PVE WotLK Retribution Paladin DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Retribution Paladin guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Retribution.

Talents

This is the standard Aura Mastery spec. It has all of the core Retribution talents and Divine Intellect, and Aura Mastery from Holy.

This second build is a Divine Sacrifice build. This build is recommended for progression rading with a serious guild. This build is lower DPS with higher raid survivability thanks to Divine Sacrifice.

The first spec, Aura Mastery, is higher DPS and generally recommended.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Seal of Vengeance
• Judgement
• Consecration

Minor Glyphs

• Blessing of Kings or 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 or Precise Cardinal Ruby (if not expertise cap’d)
• Yellow: Inscribed Ametrine (1x with STR socket bonus) or Rigid King’s Amber (if not hit cap’d)
• Blue:  Nightmare Tear (1x for meta)

Relentless Earthsiege Diamond requires 1 of each color to be activated, after activating it fill the rest of your sockets with Bold Cardinal Ruby.

Enchants

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

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

Retribution Paladins have more of a priority list than a rotation. The priority list is listed below.

1. Hammer of Wrath 
2. Judgement 
3. Crusader Strike 
4. Divine Storm 
5. Consecration 
6. Exorcism
7. Holy Wrath

Other than that, just use any skill as it comes off cooldown.