Retribution Paladins – Stats
Patch 3.3: Ret Paladin Stats is current for Patch 3.3. Nothing has changed to alter this priority stat list for ret paladins.
Retribution Paladins rely on strength as their main stat, and it has been that way for a very ong time. This list is what is considered optimal, but keep in mind that every person has different gear, so you may need to make some small adjustments based on what gear you are wearing.
So as a quick refresher, here are the stats you should be gemming for as a retribution paladin:
1. Hit
2. Strength
3. Expertise
4. Critical Strike
5. Agility
6. Haste
7. Armor Penetration
8. Attack Power
1. Hit – Hit affects your hit %, or ability to hit mobs and bosses. At level 80, Paladins need a total of 8% hit to be capped at 100%, meaning they never miss. Normal melee swings, Crusader’s Strike, Judgements, and Divine Storm are all affected by this. Reaching the hit cap should be your number one priority.
2. Strength – Strength is what gives us attack power and increases our damage. After hit is capped, this is what we start stacking. Remember, 1 strength = 2 AP…with the blessing of might buff in the talent tree, it ups to 1 str = 2.3 AP.
3. Expertise – Capping expertise removes a mob’s/boss’s ability to dodge our attacks. To cap this, you need 26 expertise, or 6.5%. It is recommended to maximize DPS, you have both hit and expertise capped.
4. Critical Strike – From this point on, stats at crit and below are not worth aiming for. They simply do not pack the punch that strength does. Strength should be the stat that ret paladins are stacking hands down when hit and exp are capped. However, crit wins over agility because crit also affects spell crit, whereas agility does not.
5. Agility – Inferior to critical strike, as it takes a whopping 52 agility to get 1% melee critical strike. However, crit does not stack with buffs, like Blessing of Kings, whereas agility does.
6. Haste – While haste seems like a great stat, it currently does not give us a gigantic boost like we’d hope it would. Haste lowers weapon speed, but does not decrease cooldowns on our spells and abilities.
7. Armor Penetration – This ability benefits warriors far more than it does paladins. It affects only our melee white hits, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm. It does not affect seal or spell damage.
8. Attack Power – Since we hardly see AP on plate items, this isn’t really a stat we have to worry about. Plus, 1 strength = 2.3 AP with talents is far superior than gearing up just straight AP. Go for strength instead. The only time a retribution paladin would have to worry about this is if he or she decides to dip into some leather or mail gear.
Remember, this is the ideal rank of stat importance. it varies greatly based on your current gear and talents.
For instance, at this very moment, my rank would be: 1) strength 2) critical strike 3) haste 4) armor pen 5) hit 6) exp because I am hit and exp capped. So, hypothetically, let’s say I have 2 chest pieces with equal strength…the first has crit and expertise, while the second has slightly lower crit and armor pen. Since I am expertise capped, I’d choose the second piece, since the first’s exp stat is wasted on me. Even though the crit is lower on the second piece, I still would gain more benefit from the additional armor pen.
WIth 2 piece set bonus t10, Arp is better than haste, so should specify it
Really? I wasn’t aware Armor Pen had replaced Haste with the T10 bonus…time to do some research!
I am still trying to find some concrete evidence to support Armor Pen > Haste for T10 Ret Paladins. While Armor Pen will benefit from more Divine Storms, Haste lowers weapon speed, which is what procs the 2-piece T-10 bonus to begin with.
With T10 bonuses, Consecration is used much less, and Exorcism is almost completely removed from rotations. Divine Storm has taken their places, due to frequent uptimes. So without any numbers I can scratch off myself, I am not sure which is better.
Keep in mind, both Haste and Armor Pen are still our weakest stats.
If anyone has links or sources on this topic, link em up here! I’d love to have some resources for us available.
Well Haste is still better than ArP cause more haste = more attacks = more proc’s from our t10(2 pieces)set bonus. And that result more DS and more dmg, than iff you had ArP. I think you should try get both stats, get like 300 haste and about 200-300 arp ^^ that should be very good.
Hi!
My question is that, 26 expertise is needed in 25-man raid?
How can i reach it? Pls help me:)
Really good website!;)
Pally Forever
Hey Gabris, glad you like the site! Expertise is a tricky stat, and some Ret Paladins won’t even cap it in favor of other stats. There’s no real set way of capping expertise. You just have to mix and match gear that optimizes your DPS.
What I can tell you is that you don’t want to gem for expertise right now. You are far better off plugging in a Bold strength gem.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance will give you extra expertise, so if you are not capped, that Seal is a must.
You can also look into the Kirin Tor Rep ring if you have the gold to spare. That is some free expertise as well. Since we are winding down with the WotLK expansion though, your 7k gold may be better used elsewhere
About expertise, as Khor stated: “You just have to mix and match gear that optimizes your DPS.” Which is exactly what I did, this should be easily obtained. As of right now, I have 0 Arp on my gear, a little haste (because I was also thinking it would give me more DS resets) and I have 28 exp (over cap even) and I did not glyph for it. I believe (ofcourse I cant be sure about this) if u would focus on our priority list, you should easily get the exp and hit cap, because after crit there isnt a better green stat on gear then hit and exp.
