Retribution Paladin DPS Gear and Best in Slot — 12.0.5

The launch of Midnight included a stat squish, which has changed the value of some stats a small amount. Overall, the gearing strategy is the same as always, where you want a spread across all secondaries, while slightly preferring Mastery and Haste. For more specific information about how stats work for Retribution, you can visit our Stats guide.

2.

BiS Gear for Retribution Paladin

Overall BiS List Mythic+ Gear BiS List Raid Gear BiS List

2.1.

BiS List for Retribution Paladin

This list contains the BiS items from any source for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Bellamy's Final Judgement	Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire
Helm	Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze	Matrix Catalyst, or Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire
Neck	Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn	Midnight Falls in March on Quel'Danas
Shoulder	Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch	Matrix Catalyst, or Fallen-King Salhadaar in The Voidspire
Cloak	Adherent's Silken Shroud	Crafted by Tailoring
Chest	Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate	Matrix Catalyst, or Chimaerus in The Dreamrift
Bracers	Spellbreaker's Bracers	Crafted by Blacksmithing
Gloves	Voidclaw Gauntlets	Seat of the Triumvirate
Belt	Hate-Tied Waistchain	Crown of the Cosmos in The Voidspire
Legs	Luminant Verdict's Greaves	Matrix Catalyst, or Vaelgor and Ezzorak in The Voidspire
Boots	Greaves of the Unformed	Chimaerus in The Dreamrift
Ring #1	Eye of Midnight	Midnight Falls in March on Quel'Danas
Ring #2	Sin'dorei Band of Hope	Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas
Trinket #1	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box	Algeth'ar Academy
Trinket #2	Umbral Plume	Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas

2.2.

Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Retribution Paladin

This list contains the BiS items from Mythic+ for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

If you want to target specific dungeons for items that increase your power the most, we recommend the following dungeons:

• Pit of Saron: The only dungeon with a Neck with a good stat distribution, and also can drop other useful items, such as a solid Weapon and Ring.
• Nexus-Point Xenas: Two good rings and a small loot table otherwise.
• Skyreach and Algeth'ar Academy: Both have a strong trinket and a Weapon.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Liferipper's Cutlass	Maisara Caverns
Helm	Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze	Matrix Catalyst
Neck	Barbed Ymirheim Choker	Pit of Saron
Shoulder	Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch	Matrix Catalyst
Cloak	Adherent's Silken Shroud	Crafted by Tailoring
Chest	Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate	Matrix Catalyst
Bracers	Spellbreaker's Bracers	Crafted by Blacksmithing
Gloves	Voidclaw Gauntlets	Seat of the Triumvirate
Belt	Girdle of the Shadowguard	Seat of the Triumvirate
Legs	Luminant Verdict's Greaves	Matrix Catalyst
Boots	Oathsworn Stompers	Magister's Terrace
Ring #1	Omission of Light	Nexus-Point Xenas
Ring #2	Occlusion of Void	Nexus-Point Xenas
Trinket #1	Solarflare Prism	Skyreach
Trinket #2	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box	Algeth'ar Academy

2.3.

Raid Gear BiS List for Retribution Paladin

This list contains the BiS items from Raids for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

TipsWhich Raid Items Do I Want Most?

The most important raid items for Retribution are:

• Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn: A neck with excellent stats, that also comes with an extra socket. Drops from Midnight Falls.
• Umbral Plume: An exceptionally strong trinket. Can be used as either a Crit or Mastery proc. Drops from Belo'ren.
• Bellamy's Final Judgement: The best weapon from raids. Drops from Lightblinded Vanguard.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Bellamy's Final Judgement	Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire
Helm	Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze	Matrix Catalyst, or Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire
Neck	Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn	Midnight Falls in March on Quel'Danas
Shoulder	Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch	Matrix Catalyst, or Fallen-King Salhadaar in The Voidspire
Cloak	Adherent's Silken Shroud	Crafted by Tailoring
Chest	Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate	Matrix Catalyst, or Chimaerus in The Dreamrift
Bracers	Spellbreaker's Bracers	Crafted by Blacksmithing
Gloves	Emberborn Grasps	Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas
Belt	Hate-Tied Waistchain	Crown of the Cosmos in The Voidspire
Legs	Luminant Verdict's Greaves	Matrix Catalyst, or Vaelgor and Ezzorak in The Voidspire
Boots	Greaves of the Unformed	Chimaerus in The Dreamrift
Ring #1	Eye of Midnight	Midnight Falls in March on Quel'Danas
Ring #2	Sin'dorei Band of Hope	Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas
Trinket #1	Gaze of the Alnseer	Chimaerus in The Dreamrift
Trinket #2	Radiant Plume	Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

For Midnight Season 1 as a Retribution Paladin, you will want to prioritize using Helm, Shoulder, Chest, and Legs set pieces. However, getting the Gloves in order to achieve the set bonuses is still totally fine. The main reason to not use Gloves as a set item is to use the gloves with an extra bonus effect from Seat of the Triumvirate, Voidclaw Gauntlets.

Since there is a lack of trinkets suited to Retribution's cooldowns this season, you will often simply end up using passive trinkets instead. Luckily, there are a few strong passive options you can use, especially from Raids.

Your ideal combination is:

Retribution Paladin Trinkets

Active - Algeth'ar Puzzle Box
Passive - Radiant Plume or Umbral Plume

There are quite a few other options available, which can be found below.

