35 replies to this topic

[Jecks]

Index
1. Difference from Wrath of the Lich King
2. Your Character
3. New Spells
4. Mastery
5. Addons
6. Strengths and Weaknesses
7. Compositions
8. Tips
9. Known Bugs
10. Resources

Glossary

• HoJ - Hammer of Justice
• DPS - Damage per Second
• HoW - Hammer of Wrath
• Max - Maximum
• Sac - Sacrifice
• Oom - Out of Mana
• Juke - To fake cast
• Spec - Specialization
• Blanket - Abilities that silence enemies without locking them out of their casted tree.
• Int - Intellect
• Comp - Composition
• Crit - Critical Strike Rating
• CC - Crowd Control
• AOE - Area of Effect
• Bubble - Divine Shield
• Freedom - Blessing of Freedom
• Wotlk - Wrath of the Lich King

Difference from Wrath of the Lich King
The Paladin class had changed more than any other when 4.0.1 hit on October 12th. Holy Paladins now cannot spam a fast-cast, low-mana moderate heal like pre-4.0 flash of light. Blizzard revamped Paladin healing in cataclysm giving us five single target healing spells. These heals have huge benefits and a huge downsides to them which means there is a time and place to use each one (Will talk more about each later).

Intellect now also increases how hard each heal hits in addition to its previous benefits.
Beacon of Light has been changed. The heal effectiveness has been cut by 50% but it now lasts 5 minutes.
Divine Sacrifice has been removed from the game.
Divine Illumination has been removed.
Divine Favor has been revamped. It now increases spell casting haste and crit by 20% for 20 seconds.
Exorcism now has no cooldown.
"Sacred Cleansing" (of WotLK) has been removed.
Holy Power is a new resource mechanic that paladins use.
Mastery is a new talent that blizzard added. When a paladin chooses the Holy tree during a respec, he or she gain three different passive talents and an ability (Holy Shock). (More about this Later)

Your Character


Races (in order of superiority)
Arcane Torrent 2 min cooldown Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec and increases your Rage/Energy/Focus/Runic Power by 15 or Mana by 6%. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec.

Stoneform 2 min cooldown Removes all poison, disease and bleed effects and decreases damage taken by 10% for 8 sec.

Every Man for Himself 2 min cooldown Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.

War Stomp 2 min cooldown - 0.5 second cast Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 2 sec.

Gift of the Naaru 3 min cooldown - 40 yard range Heals for 20% of the targets total health over 15 sec.


Gemming
Red Socket


Yellow Socket


Blue Socket



Enchanting
Head


Shoulder


Cloak - Greater Intellect

Chest - Mighty Resilience

Wrist - Exceptional Spirit

Glove - Greater Mastery

Legs - Powerful Enchanted Spellthread

Boots - Lavawalker

Shield - Superior Intellect

Weapon - Heartsong or Power Torrent


Reforging

All items should be reforged to spirit.
Why?
More Spirit means more regeneration.
The less mana problems Holy Paladins have,
the more we can abuse Flash of Light.


Specialization and Builds
Do I need 2 points in Last Word? No, you don't. Most of the time when someone is under 35% health, a good Holy Paladin uses Divine Favor. Divine Favor grants 20% crit and most paladins will have between 15% and 25% crit. This plus buffs and procs means you will be overcapping crit. Take 1 point instead
Do I need 2 points in Enlightened Judgements? This is another toss-up but with paladins reforging to a lot of spirit, you are usually hit capped with just 1 point. Take 1 point instead
Do I need 2 points in Blessed Life? No, there is no reason to have 2 points since there is an internal cooldown and most of the time when you take direct damage you are taking it more than once in a span of eight seconds. Definitely only take 1 point
Should I take Guardian's Favor Yes, you should but only if you go far enough into ret to get Pursuit of Justice. There is no reason to go two tiers into ret for the sole purpose of getting a talent on an ability that gets purged 7 times out of 10. You should take it if you play with melee, if not then it's a toss-up
What's the deal on Light of Dawn? It sucks ass, don't take it.

