Retribution Paladin Overview

Retribution Paladins use a two-handed weapon to transform the force of the light into potent destructive skills and exact revenge on their adversaries. Although it is mostly a melee spec, the damage specialization of the Paladin also contains a few abilities that can be cast from a distance.

Our rotation's main focus is on using abilities like  Blade of Justice and  Judgment to generate Holy Power, which is then used by abilities like  Templar's Verdict or  Divine Storm to do large amounts of damage. The mobility choices for a Paladin are relatively constrained, but you will have access to a wide range of buffs for you and your party to aid you throughout a fight as well as powerful healing skills for your position.

Retribution might be for you if playing a melee with potent healing and group support abilities, as well as some highly potent burst damage cooldowns, seems appealing.

Retribution Paladin Talent Builds

For a more raid oriented talent build, you can use the following Justicar's Vengeance talent loadout.

You can import the Justicar's Vengeance talent build with the following loadout code: BYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACoIiSaJJEQSSapkkElAAAAAAAIEJJplEkg0kkkUiSA

For a more Mythic+ oriented talent build, you can use the following talent loadout.

You can import the Mythic+ talent build with the following loadout code: BYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgIBgkWaJJEQSSKpkkElAAAAAAAINRSSaCkkUSLJBlQA

Retribution Paladin Stats

Many say there is no stat priority for Retribution Paladins, due to how closely related each stat is and the frequency with which they shift. While this guide offers basic guidelines, it is highly recommended that you use Raidbots to evaluate gear upgrades rather than assessing the attributes on the item directly.

What Do Stats Do for Retribution?

• Haste: Increases the speed of the rotation by reducing both the GCD and the cooldown of the rotational abilities like  Crusader Strike,  Judgment,  Blade of Justice, and  Hammer of Wrath. Important for damage, but can be overvalued at times compared to it's actual damage value.
• Critical Strike: Aside from  Expurgation, Critical Strike does not provide many interactions other than just occasionally dealing double damage. With abilities like   Execution Sentence unable to critically hit, this also causes it to lose some value
• Mastery:  Mastery: Hand of Light increases Holy damage done, which starts out very strong due to Holy Power spenders making up a large portion of Retribution's natural damage. As more non-native sources of damage such as trinkets and other procs are introduced, the percentage of Holy damage being done is diluted, causing Mastery's value to drop in turn. When these effects are at a minimum, however, its value remains relatively strong. It affects all baseline spells and talents, but won't apply to racial abilities like  Light's Judgment or some covenant abilities and conduits.
• Versatility: Increases damage done and reduces damage taken by half the amount. Although it's not a very exciting stat compared to the others, it will often be more valuable than it initially appears thanks to its damage reduction component, and the fact that once you gain enough of the other secondaries its relative value will increase significantly.
• Strength: Increases all damage done by class spells, abilities, and auto attacks. Strength has a much higher value than any of the secondary stats.

Best Stats for Retribution Paladin

A Retribution Paladin will typically value something similar to:

Strength > Haste > Mastery ~= Critical Strike ~= Versatility

The above suggestion is only generic and exact values will change based on your gear available. In order to best know your best stats, we recommend you to sim your own character using many tools available in the community like SimulationCraft. Raidbots provides you with an online platform for you to sim your characters and find your Arms Warrior stat priority for free! Learn more about that in the in-depth guide to Raidbots.

Retribution Paladin Best Consumables

Best Retribution Paladin Enchants in Dragonflight

Below is a list of the recommended enchants to use on your Retribution Paladin gear in Dragonflight.

Slot	Best Enchant
Weapon	Frozen Devotion
Cloak	Writ of Avoidance
Chest	Waking Stats
Bracers	Devotion of Avoidance
Legs	Fierce Armor Kit
Boots	Plainsrunner's Breeze
Ring	Devotion of Haste

Retribution Paladin Phials in Dragonflight

In raid, you'll probably end up using  Phial of Tepid Versatility most of the time.  Phial of Elemental Chaos will perform very similarly too.  Phial of Static Empowerment is a stronger flask than either of them, but it's not realistic to be able to stand still for long enough in most raid environments for it to be better. For Mythic+ or encounters where you can frequently tag new targets,  Phial of Glacial Fury is also a good choice.

Retribution Paladin Combat Potions in Dragonflight

Retribution basically only uses one potion for any scenario.

