The Light and How to Swing It: Raiding and the Retadin part II
Enchants, Gems, and Glyphs
As far as gems and enchants are concerned, what we're really looking at is Strength. As much as possible, we don't enchant or gem for Hit or anything else if we can manage it. If our gear falls short of the hit cap, we compensate with enchants such as Icewalker or Precision. If we're hit capped, we pursue Attack Power in place of those enchants (there are no Wrath enchants for raw Strength) such as Greater Assault and Crusher. Going up to Ebon Blade Exalted for the Death-Inured Sabatons, you'll pick up Arcanum of Torment for your head enchant.
As always, there's just nothing good for cloaks other than Major Agility. Greater Speed is a bad idea as Blizzard has themselves admitted that Haste isn't quite where it should be for physical DPS classes, particularly melee. Similarly, there's just nothing else but Powerful Stats. This is good because Retribution scales well off Strength and even Intellect and Agility. On the other hand, it's rather pricey with four Abyss Crystals in the reagents, so the significantly cheaper Super Stats is a fine alternative.
Speaking of Abyss Crystals, you'll need ten of them for the best weapon enchant for melee, the Berserking enchant. However, Greater Savagery will do for the starting raider, and you can reserve Berserking for an item level 213 weapon such as Death's Bite from normal mode Kel'thuzad or any of the 213 weapons from the wings of heroic Naxxramas. For your bracers, you'll want Greater Assault over anything else. Striking is a much cheaper alternative but you get what you pay for.
You'll need to grind reputation with the Sons of Hodir, which starts off from an excruciatingly long but ultimately rewarding quest chain, for shoulder enchants. At Revered, you can pick up Lesser Inscription of the Axe, and at Exalted you can get the Greater Inscription of the Axe. If you're a scribe, you can save yourself the grind with the Master's Inscription of the Axe. The Inscription of Triumph from Wintergrasp requires no reputation, no profession, and only costs 30 Stone Keeper's Shards. All you lose out on is a minimal 15 critical strike rating, which isn't bad at all. Lastly, you should pick up the twink-unfriendly Icescale Leg Armor for your leg pieces.
For gems, it's easy. Stock up on Scarlet Rubies. Whatever happens, you will almost always need Bold Scarlet Ruby every time you get an item with sockets. Even if it isn't Red, if you don't need the socket bonus, you should put a +Strength gem in it. If you need the socket bonus, get a gem with +Strength and something else, such as Inscribed Monarch Topaz to fill a Yellow socket, or Sovereign Twilight Opal to fill a Blue socket (you can also use one Enchanted Tear to fill one blue slot). For your Meta, you can choose between the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond or the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond, depending on what requirements you can fulfill. If you can get away with using less blue gems, though, the better. It's Strength all the way.
As far as glyphs go, there are only two must-have glyphs, and that's the Glyph of Judgement, which grants a flat out 10% increase to Judgement damage. Considering Judgements are the primary source of Retribution damage, it's not even under discussion. The other is Glyph of Consecration, which is essentially a mana saver. Consecration is essential to your DPS, no matter what Ghostcrawler says about it being an AoE spell for AoE situations. The last slot is discretionary, although Glyph of Hammer of Wrath might be the best one here because ideally, you'll have run out of mana by the time a boss is dead. On the other hand, it means the glyph is useless 65% of the fight. Glyph of Crusader Strike is a vanilla mana conservation tool, while I think Glyph of Avenging Wrath is too situational to be truly raid-worthy. The last glyph is really up to you. You can even consider using Glyph of Seal of Blood if you find yourself with mana problems.
The important thing is that if you want to raid as Retribution, don't scrimp on your gear. Enchant them, gem them, and get the proper glyphs for raiding. Take a flask and have a food buff. While other classes can get away with doing obscene DPS on subpar gear, Paladins cannot. You have to work for every point of DPS you can muster, and this means securing every buff you can get.
As far as gems and enchants are concerned, what we're really looking at is Strength. As much as possible, we don't enchant or gem for Hit or anything else if we can manage it. If our gear falls short of the hit cap, we compensate with enchants such as Icewalker or Precision. If we're hit capped, we pursue Attack Power in place of those enchants (there are no Wrath enchants for raw Strength) such as Greater Assault and Crusher. Going up to Ebon Blade Exalted for the Death-Inured Sabatons, you'll pick up Arcanum of Torment for your head enchant.
As always, there's just nothing good for cloaks other than Major Agility. Greater Speed is a bad idea as Blizzard has themselves admitted that Haste isn't quite where it should be for physical DPS classes, particularly melee. Similarly, there's just nothing else but Powerful Stats. This is good because Retribution scales well off Strength and even Intellect and Agility. On the other hand, it's rather pricey with four Abyss Crystals in the reagents, so the significantly cheaper Super Stats is a fine alternative.
Speaking of Abyss Crystals, you'll need ten of them for the best weapon enchant for melee, the Berserking enchant. However, Greater Savagery will do for the starting raider, and you can reserve Berserking for an item level 213 weapon such as Death's Bite from normal mode Kel'thuzad or any of the 213 weapons from the wings of heroic Naxxramas. For your bracers, you'll want Greater Assault over anything else. Striking is a much cheaper alternative but you get what you pay for.
