World of Warcraft Paladin Strategy Guide (walkthrough)
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World of Warcraft Paladin Strategy Guide by Alasdair Lo
System: PC, CD-ROM
E-mail: kylohk@netvigator.com
Date: 30th March, 2006
Version 1.6.2
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Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
---a. Reasons why I Chose a Paladin
---b. Getting Started
3. Racial Characteristics
4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job
---a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you
---b. Equipment
---c. Auction House
---d. My current equipment
---e. Paladin Armor Sets
5. Paladin Skills
---a. Blessings
---b. Auras
---c. For the Undead's Eyes Only
---d. Seals and Offense
---e. Healing and Protection
6. What you should do for a Living
---a. Recommended Professions
---b. Talents
7. The General Strategy
---a. Going Solo
---b. Partying in an Instance
---c. Hoarding Horde Kills
8. Some Interesting Tidbits
---b. About Earning Money in Detail
---c. Letters from Readers
9. Conclusion
Appendix I. Feedback Information
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1. Introduction
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World of Warcraft is Blizzard Entertainment's first foray into the
world of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for
short. This game allows the player to create his own character, either
of the Alliance Side or the Horde Side and play in a virtual world
filled with other characters created by other players. The game is set
in the continuing conflict between the Alliance of Humans, Dwarves,
Gnomes and Night Elves, and the Horde of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and
Undead. So, if you create an Alliance Character, not only you can
complete quests for the 4 races, you can also engage in combat with
other Horde players, in a Player versus Player (PvP) Combat. (Of course,
a truce had been signed between the Alliance leader and the Horde Chief,
but tension is still existent.)
As for most MMORPGs, there are plenty of servers that require
maintenance. Therefore, a dedicated staff will have to be used to fix
errors, a team of gamemasters are to be hired to monitor all channels
in order to help players and enforce the terms of service. All of this
requires money, and hence a monthly subscription is required for all
who wish to play. Subscription policies may wary from country to
country. In the UK, where I am currently living in, you should pay
£8.99 a month to pay the game. (In Hong Kong, where I came from, things
are nastier. This is because you have to PAY BY THE HOUR!)
In World of Warcraft, as of now, there are a total of 8 races, and 9
classes. They are the Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest,
Shaman, Druid and Warlock. Each class has their own distinctive
fighting styles, and it is hard to judge each class in a short period,
since it may take weeks to raise a character up. This is why I decided
to choose one single character, and focus on it, like many other
GameFAQs writers have done before. That class is the Paladin. (Oh, and
I am currently playing with my Paladin character, that should help me
in my writing.) Let's begin, and stop with the chatting.
I have now added information on how a Paladin should play in a raid.
Please note that what I am stating contradicts with what most players
think about the Paladin after the 1.9 patch.
*****IMPORTANT!*****
I will appreciate it if any experienced Paladins share their thoughts
about the class in emails. They may be added. What I am interested in
the most are e-mails concerning:
* How to Maximize a Paladin's front line capabilities
* The good equipment that a Paladin should get after
* Defeating all classes in PvP combat
* Why so many Paladins whine in the World of Warcraft Class Forums
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a. Reasons why I chose a Paladin
---------------------------------
The first time I heard of the term "Paladin" was when I played the Age
of Empires II: The Age of Kings (A Real Time Strategy Game made by
Ensemble Studios and Microsoft). In that game, a Paladin is the most
powerful cavalry character. I also came to the Paladin in Command and
Conquer: Generals (An RTS game made by EA Games). This time, it's a
tank of the American Army. Their motto is "Preserving freedom" and
"Doing what's right". This type of honorly mood is why I want to become
a Paladin. I just like to play as the good guys, after all.
Another reason I chose the Paladin is due to his melee abilities. The
Paladin can wield most powerful melee weapons like maces, swords and
polearms. At the same time, they can wear considerably heavy armor.
Starting from Mail in the lower levels, they can learn to wear heavy
Plate Mail in the later levels. This gives them all the edge they need
to survive. In fact, the Paladin is one of the two classes in the World
of Warcraft who can use Plate Armor. (The other class is the Warrior, a
pure blood and guts fighting class) At the same time, they are also one
of three classes that use Shields in Combat. Shields are held Off Hand
and many give a large chunk of armor protection to the person equipping
it. So, it's always good to look out for shields. For all I know, only
Warriors and Shamans can learn to use Shields aside from the Paladins.
At this point, one may ask, if you like direct combat that much, why
not pick a Warrior or a Rogue? Sure, I will explain myself to you.
Paladins may have less damage potential than the Warrior or less attack
speed and versatility than the Rogue. At the same time, Paladins cannot
learn to use ranged weapons like Bows, Crossbows and Guns.
However, they do have some things that Warriors and Rogues cannot do.
Those features come in form of their holy spells. Paladins get the
ability to give abilities that enhance themselves and others (they are
known as buffs in the in game jargon). If you are fighting as a Warrior
or Rogue, many special moves can only be executed at certain conditions
For instance, you may have to be behind the enemy, or you have wait
until the next melee hit before it takes effect! The Paladin's
offensive spells often work instantly and regardless of the direction
you face. At the same time, they get to heal and resurrect.
Now, whenever a Warrior or Rogue takes damage, the best way to heal
themselves fast is to rely on perishable items, like food, potions and
bandages. And even so, potions and bandages cannot be applied that
often, and they all tend to run out! Mana, on the other hand, can
regenerate over time, and thanks to a certain buff, they can regenerate
even faster! So, Paladins are really self sustaining people, and can
solo very well. Their battle of attrition techniques is why I can
survive very long battles against 2 to 3 enemies at once, which other
classes often cannot handle.
Another interesting feature of the Paladins is that they get a FREE
warhorse at level 40. Other classes but the Warlocks don't have this
luxury. They have to spend a lot of Gold at that stage to buy the mount
(I remember it's around 100 Gold!) With the Paladin, all you need to do
is to walk up to someone with a yellow exclamation over their head in
the Cathedral of Stormwind and the warhorse is yours to summon! With
all that money saved, have fun buying tough armor at the auction house.
Some people are concerned that when selecting people for a group,
people will pick the Warrior as the main tank over you and the Priest
as the healer over you. This is because "people prefer specialists to
all balanced but average". However, whenever I have to play an instance,
I never seem to get left out. So, that really is not a concern for me.
In conclusion, the Paladin is a hybrid warrior/priest that leans
towards the warrior side. (Unlike the Shaman, that leans towards the
mage side). Their considerably balanced traits are what drove me to
choose them. I myself have a tendency to choose the class that is the
most all rounded in games that provide such options. (eg. The Clavat in
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles) If you prefer this type of fighting
style over "specialists", then the Paladin is for you. But if you lean
towards one trait, then select some other class, understand?
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you choose the Paladin class to play a class that fights like a
warrior with heals and weaker physical damage to balance it out, you
are VERY LIKELY to be disappointed. In fact, the fighting styles can be
very different.
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b. Getting Started
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This section concerns how you set up your World of Warcraft game for
you MMORPG experience.
Now, assume that you have just bought the World of Warcraft game disk
from the store. You take it home, and open the box. Inside, is the
instruction manual. You should find a CD-Key on the manual. You will
need to use this key to create your account. But let's not worry about
that first. First install the game. Go through the wizard and follow
the instructions. It takes a considerable amount of time to install
World of Warcraft. It is so big that it has 5 whole disks! While it's
installing, you can create your account.
Go visit World of Warcraft's Europe website. It is at: http://www.wow-
europe.com. You will find the latest news about the game on the main
page. To the right is a series of options. One of them is "Account
Creation". Click it to create your account. There are a total of 7
steps to take in order to create a new account.
Firstly, you must accept the Terms of Use. At the same time, you will
be informed that Blizzard reserves the right to scan your computer for
any cheating devices at all times. If you accept that, check the box.
(You HAVE to check it to proceed anyway!)
Then, you will be asked to input your authentication key. The key can
be found on the game manual. Copy it character by character into the
space. At the same time, if you are using a Guest Pass from a friend,
input that key from the small slip of paper you have and click next.
In the third step, you will be asked to provide your contact
information. This is the usual step you take to register for many
online accounts. You should write down you name, address, e-mail and
other mumbo jumbo there. Next step.
Afterwards, you will be asked to choose your payment method. You get to
pay using credit cards or debit cards. You get to use MasterCard, Visa
and American Express for Credit Cards. At the same time, you can pay
using Delta and Visa Electron. If you are a UK customer, then you get
the choice of using Switch or Solo. (Note: Users of Maestro Cards
should select Switch, since Switch has been acquired by the MasterCard
company.) Click next to proceed.
In Step 5, Payment Details, you get to write down the details of your
payment methods. You have to write down your Card Number, its Expiry
Date, and its issue number, if there is any. You also get to choose the
subscription duration. There are 3 choices currently available. If you
take a 1 month subscription, it will cost £8.99, if you take a 3 month
subscription, it will cost £25.17, on the other hand, if you are a die
hard player, you might as well subscribe for 6 whole months for £46.19.
Please note that the game comes with 1 month free subscription out of
the box. So, your bank account will be debited after 1 month.
It's obvious that the more months you subscribe for at once, the
cheaper per month it is. Then, you will come to the account creation
page, where you set the name of your account, and its password. You can
also create a password reminder question, like what your mother's
maiden name is. However, many people do know your mother's maiden name,
(like your evil cousin). To thwart such attempts, consider encrypting
your name. (eg. Writing it in leetspeak, or alternating capital letters
for instance). The last step is to confirm everything, when it's
confirmed, you are ready to play!
Well not, actually, you must ALWAYS be at the latest version of the
game to play. And, so, you must download the patch, either by the
Blizzard Downloader or a mirror site. I do not recommend the Blizzard
Downloader, since it is horribly slow! Instead, go over to
http://www.filefront.com and search for the World of Warcraft patches.
As of now, the latest update is version 1.9 patch. Download that, and
install.
Double click the World of Warcraft icon on the desktop, and you will
first be provided with the latest in game news. Then, click play and
you are in. Type in your login name and password and login. You will be
asked for your preferred language and playing style. There are a total
of 4 realms (servers). Normal, PvP, RP and RPPvP. Normal realms allow
you to choose when to participate in Player versus Player combat. When
it's turned on, players of opposing factions can attack you, and you
can attack them. If it's turned off, then you are safe. For PvP servers,
you must always be on the lookout, since players of opposing factions
can ALWAYS attack you! Hence it's a Player versus Player realm. Role
Playing Realms are purely single player. You are to complete quests,
and quests, and quests. Nothing more, you can NEVER attack any players
of opposing factions. Choose this if you are the people oriented
towards single play. As for RPPvP, it's a hybrid realm.
I personally recommend Normal Realms, since you get to choose, and it's
the most flexible of all realms. You should be automatically assigned
to a realm. If you are not satisfied, you can always click View Realm
List to change Realms. Then, you can click Create New Character to
create your character.
If you want to create a Paladin, you must either select a Human or
Dwarf. Then, you can customize their gender, looks, and such, and make
a name for them. Then click Create Character to create it. With your
new character selected. Click Enter World and you are all ready!
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2. Updates
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Version 1.6.2:
Added information about the Lawbringer and Judgement sets. Also rated
each set with a score.
Version 1.6.1:
Added information about the Lightforge and Soulforge armor sets.
Version 1.55:
I have added the walkthrough for a solo run of the Scarlet Monastery
Library in Chapter 9b.
Version 1.5:
Added some specific information on killing Mages.
Version 1.45:
Added the description of my shield in the equipment chapter, and added
a new letter from a reader.
Version 1.4:
Added a new section that talks about earning money in detail. Also
mentioned that you can make Elemental Reflectors as an engineer.
Version 1.35:
I have started to list out my own Paladin equipment.
Version 1.3:
Added a small section on raids.
Version 1.2:
Added some formulas when it comes to stats, and made an adjustment to
one of the suggested talent builds. Also added letters I received from
readers.
Version 1.1:
Added the PvP section.
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3. Racial Characteristics
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As I said in Chapter 1b, you must either choose the Dwarven or Human
Race to make a Paladin. Since different races have different
characteristics, the Paladin you make can be slightly different than
the one of the other race. Here's the lowdown on the racial
characteristics, and see whether they can benefit your Paladin.
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Dwarves
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Frost Resistance: Frost Resistance by default is 10 (passive)
Gun Specialization: Your Maximum Skill for guns is always 5 points
higher than the other races (passive)
Stoneform: A technique that gives you immunity to poison, disease and
bleeding. At the same time, you will get 5% more armor. This effect
lasts for 20 seconds and takes 3 minutes to cool down.
Treasure Finding: When active, this ability shows the positions of all
nearby Treasure Chests on you mini-map. This thing stays active when it
is on.
Of all the 4 characteristics of dwarves, only 2 of them are really
beneficial. They are the Frost Resistance and the Stoneform. After all,
many enemy mages use Frost attacks, and a little more resistance goes a
long way. At the same time, it is important that you can be made to be
immune to effects that can cause gradual health loss.
However, I find Gun Specialization to be completely useless. Why? It's
because Paladins can't use ANY ranged weapons. What's the purpose of
specialization if you can't even use it huh? As for Treasure finding, I
don't think it's a good specialization. The only thing that can really
help is to help you get rich quick. (The chances of finding rare items
or above are just so remote, that you have to shuffle through a bit too
many of them to get what you want!)
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Humans
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Perception: This technique allows you human player to be more alert of
stealthy enemies. This lasts for 30 seconds and has a cool down time of
3 minutes.
Human Spirit: Humans get a 5% bonus on their spirit. (Passive)
Diplomacy: Whenever humans do things or complete quests that benefit a
particular faction, their reputation will rise 10% faster than the
other races. (Passive)
Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization: Humans get 5 more
proficiency points for their Mace and Sword skills, no matter whether
they are for the 1 handed weapons or 2 handed weapons. (Passive)
Judging by all of this, I find the characteristics of humans much more
beneficial, as nothing is useless. Paladins are a class that is a tank,
and caster in one. Hence maintaining high health and mana is important.
If they can get back to fighting fit status faster, every bit helps.
Reputation is important for certain factions, since when you reach a
certain status in their eyes, you can get a discount on all goods, and
even purchase some new rare items! The faster you reach at least
Honored Status, the better it will be for you.
Now, Paladins are fighting characters that usually use Swords and Maces.
In fact, you should start with a 2 handed mace. Now, due to some
fortunate coincidence, Humans just get what they need for their weapons.
This is just a great deal. Sure, it may seem little late in the game,
but it can always make all the difference.
I don't really care about Perception. Since you can detect most
stealthy enemies just by hearing their characteristic hum. But if you
want to ambush one, Perception is the way to go.
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Conclusion
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Judging by such characteristics, I find Human Paladins to be a better
choice, even though at the start, the Human Paladin has less Strength,
Stamina and Power than the level 1 Dwarf Paladin.
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4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job
-----------------------------------------
In any MMORPG, or any RPG game in particular, stats of a character
determine how strong he is and what his role be in a group. One of the
official weaknesses of a Paladin is that he is a "Gear Dependent" class.
Owing to this, playing a Paladin is like playing Rainbow Six. You must
plan in advance in order to win. In fact, having the wrong stats will
mean defeat even before you have started!
In the World of Warcraft, a character generally has 5 stats. They are
Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Armor.
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a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you
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Strength:
Strength is the strength of the character, and determines how well he
can hit the enemy target, and directly affects how much damage will be
dealt as well. To be precise, each unit of Strength constitutes 2
attack power to the Paladin.
At the same time, a stronger Paladin will block more damage than one
with less Strength. Please note that the overall attack power of a
Paladin is given by: (Level*3) + (Strength*2) - 20. Divide attack power
by 14 to obtain the damage dealt per second. Now you know.
Agility:
Agility is the speed of the character. It determines on how well he can
dodge the enemy attacks. At the same time, Agility also increases your
armor and determines the chance of you performing a critical strike on
the enemy.
Each unit of Agility is equivalent to an extra 2 points of Armor. For
every 20 units of Agility you have, you have 1% base critical hit
chance. That is barring your weapon skills. At the same time, for every
20 units of Agility you have, you will have 1% extra chance of dodging
an enemy's attacks.
Stamina:
Stamina is directly related to the Paladin's health bar. Each unit of
Stamina is the equivalent of the Paladin having 10 more health points.
Intellect:
Intellect determines how much mana he has. Each unit of Intellect is
equivalent to 15 Mana Points. Intellect also determines the critical
hit chance of the Paladin's Holy abilities. Each 28 Intellect is
equivalent to 1% spell critical chance. Intellect also determines how
fast you improve your weapon skills.
Spirit:
Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. Health is
regenerated outside combat. Each 4 units of Spirit equal 1 unit of
health restored every 2 seconds. At the same time, mana regeneration
every 2 seconds is given by the formula: (Spirit/4) + 8.
Armor:
Armor is the measure of the Paladin's defense. Of course, the higher
armor he has got, the less damage he will take from the enemy,
physically, at least.
The percentage of physical damage reduced is equivalent to:
(Armor/(Armor + 85*(Level of Enemy) + 400))*100%. This value is capped
at 75%. So, no matter how strong your armor is, you can't possibly suck
up more than 75% of the damage the enemy would have dealt you.
Magic Resistance:
Armor is used in defense against magic attacks. When it comes to magic
users like Mages, Shamans, Warlocks and Priests, elemental resistance
matters. There are 5 elements in World of Warcraft. Arcane, Fire,
Nature, Frost and Shadow. Magic Resistance can be obtained by equipping
proper gear, and by applying auras.
The average percentage of damage resisted from an attack is given by
the formula: (Your Resistance/The enemy's level*5)*0.75*100%. This
means that in order to suck up half of the damage dealt by a spell by a
level 60 enemy, you will need 200 Resistance.
Since a Paladin is a melee combat class, it is recommended that
whenever you find armor with stat boosts, you should aim on ones that
improve your strength and stamina.
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d. Equipment
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Whenever you pick an item up, they can be judged by their rarity, with
their colours as a guide. Grey Items are inferior and best sold to
vendors for cash, no matter whether they can be equipped or not. White
Items are the common items, and many can be bought at vendors. Green
Items are the Uncommon Items. They are rarer than white items, and have
better attributes than the white items. Vendors usually have a limited
stock of Green items for sale.
Blue items are where it starts to get pretty rare, most enemies have a
low chance to drop blue items, probably less than 1%. However, most
instance bosses drop Blue Items, and they are much more powerful than
Green Items. Blue Items can be purchased from people of certain
factions, if you get a high enough reputation with them. Blue Items may
be crafted, but they require many obscure materials and sometimes a lot
of the same item.
Purple Items are the Epic Items, even more powerful and rarer than blue
items. It's even harder to craft a Purple Item than a Blue Item! I wish
you the best of luck in getting them, since even bosses rarely have
them. These things sell for tons in the Auction house, but if you can
use them, use them!
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Armor
---------------
Paladins, like the warrior, are quite privileged in the armor
department. At the get go, they get to wear cloth, leather and mail
armor. Of course, the tier of armor that gives the most protection is
the mail armor, and hence you should wear this all the way from the
start, at least for the first 40 levels. Whenever you want to use mail
armor, make sure that it has boosts in your strength and stamina.
Like the Warrior, the Paladin can use shields. Shields provide
additional armor, and are held in the off-hand slot of the Paladin.
With the Shield Equipped, you cannot equip 2 handed weapons.
For the first 20 levels, you should consider buying the standard
generic armor from the shops, since uncommon armor items are hard to
come by.
In many quests that you can find in the game, you will have the
opportunity to get various pieces of armor as a reward, whenever mail
armor is offered, you should complete that quest. These sets of armor
are typically Green and hence are much better than the stuff you will
find in the shops.
At level 40, your Paladin can learn to wear the highest tier of armor
in the game, the Plate Armor. To learn Plate Armor, please go and speak
to any Paladin Trainer in Goldshire or inside the Stormwind Cathedral.
A small price is paid, and then you can use it. Decent Plate Armor can
be purchased at around 1 Gold a piece at the Auction Houses, located in
all major cities. All of them tend to be Green Items, so go and take
your pick.
