Somebody coded a great tool for calculating ret paladin dps with different gear/enchants/buffs: http://elitistjerks.com/attachments...ion_dps_theorycraft/rawr.retributionv0.03.zip That's from the ret paladin theorycraft thread over at the EJ forums. The cool thing about this tool is that you can load in your armory or pull whatever item you can to incorporate in the calculations by entering wowhead item IDs.
Aubrey, you were asking to see what my gear is like now. I respec all the time so it's just easier if I write it down here. Melee stats: AP: 1954 Crit: 33.9% Hit: 9.13% Armor Pen: 266 Gear: Helm: [item]The Horseman's Helm[/item] Gems: 4 crit/4 str, 12 crit (JC gem), 4 crit/6 stam Enchant: 17 str / 16 int Comments: The CE head enchant is inferior due to Divine Strength and the fact that ret paladins don't need much hit. Helm of the Illidari Shatterer would be a big upgrade. Neck: [item]Vindicator's Pendant of Triumph[/item] Gems: 24 AP (JC gem) Comments: The 24 AP gem is slightly better than putting an 8 str gem in there. Shoulders: [item]Blood-stained Pauldrons[/item] Enchants: 30 AP / 10 crit Cloak: [item]Dory's Embrace[/item] Enchant: 12 agility Chest: [item]Krakken-Heart Breastplate[/item] Enchant: +6 stats Comment: I'll probably get a S3 chest soon, which will be a nice upgrade for this slot. Wrist: [item]Furious Shackles[/item] Gem: 8 str Enchant: 12 str Gloves: [item]Vengeful Gladiator's Scale Gauntlets[/item] Enchant: 15 str Belt: [item]Red Belt of Battle[/item] Gems: 4 crit / 6 stam, 4 crit / 4 str Legs: [item]Legguards of Endless Rage[/item] Enchant: 50 AP / 12 crit Boots: [item]Dreadboots of the Legion[/item] Gems: 4 crit / 4 str, 4 crit / 4 str Enchant: 12 agility Ring1: [item]Violet Signet of the Master Assassin[/item] Enchant: +4 stats Ring2: [item]Vindicator's Band of Triumph[/item] Enchant: +4 stats Trinket1: [item]Skyguard Silver Cross[/item] Comment: I'd rather have a bunch of other trinkets, but haven't had any luck. If I feel like it, I'll get Blessings deck. The ideal upgrade here would be a DST. Trinket2: [item]Bloodlust Brooch[/item] Comment: The ideal upgrade here would be a Zul'jin trinket. Weapon: [item]Vengeful Gladiator's Bonegrinder[/item] Enchant: Mongoose Comment: I don't have enough armor pen to make executioner worth while. This is the third best weapon you can get for PvE. The mace from RoS is second and CE is first. Libram: [item]Libram of Avengement[/item] Comment: Still the best libram for BE ret paladins. PvE Spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxZZEffthcuiIot I didn't go for Precision because of how much hit I already have. Without getting Precision I can basically get whatever I want in the Ret tree. If you have to get Precision, then you have to lose a lot of things and end up with a spec like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxZVhZEf0t0cuiIot There are some things you can change here though. You can maybe rely on holy paladins to have Imp BoM, which would free up 5 points. I've seen a lot of ret paladins with 3/3 Pursuit of Justice and they take some points out of Benediction or Imp Judgements. I can see some situations where Pursuit of Justice would be great to have. Overall comments: It's not hard to know how to gear for being a ret paladin. You need tons of strength and crit. Hit is usually an afterthought. Armor pen scales very well if you can get enough of it make it worth while. I wouldn't focus your gem choices on crit very much since you'll already get a ton of crit just from talents. Strength is probably the best stat to focus on with gems unless the socket bonus is relevant. For example, when if you get a T6 ret chest, put all strength gems in there. Haste is also amazing for BE ret paladins due to the mechanics of SoB.
I think i counted up my armor pen, unbuffed its at 1008. Thats with Dory's embrace-------------------112 Vindicator ring--------------------56 Leggings of Divine Retribution---350 Choker of serrated blades-------175 Soul Cleaver----------------------315 Do you think stacking armor pen would be better in this case than +crit or STR since I have so much? I have the vindicators neck and the T6 ret legs which have 0 armor pen but better STR and crit. I also have [item]Icon of Unyielding Courage[/item] Im not sure if this would be good if im not at the hit cap, or better than socketing any sort of hit gems
I don't think I'd sacrifice strength at the expense of armor pen. All the good armor pen items have good amounts of strength. If you're not losing much strength and crit by using those items, I'd use them. Crit is easy to give up because you can make up for it elsewhere. It's a balance though. For determining how much armor penetration is going to help you, it's a math problem: Damage Reduction from Armor = Armor / (Armor - 22167.5 + 467.5 * MobLevel) You can look up boss armor values somewhere, but I know most are around 7700 armor.
Boss Armor Estimates 8800 TK - Void Reaver 7685 KZ - Attuman/Midnight, Romulo, Strawman, Nightbane, Prince SSC - Hydross, Lurker, Leotheras, Tidewalker; TK - Al'ar BT - Naj'entus, Supremus, Shade of Akama, Gurtogg Essence of Desire/Anger, Illidan; Doomwalker 6800 High Armor Level 70 Trash 6200 KZ - Maiden, Julianne, Curator, Illhoof, Netherspite SSC - Fathom-Lord, Vashj; TK - Solarian, Kael'thas Hyjal - All Bosses; BT - Teron, Shahraz, Gathios 5475 Mid-Armor Level 70 Trash 3800 KZ - Shade of Aran, Kil'rek 0 BT - Essence of Suffering
Yeah, you can do a calculation with all of those values to see how much benefit different levels of armor pen will give you. I will tell you that armor pen is better if the target already has a lower armor level because taking off 1000 armor from a 5000 armor mob is a bigger chunk than taking 1000 armor off a 8000 armor mob. That's why people use executioner on weapons in arenas.
As far as raiding is concerned you should be able to calculate the % damage increase per value of armor pen at 7685 armor and 6200 armor, and then average it. You would then have to come up with similar values for Str (easy), AP (easy), crit (harder), hit (harder), and haste (harder). You could then equate everything in terms of Strength. For example: Str - 1.0 AP - .54 Hit - 1.16 Exp - 1.26 APen - .4 Haste - .7 Something like this where you can equate all of your stats in terms of Strength or something. Rogues do this with agility and it is referred to as AEP (Agility Equivalence Points). It is useful for eyeball or napkinmath gear comparisons.
Yep. I don't think I've seen somebody equate all the values for a ret paladin but it may be somewhere in that EJ thread. I definitely don't play ret enough to want to do it myself.
There's no set values. They fluctuate with gear and spec. For example, the rogue spreadsheet updates your AEP values when you plug in new gear.
