Retribution Paladin DPS Gear and Best in Slot — 12.1

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Upgrading gear in Midnight uses the Crest system which lets you increase the item level of gear along tracks based on where you obtained the item from, with harder content dropping gear that can be upgraded to higher item Levels. For more information, read up on our dedicated page on how the gearing system works and what has changed in the Midnight expansion.

OverallMythic+Raid

This list contains the BiS items from any source for Midnight Season 2. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

Catalyzing items in Midnight Season 2 works differently, as items keep their previous stats and effects. This means that the original item's source matters a lot. These are strong items to catalyze in each slot:

• Helm - Skullguard of the Risen Sacrifice from Nek'zali
• Shoulders - Cinderfury Shoulderguards from Murder Row
• Chest - Reckless Spirit Breastplate from Coiled Altar
• Hands - Bonds of the Hash'ura from Den of Nalorakk
• Legs - Chausses of Unbound Rancor from Ula'tek

FAQWhat to Take From The Great Vault?

The most important item to take is a Myth track weapon. After acquiring that, or if you don't hit one, trinkets or 6/6 Myth items are good choices, but otherwise you may want to take bonus rolls instead.

Instead of picking an item from the Great Vault, you can instead choose to take a Nebulous Voidcore. This lets you bonus roll on any dungeon or boss, and receive a 1/6 Myth track version of the item for Heroic raid and Mythic +10 dungeons, or 6/6 Myth for Mythic raid. Details on bonus rolling strategies can be found below.

Retribution Paladin

1.1.

Overall Best in Slot

Warhelm of the Consecrated Flame Helm

Catalyst Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Gauntlets of the Consecrated Flame Hands

Catalyst

Aqirbane Reliquary Neck

Ula'tek

Girdle of Toxic Regret Waist

Coiled Altar

Pauldrons of the Consecrated Flame Shoulders

Catalyst Amirdrassil's Grace

Greaves of the Consecrated Flame Legs

Catalyst Forest Hunter's

Silken Voodoo Drape Cloak

Coiled Altar

Scaled Fiend's Warboots Feet

Vashnik Lynx's Dexterity

Bulwark of the Consecrated Flame Chest

Catalyst Mark of the Worldsoul

Vile Alchemist's Band Ring

Vashnik Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Loa Worshiper's Band Ring

Crafted by Jewelcrafting Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique Trinket

Coiled Altar

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Voracious Heart of Ula'tek Trinket

Ula'tek

Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury Main Hand

Coiled Altar Enchant Weapon - Arcane Mastery

Off Hand

This list contains the BiS items from Mythic+ for Midnight Season 2. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

Catalyzing items in Midnight Season 2 works differently, as items keep their previous stats and effects. This means that the original item's source matters a lot. These are strong items to catalyze in each slot:

• Helm - Greathelm of Temptation from Murder Row
• Shoulders - Cinderfury Shoulderguards from Murder Row
• Chest - Breastplate of Soaring Terror from Ruby Life Pools
• Hands - Bonds of the Hash'ura from Den of Nalorakk
• Legs - Ancient General's Obsidian Pillars from Altar of Fangs

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

If you have limited time to play the game, we recommend to farm the following dungeons:

• Ruby Life Pools, Blinding Vale, Altar of Fangs: All drop weapons and useful trinkets.
• Weapon: Any of Ruby Life Pools, Murder Row, and Altar of Fangs drop a weapon with good stats.
• Trinkets: Altar of Fangs, Blinding Vale, and Ruby Life Pools have the best trinket options from dungeons.

Retribution Paladin

1.2.