Madrenn from Thrall (US).
Wow! Thanks so much for this site! I just hit 80 with my Holy Pally through little more than solo grinding. This is also my first WoW character. I finally realized when I started doing instances that being a healer is not a job I love, nor was it one that I was particularly good at. So I dual-spec’ed into Ret and absolutely love it!
Now with the help of this site, I am learning the specs I need to focus on as well as the gear I need to help me out. I just wish I had learned of this site before spending $1K gold on new equipment when I re-spec’ed!
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Executus&cn=Gdnal
Thanks for taking the time to keep this site up!
Ive been looking all over for what the stats should actually be close to and have yet to find it. Maybe someone here can help?
Str – 1941
Power: 4373
hr – 270 (i know im slightly over cap this one I can find)
crit – %33.54
expertise – 16 (human using a 2h sword)
Im still a work in progress but wondered what numbers I should be shooting for
this is all unbuffed
Im hit capped and gemming for strength
I have 2 t9 and 1 t10 will have the second t10 in 7 more badges
I’m hit capped and my Expertise is 18. I have a the ‘Glyph of the Seal of Vengeance’ which gives 10 expertise when Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption is on. That give me 28 Expertise. That’s how I get expertise capped in raids.
Hey Khor!
I just barely started playing about a month or so ago and I could never find a concrete player to start with. The guild i am apart of are really helpful and suggested this ret tree guide to help and i have been flying through lvls and quests.
Thanks for taking the time to make this. It really helped alot!
Best site for Ret Pallies for sure. Keep it up
Glad to hear it helps Blast! Keep it up and let me kow if there’s anything I can be of help with!
hey Khor,
Awesome site, i came across this site in my travels for stats for paladins. ive been a tank for ages and neglected my ret side of things. with this guide ive been able to get my ret gear sorted out faster and easier. But i do have a question about the stats –
How much crit is too much crit? as with crit it starts to get useless after a while and doesnt haold up much weight as a stat. Im currently hit capped, almost at the exp cap but have a staggering 39% crit and ive seen my DPS just stall. it doesnt get any better or wrose really, should i be changing anything?
http://wow-heroes.com/index.php?zone=eu&server=Lightbringer&name=Ayzen
Hallo James! I checked your gear and I do have some suggestions. I have a pretty good idea why your DPS stalled. Our gear is good for sure, especially with your T9. I am going to post my suggestions on my forums, so head on over there in a bit. I need to get to my PC, as this laptop is about to die. I’ll hopefully have the thread up in less than an hour!
I’m a paladin in training… (The Sha’Tar – EU server – Bloodelf, Name: Minaki) *Posted that if you want to check me out on the armory.*
And I need to ask.. when I’m leveling.. should I only focus on strength? Or should I prio hit over str? I want to know so that I can build up my gear until I ding 80. Also, should I be running normal instances first for gear before I enter the heroic dungeons? I know that some classes can enter heroics on their 80 ding while others need to gather some better gear.
And finally, should I let hit/expertise come from gear? Or should I enchant/gem for it untill caped?
Thank you for a great site!
When leveling, you want to focus on strength. Don’t worry about +hit until you get to level 80.
When you ding 80, if you have the funds to buy you some decent gear, then heroics are a good option for you. If not, then I’d suggest running a few normal dungeons first, particularly ToC 5-man.
Hit and expertise gets better as gear gets better. If you are in beginning blue and a few odd purple gear pieces, gemming for hit isn’t a bad idea. Otherwise, let it come with gear, it’ll come alot quicker than you think. I wouldn’t recommend gemming for expertise at all.
Right now I currently have 4pcT10(1 piece Sanc), mostly ICC25 gear, some 10 man gear mixed in. For whoever was curious about the stats they may have.
I’m currently sitting at:
(Unbuffed)
2432 Strength
5423 Attack Power
38.50% Crit
20 Exp(123 rating – without SoC)
467 Haste
286 Hit
72 Armor Pen(I don’t roll on gear OR gem for ArP)
When fully raid buffed in a 25, and all of my trinkets, ring, weapon, and everything procs, I’m at about 11,000 Attack Power, 49% Crit, 30 Expertise(just over cap but only from the Glyph). The way it seems to me currently, is on a boss fight for a Retadin you start out slow, but once you build up some momentum you climb the dps chart. Because of some of the trinkets and the new libram and all it takes about 15-20 seconds and then you’re operating at 100% potential.
Hi guys! Could someone explain the effect AP has to spell power? I mean strength increases your spell power by what amount? Sry if its a dumb question, but Im new to the paladin ’scene’
Thx
Since WotLK Retadins simply gear out hit, expertise, strength, crit, and haste. Get hit and expertise capped and stack as much strength and crit you possibly can. You want to used Inscribed Ametrines(+10str +10crit) in any yellow socket that gives a +STR bonus. As far as the spell power part of your question, it’s not of very much importance as long as you are stacking these stats you will be fine.
