Stick with strength plate and big
As a DPS spec, retribution paladins do not have much they care about in the way of stats. Yeah, getting to the hit cap is fairly important and critical strike rating helps out as well. However, the stat we love more than anything else is strength. We love buckets of the stuff. If you have got a gem slot, your best choice of gem is almost always The Chronicles of Spellborn Gold. For every one point of strength you have got, it will give you two points of attack power. If you take the talent Divine Strength from the protection tree, that will increase it to 2.3 attack power from each point of strength. It is generally difficult to find an item with attack power that matches up with one that features strength. So, in general, you will want to avoid attack power gear in favor of strength-based armor. With things like cloaks, necklaces, rings and trinkets, you will sometimes be able to find upgrades easier that are attack-power-based, as these are all generic items that any DPS class can use. However, for the most part, stick with strength plate and big, slow two-handed weapons.
