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Retribution Paladin

Herald of the Sun

Reliable ⓘPatched ⓘ

With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) deals 82% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 27 of 51) and 71% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 48 of 51). In M+, the best build we found for the button deals 10.7% more than SimulationCraft's.

At a glance

4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · share of manual DPS kept

FightManual DPSSBA + cooldownSBA aloneAssisted HighlightRank (SBA + cooldown)
M+ dungeon277,02081.6%−18.45%53.7%−46.30%93.1%−6.93%27 of 51
Raid boss228,74571.1%−28.91%46.7%−53.28%84.1%−15.91%48 of 51

Against real +15 players

Real dungeons · data from 7 Nov 2026

−14%damage with the button and cooldowns, simulated on real +15 routes, against typical Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) players, from 2,967 real runs.

All specs against real players, and how it is measured

Fight
Tier set
Talents

What the assistant costs

M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC

78%of manual DPS with SBA + cooldown. SBA alone reaches 52%, Assisted Highlight 92%.
  1. Manual318.6Kreference
  2. SBA + cooldown250.0K78% of manual
  3. SBA alone165.4K52% of manual
  4. Assisted Highlight292.5K92% of manual
The assistant uses Divine Arbiter 66% less.Divine Arbiter: 39.1 casts in manual play (10.3% of its damage), 13.2 with SBA + cooldown. This is a real loss of the assistant: the figure stands.
The assistant uses Hammer of Wrath 82% less.Hammer of Wrath: 31 casts in manual play (4.5% of its damage), 5.6 with SBA + cooldown. This is a real loss of the assistant: the figure stands.
Patched: SimulationCraft needs a fix to play Blizzard's list for this spec.Patch 0007-paladin-ret-sba-judgment-becomes-hammer-of-wrath. In the game the Judgment button becomes Hammer of Wrath while its buff is up; SimulationCraft never pressed it. The patch lets the button become Hammer of Wrath. Without the fix (SimulationCraft as published, or Raidbots) the assistant's figures differ; manual play is not affected.

Best Mythic+ talents for the button

For one-button play in M+, import this build: +10.7% damage with SBA + cooldown over SimulationCraft's build.

Best of 9 builds tested with the button (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io, plus a talent search), 2026-10-01: the build of the #2 Mythic+ player on murlok.io.

One-button damage (SBA + cooldown DPS), M+ dungeon, 4-piece

  1. Best M+ build for the buttonRecommended249,986+10.7%
  2. SimulationCraft's build225,916
Best M+ build for the button: talent string Recommended for one-button
CYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwoZbbmZWGzMzAAAAAAYmysMDzM2Gz2wMbzYmxYYGLsBgZZ2mZmtGEAAwCgBAMzGwMmZ2AmZGGDDG
SimulationCraft's build: talent string
CYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANbbzMzywMDAAAAAAjyYGmZsNmthZ2mxYMGmxCbDDYWmtZmZrBBAAsAYAwYGmBzYmZDYmZYMjBD

In game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it. The best build we found for the button. Every figure on this page uses it.

Best raid talents for the button

For one-button play on a raid boss, import this build: +4.0% damage with SBA + cooldown over SimulationCraft's raid build.

Talent search for the button on the raid boss, 4-piece set (2026-11-11): it starts from SimulationCraft's raid build, tries every legal single talent swap, keeps the ones that add damage and repeats, never touching a defensive talent; a build wins only when it beats SimulationCraft's raid build by more than 0.2 %. Perfect manual play keeps SimulationCraft's raid build, so the Ranking compares the button on its best talents with the best manual build.

Talents changed: it drops Crusading Strikes and takes Templar Strikes. Defensive talents stay: no build that drops one is offered. The search only counts damage, so check you can do without what it drops (a utility spell, for example).

Best raid build for the button: talent string Recommended for one-button
CYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANbbzMzywMDAAAAAAjyYGmZsNmthZ2mxYMGmxCbDDYWmtZmZrBBAAsAYAwYGmBzYmZBYmZYMjBD
SimulationCraft's raid build: talent string
CYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANbbzMzywMDAAAAAAjyYGmZsNmthZ2mxYMGmxCbDDYWmtZmZrBBAAsAYAwYGmBzYmZDYmZYMjBD

In game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it.

Where the damage comes from

M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC

Compare manual play with

Damage per second and casts per ability, averaged over the simulated fights. Pets and summons show their own name in brackets.

