RET 4.0: HOLY SHIFT

What has changed about the Paladin class
between WotLK and 4.0/Cataclysm?

**NEW** The Retribution Concordance: 4.0 & Cataclysm
This is the newest ElitistJerks ret paladin guide for use in 4.0 and Cata. It's very complete and informative with pretty much everything you wanna know! Talent specs, rotations, professions, gemming, all that. Check it out!
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Simply put, EVERYTHING. Every facet of our class has been totally revamped - our roles, our talents, and our abilities. The niches we filled in WotLK are no longer ours to fill in Cata and each spec has a variety of new tools to master.

The most altered spec by far has been Retribution.




Holy Power
Spell Changes
Retribution Talent Tree
Mastery
"Ret Pet"

Primary Stats
Seals, Auras, and Buffs
DPS Rotation

Glyphs
Gemming
Professions




{ Holy Power }
What is Holy Power?



All of the paladin specs will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Think of it like a rogue's Combo Point system. Holy Power accumulates primarily by using Crusader Strike but can also be generated by many other abilities. You can have up to 3 charges of Holy Power at a time. The more charges of Holy Power you have, the more effective your abilities will be.

For Rets we have a talent (Divine Purpose) that allows all of our special abilities to generate HP at random. However our most reliable HP generator is still Crusader Strike: CS gives you 1 HP every time.

Holy Power is important because it allows us to use our new signature ability, Templar's Verdict (more on that later), as well as Divine Storm and our new heal, Word of Glory. These 3 abilities consume HP instead of mana, which is great now that we have to be more careful about mana usage.


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{ Spell Changes }
What else is new for the Paladin class?


New General Paladin Spells:
Word of Glory: (lvl 6)
Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for 1553 to 1729 per charge of Holy Power.
Instant cast

Summon Sunwalker Kodo: [Screenshot] (lvl 20)
Summons a Sunwalker Kodo, which serves as a mount.
1.5 sec cast

Summon Great Sunwalker Kodo: [Screenshot] (lvl 40)
Summons a Great Sunwalker Kodo, which serves as a mount. This is a very fast mount.
1.5 sec cast

Summon Exarch's Elekk: [Screenshot] (lvl 20)
Summons an Exarch's Elekk, which serves as a mount.
1.5 sec cast

Summon Great Exarch's Elekk: [Screenshot] (lvl 40)
Summons a Great Exarch's Elekk, which serves as a mount. This is a very fast mount.
1.5 sec cast

Divine Light: (lvl 62)
A large heal that heals a friendly target for 7761.99 to 8648.14. Good for periods of heavy damage.
30% of base mana, 40 yd range, 3 sec cast

Resistance Aura: (lvl 76)
Gives additional Fire, Frost and Shadow resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Instant

Inquisition: (lvl 81)
Consumes all Holy Power to increase your Holy Damage by 30%. Lasts 4 sec per charge of Holy Power consumed.
Instant cast

Holy Radiance: (lvl 83)
An AoE heal that heals all friendly targets within 10 yards for 683.58 every sec. Lasts 10 sec.
40% of base mana, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown

Guardian of the Ancient Kings: [Screenshot] (lvl 85)
Summons a divine guardian to fight by the paladin's side. The guardian's role will change depending on the paladin's talent spec. Lasts x seconds.
x% of base mana, Instant cast, x cooldown


Spells That Went Away:
- Seal of Command
- Seal of Light
- Seal of Wisdom
- Sacred Shield
- Judgment of Wisdom
- Judgment of Justice
- Judgment of Light
- Shadow/Fire/Frost Resistance Aura
- Greater Blessing of Wisdom/Kings/Might
- Blessing of Wisdom
- Divine Sacrifice


Spells That Totally Changed:
Cleanse:
Cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 Poison effect, 1 Disease effect. (Holy paladins only: also removes 1 Magic effect.)
14% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast

Gone are the days of spamming dispel. Not only is it useless against magic, it's also very expensive to cast. You can use it now and again but ultimately you can't afford to cast this spell like you did in WotLK. Cleanse was a ret's "gap closer" because we could spam it on things like Chains of Ice and Entangling Roots in order to reach our target. Without our ability to clear snares/roots, ret is now the easiest melee spec in the game to kite. I mean we always were, but at least we could dispel.. now we're just useless! :(

As of right now, Blizz is considering adding a secondary effect to Cleanse that allows rets to use it against snares/roots without dispelling magic effects. /fingers crossed.


