TBC Classic Retribution Paladin Stat Priority

1. Hit Chance; (to 9%);
2. Expertise;
3. Strength;
4. Attack Power;
5. Haste;
6. Armor Penetration;
7. Agility/Crit Chance.

Hit rating is your most important stat as a Ret Paladin, ensuring you are hit capped is important because it helps maintain both your personal buff Vengeance as well as whatever seal you happen to be applying to the boss. Missed abilities deal zero damage and getting to hit cap is the only way to guarantee your abilities will never miss. 9% or 142 rating is the hit cap in TBC against boss mobs, Paladins have the talent Precision in the protection tree grants you 3% hit rating which lowers the required amount of hit to 95. There are other abilities in the game that are less common that can help you reach hit cap but it is important to gear in a way that you will always be hit capped when outside sources may not be available.

Expertise reduces your chance to be dodged. If you are behind the mob you are fighting they cannot block or parry you but they can still dodge removing your chance to be dodged is a significant damage increase, it is extremely difficult to get expertise capped especially early on so do not worry if you are not able to achieve it.

Strength increases your damage by being the single largest source of attack power. Assuming you are talented in Divine Strength each point of strength will grant 2.2 attack power.

Attack Power increases the damage of your abilities and auto-attacks.

Haste increases the rate at which you attack, it synergizes extremely well with Seal of Blood as it is guaranteed damage added to each auto-attack so the more you are attacking the more benefit you will receive from the seal.

Armor Penetration increases the damage of your auto-attacks and crusader strike abilities, Ret Paladin's damage comes both from magic and physical sources so armor penetration loses some value compared to other stats.

Crit and Agility both have very marginal benefits for Ret but are damage increases either way. Pure crit is more valuable than agility as each point of agility gives less than an entire point of crit rating. 30% crit is the sweet spot for Ret as it will guarantee your uptime of Vengeance.