Paladin

Paladin

Paladins are shining beacons of justice that wade into battle clad in a suit of heavy armor, bearing a strong weapon and the power of the Holy Light. Since the beginning, the class has represented a marriage between using the Light to vanquish enemies and protect allies alike. Paladins represent one of the truest hybrid classes in the game, able to perform any of the three major party roles (DPS, healer, or tank) depending on how they are specialized.

While a melee class, Paladins back up their attacks with spells when tanking or dealing damage. And in healing, the Paladin draws from its clerical roots to both restore and protect allies. Across all three specializations, the Paladin is equipped with unique utility spells that allow them to assist and enhance friends in combat.

Originally an Alliance-only class, new races have begun to follow the Paladin path in recent years, making it a much more widely available calling across Azeroth. Alliance humans, dwarves, and draenei can be Paladins, as well as the Horde’s blood elves and tauren.

Class Abilities and Resources

Holy Power

Mana is the Paladin’s primary resource, but really only affects the gameplay of Holy-specialized players. The real force behind Paladin abilities is Holy Power. Many core abilities generate Holy Power while attacks and healing spells most intrinsic to Paladin specializations consume it.

In addition to consumers specific to each role, all three specializations can spend Holy Power on Word of Glory (or Eternal Flame if talented into it).

Until level 85, when the passive Boundless Conviction is learned, a Paladin only has a maximum of three Holy Power. After that point, the total goes up to five.

Seals

The Seal a Paladin player uses will generally coincide with what specialization they are playing as. Seals make melee attacks have different effects and can give certain passive bonuses.

The first Seal a Paladin learns at level 3 is Seal of Command, though that is later replaced with Seal of Truth at level 24.

Divine Shield

Divine Shield (affectionately called the “bubble”) is one of the class-defining features of the Paladin class, preventing all damage taken and certain negative effects for 8 seconds. It can be immensely powerful in certain situations, such as avoiding a near-killing blow in PVP and buying some time to escape/get healed back to full, or preventing a huge burst of damage in a raid encounter. Divine Shield can also be paired with Hand of Sacrifice to avoid the damage transfer of the ability, which is especially useful for healers. In addition, DPS-ers will want to watch out for the 50% damage-dealt debuff given by being “bubbled.”

Non-Specialization Abilities

Talents

Holy

Part of what makes a Paladin is the use of the Holy Light to heal and protect allies. Holy Paladins excel in this task, calling upon the power of the divine to restore those around them even in the most dire of situations. Holy Paladins are a versatile and powerful healer, armed with a range of single-target and group healing spells as well as spells that can absorb damage.

Specialization Abilities

Draenor Perks

Draenor Perks are four special boosts to different abilities that are earned, at random, as the player levels from 91 to 100.

Rotation

Healing is different from the other two Paladin specializations in that there is no set rotation to work through. Instead the player has different kinds of tools which work best in specific situations. As healing is done, the Paladin will build Holy Power, which can be spent on Word of Glory/Eternal Flame or Light of Dawn depending on if you are healing single-target or AOE.

• The first thing to do is cast Beacon of Light on someone (usually a tank). Now, any healing done on other players will also heal the Beacon target. Rely on the healing transfer to keep the Beaconed player at a steady health level, intervening with direct heals when necessary.
• If an ally is in peril, use Flash of Light to quickly stabilize their health bar. Holy Shock can be used to build Holy Power for a Word of Glory.
• If multiple allies are in immediate danger, use Holy Radiance and Holy Shock (which will heal up to 6 allies due to Daybreak) to quickly heal as many as you can, and then unleash Light of Dawn whenever there’s enough Holy Power available.
• When there are periods of calm try to build Holy Power, in order to have resources on demand for a Word of Glory or Light of Dawn.

Group Play

In a group, Holy Paladins fill the important role of keeping those around them alive and on two feet. Use healing spells to prevent deaths during combat (especially the tank!) and make good use of utility spells to reduce damage taken by allies.

A key skill in group play is learning how best to conserve mana so that healing can continue throughout the duration of an encounter. Being efficient with spell choices, saving Flash of Light for emergencies when someone needs to be quickly topped off, and using Holy Light for less dire circumstances are all important skills to hone. Use Holy Power-dependent heals to help conserve mana as well. It’s a good idea to use Holy Shock whenever it’s off cooldown, since that spell is both cheap and grants charges of Holy Power.