Generic Build for 3v3

Spoiler


Quote

/run t,p,a={1,23,33,43,51,81,92,102,111,121,133,141,153,161,172,183,191,2,13,32,3,23,32,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=tif a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end

Pursuit of Justice Build for 3v3

Spoiler


Quote

/run t,p,a={1,23,33,43,52,81,92,102,111,121,133,141,152,161,172,183,191,2,32,3,23,32,41,62,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=tif a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end

Offensive Build for 2v2

Spoiler


Quote

/run t,p,a={1,23,32,43,51,62,72,81,92,102,111,121,133,141,152,161,172,183,191,2,11,32,3,23,32,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=tif a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end


Glyphs


Prime




Major and Minor


Rebuke is baseline in 4.0.6.
Beacon of Light is superior to cleanse because of the purge-happy teams and lack of buff protection.
Professions


Leatherworking - Draconic Embossment - Intellect
Net Gain: +130 Int, -1 Wrist Enchant
Jewelcrafting - Brilliant Chimera's Eye x3
Net Gain: +81 Int with current gems
Alchemy - Mixology
Net Gain: +80 Int
Blacksmithing - Socket Gloves/Bracers
Net Gain: +80 Int with current gems
Enchanting - Enchant Ring - Intellect
Net Gain: +80 Int
Inscription - Felfire Inscription
Net Gain: +80 Int
Engineering - Tazik Shocker
Gain: 4320 to 5280 nature damage on use
or Synapse Springs
Gain: 480 intellect for 12 seconds. 1 minute cooldown
Tailoring - Lightweave Embroidery
Net Gain: +580 Int for 15s, -50 Int Enchant
Assuming a reasonable 1 PPM, this rival's engineering, but is even more situational due to the loss of a passive increase.
Herbalism - Lifeblood
Net Gain: +480 Haste for 20s / 2min
Skinning - Master of Anatomy
Net Gain: +80 Crit
Mining - Toughness
Net Gain: +120 Stamina
Macros

Battlemasters + Healthstone
Quote


#showtooltip
/use 13
/use Healthstone

This is not gamebreaking but I've used it since the Burning Crusade and it frees up some keybinds.

Target of Target Hammer of Wrath
Quote


#showtooltip Hammer of Wrath
/cast [harm] Hammer of Wrath [target=targettarget,harm] Hammer of Wrath

This is not needed but will assist your target in killing something if they're under 20%. It is faster than hitting assist and casting HoW and keeps you from clicking gladius.

Focus Hammer of Justice
Quote


#showtooltip Hammer of Justice
/cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice

This is pretty much a must have. Most good shaman will see when you target them to run over and HoJ. This allows you to hoj without targeting. Also good for keeping your healing target instead of clicking gladius to HoJ.

Focus Rebuke
Quote


#showtooltip Rebuke
/cast [target=focus, exists] Rebuke

This is nice to have. Most of the time I focus casters to see when they're trying to CC. Being able to stop the cast without changing targets is very helpful.

"Auto" Judgement
Quote


#showtooltip Judgement
/assist
/cast Judgement
/targetlasttarget

Great for the many of us who are too lazy to use Judgement on cooldown.

Taunt Macro
Quote


#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover, help, nodead] [help, nodead] Righteous Defense; [@mouseover, harm, nodead] [harm, nodead] [] Hand of Reckoning

Taunts either your target or taunts those focusing your target.

Easy Exorcism
Quote


#showtooltip Exorcism
/cast [harm] Exorcism [target=targettarget,harm] Exorcism

This is great to use your free Exorcism procs without having to target something.

Turn Evil
Quote


#showtooltip Turn Evil
/stopcasting
/targetexact Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Turn Evil
/targetlasttarget


This will automatically target a DK's gargoyle to fear it. If there is not a gargoyle up it will go about fearing your target.
Keybinds



First and foremost, do what feels comfortable. Tankspot released an amazing guide on keybinding. I'll show my keybinds once I get home to take a screenshot.
Tankspot Guide to Keybinding

New Spells


Learned at level 85
The Holy Guardian does the following:

This is best used when trying to pick multiple targets health back up. You'll most likely only get to use it once per fight so use it wisely.
The guardian can be taunted but not CC'd


Learned at level 83
Holy Radiance is a decent AOE heal. Just be careful to not overextend while trying to use it.
When talented, Holy Radiance turns into a 60% sprint for 4 seconds.

Ways to use Holy Radiance effectively

• To get a HoJ
• To avoid a psychic scream
• To outrange crowd control
• To get in range to heal
• To avoid bubble getting Mass Dispelled
• To get in range for a rebuke
• When targeted, Freedom + Holy Radiance is godlike.

