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WoW Forever (Retribution) Paladin Leveling Guide (Level 1-60) - Talents Rotation and Races

Paladin

Retribution

Protection

Holy

Creator

Leveling

By Whiter

Updated on Nov 4, 2026

Nov 4, 2026

Overview

Retribution is the melee DPS spec of the Paladin and all your abilities deal Holy damage.

Pick Ret at launch when every player fights you for mob tags. Prot shines once the zones calm down.

Keep Seal of Command up, press Judgement and Holy Strike together with one macro and add Consecration on packs. From level 40 stack seals with Unsealed Wrath.

Judgement no longer uses up your seal. That saves a lot of mana.

Strengths while leveling

15 percent movement speed on foot and mount from Pursuit of Justice
Low downtime, but Holy Conduit comes at 51 now
Free class mount: Summon Warhorse at 40, Summon Charger at 60

Weaknesses while leveling

Weak with an outdated weapon
No interrupt, no slow. Seal of Justice stops runners from level 22

Guide Variants

Ret Leveling and Endgame (PVE)

Prot Leveling and Tanking (PVE)

Shockadin DPS (PVE)

Holy Healer (PVE)

This is the Retribution build I'll play at launch. It's my plan after the hotfix of October 30th, not tested yet.

Ret Leveling and Endgame (PVE): the main build from level 10 to 60 and for raids. You don't need to respec at 60. Start here.
Prot Leveling and Tanking (PVE): if you want to level as Protection or tank, best once the zones calm down after launch. 12 Holy, 32 Protection and 7 Retribution.
Shockadin DPS (PVE): Holy Shock as a pure DPS spec, built for endgame. 21 Holy and 30 Retribution.
Holy Healer (PVE): the healer build. 31 Holy, 11 Protection and 9 Retribution.

Talents

Ret Leveling and Endgame (PVE)

Prot Leveling and Tanking (PVE)

Shockadin DPS (PVE)

Holy Healer (PVE)

Points spent51

12/8/31

Leveling Path

Holy

0/5

5/5

0/3

0/2

5/5

0/2

0/1

0/5

2/2

0/2

0/2

0/1

0/2

0/1

0/2

0/5

0/1

Protection

5/5

0/5

3/3

0/2

0/1

0/3

0/2

0/5

0/1

0/3

0/5

0/2

0/1

0/5

0/3

0/1

Retribution

0/5

5/5

2/2

3/3

3/3

1/3

0/2

1/1

2/2

0/2

1/1

3/3

0/2

1/1

3/3

5/5

1/1

Leveling Path

10
Benediction
11
Benediction
12
Benediction
13
Benediction
14
Benediction
15
Improved Judgement
16
Improved Judgement
17
Sanctified Judgement
18
Sanctified Judgement
19
Sanctified Judgement
20
Seal of Command
21
Pursuit of Justice
22
Pursuit of Justice
23
Conviction
24
Conviction
25
Sacred Arbiter
26
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
27
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
28
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
29
Conviction
30
Vengeance
31
Vengeance
32
Vengeance
33
Repentance
34
Vindication
35
Champion of the Light
36
Champion of the Light
37
Champion of the Light
38
Champion of the Light
39
Champion of the Light
40
Unsealed Wrath
41
Divine Strength
42
Divine Strength
43
Divine Strength
44
Divine Strength
45
Divine Strength
46
Improved Seals
47
Improved Seals
48
Improved Seals
49
Improved Seals
50
Improved Seals
51
Holy Conduit
52
Holy Conduit
53
Divine Intellect
54
Divine Intellect
55
Divine Intellect
56
Divine Intellect
57
Divine Intellect
58
Precision
59
Precision
60
Precision

Your first talent point comes at level 10, then one point per level. Every new row opens after 5 points in that tree.

This is my endgame build and I play it from level 10 on. Retribution tree first until the capstone at level 40, then Holy, and the hit points in Protection come last. The order is the one from my new video, built on the talent data after the hotfix of October 30th. Nobody has played it on a live realm yet, so it's my plan, not tested.

