Retribution Paladin PvP Builds

• Build #1 – The core build
• Some build options
• Gems and Enchants
• Videos
• Macros

Ret builds have a fair amount of variation depending on what you want to do. There’s a core build that most might agree on, which is below, and then there are few places to spend those last ten points.

Note: Some aspects of this guide may not apply to your character until higher level. If are interested in getting your character to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide:

Core Retribution Build

You can view this base build, here.

Some might pull a point out of Art of War or Acts of Sacrifice and put that point into Guardian’s Favor.

Arbiter of the Light can be considered a core talent as it’s a significant damage increase.

Retribution (31 Points)

1. Crusade – Rank 3/3 – Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Templar’s Verdict by 30%, and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by 30%. In addition, for 15 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor, your next Holy Light heals for an additional 300%.
2. Improved Judgement – Rank 2/2 – Increases the range of your Judgement by 20 yards.
3. Rule of Law – Rank 3/3 – Increases the critical effect chance of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous and Word of Glory by 15%.
4. Pursuit of Justice – Rank 2/2 – You have a 100% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect. In addition, increases your movement and mounted movement speed by 15%. This effect does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
5. Communion- Rank 1/1 – Your auras increase your party and raid’s damage dealt by 3%, and your own damage is increased by an additional 2% at all times. In addition, your Judgement causes Replenishment.
   1. Replenishment – Grants up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of their maximum mana per 10 sec. Lasts for 15 sec.
6. The Art of War – Rank 3/3 – Your autoattacks have a 20% chance to make your next Exorcism instant, free and cause 100% additional damage.
7. Long Arm of the Law – Rank 2/2 – Your Judgement has a 100% chance to increase your movement speed by 45% for 4 sec when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
8. Sacred Shield – Rank 1/1 – When reduced below 30% health, you gain the Sacred Shield effect. The Sacred Shield absorbs ((1) + (AP * 2.8)) damage and increases healing received by 20%. Lasts 15 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 sec.
9. Seals of Command – Rank 1/1 – Your Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Truth, and Seal of Justice now also deal 7% weapon damage when triggered. In addition, your Seal of Righteousness now hits all enemy targets within melee range.
10. Sanctified Wrath – Rank 3/3 – Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 6%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 60 secs and allows the use of Hammer of Wrath at all times during Avenging Wrath.
11. Selfless Healer – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the cooldown of Word of Glory by 10 sec. In addition, when you heal others with your Word of Glory, it increases the effectiveness of the heal by 50% and increases your damage done by 4% per charge of Holy Power for 10 sec.
12. Repentance – Rank 1/1 – Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min. Any damage from sources other than Censure will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
13. Divine Purpose- Rank 2/2 – The following attacks have a 15% chance to cause your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed:
    1. - Judgement
    2. - Exorcism
    3. - Templar’s Verdict
    4. - Divine Storm
    5. - Inquisition
    6. - Holy Wrath
    7. - Hammer of Wrath
14. Inquiry of Faith – Rank 3/3 – Increases the periodic damage done by your Seal of Truth by 30%, and the duration of your Inquisition by 200%.
15. Acts of Sacrifice – Rank 1/2 – Reduces the cooldown by 20% and mana cost by 20% of your Hand of Freedom, Hand of Salvation and Hand of Sacrifice. In addition, your Cleanse will remove one movement impairing effect if cast on yourself.
16. Zealotry – Rank 1/1 – Your Crusader Strike generates 3 charges of Holy Power per strike for the next 20 sec. Requires 3 Holy Power to use, but does not consume Holy Power.

Holy (2 Points)

1. Arbiter of the Light – Rank 2/2 – Increases the critical effect chance of your Judgement and Templar’s Verdict by 12%.

Glyphs – There are a lot of glyph options, especially among Majors. TV is probably the only “essential” glyph.

• Prime
  • Glyph of Templar’s Verdict – Increases the damage of Templar’s Verdict by 15%.
  • Glyph of Word of Glory: +10% to WoG heal
  • Glyph of Crusader Strike: +5% CS crit
  • Glyph of Judgement: +10% Judgement damage
  • Glyph of Seal of Truth: +10 Expertise
• Major - The first three are used in the builds on this page.
  
• Glyph of Ascetic Crusader – saves a lot of mana
• Glyph of Turn Evil – Useful when that Gargoyle/Ghoul comes by.
• Glyph of Cleansing – Mana saver, depending on how much you cleanse
• Glyph of Hammer of Wrath – Potentially a Big mana saver, depending on how much you use HoW.
• Glyph of Hammer of Justice – Extra range on stun
• Glyph of Divine Protection – Useful against casters.
• Minor
  • Glyph of Blessing of Might – Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%.
  • Pick two more

Build Options

Healing build, Last Word: View this build – It’s the same as the core build, with these changes:

• Drop 1pt in Acts of Sacrifice
• Add 2pts in Guardian’s Favor
• 3 pts in Judgements of the pure – Haste isn’t a great Ret stat and Mana shouldn’t be an issue, so this is mainly a filler talent to get to…
• 2pts in Last Word – For better WoGs on low health targets
• 2pts in Seals of the pure – for the damage.

