Leveling as a Retribution Paladin is easy and loads of fun.  I have had several requests for a guide on what talents to take when leveling a Paladin, so this will remedy my lack of information on the subject.  The Retribution Talent Tree is very straight forward at first, and you have 5 main goals:

1. Seal of Command @ Level 20
2. Judgements of the Wise @ Level 40
3. The Art of War @ Level 43
4. Crusader Strike @ Level 50
5. Divine Storm @ Level 60

The idea is to take the Ret Tree straight away without dipping into any of the other trees so you can obtain these top 5 talents as soon as they are available.  There are a couple useful talents that will be bypassed in the process, but can be saved until later due to the increased utility of the other abilities.

Starting Out

When setting out upon Azeroth as a brand new Level 1 Paladin, you must battle and quest your way to Level 10 before you gain access to the Paladin Talent Trees.  At Level 10 you get 1 Talent Point to spend.  From this point on, every time you level, you will get one additional point to spend.

Now, the fun part.  Here is Khor’s Detailed Guide to the Ret Paladin Talent Tree for Leveling.  Keep in mind the path I will take through the tree has LEVELING as the primary focus, not maximized endgame DPS.

Levels 10-14
Benediction – 5/5

Place your first 5 points into Benediction to help ease some mana issues you may have early on.  Since almost all of our abilities are instant cast, this affects the majority of them.  Your only other option for this tier of the talent tree is to increase your Parry, which we want none of.

Levels 15-16
Improved Judgements – 2/2

Decreasing the cooldown of Judgements by 2 seconds is huge at this early stage of leveling.  Not only does it help us increase our DPS, but it speeds up kill time, thus making for faster leveling.

Levels 17-18
Improved Blessing of Might – 2/2

Your next two points in the Ret Tree are going to be placed into Improved Blessing of Might.  This gives a 25% boost to the Attack Power bonus the buff provides.  Since BoM should pretty much be up the entire duration of your 1-80 leveling experience, this is a must-have.

Level 19
Heart of the Crusader – 1/3

We’re only dropping 1 point into the talent, because the next talent is potentially the single greatest leveling talent we have.  Don’t worry, we will eventually come back to fill this the rest of the way, but for now, just leave it at 1 point.

Level 20
Seal of Command - 1/1

The Grandaddy of all Retribution Paladin leveling talents.  Seal of Command now functions as a melee ‘cleave’, hitting up to 2 additional targets with holy damage.  So, when taking on a group of 3 mobs, mob 1 will take your melee swing, with additional holy damaage, while mobs 2 and 3 also take holy damage.  Throw in Consecration, which also becomes available at elvel 20, and you are now a leveling AoE powerhouse!  At this point, taking on groups of 5, 6, or even 7 mobs becomes completely viable, and your questing and grinding just hit lightspeed.  If you are using heirloom gear, this is when you begin to realize how overpowered Paladins may be at leveling.  Embrace it and love it!

At Level 20, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-20

Levels 21-22
Pursuit of Justice – 2/2

Here is where I will throw you for a loop.  You have increases in crit% all around you on the talent tree, and I am opting for speed increase? You bet.  And es, I am ignoring the disarm portion of that talent.  It means nothing to me.  The increased movement and mount increase is critical to eliminating downtime while leveling.  At level 20, you should have your first mount!  Congrats!  Since much of leveling is questing, it can involve alot of travel.  Back and forth, back and forth.  With this ability, for every minute you would spend traveling, you knock off 9 seconds.  That adds up fast!  Trust me on this.  Movement speed is very important to speed up leveling.

Levels 23-27
Conviction – 5/5

An all around 5% critical strike increase to…everything.  Can’t go wrong there.

Levels 28-29
Heart of the Crusader – 3/3

Now we put the last 2 points into Heart of the Crusader.  Told ya we’d come back to this.  The last 7 talents we put into the Retribution Tree gave us 7% increase to crit.  Oh yeah!

Level 30
Sanctity of Battle – 1/3

What’s this?  More crit for the Ret Paladin?  You better believe it!  This gives a small help to Exorcism and Crusader Strike, but if you see some of my leveling guides, you’ll find I don’t use Exorcism all that often until it becomes instant cast.  Crusader Strike isn’t available for another 20 levels.  So we’re just happy with the crit!

At Level 30, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-30

Levels 31-32
Sanctity of Battle – 3/3

Just dropping the last two points into this talent before we move on, giving us a 3% increae to crit from this talent.

Levels 33-35
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization – 3/3

An overal 6% damage increase to all our 2-handed weapons.  No explanation needed.  Well, you better not be using any one-handers.  For shame if you are, Ret Paladin!  Two-handers always and forever when speccing Retribution.

Levels 36-38
Vengeance – 3/3

Each time a Ret Paladin crits a target, this talent gives a 3% increase to holy and physical damage, stacking up to 3 times, for a total of 9%.  This works very well when moving quickly from mob to mob, because if you are maxed at 3 stacks, then it will refresh every time you crit, so it can stay up for quite some time if you are constantly engaged in combat.