Group Buffs

Like all Paladins, Holy-specialized players bring Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings.

Preparing for High-End Content

When gearing for raid content, a Holy Paladin will want to find a balance in gear where they have enough mana regeneration to not run out of mana (OOM) during combat, but not so much that they are making their own healing spells weaker.

Essentially, the perfect amount of Spirit (the stat that gives mana regen) is where a healer will end the encounter nearly out of mana. Too much Spirit means they’ll end up with lots of mana left, which indicates that they are wasting itemization on Spirit. Too little Spirit means they’ll run out of mana mid-combat and their allies will die.

When a player feels they have enough mana regen, they’ll then want to focus on healing power stats: Intellect, Critical Strike, Haste, Mastery, Multistrike, Readiness, and Versatility. It’s going to take trial and error to find a good balance between mana regen and throughput, depending on playstyle and healing efficiency.

Also, it’s very important to practice skills that will make the player a more powerful healer outside of just the context of stats. Learn how to use various Hand spells, and cooldowns (which can turn around a sticky situation!), and work on increasing reaction time so heals are fired off as soon as they are needed. Read up on encounters and figure out when the best points in a fight are to use certain spells (for example, using AOE spells if an encounter requires stacking).

Protection

Unique among other tanking specializations in the game, protection Paladins combine heavy armor, a shield, and plentiful self-healing to create a walking holy juggernaut that can take a beating from anything in their path. Prot-specced Paladins call upon the Holy Light to preserve them in the face of even the most dangerous of foes, and to shield their allies from harm.

Specialization Abilities

Draenor Perks

Draenor Perks are four special boosts to different abilities that are earned, at random, as the player levels from 91 to 100.

Rotation

The single-target rotation is pretty straightforward and revolves around prioritizing Holy Power-generating abilities to provide the resources for casting Shield of the Righteous. It’s a good idea to not spend Holy Power until there’s a full deck of five charges, that way there’s always two Holy Power banked and available if an emergency Word of Glory needs to be fired off or Eternal Flame refreshed.

Open with Avenger’s Shield at a distance, and use Grand Crusader procs immediately whenever available (because those generate Holy Power).

Whenever five Holy Power is reached, use Shield of the Righteous. The spell is off the global cooldown, so there’s no reason to delay using the attack and thus waste Holy Power by generating more than five.

Prioritize your Holy Power-generating abilities based on what hits hardest:

• If talented into Sanctified Wrath, Holy Wrath.
• Then Judgment is the next best choice.
• Then Crusader Strike.

When generators are on cooldown, prioritize your fillers as follows:

• If the enemy is under 20% health, use Hammer of Wrath.
• Then any chance to use Avenger’s Shield without Grand Crusader procs.
• Throw down a Consecration (though it’s fairly weak for single-target).
• Finally, if not talented into Sanctified Wrath, Holy Wrath.

In AOE situations, the rotation gets much simpler:

• Open with Avenger’s Shield and use Grand Crusader procs immediately whenever available.
• Hit Shield of the Righteous at five Holy Power.
• Use Hammer of the Righteous, Judgment, and Sanctified Wrath-talented Holy Wrath whenever possible to keep up Holy Power generation.
• Prioritize Avenger’s Shield over your other AOE attacks (it’s the heaviest hitting on multiple targets).
• Then Consecration (much better on multiple targets).
• Then Holy Wrath (which gets weaker the more enemies there are).

Group Play

Tanks tend to carry a lot of responsibility in the group, it’s a fact of life for the role. Allies will look to the tank as a leader, and as a result it’s important that the tank is capable at what they do. They must be able to generate threat and hold the attention of any enemies, and be prepared to taunt wayward enemies away from any allies that have drawn unwanted attention. Using Hand spells on allies if there’s a good opportunity is also something a good tank can do that will make a difference. Most importantly, Paladin tanks must make good use of all cooldowns and defensive abilities so that incoming damage does not become overwhelming for the healer.

Group Buffs

Like all Paladins, protection-specialized players bring Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings.

