Retribution Paladin Talents

Current for Patch 3.3 and Patch 3.3.2

The Ret Talent Tree seems to change with each content patch, as our DPS and damage output is modified by talent and ability changes. Retribution Paladin talents will primarily focus on the Retribution Tree, while dabbling in Protection and Holy. It seems to vary, depending on raid encounters, how far we dip into the other trees, and as of Icecrown Citadel raiding, we are currently only dropping 5 points into protection, while the remaining are put into Holy for aura and seal buffing.

Whether you are leveling, PvPing, raiding, or soloing content, it is important to pay attention to your talents, and try to create the optimal set-up for whatever you are doing in World of Warcraft at the time. Make sure you are putting points into talents that are relevant to what you are trying to accomplish. A little research can help with this, and I hope this can point you in the right direction!

RETRIBUTION RAIDING: The current cookie cutter talent build for Patch 3.3 raiding Ret Paladins is 11/5/55.

Seals

Seal of Command
Seal of Command is our main seal for leveling. In end game content, it also is our main seal for dungeons, and raid trash mobs. Seal of Command functions as a cleave, boosting Ret DPS into the clouds with some very high AoE damage. SoC deals damage in two ways, the first being automatic damage when Judged, and the second being procced damage from melee attacks.

STATS: 36% holy damage added to all melee attacks. Holy damage when judged.

USES: Leveling, 5-man dungeons, raid trash mobs.

Khor’s Tips: The above uses are generalized, and other seals may be of better use depending on your gear and talent set-up. Personally, I use Seal of Command for everything except raid bosses. In 5-man dungeons, my gear is strong enough now that I don’t bother switching to SoV for bosses. I just leave SoC running for the whole time. Using SoC in combination with the T10 2-set bonus creates some insane AoE damage, so make sure you are keeping a sharp eye on your threat…because you will pull it!

Seal of Vengeance / Seal of Corruption
This is our heavy hitting seal for single target encounters. Long known for heavy burst DPS, the Retribution Paladin of old could not keep up on the DPS charts for boss fights. Seal of Vengeance is the remedy to that. Though the ramp up time to full DPS potential is slower than the other seals, once it peaks, there is no match for single target fights, aka bosses. Seal of Vengeance is a unique ability for Ret Paladins because it is affected by stats in 3 different ways. It is first affected by Attack Power, then by Spell Power, then by Attack Power again that affects weapon damage. This is because SoV deals damage in three ways: a damage over time effect, and proc when a maximum 5 stacks is reached, and the damage done when judged. For a detailed write-up on Seal of Vengeance mechanics, check out the Ret Pally thread on Elitist Jerks.

STATS: 33% weapon damage + 2.5% Attack Power + 1.3% Spell Power per tick, holy damage when judged.

USES: Raid and 5-man dungeon bosses.

Khor’s Tips: Because I use SoC for 5-mans, this is solely used for raid boss encounters. Keeping 5 stacks of SoV on the boss at all times should be a top priority, because if you don’t you will see a significant drop in DPS. Re Paladins can be extremely strong single target DPSers, but much of that relies on your SoV management and ability to adjust your strategies during the encounter.

Seal of Righteousness
Seal of Righteousness has been pushed to the bottom of our DPS seals, forcefully being shoved out of the way by Seal of Command for PvE purposes. SoR still does have utility in PvP due to heavy hitting Judgements, and can be used on single target trash in raids as well.

STATS: Additional damage on melee attacks, Holy damage when judged.

USES: PvP, single target raid trash.

Khor’s Tips: I used to use SoR occasionally on raid trash, and that still is the recommendation unless you have lvl 251 gear, at which point Seal of Command starts hitting harder. So, now, I use SoC for single target raid trash. This is still my seal for PvP mainly, unless I find myself amidst groups of Horde, in which case I will switch to SoC.

Seal of Light
Seal of Light has a very definitive purpose, and that is to keep a Paladin alive in the toughest of fights. By switching from a DPS seal to a Healing seal, the Paladin gets a heavy influx of additional healing while in combat.

