Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:28 am

http://web.archive.org/web/200611102258 ... 1828&sid=1

® Written by Geld Vanilla Paladin in Blizzard Forums at 1.12 Patch back in 2006.



Table of Contents

1) Statistics and you: What do paladins need?
2) Talent Guide: Holy
3) Talent Guide: Protection
4) Talent Guide: Retribution
5) Paladin talent specs with Pros and Cons
6) Etiquette in a group: playing a hybrid class.
a. A Paladin’s Role
b. Looting
7) Combating classes, one on one
a. Druid
b. Rogue
c. Priest
d. Hunter
e. Shaman
f. Warrior
g. Mage
h. Paladin
i. Warlock
8) Master of group PvP: Why do they want you?



Let’s get started

[ Post edited by Geld ]
Last edited by smilkovpetko on Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:08 am, edited 10 times in total.
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:28 am

Statistics and you: What do paladins need?

The most gear dependant class in the game, or the class that is made or broken most by the gear it is wearing, is the Warrior. But we’re second on that list! Remembering that keeping your weapon, armor, and even your trinkets up-to-date is critical to having a powerful character. Don’t go into a gunfight with a stick, and don’t run into an epic battle with a green. But which stats, you may ask, are most critical to a paladin and what do they all do?

This should shed light on what each statistic does to improve the paladin class:

Statistics with an asterix (*) are based on a level 60 paladin. With these particular stats, it can be assumed that a lower-level character would gain MORE for the stat, not less.

1 strength = 2 attack power
20 strength = 1 more block value to shields (this means that it will increase the damage absorbed by your shield each block by 1. It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up)

14 attack power = 1 damage per second.

20 agility = 1% chance to score a critical melee-based attack*
20 agility = 1% chance to dodge a melee attack*
1 agility = 2 armor class

1 intellect = 15 mana
28.5 intellect = 1% chance to score a critical strike with spells*

1 stamina = 10 health, plain and simple.

Spirit, as a statistic, is not something most paladins should really consider. There are some exceptions to this rule, and there have been stories of paladins using Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon and heavy spirit builds to great effect, but even in these cases, it is my opinion that MP/5, Intellect, and +healing is a better route to take.

1 defense = +.04% chance to block, dodge, and parry and decreases your enemy’s chance to score a critical strike and hit you by .04%.
5 levels of defense effectively makes you block, dodge, and parry as something a level above you would. Defense also reduces your chance have a crushing blow landed on you. (Note: Players cannot score crushing blows, this is a myth. Only mobs can.) This note about crushing blows is only true until your defense skill matches the enemy's weapon skill. I.E. 300 defense makes it impossible to have a crushing blow landed on you by a standard level 60 mob, +/- 5 defense for each level. Note that I said standard mob... certain boss mobs can behave quite differently. This is getting into advanced tanking though, and it should just be duly noted that +defense is good, even well past this "cap.")

The answer to which stats are best is not so simple. Difference in playstyles will always have the greatest effect on how a paladin wants to gear himself.

These is one point about playing a paladin though. There are only 3 statistics that improve all aspects of a paladin. These three statistics are Stamina, Intellect, and +Spell Damage. As such, I recommend all paladins try to keep a strong foundation in the first two statistics, and start looking for +Spell Damage gear the moment you turn 60 and it is more easily available to you.

[ Post edited by Geld ]
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:29 am

Talent Guide: Holy

The holy tree focuses mostly on healing

Tier 1: Divine Strength, Divine Intellect

Divine Strength (5/5), increases strength by 2/4/6/8/10%
Completely straightforward ability here, increases your strength (and therefore your attack power) by a significant percent. This talent is useful mostly to 31 point retribution paladins, for other paladins building holy I recommend Divine Intellect. 31 point retribution paladins should get both.

Divine Intellect (5/5), increases intellect by 2/4/6/8/10%
Also completely straightforward ability, increases your intellect (and therefore mana and spell critical chance) by a significant percent. The best tier-1 holy talent.

Tier 2: Spiritual Focus, Improved Seal of Righteousness

Spiritual Focus (5/5), decreases chance to be interrupted by taking damage when casting Flash of Light and Holy Light by 14/28/42/56/70%
This talent is the bread-and-butter of PvP healing for a paladin, and certainly doesn’t hurt PvE. Combined with Concentration Aura (which is an additive bonus), a paladin will have a 100% chance to avoid interruption when casting their heals, so all you will have to worry about is the various counter spells in the game (Kick, Counterspell, Pummel, Shield Bash, Earth Shock, Feral Charge, etc…). The best tier-2 holy talent

Improved Seal of Righteousness (5/5), increases damage dealt by Seal of Righteousness by 3/6/9/12/15%
A very weak talent, possibly the weakest in the holy tree. Only get this if you’re a tank. It works exactly as advertised.

