Retribution Paladin DPS Guide — The War Within Pre-Patch

Paladin's class talents have not had massive changes, with the highlights being the removal of some utility abilities and the adjustment of some passive effects.

• The following talents have been removed:
  • Retribution Aura
  • Crusader's Reprieve
• Greater Judgment applications can now overlap.
• Retribution now automatically learns Greater Judgment.
• Vengeful Wrath now increases the damage of Hammer of Wrath on low-health enemies instead of causing it to always critically hit.
• The effectiveness of Sanctified Plates has been reduced.

Retribution's specialization talents have had an overhaul, with many talents being redesigned, removed, or moved to other locations in the tree, along with some new talents added too. This is not an exhaustive list of those changes; for a full list, see the class changes page linked below.

• Mastery: Highlord's Judgment has been adjusted to also include a chance to deal Holy damage when Judgment is used.
• Divine Hammer has been redesigned to consume Holy Power periodically to deal AoE damage, at an increasing rate as Holy Power generators are used.
• Judge, Jury and Executioner has been redesigned to give your Holy Power generators a chance to cause your next single-target Holy Power spender to deal damage to additional targets.
• Righteous Cause has been redesigned to now cause Blade of Justice to occasionally have its cooldown reset when Holy Power is spent.
• Highlord's Judgment has been redesigned to also increase the effectiveness of Mastery: Highlord's Judgment on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath, and now costs a single talent point.
• Boundless Judgment now also increases the chance for Judgment to trigger Mastery: Highlord's Judgment.
• Burn to Ash has been added as a new talent that extends the duration of Truth's Wake when it critically hits, and increases the damage of other DoT effects while it is active.
• Radiant Glory has been added as a new talent that removes Avenging Wrath as an active ability and instead causes it to be automatically cast when Wake of Ashes is used at a reduced duration, or occasionally when Holy Power is spent.
• Vanguard of Justice has been removed.
• Consecrated Blade has been removed as a talent and is now a baseline passive ability.
• Zealot's Fervor and Heart of the Crusader are now 2-point talent nodes.
• Blessed Champion is now a 1-point talent node.
• The 5% Holystrike damage bonus effect has been moved from Divine Arbiter to Blades of Light.
• Holy Flames has been added as a new talent that increases the damage of Divine Storm, applies Expurgation to secondary targets when Divine Storm is used, and increases Holy damage dealt to targets with Expurgation active. It is now a choice node with Blade of Vengeance and Empyrean Legacy has been moved to a separate node.
• The Avenging Wrath / Crusade and Wake of Ashes nodes have been moved. Shield of Vengeance is now a choice node with Aegis of Protection.