Judgement now only unleashes your seal's energy as holy damage. There are no different types of Judgements anymore, and likewise there will be no Judgement of Light/Wisdom/Justice debuffs on your enemy.


Crusader Strike is now a baseline ability usable by all paladin specs, available at lvl1. Cooldown is 4.5 seconds (can be altered with Haste) and reliably generates 1 Holy Power.


Hand of Freedom had its time reduced to 6 seconds, down from 12, and the cooldown remains unchanged. We no longer have the talent that allows us to use HoF to pop out of stuns (/cry forever). One of the reasons Blizz is considering the secondary ret effect on Cleanse is because they want us to use HoF on other people, not ourselves.


Divine Plea now restores only 10% total mana over 15 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown. The 50% healing reduction remains unchanged.


Divine Shield had its time reduced to 8 seconds, down from 12. No more bubble hearthing for us!


Divine Protection now reduces damage taken by 20%, down from 50%. However it's cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute and it no longer causes Forebearance. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.


Holy Wrath can now damage ALL enemies but can only stun undead and demons. Costs 20% of your base mana and a 15 second cooldown.


Consecration now costs 55% of your base mana and comes with a 30 seconds cooldown. Ouch.


Flash of Light now costs 27% of your base mana. o_o


Holy Light is now a paladin's "medium" heal instead of their biggest heal.


Lay On Hands reduced to a 10min cooldown.


Righteous Fury now increases your threat with all attacks, not just holy attacks.


Seal of Righteousness is pretty much the same except it will replace Seal of Command for Ret paladins thanks to the talent "Seals of Command." The talent adds a cleave effect to SoR.


Seal of Insight is the love child of Seal of Wisdom and Seal of Light. SoI has a chance to heal you and return mana with each attack. It will mostly be used by Holy paladins and potentially Prot.


Seal of Justice now has the effect of Judgement of Justice rolled into it. It reduces a target's movement speed by 100% AND has a chance to stun. The chance/stun duration are increased through Prot talents. I'm not sure if this is going to be the seal of choice for Prot or if it's going to be the new PVP seal. With all stuns sharing diminishing returns it seems unwise to use this in PVP with the prot talent, but we'll see.


Seal of Truth is our renamed Seal of Corruption (irony yes?). The dot component of this seal is now called "Censure" and stacks up to 5 times on a target, just like SoV.


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{ Retribution Talent Tree }
How has the Retribution talent tree changed between WotLK and 4.0/Cataclysm?


The talent tree system has been completely revamped for all classes. When you go to choose your spec, you're met with this window explaining what each spec does and what initial abilities you'll be granted for choosing that spec.


Baseline Retribution Abilities + Passive Bonuses:

Templar's Verdict:
An instant weapon attack that causes a percentage of weapon damage. Consumes all charges of Holy Power to increase damage dealt:
- 1 Holy Power: 30% Weapon Damage
- 2 Holy Power: 90% Weapon Damage
- 3 Holy Power: 225% Weapon Damage
5 yd range, Instant cast

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization:
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 20%.

Sheath of Light:
Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 30% of your attack power and increases your chance to hit with spells by 6%.

Judgements of the Bold:
Your Judgement grants you 25% of your base mana over 10 sec.

Templar's Verdict is ret's new signature abilitiy. It's equivalent in importance to Divine Storm in WotLK, but unlike DS it's a single-target nuke that costs Holy Power to use. The more charges of Holy Power you have, the more damage it does.


Retribution:

With the redesigned talent trees you are required
to spend 31 points in your chosen spec before you can
pick talents in the other 2 trees.

