Season of Discovery Retribution Paladin DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

As a Retribution Paladin in Season of Discovery there have been some major changes made to greatly improve your damage output and also lessen the downtime that typical accompanies Paladin's rotation. Retribution operates off a list of priorities as opposed to a DPS rotation, but we have updated this list below to reflect what your rotation should look like now, including abilities added in Season of Discovery via the Runic Engraving system.

While it is not required, Engineering is a great tool to have as a Paladin. This is not only because of the many toys and gizmos associated with it, but bombs such as Solid Dynamite can are essentially free damage and help with the issues Paladins deal with due to a lack of consistent AoE damage outside of Consecration. Bombs are typically best used on the pull as soon as your tank has established aggro so you can get multiple uses in an encounter, however if you know a fight will have multiple targets always try to keep the cooldown ready for when there are multiple targets to hit.

The priority list below is assuming you are using our recommended talent build which can be found on the talents page.

Retribution tanking is becoming an increasingly relevant thing as the content currently available does not do enough damage to require a truly traditional tank. This role is played identically to that of a regular DPS Retribution Paladin, just with Righteous Fury active.

• Ensure you have Sanctity Aura active.
• Ensure you have a Blessing active.
• If the mob will survive longer than 20 seconds, use Seal of the Crusader and unleash it with Judgement to apply the debuff.
• Keep Seal of Command/ Seal of Martyrdom up.
• Use Crusader Strike on cooldown.
• Use Exorcism on cooldown.
• Use Judgement on cooldown.
• Use Consecration on coooldown.
• If Runed, use Divine Storm on cooldown.
• When the mob is below 20% health cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown.
• When the mob is below 10% health, cast Exorcism on cooldown, if Exorcism is not available you should only be casting Hammer of Wrath with your seal still active. Crusader Strike as needed to generate mana.
• Make sure you are meleeing the boss for damage and keeping Sheath of Light active.

Mana issues can be quite prevalent, especially early on. This can be mitigated by taking advantage of consumables like Mana Potions and always making sure to use Crusader Strike as often as possible. The Mana returned from using this ability is a crucial part of the rotation and needs to be prioritized any time you are below full Mana.

As a Retribution Paladin you will pretty much only be using Seal of Martyrdom/ Seal of Command. The damage benefit from it greatly outweighs other options and the utility found in other seals such as Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom unfortunately do not offer enough in small format content like 10-man to even consider using them.

Blessings are incredibly powerful buffs unique to Paladin. Each Paladin is able to have one blessing active per friendly target, so make sure if you are playing with another Paladin to coordinate who is giving what blessing to each party member. Remember with utility abilities like Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Protection this will remove the buffs so make sure to reapply them after using either of these.

Blessing of Freedom removes all snare/slow effects and makes the target immune to them for the duration of this buff. This is an incredibly powerful tool both for avoiding slows and in some cases completely ignoring boss mechanics.

Blessing of Protection makes the target immune to all Physical damage. It can also be used to remove pesky stuns like Kidney Shot. This blessing shines especially on caster DPS who either pulled aggro or find themselves in the middle of a pack of mobs.

Blessing of Might increases the Attack Power of the friendly target for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Wisdom increases the Mana per 5 of the friendly target for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Salvation Reduces the threat the the friendly target generates by 30% for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Blessing of Light Increases the amount of healing the target receives with Holy Light and Flash of Light for 5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes with Enhanced Blessings.

Auras are passive buffs the Paladin can choose which will benefit allies within 30 yards, these range from extra resistances against specific schools of magic to less spell casting push back. Each Paladin may only have one Aura active at a time so make sure to coordinate if there is another Paladin in your group. As a Retribution Paladin you will almost exclusively have Sanctity Aura active as it will greatly increase your personal DPS.

Sanctity Aura increases Holy damage dealt by party members by 10%.

Concentration Aura gives a 35% chance to ignore spell push back when taking damage.

Frost Resistance Aura increases Frost resistance of all party members.

Fire Resistance Aura increases the Fire resistance of all party members.

Devotion Aura increases the Armor value of all party members.

Retribution Aura causes Holy damage to anyone who attacks a friendly target this aura active.

Lay on Hands is a massive heal that heals a friendly target for the Paladin's total max health. This cost all of your current mana so make sure only to use this in an absolute emergency.

Divine Protection renders the Paladin immune to all physical damage for 8 seconds, during this time the Paladin will not be able to cast any physical attacks or melee swing. This is a weaker version of Divine Shield and should only really be used in a situation where Divine Shield is unavailable.

Divine Shield protects the Paladin from all incoming damage and spells for 10 seconds but increases attack speed by 100% while it is active. This is an incredibly strong cool down that can be used not only to mitigate damage but in some cases completely trivialize mechanics.

Divine Intervention the Paladin sacrifices themselves to shield an ally from all attacks and spells. This effect will render the target completely immune for 3 minutes, though they will not be able to move or act while the buff is active. This ability only really should be used as wipe protection in a situation where your group is certainly going to die.

Hammer of Justice stuns the target. This can act as a psuedo interrupt and should be used often to mitigate as much damage as possible.

Cleanse cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 disease, poison and magic effect.

Purify purifies a friendly target, removing 1 disease and poison effect.

Turn Undead fears an Undead target for 15 seconds.

Sense Undead shows the location of all nearby Undead on your mini map.