WotLK Retribution Paladin in 3.3.5 (2024)

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After watching so many Retribution Paladins over here doing PvP (Duels, Battlegrounds, World PvP) I decided to help them out, since many of them did plenty of mistakes while thinking they were playing rather well.
Then I noticed that there's only one Retribution Paladin Guide over here that leaves out a few things you should actually know about the class.
So I decided to create a Guide for you guys, because let's honest: buying best-in-slot gear and Shadowmourne wont really help you at all.

Anyway, who am I?
I am an, at least on Warmane, pretty unknown person so name calling doesn't really matter. However, I did play Retribution Paladin for a really long time now (more than 7 years) and at some point I started to be really decent with them being on par with really known and good Retribution Paladins back then on different servers and ending up coaching a few of them to playing even better than before.
However, feel free to believe or not believe this story, it doesn't matter anyway and I am not able to link any 2,7k+ achievement (and never will) because I personally think that Retribution Paladins are quite limited in the current Meta (and Arena is a different bracket than Dueling/WorldPvP and this is what this Guide is about). Therefore having experience in a different bracket doesn't really matter that much. It's still a fact that a high arena rating usually equals a good amount of skill but that's a different subject.

What is this guide about?
Simple basics and explanations of the class in case you're new, up to some in depth stuff people don't talk about. Also the main aspect being Dueling since Retribution Paladin isnt really viable at the moment in the high arena bracket due to Holy Paladins being better.
I know that we do have a Retribution Paladin Guide already on this Forum, however there are some things I'd like to adress about it.
An addition I'd like to add is that I assume your item level is at least 264+/BiS/near BiS because the way you play Retribution Paladin really changes depending on the Gear you're running.

Warning: Long guide.

English is not my mothertongue, so there may be some grammatical/spelling errors, forgive me if you find them.

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Content:
0. Work in Progress, still missing Links to Spells, Talents, etc. (will be probably done in 1-3 days)
1. Shortcuts used
2. Stats
3. Race
4. Professions
5. Gear, Enchants, Gems
6. Talents, Glyphs
7. Macros
8. Spell List
9. Basic PvP
10. Advanced Stuff
11. Keybinds
12. Addons
13. Sources
14. FaQ
15. Addition

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1. Shortcuts used

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2. Stats
Important Stats:

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Semi-Important Stats:

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„No no!“ stats:

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Grey Zone Stats:

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Myths from Lynea's guide:

Originally Posted by Lynea

„Armor penetration - While not as useful for a paladin as it might be for a Hunter, Warrior or Rogue, it still has its uses. Auto-Attack, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm all deal physical damage, so a bit of armor penetration is welcome.“

It's not welcome, we don't need this stat at all. We just get it from two items because we wouldn't be able to maximize our stats without it. Our main source of damage is Holy damage, not physical. This is what most of the Paladins don't understand which leads to them playing not like you're supposed to play.

Originally Posted by Lynea

Haste - While not being very useful, it is not completely useless. Most of your abilities are instant cast, but this increases your auto-attack speed and the cast speed of various spells that you may use that may not be instant cast spells. These include, but are not limited to, Redemption, Holy Light, Flash of Light, Turn Evil, and a non-Art of War procced Exorcism.

Even when we dont aim for Haste, it's an extremely important stat. It can be actually quite useful with certain weapons and builds (even better for Deathknights tho) and because of our spells being instant casts you actually welcome a bit of haste (even tho its fine to run 0 haste) because of Global Cooldown and Seal reasons.

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3. Race
Alliance:

Horde:

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Conclusion:
Alliance – Human
Horde – Human (nono, Bloodelf obviously)

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4. Professions

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5. Gear, Enchants, Gems
I wont really tell you which item you should get, I will just bloat out the ones I personally think are the best options that exist in the game. It's up to you which one you want to use, especially when it comes to balancing Hit and Resilience.
Green = first choice
Yellow = second choice
Red = third choice/optional

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Enchants:

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Gems:

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6. Talents, Glyphs
"Battleground, World PvP with a Healer, Maximum Judgement/Seal Damage"

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"08/15 generic Duelspecc"
It's up to you how you want to balance Vindication and Righteous Vengeance. But having at least one point in Vindication can be really useful because it serves as a Trashdebuff against Casters and reduces damage output from Melee classes slightly.

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"Tryhard/Arena"

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"Tiny Abomination in a Jar feat. Shadowmourne"

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Glyphs:
Glyph of Judgement is a must have while Glyph of Seal of Righteousness gets useless with one or less points in Seals of the Pure

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Things mentioned in Lynea's Guide:

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7. Macros

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8. Spell List, skip if you already know which Spells a Paladin has
Holy

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Protection:

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Retribution:

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Blessings

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Auras

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Seal Spells

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Addiotional Spells:

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9. Basic PvP/Duels
Even when there are lot of people doing that and are actually winning by this method, please never start with Repentance -> Hammer of Justice > Avenging Wrath > Judgement/Crusader Strike/Divine Storm. Every person that knows what a Paladin can do will win the Duel instantly once your Avenging Wrath ran out.

This is my opinion on how to deal with these classes. If you have a different opinion or think that my information is incorrect, feel free to correct me.

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10. Advanced Stuff
Art of War and Sacred Shield Proccs

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Weapon Dancing

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Seal Dancing

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Libram Dancing

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Cons of Dancing:

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Kiting, Abusing Swing Timers

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11. Keybinds:
Bind „Strafe Left“ to A
Bind „Strafe Right“ to D
Why? Because you will use your mouse to turn around anyway and moving around with these two changes is way easier and it also allows you to jump away from charges better.

This is what my current binds look like. Feel free to use whatever binds you want, but always remember: using your keyboard is way more efficient than using your mouse.

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12. Addons
Aesa
SnowfallKeyPress
Bartender 4
MoveAnything

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13. Sources

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14. FaQ

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15. Addition
I'm always up for positive Feedback and constructive critik. I know this Guide is really long and there may be informations in it that people may not understand (due to the language barrier) and there even may be useless information in it. Anyway, thank you for reading this and I really hope this Guide could help you out.
WotLK Retribution Paladin in 3.3.5 (2024)

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