Special ability talents are colored blue.


Eye for an Eye:
All magic attacks against you have a [20%/40%] chance to cause 30% of the damage taken back to the attacker as well.
Rank 1-2

Crusade:
Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous and Templar's Verdict by [10%/20%/30%] and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by [10%/20%/30%].
Rank 1-2-3

Improved Judgment:
Increases the range of your Judgement by [10/20] yards.
Rank 1-2

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Guardian's Favor:
Reduces the cooldown of your Hand of Protection by [60/2] [sec/min] and increases the duration of your Hand of Freedom by [2/4] sec.
Rank 1-2

Rule of Law:
Increases the critical effect chance of your Crusader Strike, Holy Shock and Word of Glory by [5%/10%/15%].
Rank 1-2-3

Pursuit of Justice:
You have a [50%/100%] chance to gain a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect. In addition, increases your movement and mounted movement speed by [8%/15%]. This effect does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Rank 1-2

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Communion:
Your auras increase your party and raid's damage dealt by 3% and your damage by an additional 2%. In addition, your Judgement causes Replenishment.
Rank 1

The Art of War:
Your autoattacks have a [7%/14%/20%] chance to make your next Exorcism instant, free and cause 100% additional damage.
Rank 1-2-3

Long Arm of the Law:
Your Judgement has a [50%/100%] chance to increase your movement speed by 45% for 4 sec when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
Rank 1-2

Divine Storm:
An instant attack that causes weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 25% of the damage caused. Consumes all Holy Power to increase damage dealt:
- 1 Holy Power: 22% Weapon Damage
- 2 Holy Power: 74% Weapon Damage
- 3 Holy Power: 150% Weapon Damage
Rank 1

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Rebuke:
Interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.
10% Mana, 5 yd range, Instant cast, 10 sec cooldown
Rank 1

Sanctity of Battle:
Haste effects lower the cooldown of your Crusader Strike.
Rank 1

Seals of Command:
Your Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Truth and Seal of Justice now also deal 7% weapon damage each time you swing. In addition, your Seal of Righteousness now hits up to 2 additional targets.
Rank 1

Sanctified Wrath:
Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by [20%/40%/60%], reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by [20/40/60] secs and allows the use of Hammer of Wrath at all times during Avenging Wrath.
Rank 1-2-3

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Selfless Healer:
When you heal others with your Word of Glory, it increases the effectiveness of the heal by [50%/100%] and increases your damage done by [2%/4%] per charge of Holy Power for 10 sec.
Rank 1-2

Repentance:
Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
9% of base mana, 20 yd range, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown
Rank 1

Divine Purpose:
The following attacks have a [20%/40%] chance to generate Holy Power:
- Judgement
- Exorcism
- Templar's Verdict
- Divine Storm
- Inquisition
- Holy Wrath
Rank 1-2

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Inquiry of Faith:
Increases the periodic damage done by your Seal of Truth by [10%/20%/30%], and the duration of your Inquisition by [50%/100%/150%]
Rank 1-2-3

Acts of Sacrifice:
Decreases the cooldown by [10%/20%] and mana cost by [10%/20%] of your Hand of Freedom, Hand of Salvation and Hand of Sacrifice.
Rank 1-2

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Zealotry:
Your Crusader Strike generates 3 charges of Holy Power per strike for the next 20 sec.
Rank 1


Protection:
Thanks to the new talent tree system it is impossible for you to pick
up talents in the other 2 trees beyond the second tier. Talents that
are useless for Ret have been excluded.

Divinity:
Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects on you by [2%/4%/6%]
Rank 1-2-3

Seals of the Pure:
Increases the damage done by your Seal of Righeousness, Seal of Truth and Seal of Justice by [6%/12%].
Rank 1-2

Eternal Glory:
Your Word of Glory has a [15%/30%] chance not to consume Holy Power.
Rank 1-2

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Judgements of the Just:
Your Judgement reduces the melee attack speed of the target by [10%/20%] for 20 sec. In addition, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by [0.5/1] sec.
Rank 1-2

Improved Hammer of Justice:
Decreases the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice spell by [10/20] sec.
Rank 1-2


Holy:
Thanks to the new talent tree system it is impossible for you to pick
up talents in the other 2 trees beyond the second tier. Talents that
are useless for Ret have been excluded.

