When you want to compare item X to item Y, just download Rawr or a spreadsheet.

As a general rule, you want to use a slow weapon unless the newer weapon has lot of extra dps. Cryptfiend is better, however if Relentless had 226 dps (which it never will), then using a faster weapon would be okay.

Tankadin Question:

What would suit better a Retribution Paladin for off-tanking when necessary? [Cleaver of the Unforgiving] with [Thick Lionseye] or [Dragonscale-Encrusted Longblade]?

Thanks in advance.

Is that a joke?

The axe gives better mitigation, the sword gives better threat, neither is even close to the sword out of heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Hell, neither is better than a level 80 blue. Or close to level 80 blues.

Well Cryptfriend's Bite has more haste anyway so the difference in actual attack speed would be slightly lower anyway I should think, definitely go for Relentless Edge as it has more damage, more crit and attack power.

My Paladin is level 71.

There's no reason to min/max tanking leveling instances. Especially the WotLK ones.

Did you bother running this through Rawr and actually reading up on how base weapon damage (and thus weapon speed) affects us?
Using the rawr best in slot template (where you're hit/exp capped from gear), cryptfiend's bite wins with 72.x dps over relentless edge.

Please don't give wrong advice (and do read up on base weapon damage and how important it is).

Thanks guys, I have some problem running Rawr on my computer, it makes a critical error when I try to open the exe file.

However I just got it to work on my laptop and found out that Cryptfiend's bite is indeed slightly better than Relentless Edge. Ah well, at least it vendors for 25g

Now what I wouldn't do to get an Aesir's, Earthshaper or Voldrethar.... *drool*. Each of those would be such a MASSIVE upgrade to my current cryptfiends.

Hello everyone. Recently i've been less active so my gear didnt catch up from naax25 and atm i'm geting mostly scraps from other melees in ulduar, wich is OK since i'm now pretty casual.


The result has been that i am still with Death's Bite from kelthuzad 10men and way overcapped (350 atm).


As the guild progresses way faster in gear than me, i am being left behind in dps badly (never top 10 now while in naax25 i was normaly 5-6th).


Good news is that it seems i am next in line for a 2H weapon either worldcarver or Rune Edge. I know worldcarver is definately better for my purposes but i realy can't afford to lose more time with my "awesome" Naax10 weapon, so i'll go with whatever drops first.


Acording to rawr i'll have an increase of over 200 dps with an upgrade from death's bite. Is this purely fictitional theoretical numbers or should i expect a massive increase such as this? In other therms is the upgrade realy noticeable or do you think i should save up DKP for perhaps 2-3 other gear upgrades ? (weapons cost much more in DKP), what should be my priority atm?


Thanks in advance.

Even if a weapon only gives a 200 dps increase, it will be more than a piece of armor (maybe 20-60 dps per piece). For all melee dps classes, the weapon is the most important part.

If you are really concerned about dkp, you can try to get 1850 arena rating to get the weapon (about equal to Rune Edge).

Is this anything to be concerned about? Judging by the threat increase Ret Aura has lost more than half of its Sp co-efficient damage.

I know the damage is reasonably small but any damage reduction is something to look at.

Source

If Blizzard scales back +Intellect or buffs +MP5 for healadins in the near-future, are any healadins saving MP5-heavy gear just in case?

I ask only because I've read a few Ghostcrawler posts that hinted Blizzard wasn' thrilled about healadins stacking huge +intellect since all the patches.

I'm starting my healadin up from 70 to 80 after a six-month break. A lot has changed. God Bless EJ!

Personally, I think it'd be bonkers if an intellect-nerf hit healies, especially with the stat-allocation on Ulduar I'm seeing.

You also have to understand that having fewer str weapons and more AP+agility weapons allows more people to gear up. While AP and agility are not ideal all 2h classes can make use of them (especially ret paladins) and since many of the AP + agil weapons are slow it makes them even better. It's a side effect of gear homogenization. More upgrades through sheer ilvl for many rather than few upgrades through ideal itemization for a few.

I feel it is a good okay to pick up the mp5 gear, just in case. The alternative is a shard, so not much of a loss picking them up (other than bank space).

I know a lot of Warriors/Rogues/Druid feel back about passing on Grim Toll (back then ArP was weak).

I don't have the patience to scan the 50 pages of this thread to see if this has been answered but.

Since I'm new to ret, I'd love to know one thing.. what's a good usage of Sacred Shield... i never saw really the utility of that but it seems every thread in there people are using it.. you're casting it on yourself or on the tank?!

Always looked to me as something a holy pally would use due to the flash of light buff.

They will probably do the same they did for prot and change the stats of your current gear to swap spell power for mp5.

Just like they did with prot pallies for spell power vs strenght.

That is for plate, then for neck pieces and cloaks, maybe you should save some.

If you feel you need the survivablity of SS on yourself, then do that. However, once you feel comfortable with that, cast SS on the tank instead. SS stacks in a way (each shield can proc by itself), but if you had 4 SS on one target then maybe the 3rd and 4th are wasted. When I raid, only one other person casts SS on the tank, so two is always useful.

Most Holy Pallies do not cast Flash (that may change in 3.2), so the buff to Flash is mostly worthless in PvE.

Simple question:

Is the 4set tier8 bonus worth getting for a Holy Paladin?

Healing gearing is far more subjective than DPS. There is no guaranteed overall BiS. You need to decide on what you need to focus. Mana pool/regen issues - grab more Int and Crit and gem for Int. Plenty of mana, but your targets die - go for Spellpower and Haste and gem for Haste.

Spamming HL (which even Blizzard admits is basically all you're expected to do) should prevent your targets from dying. So mostly don't worry about spellpower, it'll be present on the gear you're picking up - focus on the secondary stats. Haste increases throughput (more spells cast), Crit is a sort of hybrid (more crit heals for greater healing, it also has Illumination regen), and MP5 (or better yet, just Int) will allow you to cast more spells on a long fight.

Once you're comfortable with your mana on every fight I'd personally recommend more Haste. Be warned, this sort of double-dips on extra mana usage. You're trading potential mana regen stats for the ability to cast more spells in the same period of time. So increased mana usage + decreased regen. You'll have to find your personal sweet spot.

Question:
Rawr has the [Furious Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets] ranked fairly low. I would think with the buff to CS in 3.1, they would be one of the top gloves. Is Rawr not considering the 5% boost to CS? If not, how high would you rate the gloves?

The high amount of Stamina and Resil used in the item budget is not overcome by 5% bigger CS hits. Rawr does account for the extra CS damage. That said, you can still made a solid set with those gloves, just it is 50-100 dps less than a set with the T8 gloves.

Depends on your healing style. In a 53/18/0 build it certainly is. In a ret subspec build the answer is it depends. If you get it play around with it and see if you like it.