Retribution Paladin

Is Retribution worth levelling?

Yes, and it is the clear answer for Paladin. Holy Strike from level 6 gives you a real button twenty levels before Classic gave you one. Rated good at everything except area damage.

Two honest caveats. You have no area damage whatsoever until Consecration at 20, so do not pull more than you can kill one at a time. And Paladin has no movement tools at all — it is described, fairly, as "slow, very slow."

One tip that generalises: treat mana as an extension of your health bar. Topping yourself up with Holy Light and killing the next thing at low mana usually beats sitting down to drink.

Your talent points

Level 20 — 0/0/11.

1. Deflection, 5 points — +5% parry, and Forever moved it to tier 1 so it is available from level 10
2. Improved Judgement, 2 points
3. Conviction, 3 points — this is forced, not a preference: Seal of Command is a tier-3 talent needing 10 points in the tree, and 5+2+1 would not reach it
4. Seal of Command at 20

The published respec at 20, for mana rather than damage: Benediction 5, Holy Conduit 2, Improved Judgement 2, Conviction 1, Seal of Command 1. It makes Consecration affordable and cheapens Exorcism, which matters in Ruins of Lordaeron and Shadowfang Keep.

A second published build drops Improved Judgement for two more Conviction, on the grounds that "mana is simply not an issue at level 20 with the new changes." Both are defensible.

Rotation

1. Always have a seal up — Seal of Righteousness, or Seal of Command once talented
2. On anything that will survive several Judgements, judge Seal of the Crusader first for the Holy damage amplifier, then switch back. This is cheap now: Judgement no longer consumes the seal, and the debuff lasts 40 seconds
3. Holy Strike on cooldown, as mana allows
4. Judgement on cooldown, as mana allows
5. With Seal of Command, Hammer of Justice first — Judgement of Command hits far harder into a stunned target
6. Exorcism against Undead and Demons only
7. Maintain a Blessing and an Aura; top up with Holy Light

Multi-target: none until 20. Then Consecration — full damage to the first four targets only, a trickle beyond, and expensive.

Later, Sacred Arbiter gives Holy Strike +20% damage and makes it refresh all Judgement debuffs, so staying in melee maintains them without re-judging.

Stat priority

Weapon DPS, then Hit and Expertise, critical strike, Spell Power, Strength, Intellect, Agility, Stamina.

Hit and Expertise barely appear on gear at this level, so they are close to irrelevant below 30. A slower weapon makes Holy Strike hit harder, but raw weapon DPS usually wins. Intellect jumps sharply at 26 points in the tree — level 35 — where Champion of the Light converts up to 33% of it into spell damage and healing.

Published gear lists split into a Spell Power build and an Attack Power build and call both competitive at level 20.

What defines Retribution

What Forever changed for Retribution

• Six new talents: Holy Conduit, Sanctified Judgement, Sacred Arbiter, Champion of the Light, Instrument of Law, and the Twist of Light capstone.
• Four talents deleted: Improved Blessing of Might, Improved Retribution Aura, Improved Seal of the Crusader, Sanctity Aura.
• Crusade vanished in the September 24 build and Blizzard never mentioned it — which is exactly why bad builds keep republishing it.
• Vindication now also grants you attack power. Vengeance was cut to 3 stacks and moved a tier. Eye for an Eye reflect cut from 30% to 10%. Pursuit of Justice now covers mounted speed. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization was nerfed on September 24 from 3% to 2% per rank — which is the Classic value, so against Classic it is unchanged.

At level 60

Unknown — including where the two orphaned Crusade points should actually go. Whether the Twist of Light capstone or a Holy hybrid wins is an untested either-or at 51 points, and the author of one published guide now says "it's looking like twisting might not be the way to go for Paladin raid DPS specs atm."