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The Light and How to Swing It: Strength DPS gear in Siege of Orgrimmar

Dan Desmond
Updated ·6 min read
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The Light and How to Swing It Strength DPS gear in Siege of Orgrimmar WED

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

A new patch means more gear, and more gear means another gear list. Let's get to it before I change my mind and write about how awful it was trying to solo Valithria Dreamwalker in 10-man heroic Icecrown Citadel as holy -- I still can't shake the nightmares.

Unless otherwise noted, the following gear can be found within the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. Non-tier pieces appear in normal, warforged, heroic, and heroic warforged varieties, similar to the gearing scheme in Throne of Thunder.

Oh, and although I covered Siege of Orgrimmar two-handed strength weapons in a previous article, I will briefly repeat their drop locations for the sake of completeness.

Head
Helm of the Night Watchman – drops from the Spoils of Pandaria encounter.
Thranok's Shattering Helm – drops from Galakras.
Helmet of Winged Triumph – token drops from Thok the Bloodthirsty.
Magdalena's Murderous Crown – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after death knight theorycrafter and community member Magdalena.

Neck
Juggernaut's Ignition Keys – drops from Iron Juggernaut.
Malkorok's Tainted Dog Tags – drops from Malkorok.
Anafielle's Spiked Choker – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after ret paladin theorycrafter and community member Anafielle.



Shoulders
Darkfallen Shoulderplates – drops from The Fallen Protectors.
Spaulders of the Fallen Warchief – drops from Garrosh Hellscream.
Krugruk's Rigid Shoulderplates – drops from Galakras.
Tusks of Mannoroth – drops from Garrosh Hellscream.
Pauldrons of Winged Triumph – token drops from Siegecrafter Blackfuse.
Rossi's Rosin-Soaked Shoulderplates – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after our very own contributing editor Matthew Rossi.

Cloak
Aeth's Swiftcinder Cloak – likely drops from trash in Siege of Orgrimmar.
Drape of the Despairing Pit – drops from Norushen.
Turtleshell Greatcloak – likely drops from trash in Siege of Orgrimmar.
Gong-Lu, Strength of Xuen – reward from A Pandaren Legend, penultimate quest in the expansion-long legendary quest chain.

Chest
Breastplate of Shamanic Mirrors – drops from Kor'kron Dark Shaman.
Chestplate of Congealed Corrosion – drops from Immerseus.
Battleplate of Winged Triumph – token drops from Sha of Pride.
Hoodrych's Bloodied Chestplate – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after skilled PvP warrior Hoodrych, which explains why I've never heard of him.

Wrist
Bracers of Blind Hatred – drops from Norushen.
Wall-Borer Bracers – drops from Iron Juggernaut.
Bubble-Burst Bracers – drops from Immerseus.
Vanguard's Burly Bracers – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after another PvP veteran, Vanguards. Surprisingly I have heard of this one, but likely only because he plays a ret paladin.

Hands
Zoid's Molten Gauntlets – likely drops from trash in Siege of Orgrimmar.
Tar-Coated Gauntlets – drops from Iron Juggernaut.
Corruption-Rotted Gauntlets – drops from Immerseus.
Gauntlets of Winged Triumph – token drops from General Nazgrim.

Waist
Ashen Wall Girdle – drops from Kor'kron Dark Shaman.
Demolisher's Reinforced Belt – drops from Iron Juggernaut.
Poisonbinder Girth – drops from The Fallen Protectors.
Greatbelt of the Crendor – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and named after avid YouTuber and WoW machinima-er Wowcrendor.
Remnar's Ruinous Girdle – also drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, though this one doesn't appear to be named after anyone in particular (if it is, then they can play a mean game of hide and seek).

Legs
Legplates of Unthinking Strife – drops from Garrosh Hellscream.
Legplates of Willful Doom – drops from Malkorok.
Legplates of Winged Triumph – token drops from the Paragons of the Klaxxi.
Partik's Purified Legplates – drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and being unable to find a proper reference within the context of Blizzard or World of Warcraft, I'm going to assume that this is a nod to Patrick Star, the dimwitted but lovable starfish from Spongebob Squarepants.
Magmaplates of Jian Wu Xi Feng – also drops from Ordos on the Timeless Isle, and according to my Google-fu 间舞西风 (Jiān wǔ xīfēng) roughly translates* into "dancing in [the] west wind."

Feet
Wolf-Rider Spurs – drops from Kor'kron Dark Shaman.
Malkorok's Giant Stompers – drops from Malkorok.
Greaves of Sublime Superiority – drops from Sha of Pride.

Rings
Sorrowpath Signet – drops from The Fallen Protectors.
Asgorathian Blood Seal – drops from Siegecrafter Blackfuse.
Seal of the Forgotten Kings – drops from the Spoils of Pandaria encounter.
Bloodclaw Band – drops from Kor'kron Dark Shaman.
Devilfang Band – drops from Thok the Bloodthirsty.

Trinkets
Fusion-Fire Core – drops from Norushen.
Evil Eye of Galakras – drops from Galakras.
Thok's Tail Tip – drops from Thok the Bloodthirsty.
Skeer's Bloodsoaked Talisman – drops from the Paragons of the Klaxxi.
Desmond's Defiled Decoration (I can dream, right?) – likely drops from trash in Siege of Orgrimmar.

Weapons
Gar'tok, Strength of the Faithful – drops from General Nazgrim.
Greatsword of Pride's Fall – drops from Sha of Pride.
Britomart's Jagged Pike – drops from Thok the Bloodthirsty.
Xal'atoh, Desecrated Image of Gorehowl – drops from Garrosh Hellscream.
Hellscream's Decapitator – drops from Garrosh Hellscream in flex, normal, and heroic difficulties only.

Alright, great, now we know what drops where. Assuming that you're walking into Siege with a pocketful of Warforged Seals and every piece on this list is an upgrade for you, here are the loot totals per boss to help you decide which fights to drop a coin on, in order of their appearance:

  • Immerseus: 3

  • The Fallen Protectors: 3

  • Norushen: 3

  • Sha of Pride: 3 (tier chest)

  • Galakras: 3

  • Iron Juggernaut: 4

  • Kor'kron Dark Shaman: 4

  • General Nazgrim: 2 (tier gloves)

  • Malkorok: 3

  • Spoils of Pandaria: 2

  • Thok the Bloodthirsty: 4 (tier helm)

  • Siegecrafter Blackfuse: 2 (tier shoulders)

  • Paragons of the Klaxxi: 2 (tier legs)

  • Garrosh Hellscream: 5

Of course, you should gauge your coin usage based on what encounters your guild can get through, and which upgrades might be more efficacious than others.

Finally, for those concerned about what ret's best-in-slot might look like, Anaxie over at MMO-Champion has thrown together a list for us. It seems that Anaxie is recommending using the Legplates of Unthinking Strife off of heroic Garrosh Hellscream as our non-tier piece, which makes sense given the giant chunk of generally undesirable crit on Legplates of Winged Triumph.

Personally though, despite my paladin being human and getting a nice chunk of expertise from the racial for using either Gar'tok, Strength of the Faithful or Greatsword of Pride's Fall, I want to find a way to use Britomart's Jagged Pike in my BiS setup. And Tusks of Mannoroth, because then I can finally play out my Warchief Lysogen fanfic.

* This translation is not guaranteed to be anywhere close to accurate; I'm a biochemist, not a linguist.

The Light and How to Swing It teaches you the ins and outs of retribution paladins, from Ret 101 and how to gem, enchant and reforge your retadin, to essential ret pally addons.