At the same time, as you level up, Plate items that offer increases in
Intellect should always be among your highest priority. In fact,
Paladins are the only class in the game that wears plate AND uses Mana
as a measure of their special abilities.
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Weapons
---------------
Paladins are a melee fighting class, but their starting weapons differ
from the warriors. Paladins start with the ability to use Maces, and
maces include items like clubs, maces and hammers. You will most likely
be holding a wooden mallet to start off in the early parts of the game!
This really is silly, isn't it? But still, maces will have 2 variants,
1-handed maces and 2-handed maces. You can use both types right off.
Once you reach level 10, you would have the benefit of extending your
range of weapons. In Stormwind, you can go and find a Weapons Trainer
inside the weapons shop in the Trade District. He will teach you how to
use 1 handed swords and 2 handed swords for 10 Silver each. You better
learn them, it's cheap for that period, and swords are quite powerful
and popular, and deal more damage than maces.
Meanwhile, at Ironforge, the Weapon Trainer inside Ironforge will teach
you how to wield an axe. Both 1-handed axes and 2-handed axes will be
taught to you, and they both cost 10 Silver Each.
At level 20, you will learn how to use a Polearm. Polearms are weapons
that are sort of on a stick, like the spears. It costs 2 Gold to learn
Polearms, and after that, you have learnt all possible weapons a
Paladin could use. (No guns allowed, sorry.)
Note that for each weapon, there is a skill bar for them. The higher
the skill you are at using each weapon, the more damage you can deal
and the more accurate you can hit. 1-handed weapons and 2-handed
weapons have separate skill bars. So, at the start, you will find that
you have separate skill bars for one-handed maces and two-handed maces.
Different weapons increase in skill levels at different rates. I find
that maces increase the fastest, followed by swords, axes and Polearms.
I also discovered that if you were to maximize the skill levels of all
you weapons within a level, you could only have time to use both maces,
the polearm, and either both types of swords or both types of axes. So,
if you want to stay up to date, either stick with swords or axes.
Still, learn all the weapons that can be wielded. You don't know when
you will pick up a nice weapon that you CANNOT use. The best way to
catch up will be to grind on enemies with much lower levels than you.
You may not gain experience by defeating those enemies, but you will
still gain proficiency in your weapon skills.
1 handed weapons tend to hit faster than 2 handed weapons, but they
deal less damage. (even if you take the Damage per second into account).
However, you can hold a shield off hand if you were to do so. Since
Shields provide more and more armor as you progress in the game, you
should take care when to use either type of weapon. If you are fighting
an enemy one on one, it's better to deal more damage per hit to end the
battle quickly, and hence 2 handed weapons are a better choice.
At the same time, if you are fighting several enemies at once, which a
Paladin is quite good at doing so, it is much better to sacrifice
damage for extra protection. (I do mean it, shields can provide over
1000 extra armor late in the game!). Use a One-Handed Weapon and a
Shield to fight your way through.
Like the Armor, stick with the stuff purchased from vendors. From
Levels 20 to 30, you will start to find weapons, in particular Green
weapons from quests. So, you should always look for those things over
what you will find from the vendors. You will be pleased to know that
there is a Paladin Quest that is quite laborious, but will result in
you earning a very powerful Blue Two-Handed Mace in the game, so you
must go to the Stormwind Cathedral, and follow through with all the
quests given to you by Dauthorian Rall.
In the mid level 30s onwards, you should go to the Auction House in one
of the major cities and start searching for Blue Items. I would suggest
that you purchase a Blue Polearm, One-Handed Mace and Two Handed Sword.
The reason why I will pass on One-Handed Swords is because you will get
something much better in a quest at the late 30s. I will talk about
that quest later.
-----------------
c. Auction House
-----------------
Don't think the vendors are selling things up to scratch? Then it's
always good to buy things at places where people do meet you needs,
that place is the Auction House. Before the well awaited v1.9 patch,
Auction Houses are found only in Ironforge and one of the Steamwindle
Cartel ports. But now, they can also be found at Stormwind, Darnassus
and Booty Bay. All Auction houses are linked and you can buy stuff
according to what you need. So, if you are looking for a powerful
Polearm, please click weapons, and at the subcategories that follow,
click Polearm and click Search.
The catalog of goods will appear. You can arrange the items by name,
rarity, level or length of auction. I would suggest rarity. A Buyout
option is available for most auctions, and you can buy the good out
instantly with that. Consumer protection really is important, if you
are not careful, you will end up wasting a lot of money on equipment.
---------------
Armor
---------------
I would suggest that unless you are desperate, you should not go buying
armor, even if it is a Blue Item from the auction house until you are
level 40 and are using Plate Armor. This is because basically all Mail
Armor is inferior to Plate Armor, and all that spending will be for
nothing, nothing at all, I say!
Once you reach level 40, it is time for a major revamp of your armor.
Go to the Auction House and buy Plate Armor for bargain prices. (All of
them are Green items, so they do give some nice boosts to you stats.)
Cover yourself from head to toe, well, except the legs, with Plate
Armor. (I will explain this later.) Each piece of Plate Armor typically
sells for around 1 Gold and 50 Silvers (hereby known as 1 G 50 S), so
to cover up your head, shoulders, hands, chest and feet with Plate
Armor, expect to spend around 7 G 50 S. Hey, don't be sad, remember
that you have saved 100 G from buying a horse (or ram!)!
---------------
Weapons
---------------
As I said earlier, you should go to the Auction House in one of the
major cities and start searching for Blue Items when you reach the mid
level 30s, at around level 35. This is when the market begins flooded
with blue items. Since Blue Items typically provide powerful attack and
stat bonuses, I doubt if you would want to be left out. In my
experience, the typical blue weapon sells for around 15 G each, so if
you want to get a Blue Polearm, a Blue Two Handed Sword and a Blue One
Handed Mace, expect to spend 45 G! But fortunately, there are many
places to grind in, for you to get the cash by then.
-----------------
Guide to Selling
-----------------
Besides buying, you can also go out to sell the stuff you get. Things
that you should sell most of the time are crafting materials. For
instance, there are many people who are so desperate for Silk Cloth
that they are willing to pay loads of Silver, or even Gold just to have
a stack of 20 instead of fighting enemies again and again. So, whenever
there is a demand, meet it! Most reagents can be sold at a much higher
price than they sell to the vendors. But whenever you sell, make sure
that your item has taken up its capacity on you slot, so consider
selling an entire stack of 20 copper bars at once, for example. This is
why all gathering professions are just so profitable!
Another thing that sells so well are Blue Items and Above. There are so
many enemies, and very occasionally, they drop the rare items, known as
the Blue Items, judging by the text color they appear in. Can't use it,
or is it just too weak to be equipped? Simple, sell it! Most Blue Items
can sell at 10s of Gold at the Auction House, and it is crucial that
you provide a Buyout Price for the item at that price. Oh, and you must
be careful not to be a curious person and equip the item. All Green,
Blue and Purple Items are bind on equip at least. This means that
whenever you pick it up, it cannot change hands again, which means that
it cannot be sold at all.
As for the Blue Items that are Bind on Pickup, well, if you can equip
it, do so. If not, just sell it to a vendor, and if you are in a group,
do not roll for it at all! (Explained later.) Whenever you have a rare
item, you must be careful of any additional requirements that are found
on them. For instance, an Engineer can make many Blue Items later in
the game, however, they all require a certain degree of Engineering
Skill, so, it's not very profitable to sell those things at the Auction
house, since you will attract a limited number of customers.
------------------------
d. My current equipment
------------------------
Paladins are a gear dependent class. Yes, this is right, but to what
extent? Well, now, I will show the equipment of my own Paladin in World
of Warcraft, and show you how my equipment affects my stats. Of course,
I will show you exactly how I got every single piece of equipment.
Please note that the type of armor is indicated in round brackets,
while the rarity of the items mentioned is shown in the Square Brackets.
For your information, this is taken from my level 53 Human Paladin.
*****MY ARMOR AND TRINKETS*****
Head
Mugthol's Helm (Level 47 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 445 Stats: +10 Strength +17 Stamina +17 Spirit
Where I found it:
In the auction house, bought it for 30 Gold.
Neck
Gemshard Heart (Level 49, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +10 Stamina +10 Intellect +6 Spirit
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (15% drop rate)
The Gemshard Heart is one important intellect gear I found during a
Maraudon instance run. I defeated the princess boss (the final boss)
with my group, and she dropped this necklace. It is time to roll for
the item, and for some reason, I was the only player in the team to
roll Need for it. Therefore, I won the item without competition, much
to the dismay of my teammates (including a Hunter, a Priest and a Mage!)
Shoulders
Wyrmslayer Spaulders (Level 46 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 403 Stats: +12 Strength +8 Agility +12 Stamina
Why and Where I found it:
At this point in the game, there really are only 2 good options for
blue plate shoulder armor. They are the Big Bad Pauldrons from the
Chief Sandscalp of Zul'Farrak, and these shoulders. Having tried
Zul'Farrak many times, I still couldn't get the chief to drop the
shoulders. Getting to the chief was even a tedious task, so I gave up
and bought these shoulders at the Auction House for 50 Gold. These
shoulders have more armor than the Big Bad Pauldrons and they give you
8 more agility, instead of spirit.
Back
Sergeant's Cape (Level 45, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 96 Stat: +14 Stamina Requires: Sergeant
Where I found it:
To get the Sergeant's Cape, you must play PvP until you get rank 3,
Sergeant. Then, you can go to the Stormwind barracks and buy this cape
off the quartermaster at the entrance.
Chest
Hydralick Armor (Level 49 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 567 Stats: +13 Strength +8 Agility +20 Stamina
+10 Fire Resistance
Where I found it: Auction House, 50 Gold
I have long looked for things to improved my outdated Carapace of
Tuten'kash, and hence I looked at the Auction House. Apparently the
best deal is the Hydralick armor, which has more strength and stamina
than the carapace. At the same time, this armor provides an additional
10 points of Fire Resistance, and it is one of the few fire resistant
plate items in the game. In fact, the 50 Gold spent was considerably
worth it, since most of the time, people can charge up to 100 Gold for
such armor. (That armor does not worth that much!!)
Shirt
Stylish Green Shirt
Why I bought it:
I was stuck with Captain Sander's shirt for a long time since I have
completed that quest in Westfall. I noticed that my character appears
to be wearing nothing but his breastplate! Naturally, I want my paladin
to look a little better, so I bought this shirt in the auction house
for 70 Silver. After all, I love the green color!
Tabard
Private's Tabard (Requires Private)
Where I bought it:
Having attained 25 Honorable Kills in a week, you will be given the
rank of private. In that case, you will be eligible to buy the
Private's Tabard from the Accessories Quartermaster in Stormwind
Barracks. The good thing about this tabard is that it covers your
breastplate, preventing it from being seen.
Wrist
Lightforge Bracers (Level 52 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 261
Stats: +7 Strength +4 Agility +10 Stamina +8 Spirit
Part of set: Lightforge Armor (8 pieces in total)
Where I found it: Auction House, 12 Gold
Lightforge Armor is the armor set, designed for Paladins that are in
the 50s. (It can be used by Warriors too) There are 8 pieces in total
in the set. The Bracers and Belt can be purchased in the Auction House,
but the remaining 6 pieces must be obtained by high level instances
like Stratholme, Dire Maul, Blackrock Depths and more! (The breastplate
requires level 58 to use, so it's beyond my reach!) For you to benefit
from additional effects besides the ones described in each piece, you
need at least 3 pieces. I must say I found these bracers by chance in
the auction house. Some idiot was selling it at a knockdown price of 12
Gold, while it should have been sold for 30+ Gold!
Hands
Vice Grips of the Whale (Level 43 Plate, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 318
Stats: +11 Spirit +11 Stamina
Equip: +14 Attack Power
Where I found it: Antu'Sul, Zul'Farrak (33% drop rate)
Zul'Farrak features a troll witch doctor who trains some lizards for
combat. It was a tough battle, and I died in the battle back in my mid
40s, but he was ultimately defeated. He gave it out, I rolled for it,
and had to compete with a Warrior and Paladin. A few seconds after I
rolled Need, I got disconnected. I logged in a few minutes later, and
there were the gloves, in my bag! Oh, and please note that there are
many variations of Vice Grip Plate Gloves in Zul'Farrak. You should try
to get the one which increases your Intellect by 11.
Waist
Girdle of Uther (Level 52 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 336
Stats: +9 Strength +9 Agility +10 Stamina +9 Intellect +10 Spirit
Where I found it: Auction House, 25 Gold
Uther is the first Paladin, and hence it is natural for a plate belt
named after him to be for Paladins. The Intellect bonus clearly shows
this. For a piece of high level gear, the Girdle of Uther really isn't
that expensive at all. In fact, 25 Gold is the median price of the item.
Legs
Elemental Rockridge Leggings (Level 49 Plate, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 496 Stats: +20 Strength +18 Stamina +10 Nature Resistance
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (15% drop rate)
It seems that Princess Theradras of Maraudon is a gold mine of blue
instance drops. She drops 6 different blue items, each has 15-16% drop
rate. At the same time, she may drop TWO blue items at the same times
at times. These fine leggings are just one of them. I have seen this
armor appearing twice in 5 of my Maraudon runs. The first time, there
were 2 other Paladins in my group. As a result, I lost the roll.
However, in the most recent run, which occurred the previous night of
version 1.35 of this guide, I played the main tank, with no other plate
wearers in my group. This time, I have no competition for the item, and
I got it! This armor is a valuable asset for Paladins, since we do not
have Nature Resistance Auras (while Hunters do).
WARNING! Parental Advisory: Contains mild nudity
It seems that the Elemental Rockridge Leggings come in the form of
trousers for men, and just fancy stockings for women. If you are a
female paladin, you will appear to be wearing plate stockings, without
any skirt or pants! So, this means that your string panties will be
revealed, and if you choose not to show your cape, you plump bum will
also be clearly seen! Of course, you will look more like a holy slut
than a holy fighter with that on. I bet Archbishop Benedictus would
have his eyes on you. Hehe...
Feet
Sapphiron's Scale Boots (Level 53 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 417 Stats: +14 Strength +9 Agility +14 Stamina
Extra Enchantment: Minor Speed Increase
Where I found it: Auction House, 40 Gold
The Sapphiron's Scale Boots are a direct upgrade of the Obsidian
Greaves. They provide more Strength, Agility and Stamina than its
predecessor. I again got a great deal from this purchase, since it
usually cost 60 Gold or more. In fact, I remembered seeing this on a
Tuesday night, and the buyout was at 60 Gold, therefore I just got the
starting bid of 40 Gold, and took advantage of the maintenance period.
Therefore, I was not outbid and got this at a relatively low price. At
the same time, I also bought a minor speed enchant for 4 Gold 50 Silver.
This allows my Paladin to run somewhat like 8% faster. (Equivalent to
the Pursuit of Justice, only that it is stackable with other effects!)
Finger 1
Blackstone Ring (Level 49, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +6 Stamina
Equip: +20 Attack Power, Increases Chance to hit by 1%
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (19% drop rate)
This ring is one of the 6 blue instance drops that can come from the
princess of Maraudon. It is great for Paladins since it increases our
melee power. This time, it was luck that gave me it, since basically
everyone in my group rolled Need for it, and I won the roll.
Finger 2
Masons Fraternity Ring (Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +13 Agility +5 Stamina
Where I found it: Quest Reward, Tanaris
There is a goblin called Tran'rek, which asks you to perform various
quests for him involving Zul'Farrak. One of them involves collecting
something for him, I believe it involves killing Sergeant Bly inside
the instance after freeing him, so as to get his Divinomatic Rod. After
you complete the quest, you will get to receive this item, which
increases your crit chance through agility.
Trinket 1
Blazing Emblem (Level 38) [Blue]
Stat: +15 Fire Resistance
Use: Increases Fire Resistance by 50 for 10 seconds
Where I found it: Off some troll in Stranglethorn Vale (By chance)
The Blazing Emblem is a fire resistance trinket, and allows you to
increase Fire Resistance for a further 50 for 10 seconds. This may help
to mitigate damage when in a very high level instance.
Trinket 2
Gnomish Death Ray
How I got it: I made it myself with Engineering
Engineering works wonders for Paladins. The Gnomish Death Ray leeches
health from its user to power up, then unleashes a catastrophic blast
that deals a big dent at the enemy. For your information, note the
amount of health leeched from you every second during the charging
period. The damage dealt is approximately 7 times the amount of health
leeched each second. Usually, the higher your total health, the more
damage you can deal. And, if you see health leeched at the rate of 200
per second, you can be rest assured of the impending doom of the target!
The extra perk is that if you use Divine Shield, no health will leech
off you while it charges!
Shield
Gizlock's Hypertech Buckler (Level 48, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 1835 Block: 32
Stats: +5 Stamina +10 Intellect
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 second
Where I found it: Tinkerer Gizlock, Maraudon (30.8% Drop Rate)
With all these mana related stats on this shield, it definitely has the
big words "RESERVED FOR PALADIN" stamped on it. Tinkerer Gizlock is a
goblin boss found inside Maraudon. You will go out of the main path,
down a steep path to find him. He really is not a hard boss, and
frequently drops the shield. In fact, I got this shield the second time
I beat Gizlock. Since I was the only shield user in the group that day,
I was able to get it without competition! (In fact, if you have read
this far, you should learn a valuable lesson in instance grouping: If
you want to play an instance for the goodies, never group with a
Warrior or other Paladins!)
The reason why this shield is very important to a Paladin is because it
is one of the few intellect gear you will find even at such a high
level. The constant mana regeneration will speed up the Blessing of
Wisdom even further. This shield is quite nice looking, for an engineer
like me. In fact, it looks like one large gear that is always turning!
*****MY MAIN ARSENAL*****
The weapons listed below are the ones which I consider as up to date
with my corresponding level. Any other weapons I happen to have are not
listed below.
Sword
Thrash Blade (Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
66-124 Damage, Speed 2.70 (35.2 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Grants an Extra Attack on your next swing
How I got it: Quest Reward, Maraudon
There is a quest that involves killing the Princess of Maraudon in
Nijel's Point. If you complete it, you can get to choose this nice
sword as a reward. The good thing is that sometimes, you will see the
Paladin do an extra whoosh attack on top of his normal attack on the
next swing!
Two Handed Sword
Lightforged Blade (Bind on Pickup, Level 47) [Blue]
118-178 Damage, Speed 3.30 (44.8 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +9 Strength, +9 Stamina, +10 Shadow Resistance, +10 Frost
Resistance, +10 Fire Resistance
How I got it: Quest Reward, Western Plaguelands
There is a Paladin specific quest that begins inside the Stormwind
Cathedral. You are to get to the Western Plaguelands, and report to
Argent Dawn. You will then be commissioned to collect Scourgestones for
them. Once you collect enough, complete the quest, and get another one,
which involves getting 6 feathers from the Troll priests inside the
Sunken Temple. Collect them all, turn them in, and you get to choose a
reward which includes this item. The biggest surprise is that it
actually is a resistance gear, so it will come handy when you fight
mages and the like of them.
Mace
Fist of Stone (Bind on Pickup, Level 48) [Blue]
44-83 Damage, Speed 1.80 (35.3 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Recovers 50 Mana
How I got it: Landslide, Maraudon (16% drop rate)
I must say that I have never seen a mace that swings this fast. It may
deal little damage per hit, but its fast swinging speed makes up for it.
The chance to recover 50 mana makes it ideal for Paladins like me, and
maybe priests, if they ever had to defend themselves. I was amazed that
all 4 of my team members think this weapon is crap and let me have it.
That is my gain of that day, after beating that giant stoner Landslide.
(I do mean it, he really is made of stone!)
Two Handed Mace
Twig of the World Tree (Bind on Equip, Level 53) [Blue]
147-221 Damage, Speed 3.70 (49.7 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +14 Strength, +12 Spirit, +21 Stamina
How I got it: Auction House
I had been waiting long for a good two-handed mace to replace the long
obsolete Verigan's Fist (got from Paladin specific quest). One of the
good ones was a Two Handed Mace dropped from Princess Theradras.
