Pandaria [Guide] MoP Retribution PvE and PvP!

[Lynea]

Strength used in the service of others is twice as powerful as strength spent on one's foes.
- Xuen

Contents

• Overview
  
  • What's New in MoP?
  • Crash Course Video
  
  
• PvE Section
  
  • Talents & Glyphs
  • Rotation & Cooldowns
  • Buffs & Debuffs
  • Stats & Reforging
  • Gems, Enchants & Professions
  • Macros & Addons
  • Gearing Up and Best In Slot
  • Raid-Specific Tips & Tricks
  • Brawler's Guild Tips
  • Proving Grounds & Challenge Modes
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Extra Information About Mechanics
  
  
• PvP Section
  
  • Talents&Glyphs
  • Stats&Reforging
  • Gems, Enchants&Professions
  • Macros&Addons
  • Tips&Tactics
  
  
• Change-Log
• Credits

Overview
In single target DPS, Retribution performs well compared to most other classes. While it is not at the top of the DPS rankings, it is certainly worth bringing to raids. In AoE DPS, Retribution does decently, but certainly does not shine until Tier16 (Siege of Orgrimmar). Retribution Paladins bring many useful buffs and abilities, which a raid leader cannot really overlook.



What's New in MoP?

Spoiler: Show

- Many old talents have become specialization-only spells. What may have seemed like customization in the past, but was always mandatory for your spec to be any good, has been baked into the base-line of the spec.
- Auras no longer exist. Seals are now on the aura bar and can be cast while mounted.
- Aura Mastery has been renamed to Devotion Aura, and now reduces raid-wide magic damage taken by 20% while providing immunity to silence and interrupt effects.
- Holy Power is generated faster and you can have eventually up to 5 Holy Power.
- Cleanse now has a 8 second cooldown and no longer removes snare effects for the Retribution Paladin, but does remove all stacks of poison and disease with a single cast.
- Emancipate is a new spell that removes one movement impairing effect per cast.
- Blinding Light is a new spell that incapacitates all enemies in a radius around you.

Crash Course Video

Spoiler: Show

[Lynea]

PvE Section

10 being absolute best, 1 being absolute worst.
DPS: 7.5 out of 10.
Utility: 10 out of 10.

Pros
Brings valuable buff and debuff versatility.
Brings a valuable raid defensive cooldown in the form of Devotion Aura.
Brings powerful utility in the form of off-heals, crowd-control and several hand abilities.

Cons
Average single-target DPS. Exception: Tier 15 set bonus.
Average AoE DPS. Exception: Tier 16 set bonus.
Does not stand well up against many pure-damage classes, especially ranged.
Being melee makes them more vulnerable to many raid mechanics and less versatile in placement during an encounter.


Talents & Glyphs
There is no longer such a thing as a default build. We are now given a set of talent tiers available at progressively higher levels. Each tier contains three talents. The majority of these choices (with the exception of tiers 5 and 6) are inconsequential to your DPS and are geared towards mobility, survival, and raid utility. They can easily be changed, thanks to Dust of Disappearance (and Tome of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90). You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs between encounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics. Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does and how they affect your play style.

Spoiler: Show

Tier 1 - Level 15
Tier 1 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving your movement speed.

• Speed of Light - Excellent for on-demand large boosts of speed. The cooldown on this being larger than the other two talents can make it less useful in many situations. It also requires another button slot on your action bars.
• Long Arm of the Law - So long as you are in combat and hitting something, this will likely have a very high up-time. It is a good movement speed boost on a short cooldown.
• Pursuit of Justice - The effect of this talent is the most passive of the talents of this tier, but due to how quickly and how often you will be spending holy power, it is unlikely you will get much use out of this.

Recommended: Situational. Long Arm of the Law offers a good burst of speed at the beginning of the fight and can help you reach new targets quickly, or help you to move on-demand. Speed of Light is strong for dealing with wind and fixate effects but has a long cooldown and requires another key bind.


Tier 2 - Level 30
Tier 2 talents offer you a choice of several to boost your crowd-control.

• Fist of Justice - Replaces Hammer of Justice with a new stun spell with the same duration, half the cooldown and twice the range. (6 second duration, 30 second cooldown, 20yd range)
• Repentance - Incapacitates an enemy. (1 minute duration, 15 second cooldown, 1.5 second cast)
• Evil is a Point of View - Allows your Turn Evil spell to be cast on Humanoids and Beasts.

Recommended: None. None of these spells will have much of an effect in a raiding environment. Fist of Justice is the most popular choice. Repentance is great for Challenge Modes and for trash mobs sometimes, but not for much else. Evil is a Point of View isn't recommended at all for PvE, as wandering feared mobs is usually not a good thing.


Tier 3 - Level 45
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between several healing abilities.

• Selfless Healer - Judgment reduces Flash of Light's cast time and mana cost by 35% and increases effectiveness if used on others by 35%. Stacks up to three times.
• Eternal Flame - Consumes up to 3 Holy Power to heal a friendly target and apply a HoT that ticks every 3 seconds for 30 sec. Replaces Word of Glory. (Scales with haste.)
• Sacred Shield - Produces a shield that absorbs damage every 6 seconds. Can be cast on others. Only 1 active at a time. (Scales with haste.)

