PVP WotLK Retribution Paladin Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVP Retribution Paladin guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Retribution. With this setup you will be king of the arena in no time!

Talents

This is the standard Retribution Paladin PVP Build.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Seal of Righteousness
• Judgement
• Exorcism

Other Viable Major Glyphs

• Salvation (Personal defense CD)
• Hammer of Justice  (if you get kited often)

Minor Glyphs

• Blessing of Might
• Sense Undead
• Lay on Hands

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
• Red: Bold Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow: Inscribed Ametrine 
• Blue: Nightmare Tear or Sovereign Dreadstone

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Torment or Arcanum of Triumph
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Axe or Inscription of Triumph
• Back: Major Agility
• Chest: Powerful Stats
• Bracers: Greater Assault
• Gloves: Crusher
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
• Boots: Greater Assault or Icewalker
• Weapon: Berserking

Stat Priority

1. Hit rating (8% for raids, 263 rating)
2. Expertise (26 is cap, 213 rating)
3. Strength
4. Critical Strike
5. Agility
6. Haste

You need 8% hit rating to never miss bosses. Expertise reduces the chance of your attacks being dodged or parried. you need 26 expertiese or 213 expertise rating to hit cap. Once you hit expertise cap bosses will not be able to dodge your attacks.

Your primary stat for this build is Strength because it provides attack power and scales with raid buffs. Critical strike rating is also a very significant DPS boost. Agility increases our critical strike rating which makes it a decent stat. Lastly we have haste which is useful primarily because it increases our auto-attack frequency.

Rotation

PVP situations don’t usually allow for a rotation so I’m going to list some gameplay tips instead.

Your opponents should always be as debuffed as possible. This will make it harder to dispell your CC’s when you use them. Every time you land a crit you get an instant Flash of Light thanks to The Art of War. Judgement has a high critical strike chance, this makes it great at letting you cast instant Flash of Light‘s.

Almost never use Holy Light to heal. It costs a ton of mana and also has a long cast time making you vulnerable to interrupts. Don’t forget that you can heal with Divine Storm though.

Using Avenging Wrath with your trinkets can lead to deadly burst dps. You should coordinate this combo with your teammates to secure a kill.