Season of Discovery Retribution Paladin DPS Talents and Runes

At level 50 Retribution Paladin has unlocked some of its most powerful talents in the form of Vengeance and Sanctity Aura and are now able to branch outwards into other trees. Doing this will unlock access to Consecration which has been made even more powerful due to the addition of the new Wrath.

Gloves — Crusader Strike

Pants — Exorcist

Chest — Seal of Martyrdom

Waist — Sheath of Light

Feet — The Art of War

Helm — Wrath

Wrist — Improved Hammer of Wrath

Crusader Strike is the default choice for your glove slot as the other options available do not offer much as a damage dealer. We do not cast many, if any, healing abilities, so Beacon of Light offers little to no benefit. While Retribution Paladin tanking has become quite popular, Hand of Reckoning should only really be considered in a situation where you are the primary tank in a run.

While Exorcist is by far the best DPS option found in the pants slot. There are quite a few possible choices depending on the situation you find your raid group in, but do consider that losing the ability to cast Exorcism on non-demon/undead is a massive dps loss. Rebuke can be taken in a situation where your group is in dire need of additional interrupts. Divine Sacrifice greatly reduces incoming damage to your party, making it a great tool if you find your group constantly struggling with a high incoming damage section of a fight. Even Inspiration Exemplar is a strong choice if you find yourself in an encounter with a ton of Fear or Sleep effects and your group is otherwise not able to keep up.

Seal of Martyrdom is the default choice in the chest slot as it both deals a considerable amount of damage, but also helps alleviate some Mana issues without having to sacrifice crucial Runes elsewhere like Sheath of Light. It also synergizes incredibly with talents such as Improved Seal of Righteousness, which increases the damage of Seal of Martyrdom. Divine Storm is another powerful option; though it lacks on single target, it is extremely powerful in multi-target situations, but especially in a 3-4 target cleave situation. Consider switching on trash if time allows for it between pulls.

Sheath of Light will greatly increase the damage of abilities such as Exorcism due to its ability to double dip from both the benefits of Attack Power and Spell Damage. Due to how much of the damage dealt by Retribution Paladin is physical, the value of the spell hit added by Enlightened Judgements is unfortunately quite negligible.

The Art of War is the only purely damage focused Rune in the feet slot. The chance of having a core rotational ability like Exorcism reset is a massive DPS increase. It also makes Critical Strike rating even more valuable and synergizes incredibly with talents like Conviction and Vengeance.

Wrath allows for your Consecration ability to critically strike. This synergizes incredibly with the amount of Crit focused talents you can find in the Retribution tree, such as Vengeance and Conviction, while also making your Exorcism and Holy Wrath abilities even stronger by increasing their chance to crit as well.

Improved Hammer of Wrath resets the cooldown of your Hammer of Wrath ability when it damages an enemy below 10% health. This gives Paladin an incredibly powerful execute to spam against mobs below 10% health. This is especially useful on Boss encounters or any fight involving multiple mobs you kill. Purifying Power is another great option, but is not likely to be sustainable throughout an entire boss encounter.

More engravings are likely to come out as we reach higher level caps so make sure to checkout our general Rune guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Paladin.

The Retribution tree is filled with passive damage increases that bolster your ability to deal not only Physical but also Holy damage. These talents synergize incredibly well with many of the Runes added in Season of Discovery due to their emphasis on passive effects while Runes added in Season of Discovery put a focus on new rotational abilities.

Improved Seal of the Crusader is essential even though we will typically only cast Seal of the Crusader once in an encounter to apply the debuff. The benefits of this talent make an already powerful ability even stronger and even increases the benefits of Runes, such as Sheath of Light that increases both your Attack Power and Spell damage.

Conviction increases your critical strike chance with melee weapons by 1% per point, Critical Strike is an incredibly powerful stat for Retribution paladin as it increases the up time of the powerful Vengeance buff in addition to the increased damage dealt by critical attacks.

Sanctity Aura is a flat increase of Holy damage to any party member effected by the aura. A massive amount of damage dealt as Retribution is Holy damage, so this is a huge DPS increase for a single talent point.

Vengeance gives you a 15% bonus to Physical and Holy Damage dealt after hitting a Critical Strike at max rank. This buff greatly increases the value of Critical Strike rating and makes item upgrades even more beneficial.

Consecration creates a holy ground 8 yards around the Paladin at the time of casting, dealing damage to enemies standing within the area. This talent is made even stronger due to the new Rune, Wrath, allowing it to critically strike and increasing Vengeance uptime.