Arbiter of the Light:
Increases the critical effect chance of your Judgement and Templar's Verdict by [6%/12%].
Rank 1-2

Protector of the Innocent:
Casting a targeted heal on any target including yourself also heals you for x amount.
Rank 1-2-3

Judgements of the Pure:
Your Judgement increases your casting and melee haste by [3%/6%/9%] for 1 min.
Rank 1-2-3

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Last Word:
Gives your Word of Glory a [30%/60%] increased critical chance when used on targets with 35% or less health.
Rank 1-2

Blazing Light:
Increases the damage of your Holy Shock and Exorcism by [10%/20%].
Rank 1-2

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{ Mastery }
What is Mastery?

As described by Blizz, Mastery is a way for your spec to be better at whatever it does. If you're a healer, your mastery will increase your healing output. If you're a tank, your mastery will help you stay alive. As a DPS, your damage output is increased. Mastery is used in the form of both passive and active "procs" inherent to your spec.

You'll find Mastery on your gear just like you would Haste or Crit. You will stack it in order to increase your mastery rating.


Ret Mastery

NOTE: You can also use HoL procs on Word of Glory, Zealotry, or Divine Storm.

Hand of Light:
Your autoattacks have a 8% chance to grant Hand of Light, causing your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed.

You must stack several points of mastery in order to increase the proc chance.

What does this mean?
In its current incarnation, if we get Hand of Light to proc, we can cast a full power 3HP Templar's Verdict on the target without actually consuming HP. That means if you have 2HP and you get a HoL proc, you can use TV without worrying about wasting those 2 HP. You can also use it on a full power Word of Glory or Divine Storm.

This may prove to be a very fun and interactive mastery, albeit totally RNG dependent.

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{ "Ret Pet" }
Paladins are getting a pet?

The "pet" is our big level 85 spell called Guardian of the Ancient Kings. The guardian's role will change depending on the paladin's talent spec. For Holy it helps heal, for Prot it absorbs damage, and for Ret it attacks your enemies and gives you a little damage buff.

It also makes you explode.


Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Retribution):
Summons a Guardian of Ancient Kings to attack your current target for 12 sec. While active, your and your Guardian's attacks cause you to be infused with Ancient Power, increasing your Strength by 20 per application.

After 12 sec or when your Guardian is killed you will release Ancient Fury. causing 100 damage plus 100 per application of Ancient Power. divided among all targets within 10 yards.


Think of your Guardian like an unholy DK's gargoyle. It pretty
much behaves the same way: it has no pet bar, you can't direct it, but
it will attack your current target.

The "explosion" buff your paladin receives is called "Ancient Fury":

Ancient Fury:
Strength Increased by 20. When your Guardian of Ancient Kings despawns or is killed, you will release Ancient Fury, causing x damage, split among all enemies within 10 yards.

So basically when your guardian dies you do a little aoe explosion (the animation looks like Holy Wrath). It's kind of funny but also extremely annoying considering this negligible damage WILL break any form of CC you may be near. I really can't imagine you'd pop this cooldown in PVE aoe situations either. Hopefully they remove this aspect of ret's Guardian.

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{ Primary Stats }
What are my primary stats now?

Nothing's really changed as far as primary stats with the exception of Mastery. You still want to stack Strength as far as major stats go. You will only find strength on plate.

Because of the new HP resource system and the ret talent Sanctity of Battle, Haste is going to be very attractive primarily for lowering the CD on our most reliable ability, Crusader Strike. It will also increase the number of ticks on our Censure dot from Seal of Truth.

Mastery may be just as important in order to increase your Heal of Light procs, however it takes an absurd amount of mastery to do this. It's an attractive stat for sure, but remember there are many other stats to juggle.