Spoiler




Learned at level 81
Inquisition is not very useful since its max duration is only 12 seconds.


Learned at level 9
Word of Glory is the only useful ability that consumes holy power charges to heal a teammate. It is a strong heal that does not have a cast time nor does it cost any mana.



Talented
This ability is completely useless. The only reason anyone ever specced into it was because it used to be usable while blanket silenced and/or locked out of holy. Here are some numbers to laugh at.
Spoiler





Learned at level 54
Rebuke is baseline come 4.0.6

Mastery

Paladin Mastery as a whole is pretty diverse.
These are the abilities that generate Holy Power.

These are the abilities that consume Holy Power.

Credit to WOWWIKI


Holy Paladin Mastery Benefits





Addons
Pharaunmizz of ArenaJunkies can help you with almost any problem you have with an addon. He's a genius. Hit him up.




Gladius by Proditor
Great Addon that displays diminishing returns, medallion usage, and targeting.

Quartz
Helpful addon that lets you customize your own as well as your enemies castbars.

OmniCC
Useful addon that shows how long an ability is on cooldown

Interrupt Bar by Kollektiv
Useful addon that shows how long your opponents abilities are on cooldown for
No longer is being updated
How do I add spells to Interrupt Bar?

SnowfallKeyPress
This addon uses the selected ability on key press rather than key release.
Click to download Old Party Frames
Spoiler


Quote

/script HidePartyFrame();ShowPartyFrame();UpdatePartyMembe rBackground();




Strengths/Weaknesses
Strengths



Holy Paladins are almost entirely based on cooldown usage. We have many of them at our disposal to keep ourself and our partners alive.

Avenging Wrath also known as "Wings", increases our damage and healing by 20%

Divine Favor increases our spell critical strike rating and spell haste rating by 20%

Divine Protection is a paladin version of barkskin. Blizzard most likely gave this to us to compensate for our nerfed Divine Shield.

Divine Shield also known as "bubble" grants the paladin complete immunity for 8 seconds. During the immunity, our damage is decreased by 50%. Divine Shield should not only be used when you're about to die but is normally used as an immunity from crowd control while you try to heal your partners.

Aura Mastery makes the Paladin immune to silences for 6 seconds. Must have Concentration Aura activated.

Hand of Sacrifice is a hand spell that transfers 30% of damage done to the paladin.

Hand of Freedom is a hand spell that grants the target immunity to movement impairing effects for 6 seconds.

Hand of Protection also known as "BOP", grants the target immunity to physical damage for 10 seconds

In addition to our plethora of cooldowns, Holy Paladins great healing output.

[i]Weaknesses
[i][I]Paladins are in a good place right now but there has always been a problem with our utility and offensive pressure. If you're a shaman or priest playing a paladin for your first time, you need to rely more on a pillar to avoid crowd control instead of grounding/tremor/shear/swd.

Compositions

It's Cataclysm which means pretty much anything is a viable comp but here are some popular team compositions with a Holy Paladin in them. Click for team.

:mage::priest::paladin:
:deathknight::mage::paladin:
:shaman::warrior::paladin:
:deathknight::warlock::paladin:
:deathknight::warrior::paladin:
:mage::warlock::paladin:
:warrior::mage::paladin:
:shaman::deathknight::paladin:
:deathknight::priest::paladin:
:warrior::warlock::paladin:

[Jecks]

Tips

You can use Hand of Sacrifice to avoid Polymorph/Scatter Shot/Blind/Sap/Serpent Sting and any other "Break on damage" ability.
If you see a rogue running towards you, he's not coming to kiss you. This is a perfect opportunity to sac a blind and save your trinket/bubble.
If a DK is running towards you, put up Aura Mastery because most likely he is coming to strangulate.
If you're out of combat and need mana, you can cast a heal on your partner but right before the end of the cast, spam your keybind to drink. The heal will go off and when the cast finishes you will sit down to drink.
Make keybinds to target party members
Hex and Cyclone have a very short range. If you see a shaman or druid running towards you, get near a pillar and/or kite away.
Start with Crusader Aura on every map. It is most important on Dalaran Sewers to declare positioning or charge.
Use holy wrath and exorcism to kill lock and DK pets. You can do more damage than you think to them!
You can use hand of reckoning to keep people in combat.
You can use hand of reckoning to taunt pets on defense, mirror images, or gargoyles to break blinds/polymorphs/scatter shots, etc.
You can use holy shock three times in the last 20 seconds before the gates open of an arena to start the game off with 3 stacks of holy power.


