WoW Forever Retribution Paladin BiS

A level 60 Retribution Paladin in WoW Forever has five weeks between launch on November 4 and the first raids on December 9, and every item you collect in that window is part of your pre-raid best-in-slot (BiS) list. Ret is also the spec whose gear changed most. Champion of the Light turns Intellect into spell damage, your Seals and Judgement scale with spell power, and Unsealed Wrath rewards a slow two-hander. A Ret Paladin in Forever wants Strength, Hit Chance and spell damage at once, so many Classic lists, which ignore spell power, point you at the wrong pieces.

The bigger guide sites still show "work in progress" where their Forever Ret list should be. ConquestCapped built this list instead by checking the Forever data of every item on November 13 and keeping only pieces with a source you can reach before December 9. Below you will find the list at a glance, the stat priority behind it, every slot with its alternatives, the spell damage pieces that suit Ret, the Lightforge and Soulforge sets, crafted and reputation items, PvP options, what we know about raid gear and the enchants and consumables to finish your set.

WoW Forever Retribution Paladin BiS at a Glance

A Paladin can wear cloth, leather, mail and plate with no penalty, and Forever adds no armor specialization bonus. That is why three of the strongest pre-raid pieces for Ret are leather: they carry more Hit Chance or Strength than any plate item in the same slot. The rest of the list is plate with Strength, plus a few Paladin-only pieces with spell damage that only Ret can use well.

Every item in the main column has a source in the Forever data. Three of them, the cloak, the belt and the Libram, come from the Pix Xizzix vendor in Booty Bay and cost Tarnished Undermine Real, a currency Blizzard has confirmed for Forever but not yet tied to a drop. Each slot table further down lists a dungeon option for those slots:

The full list adds up to 8.5% Hit Chance from gear, enough for a raid boss without any talent. Most Ret builds also take Precision in the Protection tree, which adds up to 3%, and a Dwarf gets another 1% from Artisan's Precision. With Precision at three points you need only 5% from gear, so swap Truestrike Shoulders and Howler's Furs for the Arathi Basin pieces in the slot tables below. That trade turns 2.5% of spare hit into Strength, Agility and Attack Power.

Holy and Retribution Paladins compete for very few of the same items, but if you heal as an off-spec, the healing pieces are in our WoW Forever Holy Paladin BiS guide.

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Retribution Paladin Stat Priority in WoW Forever

Forever changed how melee stats work, and Ret changed more than any other melee spec. Hit and critical strike chance appear on gear as flat percentages, a new stat called Expertise lowers the chance that the boss dodges or parries your attacks, and the racial weapon specializations are gone, so your race no longer decides your weapon type. On top of that, Champion of the Light in the Retribution tree turns up to 100% of your Intellect into spell damage, according to its current tooltip. Spell damage raises your Seal procs, Judgement, Holy Strike, Hammer of Wrath and Exorcism, so Intellect is no longer a filler stat for Ret.

The priority for a Ret Paladin hitting a raid boss from behind looks like this:

1. Weapon damage. A slow two-hander with high top-end damage feeds every swing, every Seal of Command proc and Holy Strike. A better weapon outweighs almost any stat line on other gear.
2. Hit Chance up to 8%. Misses cost damage and Seal procs, and your Judgement uses melee hit too.
3. Expertise up to 6.5%. From behind, a boss can only dodge, and 6.5% Expertise removes those dodges. Very few pre-raid items carry it.
4. Strength and spell damage. One Strength gives 2 Attack Power, and spell damage adds to every Holy hit you deal.
5. Intellect, critical strike chance and Agility. Intellect counts as spell damage through Champion of the Light, crit feeds Vengeance, and Agility adds a little crit.

Guides disagree on the middle of the list. Some put spell damage ahead of Strength and Intellect ahead of Attack Power, while others still weigh Strength higher. A few guides use 9% instead of 8% as a safe hit target until someone confirms the cap on a raid boss. Nobody has tested any of it against a level 63 boss yet, so treat the order as a starting point until December 9.

Our WoW Forever hit cap guide explains every cap and which talents and racials add Hit Chance. For what each stat does in Forever, including Expertise and the talents that convert Intellect, read our WoW Forever stats and itemization guide.

Pre-Raid BiS by Slot

Each table below lists the best pre-raid item for the slot, then the next options in the order we would take them. Bind on Equip (BoE) items can be bought from other players, so check the Auction House before you farm a crafted piece yourself.

