Retribution Paladin DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Retribution Paladin in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Retribution Paladin talents.
- 1. Retribution Paladin Talent Builds for Dragonflight
- 2. Dragonflight Talent Builds for Retribution Paladin
- 3. Best Single-Target Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
- 4. Best Passive Cleave Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
- 5. Best Mythic+ Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
- 6. Best Single-Target Zero Downtime Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladin Talent Builds for Dragonflight
Retribution has two main types of builds to choose between, "Auto-Attack" builds with Crusading Strikes, and "Zero Downtime" builds without it.
While
Crusading Strikes is the much more popular of the two, you can do well with either build. Builds for various situations are listed below for both types.
Crusading Strikes removes
Crusader Strike from your rotation, replacing it with passive Holy Power generation every other auto-attack.
This frees up a lot of GCDs to use on other abilities, although it does result in much higher downtime overall.
If you want to play with
Crusading Strikes, a swing timer WeakAura is highly recommended to minimize Holy Power waste.
The Zero Downtime build is much closer to the traditional style of Retribution, with essentially no downtime as the name suggests. It has much more predictable Holy Power generation and is able to be played optimally while tracking a lot less.
Dragonflight Talent Builds for Retribution Paladin
Best Single-Target Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
This build is best for pure single-target situations.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Best Passive Cleave Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
Still relatively strong for single-target, this build will also do decent cleave damage to extra targets while you focus on a primary one.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Best Mythic+ Auto-Attack Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
This build is focused on AoE damage, with a few concessions to keep single target output at a reasonable level.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Best Single-Target Zero Downtime Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
This build is best for pure single-target situations.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Best Passive Cleave Zero Downtime Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
Still relatively strong for single-target, this build will also do decent cleave damage to extra targets while you focus on a primary one.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Best Mythic+ Zero Downtime Talent Build for Retribution Paladin
This build is focused on AoE damage, with a few concessions to keep single target output at a reasonable level.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game.
Raiding
While the above builds are designed with Raiding in mind, you may want to make some smaller changes for some bosses. For boss-specific builds, see the Raid guide below:
Mythic+
Mythic+ talent choices can differ significantly from week to week, as you will want to make quite a few changes based on weekly affixes. For Mythic+ talent choices, see the dedicated Mythic+ guide below:
Retribution Paladin Spec Talents Explained
Rows 1-4
Talent | Explanation |
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One of your primary Holy Power generators and a core rotational button. |
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Your main Holy Power spender in AoE situations. |
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A small reduction to the cooldown of the generator of your choice. |
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Increases the damage output of ![]() ![]() |
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A strong replacement for ![]() |
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A passive heal that procs when you drop below 25% health. |
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Increases Holy Power generation by regularly resetting ![]() |
You have at least 8 points to spend in this section, with only 9 total nodes available, meaning that the only real decision to make is between choice nodes.
Most choice nodes have a clear winner in all situations, e.g. Final Verdict and
Art of War, but there are a couple of others that will change.
Improved Blade of Justice and
Holy Blade: This choice is fairly straightforward. With
Crusading Strikes,
Improved Blade of Justice becomes a good choice so that you have more abilities
to press during periods of downtime. An extra charge of
Blade of Justice is especially helpful considering that it can allow you to reapply
Expurgation more frequently,
as well as providing a cooldown buffer to maximize the value of
Art of War resets. Without
Crusading Strikes,
Holy Blade will be more valuable since
you want to maximize the value of each individual GCD, as you will have essentially no rotational downtime regardless.
Swift Justice and
Light of Justice: With the Tier 31 set bonus,
Swift Justice is the clear winner in all situations to maximize how frequently you can proc your set effect.
If you don't yet have this set,
Light of Justice can be used with
Crusading Strikes on AoE.
