Starting note: I'm not going to respond to this thread for a little while, I just got a Beta key of my own and am going to start testing TBC out.

Table of Contents

1) Statistics and you: What do paladins need? (Spell damage coefficients are here)
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?

I will try to listen to any responses made to this thread to keep it up-to-date. If you want to help me extend and improve this guide, please send me an ingame tell (Geld@Eredar, if I’m on) or an email to admiral.teal@gmail.com. I don’t claim to be the master of the paladin class, but I hope that these strategies won’t serve any of you wrong. My personal profile can be found here: http://ctprofiles.net/70628 (as of posting this, I’m proud to say I’ve yet to get an epic of my own!)

Let’s get started

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.

[EDIT FOR 2.0!]: Some of these numbers are a bit off now, and anything specific to a level 60 will be harder increase at level 70 (i.e. more agi per crit, etc...). The presence of ratings really changes things up, but so far I know that the two different schools of rating are either 10 to the percent or 14 to the percent. Basically if it's divisible by 14, it's 14 to the percent, if it's divisible by 10, it's 10 to the hit.

Spell Damage Coefficients
What is 1 spell damage or 1 healing equivalent to? Well, they don't directly add on to a spell's damage or healing. If they did, certain spells would become much weaker and stronger in relationship to each other, and blizzard has set up the game to have a spell's relative strength stay roughly equivalent as your gear scales up. Each spell, therefore, has a coefficient for what amount of spelldamage directly affects it.

So if the spell "Spell of Light" has a +damage coefficient of 50%, it will take 2 points of +spell damage to increase the damage it deals by 1. So the following are the numbers, taken directly from WoWWiki.com (they seem to be completely accurate, but I've stared the ones I'm not certain about. Feel free to correct me).

Offensive Abilities

• 9.2% per 1.0 weapon speed, One-handed Seal of Righteousness
  
• 10.8% per 1.0 weapon speed, Two-handed Seal of Righteousness
  
• 73% Judgement of Righteousness
  
• 20% Seal of Command
  
• 43% Judgement of Command
  
• 76% Consecration
  
• 43% Holy Shock
  
• 43% Hammer of Wrath*
  
• 43% Exorcism*
  
• 19% Holy Wrath*
  
• 20% Holy Shield (5% per Block)*
  
• 9% Avenger's Shield
  
• 17% Seal of Vengeance (per tick)
  
• 43% Judgement of Vengeance
  
• 0% Seal of Blood

Heals

• 71% Holy Light
  
• 43% Flash of Light
  
• 43% Holy Shock

Talent Guide: Holy (Updated for 2.0)

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, Aura Mastery, 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

Aura Mastery (1/1), Increases the range of your Auras to 40 yards
Yawn… boring. I see no strong reason to pick this talent up unless, as you play, you find that your aura range is wanting.

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: Pure of Heart, Divine Favor, Sanctified Light

Pure of Heart (3/3), Increases your resistance to Curse and Disease effects by 5/10/15%.
Oh my god it’s bad. Please skip this. There are much more valuable talent investments then something that sort of kind of pisses off warlocks.

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.

Sanctified Light (3/3), Increases the critical strike chance of your Holy Light spell by 2/46%.
Hell of a talent. Holy Light is your primary heal and this is doubly effective as holy power for it. In fact, I find that this talent in conjunction with a lower rank holy light (Rank 4 at 60) plus Blessing of Light gives you a bit better mana efficiency at a very similar cast rate (if you have Light’s Grace)

Tier 6: Purifying Power, Holy Power

Purifying Power (2/2), Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse and Consecration spells by 5/10% and increases the critical strike chance of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 10/20%.
I love this talent. Cleanse more, consecrate more, and give your exorcisms that extra oomph to really mess up a warlock (Felguards are fragile against holy damage. Trust me.) I think 2 points here is better then 5/5ing 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: Light’s Grace, Holy Shock, Blessed Life

Light’s Grace (3/3), Gives your Holy Light spell a 33/66/100% chance to reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5 sec. This effect lasts 15 sec.
This talent is spectacular on paper and works pretty freak’n well in practice. PvE it lets you use a lower rank holy light (I like ranks 4 and 5 with Sanctified Light) as though it was your flash of light for slightly better efficiency on targets who have Blessing of Light, PvP it lets you pump out those Holy Light spells fast enough to really keep people alive. Definitely pick it up if you intend to heal.