STATS: Chance to heal on melee attacks, holy damage dealt when judged.

USES: Solo Content, Leveling.

Khor’s Tips: Seal of Light is my main choice for soloing old world raids, such as ZG, AQ20, and Molten Core. By activating this seal, I trade off DPS for health, susually guaranteeing success. In regards to using this seal when leveling, I can see the functionality serving a purpose on elite mobs and possible large packs of AoE grinding, but my personal advice is to use Seal of Command instead. The trade off isn’t equal while leveling, so you’d be better off going with the pure DPS seal.

Seal of Wisdom
Seal of Wisdom gives a Paladin an additional source of mana if needed. This is the least used seal for Retribution Paladins.

STATS: Chance to restore 4%mana on melee attacks, holy damage dealt when judged.

USES: Desperate mana shortage situations.

Khor’s Tips: Seal of Wisdom is what I like to dub my ‘emergency seal’. Because I have many other means of regenerating mana, I think I have used this maybe once or twice in the last YEAR. The only real common use I can think of is when leveling, if you run out of mana and don’t want to stop to drink, pop this seal and continue DPSing until your mana replenishes.

Judgements

Judgement of Wisdom
One of our primary PvE seals, Judgement of Wisdom helps prevent those dreadful out-of-mana (OOM) situations. Because Retribution Paladins can chew through mana with our plethora of instant cast attacks and abilities, mana can be an issue at times. This also benefits other mana using DPSers, such as Hunters, though this won’t be a problem in Cataclysm when Hunters switch from mana to focus.

STATS: Chance to restore 2% base mana on attacks.

USES: Raiding, 5-man dungeons, solo content, leveling.

Judgement of Light
Judgement of Light is our other top PvE seal. Using JoL depends in raids depends on if there are other Paladins in the raid or not, and what their specs are. If you are Ret and there is a Prot Paladin tanking, let them JoL while you JoW, so that everyone benefits from both seals. In fights where there is no other Paladin, or there is alot of incoming raid damage, JoL may be preferable over JoW for the additional healing support.

STATS: Chance to restore 2% maximum health on attacks, holy damage dealt when judged.

USES: Raiding, 5-man dungeons, solo content, leveling.

Judgement of Justice
This is a Ret Paladin’s primary PvP seal. Keep in mind the duration lasts 10 seconds, not 20 seconds like the tooltip says.

STATS: Limits movement speed to 100%, and further reduces movement a considerable amount beyond that so long as JoJ is active.

USES: PvP, situational PvE soloing and leveling.

DPS

Crusader Strike
Crusader Strike is one of our core DPS attacks. As an instant cast melee attack, it can trigger Righteous Vengeance and seals. It does not, however, refresh judgements.

STATS: 75% weapon damage.

Divine Storm
Divine Storm is our monstrous AoE attack. Available as the 51 point talent in the Retribution Talent Tree, Divine Storm causes 110% weapon damage to any enemies within the immediate vicinity of the Paladin. This can be behind the Paladin as well. Divine Storm can crit, and will trigger Righteous Vengeance and seals. It also moves up in the FCFS rotations for Ret Paladins with 2 piece T10 bonus. Is a healing melee attack, in that it will heal up to 3 party/raid members for 25% of damage done.

STATS: 110% damage to 4 enemies near Paladin, heals up to 3 party members for 25% of damage done.

Consecration
Consecration is a Ret Paladin’s damage over time attacking ability. This is not considered a melee attack, and does use more mana than other damaging attacks. Nonetheless, it is still widely accepted as mandatory for FCFS rotations to maximize DPS. Only with 2 piece T10 bonus do we see Consecrate diminishing in use.

STATS: 113 damage per second for 8 seconds + 4% Attack Power + 4% Spell Power. Duration increased with Glyph.

