Mists of Pandaria Classic Retribution Paladin Stat Priority
On this page, you will find out the optimal PvE stat priority for your Retribution Paladin in Mists of Pandaria Classic. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations.
Stat Priority for Retribution Paladin
The stat priority for Retribution
Paladin is as follows:
- Hit Rating to cap (7.5%)
- Expertise Rating to cap(7.5%)
- Strength
- Haste
- Mastery
- Critical Strike
Hit/Expertise
Hit and Expertise are both incredibly important as a Retribution Paladin for a couple of reasons,
first it is important your abilities always hit, if your ability misses it deals zero damage making the
GCD you spend completely wasted, second each time one of your Holy Power generating abilities like Crusader Strike
lands it will get us that much closer to casting your next
Inquisition or
Templar's Verdict which are both
massive parts of your damage rotation but require Holy Power to cast, making it twice as important that your abilities are
not missed or parried.
Your Hit cap is 7.5%, or 2550 Hit Rating at level 90. Your Expertise soft cap is also 2550, but keep in mind if you are a Dwarf or a Human using the weapon type that corresponds with your racial bonus it may reduce the amount of Expertise needed to reach Expertise cap.
Strength
Strength increases the damage done by all of your damage dealing abilities as well as your auto-attacks. While strength is
point for point a greater damage increase than any secondary stats its important to understand how Haste impacts your rotation
with Sanctity of Battle. While you will rarely have to choose between Strength or Haste if you find yourself in a situation
where you have to choose one over the other a general rule of thumb to follow is one Strength equals about two Haste, but
Haste gains more value the more you have so this number varies depending on the amount of Haste available on your gear.
Haste
Haste is the strongest secondary stat for Retribution Paladin thanks to Sanctity of Battle. Sanctity reduces
the cool down of your damage dealing, Holy Power generating abilities like
Crusader Strike,
Judgment and
Hammer of Wrath which not only act as a primary part of the DPS rotation but also generate Holy Power which enables
us to use
Templar's Verdict and
Inquisition. The more we are able to use the abilities the more Holy Power
we generate allowing us to use these spender abilities which are in most cases a more damage efficient use of your global cool downs.
Mastery
Mastery is a flat damage increase to all of your damage dealing abilities Crusader Strike,
Judgment,
Hammer of Wrath,
and
Divine Storm. Mastery is a great secondary and a considerable DPS increase but falls a bit short compared to Haste just due to the
cool down reduction provided by
Sanctity of Battle which allows us to cast more of these damage dealing abilities over the course of a
fight. The additional Holy Power generated will typically result in a larger amount of Damage dealt but in extremely short encounters Mastery
can pull ahead though it is unlikely any raid encounter will be short enough to consider this.
Critical Strike
Critical Strike increases the chance your abilities will deal critical damage. A Critical Strike is 200% bonus, or double the normal
damage that would have been dealt. While it is the lowest on our priority list all secondary stats for Retribution are relatively close
in value so any Critical Strike rating you find on your gear will still increase your damage dealt but it is important to consider Reforging
it towards another stat especially to reach Hit/Expertise caps and maximize your Haste.
Changelog
- 04 May 2025: Guide created.