Method Retribution Paladin Guide - Gearing - Dragonflight 10.2.5 (2024)

Gear

The general rule with gearing: Item Level is the King, however, you always should sim your character.

Trinkets

Cataclysmic Signet Brand
Rezan’s Gleaming Eye
Branch of the Tormented Ancient
Coiled Serpent Idol
Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge
Augury of the Primal Flame
Accelerating Sandglass

The rest of the trinkets are somewhat similar, and you should not focus on them too much.

Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Tier Set

2 Set Bonus: Expurgation lasts an additional 3 sec and deals 30% increased damage. Casting Judgment or Divine Toll on a target with Expurgation causes Wrathful Sanction, damaging the target for Holy damage and resonating Holy damage to up to 4 nearby enemies.
4 Set Bonus:Wrathful Sanction grants you Echoes of Wrath, causing your next Templar's Verdict or Divine Storm to deal damage a second time at 25% effectiveness. This effect does not consume Judgment.

Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Tier Set

2 Set Bonus: Judgment and Hammer of Wrath deal 10% increased damage and 15% increased critical strike damage. Hammer of Wrath applies Judgment to enemies
4 Set Bonus: Judgment increases the damage enemies take from your Holy Power spenders by an additional 15%. Hammer of Wrath now hits 4 nearby targets for 20% of its damage.

Tier sets management

Collecting tier pieces from Amirdrassil with a high chance will bring you to a very popular question: should I break Aberrus 4-piece bonus for 2+2? The answer is YES. Using 2 Aberrus and 2 Amirdrassil tier pieces will provide a significant dps increase.

Retribution Paladin Best in Slot Gear

You should still prioritize the gear you use by running a sim for your character, but the lists below will give you a good idea of what items are considered good for Retribution Paladin, and help you target the right content for each piece of loot.

Best Gear from the Raid

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Zealous Pyreknight's Barbute	Tindral Sageswift
Neck	Ouroboreal Necklet	Volcoross
Shoulders	Zealous Pyreknight's Ailettes	Smolderon
Cloak	Inflammable Drapeleaf	Gnarlroot
Chest	Zealous Pyreknight's Warplate	Nymue
Wrist	Agonizing Manacles	Igira the Cruel
Gloves	Eldermoss Gauntlets	Nymue
Belt	Phlegethic Girdle	Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Legs	Zealous Pyreknight's Cuisses	Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Boots	Fused Obsidian Sabatons	Smolderon
Ring	Band of Burning Thorns	Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Ring	Signet of the Last Elder	Igira the Cruel
Trinket	Cataclysmic Signet Brand	Smolderon
Trinket	Branch of the Tormented Ancient	Gnarlroot
Weapon	Fyr'alath the Dreamrender	Fyrakk

Alternative trinkets are:

Ashes of the Embersoul AoE focused trinket
Augury of the Primal Flame both good for ST and AoE
Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge AoE only

Best Gear from Mythic+

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Zealous Pyreknight's Barbute	Catalyst
Neck	Ironshell Pendant	Throne of the Tides
Shoulders	Zealous Pyreknight's Ailettes	Catalyst
Cloak	Shadowfeather Shawl	Black Rook Hold
Chest	Zealous Pyreknight's Warplate	Catalyst
Wrist	Zealous Commander's Cuffs	Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond’s Fall
Gloves	Zealous Pyreknight's Jeweled Gauntlets	Catalyst
Belt	Unwinding Eon Girdle	Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond’s Fall
Legs	Zealous Pyreknight's Cuisses	Catalyst
Boots	Marbled Oathstone Greatboots	Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond’s Rise
Ring	Seal of the Regal Loa	Atal'Dazar
Ring	Thornwoven Band	Waycrest Manor
Trinket	Rezan's Gleaming Eye	Atal'Dazar
Trinket	Accelerating Sandglass	Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond’s Fall
Weapon	Gorehowl, Might of the Warchief	Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond’s Rise

Alternative trinkets are:

Porcelain Crab is a good trinket for AoE

Embellishments and Crafted Gear

With new Sparks you are able to create gear up to 486 ilvl. Before we jump into ratings and suggested order of crafting, I would like to go through all interesting crafted gear.

Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch - this thing can be applied to any plate armor crafted piece and also to the cloak. This is a very powerful embellishment for a single target, but it isn’t that good for AoE. This embellishment still remains our BiS option for raiding.

Unstable Frostfire Belt - This is a mediocre embellishment that you can still use but there are some better options.

Frostfire Legguards of Preparation - the best thing you can craft for Mythic plus content. It provides a lot of haste in every beginning of combat which is very cool, because usually you have Avenging Wrath in the beginning of each pull in M+.

Elemental Lariat - the best days of this embellishment have passed away. Since the buff from it was nerfed from 12 to 5 seconds baseline (can still be 12 if you have all sockets on your gear) but anyway it isn’t worth it to use this embellishment anymore. Try to replace it ASAP with any necklace.

Allied Wristguard of Companionship - This embellishment looks better in 10.2 due to the same reasons - nerfs to Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch and Unstable Frostfire Belt. So keep an eye on it. It might sim a bit worse for your character because of a lot of versatility on your gear.

Crafted Weapons - this is always a very powerful craft for Ret, but it costs 2 Sparks. Including the fact that you can get a 470 (upgradable up to 483) weapon from M+ or even 483 (upgradable up to 489) from your Great Vault I wouldn't recommend using your sparks on a crafted weapon.Especially including the fact that you can obtain a Legendary Axe from Fyrakk.

Raid:

Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch on Head or Legs (Legs will be better for character management if you play raids and M+)
Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch on Belt or Feet (bracers and cloak works too)
Allied Wristguard of Companionship

Mythic Plus:

Best combo is Frostfire Legguards of Preparation andShadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch

Fyr'alath the Dreamrender, Legendary Axe

You probably already know that Fyrakk can drop a Legendary Axe. Acquisition of it works pretty much the same way it was with Evoker Legendary in Aberrus. You have a chance to get it from Fyrakk in any difficulty. With higher difficulty chances become better. After that you have to complete quests to upgrade your weapon so it will be able to unleash its power each 2 minutes.

As for Retribution paladin this Legendary provides around 15k extra dps in single target. Active use ability becomes more efficient with more targets.