[Ret] Log review

[Nyax 5]

Hi.

 

I post here as an officer and raid leader of my guild, currently progressing in HC (4/14). I recruited some time ago a ret pally who has been under-geared for weeks, but he's now at 557i with a WF weapon and it seems he just can't do much more than 200k in any encounter.

He's a really nice guy and he's trying hard to improve himself, but none of us is able to help him on his rotation and I really don't want to be forced to put him aside in our progress days.

I'm aware that I shouldn't expect the same dps from a ret than a mage, but I do feel he could do much better and I need your help to figure out how, to help him back with your answers (he really can't speak english).

 

Here's his armory : http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/ysondre/sunaa/advanced

 

Logs from our normal clean yesterday, including Malko and Blackfuse (I guess these are pretty good samples for a melee dps) : http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/K8PHj1fNn6mMtXTG#fight=3&type=damage-done&source=13

 

Logs from HC TFP where he finished the fight far behind even considering is death : http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Bq1hRPZJrACQGjHy#fight=14&type=damage-done

 

Thanks on his behalf.

[Geoda 253]

Right off the bat, I notice he doesn't have the legendary Meta or cloak. That is a big boost in DPS.

 

Per AMR, he may want to regem Haste/Mastery instead of Haste/Strength. Strength drops off on priority after T14.

 

He really needs to try to keep a 100% uptime on Inquisition. There's a few occasions where it isn't even up 90% of the time. 

 

I am going to stop right there since I am not a main spec ret. It really seems that he struggles with even the rotation of his spells. I highly suggest he take a look at the Retribution Paladin Class Guide here on Icy-Veins. There is information on here that will help him tremendously on the fundamentals of his class that he appears to be lacking.

[Oreoxd 165]

Since I'm no pro at reading logs (or french) I'll just give a basic outline of what he should be doing, though I am able to see some things he could fix. 

 

- With burst, only use ES starting at 12 stacks of Ancient Power (GoAK Buff) this snapshots your biggest str boost (and generally all your str procs with it) 

- Make sure with SW every other hit is HoW

- Avoid Reforging into Expertise, and try to gem into it as much as you can.

 

 

I'm not an expert at reading logs though, also try to get him Thok's Tail Tip as soon as possible as it will help him immensely

[Fouton 266]

The following is based on comparisons to my guild's ret paladin: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/1M9TxwH46jF2yfBh#fight=3&type=damage-done&source=2

 

Here's what I found:

1. As Geoda said, Meta+Cloak would boost his damage 12%. He really needs to get that done, it's vital.

2. As Geoda said, They need to use AMR. They haven't even enchanted their bracers at all, and are stacking strength which is accounting for some mastery loss. Based on calculations, they could gain another 2% of their damage by fixing that.

3. As Auriel said, They're using Hammer of Wrath very minimally, doing half the damage my guild's ret did.

4. They never use Hammer of the Righteous on AoE, where most paladins I saw have been using that at some point on the fight. The ret guide lists when to use it: http://wow.icy-veins.com/retribution-paladin-pve-dps-rotation-cooldowns-abilities

5. If they follow their rotation properly, they should get much more big spenders out, since they're not optimal with Holy Power generation. They also might want to consider using Divine Storm more often for the AoE benefit.

6. Inquisition had 4 different gaps, 3 of them were long periods of time, they need to watch their buffs better, get a WeakAura or something if they can't track it normally.

7. Cap professions. Losing out on a fair amount of stats, could be another 2% damage (especially if they drop mining for blacksmithing)

8. No potions at all.

9. Not damage related, but they never used Devotion Aura.

 

Potions, Professions, Legendary progress, and not enchanting/reforging correctly seems to be a lot of effort issues before even getting into the gameplay issues. That needs to be worked out, and they need to understand what heroic raiding takes. It's not for everyone. Fixing all those issues is a 15-20% damage increase, then their skill issues should get them a lot more damage.

 

I am a Prot/Holy Paladin, so I could be missing some more rotational problems, but these are the issues I see.

[Nyax 5]

Thanks for your answers, it has been very valuable for him. ;)

 

We reviewed each point together and I made sure he understood everything. Sunaa will work on these points and we will see how it goes. I will come back with new logs in a week with half the problems solved (I hope) to ask if there still are rotation issues.

[Geoda 253]

Awesome! Good luck. Hopefully he is on his quest for the Legendary and can start putting up some BIG NUMBA! :D

[Moozedude 47]

First, Fusion Fire Core is terrible.  Flex Thok's is superior, in all ways, so I'd be really trying to get that.

 

Also, looking at patterns on longer fights, it appears that AW is always being delayed for GoAK, at about 3 minute intervals.  With your level of EEoG, you should be looking at just over a minute between AW casts.  This is a HUGE change in dps, as you gain a HW every other GCD, and deal obviously more damage with the buff.  With sanctified wrath, this gives you near 50% uptime on 20% damage gain.  Win.

 

The buffs should go stacked, AW, GoAK, AW, stacked.

[LobbyBoy 37]

Most things have been already discussed but I've taken a look at the fights against Malkoro and Blackfuse.

 

HW usage is a little to low on both fights! Sunaa should try to use HW more often during SW and to utilize every free DS from 4p bonus but not using it without proc on single target fights (e.g. as during Malkorok fight)!

As Fouton and Geoda already mentioned: Inq Uptime is crucial! There is a very big gap at the beginning of Malkoro fight. 

 

All that gives the impression to me that he is not tracking procs and buffs carefully enough!

Does he use some add-ons like Weak Auras to monitor his procs?

[Geoda 253]

While Vuhdo is my single most important addon for healing, WeakAuras would have to be my most important when Ret. WeakAuras can do everything. I once heard someone wrote a script for it to make you a cup of coffee. I'm still looking for it though..

[LobbyBoy 37]

I once heard someone wrote a script for it to make you a cup of coffee. I'm still looking for it though..

 

Don't forget to post it in the forum 

[Nyax 5]

I couldn't find WA for ret in the sticky threads. Can someone give me the ones you consider as "must have" or link me where I could find it? It would definitely help him.

 

I won't link tonight logs because... to be honest he's been kinda awful and the decision has been taken he should finish the legendary quest, his jewelry and work on his rotation before he will continue the progress with us.

But I don't want to let him down and I'll give him the opportunity to show us some improvement in our normal clears, so thanks for your inputs Moozedruul, Geoda and LobbyBoy, I'll have a word with him about that.

 

I think you really gave him all he needs to improve, now it's up to him to see if he wants to come back to HC in few weeks!

 

One again, great community. ;)

[Geoda 253]

There are many different WeakAuras out there that can track a number of things. Here's a link to a post on this site back in October on WA's. I think this will be a nice package for him to use.

 

https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/3452-nobleshields-protectionretribution-weakauras-hud/

 

Tough decisions have to be made and hopefully he can work on the practice dummy to get used to tracking procs and working on his rotation (after farming for the Legendary of course ;) )

 

Let us know if there's anything else we can do. It's no trouble at all.

[Nyax 5]

I will! Thank you. ;)