Level 39
Sanctified Retribution – 1/1

This helps by increasing Retribution Aura damage by 50%.  Nothing spectacular, but it has its benefits.

Level 40
Judgements of the Wise - 1/3

Alas, we begin to rid ourselves of mana issues, allowing for close to 100% uptime in combat.  Judgements grant an immediate 25% of base mana, allowing for a constant easy maintenance of 75% to 100% mana at all times.  This is the second most important talent for Retribution Paladin Leveling behind Seal of Command.  The reasoning is just like I said above, in that there are no longer any mana issues.  DPS and AoE to your heart’s content, and stopping to drink to replenish mana is a thing of the past!

At Level 40, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-40

Levels 41-42
Judgements of the Wise – 3/3

Finishing out this talent is very important, so DO IT!

Levels 43-44
The Art of War – 2/2

Guess what boys and girls…Flash of Light and Exorcism just became instant…after a melee critical hit.  This is also on my top 5 list, and the main reason I like it so much is that it adds Exorcism as a staple to the DPS rotation (when AoW procs), but also allows for instant heals, creating even less downtime while leveling.  Faster kills, faster heals, faster leveling.

Level 45
Repentance – 1/1

This is the Paladins creature control, similar to a Mage’s Sheep spell.  Not a must have in the sense of needing this particular talent, but important because I need the talents in the tier below it unlocks.

Levels 46-48
Fanaticism – 3/3

Increases the crit chance of judgements by 18%.  ‘Nuff said.

Level 49
Crusade – 1/3

Head all the way back up the Retribution Tree and fund Crusade.  Just put one point in here.  A 1% increase in damage to most mob types helps, but my eye is on the level 50 talent coming up!

Level 50
Crusader Strike – 1/1

The backbone of our DPS rotations.  One more instane melee talent to add to our arsenal.  Leveling just got even faster.  This now is going to be your primary attack, pushing Judgments to second.

At Level 50, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-50

Levels 51-53
Swift Retribution – 3/3

Any Paladin aura increases attack speed by 3%.  Very good for those heavy two-handers!

Level 54
Sheath of Light – 1/3

Only one point here.  The talent allows for heal crits to generate a heal over time (HoT) effect.  We’ll come back and complete this, but for now we need to move on to some heavier talents.

Levels 55-57
Righteous Vengeance – 3/3

This is a titan of a talent, especially in endgame content.  It can also pack quite a punch in levleing too.  It gives Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, and Judgement critical hits an added 30% damage to the target over 8 seconds.

Levels 58-59
Sheath of Light – 3/3

Finishing off this talent to add additional healage.

Level 60
Divine Storm – 1/1

Retribution Paladin final talent reached (for this tree, at least)!  This AoE melee ability can cause all sorts of chaos, especially with Seal of Command up.  You will start seeing yellow and white numbers fly as this smashes into mobs.  You thought your AoE grinding was good before?  Wait until you add this into the mix.

At Level 60, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-60

Levels 61-65
Divine Strength – 5/5

This talent in the Protection Tree has been teasing, tempting, and taunting you ever since Level 10.  Strength is our most valued stat, and you wouldn’t be wrong for wanting to take this first.  It’s a healthy boost to DPS.  But doing so would push obtaining all the other talents I value higher than this back 5 levels.  Not an efficient use of time, and Paladnis hav no trouble leveling without this talent.  But now, yes now, you can cram your points into here, maxing all 5 out.

Levels 66-67
Crusade - 3/3

Head back over to the Ret Tree and finish this talent out, givng 3% damage increase to most mob types.

Levels 68-69
Sancitified Wrath – 2/2

This is the last Retribution Tree talentyou will invest points in.  Nothing groundbreaking, but a 50% increased crit chance to Hammer of Wrath is nothing to scoff at.

Level 70
Seals of the Pure – 1/5

This serves no purpose and no effect on leveling, because you won’t be using this seal at all.  Still should be using Seal of Command nearly 100% of the time.  However, there are no other truly viable leveling options available, so we have to look past this to the next tier of talents.  With only 10 levels to go, there are only 10 more points left to spend.

At Level 70, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-70

Levels 71-74
Seals of the Pure – 5/5

Just finishing this talent out so we can move to the next teir.  If it makes you feel any better, Retribution Paladins in endgame content require this talent for optimal DPS.  Its a must-have.

Levels 75-79
Divine Intellect - 5/5

Increases Intellect by 10%, thus increasing your mana pool.  More mana to spend on more DPS spells.

Level 80
Aura Mastery – 1/1

Won’t help with leveling, but hey, you’re now fully primed to head on into endgame content!

At Level 80, here is what your Retribution Talent Tree should look like: Ret Tree Lvl 1-80

Conclusion

Hope this helps for any of you leveling a Ret Pally.  Again, for me, this is my optimal route to take in the Retribution Talent Tree.  It allows for faster leveling, high DPS, low downtime, and low travel time.

If you want to carve out your own path in the talent tree, by all means go ahead.  There is no right or wrong here, because playstyles are unique to each person.  Just have fun, and enjoy leveling your Retribution Paladin!