Retribution Paladin DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Retribution Paladin in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Retribution Paladin rotation.
Single-Target Rotation for Retribution Paladins
Please check the additional Holy Power Generators, Spenders, and Cooldowns, which are to be considered on this page.
Generator | Spender | Cooldown |
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The single-target rotation consists of alternating Holy Power generation and Holy Power expenditure while utilizing cooldowns.
We begin with using cooldowns if their conditions are met.
Always cast Avenging Wrath on cooldown (With 3 Holy Power or more).
Then, follow the Holy Power generator priority to build Holy Power until you are either at 5 Holy Power, or until the next generator you use would put you over 5 Holy Power (thus wasting the excess).
- Cast
Wake of Ashes (With 2 Holy Power or less).
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath (With 4 Holy Power or less).
- Cast
Blade of Justice (With 3 Holy Power or less).
- Cast
Judgment (With 4 Holy Power or less).
- Cast
Crusader Strike at 2 charges (With 4 Holy Power or less).
- Cast
Consecration.
- Cast
Crusader Strike at 1 charge (With 4 Holy Power or less).
To spend your Holy Power, use the following priority.
- Cast
Templar's Verdict.
It is important to note that, when generating Holy Power, if you have enough
Holy Power to spend, and you have only 1 Crusader Strike charge
available, you should immediately stop generating Holy Power and go to the
Holy Power-spending priority list. This changes slightly when
Avenging Wrath is active, or if your target has less than 20% Health.
In those situations you already want to spend Holy Power even if
Crusader Strike at 2 charges is available.
Multiple Target Rotation for Retribution Paladins
When facing multiple enemies, you will be using mostly the same rotation
as above, except that you should replace Templar's Verdict with
Divine Storm against 2 or more enemies.
Reacting to the new set effect for Retribution Paladins
The new set bonus will grant frequent 3-second Seraphim procs and
Wake of Ashes resets.
During these 3 seconds, potent gcds should be prioritized such as
Templar's Verdict in case you have 3 or more Holy Power, or
use the freshly-reset
Wake of Ashes or
Blade of Justice right
away if you need to generate Holy Power first, and then spend during the next
gcd.
Adjusting to the Mikanikos Soulbind as Retribution Paladins
While playing with the Forgelite Prime Mikanikos Soulbind, you should always
use Seraphim alongside
Divine Toll on cooldown. Because of
this, you have to delay your
Avenging Wrath usage until the next burst
window.
Cooldown Usage for Retribution Paladins
As a Retribution Paladin, you only have one DPS cooldown by default,
Avenging Wrath. It should be used as many times
as possible during the encounter.
It is also worth attempting to time it so that it is up during key points of
the fight (when you require burst damage) such as on the pull, when the boss is
taking increased damage, or when adds are spawning. You should also attempt to
stack Avenging Wrath with
Heroism/
Bloodlust/
Time Warp.
Your talents can provide you with a few other important abilities. We cover them in the Talent section.
Each Covenant choice provides you with different extra abilities. You can find additional details about each of them in the Covenant section.
Shield of Vengeance grants you a 15-second damage absorption shield
(which absorbs up to 30% of your maximum Health), which explodes when it
expires or is consumed by damage. This explosion deals Holy damage divided
between all enemies within 8 yards. You can use this ability both defensively
(to protect yourself from damage) and offensively (to reflect damage taken on
to your enemies, even by sometimes standing in harmful effects to proc the shield).
Optional Read: Mastering Your Retribution Paladin
Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
Level 15 Talents
If you have taken Execution Sentence, then you should use this
ability as often as possible throughout the fight. Always use
Judgment
and
Final Reckoning before using
Execution Sentence on a target,
otherwise it will not benefit from the Holy Spender damage taken debuffs provided.
Level 40 Talents
If you have taken Seraphim, then use this ability
as often as possible throughout the fight. You can delay it if you know there
will be adds spawning soon. Make sure to use
Seraphim before using
Avenging Wrath if possible, because you do not want to waste the global
cooldown during Avenging Wrath.
If you have taken Holy Avenger, then use this ability
as often as possible throughout the fight. You can delay it if you know there
will be adds spawning soon. You can also use
Holy Avenger with the first
Holy Power Generator during
Avenging Wrath, because it does not trigger
the global cooldown.
Level 50 Talents
If you have taken Crusade, then you should use this ability as
often as possible throughout the fight.
If you have taken Final Reckoning, then you want to make sure to only
use it when you have at least 3 Holy Power. If you also use
Execution Sentence,
you want to make sure to always use
Final Reckoning before
Execution Sentence.
