Paladin tips'n tricks

[Eepi]

This is not written by me!! I'm just sharing this with you, MMOwned! I got this from Welcome to wowhead.com.

Paladin tanking and AoE for dummies. (on standby)

Introduction, links and index.

It has come to my attention that many people ask for stats and strategies required as a paladin tank. There are too many different situations to answer simply, but I'll try my best.

Links
I found this on the web, slightly outdated due to 2.3 changes and Stamina gain from Combat Expertise, but the changes only make this guide more amazing:
Pre-Kara Uncrushability item guide.

Index:

1. Introduction, links and index.
2. What you need in raids. (minimum)
3. What you need in heroic instances.
4. AoE tanking for beginners.
5. AoE farming for beginners.
6. Regular 5-man instances.
7. Off-spec tanking.
8. Replies (was becoming too long to handle in the index section)
9. ____
10. ____
11. Macros, copied from other people

At this point in time, I would like state that I plan to continue the guide for:
Prot-ret hybrid DPS play
(Maybe) Copy and paste of the Uncrushable gear guide.
Professions: Pros and Cons

What you need in raids. (minimum)

490 defense
Why? Uncritability. Critical hits from mobs are double their normal damage. Defense decreases the chance you'll be hit with a critical strike, you need 475 defense to be uncrittable by a level 70 mob, raid bosses are considered 73 and therefore you need the equal amount of defense for 3 levels, 15.

Why not use resiliance to take off critical hits? In theory this is a viable option, however, defense contributes to dodge, miss, parry and block chances, whereas resiliance does not. This is one reason why you stack defense skill above 490.

Another thing to note is that some mobs have a higher critical strike chance than other mobs, this is usually thrash, but you can be critically hit with 490 defense

102.4% dodge, miss, parry and block with Holy Shield up
Pre-Kara Uncrushability item guide (I found this)
Why? Uncrushability. Crushing blows from mobs are 150% their normal damage. The bosses are considered level 73, hence they are significantly higher level than you. The only way to become uncrushable is to have complete migation, this includes shield blocks. For mobs level 72 and under, this is unimportant, so you can get by without 102.4% damage migation, this is in heroics and regular 5 mans.

A talent to take note of here is the deflection talent in the Tier 2 of the retribution tree. Deflection increases chance to parry by 1% per point invested up to 5 points and hence a great way to help reach uncrushable.

When you are feared or facing away from the mob, you lose all damage migation, if you multi-tank, make sure all the mobs are in front of you.

10000+ unbuffed HP
This number is only for beginning raiders, as your raid progresses, your HP should go up as well.

Most bosses will hit you for 2~4000 HP in Karazhan, you need to give a breather for your healers, especially if the bosses have a instant ability. After a raid buff you should have ~12000 HP, this will allow you to take 1 normal swing and an instant swing for a combined ~8000 damage, and allow the healer to place you back at max HP while having enough HP to last at least 1 more hit if the boss swing quickly, such as Prince in Kara.

In a 25-man example, Gruul will hit the MT for up to 8000/hit and OT for up to 14000 with his special ability, you should have 14000 raid buffed as the MT or 16000 as the OT wearing +stam gear

Appropriate Spelldamage
What is appropriate? This will vary according to the raid progression of your guild, for anything up to Gruul, a Continuum Blade with 40 spelldamage enchant is a minimum.

With consumables and raid buffs, you should be sitting ~250 for Karazhan and ~350 spell damage for Gruul's Layer.

For raids in SSC and BT, you should be looking at 250 spelldamage weapons along with some Tier gear that adds onto the spelldamage.

Spell rotation
Blessings: Blessing of Kings > Blessing of Light (only if there is a paladin healer) > Blessing of Sanctuary > Blessing of Wisdom > Blessing of Might

Always keep up your Righteous Fury

Auras: In resistance fights, change them accordingly, Retribution Aura helps with threat generation if it is a physical fight.

Pulling Boss mobs: Seal of the Crusader --> Holy shield --> Avenging Wrath --> Avenger's shield --> Judgement --> Seal of Vengence (Alliance) / Seal of Righteousness (Horde)
Pulling trash: Seal of Righteousness (AoE'able trash) / Seal of the Crusader (Focus fire requiring trash) --> Holy shield --> Avenger's shield --> Judgement --> Seal of Righteousness

Spamming spells: Your holy shield is #1 priority, 30% to block and a whole lot of threat generation.
Consecration should be up all the time when possible.
Judgement does not trigger global cooldown so it is preferred you spam it with a damaging seal whenever possible.
Make sure you keep up a damaging seal after each Judgement.

If you have a large lead on the threat meter, it is possible for you to maintain aggro with Holy Shield and Consecration while using Seal and Judgement of Wisdom to restore your mana.

Fear
Bubble and cancel it, Divine shield and Blessing of Protection does not eliminate threat, you are just ignored for the duration

/cast Divine Shield
/cancel Divine Shield

Stats
Need I say it? Once you are close to uncrushable, stamina is king. Then spell damage, and lastly block value.

As for reaching towards uncrushable:
Block rating, not block value > Dodge rating > Defense rating > Parry rating

Block rating increases the chance to block and block value increases the damage absorbed by the block.

This is only to help the beginner raid paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.
Basic build I have left the 4 points since many people debate where to place the last 4 points, however, this build is the commonly accepted one.

What you need in heroic instances.

Close to 485 defense
Once again, uncritability. Critical hits from mobs are double their normal damage. Defense decreases the chance you'll be hit with a critical strike, you need 485 defense to be uncrittable by a level 72 mob, which is the level of the boss mobs in heroics.

Of course, you don't need to be uncrittable in a heroic instance, the instance boss mobs only hit up to 2000, and that means they'll crit for 4000, once in a blue moon, but spike damage is a pain for your healers.

Stamina, dodge, miss, parry and block itemization
Stamina: with talents, 11.6 HP
Defense rating: 0.422 defense skill: 0.051% negation through miss, parry, dodge & 0.004% negation through absorbtion
Dodge rating: 0.053% dodge
Parry rating: 0.042% parry
Block rating: 0.127% block : 0.032% negation through absorbtion
(Since mobs in heroics hit 500~1000 and your shield absorbs 150~200, I'll calculate it as 1/4 damage negation)

approximate you have 10000 HP, at 750 damage from mobs, it takes 13.3 hits, or 14 hits for you to die.

Since the mobs in heroics hit for 500~1000, it takes roughly 65 stam to survive an extra hit.

with the same itemization values:
65 defense rating: 3.575% negation: ~370 damage over 14 hits -- half of the HP you could have gotten from stamina
65 dodge rating: 3.445% negation: ~350 damage over 14 hits
65 parry rating: 2.73% negation: ~290 damage over 14 hits
65 block rating: 2.08% negation: ~230 damage over 14 hits

This shows that for point for point, stam is your best option in a heroic

When you are feared or facing away from the mob, you lose all damage migation, if you multi-tank, make sure all the mobs are in front of you.

Block rating increases the chance to block and block value increases the damage absorbed by the block.

10000+ self-buffed HP
This is situational, in resistance fights you want more stam then ever, but you should have this much minimum in case you get critical hits or special abilities. Since there is only 1 healer in a 5 man and hence the heals you recieve are at half the rate.

