The Light and How to Swing It: Gearing a new level 80 ret paladin, part 2
by Gregg Reece 
Jun 16th 2010 at 11:00PM
I want to thank everyone who has sent in screenshots. I've gotten a lot of good shots thus far and am always looking for more. They can be any level between 1 and 80 and in dungeons, raids, questing, or wandering around town. I'll be using these for header graphics like the one above. Please send those as well as any other comments to my email at gregg@wow.com.
We're into article two of our three part guide on how to gear your new 80 retadin. Last week we looked at the profession and reputation rewards that could get you started. We're going to be looking into dungeon drops this week and finish up with badge gear next week. Let's get onto the loot.
A couple of quick notes before we get started. Everything is a drop off of heroic mode, unless otherwise marked. The only normal modes that were included were the level 80 dungeons and not the leveling ones. Anything with an asterisk (*) beside it is epic quality, and everything else is rare quality.
Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom While not epic, the Edge of Oblivion is an okay starter weapon if you can get it. Also, the chest piece from Taldram isn't a bad thing due to its two gems slots if you can get your hands on it.
- Prince Taldaram
- Herald Volazj
- Krik'thir the Gatewatcher
- Anub'arak
Caverns of Time: The Culling of Stratholme While the Mobius Band isn't a strength item it is still pretty good until you get into badge gear or higher end heroics. While the legs from Meathook are decent, Ingvar out of Utgarde Keep has better.
- Meathook
- Chrono-Lord Epoch
Drak'Tharon Keep King Dred has one of the only few trinkets you'll see in the starter dungeons. Also, Tharon-ja has a two-handed mace, but it uses some of its itemization for Agility which while helpful isn't as useful as Strength you'd get on some other weapons. Still, it's better than quest greens.
- Novos the Summoner
- King Dred
- The Prophet Tharon-ja
Gundrak With gems, the chest piece is a good start as you can boost the stats considerably. Gal'darah has an epic ring, but it's another agility item. It's good, but the attack power doesn't scale as well as strength would.
- Slad'ran
- Eck the Ferocious
- Gal'darah
The Nexus Ormorok's ring is a strength based one and is worth a look. Also, there's a hit trinket from Keristransza in addition to an epic belt.
- Anomalus
- Ormorok the Tree-Shaper
- Keristrasza
The Oculus Eregos provides a set of epic gauntlets that you can pick up (providing your party doesn't bail on you).
- Varos Cloudstrider
- Ley-Guardian Eregos
The Violet Hold The pike from Moragg as it is one of the very few strength based polearms in the game. You probably don't have your polearm skill worked up, but now's a great opportunity before weapon skills go away in Cataclysm.
- Xevozz
- Zurmat the Obliterator
- Erekem
- Moragg
- Cyanigosa
Ulduar: Halls of Lightning If you kill Loken, you've got the opportunity to grab a nice, big, epic, two-handed axe. This is actually the best you'll get until you hit ToC and the higher dungeons or get a Titansteel Destroyer crafted.
- General Bjarngrim
- Volkhan
- Loken
Ulduar: Halls of Stone Two different two-handers to choose from (although the Maiden's isn't that great) in addition to some epic wrists. The sword from helping Brann is actually one of the best rare quality ones, but the epic ones still kick its pommel.
- Brann Bronzebeard Escort
- Maiden of Grief
- Sjonnir the Ironshaper
Utgarde Keep Very good set of legs off of Ingvar at the very end of the instance. Otherwise, Keleseth has a haste belt with a red gem socket on it.
- Prince Keleseth
- Ingvar the Plunderer
- Svala Sorrowgrave
- King Ymiron
Crusaders' Coliseum: Trial of the Champion As this is one of the more higher end dungeons, the normal mode stuff is all epic quality and the heroic mode gear is equivalent to Ulduar 10. Edge of Ruin on heroic mode is essentially an upgrade of what Loken dropped in Halls of Lightning. Otherwise, treat this as Winter's Veil and dance around and open your gifts. I included Marrowstrike in the list as it is a two-hander and if it is an upgrade, feel free to take it, but you'll likely upgrade out of it to the Edge of Ruin.
- Grand Champions
- Eadric the Pure
- Argent Confessor Paletress
- Black Knight
- Helm of the Violent Fray* (normal)
- Drape of the Undefeated* (normal)
- Girdle of Arrogant Downfall* (normal)
- Vambraces of Unholy Command*
- Uruka's Band of Zeal* (normal)
Icecrown Citadel: The Forge of Souls All of the 5-man dungeons in Icecrown Citadel hand out higher quality gear than the other heroics. The normal mode gear is equivalent to Ulduar 10 and the heroic mode is the same as the Trial of the Crusader 10-man raid. There is a quest item called the Battered Hilt that drops in heroic mode of all of the ICC dungeons which starts a quest to get an extremely good DPS weapon. To be honest, all of the items are good and if they're upgrades go for it as they're better than just about anything else you've grabbed from dungeons thus far.
