Retribution Paladin 9.0.5 Guide

Retribution Paladin in Shadowlands

Welcome to the Overgear guide on the Paladin’s “Retribution” spec! This guide will show you all the intricacies of the spec in various aspects of the game and teach you how to survive even the toughest Shadowlands challenges. You’ll learn which talents to use, how to equip your character, and which covenant to choose. In each section you will find answers to these and many other questions.

“Retribution” Paladin is one of the most popular specs in the game. The concept of a warrior harnessing light magic appeals to many players. But you can’t get far on just the fantasy alone!

“Retribution” Paladin has 2 resources. The first is Holy Power, which is mainly used to deal damage. It has similar mechanics with classic combo points without targeting (max 5 Holy Power). The second one is mana, which is consumed by most utility abilities.

This guide will teach you which talents to use in any given situation, which covenant, soulbinds, and conduits to choose, which legendaries and equipment to add to your arcenal, and most importantly — how to correctly use your abilities. In each section you will find answers to these and many other questions.

Pros:

• Strong continuous burst in any fight 
• Good AoE
• A variety of auras which provide multiple ways of strengthening or protecting your allies
• Retribution Aura grants a unique opportunity to slightly compensate losses during raids

Cons:

• Relies on cooldowns
• Mediocre DPS outside of bursts
• Low mobility

About the author

Laevate1nn, a raider of the Exorsus Guild since 2018. Twitch — https://www.twitch.tv/laevate1nn

Main Abilities

Talents

General information. On reaching several levels, you will open new Talent tiers. In each tier, you can choose one Talent at a time. Talents can affect your abilities in different ways: add new ones, replace old ones, passively modify various effects and spells. You can change Talents while you’re in Sanctums or in rest areas, but if there are no such places nearby, you can use Tome of the Tranquil Mind, which allows you to change Talents within a minute. Note that Talents can’t be changed in combat. Also, if a Talent selected in a certain tier is on cooldown, you’ll have to wait for it to recharge in order to change it.

Tier 1 — 15 lvl. Talents that affect DPS

• Zeal — “Judgment” empowers you with “Zeal”, causing your next 3 auto attacks to occur 30% faster and deal additional holy damage. Not a bad talent for ST, but not the best one in this tier. Although, Zeal is a default choice for M+.
• Righteous Verdict — “Templar’s Verdict” increases the damage of your next “Templar’s Verdict” by 15% for 6 sec. Best choice for ST since it boosts our main Holy Power ability.
• Execution Sentence — a hammer slowly falls from the sky upon the target. After 8 sec, they suffer holy damage. During that time, they receive 20% more damage from your abilities. A weak talent, not used anywhere at the moment.

Tier 2 — 25 lvl. Talents that affect DPS

• Fires of Justice — reduces the cooldown of Crusader Strike by 1 second and grants it a 15% chance to make your next finisher consume 1 less Holy Power.
• Blade of Wrath — “Art of War” resets the cooldown of “Blade of Justice” 100% more often and increases its damage by 25%.
• Empyrean Power — Crusader Strike has a 15% chance to make your next Divine Storm free and deal 25% additional damage.

* Blade of Wrath is a universal choice. Empyrean Power is picked for cleave, AoE or M+.

Tier 3 — 30 lvl. Control

• Fist of Justice — Each Holy Power spent reduces the remaining cooldown on Hammer of Justice by 2 sec.
• Repentance — paralyzes a target in a 30 yd range. Only Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids, and Undead can be affected by it. CD 15 sec.
• Blinding Light — dazes enemies in a 10 yd radius around you for 6 sec. Any damage except holy damage will cancel the effect. CD 1.5 min.

* All these talents are situational. By default, you should pick Blinding Light, since it can interrupt enemies in M+.

Tier 4 — 35 lvl. Mobility and survivability

• Unbreakable Spirit — reduces the cooldown of your “Divine Shield” and “Shield of Vengeance”.
• Cavalier — Divine Steed now has 2 charges.
• Eye for an Eye — reduces incoming physical damage by 35% and deals moderate damage to any melee attackers for 10 sec. CD 1 min.

* It’s best to have Eye for an Eye as a backup. Pick Unbreakable Spirit if you need more saves, and Cavalier if you lack mobility. 

Tier 5 — 40 lvl. Talents that affect DPS

• Divine Purpose — finishers have a 15% chance to grant you Divine Purpose for 12 sec, making your next Holy Power ability free and deal 20% increased damage.
• Holy Avenger — triples your Holy Power generation for 20 sec.
• Seraphim — The Light magnifies your power for 15 sec, granting 8% Haste, Critical Strike, and Versatility, and 13% Mastery.