Appropriate Spelldamage
It is important that you take into consideration the fact that you are not being raid buffed:

Aim for roughly 160 on your weapon, a bit from your gear for and an Wizard Oil for ~200-250.

Spell rotation: see the spell rotation in the raid preparation post.
Blessing of Sanctuary is better than Blessing of King on occations where the mob hits are less than 500 (before armor reduction) due to the 80 damage reduction and additional threat generation on block.
An addition to this notation will be that you will be using Hammer of Justice quite often, one disincapated mob means that much less damage you are taking

This is only to help the beginner heroic instancing paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.
Basic build I have left 14 points for your customization.

AoE tanking for beginners.

Crowd Control
Why? We're paladins, we don't need CC.

Against melee mobs, CC will prove to be a hinderance rather than assistance as it requires more control and possibly less AoE, it also increases the duration of combat by having to kill the CC'ed mob seperately.

However, the case differs greatly when facing casters, we don't get damage migation and negation. CC is your best friend along with spell interruption, this is where you use Hammer of Justice.
When you cannot CC or there is only 1 caster mob in the pull, AoE everything and focus fire the caster to take them out as soon as possible.

Damage migation.
Heroics, follow the itemizations stamina > defense rating > dodge rating > parry rating > block rating

Normal instances, your shield will block all the damage from most trash, this is excluding giants and the like.
Defense rating: 0.422 defense skill: 0.068% negation through miss, parry, dodge & block
Dodge rating: 0.053% dodge
Parry rating: 0.042% parry
Block rating: 0.127% block
Since AoE depends mostly on passive threat generation, block is a great way to increase threat.
block rating > defense rating > stamina > dodge rating > parry rating

Another thing that cannot be emphisized enough is that you cannot have mobs behind you, avoidance is based on line of sight, and your character cannot look behind and block those attacks.

Spelldamage
What is appropriate? This will vary according to the DPS make up of your party, if you have a high AoE DPS you need higher spell damage. ~200 is a good number in regular instances.

Spell rotation
Blessings: Blessing of Sanctuary > Blessing of Kings > Blessing of Light (only if there is a paladin healer) > Blessing of Wisdom > Blessing of Might

Always keep up your Righteous Fury

Retribution Aura helps with threat generation if it is a physical fight.

With a good healer, you'll usually use Seal of Wisdom throught the entire time
Seal of Wisdom / Seal of Light --> Holy shield --> Avenger's shield --> Judgement --> Seal of Wisdom / Seal of Light

Spamming spells: Your holy shield is #1 priority, 30% to block and a whole lot of threat generation.
Consecration should be up all the time when possible.

This is only to help the beginner paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.

AoE farming for beginners.

Mass AoE farming myths
On youtube and warcraftmovies, the level 70 AoE farmers always have 20-30 demon hunters and AoE them down, do not attempt this as soon as you hit level 70, your item level should average out between 109-112, their item level averages out 126+ including enchants and gems, that's effectively 4-5 level equality difference. The reason that they farm demon hunters is that most of the mobs will start off at ~50% of their HP and the evasion ability does not avoid Consecration damage.

Another myth is that you should farm the standard tanking talents and spell rotation, while this is possible, it should be noted that you do not have a dedicated healer and you will be taking a lot of smaller hits. You also do not have a DPS to help you out, all the damage comes from you and you need to keep up damage and HP to be successful.

Itemization
Follow the itemizations: block rating > defense rating > dodge rating > parry rating

Defense rating: 0.422 defense skill: 0.068% negation through miss, parry, dodge & block
Dodge rating: 0.053% dodge
Parry rating: 0.042% parry
Block rating: 0.127% block

While stamina is a great way to ensure your survival, you should be keeping at a constant level of health, or have an extemely slowed damage taken through the upkeep of blocks and Judgement/Seal of Light.

Your weapon should have a low attack speed so that you can benefit more for Seals and Judgements.

Choosing your targets
For a rough estimate, you should be able to handle up to six mobs with levels equal to the average required level of your items without problems, as you begin to understand concepts, it will be possible for you to handle more than that.
Add one and a half extra mobs per mobs one level lower than the required item level of your gear.

Elites do up to five times the damage of normal mobs, so they should count as three or four mobs.
Mobs such as felguards do two to three times the damage of normal mobs, hence they should count as two.

Avoid: casters, mobs that do stun or fear, mobs that drain mana/health, mobs that heal.

Another thing that cannot be emphisized enough is that you cannot have mobs behind you, avoidance is based on line of sight, and your character cannot look behind and block those attacks.

Instance farming
Some instances, a mob will follow you from the beginning to the end, such as VC, some instances, mobs will follow you up to only about 60 yards, such as Gnomer. Keep that in mind while gathering mobs. Casters can be ignored in instances 20 or more levels below you, since you will resist all (excluding boss abilities) spells cast against you.

With mobs that heal (i.e. Witch Doctors in ZF) do not AoE them as they will heal each other and it will take longer than taking them out individually.

Damage reflection
What is damage reflection? It's damage done to the attacker each time an attack is made.
The paladin is considered the best AoE farmers due to this ability.

There are two items to note for reflection, these will assist much with your farming:
Shield Spikes
Petrified Lichen Guard

Spell rotation
Blessing of Sanctuary, for damage reflection and damage reduction.
Righteous Fury, even though threat is not an issue, 6% less damage taken is amazing.
Retribution Aura, for damage reflection

Depending on how much damage you take:
Seal of Wisdom / Seal of Light --> Holy shield --> Avenger's shield (optional) --> Judgement --> Seal of Wisdom / Seal of Light

Spamming spells: Your holy shield is #1 priority, 30% to block and a whole lot of damage reflection.
Consecration should be up all the time when possible.

Heal or bubble and heal as needed.

This is only to help the beginner paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.
I prefer this basic build due to the undelayed Holy Light in combination with Concentration Aura when it is needed, that means less Divine Shield dependancy.


Regular 5-man instances.

The point of this part of the guide
From the raid and heroic instance guide, you can get most of the information you need, however, not all instances are level 70, this guide covers that. Do you need to read this part of the guide? Probably not, as it will cover the obvious.

How much stamina?
I can't say one number or give you a formula, especially since the stat difference pre-BC and tBC is very different, however, I can say this:

aim for 125% health of your DPS and healer
Example (1: VC, your DPS will have 400-600 health on average. The tank should have 600-1000
Example (6: Sethekk Halls, your DPS will have 5000-7000 health on average. The tank should have 7000-9000

Keeping aggro
Before you get tBC items with spell damage, it's a bit hard to keep aggro on your target if you have good DPS, this is a good practise for you to get tanking. Actual tanking starts at level 20, when you get Consecration, when you see a party member getting attacked, use Righteous defense, if another member is attacked or you lose aggro before the cool down is up, use Blessing of Protection on the party member getting attacked.

tBC you should be going for weapons that give you spell damage, especially with the recent changes to spelldamage from healing, this should be easy to accomplish:
List of spell damage weapons for tanking paladins before level 70

Gear itemization
Before heroics and raids, it's not too important, but you should always try to wear mail before level 40 and plate after level 40, you can get away with a couple gear being under the armor class, especially during the trasition from mail to plate, but it isn't recommended. Your gear should also have item level near the instance level (i.e. item level 42 for Scarlet Monastary Cathedral, or item level 112 for Steamvaults)

For level 70's these numbers will be larger the lower your character level is
Block rating: 0.127% block
Defense rating: 0.422 defense skill: 0.068% negation
Dodge rating: 0.053% dodge
Parry rating: 0.042% parry
Agility: 0.040% dodge

stamina > block rating > defense rating > dodge rating > parry rating > agility

You shouldn't be focusing too much on spell damage itemization, yes it helps, but it doesn't make or break your day, your weapon carries roughly enough to pass the instance.

