Retribution Paladin PvP Talents and Builds — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

Below are examples of the recommended builds for Templar and Herald of the Sun Paladins.

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.

Some important spells to note in the Paladin talent tree:

• Attractive looking talents like Stoicism and Fear No Evil have significant PvP nerfs and will most likely not be used.
• Blessing of Protection can be taken against physical damage dealers such as Arms Warrior however, you can opt out of this talent against Spell Casters and use it as a flex point into a talent of your choice as it is not required to pick up when selecting the PvP talent Blessing of Spellwarding
• Divine Purpose vs Sacred Strength is very close in value and ultimately personal choice.
• Shield of Vengeance can now be found in the Paladin tree
• Blessing of Dawn no longer has an offensive element to it and is no longer necessary as Retribution

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

• Boundless Judgment no longer provides two holy power solidifying Improved Judgment as the go to talent for now.
• Templar Strikes second charge no longer expires and always crits proccing Rush of Light. The talent also has an overall shorted cooldown than in The War Within.
• Final Reckoning has been removed and semi merged into the new Execution Sentence. The ability is no longer a ground targeted effect.
• Radiant Glory now only activates Avenging Wrath on use. While the proc effect was removed the talent now works with Divine Wrath
• Avenging Wrath: Might and Crusade can now be active together.
• Consecrated Blade is now passively learned at level 12. This opens up the freedom to choose talents like Consecrated Ground and Hallowed Ground more easily.

• Herald of the Sun has received a new talent column with new talents Endless Gleam, Walk Into Light, and Born in Sunlight.
• Blessing of An'she has been slightly reworked to function with Judgment now that Judgment is merged with Hammer of Wrath.
• Templar has received a new talent column with new talents Divine Hammer, Light's Judicator, and a new choice node between Divine Exaction and Seal of the Templar.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has its 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.

Blessing of Sanctuary removes all stun, silence, fear, and horror effects from your target. It also reduces the duration of these effects by 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.

Blessing of Spellwarding is a strong talent versus comps with multiple spellcasters. This talent shares a cooldown with Blessing of Protection, which means you can opt out of choosing it in the Paladin talent tree when taking this spell. Spellwarding functions much like Blessing of Protection except for spell damage. However, it does not remove magical crowd control abilities when used on yourself, unlike Blessing of Protection's ability to remove stuns like Cheap Shot

Luminescence has been changed to increase the healing from Lightbearer which should make it a strong pick in 3v3.

Hallowed Ground can now more easily be taken with the baseline of Consecrated Blade.

Spellbreaker is a new PvP talent buffing Eye for an Eye. Pending tuning this will likely not see any play as baseline Eye for an Eye is very weak.

Searing Glare is a useful spell in both Battleground Blitz and 3v3 arena against melee cleaves. Be careful to not get interrupted while casting it or you cannot use any offensive or defensive spells. This now takes the place of Blinding Light when selected.

Shining Revelation is a new talent that will not see much use. This talent is a bait. Trading stealth vision for your most valuable defensive cooldown is never worth it.