However, that mace is lacking since it is slow, and like many of the
instance drops, provide a proc rather than improved stats. This is why
I bought this from the Auction House for 35 Gold. This mace may be slow,
but it's deadly. Since it's slow, whenever the Seal of Command works,
devastating damage can be dealt. Also, the stats really help to
compensate for the lack of a shield. Finally, the name of this mace is
just so funny. So, to make a powerful mace, all you need to do is to
cut a twig of a tree, huh?
Axe
Ripsaw (Bind on Pickup, Level 45) [Blue]
63-117 Damage, Speed 2.70 (33.3 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Wounds the target for 75 additional damage
How I got it: Chief Sandscalp, Zul'Farrak (20.7% drop rate)
This is what I got instead of the Big Bad Pauldrons when I went to
Zul'Farrak so many times. I tend to think of it as a consolation prize.
There were no axe users in my group at that time, so I won it with out
competition, in the same night, I won the Diabloic Skiver, as shown
below. Hence starting the incident where that Warlock complained, "You
need to roll Need on anything, do you?" Anyway, this axe as a chance of
making a splat sound, cause blood to spurt out of the enemy, dealing
extra damage. It's quite fun to hear the sound, actually.
Two Handed Axe
Lord Alexander's Battle Axe (Bind on Equip, Level 51) [Blue]
123-185 Damage, Speed 3.20 (48.1 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Agility, +Stamina
How I got it: Auction House, 40 Gold
You will notice that for a long time, I have not included a Two-Handed
Axe in my main arsenal section. This is because I have basically
neglected that department long since I got Thermaplugg's Left Arm!
(That was obsolete long, long ago). Anyway, it seems that I have a
choice between this and the axe Brain Hacker [Purple]. The latter is
just so expensive and offers 1 proc, although fast. Of course, the one
with stats is the better one to choose! The good news is that with the
additional Strength and Agility, Lord Alexander's Battle Axe will deal
more damage than the Frenzied Striker below. The 17 additional agility
also effectively provides for almost 1% extra critical hit chance.
Polearm
Frenzied Striker (Bind on Pickup, Level 51) [Blue]
108-162 Damage, Speed 2.80 (48.2 Damage Per Second)
Equip: Increases your chance to parry an attack by 1%
Equip: Increases your chance to hit by 2%
How I got it: Trade Channel
I was wandering around Ironforge, and saw someone sell this. I paid a
price of 15 Gold, which is slightly lower than the median price on
Allakhazam. The good thing about this polearm is that it his quite fast
for a two handed weapon. In fact, it is only 0.1 second slower than 2
of the one handed weapons I am using! The increased chance to hit will
make life slightly easier. So will the damage.
*****MY STATS*****
Now, to show the gear dependence of my Paladin, I will show you my
stats. Note that each stat is preceded by a bracket with a sum. The
first number is the base value, and the following one is the bonus
value from items. The following stats are taken when my shield and the
Thrash Blade are equipped. Also, Retribution Aura is on.
Strength: (105 + 94 =) 199
Agility: (60 + 51 =) 111
Stamina: (91 + 152 =) 243
Intellect: (64 + 29 =) 93
Spirit: (72 + 63 =) 135
Armor: 5338 (51.3% damage reduction against level 55 attacker)
As you can see, almost half of my Strength, Agility and Spirit are
obtained from my gear, and more than half of my total health is
contributed by my gear! So, it can really be seen that gear is what
makes or breaks the Paladin. If you want even more specialized, you
will have to find equipment that increases damage or healing done by
spells up to a certain amount. Certain gear will also increase your
critical strike chance by 1 or 2%, and those are also what you may need.
----------------------
e. Paladin Armor Sets
----------------------
All classes in World of Warcraft have their own armor sets. They are a
group of armor pieces, that when equipped together, will give
additional bonuses on top of the additional stats. Paladin armor sets
start to be available as you reach the higher levels, that is from
level 52 to 60. Also, item sets are ranked into tiers, which show how
powerful they are, and the relative difficulty to obtain them. The Tier
0 sets should be usable before level 60, while the rest of them will
require level 60.
-------------------------
Tier 0: Lightforge Armor
-------------------------
Lightforge Helm (Level 57, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 526
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +6 Agility, +14 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Lightforge Spaulders (Level 55, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 470
Stats: +9 Strength, +15 Stamina, +4 Agility, +11 Intellect, +5 Spirit
Lightforge Breastplate (Level 58, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 657
Stats: +13 Strength, +21 Stamina, +16 Intellect, +8 Spirit
Lightforge Bracers (Level 52, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 261
Stats: +7 Stamina, +10 Stamina, +4 Agility, +8 Spirit
Lightforge Gloves (Level 54, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 386
Stats: +14 Strength, +9 Stamina, +14 Spirit
Lightforge Belt (Level 53, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 341
Stats: +10 Strength, +9 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Lightforge Leggings (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 557
Stats: +20 Strength, +14 Stamina, +8 Agility, +12 Intellect, +9 Spirit
Lightforge Boots (Level 54, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 424
Stats: +8 Strength, +18 Stamina, +9 Spirit
Set Bonuses
2 Pieces: You gain extra 200 Armor
4 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS
6 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing
and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds
8 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic
Set Stats
Armor: 3622(+200) Strength: 94 Stamina: 116 Agility: 22
Intellect: 68 Spirit: 69 All Resistances: 0(+8)
My comments:
Lightforge Armor is the first set of Armor that Paladins should go
after, and can be usable from level 52 onwards. All the bind on pick up
pieces are obtainable from Blackrock Spire (10 man), Scholomance (5 man)
and Stratholme (5 man) instances.
The chest, helm and leggings are definitely the best pieces of the set,
since they cater more specifically to the Paladin's stats (Intellect),
while providing good overall stats. The shoulders are decent, but the
boots are so-so. As for the other 3 parts, they can be bought at the
Auction House, since they are bind on equip.
Of the set bonuses, I find the 2 piece and 4 piece bonuses the most
attractive. If you must wear only 4 out of the 8 pieces, I suggest that
you wear the Helm, Chest, Bracers and Leggings. However, this does not
mean you should neglect the other 4 pieces, since you must have all 8
Lightforge pieces in order to complete a quest chain that allows you to
upgrade your set to something even better! That is the new Tier 0.5 Set,
Soulforge Armor!
Score: 3.5/5
--------------------------
Tier 0.5: Soulforge Armor
--------------------------
Soulforge Helm [Purple]
Armor: 556
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Shoulders [Blue]
Armor: 507
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Soulforge Breastplate [Purple]
Armor: 684
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Bracers [Blue]
Armor: 296
Stats: +9 Strength, 10 Stamina, +9 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 8
Soulforge Gauntlets [Purple]
Armor: 393
Stats: +9 Strength, +10 Stamina, +10 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Belt [Blue]
Armor: 380
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Soulforge Legplates [Blue]
Armor: 601
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11
Soulforge Boots [Blue]
Armor: 380
Stats: +12 Strength, +13 Stamina, +12 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage don by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Set Bonuses
2 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic
4 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing
and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds
6 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS
8 Pieces: You gain extra 200 armor
Set Stats
Armor: 3797(+200) Strength: 98 Stamina: 106 Intellect: 104
Spirit: 44 All Resistances: 0(+8)
Increased healing and damage by magical spells: 94
Extra Mana Restoration every 5 seconds: 12
Increased chance of delivering a critical hit: 3%
My comment:
Having collected the entire Lightforge Set, you can go and find a
Paladin trainer in the Stormwind Cathedral in order to partake in a
chain quest that will result in all you Lightforge pieces upgraded into
Soulforge.
When you put the 2 sets together and compare stats, you will find that
Soulforge gives you a little more Armor, Strength and a lot more
Intellect in the expense of a little Stamina. So, you would expect to
have 100 health less than when you have a full Lightforge set. However,
this is easily offset by enchanting one of your armor pieces to provide
for 100 HP.
Soulforge provides more bonuses that are set in stone. Wearing all
pieces will increase the amount of damage and healing dealt by spells
by up to 94. It is always a welcome addition to deal more damage than
normal. And just imagine what will happen when you judge your enemy
with Crusader! At the same time, such a fixed value increase in healing
value means that the spell that heals less to begin with will benefit
more. So, start using more Flash of Light, baby!
The extra 12 mana restored every 5 seconds will mean that the 2 talents
invested in Improved Blessing of Wisdom can be used in other places,
like Improved Lay on Hands or the Retribution Tree.
Some people have complained in the official class forums that this set
does not give a single point in Agility. However, you don't have to see
this as a bad thing. After all, they ARE giving you an extra 3% chance
in delivering critical hits. This is equivalent to having 60 extra
Agility points, only that you won't be able to dodge as much.
As I see it, Paladins have 5% base crit chance. Add the 3%, the 5%
obtained through the Conviction Talent, and the 60+ or so base Agility
that you have, you should have more than a 16% chance of delivering
critical hits. And this does not take in account your weapon skills and
Agility obtained through your finger, necklace or cloak!
Score: 4.3/5
-------------------------
Tier 1: Lawbringer Armor
-------------------------
Lawbringer Helm (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 608
Stats: +9 Strength, +20 Stamina, +24 Intellect, +10 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 562
Stats: +10 Strength, +22 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +8 Spirit,
+7 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Chestguard (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 749
Stats: +8 Strength, +26 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +13 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Bracers (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 328
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Spirit, +8 Intellect
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Lawbringer Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 468
Stats: +10 Strength, +15 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +14 Spirit,
+7 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 421
Stats: +13 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +8 Spirit,
+7 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 655
Stats: +7 Strength, +24 Stamina, +18 Intellect, +18 Spirit,
+10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 3 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Boots (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 515
Stats: +7 Strength, +20 Stamina, +13 Intellect, +10 Spirit,
+7 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 2 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Set Bonuses
3 Pieces: Everyone has an extra 10% of getting healed if they hit an
enemy affected by your Judgment of Light
5 Pieces: You have an extra 1% chance of dealing a critical hit with
spells or normal physical attacks
8 Pieces: Every time you hit an enemy, there is a chance to heal every
member of your party for 189-221 health.
Set Stats
Armor: 4306 Strength: 74 Stamina: 153 Intellect: 134 Spirit: 92
Fire Resistance: 34 Shadow Resistance: 24
Increased healing by magical spells: 138
Extra Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds: 13
Increased chance of critting with magic and melee: 0(+1%)
My comment:
The Paladin's Tier 1 armor set can be found on many bosses in the
Molten Core (40 man raid!). Compared with Soulforge, the Lawbringer
Armor provides more Armor, Stamina and Intellect, but at the expense of
lots of Strength. The Fire Resistance is quite nice, though. One major
difference in the bonuses between Soulforge and Lawbringer is that
Lawbringer only increases the HEALING effect of your spells. So, your
Judgment of Righteousness and Holy Shock will NOT get a damage increase.
In return, you can heal more effectively, so Flash of Light is the way.
Like Soulforge, Lawbringer Armor does not provide any Agility points.
What you do get is a 1% chance of getting a critical hit with magic and
physical attacks by 1%. This is just peanuts compared to the bonuses
that Soulforge offers.
In conclusion, Lawbringer Armor is entirely focused towards a Paladin
who spends most of his time healing. One mitigating factor is that when
you have all 8 pieces, you may heal your group slightly when you hit
the enemy, and that the chance of Judgment of Light working on your
pals is increased. However, Judgment of Light works very frequently to
begin with, and dealing improved damage may just be more fun for many.
So, if you are more interested in magical ATTACKS while meleeing, you
might as well stick with Soulforge Armor until you get the ultimate
high-end set, the Judgement Armor.
Score: 1.7/5
------------------------
Tier 2: Judgement Armor
------------------------
Judgement Crown (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 696
Stats: +17 Strength, +18 Stamina, +23 Intellect, +6 Spirit,
+10 Frost Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 32
Judgement Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 642
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +6 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 13
Judgement Breastplate (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 857
Stats: +16 Strength, +21 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +5 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 25
Judgement Bindings (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 375
Stats: +9 Strength, +21 Stamina, +9 Intellect, +8 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 7
Judgement Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 535
Stats: +6 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Equip: Restores 6 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 15
Judgement Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 482
Stats: +8 Strength, +14 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit
+10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 23
Judgement Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 749
Stats: +10 Strength, +26 Stamina, +27 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 20
Judgement Sabatons (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 589
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +8 Spirit
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 18
Set Bonuses
3 Pieces: Your Auras' radii will be increased by 10.
5 Pieces: Your healing and damage dealt by magical spells will be
increased by up to 47.
8 Pieces: Every time you judge an enemy, you will deal 60 to 66 damage
in addition to the base effect of that spell.
Set Stats
Armor: 4925 Strength: 92 Stamina: 155 Intellect: 148 Spirit: 50
Arcane Resistance: 10 Fire Resistance: 40 Nature Resistance: 10
Frost Resistance: 10 Shadow Resistance: 30
Extra mana restoration every 5 seconds: 20
Increased healing and damage dealt by magical spells: 153(+47)
Extra damage dealt by Judgments: 0(+66)
My comment:
This is the ultimate Paladin set. It is obtained from various boss in
raid instances like the Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. Of course, to
have any hope of getting this armor, you better find 39 more dedicated
players to come with you. The desperation of getting those items is why
certain guilds set up a Dragon Kill Points (DKP) system, so as to
guarantee that people who have played longer get it before the ones who
played less. However, this is against the spirit of the game. (This is
not Everquest, pals!) When you wear this set, you get some dark knight
style helm, and you will be wearing a plate robe like those crusaders!
Anyway, this set is superior to the Lawbringer in every possible. The
only downgrade is that you get less Spirit. Like Lawbringer, this set
has not a single point of agility, nor does it have any fixed crit
chance increases. However, it does have a large increase in spell
damage, in fact, it is something like up to 266 when you use Judgments
of Righteousness and Command, and 200 when you use Holy Shock. Of
course, these numbers are likely to increase when you judge Crusader on
the enemy first.
So, you can be an even deadlier plate caster than Soulforge, although
you will lose critical chances. This is also why I only give this set a
4.7 out of 5, due to this imperfection.
Score: 4.7/5
------------------
5. Paladin Skills
------------------
A Paladin is characterized by their melee attacks, and their holy
spells, namely the Auras, Blessings and Seals. Of course, there are
also abilities to heal others, to remove any status ailments and even
resurrect a fellow group member. So, let's look at each type of thing
in turn, shall we?
To train for most of the skills, one must consult a Paladin trainer.
Paladin trainers are located in Goldshire, and the capital cities of
Stormwind (Stormwind Cathedral) and Ironforge (Mystic Ward).
---------------
a. Blessings
---------------
Blessings typically are spells that temporarily enhance a character's
abilities. These types of enhancements are called buffs. Some blessings
are also used to protect fellow group members from bad effects. Each
Paladin can affect their group members with 1 Blessing at a time, so if
there are 2 Paladins in each group, each group member can be affected
by 2 blessings at once.
Blessing of Might
Ranks: 1 to 7 Levels Learned: 4, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 60
Mana Cost: 20, 30, 45, 60, 85, 110, 130 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing is symbolized by a fist with a blue background. It has
the effect of raising the target's attack power for 5 minutes. The
higher the rank of the blessing, the more attack power it gives out.
This buff is to be applied to the direct combat classes of the group,
notably the Warriors, Paladins, Rogues and Hunters.
Greater Blessing of Might
Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 52, 60
Mana Cost: 220, 260 Range: 30 yards
This is a weird Raid Oriented buff. You will need a special reagent to
use it. It gives all the members of the raid or group that has the SAME
CLASS as the target an increase in attack power for 15 minutes. I mean,
how often will you party with 4 Rogues or 4 Warriors, say? But still,
this thing saves the hassle of casting individual members, and it
already pays off even if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost
is twice as that of the Blessing of Might, but you get 15 minutes of
buffing, and not 5.
Blessing of Protection
Ranks: 1 to 3 Levels Learned: 10, 24, 38
Mana Cost: 25, 45, 60 Range: 30 yards Cooldown time: 5 mins
This Blessing puts up a shield on the target, allowing him to be
invincible for an amount of time. The amount of time increases with
rank. Although he is protected, the target cannot use any attacks.
However, they can apply buffs to themselves. Please note that whenever
you use this effect on anyone, they cannot be affected by Divine
Protection, Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection for a minute.
Blessing of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 to 6 Levels Learned: 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, 60
Mana Cost: 30, 45, 65, 90, 115, 125 Range: 30 yards
This is more like a "healing" effect. Only that is long term, lasting
for 5 minutes. This blessing allows the target to regain a certain
amount of Mana every 5 seconds. The higher the rank, the more mana is
recovered. Mages, Priests and Warlocks are the prime targets, and if
you are to act the healer in your group, buff yourself.
Blessing of Salvation
Level Learned: 26 Mana Cost: 88 Range: 30 yards
Blessing of Salvation protects the user. Well, it means that anyone who
is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the
enemies' attention when they attack them. Since Mages and Priests are
supposed to cast at the back of the pack, as the artillery, they might
as well be blessed with this so they are not likely to be killed.
Greater Blessing of Salvation
Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 176 Range: 30 yards
This Raid Oriented blessing protects the target, as well as any
character the same class as it. It allows them to receive 30% less
threat from enemies, whatever that means. Well, it means that anyone
who is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the
enemies' attention when they attack them. It lasts for 15 minutes, and
hence is a better deal for your mana. What a pity that you have to wait
until you are at level 60 in order to learn this. (And also you need a
reagent!)
Greater Blessing of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 54, 60
Mana Cost: 230, 250 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing gives all the members of the raid or group that has the
SAME CLASS as the target mana generation of a certain amount every 5
seconds for 5 minutes. I don't seem to get it. The only sensible time I
could think of to use this is when you have 2 Mages in your group at
once. I just cannot think of times when there will be 2 Warlocks or 2
Priests! (Let alone a large 3!!!) But still, it already pays off even
if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost is twice as that of the
Blessing of Wisdom, but you get 15 minutes of buffing, and not 5. (You
also need a reagent to use it)
Blessing of Freedom
Level Learned: 18 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana
Range: 30 yards Cooldown Time: 20 seconds
This Blessing may only have one rank, but it really is worth its weight
in Gold. The reason is that it allows your target, or in particular,
yourself to be immune to all movement impairing effects for 10 seconds.
This is particularly effective in PvP combat against Horde Hunters and
Mages. Most of the time, they will try to use moves like Concussive
Shot (slowing down effect) or Frost Nova on you (freezes you in place).
Whenever you cast this on yourself, you will break free of that effect
instantly, and go forward to hack the enemy down! Please note that this
Blessing has a 20 second cooldown time, so you will be vulnerable for
10 seconds. But fortunately, as long as you are playing one on one, the
cooldown time of their slow down ability is also similar!
For some strange reason, this Blessing is not so effective in PvE
combat. Moves that leave you dazed will not be removed when you cast
Blessing of Freedom on yourself. Weird.
Blessing of Kings
Level Learned: 20 Mana Cost: 75 Range: 30 yards
Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents
This Blessing is learnt by first applying 10 Talent Points in the
Protection branch of Paladin Talents, and then spending another Talent
Point on the Blessing. After that, the move will be learnt instantly.
This buff increases the stats of its target by 10% for 5 minutes. I do
mean ALL of the stats, so this really is a hot one. If only you could
spend that many points in the Protection Tree.
Greater Blessing of Kings
Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 150 Range: 30 yards
Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents
This Blessing raises the stats of all characters of your group that are
of the same class as your target by 10% for 15 minutes. If only it
raises the stats of all characters of your group, no matter what class
they are for 15 minutes. But still, the 15 minute buff duration is
better than the 5 minute duration of the standard Blessing of Kings. So,
it may still pay off in the long run. (But buy the reagent!)
Blessing of Light
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 85, 110, 135 Range: 30 yards
If there were any "food additives" for the Paladin, this is it. Any
member of your group targeted will receive a bonus effect by the Holy
Light and Flash of Light healing spells. The bonus healed amount
increases with rank. But still, unless you are the healer of you group
(which is not much fun), you wouldn't be applying this Blessing to
anyone, I believe.
