Retribution Paladins in 4.0.1 and Cataclysm

 Our class has changed allot in this patch. The mechanics are pretty much flipped upside down and we are more like rogues than our old selves. Allot of people have questions, so I will try to answer some of them.

Talents
I will probably be going with 3/2/31 for now while planning to put points into Arbiter of the Light and Blazing Light on 85 leaving me at 7/2/31. This leaves one point in the end, so you can pick it for yourself. I plan to put it in Rebuke to increase my utility. An extra interrupt is never a bad thing. Some of these talents are optional, but you should be able to figure that one out for yourself. Talents really are a no-brainer with Retribution. 

Gemming

It looks like we will be gemming pure strength only now and in Cataclysm. This hasn't changed but it does look like there might be something in gemming strength/crit or even strength/haste in some situations. For the absolute optimal gemming, we will have to wait for some theorycrafting.

As for the meta gem, the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond will probably be the way to go now.   

Enchanting

Everything should stay to same here, except for the cloak. Our new cloak enchant at 80 will probably be the Greater Speed one.

Gear

2 T9 and 2T10 is still the way to go before you can get 4 T10. It gives a flat 10% increase to all our damage sources. Also, with agility not being our thing anymore, we should all be switching to the strength version of our Ashen Verdict ring. The same goes for all other agility gear. Also, WEAR ALL PLATE! The 5% strength bonus is big.

Reforging

First of all, reforge to get to 8% hit cap. After that, cap the expertise (26). Once you get those two down, reforge to haste until you reach that cap. After that, crit is priority. Now, for the haste cap, it's not as easy to calculate so check out Elitist Jerks and RetributionPaladins to figure it out. Basically, you want Crusader Strike to drop to 3 seconds so you can do CS > Filler > CS without losing anything. In ideal cases, that would require 1015 haste, but since we have latency to worry about, the number fdrops to about 750haste at 100ms or 510 haste at 200ms of latency. All of this will change with the new spell usage background mechanic Blizzard will be implementing, so I'm not sure how those values will work out.

Fights

You use the Seal of Truth on bosses and Seal of Righteousness on trash and AoE packs. As for blessings, it's Might unless the group is caster heavy, in which case you use Kings. If you need to close in on an enemy, use Judgement now unless you have Art of War stacks, in which case you use Exorcism. Also, paladins have utility, a good paladin will make use of that, so use Word of Glory when you see someone needing it. Any good DPS should have raid frames in a visible place just like a healer. A Flash of Light every now and then isn't that bad either so if it's needed, use it. Keeping another person alive at the expense of some of your DPS is always worth it.

Now, we don't have FCFS anymore so our "rotation" now is CS > filler > CS until we hit three Holy Power and then a finishing move is used. The choice of the finisher depends on the situation. If we are fighting less than 3 enemies, use Templar's Verdict. For more than three, Divine Storm should be your choice. If someone needs emergency healing, use Word of Glory. Once we start leveling to 85, we will also have Inquisition, but no need to worry about that for now. As for the fillers, they actually are FCFS so the priority would be Judgement > Exorcism (with Art of War) > Hammer of Wrath > Holy Wrath > Consecration, if I'm not mistaken. Just keep in mind, once you get enough haste, you will only be using one filler in between Crusader Strikes so just use the one that does the highest damage. Also, you won't be using Consecration that much, so don't worry about it.

Other than that, we have a new cooldown and our old one has changed a bit. Avenging Wrath is now usable at any time and it lets you use Hammer of Wrath regardless of enemy health. The new one is Zealotry which boosts your Holy Power production for 20 seconds. Use them when you think it's smart and, but be sure to use them as many times in a battle as possible.

Conclusion

Well, that's about it. If I missed anything, let me know. Retribution has been a little low on DPS on day one of the patch, but some quick hotfixes changed that, so you should be fine in toping the charts now. Enjoy!