Cooldowns

Ahh the cooldown. Such an exiting part of a fight. Waiting for the right time to cast the 1+ spell(s) that will give you that real moment of meter glory, then going through the motions and carefully eying your bars until you can go right back and use them again.

As Ret pallies, any hope of relevance or even presence in a hardcore raiding environment is hindered on our cooldowns, and how well we use them. In fact, this is my biggest beef with our rotation. The fact that, in order to finish a fight with comparable numbers to classes with a little more to them, we have to hope that our high burst of cooldowns will balance our sustained dps, which, suffice to say, has been dwelling in mediocrity for longer than I care to remember. While we can't expect a major change to this crippling set of mechanics any time soon, we should master our cooldowns and how to use them while we can.


Avenging Wrath - Wings. Oh how I love thee. The classic paladin cooldown, for any spec. In relation to Ret, there are two things regarding this spell that need to be carefully considered. 1) With the Sanctified Wrath talent, you have the ability to cast HoW during AW. You have the ability to get 4 in assuming you use hammer on CD. 2) It gives a 20% damage buff. The most ignored and yet easily the most important element to AW. People often think that by using your cooldowns spread from each other that we can attain some illusion of sustained dps, but I assure you, using your 20% dmg buff along with good ol Zealotry will show fantastic results.

Zealotry - Zealotry is one of two new cooldowns with Cata and is among my favorite spells in a Ret's arsenal. It also has a 2 minute cooldown so you can blow it with AW each time wings goes up, which should be done. If you get ahold of the tier12 4pc, your Zealotry's duration will be increased to 35 seconds, allowing for higher dps and a rotation of cooldowns that is significantly more complex than its worth. This will me covered more later.

Guardian of Ancient Kings - GoAK (great abbreviation, I know) is the new spell that comes with hitting level 85, and is a cooldown that functions differently for each spec. For Ret, it summons a pet that, over 30 seconds, attacks your enemy, increasing your strength for each attack, up to 20%. It is a nice cooldown that gives bonus dps in the form of the pet attacks and the small explosion-like spell when it fades, not to mention the very very strong buff it gives. Keep in mind that this is a 5-minute cooldown. Unless you have a mid-fight burn (think, Alysrazor), if it is a 6+ minute fight, use your guardian at the start, so as to have it up again for the end. Otherwise, save it and use it mid fight in tandem with Zealotry, Wings, and your pot.

Golemblood Potion - AKA sex in drink form. You will see me say this frequently, but for the love of god please pre-pot every fight that its at all useful. For those more inexpirienced among us, HAVE A CHART!
Firelands: Shannox [Y] Rhyolith [N] Beth'Tilac [N] Alysrazor [N] Baelroc [Y] Domo [Y] Rag [Y]
BoT: Halfus [Y] Vodka/Tonic [Y] Ascendant C [Y] Cho'Gall [Y] Sinestra [Y]
BWD: Magmaw [Y] ODS [Y] Maloriak [Y] Chimaeron [Y] Atramedies [Y] Nefarian [N]
ToTFW: Conclave [Y] Al'Akir [Y]
For those that don't know, potions last 20 seconds, usually, and give you a damage buff of some sort (strength/agi/intel ect.). They have a 1 minute cooldown, and WILL NOT cooldown during combat. The concept of pre-potting is the idea of hitting your first potion in the 1-2 seconds before your tank pulls, so that you can have the damage buff early in the fight, and then being able to use it again 1 minute later since the initial potion was used out of combat. Pretty much, it gives you 1.75 potions as opposed to 1. Use the 2nd in tandem with Zeal/AW/GoAK.

Tier 12 4pc:
The tier 12 4pc tier bonus increases the duration of Zealotry to 35 seconds. This, in turn, leads to a complex rotation of cooldowns that will, if executed correctly, result in very high damage. The rotation is as follows.

Zealotry <5 seconds> Guardian <5 seconds> Golemblood Pot <5 seconds>

Avenging Wrath <5 seconds> Trinkets

Naturally, GoAK and your potion won't be up every time, so I usually try to allow the CD chain in which I use those two to intersect with Hero/Lust. The timing takes some practice, but you get the hang of it after not too long. If you want to bind Zeal, Guardian, and AW to one button such that you only have to hit it, count 5, hit it a 2nd time, count 10, and then hit it a 3rd, use this macro:

#showtooltip
/castsequence Zealotry, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Avenging Wrath
/startattack

In terms of trinkets in relation to that rotation, use Essence or the Apparatus between 1-5 seconds after Avenging Wrath, no matter how many stacks the Apparatus may have. The cooldown will be up by the time your others are up again so use it liberally.

Cooldowns are paramount in executing our DPS well. Using all of them to their fullest can make or break your DPS on a given fight.