Mists of Pandaria Classic Retribution Paladin Rotation and Cooldowns

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Retribution Paladin in Mists of Pandaria operates on a priority system that focuses on maximizing your Inquisition up time, casting as many Templar's Verdicts/ Divine Storms as possible while generating as much Holy Power as possible to allow us to do so. Holy Power is generated by casting 'generating' abilities like Crusader Strike/ Hammer of the Righteous, Judgment and Exorcism. The ideal outcome of this priority system is generating and spending as much Holy Power as possible without wasting any by casting too many generating abilities as there is a cap of 5 total Holy Power while not leaving too many generating abilities off cooldown for longer than needed.

The priority order is as follows:

1. Keep Seal of Truth active;
2. Make sure to prepot your Potion of Mogu Power
3. Try to use Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings on cooldown. Use Guardian before Avenging Wrath to ensure that Avenging Wrath will be active for the damage Guardian does when it expires. Make sure you have enough Inquisition duration to avoid having to refresh it while Avenging Wrath is active.
4. Keep Inquisition active at all times. This is ideally cast with three Holy Power but the most important part is keeping it active;
5. Cast Templar's Verdict (when you have 5 Holy Power.)
6. Cast Execution Sentence this will snapshot the benefits of your Inquisition so make sure it is active before casting;
7. Cast Hammer of Wrath on cooldown (only usable against an enemy below 20% health or when Avenging Wrath is active.);
8. Cast Crusader Strike on cooldown to generate Holy Power;
9. Cast Judgment on cooldown to generate Holy Power;
10. Cast Exorcism on cooldown to generate Holy Power when in melee;
11. Cast Templar's Verdict (when you have 3 Holy Power but all of the previous conditions are met.)

Your AoE Rotation against 3+ targets acts relatively similarly to our Single target rotation but we will be replacing Crusader Strike with Hammer of the Righteous and Templar's Verdict with Divine Storm. If you are using Glyph of Mass Exorcism it will make Exorcism your second highest priority generator in place of Judgment as long as you are hitting three or more targets but Hammer of the Righteous remains first. When fighting four or more targets we will switch to Seal of Righteousness and continue the AoE rotation mentioned above.

Retribution Paladins can make a massive difference in damage output by optimally using cooldoowns so it is very important to understand how they function and how having each of them active may impact your rotation.

Guardian of Ancient Kings should be cast on the pull, this ability summons a holy guardian that will attack your target and increases your Strength considerably for each attack it lands and deals some Holy damage upon expiring. If you are talented for Sanctified Wrath this should be used at the same time as Avenging Wrath to gain its full benefit. If you are not talented into Sanctified Wrath then wait 10 seconds after casting Guardian to pop your Avenging Wrath so you are able to spend the most time in Avenging Wrath with the fully stacked Guardian buff and to benefit from Avenging Wrath damage bonus when your Guardian expires.

Avenging Wrath is a flat 20% Damage increase for 20 seconds and after your initial use pairing it with Guardian of Ancient Kings should be used on cooldown. If you are talented into Sanctified Wrath than it also reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Wrath ability by 50% allowing you to use it far more often. If you are confident you can gain benefit from all 20 seconds of the buff and the encounter does not require you to focus burst damage on a specific moment in the fight then you should cast Avenging Wrath as soon as it is off cooldown to maximize the amount of uses in an encounter.

Holy Avenger increases the damage dealt by your Holy Power generating abilities by 30% and causes them to generate 3 Holy Power instead of 1 for 18 seconds. While this talent is only really useful in lower gear levels and typically not recommended it is important to understand how it does function in situations where you may need to use it. Holy Avenger is ideally paired with your Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings abilities. The biggest thing to consider with Holy Avenger is the massive amount of incoming Holy Power during this 18 second window. Unlike what we mentioned about where the goal is to reach 5 Holy Power, with Holy Avenger active in order to avoid wasting Holy Power you will be casting a generating ability and then a spender like Templar's Verdict immediately after as you are only able to hold 5 Holy Power and each generator will be generating 3, causing the 6th Holy power to be entirely wasted.

Devotion Aura is another incredibly powerful tool that while not a direct DPS increase can help your group survive incoming damage. It is important to coordinate the usage of this with your party members to avoid overlapping any more defensive cooldowns than necessary.