Retribution's new talent tree

First, before we talk about anything else, please note that we are not going to get Divine Storm as our active ability for picking the tree. They are likely going to create a new single-target ability specifically for this purpose.
Divine Storm will end up back in the talent tree, but not as the defining talent in the tree. It's going somewhere in the middle, and they're adding yet another ability as the 31-pointer -- to what end, we currently don't know. They've also hinted that they're going to be making a third new ability for use someplace else. So, we're getting three new abilities, and we only have a vague idea what one of them will be called (Divine Retribution ... another dartboard pally skill name).
Otherwise, some things are pretty close to how we remember them, but others have changed drastically. Eye for an Eye can proc off all damage, and instead of reflecting it back, it hits the target with a Judgement. Speaking of Judgement, there is no more Judgement of Wisdom. There is no more Judgement of Justice. There is only Judgement, which is a combination of Light's healing and Justice's no-flee bonus.
There is no Seal of Command anymore. There is essentially a talent called Seals of Retribution (third tier) that lets you duplicate it using Seal of Righteousness. So, your choice of seals are pretty much going to be Righteousness and Vengeance/Corruption for damage. You still have Seals of Light, Wisdom and Justice at the moment for utility.
As far as interesting talents go, my votes go for revamped Eye for an Eye and Sanctified Wrath. EfaE now has a chance to proc off any damage (including raid damage) and hits the source with a free Judgement. Sanctified Wrath lets you treat any target as if it's below 20% for Hammer of Wrath when you've got Avenging Wrath up, plus it adds crit to Hammer of Wrath.
- Spec Active Ability
- Divine Storm Instant cast. 10 sec cooldown. Requires Melee Weapon. An instant weapon attack that causes 55% of weapon damage to up to all enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 25% of the damage caused.
- Spec Passives
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization Requires Two-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Maces, Polearms, Two-Handed Swords. Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 6%.
- Sheath of Light Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds.
- Divine Purpose Generate ???% of your maximum mana every ??? sec.
- Tier 1 talents
- Improved Judgements (2) Decreases the cooldown of your Judgement spells by 1/2 sec.
- Heart of the Crusader (3) In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1/2/3%.
- Crusade (3) Increases the damage and healing of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Holy Shocke by 5/10/15% and an additional 5/10/15% against enemy Humanoids, Demons, Undead, Dragonkin, and Elementals.
- Tier 2 talents
- Eye for an Eye (2) All damaging attacks against you have a 5/10% chance to cause you to strike your attacker with your Judgement ability. This effect cannot occur more than once every 2 secs.
- Righteous Vengeance (3) When your Judgement, Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Divine Storm spells deal a critical strike, your target will take 10/20/30% additional damage over 8 sec.
- Pursuit of Justice (2) Increases movement and mounted movement speed by 8/15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
- Tier 3 talents
- Judgments of the Wise (3) Your damaging Judgement spells have a 33/66/100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of their maximum mana per 5 sec for 15 sec, and to immediately grant you 25% of your base mana.
- The Art of War (2) Your critical melee attacks reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light or Exorcism spell by 50/100%.
- Seals of Retribution (1) Your damaging Seals now also deal 15% weapon damage each time you swing, and your Seal of Righteousness now hits up to 2 additional targets.
- Tier 4 talents
- Swift Retribution (3) Your auras also increase your party and raid's melee and ranged attack speed by 7/14/20%.
- Fanaticism (3) Increases the critical strike chance of your Judgement spell by 6/12/18% and reduces threat caused by all actions by 10/20/30% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury.
- Tier 5 talents
- Repentance (1) Instant cast. 1 min cooldown. Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min, and removing the effect of Righteous Vengeance. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids, and Undead.
- Sanctified Retribution (3) Increases the damage caused by Retribution Aura by 17/34/50% and all damage caused by friendly targets affected by any of your Auras is increased by 1/2/3%.
- Sanctified Wrath (2) Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath you can use Hammer of Wrath as if the target had 20% or less health.
- Tier 6 talents
- Conviction (3) Gives you a 1/2/3% bonus to Physical and Holy damage you deal for 30 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
- Sanctity of Battle (2) Increases the damage caused by Exorcism by 10/20% and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 secs
- Tier 7 talents
- Divine Retribution (1) Not Yet Implemented.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AnubisTJ Jul 14th 2010 5:11PM
At last I must bid farewell to Seal of Command. I will miss your icon art gracing my hotbar. Rest in peace, my friend, even though you have died only in name.