Hammer of Justice build – One variation. View.

• Core build, plus…
• Drop 1pt in Acts of Sacrifice
• Add 2pts in Guardian’s Favor
• 3pts in Divinity, especially if you have a healer.
• 2pts in Seals of the pure – for the damage.
• 2pts in Hammer of Justice, because we love that stun.

Gems for the Retribution Paladin

Quick and dirty recommendation: Str gems in all slots, except where the socket bonus is Str or Res and is big enough to be worthwhile. You will need one yellow (or orange) gem to activate your Reverberating Meta gem.

• Meta:
  • Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond: 54 Str, +3% Crit effect, requires 1 red and 1 yellow gem.
  • Effulgent Shadowspirit Diamond: 81 Stam, 2% less spell damage
• Red:
  • Bold Chimera’s Eye +67 Str, self-only jewelcrafting enchant
  • Bold Queen’s Garnet: +50 Str
  • Bold Inferno Ruby +40 Str
• Blue:
  • Solid Chimera’s Eye +101 Stamina, +67 Str, self-only jewelcrafting gem
  • Solid Ocean Sapphire +60 Stam
• Yellow:
  • Mystic Chimera’s Eye: 67 Resilience., Jewelcrafting 500
  • Mystic Lightstone: +50 Res.
  • Mystic Amberjewel: +40 Res
• Orange (fits red or yellow socket)
• Resplendent Lava Coral: 25 Str & 25 Res.
• Green:
  • Steady Dream Emerald: 20resi/30stam
  • Cogwheel:
  • Cogwheel socket: Mystic Cogwheel: 208 Relience, Eng 525
  • Cogwheel socket: Smooth Cogwheel: 208 Crit rating
  • Cogwheels are loaded into sockets on Engie items, such as: Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades

Retribution Enchantments

• Weapon: It might be interesting to have two weapons, one with each enchant, and use a macro (or the equipment manager tool) to swap them, depending on who you’re fighting.
• Pyrium Weapon Chain: +40 Hit rating and reduces disarm duration
• Landslide: Sometimes proc for 1,000 AP for 12 seconds. Procs off of one weapon do not stack.
• Helm:
• Arcanum of Vicious Strength: +60 Str and 35 resilience
• Shoulders:
• Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength: 50 Str & 25 Res.
• Cloak:
• Swordguard Embroidery: Sometimes increases Attack Power by 1,000 for 15 seconds. Requires Tailoring 500
• Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike
• Chest:
• Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats: +20 to all stats
• Mighty Stats: +15 to all stats
• Enchant Chest: Mighty Resilience: +40 resilience
• Bracers:
• Enchant Bracer – Major Strength
• Gem slot, requires Blacksmithing 500
• Gloves:
• Enchant Gloves – Mighty Strength
• Gem slot, requires Blacksmithing 500
• Belt:
• Ebonsteel Belt Buckle: Gem slot
• Leggings:
• Dragonscale Leg Armor: 190 AP and 55 Crit
• Boots:
• Enchant Boots – Lavawalker: +35 Master, slight speed increase.
• Enchant Boots – Mastery: +50 Mastery

Retribution Paladin PvP Videos

The first one is 3×3 arena combat with a lot of very good commentary. The author doesn’t talk about talents, glyphs, etc., but does talk a lot about positioning, why this and why that, pressure, and a whole lot more. As he mentions, a lot of this applies to any class/spec, not just Ret.

This one’s by the same guy, but is for the Battlegrounds.

Retribution Macros

Most of these were adapted from Vanguard’s Ret Page

Startattack

Use this basic macro with any attack that you might use to start a fight. It guarantees that your autoattack starts.

• #showtooltip NameOfAttack
• /startattack
• /cast NameOfAttack

For example:

• #showtooltip Crusader Strike
• /startattack
• /cast Crusader Strike

WoG Macro: If you’re running 5s then you might have 4 of these, one for each party member. The only change will be party1, party2, party3, party4, corresponding to each party member. This way you don’t need to add their names to the macros.

• #showtooltip Word of Glory
• /cast [target=party1] Word of Glory

Other party macros: you can do the same thing with other support macros. Have one of these for each party member, change the ‘X’ to a number, as in the WoG macro. Keep in mind that it’s easy to run out of buttons if you make a lot of these, so only make the ones that will really get used. Example…

• #showtooltip Hand of Protection
• /cast [target=partyX] Hand of Protection

Focus Macros: use these for any abilities that might attack your focus target, such as Hammer of Justice or Rebuke.

• #showtooltip Hammer of Justice
• /cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice