Retribution Paladin DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2

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.

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+ 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:

Talent	Explanation
Blade of Justice	One of your primary Holy Power generators and a core rotational button.
Divine Storm	Your main Holy Power spender in AoE situations.
Swift Justice / Light of Justice	A small reduction to the cooldown of the generator of your choice.
Expurgation	Increases the damage output of Blade of Justice significantly and makes it a strong AoE ability with Blade of Vengeance.
Improved Blade of Justice / Holy Blade	Improved Blade of Justice is commonly used with Crusading Strikes to reduce rotational downtime. Holy Blade is taken with most other talent builds to increase overall Holy Power generation.
Final Verdict	A strong replacement for Templar's Verdict, which increases its damage and range significantly.
Guided Prayer	A passive heal that procs when you drop below 25% health.
Art of War	Increases Holy Power generation by regularly resetting Blade of Justice’s cooldown.

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.

Talent	Explanation
Jurisdiction	Increases the range and damage of Final Verdict and Blade of Justice even further.
Tempest of the Lightbringer	Effectively buffs Divine Storm damage by 20%. A substantial increase in AoE damage.
Shield of Vengeance	A large damage absorb that also does a significant amount of damage when the absorbed amount is fully depleted or expires.
Vanguard's Momentum	Hammer of Wrath gains a second charge and generates an extra Holy Power on targets below 20%. It will usually allow you at least one extra Hammer of Wrath cast each cooldown window and substantially increases your Holy Power generation during execute windows, or when you can use them to snipe secondary targets during downtime.
Zealot's Fervor	A decent small buff to Holy Power generation when using Crusading Strikes, and also incidentally works well with Art of War.
Rush of Light	A small haste proc that will naturally have a high uptime on single-target.
Boundless Judgment	Increases the Holy Power Judgment provides. This is especially strong with Divine Toll and Divine Resonance.
Crusading Strikes	Removes Crusader Strike from your rotation and provides a more consistent, passive-generation playstyle.
Templar Strikes	Turns Crusader Strike into a 2-part combo, where the second part of it will be a guaranteed critical hit.
Divine Wrath	Increases Avenging Wrath duration.
Consecrated Blade	Replaces Consecration as an active ability and procs it passively during your regular rotation.
Empyrean Legacy	Procs free Divine Storms during your regular single-target rotation. A solid increase on either single-target or low-target count cleave situations.
Blade of Vengeance	A strong AoE increase, allowing Blade of Justice to hit all enemies near your target, applying Expurgation to them.
Vanguard of Justice	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.
Heart of the Crusader	A small buff to auto-attack and Crusader Strike damage. It’s less beneficial with Crusading Strikes as these abilities are combined, meaning they make up less of your overall damage.
Highlord's Judgment	Each Judgment now applies multiple Greater Judgment debuffs. More useful when you end up casting more frequent spenders, but since the majority of spenders are buffed regardless it tends to have a small impact.
Avenging Wrath: Might	Avenging Wrath now also increases your critical strike chance.
Crusade	Turns Avenging Wrath into a stacking buff that also provides Haste, but now has a 2 minute cooldown.
Blessed Champion	Judgment and Crusader Strike now hit 2/4 extra targets, at 50% damage.
Empyrean Power	Crusader Strike and its derivatives have a chance to let you cast a free buffed Divine Storm.

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.

Talent	Explanation
Adjudication	A solid passive bonus that increases your critical hit damage and adds an extra AoE bonus to Hammer of Wrath.
Blades of Light	Makes most of your single-target abilities deal Holystrike damage, which is important for the next talent. This also lets Crusading Strikes and Crusader Strike be buffed by Mastery.
Divine Arbiter	Increases the damage of Holystrike abilities and has an extra damage proc bonus effect as well.
Aegis of Protection	Increases the effectiveness of damage reduction cooldowns.
Execution Sentence	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.
Final Reckoning	A large AoE burst cooldown. Excellent in AoE situations and usable but not impressive for single-target.
Executioner's Will	Increases the duration of Execution Sentence and Final Reckoning’s debuffs. It is very strong with Execution Sentence, but not great with Final Reckoning.
Wake of Ashes	Deals large frontal damage and generates 3 Holy Power. One of the hardest-hitting abilities you have.
Seething Flames	Causes Wake of Ashes to hit multiple times. It reduces its damage to secondary targets, but the multiple hits mean it is still a strong talent in all situations.
Truth's Wake	Adds an extra DoT component to Wake of Ashes.
Penitence	Increases periodic ability damage, namely Expurgation, Truth's Wake, and Execution Sentence.
Burning Crusade	Makes some of your AoE abilities deal Radiant damage and increases their damage by 5%.
Searing Light	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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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:

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.

"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.

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.