Retribution Paladin DPS Gear and Best in Slot — 12.0.5

The launch of Midnight included a stat squish, which has changed the value of some stats a small amount. Overall, the gearing strategy is the same as always, where you want a spread across all secondaries, while slightly preferring Mastery and Haste.

Upgrading gear in Midnight continues to use the Crest system which lets you increase the item level of gear along tracks that relate to where you obtained the item, which harder content dropping gear that can be upgraded to higher Item Levels. For more information, read up on our dedicated page on how the gearing system works and what has changed in the Midnight expansion.

OverallMythic+Raid

This list contains the BiS items from any source for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

For Midnight Season 1 as a Retribution Paladin, you will want to prioritize using Helm, Shoulder, Chest, and Legs set pieces. However, getting the Gloves in order to achieve the set bonuses is still totally fine. The main reason to not use Gloves as a set item is to use the gloves with an extra bonus effect from Seat of the Triumvirate, Voidclaw Gauntlets.

Retribution Paladin

1.1.

Overall Best in Slot

Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze Helm

Catalyst or Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Voidclaw Gauntlets Hands

Seat of the Triumvirate

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

Hate-Tied Waistchain Waist

Crown of the Cosmos

Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch Shoulders

Catalyst or Fallen-King Salhadaar Amirdrassil's Grace

Luminant Verdict's Greaves Legs

Catalyst or Vaelgor and Ezzorak Forest Hunter's

Adherent's Silken Shroud Cloak

Crafted by Tailoring

Greaves of the Unformed Feet

Chimaerus Lynx's Dexterity

Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Sin'dorei Band of Hope Ring

Belo'ren Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Eye of Midnight Ring

Midnight Falls Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Algeth'ar Puzzle Box Trinket

Algeth'ar Academy

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Bellamy's Final Judgement Main Hand

Lightblinded Vanguard Enchant Weapon - Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Off Hand

This list contains the BiS items from Mythic+ for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

If you want to target specific dungeons for items that increase your power the most, we recommend the following dungeons:

• Algeth'ar Academy: Has both a strong trinket and a Weapon.
• Pit of Saron: The only dungeon with a Neck with a good stat distribution, and also can drop other useful items, such as a solid Weapon and Ring.
• Nexus-Point Xenas: Two good rings and a small loot table otherwise.

Retribution Paladin

1.2.

Best Mythic+ Gear

Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze Helm

Catalyst Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Voidclaw Gauntlets Hands

Seat of the Triumvirate

Barbed Ymirheim Choker Neck

Pit of Saron

Girdle of the Shadowguard Waist

Seat of the Triumvirate

Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch Shoulders

Catalyst Amirdrassil's Grace

Luminant Verdict's Greaves Legs

Catalyst Forest Hunter's

Adherent's Silken Shroud Cloak

Crafted by Tailoring

Oathsworn Stompers Feet

Magister's Terrace Lynx's Dexterity

Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate Chest

Catalyst Mark of the Worldsoul

Omission of Light Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Occlusion of Void Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Algeth'ar Puzzle Box Trinket

Algeth'ar Academy

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Solarflare Prism Trinket

Skyreach

Liferipper's Cutlass Main Hand

Maisara Caverns Enchant Weapon - Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Off Hand

This list contains the BiS items from Raids for Midnight Season 1. Although this is a theoretical best list, the best item for your character specifically can often be different depending on other items currently equipped.

This list is intended as a reference, but we always recommend confirming by simming yourself. Depending on the exact gear you have available, your best gear to use might look different than this list for some slots.

Retribution Paladin

1.3.

Best Raid Gear

Luminant Verdict's Unwavering Gaze Helm

Catalyst or Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Rune of Avoidance

Emberborn Grasps Hands

Belo'ren

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

Hate-Tied Waistchain Waist

Crown of the Cosmos

Luminant Verdict's Providence Watch Shoulders

Catalyst or Fallen-King Salhadaar Amirdrassil's Grace

Luminant Verdict's Greaves Legs

Catalyst or Vaelgor and Ezzorak Forest Hunter's

Adherent's Silken Shroud Cloak

Crafted by Tailoring

Greaves of the Unformed Feet

Chimaerus Lynx's Dexterity

Luminant Verdict's Divine Warplate Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Sin'dorei Band of Hope Ring

Belo'ren Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Eye of Midnight Ring

Midnight Falls Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Radiant Plume Trinket

Belo'ren

Spellbreaker's Bracers Bracers

Crafted by Blacksmithing

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Bellamy's Final Judgement Main Hand

Lightblinded Vanguard Enchant Weapon - Acuity of the Ren'dorei

Off Hand

Itemization

Enchants and Stat Priority

Looking to optimize your character? Check out our Enchant and Stat Priority guides for more information!

EnchantsStats

Since there is a lack of trinkets suited to Retribution's cooldowns this season, you will often simply end up using passive trinkets instead. Luckily, there are a few strong passive options you can use, especially from Raids.

Your ideal combination is:

Retribution Paladin Trinkets

Active - Algeth'ar Puzzle Box
Passive - Radiant Plume or Umbral Plume

There are quite a few other options available, which can be found below.