Of course you'll still need appropriate amounts of Hit, Expertise, and Crit where ever you can find it. Crit in particular is a little funny because crit ratings are so low at 85. That number will undoubtedly rise with better gear, but it will never be as high as it was in WotLK. This kind of sucks since much of a ret's damage comes from critical strikes.

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{ Seals, Auras, and Buffs }
What happened to my seals and buffs?

Seals, auras, and buffs are some of the defining elements of the paladin class. With 4.0 and Cataclysm, Blizz has consolidated and simplified these elements in various ways.

Seals:
Seal of Righteousness: (single target/aoe dps seal) Fills the paladin with holy spirit, granting each single melee target attack additional holy damage. Lasts 30min. 14% of base mana, Instant cast

Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal x Holy damage to an enemy.


Seal of Truth: (raid boss dps seal) Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing single-target attacks to Censure the target, which deals [(12.5% of AP + 12.5% of Spell Power ) * ( Seals of the Pure : 100%/105%/110%/115% )] additional Holy damage over 15 sec. Censure can stack up to 5 times. Once stacked to 5 times, each of the Paladin's attacks also deals 16% weapon damage as additional Holy damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 min. 14% of base mana, Instant cast

Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal x Holy damage to an enemy, increased by 10% for each application of Censure on the target.


Seal of Insight: (holy paladin seal) Fills the Paladin with divine power for 30 min, giving each single-target melee attack a chance to heal the Paladin for [15% of AP + 15% of Spell Power] and restore 4% of the paladin's base mana. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. 14% of base mana, Instant cast

Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal x Holy damage to an enemy.


Seal of Justice: (protection paladin seal) Fills the Paladin with the spirit of justice for 30 min, causing each single-target melee attack to limit the target's maximum run speed for 5 sec and deal [( 0.5% of MWS * AP + 0.5% of MWS * Spell Power ) * ( Seals of the Pure : 100%/105%/110%/115% )] additional Holy damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. 14% of base mana, Instant cast

Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal x Holy damage to an enemy.


Auras:
Devotion Aura: Gives 4075.6 additional armor to party and raid members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Instant

Retribution Aura: Causes x Holy damage to any enemy that strikes a party or raid member within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Instant

Concentration Aura: All party or raid members within 40 yards lose 35% less casting or channeling time when damaged. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Instant

Resistance Aura: Gives additional Fire, Frost and Shadow resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Instant


Buffs:
Blessing of Kings: Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intellect by 5%, and all magical resistances by x for 1 hr. If target is in your party or raid, all party and raid members will be affected. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time. 5% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast

Blessing of Might: Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing attack power by 10% and restoring 326.05 mana every 5 seconds for 1 hr. If target is in your party or raid, all party and raid members will be affected. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time. 5% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast

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{ DPS Rotations }
What is ret's new DPS rotation?
Because paladins have been heavily tweaked with each new patch over the last few months it's been hard to pinpoint exactly what our rotation should be. Holy Power is a completely new resource for us and our entire rotations will revolve around getting as many Templar's Verdicts off as possible while managing Inquisition and our mastery/Divine Purpose procs.

This is NOT a rotation, but these are your abilities in order of importance:


Templar's Verdict -> Crusader Strike -> Judgement -> Exorcism -> Inquisition -> Holy Wrath -> Consecrate

I'm ignoring AW, HoW, Guardian of the Ancient Kings, and Zealotry because I'm not 100% sure where to put them yet... Some things seem obvious, like AW, but now that we don't use an FCFS rotation we may have to wait on Crusader Strike's cooldown to hit certain abilities before others so we don't waste HP. I haven't been able to find a definite rotation from anyone on the PTR. :(


If Inquisition is a DPS increase similar to a rogue's "Slice and Dice" or a druid's "Savage Roar," why isn't it more important?
It's supposed to be more important but as I'm writing this some Beta/PTR rets are raising the question of whether it's worth keeping Inq up 100% of the time like it's meant to be.

