Retribution Paladin DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.7)

Last updated on Jun 15, 2025 at 21:20 by Bolas 73 comments
General Information

On this page, we explain how to easily play Retribution Paladin in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.7), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.

1.

Foreword

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

2.

The Basics of Retribution Paladin in The War Within

Retribution is a melee DPS specialization with a relatively easy-to-grasp playstyle. Retribution's greatest strength is its strong defensive capabilities, allowing it to survive damage that would ordinarily kill most other non-tank specs.

If you just started out learning about your Retribution Paladin abilities, you can check out our Spell Summary page for a detailed breakdown of what each ability does.

Throughout an encounter, you must manage your Holy Power generation and expenditure to maximize your damage output.

2.

Beginner's Guide to Retribution Paladin in The War Within

Single-Target Talents Priority Cleave Talents Mythic+/Full AoE Talents Basic Rotation Defensive Spells Combat Assistance
3.

Beginner Single-Target Talents for Retribution Paladin

This build is focused on pure single-target, without any talents that would be used for cleave or AoE. You can use the "copy export string" button to import this build directly into the game.

3.

Beginner Priority Cleave Talents for Retribution Paladin

This build has fairly strong priority damage while also taking some options to be able to perform better on AoE. You can use the "copy export string" button to import this build directly into the game.

3.

Beginner AoE and Mythic+ Talents for Retribution Paladin

This build picks up many valuable AoE talents while still maintaining a solid single-target core. You can use the "copy export string" button to import this build directly into the game.

3.

Retribution Paladin Rotation for Beginners

Retribution Paladins do not have a fixed rotation of abilities. Instead, your goal is to make sure that high-priority Holy Power generators are used as often as possible while making sure that Holy Power spenders are used before Holy Power gets overcapped. Cooldowns are used as often as possible to maximize total uses.

  1. Use your major cooldown abilities like Execution Sentence Icon Execution Sentence, Wake of Ashes Icon Wake of Ashes, Divine Toll Icon Divine Toll, Divine Hammer Icon Divine Hammer, and Hammer of Light Icon Hammer of Light as often as possible. Make sure to use Execution Sentence Icon Execution Sentence before Wake of Ashes Icon Wake of Ashes.
  2. Spend Holy Power with Final Verdict Icon Final Verdict for a single target or Divine Storm Icon Divine Storm against multiple targets. You can spend Holy Power as soon as you have enough to be able to cast a spender.
  3. Generate Holy Power with Blade of Justice Icon Blade of Justice, Judgment Icon Judgment, and Hammer of Wrath Icon Hammer of Wrath. The specific order you use them in does not make a large difference to your overall damage, but ideally it is best to put Judgment Icon Judgment and Blade of Justice Icon Blade of Justice on cooldown first.

For more detailed information about the priority system, including using all the other talents and alternative Hero Talents, check out our full rotation page below.

3.

Defensive Spells for Retribution Paladin

Retribution has many defensive options available. Here is a list of the main ones you will regularly use:

  • Divine Shield Icon Divine Shield - Prevents all damage and removes most harmful effects for 8 seconds. Also applies Forbearance Icon Forbearance.
  • Divine Protection Icon Divine Protection - Reduces all damage taken by 20% for 8 seconds.
  • Shield of Vengeance Icon Shield of Vengeance - Provides an absorb shield that does AoE damage when it expires.
  • Lay on Hands Icon Lay on Hands - Heals a target for an amount equivalent to your maximum health. Also applies Forbearance Icon Forbearance.
  • Blessing of Protection Icon Blessing of Protection - Prevents all physical damage and removes most harmful physical effects for 8 seconds. Also applies Forbearance Icon Forbearance.

See the spell glossary below for a full list of Retribution's spells and abilities.

3.

Combat Assistance for Retribution Paladin

Patch 11.1.7 introduced two new systems to help players in combat: Assisted Highlight and the Single-Button Assistant.

3.1.

Assisted Highlight

This system works by highlighting the next ability that Blizzard suggests for you to use on your action bar. If you struggle to remember rotational priorities in different situations, this might be a useful reminder for you. This tool does not always recommend the most optimal ability to use in every situation, but for Retribution following it exactly will result in a very minor damage difference compared to theoretically optimal play.

3.2.

Single-Button Assistant

This allows you to perform the same recommended assisted rotation by instead just continually pressing a single button, at the cost of a considerably increased global cooldown. For Retribution, this is a large damage loss as Retribution is a specialization that highly values frequent ability casts, for example with effects that provide a significant amount of Haste like Crusade Icon Crusade and abilities that require you to be consistently casting spells like Divine Hammer Icon Divine Hammer. We do not recommended this feature to be used outside of accessibility circumstances.

If you want to learn about alternative Retribution Paladin builds that are optimized for various situations and playstyles, check out our full talents page below.

4.

Stat Priority for Beginners

For the above talent builds, you will want to prioritize stats as follows:

  1. Strength;
  2. Mastery;
  3. Critical Strike = Haste;
  4. Versatility.

The overall recommendations for stat priority will remain similar in the full guide, but to understand them fully, you should check the in-depth details about the stats themselves. You can check out our full stats page below.

5.

Changelog

  • 05 Jul. 2025: Updated builds.
  • 15 Jun. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.7.
  • 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
  • 27 Feb. 2025: Updated rotation section.
  • 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.
  • 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
  • 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
  • 08 Oct. 2024: Updated for hotfixes.
  • 25 Sep. 2024: Updated builds.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for hotfixes.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Updated builds and rotation for Patch 10.1.7.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 06 May 2023: Updated Hammer of Wrath to T30 cleave priority and Holy Power management based on recommend talents.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
  • 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 17 Jan. 2023: Updated Talents and Stats.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated Talents and Rotation.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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