*Seraphim is great combined with Execution Sentence. Holy Avenger is a strong burst ability. Divine Purpose is a standard talent that doesn’t change the gameplay much. All these talents are similar in terms of power, so choose depending on the situation.

Tier 6 — 45 lvl. Healing

• Selfless Healer — all abilities that cost Holy Power reduce the cooldown of your next Flash of Light by 25% and increase its healing done by 10%. Stacks up to 4 times.
• Justicar’s Vengeance — costs 5 Holy Power, deals decent holy damage and replenishes an equal amount of health. If used against a stunned target, damage is increased by 50%. 
• Healing Hands — The cooldown of Lay on Hands is reduced up to 60%, based on the target’s missing health. Word of Glory healing is increased by up to 100%, based on the target’s missing health.

*The choice is yours. Selfless Healer is useful in any situation. You’re probably better off without Justicar’s Vengeance. Healing Hands can be good during raids and in M+ at the cost of damage.

Tier 7 — 50 lvl. Talents that affect DPS

• Sanctified Wrath — Avenging Wrath lasts 25% longer. During Avenging Wrath, each Holy Power spent causes a holy explosion dealing a small amount of damage.
• Crusade — replaces Avenging Wrath, has the same duration. Upon activation, increases your damage done and haste by 3%. During Crusade each Holy Power spent increases your damage done and haste by additional 3%. Stacks up to 10 times.
• Final Reckoning — calls down a blast of divine energy, dealing holy damage to all targets in the target area and causing them to take 50% increased damage from your Holy Power abilities for 8 sec. CD 1 min. Passive effect: while off cooldown, your attacks have a high chance to call down a bolt that deals holy damage and causes the target to take 10% increased damage from your next Holy Power ability.

*Final Reckoning synergizes well with other bursts, useful in ST and AoE combat. Crusade is a fine alternative.

Here are your common builds:

For ST and cleave:

1. Righteous Verdict
2. Blade of Wrath
3. Fist of Justice
4. Unbreakable Spirit
5. Divine Purpose
6. Selfless Healer
7. Crusade 

AoE: 

1. Zeal
2. Empyrean Power
3. Blinding Light
4. Unbreakable Spirit
5. Divine Purpose
6. Selfless Healer
7. Final Reckoning

Covenants

Best choice:

Raid — Venthyr

Mythic+ — Kyrian

Venthyr 

• Ashen Hallow — hallows the target area for 30 sec. Enemies in the area suffer dark magic damage, while allies heal. This effect is reduced if there are more than 5 targets. Within the Hallow, you may use Hammer of Wrath on any target, and its damage is increased by 100%. 1.5 sec cast time, CD 4 min.

Very strong burst, but less useful than the other covenants due to long cooldown.

• Door of Shadows — channeled blink with great potential (skipping enemies in M+ dungeons, avoiding mechanics similar to raid boss Queen Azshara).

Kyrian

• Divine Toll — instantly casts Judgment on 5 targets within 30 yds. CD 1 min.

Good burst, useful for AoE and cleave.

• Summon Steward — summons your stewart to bring you a Phial of Serenity. CD 4 min. May seem useless, but don’t underestimate additional healing. Removing various debuffs, especially bleeding, can be very useful in every aspect of the game.

Night Fae

Blessing of the Seasons — blesses an ally with one of the seasons for 30 sec. CD 45 sec.:

• Summer — ally’s attacks have a 40% chance to deal an additional 30% holy damage. Autumn comes next.
• Autumn — ally’s cooldowns recover 30% faster. Winter comes next.
• Winter  — attacks deal additional damage and apply a movement (3%) and attack speed (2%) stacking debuff. Stacks up to 10 times.
• Spring — increases ally’s healing done by 10% and healing received by 20%. Summer comes next.

An interesting ability. Full cycle lasts 3 min total, granting 90 sec of DPS buffs. Very powerful.

• Soulshape — turns you into a fox. teleports you 15 yds forward and increases movement speed by 50%. You can teleport every second over 12 sec. Additional blink and sprint for an already mobile class.

Necrolord

• Vanquisher’s Hammer — throws a hammer at the target, dealing damage from dark magic. Your next Templar’s Verdict automatically triggers Divine Storm. Generates 1 Holy Power. CD 30 sec.

Has some AoE potential for M+ dungeons, but weaker than Divine Toll at the moment.

• Fleshcraft — after channeling for 4 sec, creates a shield of flesh that absorbs damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Channeling near a corpse claims their essence to grow the shield, up to 50% of your maximum health. This is most effective against powerful enemies.