Recommended: Selfless Healer. Eternal Flame is a DPS loss, as it requires the use of Holy Power. Sacred Shield is an effective boost to the target's survivability, but it must be active for most of a fight for it to pull its weight. This means that you will be wasting many global cooldowns on using it. Selfless Healer builds up passively as you perform your rotation and can be used much like a Warlock's Healthstone but can benefit others as well.


Tier 4 - Level 60
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice of several abilities that augment your utility abilities and defensive cooldowns.

• Hand of Purity - Grants 10% flat damage reduction and 80% reduced damage reduction from damage-over-time effects to the target.
• Unbreakable Spirit - Reduces the cooldown of several of your strongest abilities by 50%.
• Clemency - Grants you double the amount of hand abilities that you can cast. Cooldowns still apply.

Recommended: Unbreakable Spirit is the best default choice for most encounters. Hand of Purity and Clemency are both situationally useful.


Tier 5 - Level 75
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between several ways to augment your burst damage.

• Holy Avenger - Increases the damage done by your Holy Power generating abilities by 30% and causes each of them to generate 3 Holy Power per use for 18 seconds. In addition, it turns your weapon into the Ashbringer for the duration of the spell.
• Sanctified Wrath - Doubles the length of your Avenging Wrath and cuts the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath in half while Avenging Wrath is active.
• Divine Purpose - You have a chance to gain the ability to use any Holy Power spender as if you had 3 Holy Power each time you cast an ability that costs Holy Power.

Recommended: All three abilities do not vary by much in their DPS by themselves. Holy Avenger is superior for increased on-demand burst damage, while Sanctified Wrath lengthens the duration of your burst phase and increases the up-time of Avenging Wrath. Divine Purpose is pure RNG, take it at your own risk. It does synergize very well with the Tier 16 set bonus, however.
Special note: Evil Eye of Galakras boosts the value of Sanctified Wrath significantly which puts it ahead of the other two talents. With good RNG, though, Divine Purpose can still out-perform Sanctified Wrath+Evil Eye of Galakras, but only if you have the T16 set bonus.


Tier 6 - Level 90
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between several hybrid abilities that can be used to boost your damage or healing.

• Holy Prism - Heals a friendly target, then the beam splits outward and does damage to 4 enemies. OR damages a hostile target, then the beam splits outward and heals 4 friendly targets. Has a short cooldown.
• Light's Hammer - An AoE effect that you can place on the ground (much like Death and Decay) which heals allies and damages/slows enemies standing in its radius. 1-minute cooldown.
• Execution Sentence - Single target effect that does healing or damage depending on whether the target is friendly or hostile. The effect increases over time until it explodes for a massive amount. 1-minute cooldown.

Recommended: Holy Prism has to be used on cooldown in order to compete with the other two talents in damage. Since it has a much shorter cooldown, this means that you will be using that many more global cooldowns on it, and you will have to remember to use it more often. It is recommended to avoid this ability unless it is an absolute must.
Execution Sentence is superior to Light's Hammer when it comes to single target damage or healing, but Light's Hammer is superior when there are 2 or more targets affected for the majority of the spell's duration.
Light's Hammer can also be an effective AoE healing ability when your raid needs more AoE healing.

Glyphs

Spoiler: Show

Glyph of Blinding Light - Excellent for AoE stunning large numbers of adds.
Glyph of Divine Storm - If you are AoEing a lot, this can be a decent source of self-healing. It synergizes well with the T16 set bonus.
Double Jeopardy - Obvious DPS increase when switching between targets.
Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice - Allows you to help keep someone alive without risking your own life.
Glyph of Mass Exorcism - This can be a DPS increase in fights with a lot of AoE, but can be a DPS loss if there is a lot of movement.
Glyph of Templar's Verdict - Useful everywhere.
Glyph of Inquisition - Amazing in fights that have adds and your damage output is high enough to land killing blows on them.

Glyph of Immediate Truth - Never use this glyph! It is a DPS loss after only just a few seconds!

Minor glyphs are all personal preference.

Rotation & Cooldowns

Spoiler: Show

>Build up to 3 holy power and use Inquisition as quickly as possible.
>Use Crusader Strike and Judgment on cooldown when possible, except when you have 5 holy power.
>When you have 5 holy power, use Templar's Verdict on a single target or Divine Storm when there are 2 or more targets. It is acceptable to generate a 6th Holy Power after the first holy power-spender so that you can quickly follow-up with another spender.
>When using Tier 16 set bonus, make sure you use your proc before using another holy power spender.
>Use Hammer of Wrath as #1 priority whenever available except over a 5-holy power spender.
>Use Exorcism to fill vacant global cooldowns.
>Exorcism when used with Glyph of Mass Exorcism should take priority over Judgment in AoE DPS.

>Divine Storm is a DPS gain over Templar's Verdict when there are 2 or more targets.
>Hammer of the Righteous is a DPS gain over Crusader Strike when there are 4 or more targets.
>Seal of Righteousness is a DPS gain over Seal of Truth when there are 8 or more targets.

For two targets, you may switch consistently between them to take advantage of Glyph of Double Jeopardy and keep 5 censure stacks up on both targets.

Inquisition - Maintaining 100% up-time is crucial. You should almost always use 3 holy power to keep the buff active. The only exception is when the boss is about to die, and won't live for the entire duration of a 3 holy power Inquisition. You should start pooling holy power to refresh your Inquisition when it has about 5 seconds remaining.

Cooldowns should always be stacked with each other whenever possible. This is especially true at the start of a fight. Use cooldowns as soon as they are available, as long as you are on the boss or an important target. Simple. This applies to all DPS cooldowns.

Spoiler: Show

Crusader Strike ÔÇô Single-target attack that generates a charge of holy power. Strongest damage ability that generates holy power during normal damage rotation.
Exorcism ÔÇô Ranged single-target attack that generates holy power. Second strongest damage ability that generates holy power before 5 stacks of Seal of Truth censure on the target.
Hammer of the Righteous ÔÇô Use in place of Crusader Strike for two or more targets, generates holy power.
Hammer of Wrath ÔÇô Strong ranged single-target attack usable when your target is under 20% health, generates holy power. Strongest holy power generating ability, should always be used first when available.
Judgment ÔÇô Ranged single-target attack that generates holy power. Weak without stacks of Seal of Truth censure, but strong with full stacks.
Templar's Verdict ÔÇô Strong single-target attack that uses three holy power to cast.
Divine Storm ÔÇô Strong multi-target attack that uses three holy power to cast.

Buffs & Debuffs

Spoiler: Show

Buffs
Blessing of Kings - Increases the Strength, Agility, and Intellect of all party and raid members by 5% ÔÇö does not stack with Mark of the Wild, Embrace of the Shale Spider and Legacy of the Emperor.
Blessing of Might - Increases the Mastering Rating of all party and raid members by 3000 ÔÇö does not stack with Roar of Courage Icon Roar of Courage, Spirit Beast Blessing Icon Spirit Beast Blessing, and Grace of Air Icon Grace of Air.
Devotion Aura - Reduces all magic damage taken by raid members by 20% for 6 seconds. Also grants immunity to silence and interrupt effects for its duration. Does stack with other Devotion Auras.

Debuffs
Hammer of the Righteous and Crusader Strike ÔÇöApplies Weakened Blows, -10% Physical Damage dealt ÔÇö does not stack with Scarlet Fever, Thrash, Demoralizing Roar, Demoralizing Screech, Keg Smash, Earth Shock, Curse of Enfeeblement and Thunder Clap.
Judgments of the Bold - Applies Physical Vulnerability, +4% Physical Damage taken ÔÇö does not stack with Brittle Bones, Ebon Plaguebringer, Acid Spit, Gore, Ravage, Stampede and Colossus Smash.

Hand Spells
Hand of Freedom - Grants immunity to any movement impairing effects.
Hand of Protection - Single-target immunity against physical damage for 10 seconds. Targeted player cannot attack or use any physical abilities, but can continue to move, heal and cast damaging spells. Removes physical debuffs.
Hand of Sacrifice - Transfers 30% of the damage taken by the target to the paladin. Damage is not transferred (and simply reduced on the target) if Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice is used.

Utility
Rebuke - Single target interrupt.
Hammer of Justice - Single target 6-second stun.
Reckoning - Single target taunt.
Righteous Fury - Generates very large amounts of threat, enable you to help in specific add-kiting strategies.
Cleanse - Removes all Poison and Disease effects from a friendly target (8-second cooldown).
Turn Evil - Fears one undead, demon, or aberration for 40 seconds, but with a 1.5 second cast time and a 15 second cooldown.
Emancipate ÔÇô Dispels one movement-impairing effect from yourself.
Blinding Light ÔÇô Blinds enemies within 10 yards, not terribly useful for the majority of situations outside of PvP.

Survival
Divine Shield - Complete invulnerability for 8 seconds.
Divine Protection - Reduces all magic damage taken by 40% for 10 seconds.

Stats & Reforging
At lower gear levels (pre-raid gear all the way until average Tier 14 raiding gear), one point of Strength is worth more than two points of Haste Rating, making Strength desirable in terms of gemming. Once you exceed this gear level, however, Strength becomes less valuable, meaning that gemming Haste becomes the better option.

You should never really skip a gear upgrade because it does not have Haste Rating on it, though, since Mastery Rating and Critical Strike rating are both rather close in value to Haste Rating, so the increased item level of the upgrade is generally preferable.

There are two different stat priorities. The first will be the most commonly used, and the other you will not see used until you reach heroic Tier 16 content. This does not include raid buffs or racials.

Simplified;

Spoiler: Show

Standard Priority (under 40% static haste)
1. Strength
2. Hit & Expertise (to 7.5%)
3. Haste
4. Mastery
5. Critical

Well-Geared Priority (above 40% static haste)
1. Strength
2. Hit & Expertise (to 7.5%)
3. Mastery
4. Haste
5. Critical

Haste decreases the cooldown of Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, Judgment, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath; all holy power generators.
There are many varying opinions on what the actual haste cap is considered to be, and it ranges between 40 and 50% before turning to another stat. You should also take your latency into consideration when deciding how much haste you want, as a little bit of extra haste may boost your performance if you're playing with 200+ MS.

2,550 Expertise Rating = 7.5%
2,210 Expertise Rating = 6.5%

Mastery and Critical

Spoiler: Show

While there are varying opinions on Haste, all can agree that it is superior to both Mastery and Critical. However, the opinions for Mastery and Critical vary much more. Additionally, Mastery can start to overtake Haste in value once you reach a value of 40% or more. This requires the use of both of your Tier 16 Best-In-Slot trinkets, however. Which are Evil Eye of Galakras and Thok's Tail Tip.

Critical
Critical is considered to be better than Mastery for single-target DPS. However, this isn't always true, as Critical is an RNG factor, and if the RNG does not side with you, the results will be poorer than if you ran with a Mastery build. Thok's Tail Tip is also a requirement for an effective Critical build.

Mastery
Mastery is superior to Critical by a large margin when it comes to any fight that has more than a single target. Mastery also provides a much more consistent and reliable damage output than Critical, but can still be out-performed by Critical if you have Thok's Tail Tip and the RNG-Gods favor you.

Reforge priority;
Hit & Expertise (7.5%) > Haste > Mastery = Crit

Again, Mastery is superior to Crit for the most part, although there are those who swear by Crit. Consensus is that Mastery is greater for 2+ targets while Crit is superior for single target DPS after a certain point. That said, the single-target difference is relatively small and the sheer quantity of 2+ target fights in current content tends to favor Mastery.

Hit cap for Draenei is 6.5%.
Expertise cap for Humans or Dwarves wielding maces is 6.5%.
Expertise cap for Humans wielding swords is 6.5%.

Gems, Enchants, Professions & Other Boons
Gems
Gemming strategy is different in pre-raid dungeon gear than in raid gear. I've outlined the different strategies here, but you'll need to sim your own character to figure out when you personally start reaching the various breakpoints that are detailed here.

Pre-raid Gemming
In pre-raid dungeon gear, Strength is superior to all secondary stats by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Pre-raid gear, you are safe to gem as we did in Cataclysm: straight Strength in red sockets, Strength/Haste in yellows, Strenght/Hit in blues.

Early Raid Gear (T14/T15)
Gemming is a little different now due to gems having double secondary stats attached to them. In early raid gear, we'll no longer gem straight Strength. Haste gems will take precedence (up to around 40% Haste), as 2 Haste > 1 Strength after a certain point, generally as soon as you start picking up epics. With higher item level gear being so accessible now, you may be better off skipping Strength-only gems entirely.

Late Raid Gear (T16) & Breakpoints
There are two important break points in late raid gear which greatly affect gearing strategies. Typically, the first such break point is the one at which Mastery's value exceeds half that of Strength. At this point, 2 Mastery > 1 Strength and you will begin gemming for Expertise instead of Strength in your red sockets. Ex: Exp/Haste or Exp/Mastery gems, depending on how progressed your gear is and how much Haste you have. Gemming for Expertise allows for better reforging; you will be able to reforge out of Expertise and into more valuable secondaries, such as Haste and Mastery.

To further elaborate: since 1 Strength is worth less than 2 Haste or Mastery in late raid gear, given the option it would be more efficient to socket gems that give 160 Mastery and 160 Haste instead of 80 Strength and 160 Haste, right? You can't do that, so the next best option is to gem for Expertise/x and be able to reforge out of Expertise and into the Haste and Mastery that would have been gemmed for if such gems existed.

The second break point is the one at which Mastery will begin outperforming Haste. With Thok's Tail Tip, you'll reach this point at ~40% Haste. Around 50% without. Upon reaching this break point you'll want to start gemming for x/Mastery instead of x/Haste in your red sockets, but continue gemming straight Haste in yellow sockets. You may or may not find room to gem for Hit/Mastery instead of Haste/Hit.

Spoiler: Show

Red Sockets
Bold Serpent's Eye, JC-only
Fierce Vermilion Onyx

Once 2 Mastery > 1 Strength:
Wicked Vermilion Onyx

After 40% Haste (before raid buffs):
Skillful Vermilion Onyx
Keen Vermilion Onyx

Yellow Sockets
Quick Sun's Radiance

After 40% Haste (before raid buffs):
Fractured Sun's Radiance

Blue Sockets
Lightning Wild Jade

After 40% Haste (before raid buffs):
Sensei's Wild Jade

Meta Socket
Capacitive Primal Diamond
Reverberating Primal Diamond

Enchants

Spoiler: Show

Helm - Helm enchants no longer exist in Mists of Pandaria!

Shoulders - Greater Tiger Fang Inscription
Cheaper alternative - Tiger Fang Inscription

Cloak - Enchant Cloak - Superior Critical Strike or Enchant Cloak - Accuracy (if you need hit)

Chest - Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats

Bracers - Enchant Bracer -Exceptional Strength
Cheaper alternatively - Enchant Bracer - Mastery

Gloves - Enchant Gloves - Super Strength
Cheaper alternative - Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste

Belt - Living Steel Belt Buckle

Legs - Angerhide Leg Armor
Cheaper alternative - Brutal Leg Armor

Boots - Enchant Boots - Greater Haste or Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step
- Interchangeable depending on needs or preference.

Weapon - Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel
Cheaper alternative - Enchant Weapon - Windsong

Professions
Most crafting professions provide a flat 320 strength bonus. Gathering professions (Mining, Herbalism and Skinning) provide a much lower benefit. Tailoring and Engineering stand out from these two, however. Tailoring-only Swordguard cloak enchant procs for 4000 AP for 15 seconds on an ICD of 55 seconds. It averages out to be an approximate 370 strength gain.

Engineering stands apart from all of the other professions for what may be obvious reasons for more experienced players. The hand enchant (which does stack with a regular enchant!) averages out to be an approximate 320 strength gain, but when combined with certain cooldowns and used at proper times, the value of this grows exponentially. In addition, many of the Engineering gadgets can be exceptionally useful in many boss fights, most notably the Nitro Boosts (rocket boots).

Consumables
Food
300 Strength - Black Pepper Ribs and Shrimp, Fluffy Silkfeather Omelet, or Pandaren Treasure Noodle Soup.
275 Strength - Eternal Blossom Fish, Deluxe Noodle Soup, Banquet of the Grill, or Great Banquet of the Grill.
250 Strength - Charbroiled Tiger Steak, Noodle Soup, or any of other banquets.

Flask - Flask of Winter's Bite
Potion - Potion of Mogu Power

Races
Alliance

Spoiler: Show

Draenei
- Heroic Presence: Grants a static +1% Hit to the Draenei. This buff no longer applies to the character's party or raid.
- Gift of the Naaru: Heals you for 20% of your maximum health over a few seconds.

Dwarf
- Mace Specialization: Free +1% Expertise when wielding a Mace.
- Stoneform: Clears all poison, disease, and bleed effects and reduces incoming damage by 10% for a short time. 2-minute CD. Some use for PvE sustainability.

Human
- Sword/Mace Specialization: Free +1% Expertise when wielding a Sword or Mace.
- Every Man For Himself: Free CC break. 2-minute CD. May be used to earn a few extra seconds of DPS time or to get to a safe spot during an encounter.

Horde

Spoiler: Show

Blood Elf
- Arcane Torrent: 2-second silence and instant 2% mana regeneration (1.2k mana) on a 2-minute cooldown. Very little use in PvE because of Rebuke, some use in PvP.
- Arcane Resistance: Static 1% reduction to Arcane damage taken.

Tauren
- War Stomp: 2-second stun. 2-minute CD. Very little use in PvE. Some use in PvP.
- Nature Resistance: Static 1% reduction to Nature damage taken.
- Endurance: Base health increased by 5%. Limited usefulness for survival.

All of the Alliance races have survivability utilities and have roughly the same DPS gain through their racials. Horde races have extremely neglibile gains for PvE.

Macros & Addons
Addons

Spoiler: Show

clcRet - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...ls/clcret.aspx
- This addon is an absolute must-have, though note that it is a guide, not intended to play for you. It tracks your ability cooldowns and makes suggestions of what you should use next in your rotation based on editable skill priorities. A standard priority string for this addon follows:

inq inqes ds_4t16_5hp tv5 how ds_4t16 tvaw cs j exo tv3

This string includes the T16 4p proc (ds_4t16). Against multiple targets, simply use HotR when CS is suggested and DS when TV is suggested.

ForteXorcist - http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/fortexorcist
- Highly configurable spell and cooldown timers. Particularly useful for monitoring Inquisition and various de/buffs (trinket procs, potions, cooldowns).

WeakAuras 2 - http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/weakauras-2
- Highly confirgurable visual and audio cues for various in-game events. Can be used to track de/buff stacks, time left on Inquisition, and/or various other crucial elements.

OmniCC - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...s/omni-cc.aspx
- Adds text to items/abilities that are on cooldown to more clearly indicate when they will be ready for use. Useful for pinpoint CD tracking on major abilities and items.

Macros

Spoiler: Show

Mouseover Judgment Macro
#showtooltip Judgment
/cast [target=mouseover,harm] Judgment; [harm] Judgment
/startattack

This macro will allow you to Judge your current target, but will instead cast it on whatever your cursor is hovering over if it's different than your target. The same macro can also be used for abilities such as Exo and HoW. Simply replace "Judgment" with the name of the desired ability. Useful for Censure cleaving.

Divine Shield Cancelaura Macro
#showtooltip Divine Shield
/stopcasting
/cast Divine Shield
/cancelaura Divine Shield

This macro will stop your current spell cast and cast Divine Shield, ensuring that your invulnerability is not delayed at all. If you press it again, it will remove your Divine Shield, allowing you to return to DPSing.

Hand Mouseover Macros
#showtooltip Hand of Protection
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover] Hand of Protection

#showtooltip Hand of Salvation
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover] Hand of Salvation

#showtooltip Hand of Freedom
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover] Hand of Freedom

#showtooltip Hand of Sacrifice
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover] Hand of Sacrifice
These macros allow you to cast your various hand spells on the target you are currently mousing over. Stopcasting is in place to ensure that you do not delay casting any of these spells due to a cast already in progress.

Rebuke
#showtooltip Rebuke
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus,exists][] Rebuke

This macro will stop your current spell cast and cast Rebuke on your focus target, if you have one. Otherwise, it will cast Rebuke on your current target.