Rows 5-7
Talent | Explanation |
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Increases the range and damage of ![]() ![]() |
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Effectively buffs ![]() |
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A large damage absorb that also does a significant amount of damage when the absorbed amount is fully depleted or expires. |
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A decent small buff to Holy Power generation when using ![]() ![]() |
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A small haste proc that will naturally have a high uptime on single-target. |
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Increases the Holy Power Judgment provides. This is especially strong with ![]() ![]() |
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Removes ![]() |
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Turns ![]() |
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Increases ![]() |
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Replaces ![]() |
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Procs free ![]() |
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A strong AoE increase, allowing ![]() ![]() |
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Increases the damage and cost of Holy Power spenders. It’s used to increase the efficiency of spending Holy Power so that more time can be spent generating it. |
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A small buff to auto-attack and ![]() ![]() |
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Each ![]() ![]() |
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Turns ![]() |
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This section has a wide range of talents to pick from: some that are stronger in single-target or AoE, some that are good in a variety of situations, and others that are just outclassed completely.
Most importantly, this is where the Crusading Strikes /
Templar Strikes talent node lives, which dictates a lot of your subsequent playstyle.
Crusading Strikes replaces your regular
Crusader Strike ability,
passively providing 1 Holy Power every second auto-attack while removing a button from your rotation. It will generally be a marginally stronger choice in most situations, especially if you do not have access to
Windfury Totem since
Crusading Strikes does not benefit from it, while other builds do. If you choose to not use
Crusading Strikes, your options are to either use
Templar Strikes or the regular base
Crusader Strike.
Templar Strikes has some unusual behaviour where its global cooldown is not reduced by Haste as most abilities are, which means that as you gain more Haste with more gear it tends to perform worse than base
Crusader Strike.
However, its native damage type is Radiant while
Crusader Strike is Physical, which means that it synergizes much better with AoE-centric talents like
Burning Crusade, and does not require
Blades of Light to benefit from
Mastery and be unaffected by enemy Armor like
Crusader Strike does. In general, for Zero Downtime builds,
Crusader Strike will be better at higher item level in most single-target-oriented situations, while
Templar Strikes
will perform better at low item level and in all AoE situations.
For single target, the important talents are Vanguard's Momentum,
Rush of Light, and
Empyrean Legacy. These all either solely buff single-target abilities, or require you to cast
abilities that you would not otherwise cast on cleave or AoE to make use of them.
Vanguard's Momentum helps increase consistency in your burst windows and increases Holy Power generation during execute windows,
Rush of Light provides a consistent Haste buff as long as you are using single-target spenders, and
Empyrean Legacy provides a small free boost to your single-target spender every 20s.
On AoE, you will want to use Tempest of the Lightbringer,
Blessed Champion,
Blade of Vengeance, and potentially
Empyrean Power.
Tempest of the Lightbringer,
Blessed Champion, and
Blade of Vengeance are all
straightforward damage increases in AoE situations, buffing your AoE spenders and allowing your regular generators to cleave.
Empyrean Power can be useful as the free
Divine Storm procs are decent for AoE,
but it is much less commonly used since the increase it provides is much lower than the other AoE-centric talents, and it has little value on single-target, unlike the more generalized talents you could use instead.
Past the more specialized talents, you have some talents that will be taken in most, if not all, builds, and others that can be swapped in and out depending on the situation.
Shield of Vengeance,
Jurisdiction, and
Boundless Judgment will always be used, as will either
Avenging Wrath: Might or
Crusade, as they are too fundamental to cooldowns or resource generation to pass up.
Vanguard of Justice is used in most builds, since it allows you to spend Holy Power much more efficiently by reducing the percentage of time you need to spend spending your Holy Power. It is used in all the Zero Downtime builds, and several
of the Auto-Attack builds, although it can be dropped for some of the Auto-Attack builds if other options are better.
Zealot's Fervor is used in all Auto-Attack builds since it directly increases your resource generation, but is a low-priority
talent for the Zero Downtime builds.
Heart of the Crusader is also slightly better in the Zero Downtime builds since the two damage sources it buffs are combined in the Auto-Attack builds, making it provide less of an overall increase.
Consecrated Blade,
Divine Wrath, and
Highlord's Judgment round out the options as talents that are fine to pick as the last point or two if necessary, but are not overly important enough to be a large damage loss if dropped.