Blessing of Sacrifice
Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 46, 54
Mana Cost: 80, 100 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing is a damage absorber. Whenever you apply this Blessing to
a fellow group member, a small portion of the damage taken (45, then 55)
will be transferred to you instead of him! This blessing lasts for only
30 seconds though. This Blessing should only be used whenever you are
the designated healer. It's not a good idea to use it whenever you have
to fight yourself, or you really will suffer. And don't even think
about applying this to all other 4 members of your group, I do mean it!
--------------
b. Auras
--------------
Devotion Aura
Ranks: 1 to 7 Level Learned: 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
This Aura, signified by its shield logo, provides additional armor to
the Paladin that uses it, as well as all group members within 30 yards
of the Paladin. The extra armor provided increase with rank, from 55 in
rank 1 to 735 in rank 7. This is definitely the most commonly used Aura
for a Paladin to use, and hence when you are not really up to anything,
keep this turned on at all times!
Retribution Aura
Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 16, 26, 36, 46, 56
This Aura affects the Paladin and any group member within 30 yards of
him. Anyone in its area of effect will definitely not be attacked with
impunity. This is because any attacker who strikes a member will
receive a small amount of Holy Damage for each hit they make on you.
This may seem small, but adds up as time passes. The Holy Damage
increases from 5 in rank 1 to 20 in level 56.
Concentration Aura
Level Learned: 22
The Concentration Aura gives the Paladin and all group members within
30 yards of him a 35% chance of ignoring spell interruption when taking
damage. This is particular effective if you want to ensure that fellow
mages and priests can cast their spells even when they are attacked. At
the same time, there is a Talent for the Paladin that enables him to
have an extra 70% chance of avoiding spell interruption! So, with that
in conjunction with this aura, you can never be stopped!
Shadow Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 28, 40, 52
This Aura provides resistance to Shadow attacks, like those from enemy
Warlocks. Initially, you will have 30 resistance, which is rather poor.
Then, at level 40, you will gain 45 resistance. At level 52, you will
gain 60 Shadow Resistance.
Frost Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 32, 44, 56
This Aura provides resistance to all those icy Frost attacks, in
particular the ones from enemy Mages. You will get 30 Frost Resistance
at Rank 1, 45 Resistance at Rank 2 and finally, 60 Resistance at Rank 3.
Fire Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 36, 48, 60
Sick of being hit by all those fireballs? This Aura is here to help.
This Aura provides resistance to fire attacks to all group members
within 30 yards. You get 30 resistance at Rank 1, 45 resistance at Rank
2 and 60 resistance at Rank 3.
Sanctity Aura
Level Learned: 30 Prerequisite: 20 Retribution Talents
This Aura increases the Holy Damage done by all group members within 30
yards by 10%. Since it is a group bonus, you definitely cannot learn it
right off the bat. Instead, you have to spend 20 Retribution Talent
Points before you can even use it!
------------------------------
c. For the Undead's Eyes Only
------------------------------
Paladins are holy warriors, reckless hunters of undead. Hence they have
a lot of skills that only work against them. However, these skills are
strictly for PvE combat only, and will not work against human Undead
players. All of this is for balance issues. Thanks to the v1.9 patch,
all of the following spells will now work against Demons too!
Sense Undead
Level Learned: 20
Sense Undead allows the Paladin to see the positions of all nearby
undead and demon enemies on his minimap. This will stay on until you
decide to turn it off. All undead enemies will appear as red dots.
Exorcism
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60
Mana Required: 85, 135, 180, 235, 285, 345 Range: 30 yards
Cool Down Time: 15 seconds
This is the specialist anti undead spell for the Paladins. It works
instantly, and deals Holy Damage to the undead or demon target. The
higher the rank, the more damage will be dealt. It's just fun to pull
Undead enemies this way. The 15 second cooldown is not an issue.
Holy Wrath
Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 50, 60 Mana Cost: 645, 805
Casting Time: 2 seconds Cooldown Time: 1 minute
Holy Wrath takes Exorcism to a whole new level. The Paladin will file
bolts of Holy energy all around the place, dealing Holy Damage to all
targets nearby! Any enemies within 20 yards of the Paladin will feel
the pain! The damage dealt has the potential to be more than that of
Exorcism, so whenever there are 3 or more Undead at once, use it.
Turn Undead
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 24, 38, 52 Mana Cost: 35, 50, 75
Casting Time: 1.50 seconds Range: 20 yards Cooldown Time: 1 min
This is not an effective spell. It induces fear in Undead and Demons
only. But the problem is, when they run randomly in fear, they are
likely to aggravate all of his friends and cause them to run after you.
So, you might as well not bother with this.
---------------------
d. Seals and Offense
---------------------
It must really pay to be Holy Fighters, in fact, they have various
seals to enhance themselves. Seals are also the reason that make the
playing style of Paladins VERY DIFFERENT FROM HUNTERS AND ROGUES.
Seals are typically temporary effects that enhance your ability, for a
short 30 seconds. A Paladin can only activate one seal at a time. Many
seals give a chance for something good to happen in each blow you hit
the enemy. Such occurrences are called procs, or Programmed Random
Occurences. Many procs occur at a procs per minute basis. So, every
minute, expect the proc to occur a relatively constant number of times,
so the slower the weapon you use, the more frequently a proc will
accompany your blow.
However, that's not all, you can use Judgment to apply the effect to
the enemy, and hence giving some weird effects to them, making them
more vulnerable. If a Judgment has a continuing effect, its duration
can be prolonged if you continue hitting him with melee attacks, so
basically, as long as you are doing what you should do, the effect will
stay until the fight ends! Besides seals, other useful offensive spells
are written down here.
Judgment
Level Learned: 4 Mana Cost: 6% Range: 10 yards
Consider the Paladin to be a gun. Activating the seal loads the gun,
and using Judgment is equivalent to pulling the trigger, and judging
the enemy with the seal you are having. Various seals do different
effects on the enemy.
For instance, the Judgment of Righteousness deals direct Holy Damage to
the character, while the Judgment of the Crusader increases the enemy's
vulnerability to Holy Damage. This is the medium in which the Paladin
deals most of his ranged damage, so use it well. One more thing to note
is that the Judgment ability consumes 6% of the Paladin's total mana,
so as the Paladin levels up, he is bound to have to spend more and more
mana on this spell. The good news is that all judgments can be cast no
matter in which direction you are facing. So, even if this Horde Rogue
is running circles around you, you can still judge without fail!
Seal of Righteousness
Ranks: 1 to 8 Level Learned: 1, 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58
Mana Cost: 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, 140, 170, 200
Activating this seal will allow your melee attacks to have a high
chance of dealing additional Holy Damage with each blow. The higher the
rank, the more attack bonus you gain. This is quite a popular seal
throughout your leveling life cycle. Who would like to miss the ability
to deal a little more damage per hit? (Usually, whenever the seal is
trained at the highest rank for your level, the Holy Damage should be
at least 25% of your melee damage!) When you judge the enemy using this
seal, they will deal raw Holy Damage. It has a 10 yard range, so it's
one way of dealing with fleeing opponents, and opponents that run
around, making themselves hard to hit.
Seal of the Crusader
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 6, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52
Mana Cost: 25, 40, 65, 90, 125, 160
This seal has 2 different effects, depending whether you are applying
it to yourself or to the enemy. When you first apply it to yourself,
you will allow your melee attacks to hit faster, but you will deal less
damage than when you are not using. The correct thing to do is to judge
the enemy with this seal. Then, they will take more Holy Damage
whenever you hit them with the related attacks. This gives one key
combo. Whenever you fight, first judge the enemy with the Seal of the
Crusader, and then activate the Seal of Righteousness. Then your attack
bonus on the enemy will be further increased.
Seal of Justice
Level Learned: 22 Mana Cost: 13% of Paladin's total Mana
Like the Seal of the Crusader, the Seal of Justice has 2 separate
effects, depending on whether you are using it on yourself or the enemy.
When you first activate the seal, your melee attacks will have a chance
to stun the enemy for two seconds. Two seconds may not seem long, but
you do get to get a free hit on the enemy, and any spellcasting enemies
will have their spells completely interrupted. So this seal is most
effective against casting enemies like Mages, Warlocks and Priests.
(Although there is one other seal that provides raw power that may be
just as effective). The judgment effect of this seal, however, is only
useful in PvE encounters. It prevents the enemy from fleeing when they
are about to die. Many a time has an enemy run off, alerted his friends
and sent a large army to outwit you. This can be prevented by judging
them with this seal at the start of the battle! As for PvP encounters,
your enemy will definitely be not forced to stay!
Seal of Light
Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 30, 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 110, 140, 180, 210
The Seal of Light is really healing related, as with most skills that
mention the word "Light" for the Paladin. The Seal of Light, when
activated, gives your melee attacks a considerably high chance of
healing yourself slightly. On the other hand, judging the enemy will
give the melee attacks made against them a chance to heal the attacker
slightly. (God knows how this works) The slower the weapon you use, the
more likely you are going to be healed. However, as long as you keep
hitting the enemy, the duration will be prolonged. So, the healing is
spread out over time. I prefer the seal to the judgment anyday. This
seal is good when you are playing in a group with several mates against
a strong boss. Since all attackers may benefit. It is also good when
you are low on mana and want to heal yourself. Just engage some weak
enemy and activate the seal. The amount healed will definitely be
larger than the damage they deal to you! However, don't do this in PvP,
since it's likely to be a much faster paced fight than those dumb bots!
Seal of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 38, 48, 58
Mana Cost: 135, 170, 200
The Seal of Wisdom works a lot like the Seal of Light, but instead of
health, you get a chance to regain mana with every hit you take.
However, I believe this spell is not worth it. Firstly, the mana cost
is very high compared to the amount of mana that will be restored to
you. Furthermore, the proc is less likely to occur than that of the
Seal of Light, and in group fights, the casters will tend to stay away
from the tough enemy to actually get any hits! (And, if they are being
hit, they are likely to die soon if it's an elite, which happens a lot
during group instances!)
Seal of Command
Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 65, 110, 140, 180, 210 Prerequisite: 10 Retribution
Talents
This seal may require a considerable number of talent points spent in
the Retribution Tree, but it really is worth it. When active, you will
have a considerable chance of doing a roundhouse blow with your weapon,
dealing Holy Damage equal to 70% of the standard melee damage you deal.
This proc has a slightly lower chance of occurring than that of Seal of
Righteousness, but it's still high ever since the 1.9 patch. Another
thing to note is that the critical hit chance of the proc is directly
related to your standard attack crit chance. (so build up your agility
or equip yourself with Crit Gear!)
The good thing is that the extra damage won't be necessarily 70%. In
most cases, the amount of Holy Damage dealt is 80%, 90% or even more
than the standard damage dealt by your weapon in that specific hit!
What's better than that? On the other hand, judging this seal will deal
Holy Damage to the enemy, which is less than that of the Seal of
Righteousness. However, if the enemy is hit while stunned, they will
get much more Holy Damage than the Judgment of Righteousness. (So,
combine with Hammer of Justice for the best results)
It seems that some people claim that this move procs at a rate of 7
procs per minute, and hence in spite of an increase from 5 procs per
minute, the seal of command deals inferior damage. Now, I tell you what,
this move has procced for me for something like 8 to 9 times in a
minute when I used a faster weapon, so it actually has experienced a
net damage increase due to the Version 1.9 patch.
Tip! Righteousness or Command?
As a rule of a thumb, use Seal of Righteousness while you use 1-handed
weapons, and use Seal of Command when use 2-handed weapons, which are
usually slower than 1 handers.
Hammer of Justice
Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 8, 24, 40, 54
Mana Cost: 30, 50, 75, 100 Range: 10 Yards Cooldown Time: 10s
Hammer of Justice is a stunning move of the Paladin. Using it will
immediately stun your target for a number of seconds. The time stunned
starts from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 6. There are several uses of
this move. One is to stop the enemy caster from using his spells.
Another one is to stun him for a considerable amount of time so that
you can heal yourself. Another use is to stop the enemy from fleeing
(or trying anything funny) while you deal several hits on him.
Furthermore, if you are being attacked by a human Horde player, you may
want to freeze him in place for a few seconds so you have time to run
out of range. At the same time, while fighting elites in an instance,
using Hammer of Justice to stun an enemy is a surefire way of getting
him to get off that cloth wearer and hit you instead.
Hammer of Wrath
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 44, 52, 60
Mana Cost: 295, 360, 425 Casting Time: 1 second Range: 30 Yards
Cooldown time: 6 seconds
This move has been given to the Paladin at the Version 1.7 patch over
concerns that the Paladins are far too easy to run away from. Therefore,
you have this new Hammer of Wrath ranged attack. Now, whenever the
enemy has 20% or less health, and is trying to run away from you, all
you have to do is to use this and throw the hammer over long distances
to hit him, most likely to finish him off! This is one cool finishing
move, so make sure you have enough mana to spare!
Holy Shock
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40 minimum, 48, 56
Mana Cost: 255, 325, 380 Range: 20 Yards Cooldown time: 30 s
Prerequisite: 30 points in Holy talents, 1 point in Divine Favor
The Holy Shock move is the Paladin's one and only ranged damage spell
that works any time. Using this will instantly blast the enemy with
Holy energy, dealing a considerably high amount of damage to them from
a 20 yard range. That's not all, if you use this on a friend, you will
heal them instantly for that particular amount. Holy Shock is powerful
and hard to get. To get that, you must have designated at least 30 of
your Talent Points in the Holy Talent Tree. Afterwards, you must invest
5 points in all 5 Illumination Talents, then invest another point in
Divine Favor. Then, you can get to invest one more point in Holy Shock.
Therefore, you must wait all the way until level 40 to get it! Since
it's a ranged attack, you can use this to pull enemies in instances. A
better way to use it still, is to use it in a finishing combo in a PvP
combat! Consider first using Judgment of Righteousness, then Holy Shock,
and then finally Hammer of Wrath! This should deal more than 700 damage
and certainly finish them. (Considering the enemy has around 3000 HP
and is at around level 47.)
--------------------------
e. Healing and Protection
--------------------------
One of the Paladin's prized skills is his ability to fight and heal at
the same time. Surely, they may not heal as good as the Priest, it is
still very vital to keep the others alive. At the same time, the
Paladin has some abilities to help protect themselves during critical
moments of the fights. Here are the skills that you can use to help.
Holy Light
Ranks: 1 to 9 Level Learned: 1, 6, 14, 22, 30, 38, 46, 54, 60
Mana Cost: 35, 60, 110, 190, 275, 365, 465, 580, 660
Casting Time: 2.5s Range: 40 Yards
Holy Light is the standard healing move of the Paladin. After a short
charge, the Paladin will heal his target. The higher the rank of the
move, the stronger the healing power. Since it takes 2.5 seconds to
cast this spell, you might as well do something to help avoid spell
interruption. Investing 5 Talent Points into Spiritual Focus should
help, since it allows 70% of hits dealt to the Paladin while he is
casting the spell to not interrupt his casting. Combine this with
Concentration Aura, there really is no way standard hits can stop him
from casting.
However, you should still watch out for effects such as Kick or Silence,
since they stop the spell completely, and you have to wait a
considerable while before you can cast again. One way to cope with
those moves is to attempt to heal when your HP is still high, get
interrupted, and then heal again. Then, there is no way for the enemy
to interrupt you! Another way is to stun the enemy or protect yourself
in an invincibility shield, as you see later.
Flash of Light
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58
Mana Cost: 35, 50, 70, 90, 115, 140 Casting Time: 1.5 seconds
Range: 40 Yards
Flash of Light is a move that allows the Paladin to heal his friends
slightly, but with a shorter casting time. The range is the same.
However, please note that the amount healed per unit time for Flash of
Light is lower than that of Holy Light. However, but the mana cost per
unit healed of this move is generally lower than that of Holy Light. So,
if you are outside of battle, consider using this instead to heal
yourself. But while in fierce battle, use Holy Light instead.
Divine Favor
Level Learned: 30 minimum Mana Cost: 4% of Paladin's Total Mana
Cooldown Time: 2 minutes
Prerequisite: 20 Points in Holy Talents, 5 Points in Illumination
This move is an instant cast buff, and allows the next Holy Light or
Flash of Light cast by the Paladin to always give a critical effect (ie.
Heal more than usual). Since you have already spent 5 points in
Illumination in the Holy Talent Tree, you will definitely not spend any
mana in this Holy Light! So, use this whenever you do not have any more
mana to spare. This shows why it is worth it to spend points in the
Holy Tree of the Paladin! Do yourself a favor, in particular a Divine
Favor and spend 20 Holy Talent Points, man!
Purify / Cleanse
Level Learned: 8, 42 Mana Cost: 8% of Paladin's Total Mana
These moves are moves that allow Paladin to remove ailments from
himself and friendlies. Purify removes one disease effect and one
poison effect each time it is used. Cleanse removes the above, and one
magic effect as well. Both cost the same, so might as well Replace
Purify with Cleanse upon hitting level 42.
Righteous Fury
Level Learned: 16 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana
Lasting Time: 30 minutes
This self buff increases the aggro, of threat drawn from the enemies
from your Holy attacks by 30%. This means that if you use this on
yourself, and cast Seal of Righteousness, with every hit you take, the
enemy will be more likely to hit you than the mage or priest in your
group. Much better for tanking, eh?
Divine Protection / Divine Shield
Ranks: 1 and 2 (DP), 1 and 2 (DS)
Level Learned: 6, 18 (DP), 34, 50 (DS) Mana Cost: 15, 35, 75, 110
Lasting Time: 5 to 12 seconds Cooldown Time: 5 minutes
Both of the above spells are invincibility spells. The Paladin will
become invulnerable for a short time, and all conditions will be cured.
Note that for Divine Protection, the user cannot perform any attacks,
but can cast healing spells on himself. Meanwhile, Divine Shield allows
you to use physical attacks, but the speed will be reduced by 50%. This
move is perfect for healing yourself in emergencies. Since, whenever
you are ambushed by a Horde while you are fighting an enemy for
instance, you can quickly put on the "bubble", and heal yourself to
full strength, run away from the enemy's territory, and fight the Horde
on an evenly basis. You may also try to use the Hearthstone while in
the bubble, but you have to have laser sharp reflexes to ensure that
the warp effect will begin before the bubble expires. (Only works for
Divine Shield, by the way.)
-----------------------------------
6. What you should do for a Living
-----------------------------------
World of Warcraft features a system of professions. A character can get
up to 2 primary professions. They include Herbalism, Skinning, Mining,
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Tailoring and
Engineering. The first 3 professions are collecting professions. They
are used to collect raw materials for your use. The last 5 are
production professions that allow your character to create armor,
weapons and more with your raw materials.
---------------------------
a. Recommended Professions
---------------------------
So many professions, only 2 can be chosen, but which ones are
recommended for the Paladin?
Herbalism allows the collecting of herbs from the ground. The herbs are
usually used to create potions in Alchemy, since the Paladin can
already heal himself and buff himself, these 2 professions are not of
much use for him.
Skinning allows the skinning of dead Beasts. Leather is collected in
the process. However, all of this leather is best used at
Leatherworking, which creates Mail Armor at best. However, the full
potential of the Paladin is realized at Plate Armor, therefore, the
above 2 professions are not recommended.
Tailoring allows you to make clothes, which are cloth armor. The thing
is, Paladins should not wear cloth. Enchanting is a profession that
allows you to boost the abilities of weapons and materials through
shards. However, that is still not as good as Blacksmithing or
Engineering that allow you to create offensive and defensive devices.
At the same time, Enchanting tends to be a money making profession. You
have to make the hassle of advertising yourself through the Trade
Channel of cities to offer enchants to people's equipment, and this is
quite a tedious process.
Blacksmithing is also a choice, since you can make weapons and armor
for your use. However, they do not address the Paladin's weakness,
which is the lack of ranged attacks. So, I would recommend Engineering,
although you CAN take Blacksmithing to help you out a bit.
