Forward the Retribution paladin! We’re one of the most versatile classes in the game, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mash some faces if we feel like it. So, to get all the info on talent specs, rotations, glyphs and gems, reforging, all that good stuff, before you wander off to hit some horrible ex-dragon gribbly things with a hammer in Patch 4.3, read on!
Updated 29th Nov, 2011, for Patch 4.3
Retribution changes in Patch 4.3
Retribution Paladins have had a major buff and a significant nerf in 4.3. The major buff comes in three parts: the melee attack power buff, giving us +10% Attack Power, a buff to 2-Handed Weapon Specialisation, upping damage from 20% bonussed to 25%, and a boost to Seal of Truth, increasing our Judgement damage.
The nerf comes in the form of a massive change to Sanctified Wrath, dropping the critical bonus on Hammer of Wrath to 2/4/6%.
This doesn’t change your spec or glyphs. Sanctified Wrath is still a strong talent choice. It does rather reduce the value of Hammer of Wrath in your rotation – we don’t have hard numbers yet, but you should probably use Templar’s Verdict before it, at least.
Tier bonues: once you get 2-piece Tier 13, Judgement becomes much stronger. It moves up the priorities to just behind Templar’s Verdict with Divine Purpose – moving Hammer of Wrath down.
4-piece T13 is lovely. Once we get this, we should focus on using Guardian of Ancient Kings 10 sec before using Avenging Wrath and Zealotry for maximum DPS, and if at all possible make sure Inquisition has enough duration we don’t have to refresh it during Zealotry.
Retri Rotation / Priorities
Like most DPS classes in Cataclysm, Retridins don’t have a rotation as such. Instead, we have several priorities for things we need to do in any combat. In order:
- Top Priority: Generate Holy Power – Whenever you can, use Crusader Strike, no matter what else is available.
- Second Priority: Use Holy Power – Try to keep Inquisition up as much as possible – refresh it, using whatever Holy Power or Divine Purpose procs are available, when it has 3 seconds or less to run. Otherwise, use Templar’s Verdict when you have 3 Holy Power or a Divine Purpose proc.
- Third Priority: Use Situational Abilities – Use Hammer of Wrath if it’s available. If not, use Exorcism if Art of War has procced.
- Fourth Priority: Fill A Global Cooldown – If you’ve got nothing else to do on a Global Cooldown, use Judgement, Holy Wrath or Consecrate (if it won’t run you out of mana) in that order. Tip – put them on your castbars in that order and cast the furthest left one that’s available.
As a basic rule, use all your cooldowns (Zealotry, Guardian of Ancient Kings, and Avenging Wrath) as soon as they’re off cooldown. If possible, cast Guardian of Ancient Kings about 10 sec before Avenging Wrath, ideally in a Bloodthirst/ Time Warp effect, as they stack, but the DPS loss isn’t huge if you don’t.
AOE: Use the same rotation as above, but replace Crusader Strike with Divine Storm. Only swap to this priority system on 4 or more targets – it’s a DPS loss on 3 or less.
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Retribution Talent Spec
This is the standard Retri talent build for 4.3
There’s one optional point here. Place it in Divinity (first tier Holy) if you want to help your healers out a bit, or in the second point of Eye For An Eye (first tier Retribution) for marginal DPS increase.
Stats, reforging and gemming for Retri
Strength is absolutely king for Retri. Hit rating up to Hit Cap is next, followed by Expertise rating to the Expertise cap. After that, Mastery is the next best stat, with Crit and Haste less valuable, and Hit and Expertise after the cap being not valuable at all.
Reforging: Reforge to the Hit Cap (961 unless you’re a Draenai, in which case it’s 841), then Expertise Cap (26), then Mastery. Reforge from Crit and Haste as your top priority.
Gems: Use a Bold Inferno Ruby unless the socket bonus provides 10 Strength or more per socket. In that case, use a combination gem depending on whether you’re at Hit/Expertise cap – Skillful Ember Topaz (Str/Mastery) or Etched Demonseye (Str/Hit).
Retribution Paladin Enchants
Remember to check if your profession offers better enhancement options for a slot!
| Head | Arcanum of the Wildhammer (Alliance) or Dragonmaw (Horde) |
| Shoulders | Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone |
| Back | Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer – Major Strength |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves – Mighty Strength |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs | Dragonscale Leg Armor |
| Feet | Enchant Boots – Mastery. If you absolutely need more hit, Precision can be used instead. |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Landslide |
Glyphs
Prime: Seal of Truth, Templar’s Verdict, Exorcism.