Click for Retribution Paladin Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Trinket
S Tier	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box - Click for Details Requires a channel to gain its effect, which means you cannot macro it into your other cooldowns. For raid encounters, you should begin channeling it just before you pull. Radiant Plume Umbral Plume Gaze of the Alnseer
A Tier	Heart of Ancient Hunger Crucible of Erratic Energies - Click for Details This trinket is strong for its item level, but caps at 263, which makes it a weak option in the long run. It needs to be fully upgraded using the Voidstorm Console to be a competitive choice.
B Tier	Light Company Guidon Solarflare Prism Heart of Wind Kroluk's Warbanner
C Tier	Undreamt God's Oozing Vestige Vessel of Tortured Souls Latch's Crooked Hook Dragon Games Equipment Galactic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
D Tier	Mark of Light Void Stalker's Contract

Patch 12.0.5 beings new systems to allow you to more easily target specific items to acquire and upgrade them further. Nebulous Voidcores allow you to get a guaranteed item from a dungeon or raid boss from its loot table, without dupiclates from previous rolls. Ascendant Voidcores increase the item level of Hero or Myth track Weapons and Trinkets by 9 each.

Seasonal Mechanics

Voidforge and Voidcores

Check our our guide on the Voidforge to learn how to acquire this powerful upgrades!

Go to Guide

The content you want to use these on will depend on what you have access to. If you aren't killing Mythic bosses, you will probably exclusively use these in Mythic+.

• For Mythic+: Algeth'ar Academy is a good default since you can get the strongest trinket this season in Algeth'ar Puzzle Box, as well as a weapon, a ring with useful stats, and tier slots to catalyze. After that, Nexus-Point Xenas can be useful if you want to use the ring set, or Seat of the Triumvirate to try to get Voidclaw Gauntlets.
• For Raid: Midnight Falls and Belo'ren drop the hardest items to acquire, but are relatively difficult to kill. Chimaerus is a lot easier to kill on Mythic and drops an excellent second trinket in Gaze of the Alnseer.

When choosing items to upgrade, in general simming is the easiest way, but as a default a weapon should be the top priority, followed by trinkets. Ideally you want to upgrade Myth track items rather than Heroic, but keep in mind that you need to fully upgrade them to 6/6 before they can be improved further using Ascendant Voidcores.

Professions are useful as a way to fill slots and customize secondary stats on items, as well as adding special effects to the items too. Although you should sim your options to check what the best one for your gear setup would be, a good default to use is Thalassian Missive of the Peerless.

Early on, crafting a Two-Handed Weapon is a strong choice if you use Myth Dawncrest to upgrade it to 285 item level, since weapons provide a much larger increase than any other item slot. It will cost 4 Spark of Radiance rather than 2, but it is definitely worth it. Once you either loot or craft a weapon, other embellished items are the next priority.

Retribution Crafted Gear Priority

• Blood Knight's Warblade with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt
• Any low item level slot with Arcanoweave Lining
• Any slot you do not have on Myth track yet

For more information about crafting gear you can visit our Professions page.

For Retribution, you have a few embellishment combinations that are competitive:

• Two items with Arcanoweave Lining
• Loa Worshiper's Band and another item with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier
• Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt on a weapon

Most of these options you can mix and match - e.g. you can use a weapon with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt plus either Loa Worshiper's Band or another slot with Arcanoweave Lining. However, Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier won't do anything by itself without Loa Worshiper's Band.

Arcanoweave Lining is very similar in power to Loa Worshiper's Band with Stabilizing Gemstone Bandolier boosting its effectiveness, and either combination could perform slightly better depending on your exact gear setup. Arcanoweave Lining is the default recommendation here since it also buffs your allies as well. Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt is the best option for a weapon embellishment if you craft a weapon and simply need to pick something, but is weaker than armor embellishment options.

If you use Loa Worshiper's Band, you will want to use either Flawless Masterful Peridot or Flawless Masterful Garnet as secondary stat gems instead to maximize the power of its proc.

Because crafted gear has a slightly lower item level cap than Myth track items, you will eventually want to use armor embellishments on slots that have relatively less Strength. Bracers and cloak are good choices for slots to craft on later, but keep in mind that these are eventual best slots - for your first craft or two, bracers are the worst slot to use since you want to get a high item level piece for an impactful slot.

You can add sockets to Helmets, Belts, and Bracers with the Radiant Jewelbinder consumable that you purchase instead of selecting an item from your Great Vault. Not picking a choice will grant you tokens, six of which can be traded in for a Radiant Jewelbinder item that allows you to add a socket to the above piece of gear, if you acquired them in Season 1.

Gear can be upgraded using Crests. Early on these are fairly limited, so you will want to prioritize the most important slots to upgrade first. For Retribution, these are:

Retribution Paladin Crest Upgrade Priority

Weapon ➜ Trinkets ➜ Helm/Chest/Legs/Jewellery ➜ Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots

With the sheer number of possible gear combinations, a generic stat priority or BiS list is not going to tell the entire story of how to gear your character. Instead, you should use Raidbots to get a better idea of how changing different items will affect your character. Especially for Retribution, you will frequently find the values of different stats fluctuate a lot as you upgrade your gear, so using a more objective metric to help you make gearing decisions is invaluable.

If you are not experienced with using Raidbots, see the guide below for more information on how to use it.

Bolas

Guide Author

Follow Bolas

This guide has been written by Bolas, a long time Retribution Paladin enthusiast, theorycrafter, and high-end raider in the #1 Oceanic guild Honestly. You can find him in the Paladin Discord as bolas.ret.