Paladin

Template:Wikipedia

Template:Class Icon Paladin Large

Paladin

Classes
Class races	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Ev	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Quests	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Abilities	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Trainers	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Armor sets	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Useful macros	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Class Halls	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior

This article is a description of the character class Paladin.

For a description of the role of paladins within the lore of Warcraft, see Paladin lore.

For related articles, see Category:Paladins

Weapons and Armor

File:Paladin silver hand.jpg

Human Paladin

From the start, paladins can wear cloth, leather, or mail armor, and can train to wear plate armor at level 40. They may use a shield. They can summon their own Warhorse at level 40 (which they can obtain for 90 silver from a trainer), which can be quested to an epic Charger at level 60. They can use the following melee weapons (either innately or through training):

• swords, one- and two-handed
• maces, one- and two-handed
• axes, one- and two-handed
• polearms (at level 20)
• Fishing Poles

Paladins can't use ranged weapons

Paladins cannot dual wield or use any conventional ranged weapons. For ranged damage, a paladin has several limited options:

• taking the Engineering profession in order to obtain limited ranged capabilities such as dynamite, bombs, and trinkets.

  one notable option for a paladin who specializes in Gnomish Engineering is the  [Gnomish Death Ray], since a paladin's invulnerability shield prevents the player from taking the damage normally associated with using this item. (Note: Blizzard has mentioned that this will no longer work in past patch notes, although it has not been changed yet. Actually, they noted that while in blessing of protection if the trinket fails and backfires, you will still take damage, however you do not take damage while casting it, and nothing official has been stated on this topic.)

• a ranged trinket such as [Linken's Boomerang] It has a 3 minute cooldown each time it is used.
• non-engineering explosives such as EZ-Thro Dynamite or EZ-Thro Dynamite II
• using Judgement in combination with a seal (see below) allows for a limited range attack similar to (but more limited than) a druid's [Moonfire].
• spending talents in the Holy tree to acquire the spell [Holy Shock]
• using [Hammer of Wrath] on an enemy with less than 20% of their health left
• As of Patch 2.0 [Avenger's Shield] has been added to the Protection tree.
• Blood Elf paladins can also use their racial ability, [Mana Tap], to have some limited pulling of mana-based mobs.

You may be interested in a compendium of the best Paladin's weapons.

See also:

Formula:Mana regen & Shields

Talents

Paladin

Paladin Talents are split into 3 categories:

• Holy
• Protection
• Retribution

Talent builders can be found at:

• Official Blizzard site
• Panda Hideout
• WoW Vault
• ThottBot
• Merciless
• Wowhead

Some good info at the official WoW forums:

End-Game Expectations

Raiding: Post patch 2.01

The changes have effectively rounded out the paladin class, allowing for specialization that was sorely needed. Deeper trees have enhanced all three roles that the paladin can choose to fulfill.

Tanking is made more viable by increased aggro and mitigation talents, the introduction of [Spiritual Attunement] for longevity, [Consecration] made trainable and a taunt in the form of [Righteous Defense]. The Paladin is now almost as good (if not on par depending on gear) as a Warrior at main tanking, and the best off-tank due to their multi-target tanking abilities.

Changes to the Retribution tree, primarily [Sanctified Crusader] and [Crusader Strike], have increased the value of at least one Paladin per raid spec'ing deep into the tree, with increased utility and damage.

Please keep in mind that, until the expansion pack is released, most gear itemization that exists for the paladin class focuses mainly on the defensive healing aspect of the class. This will change drastically after 1.16.07 as itemization will cater to and reflect on the more diverse nature of the paladin class abilities of tanking and alternate dps trees. Paladins and Druids are currently set up to be the most readily accessible tanks for 5-10man groups while Warriors, for the most part, will still maintain their role as large raid boss tanks.

The Death of Decursive and Emergency Monitor Targeting

With the introduction of the 2.0.1 patch, Blizzard changed a lot of the source code that allowed for macros and mods to do 'smart' things, such as run basic 'if then' searches for casting cleanse or allowing you to cast heals based on emergency monitor list populations. There are several attempts to revive the Decursive mod, but so far, none have come close.

As it is, your best bet for quick and easy cleansing in raids is to use programs such as CTRA or ORA, which allow you to have player raid tiles highlighted when they are afflicted by a status ailment that you can cleanse.

There is also an addon called SmartBuff that has been updated for patch 2.0.1, which contains a sub-addon called SmartDebuff. SmartDebuff creates a small window your UI that highlights party members when they obtain a debuff that your character class can remove. What makes this especially useful, is that you simply click that highlighted name and the appropriate cleansing spell will be cast, without losing you current target.

In addition, several paladins have had success using modifications called "Grid" and "Clique" in conjunction. Grid puts an overlay of the raid on your screen with visual updates for certain types debuffs (Magic, Curse, Poison, Disease) in addition to status indicators (Death, Aggro, Incoming Heals, Low Mana, Health Deficit). Clique allows you to bind your mouseclicks and keyboard & mouse click functions to certain spells; for instance, Shift+Left Click will automatically cast "Flash of Light" at the max rank. This will help the paladin react quicker to healing situations as you do not have to select the target you are trying to heal first, then cast the spell. Similarly, those not using SmartDebuff due to its rather bland graphical interface may want to look into Grid & Clique to bind cleanse to Right Click, or another convenient spell. Grid distinguishes between the different types of cleansable debuffs.

