A build of Patch 3.3 (the final content patch of Lich King) has been added, and with it come new things for Ret Paladins to get excited about. This post will be updated throughout the day as more Retribution stuff comes down the pipe, with thoughts in tow.

Retribution Libram – Your Crusader Strike ability grants 44 Strength for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

I bolded the most important parts. It seems this Libram, for PVP OR PVE, is going to be the best one out there. Stacking Crusader Strike up to 220 STR is going to be nuts, and I am assuming the 15 second timer is for each application, meaning you get 220 strength indefinitely. Will this be available for 15 or 25 Emblems of Frost? We’ll see.

So you’re in your guild with your friends, and you know you roll content with a pretty shined up face. So what kind of loot should you be gunning for in 10-man? I will be starting this column, showcasing a new piece of gear you should look to acquire every Tuesday. If you can get it, sweet, if you can’t, keep trying! No reason to give up because of failed rolls or drops. In a 10-man, you’ll get it eventually. The item is after the jump.

So if you’re still here, here’s the item you should go for this week: Keen Obsidian Edged Blade. It’s a very easy drop to get – it comes from 10-man Onyxia, and has some sweet stats to go with it.

• Keen Obsidian Edged Blade
• Two-Hand Sword – 232.6 DPS
• 651-977 Damage – 3.50 Speed
• 129 Strength, 159 Stamina
• Crit 61, Expertise 92

As you can see, this sword is no slouch. Up there with the weapon from 10-man ToC, Edge of Agony, it actually boasts better stats, almost perfect even, if you are hit capped. Expertise is crucial, and if you wield this baby, you are probably near the cap after slapping it on. Which means you can drop the Glyph of Seal of Corruption easy, and chug on towards better stats. A good example of a better stat is already on this weapon, and that is Strength, a whole whopping 129. That calculates out to about 260 or 270 Attack Power, after Divine Strength comes into play. All in all, a good weapon to easy tote around in today’s modern raiding world, and you’ll look cool too.

See you next time!

Retiator is my attempt at a PVP section for Retribution Paladins. Every time you see this header you will know it’s about something to do with Arenas, BGs, or PVP things.

What this section of the blog will attempt to do is lead you through the guide to make yourself as deadly as possible. Check out my first thoughts of gemming after the jump.

What you need to do is hit up the Bold Scarlet Ruby, and various other gems with Stamina and Strength in them. You will have to satisfy gear requirements for a meta, but generally, the gear will keep the Resilience for you, but don’t mind about putting Kharmaa’s Grace in one of your yellow slots, as it’s one of the best gems you can get for the socket.

With every gem you get closer to your original PVE stats, is how hard you are going to hit people. Granted, you should be grinding honor for Deadly pieces of gear, even if it’s a lot, just go ahead and do it. Also, do heroics as much as possible, as you can get Deadly pieces together faster that way as well.

I hope you enjoyed this section! Look for more detailed parts in the future!

Here’s a picture of my UI. Very simple, and I’m wearing my PVE gear! I’m so beast!

Just did some Tanking in Karazhan. I went full Prot to do it though – rather that than run through it with being Ret, I think! I know I can still do it, but the fact is that I’d rather just be a real tank so I can take hits instead of a fake tank who can die easily without the right stats.

Our healer’s pre-paid time went up, and we had to call it quits, though. Quite funny! The raid split up after we downed the Chess Event. Attunmen dropped the horse, and I didn’t win it, ARGH! I was scared to roll because of rolling low, and it got me. Damn!

Then I went back to Ret again.

Wanna know something awesome? It’s the feeling of exhiliration when you stab a mage with Crusader Strike, Seal of Command procs, and your white attack all hits for crits, and one shots him. That happened several times today. It’s absolutely fabulous.

Here’s a little image I’ll have every week with my thoughts on it. A lot has happened since I updated this blog, but I want to keep it going because I now know it’s linked to from Cromfel’s website, yay!

So here’s the image: you can link it anywhere for a nice little picture of thoughts!

Let me count the ways. Wait, I’ll just show you a picture.

I just got the hat with a +8 strength gem in it. I actually bought a Living Ruby, but then I realized I could get Don Rodrigo’s Heart instead from Halaa for 15g. Silly me.

PVP Weekend, so it’s raid free, and stress free, thankfully.

Picture of the 2nd downing. Even though we downed him three times now.

We downed Void Reaver again tonight, and one of my Paladins under me finally got T5 shoulders.

I’m starting to feel less and less uber!

I should explain a bit more. I’m the class officer of Paladins for my guild Epic High. I 
enjoy raiding with the guild at all times, and I will raid even if I don’t get any loot. I 
just don’t care because I already have loot of my own. It’s my way of repaying the 
guild at large.

So tanking bracers dropped, main tank got ’em, let’s see, pauldrons of defender 
dropped, and I think a boot pattern. Pretty lame stuff. No trash epics though.

I love Paladins. I enjoy playing them, speccing them, and equipping them. I’ve always loved Paladins, Warcraft or otherwise. The idea of smiting enemies with the power of holy (or in WoW’s case, “the light”) goodness is something awesome to imagine.

Currently, the Paladin is not seeing much love as of late. The idea that they should be fiercesome melee spellcasters is all but gone – you have to have epic items to put up the dps to take down most classes, and even with that, it’s hard to take down some.

I love Retribution. This Paladin spec is my favorite, and unlike a lot of people out there who play Paladins, I know how to play the spec, very well actually. In fact, I know how to play every spec (still kinda shaky on Protection though), but Retribution is by far my favorite. The fact that the Holy spec for Paladins is very beefed up in comparison to the other two specs is why I say that Paladins get very little love. However, Blizzard has shown note of this, and is going to be giving Retribution (dubbed “Ret”) pallies their just dues. Now I can only wait for the patch notes…