Also, I have changed the name of the blog. The current name is the one I will most likely be settling with. I also plan to work on the layout and graphics of the site at some point.

Thanks for reading.

Please tell all your friends about this blog (anyone that actually does read it). I will love you long time.

It’s Ok though, I plan to still keep on with this project (where I just gave up in the past) and plan to try and grow this in to something very interesting and useful. But a few vast changes I want to make and a few future plans/goals:

(1) I plan to no longer post the “Friday Funnys”. They where kinda useless and really unrelated anyways (a bit of a time waste to post)

(2) I plan to Try and clean up the formatting, grammar and spelling of my current ret guides and take more time. I am unsure If I am going to post a new guide every week (at least not at the moment)

(3) I would like to diversify this blog in to more of a “mele dps” in general. I believe this will open the door for more topics and discussion, but some serious problems being that I am not entirely familiar with other mele dps besides ret pallys. For this to work I need assistance from anyone interested (even if its just a couple of “one off” guides you want to throw my way)

(4) I will be posting a couple of my favorite video blogs: “The Weekly Marmot (lore)” and maybe “The BFF report”

(5) I plan to work on the theme/skin to be a little more “formatting friendly”. The current theme does not format very well at all, and something a little more fresh wouldn’t hurt

So yeah, I got ideas. I will be slowing down my posting a lot, I need to take this easy and then I can produce much better content. Again I welcome any ideas/suggestions and would really be grateful to anyone (Any mele DPS) that wishes to help post.

Thanks,
~Dega

NOTE: This is not a leveling guide for Engineering, this guide assumes you already have a basic knowledge of the profession. Here is a great guide that I allways use to level my engineering (I have followed it for a couple of characters now):
http://www.wow-professions.com/wowguides/wow-engineering-guide.html
Bear in mind, you want to make sure you have a few extra mats and around ~2k gold to cover any RNG discrepancies and training costs.

So first off I am going to talk about the parts of Engineering that provide the most dps increase, then briefly talk about the raid utility items that are offered. First things first, as a raiding Engineer you should no question be a Goblin spec. This is because the goblins have all of the hefy explosives that we are going to be needing to take advantage of when raiding.

1. GLOBAL THERMAL SAPPER CHARGE
This is currently the highest damaging bomb but on a 5 min CD, it has a small kickback dmg on you but it is very minimal. This should always be the first bomb you use and can be very useful as part of an opener macro. Here is the macro I use for my opener (I use speed potion on a separate bind due to pre-potting):

#showtooltip 10

/cast Avenging Wrath

/use 10

/use Global Thermal Sapper Charge

#showtooltip

/cast Crusader Strike

/use Saronite Bomb

I am a ret pally, I dont have much mana’s. What do I do when I run back from a wipe (or survive a wipe) and someone needs a rez? Well I defibrillate them of course

First off, its no secret that our class is very “under construction” for Cataclysm although a lot of information has been released from announcements and alpha (see the changelog on this site). I am hoping that we get a lot more information on the paladin class during the convention. I would assume that by October things should really be getting close and thus I believe that we should have a more defined talent trees, etc.

So far I do like the direction that blizzard want to take us paladins. They want to make us a class that CAN mess up our rotation. My fears are that they push things too far to the point we end up being “tedious” much like I find an enhancement shaman. Refresh this, refresh that, hit this proc, hit that proc. My reason for this fear is mainly due to the change to Consecration, where they want to make it like a totem that can be dropped and then picked up. I find this rather strange for a skill that has a 10 second glyphed duration (8 without) and I am realy not fond of that change. But on that note it leads me to believe there are a LOT more changes incoming.

An Idea that I believe could be useful would be playing around with our Art of War proc to have certain ability’s do much less damage without the Art of War buff (putting other skills ahead in priority when no AoW is up). Maybe playing around with our Exorcism ability.  Being that Exorcism is a skill we only use when it is instant cast, putting it at a higher priority would definitely mean we would need to watch AoW much more.

Blizzard did state that they like our 2pc T10. So I would predict that Blizzard maybe push a more proc like setup being talented (or just future tier sets with similar bonuses to the t10). I also love our 2pc T10.