AbilityManualSBA + cooldownSBA + cooldown vs manual
Divine Storm42.9K13.4% · 93.1 casts38.2K15.2% · 59.5 casts−4,643
Divine Arbiter33.0K10.3% · 39.1 casts16.1K6.4% · 13.2 casts−16.9K
Final Verdict25.1K7.8% · 97.8 casts28.9K11.5% · 117.5 casts+3,803
Dawnlight25.0K7.8% · 32.7 casts22.3K8.9% · 29.9 casts−2,665
Crusading Strikes21.8K6.8% · 253.9 casts22.2K8.8% · 253.2 casts+437
Sun's Avatar17.0K5.3% · 233.9 casts16.8K6.7% · 222.7 casts−189
Execution Sentence14.5K4.5% · 5.5 casts5,6292.2% · 6.3 casts−8,869
Hammer of Wrath14.3K4.5% · 31 casts3,7361.5% · 5.6 casts−10.5K
Light Within (Boj)8,0742.5% · 16.8 casts13.2K5.2% · 22.3 casts+5,128
Highlord's Judgment12.5K3.9% · 73 casts5,2142.1% · 32.5 casts−7,332
Perfected Guillotine12.2K3.8% · 26.5 casts12.1K4.8% · 26.3 casts−105
Divine Storm (Tempest)8,6582.7% · 93.1 casts7,7823.1% · 59.5 casts−876
Blade of Justice (Walk Into Light)8,4222.6% · 36.7 casts1,7210.7% · 8.2 casts−6,701
Light Within (Boj Wil)8,1282.5% · 11.6 casts7740.3% · 1.3 casts−7,354
Blade of Justice6,0191.9% · 33.5 casts8,1073.2% · 35.6 casts+2,088
Expurgation7,0522.2% · 182.8 casts4,3741.7% · 113.4 casts−2,678
Sun Sear5,5501.7% · 298.2 casts4,5001.8% · 190.7 casts−1,050
Hammer of Wrath (Divine Resonance)5,4971.7% · 16.8 casts5280.2% · 2 casts−4,969
Total319.5K251.5K−68.0K

A dash means the ability was never used in that mode. Damage is attributed the way SimulationCraft reports it, so a pet's damage appears under the pet.

Questions about Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun)

What are the best Mythic+ talents for Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) with the one-button rotation?

The best build we found for the Single-Button Assistant in Mythic+ deals 10.7% more damage with the button than SimulationCraft's build. It was the best of 9 builds tested (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io), plus a talent search for the button. Its talent string is on this page, ready to import. The raid build is searched separately.

What are the best raid talents for Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) with the one-button rotation?

The best build we found for the Single-Button Assistant on a raid boss deals 4.0% more damage with the button than the raid build we used before. It comes from a talent search for the button on the raid boss, 4-piece set. Its talent string is on this page, ready to import.

How much DPS does Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?

With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Retribution Paladin (Herald of the Sun) deals 82% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 27 of 51) and 71% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 48 of 51). In M+, the best build we found for the button deals 10.7% more than SimulationCraft's.

Related builds

Other hero talents of Retribution Paladin

DPS lost with SBA + cooldown, 4-piece set, SimulationCraft's talents (a top player's build for the hero talents SimulationCraft has no profile for). All specs · Ranking

How it's measured, and its limits

  • SBA + cooldown is a best case: the simulator never misplays. It is always better to sim your own character.
  • Manual play is SimulationCraft's own rotation executed perfectly, so it is an upper bound for what a person can do, not a typical player.
  • Assisted Highlight assumes every suggestion is seen and pressed at once, which is generous for a player reading the highlight.
  • The M+ dungeon is SimulationCraft's own DungeonSlice fight style, its approximation of Mythic+ pulls, not a specific dungeon route.
  • Best talents for the button: of SimulationCraft's build, the top 10 Mythic+ players' builds on murlok.io and a talent search for the button, the one that deals the most with SBA + cooldown in the M+ dungeon. Gear and rotation are unchanged.
  • SimulationCraft ships no profile for some hero talents (9 here). Those use SimulationCraft's gear with a top player's build: a top Mythic+ player's build on murlok.io in M+, and on the raid boss the most played build in top raid kills on Warcraft Logs when there are any, otherwise SimulationCraft's raid talents with that Mythic+ build's hero talents (or the Mythic+ build itself where it deals more). No talent search for the button has been run for them yet.
  • SimulationCraft ships no profile at all for Devastation Evoker and Balance Druid. Those use the median gear of real +15 players, raised to the item level of SimulationCraft's profiles, with the build most real players use (or a top player's build where too few play that hero talent), and a talent search for the button.

Full method, reliability rule and patches: Sources · Simulated with SimulationCraft 1210-01 (WoW 12.1.5.70575) 710c240 +16 patches, 10,000 iterations per figure.