Why You Shouldn't Spec DSac As A Ret.

Or, Why Reinventing The Wheel Is A Folly You Shouldn't Fall For.

It has come to my recent attention that certain circles have been arguing for a 5/11/55 Ret spec. I shall elaborate here why it's a folly to try anything but 13/5/53 (or any derivative thereof). Once upon a time, a 3/17/51-DGuard spec had been proposed as alternative. I would argue that it is both vastly inferior to the orthodox 13/5/53 as well as vastly superior to the now-proposed 5/11/55.

Now, if even an ancient, unviable spec would be considered vastly superior than what is proposed now, why would that suddently become a thing at all? Fairly good question. Let me try to explain.
You see, to spec for the DGuard you'll need 17 points in Prot, which means you'd have to drop to at most 3 points in Holy. However, the first 5 points in Holy are like, one of your more powerful DPS talents. Ie, the DGuard spec costs DPS. Evidently that's unacceptable!
So some ~~5D 3D 1D 0D~~ -1D-chess players have had the idea! What if we just swap the leftover talents to Prot instead? What if we just spec DSac w/o DGuard? P R O B L E M S O L V E D !

Except of course, N J E T. Please let me explain.

First, while DGuard and AM may fill similar roles, DSac is something else entirely. Basically, it is far closer to something like HSac than it is to DGuard/AM. It doesn't actually mitigate any damage at all (unless used w/ immunities), nor is it raid-wide. The things you'd AM (or DGuard) for, you'd fail spectacularly w/ (just) DSac. Oh, and AM is more versatile too, since there's encounters in T8 & T9 you actually would AM Concentration for.

Secondly, AM is off GCD. DSac is not.

Thirdly, you're losing out on Impr LoH. Now, there's a significant amount of players who don't spec it at all, because it'll cost you a (redundant) raid buff to do so. (Please do not unspec PoJ. It is arguably, the most broken part of Ret.) It is however one of the more potent defensives out there if on a long CD. Still, another defensive > none.

And finally, it only takes a bit more than one point in Healing Light to beat out 5 in Divinity. Admittedly at this point that's the least of your worries but these small things all add up.

So please don't be a Retardation Paladin. Please do not spec anything but 13/5/53.