Best Gear from Mythic+

Warhelm of the Consecrated Flame Helm

Catalyst Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Gauntlets of the Consecrated Flame Hands

Catalyst

Graft of the Domanaar Neck

Voidscar Arena

Girdle of Pestilent Purification Waist

King's Rest

Pauldrons of the Consecrated Flame Shoulders

Catalyst Amirdrassil's Grace

Greaves of the Consecrated Flame Legs

Catalyst Forest Hunter's

Speakeasy Shroud Cloak

Murder Row

Poison-Proof Stompers Feet

Altar of Fangs Lynx's Dexterity

Bulwark of the Consecrated Flame Chest

Catalyst Mark of the Worldsoul

Sickening Signet of Atroxus Ring

Voidscar Arena Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Loa Worshiper's Band Ring

Crafted by Jewelcrafting Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Sapling of the Dawnroot Trinket

Blinding Vale

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Vile Vial of Volatile Venom Trinket

Altar of Fangs

Backdraft Cleaver Main Hand

Ruby Life Pools Enchant Weapon - Arcane Mastery

Off Hand

This list contains the BiS items from Raids for Midnight Season 2. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

Catalyzing items in Midnight Season 2 works differently, as items keep their previous stats and effects. This means that the original item's source matters a lot. These are strong items to catalyze in each slot:

• Helm - Skullguard of the Risen Sacrifice from Nek'zali
• Shoulders - Tier Token from Lost Explorers
• Chest - Reckless Spirit Breastplate from Coiled Altar
• Hands - Scaleplate Strangulators from Twin Fangs
• Legs - Chausses of Unbound Rancor from Ula'tek

TipsWhich Raid-Items Do I Want Most?

If you need to submit a list of highly-important items to your raidleader, or simply want to focus on the most important bosses and items these are the best available:

• Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury: Our BiS weapon. Drops from Coiled Altar.
• Voracious Heart of Ula'tek: The best on-use trinket. Drops from Ula'tek.
• Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique: The best passive trinket. Also from Coiled Altar.

Retribution Paladin

1.3.

Best Gear from Raid

Warhelm of the Consecrated Flame Helm

Catalyst Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Gauntlets of the Consecrated Flame Hands

Catalyst

Aqirbane Reliquary Neck

Ula'tek

Girdle of Toxic Regret Waist

Coiled Altar

Pauldrons of the Consecrated Flame Shoulders

Catalyst Amirdrassil's Grace

Greaves of the Consecrated Flame Legs

Catalyst Forest Hunter's

Silken Voodoo Drape Cloak

Coiled Altar

Scaled Fiend's Warboots Feet

Vashnik Lynx's Dexterity

Bulwark of the Consecrated Flame Chest

Catalyst Mark of the Worldsoul

Vile Alchemist's Band Ring

Vashnik Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Loa Worshiper's Band Ring

Crafted by Jewelcrafting Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique Trinket

Coiled Altar

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Voracious Heart of Ula'tek Trinket

Ula'tek

Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury Main Hand

Coiled Altar Enchant Weapon - Arcane Mastery

Off Hand

Itemization

Enchants and Stat Priority

Looking to optimize your character? Check out our Enchant and Stat Priority guides for more information!

EnchantsStats

There are very few strong trinkets available this tier, with the stronger raid trinkets far outperforming the rest. There are also a few decent on-use options available, and multiple can be used together by using them with alternating cooldown sets.

Your ideal combination is:

Retribution Paladin Trinkets

Active - Voracious Heart of Ula'tek
Passive - Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique

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

Click for Retribution Paladin Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Trinket
S Tier	Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique - Click for Details Requires the set bonus from Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury to gain maximum power on cleave/AoE. Voracious Heart of Ula'tek
A Tier
B Tier	Gebbo's Bottomless Bag Keeper's Seething Core Vile Vial of Volatile Venom Blazebinder's Hoof Sapling of the Dawnroot
C Tier	Resonant Bellowstone Merektha's Fang Idol of the War Loa Seed of the Devouring Wild Tattered Amani War Banner Tumor of the Swarm
D Tier	Font of Venomous Rage Sszorak's Ferocity Coiled Fangstone Ruby Whelp Shell

Patch 12.1 continues the system of Nebulous Voidcores allowing you to target specific items by rolling for a guaranteed item from a boss's loot table, without duplicates from previous rolls. Nebulous Voidcores can either be acquired by taking them from your Great Vault instead of a regular item, or will be periodically acquired later in the season.

The ideal usage of bonus rolls is on the final two Mythic bosses, since all the items they drop have a higher base item level than any other loot this season. However, they will take most players a while to be able to kill, so early on it may be better for you to use rolls on other content instead.