Since a lot of metal is used in the above two professions, I recommend
that you choose Mining with Engineering.
NOTE: If all you care is making money, just choose any 2 gathering
professions, and sell all you harvest at the auction house!
At the same time, there are secondary professions. These are just
amateurish stuff, giving you some extra bonuses in life. There are 3
secondary professions, and they are First Aid, Fishing and Cooking. You
can learn all 3 of them, but I suggest you prioritize.
First of all First Aid allows you to create bandages and medicine for
yourself. These things make great in battle backup healing items for
you, and whenever you run out of mana, you can always use them to save
your life. Therefore, First Aid should be of the highest priority.
Cooking allows you to cook various dishes. All of the food are to be
eaten outside of battle to heal you, and can buff your stats for 15
minutes if you eat long enough. This is always nice, but it will not be
as good as in battle healing. So, Cooking is at second priority. As for
fishing well, this is to be the last priority, since well, all you
catch is fish, and not all recipes require fish!
---------------
Mining
---------------
Mining allows your character to mine minerals from all the veins and
deposits found in the map. All Miners get the ability to find minerals.
Then, all mineral nodes will appear as yellow dots on your minimap
whenever it is activated. Moving your cursor over the dot tells you
what type of mineral it is. Move your character close to the vein and
click to start mining.
Each node can be mined up to 4 times before it is exhausted. Whenever
you move your cursor over the mine, it will say "Requires Mining", take
note of the color of those words. If they are red, then your mining
skills are not enough to mine from that vein. If it is orange, then you
are guaranteed to at least get a 1 point increase in mining skill when
you mine from this node. Yellow and Green nodes, also have a chance to
give you a boost in mining skill when you mine from them, although the
chances of that happening are lower.
Mining can be learnt from trainers scattered around the world. The same
trainer can train you throughout the way. There are a total of 4 stages
of Mining, that gives you the skill level in brackets. They are
Apprentice (1-75), Journeyman (75-150), Expert (150-225) and Artisan
(225-300). All you need to do is to buy a mining pick and you are set
to go mining!
Trainers for the Alliance include:
Kurdram Stonehammer in Auberdine, Darkshore
Dank Drizzlecut in Gol'Bolar Quarry, Dun Morogh
Yarr Hammerstone in Kharanos, Dun Morogh
Matt Johnson in Darkshire, Duskwood
Geofram Bouldertoe in Ironforge
Brock Stoneseeker in Thelsamar, Loch Modan
Gelman Stonehand in Stormwind
There is also a Neutral Trainer called Pikkle in Gadgetzan, Tanaris.
The nodes that a miner can mine from, in ascending order of skill
required are: Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver and
Thorium. Note that when some mines respawn, they may respawn as a rarer
node. Tin Veins my respawn as Silver Veins; Iron Deposits may reappear
as Gold Veins; Mithril Deposits may respawn as Truesilver Deposits.
Once you get the ore, you can smelt them by a Forge. Sometimes, 2
different ores can be smelt into a new allow, such as in the case of
Copper and Tin, which can be smelted into Bronze if you mining skill
has reached 60. Iron and Coal on the other hand, can be smelted into
Steel, if your mining level is 165 or higher. All Smelting Recipes are
to be learnt from the trainers.
Here are all the Mining Abilities that you can train for:
Apprentice Miner (10 Copper)
Smelt Copper (Initial Ability)
Journeyman Miner (50 Skill, 5 Silver)
Smelt Tin (65 Skill)
Smelt Bronze (65 Skill)
Smelt Silver (125 Skill)
Smelt Iron (125 Skill)
Expert Miner (125 Skill, 50 Silver)
Smelt Gold (155 Skill)
Smelt Steel (165 Skill)
Smelt Mithril (175 Skill)
Artisan Miner (200 Skill, 5 Gold)
Smelt Truesilver (230 Skill)
Smelt Thorium (250 Skill)
Smelt Dark Iron (Learnt from Dwarf Ghost)
To learn Smelt Dark Iron, you must go to the Blackrock Depths, and
bring 10 bars of Truesilver, 20 bars of Gold and 2 Star Rubies to a
Dwarf Ghost in order to learn it. To smelt the Dark Iron, you must use
the specially provided forge there. Sometimes, when you mine a mineral,
you will get some special gemstones too. For instance, mining Iron may
give you Jade. Fortunately, most Blacksmith and Engineering skills do
not require gemstones. If you don't need them, sell them.
---------------
Engineering
---------------
Engineering is the art of creating various devices from raw materials.
Most of these devices created can only be used by Engineers, making
Engineering a not so profitable profession. However, the devices
created can often turn the tide of the battle.
Engineer Trainers in the Dwarven District of Stormwind can train you to
Apprentice and Journeyman ranks. Trainers in Tinker Town, Ironforge can
train you to Apprentice, Journeyman and Expert ranks. To be trained up
to the Artisan Rank, you will have to speak to a trainer in Gadgetzan,
Tanaris. As simple as that.
Most devices require metal to build, some even require gemstones.
Therefore, Mining is very important. At the same time, a small amount
of schematics require the use of Leather, and you better make friends
with a Leatherworker if you want to have a steady supply of them!
Here's a summary of what an Engineer can make and whether they are
useful to a Paladin.
Gunpowder
All Engineers can make gunpowder, known as blasting powder in the game.
This gunpowder is used to make ammo, and a wide variety of explosives.
All Gunpowder items are made from stone, found with certain mineral
ores. When you get Rough Stone, you can make Rough Blasting Powder with
it, and so on. Please note that you can get up to 4 stone per picking
session when you mine from the following nodes:
Copper Vein: Rough Stone; Tin Vein: Coarse Stone; Iron Deposit: Heavy
Stone; Mithril Deposit: Solid Stone; Thorium Vein: Dense Stone
Rough, Coarse and Heavy Blasting Powder require 1 stone for 1 unit of
powder. As for Solid and Dense Blasting Powder, you will need 2 stone
for 1 unit of powder.
Ammo
With your gunpowder, and some smelted metal, Engineers can make ammo.
However, their usefulness is limited to Paladins, since they CANNOT use
guns. So, don't bother learning these, unless you want to sell them at
the Auction House.
Parts
Certain items require complex parts, which are to be crafted beforehand.
I know that it is inconvenient, but for some items, like Explosive
Sheep, you have to make your own Bronze Frameworks before you can do
anything. Parts can be useful, or not, depending on your preferences,
but still, learn to make all of them, as you will not know what will
happen next.
Guns
Another useful weapon that Engineers can create are guns. Unfortunately,
Paladins cannot use guns, so this is one drawback. Fortunately, the
guns do not require Engineering Skills to use. So, you can always
create guns and sell them at the Auction House. Please note that of all
the guns you make, only one is Purple (epic item), it is the Core
Marksman Rifle. It requires 4 Fiery Cores, 2 Lava Cores, 6 Arcanite
Bars, 2 Delicate Arcanite Converters and 2 Thorium Bars. Of course, you
will definitely need to go to Molten Core (a 40 man raid instance) to
get that. So, if you plan to get the stuff, good luck!
Target Dummies
Target Dummies are dummies placed on the ground, to lure enemies to
attack it for a fixed amount of time. Note that this works in PvE only,
so it is definitely not worth it.
Fireworks
Fireworks are just there, well for the heck of it. Using fireworks
really won't do much, except that you can impress your friends. So,
learn if you like, just don't waste your materials on useless junk.
Explosives
This is the type of item made by Engineers that made me choose the
profession. Explosives usually come in dynamite, bombs and grenades.
Dynamite is nothing special, but bombs grenades surely are. Not only
that they deal fire damage over a certain radius, they also stun the
target for a short time. This stunning effect can help supplement the
Hammer of Justice, keeping the enemy player from moving for a few extra
seconds. Since bombs can be thrown, they are excellent in catching
enemies from a range, or just stopping human players who like to run
around you taking random slashes!
Elemental Reflectors
Once you get up to a high level of Engineering, say 260, you can get to
make Blue Trinkets that provide additional elemental resistance when
equipped. Besides that, when used, those trinkets will reflect the
elemental attack back to the enemy caster for 5 seconds!
The 3 Trinkets are the Gyrofreeze Ice Deflector (+15 Frost Resistance,
Engineering 260), Hyper Radiant Flame Reflector (+18 Fire Resistance,
Engineering 290) and Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector (+20 Shadow
Resistance, Engineering 300). All of these items require schematics to
make, some of them require certain parts which require other schematics
to build! (The Truesilver Transformer, for instance!)
These Trinkets are very effective against enemy casters. Before that
Horde gets over to you, equip the corresponding one. (Fire/Frost for
Mages, Frost for Shamans, Shadow for Warlocks and Priests). You should
time yourself so that the shield is activated a second before the spell
hits you, then there will be no time to stop. As for Shamans, simply
put on the Frost Deflector to deter him from using his Frost Shock
before you get to a close enough range!
-----------------------------------------------
Specialization: Gnomish and Goblin Engineering
-----------------------------------------------
Once you reach the Artisan status of Engineering, you can choose
between 2 branches of Engineering. They are Gnomish and Goblin
Engineering. To specialize in one of the 2 branches, first talk to a
Gnome in Tinker Town, Ironforge, to select your quest. Then you will be
asked to talk to a Master Engineer of the respective branch. The
Gnomish Trainer is in Tinker Town, right next to where you should be
standing. The Goblin Trainer is in Gadgetzan, Tanaris. Talking to them
will start a quest that requires you to prove your worth by
constructing what they ask you to make. Once you are done, show the
trainer your items, and that will prove your worth. Then, you can sign
your oath of secrecy and gain the Membership Card of that branch. A
membership card lasts for 14 days of playing time, and afterwards, you
can renew it by paying 2 Gold.
Please note that once you have committed to a branch, there is no
turning back. It will be learnt forever unless you unlearn the
profession and start from 1. Gnomish Engineering specializes in many
gadgets that help in battle. Goblin Engineering is all about explosives,
bombs, bombs and more bombs. Both branches' devices have a certain
failure rate. The Gnomish ones are less risky, since they just hinder
you, while Goblin devices may blow up and hurt you!
----------------------------
Highlights in both Branches
----------------------------
*****GNOMISH ENGINEERING*****
Gnomish Net-o-matic Projector
Reagents: 1 Mithril Tube, 2 Shadow Silk, 4 Thick Spider's Silk, 2 Solid
Blasting Powder, 4 Mithril Bars
This device is what you will need to catch enemies as they try to run.
Using it will fire a net at them, and root them in place for 10 seconds!
Now, you can finally, sit down for some "family chat" with that nasty
Horde as you hack him to bits without fear of him running. There is one
thing you should be aware of those, the net was loads of hooks and
sometimes latches onto the user's clothes. So, you may net yourself!
Anyway, that risk is not much most of the time. Just be ready to use
the Blessing of Freedom to break loose.
By the way, most of the reagents are spider bits. To get the Shadow
Silk and Thick Spider's Silk, you should go to the Searing Gorge and
kill Searing Lava Spiders.
Gnomish Mine Control Cap
Reagents: 10 Mithril Bars, 4 Truesilver Bars, 1 Gold Power Core, 2 Star
Rubies, 4 Mageweave Cloth
This gadget is to be equipped on the head, it will attempt to control
the mind of an enemy, and if it succeeds, it will affect him for 20
seconds! Very nice instance delaying force, and whenever you see some
Horde waiting to ambush some players as they fight enemies, control his
mind and make him run into the group of enemies. Then he will be forced
to fight all those enemies, and after he comes to, he will definitely
be so weak that he will be fresh meat! The good thins is that the large
majority of the reagents are easy to find. As for the Star Rubies,
don't be afraid to buy them.
Gnomish Death Ray
Reagents: 2 Mithril Tubes, 1 Unstable Trigger, 1 Essence of Undeath, 4
Ichor of Undeath, 1 Inlaid Mithril Trigger
Although this trinket is just so hard to craft, it really is worth it.
This death ray makes a great deal of damage to the enemy to the expense
of a little damage taken by the user. There is a 4 second charging time,
and in that 4 seconds, a certain amount of health is taken off you per
second to power the ray. Then, the beam will blast out, producing
damage maybe 7 times the health you lose per second. (Usually, this
exceeds 1000!). Sure, it may not sound great when you have to lose
health to do damage, but keep in mind that the Paladins have a Divine
Shield that keeps them from taking damage. Since both the Death Ray and
the Shield have a 5 minute cooldown time, it's guaranteed unstoppable
damage for the Paladin!
The Ichor and Essence of Undeath is found from some undead enemies in
the Western Plaguelands, so you should try finding them in the Auction
House. The inlaid Mithril Cylinder can be made by a blacksmith. The
best way to deal with this is to draw up the plans, and then give them
to a blacksmith, and give them the materials, and have them make one
for you.
*****GOBLIN ENGINEERING*****
Goblin Mortar
Reagents: 2 Mithril Tubes, 4 Mithril Bars, 5 Solid Blasting Powder, 1
Gold Power Core, 1 Elemental Fire
The Goblin Mortar is the heavy cannon you get when you take sides with
Goblin Engineering. This Mortar fires a shell that inflicts 383-517
Fire damage to the target area with a 3 yard radius. Sounds good, but
take note that this weapon has a 10 minute cooldown time. This mortar
does not have infinite ammo. You must reload it from time to time. To
get 6 more shells, you will need 1 Mithril Bar and 3 Solid Blasting
Powder. Another thing to take note is that you should not try to reload
a mortar that is full. Otherwise, it will cause a nasty explosion,
capable of dealing over 9000 damage to you. (Death guaranteed!) The
only hard to find reagent to this schematic is the Elemental Fire. The
Elemental Fire can be found on Burning Exiles near the Arathi Mountains.
Goblin Bomb Dispenser
Reagents: 2 Mithril Casings, 4 Solid Blasting Powder, 6 Truesilver Bars,
1 Unstable Trigger, 2 Accurate Scope
Don't want to bother building your bombs again and again? The Goblin
Bomb Dispenser is your solution. This device creates a walking bomb
that charges into the nearest enemy. The bomb will explode, dealing 315
to 385 Fire damage in a small radius. This is very nice and all, but
there is only 1 drawback. This thing has a massive 30 minute cooldown
time, so use only in emergencies.
Goblin Dragon Gun
Reagents: 2 Mithril Tubes, 4 Goblin Rocket Fuel, 6 Mithril Bar, 1
Truesilver Bar, 1 Unstable Trigger
This is basically a nasty flamethrower for Goblin Engineers. It will
spray out fire in a cone, dealing 61 to 69 damage per second to anyone
that is within the flames. The good news is, this thing only as a 5
minute cooldown, so you can use this again and again. The risk factor
in using this device is very low. Very seldom does it explode, dealing
you 100 Fire Damage per second for 10 seconds. Even though it explodes,
it can be reused!
---------------
First Aid
---------------
First Aid here is not the art of giving you and your friends trauma
treatment or CPR. In the World of Warcraft, First Aid is the art of
creating bandages and antidotes for you. Now, it may seem insensible
that as a Paladin, you are wasting your time to create all those
bandages. However, there may be instances that you want to dedicate
your mana into offensive seals and Holy Shock, and don't want to waste
mana using Holy Light. This is when First Aid comes in. All Bandages
heal a certain amount of HP to the user over 8 seconds. The process is
a channeling effect. It can be interrupted, so make sure that your
enemy is stunned or preoccupied before you apply the bandage. Once you
apply the bandage, you cannot be bandaged again for around 1 minute.
Besides bandages, you can make anti-venom. All of those antidotes
remove ALL poisons of the target it is used on. Therefore, if you have
multiple poisons in your body, it is time to use anti-venom. All Anti-
Venom can be created from venom sacs.
To Train to Apprentice and Journeyman First Aiders, speak to either
Shaina Fuller inside Stormwind Cathedral or Nissa Firestone at the
Great Forge of Ironforge. There are 3 other trainers, but I won't
bother telling you where they are, since they are located in Teldrassil
and Darnassus, far away Night Elvish lands.
To train to Expert First Aider, you will have to enter Stromgarde Keep,
located in the Arathi Highlands, and talk to Deneb Walker. Buy the
Expert First Aiding manual from her and read it. Then you can be an
expert! As for the Artisan Rank, you have to talk to Nissa Firestone in
Ironforge and complete a quest for her to do so.
Here are all of the medical supplies that a First Aider can make:
Apprentice First Aider (10 Copper)
Linen Bandage (Initial Ability, 1 Linen Cloth)
Heavy Linen Bandage (40 Skill, 2 Linen Cloths)
Journeyman First Aider (50 Skill, 5 Silver)
Anti Venom (80 Skill, Small Venom Sac per 3 units)
Wool Bandage (80 Skill, 1 Wool Cloth)
Heavy Linen Bandage (115 Skill, 2 Wool Cloth)
Expert First Aider (125 Skill, 1 G for Expert First Aider's Manual)
Strong Anti Venom (130 Skill, Large Venom Sac)
Silk Bandage (150 Skill, 1 Silk Cloth)
Heavy Silk Bandage (180 Skill, 2 Silk Cloth, 22 S for Manual on how to
make Silk Bandage, bought from Deneb Walker)
Artisan First Aider (200 Skill, Complete Alliance Trauma Quest)
Mageweave Bandage (210 Skill, 1 Mageweave Cloth, 50 S for Manual on How
to Make Mageweave Bandage, bought from Deneb Walker)
Heavy Mageweave Bandage (240 Skill, 2, Mageweave Cloths, Talk to the
Doctor in Theramore from which you completed the Alliance Trauma Quest)
Runecloth Bandage (270 Skill, 1 Runecloth, Talk to Doctor in Theramore)
Heavy Runecloth Bandage (300 Skill, 2 Runelcoths, Talk to Doctor)
Powerful Anti Venom (300 Skill, 1 Huge Venom Sac, Talk to Doctor)
---------------
b. Talents
---------------
World of Warcraft features a talent system, which allows your Paladin
to specialize in certain combat abilities. The talent tree will be
available to you once you hit level 10. Every time you level up, you
get 1 extra Talent Point to spend. Since the level cap is 60, you can
have up to 51 Talent Points to use. Please note that there are more
than 51 talents that you can put points in, so you MUST choose your
path. Here is an overview of the 3 Talent Trees of the Paladin.
For the talents of each tree, you will find that the abilities are
divided into tiers. Each subsequent tier requires 5 more points spent
on the previous tiers of talents. So, to spend a talent point into the
7th tier ability of either tree, you must have spent at least 30 points
in that talent tree!
*****HOLY*****
Tier 1 (Initial Tier):
Divine Strength (Ranks 1 to 5)
This talent increases your total strength by 2% per rank, so you can
achieve a maximum 10% increase in strength if you invest all 5 points
into this talent.
Divine Intellect (Ranks 1 to 5)
This talent increases your total intellect by 2% per rank, so you can
achieve a maximum 10% increase in total mana if you invest all 5 points
into this talent.
Tier 2 (Requires 5 Points):
Spiritual Focus (Ranks 1 to 5)
With Spiritual Focus, you will have a 14% change per rank not to have
your Holy Light or Flash of Light spells interrupted by damage. If you
invest all 5 points into this talent, 70% of the hits dealt to you
won't stop your Holy Light. Combine this with Concentration Aura, and
you will be unstoppable.
Improved Seal of Righteousness (Ranks 1 to 5)
The extra holy damage caused by your seal of righteousness will
increase by 3% per rank when you pick this talent, making a potential
of 15% increase if you utilize all 5 ranks.
Tier 3 (Requires 10 Points):
Healing Light (Ranks 1 to 3)
The amount of health healed by your Holy Light and Flash of Light will
increase by 4% per rank. If you invest all 3 points into this
particular talent, you will have 12% HP healed per spell
Consecration
Allows your Paladin to learn the skill Consecration. Consecration is
the Paladin's one and only area of effect spell. This spell has a
considerable radius, and can prevent enemies from using channeling
abilities and stealth abilities.
Improved Lay on Hands (Ranks 1 to 2)
Not only you will be sacrificing your mana to restore a friend to full
health, you will also give them a 15% bonus on the effects of their
current equipment per rank. Also, the cooldown of your Lay on hands
spell will decrease by 10 minutes per rank. Of course, this makes Lay
on Hands an all out buff.
