Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Retribution Paladin leveling guide for The War Within. 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.
Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide for The War Within
Retribution Paladin Leveling Playstyle
Retribution Paladin is a spec with a lot of burst AoE cooldowns available. It is best either fighting large groups of enemies at once while solo questing, or doing great AoE damage in dungeons in a group. You will want to tag as many enemies as possible with ranged abilities like Judgment to group them up, then use your cooldowns like Avenging Wrath and Wake of Ashes to kill them all quickly.
Leveling Gear for Retribution Paladin
In general, you will want to equip the highest item level gear you happen to pick up as you level. Retribution cares a lot more about Strength than any specific combination of secondary stats, and you will generally replace any gear very quickly as you continue to level.
Retribution Paladin Leveling Talents and Rotation
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talents to Level Up With as a Retribution Paladin
This is our recommended talent tree up to level 70.
Rotation to Level Up With as a Retribution Paladin
When creating your Paladin, you only have one ability: Crusader Strike. It is your first Holy Power generator. At level 2, you will unlock Shield of the Righteous, your first Holy Power spender. At level 3, you gain Judgment. Consecration is unlocked at level 6. At Level 9, you learn the class ability Hand of Reckoning, a 30-yard range taunt on an 8-second cooldown. Use this long-range taunt to pull more mobs when you no longer have long-range damage abilities. At level 10 you can officially spec into Retribution and gain access to Templar's Verdict. From now you need to switch to a Two-Handed weapon. Otherwise, you will not be able to use your new abilities. Say goodbye to Shield of the Righteous, because you will never waste Holy Power on it again.
- Cast Crusader Strike on cooldown as long as you have 4 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Shield of the Righteous once you have 3 or more Holy Power generated.
- Cast Judgment on cooldown.
- Cast Consecration.
Starting at Level 10, you can queue for dungeons with the in-game group finder. Always queue as DPS, so you have the proper training environment to practice your Retribution kit at your given level in a dungeon situation. To understand in-depth how to use this Retribution kit, especially when reaching higher levels, check out our rotation page, but we have added a short version below:
- Cast Avenging Wrath: Might.
- Cast Final Reckoning.
- Cast Shield of Vengeance when taking damage.
- Follow the priority list below until you have at least 3 Holy Power.
- Cast Wake of Ashes if you have 2 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Divine Toll if you have 1 or less Holy Power.
- Cast Blade of Justice.
- Cast Judgment.
- Cast Templar Strikes / Templar Slash.
- Cast Hammer of Wrath.
- Cast Crusader Strike.
- Cast Consecration.
- Once you reach 3 or more Holy Power, you want to switch to the second priority list below, which is used to spend Holy Power and use cooldowns that buff your Holy Power spenders.
- Cast Divine Storm against 2 or more targets.
- Cast Templar's Verdict against a single target.
Retribution Paladin War Mode Talents for Leveling
Here, you will find information on the best PvP talents for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content.
Retribution Paladin PvP Talents for Leveling
- Lawbringer causes Judgment to apply an additional debuff to targets hit for 1 minute. Casting Judgment again causes all enemies with your Lawbringer effect to suffer up to 4% of their maximum Health in Holy damage.
- Aura of Reckoning will occasionally proc a few seconds of Avenging Wrath and buff your next auto-attack.
- Luminescence buffs your damage and healing by a small amount when you heal yourself.
Congratulations!
Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.
Changelog
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Bolas, a long time Retribution Paladin enthusiast, theorycrafter, and sometimes high-end raider. You can find him in the Paladin Discord as bolas.ret.
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