• All Content:  Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
  
  

Retribution Paladin Weapon Buff in Dragonflight

For their weapons, Retribution Paladins will usually use  Howling Rune.  Primal Whetstone or  Primal Weightstone can be slightly better depending on your gear.

Best Retribution Paladin Food in Dragonflight

• Feast:  Hoard of Draconic Delicacies
• Personal Food:  Fated Fortune Cookie

Best Retribution Paladin Gems in Dragonflight

You'll use one unique gem with Strength and one secondary stat, which should usually be  Fierce Illimited Diamond. For your other gems, the best one to use will likely change as your gear changes, but  Keen Ysemerald is a decent general choice.

Pros and Cons

Retribution Paladin Rotation Priority

Ret Paladins use a priority system rather than a strict rotation. The important things to keep in mind in most situations are:

• Don't waste Holy Power. This is the most important thing to remember when playing Ret. The majority of our damage comes from spending our Holy Power, and overcapping it will reduce your damage significantly.
• If you have the choice between building or spending Holy Power, build.
• If you have 3 or 4 Holy Power and no builders available, don't wait for a builder to come off cooldown to get to 5 Holy Power before you spend it. You shouldn't ever be waiting unless you have less than 3 Holy Power and all of your builders are on cooldown.
• Swap from  Templar's Verdict to  Divine Storm at 2+ targets unless you need to focus a specific enemy down.

Retribution Paladin Opener

1.  Blade of Justice
2.  Judgment
3.  Crusader Strike
4.  Crusader Strike
5.  Crusade
6.  Templar's Verdict
7.  Wake of Ashes
8.  Templar's Verdict
9.  Hammer of Wrath
10.  Templar's Verdict
11. Build to 5 Holy Power
12.  Final Reckoning
13.  Divine Toll
14. Continue with regular priority

Retribution Paladin Single Target Rotation and Priority

1.  Crusade (3+ Holy Power)
2.  Seraphim
3.  Final Reckoning (with as much Holy Power pooled as possible)
4.  Templar's Verdict (5 Holy Power)
5.  Divine Toll (as long as your target doesn't have the Judgment debuff)
6.  Wake of Ashes (2 or less Holy Power)
7.  Judgment
8.  Hammer of Wrath
9.  Blade of Justice (3 or less Holy Power)
10.  Divine Storm (with an  Empyrean Power proc, as long as the  Judgment debuff isn't up)
11.  Crusader Strike (2 charges)
12.  Templar's Verdict (3 or 4 Holy Power)
13.  Consecration
14.  Crusader Strike

Retribution Paladin Multi Target Rotation and Priority

1.  Crusade (3+ Holy Power)
2.  Seraphim
3.  Final Reckoning (with as much Holy Power pooled as possible)
4.  Radiant Decree
5.  Divine Storm (5 Holy Power)
6.  Divine Toll
7.  Exorcism (if  Consecration is active)
8.  Judgment
9.  Hammer of Wrath
10.  Blade of Justice (3 or less Holy Power)
11.  Consecration
12.  Divine Storm (with an  Empyrean Power proc)
13.  Crusader Strike (2 charges)
14.  Divine Storm (3 or 4 Holy Power)
15.  Crusader Strike

Retribution Paladin Cooldown Usage

 Crusade

 Crusade begins at 1 stack, and gains 3 every time you use a spender, up to the cap of 10 after 3 spenders. Before you use  Crusade you'll want to have at least 3 Holy Power pooled, ideally 4 or 5, in order to immediately begin building stacks - anything other than a Holy Power spender in the first GCD of  Crusade is essentially a GCD wasted. You want to then build to 10 stacks as soon as possible before returning to your regular priority. For example, if you're at 3 Holy Power and 7 stacks, you'll want to spend rather than use any generator that's off cooldown first.  Empyrean Power procs will also give 3 stacks each, so if you have a proc just before  Crusade comes off cooldown, save it to make stacking it up easier.

Unlock the art of effective cooldown usage as a Retribution Paladin, delving into the strategic utilization of your abilities. Discover how to maximize your impact in battles through precise timing and efficient cooldown management.

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Pooling

When either  Execution Sentence or  Final Reckoning will come off cooldown shortly, within around 5-7 seconds, you'll want to stop spending Holy Power on  Templar's Verdict and start pooling it instead. If you're using  Seraphim, which you most likely will be, your sequence will look something like this:

1. Build to 5 Holy Power
2.  Seraphim
3. Build back to 4-5 Holy Power
4.  Final Reckoning or  Execution Sentence etc.