Head, Neck, Shoulders and Back

The upper half of the set is where Classic and Forever lists differ most. Two of the best pieces are leather with flat Hit Chance, and the strongest plate helm in the game data cannot be crafted yet:

Lionheart Helm has the best stats of any pre-raid helm in the Forever data: 18 Strength, 2% Hit and 2% crit. Several lists put it first, but the Forever data shows no source for Plans: Lionheart Helm yet, and in Classic the plans dropped from raid bosses. The same goes for Stalwart Helm, a new plate helm with 2% Hit and spell damage: its plans have no recorded source. Do not count on either helm before the raids open.

Chest, Wrist and Hands

The middle of the set mixes one leather chest with plate. The battleground reputations pay off in the hands, but each one takes weeks of matches, so the dungeon options below are what most Ret Paladins wear on December 9:

The Timbermaw Tunic is the biggest single upgrade on the list, and its pattern is new in Forever: Pattern: Timbermaw Tunic drops from the elite Blackmaw Druid in Blackmaw Hold. Because the tunic binds when equipped, a leatherworker on your realm can craft it for you. Warriors want it too, so expect competition for it on the Auction House.

Waist, Legs and Feet

The lower half is where Ret gets its own items. Vindicator's Belt and Sentinel's Lamellar Legguards both carry spell damage next to Strength, and only a Paladin gets full value from that mix:

The Horde has no Lamellar version of the Warsong Gulch legs, so a Horde Ret takes the plate legguards with more Strength and Stamina instead. Furbolg Berserker's Boots is the only pre-raid plate boot with Expertise, but it drops from a trash mob at about 1.4%, so most players buy it. Because it binds on equip, watch the Auction House instead of farming Blackmaw Hold for it.

Devilsaur Leggings and Devilsaur Gauntlets form a two-piece set that adds 2% Hit. Before you reach Exalted with any battleground faction, the pair is the quickest way to fill hands and legs together, and both pieces are BoE.

Rings and Trinkets

Jewelry is where Forever's changes to old items show most. Hand of Justice from Emperor Dagran Thaurissan now gives 12 Attack Power instead of 20, so it slips down the list, while new pieces from Blackmaw Hold and the Tarnished Undermine Real vendor move up:

Only one trinket from Pix Xizzix can be equipped at a time, so pick Weakness Analyzer or Adaptive Combat Assistant, not both. Hand of Justice still earns its place for Ret, because every extra attack is another chance to proc Seal of Command and to store a Seal for Unsealed Wrath.

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Two-Handed Weapons

Ret plays with one slow two-hander. Seal of Command procs on weapon damage, Holy Strike adds a share of it, and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization rewards the two-handed choice, so the weapon with the highest top-end damage makes the whole kit hit harder. Paladins can use two-handed maces, swords and axes and polearms:

Nightfall stands far above every dungeon drop. Its debuff raises the spell damage the target takes, and your Seal procs, Judgement and Consecration deal Holy spell damage, so part of your own damage benefits as well as the casters in your group. Its plans come from Lokhtos Darkbargainer of the Thorium Brotherhood in Blackrock Depths, and the axe binds on equip, so any blacksmith with that reputation can make one for you. Our WoW Forever Blacksmithing guide covers the route to 300.

If you have no blacksmith, Hammer of Thundering Hooves from The Shaper's Terrace is the easiest strong axe or mace to get from a dungeon. Flameslash Crescent hits softer, but its 1.5% Hit lets you drop one hit piece from the armor list.

Weapon Speed and Seal Twisting with Unsealed Wrath

Unsealed Wrath stores a copy of your active Seal with every melee swing that lands, up to three, and a swing with a different Seal releases all of them. How many swings you spend in each Seal depends on your weapon speed. Community simulations from the last two weeks found that using the wrong rhythm for your weapon costs about a tenth of your damage:

• Speed 3.3 or slower: three swings in Seal of Command, then one in Seal of Righteousness.
• Speed 2.6 to 3.2: two swings in Seal of Righteousness, then one in Seal of Command.

Every pre-raid weapon above except Treant's Bane and the 3.10 reputation axes falls into the slow group, which is why Ret players aim for 3.3 or slower. Changing your main-hand weapon clears the stored Seals, so do not swap weapons mid-fight.

Best Libram for Retribution

Paladins use a Libram in the relic slot instead of a ranged weapon. Libram of Law from Pix Xizzix increases the damage of your Judgement by 4% and is the only level 60 Libram in the Forever data built for Ret damage. Until you can buy it, Libram of Invocation from Enchanting cuts the Mana cost of your Seals by 5%, and Libram of Fervor helps only if you judge Seal of the Crusader at the start of each fight.

