How to Be a Successful Paladin in World of Warcraft

Paladins are one of the easiest classes to play. They have a decent melee ability, they can heal themselves, clear magic disease and they get a free mount at level 40! They are excellent at solo play, group runs and pvp! However, they do lack any ranged ability and tend to be less specialized than other classes. Not to fear, as there are ways to compensate for your Paladin’s shortcomings!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Choose a path. Paladins are by nature a hybrid class. They are healers, tanks and melee fighters all rolled into one. Though they are not as powerful damage dealers as Rogues or Mages, Paladins can make excellent tanks and very effective healers. You can also strike a balance: tanks and healers are most useful in raids and group play while fighters are more conducive to solo play. A mix of Holy/Retribution talents makes for excellent solo and party gaming while Protection/Retribution makes a deadly tank! Remember, you can always respec later on, though this can get very expensive if you do it repeatedly.

2. Buff, buff, buff! While a Paladin’s stats may only be average, we have one thing to compensate that few else have: buffs and lots of them! Blessings of Wisdom, Might, Freedom, Sanctuary, Kings, and the list goes on. You should NEVER head into a fight without buffing first! Blessings of Kings and Sanctuary can only be attained by putting talent points into Protection. Greater Blessings are available at high levels and although they use reagents (Symbol of Kings), the effects of the buff last for 15 minutes instead of 5.

3. Use those Seals! Another great asset Paladins have are the ability to use Seals and Judgements. These spells can both aid you and cripple opponents! For instance, Seal of Righteousness will either add Holy damage to each of your attacks or, if you Judge it, it will cause a big burst of Holy damage! Other Seals like Wisdom, Light and the Crusader have lasting effects. Wisdom and Light give you a chance to recover mana and health respectively, while Judgement of the Crusader increases the amount of Holy damage the target takes. There are lots of combinations that can be used with Seals to devastating effect. Judging Crusader and then using Seal of Command will cause a storm of Holy damage. Try out a few and see for yourself.

4. Heal! Not only can you heal yourself, you have the capacity to be an extremely efficient healer for everyone else. The key is knowing what to use and when. For starters: Bless your tank and anyone else who will be taking a lot of damage with Blessing of Light. This will make it so when you heal them, they get more health back. Use Flash of Light to quickly heal everyone then if they drop to or below half health, use Holy Light. This will save mana for later. If you get really desperate, pop your Lay on Hands. This gives the target back ALL their health, but kills all your mana in the process. This can even be used on yourself if you get desperate.

5. Purge the impurities! Paladins have two spells available to them to rid themselves and friends of impurities. Purify, which removes 1 Disease and 1 Poison, and Cleanse, which removes 1 Poision, 1 Disease and 1 Magic effect! The only thing Paladins can’t cure is Curses. Be aware that Clease is not available until level 42.

6. Destroy the Undead! As one might expect, Paladins are great at killing undead! Exorcism, Consecration, Hammer of Wrath and Holy Wrath all deal Holy damage and eat undead for breakfast! Consecration is an Area of Effect spell, and should only be used when you are surrounded. Beware: Consecration will break Sheep, Sap, Shackle and most other Stun effects. Holy Wrath is similar to Consecration, only it is not an instant cast. It damages instantly instead of over time. Hammer of Wrath is an excellent tool as well. It hucks a big hammer at a fleeing enemy! Mind you, it can only be used when the target is at or below 20% health, but it works overtime on undead! Lastly, Exorcism: an instant cast, instant damage spell that is your only ranged attack so use it whenever possible! You also have the ability to Sense Undead (make them appear on the minimap) and Turn them (make them run away.) Be careful Turning Undead! Fleeing undead can aggro other friends and cause trouble!

7. Use your Auras! They don’t cost mana and they only expire when you do! Don’t leave the house without one! They can increase your armor, cause your attackers to take damage, prevent spell casting interruption or raise your resistances! Make sure you coordinate with other Paladins in your group: Aura effects do not stack, meaning that there is no reason to have two Paladins both using Devotion Aura.

8. Remember the odds and ends! Paladins are rife with several spells that can greatly aid in a time of need! Righteous Fury makes you a better tank by increasing your threat whenever you use a Holy spell, Hammer of Justice stuns an enemy for a few seconds, Divine Shield and Divine Protection make you immune to damage for a short time. Oh, and you can resurrect the dead too (Redemption.)

9. Be humble. Yes, Paladins get a free mount at level 40 and, depending on server economies and how lucky you are, your Epic mount may cost a good deal less than everyone else. Try not to gloat.

10. Cause a Divine Intervention! This is very important! You have the ability to prevent disaster! If you are in a group or instance and everything looks hopeless, select another party member with resurrecting ability (Druid, Priest or other Paladin) and cast Divine Intervention on them. This will completely dump ALL the aggro and make them immune to everything for 3 minutes. It also means they can do nothing (not even move) until the buff wears off or they take it off, but it does mean that 1 person with the ability to resurrect other people will survive, thus preventing a complete wipe and saving the party lots of time and effort. Also be aware that this spell uses 1 Symbol of Divinity and has a 1 hour cooldown. Symbols of Divinity are available at reagent vendors everywhere.

[WowPaladin]

on 1/11/2009 cool