Retribution Paladin DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

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 Avenging Wrath.
2. Cast Divine Toll.
3. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
4. Cast Execution Sentence.
5. Cast Final Verdict.
6. Cast Wake of Ashes.
7. Cast Hammer of Light.
8. Cast Final Verdict.
9. Cast Final Verdict.
10. Cast Divine Toll.
11. 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 Avenging Wrath.
2. Cast Execution Sentence.
3. Cast Hammer of Light.
4. Cast Final Verdict if you have 5 Holy Power.
5. Cast Wake of Ashes.
6. Cast Divine Toll if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
7. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
8. Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active.
9. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
10. Cast Judgment if you have 2 charges.
11. Cast Final Verdict with 4 Holy Power.
12. Cast Blade of Justice.
13. Cast Judgment.
14. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc.
15. Cast Final Verdict.
16. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
17. Cast Crusader Strike.

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 Avenging Wrath.
2. Cast Execution Sentence.
3. Cast Hammer of Light.
4. Cast Divine Storm if you have 5 Holy Power.
5. Cast Wake of Ashes.
6. Cast Divine Toll if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
7. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
8. Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active.
9. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
10. Cast Judgment if you have 2 charges.
11. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc.
12. Cast Final Verdict if you have Empyrean Legacy active.
13. Cast Divine Storm with 4 Holy Power.
14. Cast Blade of Justice.
15. Cast Judgment.
16. Cast Divine Storm.
17. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
18. Cast Crusader Strike.

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 with AoE talents, or 3 or more targets with single-target talents.

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. 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. Ideally you want to put your generators on cooldown as long as it will not waste Holy Power, since putting them on cooldown earlier will result in more casts over an encounter, but minimizing Holy Power waste should be your priority first.

Avenging Wrath increases damage and Critical Strike chance of all abilities, so it should be used before other cooldowns. It also converts Judgment into Hammer of Wrath, upgrading its effects. With Crusade, it provides a stacking Haste buff, but stacking this doesn't need to be prioritized over all other abilities as it used to be, since the damage and Crit bonuses remain flat.

Execution Sentence deals initial AoE damage, then after 10s deals damage to the primary target based on damage done to all initial targets hit. On AoE, you should continue using AoE abilities as normal for its duration. You should use this before other cooldowns that deal significant damage like Wake of Ashes.

There are two types of on-use trinkets that you will use, trinkets that just deal damage and trinkets that provide a stat bonus. For trinkets that provide a stat bonus, usage is straightforward; you should use them with Avenging Wrath unless the encounter will end before Avenging Wrath will come off cooldown if their cooldowns do not naturally line up. You can use multiple on-use stat trinkets by simply using them with alternating cooldown sets.

For on-use damage trinkets, usage can depend on the trinket. Avenging Wrath does not buff trinket damage, but it does increase the critical strike chance of the damage. For instant on-use damage from trinkets like Perfidious Projector you will want to make sure you use it inside Avenging Wrath.