Retribution Paladin Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Your consumable usage is pretty straight forward when leveling.

• Keep a Weightstone/Sharpening stone, such as Rough Weightstone active on your weapon.
• Keep Well Fed active from your crafted food, such as Roasted Boar Meat
• Use Healing/Mana Potions as needed.
• Keep your Camp buff active with a high value buff, such as Fish Bowl, Sharpening Wheel or Lodestone. This is done either by creating your own camp with a Basic Campfire Kit, or finding one already set up and contributing to it.
• Bring Food/Water.

My general recommendation is to not interact much with Artisan Professions when leveling.
It is a lot more valuable to gain experience, reach level 60, and then use your increased gold, resources and mounts to focus on professions as it will be a lot faster.

With that said, there are still a lot of reasons you, as a player, might want to interact with Professions, be it early game, camping buffs, gathering herbs/ores/leather as you level, or simply just for fun.

Paladin is also very efficient at gathering thanks to the mounted speed from Pursuit of Justice, so if you're looking to make tons of gold at 60, it's not bad to keep it up while leveling.

Blacksmithing
Is a great starting profession alongside Mining, as you gain access to Rough Weightstone, substantially increasing damage done early on.
Copper Deposits are abundant in the starter zones, enabling you to easily craft starter gear, including Gemmed Copper Boots (BoP) and Heavy Copper Maul with some luck or a quick visit to the Auction House.
Sadly, Blacksmithing rapidly becomes incredibly expensive to skill up, at a much faster rate than Mining, so unless you go out of your way to explicitly farm a lot of ores, it's best to leave it be past the starter zones.
You also quickly get access to Sharpening Wheel, increasing your strength when camping which scales with level.

At level 60, there is high reason to believe that Blacksmithing will be very useful, as there are a lot of new crafted gear, including Tier.

Mining
If you plan on keeping Mining at level 60, you can absolutely go out of your way to skill it while leveling.
As a miner, you also get access to Lodestone, which doesn't stack with Blessing of Might, but allows you to run either Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Wisdom on yourself instead.

Engineering
This has historically been the late game profession, and will most likely still be.
While a lot of things have been made non-exclusive to having the profession, there are still a few things that still require it.
Additionally, while leveling you can access to explosives amongst other things.
It's also substantially cheaper to level than Blacksmithing.

Herbalism
Great to skill while leveling if you plan on keeping it at 60.
Grants access to Incense Candle which is nice, but does not beat out other camp buffs.

Cooking
Cooking will be vital to have when leveling, as most food created with the profession will offer you a 5% experience increase from killing mobs when Well Fed.
But, this XP buff does not scale with the level of food, therefore it's not necessary to skill it too high.
By fighting beasts when running around in the starting zones, you should have plenty of meat to last you a very long time.
It also allows the crafting of Basic Campfire Kit, which is needed to set up a camp for your other camp features.

Fishing
Fishing is a great way to easily level your cooking and make food, although if this profession isn't for you, there's not much reason to interact with it while leveling. Fish if you like fishing.
Also grants access to Fish Bowl, it doesn't stack with Blessing of Kings, but does stack with Blessing of Might.

First Aid
First Aid has been given a lot more functionality, such as being the profession responsible for Healing potions, albeit with a new reliance on herbs from Herbalism.
It's a great profession to spend your cloth on, as bandages are always useful, even as a class with healing, it doesn't cost mana.
Grants access to First Aid Kit, which is nice, but does not beat out other camp buffs.

9/18/26 - Guide created for WoW Forever BETA launch.

10/12/26 - Significantly updated in preparation for launch!

10/22/26 - Updated Races for balance patch

10/31/26 - Updated Talents & Rotation to account for changed Talents

Alliance

Human

• Ruthless - Increases Crit chance by 1%
• The Human Spirit - Increases Spirit by 5%
• Will to Survive - Removes all Stuns, 3 Minute Cooldown
• Perception - Increases Stealth Detection, 3 Minute Cooldown

Dwarf

• Earth Fury - Increases Hit Chance by 1%
• Big Game Hunter - Increases Damage to Beasts by 5%
• Stoneform - Removes and gives immunity to Bleeds, Poisons and Disease effects, while also reducing all physical damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds, 3 Minute Cooldown.
• Find Treasure - Allows Treasures to have a visual indicator on the minimap.