I look forward to the class discussions, but I really hope they dont play the “no  ret pally questions” card this time round because I think we gots lots of  questions to ask.

I will definitely most likely be glued to the PvP tournements as I was last year for a few reasons:
-I have recently started fooling around on my “pvp-only” toon priest. And would definitely like to see some priestly pvp goodness.
-Well, quite honestly watching competitive WoW pvp live can be pretty intense and was definitely one of my highlights last year. Especially the finals (USA beat Korea for once)
-Want to see this years flavour of comps (even though I haven’t seen much pally action in MLG matches I have been watching lately)

Besides that, I would like to see more information on the finalizations of our professions.  As an engineer I would like to see what exactly they have in store and with crossed fingers be anticipating that it still remains a viable raiding dps spec along with Jewlcrafting.

Defintely cant wait for Blizzcon, and also look forward to meeting up with some new people and meeting fellow ret paladins to share ideas knowledge etc, Hell a ret paladin meeting of sorts could make for interesting time huh?.  I also look forward to meeting with several guild members.

So what do you guys look forward to? Are you even going to Blizzcon? Are you gonna meet up with some buddies?
What other plans do you have during Blizzcon?

~Dega

This week, I figured I would start off chatting about our famed FCFS (First Come First Serve) rotation also known as “Faceroll”. In specific I want to talk about ways that we can “adjust” our “rotation” during the course of a fight so to speak in order to squeeze out a little more dps. Will this advice alone make you pull massively more dps? probably not. It’s a little known fact that the difference between a great ret dps and a decent ret dps is not very high. The goal here though is to help you be that “great” dps instead of that “decent” dps. This guide assumes a knowledge of the basic FCFS rotation. This guide does also not talk about cooldowns etc. I believe these can be vast topics to cover some other time. So introduction aside, read more after the break….

Ok. I am going to break this guide down in to individual fights in the Icecrown Citadel raid instance (25player Normal Mode). That being said Blizzard love to re-use boss mechanics and these tips can be applied to many encounters past and present:

LORD MARROWGAR

The key here is making heavy use of your Divine Storm and Consecration, especially during Bone Spikes. Generally spiked victims will be in mele range when you are on the boss (except hunters). With this in mind, you should not need to leave the boss as main target. When bone spike hits, you want to make sure your consecration is down at which point Divine storm rules (while you continue to target the boss). Every time Divine storm procs during bone spikes HIT IT. Any other time you should be using your default FCFS rotation. You will be using Seal of Vengeance (your typical single target seal) and thus should make every effort to be hitting the boss and keeping the seal stacked up at all times. This means chasing the boss down during Bone Storm. During bone storm the boss will be flying all over, and sometimes storms his way to the other side of the room therefore be aware of your Judgement and Exorcism (ranged attacks) when you are not quite in mele range. Do not stop to cast Exorcism, instead only use it during Art Of War procs. When in mele range you want to use your basic FCFS rotation. That about covers if for the first boss.

LADY DEATHWHISPER

This can be a very fun and challenging encounter to min-max your dps on. This fight can basically be split in to 3 dps phases; SoV stacking, Add Cleaving, and basic FCFS. When you enter combat, while the bosses mana shield is up, you want to use your Seal Of Vengeance and stack up as fast as possible. After a few seconds some adds will spawn, at this point you should switch to Seal Of Command. Like Marrowgar you should focus on Divine Storm and Consecration on these adds. One thing you really need to be quick at is getting back to the boss and switching back to your Seal of Vengeance to re-stack, at this point you want to focus on keeping them stacks up. You will rinse and repeat the previous two phases until the mana shield is blown up. At this point you just go in to your basic FCFS rotation and pew pew the boss.

GUNSHIP BATTLE

Also known as “lootship” or “funship” this fight is extremely easy. Basically on this fight you will be using Seal Of Command the entire time. Even if you jump across to the opponents boat, the burst from Seal Of Command will be more useful as the sorcerer will most likely be dieing faster than you can stack up 5 stacks of SoV. When not on the enemy boat blowing up a sorcerer (or manning cannons), you should be aoe’ing the adds on your own boat.

