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Talent Level Improved Blessing of Might 10-12 Improved Blessing of Might or Benediction 13-14 Improved Judgement 15-16 Improved Blessing of Might or Benediction 17-19 Seal of Command - 10-12: [Improved Blessing of Might] (3/5)
13-14: [Improved Blessing of Might] (5/5) OR [Benediction] (2/5)
15-16: [Improved Judgement] (2/2)
17-19: [Improved Blessing of Might] (5/5) and [Benediction] (3/5) OR [Improved Blessing of Might] (3/5) and [Benediction] (5/5)
20: [Seal of Command]
- This build relies on the
Paladin's physical skills, and it's completely up for choice. If Improved Blessing of Might is maxed it out, an improvement on DPS will gained in the early levels and this will continue to scale in the upper levels. However if a Paladin instead takes Benediction it will reduce the cost of seals and judgements, which may free up mana for self-heals in pinch situations.
While Seal of Command (SoC) is considered by most to be a PvP-oriented ability, its effect is quite useful as it will inflict 70% weapon damage in PvE as well. This may therefore deal more damage than Seal of Righteousness (SoR), though this is not guaranteed, and is weapon reliant.
For SoC concerns, remember: slower is better, while with Seal of Righteousness faster is better.
Progressing Forward: Level 30[]
0/0/21 Retribution
21-23: [Vindication] (3/3) OR [Conviction] (3/5)
24-28: [Vindication] (3/3) and [Conviction] (5/5)
29: [Pursuit of Justice] (1/2)
30: [Two-Handed Specialization] (1/3)
This is a very interesting point in the Paladin's career. With the Vindication ability taken early it can make killing enemies easier early on, while taking Conviction earlier could result in better melee capability. Remember that Vindication is chance-based, and doesn't proc 100% of the time (though it may proc often enough to make it worthwhile), while Conviction is an always-active buff to damage output. In the end you'll benefit from maxing out both.
One point into Pursuit of Justice will allow the Paladin to run 4% faster, that little bit can help from getting from point A to point B, and you may wish to place points into it earlier. Two-Handed Specialization is a good boost to weapon damage, and should be your priority as soon as you can progress into it for obvious reasons.
Progressing Forward: Level 40[]
0/2/29 Retribution
31-32: [Two-Handed Specialization] (3/3)
33: [Sanctity Aura]
34: [Pursuit of Justice] (2/2)
35-38: [Vengeance] (4/5)
39-40: [Improved Devotion Aura] (2/5)
Maxing out 2h spec makes the paladin more effective in combat (after all, if you're retribution not using a 2h weapon is wasting your DPS). Sanctity Aura will improve your holy damage dealt by either SoC or SoR, and you may use it as your goto aura in simple fights. Whether you maxed out Pursuit of Justice earlier, or you're doing so now, it will definitely improve your quality of life as far as travel goes.
Vengeance is a powerful asset, max ranks providing a 15% bonus to damage from any critical the paladin inflicts (luckily it synergises really well with the prerequisite Conviction talent). However, we're only going to put 4 points into it, otherwise we won't have enough for other trees. Finally to explain Improved Devotion Aura, points need to be spent into protection. If another retribution paladin is present and using sanct aura and there's no protection or holy paladins, then it can be helpful to the raid/party to provide some extra armor.
Also remember to do your best to upgrade your armor into plate, but don't sacrifice bonuses just for armor points, make sure the upgrades are meaningful ones. If a piece of plate has 432 armor but no strength, while the piece of mail you're wearing has 115 armor and 15 strength -- stick with the mail!
Progressing Forward: Level 50[]
4/8/29 Retribution
41-43: [Improved Devotion Aura] (5/5)
44-46: [Precision] (3/3)
47-50: [Divine Strength] (4/5)
Here we finish up Improved Devotion Aura as prerequisite, and now we grab Precision, which increases our chance to hit. Combined with the Human or the Dwarf weapon specializations makes for high melee hit rate.
Now we place 4 points into Divine Strength, which increases Strength by 8%. You may wonder why not start out with Divine Strength first, and the answer is that there just isn't enough Strength in the lower levels to really benefit from this talent. 10% of less than 100 is honestly a waste of talent points. The higher your stats, the better this will scale of course.
Progressing Forward: Level 60[]
11/11/29 Retribution
51: [Divine Strength] (5/5)
52-56: [Divine Intellect] (5/5)
57: [Consecration]
58-59: [Toughness] (2/5)
60: [Blessing of Kings]
Finishing up Divine Strength provides that last bit of bonus Strength, not a big deal really. The 10% Intellect from Divine Intellect allows for a greater mana pool and improves critical hit chance, which is good because mana efficiency is needed with Consecration - expensive, but useful.
Next we take 2 points into Toughness, which grants a passive armor bonus. This has synergy with plate armor, obviously. Not bad, but really we only took those to get Blessing of Kings. From here you have the choice to respec and lose IBoM or keep this build. It is fully capable of being used in a dungeon or raid group, though you should make sure to gear appropriately to support this.
Some inspection[]
This build relies on two things: maintenance, and patience. You're not able to take on 5 targets at once (well, maybe you can, but we'll assume you can't) so you'll need to make sure you're trying to fight within your capacity. There's also the maintenace factor, which is the hope that you're trying your best to upgrade your equipment as you go, and not trying to pass over progression in favor of the quick and easy.
Your three primary attributes, in this order, are Strength, Stamina, and Agility. The reasons for this are as follows - Strength provides you with more attack power, for every 14~ attack power you gain 1 DPS which allows you to kill that much faster in melee. Stamina which is useful to all classes provides you with more health, and more health means more survivability allowing you to last longer. Agility provides you with critical hit chance, which improves your chance to score critical hits, which allows you to kill enemies faster.
Your three most desireable stats are in this order hit chance, crit chance, and armor. Hit chance is something you can never have too much of (well, you can, but in this case go with it), and crit chance is something you really can't have too much of. Armor is something you want to improve as much as you can without sacrificing your more useful stats, because more armor means less damage taken.
Rotation[]
This build will assume you won't be chain sealing, but you can. In chain sealing, you cast Judgement of the Crusader in order to improve holy damage, and then Judgement of Command or Judgement of Righteousness, while keeping up Seal of Command or Seal of Righteousness in the interim to improve damage. When you finally get access to consecration, try and keep it up as much as possible, as its holy damage ticks away and helps to defeat enemies; is Consecration too mana-heavy? Don't shy away from using a lower ranked version if it costs less.