Surprisingly strong absorb. A bit better than Kyrian phial. Can be quite useful against raid bosses that sometimes deal massive damage.

Conduits

Potency

Best:

• Virtuous Command — Judgment grants you Virtuous Command for 6 sec, which causes your Templar’s Verdict, Crusader Strike, Blade of Justice, and auto attacks to deal 20% additional Holy damage.
• Expurgation — Blade of Justice criticals deal additional 20% fire damage every 2 sec over 6 sec.
• Truth’s Wake — Wake of Ashes burns the target for additional 10% damage over 6 sec.

Other:

• Templar’s Vindication — Templar’s Verdict has a 15% chance to strike the target again for 6% of its damage.
• Hallowed Discernment — Ashen Hallow strikes the lowest health ally and enemy within it an additional time for 40.0% of its effect (Venthyr only).
• Ringing Clarity — Divine Toll has a 40% chance to strike the main target 2 more times (Kyrian only).
• Righteous Might — Vanquisher’s Hammer deals 50% increased damage, and heals you for the damage done (Necrolord only).
• The Long Summer — Blessing of Summer lasts 30% longer. (Night Fae only)

Finesse

• Light’s Barding — Divine Steed lasts 50% longer.
• Echoing Blessings — Blessing of Freedom increases the target’s movement speed by 5%. Blessing of Sacrifice and Blessing of Protection reduce the target’s damage taken by 5%. These effects linger for 8 sec after the Blessing ends.

Endurance

• Golden Path — Consecration heals you for every 1 sec while standing within it.
• Divine Call — when you take damage, Divine Shield cooldown is reduced by 5 sec. Procs only once every 30 sec.
• Shielding Words — casting Word of Glory grants you a shield that prevents damage equal to 15% of its healing done for 10 sec.

Soulbinds

Best

1. Venthyr — Nadjia
2. Kyrian — Pelagos
3. Necrolord — Emeni
4. Night Fae — Korayn

Venthyr

Nadjia the Mistblade

Dauntless Duelist — The first enemy you damage in combat is marked as your adversary. You deal 3% more damage to them, and they deal % less damage to you. You may only have one adversary at a time.

Thrill Seeker — while in combat, you gain a stack of “Thrill Seeker”. Killing an enemy grants 4 stacks. At 40 stacks “Thrill Seeker” is consumed to grant you “Euphoria”, increasing your Haste by 20% for 10 sec. “Thrill Seeker” decays rapidly while you are not in combat.

Exacting Preparation —  bonuses from food, potions, and weapon enchants are increased by 20%.

Theotar the Mad Duke

Soothing Shade — Your spells and abilities have a chance to call Tubbins and Gubbins to your side for 12 sec, parasol in hand. Standing in the shaded area grants you 525 Mastery.

Wasteland Propriety — activating Ashen Hallow signals the start of tea time, granting 10% Versatility to you and 4% Versatility to up to 4 nearby allies. Lasts 10 seconds and can only occur once per 60 sec.

Refined Palate — the effects of potions last 200% longer.

General Draven — soulbind for survivability and possibly for PvP, has no useful abilities for a DD class.

Kyrian

Pelagos 

Let Go of the Past — Using a spell or ability reduces incoming magic damage by 1% for 10 sec. Using another spell or ability increases versatility by 1% when it is not a repeat of the previous one. Stacks up to 3 times.

Combat Meditation — Divine Toll  increases your Mastery by 5% for 20 sec and occasionally expels Sorrowful Memories. Walking through Sorrowful Memories extends this effect by 3 sec.

Kleia

Valiant Strikes — your critical strikes grant you stacks of Valiant Strikes, up to 20. At 20 stacks you heal yourself for 10% of your max health and up to 4 closest allies for 5% of their max health. CD 1 min.

Pointed Courage — increases crit chance by 1% for every nearby enemy, up to 8%.

Mikanikos

Hammer of Genesis — damaging a new enemy grants you 2% Haste for 10 sec, up to 5 stacks. 

Bron’s Call to Action — after using 90 damaging or healing abilities, your next ability summons Bron, who knocks enemies back and then attacks and heals your targets for 30 sec.

Necrolord

Plague Deviser Marileth has no useful abilities for a DD class.

Emeni 

Gnashing Chompers — gain 3% Haste for 10 sec after defeating an enemy, up to 15%.

Lead by Example — Vanquisher’s Hammer increases your primary stat by 5% and up to 4 nearby allies’ primary stat by 2% for 10 sec. You gain 2% additional primary stat for each ally affected, up to 8%.

