This explanation of Retribution mechanics is written by Avitus of Earthen Ring-EU realm, the original post can be read here. As a paladin uses a mix of spell and melee abilities, confusion arises when the paladin does not know which stat to focus on. Avitus wrote this guide to help Retribution paladins understand more about their spec.


I’ve been reading a lot of questions regarding AP vs Spelldamage vs Crit vs Hit and so on, people wondering how to best equip their retri paladin, which stats to go for and what priorities to take. So I decided to write a guide about it.This guide should explain what to aim for in gear and more importantly why for PvE as well as PvP, hopefully allowing you to make educated gear choices so you have the best tools to perform as a Retribution Paladin.With a few pointed exceptions in the last section (Advanced Tips/Opinion) I’ve tried to limit the scope of this post to Retribution Stat mechanics and Itemization, to avoid repeating things like spec/gameplay and all out item lists which have already been adequately handled on this forum

===Explaining Stat Mechanics===

Strength/AP vs. Spelldamage:

You need to consider while most of your relevant attacks as retri gain from both Str/AP as well as Spelldamage, the deciding factor is that your white hits (which are usually the largest part of your damage) gain only from Str/AP vs a much lesser relative improvement to your overall damage from JoC/Consecration which gain only from Spelldamage.

Conclusion: Though both benefit your damage, Str/AP benefits your overall damage more than Spelldamage and should be taken as a priority.

Melee Crit/Agility vs Spell Crit:

This is actually the more important factor, all your relevant attacks as retri (White/CS/SoC/JoC/Hammer of Wrath) gain from Melee Crit and NOT from Spell Crit. Spell Crit only works for attacks you won’t really be using as retri like JoR, situational attacks like Exorcism and Holy Wrath (which are nice, but you can’t base your retri gear around them) and of course your heals, but we’re talking about damage here.

Conclusion: As a retri paladin go for Melee Crit. Spell Crit is worthless to your damage.

Melee Hit vs Spell Hit:

This one is the subject of a lot of complaining: While the vast majority of your relevant attacks as retri gain from Melee Hit (White/CS/SoC/Hammer of Wrath), one (and only one) of your major attacks (JoC) does not and requires Spell Hit instead.

This is one change that retri paladins are hoping for in the future, since it leads to a loss of a lot of damage due to resisted JoCs.

Conclusion: As a retri pala Melee Hit is the only way to go. Spell Hit while technically not worthless due to that 1 spell (JoC), it is almost impossible to fit into gear. See the next part about Itemization.

===Itemization===

As it stands, there’s little or no gear focused on Spelldamage that has Melee Crit/Agility and/or Melee Hit on it, by focused, I mean as its main stat. Instead you’ll find Spell Crit and Spell Hit on those items, which as previously mentioned are more or less useless for retri-spec.

On the other hand, usually all gear with Str/AP are loaded with the Melee Crit/Agility and Melee Hit which you need.

That’s the 2nd reason why Spelldamage loses out to Str/AP, simply due to itemization.

Spell Hit remains the Achilles’ heel of retri paladin itemization however. You won’t find it on gear that improves your other retri attacks, and going for pure Spell Hit items will just gimp your overall gear. The buff to the 1 retri spell that uses it (JoC) is not worth it.

“Warrior gear?”:

A trend that is sometimes observed is paladins going for pure “warrior” damage plate. While it usually has great Str/AP, Melee Crit and Melee Hit, it does take its toll on your mana pool and your Spell damage. Without mana there’s no damage and while Spell damage is not a must, every bit of it helps and buffs your overall damage.

“Warrior gear” is therefore not advised. It is usable in moderation, you can use some pieces until you get better items which are actually designed for Retribution paladins.

What gear to get?

Basically the T4/T5 retri sets or the Arena 1/Arena 2 retri (preferred) sets are atm what you’ll want to go for, they have the perfect balance of stats.

There are lower level blues in dungeons that have a similar talent spread that you can also go for, until you acquire these epics.

What about +Hit?

If you’ve followed this guide so far, you’ll probably notice a lack of Melee Hit in the suggested gear. This should be balanced by getting this stat on your Neck/Cape/Rings/Trinket slots or Gem sockets/enchants if needed. You should aim for 5-6% hit for PvP and ~8% for PvE.

What stats to plan for?

Basically when you start off gathering your retri set, you’ll want to shoot for the following:

Melee Hit: ~5% for PvP, ~8-9% for PvE. Remember if you keep missing, you aren’t going to do enough damage. Don’t go over these caps however or it’s wasted item stats. There’s always a theoretical miss chance of 1% however.

Melee Crit: You should aim for at least ~22-23% Melee Crit unbuffed, I suggest 25%+. An important thing to remember is the huge 15% damage buff we receive from fully stacked Vengeance. You’ll want to keep it up and at 3 stacks all the time (especially in PvE), therefore you must make sure you crit at least once during the 15 seconds it’s up, so you don’t lose your Vengeance Buff.

Str/AP: Basically once you’ve hit the mentioned Melee Hit caps and have acquired the suggested Melee Crit, start piling on the Str/AP for pure overall DPS.

Further Str/AP vs Melee Crit: While both will considerably increase your DPS, you’ll do more raw damage if you further increase your Str/AP than your Melee Crit. However, alternatively for PvP, it is suggested to go the Melee Crit route and increase that instead, since you’ll be aiming for burst.

