Cataclysm Classic Retribution Paladin Talent Builds

Retribution Paladin has a relatively restrictive talent build mostly due to nature of talents found outside of the Retribution tree as there are only a few options that will increase your DPS and we will always opt for those talents as we are unable to go deep enough into other trees for the kind of utility that would warrant taking a DPS loss.

This spec goes is focused on maximizing your ability to deal damage, there is some slight variance depending on what you view as more important, this build opts for Repentance but that point can easily be shifted into Guardian's Favor or Divinity.

In this section we will go over some of the key talents you will use when you are playing a Retribution Paladin. Be sure to understand your most important talents as they are vital to play the build to its fullest strength.

• Crusade — increases the damage done by your Crusader Strike and Templar's Verdict abilities.

• Pursuit of Justice — increases your movement speed by 15%, as a Paladin of any specialization mobility is always an issue so any added movement speed greatly helps.

• Communion — causes your Judgement ability to apply Replenishment to allies in your Party and Raid but more importantly causes your Auras to grant 3% bonus damage to all allies effected by them while also increasing your damage by an additional 2%.

• The Art of War — causes your auto-attacks to have a 20% chance to make your next Exorcism an instant cast and deal 100% bonus damage, making it much easier to use in your DPS rotation.

• Divine Storm — takes the place of Crusader Strike when fighting four or more enemies, while this ability does more damage as soon as you introduce a third target we wait until a fourth to be able to continue to generate Holy Power for Templar's Verdict and Inquisition.

• Sanctity of Battle — causes Haste effects to reduce the cooldown of your Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities allowing us to generate even more Holy Power.

• Seals of Command — causes your Seals to proc for an additional 7% Weapon damage but also causes your Seal of Righteousness to hit any enemies within melee range of your target.

• Sanctified Wrath — increases the Critical Strike chance of Hammer of Wrath, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath but also allows for Hammer of Wrath to be used when Avenging Wrath is active.

• Divine Purpose — causes your damaging abilities to have a 15% chance to grant you a buff that allows you to cast a Holy Power spending ability at the strength of 3 Holy Power for free.

• Zealotry — causes your Crusader Strike ability to generate 3 Holy Power for the next 20 seconds.

Prime glyphs are new to Cataclysm, giving you a third "row" of glyphs you can use on your character. While there are a couple of different options to choose from, there are some very clear front runners for each specialization.

• Glyph of Templar's Verdict — increases the damage dealt by your Templar's Verdict ability by 15%. Templars Verdict acts as our primary Holy Power spender when Inquisition is active so this acts as a largely passive increase to an ability that acts as a key part of our rotation.
• Glyph of Exorcism — causes your Exorcism ability to deal 20% additional damage over 6 seconds.
• Glyph of Seal of Truth — grants you 10 Expertise Rating while Seal of Truth or Seal of Righteousness is active making gearing much easier to manage as we can focus our efforts into getting more Strength and Mastery as opposed to having to find Expertise on gear.

Major glyphs typically offer utility-based options and can be highly situational. For Retribution there are a wide variety of Glyphs, but we have highlighted what are typically the most useful.

• Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader — reduces the mana cost of your Crusader Strike ability by 30%, Crusader Strike is likely to be the button we hit the most in an encounter and reducing the Mana cost will allow us to maintain our rotation.
• Glyph of Divine Protection — causes your Divine Protection ability to now mitigate 20% Physical Damage but only reduces 20% Magic damage, this can be switched on encounters where you will be taking almost exclusively Magic damage.
• Glyph of Hammer of Wrath — makes our Hammer of Wrath ability free, while not particularly costly it is not impossible to find yourself with Mana issues as Retribution especially if you find yourself casting heals.

Minor glyphs typically provide very minor benefits. Your choices will typically depend on what quality of life increase is the most meaningful for you.

• Glyph of Truth — reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Truth ability by 50%.
• Glyph of Blessing of Kings — reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings by 50%.
• Glyph of Blessing of Might — reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%.