GrendelsBane

I am a casual player, in my mind at least. I had my paladin to lvl 80 about 8 weeks after WotLK came out. I guess that makes me more of a casual hard core player. But then, I know that some guilds on my server were already farming 25 man Naxx long before I hit 80.

One thing I can say with Blizzard is they sure know how to keep us on our toes. When 3.0 patch came out I thoroughly read every patch note there was but it didn’t give me an idea that the class changed that much. It wasn’t until after I had played a while that I realized that I had to get rid of every hot key and every talent and re-learn how to play. Then I started understanding these changes. Looks like I may have to do the same thing when the 3.1 patch comes out.

Retribution Build

This is a great PVE talent build.
(0/10/59) This build gives you all the damage talents that you need with 2 talent points to use wherever you want.

My build is (0/10/61) and my armory page is Sokka

Vindication
PvP talent point. Mobs and bosses don’t have attributes so don’t pick it up

Divine Purpose
PvP talent point. – I picked this one up as my 2 points for the 4% deduced damage from spells and ranged attacks.

Another great resource is WoW Forums they go into way more depth than I go here.

Another great forum is Elitistjerks.com they go into the mechanics and math behind your spells and stats.

Hot Keys

When 3.0 came out I deleted every hot key I had. I re-read every spell and every talent. Then I rebuilt my hot keys. All of your damage comes from 3 major sources. Your white (melee weapon) damage, your Seals/Judgments and consecration.

To maximize your white damage, you will want to tie in the /startattack macro to every attack you have. This way you will start your melee attack damage even if the spell/hotkey is on cool down. Your Seals/Judgments can count for as much as 30-40% of your total damage, which is huge. You need to make sure you are using your Judgment every chance you can.

Here is how I have my hot keys set up. As you can see all my hotkeys are set up in macros. See my macro list below.

Rotation

I always start with my Judgement of Wisdom usually even before I am within melee range. When I get into melee range the /startattack has already kicked in and I will pop the mob/boss with my normal attack. Then I cast Consecration , Crusader Strike , and then Divine Storm . This rotation usually keeps the cool down of Judgment and Crusader Strike offset enough that I usually don’t have them both coming off cool down at the same time. Always cast Judgment before Crusader Strike. The only time I change this rotation is if the tank is having issues keeping the extra mobs off me, then I will switch Crusader Strike for Consecration giving the tank the time they need to gain aggro.

The exception to this rule is if your silenced. Both Crusader Strike and Divine Storm are considered melee attacks and cannot be silenced.

This is a common run using my rotation.

Breakdown of damage done.

Glyphs

Major
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Consecration
Glyph of Crusader Strike

Minor
Glyph of Sense Undead
Glyph of Lay on Hands

I would go for either one of the next 2 glyphs depending on your play style.
Glyph of Blessing of Kings (This one is my choice)
Glyph of Blessing of Might

How To Play

I always make sure I have Retribution Aura , Blessing of Might , Seal of the Martyr , and Sense Undead before I start any fight.

My reasoning:

Retribution Aura because you have the talent Swift Retribution that increases attack speeds by 3%, if you have your Retribution Aura up.

Blessing of Might because I have tested my damage with both Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Might on and I dish out more dps when using Blessing of Might.

Seal of the Martyr because I have tested my damage using all of the seals and I do more damage with it on, but at a loss of life. If I am taking too much damage I will switch out this seal for the Seal of Command the 2nd highest seal for damage.

Sense Undead because most mobs in Northrend are undead. This goes nicely with your Glyph of Sense Undead.

Macros

Let me first start off by saying that a paladin that’s not hitting cannot do a lot of damage. That’s why all of my dps macros start off with the /startattack this way I will always start off attacking even if the spell is on cool down.

The /console Sound_EnableSFX 0 at the begining combined with /console Sound_EnableSFX 1 and /run UIErrorsFrame:Clear() at the end stops the spell not ready and not available yet errors from sounding and showing up.

The #showtooltip is nice to have because that way I can use the first icon in the macro list, the ?, and not have to go searching for 1/2 hour for an icon. Using the showtooltip macro command will allow you to see your cool down where an icon will not.

Crusader Strike Macro

#showtooltip Crusader Strike
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/startattack
/use [combat] 13
/use [combat] 14
/cast [combat] Avenging Wrath
/cast Crusader Strike
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

This macro starts by using my trinkets, if they’re not on cool down and only uses them if I am in combat. The next part casts my wings for the added 25% damage and then hits the mob with crusader strike.

Judgement Macro

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Judgement of Justice

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Judgement of Light

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Judgement of Wisdom

Sheep Macro

This is the mage sheep macro modified to use Repentance , our form of crowd control.

#showtooltip [target=focus,harm] [] Repentance
/clearfocus [modifier:shift][target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Repentance

Redemption Macro

All this does is to check and see if target is dead, then casts Redemption and let your party know who you are resurrecting (handy so you and the healer aren’t trying to resurrect the same party member).

#showtooltip Redemption
/cast Redemption
/stopmacro [nohelp][nodead]
/p Resurrecting %t.

Exorcism Macro

#showtooltip
/startattack
/castsequence reset=10 Exorcism, Holy Wrath

Party Macros

The next 3 macros need a little introduction. These macros have 3 conditions they check before they cast. 1st- it checks who you have targeted, if your target is friendly then it will cast the spell on that friendly target. 2nd- if your target is hostile (mob) it checks who the hostile target has targeted, if mob’s target is friendly then it casts the spell on that friendly target (you can shield the tank without taking your focus off the mob). 3rd- if both of these conditions fail it will cast the spell on you.

#showtooltip
/cast [help] [target=targettarget, help] [target=player] Sacred Shield

#showtooltip
/cast [help] [target=targettarget, help] [target=player] Flash of Light

#showtooltip
/cast [help] [target=targettarget, help] [target=player] Lay on Hands

other Macros I Find Useful

This macro is nothing more than a 1 button to cycle through all my tracking options.

#showtooltip
/castsequence Find Herbs, Find Treasure, Sense Undead

3.0 Paladin Guide

For all of you that haven’t played a paladin since the 3.0 patch or just need a refresher course on the new paladin play style, this is a great movie to watch.

As a Retribution Paladin, you are built for dps. But you also have a lot of party utilities. Don’t be afraid to use them. Your damage might suffer a little, but as I see it if you down the boss, the run was a success. It doesn’t matter if you top the damage meter if your party is dead.