- Zone Drop
- Battered Hilt (gives quest reward of Quel'Delar, Might of the Faithful)
- Bronjahm
- Minister's Number One Legplates* (normal)
- Weeping Gauntlets*
- Devourer of Souls
- Accursed Crawling Cape* (normal)
- Lost Reliquar Chestguard* (normal)
- Pauldrons of the Souleater*
- Needle-Encrusted Scorpion*
Icecrown Citadel: Pit of Saron Tyrannus as luck would have drops a two-hander on heroic, but Garfrost has one on normal mode as well if the drops aren't going your way in heroic. Otherwise, the helmet on normal mode from Tyrannus also has a meta-gem slot in it and the ring he drops on normal is strength based. So, you don't necessarily need to run this on heroic to get good gear out of it.
- Zone Drop
- Battered Hilt (gives quest reward of Quel'Delar, Might of the Faithful)
- Plated Grips of Korth'azz* (normal)
- Forgemaster Garfrost
- Barbed Ymirheim Choker*
- Malykriss Vambraces*
- Ring of Carnelian and Bone* (normal)
- Garfrost's Two-Ton Hammer* (normal)
- Ick
- Bent Gold Belt* (normal)
- Scourgelord Tyrannus
- Frost Wyrm Ribcage*
- Painfully Sharp Choker* (normal)
- Skeleton Lord's Cranium* (normal)
- Band of Stained Souls*
- Purloined Wedding Ring* (normal)
- Tyrannical Beheader*
Icecrown Citadel: Halls of Reflection Much like on earlier lists of gear, I added the polearm on here as an option even though it isn't ideal. There is a two-hander on Lich King normal mode that is pretty good and on heroic he has a really nice strength ring. As always there's a chance that any of the trash can drop the hilt quest item on heroic mode, so it's always worth running it until you've got a similar quality weapon.
- Zone Drop
- Battered Hilt (gives quest reward of Quel'Delar, Might of the Faithful)
- Marwyn
- The Lich King
- Tapestry of the Frozen Throne* (normal)
- Grinning Skull Boots*
- The Lady's Promise*
- Mourning Malice* (normal)
The Light and How to Swing It tries to help paladins cope with the dark times coming in Cataclysm. See the upcoming paladin changes the expansion will bring. Wrath is coming to a close and the final showdown with the Lich King is here. With Cataclysm soon heating things up, will you be ready?Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Honeydew Jun 16th 2010 11:06PM
I've been looking for something like this for a while. I never really know what equipment would be good for my ret pally or not.
Now if I could just find out how to play a ret pally, I would be in good shape.
Aloix Jun 17th 2010 6:10AM
The Paladin forums @ Elitist Jerks are actually quite good, for Ret stuff. As always @ EJ, read/search/lurk, don't post ;-) (unless you really have something that falls in their posting guidelines etc but be careful).
Vladeon Jun 17th 2010 2:20PM
Playing a ret pally is easy as pie, just put all your damaging spells on your toolbar in this order: Judgement of (whatever, usually wisdom because it'll give you manas), hammer of Wrath, crusader strike, Divine Storm, exorcism, Holy Wrath. Then, what you do, is only use exorcism when you have an instant cast on it and try to use the abilities that are closest to the number one as often as possible. In other words, your highest priority will be to use your judgement, then, if that's on CD, use hammer of wrath (if the enemy is under 30% health), then if you can't use that, use divine storm, then exorcism (but only if it's instant cast, I.E. after you crit) then holy wrath, but only when you're going against undead enemies.
Other tips include having the glyph of sense undead and always keep sense undead on.
Gemming for Str. Is always the best way to go for Red gem slots. Yellow, use crit only if the gem bonus is greater than +4 Str. And blue... well blue is always terrible, just use a Strength gem no matter what the bonus is or a nightmare tear (but only use one of those).
If you have another lvl 80 gatherer toon, make your professions BS/JC because of the bonuses.
that's really it for ret pve, it's almost as easy as being an arcane mage.
Scien Jun 17th 2010 12:02AM
I honestly don't see the point in these lists. Fine, starter gear here and there is ok; however, as I see it, gearing at 80 is no more than running ToC-5 and the ICC dungeons till everything is fleshed out and filling the rest with emblem upgrades. While these lists can help one achieve the goal faster, they're pretty much obsolete at this point.
Celice Jun 17th 2010 1:26AM
Newer players may not know of ways to look up this information or even know exactly what they're looking for. This is a good resource for players who are learning how to learn and will help when you do your daily random for frosties so you don't get someone with a 1k GS.
KrisseyB Jun 17th 2010 7:37AM
Not to mention that you have to meet a gs minimum to get into those dungeons in the first place.