Tier 3: Healing Light, Consecration, Improved Lay on Hands, Unyielding Faith

Healing Light (3/3), increases the amount healed by Holy Light and Flash of Light by 4/8/12%
Very nice talent. Only increases the base healing of the heals, so it does not scale with +healing gear, but it increases the amount of healing the paladin deals by a great enough deal that it’s still very worth it even for a paladin with extraordinary healing gear. 3/3 it if you’re going higher then tier-3 in the holy tree

Consecration (1/1), consecrates the land beneath Paladin, doing 64 Holy damage over 8 sec to enemies who enter the area at Rank 1, 384 Holy damage over 8 sec at rank 5 (level 60).
Very nice talent. Free dps, a powerful AoE, and it receives a 33% spelldamage coefficient, which is totally admirable for any Area of Effect spell. Get it if you are going to tier-3 Holy

Improved Lay on Hands (2/2), gives the target of your Lay on Hands spell a 15/30% bonus to their armor value from items for 2 min. In addition, the cooldown for your Lay on Hands spell is reduced by 10/20 min.
As powerful a talent as this is, the cooldown of your Lay on Hands will still be 40 minutes. I recomment most paladins skip this talent, although certain endgame raid guilds use the armor bonus to protect warriors from various enraging bosses.

Unyielding Faith (2/2), increases your chance to resist Fear and Disorient effects by an additional 5/10%.
Basically this talent is used to help resist fear. This is where you should throw in a point to finish tier-3 holy if you intend on building to tier-4 and above, even though it’s not a hugely powerful talent.

Tier 4: Illumination (5/5), Improved Blessing of Wisdom (2/2)

Illumination, (5/5), After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell, gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain Mana equal to the base cost of the spell.
This talent is absolutely the most amazing thing a paladin can get for healing in raids. It allows a paladin to focus on spell crit gear to increase both the amount they heal and the time they can heal. If you’re speccing holy to heal, get this talent. Note that it only returns mana on Holy Shock heals, not Holy Shock critical damage.

Improved Blessing of Wisdom (2/2), Increases the effect of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 10/20%.
Effectively gives you 6 more mana per 5 seconds with rank 5 Blessing of Wisdom, a must for all raids. Even better if you have rank 6 Blessing of Wisdom. Get it if you specced Holy for raid healing

Tier 5: Divine Favor, Lasting Judgement

Divine Favor (1/1), When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.
Effectively gives you a free critical heal every 2 minutes, since it requires 5 points in Illumination to receive. Yet again, if you have 21 points in Holy, you should have this talent. It is a full heal in most cases. As a note, Divine Favor is on its own cooldown from other abilities, and is not subject to the global cooldown, so you can place it in a macro that instantly uses it and starts to cast your heal or casts Holy Shock.

Lasting Judgement (3/3), Increases the duration of your Judgement of Light and Judgement of Wisdom by 10/20/30 sec.
Very useful for keeping your judgements active on a target mob, but hardly nessecary to put more then 1 point in except for rare occasions. Definitely put one point into this talent if you’re this high in holy, and chose between this, Unyielding Faith, and Improved Lay on Hands for the final point if you intend to build higher.

Tier 6: Holy Power

Holy Power (5/5), Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Nothing about this talent is bad. Definitely get it if you have reached tier-6 of the holy tree. It increases the amount you heal, and thanks to illumination increases the time you can heal as well Also, Judgment of Righteousness and Holy Shock crit based on your chance to crit with spells, so it increases your damage as well.

Tier 7: Holy Shock

Holy Shock (1/1), Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 204 to 220 Holy damage to an enemy, or 204 to 220 healing to an ally at rank 1. Deals and heals 365 to 395 damage at rank 3 (level 56)
The 31 point holy talent for paladins. This ability is best used for damage, since it rarely will save someone’s life, but it is the only direct heal in the game that is instant cast, which does have some powerful PvE and PvP effects. More so, it deals direct, controllable, and reliable damage, which is nice. Try it out, see if you like it.

[ Post edited by Geld ]
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:29 am

Talent Guide: Protection

The protection tree focuses mainly on tanking, and also increases the survivability of the paladin and his party

Tier 1: Improved Devotion Aura, Redoubt

Improved Devotion Aura (5/5): it’s bad, that’s it, don’t get it.