Spell Damage Gear for Retribution Paladins

Champion of the Light is the reason Ret can wear caster pieces in Forever. Every point of Intellect becomes spell damage, so an item with Strength, Intellect and spell damage at once is often worth more to a Ret Paladin than a pure Strength piece. Some players call this "Shockadin" gear, after the build that trades Unsealed Wrath for Holy Shock and leans even harder on spell power.

These pieces are the strongest spell damage options a Ret Paladin can reach before December 9:

• Sentinel's Lamellar Legguards with 25 spell damage in the legs, the Alliance BiS.
• Vindicator's Belt with 16 spell damage in the waist, Paladin only.
• Arcanoweave Cloak from Pix Xizzix with 1% Hit, 8 Intellect and 16 spell damage, an alternative to Howler's Furs for the back.
• Weakness Analyzer with 18 spell damage and an on-use crit bonus.
• The Soulforge Tier 0.5 pieces, covered in the next section.

Two crafted pieces fit Ret perfectly but have no source yet. Stormcarver is a slow axe with 15 Strength and 32 spell damage, and Champion's Legplates are plate legs with 18 Strength and 38 spell damage, but neither Plans: Stormcarver nor the leg plans have a recorded drop or vendor. Forest Defender's Axe, with 61.5 damage per second and 28 spell damage, is a stronger axe still, but its craft needs Malleable Essence of Nature, which comes only from disenchanting raid items. Skip all three in your pre-raid planning.

Do not roll on cloth caster items you would only wear for a few points of spell damage. Mages, Warlocks and Priests need them far more, and the pieces above give you spell damage without that loot drama.

Paladin Dungeon Sets in WoW Forever

Forever keeps the classic dungeon sets, and both Paladin sets suit Ret better than they suit Holy, because they mix Strength with Intellect and spell damage. Neither set makes the main list as a full set, but both are good fillers while you wait for better drops.

Lightforge Armor is the Tier 0 set from Blackrock Spire, Scholomance and Stratholme. Lightforge Helm drops from Darkmaster Gandling, Lightforge Breastplate from General Drakkisath, Lightforge Legplates from Baron Rivendare and Lightforge Spaulders from The Beast. Its bonuses are:

• 2 pieces: +8 to all resistances.
• 3 pieces: up to 18 spell damage.
• 4 pieces: a 7% chance to silence a caster who hits you with a spell.
• 5 pieces: melee attacks and spells can add up to 65 spell damage for 10 seconds.
• 6 pieces: 8 Mana every 5 seconds.

The upgraded Tier 0.5 set, Soulforge Armor, comes from a long questline that ends with Lord Valthalak in Upper Blackrock Spire. Its pieces are better for Ret than Lightforge: Soulforge Helm and Soulforge Breastplate each carry 16 Strength, 17 Intellect, 1% crit and 14 spell damage. The set gives the 65 spell damage proc at four pieces, 40 Attack Power at six and 200 armor at eight. Our WoW Forever dungeon sets guide lists every piece and the steps of the upgrade chain.

Crafted and Reputation Items

Crafted gear and reputation rewards fill the slots where dungeon drops fall short. Here is where each piece on this list comes from and what it takes:

• Leatherworking: Timbermaw Tunic from Pattern: Timbermaw Tunic, which drops in Blackmaw Hold, plus the Devilsaur Leggings and Devilsaur Gauntlets pair. All three bind on equip.
• Blacksmithing: Nightfall with Plans: Nightfall from Lokhtos Darkbargainer, and Arcanite Reaper with plans from Bannok Grimaxe. Both bind on equip.
• Warsong Gulch: Berserker Bracers for both factions, plus Sentinel's Lamellar Legguards for the Alliance and Outrider's Plate Legguards for the Horde.
• Darkspear Islands: Theramore Gauntlets from Bryanna Embreeze for the Alliance or Raider Gauntlets from Creeg Bothunk for the Horde at Exalted, and the Rebels' Rugged Reaper or Darkspear Raider's Reaper two-hander at Revered.
• Arathi Basin: Highlander's Lamellar Spaulders and Cloak of the Honor Guard for the Alliance, or Defiler's Lamellar Spaulders and Deathguard's Cloak for the Horde.
• Alterac Valley: Don Julio's Band and The Unstoppable Force for both factions.

Exalted with a battleground faction takes weeks of matches and mark turn-ins, so start the one whose reward you want most. For an Alliance Ret that is usually Warsong Gulch for the Lamellar legs, and for a Horde Ret Darkspear Islands for the gauntlets. Our Darkspear Islands battleground guide explains how its new reputation works.