Click for Retribution Paladin Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Trinket
S Tier	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box - Click for Details Requires a channel to gain its effect, which means you cannot macro it into your other cooldowns. For raid encounters, you should begin channeling it just before you pull. Radiant Plume Umbral Plume Gaze of the Alnseer
A Tier	Heart of Ancient Hunger Crucible of Erratic Energies - Click for Details This trinket is strong for its item level, but caps at 263, which makes it a weak option in the long run. It needs to be fully upgraded using the Voidstorm Console to be a competitive choice.
B Tier	Light Company Guidon Solarflare Prism Heart of Wind Kroluk's Warbanner
C Tier	Undreamt God's Oozing Vestige Vessel of Tortured Souls Latch's Crooked Hook Dragon Games Equipment Galactic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
D Tier	Mark of Light Void Stalker's Contract

Patch 12.0.5 beings new systems to allow you to more easily target specific items to acquire and upgrade them further. Nebulous Voidcores allow you to get a guaranteed item from a dungeon or raid boss from its loot table, without dupiclates from previous rolls. Ascendant Voidcores increase the item level of Hero or Myth track Weapons and Trinkets by 9 each.

For more information on how to acquire these items, see the guide below:

The content you want to use these on will depend on what you have access to. If you aren't killing Mythic bosses, you will probably exclusively use these in Mythic+.

• For Mythic+: Algeth'ar Academy is a good default since you can get the strongest trinket this season in Algeth'ar Puzzle Box, as well as a weapon, a ring with useful stats, and tier slots to catalyze. After that, Nexus-Point Xenas can be useful if you want to use the ring set, or Seat of the Triumvirate to try to get Voidclaw Gauntlets.
• For Raid: Midnight Falls and Belo'ren drop the hardest items to acquire, but are relatively difficult to kill. Chimaerus is a lot easier to kill on Mythic and drops an excellent second trinket in Gaze of the Alnseer.

When choosing items to upgrade, in general simming is the easiest way, but as a default a weapon should be the top priority, followed by trinkets. Ideally you want to upgrade Myth track items rather than Heroic, but keep in mind that you need to fully upgrade them to 6/6 before they can be improved further using Ascendant Voidcores.

Professions are useful as a way to fill slots and customize secondary stats on items, as well as adding special effects to the items too. Although you should sim your options to check what the best one for your gear setup would be, a good default to use is Thalassian Missive of the Peerless.

If you want to find out more about professions, check out our Midnight Professions guide:

Early on, crafting a Two-Handed Weapon is a strong choice if you use Myth Dawncrest to upgrade it to 285 item level, since weapons provide a much larger increase than any other item slot. It will cost 4 Spark of Radiance rather than 2, but it is definitely worth it. Once you either loot or craft a weapon, other embellished items are the next priority.

Retribution Crafted Gear Priority

• Blood Knight's Warblade with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt
• Any low item level slot with Arcanoweave Lining
• Any slot you do not have on Myth track yet

For Retribution, you have a few embellishment combinations that are competitive:

• Two items with Arcanoweave Lining
• Loa Worshiper's Band and another item with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier
• Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt on a weapon

Most of these options you can mix and match - e.g. you can use a weapon with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt plus either Loa Worshiper's Band or another slot with Arcanoweave Lining. However, Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier won't do anything by itself without Loa Worshiper's Band.

Arcanoweave Lining is very similar in power to Loa Worshiper's Band with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier boosting its effectiveness, and either combination could perform slightly better depending on your exact gear setup. Arcanoweave Lining is the default recommendation here since it also buffs your allies as well. Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt is the best option for a weapon embellishment if you craft a weapon and simply need to pick something, but is weaker than armor embellishment options.

If you use Loa Worshiper's Band, you will want to use either Flawless Masterful Peridot or Flawless Masterful Garnet as secondary stat gems instead to maximize the power of its proc.

Because crafted gear has a slightly lower item level cap than Myth track items, you will eventually want to use armor embellishments on slots that have relatively less Strength. Bracers and cloak are good choices for slots to craft on later, but keep in mind that these are eventual best slots - for your first craft or two, bracers are the worst slot to use since you want to get a high item level piece for an impactful slot.

You can add sockets to Helmets, Belts, and Bracers with the Radiant Jewelbinder consumable that you purchase instead of selecting an item from your Great Vault. Not picking a choice will grant you tokens, six of which can be traded in for a Radiant Jewelbinder item that allows you to add a socket to the above piece of gear, if you acquired them in Season 1.

Gear can be upgraded using Crests. Early on these are fairly limited, so you will want to prioritize the most important slots to upgrade first. For Retribution, these are:

Retribution Paladin Crest Upgrade Priority

Weapon ➜ Trinkets ➜ Helm/Chest/Legs/Jewellery ➜ Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots

For more information on gear upgrades, see the guide below:

With the sheer number of possible gear combinations, a generic stat priority or BiS list is not going to tell the entire story of how to gear your character. Instead, you should use Raidbots to get a better idea of how changing different items will affect your character. Especially for Retribution, you will frequently find the values of different stats fluctuate a lot as you upgrade your gear, so using a more objective metric to help you make gearing decisions is invaluable.

If you are not experienced with using Raidbots, see the guide below for more information on how to use it.