RetPallyJil Jul 14th 2010 5:10PM
While I am possibly the worst theorycrafter in the history of WoW, I do not see anything that sends me into a fury of frothing-mouthed hate. Therefore, the ret tree must be pretty much ok!
Tapukimastra Jul 14th 2010 5:24PM
If our passives stay the same, I will be very pleased with a baseline Sheath.
Susano Jul 14th 2010 6:10PM
Sanctified Wrath looks overpowered...just how I like it!!
zdave Jul 14th 2010 6:33PM
glyph of avenging wrath + glyph of hammer of wrath + sanctified wrath = aggro death.
Kanuris Jul 14th 2010 11:43PM
Heart of the Crusader and Swift Retribution are still crap talents that provide the raid buff and nothing to the Paladin himself. There's no reason for 2 rets in one raid to both have those talents, so most Ret's will take neither as the tree currently stands, dipping into holy and prot for more damage upgrades.
feniks9174 Jul 14th 2010 6:22PM
Now that the "bloat talents" are gone, it seems to me like te Ret tree can be split pretty evenly into "stuff that buffs the raid" and "oMG hit harder!"
Jamie Jul 14th 2010 7:16PM
Pretty much, nothing here sets my world on holy fire though :(
Where's my...
Two handed weapon specialism:
Rank 1:
33% Chance on hit destroy nearest planet with your godly dps, make a couple of forum trolls QQ.
Rank 2:
66% Chance on hit destroy nearest universe and it's dog with your godly dps, make a hundred forum trolls QQ.
Rank 3:
100% Chance on hit destroy nearest solar system and it's Tivo with your godly dps, make the whole world stand in awe of you being a Ret Paladin, good job son ~ Blizzard Dev team.
....
want!!!
Camreth Jul 14th 2010 10:22PM
@jamie
rank 2: universe
rank 3: solar system
...i think i will keep it at rank 2
On a more serious note, I can't wait for sanctified wrath.
Eohnavi Jul 14th 2010 6:39PM
Interesting that Art of War no longer has Flash of Light and instead Holy Light or Exorcism. While it'd be nice being able to insta-Holy Light, I can't see it being very good for our small mana pool.
Jon Jul 14th 2010 6:48PM
I think it was mentioned before that pallys are going to be given another healing spell to fit the small, medium, large design Blizzard wants.
In addition to that they are switching Flash of Light and Holy Light so Holy Light becomes our small heal (typically means a slightly lower amount of mana).
Why they're changing the names/fit of the spells is a little weird I don't think it really is changing anything that's currently happening.
Eohnavi Jul 14th 2010 7:15PM
Yeah, I'm sure in the end it won't really matter. They try to do a pretty good job of keeping most things generally the same. Will still be odd dropping a Holy Light for my weenie heal.
dmberreth Jul 14th 2010 8:06PM
As of right now on the Beta, Holy Light costs something laughable like 300-400 mana, and still heals for 4-5k on my averagely geared Prot spec. I am sure this will be tweaked more down the line, but so far they are definitely making it look like they want Holy Light as the small-cost heal.
Camreth Jul 14th 2010 10:28PM
If i remember correctly, in the beta holy light is a low cost, long cast time (3s), heal while flash of light has a short cast time (1.5), a high mana cost and heals for about the same as a holy light.
But i might be wrong as i'm not actually in the beta.
leatcreeper Sep 29th 2010 12:44PM
Thats why we have Judgement of the Wise. Cast your judgments and your mana pool rarely ever dips below 50%. At least for me it doesn't. And i'm constantly spamming judgments, consecration, crusader strike, divine storm, and when getting art of war exorcism. Ret pally's are fun ^-^
adam_johnson Jul 14th 2010 7:33PM
i wonder if judgments of the pure and swift retribution will stack? 29% haste wooot. then again 9% vs 15% dmg on seals and judgement....mixing trees is HARD
Zanathos Jul 15th 2010 2:33AM
Swift retribution is just being turned into a clone of icy talons/windfury totem. Nothing new or exciting, judgment of the pure will surely stack with it and similar buffs.
Zanathos Jul 15th 2010 2:40AM
Small note regarding the prot section: Consecration doesn't break flag capping, unless they changed that when I wasn't looking :P
Kusaionara Jul 15th 2010 3:10AM
If prot pallies can get eye for an eye, omfg awesome!
kurt_will_hurt Jul 15th 2010 10:37AM
Why does Blizz feel like they have to try and re-invent the entire game for new players while basically giving older players the finger, I say if it ain't broke don't fix it