Avenging Wrath: Might is the default choice for its node over
Crusade for the majority of builds and target counts. Being able to use
Avenging Wrath every minute instead of once every 2 minutes keeps its consistency high while
also not punishing you as heavily if you need to move out of melee range for mechanics during your cooldown window.
Crusade becomes competitive at high item levels for single target, and can still be otherwise used if stronger burst damage is something you require, but
Avenging Wrath: Might should be the choice for most situations.
Rows 8-10
Talent | Explanation |
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A solid passive bonus that increases your critical hit damage and adds an extra AoE bonus to ![]() |
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Makes most of your single-target abilities deal Holystrike damage, which is important for the next talent. This also lets ![]() ![]() |
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Increases the damage of Holystrike abilities and has an extra damage proc bonus effect as well. |
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Increases the effectiveness of damage reduction cooldowns. |
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Debuffs a target, dealing extra damage when it expires based on the damage dealt to them during that debuff window. A strong single-target cooldown. |
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A large AoE burst cooldown. Excellent in AoE situations and usable but not impressive for single-target. |
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Increases the duration of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Deals large frontal damage and generates 3 Holy Power. One of the hardest-hitting abilities you have. |
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Causes ![]() |
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Adds an extra DoT component to ![]() |
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Increases periodic ability damage, namely ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Makes some of your AoE abilities deal Radiant damage and increases their damage by 5%. |
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Has a chance to proc extra AoE damage when you deal Radiant damage. |
The choices in the final section are largely based on whether the focus is on single-target or AoE damage. For all builds, Aegis of Protection and all
Wake of Ashes talents are taken, and then for single-target builds
Execution Sentence is picked, along with
Executioner's Will and the rest of the Holystrike-themed left-side talents. For AoE,
Final Reckoning and the Radiant-themed right-side talents are picked instead.
Blades of Light is also taken in all situations with
Crusading Strikes, even without
Divine Arbiter, since by making
Crusading Strikes deal Holy Damage, it lets Mastery apply to it and removes the reduction from enemy Armor.
Retribution Paladin Class Talents Explained
Row 1-4
Lay on Hands is a strong single-target heal, useful in both Mythic+ and Raiding.
Auras of the Resolute won’t be required that often. If you have either a Holy or Protection Paladin in your group, they will likely have
Devotion Aura covered, but if not, you can take this talent in order to be able to use it.
Obduracy provides passive Speed and Avoidance. A nice bonus rather than a must-pick.
Turn Evil is useful for Incorporeal weeks in Mythic+ but has limited uses outside of that and has no applications in Raid.
Fist of Justice can be useful if you need more frequent single-target CC in Mythic+, but will not have any Raid uses.
Divine Steed is your primary mobility ability and is a mandatory pick.
Greater Judgment is a strong damage bonus to Judgment.
Blinding Light is useful as an AoE cast interruption in Mythic+.
Repentance is another way to deal with Incorporeal.
Cavalier gives you an extra charge of Divine Steed and is also essentially mandatory.
Seasoned Warhorse is a nice bonus but can be dropped for other utility if necessary, as 4 seconds is often enough to get where you need to go for Divine Steed.
Rebuke is your interrupt ability. This is mandatory in Mythic+, and although it can be dropped on some Raid encounters, many, like Sarkareth or Zskarn, will require it.
Row 5-7
Holy Aegis is a solid flat bonus.
Avenging Wrath is your major damage cooldown and is a mandatory pick.
Justification is a small bonus to Judgment damage. It is not that significant overall, but it may as well be taken.
Punishment can be useful if you are interrupting frequently, but the damage it provides is extremely small, and it is not used frequently as a result.
Blessing of Sacrifice is a strong external damage reduction ability. A mandatory pick for any group content.
Sanctified Plates is your strongest defensive passive and is a mandatory pick.
Blessing of Protection is useful in a lot of situations in both Mythic+ and Raid. While you can drop it if you need another specific piece of utility, make sure that you are not forgetting a situation that it is vital for.
Unbound Freedom is a nice small bonus to Blessing of Freedom that’s especially good for Entangling weeks. It is not a necessary talent, but it is a nice pickup if you have a spare talent point for utility.
