Retribution Paladin Stats, Races & Consumables guide

Ret doesn’t have a fixed stat priority. The most important thing you can do is SIM YOURSELF.

You want a little bit of everything, but mastery and haste are the best stats to go for overall. Mastery also gains increased value the more targets there are. Haste gains a lot of value when you have tier set bonuses equipped because you get more auto-attacks (procs).

The “haste” cap:

9.2 changes: With Zeal and Sanctified Wrath being the chosen talents in almost every situation, the “haste-cap” doesn’t really exist. As haste is very good, you want a lot of it (above 20%), but it’s the same as before - you want a good mix of secondary stats.

There is a lot of talk about haste caps and the breakpoint in order to get an extra global in the Execution sentence window (at 21.5%). I would never try to hit this by sacrificing other stats. The first reason for this is that you will lose enough of the other stats for your abilities to simply not hit hard enough in order for it to be worth it.

The second reason is that this is a theoretical breakpoint. It will happen that you will get an extra global in, but there are a lot of situations where you will be forced to move, get a mechanic, or simply have a minor lag-spike (keep in mind the breakpoint is 21.5% in a SIM, meaning it’s done with zero latency, zero misplays and on a patchwerk fight). This just makes it wasted in a lot of situations, on top of the fact that it simply doesn’t do a whole lot in the perfect situation either.

A stat ranking would look somewhat like this:

Strength > Haste = Mastery = Versatility > Crit

Stat Outline

Mastery: Increases all holy damage done. The best overall stat, and does more damage on AoE burst, as all of your AoE abilities deals holy damage.

Haste: As touched upon above, it reduces your GCD, ability CDs and makes your melee swings faster. Very good synergy with the tier-set.

Versatility: Very straight-forward stat, simply makes you do more damage, heal more, and take less damage. A quite underrated stat in my opinion, as taking less damage can really help during progression or in tough fights.

Crit: Increases the chance for your abilities to do 2.0x normal damage/healing. Gains increased value when using the Expurgation conduit.

Alliance: The best race overall used to be Dark Iron Dwarf by far, as the Fireblood racial lined up perfectly for ret and made your 1-minute pop with Execution Sentence really strong. It is still one of he best races for ret, but human is the best at the moment - due to the secondary stats gained from The Human Spirit.

Horde: For horde, the best option is Tauren, primarily due to the Brawn trait, as well as Endurance making your Shield of Vengeance bigger. Blood Elf might pull ahead in sims, but that is due to Arcane Torrent being pre-cast. In reality, you will pre-cast Judgment on the pull and save the GCD, as the holy power gained from Arcane Torrent disappears when you enter combat, making it impossible to pull off practically.

Read Stat Rankings above. In general, you will never never go wrong with gemming and enchanting haste/mastery.

Ring enchants: Enchant Ring - Tenet of Haste. If your sims are telling you your values are very different, enchant those stats instead.

Weapon enchant: For raiding, you always want Sinful Revelation on single-target, but on cleave fights like Prototype Pantheon and Lords of Dread, you want to use Celestial guidance. This is also the case on fights where the Sinful Revelation proc won’t consistently go on your current target, like Anduin Wrynn.

Cloak enchant: The go-to enchant is Fortified Speed. You can also choose Fortified Avoidance if you are doing high m+ keys or struggling on raid fights where you take very high AoE damage.

Glove enchants: Eternal Strength.

Bracer enchant: Shaded hearthing for more bubble hearthstones naturally.

Weapon oil/stone: Shaded Weightstone / Shaded Sharpening Stone.

Read stat ranking above. Most of the time you want to gem haste, but gem whatever stat your sims tell you to go for.

Food: Feast of Gluttonous Hedoinism (Tenebrous Crown Roast Aspic if there is no feast).

Flask: Spectral Flask of Power.

Armor kit: Heavy Desolate Armor kit.

Potion: Potion of Spectral Strength.

Remember to use Healthstones, Spiritual Healing Potion and Phial of Serenity to survive.