquisition - reduces Holy bonus by 15% (bonus becomes 15%), but increases duration by 100% (Crit chance bonus remains unchanged at 10%)
- Glyph of Mass Exorcism - makes Exo melee-range-only, but causes 25% damage to all targets within 10 yds of primary target.
- Glyph of Templar's verdict - take 10% less damage for 6 sec after using Templar's Verdict.
- Glyph of Word of Glory - increases your damage by 3% per HP spent after you cast WoG or Eternal Flame. Lasts 6 seconds. Only works on WoG heals, does not function with Glyph of Harsh Words.
Of those available, Double Jeopardy is a DPS increase where there are 2 important targets. Templar's Verdict is a pleasant passive, since up-time is relatively high. Mass Exo is better than the tooltip -
apparently your active target takes a full 100% and all subsequent hits are at 25%. This means the trade off is loss of range vs 25% Exo on every target beyond the first - a situational choice.
Immediate Truth and Inquisition are significant DPS losses. IT is a loss after approx 5 (yes, five) seconds of combat.
Will not be covered as the present intent is to make Minor Glyphs cosmetic or similar non-play-impacting changes. Example: changing Judgment graphic from a Hammer to an Axe.
[top]Single Target
Inq > 5HP TV > ES > HoW > Exo > CS > Judge > 3-4HP TV (> SS)
This is a priority, not a rotation. CD lengths on abilities and HP generation prevent a set rotation from being followed, instead use the best immediately-available ability. Best is listed left to right.
You do not want to engage your first Inq until you have 3 HP. Thereafter you seek to refresh when under 2 seconds remaining duration (again, with 3 HP).
Add Sacred Shield at the bottom of priority if desired. Should only be used if it won't delay some other cast (for reference, clcInfo will only recommend if it won't delay another ability).
Outside cooldowns, there should be little reason to alter this priority even with 4 piece T15.
There is the possibility that adding a 4HP TV rule could earn 0.2% more DPS, based on bromli's napkins. This would be Inq > 5HP TV > ES > HoW > Exo > CS > 4HP TV > Judge > 3-4HP TV (> SS). My own tests in my spreadsheet and Simcraft show this is not a gain.Bromli overturns his analysis.
[top]Multiple Target
Inq > 5HP DS > LH > HoW > Exo > HotR > Judge > 3-4HP DS (> SS)
LH is extremely powerful with 2+ targets. LH beats ES by 1.7 targets, so as long as you get near full duration on 2 or more targets every cast, LH will beat ES.
DS is quite strong (no Armour Mitigation). You can swap from TV to DS with as little as 2 targets. With T15 4 piece, which greatly buffs TV, you would want 4 targets before swapping to DS.
HotR pulls ahead of CS at 1.7 targets. The Holy damage from the splash gains from Inq, as does the Mastery damage from that splash (a double-dip on Inq). Swap at the same time as DS. Given enough targets, HotR would increase in priority over Exo or HoW. Guesstimate between 4 and 5 targets it would be better than both HoW and Exo (4 looks to be ahead on raw damage, but doesn't account for lost/delayed HoW/Exo, it may take 5 to compensate for such loss).
SoR limps far behind Censure and requires
64 (5.2 change, see below) targets to pull ahead (not even counting the possibility of rolling multiple Censure). Most fights keep SoT up and Censure rolling on your main target, even as you AOE. This is not counting the GCDs lost to swap seals. Those lost GCD require the targets to be present for 30+ seconds.
5.2 buffs SoR from 6% to 9%.
[top]Symbiosis - Faking Ranged with Wrath
The Druid L87 ability, Symbiosis, grants Retribution Paladins the spell Wrath. This is a cast spell with no CD, allowing 'Wrathspam' at ranged. In dungeon blues this may be roughly equivalent to melee setup, but by the time you are geared in epics it only produces 70-80% of total DPS. It is never recommended as primary attackstyle. This is only recommended on a gimmick fight where melee would be impossible or otherwise suffer extreme handicaps, such as inability to be in range 20-30% of the time.
Priority:
Inq > ES > HoW > (Judge if Censure is at risk of dropping) > Wrath > Exo > Judge (any other time)
Inq up-time remains imperative. This is more for the 10% Crit bonus, than the bonus Holy damage (which Wrath, being Nature damage, does not receive). While additional Judge (beyond necessary for Censure refresh) and Exo may do less damage than Wrath, they are necessary to produce sufficient HP for Inq.
Obviously you cannot cast Wrath during movement, but all the other attacks are instants and would remain in the listed sequence.
Glyph of Harsh Words does not seem worthwhile - insufficiency of ranged HP generators and the need to keep Inq running means little opporunity to spare a WoG on the enemy. The additional weaker HP generators (and WoG itself) used would at best eat into the margin gained by the glyph, and at worst result in less DPS than without the glyph.