Bonesmith Heirmir 

Heirmir’s Arsenal: Marrowed Gemstone — after landing 10 critical strikes, you gain 18% increased chance to critical strike for 10 sec. May only occur once per 60 sec.

Forgeborne Reveries — upon your death your armour comes to life, allowing you to fight for an additional 10 sec. During this time, your damage and healing done is reduced by 50% and you cannot receive healing. Also increases your primary stat by 1% for each enchantment on your armor, up to 3%.

Night Fae

Niya

Niya’s Tools: Burrs — your damaging attacks and spells have a chance to toss Niya’s Spiked Burrs under your target. The burrs latch onto the first enemy to cross them, reducing movement speed by 20% and inflicting nature damage over 6 sec. (this path has 1 less potency conduit)

Niya’s Tools: Poison — your interrupting abilities apply Niya’s Paralytic Poison to the target, dealing Nature damage over 30 sec. Debuffed targets take additional nature damage if interrupted once more.

Grove Invigoration — healing or dealing damage has a chance to grant you a stack of Redirected Anima, which increases your maximum health by 1% and your Mastery by 25 for 30 sec, and stacks overlap. “Blessing of the Seasons” grants you 6 stacks of Redirected Anima.

Dreamweaver has no useful abilities for a DD class.

Korayn 

First Strike — damaging an enemy before they damage you increases your chance to critically strike by 25% for 10 sec.

Wild Hunt Tactics — your damage to targets above 75% health and healing to targets below 35% health are increased by 10%. When your spells and abilities are enhanced this way, you gain 10% bonus movement speed for 5 sec.

Legendaries

A total of 16 legendaries are available to the “Retribution” Paladin.

Best item effects:

• Tempest of the Lightbringer — Divine Storm strikes all enemies within 20 yds in front of you. Also, its damage is increased by 20%. Perfect for AoE.
• Final Verdict – replaces Templar’s Verdict with a stronger version of it. It also has a 15% chance to reset and activate your Hammer of Wrath. Best choice for single target.
• The Magistrate’s Judgment — Judgment has a 75% chance to reduce the cost of your next Holy Power ability by 1. Also has a 15% chance to activate Hammer of Wrath and reset its cooldown. Good option for single target with few additional enemies.
• The Mad Paragon — Hammer of Wrath deals 30% more damage and extends Avenging Wrath by 1 sec. 

Rotation 

Your main goal is to deal as much damage with Templar’s Verdict as possible. This is achieved by using finishers after Judgment and replenishing Holy Power in between. The priorities are listed below (if there’s more than 2 targets, just replace Templar’s Verdict with Divine Storm).

Base priorities:

Single-target

1. Templar’s Verdict if Divine Purpose procs
2. Divine Storm if Empyrean Power procs
3. Hammer of Wrath once available
4. Final Reckoning on recharge
5. Templar’s Verdict on 5 Holy Power, with Judgment debuff
6. Templar’s Verdict on 3 Holy Power, if you have <10 stacks of Crusade, with Judgment debuff
7. Templar’s Verdict on 3 Holy Power, with Judgment debuff and Righteous Verdict will expire in 1 second. 
8. Wake of Ashes on 0 or 1 Holy Power, if Blade of Justice is on cooldown. 
9. Blade of Justice on 3 or less Holy Power 
10. Crusader Strike with 2 charges, 4 or less Holy Power 
11. Judgment on 5 Holy Power or if Crusader Strike and Blade of Justice are on cooldown
12. Crusader Strike on 4 or less Holy Power
13. Templar’s Verdict on 3 or more Holy Power, with the target debuffed by Judgment 

Detailed instructions: 

• Try using finishers after Judgment (exception: you’ve mistakenly debuffed a target that died too quickly. In this case there’s no point in standing around and looking at the target with 5 Holy Power and waiting for Holy Power generators to recharge).
• Judgment must be used as frequently as possible, with minimum delays. Judgment during Crusade should be on the target 100% of the time. Though, it’s not that hard thanks to increased haste from this talent. It’s also preferable to use Crusade under such raid buffs like Bloodlust / Heroism / Time Warp, or when the target is receiving increased damage.

Openers

1. Blade of Justice 
2. Crusade or Avenging Wrath
3. Hammer of Wrath
4. Templar’s Verdict
5. Wake of Ashes
6. Templar’s Verdict
7. Hammer of Wrath
8. Move on to standard rotation, using Judgment before finishers.

Choosing a race

ST:

• Human (Alliance)
• Tauren (Horde)

AoE:

• Human (Alliance)
• Blood Elf (Horde)

Stats

Basic stat priority looks like this:

Strength>Crit=Versatility>Haste=Mastery 

Haste reduces the cooldowns of your main abilities, GCD, speed of auto attacks. 