Talent Order

Level 10 to 14: Benediction 5/5. 10 percent cheaper instant spells and abilities, so your seals, Judgement and Holy Strike all cost less. Many of you prefer Deflection for leveling because a parry feels like a mini Windfury. I disagree, the cheaper abilities give you less downtime overall.
Level 15 to 16: Improved Judgement 2/2. 2 seconds shorter Judgement cooldown.
Level 17 to 19: Sanctified Judgement 3/3. Every Judgement gives you back 60 percent of your seal's mana cost.
Level 20: Seal of Command. This seal just gives you so much kill speed.
Level 21 to 22: Pursuit of Justice 2/2. 15 percent movement speed, the most important leveling talent. If you want it even earlier, start it at 20, finish it at 21 and take Seal of Command at 22.
Level 23 to 24: Conviction 2/3. This gets your crit running.
Level 25: Sacred Arbiter. 20 percent more Holy Strike damage and every Holy Strike refreshes your Judgements on the target.
Level 26 to 28: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 3/3. 6 percent more Physical damage and 20 percent less threat with a two-hander. Blizzard says it now counts for Holy damage too, but the talent data doesn't show that yet. I'll check it on launch.
Level 29: Conviction 3/3. 6 percent crit with all spells and attacks.
Level 30 to 32: Vengeance 3/3. 3 percent more Physical and Holy damage per crit, so up to 9 percent with 3 stacks. Blizzard's notes of November 2nd say it stacks 5 times now. If each stack stays at 3 percent, that's up to 15 percent. I'll check it on launch.
Level 33: Repentance. You need it for the capstone.
Level 34: Vindication 1/3. A filler point, because Champion of the Light needs 25 points in the tree. It only lowers your target's attack power now, but Protection Paladins won't take it, so one Ret can bring it. Unyielding Faith, Eye for an Eye or Turn Evil on a PvP server work here too.
Level 35 to 39: Champion of the Light 5/5. Part of your Intellect becomes spell damage. That matters because all your abilities deal Holy damage. It also makes Hammer of Wrath 1 second faster once you learn it at 44. Then it's an instant execute.
Level 40: Unsealed Wrath. Our capstone, seal stacking.
Level 41 to 45: Divine Strength 5/5. 10 percent Strength.
Level 46 to 50: Improved Seals 5/5. 15 percent more damage from your Seals and Judgements.
Level 51 to 52: Holy Conduit 2/2. 40 percent cheaper Consecration, Holy Wrath, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath. It needs 10 points in Holy now, so it comes late and your mana gets tighter until then. I don't think it's worth going into Holy earlier, because that pushes your capstone too far back.
Level 53 to 57: Divine Intellect 5/5. 10 percent Intellect, so more spell damage through Champion of the Light. It's also your way to Precision now.
Level 58 to 60: Precision 3/3. 3 percent hit. The hit points come last in this build.

Key Breakpoints

Level 19: Sanctified Judgement 3/3. Every Judgement now gives you back 60 percent of your seal's mana cost.
Level 20: Seal of Command as your talent point and Consecration from the trainer. Your kill speed jumps.
Level 22: Pursuit of Justice 2/2. Insane travel reduction. Now go get your Cozy Sleeping Bag.
Level 25: Sacred Arbiter. One Judgement of the Crusader lasts the whole fight.
Level 40: Unsealed Wrath. Seal stacking starts and stays on from here.
Level 44: Hammer of Wrath from the trainer. With Champion of the Light 5/5 it becomes your execute.
Level 52: Holy Conduit 2/2. Your Consecration gets 40 percent cheaper.

Champion of the Light

Blizzard's notes from October 15th cut Champion of the Light to 10, 20 and 30 percent of your Intellect. This nerf got reverted. Since the hotfix of October 30th the talent has 5 ranks instead of 3, and Blizzard's notes of November 2nd confirm the numbers: 12 percent of your Intellect per rank, so 60 percent at 5/5, and up to 1 second off Hammer of Wrath.

Legacy: Talented

With Talented at 5/5 (it needs Well Rested first) you get talent points from level 5 instead of level 10. You still cap at 51 points, you just get there five levels earlier. So your alt has the points for Seal of Command at 15 and Pursuit of Justice at 17. I'll check that in the game. On your first character I wouldn't spend Legacy Points on it.

Endgame at Level 60

I hope we get enough hit from gear at some point, because then I can look at the 3 points in Precision again. Blizzard hasn't named a hit cap yet, so they stay for now.

The sim says this build does about 975 DPS with trinkets, which would put Ret 4th on the DPS list. The sim is still on the hotfix of October 30th and misses some of Blizzard's changes from November 2nd, so I'll check this number again after launch. Unsealed Wrath is the big question mark in that number. The beta was capped at 30, so this is my plan, not a tested raid build. I'll update it once we're in the raids.

