TBC Classic Retribution Paladin Guide

As Alliance you can choose to be one of three races as a Paladin: Draenei, Dwarf, or Human. While each race offers unique benefits and it hard to determine which race is truly the best for your Retribution Paladin. More often than not Human will be your best overall option due to the strength of Sword Specialization/Mace Specialization especially early in the gearing process.

As highlighted above the largest benefit when it comes to racial abilities as Alliance will be the bonus Expertise granted by Sword Specialization/Mace Specialization. It is nearly impossible to reach Expertise cap until very late into the expansion, so any additional source of it will help making the gearing process considerably easier. If you are interested in PvP it also offers Perception which greatly increases your ability to see stealthed targets which can often be the difference between someone getting the opener on you or not.

• Diplomacy increases your reputation gains by 10%.
• Sword Specialization increases your Expertise with one and two-handed swords by 5.
• Mace Specialization increases your Expertise with one and two-handed maces by 5.
• The Human Spirit increases your Spirit by 10%.
• Perception dramatically increases your stealth detection for 20 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown.

Draenei are in a bit of a unique spot as their Heroic Presence racial helps considerably, especially in the early stages of gearing and also allows you to gear your character differently than non-Draenei. Due to the massive amount of Hit Rating available as the expansion progresses, it loses out slightly to Human purely due to how rare Expertise is on gear. Draenei also has Gift of the Naaru which is a short cast heal-over-time effect that can help keep you or an ally alive without having to spend Mana which can be quite limited as a Retribution Paladin.

• Shadow Resistance increases your Shadow Resistance by 10.
• Heroic Presence increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
• Gift of the Naaru applies a heal-over-time effect to a target healing them over the course of 15 seconds.
• Gemcutting increases your Jewelcrafting skill by 5.

While Draenei and Human will yield a higher DPS return Dwarf is still a great choice for your Retribution Paladin largely thanks to Stoneform which removes and makes you immune to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects for 8 seconds while also increasing the value of your Armor by 10% reducing your incoming Physical damage considerably. Our Cleanse ability makes this a bit redundant but this is a great mana-free way to remove pesky debuffs especially bleeds. Dwarf also has other racials such as Frost Resistance and Find Treasure which have niche uses but will often not be much help.

• Find Treasure allows you to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap. Lasts until canceled.
• Frost Resistance increases your frost resistance by 10.
• Stoneform removes any active and grants immunity to Bleed, Disease, and Poison effects for 8 seconds while also increasing your Armor value by 10% on a 3-minute cooldown.

With the addition of Blood Elves in The Burning Crusade Horde can now also be Paladin. While Blood Elf lacks a racial that directly increases their DPS, they have Arcane Torrent which can act as an impromptu interrupt filling one of the largest holes in the Paladin kit. While Mana is much less of an issue than during Classic, the addition of Mana Tap can also help minimize any problems you do come across.

• Mana Tap steals Mana from your current target, applying a buff that will stack up to 3 times. Using Arcane Torrent will consume these buffs and grant Mana based off your current amount of stacks.
• Arcane Torrent silences all enemies within 8 yards and consumes any Mana Tap stacks returning mana based off of your Mana Tap stacks.
• Magic Resistance increases your resistance to all types of Magic by 5.
• Arcane Affinity increases your Enchanting skill by 10.