Gearing Up and Best In Slot
Best In Slot gear is relative to what stat priority you are using (Tier 16 Content only) and how well you are doing on available hit and expertise stats. Trinkets and weapons are exempt from this rule most of the time. For the most part, the stats you will want on your armor slots are Strength>Haste>Mastery with as many gem sockets as possible (including blue sockets). Tier armor should always be prioritized over Thunderforged/Warforged items of the same tier and item-level bracket.

The best starting trinkets are Relic of Xuen (Darkmoon Cards) and Alacrity of Xuen (Timeless Isle), as they are easily obtainable with enough effort or gold. The 2nd trinket may not be available for a while, at least until Warmane makes the Timeless Isle scripted and available.

Tier 14 Trinkets and Weapons
No maces in this tier, and the disparity between the axe and sword aren't too significant. Ilvl overcomes it.
Trinket 1 - Darkmist Vortex
Trinket 2 - Lei Shen's Final Orders
Trinket 3 - Relic of Xuen
Weapon 1 - Shin'ka, Execution of Dominion
Weapon 2 - Starshatter

Tier 15 Trinkets and Weapons
No maces in this tier.
Trinket 1 - Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun
Trinket 2 - Spark of Zandalar
Trinket 3 - Normal versions of the above listed trinkets. The other heroic trinkets of this tier are worth slightly less to us than the normal versions of these.
Weapon 1 - Greatsword of Frozen Hells
Weapon 2 - Uroe, Harbinger of Terror, or if you are Human - Zerat, Malakk's Soulburning Greatsword

Tier 16 Trinkets and Weapons
The weapons vary a lot depending on your race, but the haste weapons are the most attractive. The Axe from Garrosh is the least attractive weapon from this tier due to racials and the value of Crit vs. Expertise. The trinkets are a must and aren't really negotiable.
Trinket 1 - Evil Eye of Galarkas
Trinket 2 - Thok's Tail Tip
Weapon 1 - Britomart's Jagged Pike, or if you are Human - Greatsword of Pride's Fall
Weapon 2 - Greatsword of Pride's Fall, or if you are Dwarf - Gar'tok, Strength of the Faithful

Raid-Specific Tips & Tricks
Tier 14 (Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring)

Spoiler: Show

Mogu'shan Vaults
The Stone Guard
- When the 3 bosses are close to each other, they take additional damage. They also have a shared health pool. Also, in Normal and Heroic strategies, they are often seperated into two groups, one of the dogs being by themselves. This means you will want to be DPS'ing the two dogs that are grouped together, and doing your standard AoE rotation for maximum damage on the bosses.
- Emancipate can release you from the root effect (Cobalt Mine), and you can use Hand of Freedom on other players to help them get out of the same root effect if they need it.

Feng the Accursed
- Save Devotion Aura for the boss' AoE phases (he will do significant raid-wide damage). Coordinate with your raid leader so that you can use the cooldown when the raid needs it most.

Gara'jal the Spiritbinder
- Lots of shadow damage goes out during this raid. Save Divine Protection for yourself when you are targeted by Voodoo Doll. In addition, you can use Hand of Sacrifice on others who are being targeted by Voodoo Doll and are squishy or don't have any cooldowns available to them. Alternatively, you can use Hand of Sacrifice on the tank to minimize the damage taken by all people targeted by the Voodoo Dolls.
- When entering the spirit realm on this boss, try to kill as many mobs as possible. In the meantime, use your Selfless Healer procs and Lay on Hands to heal yourself, even when you are at full health. You gain a significant DPS buff when you come out of the spirit realm that scales with how much you were healed inside of the spirit realm.
- Save all of your damage cooldowns for when you exit the spirit realm with a large DPS buff from it. This will maximize your burst damage for the fight. Also try to have at least one DPS cooldown for the last 20% of the boss' health, as he will enrage and you must nuke him.

The Spirit Kings
- Divine Shield will save you from Flanking Orders. Do not try to run through Flanking Orders at any other time.
- Devotion Aura is best used half of a second before Maddening Shout (the mass mind-control).
- Avoid using Hammer of the Righteous or Crusader Strike on your friends during Maddening Shout, as it will weake n their physical damage output. Use Divine Storm, Judgment or Exorcism instead.

Elegon
- I prefer to use Sanctified Wrath talent and use Avenging Wrath during the Draw Power phase. This allows you to kill the orbs quickly and Avenging Wrath synergizes well with the stacking damage-taken debuff Elegon gets during this phase. Elegon will keep the debuff for the remainder of the fight, so using Avenging Wrath here is not a must. Avenging Wrath will also allow you stronger ranged damage through Hammer of Wrath, which will also make killing orbs easier.

Will of the Emperor
- You should pop all of your DPS cooldowns during Titan Gas phase, as everything in the area (including both bosses and you!) takes 20% increased melee damage. Additionally, you should also use Divine Protection during this phase, as it will minimize the damage you take from the gas.
- The Pursuit of Justice talent can be effective here for dance-dodging the boss' cleaves, so long as you pool your holy power to keep your movement speed up. Both of the other movement speed talents have down-time and too short duration to properly cope with this boss mechanic.

Tier 15 (Throne of Thunder)
Tier 16 (Siege of Orgrimmar)

Brawler's Guild Tips
<To Be Constructed>

Proving Grounds & Challenge Modes

Spoiler: Show

Selfless Healer and Clemency are very strong options for challenge modes to help your group along. Be mindful of your group comp and try to fill holes (Fist of Justice vs. Repentance). Consider Holy Avenger for controllable burst and Light's Hammer for ample AoE damage.

