When leveling your Pally, you definitely want to use a Retribution Paladin Leveling Build to really make the most of your experience. Traditionally, one of the slowest levelers from World of Warcraft's original incarnation, the Paladin has gotten some pretty substantial buffs throughout WoW's expansions. Now the Paladin is an absolute powerhouse, but only if you really know how to play properly. Read on, and you will find out how to build your Paladin properly to maximize your experience.
Why Choose a Retribution Paladin Leveling Build?
Paladins are an iconic class in World of Warcraft, and are highly desired in the end game raids. However, without the proper build, you won't be getting there anytime soon. Retribution is absolutely the best solo questing spec for your Paladin. When comparing specs, you need to take into account a few different factors and weigh each of the specs against them. Those qualities are DPS, Survivability, and Resource Management. Holy has survivability because you can heal yourself all day long. However you will eventually run out of mana, and you have very few offensive abilities as a holy Paladin. Prot offers excellent survivability and superb resource management. However, Prot is somewhat lacking DPS in groups smaller than 5 mobs. Unless you plan to level by mass pulling, or spend your entire time in dungeons, Ret has the best DPS for questing, and has several abilities to restore both health and mana to keep downtime to a minimum. These factors combined make your best choice the Retribution Paladin Leveling Build. Prot, however, makes an excellent second spec for those especially difficult pulls.
Glyphs for your Retribution Paladin Leveling Build
Your glyphs are just as important as your talent points. These have a direct impact on the abilities you will be using for solo questing and DPS. The three Prime Glyphs you will be using are Judgement, Templar's Verdict, and Crusader Strike. These are the top three abilities you will be using in your rotation, and these glyphs directly increase their damage. The Major Glyphs you will be using are Lay on Hands, Ascetic Crusader, and Hammer of Wrath. Lay on Hands is a great survivability mechanic, and lowering the cooldown can drastically increase your survival. Ascetic Crusader and Hammer of Wrath with reduced mana costs assure that you will continue moving with no downtime. Your final Minor glyphs will be Seal of Righteousness, Blessing of Kings, and Blessing of Might. You don't have much choice, but you will definitely want to choose glyphs that increase your mana efficiency, so you reduce your downtime significantly.
Gearing for your Retribution Paladin Leveling Build
The Ret Paladin is a powerhouse, but he is very dependent on his gear. You will be wearing mail until level 40, and you will want to upgrade to plate as soon as possible after then. You also want to use a big, slow, heavy hitting 2-handed weapon. Strength is your primary DPS stat, and Stamina will be your primary survival stat. These are pretty much tied to your item level of your gear, so you don't need to worry too much about these. Hit and Expertise aren't so important since while leveling, you're going to be concerned more with burst damage than consistency. You will want to stack Critical Strike Rating, and Haste. These stack up pretty evenly against each other, but I like Haste because it lowers the cooldown of Crusader Strike and Divine Storm, and also increases the frequency of Art of War Procs.