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 the only direct heal in the game that is instant cast, which does have some powerful PvP effects. More so, it deals direct, controllable, and reliable damage, which is nice. Try it out, see if you like it.

Blessed Life (3/3), All attacks against you have a 4/7/10% chance to cause half damage.
There are a couple of flaws with this talent. Theoretically it’s a flat 5% damage mitigation, but in actuality it could be halving all the 50 damage hamstrings on you and none of the 3k Frostbolts. I think these talent points could be better spent elsewhere, but a lot of people probably love it, so I’m going to flag this as “take at your own risk.” Also, a silly flaw with the talent is that it ranks up +4%/+3%/+3%, meaning after the first point the additional points get you less. Really should be 3/3/4 so there’s inclination to finish it off.

Tier 8: Holy Guidance

Holy Guidance (5/5), Increases your spell damage and healing by 7/14/21/28/35% of your total Intellect.
Holy Guidance batman! This talent is really good. It’s the new bread-and-butter of the Holy tree. A lot of paladin itemization issues are dealt with in giving us spell damage based on intellect, and it gives a considerable amount of it. This talent is a must have if you can pick it up.

Tier 9: Divine Illumination

Divine Illumination (1/1), Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 sec.
So just like Improved Concentration Aura, I've tried picking this talent up and using it, and I've been surprised how useful it can be. I won't ward paladins away from it anymore. This ability has a couple nice functions... first off, it's all spells, meaning you could use it soloing, healing, dpsing, tanking, or whatever to save a load of mana under tough circumstances sometimes. It's not just heals, so that's nice. The other really useful factor in this ability is that, in conjunction with Illumination, it will let you regenerate some mana healing. See, a proper Holy Light should have a nasty crit rate (easily 20% or more with some gear), plus we have Divine Favor to force one crit. Since Illumination refunds the base cost of the spell, each critical holy light will refund half of its mana price back to the paladin while under Divine Illumination. That is, if your HL costs 660 mana, it costs 330 while under Divine Illumination. That means you spend 330, and if it crits you regain 660, so you gained 330 mana. If you get multiple crits, you can get a bunch of mana back. S'very nice. This ability is not on the Global Cooldown.

Talent Guide: Protection (Updated for 2.0 )

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 if you can avoid it.

Redoubt (5/5), Damaging melee attacks against you have a 10% chance to 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 quite nice for tanking with a shield, and damage return, since both require blocking to be effective for a paladin. It’ll be up most of the time now, and in combination with defense skill, aversion, and Holy Shield you can greatly reduce the number of crushing blows and crits you’ll take by pushing them off of your hit tables with massive block.

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

Blessing 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), While Righteous Fury is active, reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6% and 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 all holy spells by 90% with this talent, plus the damage mitigation is good for anyone, even PvP.

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 4/8/12/16/20
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 20 defense. OK for filler talents, but you want to use gear to get most of your +def.

Tier 4: Stoicism, Improved Hammer of Justice, Improved Concentration Aura

Stoicism (2/2), Increases your resistance to Stun effects by an additional 5/10% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by an additional 15/30%
Great talent for PvP purposes. Spell dispels help to turn a paladin off, and mass dispels on a divine shield are something to be scared of, and this talent protects you against that. Stun resist is nice too. Not very good PvE.

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 an endgame PvE tank, as most endgame bosses 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: Spell Warding, Blessing of Sanctuary, Reckoning

Spell Warding (2/2), Reduces spell damage taken by 2/4%
A nice talent for reducing spell damage taken, something that paladins have a lot of trouble mitigating

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. 80 damage reduced, 46 damage returned at level 70.
The least powerful of the 5/15 minute Blessings, but underestimated nevertheless. Great to have up on the group if the quantities of paladins allows. Great for tanks, possibly top buff for both of them. Significantly more effective at 70 than any other level.

Reckoning (5/5): Gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance after being hit with a damaging attack that the next 4 weapon swings for 8 seconds will generate an additional attack.
Don’t pass reckoning up, it makes you significantly more powerful melee. Probably good for at least +50% autoattack + seal damage, and could give you a lot more.

Tier 6: Sacred Duty, One-Handed Weapon Specialization

Sacred Duty (2/2), increases your total stamina by 3/6%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield by 30/60 seconds, and reduces the attack speed penalty of Divine Shield by 50/100%
This talent is nothing but good. More stam for tanking, more shield and stam for pvp, no penalty for the shield anywhere. Cheap talent considering how good it is.

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 and soloing.

