Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

1. Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Benediction
2. Levels 15 to 16 — 2 points in Improved Judgement
3. Levels 17 & 19 — 3 points in Improved Seal of the Crusader

Benediction reduces the cost of your Seals and Judgement abilities which consume most of your Mana and it will lessen your downtime considerably. Improved Judgement reduces the cooldown of your Judgement ability which is a large portion of your damage the entire leveling process. Improved Seal of the Crusader increases your crit, as well as giving you the benefits of Seal of the Crusader, which you should have up anyway.

1. Level 20 — 1 point in Seal of Command
2. Levels 21 to 23 — 3 points in Pursuit of Justice
3. Level 24 — 1 point in Conviction
4. Levels 25 to 27 — 3 points in Crusade
5. Levels 28 to 29 — 2 points in Conviction

Seal of Command is the seal you will primarily use while leveling. Pursuit of Justice both adds survivability by reducing the chance you will be hit and increases your movement speed, which adds up quickly as you spend time running throughout the world. Conviction increases your damage as it grants you crit with melee weapons and unlocks a much stronger talent later. Crusade is a flat damage increase against most mob types you will encounter while leveling.

1. Level 30 — 1 point in Sanctity Aura
2. Levels 31 to 32 — 2 points in Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
3. Levels 33 to 34 — 2 points in Conviction
4. Levels 35 to 37 — 3 points in Sanctified Judgement
5. Level 38 — 1 point in Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
6. Level 39 — 1 point in Vengeance

Sanctity Aura increases your Holy damage greatly and will be your default aura going forward. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is a flat damage increase to your damage when using a two handed weapon, which you will be using almost exclusively while leveling. Sanctified Judgement returns Mana each time you cast Judgement, greatly increasing your uptime and kill speed during longer fights, where you may run out of Mana. Vengeance grants a damage bonus buff every time you crit and synergizes well with the past crit talents we have taken.

1. Level 40 to 43 — 4 points in Vengeance
2. Level 44 — 1 point in Repentance
3. Level 45 to 49 — 5 points in Fanaticism

Repentance a powerful crowd control ability that can help both in emergencies in combat and preemptively to lessen the amount of mobs you have to fight at once. Fanaticism greatly increases the chance of your Judgement spell critting, these crits helping maintain Vengeance uptime.

1. Level 50 — 1 point in Crusader Strike
2. Levels 51 to 53 — 3 points in Sanctified Seals
3. Levels 54 to 55 — 2 points in Improved Sanctity Aura
4. Levels 56 to 59 — 4 points in Divine Strength

Crusader Strike is a powerful ability that will help fill your downtime in between damaging abilities, as well as refreshing whatever Judgement you have active on your target. Sanctified Seals increases your crit chance, again synergizing with the powerful buff, Vengeance. Improved Sanctity Aura is a flat damage increase not only for you, but all party members. Divine Strength increases your total Strength, increasing your overall damage and kill speed.

1. Level 60 — 1 point in Divine Strength
2. Levels 61 to 65 — 5 points in Redoubt
3. Level 66 to 68 — 3 point in Precision
4. Levels 69 to 70 — 2 points in Guardian's Favor

Redoubt will not help much, as you will not often be wearing a shield, but you will never be using Devotion Aura because of how much of a damage increase Sanctity Aura grants. Precision increases your chance to hit both with melee attacks and spells, allowing you to itemize for more damage. Guardian's Favor greatly lessens the cooldown of your Blessing of Freedom and Protection, which have strong uses both in parties or solo.

1. Use Seal of the Crusader to apply Judgement of the Crusader for added Holy damage.
2. Keep Seal of Righteousness up.
3. Keep up either Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Command, depending on which one you should be using. Use Consecration on cooldown for more than 1 target, if you have the Mana.
4. Use Judgement on cooldown if you have the Mana for it, keeping in mind that you will need to reapply your seal after.
5. Use Hammer of Wrath on cooldown.
6. Use Crusader Strike on cooldown.
7. Melee.

It is important to buy all abilities as you level as they are cheap and Paladins have quite a few abilities that are extremely powerful in certain situations and you never know when you will need them.

Setting up an user interface and macros early on you will greatly improve the quality of your leveling experience. Check out the Retribution Paladin Macros and Addons guides in the link below for the full list.

Once you achieve level 70 we suggest you check out DPS Paladin Guide, which goes more in detail of how to play your level 70 Paladin.

Some of the most relevant pages to dive deeper into are:

• The DPS Paladin Talent builds guide offers a default build to maximize your damage output as a Retribution Paladin;
• Our DPS Paladin Rotation guide teaches you how to actually deal damage in a variety of situations. It also includes tips on how to utilize your cooldowns and utility.
• Check out the Retribution Paladin Stats guide if you would like to learn how each stat effects your survivability and threat;
• The Gear guide for DPS Paladin includes a list of gear to for you to acquire and where to find it;