Retribution Paladin DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.7)

For your opener, you will want to cast the abilities in the order listed here before moving on to the regular rotation priority.

1. Cast Blade of Justice to apply Expurgation.
2. Cast Divine Toll to generate Holy Power.
3. Cast Judgment to generate Holy Power.
4. Cast Divine Hammer.
5. Cast Execution Sentence.
6. Cast Avenging Wrath.
7. Cast Crusade.
8. Cast Final Reckoning.
9. Cast Wake of Ashes.
10. Cast Final Verdict.
11. Cast Final Verdict.
12. Cast Hammer of Light.
13. Continue with the regular priority listed below.

Your goal in your opener should be to start generating Holy Power before your cooldowns and then begin your burst window.

Retribution follows a priority for its rotation, as listed below. Start from the top and work your way down the list until you reach an ability with all criteria met, and that will be the best one to cast for the situation.

1. Cast Divine Hammer.
2. Cast Execution Sentence.
3. Cast Avenging Wrath.
4. Cast Crusade if you have at least 3 Holy Power.
5. Cast Final Reckoning if you have at least 3 Holy Power.
6. Cast Final Reckoning if Wake of Ashes is off cooldown.
7. Cast Hammer of Light without a Light's Deliverance proc.
8. Cast Final Verdict if you have a Paladin Retribution 11.1 Class Set 4pc proc.
9. Cast Hammer of Light with a Light's Deliverance proc.
10. Cast Final Verdict if you have 5 Holy Power.
11. Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active.
12. Cast Templar Slash if it will expire within a GCD.
13. Cast Wake of Ashes.
14. Cast Divine Toll if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
15. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc.
16. Cast Final Verdict with 3-4 Holy Power.
17. Cast Hammer of Wrath if you have a Blessing of An'she proc.
18. Cast Judgment.
19. Cast Blade of Justice.
20. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
21. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
22. Cast Crusader Strike.

You need to manage two resources when playing Retribution, Holy Power and time. Most of your damage comes by generating and spending Holy Power, and increasing the efficiency of this loop will increase your damage in turn. To optimize Holy Power generation, you need to consider both the cooldowns of generators and periodic effects that provide it, like Crusading Strikes and Divine Resonance. Minimizing wasting Holy Power should be kept in mind at all times. You do not want to continue to generate Holy Power when you already have 5 just to put an ability on cooldown, and you need to consider whether you will gain Holy Power within a GCD before you use a generator to reach 5. Although Ret has historically valued putting generators on cooldown before spending, with current design you can immediately spend Holy Power whenever you have enough to use a spender.

Retribution follows a priority for its rotation, as listed below. Start from the top and work your way down the list until you reach an ability with all criteria met, and that will be the best one to cast for the situation.

1. Cast Divine Hammer.
2. Cast Execution Sentence.
3. Cast Avenging Wrath.
4. Cast Crusade if you have at least 3 Holy Power.
5. Cast Final Reckoning if you have at least 3 Holy Power.
6. Cast Final Reckoning if Wake of Ashes is off cooldown.
7. Cast Hammer of Light without a Light's Deliverance proc.
8. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power or Paladin Retribution 11.1 Class Set 4pc proc.
9. Cast Divine Storm if you have a Paladin Retribution 11.1 Class Set 4pc proc.
10. Cast Hammer of Light with a Light's Deliverance proc.
11. Cast Final Verdict if you have 25 stacks of Divine Arbiter or Empyrean Legacy active.
12. Cast Final Verdict if you have Empyrean Legacy active.
13. Cast Divine Storm if you have 5 Holy Power.
14. Cast Templar Slash if it will expire within a GCD.
15. Cast Wake of Ashes.
16. Cast Divine Toll.
17. Cast Divine Storm with 3-4 Holy Power.
18. Cast Blade of Justice.
19. Cast Judgment if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
20. Cast Blade of Justice.
21. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
22. Cast Crusader Strike.
23. Cast Hammer of Wrath.

The philosophy behind the rotation for AoE is essentially the same as it is for single-target. You will want to swap to the AoE rotation at 2 or more targets.