Redoubt (5/5), Increases your chance to block attacks with your shield by 6/12/18/24/30% after being the victim of a critical strike. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks.
This talent is the only real option for tier-1 protection. It’s also quite nice for tanking with a shield, and damage return, since both require blocking to be effective for a paladin. Taking critical hits, on the other hand, is counterintuitive to a tank. As redoubt is the backbone of the protection tree, it’s kind of self-defeating.

Tier 2: Precision, Guardian’s Favor, Toughness

Precision (3/3), increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 1/2/3%
Very nice talent for PvP and PvE, works exactly as advertised

Guardian’s Favor (2/2), Reduces the cooldown of your Blessing of Protection by 60/120 sec and increases the duration of your Blessing of Freedom by 3/6 sec.
One of the most powerful protection talents, both PvE and PvP. It brings the offtime on Blessing of Freedom to 4 seconds and almost doubles the amount you can cast Blessing of Protection. Definate gets this if you are going to use the protection tree

Toughness (5/5), Increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10%
A nice talent, great for tanking, but use it to build up higher in the protection tree. Grab the more important talents first

Tier 3: Blessing of Kings, Improved Righteous Fury, Shield Specialization, Anticipation

Blesing of Kings (1/1), Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats by 10% for 5 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
The second or third most important blessing for most classes in a raid, and a very powerful talent. Get it if your guild needs you to be a “kingsbot” in the raids, or if you like the way it feels. I don’t love it, but I won’t tell you I have any rational reasons for not liking it.

Improved Righteous Fury (3/3), Increases the amount of threat generated by your Righteous Fury spell by 16/33/50%.
The defiance of the paladin’s protection tree. It’s very useful to be able to generate threat and tank for any paladin, and this talent is absolutely vital for a tankadin. Righteous Fury will increase the threat generated by holy damage by 90% with this talent.

Shield Specilization (3/3), increases the damage absorbed by your shield by 10/20/30%
Underrated talent. Using good tanking gear and Shield Specialization, a paladin can have a higher block value then any other class. Since blocking is critical to paladin tanking, get this talent if you intend to tank, plain and simple.

Anticipation (5/5), increases your Defense skill by 2/4/6/8/10
I explained what defense did earlier, and this talent does exactly what it says. Not a very good talent, and I recommend skipping it. Anticipation has no gear scaling and costs too much for only 10 defense. Also, +defense reduces the effectiveness of Redoubt and Reckoning, since it reduces the amount you’re crit. Self-defeating

Tier 4: Improved Hammer of Justice, Improved Concentration Aura

Improved Hammer of Justice (3/3), reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 5/10/15 sec
Great PvP talent, works exactly as advertised. Don’t get it if you are speccing to be a PvE tank, as most endgame mobs are immune to stun

Improved Concentration Aura (3/3), Increases the effect of your Concentration Aura by an additional 5/10/15% and gives all group members affected by the aura an additional 5/10/15% chance to resist Silence and Interrupt effects.
Not a very good talent, in my opinion. You’re already uninterruptible if you have Spiritual Focus. It does protect you from Pummel/Kick/Cspell and other such spell locks, but 15% is such a low rate of protection that I had to have this fact confirmed to me (thanks Greg). Maybe I'm a little unfair on this talent because of how very much I hate spell lock and how little protection I felt this gave me, but I really don't like it. Play at your own risk here.

Tier 5: Blessing of Sanctuary, Reckoning
Blessing of Sanctuary (1/1), Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage dealt from all sources by up to 10 for 5 min. In addition, when the target blocks a melee attack the attacker will take 14 Holy damage. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time. 24 Damage reduced, 35 damage returned at level 60
The least powerful of the 5/15 minute Blessings, but necessary to get to Holy Shield. Also, it does aid a paladin in dealing huge sums of holy damage whenever he blocks, which generate a great deal more threat. Taken into effect BEFORE damage reduction, making it less effective still.

Reckoning (5/5): Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain an extra attack after being the victim of a critical strike.
I’m not going in to reckoning here, it’s too complex. Look up a reckoning guide.

Tier 6: One-Handed Weapon Specialization

One-Handed Weapon Specialization (5/5), increases the damage dealt with one-handed weapons by 2/4/6/8/10%
This is a better talent then it appears, since it increases damage done by Seal of Righteousness when you have a one handed weapon equipped as well. Good for threat generation tanking.

Tier 7: Holy Shield

Holy Shield (1/1), increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec, and deals 65 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 20% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges. Returns 130 damage at level 60
The backbone of paladin tanking. Reduces the damage you take and generates hate. Get it if you’re a tankadin.