Note 1: I haven't tested or modeled, but there's a chance that Seal of Insight (granting 10% Cast Speed), could be superior to SoT (losing Censure).
Note 2: It's also possible Glyph of Inquisition would be useful - you would need fewer HP generators to maintain full up-time, losing only some Holy damage bonus and retaining the full 10% to Crit.
[top]Stats and Gearing
[top]Stat Weights
Rating Conversion for Level 90
| Stat | Rating for 1% | Value compared to Str | DPS increase |
|---|
| Str | n/a | 1 | 3.71 |
| Hit | 340 | 1.04 | 3.85 |
| Expertise | 340 | 0.73 | 2.71 |
| Haste | 425 | 0.54 | 2 |
| Mastery | 600 | 0.43 | 1.61 |
| Crit | 600 | 0.43 | 1.59 |
Stat weights float in relation to each other. The above is in a roughly T14 Heroic set of gear based on SimCraft. While it is
highly recommended you run your own stat weights, in general you can feel safe with:
Str > Haste > Crit=Mastery
Reforging all Mastery to Crit, reforging all Crit to Mastery, or reforging to equally balance Crit and Mastery seem to produce reasonably similar results.
Reforging allows you to exchange 40% of a combat rating already on an item and converts it into a combat rating not already on an item. Example: If an item has Crit, you cannot add more Crit, if it has no Crit then you could reforge 40% of another rating (Expertise, Haste, Hit, or Mastery) into Crit. An item with 100 Hit and no Crit could be reforged to 60 Hit and 40 Crit.
Since we cannot reforge any stat into Str, then we focus on our most important stats.
These are your goals, in order.
Hit cap. Under hit cap, reforge the worst* stat into hit.
Expertise cap. If hit capped and under expertise cap, reforge your worst* stat into expertise.
Next best stat. If you are now hit and expertise capped and you have gear that has not been reforged, aim to reforge inferior stats to superior stats.
* Worst is relative. Generally reforging to Hit or Expertise is a good thing, but you can go further in-depth with reforging. For maximum DPS gain either carefully perform math on your gear to most closely reach Hit and Expertise caps (inverse "Price is Right" rules - closest over the cap wins), or use a website/program (such as my spreadsheet, or
WoW Reforge Calculator & Optimizer) which will offer reforging advice. Reforging Item A from Hit to something else and Item B from something else to Hit may permit values closer to Hit/Exp cap, thus permitting a few additional Rating to Crit, Mastery, and Haste - an overall minor DPS gain.
[top]Set Bonuses
- [T13 2P] Your Crusader Strike deals 15% additional damage.
- [T13 4P] Increases the damage done by your Templar's Verdict ability by 20%.
- [T14 2P] Increases the damage done by your Templar's Verdict ability by 15%.
- [T14 4P] +10% damage on Seals and Judgement.
- [T15 2P] Your Exorcism causes your target to take 6% increased Holy damage from your attacks for 6 sec.
- [T15 4P] Your Crusader Strike has a 40% chance to make your next Templar's Verdict deal all Holy Damage.
[top]Gemming, Enchanting, and Upgrading
[top]Pre-raid Dungeon Gear
In pre-raid Dungeon gear, Str is superior to every other stat* by a margin greater than 2 to 1.
Str is sufficiently superior to every other stat, that you do not want to Hit Cap through gemming if it can be done via Reforging. Note: Balhale and myself have both found it may be impossible to Hit cap Dungeon gear without gemming hit.
Gem pure Str except in the following situations:
You cannot Hit Cap via reforging. Use purple Hit gems, or straight blue if absolutely desperate.
You cannot Expertise cap via reforging. Use Expertise in any slot (via appropriate Orange/Purple/Green).
* - Not true for Hit/Exp, but bear with me. Lengthy explanation of why Str is desirable, even compared to double Secondary Stats is:
here.
[top]T14 Raid Gear and Beyond
Gemming Str + Haste (Fierce) Orange in Red sockets, full Haste (Quick) in Yellow sockets, and Hit + Haste (Lightning) in Blue sockets yields more dps than going full Str gems. 160 Str vs (320 Haste * 0.54 Str-equivalent per Haste) = 160 Str vs 172.8 Str-equivalent. This will only increase as gear gets better.
Otherwise you want to continue to gem as much Str as possible for the same
reasoning as above.
The transition point between Str or Haste gemming is fluid. Please use a tool to determine stat weights for your gear - if 2 Haste > 1 Str, gem for Haste. If 2 Haste is < 1 Str, then gem for Str.
Be advised, if your model shows 2 Haste > 1 Str the changing of your gems themselves can alter this to no longer be true. Ex: Joe the Paladin runs SimCraft and sees 2.05 Haste = 1 Str. Joe swaps out 8 Str gems for Haste gems, re-runs SimCraft and it now says 1.95 Haste = 1 Str.
