http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/player/all/all/23/all/all/

Retribution is alive and well.

Again, as I mentioned before, you are missing the point of this article. This is not for the highest class players. I don't know any beginner to arena that has access to a full set of PvP gear. If you do, hey, props to you, but they're simply the vast minority when it comes to who I am advising.

Most retribution paladins at high levels do wear PvP gear. Some often wear a mix of PvE and PvP gear. It depends on what the opposing teams allow you to get away with. You are a DPS class, so wearing gear that maximizes your DPS is best. This will include often times PvE gear.

Many ret paladins (that have access to it) particularly enjoy wearing ICC 2hers as they provide a large DPS increase over 2200 weapons.

Also, just because a class has magical damage does not mean it will target a retribution paladin over another class. For instance, destruction warlocks will often choose other targets rather than ret paladins because the ret paladin is more apt to dispel immolate off of himself than a teammate. Mages often follow the same philosophy.

Death knights and hunters both have magical components to their class but rely primarily on physical damage and therefore would prefer a target which is not plate.

Rogues do not always stack armor penetration. Some warriors do not stack armor penetration. Particularly at low levels of arena experience and gear, both of these classes will do much better attacking a non-plate class.

Beyond this, you're refusing to believe that retribution paladins often play with classes who are better targets for these classes. Any clothie would be a much better target for a rogue or a warrior than a retribution paladin. _much_ better.

Plate is a huge determining factor in kill target preferential. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but this isn't one, it's a fact.

Based on your opinion (which is pretty ridiculous) that players should roll holy or protection for arenas makes me think that you have not done too well as a retribution paladin in arena. If this is the case (which I suspect it is) perhaps you are not the best source of information for new players when it comes to retribution paladins.

If you think, however, that you are more knowledgeable than myself when it comes to arena combat (retribution paladins in particular), you are free to apply for my job here at wow.com.

You can find more information here: http://www.wow.com/lfm

Good luck.

You can't use sk gaming's top 100 as an accurate gauge as to how "well represented" a particular spec is.

The top 3 supposed "ret paladins" on that list actually play as holy (check out team comp and they're secondary spec).

PvE weapons > PvP weapons, certainly. Also running with 2 pieces of PvE gear is the norm as you don't sacrifice too much resilience, however this applies to every single class. Maybe you were trying to convey this in the article, as there really isn't much else to say about ret paladins.

I'm not claiming to be a top arena player, I play ret in the 2k-2200 bracket on a 3's team, our highest rating is 2094 with a MMR of 2198. This was the week before patch and it has sense dropped due to the influx of high end PvE gear within the arenas.

I am not doubting your skill or knowledge of arena, I know you play arena at the high end, and I don't know how you handle ret paladins, I can however bet that if you play above 2400 you don't see too many. I'm wondering if maybe "ret paladins" aren't your main target because if you see a paladin dps'ing above 2400 they're almost definitely prot, I only know of 3 players who actually play as ret above 2400: Nyquilt, Tricity, and Hoffahoff.

Hoffahoff is by far the most knowledgeable Ret paladin, you should watch is latest video to get a good understanding about Ret paladins within the arenas.

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=133167

With that being said I am done arguing about this, as I've written before good article, just incorrect about retribution paladins, that is all.