With Mists of Pandaria released, we think it’s about time to look at the Retribution Paladin specs. Whether you’re making a retribution paladin for the first time or tweaking an existing build to bring its full power, you must know the changes the expansion brings and how it affects the playstyle.
This guide is primarily optimized for group PvE. This guide will tell you all you need to know about the Ret Paladin.
Basic changes
While, unlike the massive pally makeover that happened in Cataclysm, there have been some significant alterations leading up to Mists. Paladins have a newly redesigned talent system that is now based on player preference and situational usefulness.
Players receive their core abilities automatically when selecting a spec, and talents supplement different gameplay styles.
New abilities
- Blinding Light is an AoE blind which could be useful in PvP and crowd control.
- Boundless Conviction allows us to store an additional 2 Holy Power.
- Devotion Aura is a revamped version of Aura Mastery that carries a little more oomph than before with 20% magic damage reduction.
- Emancipate gets rid of one movement debuff.
- Hammer of the Righteous is an AoE damage ability that debuffs and gives you holy power.
Stats
Strength and Haste are now looking almost equally important. Because of a retooled Sanctity of Battle, Haste now affects both the cooldown and global cooldown of Judgment, Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, Exorcism, and Hammer of Wrath. Of course, hit and expertise need to be capped at 7.5% as soon as possible. This will ensure that your attacks and spells don’t miss.
Rotation
Since Cataclysm, rotations have about using the right abilities when they would be most effective. With that in mind here are some guidelines in no particular order:
- If Inquisition is about to drop or is inactive, and you have Holy Power, cast Inquisition. If not, cast Templar’s Verdict.
- If Exorcism or Hammer of Wrath are available, cast them, in that order if they’re both available.
- If Crusader Strike is available, cast it. If not, cast Judgement.
- If you have 3 or 4 Holy Power, cast Templar’s Verdict.
- In the above rotation, replace Crusader Strike with Hammer of the Righteous and Templar’s Verdict with Divine Storm for 3 targets or more.
- Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings should be used as often as possible. Ideally, use Guardian of Ancient Kings every 10 seconds before Avenging Wrath.
- Use Devotion Aura in a dungeon when everyone’s taking heavy damage and in a raid as directed by your raid leader.
- Divine Shield and Divine Protection are powerful defensive abilities. Use them if you’re taking heavy damage.
- Lay on Hands is a powerful survival ability. It can help you or a party member get out of a scrape.
Talents
Talents are not so clear-cut anymore. There are a lot of viable options for most trees:
Tier 1
These are move speed bonuses; the Long Arm of the Law and Speed of Light provide big, temporary boosts. In contrast, Pursuit of Justice is a smaller passive boost that scales with your holy power. Pursuit of Justice is the most reliable choice, but it’s up to you to decide what you need.
Tier 2
Here, Fist of Justice will probably be the best option for your Retribution Paladin in Mists of Pandaria. Although the other CCs last much longer, Fist is a hard stun that cannot be overlooked. Choose which would be more efficient for the situation, and repentance will give you a large window for situations where you must back off and regroup.
Tier 3
The choice here is between Selfless Healer and Sacred Shield, choose the shield if you’ve already got a lot of healers in your raid.
Tier 4
I prefer Clemency here for the Retribution Paladin as it lets me use my hands more often in Mists of Pandaria (yes I know how that sounded).
Tier 5
Divine Purpose wins the race here in terms of raw damage output. However, due to its random nature, it isn’t extremely reliable. If that puts you off, go for Holy Avenger.
Tier 6
At the final tier, you should take Execution Sentence, as it seems to offer the most bang for your buck.
Glyphs
Retribution Paladin glyphs in Mists of Pandaria are particularly situational – but here’s one good all-rounder setup:
- Glyph of Templar’s Verdict, Glyph of Double Jeopardy, Glyph of Mass Exorcism.