[ Post edited by Geld ]
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:29 am

Talent Guide: Retribution

The retribution tree focuses on dealing damage

Tier 1: Improved Blessing of Might, Benediction

Improved Blessing of Might (5/5), increases the melee attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 4/8/12/16/20%.
Not a powerful talent, although it’s good to have a paladins somewhere in an endgame raid who has specced for it. Many believe it’s better then benediction for leveling, but I prefer the mana efficiency of Benediction

Benediction (5/5), Reduces the Mana cost of your Judgement and Seal spells by 3/6/9/12/15%.
Very nice talent. Paladins thrive on mana efficiency, and saving mana when dealing damage increases the mana you have left over to heal or deal more damage. Best tier-1 retribution talent, in my opinion.

Tier 2: Improved Judgment, Improved Seal of the Crusader, Deflection

Improved Judgement (2/2), Decreases the cooldown of your Judgement Spell by 1/2 sec
More judging is more damage. Great ret talent, get it if you intend to build higher in to this tree.

Improved Seal of the Crusader (3/3), Increases the melee attack power bonus of your Seal of the Crusader and the Holy damage increase of your Judgement of the Crusader by 5/10/15%.
This is a bad talent. It’s just bad. Don’t get it.

Deflection (5/5), increases your Parry chance by 1/2/3/4/5%
Great hybrid talent, and a good way to build to the next tier of retribution

Tier 3: Vindication, Conviction, Seal of Command, Pursuit of Justice

Vindication (3/3), Gives the Paladin's damaging melee attacks a chance to reduce the target's Strength and Agility by 5/10/15% for 10 sec.
Can’t be applied to any notable named boss in the game (not even the ogre in VC). Not a huge loss to your enemy PvP, but it has a very high proc rate, and if you like the idea of debuffing your enemies, go for it.

Conviction (5/5), increases your chance to get a critical strike with weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%
5 points in it if you’re specccing further then 11 points in the retribution tree. More crit is more damage

Seal of Command (1/1), Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 sec.

Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing 46.5 to 50.5 Holy damage, 93 to 101 if the target is stunned or incapacitated. Deals 169.5 to 186.5 Holy damage, 339 to 373 if the target is stunned or incapacitated at highest rank.
Long tooltip, core damage ability for a paladin. This ability procs 7 times per minute no matter what, so you’d best get the slowest weapon possible when using this seal. This deals more damage then Seal of Righteousness if you’re weapon has a slower then average speed (about 2.10). Can easily crit for more then 1000 with vengeance at level 60. I've seen some scary numbers there.

Pursuit of Justice (2/2), Increases movement and mounted movement speed by 4/8%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Saves you the effort of having to get run speed enchants, equipping a carrot on a stick, and getting riding gloves. I like putting 1 point here and then getting good enchants.

Tier 4: Eye for an Eye, Improved Retribution Aura

Eye for an Eye (2/2), All spell criticals against you cause 15/30% of the damage taken to the caster as well. The damage caused by Eye for an Eye will not exceed 50% of the Paladin's total health.
Very situational, but it can crit and proc Vengeance, and it’s damage is increased by Vengeance. Really nice for beating earth-shock spamming shaman and crit mages. I enjoy this talent, but it isn’t that amazing.

Improved Retribution Aura (2/2), Increases the damage done by your Retribution Aura by 25/50%
Very powerful talent when fighting Rogues and Warriors, and the highest dps aura a paladin can use PvE without very nice gear and spending a lot of mana. 10 more damage per Retribution Aura tick at level 60. I recommend this talent.

Tier 5: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Sanctity Aura

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (3/3), Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 2/4/6%.
This is a great talent for paladin dps, particularly considering SoC favors slow, two-handed weapons. Get it if you intend to spec 30 or 31 points in Retribution.

Sanctity Aura (1/1), Increases Holy damage done by party members within 30 yards by 10%. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
The only nonreactive aura a paladin can use. Great PvP, but very selfish to use PvE most of the time. Get it for a PvP retribution spec without a doubt, use it most of the time.

Tier 6: Vengeance

Vengeance (5/5), Gives you a 3/6/9/12/15% bonus to Physical and Holy damage you deal for 8 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability.
This is actually the core talent for a retribution specced paladin. It is a must-have for the tree, and is worth every talent point.

Tier 7: Repentance

Repentance (1/1), Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 6 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works against Humanoids.
This is a very powerful ability, and is the only instant cast ranged CC in the game. Definitely get it, unless you want to spec for Divine Favor in place if it. You can judge Seal of Command on a repenting target for bonus damage.