Abilities and Cooldowns from Covenants
Venthyr
Before using Ashen Hallow, there are many details to learn beforehand.
- Because of the 30-second duration, you need to plan the usage of
Ashen Hallow ahead of time to achieve the best possible outcome.
- Use
Ashen Hallow as long as you know that your targets wont move out of the circle for some time. If you are in a pre-made group, you can communicate with your tank to make sure they dont move the enemies outside of your circle.
- Make sure you stand in a safe position that wont be dangerous to stay in for the next 1.5-second duration of the cast.
- Absolutely cast
Ashen Hallow before using all your other cooldowns, otherwise you will waste precious time during your time-limited peak state.
- Ashen Hallow will not break crowd control on enemies that are not in combat.
Hammer of Wrath does double damage while you stay inside the circle, make sure to prioritize it properly.
- Do not think that because
Ashen Hallow allows you to use
Hammer of Wrath freely while staying inside the circle, that you should not use it together with
Avenging Wrath to extend the duration, during which you can freely use
Hammer of Wrath. This is a common mistake.
- Always use
Ashen Hallow first, and then immediately use
Avenging Wrath right afterwards to maximize your burst. The
Ashen Hallow and its Conduit
Hallowed Discernment are buffed by
Avenging Wrath. Never split those two, the cooldown already aligns every
Ashen Hallow with every second
Avenging Wrath.
Unless you need to keep Door of Shadows ready to escape from
some encounter mechanic, use it to quickly travel to your enemies to reduce
downtime and therefore increase your DPS.
Kyrian
To properly use Divine Toll, there are many details to learn beforehand.
Divine Toll casts
Judgment on up to 5 nearby enemies.
- Each
Judgment will do 100% increased damage.
- Each
Judgment will generate 1 Holy Power, up to 5 total.
- Each
Judgment will apply their consumable 25% Holy Power spender damage taken debuff.
Divine Toll's value is strongly tied to how many enemies you can hit, so make sure to use it on multiple enemies whenever possible.
Divine Toll sometimes pulls enemies that are out of combat, so make sure to hold some safety distance to mobs you do not want to pull.
- Always cast
Divine Toll during
Execution Sentence (if talented).
- The
Ringing Clarity Conduit rolls three separate chances for up to three extra hits on your current target, the procs are pooled and then released one after another in roughly 0.3-second intervals.
- While using the
Divine Resonance Legendary Power, the extra Judgments that will be thrown every couple of seconds on your current target will only deal unbuffed damage. They do apply the Judgement debuff and generate Holy Power however, so be aware of those implications by making sure you are not overcapping Holy Power and consume existing Judgement debuffs on your current target before the extra Judgements will trigger.
Night Fae
To properly use Blessing of the Seasons, there are a few details to learn
beforehand.
Blessing of Summer deals Holy damage, but does not gain increased Holy damage from
Mastery: Hand of Light.
- Use
Blessing of Autumn on someone in your group who is using his big damage cooldowns.
Blessing of Autumn grants 30% cooldown-recovery speed, not cooldown reduction.
- If you are in a group, but you cannot communicate with them, use
Blessing of Autumn on yourself.
- Use
Blessing of Winter on someone who attacks very fast, preferably dual wielding players.
- Use
Blessing of Spring on a tank or healer and make sure to use it on cooldown to quickly rotate to your more potent blessings.
- Use the Blessings before entering combat whenever applicable.
- You can use the Blessings while running between trash packs to rotate to the more desirable Blessings.
- While using the
Seasons of Plenty Legendary Power, make sure to communicate with your Blessing targets that they will see a huge increase in Blessing effectiveness after 10 seconds during the Blessing's duration so they can consider how to utilize their cooldowns to make the most of this spike in power.
Unless you need to keep Soulshape ready to escape from
some encounter mechanic, use it to quickly travel to your enemies to reduce
downtime and therefore increase your DPS.
Necrolord
To properly use Vanquisher's Hammer, there are three things to learn.
Vanquisher's Hammer generates 1 Holy Power.
- Always use
Vanquisher's Hammer on cooldown.
- Always use
Vanquisher's Hammer during
Avenging Wrath whenever possible.
Changelog
- 02 Mar. 2022: Updated for 9.2 Raid opening.
- 21 Feb. 2022: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 20 May 2021: Updated Consecration priority.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Updated for the Vanquisher's Hammer change.
- 04 Mar. 2021: Increased Hammer of Wrath priority.
- 16 Jan. 2021: Added Divine Toll Holy Power note.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 13 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Urthearso, theorycrafter for Retribution Paladins. If you have any questions about the spec you can reach him on the official Paladin Discord, on Twitter, and during his streams on Twitch.
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