You'll need to grind reputation with the Sons of Hodir, which starts off from an excruciatingly long but ultimately rewarding quest chain, for shoulder enchants. At Revered, you can pick up Lesser Inscription of the Axe, and at Exalted you can get the Greater Inscription of the Axe. If you're a scribe, you can save yourself the grind with the Master's Inscription of the Axe. The Inscription of Triumph from Wintergrasp requires no reputation, no profession, and only costs 30 Stone Keeper's Shards. All you lose out on is a minimal 15 critical strike rating, which isn't bad at all. Lastly, you should pick up the twink-unfriendly Icescale Leg Armor for your leg pieces.
For gems, it's easy. Stock up on Scarlet Rubies. Whatever happens, you will almost always need Bold Scarlet Ruby every time you get an item with sockets. Even if it isn't Red, if you don't need the socket bonus, you should put a +Strength gem in it. If you need the socket bonus, get a gem with +Strength and something else, such as Inscribed Monarch Topaz to fill a Yellow socket, or Sovereign Twilight Opal to fill a Blue socket (you can also use one Enchanted Tear to fill one blue slot). For your Meta, you can choose between the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond or the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond, depending on what requirements you can fulfill. If you can get away with using less blue gems, though, the better. It's Strength all the way.
As far as glyphs go, there are only two must-have glyphs, and that's the Glyph of Judgement, which grants a flat out 10% increase to Judgement damage. Considering Judgements are the primary source of Retribution damage, it's not even under discussion. The other is Glyph of Consecration, which is essentially a mana saver. Consecration is essential to your DPS, no matter what Ghostcrawler says about it being an AoE spell for AoE situations. The last slot is discretionary, although Glyph of Hammer of Wrath might be the best one here because ideally, you'll have run out of mana by the time a boss is dead. On the other hand, it means the glyph is useless 65% of the fight. Glyph of Crusader Strike is a vanilla mana conservation tool, while I think Glyph of Avenging Wrath is too situational to be truly raid-worthy. The last glyph is really up to you. You can even consider using Glyph of Seal of Blood if you find yourself with mana problems.
The important thing is that if you want to raid as Retribution, don't scrimp on your gear. Enchant them, gem them, and get the proper glyphs for raiding. Take a flask and have a food buff. While other classes can get away with doing obscene DPS on subpar gear, Paladins cannot. You have to work for every point of DPS you can muster, and this means securing every buff you can get.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eight Feb 2nd 2009 7:16AM
Glyph of Seal of Blood only yields a 1% overall improvement to Spiritual Attunement. If you're looking that flavor of glyph then go for Glyph of Spiritual Attunement. It's a flat 2% increase in effectiveness constantly as opposed to only with a certain seal.
Hailene Feb 2nd 2009 7:19AM
You link to Relentless Earthsiege Diamond instead of Chaotic Skyflare and Glyph of Judgment instead of Consecration. Just to let you know ;)
Zach Feb 2nd 2009 7:20AM
Thanks a lot, Hailene! Fixed. =D
BobbyLee Feb 2nd 2009 12:21AM
Your Glyph of Consecration links to Glyph of Judgement. Just thought you should know. ;-)
Daniel Feb 3rd 2009 11:57PM
Wouldn't Seal of Command better suit even raids? Or is that more aimed towards pvp/solo?
P.S. Alot of your links are off and go to the wrong items- otherwise great info and I can hardly wait to get my pally leveled and geared :)
Dolores Feb 3rd 2009 10:20AM
May I clarify if the hit rating is capped at 8% or 9%? I have read an article in the net that it's supposed to be 9% or roughly 295-300 hit rating.
Zach Feb 3rd 2009 10:22AM
I believe it is 8%, as raid bosses are considered to be Level 83 (skull), so 3% more than the 5% base for mobs of equal level. That should come out to 262 Hit Rating.
jaxson_bateman Feb 2nd 2009 3:24AM
Just thought I'd post the 'general' guide to gemming as a ret paladin...
If you're not a JC:
1. 21 agi/3% crit dmg meta. Whilst it offers slightly less crit than the 21 crit meta alone, the much better meta requirements (one of each gem, as opposed to 1 red and 2 blue) make it the better choice.
2. Socket 1 Enchanted Tear (6 stats) in a yellow or blue socket with a desirable socket bonus (ie. str). This gem alone will satisfy your meta requirements, and provides 6 str and 6 agi in doing so.
3. Socket everything else with 16 str.
If you are a JC:
1. 21 crit/3% crit dmg meta.
2. Socket 2-3 +27 str gems.
3. Socket everything else with 16 str.
There are a few exceptions - like, if a socket bonus has +7 or +8 str it's probably worthwhile to go for it. But as a general rule you're only likely to find that level of bonus on a helm.
Cryoh Feb 2nd 2009 8:24AM
Hammer of Wrath is only available at 20% and below, not at 35%.
Petraeus Feb 2nd 2009 1:05PM
For everyone who wants to see some TANKADIN info about gear and strats, hit up http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/
Maybe our class writer will pick up some information for his protect pally, if he writes one.
Osc Feb 2nd 2009 1:05PM
Glyph of Sense Undead is a solid minor slot choice for Naxx (and face it, other than the Lay on Hands minor, you don't have anything that is a MUST for minor glyphs).
Thundrcrackr Feb 2nd 2009 2:55PM
I think Massacre is the best 2H weapon enchant.
110 attack power.
Thundrcrackr Feb 2nd 2009 3:01PM
And Swift Skyfire Diamond is a better Meta-gem choice imo. (+42 AP and minor run speed increase)
AP > agility or crit, and the run speed bonus saves you from using up talent points in Pursuit of Justice.