[ Post edited by Geld ]
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:30 am

The Retnoob (30 ret / 21 holy)
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/palad ... 0511203150
This build is highly damage-oriented. It is frequently refered to as the PvP build for a paladin. It also offers enough from the holy tree to allow the paladin’s survivability to shine. Building 30 points in to retribution is also the preferred paladin leveling spec. The most common adjustment to this spec is to put 21 points into holy and 30 into ret, allowing the paladin to receive Divine Favor and use Illumination when raiding.

The Reckadin (27 prot, 13 ret, 11 holy)
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/palad ... 0010000000
This talent spec allows use of the ability “Reckoning” while maintaining the PvP power of the ability “spiritual focus,” “Consecration,” and the access to “Seal of Command.”
Reckoning is an extremely difficult build to start out with and understand, so don’t start out trying to play this way, and be very patient: the learning curve is steep. The basic idea of reckoning is to charge up reckoning “bombs” by being struck by critical strikes when you are unable to auto-attack or auto-attack is disabled, then unload huge sums of damage on a single target instantly. I’m not going to delve too deeply into this here.

The Healadin (31 holy / 20 prot)
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/palad ... 0000000000
This is the single most durable combat healer in the game. It is extremely powerful, both PvE and PvP, for keeping its team alive and long-lasting healing. Nothing is more annoying then a paladin who knows how to heal and who wears a shield. The flaw? This build could hardly have lower damage output, so you had best find an ally to kill things for you.

The Holydin (31 holy / 20 ret)
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/palad ... 0502200000
[This if my first attempt at building a Holydin]
The Holydin is a holy-specced paladin with an eye turned towards damage output. The advantage of this build is that it gives you all the tools of a powerful healer as well as a source of extremely controllable damage. You need a good deal of +Spell Damage gear to make great use of this build.

The Tankadin (33 prot / 11 holy, 7 ret)
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/palad ... 0000000000
The Tankadin is a paladin acting as a tank, plain and simple. There’s a huge argument always waged over how effective a tank a paladin can be, and the answer is simple: you can tank. How well / poorly you tank in relation to a warrior? Irrelevant, you tank in different ways that should not be compared. For instance, a paladin can AoE tank multiple trash mobs, something a warrior has a great deal of trouble doing. This build also allows for single-target damage return tanking (with Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, Holy Shield, and a shield spike your holy damage return is pretty high). Holy damage is the threat generation source for a Tankadin, so moves like Consecration and Seal of Righteousness are extremely powerful for it. Improved Judgment and Benediction allow the Tankadin to fire out even more holy damage and still conserve as much mana as possible.

Etiquette in a Group: Playing a Hybrid Class

A Paladin’s Role
The paladin’s roll in a group has always been a difficult one to define, for both the paladin and his group. For instance, a paladin can act as a very viable tank in the five-man content before level 60, but many argue that at level 60 they become less and less viable. A paladin’s DPS is frequently argued to be the lowest in the game, making it unviable for raids, but people will also frequently argue that our heals are too small to have any serious effect on the raid. Don’t let yourself get belittled, rise above this. A paladin can easily be the longest-lasting healer in the game. A paladin is the lowest maintenance DPS supplement in the game (since we wear plate and no healer needs to show serious concern for us). A paladin is a very viable AoE tank, and can off tank and even main tank many endgame instances, based on gear, spec, and open mindedness of their group. In fact, a paladin can work at constantly morphing to fill the current needs of the raid every second. It’s even possible to achieve many of these goals all at once. If someone tries to tell you that you are playing in a poor fashion, take a second to reflect. Have you been using the full range and scope of your class? Could you be doing something better? Is something you’re doing detrimental? Just think about what you’re doing and make sure that you’re doing the best you can.

On the other hand, if you have been called into a group to fill a single roll (supplying a blessing, cleansing, healing, tanking, DPS, whatever it is), fill that role or leave the group. Just because you are a hybrid class does not mean you always get to do whatever you want. More often than not, a paladin is brought into the group with the group expecting it to act as a healer, and you should always be prepared for this eventuality. Remember that a paladin’s gear has more effect than a paladin’s spec when it comes to filling a role, so either use a very balanced set of gear, or bring several sets for multiple purposes.

Looting
So here you are, sitting in the heart of UBRS, looking Drakkasith in the face. The fight starts, Drakkasith chasing after a hunter, his two guards getting torn to shreds by 9 other people. Soon your hunter friend runs back towards you, an enraged Drakkasith still in pursuit. The warriors charge in, the rogue fly from all direction to have at him. The mages and warlocks channel powerful energies into destructive magics which are hurled at him, and he falls down. He drops his ring, Painweaver Band. Stamina, attack power, and crit, all the statistics your Retnoob heart wants. You bid 10 on it, roll the highest… and its looted to the Rogue.

