Greetings fellow Paladin, and welcome to my guide! If you're reading this, you are a Light wielder on your way to becoming a level 19 Retribution Twink. Or you want to make a Hardcore Paladin & make your experience much less frustrating. Or maybe you're just into theorycrafting and gear aesthetics like myself.
So whether you want to twink in the PvP bracket for level 10-19 players or just progress your character with the best gear available, this guide is precisely what you need! And with the advent of the Classic Hardcore realms and the change to the PvP honor system coming to the Era realms you might be enticed to level a Paladin again. Say no more!
In this guide (and its follow-ups for the 20-29, 30-39, and so on) you will get to explore what are the most desirable items you can pursue. In this article, we will look at the Retribution spec in case you want to be a big dick DPS in WoW Classic. I will have a variant of this tutorial for the Holy and Protection specs too, published sometime soon.
Now, before I start the list I will just want to add that this guide tries to stand the test of time as a thoroughly detailed one. This is why I went to extreme lengths over the last years while documenting the information for all of the articles in this series to make this the most complete and accurate Paladin guide out there.
So please let me know if you catch any errors of any kind and make sure you save this link for future reference. Share it with your friends too (if they play a Paladin). I've put much effort into this so a share or comment is highly appreciated.
How To Navigate This Guide
What takes my guide apart from all of the other ones you can find online is that I took the time to investigate and document the 4 best items for each of the item slots. So not just one item per slot. No! I will give you four options and also state my opinion on which is best for what scenario.
How to choose which item to go for? Pick the item based on your use case. In PvE, you will want to maximize damage output, so I suggest you focus on strength, agility, and intellect. In PvP stamina is extremely relevant, and going only for mail armor types too. Choose items with the following suffixes: "of the Bear", "of Stamina", "of the Monkey" for PvP; and "of Agility", "of Strength", "of the Gorilla", "of Power", "of the Tiger" for PvE.
Alright, let’s, get, started.
Race
For DPS-ing in PvP scenarios, the Dwarf race is the better choice because of the added Stoneform spell that can remove from your Paladin bleeds, poisons, and diseases. Incredibly useful against the Rogue's Blind spell which counts as a poison.
The Human race can also be useful via the Perception racial that can snipe out of stealth a Rogue or Druid.
At the end of the day, I always choose the sex and race based on what I want to look at for countless hours. So it's females most of the time and Dwarves more often because I like their awesome spell-casting and combat animations.
Headpiece
Three of our options are Engineering-made goggles so getting this Profession is a must. All three versions are useful, especially the +intellect one for PvE but getting the Lucky Fishing Hat is true dedication for PvP.
Neck
Neck items are very limited at this level and, the best one, the Sentinel's Medallion, takes a while to farm as you have to get your Warsong rep to Honored. The other option is very expensive on the other hand and quite rarely seen. It takes 2 Arcanite bars to craft among other stuff but it’s super useful. And your 3rd option is quite useless but makes that slot not look empty so, there’s that. You can find it in Zul'Farrak’s graves. For my twink, I went for the Voice Amplification Modulator as it’s too cool not to.
Shoulder
Shoulder items are very limited as well but, Talbar Mantle, the quest reward from the Wailing Caverns chain is an absolute must.
Back
Sentry Cloak might be one of the most recognizable twink items out there, and being expensive at that. If you're strapped for cash I recommend Hide of Lupos which I like to call 'poor man's Sentry Cloak'.
Chest
Your best option here is the Deadmines leather chest item. Although your other options are mail and decent in their own right, I'd still go for the Defias armor in both PvP and PvE since it packs such great stats.
Wrist
The quest reward from Blackfathom Deeps is the best wrist item in PvP scenarios for Retribution Paladins at this level. Items suffixed "of power", "of Strength", or "of the Tiger" are bis for PvE.
Hands
We have a solid selection of gloves for this spec, coming in from all possible sources, including quests.
Waist
Your best-in-slot waist item is Cobrah's Grasp and it is a great, easy-to-obtain choice, it being a Wailing Caverns bind-on-pickup drop. I chose Warchief's Girdle for my Retri build.
Legs
Chausses of Westfall... what more can be said after enunciating that name? It's one of the most iconic Westfall/Deadmines quest rewards.
Feet
Good options for your shoes but only BOEs. Try-hard PvP-ers might go for the fishing tournament to obtain Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots.
Ring Slot 1
Seal of Wrynn should be a top priority and you should start that quest chain as soon as possible as it nets you a lot of experience. I was already level 19 when I got around to doing it so I had to settle with the Demon Band.
Ring Slot 2
Your options for your second ring aren’t amazing until you get your Warsong rep to Honored for the Protector's Band.
Trinket Slot 1
There's not much to talk about on the trinket side of things apart from the fact that one of them is very hard to get: the Arena Grand Master trinket requires you to loot the Gurubashi Arena chest 12 times. I did manage to do this on my Pally but boy was it difficult getting it on the peak of Classic's release.
Trinket Slot 2
You should also fill your bags with Minor Recombobulators as they are limited to 10 charges. And, yes, you can have two of them equipped! Once you get to Rank 2 in PvP the Insignia of the Alliance becomes available but while that is on cooldown you should always swap to a Recombobulator.
Main Hand
Very good options here and Shadowfang is best in the slot. Too expensive for me so I am using my protection-build sword, the Ironpatch Blade.
Shield
Good shields for you to choose from and Arctic Buckler seems like the best but this time I went for the Redbeard Crest as part of my sword and board swap.
2 Hand
Extremely good offerings for your 2 handed weapon slot and I would argue that Glacial Stone has the edge in PvP scenarios followed closely by Night Reaver. I believe Seraph's Strike might be a tad better when it comes to PvE. They are both quest rewards and will require help from your buddies. Mind the fact that Seraph's Strike is not only marginally better in DPS, but it also boosts your attack power by 6. Until I got any of these I made do with another favorite of mine, the Searing Blade.
Dressing Room
If your focus is on Player versus Player action and if we choose from above the most useful in PvP (those that increase stamina, strength, armor, agility) then your toon should look like this: Retribution Paladin BiS 10-19 PvP.
If you’re in a PvE mindset then with my chosen recommended best-in-slot DPS items you would look like this: Retribution Paladin BiS 10-19 PvE.
I built my Classic Retribution set as a mishmash of both worlds centered around an aesthetic I find appealing: Retribution Paladin 10-19 BiS Alternative Design.
Final Notes
As a side note, if you’re watching this in the (Classic) Burning Crusade or later, keep in mind there's an NPC you can talk to, to stop getting XP which, makes loot grinding a whole lot easier. Horde players might also want to do a little research on some horde-specific items for the Blood Elf race.
Lastly, make sure you get that defense and weapon skill up. Unarmed too because it sucks to get disarmed and not be able to land any hits.
And that is going to do it. Hopefully, you enjoyed this guide and I will see you in the next one. Until then, stay mighty my fellow retribution paladins.
