Im playing with the rank 1 ret in a team since BFA (hes been rank 1 since then) and i would like to give my take on it. (Not disagreeing, just want to give some insight)
1.Since ret hasnt been meta for ever so there arent really a lot of people who play it that well or have it ready and geared to be played in highest keys, people might just not be used to playing and actually commiting to it.
2.Rets utility is diminished by Prot Pala already being meta.
3.We arent a full meta team, dh tank for example might hold back the potential of our ret, not nearly as bad as in past seasons though (we always played heavy off meta, so even if we had some rank 1s in our team, it didnt show the full potential as the rest of the comp wasnt meta either and didnt show what an offmeta spec could achieve in an otherwise meta comp)
4. 200 score difference is a lot but there are still not that many teams in that 200 score difference, the density of players get suddenly insanely low at those last 200 points, its super scattered compared to 3300 score for example. The top team is on a whole other level imo, i would like to see how far they could go with a ret.
Overall, ret is super fine but not broken imo. I wonder if we would see more rets in some top runs if it would have been released from how it is right now at the start of DF. And if prot wasnt meta.
Sidenote: BL is overrated. Its super strong but far from mandatory. We didnt have BL for years (before DF) and were always very easily and comfortably way above 0,1% title range. Our bricked keys were mostly due to normal mistakes and not cause we needed BL. Even in upper Karazhan, a very boss heavy dungeon that favors BL, we held a top 20 run for multiple weeks without BL. Might have more value in less coordinated grps though, for more head through the wall gameplay. Of course you still want drums at least and you will still greatly benefit from real BL but Its just crazy to me that people act like they are basically completely screwed without it, take the better player instead if you really want to time that key.