Dealing with loot as a paladin can be tough business. A lot of people feel that since we are a hybrid class, pure classes should get a call to loot before us. A rogue, warrior, priest, mage, or whatever has more claim over gear that isn’t a two handed mace or plate with int on it than us. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant, this is how many groups behave, and if you ran the entire instance with them and they treat you like this with no warning, they are being unfair. I’m not going to say whether or not a paladin is entitled to loot which is arguably better on a rogue/hunter/priest/warrior/mage/warlock/druid, because my opinion on it is meaningless to your raid. Remember to ask, at the start of every run, if you are allowed to roll on the items that you want from the instance before they drop. If the Loot Master (you do have a loot master, right?) declares class priority, make sure that they are clear about what you can and cannot do as far as this priority. If you suspect that the group is going to treat you unfairly, do not join it. When the paladins start to go on strike, maybe the raids will start to be fairer…

Keep this in mind when choosing your guild as well. Keep in mind that two-handed DPS is, traditionally, the secondary role for both paladins and warriors, not the primary, so a two handed weapon going to a warrior rarely improves the raid group. This is just something to keep in mind.

Remember, World of Warcraft is, above all, a game. When you get angry or frustrated at a group, leave it. If you don’t want to leave (for whatever reason), finish the run then leave and make sure not to join a group with the offending parties in the future. It isn’t worth stressing yourself over.
Last edited by smilkovpetko on Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:27 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:30 am

Welcome to the duel grounds at the gates of Ironforge.
One on one encounters on a totally level playing field are rare in this game, but when they happen, ask yourself: how do I win?

Druid
A druid has, effectively, 2 methods of defeating a paladin. They can either be feral or restoration build. Balance druids exist, and you’ll probably have to fight one some day, but this is an extremely mana inefficient playstyle, so it should be possible to just heal through their damage then defeat them once they are out of mana without much effort. A feral build druid will try to ambush you and kill you before you can save yourself. This is just shy of impossible. A cat form druid has minimal defense and deals very little damage against a plate wearing class. The real threat is a restoration built druid, and the only serious threat to the paladin is if he makes a mana-consumptive mistake. A restoration druid will attempt to outlast the paladin by using bear form and healing, waiting until the paladin goes out of mana. Against a druid, it’s wise to increase your mana regen as high as you can by using Blessing of Wisdom and placing Judgment of Wisdom on the druid, then just slowly wear down on it. Don’t use any major, mana-consumptive finishing moves on the druid until the druid’s mana has been fully drained via heals or you are certain you can finish him off before he reacts. Always cleanse off the Moonfire debuff, since it deals more damage then the instant portion of the spell, and do the same for any Entangling Roots or Insect Swarms. Stay melee with the druid at all times and you’ll out survive it and win. Use your most efficient spells possible to keep your health high enough that they can’t combo you to death.

Rogue
Against an equally geared rogue, a paladin usually has nothing to fear.. Consecrate (Rank 1) and Retribution Aura are both highly effective, particularly against dagger rogues. Sit through the stunlock sequence and fire off hammer of justice. Take this opportunity to heal once (if your health deficit is low enough) and proceed to beat down on the rogue. The rogue can and will run from you, and will likely restealth, so be prepared to activate consecrate again at any time. [If you look at the builds I posted earlier, nearly all of them contained the spell Consecration. It is an intrinsic part of the paladin class, along with Spiritual Focus.] The rogue should crumble after the first or second hammer of justice, just remember to spam rank 1 Consecrate and to keep the rogue in combat as often as possible. It will restealth, but the moment it does you can take the opportunity to heal to as full as possible, using Flash of Light to conserve mana. If you find yourself in need of a heal while getting attacked, you may be in trouble. All it takes is one kick while you’re healing to totally disable you for more then enough time to finish you off. You can use Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection to heal, if this is the case, but remember that the spell Blind can hit you and disable you through Blessing of Protection. Stoneform helps a lot here, if you’re a dwarf.