Exorcism
Exorcism is a non-melee damaging spell ability that has a 100% chance to crit on undead and demons. With a 1.5 second cast time, this is not considered a viable attack unless Art of War is procced. Even then, the spell is still low enough on the FCFS rotation that it will be passed over if Crusader Strike, Judgement, Divine Storm, Hammer of Wrath, or Consecrate is up. Only use if no other attack is available. For leveling purposes, this can be a mana sink, but is particularly effective for burning down mobs quickly. Not useful as a pulling mechanism. Use Hand of Reckoning to pull mobs.

STATS: 1028 Holy damage + 15% Attack Power + 15% Spell Power.

Hammer of Wrath
Usable on mobs below 20% HP, this attack generally floats to the top of our FCFS rotations when available. For leveling and soloing purposes, this makes for a great tool for preventing mobs from running away. Nothing like planting that holy hammer in the back of someone’s head as they try to flee! Hammer of Wrath is instant cast, with a 6 second cooldown, and can be buffed to up to 50% crit chance with talents in the Retribution Tree.

STATS: 1139-1257 holy damage + 15% Attack Power + 15% Spell Power.

Holy Wrath
Deals holy damage to all undead and demons. This spell attack has no target limit and will stun each mob hit for 3 seconds. Very useful in ICC 5 and 10-mans. At the bottom of the FCFS rotations. Situational use for large packs of undead may place it higher.

STATS: 1050-1234 holy damage + 7% Attack Power + 7% Spell Power.

Divine Plea
Our mana recovery spell. Throwing this in the DPS area because this will be used on a consistent basis to keep mana renewed. Elitist Jerks has this spell accounting for 10% of our total incoming mana on bosses.

STATS: 25% of total mana restored over 15 seconds. Healing from Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock reduced by 50%.

Talents

Art of War
A very solid talent with DPS increase, and creating instant casts on FoL and Exorcism. While neither of these are overly powerful for a Paladin, they still both serve generally good uses. Instant Exorcisms allow the spell to be put into FCFS rotations. They are omitted if not. Flash of Light as an instant cast is very helpful for Paladins on the run, or who need quick heals. If healers are overburdened, this may mean the difference between staying alive or adding to your repair bill.

STATS: +10% damage to Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, and Judgements. Flash of Light or Exorcism instant cast on melee crits.

Judgements of the Wise
Very, very strong mana regeneration tool for paladins. This is just as useful leveling as it is in endgame content. Judgements of the Wise keeps a Paladin from ever really having to stop to mana up. A huge time saver, and very important to Ret Paladin DPS.

STATS: +25% base mana on damaging judgement attacks. +1% Mp5 for 15 seconds to up to 10 raid/party members.

Righteous Vengeance
From Arikah: “The RV dot does indeed “roll” like the warrior version, meaning critical judgements and DS’s in succession will refresh the dot duration, not overwrite it. The RV dot is a magic effect and thus dispellable, can be partially resisted by bosses, but is not mitigated by armor. With 2pc T9 equipped, RV crits for 200% damage, just like any of our other melee abilities.”

From Redcape: “It adds the new critical damage onto any remaining damage in the dot and then resets the duration with the new damage total. There is absolutely no need to maintain the stack in any fashion, the stack falling off does not cause you to lose dps.”

Source: [Elitist Jerks Ret Thread]

STATS: +30% damage over 8 seconds from Divine Storm, Judgement, and Crusader Strike melee attacks.

Sheath of Light
An excellent talent, giving Retribution Paladins some potent healing when needed. The HoT from Sheath of Light functions similar to Righteous Vengeance, allowing for crit heals to cause the HoT to roll. Stacking strength is also important here, as it is converted into spell power. More stats, more DPS.

STATS: Increases Spell Power by 30% of Attack Power, critical healing spells heal for additional 60% of amount healed over 12 seconds.

Sacred Shield

Equally important in both PvE and PvP scenarios. Has a shield refresh timer of 6 seconds. Very strong ability if you find yourself having to self-heal frequently. Sacred Shield increases FoL crit chance, activating Sheath of Light more frequently. Keep the passive heals rolling.

STATS: Absorbs 500 damage, increases crit chance of Flash of Light by 50%.