PvE Retribution Paladin Stat Priority

Retribution Paladin Guide

Stat Priority

Best Races

Talents & Builds

Gear & Best In Slot (BiS)

Best Professions

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Addons & Macros

The stat priorities for Retribution Paladins in TBC Classic are, in order of value;

1. Expertise
2. Hit
3. Strength
4. Haste
5. Crit
6. Agility
7. Spell Power
8. Armor Penetration

TBC introduces three new stats to the game; Haste, Expertise and Armor Penetration.

Haste is a good stat for Retribution Paladins and increase our attack speed, but it’s hard to come by early on in TBC. It will get more and more common later on as we get to Phase 3 and onward.

Expertise will reduce the chance bosses have of Dodging and Parrying your attacks. If you played Ret in Classic you know that there is nothing more frustrating then having a good parse ruined by a few dodges. Same principle applies in TBC, and this is where Expertise comes in and saves the day. The main problem is that it’s also very hard to reach the cap, and you will be forced to wear some leather or non-optimal items if you want expertise, as there is no Expertise gems that you can supplement with.

Armor Penetration is also a new stat that only existed on special item effects in classic. It starts showing up in Black Temple and Sunwell on gear, but overall it’s a bad stat for us since a lot of our damage is magical, so it’s not something you should itemize for.

Hit Cap

You need 9% or 142 Hit Rating to be physically hit capped against bosses in TBC. The talent Precision gives you 3% which lowers the amount you need to get down to 95 hit rating. Any extra hit rating you get above this will be worthless.

Other external factors that can help you reach hit cap against bosses are Heroic Presence from a Draenei Hunter, Paladin or Warrior that are in your group (1% hit / 15.8 rating) or a druid with the talent Improved Faerie Fire can also help everyone in the raid by reducing the needed hit by 3% or 47 rating.

Because of this, it can be a good idea to have a few extra items with or without hit which you can swap depending on if you have a Draenei or Druid that lowers the amount of hit you need.

Spell Hit is also a factor for Retribution paladins since several of our abilities are considered spells. You will not find spell hit on any traditional items for Retribution paladins and you should never itemize for it on purpose.

Expertise Cap

All mobs and enemies have a base 5% chance to dodge and parry your attacks. As bosses counts as level 73 they will have an additional 0.6% chance to dodge/parry for a total of 5.6%.

• Mobs can still dodge when you attack them from behind, but they can only parry from the front.
• In order to reach Expertise cap and never be dodged or parried you need a total of 91 Expertise rating.
• If you are a Human Paladin you will get 5 expertise with Maces and Swords from your racials, which equals 19 expertise rating. So as a Human your cap will be 72 expertise rating.
  

Abilities That Use Hit and Spell Hit