In general you will see +60 stats for a single socket bonus, +120 for two sockets, +180 for three sockets. Helmets break this rule - single socket and meta provides +180 stats.
Socket bonuses should be uniformly worthwhile. Our "worst" stat is a shade less than half Str in value - the extra stats from socket bonus pushes the total ahead.
[Reverberating Primal Diamond] is now the superior Ret Meta Gem.
Wrathion's Capacitive Primal Diamond will be superior while it is available. It has a 15 * 1.923 (28.845) RealPPM. Every 5 stacks it fires an attack of 280 + 75% AP Nature damage (thus expect no Inq bonus, but CoE should still modify). It can Crit (using melee Crit %).
A helm must have a Meta present, even if inactive, to activate socket bonus on that item.
All secondary stats listed are ratings.
| Slot | Enchant |
|---|
| Head | No longer applicable. Head Glyphs have been removed from the game. |
| Cloak | Superior Critical Strike (180 Crit), Accuracy (180 Hit), or Tailor-only Swordguard Embroidery III (4000 AP for 15 sec) |
| Shoulder | Greater Tiger Fang Inscription (200 Str, 100 Crit) or Inscription-only Secret Tiger Claw Inscription (520 Str, 100 Crit) |
| Chest | Glorious Stats (80 Primary Stats) |
| Bracers | Exceptional Strength (170 Str), Leatherworking-only Fur Lining - Strength (Rank 3) (500 Str) |
| Gloves | Super Strength (170 Str) beats Superior Mastery (170 Mastery), Greater Haste (170 Haste), or Superior Expertise (170 Expertise) |
| Belt | Living Steel Buckle (1 gem slot) |
| Legs | Angerhide Leg Armor (285 Str 165 Crit) |
| Feet | Greater Precision (175 Hit) or Greater Haste (175 Haste) |
| Weapon | Windsong (Crit/Haste/Mastery by 1500 for 12 sec - procs can exist simultaneously), Dancing Steel (Str by 1650 for 12 sec), Elemental Force (3000 damage proc) |
Until you can easily reforge for Hitcap, using the hit enchants (back and feet) is advantageous.
Windsong can proc all 3 stats (Crit, Haste, and Mastery) simultaneously.
This provides 4500 secondary stats vs Dancing Steel's 1650 Str, with potentially roughly the same up-time. The sheer quantity of additional stats makes Windsong superior if this pans out. If Windsong is changed to permit only 1 proc at a time, Dancing Steel will shoot ahead in comparison.
Windsong appears to be underperforming - proc rate appears to be 1 PPM for all 3 combined, rather than each separately. This varies from how it performed in Beta. Roughly 13% up-time for any given buff, thus 13%^3 (0.2%) chance to have all simultaneously. Dancing Steel should definitely pull ahead. Windsong does still appear to be superior to Elemental Force.
Balhale's modeling shows Windsong 0.7% to 1.4% total DPS
behind Dancing Steel this tier.
We still need to test Windsong and Dancing Steel intensively in the game to determine more details of their proc mechanics. Previous enchants have been made/broken based on Ret-specific details such as Censure applications and Seal procs.
Recommend the mat-cheaper Windsong on pre-Raid gear. For Raid weaponry you may upgrade to Dancing Steel. 5.2 Raid Weapons strongly recommend themselves to Dancing Steel.
Upgrading is presently not active in 5.2
For 1500 Justice a rate item can be upgraded. Rares can only be upgraded once.
For 250 Valor an epic item can be upgraded. Epics can be upgraded up to twice, for a total of 500 Valor.
The following is based on my personal investigation of items and number crunching of their stats.
A rare increases all stats by approx 7.68%.
An epic increases all stats by approx 3.77% (two increases = 7.68%).
Using these formulas has produced accuracy within +/- 1 rating point on every item tested, with the vast majority being precisely accurate.
As would seem only logical, the more stats an item has at base, the better it performs at upgrade. Be advised that not all items are created equal. Example: you would gain more from upgrading a Normal chest item vs a Heroic wrist item.
[top]Which item should I upgrade?
There is no flat answer. This will involve many personal judgement calls.
In general, upgrading your weapon will provide the largest overall gain. Not only are you gaining Str and secondary stats, but you are gaining raw weapon DPS. This base damage carries over to quite a few of our attacks.
Some gearslots have more stats than others - typically the Chest, Helm, and Legs hold the largest values. You would get more bang-for-the-buck from upgrading these locations.
That said, valor points have a cap of 1000 per week. Thus one week's total valor generates enough to increase two items fully. If you feel you are only a short time from upgrading a currently-best-choice item, then you may be better saving your Valor or spending it elsewhere.
Old 5.1 version:
16 items multiplied by 1500 Valor = 24000 Valor. At 1k a week, that's 24 weeks, or somewhere just short of 6 months to upgrade all slots. For every item slot you upgrade twice you add an additional 1.5 weeks - thus the less duplication you produce, the better end results you will have. This is where the 'will I replace it soon' personal judgement calls come into play.
