Method Retribution Paladin Guide - Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to the Method Retribution Paladin guide, written by Nurseos. I have been playing WoW since WotLK and joined the hardcore scene in Throne of Thunder raid of Mists of Pandaria. I have been playing Paladin since WotLK and was a Ret main through all Cataclysm and MoP raids. During MoP I was turning into a multiclass player and since WoD Ret has turned into one of my high prio alts to play on farm and I brought it through all expansions except BfA till nowadays.

Ret Paladin has always been a niche spec, and you won’t see it often in World First raid setups, however for semi-hardcore and more casual guilds it is a very solid DPS spec. Listed below are some strengths and drawbacks of the spec:

Pros

Strong 1 min or 2 min CD burst;
Strong AoE, especially against 5 targets;
Big supportive toolkit such as Lay on Hands, Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Blessing of Freedom, Auras and new combat res - Intercession;
Has a lot of Defensive abilities such Divine Shield, Shield of Vengeance and Divine Protection;

Cons

Low sustain damage outside of the burst windows
Low mobility
If you are the only paladin in your raid group you might be forced to play with Devotion Aura instead of Retribution Aura

What has changed

Changes in Patch 10.1.7

There haven't been any changes to Retribution Paladin in Patch 10.1.7 that have required updates to the guide.

August 8th Retribution Paladin Changes

Divine Storm damage increased by 8%.
Wake of Ashes damage increased 10%.
Consecration damage increased 12%.

Retribution Paladin received a small AoE damage buff and a tiny Single Target buff because of these recent changes, but nothing that will affect the playstyle.

Patch 10.0.7 Retribution Paladin Rework

If you missed patch 10.0.7 there was a huge rework for Retribution. We didn’t receive any changes in 10.1 and 10.1.5 so this info is still gonna be helpful to you.

The whole Retribution tree has been redesigned and you will also see some changes in the general tree. You are still going to use familiar abilities, but a lot of them are going to provide different bonuses.

Let's quickly go through all of the main things:

Retribution Aura now provides a unique effect. If someone in a raid or group will take damage that is more than 30% of their maximum health, you are going to apply a buff that will increase all healing and damage for 30 seconds by 5%. However, the effect of this aura is decaying overtime from 5 to 1 percent.
The old effect of Retribution Aura is now a spec passive - Instrument of Retribution. So there is no dependency from auras you are maintaining. You are going to have Avenging Wrath for 12 sec per player death.
Mastery scaling has been reduced dramatically.
Divine Steed now is 4 seconds baseline and can be used off-GCD. Talents also add an extra 2 seconds and 2 charges.
New class talent, Sanctified Plates, increases armor by 20%, stamina by 10% and also provides an extra 10% damage reduction against area of effect attacks.
Consecration now has a 20 sec CD and Haste doesn’t affect this. Talents like Sanctify now provide only 20% bonus instead of 100%. However, Consecrated Blade will apply Consecration with every use, not just Art of War procs.
Divine Protection is now your baseline defensive spell. Talents will force you to take Shield of Vengeance anyway. So we may say that Retribution now has 2 defensive abilities with 1 min CD baseline.
Divine Toll and Healing Hands now live in the class tree.
PvP-talent Unbound Freedom now in the general class tree.
The range of your abilities can be increased with Crusader’s Reprieve by 3 yards (affects Crusader Strike, Rebuke and auto-attacks) and Jurisdiction by 20 yards (affects Templar’s Verdict and Blade of Justice)
Blade of Justice generates 1 Holy Power by default, however, it can be modified in the spec tree to generate 2 Holy Power or to have 2 charges. Expurgation talent leaves a DoT on a target from every hit, not only from the crit. The talent Blade of Vengeance allows you to hit all targets in front of you with Blade of Justice. All hits will leave a DoT from Expurgation.
Judgment can be modified via talents. It can have 2 charges or generate 2 HP. It also can apply 2 or even 3 stacks of debuff on target. Judgment can also cleave up to 4 additional targets with the Blessed Champion talent.
Crusader Strike has 2 charges by default. You can modify this ability with Crusading Strikes that will turn your auto-attacks into Crusader Strikes and each second hit will provide a Holy Power. Or you can turn it into a combo-ability with Templar Strikes where the second combo hit will always be critical strike. The talent Blessed Champion will allow you to hit up to extra 4 targets with a Crusader Strike.

Removed in Patch 10.0.7

Now, let's quickly go through all things that will be removed in 10.0.7:

In the class tree: Seal of Reprisal, Hallowed Ground, Zealot’s Paragon, Seraphim, Sanctified Wrath, Aspiration of Divinity

In the spec tree:

Retribution Paladin Dragonflight 10.1.7 Guide