Gameplay & Rotation

Ret Leveling and Endgame (PVE)

Prot Leveling and Tanking (PVE)

Shockadin DPS (PVE)

Holy Healer (PVE)

Normal Mobs

Put on Seal of Command.
Press your burst macro: Judgement and Holy Strike in the same second.
Use Holy Strike and Judgement whenever they're ready.
From level 20 on, drop Consecration when you fight more than one mob.
From level 40 on, keep your seal stacking going with Unsealed Wrath. The steps are below.

Judgement doesn't use up your seal anymore. You don't have to recast it after every Judgement like in Classic. That alone saves a lot of mana.

Elites, Hard Mobs and Players

Put on Seal of the Crusader and judge it before the fight with the utility macro. Every damaging ability you have is Holy damage now, so Judgement of the Crusader buffs Holy Strike, Consecration, your seal and your Judgements.
Swap to Seal of Command.
Hammer of Justice, then your burst macro. The Judgement of Seal of Command deals double damage on stunned targets.
Your melee hits keep the Crusader Judgement up and from level 25 every Holy Strike refreshes it too. You judge Crusader once and keep it for the whole fight.

Don't do the Crusader step on every normal mob. They die too fast for it.

Seal Stacking with Unsealed Wrath

From level 40 I want Unsealed Wrath active all the time, not only on bosses. This is my plan from the tooltip, not tested.

Your melee attacks store a copy of your active seal for 15 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. Landing an attack with a different seal uses up all stacks and every stack gets the normal chance of the stored seal to activate. In Classic that was seal twisting. Now it's more like seal stacking.

Fight with Seal of Command and swing until you have 3 stacks.
Swap to a different seal before your next swing lands.
Land your next attack. All stacks get used and Seal of Command gets one roll per stack.
Put Seal of Command back on and start again.

You can also do it the other way round: swing with Seal of Righteousness until you have 3 stacks, swap to Seal of Command and your next hit unloads the stored Righteousness stacks together with Seal of Command. In PvP that gives you a lot of burst at once, a bit like Reckoning.

Those are chances and not guaranteed procs, so some cash-ins will feel great and some won't. On normal mobs that die before your cash-in you just lose the stacks and that's fine.

You have 15 seconds for your 3 stacks, so even a slow two-hander has enough time. You don't need to hit the last 0.1 seconds anymore. You don't need a WeakAura for this. Just turn on the swing timer in Edit Mode, so you can see when your next hit lands and swap your seal before it.

I couldn't test it myself yet. The open question for me is mana. Every seal swap costs mana and I don't know yet how much more we'll drink because of it. Judge often, because Sanctified Judgement gives you back part of your seal's mana cost. I also still have to test if Holy Strike builds stacks and which seal is the best one to cash in with. I'll update this as soon as I know.

Macros

Burst macro. Judgement doesn't trigger the global cooldown, so both go off at the same moment:

#showtooltip

/cast Judgement

/cast Holy Strike

/startattack

Utility macro for elites and players:

#showtooltip

/cast Seal of the Crusader

/cast Judgement

/startattack

I used the burst macro all the time in the beta. Stun, Judgement, Holy Strike. That's a lot of burst for a level 20 Paladin.

Mana and Downtime

In Classic a Ret Paladin was drinking all the time. Seal, Judgement, reapply the seal and your mana bar was gone. In Forever mana doesn't really feel like a problem while leveling, even with your full rotation on every mob. Sanctified Judgement gives you 60 percent of your seal's cost back on every Judgement. Benediction makes everything cheaper. Judgement keeps your seal. And Spirit gives you a lot of mana back. That's what I felt in the beta with Holy Conduit at level 19. Now it needs 10 points in Holy and comes at 51 and from 40 your seal swaps cost mana, so I expect a bit more downtime. I don't think it's worth going into Holy earlier, because that pushes Unsealed Wrath too far back. I'll check this again on launch.

As an Undead you also get Cannibalize. I often cleared mob after mob for kill quests, ate a corpse after the third or fourth enemy and kept going. With a good weapon I had nearly zero downtime as Ret.

Utility

Righteous Fury from level 10. With a shield you can tank low level dungeons yourself. Swapping from your two-hander to one-hander and shield works with one macro again.
Hammer of Justice to stun a mob that hits hard.
Blessing of Kings from level 20. 10 percent stats on a target for an hour.
Voice of Truth from level 20. 6 seconds of immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects on a 3 minute cooldown.
Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke and Blessing of Light are gone. Blizzard confirmed it in the notes of November 2nd.
No interrupt and no slow. Against runners use Seal of Justice from level 22. Its Judgement stops them from fleeing.