It is possible for you to tank with 0 spell damage and using a warrior weapon, it's hard, but doable in normal instances.

Spell rotation
Blessings: Blessing of Sanctuary > Blessing of Kings > Blessing of Light (only if there is a paladin healer) > Blessing of Wisdom > Blessing of Might
This is due to the fact that most mobs in regular instances will hit lightly enough that your Blessing of Sanctuary will absorb most of the damage.

Always keep up your Righteous Fury

Auras: In resistance fights, change them accordingly, Retribution Aura helps with threat generation if it is a physical fight.

Pulling Boss mobs: Seal of the Crusader --> If you have these Holy shield --> Avenging Wrath --> Avenger's shield --> Judgement --> Seal of Vengence (Alliance) / Seal of Righteousness (Horde)
Pulling trash: Seal of Righteousness (AoE'able trash) / Seal of the Crusader (Focus fire requiring trash) --> If you have these Holy shield --> Avenger's shield --> --> Judgement --> Seal of Righteousness

Spamming spells: Your holy shield is #1 priority if you have it, 30% to block and a whole lot of threat generation.
Consecration should be up all the time when possible.
Judgement does not trigger global cooldown so it is preferred you spam it with a damaging seal whenever possible.
Make sure you keep up a damaging seal after each Judgement.

If you have a large lead on the threat meter, it is possible for you to maintain aggro with Holy Shield and Consecration while using Seal and Judgement of Wisdom to restore your mana.

This is only to help the beginner instancing paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.
Basic build I have left 30 points for your customization, if you plan on tanking instances past level 60, it is recommended you add most of the remaining points into the protection tree.


Off-spec tanking.

Who, what, where, when, why, how?
Who: anyone with a high armor class, in our case, retribution and holy specialized paladins.
What: anything that the main tank can't handle alone, be that a mini-boss, a special ability of the boss or trash.
Where: anywhere you need a group against 2 or more hard mobs.
When: anytime where the group leader deems the situation impossible for a single tank, anytime an extra mob goes out of control.
Why: any reason really, to make life easier.
How: that's the point of this guide.

How much stamina?
As much stamina as you can stack, you won't be expected to dodge and parry as much as a regular tank:
Off-tanking, all you are expected to do is to keep alive long enough for the tank to take control over the situation, this also means keeping an eye on your health and heal yourself appropriately.
Off-tanking a raid boss or raid trash, you're expected to take a huge amount of damage, either special abilites from the boss or small but frequesnt damage from trash, you'll have a healer assigned to you so healing won't be too much off an issue, however, Consecrating and spamming Holy Light with Righteous Fury active generates a signigicant amount of threat.
Tanking, if you're off-spec tanking a instance as a main tank for the instance, follow the Regular 5-man instance guide above, however, keep in mind that the group expects you to act as a meat shield, that means being able to take the most damge possible before dying rather than being able to control the mobs without CC or letting your healer relax by chain dodging.

Tanking gear
High stamina, and with tBC instances, high spell damage. Even if you're holy or ret, it's a good idea to keep in handy a one handed healing/spell damage weapon and a shield and a set of high armor/stamina armor, especially with the holy paladins.

Generally, holy paladins will not have to worry about changing weapon and shield and retribution paladins will not have to worry about changing armor for tanking.

Intellect is not as important of a stat but a fair amount will prevent you from losing threat due to lack of mana.

Do you need points in protection?
Not really, but it will be hard for retribution paladins to hold aggro at high levels with the 2.3 changes, it may be better if you spend talent points into improved Righteous fury for help with threat generation.

For holy, most holy paladins have points in Blessing of Kings, which is a extremely good spell for tanking, even retribution paladins may benefit spending points to work up to that.

This is only to help the beginner paladins, if I missed anything, feel free to correct me.
Basic build I have left 47 points for your customization, probably to be spent in your specialization.

Macros

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 combined avoidance. Currently at:",0.8,0.8,1)
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5+(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)*150/355 + 20)*0.04,1,0.5,0)

Just copy and paste this into a macro and it will tell you how much avoidance you have. A lot easier than adding yourself hah.

Cleanse macro, cleanses the selected target if its friendly, cleanses the targets target if its not

/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Cleanse; [target=target,help] Cleanse; [target=targettarget,exists,help] Cleanse; [target=player] Cleanse; Cleanse;

very usefull as tank, coz if the mob/boss puts a poison/magic on you clean it from yourself with one push on a button.

A one button seal/judgement macro, swap command for any other seal.

/castsequence reset=30 Seal of Command, Judgement

all in one flash of light macro, resses target if dead, heals target if friendly, heals targets target if not friendly, otherwise heal self

/cast [dead,help] Redemption; [modifier:button:2,target=player] Flash of Light; [target=mouseover,exists,help] Flash of Light; [target=target,help] Flash of Light; [target=targettarget,help] Flash of Light; [target=player] Flash of Light;

all in one holy light macro, resses target if dead, heals target if friendly, heals targets target if not friendly, otherwise heal self

/cast [dead,help] Redemption; [modifier:button:2,target=player] Holy Light; [target=mouseover,exists,help] Holy Light; [target=target,help] Holy Light; [target=targettarget,help] Holy Light; [target=player] Holy Light;

Doesn't work if the target released

all in one Purify macro

/cast [dead,help] Redemption; [modifier:button:2,target=player] Purify; [target=mouseover,exists,help] Purify; [target=target,help] Purify; [target=targettarget,help] Purify; [target=player] Purify;

All in one BOF macro

/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Blessing of Freedom; [target=target,help] Blessing of Freedom; [target=targettarget,exists,help] Blessing of Freedom; [target=player] Blessing of Freedom; Blessing of Freedom;

All in one BOP macro

/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Blessing of Protection; [target=target,help] Blessing of Protection; [target=targettarget,exists,help] Blessing of Protection; [target=player] Blessing of Protection; Blessing of Protection;

very usefull one, you can use it for if the mob/boss goes for that nub mage who overaggroed, to cast blessing of protection on the mage without having to deselect the boss and with a single click. Just one quick word of warning: if the boss switches a lot or the target uses an aggro dump (vanish, feint, feign death, ..) you might end up bop yourself.

Taunts your targets target, otherwise taunt the target

/cast [help] Righteous Defense; [harm, target=targettarget] Righteous Defense

By adding "#show tooltip (spellname)" you can show the cooldown and the tooltip of the spell on the macro.

