Retribution Paladin DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2

This page includes all information you will need to play Retribution. If you are not familiar with all of the abilities, we recommend checking the Spell Summary page first, as some of the rotational nuances will become clear with a full understanding of how the abilities function.

This page includes all the details about every aspect of your rotation. Check the Quick Guide linked below if you want to see a more abbreviated version.

This page only covers rotation information for PvE scenarios. For PvP, see the PvP guide linked below.

A number of talent choices will significantly affect how you should play. The priority lists below will automatically change based on the talent selections. You can select full recommended builds with the buttons below as well.

Generators	Spenders	Cooldowns/Other
Crusading Strikes	Vanguard of Justice	Avenging Wrath: Might
Templar Strikes	Empyrean Power	Crusade
Holy Blade	Empyrean Legacy	Execution Sentence
Wake of Ashes	Divine Arbiter	Final Reckoning
Divine Toll		Consecrated Blade
Tier 30 4pc Set Bonus		Divine Hammer
Tier 31 Set Bonus

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 generate Holy Power.
2. Cast Judgment to generate Holy Power.
3. Cast Execution Sentence.
4. Cast Avenging Wrath.
5. Cast Crusade.
6. Cast Hammer of Wrath.
7. Cast Final Reckoning.
8. Cast Final Verdict.
9. Cast Wake of Ashes.
10. Cast Hammer of Wrath if you have less than 5 Holy Power.
11. Cast Final Verdict.
12. Cast Divine Toll.
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. You can use Execution Sentence before Avenging Wrath to save an extra GCD since Execution Sentence does not get buffed by it. Inside Avenging Wrath, you will want to put Hammer of Wrath on cooldown as fast as possible before beginning to spend Holy Power and using your other cooldowns like Wake of Ashes and Divine Toll.

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 Crusade if you have at least 4 3 Holy Power.
3. Cast Execution Sentence.
4. Cast Final Reckoning if you have at least 4 3 Holy Power.
5. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc and 5 Holy Power.
6. Cast Final Verdict if you have 5 Holy Power or Echoes of Wrath active.
7. Cast Wake of Ashes if you have 2 or less Holy Power.
8. Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active on your target.
9. Cast Divine Toll if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
10. Cast Judgment.
11. Cast Hammer of Wrath if your target is above 20% health, or if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
12. Cast Templar Slash if it will expire within a GCD.
13. Cast Judgment if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
14. Cast Blade of Justice if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
15. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc.
16. Cast Crusader Strike if you have 2 charges off cooldown.
17. Cast Final Verdict with 3-4 Holy Power.
18. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
19. Cast Crusader Strike.
20. Cast Consecration.
21. Cast Divine Hammer.

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, too. 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 Toll. 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. In general, though, you want to prioritize generating Holy Power before spending it in order to put the abilities that generate Holy Power on cooldown earlier.

With the Tier 31 set bonuses, casting Judgment on cooldown becomes important enough that it is acceptable to waste 1 Holy Power by casting it at 4. You should still aim to limit waste as much as possible, but it is better to keep the ability on cooldown than to reduce the amount of Holy Power wasted.

Although you will want to use major cooldowns on cooldown as much as possible, you will occasionally need to hold them for a few seconds. Seal of Order reduces the cooldowns of Wake of Ashes and Divine Toll, as well as Execution Sentence and Final Reckoning because they are treated as Holy Power generators due to Divine Auxiliary existing. Because of this, Execution Sentence and Wake of Ashes will need to be held by around 4 or 5 seconds for Avenging Wrath every other use.

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 Crusade if you have at least 4 3 Holy Power.
3. Cast Execution Sentence.
4. Cast Final Reckoning if you have at least 4 3 Holy Power.
5. Cast Final Verdict if you have 25 stacks of Divine Arbiter or Empyrean Legacy active and 5 Holy Power.
6. Cast Final Verdict if you have Empyrean Legacy active and 5 Holy Power.
7. Cast Divine Storm if you have 5 Holy Power or Echoes of Wrath active.
8. Cast Wake of Ashes if you have 2 or less Holy Power.
9. Cast Blade of Justice if Expurgation is not active on your target.
10. Cast Divine Toll if you have 1 or less Holy Power.
11. Cast Judgment.
12. Cast Templar Slash if it will expire within a GCD.
13. Cast Blade of Justice if you have 3 or less Holy Power and 4 or more targets.
14. Cast Hammer of Wrath if your target is above 20% health, or if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
15. Cast Blade of Justice if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
16. Cast Judgment if you have 3 or less Holy Power.
17. Cast Divine Storm if you have an Empyrean Power proc.
18. Cast Crusader Strike if you have 2 charges off cooldown.
19. Cast Final Verdict if you have 25 stacks of Divine Arbiter or Empyrean Legacy active and 3-4 Holy Power.
20. Cast Final Verdict if you have Empyrean Legacy active and 3-4 Holy Power.
21. Cast Divine Storm with 3-4 Holy Power.
22. Cast Templar Strikes or Templar Slash.
23. Cast Crusader Strike.
24. Cast Consecration.
25. Cast Divine Hammer.

The philosophy behind the rotation for AoE is essentially the same as it is for single-target. See the section above for details. With AoE-focused talents, you will want to swap to the AoE rotation at 2 or more targets, but with a single-target build, it is better to keep using the single-target priority unless there are 3 or more targets.

With Empyrean Legacy or Divine Arbiter, you will occasionally want to cast Final Verdict to proc the free Divine Storm or AoE effect. You should track these buffs so that you know when to use them appropriately.

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.

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 Zaqali Chaos Grapnel you will want to wait for a few seconds for the first use to use it inside Avenging Wrath, but for subsequent uses it is not worth holding it 30 seconds so that they line up. Some other trinkets have a channel time required. For Elementium Pocket Anvil, the channel length is short enough that you can simply use it between regular abilities, as the channel can be used off the GCD. You can macro it with other abilities if you want to, but you should not macro it together with Avenging Wrath since it is also off the GCD and will waste valuable cooldown duration. For Beacon to the Beyond, it is best to use it pre-pull and then on cooldown outside of Avenging Wrath. Although its critical hit chance will be increased, it is not worth the time it takes to channel it inside your major cooldown compared to other abilities you could use instead.