For pure DPS, Human is the choice in every instance aside from fighting Beasts.
BUT, the DPS impact from racials is significantly smaller than Classic, ending up at a 0.4% difference in favor of Human, and Dwarves winning out heavily Vs. Beasts.
And historically, this version of Stoneform has had a lot of powerful use cases.

With the relatively small impact on DPS, I would just pick the race with abilities/aesthetics most relevant to you.

Horde

Undread

- Touch of the Grave - Passive Damage & Health Drain, ends up being about ~1% DPS at Lvl 60.
- Underwater Breathing - Breath lasts 300% longer underwater.
- Cannibalize - 10 Second Channel, restoring a total of 35% Health and Mana over the duration. Can only be used while next to a Humanoid or Undead corpse. 2 Minute Cooldown
- Will of the Forsaken - Instantly removes all Charm, Fear and Sleep effects, 2 Minute Cooldown.

Horde only has one choice, so enjoy your Undead.
In terms of DPS from Touch of the Grave, it sits at practically the same as Human, a bit higher than Dwarf.

Overview of Paladin spells, their functionality and extra details.

In this list, you will see some spells tagged as either Melee or Spell, why is this important?
Melee abilities deal 2x damage on a crit while spells only deal 1.5x. Spells also have a much higher chance to miss, and Agility does not increase Spell crit chance.

"Spellpower Coefficient" signifies how much damage a spell gets from Spell Power.
If a spell has 0.429 coefficient, they deal 0.429 more damage per 1 Spell Power.

Seals and Judgements:

• Seal of Righteousness Deals holy damage on auto attacks, based on weapon attack speed. This damage scales with level until you can train a new rank.
  Judgement Deals Holy damage to your target.
  Seal Spellpower Coefficient: 0.076 to 0.12 based on weapon speed.
  Judgement Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Seal and Judgement counts as Melee for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Seal of Command Has a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage on auto attacks. This is normalized to 7 Procs Per Minute (PPM), so slow weapon is always better.
  Judgement Deals Holy damage to your target, doubled if stunned or incapacitated.
  Seal Spellpower Coefficient: 0.29.
  Judgement Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Seal and Judgement counts as Melee for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Seal of Wisdom Chance to restore mana on auto attacks.
  Judgement Debuffs the target, allowing anybody who hits it a chance to restore mana.
• Seal of Light Chance to restore health on auto attacks.
  Judgement Debuffs the target, allowing anybody who hits it a chance to restore health.
• Seal of Justice Chance to stun the target on auto attacks.
  Judgement Debuffs the target, preventing them from fleeing.
• Seal of the Crusader You swing faster for less damage, not good.
  Judgement Debuffs the target, increasing their Holy damage taken.
• Seal of Fury Deals holy damage on auto attacks, and grants an absorb based on the damage when wearing a shield.
  Judgement Deals Holy damage to your target and Taunts it. (This is Paladin's only Taunt)

Core Spells:

• Holy Strike Deals Holy damage based on your Weapon Damage.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Counts as Melee for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Consecration Deals Holy damage every 2 seconds to enemies in an area for 8 seconds.
  The first 4 enemies who enter the area take 3x the damage.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.042
  Counts as a Spell for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Exorcism Deals Holy damage to an Undead or Demon target.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Counts as a Spell for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Hammer of Wrath 1 sec cast. Deals Holy damage to the target, only useable on enemies that have 20% or less health.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Counts as Melee for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Holy Wrath 2 sec cast. Deals Holy damage and stuns all Undead and Demon targets in a 20 yard radius.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.19
  Counts as a Spell for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Divine Shield / Divine Protection Gives you immunity to all damage in the game, but you cannot use physical attacks for the duration. Applies Forbearance.
• Lay on Hands Instantly heals a target equal to your max health, but sets your mana to 0.
• Hammer of Justice Instantly stuns the target.
• Righteous Fury Increases your Threat generation. Used for tanking.
• Holy Shock (Deep Holy Talent) Deals Holy damage to an enemy, or heals an ally.
  Spellpower Coefficient: 0.429
  Counts as a Spell for the purposes of Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Hit Chance.
• Holy Light Your big, slow heal.
• Flash of Light Your small, fast heal.
• Voice of Truth New utility defensive granting immunity to Silence and Interrupts for 6 sec.

