Mists of Pandaria Classic Retribution Paladin Stat Priority

The stat priority for Retribution Paladin is as follows:

1. Hit Rating to cap (7.5%)
2. Expertise Rating to cap(7.5%)
3. Strength
4. Haste
5. Mastery
6. Critical Strike

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 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. With changes made in Mists of Pandaria Classic it can be a bit difficult to determine exactly at what point you will prioritize Haste over Strength but in most scenarios Haste will be the correct decision as the generation of Holy Power is our single largest limiting factor as Retribution.

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 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 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.