WoW The War Within: Retribution Paladin Build

Jonas Author

Created - 07.01.2025 Updated - 08.01.2025

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This is our WoW The War Within Retribution Paladin build if you’re one of those players who want to deal more damage in the game. Like our Beast Mastery Hunter build, this one can deal excellent damage to those around you. But of course, you need to follow specific setups to achieve the same results.

Before you go and start building this character, make sure to drop by our WoW store for the best deals on gold. With this, you’ll be able to build your character with the best gear possible.

Stat Priority & Set Bonus

Let’s start by talking about the stat priority for a Retribution Paladin. First and foremost, your main stat is Strength. This is the stat you’ll want to prioritize above all others.

You’ll increase your Strength by upgrading to higher item-level gear, so focus on getting gear with the highest item level available to you. You don't need to stress too much about the secondary stats just yet—getting gear with higher item levels should be your top priority in the early stages.

When it comes to secondary stats, here’s the general priority to keep in mind. But remember, you should only worry about these when you’re comparing items that are the same item level. For now, just aim for higher item-level gear, and everything else will fall into place.

Secondary Stats

• Mastery: Mastery is a key stat for Retribution Paladins, and it’s called High Lord’s Judgment. What it does is increase the amount of Holy damage you deal, especially with your Judgment spell. Judgment has a chance to blast the target with light, dealing damage, and the more Mastery you have, the higher the chance for that damage to occur and the more powerful that damage will be. Judgment is a core ability for us as Retribution Paladins. It generates Holy Power, which is one of our main resources. You’ll see this ability on my action bar as the first spell—it deals damage to enemies, causes them to take more damage from our Holy Power abilities, and generates Holy Power for us to use.
• Haste: Haste increases how quickly you can cast your spells and attacks. The faster you cast, the more damage you can deal and the more efficiently you can perform in battle.
• Critical Strike: Critical Strike increases your chances of dealing extra damage or healing. The higher your Critical Strike stat, the more frequently your attacks and healing spells will critically hit, providing you with a boost in both offense and healing.
• Versatility: Versatility is a stat that does a couple of things. It increases the damage and healing you deal, and it also reduces the damage you take. It’s a great stat for balancing offensive and defensive abilities, making you a more well-rounded Paladin.

Set Bonus

Moving on to our set bonus for Season 1 of The War Within, it's called the Intuned Serif's Radiance. This set bonus consists of two pieces and four pieces, and here’s how they work:

• Two-Piece Bonus: This increases the damage of your Blade of Justice by 15%, and also boosts the damage of Wake of Ashes by 10%. These two abilities are going to be integral to your rotation, so having the set bonus makes them hit even harder.
• Four-Piece Bonus: The four-piece bonus increases the damage you deal with Wake of Ashes by 8% for 8 seconds. This is a significant damage boost, and it works wonders when used in combination with your other abilities. You don’t need to know all of this right away, but for those who are familiar with the abilities, now you know how the set bonus applies to them.

That's the rundown on the stat priority and set bonus for Retribution Paladins. As you get your gear and start making progress through the game, just keep these priorities in mind. You’ll be well on your way to maximizing your potential as a Retribution Paladin.

Utilities & Defensives

Now we’re going to dive into some of the utility spells and defensive abilities that are available to us as a Paladin. We’re specifically referring to Paladin abilities in general, not just the Retribution specialization, because these are available to all specs within the Paladin class.

That means, whether you’re playing a Retribution Paladin or any other spec, these utilities are still going to be useful. These utilities and defensives won’t change based on your spec, so you don’t need to relearn them every time you try a new one.

These are some of the most important abilities, but there are others available to you as a Paladin. Once you get more comfortable with the class, take the time to browse through your spellbook and familiarize yourself with the rest of your abilities.

Utilities

• Repentance: This ability forces an enemy to meditate, incapacitating them for an entire minute. There are some limitations on who it works against, as it’s only effective on humanoids, demons, undead, dragonkin, and giants. So, for example, if you’re facing off against a beast-type enemy, this ability won’t work on them. It’s a useful crowd control tool, but keep in mind that you won’t be able to use it on every type of enemy.
• Divine Steed: This is an amazing movement ability. You can summon your divine charger for 6 seconds, which increases your movement speed by 100%. The best part is that it can be used while indoors or in combat, which gives you great mobility. You’ll get two charges of Divine Steed, and using it again while it's still up will refresh the charge. This gives you an excellent boost in speed when you need it, even when you’re in the middle of combat.
• Hammer of Justice: This ability has a 1-minute cooldown and will stun your target for 6 seconds. It’s a fantastic tool to interrupt your enemies and control the pace of the fight. This is especially useful in dungeons and PvP, as it can give you the upper hand in critical moments.
• Rebuke: This is your standard interrupt, also known as a “kick.” When you use Rebuke, you interrupt your enemy’s spellcasting. Interrupting spells is crucial in Mythic+ dungeons and PvP, and it can sometimes be used in raids when you need to stop a powerful cast. For example, if you’re casting Flash of Light and the enemy uses a spell, you could interrupt it with Rebuke to prevent the cast from going off.
• Intercession: This is your Battle Resurrection (Battle Res). If an ally dies, you can resurrect them even while in combat. It has a 10-minute cooldown, so it’s not something you can use constantly, but it’s an incredible tool when you need to bring someone back to life during a fight. If other classes in your group or raid can also use a Battle Res, like Death Knights or Druids, note that the cooldown is shared across the group. That means if another player uses their Battle Res, you won’t be able to use yours right away.