5.3 reduced the Valor cost of upgrades from 750 to 250 per level. Thus 500 Valor to fully upgrade a single item. This drops the required time to generate sufficient Valor to upgrade every slot from 24 weeks to 8. Upgrading a single item twice only adds 1/2 a week. 'Will I replace it soon' becomes less painful by a large degree.
[top]Consumables
Flask: [Flask of Winter's Bite] - 1000 Str. No-brainer. There are no MoP cauldrons.
Potion: [Potion of Mogu Power] being pure Str will be far and away better than any other possible potion. As always, use under AW (and Heroism if possible).
Food: [Pandaren Banquet] only provides 275 Str, so it weaker than the single person buff from
[Black Pepper Ribs and Shrimp].
[top]Avenging Wrath
Avenging Wrath increases all damage by 20% while in effect. This lasts 20 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown, thus providing a 16.6% effective up-time.
While the most impact is granted during Heroism as the increased autoattack rate and decreased CS CD allow more (or more superior) attacks, losing an entire Avenging Wrath during a fight because you delayed for Heroism is a net loss.
During AW, even if the target's health is above 20%, you can use HoW. Make sure to use those HoW that become available.
Sanctified Wrath talent extends this buff by 10 seconds (total 30 seconds), for up-time of 25%. It also reduces the CD of HoW, permitting more usage during this buff.
Note: AW matches with Holy Avenger talent. Should you decide to select that talent, it would be advantageous to macro their usage together.
During AW with SW the recommended priority effectively becomes: HoW, Exo*, HoW, TV/Inq, repeat.
* - Often Exo will not be available, based on CD - when unavailable replace with Judgement.
With T15 4piece it is: HoW, CS, HoW, TV/Inq, repeat.
With HA this is: Filler, TV/Inq, repeat. Use the highest priority filler currently off CD.
Hard to tell if HA+ T15 4 piece should be CS, TV/Inq, Repeat. This can be napkin mathed, but has not yet as of this writing.
If you're using Divine Purpose (why are you using Divine Purpose?!?!?), just stick with the ordinary priority during AW.
[top]Guardian of Ancient Kings
Guardian of Ancient Kings provides a stacking Strength buff. The buff stacks to a maximum of 20, providing a 20% bonus to Str. The buff lasts until the Guardian dies or when it expires 30 seconds after cast.
If you are using the Sanctified Wrath talent, you would engage both GoAK and AW simultaneously to match their 30 second durations. Otherwise, it is advised to use GoAK first to stack the Str bonus. After 10 seconds you would use AW. This would provide the maximum Str benefit for the entirety of the AW.
GoAK CD automatically resets when boss combat ends or on death. This means the ability will always be available after a wipe or if used late in a previous boss fight.
For those who have been holding T11 Prot 4piece, in 5.2 when you swap out of the gear your Guardian buff should be removed.
[top]Holy Avenger
The talent Holy Avenger grants a new 2 minute CD. This CD causes all HP generators to generate 3 HP on usage, and increases the damage of HP generators by 30%.
If you use this talent, it is advised to macro AW and HA together for a single button press.
[top]Pre-potting
Potions have a 1 minute CD outside of combat. Within combat a potion can only be used a single time. To maximize potion usage, it is possible to pre-pot. This is the practice of using a potion a few seconds before combat engages, such as while the tank is running in. This places you on the 1 minute potion CD, but it immediately begins ticking down as it began outside of combat. Thus 1 minute later, in the middle of the fight, you can again use a potion. This second usage is your combat usage and prevents further potion usage during the fight.
Tank threat should, ever since the Cataclysm Firelands buff, not be an issue, even for Pre-pot purposes. If you find yourself struggling with threat early in a fight, and the fight does not involve a threat gimmick, stage an intervention before your tanks' become underthreat addicts.
[top]CD Usage with Pre-potting
If you pre-pot then you may choose to begin CD usage shortly after the pull to stack with this benefit.
While this gains some additional bonus from the Str bonus of the potion and can permit an additional CD in a fight (first CD used earlier, the timer may be up to re-use an extra time before end of fight), it does have some drawbacks. Historically initial threat could be an issue, requiring throttling of DPS or using a GCD on Hand of Salvation - such requirement tended to be a loss of DPS compared to an unthrottled CD period.
Overall popping throttled or HoS CD vastly weakens that CD cycle. Assessment seems to be that this is a DPS gain if you have an additional CD usage at the end of the fight due to starting the cycle earlier. This would be the same quantity of full-power CD usage, plus the partial-power initial CD usage. If you are unable to gain an additional CD usage during the fight, then you trade one full-power CD usage for a partial-power CD usage. The partial-power, even under Mogu Power, is likely less boost than a full-power CD without throttling or HoS GCD requirement. As stated above, threat should be a non-issue, so at this time that should not be a drawback.