Proving Grounds are about AoE damage and self-sufficiency; Fist of Justice, Selfless Healer, Unbreakable Spirit, and Light's Hammer are well-suited for this environment.

Changes for Challenge Modes or Proving Grounds:
In both game modes, Mass Exorcism is a must for its boon to AoE DPS, and Glyph of Double Jeopardy is a nice boost there as well. Blinding Light makes add control easier and cleaner.

For information about how to gem your gear for Challenge Modes or Proving Grounds, please see the "pre-raid" portion of the gemming section.

Fruequently Asked Questions
Q. Why is Exo behind CS and Judge in the priority? I swear Exo hits harder.
A. Exo appears to hit harder, but only if you ignore the Hand of Light (Mastery) and additional Seal damage that's attached to CS and Judgment, respectively. Exo benefits from neither and also scales horribly.

Q. What seal(s) should I be using for PvE?
A. Seal of Truth is your go-to DPS seal. Seal of Righteousness is our large-group AoE seal, and is only worth swapping to for 4+ targets with reasonable health pools. Potentially more if you can effectively multi-DoT Censure instead.

Q. Is it okay to use mail/leather gear?
A. No. These items no longer have attack power as a secondary stat. This lack of attack power versus Strength gear (which we gain 2 AP per point of Str from) makes Strength gear vastly superior. In addition, using all plate gear grants a free +5% Strength via Plate Specialization.

Q. What about higher-DPS Agility weapons?
A. No, an Agility weapon of similar item level should never be as good as a Strength weapon for the same reason that plate > mail and leather gear (lack of AP).

Q. I still don't understand something or have a question that isn't answered here.
A. You have several options: post here, post elsewhere in this sub-forum, or you may otherwise contact me directly via private message.

Extra Information About Mechanics

Spoiler: Show

• Glancing blows (only on mobs 3+ levels higher than you, such as Skull bosses) happen 24% of the time on auto-attacks. A glancing blow deals 75% damage and cannot crit.
• Boss level mobs have melee crit suppression of 4.8% and spell crit suppression of ~2.1%. This means you will crit less frequently than the % displayed on your character screen.
• Autoattack crit cap is 71.2% (100% - 24% glancing - 4.8% suppression). Crit above this level would not generate more crits.
• Ability crit cap is either 95.2% (100% - 4.8% suppression) or possibly 100% (104.8% - 4.8% suppression). Either is beyond possibility for Ret Pally gear.
• Hit and Expertise rating to percent conversion is 102.45 per 1%.
• You need 7.5% Hit (2550 Hit rating) to be melee capped. Draenei only need 2210 Hit rating due to racials. Autoattack, CS, Judgment, TV, and Hammer of Wrath all use the melee hit cap.
• You need 7.5% Expertise (2550 Expertise rating) to be dodge and parry capped. Spells cannot be dodged. Dwarves need 2210 Expertise rating with maces, and Humans would need 2210 Expertise rating with swords or maces.
• You need 15% Spellhit to be spell capped. Both Hit and Expertise contribute to Spellhit, therefore at 7.5% Hit + 7.5% Expertise you would be at 15% Spellhit. Only Exorcism uses Spellhit.
• Autoattacks, Crusader Strike, Judgment, and Templar's Verdict are all considered melee attacks, using Melee Hit and Crit %. They are susceptible to parry and dodge. Hammer of Wrath is ranged Holy damage and can be dodged, but not parried. It is susceptible to Hit and Expertise.
• All damaging attacks do 200% damage when they crit, before modifiers.
• We gain Spell Power equal to 50% of AP from Sword of Light. Cannot gain SP from other sources (Intellect, enchants, etc).
• Mastery damage bonus is applied to: Crusader Strike, Templar's Verdict, Hammer of the Righteous, Divine Storm, and Hammer of Wrath.
• Inquisition behaves like a DoT for the purposes of clipping the last tick. Any refresh within the last 3 seconds is no-clip (the remainder gets added to the duration of the new cast). Example: Use 3 holy power to refresh Inquisition with 2.5 seconds remaining and the new Inquisition is 62.5 seconds long.

Source: http://forums.elitistjerks.com/topic...siege-the-day/

[Lynea]

PvP Section

Talents & Glyphs
Lv.15 talent row: Optional. Most Rets prefer Long Arm of the Law, but Speed of Light is also great.
Lv.30 talent row: Fist of Justice is pretty much a staple choice. However, depending on your arena composition, Evil is a Point of View may be a better choice. Repentance is rarely taken due to its cast time and cooldown, in addition to that it breaks on any amount of damage done to the target.
Lv.45 talent row: Selfless Healer is a must. In PvP, the other two talents do not compare at all to Selfless Healer's strength.
Lv.60 talent row: This talent row is largely situational and can vary greatly depending on what comps you are queueing into, or what comp you are playing as a part of. You may want Hand of Purity if you are up against DOT cleaves that include Shadow Priests or Warlocks. Unbreakable Spirit is the best choice when you are the one that is getting tunneled (and you usually will), or you're just facerolling battlegrounds. Clemency is the undisputed winner when you need to support your team-mates.
Lv.75 talent row: Holy Avenger is pretty much mandatory. You will need the extra burst damage to land kills. Divine Purpose may be useful if you're able to stick to your target and apply consistent damage to them, but is otherwise terrible. Sanctified Wrath can be used for extending your burst window if you're having trouble getting chain-CC'ed while you're trying to burst, but it does not match Holy Avenger in output.
Lv.90 talent row: Light's Hammer is only effective for the slow, or perhaps a destealthing utility. Hostile players have the tendency to avoid going near it. Holy Prism is great if you're being kited, and adds a lot to your healing and damage through-put, and is generally regarded as the best choice. Execution Sentence is another damage cooldown when you need it, but can also be used as a healing cooldown (which I do frequently, personally) to great effect.