Basically if you're about to hit a 3HP TV and you notice Inq is about to fall off, which ability are you going to spend that HP on? What's a bigger DPS loss: temporarily losing that 30% holy damage increase or not hitting a full power TV when it's ready? Things are still kinda muddy with this.


What about Zealotry?
Thanks to our Hand of Light mastery our abilities sometimes don't cost HP, and thanks to our talent Divine Purpose all of our spells and abilities can generate extra HP.

The problem with Zealotry is it costs 3HP to activate. Once it's active every Crusader Strike generates 3 HP, which is cool, BUT there's a good chance we'll already be generating additional HP from our other abilities in between each CS for the next 20 seconds. So you basically wasted a GCD popping a coolddown to give you HP except you were probably going to get that HP anyway from your other spells. The question now is: is it worth the GCD? Would it be better to use those 3HP to hit TV or refresh Inq?

I think Zealotry is a cool idea however now that we have HoL and Divine Purpose it's a little obsolete in its current incarnation.


How about Avenging Wrath and Hammer of Wrath?
With our talent Sanctified Wrath we can spam HoW (on cooldown) while AW is up no matter what % the boss is at. However HoW's damage has been severely nerfed. At this time I'm a little unsure about where HoW would fit in with all the other things we have to manage in our rotation. It feels clumsy to use HoW at the start of a fight when we should be using more powerful abilities in conjunction with wings. Perhaps that aspect of Sanctified Wrath is more of a PVP thing.


What's the DPS difference between Holy Wrath and Consecrate?
Basically they don't want Cons to be as big a part of our rotation as it was in WotLK. Cons is for Prot pallies to pick up aggro, and while we can still use it as ret, it's MUCH more mana-efficient to hit Holy Wrath. Holy Wrath can also generate HP thanks to Sanctified Wrath whereas Cons cannot.


When's a good time to use Guardian of the Ancient Kings?
Pop it right before Bloodlust/Heroism, just like any other pet. Although the damage it deals isn't that great, it still gives you a temporary stacking damage buff. Use it when your damage counts most.</center>


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{ Glyphs }
What are our new glyph choices?

Since the glyph system has been totally revamped (then again what hasn't been revamped?) we have a lot more freedom with our choices. The new system allows you to "remember" previously used glyphs and keeps them in a nice scroll down list on your new Glyph menu. This allows you to change you glyphs from situation to situation, even from one boss fight to another, quickly and easily. In addition. we have a new set of glyph slots called "Prime" glyphs.

It's hard to say exactly what you should be glyphing as your ret's abilities and priorities will be very different between 4.0 and endgame Cataclysm content. Remember that changing glyphs is now very easy so I'm listing all glyphs that are potentially useful to us.


Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Exorcism:
- Use: Exorcism causes an additional 20% damage over 6 seconds.
This adds a dot component to Exorcism instead of increasing it's base damage instantly. Since Exor's going to be a much bigger part of our rotations this glyph will certainly increase your damage.

Glyph of Judgement:
- Use: Judgements deal an additional 10% damage.
Same old glyph. Still very important for any ret spec.

Glyph of Templar's Verdict:
- Use: Increases Templar’s Verdict damage by 15%.
That's BASE damage by the way, so add 15% to each of your Holy Power values for TV. Ouch ouch ouch. TV is going to be the most important ability in our rotation so definitely get this glyph.

Glyph of Crusader Strike:
- Use: Increases the critical strike chance of Crusader Strike by 5%.
Not great but it works if you have nothing better at the moment.

Glyph of Word of Glory:
- Use: Increases the healing done by Word of Glory by 10%
More of a Holy glyph but this may prove useful for certain fights and/or PVP.


Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Seal of Truth:
- Use: Your Seal of Truth also grants 10 expertise while active.
Exactly the same as the SoV glyph.

Glyph of Salvation:
- Use: Hand of Salvation no longer permanently reduces threat over time but instead reduces all threat while Hand of Salvation is active.
A nice big aggro dump in the form of a glyph! Not just for you, but for anyone in your raid! Now that aggro will be harder for tanks to get and maintain, this will probably be very useful on specific fights. Imagine saving a healer with it.

