Retribution Paladin DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands 9.1.5

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straight-forward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Retribution is a melee DPS specialization that has a relatively easy to grasp playstyle. Retribution excels at single-target and AoE burst DPS, but the trade-off is that their DPS outside of cooldowns is weak in comparison.

If you just started out learning about your Retribution Paladin abilities, you can check out our Spell Summary page for more information.

Throughout the fight, you will need to manage your Holy Power generation and expenditure to maximise your damage output.

The following talent choices result in damage output that is close to that of the most optimal talent choices, although the recommendations here lead to considerable ease of use.

• Level 15: Zeal
• Level 25: Blade of Wrath
• Level 30: Fist of Justice
• Level 35: Cavalier
• Level 40: Divine Purpose
• Level 45: Healing Hands
• Level 50: Sanctified Wrath

If you do not care about the ease of use and simply want to play with the best Retribution Paladin talents, you can check our full talents page below.

Currently, you will want to prioritise stats as follows:

1. Strength;
2. Mastery ~= Versatility ~= Critical Strike ~= Haste.

The general recommendation for the stat priority will not change in the full guide, but for the best results, you need to check the in-depth details about the stats themselves. You can check our full stats page below.

The single target rotation consists of Holy Power generators and Holy Power spenders.

1. Cast Avenging Wrath with 3 or more Holy Power.
2. Generate Holy Power by using following priority:
   1. Cast Wake of Ashes.
   2. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
   3. Cast Blade of Justice.
   4. Cast Judgment.
   5. Cast Crusader Strike.
3. Spend Holy Power by casting Templar's Verdict once you are either at the 5 Holy Power cap, or when there are only Holy Power generators left that would over-cap your Holy Power.
4. Cast Consecration if nothing else is available.

When facing multiple enemies, you mostly use the same rotation as above, except that you should replace Templar's Verdict with Divine Storm against 2 or more enemies.

For more detailed information about the priority system and using all the other talents, you can check our full rotation page below.

Kyrian clearly stands out the most for Retribution Paladin, because of how well the Covenant ability Divine Toll enhances our already strong burst.

As a for Kyrian Soulbinds, you should swap between two depending on the content you are playing.

For raiding, the Pelagos Soulbind offers the best throughput.

For Mythic+, the Forgelite Prime Mikanikos Soulbind becomes really good once you have the final Effusive Anima Accelerator trait. Pelagos remains a very strong Soulbind alternative for Mythic+.

If you absolutely want to stick with one Soulbind for both types of content, we recommend to stick with Pelagos.

You can find more details about all of the Covenants on the Covenant page.

The first Legendary Power you should craft as Kyrian Retribution Paladin is Divine Resonance. It is the best for Raiding and second best option for Mythic+. You obtain it when reaching Renown 48 with your Kyrian Covenant. You should craft the Legendary Power on the Waist slot, so it does not interfere with your Domination Socket slots and the high item level drops from raid.

You can read more about Legendary Powers for Retribution Paladins on our Legendaries page.