Unyielding Faith (Ranks 1 to 2)
This ability allows your paladin to have an extra 5% chance per rank to
resist Fear and Disorient attacks. Therefore, you are a bit more
protected from one of the Priests and Warlocks' deadliest effects.
Tier 4 (Requires 15 Points)
Illumination (Ranks 1 to 5)
Illumination gives your Paladin's Holy Light and Flash of Light spells
a 20% chance per rank of returning the mana cost to him in the event of
a critical healing effect. Of course, investing all 5 points into this
talent will ALWAYS allow you to not spend a single mana when a critical
healing effect comes up. This talent is tied with an ability called
Divine Favor in Tier 5. You must invest all 5 talent points into
Illumination before you can obtain Divine Favor.
Improved Blessing of Wisdom (Ranks 1 to 2)
The amount of mana recovered through Blessing of Wisdom will increase
by 10% per rank.
Tier 5 (Requires 20 Points)
Divine Favor (Requires 5 points in Illumination)
Your paladin will gain the ability of Divine Favor. When it is active,
the next Holy Light or Flash of Light cast will ALWAYS have a critical
effect. Since it is always used in conjunction with Illumination, you
can be assured that the mana cost of that particular Holy Light will be
absolutely free! This talent is tied with Holy Shock of Tier 7. Just
apply this talent and you can get Holy Shock later.
Lasting Judgment (Ranks 1 to 3)
The duration of your Judgment of Light and Judgment of Wisdom will be
increased by 10 seconds per rank.
Tier 6 (Requires 25 Points)
Holy Power (Ranks 1 to 5)
This talent increases the chance of critical effect of all Holy Spells,
no matter whether they are Holy Light or Holy Shock, by 1% per rank!
This makes a maximum of 5% increment if you invest all 5 points in here.
Tier 7 (Requires 30 Points)
Holy Shock
Enables the Paladin to learn Holy Shock. Holy Shock is the Paladin's
longest ranged attack that is available at all times. (Twice as long as
the Judgment of Righteousness) It casts instantly, dealing Holy Damage
to the target, and has a 30 second cooldown time. (Which is ok, but not
that short.) Good to pick on runners.
*****PROTECTION*****
Tier 1 (Initial Tier):
Improved Devotion Aura (Ranks 1 to 5)
This talent increases the armor bonus of your devotion aura by 10% per
rank, making a potential of 25% increase.
Redoubt (Ranks 1 to 5)
Whenever your Paladin gets hit by a critical strike, you will gain 6%
more chance per rank to block any further attacks for 10 seconds or 5
blocks, whichever takes place in the shorter time. This talent is
linked with Shield Specialization of Tier 3. To make use of that talent,
all 5 points must be invested into Redoubt.
Tier 2 (Requires 5 Points):
Precision (Ranks 1 to 3)
Precision makes your melee attacks more precise, giving them 1% extra
chance per rank to hit the target, although it doesn't seem much,
anyway. Up to you to decide.
Guardian's Favor (Ranks 1 to 2)
Guardian's Favor reduces the cooldown of the Blessing of Protection by
60 seconds per rank, and the duration of you Blessing of Freedom by 3
seconds per rank. So, optimally, you can have 1 Blessing of Protection
every 3 minutes, and your Blessing of Freedom will last for 16 seconds.
Toughness (Ranks 1 to 5)
This talent increases the armor you get from items by 2% per rank, so
you will get up to 10% more armor for your buck.
Tier 3 (Requires 10 Points)
Blessing of Kings
Allows your Paladin to learn Blessing of Kings. Consider this to be a
universal buff. ALL stats of the target will be increased by 10% for 5
minutes! This is just too handy dandy to be skipped if you are into
this Protection Tree.
Improved Righteous Fury (Ranks 1 to 3)
Tanking involves generating threat to the enemy, so that they attack
you first before hitting the soft targets like the priest. With
improved Righteous Fury, the threat generated by your Holy Attacks will
increase by 16% per rank, up to 48% for 3 ranks.
Shield Specialization (Ranks 1 to 3, Requires 5 points into Redoubt)
This talent increases the damage absorbed by your shield by 10% per
rank, making you an even better tank.
Anticipation (Ranks 1 to 5)
Anticipation increases your Defense skill by 2 per rank.
Tier 4 (Requires 15 Points)
Improved Hammer of Justice (Ranks 1 to 3)
This talent decreases the cool down time of your Hammer of Justice by 5
seconds per rank, so ultimately, you can stun your enemy every 45
seconds, making it a much better move to use.
Improved Concentration Aura (Ranks 1 to 3)
Your Concentration Aura's provided resistance will increase by 5% per
rank, and whenever it is in effect, you will get 5% increased chance of
resisting silence and interrupt effects per rank.
Tier 5 (Require 20 Points)
Blessing of Sanctuary
Allows your Paladin to learn Blessing of Sanctuary. This Blessing
reduces the damage taken of the target from all sources by 7. At the
same time, Holy Damage will be dealt to the attacker whenever he
manages to deal a critical strike on him. This talent is tied to Holy
Shield of Tier 7.
Reckoning (Ranks 1 to 5)
Reckoning gives your Paladin a 20% chance per rank to perform an extra
hit on the enemy whenever you are hit by a critical strike. With all 5
points invested into the talent, your Paladin will always hit back
twice as hard when hit by a critical strike. Talk about revenge. At the
same time, it appears that the total amount of stored extra attacks can
be up to 4. So, whenever you are hit by a Rogue, don't press Attack yet.
Instead, let him crit you 4 times, then put on Seal of Command and
attack! If all goes well, you will hit him a total of 5 times in one
swing, and probably 5 more times due to the proc! This is the Reckoning
Bomb as we know it.
Tier 6 (Requires 25 Points)
One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Ranks 1 to 5)
Your one-handed weapons will deal 2% more damage per rank with this
talent. It makes perfect sense to place this at the Protection Tree,
since Paladins should always have a shield equipped whenever they are
using a one-handed weapon.
Tier 7 (Requires 30 Points)
Divine Shield (Requires Blessing of Sanctuary)
Your Paladin will learn the technique Divine Shield. Divine Shield
allows your Paladin to have a 30% increased chance of blocking for 10
seconds. In that duration, whenever an attack is blocked, 50 Holy
damage will be dealt to the attacker. This effect works up to 4 times
in that 10 second duration.
*****RETRIBUTION*****
Tier 1 (Initial Tier):
Improved Blessing of Might (Ranks 1 to 5)
Improving your Blessing of Might means that the amount of attack power
gained by your Blessing of Might will be increased by 4% per rank. This
means that you can gain up to 20% more attack power with your Blessing
of Might when you have completely invested your talent points into this
ability. Now, the strongest version of the Blessing of Might gives an
attack bonus of 185. So, you may gain up to 37 more attack power, but
is this significant enough? Up to you to decide.
Benediction (Ranks 1 to 5)
Benediction reduces the mana cost of your Seal and Judgment spells by
3% per rank. So, you get a 15% discount on all of those spells. If you
are a heavy user of those spells, you might as well subscribe to them.
Tier 2 (Requires 5 Points):
Improved Judgment (Ranks 1 and 2)
Your Judgment's countdown will be reduced by 1 second per rank. So, the
minimum cooldown of your Judgment will be 8 seconds. So, you can fire
your holy gun a bit more often.
Improved Seal of the Crusader (Ranks 1 to 3)
This talent increases the attack power bonus of your Seal of Crusader
and holy damage bonus of your Judgment of Crusader by 5% per rank.
Although I will not be interested in the former buff, the latter one is
a great deal. You might as well do this in conjunction with Improved
Seal of Righteousness for maximum Holy Damage. After all, a 15% boost
on both ends results in greater damage done!
Deflection (Ranks 1 to 5)
Your Paladin will be 1% more likely per rank to parry enemy melee blows.
Excellent for melee, unfortunately there are quite a number of
opponents that use spells instead of melee, and that is something that
you can never parry against!
Tier 3 (Requires 10 Points):
Vindication (Ranks 1 to 3)
Vindication gives your Paladin's melee attacks a chance to reduce the
enemy's Strength and Agility by 5% per rank for 8 seconds. Now, most
debuffs by other classes require a press of button to activate. But you
don't need to bother as a Paladin! Just keep hitting the enemy and
sooner or later their attack power can be weakened by up to 15%! That's
almost a sixth, which really is a lot.
Conviction (Ranks 1 to 5)
I bet the meaning of Conviction in here means determination or
something like that. With each rank of Conviction chosen, the chance
for your Paladin to perform a critical hit on the enemy using melee
weapons increases by 1%. That's a massive 5% increase with all 5 ranks
selected. Now, for most high Paladins with proper gear, (say at level
49), as long as you keep all your skills more or less up to date, the
critical strike chance should be, or have exceeded 6%. So, with those
extra 5%, you will have a massive 11% chance to crit, as they say it.
That's like moving from 1 in 16 hits to 1 crit in 9 hits! That's a big
difference, so this is a must have talent, if you want to move down the
Retribution Tree.
Besides being an excellent talent, Conviction is tied to Vengeance, a
talent in Tier 6. You must have invested all 5 points into Conviction
before you can use Vengeance.
Seal of Command
Teaches your Paladin the technique Seal of Command. Seal of Command,
when active on your Paladin will give him the chance to inflict extra
Holy Damage equal to 70% of his melee weapon's damage to the enemy.
(They claim that it is 70%, many times I still notice it to be 100% or
even more!) The extra damage used to be 100% of the melee weapon's
damage, but at the v1.9 patch, it has been reduced. However, the chance
of that proc to occur is increased, so the overall damage is still
increased! Seal of Command is best used on Two Handed Weapons, since
they tend to be slower. As they are slower, they have an even better
chance than faster weapons to score the proc. Nevertheless, this Seal
is too good to miss!
Pursuit of Justice (Ranks 1 and 2)
Pursuit of Justice allows your Paladin to move 4% faster with each rank
you put into the talent. What a pity that it is just a minor speed
increase, and you will hardly notice the difference! If only they make
it 8% per rank at least, then it will be worth it. Since it does not
stack with other movement increasing effects, you will have to
separately enchant your equipment over 8% to notice a net speed
increase of over 8%! The thing is, it really is not that hard, you just
need a single Aquamarine, give it to an enchanter, and he can enchant
your boots!
Tier 4 (Requires 15 Points):
Eye for an Eye (Ranks 1 to 3)
You know the saying eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, don't you. If
you commit a crime, you pay with the body part that committed the crime
(eg. Your hand if you shoplift!). It means differently here though, if
an enemy caster hits you with a critical strike from a spell, 15% of
the damage done to you will be dealt to the caster per rank you invest
in Eye for an Eye. So, you can reflect 30% of the damage back if there
is a critical strike against you! The thing is, in higher levels,
certain mages can buff themselves so that their next spell is ALWAYS a
critical strike. Imagine the consequences!
Improved Retribution Aura (Ranks 1 and 2)
Your retribution aura will deal 25% more damage per rank with this
talent. Use this if you are a party animal.
Tier 5 (Requires 20 Points):
Two Handed Weapon Specialization (Ranks 1 to 3)
This talent increases the damage dealt by your melee weapons by 2% for
each rank. It's a pity that in v1.9 patch, you only get 3 ranks and
that this specialization is placed so much lower in the retribution
tree. It used to have 5 ranks before the patch!
Tier 6 (Requires 25 Points)
Vengeance (Ranks 1 to 5, Requires 5 points in Conviction)
Whenever you deal a critical strike on an enemy, you will gain a 3%
bonus per rank on both physical and Holy Damage per rank on the enemy
for 8 seconds. Since your critical hit chance is considerably high with
5 points in Conviction, your damage increase is more or less inevitable
during most fights. Imagine if you have this talent in conjunction with
Vindication, the enemy will be 15% weaker in attacks, while you will be
15% stronger!
Tier 7 (Requires 30 Points)
Repentance
It's amazing that this tier 7 talent does not require anything aside
from 30 points in Retribution Talents. Your Paladin will learn the
technique Repentance. This spell has a 20 yard range, and a 1 minute
cooldown time. It essentially is a mini sap with range for Paladin. The
humanoid opponent will be forced to repent.
That is, stay still in a state of mediation for 6 seconds. This allows
even more time for you to catch up to him. Note that any damage dealt
will awaken the target. So, if that Horde player is in meditation, the
best course of action is to catch up and get your free hit.
--------------------
Some Paladin Builds
--------------------
Since you have 51 Talent Points to spend up to level 60, and there are
obviously more than 51 Talents in the 3 Talent Trees, one must choose
carefully as of how to choose one's talents. Once you have spent your
Talent Points and want to reset them, you will have to speak to a
Paladin Trainer located in Goldshire or the Stormwind Cathedral and pay
to have the talents reset. The first time, it will cost 1 Gold, then 5
Gold, then 10 Gold, and so on!
So, the best way to make the full use of your Paladin is to plan in
advance once you have reached level 10. To do this, you can visit the
Paladin Talent Calculator in Blizzard. It is located at:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/paladin/talents.html.
I will lay down some of my suggestions as what talents to choose. So,
here you go.
Important Note!
Please note that the 2 builds below are not the only solutions to your
problems. Feel free to email me will some other suggested builds.
*****HOLY FIGHTER BUILD*****
Talent Point Usage (Holy/Protection/Retribution): 32/0/19
Holy Talents: (32 Points Spent)
Divine Strength Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Spiritual Focus Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 2, 5 Points Spent)
Improved Seal of Righteousness Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 2, 5 Points Spent)
Consecration (Tier 3, 1 Point Spent)
Unyielding Faith Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 3, 2 Points Spent)
Illumination Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 4, 5 Points Spent)
Improved Blessing of Wisdom Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 4, 2 Points Spent)
Divine Favor (Tier 5, 1 Point Spent)
Holy Power Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 6, 5 Points Spent)
Holy Shock (Tier 7, 1 Point Spent)
Retribution Talents: (19 Points Spent)
Benediction Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Improved Judgment Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 2, 2 Points Spent)
Improved Seal of Crusader Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 2, 3 Points Spent)
Conviction Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 3, 5 Points Spent)
Seal of Command (Tier 3, 1 Point Spent)
Eye for an Eye Rank 1 of 2 (Tier 4, 1 Point Spent)
Improved Retribution Aura Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 4, 2 Points Spent)
This build is used so that the Paladin's Holy fighting abilities are
improved. Using this build, you should use more Holy attacks to
supplement your melee damage, and heal slightly easier. (However, the
emphasis is still on dealing damage in a Holy manner; that is judgments
and Holy Shock!)
With both the Seal of Righteousness and Crusader improved, your Paladin
can gain a much larger attack bonus due to Holy damage. At the same
time, the Judgment cooldown time is lowered by 2 seconds so as to allow
Judgments to hit the enemy much more frequently.
Although Divine Intellect and Healing Light are left out, the Improved
Blessing of Wisdom is still there to ensure that your Paladin will
regain mana at a much faster rate, while Holy Power allows your Healing
Light to have a critical effect a little often, so as to give you a
free heal with Illumination.
Holy Shock serves to provide the Paladin to an extra ranged attack that
works on any enemy. If it does get a critical hit on a fleeing enemy,
which happens more often because of Illumination, compounded with
judgment of the Crusader, the results can be devastating. If it does
not crit, then there is always Hammer of Wrath to finish the job off.
Seal of Command allows the Paladin to have loads of "sudden" bursts of
extra damage, thereby improving their damage dealt per second (DPS).
This makes 2 handed weapons much more powerful. Conviction is there for
5% extra critical hit chance. If you have been training consistently
with your weapons, your critical strike chance should be way over 6%,
or even 7%. With Conviction, you may achieve critical hit rate well
over 12%, that's 1 in 8 hits!
Having done a review of Pursuit of Justice, I decided that it is not
worth it to burn 2 points into that particular talent. This is because
those 8% are completely independent on other variables, and (for
example) you also have a 5% speed enhancement on your equipment, the
total speed increase will still be 8%! Therefore, I have decided that
you might as well let enemies which keep hitting you feel more pain
than waste 2 points on those talents.
*****HEAVY TANK BUILD*****
Talent Point Usage (Holy/Protection/Retribution): 5/25/21
Holy Talents (5 Points Spent):
Divine Strength Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Protection Talents (25 Points Spent):
Improved Devotion Aura Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Precision Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 2, 3 Points Spent)
Toughness Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 2, 5 Points Spent)
Blessing of Kings (Tier 3, 1 Point Spent)
Improved Righteous Fury Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 3, 3 Points Spent)
Improved Hammer of Justice Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 4, 3 Points Spent)
Reckoning Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 5, 5 Points Spent)
Retribution Talents (21 Points Spent):
Benediction Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Deflection Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 2, 5 Points Spent)
Vindication Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 3, 3 Points Spent)
Seal of Command (Tier 3, 1 Point Spent)
Eye for an Eye Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 4, 2 Points Spent)
Improved Retribution Aura Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 4, 2 Points Spent)
Sanctity Aura (Tier 5, 1 Point Spent)
The purpose of this build is to harden the Paladin as much as possible,
so that he can take less damage and yet catch all the enemies'
attention in a fight. At the same time, you have several more viable
options, in form of improved Auras.
With the Devotion Aura boosted by 25%, you can really get a lot more
extra armor, same goes for the Toughness talent in Tier 2 of the
protection tree. Since you are that far down the Protection Tree, why
not get the universal buff? This is what Blessing of Kings is for.
You will notice that I have omitted many talents that works "in the
event of a critical strike", this is because melee attack critical hits
don't occur that often, and when it does happen, you are likely to be
mending the fence after the horse has fled.
Improved Righteous Fury is the prime deal here. By increasing the
threat generated by your Holy Attacks by 50% more, then the enemies are
sure going to focus on the Paladin, which now is heavily armed, rather
than that mage or priest far behind. The trick is to have Seal of
Righteousness turned on in the first moments of the fight, so that the
enemies can be aggravated long enough.
Just in case the enemy does try to run towards the caster in your group,
the faster charging Hammer of Justice will allow you to stop them from
getting to your pals much more often.
Now that you are so far down the Protection Tree, I reckon that adding
5 ranks of Reckoning would help build up a powerhouse inside your
paladin. This is particular true when you face rogues, which can crit
very often. Once your 4 extra attacks are stored, you can unleash your
bomb on them to give them a nasty surprise!
Now that you have the universal buff Blessing of Kings, the Blessing of
Might will be not so worth it, this is why I will omit Improved
Blessing of Kings and invest 5 points into Benediction, so that in the
least, my Judgment of Righteousness will cost less mana for its damage.
When you are surrounded by foes, parrying more often, albeit slightly
can help you last longer. It is always good if you can soften their
attack power, and this is where Vindication comes in. After all, with
so many hits dealt in a fight at least one of them should vindicate
them.
Just to add to the damage, you may want to improve your Retribution
Aura so that the more the enemy hits you, the more Holy damage they
take. Use this in conjunction with Righteous Fury and you should
maintain your threat rating.
Of all the defensive measures used so far, there still seem to be no
defense against magic spells. This is where Eye for an Eye comes in.
Whenever some enemy mage hits you with a critical spell, 30% of the
damage experienced will be reflected back to him. This time, it is
worth investing talent points here, since many mages have abilities to
ensure that the next spell will ALWAYS crit. In that case, he will have
a taste of his own medicine, while you quickly heal yourself and move
after him.
The inclusion of Sanctity Aura gives you more methods to deal extra
Holy Damage. Now that the Seal of Righteousness is not buffed, Sanctity
Aura will be able to partially fill that vacuum.
------------------------
7. The General Strategy
------------------------
This section discusses what you should do to play your Paladin to the
fullest. Whenever you are playing World of Warcraft as a Paladin, you
will either be: Playing solo, playing with a group, likely in an
instance or participate in Player vs Player combat. This should help
you keep yourself and your mates alive as long as possible, to avoid
death. (Death is never fun, ALL equipped items suffer a TEN percent
durability loss, so dying 10 times in a row in end up having you to
fully repairing all of your stuff at an obscene price.)