DEATHBRINGER SAURFANG

This fight is all about timing your Consecration and AoE’s to NOT hit when blood beasts spawn. When blood beasts spawn, you should not be using AoE’s. With that in mind it is important to time your Consecration so it drops off as close to the blood beast spawns as possible. As far as divine storm, this is much harder to time with T10 2PC constantly reseting its CD at random intervals but just be alert to not use this at the spawn time. Another key to this fight is knowing when to resume AoE. This is as soon as you see the blood beasts start moving away from mele, at this point it is safe to say you will not pull agro. Once the blood beasts take a few steps away from mele you can take advantage of your Holy Wrath for a quick stun that can actually help the ranged  as well as giving you a little more dps.

FESTERGUT

Not really much to be said on this fight besides the fact that you can stand there and use your basic FCFS rotation (and whatever else you got). BUT remember that this is the plaguewerks and therefore festergut can feel your Holy Wrath IF you have no higher priority abilities off CD.

ROTFACE

Again not much to be said on this fight either. It’s mainly a straight dps, but a great way to also test your ability to stay on boss whille having to run through during slime spray. Also bear in mind that when you have a giant ooze explosion, make sure you have Exorcism or Judgement ready to hit him on the way in or out when your raid scatters.

PROFESSOR PUTRICIDE

This is definitely not the best boss for ret paladins. As much as is sucks, SoV is still our best option and as a result you will notice that it can be very challenging to keep SoV stacks on the boss with the target switching to oozes, gas clouds and the dreaded tear gas. One thing that helps is to make sure when you DPS the green oozes, try to make sure you are getting knocked closer to the boss as opposed to further away.

BLOOD PRINCE COUNCIL

This fight is all about target switching. Be sure to know which target you are on and be prepared to fire ranged attacks when available (especially when running out of Empowered Shock vortexes).

BLOOD QUEEN

hmmm. Bribe your raid leader for you to get the first bite? lol, JK. But honestly this fight, as fas as dps goes is irrelevant until you get the bite. A couple of useful things though is to save your Exorcism for air phase when she flies up, and be ready to hit her with a Judgement as she descends from air phase. Make sure you be aware of your ranged attacks when you get Blood pact (Turn and jump and fire that Exo as you run to the meeting point).  If you know when you are about to get a Vampire bite, naturally you should be making sure all of your CD’s are available to be stacked with the 100% dmg buff given by the blood queen’s essence.

DREAMWALKER

This boss is all about controlling the adds, they die fast so much like gunship you want to make sure you are using Seal Of Vengeance and prioritizing your Divine Storm and Consecration. Additionally on this fight you will often have some time between waves. Ret pallys never need to just stand there, target the boss and heal heal heal. Spam FoL. just be sure to hit all of your mana CD’s also to make sure you don’t run out for when you need to dps them Suppressors or Blazing Skeletons. I like to thing of me healing on boss as DPSing as well as cleaving the adds. I find it to be a pretty fun fight because of that “double role” that lets our utility as proficient off healers shine.

SINDRAGOSA

The key to this fight is making sure you have an Exorcism ready for Blistering Bold. As soon as you hit that 30 yard mark as you run away, fire that EXO and run back in to resume your basic FCFS rotation. Seal of command WOULD be a boost to dps on the ice blocks, but this phase is all about controlled DPS and thus single target with your incidental AoE damage is more than sufficient to make sure the ice blocks are not dpsed down too fast. Also as Sindragosa heads up in to air phase, try to hit an Exorcism if available. As fas as the “chilled to the bone” debuff goes, this is not too much of an issue due to us having a few ability’s that are not mele based. That being said when it does stack up a little too high, face the opposite direction and just hit your consecration so it is up as the debuff timer ticks down and then resume DPS once the debuff is gone.

THE LICH KING

I dont have a lot to say on this boss, mainly because of the fact I am yet to see a complete kill of this boss due to unfortunate guild progression issues. I will say this, us ret pally’s get to show off our overpowered incedental AoE during the first phase whille using our “single target” FCFS rotation. This I strongly believe contributes to blizzards belief that they want to nerf our AoE damage when we are meant to be single target DPSing. But thats a topic for another day.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, Hope you learnt a little from it. Feel free to share your personal tips and experiences as comments.

~Dega