Preparing for High-End Content

Being successful at tanking higher level content requires a combination of proper gearing, practicing cooldown use, and preparation for the content.

First, a protection Paladin must make sure that their gear has the right amount of stamina so they can comfortably take on incoming damage without going into the “danger zone” every time they take a hit. It’s a good idea for the tank to get feedback from the healer on how easy or difficult it was to keep them alive. Once a decent amount of stamina is achieved, focus can be shifted to stacking key secondary stats; Bonus Armor and Haste being the two best options there. Haste especially is useful because it lowers the global cooldown on abilities, allowing a Protection Paladin to use them more often, which then generates more Holy Power and increases survivability as a result. Bonus Armor is one of the best damage reduction stats for a Paladin tank and should be emphasized on the limited gear slots where it is available.

A critical part of tanking is being comfortable with cooldowns and when to use them. Divine Protection, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Ardent Defender, Lay on Hands, and even Divine Shield (though remember that using that last ability drops aggro on what’s being tanked!) are important for keeping the tank on two feet. The mark of a great tank is one that uses all their cooldowns at the right time to minimize their incoming damage as much as possible.

Lastly, a great tank does research ahead of time so they know the best way to handle an encounter. They figure out the little tricks to stay alive ahead of time, so they can shine for their allies. PvE encounters tend to have an obvious tempo to them that can be memorized over time—such as when it’s best to use a Hand spell on a healer, or when the best time to use Divine Protection may be. It’s also key to figure out ahead of time the best glyphing options to get an edge over the content.

Retribution

Retribution Paladins wield massive two-handed weapons in battle, armored by heavy-clad plate armor and their own faith. Retribution Paladins are the damage-dealing specialization of the class, and are capable of bringing to bear powerful melee DPS in very short windows of time (also known as “burst”).

Specialization Abilities

Draenor Perks

Draenor Perks are four special boosts to different abilities that are earned, at random, as the player levels from 91 to 100.

Rotation

The key to the Retribution Paladin rotation is giving priority to the hardest hitting attacks; the strongest of which being Templar’s Verdict (or Final Verdict, if talented that way). Use Seal of Truth for single-target encounters.

• If Execution Sentence is talented and off cooldown, cast the ability.
• Use Templar’s/Final Verdict whenever there are five charges of Holy Power. Don’t generate more than five Holy Power as anything over the maximum is wasted DPS.
• Whenever an enemy is in execute range, prioritize Hammer of Wrath over any of the other generators.
• Otherwise Crusader Strike is the strongest Holy Power generating attack.
• Then Judgment.
• Then Exorcism, which can also serve as a filler since its cooldown should reset often due to the passive effect.

When facing multiple enemies swap in Hammer of the Righteous for Crusader Strike in the priority and spend Holy Power on Divine Storm instead of Templar’s/Final Verdict. Switch to Seal of Righteousness only if there are more than four enemies and you expect them to live for more than 30 seconds.

Group Play

As a damage-dealing player, a Retribution Paladin’s primary goal is to kill the enemies quickly and efficiently while avoiding making life more difficult for the healer or the tank. The best way to accomplish this is to prioritize attacks correctly in order to maximize damage output—all the while taking care not to “rip aggro” by attacking an enemy before the tank has a good hold on it and likewise not taking unnecessary damage (which drains the healer’s resources). Most importantly: the more damage the DPS does, the shorter the encounter will be, and the less likely the healer will run out of mana.

When more comfortable with the specialization, a Retribution player can contribute a great deal to the group with the utility of Hand spells.

Group Buffs

Like all Paladins, Retribution-specialized players bring Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings. In addition, they bring the passive buff Sanctity Aura, which grants 3% Versatility to all nearby group and party members.

Preparing for High-End Content

Damage-dealing players are blessed with having less direct responsibility for the conduct of the group, but they still have the critical responsibility of coming to an encounter prepared with knowledge of how the fight operates, as well as what glyphs and talents would work best for that particular boss.

For their gear, a Retribution Paladin will want to maximize their Critical Strike and Multistrike through gems and enchanting, as those are the two strongest secondary stats for the specialization. Haste rounds out the pack as the third strongest secondary stat, with Versatility and Mastery after that.