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Retribution Paladin gearing guide

Patch 10.1 Last Updated: 27th Apr, 2023
Nurseos Retribution Paladin Author
Nurseos

Gear

The general rule with gearing: Item Level is the King, however, you always should sim your character.

Trinkets

S Tier:

  1. Beacon of the Beyond
  2. Elementium Pocket Anvil
  3. Storm-Eater’s Boon (only for AoE)

A Tier:

  1. Zaqali Chaos Grapnel
  2. Neltharion’s Call to Chaos
  3. Ominous Chromatic Essence with Obsidian bonus (each secondary stat)

The rest of the trinkets are somewhat similar, and you should not focus on them too much.

I would also like to mention the Homeland Raid Horn. You may find this trinket in Simcraft ratings on top; however, it is a bait. In real situations, this trinket would be more like a B-tier.

Vault of the Incarnates Tier Set 

Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Tier Set

  • 2 Set Bonus: Judgment and Hammer of Wrath deal 10% increased damage and 15% increased critical strike damage. Hammer of Wrath applies Judgment to enemies
  • 4 Set Bonus: Judgment increases the damage enemies take from your Holy Power spenders by an additional 15%. Hammer of Wrath now hits 4 nearby targets for 20% of its damage.

Tier sets management

The 4-set from Aberrus isn't that impressive by itself; however, it provides more DPS with a higher item level compared to the Vault of the Incarnates set.

If we take the baseline item level from Normal for each tier piece of T30, the result is going to be the same as 4T29 Full Mythic. The combination of 2T29 and 2T30 is a good choice, especially for AoE scenarios.

But anyway, with the current gear upgrade system, all your new tier pieces from Normal and Heroic will be possible to upgrade up to 437-441. This item level outperforms the old tier set in all scenarios.

Embellishments and Crafted Gear

      With new Sparks of Shadowflame you are able to create gear up to 447 ilvl. Before we jump into ratings and suggested order of crafting, I would like to go through all interesting crafted gear.

      Unstable Frostfire Belt - one of the best crafted gear you can have since the beginning of Dragonflight. In VOTI you were mostly forced to craft this item due to the Seal of Diurna’s Chosen. Considering the fact that this ring is still BiS - Retribution is stuck to this craft once again. It is still one of the most powerful items to craft even without this ring.

      Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch - this thing can be applied to any plate armor crafted piece and also to the cloak. This is a very powerful embellishment for a single target, but it isn’t that good for AoE. So mostly you want this craft for Aberrus raiding. Where to put this armor patch? I would say legs. Yes, it is a tier slot, however it is one of two tier pieces with the lowest item level from Mythic - 444 only. Plus legs have haste and mastery and you can tune the stats on crafted Primal Molten Legplates. It also uses the same slot as Frostfire Legguards of Preparation.

      Frostfire Legguards of Preparation - the best thing you can craft for Mythic plus content. It provides a lot of haste in every beginning of combat which is very cool, because usually you have Avenging Wrath in the beginning of each pull in M+.

      Elemental Lariat - the best days of this embellishment have passed away. Since the buff from it was nerfed from 12 to 5 seconds baseline (can still be 12 if you have all sockets on your gear) but anyway it isn’t worth it to use this embellishment anymore. Try to replace it ASAP with any necklace. Vortex Pinnacle has at least 2 good necks for Retribution: Amulet of Tender Breath or Ionized Choker.

      Allied Wristguard of Companionship - this is a versatile crafted item that  is useful in any scenario. Unfortunately, this is the only good thing about it nowadays. It isn’t close to BiS for single target and on AoE, but isn’t the worst for both types of fights at the same time. I would suggest avoiding this item if you have been using it since 10.0.7.

      Crafted Weapons - this is always a very powerful craft for Ret, but it costs 2 Sparks. Including the fact that you can get a 441 weapon from M+ or even 447 from your Great Vault I wouldn't recommend using your sparks on a crafted weapon. Especially, if you already have Ashkandur, Fall of the Brotherhood - this weapon with its additional effect equal to any 447 weapon by itself.

      Raid

      1. Unstable Frostfire Belt 
      2. Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
      3. Allied Wristguard of Companionship
      4. Elemental Lariat

      Best combos are:

      1. Unstable Frostfire Belt +  Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch with Seal of Diurna’s Chosen
      2. Without Seal of Diurna’s Chosen you can go for x2 Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch but I don’t recommend to do this if you low on Sparks

      Mythic Plus

      1. Frostfire Legguards of Preparation
      2. Unstable Frostfire Belt 
      3. Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
      4. Allied Wristguard of Companionship
      5. Elemental Lariat

      Best combo is Frostfire Legguards of Preparation and Unstable Frostfire Belt.

      Onyx Annulet and Primordial Stones

      The Onyx Annulet is a new ring from patch 10.0.7. It doesn’t have any secondary stats, however, it has 3 specific sockets for Primordial Stones. These stones add some special effects like some extra damage from different magic schools, movement speed, damage reduction or healing.

      The Onyx Annulet provides huge DPS increase with a full graded Primordial Stones on single target fights. On AoE this ring is still worse than a basic stat ring.

      The best combos of Primordial Stones are:

      Single target:

      1. Freezing Ice Stone
      2. Desirous Blood Stone
      3. Prophetic Twilight Stone

      Mythic plus:

      1. Storm Infused Stone
      2. Desirous Blood Stone
      3. Prophetic Twilight Stone

      This combo provides the best balance between single target bonus damage and damage loss on AoE.

      Stat Priorities, Races & Consumables