Retribution Paladin Battleground Blitz Guide — The War Within (Season 1)

In Battleground Blitz, Ret Paladin is known for its high amount of cleave damage and teammate utility. The specialization excels at assisting healers in surviving large amounts of burst, quickly bursting down flag carriers, and spreading pressure in team fights.

Here is the talent build you will be using to maximize your damage output:

Here is the talent build you will be using if you are on a flag-carrying map such as Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks, and need more single-target damage to kill flag carriers:

• Blessing of Sanctuary
• Aura of Reckoning
• Hallowed Ground or Blessing of Spellwarding

There are 3 PvP talent slots and 4 talents you need to choose between. If you are on a map such as Silvershard Mines, Deephaul Ravine, or Eye of the Storm Hallowed Ground will be useful for helping mobility between important locations. Blessing of Spellwarding is recommended if the majority of the enemy damage dealers are spell damage.

Crowd Control as Retribution Paladin

In Battleground Blitz, you will be fighting along with various damage-style classes. One of the largest mistakes you can make as a Retribution Paladin in a team fight is using Blinding Light and removing several damage over time effects from enemies. Be kind to your Affliction Warlock and Assassination Rogue friends, and be aware of the classes near you! Hammer of Justice can be more freely used in BGs as healers will not always be around to dispel.

In a Battleground setting, as a melee, you have to be aware of when it is safe for you to push in and deal damage in a team fight. If you have Divine Shield off cooldown, it is generally safe for you to push in. If Divine Shield is on cooldown, you have to be much more aware of your healer's mana positioning, and if you can make an escape using Blessing of Freedom, Divine Steed in combination with Divine Protection and Shield of Vengeance.

Divine Protection is nerfed to 10% in PvP Combat, so pressing it in a heavy damage team fight will do very little to protect you.

It is not recommended to be the flag carrier as a Retribution Paladin. You cannot use Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection, and Blessing of Spellwarding on yourself when you are holding a flag or orb.

1. Strength;
2. Versatility;
3. Mastery;
4. Haste;
5. Critical Strike.

If you get either of these maps, you are suited to two roles. When flag stacks are low, you are an ideal flag carrier support with Blessing of Sacrifice and Blessing of Protection for your healers. Retribution has a tough time chasing down mobile flag carriers such as Guardian Druids until stacks are higher and they slow down. Ret is also very good at bursting flag carriers down at 5+ stacks, so be prepared to make the switch to offense around then.

Retribution shines in AoE team fights on these maps; however, the larger maps, such as Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge, can be tough to escape from a team fight as Ret. Pick a node or two to float between after the team fight as you can defend maps better than other melee with Divine Shield and Lay on Hands allowing you to survive until help arrives.

If there are tanks in Eye of the Storm, they will both likely go mid and spin the flags. If a tank and a healer go mid for the flag, try to avoid getting pulled into the trap of trying to kill them. Look for the open nodes with the least enemies and head there.

Note: Capping the flag will make the inactive bases active, and both teams will have to recap the nodes. Use this tactic if your team is falling behind on points or lost the team fight.

Retribution Paladins excel at killing orb carriers, especially when playing from behind on this map. If enemy orb carriers are stacked in the middle and you have Divine Shield and Crusade are available get in there and try and focus the orb carriers to solo carry the games.

• Players take more damage the longer they hold the orb. This means that, eventually, the Orb carriers will die. Ideally, your team will only hold 2-3 orbs at a time so that you do not easily wipe when you have high stacks.
• Make sure you die on the correct side of the map! You and your team will resurrect depending on where you died. If you die on purple side, you will resurrect on blue side and vise versa. Ensuring you and your team resurrect together is crucial, this will allow you to regroup faster and quickly wipe the enemy team that will be weak.
• There are Berserker buffs on the left and right sides of the map! Be sure to try and pick these up if they are available