Tier 7: Holy Shield, Ardent Defender

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. Returns 115 damage at level 70
The backbone of paladin tanking. Reduces the damage you take and generates hate. Get it if you’re a tankadin.

Ardent Defender (5/5), When you have less than 20% health, all damage taken is reduced by 10/20/30/40/50%
Shield wall every time your health gets critical is nice, but this talent risks letting the paladin getting oneshotted at 21%. Pick it up at your own risk. I strongly recommend it for a PvE tank, but PvP it probably won’t save you often.

Tier 8: Weapon Expertise

Weapon Expertise (5/5), Increases your skill with all melee weapons by 2/4/6/8/10
I don’t understand why paladins have this talent, much less have it in the protection tree. Either I’m missing something or this is a joke, because weapon skill does little enough for us when dpsing already, why bother giving it to us tanking? Skip this.

Tier 9: Avenger’s Shield

Avenger’s Shield (1/1), Hurls a Holy Shield at the target, dealing 270-330 Holy Damage, dazing them and then jumping to nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 6 seconds. 370-452 damage at level 60. 494-602 damage at level 70.
Ranged pull for a tank, snare PvP. Deadzones in melee range, so this isn’t for threat generation, but it is damned handy to carry with you nevertheless.

Talent Guide: Retribution (Updated for 2.0)

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 Judgment (2/2), Decreases the cooldown of your Judgment 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 Judgment of the Crusader by 5/10/15%.
This talent gives you meek returns, even at level 70 (less than 35 spelldamage from it). Pass it up unless you’re going for pure damage

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, Crusade

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. I enjoy this talent, but it isn’t that amazing and for a pure spec I’d probably go around it.

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. Underestimated talent, but not the best choice in the tree.

Crusade (3/3), Increases damage dealt against Humanoids, Undead, Demons, and Elementals by 1/2/3% damage.
Roughly equivalent to Conviction in damage per point, plus it’s damage that happens all the time. Pick it up if you can

Tier 5: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Sanctity Aura, Improved 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.

Improved Sanctity Aura (2/2), The amount of healing done to players affected by Sanctity Aura is increased by 3/6%
Affects ALL healing done, including potions and things like Improved Leader of the Pack procs. Really sweet talent, your group will love it and it will compensate for not having Healing Light if you aren’t holy subb'd. Or stack with healing light for even more effect if you are. I would never recommend passing this talent up.

Tier 6: Vengeance, Sanctified Judgment

Vengeance (5/5), Gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% 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, even after getting nerfed by 5%.

Sanctified Judgment (3/3), Gives you judgment spell a 33/66/100% chcance to refund 50% of the base mana cost of the judged Seal.
That’s the mana price of the seal, NOT the judgment. Do not forsake this talent if you like to save loads of mana. It makes your judgment spell refund mana to you most of the time, rather than consume mana.

Tier 7: Sanctified Crusader, Repentance, Divine Purpose

Sanctified Crusader (3/3), In addition to the normal effect, your Judgment of the Crusader spell will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against the target by 1/2/3%.
This talent exists for large groups and raids, not PvP. Get it if you’re the token ret pally in your raid group or some such, not for dpsing. There’s better ways to spend those talent points for dpsing.

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.

Divine Purpose (3/3), Melee and Ranged critical strikes made against you cause 4/7/10% less damage
Becomes less effective after the first point, but ineffective even at the first. I say who cares, 10% less damage from physical crits is not worth 3 talent points, ever. Skip this.

Tier 8: Fanaticism
Fanaticism (5/5), Increases the critical strike chance of all judgments capable of critical strike by 3/6/9/12/15%
Hell of a good talent. Vengeance is up more, judgments crit more (and they’ve always crit big). More dps, more smiles, don’t skip this.

Tier 9: Crusader Strike

Crusader Strike: Instant attack dealing weapon damage + 40% of the paladin’s Holy Spell damage. Refreshes judgments.
Basically a melee strike with a 40% +damage coefficient. And holy cow it’s a good talent, no single talent point will ever boost your overall dps more than this one. You need lots of +hit to make this talent refresh all judgments reliably, but for just PvP it strikes face on its own. NEVER skip this talent if you’re already 40 points in ret.

