Causes X Holy damage to any enemy that strikes a party or raid member within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
Retribution looms for those beyond redemption.Template:Cite
Retribution Aura is an instant cast aura that surrounds the paladin, learned at level 26 for 60. If an enemy hits the paladin or a party member within 40 yards of the paladin, the attacker will take Holy damage. The aura gains an additional 1 damage per 30.3 of the paladin's spell power.
During 3.0.x, Retribution Aura was the Aura of choice for the Retribution Paladin thanks to the major overhaul of the class in the lead up to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Fully talented through [Sanctified Retribution] and [Swift Retribution] all party and raid members received a 3% increase to all damage dealt and 3% melee, casting and ranged haste respectively while under the influence of the paladin's Retribution Aura. In 3.1, these talents were changed so that these bonuses would be given to all party an raid members while under the influence of any of the paladin's Auras.
Retribution Aura is affected by +spell damage.
Retribution Aura can work well for tanks, as it is a permanent costless source of threat. As it works "on-hit", it is especially suitable for multi-mob scenarios, as they will hit a lot for (usually) little damage per hit.
Since there is no resistance to Holy damage, the paladin's enemies will always take full damage (unless they fully resist it by the base miss chance).
Related Equipment
The Protection focused Tier 5 Paladin Armor Set, Crystalforge Armor has a 2-piece set bonus that increases all damage done by Retribution Aura by 15.
Patch changes
Template:Patched
Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power.