Typically between 3 to 8 seconds of the 25 second pre-pot duration will be lost waiting on the pull or with the tank running in. This gives 22 to 17 seconds of Str buff. You have 'wasted' some buff time, however since this is a second 'bonus' potion and does not prevent later use of a potion, you still have a net gain.
If you are not using the Sanctified Wrath talent, it is recommended you stick with the normal routine of building 3 HP and then engaging Inq. This means 16 to 11 seconds of Str buff under Inq. If you are using SW, then you will need to refresh Inq sometime during CD, regardless. As such it is advantageous to begin with a 1 HP Inq, such as follows: Pre-pot, pull, Exo, Inq, AW+GoAK, begin normal priority. Again, you are losing some of your pot to applying Inq, but the 'bonus' potion effect means you are still producing a net gain.
You may desire to hold ES until GoAK stacks are high or some trinket (and/or Dancing Steel) proc is about to expire, in order to cast it at maximum efficacy. Be aware this anywhere-up-to-20 second delay could lose an ES cast by the end of the fight, making it a subjective call.
- Spells do not have partial resists. [Confirmed - no partial or full resists]
- Glancing blows (only on mobs 3+ levels higher than you, such as Skull bosses) happen 24% of the time on auto-attacks. A glancing blow deals 75% damage and cannot crit.
- Boss level mobs have melee and spell crit suppression of 3%. This means you will crit less frequently than the % displayed on your character screen.
- Autoattack Crit Cap is 73% (100% - 24% glancing - 3% suppression). Crit above this level would not generate more crits.
- Ability Crit Cap is either 97% (100% - 3% suppression) or possibly 100% (103% - 3% suppression). Either is beyond possibility for Ret Paladin gear.
The above are unchanged from previous gameplay.
- Expertise changed from points to a Rating conversion which matches Hit.
- You need 7.5% Hit (2550 Hit rating) to be melee capped. 2549 rating provides an 0.04% chance to miss while producing equal overall DPS. Autoattack, Crusader Strike, Judgment, Templar's Verdict, and Hammer of Wrath all use the melee hit cap.
- You need 7.5% Expertise (2550 Expertise rating) to be dodge capped. Spell attacks cannot be dodged. Dwarves will need 2210 Expertise Rating with maces, and Humans would need 2210 Expertise Rating with swords or maces. 2549 rating provides an 0.04% chance to be dodged while producing equal overall DPS. 2209 has the same benefit.
- You need 15% Spellhit to be spell capped. Both Hit and Expertise contribute to Spellhit, therefore at 7.5% Hit + 7.5% Expertise you would be at 15% Spellhit and cap. The only ability that is affected by this is Exorcism.
- Autoattacks, Crusader Strike, Judgment, and Templar's Verdict are all considered melee attacks, using Melee Hit and Crit %. They are susceptible to parry and dodge.
- Hammer of Wrath is ranged Holy damage and can be dodged, but not parried. It is susceptible to Hit and Expertise.
- Exorcism is a spell attack, using the Spell Hit and Crit %. It cannot be dodged, parried, or blocked.
- All damaging attacks do 200% damage when they Crit (previously default was 150% for spells), before Metagem modifier. Only change to Ret paladins from this is Exorcism.
Ret Specific
- Art of War not normalized. Faster weaponspeed = more autoattacks. More autoattacks * 20% = more AoW.
- Gain SP equal to 50% of AP. Cannot gain SP from other sources (Int, enchants, etc).
- Mastery damage bonus is applied to: Crusader Strike, Templar's Verdict, Hammer of the Righteous, Divine Storm, and Hammer of Wrath.
- Sword of Light is a Ret specific bonus of 30% damage to 2H melee weapons, also grants 6% of your maximum mana every 2 sec, and increases the healing done by Word of Glory by 30% and Flash of Light by 100%.
- Inquisition behaves like a DoT for the purposes of clipping the last tick. Any refresh within the last 2 seconds is no-clip (the remainder gets added to the duration of the new cast). Example: Use 3 HP to refresh Inq with 1.5 seconds remaining and the new Inq is 31.5 seconds long.
Note that 5.2 increased SoL from 10% to 15%.
Inquisition should no longer be able to be refreshed to lower duration. Example: you have Inquisition buff with 25 seconds remaining, 1 HP, and use the Inquisition ability - you should no longer drop to 10-12 seconds on Inquisition buff.
[top]Haste and the Soft Cap
There does not appear to be a soft cap on Haste. If we were to somehow push Haste to extreme levels (such as over 50%), you continue to gain benefit. By continually reducing the CD of abilities affected by SoB, you are able to 'replace' lower damage attacks with higher damage attacks. This continues to net an increasing benefit, especially as autoattack speed continues to increase AoW procs.