Priest
This is a rough fight. Defeating a priest, particularly a shadow priest, as a paladin is an extremely difficult task, and as such there is no certain strategy for coming out on top. Instead, I will tell you what to expect during the course of the fight.
1) Periodic Dispel Magics on you. Your combat system (a Seal and a Blessing) will go away completely at the touch of a key to the priest, so if you have Seal of Command, use rank 1 (which is cheap) and open with Blessing of Wisdom on, but don’t go overboard about resealing it.
2) Mana burn. The priest will burn your mana away, leaving you helpless. Once your mana is gone, the fight is basically over, they can damn-near wand you to death.
3) Lots of dots and debuffs. Particularly against a shadow priest, you can expect to get hit by Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Weaving constantly, and when you cleanse yourself it’s not certain to hit the more powerful debuff, Shadow Word: Pain and instead remove Shadow Weaving.
4) Fear. Once an opportunity, the priest is going to fear you and start beating down on you (after healing to full).
A few strategies for dealing with this fight are: Shadow Resistance Aura, self-mana burning (spending most of, if not all, of your own mana as damage/healing BEFORE the priest manages to drain it all), Seal of Justice to interrupt casting, a prayer to the gods, and a good warrior buddy ambushing the priest out of no where. I have yet to defeat a competent 60 priest in a duel.

Hunter
You wear plate, you are unshakeable (due to Blessing of Freedom and Cleanse), so the hunter won’t deal unduly huge sums of damage do you and won’t be able to keep you at a range for long. Get in melee range, keep Viper Sting cleansed or purified, and run straight for the guy. You’ll hit his traps, but this is almost inevitable. You can bubble out of a trap if you feel it necessary, but for the most part it isn’t. Once you’re melee, do your best to stay there. Consecrate when you see him feign death and he might not drop out of combat and retrap you. Really good hunters can stay at a range from you for a considerable amount of time, and possibly even defeat you by staying far away, but it’s a hard fight for them.

Shaman
Although the shaman does have purge, it isn’t nearly as difficult a fight as a priest. The shaman’s mana pool tends to be much smaller, its regen smaller still, and the price of purge and all of the Shaman’s other spells are quite high, so you can safely reseal and maybe even rebless knowing that he’s going to go out of mana before you do. In fact, this is the best way to win, wait for his mana to drain away completely then beat him down. Shaman are the least efficient class in the game, mana wise, while paladins are the most mana efficient, and they are helpless without their mana. Kill the totems with either a melee hit or a rank one Seal’s Judgment. Killing them all never hurts. Remember that, if you try to heal, the shaman will more often than not use Earth Shock on you and interrupt you. You can try to fake them out by starting a heal and immediately canceling, and if you get hit by Frost Shock or (lol) Flame Shock you have a window of 6 seconds to heal uninterrupted. It frightens me how many times a shaman has cast Flame or Frost Shock on me. Earth Shock’s spell lockdown timer is very short, so for each time he successfully interrupts you, you should be able to pull off one large heal.

Warrior
Warriors are one of the easier classes for a paladin to kill. We want to stay melee, so hamstring is meaningless to us. We wear plate, reducing the damage the warrior deals by 40%-60%, and our damage is largely holy, which ignores armor. The fight against a warrior is slow and steady. Heal high (so that you never risk getting executed or combo’d) and be prepared to bubble if your health gets too low and Mortal Strike is on you, ruining your heals. Remember that the warrior has Pummel and Shield Bash to interrupt your casting, so be very careful about healing when melee. The interrupt costs rage, so if you see their rage bar is empty, go for it.

Mage
If you can survive their opening burst damage sequence of a mage, you can beat the mage. Just keep your health high and flying with Flash of Light and watch amusedly as their mana bar empties out on you. Counterspell is a threat to you, but if they don’t hit you with it as you cast, you can just bubble out of it. If you get spell locked, the fight is over, because the mage will have 10 solid seconds to do whatever he wants to you. The longer this fight takes, the more likely you are to win. Once the mage runs out of mana, the fight is over, but it’s not going to be easy for you.

Paladin
Do not fight another paladin if you are in a Battleground queue, it will take too long.
But if you have to, the winner is the paladin who’s mana lasts longer. Seal of Wisdom, Blessing of Wisdom, efficient heals and efficient damage, just be careful not to be wasteful. I don’t want to even think about these fights, I’ve seen them take 15 or more mintues.