• For Mythic+: Ruby Life Pools doesn't have any items that are BiS longterm, but it has the smallest loot table with a weapon as well as a decent trinket, so if you are spending bonus rolls in dungeons early on, this will probably have the highest average value for you.
• For Raid: Coiled Altar and Ula'tek's items are almost all BiS and are worth rolling on Mythic. Rolling them on Heroic will drop Myth track loot, but with a lower item level cap.

In Season 2, there are some items that are substantially stronger than anything comparable like Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury and Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique which make bonus rolling a bit more complicated. Although these can be rolled through Heroic as well, there are upsides and downsides to rolling them on lower difficulties. To quickly discuss your relevant options:

• Early on, bonus rolls require you to give up a Vault item to use. Although this will often not be anything useful that you'd be sacrificing by taking one, there can be situations that taking an item from your vault is worth more than a roll. For example, if you are completing the Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury set bonus, or if you are taking a 6/6 Myth weapon without a Myth weapon already. In some cases you may want to take a bonus roll despite an item you want to roll being in your Vault anyway, because there are additional items you also want to roll from the same boss still left.
• If you are able to kill Coiled Altar or Ula'tek on Mythic, spend your rolls there.
• If you are not killing all Mythic bosses but are able to kill a few Mythic and all Heroic bosses, your choices of what to roll will depend largely on whether you have extra Crests to spend and whether you have a Myth weapon. Rolling Heroic Coiled Altar until you get both Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury and Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique will give you a weapon and trinket that are BiS until you start killing Mythic Coiled Altar, and will take on average 4 rolls with a worst case of 5 rolls. However, it also requires you to spend at least 80 Myth Crests per item you roll to upgrade them fully. Rolling early Mythic bosses like Entombed Sentinels or Vashnik that also can drop a Weapon is an alternative route that will cost no Crests, since Mythic boss bonus roll loot is already 6/6 upgraded. When you pick a boss to roll, you will want to commit to rolling it until you get a weapon.
• When rolling Ula'tek, you can remove both trinkets from your loot pool by setting your loot spec to Holy. If you want a guaranteed upgrade from a single roll then this is a fine strategy, since Font of Venomous Rage is close to a useless item, but Voracious Heart of Ula'tek is one of our best trinkets, so in the long term it's better to wait until after you hit it before swapping loot to Holy.

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 Feverflare.

Early on, crafting a Two-Handed Weapon is a strong choice if you use Myth Mistcrest to upgrade it to 331 item level, since weapons provide a much larger increase than any other item slot. It will cost 4 Spark of Tides rather than 2, but it is definitely worth it. If you are planning on using bonus rolls on bosses with weapons though, you should skip crafting one. Once you either loot or craft a weapon, other embellished items are the next priority.

Retribution Crafted Gear Priority

• Optional: Blood Knight's Warblade with Hunter's Ritual Stone
• Loa Worshiper's Band
• Any low item level slot with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier
• Any slot you do not have on Myth track yet

For more information about crafting gear you can visit our Professions page.

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

• Loa Worshiper's Band and another item with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier
• Two items with Arcanoweave Lining and/or Adorned Fang
• Hunter's Ritual Stone on a weapon

Most of these options you can mix and match - e.g. you can use a weapon with Hunter's Ritual Stone 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 and Adorned Fang are 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. Loa Worshiper's Band is the default recommendation here as it is stronger with full BiS gear. Hunter's Ritual Stone is the best option for a weapon embellishment if you craft a weapon early, but is weaker than armor embellishment options long term.

When using Loa Worshiper's Band, you will want to use Flawless Masterful Peridot 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 is a good choices for slots to craft on later, but keep in mind that this is an eventual best slot - 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 Miasmic 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 Miasmic Jewelbinder item that allows you to add a socket to the above piece of gear, if you acquired them in Season 2.

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

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.

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

For further reading on how to truly maximize your character's potential, check out our guide on Raidbots!

Go to Guide

Bolas

Guide Author

Follow Bolas

This guide has been written by Bolas, a long time Retribution Paladin enthusiast, theorycrafter, and high-end raider in the #1 Oceanic guild Honestly. You can find him in the Paladin Discord as bolas.ret.

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