Glyph of Hammer of Wrath:
- Use: Reduces the cost of your Hammer of Wrath spell by 100%.
Since mana will be an issue for us I guess it's better to save it where ever you can. Not really a DPS increase.

Glyph of Hammer of Justice:
- Use: Increases the range of your Hammer of Justice by 5 yds.
CC will be more important in Cata so this may see some PVE use. I see it more as a PVP glyph for now.

Glyph of Divine Plea:
- Use: Your Divine Please grants an additional 5% or your total mana.
This may be useful for boss fights that are especially long.

Glyph of Divinity:
- Use: Your Lay on Hands spell now grants twice as much mana as normal and also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.
Perhaps an interesting way to help heal our group and restore mana.

Glyph of Divine Protection:
- Use: Removes the physical damage reduction of your Divine Protection, but increases the magical reduction by 20%.
May be very useful on magic-heavy fights for paladins of all specs. Since DPro no longer causes Forebearance and has a 1min cooldown it would be rather easy to pop it during crucial moments. There's also some nice PVP viability in this glyph.

Glyph of Consecration:
- Use: Increases the duration and cooldown of Consecration by 20%.
Unless you have absolutely no mana problems ever, this glyph is not for us. Remember Cons now costs 55% of our base mana.

Glyph of Holy Wrath:
- Use: Your Holy Wrath now stuns dragonkin and elementals.
This has limited CC viability for certain fights, I imagine.

Glyph of Cleansing:
- Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse by 20%
Possibly useful for certain fights, might be very useful for PVP.


Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Blessing of Kings:
- Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings by 50%
Might as well.

Glyph of Blessing of Might:
- Use: Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%
Might as well.

Glyph of Lay on Hands:
- Use: Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 2min.
This brings the cooldown to 8min rather than 10. Imagine if it was still 5min lol.

Glyph of Sense Undead has been taken out, it seems. I guess it doesn't matter since you're not going to find many undead in Cata now that LK is dead.


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{ Gems }
What are our new gem choices?
Many gems have had their colors and stats changed. Thankfully it seems our gem preferences haven't changed much between WotLK and 4.0/Cata.

Not all of the Cata gems have been unveiled so the ones listed are currently
blue or green quality. This is a list of all potentially good gems for ret.

Hit is now blue
Expertise is now red
Intellect is now red
Mastery is yellow



Meta Socket:
[WotLK] Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (21 Agility and 3% Increase Critical Damage)
[Cata] - Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond (+54 Critical Strike / +3% Increased Critical Strike damage

Red Socket:
[WotLK] - Bold Cardinal Ruby (+20 strength)
[Cata] - Bold Inferno Ruby (+40 str) / Bold Carnellian (+30 str)

Orange Socket:
[WotLK] - Etched Ametrine (+10 str/+10hit) / Inscribed Ametrine (+10 str/+10crit)
[Cata] - Inscribed Ember Topaz (+20 str/+20crit)
- Skillful Ember Topaz (+20 str/+20mastery)
- Keen Ember Topaz (+20expertise/+20mastery)

Yellow Socket:
[WotLK] - Rigid King's Amber (+20 hit)
[Cata] - Fractured Amberjewel (+40 mastery) / Fractured Alicite (+30 mastery)

Green Socket:
[WotLK] - none
[Cata] - Lightning Dream Emerald (+20 haste/+20hit)
- Piercing Dream Emerald (+20 crit/+20hit)
- Sensei's Dream Emerald (+20 mastery/+20hit)

Blue Socket:
[WotLK] - Nightmare Tear (+10 all stats)
[Cata] - none available yet

Purple Socket:
[WotLK] - none
[Cata] - Accurate Demonseye (+20expertise/+20hit) / Etched Demonseye (+20expertise/+20hit)

Prismatic Socket:
[WotLK] - Nightmare Tear (+10 all stats)
[Cata] - none available yet


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*Some of this information may be slightly outdated since ret updates are a little scattered.