WoW Paladin Guide

The Paladin is one of the most versatile classes in the game. Paladin’s are able to heal, dps, or tank in instances in raids depending on their talent specializations. The paladin uses mana instead of rage or energy, but the only talent spec that is going to really need a lot of mana to be successful is holy which is the main healing talent specialization for the Paladin. The other specs will use some mana but are not so dependant on it. Paladin’s are very effective with whatever role they take on, they can do very high DPS as well as a very good tanking job and a very good healing job.

Some pros to being a paladin include the ability to take on any role as mentioned above. Also, they have the ability to wear plate armor (or any other kind of armor they want) as well as their own shield and heals which makes them one of the easiest classes to level and one of the most fun classes to play. They also are able to get their own regular and epic mounts for free by completing quests which saved a pretty decent amount of money especially on the epic one. They are also able to shield other players, although it is not the same shield they are able to use on themselves which absorbs all damage it is a shield very useful in raiding which will be discussed later. They also have some of the best buffs in the game as well as an ability to sacrifice themselves to shield another player for 3 minutes but that player will not be able to move and will not be attacked by any raid bosses which will allow them to drop the shield when the boss resets and resurrect other players.

As for cons of playing a paladin, there aren’t really any at all. You will have higher repair bills as you would with any plate wearing class and you will also have to have a couple different gear sets if you plan on switching roles between tank, dps, or healer.

What Racial Abilities are good for Paladins?

The Paladin class is limited to only one race on the Horde side but is available to three on the Alliance side. When selecting your race as a paladin you may want to think of which role you enjoy doing most as that may have an impact on the race that you choose. Racial abilities aren’t a huge deal but they are something to think about.

The three Alliance races you can choose from are the human, dwarf, and draenei. Starting with the Human you will have the expertise increase of 3 with 1h/2h swords as well as the ability to remove movement impairing effects making this a nice choice for PvP. The Dwarf has the stoneform ability which will remove bleed, disease, or curse as well as increase armor by 10% for 8 seconds which is a nice choice for tanking. The Dranei’s racial heal isn’t really a good reason to choose it as your race because the paladin already has so many healing abilities but if you feel a heal over time would help out you could choose the Draenei race.

The one Horde race available is the Blood Elf which has the Arcane Torrent ability which will silence nearby enemies and restore 6% of your mana. This is a good choice for a holy paladin or for PvP. But of course if you are set on playing Horde this is the only option you are going to have if you want to play a paladin.

Which talent spec should I choose as a Paladin?

This choice is going to depend on which of the three roles you want to do: healer, dps, or tank. The three specs are Holy (healing) Retribution (DPS) and Protection (tanking) and I’ll start out with the Holy spec. The Holy Paladin is a very good healer to have in your raid because of it’s sacred shield and quick healing abilities as well as the fact it takes a whole lot of healing to make a holy pally run out of mana. Some talents you will learn in the Holy Spec would include the Divine Illumination ability which reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 seconds, also the Holy Guidance talent will increase your spell power by 4/8/12/16/20% of your total Intellect. The Infusion of Light talent will allow your Holy Shock critical hits to reduce the cast time of your next flash of light by 1.5 seconds or increase the critical strike chance of your next holy light by 20%. The final talent you learn in the Holy spec is Beacon of Light which you can cast on a target to make that target a Beacon of Light to all targets within a 40 yard radius. Any heals you cast on those targets will also heal the Beacon for 100% of the amount healed. Only one target can be Beacon of Light at a time. And this effect will last one minute.

The next spec I will discuss is the tanking spec, Protection. The prot pally is a very nice tank because of it’s concecration ability which is an AoE ability that will do Holy Damage to all enemies in an 8 yard radius of where the concecration was used. They also have an ability to increase threat generated by holy attacks by 90% which lasts 30 minutes making threat building very easy as a Paladin. Some talents you learn in the Prot Pally spec would include Toughness which increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10%. Combat Expertise will increase your expertise by 2/4/6 as well as your total stamina and chance to critically hit by 2/4/6%. The final talent you will learn as a Protection Paladin is Hammer of the Righteous which will Hammer the current target and up to 2 additional nearby targets causing 4 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage.

The last spec I will talk about is the DPS spec which is Retribution. The ret pally can do a lot of DPS when played correctly. Some useful talents you learn as a Ret pally include Two-Handed Weapon Specialization which will increase the damage dealt with two handed melee weapons by 2/4/6%. The Fanaticism talent will increase the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 5/10/15/20/25% and reduce all threat caused by any action by 6/12/18/24/30% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury. The Righteous Vengeance talent will cause your target to take an additional 10/20/30% damage over 8 seconds when your Judgement and Divine Storm spells do critical damage. The final talent you learn as a retribution paladin is Divine Storm which is an instant weapon attack that causes damage to up to 4 enemies with 8 yards and heals up to 3 party or raid members up to 25% of the total damage caused.

What stats are important for a Paladin?