There still may be points of inflection. If Haste is high enough, you may gain more damage from 1 more Crit/Mastery Rating than 1 more Haste Rating, as you make the attacks you are already producing hit harder.
Use your tools (SimC or spreadsheet) to monitor your stats.
[top]Attacks: Base damage and Coefficients at L90
Autoattack
((AP/14) * Weaponspeed) + Weapon damage
Generates Holy Power? No
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? N/A.
Crusader Strike
((((AP/14) * 3.3 ) + Weapon damage) * 125%) + 791
Generates Holy Power? Yes. Generate on Miss? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes.
Hammer of the Righteous
((((AP/14) * 3.3) + Weapon damage) * 20%)
Generates Holy Power? Yes. Generate on Miss? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes.
AOE damage calculated as: ((((AP/14) * 3.3 ) + Weapon damage) * 35%) as Holy.
If the single-target portion hits, the AOE portion automatically hits all targets in range. Each target takes the full AOE damage, the AOE value is not split between targets like Holy Wrath in Cataclysm. Thus more targets means more total damage done.
Templar's Verdict
((((AP/14) * Weaponspeed) + Weapon damage) * 275%) + 1,727
Generates Holy Power? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes on GCD.
Divine Storm
(((AP/14) * Weaponspeed) + Weapon damage) * 101.25%
Generates Holy Power? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes on GCD.
Seal of Righteousness
((((AP/14) * 3.3 ) + Weapon damage) * 9%)
Generates Holy Power? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? N/A.
Cannot miss. Hits all targets in range.
Seal of Justice
((((AP/14) * Weaponspeed ) + Weapon damage) * 20%)
Generates Holy Power? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? N/A.
Last tested as not scaling with AP at all. Has not been tested since patch went live.Based on a recent log of mine, SoJ does appear to be scaling with AP.
Seal of Truth
((((AP/14) * Weaponspeed ) + Weapon damage) * 12%)
Generates Holy Power? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? N/A.
Cannot miss (hits if the attack generating it hits).
Censure: 107 + (9.4% SP) per stack. At 5 stacks 535 + (47% SP). Ticks every 3 seconds, reduced by haste. Censure is now applied by melee attacks (auto, CS, TV and J), this leads to far more reasonable stacking and for easier target swapping. Censure application can miss, while Censure ticks cannot miss.
Judgment
Base Damage: average 623
Coefficient: 54.6% of SP and 32.8% of AP
Generates Holy Power? Yes. Generate on Miss? No.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes.
Damage does not change based on seal.
Exorcism
Base Damage: average 6,960
Coefficient: 67.7% of AP (no benefit from Spellpower).
Generates Holy Power? Yes. Generate on Miss? Yes.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes.
Hammer of Wrath
Base Damage: 1747 to 1930
Coefficient: 161.0% SP.
Generates Holy Power? Yes. Generate on Miss? Yes.
Haste Reduction from Sanctity of Battle? Yes.
Mastery Damage
This adds an additional 14.8% + 1.85% per Mastery (value / rating) damage of Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, Hammer of the Righteous, Hammer of Wrath, and Templar's Verdict as Holy Damage.
The original attack (CS, DS, HotR, HoW, or TV) is calculated, modified by de/buffs and armour. Mastery then takes the appropriate % of this damage and applies that as a flat value. The Mastery cannot Crit - if the base attack Crit then you are taking 15+% of the Crit, so the increase is already factored. The only de/buffs which impacts Mastery are Inquisition and CoE.
When it comes to racials that impact PvE damage, the Alliance is superior.
Draenei
Heroic Presence now grants only the Draenei the +1% hit. Not a bad bonus, as it will allow additional reforging of stats and more possible gear combinations. A free HoT to marginally increase survivability is of minor PvE or PvP use.
Dwarf
Dwarves could net 1 free Expertise via Mace specialization. Again, free secondary stats is free additional DPS. Stoneform which can clear poison/disease/bleed effects on a 2 minute cooldown could be a minorly useful PvP ability.
Human
A human could net 1 free Expertise via Mace or Sword specialization. Free secondary stats is free additional DPS. The free CC break can provide a few additional seconds of DPS (or move to survival spot) in PvE, and in PvP allows replacement of PvP trinket with something providing more raw Resilience or DPS stats.
Horde paladin racials have little to no impact outside of PvP purposes.
Blood Elf
A silence effect and some extra mana regen. The addition of Rebuke to baseline makes the silence less important. Mana should be a non-issue, the additional gain is unimportant. Possibly of PvP utility during Rebuke cooldown, or on a Boss fight where multiple interrupts are necessary.
Tauren
A 2 second AoE stun and higher base health. Possibly useful in PvP, but not for PvE as most bosses are immune to stun.
[top]Professions
Mixology adds additional Str to
[Flask of Winter's Bite]. Precise value currently unrecorded. Also provides the benefit of extended flask duration. Raw stats are likely tied with Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting, but the extended duration may be considered an extra edge.
