World of Warcraft: Forever Retribution Paladin Guide

Retribution Paladin is a warrior using two-handed weapons and Holy magic to deal heavy damage to enemies. Along with the other Paladin specializations it also offers an extensive utility toolkit that allows it to handle many different kinds of situations other classes might struggle with. If you like a class that deals heavy damage while still having the tools to help your allies out, then Retribution Paladin might be the spec for you!

Retribution Paladin enters the WoW Forever beta with several new tools and changes that enhances the gameplay significantly. Some things like the new rotational ability Holy Strike will be available from as early as Level 6, and interesting talents available on later levels which will enhance your spells and abilities a fair bit.

Overall Performance Leveling Dungeon Utility Mobility

Great Toolbelt

While Retribution Paladin at its core is a DPS specialization it has access to both tools for healing and tanking in a pinch, strong party buffs, as well as strong emergency buttons in Divine Protection and Lay on Hands. The main thing holding it back is the almost complete lack of movement abilities and talents.

Slow But Persistent

Retribution offers very little to speed up your movement between quests and enemies, and lacks tools for dealing AoE damage, but in turn it is a very consistent spec that can use its Mana pool to keep going against enemies longer before needing to stop and eat.

Good at Everything

Retribution Paladins has plenty of tools to help your group in dungeons, including buffs with Blessings like Blessing of Might to increase group damage, and Auras like Devotion Aura to make your tank sturdier. It also offers good Single-target damage and tools that can save lives in an emergency. You also gain access to Consecration which lets you deal some damage to multiple targets.

Tools For Almost All Situations

Paladin has a toolkit with solutions to more situations than practically any other class. With immunities in the form of Blessing of Protection and Divine Protection, as well as access to several different Blessings and Auras to empower you and your group or even give immunity to slows and roots with Blessing of Freedom. Retribution Paladin also has access to tools like a dispel in Purify and a stun in Hammer of Justice, as well as the ability to heal in a pinch with both Lay on Hands and regular healing spells.

Not Very Fast

Retribution Paladin's biggest drawback is that it has few extra mobility tools outside of Blessing of Freedom to remove slows, and Pursuit of Justice to increase your movement speed. This makes Retribution Paladin one of the slower specializations in the game.

Starter Information

Beginner Guides

New to the game? Get started with our Leveling guide!

Leveling

For Horde Paladins there is no choice other than Undead, since they are the the only race who is allowed to play Paladin. Undead paladins gain access to effects like Cannibalize to regen Health and Mana, and Touch of the Grave which gives you a chance to deal damage and heal for the damage dealt. Will of the Forsaken can also help you break Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects.

If you are playing Alliance you have the choice between Human and Dwarf. Humans have a slightly stronger Weapon specialization talent in Sword Specialization which gives 2% Critical Strike chance whenever you have a Sword equipped. Meanwhile Dwarves have Mace Specialization for 1% Critical Strike chance when using a Mace. Beyond their Weapon skill Racials, both have access to tools to remove debuffs. Humans can remove stuns with Will to Survive, while Dwarves can remove and give a short immunity to Bleeds, Poisons, and Diseases.

Humans have slightly more power behind their Racials, and if you have access to a strong Sword it will likely perform slightly better than Dwarves, however the difference between the options are fairly small.

At Level 30 most of the parts of the full rotation of Retribution Paladin will be available. There are several things to keep in mind to deal as much damage as you can. One of the most important things to be aware of is to always try to have a Seal active. Seal of Righteousness should be used if you have a lot of Spell Power and a fast weapon, since it has a flat scaling with Spell Power regardless of the speed of your weapon. Seal of the Righteousness can also activate extra effects on items such as Strike of the Hydra, making it a good choice if you have one or more of them on your gear. If you are using a slow weapon without on-hit effects, Seal of Command can offer both more damage and more burst damage when it activates, especially if you have less Spell Power on your gear.

Seal of the Crusader can be used to apply its Holy damage amplifier with Judgement to targets that you expect to live long enough for you to be able to cast at least a couple more Judgements during the fight. After the debuff is applied you want to switch back to Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Command.

Your other two main abilities are Holy Strike and Judgement, which you want to use on cooldown when your Mana allows it. If you are using Seal of Command, you can stun enemies with Hammer of Justice to increase the damage of Judgement. If you are playing the Shockadin build and have access to Holy Shock, you want to use it on cooldown as well. When fighting Undead and Demon enemies you can also use Exorcism for extra damage.

Keep Blessing of Might or Blessing of Kings active on yourself and have an appropriate Aura active, usually Retribution Aura, especially if you use gear with a lot of Spell Power, since it increases the damage it deals to targets that hit you or your party members. Use Holy Light to keep your Health high when needed.

You will have no form of AoE damage available until Level 20, so be careful when leveling by yourself to not engage more enemies than you can manage to kill. At Level 20 you unlock Consecration for AoE damage, which deals good AoE damage to 4 targets, and a small amount to additional targets. Be aware that Consecration is fairly Mana expensive.

A lot has changed with gearing in early levels in WoW Forever, and a lot of items that used to be good might not be as good anymore. Some reworked or added items are now performing much better as well.