Common Paladin talent specs (Updated for 2.0 somewhat)

The Retnoob (44 ret / 17 holy) [2.0]
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=syxhZZVfzt0cuiIot
With the addition of crusader strike, fanaticism, and some other toys to this tree, a paladin’s DPS is no longer a thing to be scoffed at. We may not be rogues, but we sure as hell should be taken seriously when the hammers come falling. If you want to melee, this is the build for you. You’ll get big numbers and more combat abilities to use, notably Repentance, Sanctity Aura, and of course Crusader Strike. Also this is by far the best choice for leveling, since so much of 1-60 play involves solo questing. 60-70 is more instances oriented though, so be warned that Holy and Prot can also get you leveling fairly fast.

Notes about this build: I skip Eye for an Eye because PvE spells can almost never land critically. If spellcrits get you down PvP, go for it. I included Spiritual Focus here because forsaking Spiritual Focus makes healing both PvE and PvP very difficult, particularly since Concentration Aura will likely be down in favor of Sanctity. This build skips over Imp Blessing of Might because it’s effect isn’t that dramatic at level 70, nor leveling to 70, but if you like a bit more AP over a great amount of efficiency, that’s your choice. Focusing more points into Divine Int or Divine Str is a personal choice, but don’t skip Healing Light, you’ll be glad you have it.


The Reckadin (-)
Quite frankly, reckoning is dead, I wouldn’t build a spec around it any more.

The Healadin (47 holy / 14 prot) [2.0]
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=aVxuMgzGestVMuh
This is the single most durable combat healer in the game, rivaled only by Pain Suppression priests. It is extremely powerful, both PvE and PvP, at keeping its team alive for a long time through intense healing. Nothing is more annoying to those horde than a paladin who knows how to heal and who wears a shield.

Notes on this build: Totally skipping all damage abilities but Holy Shock, but if you have enough spelldamage you could still put out decent bursts with this build. BoK is useful to the group, Imp Righteous Fury can let you backup tank, but also gives you some nice mitigation PvP.

The Holydin (46 holy / 15 ret) [2.0]
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=qVxhMgzGestZVf0x
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 +Spell Damage gear to make great use of this build, but heck if it doesn’t put out big numbers if you do.
Notes on this build: Imp Seal of Righteousness is no longer part of this build because at level 64, Seal of Vengeance owns it. If you’re horde or not going to be 64 for a while, jimmy some points into imp SoR if you want.

PvP Protection (13 Holy / 41 Prot / 7 Ret) [2.0]
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sVxhZVGdhMIdgt0oVb
With this spec, it may as well pop up “immune” over your head when a rogue, feral druid, or warrior attacks you. You won’t be fragile, you’ll hit reasonable hard, you’ll block tons, and you’ll return lots of damage to boot. Avenger’s Shield is very nice for closing the gap between you and potential kiters as well. Remember, you can block a hunter’s bullets and return damage from doing so.

Notes on this build: We skipped Ardent Defender because the move is really unreliable. Weapon Expertise does nothing for you, really.

The Tankadin (10 Holy / 44 prot / 7 ret) [2.0]
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=aVVZVGtI00dgtxoVb Nothing to say here until the new prot tree is released- follow PvP Protection only swap Spiritual Focus for Benediction and jimmy points into Improved Righteous Fury (3/3).

Notes on this build: Little to say here. Ardent Defender can come in handle PvE more so than PvP. Imp Righteous Fury is always good.

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.

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

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.

Sticky plz.

Tis' a gude gude.

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Q u o t e:
Tis' a gude gude.

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Had the same thought, but I'm not going to fault it for an error in spelling.

Nice guide.

Fix the typo in the subject. Reported for sticky.

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Q u o t e:


Shaman
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.

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ya but if ur fighting an elemental or enhancement/elem shammy the cool down is slower but yes indeed faking the heal is a pain in the ass.....and i do agree that u guys have more mana and that is rlly gay cause u guys can heal more and when ur at like 1% health u bubble and heal cause u have so much mana nothing against u but i dont think thats fair...but now ive fought pallys that were at 100% health and mana and beat them because they didnt bubble so i guess when fighting a half decent shammy u might wanna use bubble...:)

And also i would like to compliment u on ur guide...very nice id say sticky it in the expansion i will roll pally :)

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Q u o t e:
Oopse on the typo, working to fix that...

But it looks like Bilzz is not being as quick about stickies anymore. Maybe they don't want them on the forums anymore?

Weird, imo

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Ok, it won't let me change the original subject, so I guess I have to repost ><

Interesting fact about these forums. Ugh.

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Q u o t e:
Stuck!

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Geld wins.

Edit: except Geld, you spelled "Guide" wrong in your title. =(