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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight ushers in a huge class revamp, and its new talent trees promise an unparalleled level of customisation to your specialisation. A melee DPS spec, Retribution Paladin has always been famous throughout Warcraft lore, thanks to iconic characters such as Tirion Fordring, and has historically been a popular choice for many players thanks to great visuals and class fantasy.
This guide will provide a comprehensive overview of Retribution Paladin regarding PvE content. It will cover the reasons you may decide to play the spec, the best talent and gear builds to maximise your damage, an explanation of how to learn the rotation, and some other useful advice, including macros and best consumables.
Updated on April 10, 2023, by Alex Ferriday: Retribution Paladin received a large rework in Patch 10.07. Many talents were either changed or replaced and the core identity of the spec was altered to provide more satisfying damage output, with lower cooldowns and greater survivability. This guide has been updated to reflect the wide scale changes, providing new talent and consumable recommendations, as well as the new best rotational tips.
Why Retribution Paladin?
Every specialisation in World of Warcraft comes with its pros and cons, and Retribution Paladin is no different. As always, however, it is recommended to play something you enjoy rather than something that is well-tuned at the time. You will always play better on something you click with rather than a flavour-of-the-month spec.
Pros |
Cons |
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Best Retribution Races
It is totally fine here to choose your race based entirely on visuals, and one that you feel embodies the character you want to play. That being said, there are some useful buffs that certain races can provide to Retribution Paladin.
Races in World of Warcraft have very little impact on your DPS output, and you shouldn't worry about choosing the 'strongest' race unless you are taking part in extremely high-end content and pushing for world ranks.
Race |
Racial Name |
Effect |
---|---|---|
Human |
Gain two percent increase to all secondary stats. |
|
Lightforged Draenei |
Call down a strike of Holy Energy, dealing Holy Damage to enemies in a small radius (2.5-minute cooldown). |
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Blood Elf |
Purge one beneficial effect from all nearby enemies and gain one Holy Power (2-minute cooldown). |
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Tauren |
Stun up to five nearby enemies (2-minute cooldown). |
Best Talents for Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladin Class Talent Tree
While it looks complicated at first, the Dragonflight talent trees make more sense once you understand them. On the left is the class tree, which is the same for all Paladin specializations. On the right is the Retribution tree, where you will pick up the majority of your damaging abilities and talents.
To progress down through the tree, you must spend an appropriate amount of points in the upper sections. This stops you from simply taking everything at the bottom, where the strongest talents are situated.
For the class tree, you have very little wiggle room, as you need to collect as much of the damage output as you can. You will be left with one or two points that you can spend in the uppermost section, and it is here where you can decide upon what utility spells you choose to take.
Your interrupt; Rebuke, does not need to be talented in every situation, and if you find yourself fighting a raid boss that cannot be interrupted, then you can spend that point elsewhere.
Best Retribution Paladin Single-Target Talent Build
- Talent Build Code: BYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAiWp0KJtSjoFJplEAAAAAAARQSCBSQkSESCpkWCkICJiSjWA
The build relies on spending as many Templar's Verdicts as possible and forgoes buffs to Divine Storm. If you find yourself encountering additional enemies, this build will not be particularly strong in damaging them, and you may want to consider the multi-target build instead, or you could swap Rush of Light out for Tempest of the Lightbringer.
Core talents you take include:
- Final Verdict, provides extra damage, range, and a Hammer of Wrath proc chance onto your Templar's Verdict.
- Art of War, your auto attacks have a chance to reset Blade of Justice.
- Vanguard of Justice, empowering your Holy Power spending abilities but also making them cost one more.
- Execution Sentence, a delayed attack, gathers a portion of your damage dealt during its debuff to empower its final damage.
- Seething Flames, causing your Wake of Ashes to deal increased damage against a single target.
Is it worth noting that for all builds, your Crusader Strike is now a two-part spell called Templar Strike and Templar Slash, giving you some extra Holy Power generation if you continue the combo within a four-second window.
Best Retribution Paladin Mythic Plus Talent Build
- Talent Build Code: BYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAgIUKtSSr0koIJpIJAAAAAAApBJJEIBRKRQCpkWiGJAJiSjWA
As mentioned above, Retribution suffers from being locked into most of its choices, and you will not have much room to play around, especially in the Spec tree. However, for Mythic Plus content, the open world, and raid fights with multiple enemies, this multi-target build will do just fine.