PvP Gear as a Pre-Raid Alternative

From level 55 you can buy rare PvP armor with Honor and Marks of Honor, with no rank required, and upgrade it to epic later with an Emboldened Seal at Ranks 8 to 13. The plate pieces carry Strength and Stamina, so they are a steady fallback for any slot where your dungeon luck runs out. The PvP two-handers need Rank 14 and still deal less damage per second than Nightfall, so they are no plan for the next five weeks.

The rare set costs roughly 64,000 Honor in total, and the weekly cap of 25,000 Honor spreads that over several weeks. Every slot, mark and seal price is in our WoW Forever PvP gear costs guide.

Raid BiS: Onyxia, Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps

The first raids open on December 9: Onyxia's Lair for 40 players, the 20-player Hyjal Summit and the 10-player Barrow Deeps. Forever hides an item's stats until it drops for someone on your realm, and the new raids open without a dungeon journal, so no honest raid BiS list exists yet. What the game data does show is the Ret tier set and how to craft part of it.

Justice Battlegear is the Retribution tier set, with six pieces at item level 65 and bonuses at two to five pieces:

• 2 pieces: 1% attack and casting speed.
• 3 pieces: 5 seconds off the cooldown of Hammer of Justice.
• 4 pieces: 36 Attack Power against Undead.
• 5 pieces: 0.5 seconds off the cooldown of Judgement.

Blacksmiths can craft four of the six pieces: Justice Spaulders, Justice Gauntlets, Justice Leggings and Justice Greaves. They bind on equip, but each craft needs Malleable Essence of Nature, which comes only from disenchanting items from Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps, and a Paladin can wear only one crafted tier piece until the Guardians of Hyjal reputation unlocks a second. The plans are sold in Mount Hyjal, and the head and chest come only from raid bosses.

Onyxia also brings back Onyxia Tooth Pendant, the reward for her head, with 1% Hit and 1% crit. It replaces Mark of Fordring for most Ret Paladins. We will add the raid drops to this guide once their stats are known. For the full set, the crafting costs and the bonuses of all three Paladin specs, see our WoW Forever Paladin tier set guide.

Enchants and Consumables for Retribution Paladins

Enchant the pieces you plan to keep, which usually means the weapon, chest and the slots that take a battleground reward. Forever adds necklace enchants, and several of the strongest formulas need reputation. These are the best enchants a Ret Paladin can get before the raids:

Enchant Gloves - Holy Power adds up to 20 Holy damage, and some theorycrafters expect it to beat Strength on gloves once Ret gets more spell damage gear. Where every formula drops is in our best enchants in WoW Forever guide.

For consumables, Elixir of the Mongoose adds 25 Agility and 2% crit, and Greater Arcane Elixir adds 35 spell damage for an hour. On the weapon, Brilliant Wizard Oil gives 36 spell damage and 1% spell crit, while an Elemental Sharpening Stone gives 2% melee crit. Ret players are still testing which of the two wins. Major Frenzy Potion is a new potion with 80 Attack Power for level 55 and up, and Major Mana Potion covers your Mana on long fights.

Tips for Gearing a Retribution Paladin Before the Raids

The list above tells you what to wear. These tips come from how Forever's item changes and the new Ret talents work in practice:

• Get the weapon first. A blacksmith with Thorium Brotherhood reputation and Nightfall gives you more damage than any three armor pieces together, so spend your gold there before you buy BoE armor.
• Count your hit with your talents. If you take three points in Precision, you need only 5% Hit Chance from gear (4% as a Dwarf), and every hit piece above that is wasted.
• Run Blackmaw Hold often. It holds Behemoth Bones, Furbolg Berserker's Boots, Spike Crested Bracers, Flameslash Crescent and the pattern for Timbermaw Tunic, all in one dungeon.
• Do not discard Intellect. With Champion of the Light, Intellect on plate counts as spell damage, so a piece like Soulforge Helm can beat a plain Strength helm.
• Keep one weapon for the whole fight. Swapping weapons clears your stored Seals from Unsealed Wrath, and you lose the burst they would have dealt.
• Agree on loot before the run. Timbermaw Tunic, Mask of the Unforgiven and Truestrike Shoulders are leather that Warriors, Rogues and Druids want as well.

Talents decide how much each stat is worth, so check our WoW Forever Paladin talents guide before you spend points, and our best Paladin race in WoW Forever guide explains what the Dwarf, Human and Undead racials add to a Ret Paladin.

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More Guides for a Raid-Ready Retribution Paladin

Gear is one part of preparing a Ret Paladin for December 9. These guides cover the class overview, the tier set, how gear progresses from dungeons to raids, what each stat does and the enchants to finish your set.

WoW Forever Retribution Paladin BiS FAQ

These are the questions players ask most about Ret Paladin gear before the first raids.