[Eepi]

FAQ

Introductions links and index

Introductions
I find it annoying that people don't bother reading the forums and ask the same questions, so here it is: The paladin forums FAQ.

Now the opinions that I am posting in this thread is what I find to be the general consensus, not everyone's opinions. I don't want people posting replies to complain about any mistakes I have made unless they are dire mistakes.

That being said, if I made a large mistake, feel free to correct me right away.

Example of a "minor" mistake:

blademeld said:
Level until 35-45 as retribution

No, I am not going to change that, it's a generalized range, I'm not going to change it to level 42 because you want me to or because it's more efficient.

I must give my praise and thanks to the following people, they have stayed consistant and helpful in the paladin forums. I have yet to see these people make major, if any, mistakes.

The biggest reason I'm happy with these people is that they have stayed very consistant and polite (unlike yours truely).

Holy: souldier
Protection: tomasvalheru
General consultant: RubyDX

What am I saying? Listen to these people if you have any questions.

Links

Courtasey of Lumino

• Protection paladin forums (Recommended for theories and boss encounter tips)
• Protection paladin guide
• Max DPS gear rankings
• Retribution paladin forums
• Retribution paladin guide

Index

1. Introductions, links and index
2. "How to ask."
3. "What things can a paladin do?"
4. "What profession is the best for me?"
5. "What specialization is best for leveling?" & "What build for ___ specialization?"
6. "What weapon is the best for me?"
7. "What stats should I be looking for?"
8. "Is cloth okay to wear?"

"What things can a paladin do?"

Healing: Holy paladins and off-specialization healing.
Holy paladins are the most efficient single target healer.
Protection or retribution paladins can still heal, they just need experience and good gear: This will occur in regular 5-man instances when the group leader decides that you are in need of a healer and raids where a healer needs support.

Tanking: Protection paladin, off-specialization tanking, off-tanking and trash tanking.
Protection paladins are the multi-target tanks.
Holy or retribution paladins can still tank, they just need experience and good gear: This will occur in regular 5-man instances when the group leader decides that you are in need of a tank.
Off-tanking is the description of a high stamina character in melee range in second place on the threat meter. The off-tank is there to absorb damage from the special attacks.
Trash tanking happens in raids where random adds pop up, a holy or retribution paladin can easily tank these with righteous fury.

Damage: Retribution paladins and shockadins.
Retribution paladins are a damage build, so no explanation is needed there other than the fact that retribution paladins are not pure damage. If you want to top the damage meter, roll rogue. Retribution paladins bring many debuffs and buffs that will benefit the raid overall and helps the raid increase their damage output as a group. This includes Sanctity Aura being used to bring up a protection paladin's threat ceiling.
Shockadins are a 40/0/21 holy build. The two things to note here is that Holy Guidance increases holy damage, and Sanctity Aura increases holy damage done by 10%. This is not a raid welcome build due to the mana-inefficiency, but it is a viable option for soloing holy paladins or PvP holy paladins wanting to do burst damage.

"What profession is the best for me?"

From what I have seen and heard, if you are a new player with a new character with low money, it is best if you have mining and skinning to earn money and power level your crafting professions at level 70.

If you can spare the expenses, it is best to have two crafting professions at level 70:

Retribution: Blacksmithing and Engineering
Blacksmithing: Deep Thunder is considered an all around decent PvP and PvE weapon for beginner retribution paladins.
Engineering: Furious Gizmatic Goggles Is an amazing goggle that rivals T4 and T5 helms. Along with that, engineering provides many explosives and trinkets that will prove to be useful in PvP whether interrupting casts, preventing kiting, or just for fun.

Protection: Enchanting and Jewel crafting
Enchanting: Protection paladins can grind a lot of mobs and instances. Disenchanting the loot provides an excellent profit margin.
Jewel crafting: Tanking paladins will generally upgrade their armor more often than other classes, and a lot of gems are needed. This helps cut down the costs as well as access to Falling Star and Figurine - Dawnstone Crab

Holy: Alchemy and Enchanting
Alchemy: As a healer, you will have to have a nice stack of mana potions at your disposal.
Enchanting: Holy paladins will usually benefit the most from doing group quests and instances, and hence, you will have a lot of uncommon or rare quality loots. Disenchanting the loot provides an excellent profit margin.

"What specialization is best for leveling?"

General consensus on the paladin forums is that it is best to solo most for levels 1-60 and group up for instances once reaching tBC instances:

Retribution until levels 35-45.
Switch to Protection for AoE farming.
Protection until levels 58-62.

"What build for ___ specialization?"

Raid specialization (warning, disputable due to personal preference):
Holy at level 70
Protection at level 70
Retribution at level 70

PvP specialization (warning, disputable due to personal preference):
Holy at level 70
Shockadin at level 70
Retribution at level 70

"What weapon is the best for me?"

Retribution specialization prefers a slow, top-end damage, two handed weapon for Seal of Command procs and well as burst damage effects in PvP.

Holy specialization prefers a two hander before access to spell damage between the levels 1-60, but once tBC equipment becomes accessable, a high spell damage one handed weapon and shield combonation is prefered.

Protection specialization prefers two hander for single target mobs, but more often than not, a protection paladin will go after a high spell damage one handed weapon and a damage reflective shield and grind multiple monsters at the same time.

Paladins have access to:
One and two handed axes.
One and two handed maces.
One and two handed swords.
Polearms.

"What stats should I be looking for?"
These itemization are based on grouped play. If you are solitary play or PvP oriented, add stamina to the list.

pre-BC itemization

Holy: Intellect and Stamina.
For mana pool and survivability.

Protection: Stamina and Strength.
For damage intake and threat generation.

Retribution: Strength and Intellect.
For damage output and mana pool.

tBC itemization
Although not completely in this order

Holy: Intellect, healing, spell critical strike rating, mana per 5 seconds.

Protection: Stamina, spell damage, defense and other avoidance.

Retribution: Strength, Intellect, critical strike rating.

"Is cloth okay to wear?"

Cloth is about 1/8th of plate armor value.
Leather is about 1/4th of plate armor value.
Mail is about 1/2 of plate armor value.

As a paladin, you should be looking at 10000+ armor at level 70.

You have around 1000 armor value per peice of your armor.

That means mail is around 500, hence 500 armor reduction per piece of armor, and hence around 1% physical damage reduction loss.
Leather is around 250, hence you lose around 2% physical damage reduction loss.
Cloth is around 125, hence, around 3% physical damage reuduction loss.

This is not a significant loss for holy or retribution paladins; however, armor scales, and the damage taken scales rapidly with loss of armor.

This being said, if you are holy or retribution, you should not worry too much on the fact that you have armor below cloth. In PvE, and even in most PvP, you won't be the one taking the focus fire.
However, a protection paladin should never sacrifice even one peice of armor if possible.

[Eepi]

Battle Cleric: A Holy Paladin's Perspective (85%)

[Introduction]
I put on my robe and wizard hat..

Gruul the Dragonkiller is at twenty percent. The healers are drained. Priests call out "Innervate" like Doom Lord Kazaak calls out death to all life. Druids scramble to pop out of moonkin and cat form. They pop potions, burn trinkets and cooldowns, anything they can do to get that Greater Heal off. Gruul takes a nice swipe at the offtank. The priests yelp.

