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!

If you haven’t seen the current Tier 10 Bonuses or Gear (currently only 5 classes are up, not ours AGAIN, back in Tier 8 we had to wait as well), then check this out. Granted, it is pretty cool to see the sets before they are brought out, and you may have read some other thoughts on the matter, but here are my take on it. Check it out after the jump.

• 2 Pieces (Damage): (Updated) Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to reset the cooldown on your Divine Storm ability.
• 4 Pieces (Damage): (Updated) Your Seals and Judgements deal 10% additional damage.

Currently, those are the Tier 10 Retribution set bonuses.  Let’s talk about the 2 Piece Set Bonus for a moment. With the way Divine Storm is used (mainly as a cooldown to hammer between Crusader Strike, Judgement, Consecrate, and Exorcism), I wonder how much more DPS you can pull through with this change. It seems like you’d be waiting for the proc, and with the 40% chance, that’s nearly 1 out of 3 hits to get a Divine Storm to proc. With that between Exorcism and Divine Storm now proccing between each other, it stands to reason to hit Exorcism as soon as possible, and Divine Storm when it comes up, since Exorcism has a cooldown and Divine Storm will come back often.

The 4 Piece is pretty standard fare, and actually a disappointment, especially in the face of Blizzard’s idea of not making talents just “extra damage or crit”, which you would think would apply to set bonuses as well. Granted, that four piece change makes Seal of Righteousness have 35% more damage. 10% from the Glyph of Seal of Righteousness, 15% from Seals of the Pure, and 10% from this set bonus, it looks pretty good for using Seal of Righteousness for fast single target damage. Granted, if you were using the Glyph already in PVE, then it makes no difference. Seal of Command is still the better one for AOE targets (2+ Mobs).

I’m back blogging, and I want to write about all my experiences on the game and tell you my thoughts about upcoming features and just general advice for all your Retribution needs.

Let’s get back in the game!

I picked up two pieces of off-spec gear - a Healing helm, and Prot Shoulders.

I’m starting to look like our main Pally Prot tank with my gear now! Haha.

Still no Jin’rohk from Zul’jin, though. I really wanted to see it drop,

but of course, I don’t think it exists.

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.

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

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.