Key talent additions you will see here are:
- Tempest of the Lightbringer, projecting your Divine Storm forwards.
- Blade of Vengeance, causes your Blade of Justice to cleave nearby targets.
- Blessed Champion, Templar Strike, and Judgment now hit up to four additional targets.
- Final Reckoning, call down a blast of Holy damage, debuffing all enemies hit for a short duration, which increases their Holy damage taken for 12 seconds.
- Searing Light, a passive proc that has a chance to call down a blast of light, dealing damage and leaving behind a Consecration.
These talents will serve to empower your AoE damage, and you should find yourself using Divine Storm over Templar's Verdict much more frequently. Your Holy Power generators will now cleave, giving you much more consistent AoE damage, whilst retaining sufficient single target for bosses.
How To Play The Rotation
The Basics
As a DPS spec, Ret relies on dishing out as much damage as possible, especially during your cooldowns such as Avenging Wrath. Its rotation focuses on one basic principle:
- Generate and spend Holy Power, without wasting any.
Your primary resource, Holy Power, works similarly to combo points, stacking to five and being spent in groups of four. Your high damage abilities will cost Holy Power, so you want to try and build as much of it as possible. It will not go over five, meaning you can waste Holy Power if you continue to build without spending.
Therefore, you need to master the skill of counting up to and down from five and make sure you avoid over-capping. It sounds easy, but during an encounter, with multiple mechanics happening and other cooldowns to manage, being comfortable with the core rotation is essential.
Your very basic rotation guide looks like this.
Sequence |
Ability |
Explanation |
---|---|---|
1. |
These are your burst cooldowns, so try to save up some Holy Power beforehand in order to spend as much as possible inside these windows. Always use Wake of Ashes after your first spender. |
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2. |
In single target, you want to use this spell as much as possible, in order to extend your Avenging Wrath duration. It becomes a much lower priority during multi-target situations, as it does not cleave. |
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3. |
These are your primary Holy Power generators, alongside debuffing your enemies for your next Holy Power spender. |
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4. |
Avoid over-capping Holy Power by spending it in groups of four. |
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5. |
Your lowest priority is to build Holy Power using this two-part move. |
Now although this seems quite simple, the way you execute these rules will be heavily affected by extra abilities, the number of enemies, and talent selections. However, these will always remain your core principles of playing Ret to its maximum potential.
If there is one enemy present, spend Holy Power with Templar's Verdict, and if there are two, and you are not required to focus one down quickly, then use Divine Storm instead. These are your primary damage sources; essentially, the goal is to use as many of these spenders as possible during a fight.
Abilities that generate more Holy Power have a higher priority than those with lower generation, e.g., Blade of Justice is more important to use than Templar Strike, unless you are going to overcap on your Holy Power.
Other Retribution Abilities
Avenging Wrath is your major DPS cooldown. It provides you with extra damage for a limited amount of time, and you should be using it during periods when you won't have to be moving away from your target. Abilities with long cooldowns, such as Wake of Ashes and Execution Sentence, should normally be saved to line up this window, and any damaging trinkets should be synced up utilising a macro. It is vitally important to output as much damage as you can during this period, as it is where you are at your strongest.
If you ever choose to use Crusade, it is important to spend Holy Power abilities as quickly as possible to build up your stacks.
Medium-length cooldowns such as Final Reckoning and Divine Toll should be combined, as they will synergise well and provide you with high burst damage. Ret excels when using all of its cooldowns together, so try to practice firing them one after another before continuing with your basic rotation.
Retribution Paladin Macros
One of your most important macros is combining your trinket uses with your Avenging Wrath cooldown. This can be done by referencing the slot the trinket is currently equipped, either slot 13 or 14.
- #showtooltip /cast Avenging Wrath /use 13
A useful macro for an aimed ability such as Final Reckoning is to allow it to cast at your cursor, rather than clicking and aiming the ground targeting effect.
- #showtooltip /cast [@cursor] Final Reckoning
Another useful macro can be to cancel certain buffs. Blessing of Protection will make you fully immune to Physical Damage, but there may be times when you need to be hit by something and instead of right-clicking the buff, you can simply use this macro in place of the spell, and recast it to cancel the buff.
- #showtooltip /cast Blessing of Protection /cancelaura Blessing of Protection
If you need to interrupt an enemy at a set time, having them as your focus will allow you to use this macro for an easy interrupt rather than retargeting during the fight.
