The embodiment of light and good in Azeroth, Retribution Paladins have been in great shape in the run-up to World of Warcraft: The War Within. Offering very impressive DPS output and excellent sustain, they are a great choice in both high-level group activities and solo play.
The latest round of changes to the spec has only served to further the class’ capabilities, with the headline alteration to the mastery proving effective thus far.
Hero Talent trees have also unlocked new avenues for buildcrafting, adding to the Ret Paladin’s already potent arsenal. There are some nerfs to be aware of as well, however, so read on for our full guide to the Retribution Paladin in The War Within.
Retribution Paladin Class changes in The War Within
While there hasn’t been a stark revolution in the Ret Paladin’s toolkit, there has been some nice evolutionary changes that players should be aware of. The headline change comes in the form of Mastery: Highlord’s Judgement, which has seen a significant buff to its Holy damage bonus (which now sits at 12%) and the addition of a 6% chance of damage proccing Judgement.
Radiant Glory also hits the fore, allowing Avenging Wrath to proc passively for 8 seconds when using Wake of Ashes. In disappointing news, Retribution Aura has gone away, removing the big appeal of taking the spec to raids. That said, it should maintain plenty of DPS in its own right, and it certainly won’t be excluded en masse.
Retribution Paladin talents, Hero Talents and build
The talent build that we have elected to use above is ideally suited to Mythic+, offering crucial AoE and impressive damage output across the board. In the Paladin talent slots, there isn’t much variation from what would be a default build for raiding, dungeons or anything in between.
The most significant and obvious differences from a standard Paladin raid loadout are Cleanse Toxins and Blinding Light. Both of these are a crucial part of the class/specs toolkit when pushing higher keys in Mythic+, often proving to be the vital difference when trying to grab a moment to heal or be healed. They are also solid tools to have when out in the open world and should work as a reliable part of any Ret Paladin leveling build.
Other on-use talents in this tree include Rebuke for spellcasting interrupts, Blessing of Sacrifice, Blessing of Protection and Divine Toll (as an important part of your damage rotation). This first tree is also littered with stat buffs, cooldown reduction and ability buffs that make you character more potent in most areas.
For our Retribution-specific talents, we have gone for a Mythic+ Crusading Strikes build with a focus on maintaining a balance between excellent cleave and sustained single-target DPS. With Crusading Strikes, you will likely encounter some downtime when executing your rotation, but your damage output doesn’t suffer significantly, and this is still the most effective play.
The main difference from the talent setup for raids comes towards the end, where this guide specs into Penitence, Burning Crusade and Searing Light. The proc chance on the latter should not deter you from using it thanks to its immense AoE potential, with many more chances for it to do so thanks to the Radiant damage it adds to several abilities.
The buff for Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is also complemented well by talent slots like Highlord’s Wrath and Adjudication, which buff damage and grant proc chance, respectively. As is to be expected, the tree also builds into all of the major ret damage abilities, as well as nice utilities like Shield of Vengeance.
There are also some tremendous direct ability buffs that significantly increase the overall potency of the spec. Boundless Judgment increases Holy power generation from Judgment and has a chance to trigger Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment. Tempest of the Lightbringer creates an additional wave of light when casting Divine Storm, increasing the effectiveness of your primary tool for AoE damage in the process.
The last area of focus is on handy tools that make playing the spec that little bit easier during challenging activities. A big highlight is Guided Prayer, which automatically casts a free Word of Glory (at 60% effectiveness) when player health falls below 25%. Art of War also grants a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice, reducing the potential rotation downtime in several situations.
Hero Talents
The new Hero Talent options for Retribution Paladin are actually both reasonably strong in the broader landscape, but Templar is currently outperforming Herald of the Sun in both raids and Mythic+. The Templar tree revolves around Hammer of Light, a Holy power-dependent damage ability with significant potency in single-target and small-group encounters. The changes in the Herald tree are relatively cogent, with more of a focus on spread damage, but the overall output is now a lot weaker than Templar.