And still, someone's healing the main tank. Someone's still has mana to spare when nobody else does.

You're that person.
Welcome to the life of the holy paladin.

This guide is written for newcomers to the Paladin class, not for number crunchers or theorycrafters. I don't talk in Latin, and explain things as simply as possible. If you're here for a math lesson, go somewhere else. Otherwise.. welcome.

[Table of Contents]
A little recap of exactly what we're covering here.

1. Introduction
2. Table of Contents (You are here!)
3. Basics
4. Leveling a Holy Paladin
5. Outland Dungeons & You
6. Heroics
7. Raiding
8. PvP
9. Talents
10. The Spell Crit VS MP5 Debate
11. FAQ

[Basics]
Risin' up, back on the streets..

So you want to play a paladin, eh? You want to be able to bubble, start casting Hearthstone, and /lol at your enemies? You want to be able to tank, heal, and DPS with just a switch of spec and gear? You want to be the most annoying class to kill in PvP?

Good on you.

A lot of people give up on the paladin quickly after rolling simply because.. well, they're boring, sort of like druids before level twenty. Paladins do pretty much the exact same thing each fight. They don't get truly fun to play until 42, and that's a good ways off for the beginning player. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First off..

The Holy Paladin, Abridged.

Paladins are one of the most versatile classes in WoW. They can heal, tank, and DPS, each with their upsides and downsides. This guide focuses mainly on the healing aspect. Holy Paladins have one of the single-most mana efficient heals ingame (Flash of Light), and various talents aimed at increasing their durability and longetivity in PvE.

The principle talents in the holy tree focus on giving mana back from crits, and enabling paladins to crit with their holy spells. This is the key to their longetivity in PvE, and why they're so desirable in raids. They can buff a raid, give their raid group a constant bonus to spellcasting/armor, provide wipe recovery, and sometimes mean the difference between the tank going down and the tank staying alive.

Picking A Race

The four playable races for paladins are:

• Humans
• Dwarves
• Draenei*
• Blood Elves*

*Require Burning Crusade.

Humans begin in Elwynn Forest, and are the Alliance race closest to its' capital city (spawning a generous amount of bank alts). Their racial talents aren't necessarily geared towards paladins, but are nice to have regardless.

• Perception offers some stealth detection help in PvP and Arena, and in some rare situations, PvE.
• The Human Spirit is a 10% spirit bonus, but kind of useless in my opinion unless you're a priest. I guess any out-of-combat regen you can get won't hurt you, though.
• Diplomacy is very nice to have for those endgame faction grinds. If you were on the fence between humans and any other race, Diplomacy should be the deciding factor.
• Sword and Mace Specialization is nice to have as well, but assuming you go the route of Holy (hey, you're reading this guide) then it won't really matter at level seventy.

It should also be taken into account that human males look a lot like monkeys.

Dwarves start off in the mountainous Dun Morogh, and honestly only have two racials worth mentioning:

• Stoneform is an 8-second selfbuff that immunizes the dwarf to poison, disease and bleed effects and gives him +10% armor. This is nice for both PvE and PvP, and often overlooked by dwarven players.
• Treasure Finding isn't nearly as useful as Stoneform, but worth mentioning nevertheless. It simply adds another trackable to your minimap, letting you see chests and other goodies.

The other two - Frost Resistance and Gun Specialization - are relatively useless because paladins can't use guns, and with the exception of maybe 3-4 bosses in endgame, frost resistance is currently useless, and even then, 10 points won't make or break you.

Dwarves also suffer from the same ailment as humans: baboon men and ugly women. See above.

Draenei begin on the isolated island of Azuremyst, and are the newcomer paladins to the Alliance.

• Gift of the Naaru is a heal-over-time ability for 1085 health points over 15 seconds, offering a paladin his or her only heal-over-time spell. The good thing about Gift of the Naaru is that it has a 100% healing coefficient - meaning that every single point of +healing a paladin gets through his gear is added to the 1085 base. This should be kept in mind, because it will be the only HoT spell a paladin will get.
• Heroic Presence is an additional aura that is constantly up which offers +1% chance to hit with melee. Contrary to popular belief, Heroic Presence does affect you as well, but it does not appear as an individual buff on your buff bar. Generally speaking, though, as a holy paladin this is more of a buff to your party members instead of you personally.
• Gemcutting provides a beginning bonus to Jewelcrafting, and if you intend to pick up this tradeskill, Draenei are your best bet.

Shadow Resistance falls under the same category as Frost Resistance - you'll wind up using it on maybe five occasions tops, and even then it won't be enough that you'll notice.

Also.. yeah, 'nuff said.

Blood Elves begin in Eversong Woods, and are the first race to bring Paladins to the Horde (much to many a Horde's dismay). If you want to play a paladin but can't stand the Alliance (lolnelfhunter) then Blood Elves are the only way to go.

• Mana Tap/Arcane Torrent is the most notable of Blood Elven racials. Mana Tap, when cast on an enemy with mana, reduces their mana by (50+level), or 120 at level 70. It also puts a stacking buff on you that stacks up to three. At any time, you can use Arcane Torrent, which consumes your Mana Tap charges and silences everything within 8 yards for 2 seconds. For every charge of Mana Tap you have on you, you'll gain a bit of mana. If you use Arcane Torrent without any Mana Tap charges, you gain no mana but still silence. Sound complicated? Good. All you have to know is that it's good for PvP, and occasionally PvE.
• Arcane Affinity increases your Enchanting skill base by 10. If you're intending to pick up Enchanting, Blood Elves should be considered.

Blood Elves also have a minor resist racial, but like all resist racials they really won't make or break you.

In summary, all races have benefits and downfalls. It will more than likely result in the following factor: appearance. Don't pick a race that you hate simply because they have an interesting racial. Pick one that you like.

So now you've chosen your race. What now?
[Leveling a Holy Paladin]
I wanna be the very best, that no one ever was..

I'm not going to cover the first ten levels like every other guide. However, I will offer some techniques and strategies to make your troubles a little bit easier.

This is the key: do not level up as Holy. I repeat. Do not level up as Holy. People will tell you it's possible, but that's about as far as it goes. It's possible to level up as a prot warrior, a holy priest, etc. But it is no way as quick, efficient, or easy as leveling up as retribution or protection. Luckily, you'll be doing both.

Starting Off Ret..

The first 40-42 levels you'll be leveling through will probably be one of the more repetitive grinds in your WoW life. For someone just looking to blitz through levels as quickly as possible, Retribution is the way to go. It doesn't take skill, and you can only really take 1-2 mobs at a time, but it's tried and true.

Get Seal of Command as soon as possible and pair it with Judgement of the Crusader in order to max holy damage. Also, if it's up, cast Hammer of Justice/Repentance and then judge Seal of Command in order to get the damage bonus from stuns. Rinse and repeat.

As far as where to level, it's really up to you. I know that I, being Horde, levelled through Eversong and Ghostlands to level 20 or so, and then went to Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Basin, and then finished off the retribution part in Strangethorn Vale. But if you prefer the Barrens, Thousand Needles, Auberdine, Westfall, whatever, go however you feel is easiest.

