(first my english is not perfect, please consider)
Alright, just to clarify things here :
Ret in 5.3 is bad, i would put him at the same level as enh (in overall). All the stuff about great healing ect is true when considering 1v1 : when it comes to bgs whith all the pushback/cs you won't load a fucking heal if you get focused (so you better stay back to heal). About the damages you can see nice crit ONLY against CLOTH. You will hit about 100 crusader on a fully gear prot/mail for example. The main problem of this spec lies in the gameplay : you will get bored waiting for judgment/crusader to load back, TV takes way too long to be used, if you against a dps in 1v1 you will probably not use a single TV
About the shit i've read in this post on Ret winning every 1v1 : you will loose almost every 1v1 you'll do, if you fight (at same skill/gear level of course) a hunt/rogue/mage/druid/shaman YOU WILL LOOSE 100 % sure. The only class that can bring a quite decent match against ret is war, you should win whitout problem. You WON'T win 1v1 against any healers but they won't probably kill you neither.
Ret is overall pretty bad, you can do some nice things but it will be against bad/undergeared people. You don't play ret to expect top damage/top healing/optimal group or whatever, you play ret cause you seek change.
Hope my speech have been understood by everyone, it is not meant to tell you not to play ret, i just speak of actual fact.