Vis Jun 17th 2010 10:12AM
actually I was running ToC on regular at lvl 78 and tanking it at lvl 80. Of course I had some nice crafted items and BwE in the bank waiting for me to hit 80.
RussGreene Jun 17th 2010 7:09PM
Aaaah, the Sword of Justice, AKA the Tuning Fork of Justice. My Retadin had that for some time, and still has it in his bags. I love that thing to death, even though I've outgrown it. Its model is just so cool. I mean, it's two swords! But on one hilt! I wish more weapons used its model, that way I could run around with it on again.
Ghangy Jun 17th 2010 1:24AM
From the violet hold he probably meant the cloack from erekem as the saliva corroded pike has strength on it for me ^^
Gregg Reece Jun 17th 2010 4:36AM
Sorry about that. Wowhead.com was down most of yesterday and still had some issues earlier today which made writing the article a bit hard. That fluff text has been fixed now though.
whalt Jun 17th 2010 5:48PM
I'll start by saying this is a great site, but man an extrememly outdated gear list which will be followed by part three simply listing the badge ear available - is tough to take. You have some extremely talented bloggers here that provide good insights into different aspects of thier classes - dpsing, healing, talent analysis, theorycrafting, boss analysis and so forth. Retribution articles are generally few and far between and consist almost entirely of either A. a run down of patch updates for the spec, or gear listings.
The gear list in the first part of this article last week actually listed a tanking cloak as a potential option because it had some strenght on it. Any Ret Paladin would know that at an intro level the blue BOE Cloak of Bloodied Waters that sells for a pittance on the AH is the best a new ret pally will get until they start raiding, outside of an ilvl 200 epic strength cloak in regular TOC 5 man. Heck, that blue BOE lasted a number of rets right into Ulduar until Blizzard finally put some new Strength DPS cloaks in the game, and someone who raided or played a Ret paladin would know that.
I feel compelled to say that the Ret 101 articles just didn't have a feel to them that the person writing them was really very familiar with the spec. Rets end up with 6 points to spend after all DPS talents are taken that can lead either to a Raid Wall ability or Aura mastery. Based on what was written I had to wonder if the author really knew or took the time to figure out what those abilities were or what benefits they might provide. Rets often get labled as facerolling because of their First Come First Serve type of rotation and because they are so easy to level. The Ret 101 articles seemed to be written by someone who bought into this misconception whole heartedly.
I would love to see Retribution paladins with a blogger on this site doing more, one dedicated full time to the spec who raids, who runs pvp, who theorycrafts and knows about addons and boss strategies and seems generally excited about being a ret paladin. You've had all calls for apps to write about so many specs and have gotten some very talented bloggers, here's hoping Ret paladins get one in the near future.
PS. Everyone who is so excited about getting a gear listing that could be found by spending just a little time on WowHead can proceed to downrank the crap out of this post.
iammrsmite Jun 18th 2010 12:29PM
I agree with much of what you said. You have a lot of "Jack of all trades, master of none" people who do the posting, and for simplicity purposes it sort of makes sense but I don't think it suites people too well or is letting them get the most out of it. Heck, many of the articles written feel like the people don't even play the game, or log in once every couple of weeks, IDK why It's just always felt like that to me.
But that being said it would be nice to have someone who knows the spec inside and out to do guides like this, to give ret paladins what they really want, and not a wall of text which could be cut down by more than half and be even more effective. This is more just a *Hey look! Plat drops here, and here and here! Ret paladins use plate!" Kind of list. Also, a HUGE addition for this would to be to add the cost of badge items which you'd want to go for and the tier items that are best and most worthwhile. Thanks you told us what drops where but not what's important such as bonuses and what not. Is that not what this is about, gearing a ret paladin, and not just a LOLLoot list? I also fail to see this mentioned anywhere, and correct me if I am wrong but.....
Tier 9 2 piece is AMAZING. You're going to want to aim for that FIRST with your badge items. Tier 9 is actually very well itemized so that going for 4 piece is actually a viable option.
So much more could have been included but was not.
iammrsmite Jun 18th 2010 12:14PM
I'll give credit where credit is due, good compilation except you could cut everything out of there save ToC and the ICC 5 mans. Having people going for blues, and then epics at this point could potentially be confusing and is kind of unnecessary. Unless your rocking it out in your birthday suit or Outland greens, you should have no problem getting into ToC both reg and heroic, and even then you could just spam run ToC reg until your face falls off anyway to get badges and gear to compensate. Running other heroics is close to a waste of time except for a daily.
I find a guide like this to be here a bit too late in the game, and being so late in the game a considerable amount of information could be cut, especially at the risk of confusion. I give information to many ret paladins on a daily basis, and something I learned is that not overloading them with redundancy and useless information is best. Give them a butter knife and they won't be to much better off than they are now, give them a cleaver they'll lose their fingers, but give them a cutting knife and they'll be just fine.