Spelldamage: You should not aim for pure Spelldamage gear, for reasons previously mentioned. You should get an adequate amount of Spelldamage if you go for the high quality retri gear described. Values between 160-260 unbuffed spelldamage as retri spec should be within the desirable norm. Also keep in mind that (untalented) JotC gives you up to 190 holy Spelldamage against your current target, which can go a long way in longer fights.

Resilience: This only concerns PvP, though I guess it’s worth mentioning. Our Retribution Arena/Honor sets completely lack Resilience. I believe this to be the case mainly due to Retribution paladins requiring too many stats leaving no room for Resilience to be put on those sets without severely gimping them. There are two trends, either skipping Resilience completely, since paladins are already a pretty survivable class with high Armor/HP or as an alternative option, stacking up on Resilience in Neck/Cape/Rings/Trinkets/Weapon. A useful tip is going for 2xArena 2 set and 2xArena 1 set to receive the +35 Resilience bonus twice.

Consumables: Just like your itemization, you’ll be using consumables that increase the same stats. Str food, Crit stones and one of AP flask/Str pot/Agi pot is advisable.

Weapon: You should aim for the slowest 2h weapon with max frontload you can get. Since SoC procs are not weapon speed normalized, you gain full advantage from slow swing speed mulitiplier. If your Paladin is a human, a mace or a sword are the best choice due to racials. A very good weapon to aim for and probably one of the best you can get is the crafted 2h blacksmithing mace Thunder with 3.8 swing speed and it’s 2 upgrades Deep Thunder and Stormherald.

Libram: By far, there’s only one Libram that really stands out, and that’s Libram of Avengement which is a rare drop in heroic mode from The Maker (first boss of The Blood Furnace). It gives you +2.4% Melee Crit for 5 seconds every time you use your Judgement ability. Assuming constant judging every 8 seconds with Improved Judgement, this is roughly equivalent to +1.5% Melee Crit passive (always on). You should aim to get this libram as soon as you can.

Enchants: I suggest anything with +all stats, specifically +6 to all stats on chest and +4 to all stats on bracers, those enchants are really made for a retri paladin since we benefit from all stats. On weapon, Savagery (+70 AP) seems to be the current best weapon enchant, though I’d be interested to read anyone who’s done extensive comparison of Savagery vs Mongoose. For helmet, the Glyph from Cenarion Refuge (+34 AP/+16 Hit) is highly recommended, due to the hard to get +hit, though as a secondary choice there’s also the Glyph from Lower City (+17 Str/+16 Int).

===Advanced Tips/Opinion===

-Encounters with mass adds: If you know there’s going to be an encounter (PvE) where you’ll be fighting a lot of adds and using Consecration a lot, it is sometimes advisable to use Spelldamage consumables (weapon oil, food, elixir) rather than normal melee (Str/AP/Melee Crit) consumables. This is very situational, but can lead to impressive results. Retri paladins are one of the very few, if not only class that can keep up an AoE spell at the same time as DPSing a single target at 100% efficiency.

Expect to use mana potions however.

-Windfury: As a 2h wielding class with pretty big hits, windfury is probably the single best buff you can hope for. Expect buffs to your own damage of roughly ~10%. If you can, try to get into a group with a Shaman, preferably Enhancement spec, who is using a Windfury totem (also for Strength of Earth totem), your Improved Sanctity Aura (+2% group damage) can work as a minor bargaining right

-Mana efficiency: Unfortunately due to needing so many different stats, there’s little or no room for mana regen (mp/5), for PvE expect to use mana potions quiet frequently. In longer fights see if another paladin can judge JoW on your target, assuming you’re using JotC.

-Melee Haste Rating: A new stat that’s popping up on many Black Temple epics is Melee Haste Rating, I’ve yet to do the exact math but what we do know is that:

1. It makes your swings faster, however the attack power added to each swing is calculated using your base speed. This means that every percent of haste you gain, is equivalent to a DPS increase of your white attacks of the same percent value.

2. It’s being reported that it works outside SoCs ~7PPM, meaning since you’re swinging faster, you get more chances to proc SoC.

Overall, Melee Haste Rating looks like it can be a big buff on the very high end gear.

-Arena/Honor/PvP gear: A blessing in disguise is that our Retribution Arena/Honor gear from PvP does not have Resilience. This means that the full item level/value is used for actual combat stats, making these sets very suited for PvE DPS purposes in addition to PvP. Even if your main focus is PvE, Retribution Paladins should seriously consider getting a good Arena team and Honor points since the gear is definitely worth it.

-Professions: It is possible to achieve very good retribution gear regardless of professions, however, from personal experience there’s a few professions that really stand out:

1. Blacksmithing: As previously mentioned, the Weaponsmith 2h weapons and their upgrades are excellent, attainable weapons for Retribution Paladins. There are good alternatives from Arena and Instances, however if you’re aiming for the best there is, Macesmith is the way to go. This profession can go a long way, for example: The Tier 3 macesmith weapon (Stormherald) is the 2nd best weapon for Retribution Paladins that currently exists in WoW itemization (No.1 being Torch of the Damned, from deep in the Black Temple).

2. Alchemy: Besides making it easier to make pots, elixirs and flasks, the main reason why I highly recommend this is the epic Alchemist’s Stone trinket. It gives you +15 to all stats, which is perfectly suited for a retribution paladin as well as an equip bonus that gives you 40% more from any mana/health potions you use. This bonus is highly recommended in PvE.

3. There are other benefits to be gained from other professions, like Engineering (Grenades/Trinkets), Enchanting (Ring enchants 2x+4 to all stats), Jewelcrafting (personal epic gems next patch), so no choice is necessarily wrong.