WoW The War Within Retribution Paladin Guide
Ret Paladins are the face of WoW, using the power of Light to smite their enemies or heal their allies. This class has not only been the de facto tank class in the game, but has also covered other roles like healing and DPS at the same time. While this class was extremely powerful in past expansions, this spec is currently in a balanced state thanks to the change made for The War Within expansion. In this Ret Paladin guide, we’ll show you how you can play this class effectively and become the greatest anchor in the raid team.
Table of Contents
Retribution Paladin General Gameplay
The retribution spec focuses on dealing Holy damage to enemies and working the class’ DPS option to compete in the damage charts. Paladins are already inherently tanky thanks to their heavy armor, and, on top of that, ret spec paladins are granted easy access to damage. Unlike the Protection and Holy paladins, the Retribution tree is better suited for the off-tank role, functioning as an emergency option in case the main tank takes a tankbuster or is debuffed with a damage vulnerability effect.
For its gameplay, the Ret Paladin are fairly easy. All you need to do is follow a priority list of damage skills. Since Paladins have a unique class resource called Holy Power, the goal is to generate this resource with low-cooldown damage skills and then spending iton high-damage skills, while also weaving in OGCD damage skills for maximum DPS uptime.
While this class is very easy to play, it suffers from a lower DPS peak than other DPS classes since it does not have a complex rotation. This class also lacks any mobility options, which can make PvP difficult and bosses with knockbacks very troublesome. To make up for these weaknesses, the Retribution spec does have powerful raid buffs like the Devotion Aura, Blessing of Protection, and Blessing of Freedom. You also have access to mitigation skills like Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Shield of Vengeance.
Retribution Paladin Talent Build
When building your character, use the following for your Ret Paladin talents.
- Lay on Hands
- Blessing of Freedom
- Hammer of Wrath
- Cleanse Toxins
- Crusader Aura
- Divine Steed
- Greater Judgement
- Blinding Light
- Cavalier
- Seasoned Warhorse
- Rebuke
- Holy Aegis
- Avenging Wrath
- Justification
- Blessing of Sacrifice
- Blessing of Protection
- Unbound Freedom
- Healing Hands
- Unbreakable Spirit
- Touch of Light
- Seal of Might
- Seal of Alacrity
- Of Dusk and Dawn
- Divine Toll
- Seal of the Crusader
- Seal of Order
- Divine Resonance
- Vengeful Wrath
As for the Retribution talent tree:
- Blade of Justice
- Divine Storm
- Swift Justice
- Expurgation
- Improved Blade of Justice
- Final Verdict
- Guided Prayer
- Art of War
- Jurisdiction
- Tempest of the Lightbringer
- Avenging Wrath: Might
- Zealot’s Fervor
- Rush of Light
- Boundless Judgement
- Crusading Strikes
- Consecrated Blade
- Blade of Vengeance
- Highlord’s Wrath
- Wakes of Ashes
- Blessed Champion
- Adjudication
- Shield of Vengeance
- Penitence
- Blades of Light
- Execution Stance
- Seething Flames
- Burning Crusade
- Divine Arbiter
- Executioner’s Will
- Searing Light
Basic Damage Rotation
The beginner Ret Paladin rotation is very simple. Just follow a priority list of skills to use as your entire plan — going with the most powerful abilities as soon as possible. By having a point in Crusader Strikes, your auto attacks should generate a good amount of Holy Power, so make sure you don’t reach the cap for this resource.
- Cast Avenging Wrath on cooldown with at least 3 Holy Power.
- Cast Execution Sentence on cooldown.
- Cast Final Verdict with 5 Holy Power.
- Cast Wake of Ashes with 2 Holy Power or less.
- Cast Divine Toll with 3 Holy Power or less.
- Cast Hammer of Wrath with 4 Holy Power or less. Cast with 3 Holy Power or less against 20% or lower Health targets while using Vanguard’s Momentum
- Cast Judgment with 3 Holy Power or less and no Greater Judgment debuff active.
- Cast Blade of Justice with 4 Holy Power or less.
- Cast Judgment with 3 Holy Power or less.
- Cast Final Verdict with 3-4 Holy Power.
Single-Target / AoE Damage Rotation
While the Ret Paladin has good single-target damage, many of their skills actually overlap as AoE skills, due to their innate cleave ability. This rotation should serve well as your bread-and-butter.
- Cast Execution Sentence
- Cast Final Verdict t if you have 5 Holy Power.
- Cast Wake of Ashes if you have 2 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active on your target.
- Cast Divine Toll if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Hammer of Wrath if your target is above 20% health, or if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Judgment if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Blade of Justice.
- Cast Final Verdict with 3-4 Holy Power.
Tips on Improving as Retribution Paladin
- Resource management is the biggest key to staying competitive in DPS, especially when you need to meet a damage requirement. Since the core gameplay loop of the Paladin class involves creating Holy Power to spend on damage, you need to make sure that you have enough in the first place while preventing the scenario where you have too much. Going past the maximum amount of Holy Power is wasteful, as you should be spending that resource to deal as much damage as possible.
- While spender skills are usually the best single GCDs to use, it’s most optimal when you delay them to gain some extra Holy Power from your autos. The upside here is that it puts your generators on cooldown earlier, which increases your future Holy Power generation. At the same time, you can still spend the Holy Power you had before the next GCD anyway. This way, you can spend more time using your resource-spending skills instead of staying busy with resource generation.
- Many Retribution skills have relatively short cooldowns, meaning that it would be wasteful to hold on to them. The only time you should ever save them is when a target becomes invulnerable or is about to die, as you would be wasting Holy Power on them. Each cooldown is either 30 seconds or 1 minute long, meaning that you have a 30-second window to use all your other spenders and generators.
- Like all other DPS classes, it’s best to try simming your current character through different raids, as this will give you the best information for what gear you should wear for an encounter. By simming, you get to have a clearer prediction of how your current character will perform in any encounter.