---------------
a. Going Solo
---------------
One of the advantages of choosing a Paladin is that they are good
soloists. Whenever you are playing solo, you should always have the
Devotion Aura on, as it increases your defense. It doesn't really
matter whether you are using a two handed weapon or a one handed weapon
with a shield. Since two handers have a larger damage per second in the
expense of sacrificing a little armor from the shield.
It is always nice to buff yourself. If you are the Holy build type of
Paladin, buff with Blessing of Wisdom, if you invested your talent
points towards the protection or retribution branches, consider
blessing of might. As you start the fight, you should put up the Seal
of the Crusader and judge the enemy with it. Then, depending on what
type of weapon, use the following seal: Righteousness for 1 handers,
Command for 2 handers. Either way, they will add to your damage. If you
are fighting a caster enemy, consider putting up the appropriate
resistance aura before beginning.
Another issue the Paladin has to deal with is that certain enemy, in
particular humanoids have a tendency to run away when their HP is
starting to go low. In that case, it may be wise to judge the enemy
with Seal of Justice to prevent them from fleeing. Only do this
whenever their health has dropped to maybe 40% of the total.
One of the main things a Paladin, or any other character to solo in is
the average grind. You run around the place, killing enemies for their
loot and cash. At levels 1 to 10, you would be hanging around your
starting area of Elwynn Forest (Human) or Dun Morogh (Dwarf). Once you
reach the level 10-20 range, you will move on to the second area, which
is also Alliance Territory. If you follow the quests in order, then
they will eventually lead you there. For Humans it's Westfall, for
Dwarves, it's Loch Modan.
As you continue to following the quest lines, you will be led into
Contested Territory at last. For Humans, you will be asked to go to the
Redridge Mountains, for the Dwarves, you should be asked to go to the
Wetlands. Then, it's Duskwood for Humans, and Badlands for Dwarves (If
I am certain.)
In those lands, there will then be quest lines that require you to
travel all around the world. For instance, I had this Sven's Revenge
Quest in Duskwood, and I traveled ALL OVER THE PLACE. Including the
Wetlands (for a human). After that, it is pretty much weapons free. Go
anywhere you wish.
Tip! Grinding for Riches
If you want to grind an instance for cash, or fight any other elites,
make sure that they are at least 10 levels below you, then it will be
easy kills and high cash. So, if you are at level 35, consider grinding
in the Stormwind Stockades, if you are at level 48, consider grinding
in Razorfen Downs or the Stormgarde Keep.
---------------------------
b. Partying in an Instance
---------------------------
An instance is an area where only you and your group can enter and
fight without any interference from other players. The enemies in the
instance are typically elites, who have at least twice or thrice the
health and armor of the standard enemies of their level. This is why
you must have a group of 4 or 5 people to fight, and most likely there
is going to be a tank, typically a warrior or paladin (that's you!) and
a healer, typically a priest, druid or paladin (that's you again!).
When you are in a town, you will see people saying LFG in a channel
called LookingForGroup, and usually the instance name will follow, in
an abbreviated form. For instance, ZF is Zul'Farrak. If anyone wants to
go to the same place as you do, invite him, or ask to be invited. Once
you have found the group you need, it's time to enter the instance.
---------------------------
General Buffing Guidelines
---------------------------
If you are the off tank:
Now, Paladins tend to be a fighter with support abilities. If there is
a Warrior in your group, you should let him take most, if all the
strain at the front line. Your goal is to attack the enemies up front,
and intercepting anyone that strays from the Warrior's line of sight.
(you can steal aggro from the Warrior if you like, but sometimes it is
just better to be L-A-Z-Y in life...) Since you should not be attracting
to much of the enemies' attraction, use a two-handed weapon (larger DPS)
and put up Devotion Aura to partially make up the absence of a shield.
When it comes to blood and guts fighters like Warriors, use Blessing of
Might (or Kings). When it comes to Night Elf Druids, cast Blessing of
Wisdom if they are the healer, or Might if they are the fighting bear
form. As Rogues deal high damage over time, it may be a good idea to
use Blessing of Salvation on them, so that the enemy is less likely to
feel threatened by him and start hurting him.
As for soft healer who wear cloth, it may be appropriate to buff that
Priest with something that reduces their threat to the enemies (their
heals cause high threat). That will be the Blessing of Salvation. The
same thing applies to Hunters, since they often shoot from the back
(Blessing of Might does nothing for ranged attack power) while the pet
does the damage up front. (Buff pet with Blessing of Might, if needed)
As for the offensive casters like Mages and Warlocks, it may be nice
for you to temporarily cast Blessing of Wisdom to speed up the mana
regeneration. Cast Blessing of Wisdom on yourself, too!
If you are the main tank:
I must say that I frequently play in groups that do not have warriors.
Two of my friends who play this game are non-warriors too. And if I am
the person who is responsible for recruiting people for a group, I may
deliberately not invite any warriors to avoid jeopardizing my chances
of getting my desired Blue Plate or Shield. In that case, you are the
main tank, and it's not really hard to do so, although the mechanics
are different from the Bear Form Druids or the Warriors.
You must increase the threat generated by your attacks to the enemy,
both quantitatively and relatively. For the former, the trick is to
turn on Righteous Fury. This will increase the threat generated by your
HOLY attacks. For the latter, bless everyone with Salvation, decreasing
the threat generated by them by 30%. This aggro gap should help you
keep the enemy busy. (It seems that the amount increased by Righteous
Fury is wrong at Version 1.9, by version 1.10, they will fix it to
provide even more threat!)
Of course, equip a shield and move forward with retribution aura. With
all the enemies hitting you, they can take damage even if you don't hit
them. Since it's holy damage you are dealing to them, the more they hit
you, the madder they get.
If you are the healer:
In the rare case where you are asked to be the healer due to the
absence of priests and such, bless everyone with Light, and yourself
with Wisdom. Blessing of Light increases the healing effects on the
group mates. Don't just stand there at the back like a wimp, move up
and fight!
--------------------------
General Outline of a Fight
--------------------------
Now that's buff, let's move forward to hit at the enemy. Paladins CAN
tank, and when I play in a group, no one has ever asked me to back off
and let the Warrior do the main job.
Turn on the Seal of Righteousness and charge forward. Attract the
enemy's attention by judging him with Righteousness and drop down
Consecration. This should help maximize the threat the enemies sees of
you in a short time, and leave you, the tank to take the strain while
the mages, priests and warlocks, whom I call the artillery shell them
from the back.
If there is a warrior fighting with you, the Paladin's non-specific
role in the group can make things fun for you. Start by running forward
and off-tanking some of the elites. Then, when situation arises, stop
attacking for a short time and heal the warrior up front. If any mobs
start running to the back where the ranged characters are, stun with
Hammer of Justice and that should bring them back to you. Also,
Blessing of Protection is likely to remove a large amount of threat
from a character.
Judgment of Justice really is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT in instances. This is
because, like many enemies you find outside instances, the elites tend
to run away when they are about to die. If you let them be, they are
likely to call another group of 3 or more to help him! Note that there
is no way to run inside an instance (but to feign death as a hunter).
Once you attract the attention of an enemy, they will come after you
until you are dead! So, I am serious, judge with Justice if you want
the enemy to stay and play.
In later levels, there will be some instances so hard that you need a
full raid group of tens of characters (up to 40) to play. In that case,
you should be flexible. Start by being a buff bot. Buff everyone
appropriately (use the Greater Blessings if you have the reagent), and
then move on to face the enemy. Now, it's up to your close observation
of the events to switch between fighting and healing. That's all I got
to say. I myself am not a player that endorses being a healbot. That
would be a waste of the Paladin's capabilities. After all, the Priests
are becoming even better healers in the 1.10 patch!
*****LOOTING GUIDELINES*****
Now that the enemy is dead, it's time to loot him. When there are 5
members in your group, every 5th corpse will be yours to loot. All money
will be shared evenly among all group members. So if there is 5 Silver
to loot, and you have 5 people, each person gets 1 Silver.
Please also note that any other item up to the item threshold will be
yours to keep. Item Threshold is set by the leader of the group. It
determines how rare the item has to be before it can be marked for
special treatment. This threshold can be set to Uncommon (Green), Rare
(Blue) or Epic (Purple) Items.
So, what special treatment are those items given? Well, to tell you one
thing, the leader also gets to set the Loot Status. In my opinion,
there are 2 ways of fair Loot Status. They are Group Loot and Need
Before Greed. Both involve all players rolling an imaginary dice to
determine who wins the item.
All items beginning at the item threshold are rolled for in Group Loot
and Need Before Greed. The difference is that in Need Before Greed,
players can only roll on items they can use or equip while it's a free
game for Group Loot. (So, Priests cannot roll on Plate Mail in Need
Before Greed, while Paladins can, and can also roll for Cloth Items.
But I trust that most players have self discipline when playing!)
When the mentioned rare item appears, in each player's screen, there
will be a small window showing the item, and a die and a gold coin to
the right of the icon. Clicking on the die indicates that you Need the
item, that is you want to use it ASAP. Clicking on the coin indicates
that you don't need the item, but you have Greed for cash, so you would
like to have the item so you can sell it, if no one wants it.
Whenever someone rolls Need for an item, their roll always has a higher
priority than the ones who roll Greed. Only the players who click Need
will roll their dice to determine who wins the item. If no one clicks
Need, then anyone who clicked Greed will roll for the item. As simple
as that.
While it seems rather simple, rolling requires care. You must note that
many items, particular rare Blue Items dropped from instance bosses are
Bind on Pickup. This means that once you win the item and pick it up,
you cannot transfer it to another character. In those cases, examine
the item, can you use it? If not, DO NOT ROLL NEED FOR IT. That will
definitely cause you to be kicked from the group and give you a bad
reputation. (No one likes to risk losing the thing they played for a
long time to get!)
On the other hand, if you CAN use the item, do not hesitate to click on
the Need button. Bosses have a high drop rate of Blue Items. But
usually that drop rate will not be higher than 1 in 3. If you need it,
just click Need. Paladins get the advantage here, since what they can
use is often used only by Warriors. This goes for items like Plate Mail,
Shields and more. If questioned about your behavior, simply calmly
state that Paladins can use Plate Mail, Swords, Maces, Axes and
Polearms, and they really cannot say anything about it! (This even goes
for the higher end raids, where warriors may complain that you are
rolling on "their" item!)
Coffee Break! The Jealous Warlock
To share my experience with you, I once played Zul'Farrak with a group
with a Warlock, Priest, Rogue and Mage. That night, our group killed a
Witch Doctor, he dropped a Blue Polearm Diabolic Skiver, and we later
killed the Chief, and he dropped a Blue 1 hand Axe Ripsaw. I of course,
rolled need on both cases and won the items with no competition at all.
The Warlock asked, "You do have to roll Need on everything, don't you?"
I made the above explanation, and she replied, "That doesn't mean you
can roll on ALL OF THEM!" So what? I can use it, I am keeping it. It's
better to be given to me than someone who can't use it and can only
sell it for a marginal profit due to its Bind on Pickup Nature. This is
why Paladins can be hated by Warriors in groups! They tend to "steal"
all the Plate Armor that the Warrior "rightfully deserves"!
------------------------
Playing in a Raid Group
------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: The following content is not a strict rule, it's just some
guidelines on how I believe to make the best use of a Paladin in these
situations.
Once you reach a high enough level, such as in the late 50s or even
level 60, you will be able to participate in raids. Raids are like
instance runs, but the enemies in those raid instances are much
stronger, and require better strategy to beat. This is why raid groups
can have up to 40 members at a certain point. Usually, only guilds can
get enough manpower to attend those raids!
Raid instances include Blackrock Spire, Stratholme, Dire Maul, Onyxia's
Lair, Molten Core and more. It seems that whenever you defeat a major
boss in one of those high end instances, your progress gets saved for a
week, and you can relax for a while and continue with your group. Many
bosses drop epics, and sometimes, you may have to be fully equipped
with epics from this place before you can fight in that place!
------------------------
What do I do in a Raid?
------------------------
IMPORTANT! This is one important part, since it concerns a Paladin's
role in a raid. Since the 1.9 patch, Paladins' healing ability has been
considered to be improved. As a result, people (including Paladins
themselves) tend to see Paladins has buff-cleanse-healbots. Since this
is what they are best at doing, relatively (I mean RELATIVELY). As a
result, if you visit the World of Warcraft's official forums, there
will be loads of posts complaining that all the Paladin does in a raid
is to sit back and heal.
However, those people, as well as the people they are partying with
really are one-sided. If Paladins are characters that can do several
things, you should really multitask! Be flexible!
What I am saying is that you can buff all of your teammates, and heal.
However, since Paladins wear plate and have elemental resistance auras.
It is best for you to be a front line healer. (That is, a healer that
can take damage, unlike the Priests and Druids in their non-animal
form.) What I mean is that you should go forward with the Warriors
when facing those bosses. You fight them with the corresponding seals
at the front lines and take damage like the rest of them. Whenever you
see your pals getting hurt and the priests are having trouble keeping
up, that is when you heal and cleanse.
Fun-Giving Tip! Know the Guilds
Now, usually, the only way to ensure a steady stream of raid runs is to
join a guild. However, a lot of Guilds tend to dictate their members'
playing styles. What I mean is that they expect and will make the
Paladin play the way they want them to play, but not the way the
Paladin wants to play for fun. Yes, this is called division of labor,
but the main drawback is that this makes things boring. So, the first
step in having a fun raid, IS TO FIND A GUILD THAT IS FLEXIBLE! (Or,
you will never get to play the way you want to play)
---------------
The Specifics
---------------
Now that in your raid group, you have up to 8 separate teams of 5. The
Paladin should join the team of warriors. In fact, it is best to have a
single fighting unit consisting of 3 Warriors and 2 Paladins. The
Paladins' role is to first buff the 2 Warriors. One should Bless them
with Might, to increase their power. The other should Bless them with
Light, to increase the effects of Holy Light on them, just in case you
really have to switch to front line healing mode. Of course, Bless
yourselves with Wisdom in order to regenerate your mana.
Now, run forward to that boss there. Make sure that the correct auras
are made. One Paladin's Aura should always be the corresponding
resistance Aura. For instance, inside Molten Core, when you fight those
fire bosses, put on Fire Resistance Aura. At level 60, you will get 60
Additional Fire Resistance. This amounts to an extra 15% damage
mitigation in spell damage. Don't underestimate this. Using this in
conjunction to resist gear on your neck, fingers, trinkets and shield
should net even more resistance, and may mitigate over 35% damage.
(Assuming that you have +15 Fire Resistance gear on those parts. You
get 150 Fire Resistance, which translates to 37.5% damage absorbed.) If
possible, get resistance enchants on your armor.
The other Paladin should be having Retribution Aura or Devotion Aura.
This is when you should charge in battle. Paladins may not have any
instant heal capabilities, but one of their judgments are still useful.
That is the Judgment of Light. When the boss is judged with that,
anyone who hits the boss with melee may get healed for a small amount.
This happens very often, and albeit small, those amounts do add up.
OK, you should mainly be auto attacking with a shield in your hand.
This is why you should have the other Paladin judge the enemy with
Crusader. Then, put up either Seal of Righteousness or Command and
start auto attacking. Assuming that you have the talents, judge them
with this seal every 8 seconds to increase your damage dealt.
Although this seems to lack interactivity, you should keep your eyes
peeled. Watch for the raid chat, if the priests start complaining that
they are out of mana, you should be particularly careful. This is when
you should take over the priest's role and become front line healers.
At this point, the Paladin who used to have the Devotion or Retribution
Aura should switch to Concentration Aura. At this point, you should
watch your teammates' health bars and start healing and cleansing them
when the need arises. Don't worry about running out of mana, the seals
and judgment consume very little mana compared with the heals that you
have to make.
Sure, you can complain that the boss may have some area of effect
abilities that effectively stop you from healing. This is when your
invincibility abilities come into play. On average, you should use
Blessing of Protection and Divine Shield alternately in any 5 minute
time frame. This should at least allow you to heal yourself and friends
without interruption. (12 seconds means up to 4-5 heals, given the
casting time of the spells used)
------------------------
c. Hoarding Horde Kills
------------------------
The third and final way of playing World of Warcraft is to participate
in PvP, or player versus player combat. In this case, you will be
fighting against enemy players from the opposite faction. Since
Paladins must be of the Alliance, you will be fighting players of the
Horde, which are of the Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Undead. This section
will give you a short introduction of the 4 races, and individual
strategies about each class you will face.
----------------
The Horde Races
----------------
There are 4 races of the Horde, like the Alliance. They are the Orcs,
Trolls, Tauren and Undead.
---------------
Orcs
---------------
Axe Specialization: The Maximum Axe skill at each level for the Orcs is
5 higher than those of other races.
Blood Fury: This racial buff increases the Orc's strength by 25%, at
the cost of losing 5% health loss every 3 seconds for 20 seconds. This
technique has a 2 minute cooldown time.
Command: Your pet's melee damage will be increased by 5%.
Hardiness: Orcs have 25% more resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Allowed Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Warlock, Shaman
For a "noble" race that is corrupted by the Burning Legion, the Orcs
really are a blood and guts combat race. 4 out of 5 classes they get
have non magical fighting abilities. Their Hunters are slightly more
powerful due to the Command characteristic. However, the nastiest
attribute can be Hardiness, since they have 25% more resistance to your
Hammer of Justice, making it harder to stop them.
----------------
Trolls
----------------
Beast Slaying: Trolls dead 5% more attack damage to beast enemies.
Berzerking: This technique can be activated when the Troll is wounded
to give him extra 25% melee and magic attack speed for 20 seconds. This
technique has a 2 minute cooldown.
Regeneration: Trolls recover health when out of combat 10% faster.
Throwing Weapon Specialization: The maximum skill of Throwing Weapons
for Trolls is 5 higher at any level when compared to other races.
Allowed Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Shaman
Please note that not all Trolls are evil by heart, and that there are
many types of Troll tribes. Note that they have some barbaric
shamanistic nature, that's all. One of the Tribes were saved by the
Orcs when the murlocs invaded their homeland, and hence that particular
tribe, the Darkspear Trolls allied with the Orcs. Fortunately, none of
their racial attributes bring them any advantage over you.
----------------
Tauren
----------------
Cultivation: The maximum skill level in Herbalism is 315, which is 15
more than the herbalists of other races.
Endurance: Tauren get 5% more health than other races.
Nature Resistance: Tauren get 10 extra resistance to Nature attacks.
War Stomp: This technique stuns all enemies around you for 2 seconds.
This move has a 2 minute cooldown after it is used.
Allowed Classes: Warrior, Hunter, Druid, Shaman
I am amazed that a peace loving, tree worshipping race like the Tauren
will ally themselves with a peace hating, aggressive race like the Orcs.
Tauren can be rather tough to kill, since they get 5% more health.
Their War Stomp is one annoying tactic, since you are melee based.
Fortunately, the effects wear off in only 2 seconds and you can go
after the Tauren again.
----------------
Undead
----------------
Cannibalize: The Undead can actually eat corpses to bring an extra 200%
health regeneration rate. This move lasts for 20 seconds and has a 3
minute cooldown. Ewww...
Shadow Resistance: All Undead have inborn 10 Shadow Resistance.
Underwater Breathing: Undead can hold their breath underwater 4 times
more than other races.
Will of the Forsaken: This move can be activated to allow the Undead to
be immune to Fear, Sleep and Charm effects for 20 seconds. This move
has a 3 minute cooldown.
The former 3 Horde races are not necessarily evil, but the Undead are.
This liberated race allied with the Horde for their own evil ends. None
of the 4 traits about give them any advantage over you, though.
---------------------------
Fighting Each Enemy 1 on 1
--------------------------
In my opinion, a good fight is one where you face a Horde player the
same level as you, and both of you have full health. In fact, that's
the only type of fight that strategy really matters. If there are 3 or
more people hitting you and ganking you as they say, it really isn't
fair, isn't it?
My strategies involve a lot of Holy attacks, so before we begin, let's
buff ourselves with Blessing of Wisdom, and Judge the enemy with
Crusader.
