Welcome to our Retribution Paladin Melee DPS guide for WoW Forever, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play the Paladin class as Retribution Melee DPS. Click the links #below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
Compendium of Spec Class Information for the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta
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.
Divine Protection and 
Lay on Hands. The main thing holding it back is the almost
complete lack of movement abilities and talents.
Leveling Information
Retribution Paladin will not unlock all their rotational
tools during the initial Beta, but there will still be a few spells and buffs to keep in mind.
Try to keep a Seal active at all times in combat, either 
Seal of Righteousness or 
Seal of Command
if available and use Holy Strike and 
Judgement on cooldown when you
have Mana to deal extra damage.
Use your mana pool as an extension of your Health pool. One of the things that can slow leveling
down the most is having to spend a lot of time sitting down to eat and drink. Sometimes it can be more
efficient to just top your health up with 
Holy Light and killing the next enemy with low Mana
than it is to sit down and eat and drink.
Leveling Professions
While we do not have full knowledge of profession changes there are two main combinations that stand out as useful for leveling as a Retribution Paladin.
Mining and Blacksmithing offers a way to potentially make item upgrades for yourself, both Mail armor and weapons to make your leveling experience smoother. However Mining and Blacksmithing have both historically been slow to level up, meaning you might level past its usefulness.
Herbalism and Alchemy is another solid combination, allowing you to both craft Healing and Mana potions for yourself, as well as Elixirs that grant long buffs that empower you. But it does not offer any potential gear upgrades.
Finally a very useful skill is Cooking, which gives access to buff foods that increase your stats, and added in Forever an Experience gain buff from Well Fed buffs!
Leveling and Level 20 Talent Build
The leveling build starts out by taking 2 points in the Holy tree for Improved Holy Strike to increase
the frequency you can use Holy Strike. It then starts the Retribution tree by taking 5 points in
Deflection for leveling since Parries reduces damage taken but also speeds up your Auto-attack
with Parry Haste, making it both strong for reducing damage intake and increasing your damage slightly.
This is followed by 2 points in Improved Judgement to decrease the cooldown of Judgement.
The remaining points go into 
Conviction for a bit more damage. Once you reach Level 20 you can
change Deflection to 
Benediction when doing group content.
Alternative Level 20 Talent Build
This alternative Level 20 build gives up Improved Holy Strike to reach Seal of Command,
which means you will have slightly longer cooldown on Holy Strike, but have access to a seal that
can deal slightly more damage, especially when Judgement is used on stunned targets.
Retribution Paladin Spells and Rotation
On Level 20 there are still some parts missing for the full rotation
of Retribution Paladin, but many parts are already present. The most important thing to keep
in mind is to always try to have a Seal active. Seal of Righteousness should be
used unless you have talented 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.
Keep 
Blessing of Might or 
Blessing of Kings active on yourself and have an
appropriate Aura active, usually 
Devotion Aura. Use Holy Light to keep your Health high
when needed.
You will have no form of AoE damage avaialable at Level 20, so be careful when playing by yourself to not engage more enemies than you can manage to kill one by one.
Level 20 Gear, Stat Priority, and Consumables
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.
Another very important part for Melee DPS is weapon damage,
as your Auto-attack damage and Holy Strike damage scale heavily with stronger
weapons. To complement this you want to pick up Hit Chance and Crit Chance whenever possible
as these stats usually add a significant amount of damage compared to other stats.
Although it might be fairly rare to find Hit and Crit Chance on items available at Level 20.
For leveling and doing solo content your general stat priority looks roughly like this:
Higher level items will generally have more stats and bonuses on them, on top of higher armor, this is useful for being able to sustain combat for longer. Stamina and Intellect increases your Health and Mana which both translates to more time you can stay in combat with enemies making them useful stats early on. Spirit is very useful for increasing your Health and Mana recovery out of combat which can be very useful for decreasing time spent recovering. Strength and Spell Power increases your damage, however only marginally with lower level gear and lower spell scaling at lower levels, making them a bit weaker early on. Finally Agility increases Dodge chance and Crit chance, which can be useful but offers slightly less value as well.
In group content like Dungeons, where you are less concerned with taking attacks from enemies and combat is more continous, Stamina and Spirit loses some value, meaning your stat priority looks a bit more like this:
Consumables
There are many minor consumables available early on that can help improve your leveling experience. Healing and Mana potions like Minor Healing Potion and Lesser Mana Potion can be very useful in a pinch. While Elixirs such as Elixir of Lion's Strength can give
Cooking can also create food that gives Well Fed buffs that increases stats like Stamina and Spirit, as well as giving a new 5% Experience gain buff in classic, 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 the can end up saving you some time killing enemies.
Changelog
- 17 Sep. 2026 (this page): Guide Added.
