I didn’t do it on purpose, but it’s an interesting contrast to go from the once Horde-only class to the once Alliance-only class—the Paladin. A lot of people will roll a class because that’s what their friends play; I tend to be just the opposite. I like to play the class less rolled, the underrepresented role, so I’m in as little direct competition as possible. That’s why it was surprising for me to find myself with a level 80 Paladin when our guild runs with 7 on regular basis in 25mans.
Originally I leveled up my paladin to help a out a friend leveling a Disc Priest; he got tired of questing and wanted something to heal XD so I met him at level 40 and we ran around together until 73 or so. Then through the course of my working full time and his ability to play at work, he some how managed to hit 80 with my lowly pally still stuck at 73. I kind of became disheartened and put some time into my level 39 twink rogue, but inevitably, my pally did hit 80.
I had her specced Ret for leveling because it made more sense to kill stuff as DPS >.> but I also had a generally unused dual Prot spec. Once I hit 80 I tried to collect as many tanking pieces as I could to test out a Heroic UK run which ended up in disaster. Among many tips I can give for fledgling tanks (I’ll probably file that away for a later post) is to NOT bring two well geared Ret Pallies for you maiden tanking voyage—it will only end in tears!
Anyways, without further ado, Paladins, Protectors of the Light.
Blessed Buffing
As far as I know, Paladins have always had the “blessing” mechanic, it just wasn’t always as pretty as it is today (even though many would use other words to describe it now…). The current buffs available to any paladin regardless of spec are Blessing of Might, Wisdom, and Kings. Blessing of Kings is a buff entirely unique to Paladins that, after much movement throughout the various trees, is trainable at level 20.
Wisdom is similar to the Shaman Mana Spring totem, providing a Mana per 5 seconds buff. Because these two buffs don’t stack, the order of overwriting goes as follows: Mana Spring (91 mp5) < Blessing of Wisdom (92 mp5) < Mana Spring with Restorative Totems (109.2 mp5) < Improved Blessing of Wisdom (110.4 mp5). I think I have observed the Improved Mana Spring Totem actually overwrite an Improved Wisdom due to rounding and possibly some RNG, but the preceding is the calculated priority.
Might is similar to the Warrior’s Battle Shout in that it provides the group with an Attack Power buff. Again, these two buffs don’t stack anymore so the overwriting priority goes: Battle Shout (548 AP) < Blessing of Might (550 AP) < Battle Shout with Commanding Presence (685 AP) < Improved Blessing of Might (687.5 AP). These figures come from Wowhead.com, despite the fact that I was under the impression Battle Shout overwrote Might, it appears the opposite is true.
Other Things All Paladins Can Offer
Paladins also provide the raid group with auras that assist with minor things. Their auras include Devotion, Retribution, Concentration, Crusader, Fire Resistance, Shadow Resistance and Frost Resistance. Paladin auras do not stack with each other, and the resistance auras don’t stack with the Shaman resistance totems.
Aside from those, Paladins also have an array of spells to offer the group. Their Hand of Protection (originally Blessing of Protection) shields a player making them immune to physical damage, while still being able to cast or move around, as well as removing and physical debuffs, such as Impale. Hand of Freedom removes movement debuffs such as slows and roots and makes the target immune to them for the duration of the spell. Lay on Hands is also a long cool down spell that heals the target for the caster’s maximum health.
Paladins also have a spell called Divine Intervention that allows them to sacrifice themselves (without taking durability damage) in order to make a group member completely immune to everything and removing them from combat for the duration of the spell; this is one of the many “wipe” recovery techniques available.
Cleanse, Turn Evil, Holy Wrath, Hand of Sacrifice, Hand of Salvation (the new “Blessing of Salvation” o.O), Judgments of Light and Wisdom, and Hammer of Justice are many more in a long list of skills (and I’ve probably overlooked a few at that…) a paladin can bring to a group. There’s no doubt that a Paladin, no matter what the spec, will make an excellent addition to any group composition, given that they know what they have to offer and can manage to stay out of the fire :P
Holy Paladins
Holy Pallies, aside from their icon single target heal spamming, have a few things they can provide a group as well. For starters, their talented Improved Blessing of Wisdom is the highest calculated form of mana regen with which a group can be buffed. Beacon of Light, the 51-point Holy talent allows a Paladin to essentially heal twice as much for their mana, keeping two targets up at the same time.
The 11-point talent, Aura Mastery, allows a Holy Pally to grant their group immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects for 10 seconds via their Concentration Aura. I haven’t healed as a Paladin yet, so I’m not too sure how effective or valuable this talent might be or how many even use it, but it certainly seems like it would have its use.
I’d also like to point out (being a Shaman) that Concentration Aura DOES stack with the Eye of the Storm Shaman talent, letting an Elemental Shaman suffer no spell push back (still doesn’t apply to interrupts though).
Retribution Paladins
These are the DPS breed, and aside from generally providing good melee dps, they bring the coveted Improved Blessing of Might (doesn’t stack with Battle Shout). Going down the tree, Ret Pallies also have the ability to talent into Vindication which temporarily reduces the target’s attack power by 46 (*makes a mental note to respec Paladin to DROP this talent* >.>).
Heart of the Crusader allows Paladins to provide a +3% crit chance debuff to an enemy, but this does not stack with the Elemental Shaman Totem of Wrath or the Assassination Rogue’s Master Poisoner. Sanctified Retribution increases the damage all group members effected by the Paladin’s aura by 3% (I’m pretty sure this doesn’t stack with itself).
Repentance is the Ret Pally CC ability that incapacitates a target for a minute unless damaged, similar to sheeping, but not as easily maintained. Judgments of the Wise is probably one of the most efficient replenishment abilities as far as upkeep versus dps. Swift Retribution gives a +3% haste buff through the Paladin’s Aura and the combination of Art of War plus Sheath of Light allows a Ret Pally to insta-cast a Flash of Light on someone applying a HoT on crit.
Protection Paladins
The first icon buff that a Prot Pally can provide a group with is Blessing of Sanctuary. Up until the previous patch, this spell just provided the reduced damage buff, but Blizzard got tired of seeing Tanks opt for Kings over Sanc, so they buffed Sanctuary to give a +10% Stamina effect (doesn’t stack with Kings).
Divine Sacrifice is a talent that I picked up on my Paladin that I kind of have to play around with a little. The key to using this ability is to have either Divine Shield or Divine Protection up before using it, that way you just keep absorbing damage for the whole duration of the spell because the bubble absorbs it all.
You have to be careful though because when healers suddenly see the whole raid taking damage, and you suddenly start taking on 40% of that damage, you tend to go splat >.>’ Also, using Divine Shield is generally not a good idea when tanking mobs <.<’ I tend to use it on fights like Loken in Halls of Lightning when he does his big explosion. He stands there and casts, so I put up Divine Shield and Sacrifice to take some of the party damage, then taunt (because I’ve lost aggro by this point) and remove Divine Shield and finish out the fight. It’s kind of weird, I know, but it works for me.
Avenger Shield is also a useful tool, not only for the pull, but also for during combat as a silencing ability. I’ve used it on Kel’Thuzad and Iron Concil as a ranged interrupt, so with the combination of Hammer of Justice, Prot Pallies have two different interrupts in their arsenal.