[Zen Alchemist Stone] is a useful starting trinket.
[top]Blacksmithing
Socket Bracer and
Socket Gloves, allow two additional gems. Naturally you want to use
[Bold Primordial Ruby] or
[Quick Sun's Radiance]. Tied with Enchanting, Engineering, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting at 320 Str.
If 640 Haste > 320 Str then BS could edge out other professions.
Enchant Ring - Greater Strength provides 160 Str. Two rings, total of 320 Str. Tied with Blacksmithing, Engineering, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting.
[top]Engineering
[Reinforced Retinal Armor] which provides Sockets for Tinker's Gears makes this an excellent starter helm. This would be obsoleted by the next tier.
Synapse Springs II now boosts Str by 1920 for 10 seconds every minute. This locks out trinket cooldowns for 10 seconds. Excellent boost but cannot be stacked with trinkets during CD phases, requiring some CD juggling. Averages to 320 Str boost, the equivalent of Blacksmithing, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting.
Lifeblood provides 2880 haste for 20 seconds, with a 2 minute cooldown. This is average 480 haste or 1.13% at L90.
You likely would not want to use this under Heroism as it could cause sub-3-second CS cooldown issues.(Rough modeling says sub-3-second CS CD does not appear to be a bad thing). Weaker than the crafting professions.
[top]Inscription
Secret Tiger Fang Inscriptionprovides 520 Str and 100 Crit.
This is 320 strength more than the
Greater Tiger Fang Inscription. Tied with Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting.
[top]Jewelcrafting
[Bold Serpent's Eye] grant 160 Str over the regular Rare Bold. Multiply by two for 320 Str bonus. Tied with Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, and Inscription.
If 2 Haste > 1 Str then JC falls behind BS.
[Quick Serpent's Eye] only grants 480 Haste, a bonus of only 50% stat.
[top]Leatherworking
Fur Lining - Strength (3) provides 500 Strength to Bracers.
This provides 330 Str beyond the (new) 170 Str bracers enchant. 10 Str ahead of other crafting professions.
Toughness, the self-only perk of Mining, provides 480 stamina and thus absolutely zero damage. No DPS increase, marginal survivability increase.
Master of Anatomy provides 480 Crit rating. This is 0.8% at L90. 480 Crit is a bit more than half the DPS of 320 Str. A weak DPS increase compared to the crafting professions, but still superior to Mining.
Swordguard Embroidery (3), grants 4000 AP for 15 seconds, and has a 55 second ICD with 15% proc chance. Assume procs every 60 seconds and this would be an average 1000 AP, compared to 705.6 AP (320 Str * 1.05 Plate Specialization * 1.05 Kings * 2 AP per Str) from other professions. However, this replaces the normal cloak enchant. 1000 AP - 706 AP = 294 AP is more of an increase than 180 Hit or Crit to cloak, so it may be the best profession perk.
[top]Macros and Mods
None presently listed. Feel free to submit useful macros.
Mods are purely optional. Some players run with none, some with dozens. This section is intentionally light, focusing on two that are of great assistance with Ret specific tasks, namely priority and timing.
CLCRet/CLCInfo will help you properly follow your priority setup and track procs or temporary buffs.
OmniCC is an addon that adds text to items/spells/abilities that are on cooldown to indicate when they'll be ready for use. It integrates nicely with CLCInfo.
Other recommended mods are a threat meter, unit frames, and bar mods - there are many options from which to select. Pulling threat leads to death and zero DPS. Having units and bars in efficient locations reduces eye movement and chance you are looking at the wrong place on your screen at the wrong time - this increases DPS and reduces chance of death.
This author strongly recommends personalization of the UI to fit your needs and playstyle. Designing your own UI rather than using the default or a pre-packaged UI is the difference between a meal at a 3-star Michelin ranked restaurant and McDonalds.
[top]Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What seal for PvE?
A: There are now only two PvE seals. Seal of Truth provides superior single-target DPS, while Seal of Righteousness can provide superior multi-target DPS with 4+ targets.
Q: What seal for PvP?
A: There are three possibilities for PvP: Seal of Truth, Seal of Righteousness, and Seal of Justice. SoT requires stacking on a single target and would be inferior for target swaps or long time off target (application from ability usage and not just autoattack mitigates this). SoR provides instant damage and cleave to hit multiple targets. SoJ produces much less damage, but applies a -50% runspeed debuff for 8 seconds. Which is superior is likely a personal choice depending on team composition, buffs, debuffs, and similar factors.
Q: What does weapon speed do to us? Do we want slow or fast?
A: All things being equal (Str and iLevel, therefore average DPS), we generally still want slow. Seals are not normalized to weapon damage, thus the higher damage range on slow weapons is superior.
Q: What weapon enchant?
A: Dancing Steel.
Q: Should I use a fast 1h weapon to stack SoT quicker?
