Ret Pally ICC Raiding – Part I Further Review
If you read my last Ret ICC raid post, you’ll know what I am referring to with this one. If not, you can read it here: RCC Raiding ICC Part I. With some upgraded gear, a couple new approaches on the bosses, and a further understanding of Ret Pally mechanics for the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, I bring you an updated report.
Marrowgar
Once again a low DPS fight for Paladins. Running around like Indiana Jones ducking under a giant Ice titan, avoiding massive whirlwinds, I occasionally found myself leaping across blue flames and buying time until my two tanks reigned Marrowgar back in.
Nothing really new to this fight, though my DPS picked up a bit. I have a screenshot of my DPs for the Marrowgar fight. As you can see, I was almost pushing 5k DPS. Not great, but it’ll hold up in 10-man normal.
One helpful tip I got from a reader on this blog (Taddeous) was to stand directly under/behind the boss to avoid the flames, and it worked! Never had to worry about them.
Also, our ranged DPS was helping those that got skewered on a spike, so that was another thing I didn’t have to worry about. So no excuses on lower DPS. Just have to suck it up and find a way to maximize my combat efficiency.
Deathwhisper
Couple new strategies here. The first was born from researching logs on top performing Paladins for this fight. Seal of Command for the packs and Seal of Vengeance for the boss. Switching between the two seemed to help speed things up. I can vouch for this.
The second was a tiny little annoying factor called threat. You’ve heard of threat, right? Well, the threat reducing mechanics for this fight in regards to the tanking really, really made me have to tone down the DPS. Not only was my DPS output pitiful from running around in Phase 1, but I was really slowing down my damage output when we got on the boss. Salvation helped a bit, but I was soaring upwards once it ran its course.
Because of my inability to efficiently manage my threat, I went down about 3/4 of the way through the fight. Luckily we one-shotted her…but I need to do better for my part.
Gunship
Was defense again, but managed to let my face absorb some mighty whirlwinds from the adds. Eventually, a Horde Tauren removed my head from my body. RCC healers make a macro to /Rebirth Khor. Ugh.
Saurfang
Finally I can see what my true DPS output is. This is the measuring test for me, because this is unhindered damage. I did better than I thought I would. Almost 6.3k DPS. I was hoping for just 6k. Didn’t change anything here, just better gear really helped push up my damage
Totals
Here are the totals of my DPS for the fights and the corresponding top DPS ranges for Ret Paladins on 10 man normal ICC. The averages are the top 50 DPS courtesy of WMO.
- Khor Marrowgar – 4.9k DPS
- Khor Deathwhisper – 4.3k DPS
- Khor Saurfang – 6.3k DPS
Top Ret Paladins
- Ret Marrowgar – 7.8k DPS
- Ret Deathwhisper – 7.2k DPS
- Ret Saurfang – 8.6k DPS
I am 2.9 k DPS below top performing Marrowgar and Deathwhisper Pallies, and 2.3k DPS below Saurfang. I have some room to grow, and that will come with gear. I really need ot work on optimizing my DPS for the first two bosses.
If I get in a 10-man next week, I’ll update and see if I have made any improvements.
You might have lived longer on Deathwhisper had the ranged not burned down her shield while we still had adds up. Having a tank drop right at the start makes it almost impossible for a melee dps to stay alive once the solo tank is at -100% threat.
u said u were checking other blogs u mind linking theese? i would like to take a look because ive noticed it doesnt mater what gear i get some nights my dps is high and some im at 3.5k like saturday my guild was doing togc10 and i was pushing tops 4.2k then we come back last night (monday) and im doing 5.8k dps on anub and i just dont get it…
WHich blogs are you talking about? I follow alot
jsut the ones you find that help you the most
Hey mate, quick question. You said you can DPS unhindered during Saurfang, but you can’t aggro the Beast adds. My DPS isn’t exactly low, but how did you cope with the loss of Divine Storm on some moments, and the general loss of Consecration?
I’ll let you in on a little secret…just don’t tell my raid leaders. There is only a half-second window where I hold off on the AOE on this fight. I continue my normal rotations despite the adds.
Finding the right time for AoE is crucial for but it can be done. Sometimes my AOE isn’t even off cooldown, so I avoid the issue all together. I also have very solid ranged dragging the adds around, and they pull quick.
The moment I see one of the adds pulled, I continue my DPS rotation. If the tank pulls aggro on the add, which does happen, my AOE seems to have no effect on the add, so I continue DPS as normal.
I know this contradicts normal logic on the fight, but I have a hunch the top performing Paladins on this fight are doing the same thing. THere’s actually nothing wrong with the mechanics of my approach, it just requires some very precise timing.
pfft the only thing u have to worry about is not hitting divine storm the second they spawn other than that dont even bother with them if u have battle text on you will notice that since divine storm and concecrate are thought of as AoE that it does not hit them very hard hell the highest ive hit them with divine storm is 450 and it was a crit and concecrate ticks for like 30-50 damage
unless you are tanking because it really doesnt matter if you are doing damage all that much because of holy whatever tis called increasing ur threat so you DO pull threat if your tanking
dps wise dont even act liek they spawned ive done this the opast three weeks on 10 and 25 and ive topped out at about 7.8k dps on this fight oh also if u have an on use trinket or wings or whatever pop at start of fight
my guild has alot of shamans so its a rare occurance that we dont have blood lust i have the on use trink from t9 vendor and wings and i pop that at beginingof fight once again at about 65% and once more at about 40% that way i will have it once my blood lust runs out around 15-20% health this increases my dps by about 300-500 on a fight
also if your guild does 25 man the same as our guild by having a pally D.I. the marked target and then use soulstone or brez then use a haste pot at begining because the death will reset the cooldown on your pot
hey, this was extremely helpful, ive studied the first level of ICC 10 man reg excessively, seeign as i just got to 5k GS and am looking for a decent raiding guild to run with. Now i know what to expect/aim for and eventually surpass. Thank you very much for your time on this post.
Hey Ken, thanks! Glad this was helpful. My goal is to try and provide insight on content I have actually done and completed. Sadly, I have been ushered into healing duty for everything past Saurfang of late, so I haven’t actually taken down the other bosses as Ret, though I have as Holy. Hopefully we can get some more healers so I can further these guides!
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