Known Bugs

Exorcism's targeting is bugged.
Holy Shock bug has been fixed AFAIK


Resources

There are many great Paladins on ArenaJunkies. Below are some links to some of the best paladins in the world as well as several videos to watch.

Videos

Flubbah PHDK - Flubbah is probably the best EU paladin. He jukes spelllock on cooldown and keeps his teammates up without constantly going oom.
Toez 2 - this movie was made four seasons ago but his positioning is stellar.

Paladins

Polizei
Hobbz
Lx
Billian
Davepropally
Holypalaswê
Stormand
Arrann
Athlete


This guide took me 10 hours to make so please read all of it and give me your feedback.

Thanks

Spoiler

a lot of the information is subjective.

[Jecks]

reserved for a picture of my ui

[Jecks]

reserved

[Jecks]

Rapture please copy this to Paladin forums.


Thanks Amigo

[isabis]

holy $#@&

[Rapture]

BADASS Well done. Copying to class forum for further discussion and locking here. Will make it easier for people to find if they are looking for Pally info.

[Barburas]

"Engineering - Tazik Shocker
Net Gain: -65 Mastery"

Just a correction here, you do not lose your glove enchant. Also the synapse springs is probably better - 480 int for 10s (60s cd), avg of 80 int but bursty (so argueably better in PvP).

[Avengelyne]

Spirit reforging depends on the comp you're running. Crit would work much better for some comps.

In your talent tree selections, why not take 2/3 Protector in tier 1 to have points for last word, or haste in your offensive spec? Seeing as Protector was nerfed and only works on friendly heals (not yourself) i don't see it being that great.

Other than that, great guide, nice work!

[Jecks]

"Engineering - Tazik Shocker
Net Gain: -65 Mastery"

Just a correction here, you do not lose your glove enchant. Also the synapse springs is probably better - 480 int for 10s (60s cd), avg of 80 int but bursty (so argueably better in PvP).

Updated, thanks.

Spirit reforging depends on the comp you're running. Crit would work much better for some comps.

Other than that, great guide, nice work!

I haven't seen any paladins reforge to crit over spirit :S
Could work though. Thanks

[Jecks]

In your talent tree selections, why not take 2/3 Protector in tier 1 to have points for last word, or haste in your offensive spec? Seeing as Protector was nerfed and only works on friendly heals (not yourself) i don't see it being that great.

When making a guide this long a lot of the information is subjective. I don't like 2 points in Last Word, I'd rather have a smaller passive "Beacon" then an extra % crit in which some of it is being unused. I'll never make a spec without 3 points in Protector even if it is for 2s.

[allana]

Very nice writeup I must say =) Love the pictures as well!

[Zez]

The Paladin class had changed more than any other when 4.0.1 hit on October 12th. Holy Paladins now cannot spam a fast-cast, low-mana moderate heal like pre-4.0 flash of light. Blizzard revamped Paladin healing in cataclysm giving us five single target healing spells. These heals have huge benefits and a huge downsides to them which means there is a time and place to use each one (Will talk more about each later).

Could you write a section that answers to this or atleast I didn't find a section about how the healing works in cata

[Jecks]

Could you write a section that answers to this or atleast I didn't find a section about how the healing works in cata

I guess I could write a section on when to use each one but I think the chart can answer a lot of questions.

[Alkazard]

My thoughts:
Int/Resil can be a vastly superior orange gem (especially to new players).
Apart from the fact it's awfully expensive, I don't see any reason to take Lavawalker to boots. Mastery is very underwhelming in PvP right now, and between the glove enchant, boot enchant & helm you'd be lucky to get 1%.

Other than that I think it's a pretty solid guide.

[mcguffie]

Looks really well done,

-If you have beacon on yourself drink bugging doesn't work (not that you would)

-I personally don't think Protector of the Innocent needs more than 2 pts. It adds up in PvE but I think that Denounce is better for stomping totems in an arena setting (+ assist dps)

-I don't agree with some of your glyph choices particular rebuke even after patch, but that will change from player to player

-Add Athlete-Illidan to paladin list as he is the best

[Jecks]

-Add Athlete-Illidan to paladin list as he is the best

How could I forget...

[Raia]

Good guide, well done.

[Jecks]

updated