Retribution Paladin Guide

[JannneZ]

Introduction

I like to keep things brief and to the point, however on these boards that is not always possible. Here goes...

You are here because you probably play a paladin, and are interested in / already playing the retribution spec. Retribution is a melee DPS spec (duh) that happens to use both melee and spells to deal high amounts of direct damage - we are often compared side by side to enhancement shaman and blood death knights. In addition to our now respectable DPS, retribution offers some fantastic raid buffs:
3% crit to raid
3% all damage to raid
3% haste to raid
100% JoW uptime
Replenishment to 10 raid members
Blessing of Kings / Imp Blessing of Might

Retribution in Wrath (like most classes and specs) is pretty easy to pick up and play, but somewhat difficult to master; hopefully this thread and its' contributing posters will make it slightly easier to understand, for both new and veteran paladins alike. This thread will mainly focus on our core mechanics, and not so much on gearing or rotations/playstyles (though these will be touched on). This thread also assumes you have basic knowledge of paladins and their talent trees.

Before we start though, thanks to the many many posters on these forums who provide a ton of data and testing, and special thanks to Cathela for creating and maintaining the beta thread. Also thanks to EJ and wowhead for hosting all this stuff, so that we don't have to answer hundreds of tells a day!

The Basic Rotation

During the beta it was agreed upon that because of vastly changed mechanics, our rotations should be thrown out and thus came to be known as FCFS (First Come First Serve). Not much to explain about it, just use whatever is off cooldown, whenever you can (watch your mana bar). Your only priority (should multiple skills come off cooldown at the same time) is Judgement, as it provides both our best DPS and our main source of mana. On a target under 20%, Hammer of Wrath also comes into play, right behind Judgement in priority due to its' very high crit rate. Be sure to use AW and Divine Plea as much as you can, as both provide a nice boost in damage/mana. In a situation with AoE, say trash for example, Consecration and DS should be prioritized.

Stats

(In order of importance)
Strength
Our best DPS stat, as we have various talents that multiply it's effect. 1 STR gives you 2 AP baseline, multiplied by 1.15 from Divine Strength (Tier 1 Prot) giving us 2.3 AP per STR when specced. This number is further affected by buffs such as BoK. You should be stacking as much STR as possible via gemming and so on.

Hit See Observations
32.8 rating gives you 1% hit. At level 80, we require 263 hit rating, or 8%, to be hit capped on white swings, specials, and judgements. Note that Exorcism and Consecration are considered spells and use the spell hit table, thus we can still miss with these abilities. You want to be hit capped to maximize (and stabilize) your DPS, but any hit after the cap is wasted itemization points, so gear accordingly. Please note that with current gear itemization, hit capping is very difficult and it is generally better to have a healthy balance of stats. Generally you should not gem/enchant for hit.

Expertise
Introduced in late BC, this stat allows us to remove dodges from the attack table when attacking from behind, as melee often does! You need 26 Expertise (214 rating, 6.5%) to cap this stat; much like hit, any expertise after the cap is wasted. Capping this stat is a significant dps increase vs uncapped (or none at all) as it affects our whites, strikes, and SoB. Similar to hit, capping this is extremely difficult to do without gimping your other stats given current itemization.

Crit See Observations
We are quite reliant on critical strikes to do damage. You can never really have too much crit, but it is not worth gemming for it, gem for STR instead. You need 45.9 crit rating to gain 1% crit at 80. This stat gains no benefits from raid buffs, but you get more per itemization point from crit than you do AGI. This stat also increases your spell crit rating, making it flat out superior to AGI.

Agility
We need 52.08 agility to gain 1% melee crit. Like stated before, crit is flat out better, however AGI does scale with raid buffs such as BoK where crit does not.

Attack Power
AP is somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as stats go; most of our skills scale off AP, but STR is just so much better. AP isn't really seen on plate (so you often don't have to worry about this) but you will run into it if you dip into leather and mail. Note that despite AP having a 2:1 item stat budget, it is far weaker than STR as we have no talents that boost it's effect. When comparing or considering pieces with AP, you need to look at the item as a whole (does the plate have haste and ArPen (bad), while the the leather has AP/hit/crit/agi (decent) ).

Intellect
Due to some mechanic changes late in 3.0, intellect has once again become somewhat useful to retribution. 1 INT gives you 15 mana and a negligible amount of spell crit. It has become useful because of the way Replenishment and JoW work, which returns mana per second based on your TOTAL mana pool. In an upcoming patch (3.0., JoW will return base mana only, but Replenishment will function the same. Once again, don't bother gemming or going out of your way to find INT, but don't turn your nose at certain hunter/enh shaman mail either.

Haste
Was great (for horde) in late BC, but due to huge mechanic changes regarding our seals and instant attacks, haste went from scaling equally with STR to the "meh" it is now. Haste increases white damage and SoB/SoM damage by giving you a few more attacks against a boss; haste does NOT decrease the GCD on our instant strikes or instant spells. You will find plenty of it on our sets and pieces, but it sure isn't something you want to enchant or gem for. You need 32.7 haste rating to gain 1% haste at 80.