Warlock
The second hardest fight for a paladin. Between Fear and Seduce, the warlock will get free reign over beating on you when it wants to, and if it has a Felhunter out you can expect to lose your blessings and get spell locked every time you try to cast. Similar to a priest, there is no very reliable method for downing a warlock, but if you can treat them as a mage and heal through the damage you can come out on top. If it starts relying on Life Tap to get mana back, you can kill it without resistance, but getting the fight to this point is very difficult. Expect to be feared often enough to make you want to throw your mouse through the wall. Cleanse the dots and keep melee with him if you can, and if you see s Succubus or Imp, you should cast Exorcise on it and finish it off with melee, as it will remove reasonable amount of the warlock’s fighting power
Last edited by smilkovpetko on Wed Nov 04, 2015 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:30 am

8. Re: Geld's Revised Gude to the Paladin Class | 08/25/2006 02:41:56 AM UTC



Master of Group PvP: Why do they want you?
A paladin is hugely powerful in group PvP due to its unpredictability and ability to combat heal. Remember that your presence in the group should be increasing everyone’s survivability, and not just your own. Your heals are slow, but powerful, and your Blessings are cheap and powerful. Save Blessing of Protection for a teammate and remember that a rogue or mage is going to deal more damage then you can, so keep them alive to increase your group’s overall DPS. When a paladin charges an enemy player, it’s difficult to predict what will happen. Is he going to dump a Reckoning bomb? Will he get a double-crit Seal of Command proc? Is his whack going to deal negligible damage? It’s never certain, but it is very disruptive. Heal until you get Horde agro then fight until they forget about you or you die and you’ll be a group PvP giant. If you can heal and melee at the same time, all the better.

Remember that the spell Blessing of Sacrifice actually deals damage to you, so any kind of crowd-control spell that breaks when you take damage will break when you take blessing of sacrifice damage. This is a hugely powerful pvp tool… it can effectively make you immune to seduce, sheep, sap, gouge, scattershot, hunter traps, intimidating shout cower, repentance (when the expansion comes out), blind, and any other kind of incapacitate. It also increases your ability to break out of spells like Fear and various roots.

Fin.
Last edited by smilkovpetko on Wed Nov 04, 2015 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 0. Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by Thehappyone » Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:18 pm

The Retnoob (31 ret / 20 holy)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?sExuzZZVbItMcqo
This build is highly damage-oriented. It is frequently refered to as the PvP build for a paladin. It also offers enough from the holy tree to allow the paladin’s survivability to shine. Building 30 points in to retribution is also the preferred paladin leveling spec. The most common adjustment to this spec is to put 21 points into holy and 30 into ret, allowing the paladin to receive Divine Favor and use Illumination when raiding.


The Reckadin (25 prot, 15 ret, 11 holy)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?qVxZVGp0cbxZV0xt
This talent spec allows use of the ability “Reckoning” while maintaining the PvP power of the ability “spiritual focus,” “Consecration,” and the access to “Seal of Command.”
Reckoning is an extremely difficult build to start out with and understand, so don’t start out trying to play this way, and be very patient: the learning curve is steep. The basic idea of reckoning is to charge up reckoning “bombs” by being struck by critical strikes when you are unable to auto-attack or auto-attack is disabled, then unload huge sums of damage on a single target instantly. I’m not going to delve too deeply into this here.

The Healadin (31 holy / 20 prot)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?aVxudgotVGp0Mh
This is the single most durable combat healer in the game. It is extremely powerful, both PvE and PvP, for keeping its team alive and long-lasting healing. Nothing is more annoying then a paladin who knows how to heal and who wears a shield. The flaw? This build could hardly have lower damage output, so you had best find an ally to kill things for you.

The Holydin (31 holy / 20 ret)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?qVxuRgotZVbxtM
[This if my first attempt at building a Holydin]
The Holydin is a holy-specced paladin with an eye turned towards damage output. The advantage of this build is that it gives you all the tools of a powerful healer as well as a source of extremely controllable damage. You need a good deal of +Spell Damage gear to make great use of this build.

The Tankadin (33 prot / 11 holy, 7 ret)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?aVVzZVGtG0zEoVb
The Tankadin is a paladin acting as a tank, plain and simple. There’s a huge argument always waged over how effective a tank a paladin can be, and the answer is simple: you can tank. How well / poorly you tank in relation to a warrior? Irrelevant, you tank in different ways that should not be compared. For instance, a paladin can AoE tank multiple trash mobs, something a warrior has a great deal of trouble doing. This build also allows for single-target damage return tanking (with Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, Holy Shield, and a shield spike your holy damage return is pretty high). Holy damage is the threat generation source for a Tankadin, so moves like Consecration and Seal of Righteousness are extremely powerful for it. Improved Judgment and Benediction allow the Tankadin to fire out even more holy damage and still conserve as much mana as possible.


I cannot get to the page where the builds are posted.
:cry:
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Re: 0. Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class 08/25/2006

by smilkovpetko » Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:25 pm

sorry the guide is from 2006 originally written by people and sticky by Blizzard (explained at top 1 link)

Sadly the websites with the "Talents" was changed and not same anymore but the Description stays as great help and tutorial for everyone <3.
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