Glyphs
Glyph of Burden of Guilt and Glyph of Templar's Verdict are mandatory. There is no choice here.
Glyph of Devotion Aura - Can be useful for battlegrounds. Not much use anywhere else, as Devotion Aura is too useful of a group cooldown.
Glyph of Harsh Words - This is an excellent glyph that can allow you to increase your damage output while kiting, or if you are being kited. It is not worth taking for arena in most cases.
Glyph of Divine Protection - Useful if you are having to deal with a lot of pressure from melee or Hunters. If not, don't glyph it, as it is quite strong against casters.
Glyph of Double Jeopardy - Damage boost when switching targets. Not useful otherwise.
Glyph of Immediate Truth - Can be a damage increase for short durations, but if you are able to stick to your target, it is a DPS loss after only a few seconds.
Glyph of Protector of the Innocent - Adds a bit of survivability when you are spending a lot of your holy power healing other people. But, honestly speaking, this glyph isn't so great.
Glyph of Word of Glory - More damage for all those heals you do!


End note: Please remember that you are encouraged to find what talent choices work best for you. This is a guide, not a mandatory set of rules you must follow.

Stats & Reforging
Strength and PvP Power are your strongest throughput stats. Obviously you will want them on your gear wherever possible, which means you should match socket bonuses to get more of the stats!
Critical strike makes your damage output more spiky and bursty, but it also applies the same benefit to your heals! Because of this, the stat will always be desirable.
Haste is a desirable stat primarily because it allows you to generate holy power faster. This means that it also boosts your damage output and your healing.
Mastery is a pure damage stat and does not benefit your healing. This stat is the best stat for damage after strength and pvp power, but since it does not benefit your healing, this stat is only desirable for Rets that are interested in doing the most damage they can during their burst.

Hit cap is 5%.

Recommended reforging for proper Retribution support build;
If an item has mastery and haste, reforge the mastery to critical strike.
If an item has mastery and critical strike, reforge the mastery to haste.
If an item has haste and critical strike, leave it as it is.

Regardless of reforges, you will want approximately 20% haste. It will make your output feel much more fluent than haste starving yourself, and you'll perform much better than what you would without it. It's okay to have some mastery, since you will essentially be only a healer without much mastery, but you need to find a balance of it. There is no PvP breakpoints for critical strike or mastery.

Gems, Enchants & Professions
Gems;
Strength + PvP Power in blue sockets.
Strength in red sockets.
Strength + Crit or Haste (as needed until 20% haste) in yellow sockets.

Macros & Addons
Divine Shield cancelaura macro. Comes in handy when you don't need the immunity anymore and want to continue putting out damage. Press the button a 2nd time to turn off your Divine Shield.
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cast Divine Shield

Tips & Tactics
You will want double PvP trinkets for the resilience set bonus. PvE trinkets are not available for competitive PvP in this expansion.

Remember that Hand of Sacrifice can dispel all magic effects from the person you cast it on. This means it can be used for more than just a defensive cooldown for your partner(s) or using it to cheat Sap/Blind/Poly. To clarify on the "cheat" (it's legit), you can use Hand of Sacrifice on your partner(s) who are going to take damage, which will cause any crowd-control effect that breaks on damage (Sap, Blind, Polymorph, etc.) that is applied to you to be broken by the damage redirect of the ability.

You will want to use Cleanse as often as possible against a team who uses poisons or diseases. This is especially important against Shadow Priests (who get a lot of damage from Devouring Plague) and Rogues who rely on their poisons to mitigate your healing or slow your movement speed (which is better than Emancipate if you are only being slowed by the poison).

Do not be afraid to use Flash of Light regularly to help keep yourself and your partner(s) up on health. It costs fairly little mana and your regeneration should be plenty high enough to where mana should never be a concern (unless you are chain casting Flash 3+ times).

If you are talented into Execution Sentence or Holy Prism, you may want to line them up with your damage cooldowns, but remember that they are extremely useful at healing as well. They can save you or your partner(s) in a pinch.

Light's Hammer is best used when you want to cleave damage multiple opponents, need to control your opponent's movement some, need a little extra healing for your team, or a mix (or all) of the above.



Change-Log
Oct. 29th, 2014
- Added a metric ton of information to the PvP section and fixed up some typos in other areas.


Credits and Resources
Blizzard owned sites will not be linked in this guide for safety of our community. If you would like the link, please send me a private message requesting it.

Elitist Jerks
Icy Veins
Wowhead
Blizzard
Retail US Paladin Forum Section