Armor Penetration
Bad stat for retribution - over 60% of our damage is holy, which ignores armor anyways. 15.4 rating gives you 1% armor piercing; unlike BC, you can no longer fully ignore boss or player armor via this stat. ArPen does NOT increase damage done by seals, just white damage, CS and DS. Avoid this stat.

Spellpower
Bad stat for us. Spellpower increases some of our skills' coefficients, but at a rate much slower than STR/AP, and does nothing for our white damage and instant melee strikes - CS and DS gain nothing from spellpower. Avoid this stat (easy to do, since none of our ret gear has spellpower).

Stamina, Armor
Ultimately, stam does nothing more than keep you alive in situations where there is raid damage, and in wrath there is a lot of raid damage. Most of the damage is magic (not mitigated by armor) therefor armor class does not matter to us, as we have no Armored to the Teeth talents like warriors or deathknights. You'll find all the stam you need and much much more on all wrath gear.

Mechanics

Several mechanics have changed since BC, most notably the Seal and Judgement systems.

The following scale off of both AP and Spellpower (Coefficients courtesy Prinsea) -
* Seal of Command:
45% weapon damage + 23% spell power
* Judgement of Command:
24% weapon damage + 16% AP + 25% spell power
* Seal of Blood:
27% weapon damage
* Judgement of Blood:
36% weapon damage + 16% AP + 25% spell power
* Seal of Vengeance:
2.5% AP + 1.3% spell power per tick
* Judgement of Vengeance:
(14% AP + 22% spell power) * (1 + number of Vengeance stacks * 0.1)
* Seal of Light:
15% AP + 15% spell power (healing proc)
* Judgement of Light:
16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
10% AP + 10% spell power (healing proc)
* Seal of Wisdom:
4% of maximum mana (mana proc)
* Judgement of Wisdom:
16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
2% of base mana (mana proc)
* Judgement of Justice:
16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
* Consecration:
4% AP + 4% spell power per tick
(Final rank has 113 base damage per tick)
* Exorcism:
15% AP + 15% spell power
(Final rank has 1028 base damage)
* Hammer of Wrath:
15% AP + 15% spell power
(Final rank has 1139 base damage)
* Holy Wrath:
7% AP + 7% spell power
(Final rank has 1050 base damage)

Major Glyphs

[Glyph of Judgement]
This is your primary glyph as retribution. If you can't see why 10% more damage to our best nuke is good, you should get your head checked out. Used in both PvE and PvP.
[Glyph of Consecration]
This is a PvE glyph, it saves a ton of mana and some GCD clashes over the course of a fight (worth 108mp5). You should use this as your second major.
[Glyph of Avenging Wrath]
A somewhat interesting PvE glyph. Effectively gives you 50% more Hammer of Wrath damage, but it is pretty conditional - it requires you being able to use Hammer of Wrath (so it is only really useful on bosses), that you have AW ready to use, and that you have enough mana to dump on HoW.
[Glyph of Hammer of Wrath]
Similar to the AW glyph above, it is situational and interesting. Instead of doubling HoW casts, this glyph make Hammer of Wrath cost no mana. Currently, it isn't worth using both HoW glyphs together, as judgement and consecrate glyphs are integral to ret pve. Could be useful if you have mana problems on bosses below 20%.
[Glyph of Crusader Strike]
This is only mildly useful in PvP, it is more of a PvE glyph. Not particularly useful or interesting.
[Glyph of Divinity]
When used in combination with [Glyph of Lay on Hands], using Lay on Hands on anyone will grant both of you 2340 mana, or will give you 4680 mana if you use it on yourself. Situational pve glyph, but realistically LoH should be available to you every other boss encounter, so it is definitely an option.
[Glyph of Seal of Command]
PvP glyph. Increases the ppm of SoC from 7 to 8.4.

Minor Glyphs
[Glyph of Sense Undead]
1% damage to undead, in an expansion filled with undead mobs. PvE glyph.
[Glyph of Lay on Hands]
This ups the mana returned by Lay on Hands from 1950 to 2340. PvE glyph, taken for lack of better glyphs.
The other four minor glyphs are your choice for the last minor slot. They aren't particularly useful in pve or pvp situations, but they can save you a reagent here and there.

Enchants

Head: [Arcanum of Torment]
Shoulders: [Greater Inscription of the Axe] / [Lesser Inscription of the Axe]
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats / Enchant Chest - Super Stats
Cloak: [Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Major Agility]
Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault / Enchant Bracers - Striking /
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Crusher / Enchant Gloves - Precision (if hit is a problem) / Enchant Gloves - Strength (BC enchant)
Legs: [Icescale Leg Armor]
Feet: Enchant Boots - Icewalker (unless you are way over hitcap, use this) / Enchant Boots - Greater Assault
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Berserking / Enchant 2H Weapon - Massacre / Enchant 2H Weapon - Greater Savagery

[Kartio]

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