Raid Utility

Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke and Blessing of Light are gone. Blizzard confirmed it in the notes of November 2nd. So Salvation is no longer a reason to bring a Paladin to your raid.

Gear

Ret Leveling and Endgame (PVE)

Prot Leveling and Tanking (PVE)

Shockadin DPS (PVE)

Holy Healer (PVE)

Ret lives and dies by weapon damage. Seal of Command hits for 70 percent of your weapon damage and Holy Strike is built on it too. Try to update your weapon every 5 to 10 levels, depending on what the dungeons around your level have.

Endgame Gear

You want hit from gear. This build keeps Precision for now. Weapon damage stays the most important thing for Ret.

With Blacksmithing, Paladins get their own Justice set at 60 in three versions for Retribution, Holy and Protection. The tooltips don't show the stats yet, so I won't promise it's best in slot.

Weapon Upgrades from Dungeons

Ruins of Lordaeron (level 15 to 20): Forsaken Greataxe (a great two-handed axe as a quest reward) and Mirror of Rath'mael, a level 19 shield with extra block chance.
Deadmines: Taskmaster Axe, Impaling Harpoon and Smite's Mighty Hammer from the bosses.
Razorfen Kraul: the insane Corpsemaker (requires level 29).
City of Dalaran, the new dungeon (level 28 to 33): Guardian's Dualblade, a new two-handed axe.
Gnomeregan: Manual Crowd Pummeler.

Dungeons are worth it again. In the last beta weeks Blizzard raised the XP from dungeon kills by around 20 percent and fixed a bug that took XP away when someone in your group was higher level.

Keep a shield in your bags. You get Righteous Fury at level 10 and Consecration at 20, so you can tank low level dungeons yourself. You can also use Blacksmithing to craft your own weapon upgrades.

Level Walkthrough

Level 1 to 10: You learn Judgement at 4, Holy Strike and Seal of the Crusader at 6 and Hammer of Justice at 8. Cook from level 1 for the experience food. Around level 5 you get the quest The Great Outdoors and the Cooking trainer teaches you the Basic Campfire Kit. At 10 you learn Righteous Fury and your first talent point goes into Benediction.
Level 10 to 20: Fill Benediction, then Improved Judgement and Sanctified Judgement. You have Righteous Fury from 10, so keep a shield and tank low level dungeons yourself. Ruins of Lordaeron (15 to 20) has the Forsaken Greataxe and Mirror of Rath'mael.
Level 20 to 30: At 20 you get Seal of Command, Consecration, Blessing of Kings and Voice of Truth and your kill speed jumps. Pursuit of Justice 2/2 at 22 is your signal for the Cozy Sleeping Bag chain. Conviction, Sacred Arbiter at 25 and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization fill the rest. Your weapon stops are City of Dalaran (28 to 33) and Corpsemaker from Razorfen Kraul (requires level 29).
Level 30 to 40: Vengeance at 30 to 32, Repentance at 33, Champion of the Light at 35 to 39 and Unsealed Wrath at 40, where seal stacking starts. The trainer adds Seal of Light at 30 and Seal of Wisdom at 38, so this is where Protection opens up for AoE farming. The beta stopped at 30, so from here on this is my plan from the talent data, not tested.
Level 40 to 50: Divine Strength at 41 to 45 and Improved Seals at 46 to 50 add damage. Hammer of Wrath from the trainer at 44 gives you a real execute.
Level 50 to 60: Holy Conduit at 51 to 52 makes Consecration cheaper. Divine Intellect at 53 to 57 leads to Precision at 58 to 60 for 3 percent hit and that finishes the build. At 60 your Blacksmithing opens the Justice set.

Stat Priority

For Retribution. My reasoning, not a sim. Overall:

Weapon damage. Seal of Command hits for 70 percent of your weapon damage and Holy Strike is built on it too. A new weapon beats every stat.
Hit. Blizzard hasn't named a hit cap for Forever yet, but hit is still a must for endgame and while leveling it helps a lot to hit higher level mobs. That's why the build still takes Precision at the end. As a Dwarf you get 1 percent more from Artisan's Precision.

Stats:

Strength. Strength for your melee attack power. It's our highest modifier and scales with buffs like Blessing of Kings.
Crit. Crit powers Vengeance and is why Conviction and Ruthless are good for us.
Attack Power. Same reason as Strength, but with less modifier for our damage.
Spell Power. Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Command, Holy Strike, Consecration and so on scale with Spell Power.
Intellect. Int funnels into Spell damage through Champion of the Light and all our abilities deal Holy damage.
Spirit. Mana regen and with The Human Spirit even more.