With changed spell scaling and many new items with higher amounts of Spell Power, it is possible to gear for a fairly high amount of Spell Power even at lower levels, increasing the damage of abilities such as Judgement, Holy Strike, and Consecration. Therefore gearing for Spell Power can lead to you dealing more damage overall than focusing on Physical damage, especially in AoE since Consecration gains a fair bit of value from Spell Power against the first four enemies it hits.

Some items provide both Spell Power and Strength that increases your Auto-attack damage. These items are often better than items that on one or the other, keep your eyes out for pieces like this while you level and start gearing at Level 30. Some strong items might not even be Mail items which might increase the competition that want them.

Many strong items can be crafted with Blacksmithing by using Recipes you gain access to with the new Merchant's Favor. These items generally have better itemization than other items at the same level and are usually fairly strong.

The list below features some prominent items available for players at Level 30, some will be from higher level quests and might require more effort than other items. The list does also not include Uncommon (Green) items with the suffix of Holy Wrath, that increases your Holy Spell Power. These items can sometimes even be better than other items simply by having a very large amount of Holy Spell Power. These are however random drops in the world and will not be included in the list.

Your stat priority will vary slightly depending on if you are playing solo or doing dungeons with a group. Most of the time higher level items will be better as long as they have mostly useful stats for you, but some poorly itemized items might not always be worth using over lower level items. There are also some stats that will be worth gearing for that do not appear frequently on items you can loot on the Beta. It is also worth noting that while this puts emphasis on how the stats roughly compare in value, there is still a very big difference when comparing gear with varying amounts of them.

The following is a list that takes all of the above into consideration and gives a rough outline of the stat values in comparison with each other. This list will be expanded upon as we unlock higher levels on the Beta with more varied gear and new talent interactions.

1. Weapon DPS
   • As a Melee DPS your weapon will contribute more damage than basically any other piece of gear, especially on earlier levels when Spell damage does not scale as much of our damage. Slower weapons will cause Holy Strike to deal slightly more damage, but if a faster weapon has a lot more Weapon DPS or better stats it will probably be stronger.
2. Hit Chance and Expertise
   • Hit and Expertise will appear more often as you reach higher levels and are less relevant on the limited level cap of the Beta. however once they start appearing more frequently they will both be sought after stats.
3. Critical Strike Chance
   • Gives an increased chance for your abilities to deal more damage. Strong when you can get access to it, especially on higher levels once talents like Vengeance can be talented.
4. Spell Power
   • Increases the damage of all your Holy Damage abilities and Seals. All spells have different coefficients of how much damage is increased per Spell Power.
5. Strength
   • Strength gives two Attack Power per point which in turn increases your damage from Auto-attacks and Holy Strike, a flat damage increase.
6. Intellect
   • Increases your Mana pool by 15 per point allowing you to cast more spells before running out. Useful when fighting multiple enemies since Consecration costs a lot of Mana. Once Champion of the Light is available at higher levels Intellect will increase significantly in value, becoming one of our strongest stats at current levels of tuning.
7. Agility
   • Increases your chance to Critically Strike slightly and gives a small amount of Armor. It is the stat that provides the lowest amount of damage while still increasing it. It is not a stat you want to actively chase, but if a good item also happens to have some Agility it is still more damage.
8. Stamina
   • Gives 10 maximum Health per point, which offers no offensive value but still gives a larger buffer in case you get aggro or take damage from other sources.
9. Spirit
   • Spirit increases your passive Health and Mana regeneration when you have not used spells in 5 seconds. It can be useful while leveling for regenerating Health and Mana between enemies, but offers very little value in combat unless Reverence is talented.

There are many minor consumables available early on that can help improve your leveling experience. Healing and Mana potions like Greater Healing Potion and Mana Potion can be very useful in a pinch. You can also use the Greater Discolored Healing Potion for an even bigger heal, and then use Purify to remove the negative effect from yourself since it removes both Poisons and Diseases.

Alchemists can also make strong Elixirs that grant long lasting buffs making you a fair bit stronger. Some good examples are Lesser Arcane Elixir for increased Spell Power, or Elixir of Fortitude for increased Health. They can also create potions like Spellblasting Potion that increases your Spell Power for 30 seconds, for a burst of extra damage.

Cooking can also create food that gives Well Fed buffs that increases stats like Stamina, Strength, or even other strong effects like movement speed in certain zones, as well as giving a new 5% Experience gain from killing enemies, making food from Cooking very potent while leveling.

Blacksmiths can create Sharpening and Weightstones that can be applied to weapons to increase their damage slightly. If you can get your hand on some it can increase your damage a fair bit.

Enchanters are able to create oils such as Lesser Wizard Oil which can be used instead of Sharpening and Weightstones to increase your Spell Power instead.

Enchanters have access to enchants that can increase the power of items. While it is unlikely that you will enchant every item during your normal leveling journey, it can be something you want to explore if you want to play at maximum power during the Beta once it is level-capped.

Meyra

Guide Author

Follow Meyra

This guide is written by Meyra, a Vengeance main with a love for pushing Mythic+ keys and showcasing Proof of Concept keys with 5 tanks or other non-standard group compositions. They are a distinguished member and frequent contributor to Vengeance theory in the Demon Hunter class discord, and also occasionally stream Vengeance and other tank content on Twitch.

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