Mastery increases holy damage.

Versatility simply amplifies damage dealt and reduces damage taken.

Crit increases your chance to deal double damage with your abilities. 

These stats are connected quite tightly, while their value is constantly changing. 

After upgrading your gear, it’s highly recommended to use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is nothing more accurate than simulations to tell you which of the stats you should look at first.

Based on the priorities above and simulations of your character you can choose gems, enchants, and consumables.

Gems

• “Deadly Jewel Cluster”/”Versatile Jewel Cluster” by default, or “Quick Jewel Cluster”/”Masterful Jewel Cluster”

Enchants

• Gloves: “Enchant Gloves – Eternal Strength”
• Rings: “Enchant Ring – Tenet of Versatility” or “Enchant Ring – Tenet of Critical Strike” 
• Cloak: “Enchant Cloak – Soul Vitality”
• Chest: “Enchant Chest – Eternal Stats”
• Weapon: “Enchant Weapon – Lightless Force”’

Sharpening stones, Oils, and Kits

• Shaded Sharpening Stone/Shaded Weightstone.
• Heavy Desolate Armor Kit
• Embalmer’s Oil

Food

• Feast of Gluttonous Hedonism or Spinefin Souffle and Fries.

Flasks and Pots

• Eternal Cauldron > Spectral Flask of Power. 
• Potion of Spectral Strength
• Potion of Phantom Fire (if “Embalmer’s Oil” was used for ST)
• Spiritual Healing Potion for healing

BiS Gear & Trinkets

Will be available later

Macros:

Repentance on cursor:

#showtooltip Repentance

/cast [@mouseover] Repentance

Rebuke with modifiers, used on focus or the current target:

#showtooltip Rebuke

/cast [@focus, exists, harm][@target, harm, nodead] Rebuke

Blessing of Freedom on cursor, as it’s sometimes useful to give it to your ally:

#showtooltip  Blessing of Freedom

/cast [@mouseover] Blessing of Freedom

Blessing of Sacrifice on cursor, as it’s sometimes useful to give it to your ally:

#showtooltip  Blessing of Sacrifice

/cast [@mouseover] Blessing of Sacrifice

Blessing of Protection on cursor, as it’s sometimes useful to give it to your ally:

#showtooltip Blessing of Protection

/cast [@mouseover] Blessing of Protection

Lay on Hands on cursor, as it is sometimes useful to give it to your ally:

#showtooltip  Lay on Hands

/cast [@mouseover] Lay on Hands

Addons:

Bartender4 — highly customizable panel addon.

Chatter — allows you to customize chat.

Deja Character stats — adds more information about the character.

Sexy map — makes your minimap sexy!

Shadowed unit frames — an alternative to ElvUI for unit frames.

WeakAuras — probably the most important addon in modern WoW. With its help, you can set up almost anything, and on wago.io you can find hundreds of useful auras and import them to your game in a few clicks. You can also find a full pack of auras for any spec, check out this link for Retribution auras.

BigWigs/Deadly Boss Mods — addons with timers and announcements for bosses in raids and M+, choose either of these. It’s also super useful in PvE. For BigWigs, the instance module, LittleWigs, must be installed separately. 

ElvUI — all-in-one global build for fans of a neat and concise interface. Replaces several addons at once. On wago.io you can also find a large number of different customized profiles for ElvUI.

Details! Damage Meter — the most up-to-date and advanced damage meter at the moment.

Plater Nameplates — addon from the author of Details that changes enemy nameplates. Fully customizable design and a huge number of available features, as well as the ability to import profiles and mods from wago.io — what else do you need?

Pawn — helps you find gear upgrades, requires SimCraft.

SimulationCraft — simplifies your char’s simulation by creating an in-game line for quick import to Raidbots or SimCraft.

Exorsus Raid Tools — addon for raids with a lot of useful features

Move Anything — allows you to move and resize any part of your interface.

World Quest List — groups your world quests to the left of the map and filters them by zones.

PRO Tips:

When playing as a Retribution Paladin, you can be extremely useful to your raid if you can spot the need for Blessing of Freedom/Blessing of Sacrifice/Blessing of Protection/Lay on Hands and use them in the nick of time. With quick reaction you’ll be able to save your ally before they even ask for help. To do this you will need customized raid/party frames and a certain knack for keeping track of them during battles.

This concludes our guide. We hope you have no more questions and are ready to get down to practice. Thanks for tuning in! Best of luck in the world of Azeroth!