Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Retribution Paladin leveling guide for TBC Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Paladin leveling guide. We also have an Holy Paladin leveling guide and a Protection Paladin leveling guide.
Level by Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Leveling Talent Tree & Build
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
- Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in
Benediction
- Levels 15 to 16 — 2 points in
Improved Judgement
- 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.
- Level 20 — 1 point in
Seal of Command
- Levels 21 to 23 — 3 points in
Pursuit of Justice
- Level 24 — 1 point in
Conviction
- Levels 25 to 27 — 3 points in
Crusade
- 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.
- Level 30 — 1 point in
Sanctity Aura
- Levels 31 to 32 — 2 points in
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
- Levels 33 to 34 — 2 points in
Conviction
- Levels 35 to 37 — 3 points in
Sanctified Judgement
- Level 38 — 1 point in
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
- 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.
- Level 40 to 43 — 4 points in
Vengeance
- Level 44 — 1 point in
Repentance
- 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.
- Level 50 — 1 point in
Crusader Strike
- Levels 51 to 53 — 3 points in
Sanctified Seals
- Levels 54 to 55 — 2 points in
Improved Sanctity Aura
- 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.
- Level 60 — 1 point in
Divine Strength
- Levels 61 to 65 — 5 points in
Redoubt
- Level 66 to 68 — 3 point in
Precision
- 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.
Leveling Rotation
- Use
Seal of the Crusader to apply
Judgement of the Crusader for added Holy damage.
- Keep
Seal of Righteousness up.
- 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.
- Use
Judgement on cooldown if you have the Mana for it, keeping in mind that you will need to reapply your seal after.
- Use
Hammer of Wrath on cooldown.
- Use
Crusader Strike on cooldown.
- Melee.
List of Trainer Skills to Buy
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.
Retribution Paladin Macros and Addons
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.
How to continue to improve your Retribution Paladin at level 70
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;
This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and current season and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.
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