We’ve included our preferred Templar talent build above, as well as the optimal Herald of the Sun nodes below, if you’d like to try out a different playstyle.
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Stat priority
As is to be expected, Strength is the primary stat that will drop for Paladins when gearing and this remains the priority. Beyond that, you’ll want to build in the following order:
- Strength
- Mastery
- Critical Strike = Haste
- Versatility
Mastery improves all of the Paladin’s baseline skills and talents, offering a major boost to the class in any setting. Critical Strike improves the chance to deal extra damage when using any ability or attack designed to cause harm. Haste reduces the Global Cooldown and individual cooldowns for staple abilities like Crusader Strike. Versatility improves damage dealt and reduces incoming damage, becoming more useful in particularly punishing situations.
Rotation
One of the best features of playing as a Retribution Paladin is its forgiving nature when it comes to rotation. Though it is important to get it right when pushing high keys or in Mythic raids, hitting some abilities out of order won’t necessarily destroy your ability to output damage.
As with many classes, successful use of the Ret Paladin relies on efficient resource generation and usage, in this case, Holy Power. You’ll want to continue generating Holy Power until you’ve maxed out at 5 in order to take full advantage of high-damage abilities like Final Verdict.
There are some slight variations in the rotation depending on whether you’re going for single-target or cleave, but you’ll want to open engagements as follows:
- Divine Toll/Judgment
- Blade of Justice
- Execution Sentence
You’ll then want to either use Final Verdict for single enemies or Divine Storm for AoE, then proceed with the following rotation:
- Wake of Ashes
- Blade of Justice
- Hammer of Wrath
- Final Verdict/Divine Storm
- Divine Toll
- Judgment
- Blade of Justice
- Final Verdict/Divine Storm
There absolutely is wiggle room on the above to alternate, particularly to use other abilities if Divine Toll is on cooldown. Just stay on top of Holy Power generation, and respectable damage should follow fairly quickly.
Retribution Paladin tier set breakdown
Of all the tier sets available to each class and spec, Ret Paladin’s might be the most uninspiring. Though not outright terrible, they aren’t the kind of groundbreaking bonuses that were more commonplace in previous expansions and seasons.
Wake of Ashes is the central ability in the first season of The War Within, acting as a focus across traditional talents and new Hero Talent trees. In regards to the latter, there is a relatively obvious problem that arises when taking the 4-piece tier set bonus into account.
That bonus sees Wake of Ashes buff damage by 8% for 8 seconds. To use this logically, you’ll want to land the large Execution Sentence damage output during that window.
Unfortunately, this puts the tier set bonus into direct conflict with both available Ret Paladin Hero Talent trees, which require Wake of Ashes to be used early to maximize its effectiveness. It’s worth sticking with the ideal rotation for the ability rather than trying to maximize the tier set’s potential at this time.
Gems and Enchants
Gems are a pretty simple proposition in The War Within, with each spec benefitting from a primary stat boost gem in the first socket. For Retribution Paladins, the one you want to look out for is Culminating Blasphemite, which adds +181 Primary Stat, in this case, Strength.
As far as Enchants go, there is a little more room for experimentation and buildcraft depending on which activity you’re pursuing. Our recommendations are as follows:
| Slot | Enchantment |
|---|---|
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Authority of the Depths/Enchant Weapon – Stonebound Artistry |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak – Chant of Winged Grace/Enchant Cloak – Whisper of Silken Avoidance |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Crystalline Radiance |
| Bracers | Enchant Bracer – Chant of Armored Avoidance |
| Legs | Stormbound Armor Kit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots – Scout’s March |
| Rings | Enchant Ring – Radiant Mastery/Enchant Ring – Cursed Mastery |
That’s our complete guide to playing Retribution Paladin in WoW: The War Within Patch 11.0.2. Make sure to check out our DPS tier list to see how the spec is performing right now. If you’re thinking of changing roles, we also have a full breakdown of Tank and Healer specs.