You ONLY gem the yellow slot with +4str or more and ONLY if you have ONE yellow slot in the piece.
Yes gem yellow:
http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=50002
NO don’t gem yellow:
http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=50801
Hey Khor great site, it has definitely helped alot. I have a concern though as i run ICC i feel like i’m not pulling the DPS i should be. I’m pretty solid on rotation(not that hard with FCFS). But if anyone on here could look at my stats and gear for suggestions it would be much appreciated.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tortheldrin&cn=Delajin
Thank you
Hey Dela, I’ll be happy to help! One request, with more incoming requests for help on checking gear and specs, I am redirecting everyone to the forums. Open up a thread there with your link and anything else, and we will start dissecting what improvements can be made. And fyi, I did peek at your armory, and there are some tweaks that might help up your DPS!
http://retributionpaladins.com/forums
Thanks for the quick response Khor i’ll head over there now.
I think your strength explanation is wrong, Blessing of Might doesn’t affect our strength in the slightest, it just adds 687 AP (talented). The talent that makes strength better is Divine Strength, increasing it by 15% – so every 20 strength you get an extra 3 str, or 6 AP.
I have up until now, been using other resources for ret pally advice, and fear i was steered down the wrong track. If you check my gear on (azjol-Nerub) you will see i stupidly gemmed for hit and crit, as somewhere i read that i should be hard capped on hit rating and crit would make all the difference. As it happens my DPS seems to be all over the place. I use the same rotation for most mobs, CS, JoW, DS, CS, Ex, Consecration, rinse and repeat until HoW is up, (using seal of command). and my dps will go from 2.5k on one mob, all the way up to 5-6 on another, which lets face it, unless you are looking at Overall data on recount, is pretty daft.
I now know that i should only be worrying about 8% hit rating, and 26 expertise, but where do i stop slotting/enchanting for strength and start worrying about haste? I’m not in a raiding guild so getting t10 stuff is a long process that I have really only just started, but i’ve seen Ret pallies in t9 gear still doing 7k consistently and not really had much of a chance to check their gems.
To sum up, i now know where i have gone wrong with my gems, but im a little confused on where to start with replacing them. Should i just go nuts on +str gems and not worry too much about haste and Arp?
Hey Thunorian, glad you found your way here! Let’s see if I can help you with gems and stats…
First, you will gem all strength, strength, and even more strength. Even if it’s a blue slot, still gem all strength. Now, if you have at least 2 pieces of T9 gear, then you can gem a +str/+crit orange gem in yellow slots where the slot bonus is +strength. With me so far?
So, if you have a piece of gear that has 3 red gem slots, gem all bold +strength gems.
If you have a piece of gear that has 1 red and 1 yellow gem slots with +str as the socket bonus, gem a bold +str and orange +str/+crit gem.
If you have a piece of gear that has 1 red and 1 yellow gem slots with +crit as the socket bonus, gem all bold +strength gems (since the socket bonus is not +strength, it’s a DPS loss to gem for the socket bonus).
If you have a piece of gear that has 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue gem slot with any type of socket bonus, you gem all bold +strength gems.
Hope that makes some sense!
Now, onto haste and armor pen. Haste is very good, especially at T10 gear and above. However, we do not gem for it, under any circumstances. Strength provides the best DPS boost, no ifs ands or buts
When you get to T10 levels of gear, choosing plate gear with +haste and +crit will be top priority.
Armor penetration is our worst DPS stat because it is based on melee damage. Since about half of our DPS comes from Holy spell damage, it negates the usefulness of armor penetration. Therefore, we do not gem for it, and it falls to the bottom of our useful DPS stats on gear.
The order goes (for plate gear): strength > crit > haste > armor pen.
Make sure when doing 5-mans and the like, that Seal of Command is your primary seal. That is what pushes us to high DPS in those dungeons.
PS Simplified TLDR version: gem all bold +strength gems in all your gem slots with the exception fo the 2 T9 rule I mentioned above
You can armory me if you would like to see how I have gemmed. Khor on US Shadowsong 
First Hi all, so from my personal experience for me Haste I better then crit and arp,my paladin has 6.3k gs I have a 3.6sec weapon,4 pices of t10.5 and tiny a bomb in a jar.. Haste helps a lot to get to 8 motes and refresh DS … I have +500 haste and I want moreeee!! I’m doing+13k in icc25 hm and +10k in rs25 man
Hey Khor, awesome little guide there but i have one question. Wich one is the better, Agility or Strength? My friend says Agility while i personaly go for Strength (we are both level 80 ret paladins)
Strength is always better for Paladins.
haha, I’m overcapped alot on my pala.
Hit rating 382
Expertise 52, and i don’t Gem for any of those xD
DMG 2601
Str 2010
AP 4758
Crit 31,99%
So yeah. I’m doing decent dps also. 10-11k dps in icc 25man.
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