Blessings:

• Blessing of Might Increases Melee Attack Power. This is generally your go-to blessing while leveling, for the most DPS.
• Blessing of Kings Increases all Stats by 10%. Very strong as well, can use if you prefer more utility.
• Blessing of Wisdom Gives the target mana every 5 seconds (MP5). Useful on casters/healers.
• Blessing of Protection Gives the target immunity to all Physical Damage, but they cannot attack or use physical abilities during the duration. This includes melee and ranged attacks, as well as fall damage. Applies Forbearance.
• Blessing of Freedom Grants the target immunity to movement impairing effects, such as slows or roots.
• Blessing of Sacrifice Used exclusively on other players, redirecting a flat amount of damage they take to you.

*Keep in mind all Blessings are exclusive, you can only have 1 active from yourself per target. This also includes the utility ones such as Freedom. Rebuff people or yourself as needed after use.

Utility / Auras:

• Cleanse Removes 1x Poison, Disease and Magic effect from the target. One of Paladin's strongest utility spells. Purify is the weaker, early level version.
• Turn Undead Fears an Undead enemy target.
• Divine Intervention Sacrifice yourself to make an ally intangible for 3 minutes.
• Devotion Aura Increases Armor of nearby party members.
• Retribution Aura Causes enemies who strike nearby party members to take Holy damage.
• Concentration Aura Gives nearby party members a chance to ignore spell pushback when hit.
• Fire Resistance Aura Increases Fire Resistance of nearby party members.
  Does not stack with Fire Resistance Totem or Mark of the Wild
• Shadow Resistance Aura Increases Shadow Resistance of nearby party members.
  Does not stack with Shadow Protection or Mark of the Wild
• Frost Resistance Aura Increases Frost Resistance of nearby party members.
  Does not stack with Frost Resistance Totem or Mark of the Wild

*Only 1 aura can be active per Paladin at a time.

Because your early game is heavily dictated by Weapons, I've compiled a list of strong, deterministic weapons to get along your journey.

Alliance

1. Wooden Mallet - Sold by Corina Steele in Goldshire for 6 Silver 64 Copper Human
   Sold by Grawn Thromwyn in Kharanos for 7 Silver 37 Copper Dwarf
2. Northshire Hammer - From the Quest Rare Books Human
   Prerequisite to start the quest chain, Nibbled-On Book, is a drop in Northshire.
   Coldridge Hammer - From the Quest Protecting the Herd Dwarf
3. Heavy Copper Maul - From Blacksmithing or the Auction House.
4. Ironforge Greathammer - From the Hall of Thanes quest Old Ironforge Incursion
   Prerequisite is Underground Map, a drop from Dark Iron Spy.
5. Verigan's Fist - From the Quest The Test of Righteousness
   Prerequisite is The Tome of Valor, started in Stormwind.
   *Note that while this weapon is very powerful, the quest is exceedingly long, and there are a lot of weapon drops in the required dungeons along the way.
6. Heavehammer - From the Expedition Wetlands quest Prehistoric Prism
   Prerequisite is a drop from the last boss.
7. Defender of Dalaran - From the City of Dalaran quest Heart of Disruption
   Prerequisite to start the quest is An Alarming Request.

If you run Deadmines and plan on doing Gnomeregan later, I recommend picking up Tunic of Westfallas Gnomeragen will offer you legs as well.