Suggested Races

Only three races can be Paladins: Human and Dwarf for Alliance, Undead for Horde. No Tauren, the Skyborne can't be Paladins and Blood Elves don't exist in Forever. Blizzard reworked the racials on October 15th and did a final pass on October 26th (updated October 27th), so a lot of older race advice is outdated.

Alliance

Human (S tier on my racial list). Ruthless gives you 1 percent crit with every weapon. It was 2 percent, the final pass cut it in half. The Human Spirit now gives you 10 percent more Spirit. More Spirit means more regeneration and less downtime. In my opinion that's one of the most undervalued passives in the game. Will to Survive removes all stuns and it's still the only stun break any race has, so for PvP the Human is the pick.

Dwarf (S tier on my racial list). Earth Fury is gone. Instead the Dwarf got Artisan's Precision, 1 percent hit on spells and attacks. It's the only hit racial left in the game and we need hit while leveling and for endgame. If we don't have enough hit on our endgame gear, Dwarves might be even stronger. Stoneform removes bleeds, poisons and diseases, makes you immune to them and cuts physical damage by 10 percent for 8 seconds. That's the best defensive racial for a Prot Paladin and for PvP. Find Treasure also gives you a chance at extra items in most chests.

Horde

Undead (B tier on my racial list). The only Horde Paladin. Touch of the Grave has a 20 percent chance for Paladins, at most once every 15 seconds. Blizzard's last racial pass cut that cooldown from 25 seconds. Cannibalize works like before, and you can use it again while you're immune to Physical damage. 7 percent health and 7 percent mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds on a Humanoid or Undead corpse, 2 minute cooldown. Moving or taking damage breaks it.

I play Undead and I love the comfort while leveling. For damage it's behind Human and Dwarf now. But after a fight Cannibalize is a free drink.

Consumables

Cooked food. Almost every food that makes you Well Fed now also gives you 5 percent more experience from kills for 15 minutes. Cook from level 1.
Healing potions come from First Aid now, not from Alchemy. Use them. A dead Paladin doesn't earn experience.

Campfire Buffs

Camping is new in Forever. Around level 5 you get the quest The Great Outdoors and the Cooking trainer teaches you the Basic Campfire Kit. From skill 20 every profession gets its own camp object. Put it next to a campfire, sit or craft there for one minute and everybody at the camp gets the buff. All camp objects share a 1 hour cooldown.

The Basic Campfire Kit holds 3 camp objects, the Journeyman Campfire Kit 5 and the Expert Campfire Kit 10. Only cooks can build them. With the basic one you can place only one object yourself, the other two have to come from other players.

All camp buffs

Sharpening Wheel from Blacksmithing: Strength. Better than the Lodestone when a Paladin gives you Might.
Camp Chair from Skinning: 2 percent crit.
Lodestone from Mining: melee attack power. Blessing of Might replaces it.
Fish Bowl from Fishing: 8 percent to all stats. It doesn't stack with Blessing of Kings, so it shines before level 20.
Enchanted Lute from Enchanting: armor, stats and resistances.
Incense Candle from Herbalism: Intellect. Clashes with Arcane Intellect.
Faction Banner from Tailoring: Spirit.
Mana Well from Alchemy: mana regeneration. Doesn't stack with Blessing of Wisdom.
First Aid Kit from First Aid: Stamina. Clashes with Power Word: Fortitude.
Camp Tent from Leatherworking: rested XP up to 5 percent of a level. Great while leveling.
Reagent Bot from Engineering: buy reagents at camp. The upgrade Repair Bot also repairs your gear.
Cookie's Feast from Cooking at skill 140: Stamina food for everybody at the camp.

Every camp object has three tiers. The higher tiers keep the same buff and add a crafting station on top, like the Anvil and the Master Forge for Blacksmithing.

As a Ret Paladin I'd look for the Sharpening Wheel, the Camp Chair and the Camp Tent while leveling. With the Legacy perk Permanence your camp buffs last 50 percent longer.

Professions

As a Paladin I'd go Blacksmithing and Mining. Blacksmithing has close to 200 new recipes, blue chain sets while you level and all of that binds on pickup, so you craft your own gear on the way. At 60 Paladins get their own Justice set in three versions for Retribution, Holy and Protection. Blacksmithing is also how you craft your own weapon upgrades.

Mining feeds your Blacksmithing and the big new metal at 60, Heavy Thorium, goes into the new plate sets and weapons.