Major: Divine Protection is almost vital – use it if you don’t know a boss does a lot of AOE physical damage. Ascetic Crusader and Lay On Hands are other solid choices. Holy Wrath (stuns demons and elementals) is very situationally useful.
Minor: Really doesn’t matter – whatever you like.
Links
- Retribution Paladins.com – great dedicated site. Thorough and easy-to-read guides going into more detail than I do here. Not updated to 4.3 yet.
- Elitist Jerks Retri guide – I really like this one. Lots of detail but not too much. Not updated to 4.3 yet.
- MMO Champion 4.3 Retribution FAQ – good quick guide to 4.3 specific questions.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Quick Start guides – thank you!
@Janet Flitton – Thanks!
badas stuf t ,sipli
Hej m8 Great guid.. love it.
I have a problem with some of the info on most of this information. It seems that Crit is unimportant to alot of these classes. I don’t see how that can be.
Secondly, I was looking at the Ret pally and I am seeing that strength is king, and so forth and so forth. But no where in that line up is Intell even considered. I am aware that the Ret Pally is not a healing specl but Intell is still used. They are still paladins after all.
I use the information from Meltingpot and it is helpful. But I am seeing that for the most part this addresses toons that are 85. Now toons are not born 85. Why do you guys not help us peons out with information to help us build up to the almighty level cap? If I knew what was needed for my various classes or need help in the mid to mid high leve ranges, I would not need Meltingpot at all.
We’ve considered doing a levelling guide in the past – it might happen, but hasn’t yet. You might want to check out the New Player Guides linked at the top right, as there’s a Retri guide in there.
Intelligence does literally nothing for a Retridin aside from boosting our healing spells. As such, it is actually useless for a Retri paladin, even though in the past Int has been important to Paladins.
As for Crit – the numbers say that it’s not that important, and you’ll get more DPS out of Mastery. If you want more detail on how the theorycraft for things like this are figured out, Elitist Jerks is the place to go – there’s a link in the links section above.
I was not considering for purposes of bonuses for the Ret Pally more so is mana pool, without mana , you can use only a few spell. So I guess what I should have asked is how much mana pool does a ret pally need in order to function?
I can’t quote you exact numbers, but the mana pool you’ll end up with from stacking Str rather than Int will do you fine.
Kudos and thanks for your guides. I’m back playing WoW after several months of break, and you guides really helped me get up to speed in a few minutes on all my toons. Now that I’ve been back in the saddle for a few weeks, the guides are even enticing me to move out of my comfort zone and try specs I’ve never really played before
I have a quick question or two.
Is there a soft cap on mastery? Is there a point where crit or haste are going to start being something I need to pay attention to? I am currently just a touch over hit cap (at 8.35%) at 28 for expertise (everything is reforged, so I am stuck there until I can remove some) and my mastery rating is at 1791 (17.99).
In theory, yes. There is a point at which Crit/Haste pull ahead of Mastery, and it’s possible to reach it with current gearing levels.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can basically ignore that issue. To quote EJ: “Specific tests have only shown 1-5 DPS gain from more detailed reforging. It’s perfectly safe to follow a blanket rule of Mastery > Crit/Haste.”
thank you for the fast reply.
I appreciate it.
I have like 100 characters (exaggeration of course) but i do have quite a bit and i come here first to check out how to spec/gem/enchant for all my toons. Thanks, very informational.
Glad you find it useful! Thanks!
Hi, Just been reading this and as you stated Mastery is above crit and haste, now when I had a quick play around with my Retridin, I noticed that there was a talent that stated that haste reduces the cd of CS, I havent been able to have a look at the talent spec on here (stuck at work), but if that is taken then surely Haste would be above maybe Mastery even just slightly, so that we can gain HP quicker and therefore have more HP to play with during an encounter.
Maybe its just me but that would be my way of specing and possibly reforge or gemming, but not both.
Also want to say a quick message, had a read of the majority of the guides on here and I think they are all ace and have been amazingly helpful, especially the Afflic lock one as that something I have been struggling with..
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