Horde

1. Wooden Mallet - Sold by Oliver Dwor in Brill for 7 Silver 1 Copper
2. Bonecracker - From the Quest The Family Crypt
   Prerequisite to start the quest is Deaths in the Family
3. Heavy Copper Maul - From Blacksmithing or the Auction House.
4. Axe of Orgrimmar - From the Ragefire Chasm quest Hidden Enemies
   Prerequisite to start the quest chain is Hidden Enemies. (Same name, different quest)
   Make sure to train 2-Handed Axe skill while in Orgrimmar.
5. Forsaken Greataxe - From the Ruins of Lordaeron quest The Wrath of Rath'mael
6. Wolfsbane - From the quest Old Fire-Eye
   Prerequisite to start the quest chain is Diplomatic Incident.
   *Note that this quest chain is enormous, and while the weapon is good, Forsaken Greataxe is still decent until the next option.
7. Heavehammer - From the Expedition Wetlands quest Earthen Echo
   Prerequisite is a drop from the last boss.

Unfortunately Paladin doesn't get any useable weapon from the Horde counterpart of the City of Dalaran Quests.

In Forever, the Experience and Gear from Dungeon quests have been HEAVILY increased. This in turn means that it's very beneficial to structure your leveling around them.

I heavily recommend getting the addon "Dungeon Journal", as it lists all quests for a dungeon and their prerequisites.

As experience from a dungeon run is severely reduced, try to have every quest (that's reasonable) ready for your run, and try to only do 1 run per dungeon if possible.
You can of course do multiple if you're interested, this recommendation serves mostly to maximize experience gain.

Since you can learn gathering professions in the starter areas now (Northshire, Coldridge Valley, Deathknell), try to pick up mining, a pickaxe and a reagent back from the trainers ASAP, and get a few ores/rough stones so when you learn Blacksmithing you are ready to craft some Weightstones.

Forever has imported the Retail interface, which brings with it a lot of features to the game previously available exclusively through addons.
It can be a bit confusing to find everything, so I'll make a small list of things you might want to know.

• Edit Mode
  Through "Edit Mode" when pressing escape, or /editmode, you can customize your entire UI and move most frames in the game.
• Damage Meter
  Enable it by searching "Damage Meter" in Options and clicking the box. You can move it around through Edit Mode.
• Nameplates
  Through the "Nameplates" category in your options, you can customize your nameplates.
• Swing Timer
  Enable it by searching "Swing Timer" in Options and clicking the box. You can customize it through Edit Mode.
• Target Frame Status Text
  Search "Status Text" in Options and press the dropdown to change what text displays on your target frames.
• Cooldown Manager
  The Cooldown Manager is a massive feature coming from Retail. It allows you to track Cooldowns, buffs and more on your UI.
  First you have to enable it by searching "Cooldown Manager" in Options.
  Then, by typing /cdm you will open a large menu of what you want tracked. You can choose to have it as an icon or as a bar, and can move them all through Edit Mode.
• Cooldown Manager Overview:
  
  Spells:
  Essential Cooldowns - Usually your main rotational abilities.
  Utility Cooldowns - Contains Utility abilities.
  Not Displayed - Spells here will not show up on your Cooldown Manager.
  
  Buffs:
  Tracked Buffs - Buffs here will be displayed as icons.
  Tracked Bars - Buffs here will be displayed as bars.
  Not Displayed - Buffs here will not be displayed.
  
  You can move any Spell/Cooldown freely between any category, to customize them separately.

• DungeonJournal - Through /dj you get an overview of all available dungeons, their loot, their quests and map. Great for planning, great all around.
• RestedXP - Free, in-depth guides from 1-20, with additional useful features. Guides past 20 are a premium feature though.
• PallyPower Forever - A must for all Paladins looking to Raid. Let's you assign/coordinate your blessings with other Paladins.

Hello! I'm Jampanos. I've been playing in Progress for 2 years, as a strategist, speedrunner and racer.