A: No. Switching weapons is a DPS loss. The majority of our damage is physical (Auotattack, CS and TV). The lost damage during the ramp up period is greater than the boost to Censure ticks. The fact that CS, TV, and Judgement also apply stacks of Censure make this even more moot.
Q: Should I swap librams?
A: What's a libram?
Q: Should I grab this leather/mail piece of gear?
A: No. Leather and Mail items no longer have Attack Power as a separate stat. Classes naturally wearing those armour types gain 2 AP per Agility. The lack of Attack Power vs. a Plate item with Str means the Leather and Mail will always be inferior. Additionally, if you wear all Plate you get the Retribution Plate Specialization bonus of +5% Str.
Q: Should I take a higher DPS weapon with Agi?
A: No. An Agi weapon of equivalent iLevel should never be as good as the Str weapon due to the same lack of AP issue.
Q: Do you have a Best In Slot gear list?
A: No. This thread will not cover an overall BiS discussion, though may theorycraft specifics of trinket mechanics and possibly identify a specific BiS item. With gemming and reforging making gear highly configurable, a single BiS is far more fluid. Check the rest of the Paladin forum, there may be a BiS themed thread.
[top]Valuable Resources
The following tools can all be used for stat and gear comparisons, recommendations of upgraded items, and comparing different attack priorities.
Simulationcraft is a program which can be downloaded and run. Fully armed and operational battle station. Ret module presently supported by Balhale.
My MoP Retribution Paladin Spreadsheet is an Excel Spreadsheet (requires macros). 5.3 version updated May 21st.
WoWReforge.com is a useful website for reforging to maximum effect.
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|
| AGI | Agility (stat) |
| AoE | Area of Effect |
| AoW | Art of War (spec) |
| AP | Attack Power |
| AW | Avenging Wrath (ability) |
| BoM | Blessing of Might (ability) |
| BoK | Blessing of Kings (ability) |
| CD | Cool Down |
| CS | Crusader Strike (ability) |
| Crit | Critical Strike (rating or percent) |
| DoT | Damage over Time |
| DivPurp | Divine Purpose (talent) |
| DS | Divine Storm (spec) |
| ES | Execution Sentence (talent) |
| Exo | Exorcism (ability) |
| GCD | Global Cooldown |
| HA | Holy Avenger (talent) |
| HoJ | Hammer of Justice (ability) |
| HoT | Heal over Time |
| HotR | Hammer of the Righteous (spec) |
| HoW | Hammer of Wrath (ability) |
| HP | Holy Power |
| ICD | Internal Cooldown |
| Inq | Inquisition (ability) |
| J | Judgment (ability) |
| Judge | Judgment (ability) |
| LH | Light's Hammer (talent) |
| PoJ | Pursuit of Justice (talent) |
| PPM | Proc Per Minute |
| SoB | Sanctity of Battle (spec) |
| SoJ | Seal of Justice (ability) |
| SoR | Seal of Righteousness (ability) |
| SoT | Seal of Truth (ability) |
| SoT DoT | The DoT portion of SoV - aka Censure |
| SoT proc | The instant damage portion of SoV |
| SS | Sacred Shield (talent) |
| STR | Strength (stat) |
| SW | Sanctified Wrath (talent) |
| TV | Templar's Verdict (spec) |
While supplies last (order now!). No guarantees implied. Your mileage may vary (or kilometerage). Not available in certain states (of mind). For indoor or outdoor use only. Not for use by small children (that's why we have ovens and barbecue sauce). May cause incontinence and/or temporary blindness while driving. If effects last for more than four hours, brag and link the damage meters.
[top]Thread Change Log
9/24/12 Initial Post. Updated gemming information based on some discussion. Updated again for more gemming clarity.
9/25/12 Shed doubt on Windsong. Blue sockets.
9/27/12 Formatting fix.
9/30/12 Synapse Spring trinket lockout is 10 sec, not 15.
10/8/12 Priority HP4 notation.
10/10/12 Expanded glossary
10/11/12 GoMassEx, HotR, weapon enchant recommendation updates.
11/23/12 SoJ scales with AP. Updated HotR to show it's normalized.
2/25/13 Requested cleanups. Some 5.2 tweaks. Some notes about Upgrading (even though non-applicable when 5.2 starts)
3/5/13 5.2. Inq can't be refreshed to lower duration. HoP update.
3/18/13 SoL correction for FoL doing 100% bonus heal.
3/26/13 Spreadsheet update. More Thunderforged items. itemID displays on Item Calc tab.
3/28/13 Clarified priority under Avenging Wrath header.
4/1/13 - Rewrote Pre-pot section.
4/22/13 - With 4 piece T15 swap to DS at 4 targets, not 2.
5/21/13 - 5.3 SoL changed from 15% to 30%. 5.3 spreadsheet link. Upgrading is back and cheaper than before.
09/24/12, 11:58 AM
Similar Threads