- #showtooltip /cast [@focus,harm,nodead] [ ] Rebuke
As Paladin is such a strong utility class, there may be times you need to cast a certain helpful ability on an ally. Instead of targeting their player frame, you can instead use this macro in place of the spell, e.g. for Blessing of Freedom.
- /cast [@NAMEOFPLAYER] Blessing of Freedom
Best Stats And Gear For Retribution Paladin
While the majority of your best-in-slot gear will be found from either Mythic Plus Dungeons or the Vault of the Incarnates Raid, it can be helpful to prioritise certain pieces in order to maximise your character's power going into this endgame content.
Normal, Heroic, and Mythic dungeons will be able to provide the bulk of your gear, but you can also pick up some nice pieces from early Renown levels or from crafting. Here are the following recommendations for your Best in Slot Pre Raid gear.
Slot |
Gear Name |
Source |
Boss |
---|---|---|---|
Head |
Halls of Infusion |
Khajin the Unyielding |
|
Neck |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Teera |
|
Shoulders |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Balakar Khan |
|
Back |
The Azure Vault |
Azureblade |
|
Chest |
The Azure Vault |
Umbrelskul |
|
Wrists |
Iskaara Tuskarr |
Renown Level 14 |
|
Hands |
Dragonscale Expedition |
Renown Level 12 |
|
Waist |
The Azure Vault |
Telash Greywing |
|
Legs |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Granyth |
|
Feet |
Maruuk Centaur |
Renown Level 11 |
|
Ring |
Uldaman |
Sentinal Talondras |
|
Ring |
The Azure Vault |
Leymor |
|
Trinket |
Ruby Life Pools |
Kokia Blazehoof |
|
Trinket |
The Nokhud Offensive |
Teera |
|
Weapon |
Neltharus |
Warlord Sargha |
Equipping yourself in full item level 384 epic gear from Blacksmithing will undoubtedly be the best option for pure damage, but at the start of the expansion, these pieces will be very expensive and difficult to acquire in a timely manner. By all means, try to get as many as you can, but this section focuses on more easily obtainable gear.
If you can only choose one crafted item, then try to buy/craft an epic Two-Handed weapon, as weapons provide the biggest damage increase of any gear slot.
Stat Priority
Alongside your primary stat; Strength, there are four secondary stats available.
- Critical Strike, which increases the chance for extra effective attacks and heals.
- Haste, which increases your attack speed and decreases certain cooldowns.
- Mastery, which increases all Holy Damage done.
- Versatility, which increases damage and healing alongside reducing damage taken.
As far as a general priority goes, you should be adhering to the following order:
- Strength > Versatility > Critical Strike > Haste > Mastery
It is heavily recommended you learn to sim your character, using either Simulationcraft or Raidbots. These tools will give you a very precise breakdown of all your gear and stats and allow you to better understand your performance.
This is a very loose priority, as due to stat breakpoints their relative values will fluctuate. For all-around gameplay, however, Versatility is a great stat for Ret, as it increases the damage of all your abilities alongside giving you a defensive benefit. Strength will always be your best stat because it empowers all of your abilities to the greatest degree.
You should try to focus on equipping the highest item level gear in most of your slots, except Necks, Rings, and Trinkets. Here it is wiser to focus on acquiring your best stats, or the highest-performing Trinkets.
Gems, Enchants, And Consumables
For customising your gear, this is nearly always the best option. Following on from the previous section on stat priority, you will normally want to increase your Strength followed by Versatility. Buffing your gear with these add-ons and using the proper consumables has a gigantic impact on your damage, and they should not be overlooked if you are concerned about maximising your character's output.
Your best gems will be:
- One Resplendent Illuminated Diamond (Strength and Versatility).
- Multiple Radiant Malygite (Versatility and Critical Strike).
A new mechanic to Dragonflight, you need to remember to try and use the highest quality gems you can find, as this will increase their power.
Your best enchants are:
Gear Slot |
Enchant Name |
---|---|
Weapon |
|
Neck |
|
Cloak |
|
Chest |
|
Wrists |
|
Legs |
|
Boots |
|
Rings |
Your list of consumables is as follows:
- Phial: Phial of Tepid Versatility
- Potion: Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Health Potion: Refreshing Healing Potion
- Food: Hoard of Draconic Delicacies / Fated Fortune Cookie
- Weapon Buff: Buzzing Rune
The same as with gems, try to acquire the highest-quality consumables you can and remember to stock up before taking on any end-game content.