Blessings

• Blessing of Freedom: This blessing removes movement-impairing effects from a party or raid member, granting them immunity to things like slows and snares. It’s a great utility to help keep your team moving and avoid being hindered by enemies.
• Blessing of Protection: This is an incredibly interesting blessing. It grants a party or raid member immunity to physical damage and harmful effects for 10 seconds. However, it also removes threat from them, so you definitely don’t want to use this on the tank. Blessing of Protection can save a player from taking fatal damage, but just be careful where and when you apply it.
• Divine Protection: This ability reduces the damage you take by 20% for a short period of time. You can use it while stunned, which makes it an excellent defensive ability to have in a pinch.
• Divine Shield: Divine Shield grants you complete immunity to all damage, harmful effects, knockbacks, and forced movement speeds for 8 seconds. It’s a fantastic defensive tool, but it comes with a couple of caveats. First, it can’t be used if you have the Forbearance debuff. Secondly, using Divine Shield will cause Forbearance for 30 seconds after it expires, meaning you won’t be able to use it again during that time. If you’ve ever noticed that Divine Shield was grayed out, that means you had Forbearance active. Forbearance also comes from abilities like Blessing of Protection and Lay on Hands.
• Lay on Hands: This ability heals a friendly target for an amount equal to 100% of your maximum health. So, if you have 100,000 health, it will heal your target for 100,000, regardless of how much health they have. It’s an incredibly powerful ability, and you can use it on yourself or on other players. However, if you have Forbearance, you won’t be able to use it, just like with Divine Shield.

Additional Abilities

There are other abilities like Blessing of Sacrifice and various auras that you can activate. You can only have one of these active at a time, so it’s important to understand how each works and when to use them. You’ll also find other useful abilities, like Turn Evil and Sense Undead, in your spellbook. The ones we’ve gone over are the most important utilities and defensives that will help you as a Paladin. Once you get more comfortable with the spec, feel free to take a closer look at your spellbook and explore all the abilities available to you.

Many of your abilities, including some of these utilities, will come from your Paladin talent tree. Be sure to check out the talent tree as you level up, as it’s a great way to unlock more useful tools for your toolkit. Take your time to familiarize yourself with everything, and you’ll be ready to handle any situation that comes your way!

Raid Rotation

Now for the fun part: the Retribution Paladin rotation. One thing we want to emphasize before diving into this is that in our talents, we're going with Templar's Verdict both for raiding and for Mythic+ dungeons.

Templar’s Verdict is by far the best option, and personally, we really enjoy using it. We’ll go through the hero talents in-depth shortly, but let’s start by breaking down the “when,” “what,” and “why” of our rotation—meaning, which spells do we use, when do we use them, and why are we using them.

1. Execution Sentence
   • What it does: A hammer falls from the sky, and for 12 seconds, the target suffers 20% of the damage taken from all of your abilities.
   • Why we use it: The hammer deals a significant burst of damage after it finishes, and it amplifies your overall damage during its duration.
2. Hammer of Light (Templar's Talent)
   • What it does: Replaces Wake of Ashes with Hammer of Light after it’s cast. Hammer of Light deals damage to nearby enemies and summons Imperium Hammers from the sky. It costs 5 Holy Power.
   • Why we use it: This is a core ability in the Templar rotation. After Wake of Ashes generates 3 Holy Power, Hammer of Light spends 5 Holy Power, creating a nice circular motion of resource management.
3. Final Verdict (With 5 Holy Power)
   • What it does: Unleashes a powerful weapon strike that deals massive Holy damage. Has a chance to reset the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath and make it usable on any target, regardless of their health.
   • Why we use it: It’s the third priority and a high-damage ability when you have 5 Holy Power. It can also enable Hammer of Wrath on any target, even those with more than 20% health.
4. Wake of Ashes
   • What it does: Generates 3 Holy Power.
   • Why we use it: This is used as a part of the rotation to generate Holy Power, and after it, you’ll use Hammer of Light as the second priority.
5. Divine Toll
   • What it does: Casts Judgment on up to five targets within 30 yards. After casting, you’ll instantly cast Judgment every 5 seconds, and Divine Toll's Judgment deals double damage.
   • Why we use it: This is an excellent cooldown, giving you massive burst damage, especially on multiple targets. It's on a 1-minute cooldown, so use it on cooldown.
6. Judgment
   • What it does: Deals Holy strike damage and increases the damage the target takes from your next Holy Power ability. It also generates 2 Holy Power.
   • Why we use it: Judgment is essential for managing Holy Power and dealing steady damage. When combined with Divine Toll, it does double the damage, making it even more powerful.
7. Blade of Justice
   • What it does: Deals Holy damage and generates 1 Holy Power.
   • Why we use it: It’s a good tool for generating Holy Power, especially when you need it to continue your rotation.
8. Hammer of Wrath
   • What it does: You can use this ability when the target is below 20% health. It deals Holy damage.
   • Why we use it: It’s the priority ability to use when the enemy is low on health, as it provides a powerful burst of Holy damage.
9. Final Verdict (With 3 or 4 Holy Power)
   • What it does: Uses 3 Holy Power to deal massive Holy damage.
   • Why we use it: When you have 3-4 Holy Power, use it to maximize your damage. It should only be used when you don’t have 5 Holy Power.

