Season of Discovery Retribution Paladin DPS Talents and Runes

At level 60 Retribution Paladin has unlocked some of its most powerful talents in the form of Vengeance and Sanctity Aura which has been made even stronger with changes that have lead to Exorcist to become baseline now allowing us to pair Sanctity Aura with the newly added Aura Mastery. Extra points can also be spent outside of the Retribution tree in talents like Consecration which pairs incredible with Wrath and Precision which will greatly help with reaching hit cap at.

Gloves — Crusader Strike

Pants — Aura Mastery

Chest — Divine Storm

Waist — Sheath of Light

Feet — The Art of War

Helm — Wrath

Wrist — Purifying Power

Back — Righteous Vengeance

Ring — Sword Specialization

Ring — Holy Specialization

Crusader Strike is the default choice for your glove slot as the other options available do not offer much as a damage dealer. We do not cast many, if any, healing abilities, so Beacon of Light offers little to no benefit. While Retribution Paladin tanking has become quite popular, Hand of Reckoning should only really be considered in a situation where you are the primary tank in a run.

With Exorcist being made baseline we can now opt for other options in this slot, it is recommended to take Aura Mastery to pair with Sanctity Aura offering is a small DPS cooldown or some extra resistance if your group is struggling with a specific type of damage. Rebuke can be taken in a situation where your group is in dire need of additional interrupts. Even Inspiration Exemplar is a strong choice if you find yourself in an encounter with a ton of Fear or Sleep effects and your group is otherwise not able to keep up.

Seal of Martyrdom becoming baseline leaves us with only one real choice when it comes to our chest Rune as DPS which is Divine Storm. Divine Storm adds another powerful ability in our DPS rotation allowing us to deal not only considerable cleave damage but also a considerable amount of single target DPS in a rotation that will now focus less on casts of Exorcism.

Sheath of Light will greatly increase the damage of abilities such as Exorcism due to its ability to double dip from both the benefits of Attack Power and Spell Damage.

The Art of War is the only purely damage focused Rune in the feet slot. The chance of having a core rotational ability like Exorcism reset is a massive DPS increase. It also makes Critical Strike rating even more valuable and synergizes incredibly with talents like Conviction, Righteous Vengeance, and Vengeance.

Wrath allows for your Consecration ability to critically strike. This synergizes incredibly with the amount of Crit focused talents you can find in the Retribution tree, such as Vengeance and Conviction, while also making your Exorcism and Holy Wrath abilities even stronger by increasing their chance to crit as well.

Purifying Power greatly reduces the cooldown of our Exorcism ability which is going to be a large source of our damage with this auto-attack focused build. While Improved Hammer of Wrath is another solid option the added Exorcism casts will yield much greater damage over the course of an encounter. If you find yourself with a very short duration Improved Hammer may be slightly better but it is unlikely.

Righteous Vengeance adds a damage-over-time component to our Crusader Strike, Judgement and Divine Storm abilities making our Critical Strike rating even more valuable and making each press of these buttons even more valuable.

Holy Specialization and Sword Specialization increase your respective Hit Rating with your abilities that scale with your Spell Hit and your weapon skill with Swords, while this guide recommends taking Sword Specialization make sure you take the correct specialization for the kind of weapon you are currently using.

More engravings are likely to come out as we head into later phases so make sure to checkout our general Rune guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Paladin.

The Retribution tree is filled with passive damage increases that bolster your ability to deal not only Physical but also Holy damage. These talents synergize incredibly well with many of the Runes added in Season of Discovery due to their emphasis on passive effects while Runes added in Season of Discovery put a focus on new rotational abilities.

Improved Seal of the Crusader is essential even though we will typically only cast Seal of the Crusader once in an encounter to apply the debuff. The benefits of this talent make an already powerful ability even stronger and even increases the benefits of Runes, such as Sheath of Light that increases both your Attack Power and Spell damage.

Conviction increases your critical strike chance with melee weapons by 1% per point, Critical Strike is an incredibly powerful stat for Retribution paladin as it increases the up time of the powerful Vengeance buff in addition to the increased damage dealt by critical attacks.

Sanctity Aura is a flat increase of Holy damage to any party member effected by the aura. A massive amount of damage dealt as Retribution is Holy damage, so this is a huge DPS increase for a single talent point. This is made even more powerful with the addition of Aura Mastery giving is another potent DPS cooldown.

Vengeance gives you a 15% bonus to Physical and Holy Damage dealt after hitting a Critical Strike at max rank. This buff greatly increases the value of Critical Strike rating and makes item upgrades even more beneficial.

Consecration creates a holy ground 8 yards around the Paladin at the time of casting, dealing damage to enemies standing within the area. This talent is made even stronger due to the new Rune, Wrath, allowing it to critically strike and increasing Vengeance uptime.