Retribution Paladin Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Retribution Paladins, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Paladins in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Paladin class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Retribution Paladins have not yet received any changes to the specialization's base kit. However, some of the further adjustments and additional content that will be arriving will likely change how you as a Retribution Paladin may approach your gameplay.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Retribution Paladins, though with a new raid and a new season for both Mythic+ and PvP will come new options for finding gear and trying out different talent combinations.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Retribution Paladins, these set bonuses currently are:

• Retribution Paladin 2-Piece — When you benefit from Art of War, you gain Seraphim for 4 seconds.
• Retribution Paladin 4-Piece — Art of War has a 50% chance to reset the cooldown of Wake of Ashes instead of Blade of Justice.

Both Retribution Paladin set bonuses trigger based on our baseline passive Art of War, which procs off of auto attacks with a flat 12% chance, or 24% chance with our mainstay talent Blade of Wrath. To gain more procs, we can increase our auto attack speed by increasing our Haste, taking the Zeal talent, and finally we can utilize a Shaman's Windfury Totem to get up to extra ~700 single-target DPS.

The Retribution Paladin 2-Piece bonus grants us 4 seconds of the very same effect we gain from our existing talent Seraphim whenever we get a Art of War proc. In case you get a proc during your normal Seraphim, it will extend the duration.

The Retribution Paladin 4-Piece bonus allows us to easily make good use of the 4-second Seraphim proc. If we have 3 or more Holy Power, for example, we first can spend it with Templar's Verdict, then regain the 3 Holy Power we just spent with the freshly-reset Wake of Ashes, and then spend again with Templar's Verdict. If we get a proc without 3 Holy Power, we skip the first spender and use Wake of Ashes right away into a spender.

Overall, the frequently available Wake of Ashes is very enjoyable to play with.

You now can press Ashen Hallow again to cancel the effect.

While using the Covenant Legendary Radiant Embers, it will no longer cancel the effect when stepping outside of the large bloody circle. To gain the cooldown-reduction effect, you now have to manually cancel the effect by pressing Ashen Hallow again.

Recall that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Paladins, these Powers were:

• Kyrian: Divine Resonance will throw an un-buffed Judgment at your current target once every 5 seconds after casting Divine Toll for 15 seconds (3 Judgments).
• Venthyr: Radiant Embers increases the duration of Ashen Hallow to 45 seconds. Once you cancel the effect by clicking it again, it will reduce your Ashen Hallow cooldown by a certain amount depending on how long it was up.
• Night Fae: Seasons of Plenty empowers the middle 10 seconds of the 30-second buff of each season in Blessing of the Seasons. Blessing of Spring doubles both healing done and healing received, Blessing of Winter doubles the damage proc, and Blessing of Autumn doubles its cooldown reduction. Currently Blessing of Summer is a exception where its effectiveness is quadrupled instead of doubled, because both the proc rate and damage are doubled.
• Necrolord: Duty-Bound Gavel adds a second charge to Vanquisher's Hammer and one additional Divine Storm trigger per charge.

However, new in Patch 9.2 is the ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that Kyrian Retribution Paladins should make use of both Divine Resonance and Final Verdict. In addition, this ability will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

For single-target, all Covenants except for Venthyr will use Final Verdict alongside their fixed Covenant Legendary. Venthyr should use The Mad Paragon alongside their fixed Radiant Embers Legendary.

For variable target situations, all Covenants should use Vanguard's Momentum alongside their fixed Covenant Legendary.

For cleave, all Covenants should use Tempest of the Lightbringer alongside their fixed Covenant Legendary.