Lightforged Blessing is a small healing bonus. It is more powerful in AoE but will proc in single-target, too, thanks to
Empyrean Legacy.
Healing Hands is a large buff to
Word of Glory. Even if you do not use
Word of Glory actively, it synergizes extremely well with
Guided Prayer since the free auto-cast will always be cast at low health.
Sacrifice of the Just can be useful if you need to use
Blessing of Sacrifice very frequently, but is not required often.
Recompense is technically a small damage increase but has little value, and the talent point will generally be more useful elsewhere.
Unbreakable Spirit reduces the cooldown of your major defensive abilities.
Crusader's Reprieve increases your auto-attack and
Crusader Strike range and provides some small passive healing. While you technically can drop this for other utility, the range increase is extremely valuable, and it is not recommended to play without it.
Row 8-10
Seal of Might is a flat stat increase.
Divine Purpose gives your spenders a small chance to make the next spender free.
Seal of Alacrity is also a flat stat increase, with some bonus cooldown reduction for Judgment.
Of Dusk and Dawn provides a frequent damage bonus to Holy Power spenders and also a small damage reduction buff.
Seal of Order buffs
Of Dusk and Dawn’s damage bonus and also reduces the cooldown of your Holy Power generators.
Divine Toll is a damage cooldown that is strong by itself on AoE and has most of its single-target strength come from the next talent.
Divine Resonance increases the Holy Power generation during cooldown windows significantly and provides a consistent source of
Greater Judgment debuffs.
Seal of the Crusader adds a small amount of Holy damage to your auto-attacks.
Vengeful Wrath causes
Hammer of Wrath to always critically hit.
While most of your damage talents are in the Spec tree, the Class tree has plenty too. You'll always take the following damage talents regardless of build:
Greater Judgment
Holy Aegis
Avenging Wrath
Justification
Seal of Might
Seal of Alacrity
Of Dusk and Dawn
Seal of Order
Divine Toll
Seal of the Crusader
For your last point in the bottom section of the tree, Vengeful Wrath is the best choice in the vast majority of situations.
Divine Purpose is an alternative if you do not need to deal any single-target damage at all,
but it is a very small gain on AoE, and it is a large loss on single-target to drop
Vengeful Wrath.
There are also some extremely powerful defensive and mobility talents that will be universally used as well:
Divine Steed
Cavalier
Sanctified Plates
Unbreakable Spirit
Crusader's Reprieve
Past these choices, there are some utility nodes that are generally useful but not necessarily required, like Healing Hands or
Blessing of Sacrifice, and the rest can be utility choices depending
on the situation. The talent builds listed above have generalized utility talents, but you should feel free to diverge from these choices depending on your situation.
For a full breakdown of all Retribution Paladin talents, see the Spell Summary page below:
How To Use Retribution Paladin Talents
Many talents can cause your rotation to change significantly to accommodate them. For specific advice on how to best use the talents recommended, see the Rotation guide.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
"War Mode" is an opt-in feature that enables cross-faction PvP combat in the open-world. Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Retribution Paladin War Mode Talents
These recommendations are made based on usefulness in open-world PvE content. For PvP talents, see the guide above.
Lawbringer provides a small bonus to
Judgment damage when cast again.
Luminescence buffs your damage and healing by a small amount when you heal.
Aura of Reckoning will occasionally proc a few seconds of
Avenging Wrath and buff your next auto-attack.
Other War Mode talents are more focused on CC effects, which are generally not as useful for open-world content as flat damage increases.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 08 Aug. 2023: Updated talent builds and explanations.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 24 May 2023: Updated mixed single-target and full cleave build.
- 06 May 2023: Updated Templar Stikes single-target talent build to use Zealots Fervor instead of Penitence.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 17 Jan. 2022: Updated Talents.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated the single target talents to Sanctify.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Bolas, a long time Retribution Paladin enthusiast, theorycrafter, and sometimes high-end raider. You can find him in the Paladin Discord as bolas.ret.
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