It'll get repetitive and boring after a while, but resist the temptation to reroll a hunter. Keep going at it, and soon enough you'll find yourself at the holy pinnacle of all paladin leveling.

For those of you looking for an optimal talent tree to get to 40 or so, click here.

You can, of course, float some points around, but the key is to be able to burst DPS a target down as quick as possible (with the limitations of being a paladin).

..Continuing On With Prot...

Congratulations. You've now reached the point where you can do one of the most practiced, well-refined arts of leveling: AoE farming. At level forty, dash to the nearest paladin trainer and pick up your free mount. And then -- and don't lose me here -- drop all of your talents, and respec protection.

I know. It's hard.

Many people will tell you that Retribution is the way to go all the way to seventy, but it is in no way efficient or quick once monsters start smacking your bubblehearthing ass for more than you can heal and DPS through.

This was the spec that I used while leveling up, here at 40 and then here again at 58. It is by no means perfect or flawless, but it's what I used and it worked for me.

Here's the basic idea.

1. Check to make sure you have Righteous Fury, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Retribution Aura on.
2. Round up around 5-6 melee baddies your level, or just under your level.
3. Choose one mob and judge Seal of Light on them, and then cast Seal of Light upon yourself.
4. Begin casting Consecrate. Use Holy Shield every time it is up.
5. Once your main target is dead, just tab to another. Don't worry about judging a new seal - at this point, the fight is almost over.
6. Continue to Consecrate/Holy Shield until everyone is dead.
7. Loot, drink if you need to, and repeat.

Remember the following mantra, and you'll find leveling through Tanaris, Un'Goro, and Plaguelands a breeze: Do not try to AoE caster mobs. You will get your ass handed to you on a silver platter with a garnish and pinapple ring.

I won't list all of the beautiful AoE grinding hotspots, but Iloveari over at the WoW Forums has already made a post devoted solely to this aspect of a Paladin's life! Do pay a visit.

Now, at 58 you have two options: continue as Protection, or respec and start doing what you've been leveling up for..

..And Crossing the Finish Line Holy

Now, this is definitely a debatable subject. Personally, I don't think that leveling up in Outland as a spec you don't intend to pursue is a good idea. Healing is a difficult task, regardless of what you may think. It's much, much more than gear. It's preemptive healing, getting a feel for how much your tank can take, knowing when to sit back and regen a bit and when to throw out the Holy Lights.

I leveled up from 60-70 as Holy, and it only took me around two weeks @ 3-4 hours a day. However, others don't see eye-to-eye with me on this one and recommend a full Protection or Retribution path. For those of you who wish to take this route, I can only advise that you go Holy, and if not, at least remember to keep a healing set around for when you hit 70. Just know that in dungeons, priority goes to the healer first, and then the protection or retribution paladin.

Here's the spec I went with from 60 to 70. With it, I was able to solo with relative ease, and still main heal for all the dungeons I needed. I focused mainly on Retribution-itemized gear -- spell damage, strength, stamina and crit. I came in with a two hander, judged Crusader and used Seal of Righteousness, and then just hoped that Holy Shock would crit. When I got low, I'd switch to Concentration Aura and heal myself.

Simple.

Just go through all the quests you can, do a couple of instances, and you should be dinging seventy before you know it.



[Outland Dungeons & You]
Look. I know you're about as intelligent as a flea, but you have got to train Nethercurse down the hall!

So, you've hit seventy, and you're ready to start doing level 70 five-mans, eh?

Well.. good for you.

The first step is, if you're specced in a way that's not Holy/Protection, go respec! Nobody likes a retribution or protection healer. Prot pallies and ret pallies can both heal if asked, but since you've read this far and must want to be a healer, go spec like one! Here's a sample build if you're lost, but just remember to get the principle talents: Illumination, Divine Favor, Holy Power and Sanctified Light, and Holy Guidance. Those will up your heals and durability immensely.

If you followed my advice, this should be no problem for you. You've been building those player skills that make a good healer by simply practicing and working at it for the last ten levels. Good on you, mate. Here's an e-hug for being a wise player. But if you haven't.. well, that's okay too. Here are some tips for you for healing regular 5-mans.

• Know your tank. You can check the person tanking's spec. If it's a retribution paladin, or a balance druid, or a fury warrior, just know that you're going to have to work a little bit harder. Stay focused, and be sure to keep the tank topped off.
• Use Blessings wisely. If you find that DPS is pulling aggro, give them Salvation (and don't take any crap if they complain! Put it this way -- Salvation, or no blessings at all. It'll shut them up). If you find yourself taking healing aggro yourself, don't be afraid to swap Wisdom for Salvation. If your tank is getting one-shotted, toss him Kings to give him a bit more room to breathe! Versatility is key.
• Know the instance. Read up on WoWWiki about an instance before you go in for the first time. Know the boss strategies and what to look out for. Also, take a look at the gear that drops in said instances and know what you want. Don't roll on DPS gear if there's a chance healing gear might drop from the next boss.
• Don't burn your mana! (And if you do, burn it wisely!) Have a priority. Your tank will always come first, and then yourself, and then DPS. If your tank and a DPS are both at 10% health, heal the tank first! DPS can be replaced by the other two DPS burning cooldowns -- a tank cannot. Also, remember that Holy Light is time efficient while Flash of Light is mana efficient. Use them appropriately.

Now, I know what you're thinking. When do I get to go to Karazhan? When do I get to capitalize on Blizzard's love of Holy Paladins? I'll cover the recommended stats for entry-level Karazhan in a moment, but here's a quick outlining of some of the gear you'll need to begin to build for raiding.

• Back: Vicar's Cloak [OR] Cloak of Whispering Shells
• Chest: Breastplate of Many Graces [OR] Leonine Breastplate [OR] Harness of the Deep Currents
• Feet: Boots of the Watchful Heart [OR] Khorium Boots [OR] Ornate Boots of the Sanctified
• Rings: Celestial Jewel Ring [OR] Cosmic Lifeband [OR] the revered Honor Hold/Thrallmar reputation rings.
• Hands: Life Bearer's Gauntlets [OR] The Hands of Fate
• Helm: Mask of Penance [OR] X-52 Technician's Helm
• Legs: Cassock of the Loyal [OR] Starcaller's Plated Legguards [OR] Consortium Plated Legguards
• Neck: Gezzarak's Fang [OR] Necklace of Eternal Hope
• Libram: Blessed Book of Nagrand
• Shield: Crystal Pulse Shield [OR] Stormshield of Renewal
• Shoulders: Justice Bearer's Pauldrons [OR] Uvuros Plated Spaulders
• Waist: Girdle of Many Blessings [OR] Khorium Belt
• Wrist: Virtue Bearer's Vambraces [OR] Thadell's Bracers
• Main Hand: Lightsworn Hammer [OR] The Essence Focuser
• Trinkets: Lower City Prayerbook [OR] Scarab of the Infinite Cycle [OR] Essence of the Martyr

By the time you're geared up in most of the gear listed above, or their mail/leather/cloth counterparts, you should be sitting at around 900-1000 +healing, 60-70 MP5, and 8000-9000 mana. If you're falling short, be sure to get your gear enchanted with +heals, and the helm enchant from Honor Hold/Thrallmar. Once you attain somewhere around those stats, consider yourself ready to raid.

