Retribution Paladin PvP Talents and Builds (Dragonflight / 10.0.5)

Last updated on Jan 30, 2023 at 13:14 by Mysticall 23 comments

Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Retribution Paladin and gives you the best combinations you can take.

This page is part of our Retribution Paladin PvP Guide.

1.

Talent Choices for Retribution Paladins

Below is the standard talent build you will be using in arena.

2.

Talents Summary

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

2.1.

Paladin Talent Tree Highlights

Some important spells to note in the Paladin talent tree:

  • Zealot's Paragon Icon Zealot's Paragon is one of the final talents you can take. This makes it so Hammer of Wrath Icon Hammer of Wrath and Judgment Icon Judgment have increased damage and increase the duration of Avenging Wrath Icon Avenging Wrath. This is a great talent for increasing your kill windows.
  • Cavalier Icon Cavalier gives your Divine Steed Icon Divine Steed an additional charge. This is important to help with chasing down enemies that are kiting or for you to get to a pillar to avoid damage.
  • Divine Purpose Icon Divine Purpose is in the middle of the talent tree and makes your Holy Power spells have a chance to make your next Holy Power spell free and deal increased damage/healing.
2.2.

Retribution Paladin Talent Tree Highlights

Some important spells to note in the Retribution Paladin Talent tree:

  • Empyrean Legacy Icon Empyrean Legacy is towards the bottom of the talents and this makes it so Judgment Icon Judgment causes your next Final Verdict Icon Final Verdict to activate Divine Storm Icon Divine Storm and Word of Glory Icon Word of Glory to activate Light of Dawn Icon Light of Dawn. This is a very important talent for both damage and healing output.
  • Divine Storm Icon Divine Storm is an iconic spell from Shadowlands and it will instantly cast Judgment Icon Judgment on up to 5 targets. A great spell for single target damage.
  • Blade of Wrath Icon Blade of Wrath is the best choice in this tier. This proc is great for increasing your sustained damage and will help you generate more Holy Power.
  • Final Reckoning Icon Final Reckoning. The one use part of this talent deals damage and also makes enemies hit by the damage take additional damage from your Holy Power spells. The passive of this talent gives you a chance to deal additional damage to enemies and they will take 10% increased damage from your Holy Power spells. This is overall a large increase to your burst and sustained damage.
3.

PvP Talents for Retribution Paladins

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.

3.1.

Mandatory PvP Talents

Blessing of Sanctuary Icon Blessing of Sanctuary removes all stun, silence, fear, and horror effects from you target. It also reduces the duration of these effects for 5 seconds. This gives you extra utility when playing against teams with several of these effects. This should be used versus teams that rely on stun setups on your healer to get crowd control.

Aura of Reckoning Icon Aura of Reckoning is another option if you want to increase your damage. You will gain 1 stack after you or an ally is hit with a critical strike. At 50 stacks, your next weapon swing will deal more damage and proc your Avenging Wrath Icon Avenging Wrath.

3.2.

Situational PvP Talents

Unbound Freedom Icon Unbound Freedom is a mandatory talent versus teams with multiple roots, slows or snare effects. This will make it so your Blessing of Freedom Icon Blessing of Freedom increases your movement speed and you will gain Blessing of Freedom if you use it on a teammate. It also makes it undispellable.

Law and Order Icon Law and Order is a great talent versus teams with ranged on it. More often than not, the enemy healer or DPS will have the ability to dispell your Hand of Hindrance Icon Hand of Hindrance slow. This talent makes it so you can use it more often when this happens. Blade of Justice Icon Blade of Justice will also apply this slow.

Lawbringer Icon Lawbringer makes Judgment Icon Judgment also apply the Lawbringer debuff to its initial target. Enemies hit by Lawbringer will lose up to 10% of their health. This talent is great versus teams that will be stacked often. Your cleave damage increases drastically versus these teams.

Vengeance Aura Icon Vengeance Aura makes it so that whenever you or your partners get put into crowd control, your Holy Damage and critical strike increases. This is great versus druids with Cyclone Icon Cyclone or Mages with Polymorph Icon Polymorph. You can replace Blessing of Sanctuary Icon Blessing of Sanctuary with this PvP talent, as long as the enemy team does not have much crowd control.

Judgments of the Pure Icon Judgments of the Pure is an interesting PvP talent that dispels a Poison, Disease, and Magic effect on your teammate when you use Judgment Icon Judgment on an enemy that applied it. This gives you a way to dispel debuffs. Use this against Affliction Warlocks, Shadow Priests, and Elemental Shamans to remove their debuffs.

4.

Changelog

  • 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-patch.
  • 01 Aug. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
  • 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
  • 28 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
    • Updated Talent Table.
    • Updated Tier 7 Regular Talent.
  • 10 Nov. 2021: Updated PvP Talents.
  • 02 Jul. 2021: Updated PvP Talents.
  • 08 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 17 Feb. 2021: Updated Tier 1 Regular Talents.
    • Updated PvP Talents.
  • 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
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