Defensive Cooldowns

We also want to quickly mention some of our important defensive cooldowns that will keep you alive during intense fights. One of them is Shield of Vengeance. This defensive cooldown creates a barrier of Holy Light that absorbs a significant amount of damage for 10 seconds.

When the shield expires, it bursts, inflicting Holy damage equal to the total amount absorbed among all nearby enemies. This is a really strong tool to have in the rotation, especially during challenging moments where you’re taking heavy damage.

That’s pretty much it for the single-target rotation. We’ve walked you through the key abilities and how they work together to create a smooth flow of damage. Now that you have the basics down, we’ll cover Mythic+ and AoE rotations in the next section. Keep practicing this rotation, and soon it will feel second nature. You’re well on your way to mastering the Retribution Paladin playstyle!

Mythic+ Rotation

When it comes to Mythic+, the rotation doesn’t change drastically compared to the raid rotation. However, there are a few talents that modify the way we approach our abilities, and there are some significant improvements to our AoE capabilities.

1. Changes in Talents

• Some talents are tailored to increase the damage of your damage-over-time effects, such as Divine Storm and Divine Hammer.
• Radiant damage abilities also see a boost in damage, making them more effective during AoE situations.
• High Lord’s Judgment and other radiant abilities now have a chance to trigger an explosion of Holy Fire, dealing AoE damage and leaving a Consecration in its wake. This significantly boosts your AoE output.

2. Basic Rotation

In terms of the core rotation, we're still using:

• Execution Sentence
• Hammer of Light when we reach 5 Holy Power

However, there are some small tweaks in how we spend our Holy Power:

3. Divine Storm

• Instead of using Final Verdict or Hammer of Wrath as our main Holy Power spender, we now prioritize Divine Storm.
• Divine Storm unleashes a wave of divine energy that deals radiant damage to all nearby enemies. It deals reduced damage to targets beyond 5, but it’s fantastic in Mythic+ due to its AoE potential.

4. AoE Abilities

The AoE rotation is very similar to the single-target one, but with a focus on Divine Storm. The priority remains:

• Wake of Ashes
• Blade of Justice
• Divine Storm as your main Holy Power spender

5. Radiant Glory

• Radiant Glory is another key talent in your Mythic+ rotation. This talent replaces Avenging Wrath with Crusade when you use Wake of Ashes.
• Crusade increases your haste and damage, and every Holy Power spent during Crusade will further increase your haste (up to a maximum of 10 stacks).
• Additionally, Radiant Glory gives each Holy Power spent a chance to activate Crusade for 5 seconds. This means you don’t have to rely on a cooldown for Crusade—it can activate passively as you use Holy Power.

6. Avenging Wrath vs Crusade

• Avenging Wrath is a powerful cooldown for Retribution Paladins, but in this build, we replace it with Crusade and Radiant Glory.
• Crusade is an incredible buff that enhances your haste and damage, while Radiant Glory ensures that Crusade activates regularly without waiting for the cooldown.

7. Mythic+ vs Raid Rotation

• Mythic+ rotation is quite similar to the raid rotation, but with an increased emphasis on AoE abilities like Divine Storm.
• You’ll still use Wake of Ashes, Blade of Justice, and Hammer of Light, but with an additional focus on managing your Holy Power efficiently for AoE scenarios.

Hero Talents in The War Within

The Hero Talents introduced in The War Within make the rotation even more fun and versatile. With these new talents, we’ve got additional tools that can really elevate your damage output, especially in AoE situations. As you grow accustomed to the rotation and these talents, you’ll find that it’s just as enjoyable in Mythic+ as it is in raids.

That’s the breakdown of the Mythic+ rotation! It may seem similar to the raid rotation, but there’s a bit more emphasis on AoE damage, and with the new talents, you’re set for success in any Mythic+ scenario. The key is balancing your Holy Power spenders with Divine Storm and maintaining those Crusade buffs as often as possible. Happy hunting, and may your light shine brightly in the dungeons!

The Wrath of the Paladin

This Retribution Paladin build will certainly help you deal more damage to your enemies. If you want a super fun class to use, check out our Augmentation Evoker build next.