A note about the above gearlist, as well as PvP gear...
The above is a general outline. Chances are by the time you get to 70 you'll already have a decent healing set built, this is mostly just in case you were wondering some of the gear you might be looking for. Also, do bear in mind that while PvP gear is easily attained and has decent stats, it is definitely geared towards PvP and not PvE. With it, you won't necessarily have the staying power that a paladin in PvE gear would, and if you choose to go this route, replace your PvP gear with PvE gear ASAP through raid drops.

[Heroics]
Mana Potions? Check. Symbols of Divinity? Check. Gold for repair bill? Check.

I won't spend too long on heroics, simply because they aren't going to be a huge part of your character's life unless you can't find a KZ run immediately. But here are some things to keep in mind..

• Heal preemptively. Bosses and trash in Heroics hit much harder and are not to be tooled around with, or half-assed. Focus, keep the tank up. If you're just beginning, you should find yourself drained of mana after every pull from spamming Holy Light.
• Know your bosses. The bosses in Heroics can have differences from their regular counterparts, so be sure the whole group is informed.
• Communicate. I'm a firm believer in Ventrilo for heroics and onwards, and you'll find it a lot easier to communicate and recover from an unexpected pull if you have a direct line of communication. If you don't have a Vent, you can try the built-in VoIP system, but I don't recommend it.

The gear listed in my previous post did include some heroic pieces, but I did my best to find non-heroic alternatives. It's not really required that you do Heroics at all, but you'll find it good practice if you intend to continue on to Karazhan and Gruul's.

[Raiding]
Alright, look. If you *$%&ers don't get out of the *$&@ing Charred Earth, I'm going to *$^&ing strangle you.

First Things First..

The first things you want to ask yourself before beginning raiding in The Burning Crusade are..

• Is my gear ready? If you don't meet the requirements I listed above (900-1000 +healing, 60-70 MP5, and 8000-9000 mana) then you aren't quite ready to begin Karazhan/Gruul's unless you're getting powered along by well-geared people. If that's the case, you'll get geared quickly -- otherwise, try to get at least pseudo-close to those recommendations.
• Do I have the right addons? Some addons I would highly recommend.. Healbot and BigWigs are the two that I mainly use for raiding, but using something like Grid and Deadly Bossmods will be fine as well. Just as long as you have something for single-click healing, buffing, and raid warnings, you'll be good. Omen is good to have but never necessary for healers. I would recommend having either it or KTM to monitor DPS, however, and to judge whether you should switch a DPS class from Wisdom/Might/Kings to Salvation.

Once you've made sure that you meet these two requirements, start looking for a beginning raid! If you are in a raiding guild that is not too far along you can usually find a place as a healer in a guild run. Even the most experienced guilds come back to Karazhan for fun, so try to get in where you can if not consistently. If you can't find a raid within your guild, either look for a new guild or check the World of Warcraft Realm Forums for your realm and see if any raids are forming for your faction.

Making Preparations..

Once you've found a raid, it's time to start gathering consumables. As a beginning raiding paladin you're going to want to use as many consumables as you can in order to extend your capability in raids. Superior Mana Oil and Elixirs of Healing Power, paired with Golden Fish Sticks, can help to push you a little further over raiding minimums and can mean the difference between a dead tank and a live one.

A couple of things to check before raidtime..

• Do I have all the consumables I will need? Super Mana Potions, Elixirs, food and water, and so on. Make sure you have these.
• Do I have all of the reagents I will need? As a rule of thumb, I like to carry around 300 Symbols of Kings and 5 Symbols of Divinity with me at all times. Be sure to have the proper amount of both.
• Do I have all of the time I need to start and finish the raid? Nothing irritates raid leaders more than people who have to leave group halfway through a raid, or take long AFKs to go eat dinner. Be sure that the next however-long-this-raid-will-take is available.

Your Role..

Here are some tips for the various roles you may be filling.

As a Main Tank healer, you need to be sure that you always have a big heal charged. Depending on whether the encounter calls for quick, rapid heals - Moroes, for example - just spam your Holy Light. But the majority of raid bosses do high burst damage, sometimes up to 75% of your tank's health.

In cases like this, you want to be able to pre-emptively heal, which is simple in concept. Simply start casting a Holy Light upon the tank, and if he hasn't taken any damage by the time Holy Light cast time is 80% done, interrupt the spell by moving. Repeat as necessary. In this way, you'll be keeping a big heal ready for the tank whenever needed, and won't be wasting mana by spamming them and overhealing.

As a Raid Healer, you're pretty much going to need Healbot or Grid to be effective. In this case, Flash of Light is your best friend. Just look on your Healbot for anyone under 90% life and be sure that that person gets a heal. After you start charging a heal on that person, immediately find another person. By the time the first heal has gone off, you should already have found another person and charged a heal on them. It requires quick reflexes and practice but when performed correctly can put a paladin just below Shamans for raid heals.

As an Off-tank Healer, you should expect to be moving around quite a bit. Usually off-tank healers are required for fights like Fathom-Lord in SSC and High King Maulgar in Gruul's Lair, where there are multiple raid bosses that need to be tanked. Be sure to keep up with your tank, and don't be afraid of using Holy Shock. While it is definitely not the best heal in your repetoire, it is instant, and can help keep your tank alive long enough to get a heal if you're running to catch up to him.

As a AoE DPS Healer, you should honestly do nothing but spam Holy Light(Rank 11) on the AoE'r with aggro. In cases like these, you'll have a large group of mobs that need to be AoE'd down. Typically a mage or warlock will be tanking these pulls simply because of the huge amount of aggro Seed of Corruption and Arcane Explosion cause. And since both of these classes are in cloth, be sure that they are getting super-heals from all members of the raid to keep them alive.

General Progression, and Some Tips..

Usually, the first raid you'll see is Karazhan. The attunement chain can be attained at 68, and starts with Arcane Disturbances right outside of Karazhan.

• This is your first raid instance, and usually the first raid with your guild. Be respectful and attentive - you don't know what you're doing, and chances are, they do.
• Take criticism well. You'll recieve a lot of it, and chances are you'll give a lot of it. Just take what they have to say at face value and try to improve where you are lacking.
• Be sure to read up on all of the bosses in Karazhan before you go in. Even if you only make it to Moroes, you at least knew a little about each boss.

While running Karazhan, your guild may be running Gruul's Lair as well. Gruul's is a 25-man raid with no attunement.

• While there may be room for idle chatter in 10-mans, there certainly isn't in 25-mans. Keep chatting to /raid or /tells.
• Listen carefully. With 25 people in a raid, your mistake could mean 25 people's repair bills.
• Preemptively heal. 25-man bosses hit harder because there are more healers to keep them up. Don't let your tank get 2-shotted because nobody was there to keep him alive.

Once you've been geared out through Karazhan and Gruul's (trust me, there is a ton of healing plate in Karazhan), then you should have picked up the skills and instinct required for healing, as well as the gear to keep up in Zul'Aman/Tempest Keep/Serpentshrine Caverns. Good luck, and happy hunting.

