Retribution Paladin DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.0.5
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Retribution Paladin in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5. 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 WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic Retribution Paladin DPS talents.
Talent Choices for Retribution Paladin
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Raiding
If you wish to have a boss-by-boss breakdown of talent choices, you should check out our dedicated page below.
Mythic+
Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of certain AoE and single-target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want advice that is specific to Mythic+, you should check out our page below.
How To Use Retribution Paladin Talents
Some talents will require you to play in a particular way to get the most out of them. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Zeal causes your
Judgment to buff your next 3 auto attacks, causing them to occur 30% faster and deal additional Holy damage. The Zeal buff lasts 20 seconds and can store up to 9 buffed auto attacks.
Righteous Verdict increases
Templar's Verdict's damage by 15% for 6 seconds after casting Templar's Verdict.
Execution Sentence is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown, 30-yard range, and which costs 3 Holy Power. On cast it applies a debuff, which after 8 seconds runs out and does a high amount of Holy damage + 20% of all damage taken by you during the 8-second debuff window, all in a single hit. This ability cannot critically strike.
Righteous Verdict is currently the recommended choice in this tier
for the highest consistent single-target damage.
Execution Sentence is currently the recommended choice in this tier
for when single-target burst is more important than the highest consistent
single-target damage of
Righteous Verdict.
Zeal is currently the recommended choice in this tier for cleave
damage. The increased auto attack speed grants more
Blade of Justice
resets via the
Art of War passive and therefore increases your Holy
Power available to spend on more
Divine Storms.
For Kyrian Paladins, we recommend to play
Execution Sentence
for all single-target situations.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Fires of Justice reduces the cooldown of
Crusader Strike by 15% and gives it a 15% chance to reduce the cost of your next Holy Power spender by 1.
Blade of Wrath doubles the proc rate of
Art of War and increases the damage of the procs by 25%.
Empyrean Power grants
Crusader Strike a 15% chance to make your next
Divine Storm free and deal 25% additional damage.
Blade of Wrath is currently the recommended choice in this tier for
single-target. It works fine for cleave.
Empyrean Power is currently the recommended choice in this tier for
cleave. It works fine for single-target.
Fires of Justice should only be used if it simulates better for your
own character.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Fist of Justice causes each Holy Power spent to reduce the remaining cooldown of
Hammer of Justice by 2 seconds.
Repentance is an active ability with an 15-second cooldown. It is a form of crowd-control that incapacitates the target for up to 1 minute. Damage done will break the effect. Repentance can only be used against Humanoids, Demons, Undead, Dragonkin, and Giants.
Blinding Light is an active ability with an 90-second cooldown. It disorients all enemies within a 10-yard radius around you for 6 seconds. Non-holy damage done to them will break the disorient effect.
The talents in this tier are situational and have no effect on your DPS.
Blinding Light is currently the recommended choice in this tier, due
to its use as an AoE interrupt. In raids, you should choose based on the
requirements of the encounter.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Unbreakable Spirit passively reduces the cooldown of your
Divine Shield,
Shield of Vengeance, and
Lay on Hands by 30%.
Cavalier causes your
Divine Steed to have 2 charges.
Eye for an Eye is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown. It lasts 10 seconds, during which time it reduces the Physical damage you take by 35% and causes you to instantly counterattack any enemy that strikes you with a melee attack (dealing Physical damage to them).
In raids, we recommend Unbreakable Spirit as the default choice,
mainly allowing you to use
Shield of Vengeance more frequently, which
slightly increases your damage dealt. You can switch to
Eye for an Eye
for Physical damage heavy encounters. Lastly, if you absolutely need additional
mobility for raid encounters, you can use
Cavalier.
Cavalier is currently the recommended choice in this tier for
dungeons.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Divine Purpose causes your Holy Power spending abilities to have a 15% chance to make your next Holy Power spending ability free and deal 20% increased damage and healing.
Holy Avenger provides a 3-minute cooldown that triples all Holy Power generation for its 20-second duration.
Seraphim is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown and costs 3 Holy Power. It grants 8% Haste, Critical Strike, Versatility, and 12.8% Mastery for its 15-second duration.
Seraphim is currently the recommended choice in this tier.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Selfless Healer causes Holy Power spenders to reduce the cast time of your next
Flash of Light by 25% and increase its healing done by 10%. It stacks up to 4 times.
Justicar's Vengeance is an active ability that has no cooldown but costs 5 Holy Power. It deals a moderate amount of Holy damage to the target, healing you equal to the damage dealt. Against stunned targets, the damage and healing are increased by 50%.
Healing Hands reduces the cooldown of
Lay on Hands by up to 60%, based on the target's missing health. Additionally,
Word of Glory's healing is increased by up to 100%, based on target's missing health.
We recommend either Selfless Healer or
Healing Hands in
this tier.
Healing Hands is generally more impactful, but
Word of Glory comes with a very high 3 Holy Power cost, which significantly
reduces the amount of damage you can output if you use it often.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Retribution Paladins
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Sanctified Wrath extends
Avenging Wrath by 25%. During Avenging Wrath, each Holy Power spend causes you to explode for Holy damage in a small AoE around yourself.
Crusade replaces
Avenging Wrath. It increases your damage and Haste by 3% for 25 seconds and each Holy Power spent during Crusade increases your damage and Haste by an additional 3%, up to a maximum of 10 stacks (so a 30% increase to both damage and Haste).
Final Reckoning is a two-part ability, it has one passive and one active ability with a 1-minute cooldown, 30-yard range, and an 8-yard AoE casting circle. The active ability does a Holy damage in an area and causes a debuff that increases damage taken by your Holy Power spenders by 50%. This effect does not get consumed by Holy Power spenders. The passive effect is only active while the active ability is not on cooldown. It grants your attacks a high chance to deal Holy damage to a single target, and causes the target to take 10% increased damage taken by your Holy Power spenders. This effect does get consumed by Holy Power spenders.
Sanctified Wrath is the recommended consistent choice in
this tier for both single-target and cleave damage.
Final Reckoning is the recommended choice in this tier while using
Execution Sentence to maximize burst damage. This is also the recommended
choice for
Kyrian Paladins.
Crusade should only be used if it simulates better for your own
character.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
In Shadowlands, there will be the option to go into "War Mode". 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 to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Retribution Paladin PvP Talents
Aura of Reckoning is a passive ability, which grants you a stack of Reckoning if you or allies within your aura are critically hit. At 50 stacks of Reckoning, your next weapon swing deals increased damage and will critically strike. In addition, at this time you also gain
Avenging Wrath for 6 seconds.
Divine Punisher causes two consecutive
Judgments on the same enemy to generate 3 additional Holy Power.
Lawbringer causes your
Judgment to apply Lawbringer to initial targets hit for 45 seconds. Casting Judgment causes all enemies with your Lawbringer effect to suffer up to 5% of their maximum Health in Holy damage.
Unbound Freedom,
Luminescence,
Blessing of Sanctuary,
Vengeance Aura,
Ultimate Retribution,
Cleansing Light,
Jurisdiction, and
Law and Order have limited use for PvE
content in terms of increasing your damage in the open world in a small group
setting. For the purpose of leveling and World Quests in Battle for Azeroth,
the choices above are better options.
Changelog
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 04 Mar. 2021: Updated talent recommendations for Seraphim update.
- 16 Jan. 2021: Updated talent recommendations for Kyrian Paladins.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 10 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Execution Sentence and Final Reckoning changes.
- 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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