Herbalism and Alchemy are also always a solid choice for gold making in endgame.

Enchanting + X is also always a good option.

Take the three secondary professions on top. First Aid makes the healing potions now. Cooking gives you experience food. Fishing gives you the Fish Bowl for your camp.

Tips & Tricks

Pursuit of Justice right after Seal of Command as Ret. Think about how much of leveling is just running to the next quest and back to town. You do all of that 15 percent faster.
Do the Cozy Sleeping Bag after Pursuit of Justice. The quest chain sends you through five zones, so hold off until you have the speed. I made a full guide video for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIAUTwpPbRY
Ret at launch, not Prot. Every player in the zone fights you for mob tags. Ret gives you more speed and more single target damage on the mobs you can tag.
Update your weapon every 5 to 10 levels and run dungeons for it. You get XP and loot at the same time.
Stun first, then burst. Hammer of Justice, then the Judgement and Holy Strike macro. The Judgement of Seal of Command deals double damage on stunned targets.
Judgement of the Crusader on elites, not on trash.
Keep a shield in your bags and tank the low level dungeons yourself. Righteous Fury from level 10 and a shield are all you need.

WoW Forever Changes

Judgement no longer uses up your seal. In Classic you had to recast it after every Judgement.
Every damaging ability deals Holy damage and Champion of the Light turns part of your Intellect into spell damage for it.
Holy Strike is a new trainer ability at level 6 with a 10 second cooldown.
Sanctified Judgement is a new talent. Every Judgement gives you back 60 percent of your seal's mana cost.
Holy Conduit is a new talent that makes Consecration, Holy Wrath, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath 40 percent cheaper.
Sacred Arbiter is a new talent. Holy Strike hits 20 percent harder and refreshes your Judgements on the target.
Unsealed Wrath replaces seal twisting. Your melee attacks store your seal up to 3 times and an attack with a different seal uses up the stacks.
Conviction costs 3 points now and gives crit with all spells and attacks, not only melee.
Voice of Truth is a new trainer ability at level 20. 6 seconds of immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects.
Righteous Fury comes at level 10 instead of 16.
Pursuit of Justice went from 8 to 15 percent, on foot and on your mount.
Vengeance now gives 3 percent per crit for 30 seconds and needs Seal of Command. Blizzard says it stacks up to 5 times now. I'll check it on launch.
Consecration and Blessing of Kings left the talent trees. Every Paladin learns them from the trainer at level 20.
Seal of Fury is a new seal at level 10. With a shield it gives you an absorb shield and its Judgement taunts.
Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke and Blessing of Light are removed.
Blessing of Might, Blessing of Wisdom and Blessing of Kings last 1 hour instead of 5 minutes.
Judgements from Seal of the Crusader, Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom last 40 seconds instead of 10.
Lay on Hands has a 20 minute cooldown instead of 1 hour.

Common Mistakes

Skipping Pursuit of Justice or taking it late as Ret
Doing the Cozy Sleeping Bag chain before you have the speed
Leveling with a weapon that's 10 levels old
Judgement and Holy Strike on two buttons instead of one macro
Leveling Prot in a crowded launch zone
Copying an old Ret build from before the hotfix of October 30th

Changelog

November 3, 2026: Checked against Blizzard's notes of November 2nd. Conviction gives 6 percent crit, Champion of the Light 60 percent of your Intellect at 5/5, and Salvation and Blessing of Light are gone. The notes also change Vengeance (5 stacks) and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Holy damage too), but the talent data doesn't show that yet, so I'll check both on launch.
November 1, 2026 (update): New Shockadin and Holy variants. Ret and Protection talent order now matches my new build video. The Prot/Ret Level Mix is now called Prot Leveling and Tanking.
November 1, 2026: New build 12 Holy, 8 Protection and 31 Retribution after the Paladin hotfix of October 30th. New talent order and seal stacking with Unsealed Wrath from level 40. Leveling and Endgame are now one variant and the Protection variant has a new build. My plan from the talent data, not tested yet. Also corrected Righteous Fury to level 10.
October 29, 2026: New title, shorter Overview, Level Walkthrough and WoW Forever Changes added. Build unchanged.
October 27, 2026: First version.

Most numbers are from the last beta build before launch (October 15th) plus Blizzard's final racial pass on October 26th (updated October 27th). Paladin talents follow the talent data of October 30th, checked against the game client on October 31st where it has the number, and against Blizzard's notes of November 2nd. WoW Forever launches on November 4th. If launch changes something I'll update this guide and you'll see it here.