[PvP]
You consecrate.. and then you heal yourself.. and then you consecrate.. and then you rocketboot away!

[Talents]
A real man's spec: 0/0/0.

Talents for the Holy Tree focus on increasing your healing capabilities and spell crit, and stretching out your mana pool through mana restoration talents. Here are some examples of different Holy builds.

The Cookie Cutter Holy Build
This build has essentially everything that is nice in the Holy Talent, minus a couple of situational talents. It's good for PvE, hitting on all the durability talents, but can be quite effective in PvP due to silence-reducing talents and is the spec I see most often for PvP paladins.

The Situational Holy Paladin Build:
This build sacrifices some of the PvP talents (Stoicism, Imp. Concentration Aura, Shield Specialization) and trades them for situational Holy talents (Blessed Life, Imp. Lay on Hands, Purifying Power). This is the build I'm currently using, and it works for me (despite criticism). It offers a chance to reduce damage taken by 50% when struck (nice if Nightbane takes a leap at me) and a 30% armor increase that you can throw up on the tank when you Lay on Hands, which is beautiful in those longer, escalating fights like Gruul the Dragonkiller.

The AoE Grinder's Build:
Hijacked from Blademeld's thread, this build offers reactive damage, survivability, and an uninterupted Holy Light for less bubble dependency. Simply follow the above AoE grinding guide and go to town on the Demon Hunter Supplicants.

The "Getting to 70" Build, AKA The "I Want To Be Retribution, But My Guild Won't Let Me" Build:
I mentioned it earlier. This build allows you some damage capabilities, and is good if you want to.. well, not really much of anything except get to seventy and still retain healing talents. Protection is better for AoE grinding, but if you'd prefer not to respec weekly for your raids, this is your best bet.

The Standard Shockadin Build:
This build focuses on burst DPS and healing, and is usually used in Arena/PvP. It allows the paladin to heal him or herself, as well as provide an initial burst of DPS, and is popular in arenas. In order for this build to work, the paladin must stack a lot of spell damage and hope for a crit.

The "I Can't Quite Decide" Build:
This build offers a little bit of both the protection and holy trees. It allows you to offtank and heal well enough, but you won't master either. Pick this if you're not serious about raiding and like doing 5-mans as either role occasionally.

The "I Got Drunk And Decided To Respec" Build
..I got bored.

[The Spell Crit VS MP5 Debate]
AKA The Fight That May End If There's A Nuclear Holocaust. And even then..

So, here's the basis of the argument.

Before Patch 2.1, the Illumination talent offered a 100% mana return. However, it was nerfed to 60% and thus changed the stat priority for Paladins in some people's opinions. Some remain adamant that even despite the nerf, stacking spell crit is better for longetivity because even without the 100% mana return it is more efficient than a constant mana per 5 second (MP5) bonus. Others argue that since it does not return the full mana cost you will burn through your mana much more quickly using Holy Light and thus MP5 is the best way to overcome this nerf.

My Stance On The Subject..

It's my opinion that MP5 is the best way to go for Paladins, and this may be simply because of my personality. I like to be able to rely that something is constantly there instead of hoping that something procs, or falls in my favor. Regardless, the amount of paladins that go MP5 and the amount that go spell crit are about 50/50 or so.

With MP5..

As an MP5 paladin you're going to want to stack your gear with Royal Nightseyes, Dazzling Talasite, and the occasional Luminous Noble Topaz. As for enchants, it's more of a matter of opinion as far as if you want MP5 or +healing on your bracers. Personally, I went +MP5 on the chest and +healing on the bracers, gloves, and weapon, but see how your stats match up and make a decision based on that.

As for buffs, you should always have Wisdom up over Kings and for raids invest in some Superior Mana Oil, Elixirs of Major Mageblood, and Elixirs of Healing Power.

MP5 paladins are noted as Flash of Light spammers. They have high mana-regen even while casting, and therefore can afford to spam Flash of LIght without losing very much mana at all. A KZ/Gruul's geared Paladin can have as much as 200-210 MP5 fully buffed, meaning a free Flash of Light (and then some) every five seconds. Putting on Libram of Souls Redeemed, coupled with Blessing of Light, can also offer a huge boost to the amount your Flash of Lights heal for, and increasing your durability further.

As I said, you'll be using Flash of Light primarily, but please don't only use Flash of Light. There will be cases where you'll have to use Holy Light. Get used to it. Raid trash will involve you spamming Holy Light on random people that pull aggro/get charged. However, if you're in a situation where you feel like you're going to have to throw out four or five Holy Lights consecutively during a boss fight, pop Divine Illumination -- it'll take the edge off the mana cost, and if you happen to get a crit, that means you'll actually be getting 10% mana cost back. Another nice pick for someone who's MP5 dependant would be Libram of Mending for when you have to chuck out the big heals.

With Spell Crit..

Admittedly, I'm less experienced with this playstyle, but I can tell you what I've personally been told on the subject by other raiding paladins. If you have any more information, feel free to let me know.

Essentially, your gem choices are going to consist of Luminous Noble Topaz and Brilliant Dawnstone. While these don't give you pure spell crit, you get some +heals and mana along with spell crit so it's worth the trade. You're also going to go with more of the tier gear as well, since it usually contains a lot of spell crit. PvP gear is also a viable option, but once again is not geared specifically for PvE.

As for spells, you're going to want to stick with Holy Light. Experiment with your various downranks of Holy Light to see which one amounts to around what your Flash of Light does, if not a little more. The reason you're going to use Holy Light over Flash of Light is because of the extra +6% spell crit you can get off of Sanctified Light. Keeping up Light's Grace isn't a bad idea, either, so keeping Holy Light (Rank 1) on your toolbar isn't necessarily a bad idea.

Conclusion..
Different playing styles work for different people. Figure out what works for you. Do you want to last longer than anyone else in boss fights, or bash your way to the top of the healing charts with high mana cost spell crits? Your decision.

RETLOL - The Guide

I have written a guide about leveling, gearing and playing Retribution paladins in PvE and PvP, much of it is likely to be common knowledge, but so long as one person finds something new or useful I'm happy ^_^. It has some information on gear, talents, skills and some tricks and tips that should help any paladin up for the daunting task of being recognised as being a good asset to 5 man groups, raids or PvP teams as Retribution spec.

The guide is stored on this website, so that I can keep it updated in all the places that it is posted easily, and to make formatting it slightly easier for your navigation:

RETLOL - The Guide

[JadoJodo]

Umm...I'm amazed your copy-buffer held that much. lawl.

[Husker90]

nice guide (even though it was copied ;D) oh and + rep for contributing and trying to get out of leecher

[Ferag]

Idiot, write your own guide. Do not leech it.

[Lyricalwarfare]

Yeah or just link them jees..

[Eski]

Edit:

I looked further into the guide section and realized what the previous posters ment.

Grats on the rep anyways..


[Eski]

[xpandax]

Yeah or just link them jees..

would more pleasent and easier if they linked it, but we all kno that ruins the huge post fun

[Ferag]

You freaking fail. Isn't this the 8th post like this. Stop it, pointless and stupid. If people cared they'd look it up.