Once you have that, you have two different options to choose from, both of which require you to learn how to play 'wack-a-mole'. Either bind cleanse to a specific keyset (shift+left click) and simply click on the afflicted players, or use the mouseover function in the mod Bigwigs which allows you to simply move your mouse over the raid-player tile and press your cleanse hotkey without having to target them with a mouse click.

Some folks have come up with brute-force cleansing macros that simply cycle through the entire raid, one player at a time, checking for status ailments, but this takes far too long and requires too many button pushes. It is simply more time effective to learn how to play Blizzard's wack-a-mole cleansing encounters the way they designed them to be played.

Healing in Instances

Tanks will almost always get Blessing of Light. The only exception of this is the rare occurrence that the Paladin will not be the primary healer, as Blessing of Light only benefits Paladin healing. As an alternative, use Blessing of Kings to increase the tank's health and other stats, or use Blessing of Might for more attack power.

The paladin is a combat healer. They spam [Flash of Light] (FoL), raid/group wide, in an effort to keep their teammates alive. With that in mind, be intelligent about how you heal and what various levels of FoL one can use to get the job done.

Example:

A player near full health, who has suffered minimum damage, can either live without a heal or can be easily capped off by a rank 3 or 4 FoL (thus saving you mana).

A player who has taken considerable damage (the MT/OT for example) should have max rank FoL cast on him. THIS TECHNIQUE WILL SAVE YOU MANA. And we all know that for any serious, prolonged fight, you damn well need it.

With some talents, such as Sanctified Light, Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Illumination, and Divine Favor, Paladins running out of mana within a fight should be a rarity. Illumination returns the mana cost of any spell when you get a critical heal. Divine Favor guarantees a critical heal, Sanctified Light gives you 6% more critical chance to Holy Light, Holy Power gives you 5% more critical chance, and Divine Intellect further increases your critical spell chance. All the while, Improved Blessing of Wisdom will be regenerating your mana as well.

Paladins usually give themselves Blessing of Wisdom in instances to keep their mana regeneration up. In the event there are two paladins, the second blessing should be something that fits the role both are playing. Many paladins prefer not to have Blessing of Salvation, as the heals from paladins already generate a low amount of threat. Choose Blessing of Kings to increase your mana and critical chance, or you can cast Blessing of Light if the paladins are tanking or you anticipate a battle where you will be damaged.

Healing in PvP

The paladin's role as a combat buffer and healer is especially well-suited for battlegrounds. Your short duration buffs are ideal in these situations, as they cost very little mana and their short duration isn't drawback when players are sure to die or get dispelled within 5 minutes. Compared to the costly 30 minute buffs of other classes, the efficiency of the paladin blessings truly shines here.

Your toughness makes you an ideal healer as well. Unlike priests, you will often not be the first priority for your opponents as you're too tough to take out quickly. This leaves you more freedom to heal. Be wary though, as some well structured pvp groups will specifically kill ALL healing targets first.

The infamous "bubble" is what makes paladins such great healers, giving them 12 seconds of totally uninterrupted healing.

Spam -max rank- FoL and keep allies targets alive.

For anyone nearing death, Divine Favor+HL will heal them near full unless they're a well equipped warrior or druid in bearform.

Be savvy about how you go about positioning yourself in pvp healing situations. Normally, most pvp'ers will experience tunnel vision and only focus on their immediate surroundings. Stay back. Stay under cover if possible, and keep your team alive. You will cause more aggravation to your opponents keeping your team alive than you will sitting in the middle of the action dumping a consecrate and bubble healing.

Healing in PvP post 2.01

The holy tree has been vastly improved since the introduction of the 41point talent trees. The three key talents for any serious PvP healer are Light's Grace, Blessed Life, and Holy Guidance. This allows you to last much longer than before while saturating your surrounding allies with heals.

Light's Grace allows you to quick-fire Holy Light heals for larger burst healing effectiveness.

Blessed life will mitigate 10% of all incoming attacks to 50% of their normal damage. Taking into account that we wear plate and use shields, this is a much aggravating talent to all melee classes that cross our paths.

Holy Guidance will increase your overall spell damage and healing based upon your current int scores.

Solo healing

When you find yourself in solo combat, use your best judgement as to when to use FoL vs HL. Divine Favor while in the "bubble" and max rank HL is a common tactic. FoL a few times after a stun is also another common tactic, seeing as how you're in solo combat, mana conservation will be important. (Although, for truly mana efficient healing, bandaging while bubbled is better, using the Divine Favor + HL after stunning the opponent.)

Quests

Paladins have several class-specific quests which allow the character to learn valuable spells. See the Paladin Quests page for an outline of these quests.

See Also

• See Starting a Paladin for some advice when starting out.
• See How paladins heal for advice on paladin healing.
• See the Paladin Category for further information on the Paladin class.
• See Paladin Talent Discussion for information on common Paladin Talent Builds.
• Higher level Paladins will want to stop by on the following pages:
  • Paladin Armor Sets
  • Paladin Armor Set Comparison
• Statistics of paladins from Warcraft II
• Also, some good info at the official WoW forums:
  • Paladin Guide
  • Geld's Paladin Guide
• Divine Magic

---

Template:ClassFooter