What weapon to use:
Gear is important in player versus player combat. It is not just the
stat bonuses the item gives you, but also any other effects the weapon
has on the enemy. Generally, many Blue Items have an additional effect.
Some effects including placing a debuff on an enemy so that he cannot
stealth again (good for rogues), some others may wound the enemy for
additional damage (and this additional damage may crit too!) So,
improvise depending on which class you fight against.
Choosing Flight over Fight:
If you are attacked, and want to flee, consider this option. Start
running away from the enemy, and turn the camera and see how far he is
from you. When you think your gap is large enough, use Hammer of
Justice and stun him. Then, continue running while he is stunned. Keep
the camera rotated so that you can see behind you. If you are fighting
a class with ranged slowing attacks, consider putting the Divine Shield
up and continue running. This extra 12 seconds of invincibility should
allow you to get far away enough so that you can at least mount for a
quick getaway.
Once you get the highest rank of Divine Shield, you can combine it with
the Hearthstone to run away every hour or so. Just put up the Divine
Shield, and then immediately right click your Hearthstone. This will
ensure that you can warp away even under heavy fire to safety without
being stopped. This is also why Paladins are hated by some players.
*****VS MELEE CLASSES*****
When the enemy class is a Warrior, Rogue, Druid in Bear Form or Shaman,
they will tend to come up close, or stay within close range of you. Put
up Seal of Righteousness and your 1 hander and shield and start
defending yourself. Most players like to run around you to minimize the
chances of you hitting them. Two can play it that way, run around too.
Use the Judgment of Righteousness as long as it is available to
increase your damage. If you like, you can also slam a Grenade on the
ground below you to stun him and gain more free hits.
Roping Rogues (Orc, Troll, Undead):
The main thing about Rogues is their stealth abilities. Their main goal
is to sneak up stealthily on their victim, stun him, and kill him
without any fear of retaliation at all. Rogues are meant to hit, but
not to take hits. Take away their stealth abilities, and they are much
more vulnerable. Since their movement speed is slowed to 60% when they
are invisible, it is very unlikely you can be ambushed if you keep
moving in an area with a hidden rogue.
The best way to reveal a Rogue is by Consecration. If the Rogue enters
your designated area, he will be revealed. When you have a clear hit on
the rogue, always be the first to attack, then it's much harder for him
to stun you. Having their stealth advantage taken away, most Rogues
will try to run around you with sprint and deal hits. This is when your
Judgment of Righteousness comes into play. Judge him every now and then
between your normal melee hits. Be ready to remove any poisons induced
on you. If you have engineering, chuck a grenade on the ground you to
stop him in his tracks. Also be prepared to use Hammer of Justice when
he is about to sprint away.
Whacking Warriors (Orc, Troll, Tauren, Undead):
Yup, the main tanking class of the game. Warriors typically charge at
you, listen to that whoosh sound and prepare yourself. Judge with
Crusader and put on Seal of Righteousness. Judge regularly and have a
fair 1 on 1 duel, with him using some uber melee moves while you heal
yourself and keep yourself up. There is no defense against Holy Attacks
after all! Watch out for Hamstring. When you are affected, it is a sure
sign that he wants to flee. Put on Blessing of Freedom to get rid of
the slowing effect and chase him! (Stun him with Hammer of Justice,
judge with Command if you have it!)
Getting Getafix the Druid (Tauren):
Most Druids that I fight one on one in battlegrounds tend to fight in
Bear Form, which makes them Warrior like. So, I would recommend similar
strategies when you fight Bear Form Druids. The time you should pay
attention is when they transform. If they turn back into their old
Tauren self, it is a sign that they are about to heal themselves. If
they change to a form that looks like a cheetah, they have turned into
Travel Form and are planning to flee. This is when they are much softer.
This is also when Hammer of Justice comes into play. Stun them, and
perform the Judgment of Righteousness + Holy Shock + Hammer of Wrath
combo to finish them.
Putting the Shamans to Shame (Orc, Troll, Tauren):
Yup, it's the Horde's faction unique class. Shamans are like Paladins.
They are a hybrid class. They can melee, and cast spells, most notably
their shock moves. Their shock moves are what interrupts your Holy
Light spells. At the same time, Shamans have the ability to instant
heal themselves and more. They also get to use totems that provide
additional effects. All of these things makes Shamans a dangerous
target... until they run out of mana of course!
The first thing you should do is to get within range of the Shaman. Put
up Frost Resistance Aura and run towards them. Dispel any Frosts Shocks
they deal to you. Also hack away any totems they put up. Get close, and
start fighting. The similar tactics apply for Warriors and Rogues apply
at this point. The Shamans typically like to shock you even at close
range than hit you with melee. Use the healing feint technique to make
them waste a shock, and heal yourself if needed and hack away while
judging Righteousness at the same time.
A major concern is that Shamans tend to purge and dispel your buffs,
but fortunately, they do not have infinite mana. So, if you
deliberately cast a low level seal that costs very little mana, and he
purges it, he will be wasting a lot of mana on something you can
quickly put up again! (And jeopardizing his chance to heal himself!)
Watch out as he may heal himself, but when his blue bar begins to empty,
he will be forced to melee. (Or run with Ghost Wolf form!) In the
latter case, stun with Hammer of Justice and finish him off.
*****FIGHTING RANGED CLASSES*****
To be more precise, in this section, you will learn how to deal with
classes that typically attack from a range. They are: Priests, Warlocks,
Mages and Hunters. This section will follow a brief outline before I go
on the specifics.
Prey on Priests (Troll, Undead)
Warp Warlocks (Orcs, Trolls, Undead)
Massacre Mages (Trolls, Undead)
Hunt Down Hunters (Orc, Trolls, Undead)
All ranged classes have powerful ranged attacks. However, once you get
there, you should not have problems ripping them to pieces, since
ranged classes wear cloth. (Yes, Hunters can wear Mail, but they are
still weak, since whatever Stamina they have, are shared between
themselves and their pets!) The main challenge is get within striking
range of them, which ranged classes have skills to stop you from doing
so. (Obviously! Or, the game will be imbalanced in favor of close
combat types!)
Have Cleanse on a hot key and be ready to hit Alt + (the key Cleanse is
assigned to) to remove any poison effects. When it comes to ranged
classes like Mages, Hunters, Priests and Warlocks as such, they will
typically try to keep you away from them. Before you begin, let's turn
on the appropriate resistance aura, ok? (Fire or Frost for Mages,
Shadow for Priests and Warlocks)
Hunters' pets can be ignored at most times, but Warlocks' pets may have
to be destroyed by Exorcism since they generate more threatening
effects on you, such as charm. Most of the time, you can avoid enemy
Voidwalkers and Felhunters, but those sadomasochistic Succubus minions
must be dealt with.
Most tactics used include slowing shot, fear, frost nova and so on.
Many movement slowing effects are to be countered with Blessing of
Freedom. Use it on yourself, and start running towards the enemy. If
they do try to induce fear, immediately click on the Insignia of the
Alliance to regain control and run after them.
Once you have reached whacking range of them, turn Blessing of Wisdom
back on. You must also be careful of any mana draining effects on you,
and the rule of a thumb is to immediately Cleanse any negative effects
on you as soon as they hit you. (This can prove costly to enemies like
Warlocks and Priests, many of those effects are damage over time spells,
which cost mana to use!) Once you get into range, it's quite hard for
that soft enemy to withstand your blows.
Warping Warlocks (Orcs, Trolls, Undead):
I once defeated a higher level Warlock than me, because I can break out
of fear and run after him immediately. Upon reaching him, I stunned him
with Hammer of Justice, and Judged with Righteousness while I slashed
him around twice. Then, I dropped a bomb and he remained stunned,
slashed him some more, gave him all the Holy attacks I could get my
hands on, and he's down and out. In fact, this strategy should apply to
most cloth wearers, since all of them have some sort of crowd control
tactic that protects them.
Massacring Mages (Trolls, Undead):
I was riding my warhorse around Un'Goro Crater, searching for Rich
Thorium Veins. I was near the Fire Plume Ridge when suddenly I saw a
Horde character appear next to my character's health bar. I am under
attack. I rotated the camera back, it's an Undead Mage, level 57 (2
levels higher than me at that time). Before I could react, he has
turned me into a sheep! That is when I was forced to fight him. He shot
at me with a Frostbolt. That is when I turned back, activated Frost
Resistance Aura and ran towards him.
Of course, the frostbolt has a slowing effect, so I used Blessing of
Freedom as I ran. I was at a great disadvantage there, I had a
Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector, but I had not equipped it! By the time I
reached the Mage, I was down to something like 200 health. Is this the
end of me?
Well, the answer is NO! I stunned him with Hammer of Justice and then
used the Divine Favor to critically heal myself to something like 2100
health (out of something like 3460). Since I was equipping the Fist of
Stone at that time, it was possible to judge him with Crusader, and hit
him twice with the Seal of Righteousness on while he was still stunned.
My guess is that he expected the battle to be short, so he did not
short teleport out of the stun.
Now, once he has come to, he used Arcane Explosion repeatedly. It did
not do much damage to me though. I was able to steadily whack him down
while I judged seal of Righteousness on him. Then he began to back off.
That is when I tossed a grenade on the ground around him and
incapacitated him, dealing 400 more Fire Damage. (No blinking allowed!)
That is when I delivered my final burst of damage with 1 melee hit, a
Judgment of Righteousness and a Holy Shock. And then I heard the sweet
sound of an old man throwing up, and "HK: Senior Sergeant" appear on my
screen! Well, the lesson learned today is, when you are disadvantaged
in a battle, ALWAYS act unpredictably!
Battle of Attrition Tactics:
Remember that Paladins thrive in the survivability. They can constantly
take damage and then heal themselves, while regaining mana quickly with
Blessing of Wisdom. A general tactic is to wear the enemy down slowly,
while they run out of mana, if they have it and finish off with a huge
sudden burst of damage.
The main thing to take note of is that many classes have spell
interruption tactics like Kick or Earth Shock, whenever you are hit
with those interrupt tactics, your spell will be stopped and all spells
will be locked up for maybe 6 seconds, preventing you from using it
again. To deal with such problems, always have a finger positioned
above the escape button when you heal. If you notice that the enemy is
about to interrupt you, tap Escape to cancel your heal. The interrupt
will hit you, but since nothing is in progress, nothing gets
interrupted, and nothing gets locked up. Feel free to use Holy Light on
yourself without being stopped!
Dealing with Cowardly Runners:
One of the most commonly discussed issues is that it is just too easy
to run away from a Paladin, and you can never get near them. To help
deal with such situations, it is advised that you time your Hammer of
Justice carefully, and look out for signs when the enemy is starting to
take the heat and flee. Also watch out if you are affected by any
slowing effects such as Hamstring or Earthbind Totem. If you must run
after him, consider using Blessing of Freedom to unsnare yourself.
It is also important that you at least become a Corporal and get the
Insignia of the Alliance trinket. That way, you can immediately get out
of Polymorph or Fear and go after that Priest, Mage or Warlock that is
beginning to run away.
You may be running out of a stun move if you hold Hammer of Justice
back until the desired moment. In that case, take up Engineering and
keep yourself supplied with bombs and grenades. These items have an
area effect and deal considerable damage. They also stun the enemy,
allowing you to have 1 or 2 more free hits on them.
The best time to use Hammer of Justice is when the Horde decides that
having lost a lot of health, it's better to run away laughing. Try to
run after him, and hit him until he has less than 50% health. If he
already has less than that amount of health, use Hammer of Justice
instantly. He will be stunned, and so take the chance and get your free
hits.
One side note when playing against Mages is that they may be able to
short teleport away even when stunned. This can be counted by hitting
him with a Seal of Justice while chasing him. As long as he is stunned
once, he is likely to short teleport, and that is when you use Hammer
of Justice on him. Another alternative is to stun him with Repentance.
This move is not classified as a stun, and hence the enemy can only
stay perfectly still while you move up to him!
While he is stunned, give him another Judgment of Righteousness, or
even Judgment of Command. The latter will deal much more damage. If he
manages to snap out of it, continue hitting and or running after him
until it gets difficult to catch up. At that point, use Holy Shock to
damage him further, and finish off with Hammer of Wrath.
(If you are a heavy Retribution specced Paladin with Repentance,
consider using Repentance on them, run up, Judge with Command again!)
Note the holy damages involved. Even if ONE of all those attacks gives
a critical hit, the enemy is more or less done for.
----------------
Honor System
----------------
You may ask, why do I have to keep killing other players? Why should I
prevent them from having a fun game? One of the reasons is to keep up
with the theme of the game, which is the continuing struggle between
the Alliance and Horde. Another reason is that whenever you kill some
Horde within your level range, you get Honor Points. The Honor Points
you gain each week will be compared with the Honor gain with all the
other players in your realm, and your weekly standing will be given.
The higher your weekly standing, the more Rating Points you are given.
As you accumulate your Rating Points, you will advance in rank. The
first rank does not require any Rating Points; just 25 Honorable Kills
in a week will net you the first rank of Private.
I am not sure how many rating points are given for each standing, but
what I am sure is that the person who gains the most honor in any realm,
that is the person with Standing 1, gains 13000 Rating Points.
Here are the rankings and their requirements. The first 5 ranks are
standard ranks. The ones afterwards are enlisted ranks. Once you get to
rank 6, you can enter the Officers' Lounge in the Stormwind Barracks.
Rank 1: Private, 25 Honorable Kills
Rank 2: Corporal, 1000-4999 Rating Points
Rank 3: Sergeant, 5000-9999 Rating Points
Rank 4: Master Sergeant, 10000-14999 Rating Points
Rank 5: Sergeant Major, 15000-19999 Rating Points
Rank 6: Knight, 20000-24999 Rating Points
Rank 7: Knight-Lieutenant, 25000-29999 Rating Points
Rank 8: Knight Captain, 30000-34999 Rating Points
Rank 9: Knight Champion, 35000-39999 Rating Points
Rank 10: Lieutenant, 40000-44999 Rating Points
Rank 11: Commander, 45000-49999 Rating Points
Rank 12: Marshal, 50000-54999 Rating Points
Rank 13: Field Marshal, 55000-59999 Rating Points
Rank 14: Grand Marshal, >= 60000 Rating Points
----------------
Honor Decay
----------------
It may seem that the Honor System is like an XP system, where the more
PvP you do, the higher your rank, but there is one factor that makes it
extremely hard to reach high ranks. That thing is the Honor Decay.
Every week, before your new rating points are added to your current
ones on Wednesdays, your existing rating points fall by 20%! This means
that assuming that you gain the same amount of rating points every week,
the net gain will slowly tend to zero. The time that occurs is when
your total rating points increase to 5 times your weekly rating gain.
The Honor Decay system is one thing that makes it so hard for people to
advance in rank, it is also the reason why many people get addicted to
the game and become slaves to the PvP system. Take the addict who gets
standing 1 every week. To get to Rank 14, he has to get standing 1 for
14 WHOLE WEEKS! If it had not been the Honor Decay, it would have taken
him only 5 weeks! (Do the math yourself, I won't do it for you here)
It seems that the average standing 1 person gains like 200000 Honor
every week, and to reach that, one has to play an obscene amount of
hours a day, every day! (Somewhat like 10+ hours, or even more!)
Imagine doing that for 14 weeks straight. Well, that is going to give
you a very bad social life. (And bad health too!)
The following post on World of Warcraft forums is typical of people who
struggle for so long to get to rank 14, only to get bored of it fast.
*****RANK 13: THE ACHILLES HEEL OF WOW*****
Everyone interested in pvping for gear should read this:
Last Tuesday, I hit rank 13. With the exception of the grand marshal
staff, my Mage has every piece of PvP gear he is able to get. (1)
Which brings me to my point: World of Warcraft's PvP system promotes
unhealthy play, is destructive to itself, and has ruined the game for
many. It attracts a lot of people, only to destroy social lives and, in
the end, make players unhappy than when they began.
For those of you who don't know, the pvp system is basically based
around time spent online. Your standing affects your final rank, and in
order to achieve a rank higher than 11 or so, you need a standing
within the top 75 for a few continuous weeks. Its standing <20 for rank
12, <15 for rank 13, and <8 for rank 14. (2)
I started off very naive to the PvP system. At first I only wanted to
PvP gloves. So I started PvPing. I got there after a few weeks. I liked
PvP at the time, the challenge of WSG, the epic battle of AV. I also
looked forward to my crackling staff that I would receive after a few
more AV games. I was able to PvP a few days a week. I not only went up
in rank, but I skyrocketed. I almost double ranked one week, and then I
finally got to rank 7. I was happy. I had gained a rank a week, and
finally got my gloves. I was happy, I enjoyed myself.
But then I took a look at the other armor the vendor had to offer.
Wow...this gear isnt bad. At this time I had to make a decision: To go
with PvE, or stay with PvP. At the time, my crappy guild had stalled
out on Garr, and since I worked the midnight shift, I was unable to
attend a good 60% or so of the raids. So I couldn't compete with the
other mages who could go each week and collect DKP.
So I looked at the PvP gear and though to myself: Hmm, this looks like
my path. I can PvP when I want, and earn gear at my own pace.
This is the trap that I believe most people fall into. There are only
two routes to getting good end game gear: PvE raiding, and PvP. Some of
us cannot raid. Either we're not in a raiding guild (and are unable to
find one), or we work, or whatever. So PvP is the only other option.
And that is why so many people fall into the PvP hell that I am about
to describe.
Ranks 7-9 were fairly smooth. I was gaining a rank per week, and
getting new gear every Tuesday. Every time I though 'that's enough, I'm
done,' I would remind myself that new gear was only a Tuesday away. So
I kept going. (3)
But playing a few hours every evening wasn't enough anymore. I was
barely gaining any rank per week, so I thought about it, and came to
the conclusion that the only way I was going to actually get to rank 13
(my goal...how naive) was to find a good group of people to run with.
People with epics, people who steamrolled pugs, people who played 12
hours a day. (4)
This was a problem, considering I didn't fit into any one of those
three descriptions. But, I pestered the leaders of the PvP raids, and
sometimes I got invites at 2-3-4 in the morning (my nights off) when
they were running out of players. We steamrolled pugs, we ran rampant
through the newly released AB, but, more importantly to me, we were
getting honor, so I was gaining rank.
But, I was still unknown to the higher ups. I was sleeping less and
less, waking up earlier to try to get in before the 'regulars' got on,
so I would have a chance to get into the PvP raid. I would stay up
later on my nights off, trying to get into the raid. I was often groggy
at work due to the lack of sleep, but I just wrote it off as 'as soon
as I get my rank, I can sleep for a week.' (5)
Rank 10-11 was nasty for me. I was at the point where I had to PvP
every day to avoid dropping in standing, but I wasn't able to get into
the groups. 'Hey, does anyone know this kid? No? Screw him then,
pretend you're AFK when he whispers you.' How do I know that happened?
Because later on I would do the same thing.
I would say it took me a good 6 weeks to go from rank 10 to 11. Without
a group to run in, I often faced waiting a half hour to get thrown into
a pick up group AB game that was 1940/0 right before it ended, only to
get kicked out and have to wait another half hour. It wasn't fun
anymore. I wasn't enjoying AB. I wasn't enjoying seeing the same people
over and over. But more importantly, I was putting PvP ahead of my own
health, with the reasoning 'oh, I'll get better once I get my rank.'
I skipped doctors appointments due to the fact that I got into the good
group, and didn't want to leave. I stayed up all day (its like staying
up all night... remember I worked the nightshift) PvPing, just to get
more honor. But, it still took me 6 weeks to get to rank 11. And guess
what, I already had my epic mount.
At around rank 11, I was starting to get noticed by the higher ups. (6)
I was getting invites into the group regularly, and I was actually
starting to have fun again - not PvPing, but just joking around on vent.
Even if I wasn't in the group, I was on vent talking to my new friends.
Those friends are all gone now, they've all gotten their ranks and all
but one of them have quit. I'll be honest, I miss them.
Rank 11 to rank 12 was a pain, but since the first purples approached,
I was excited again to see how much I had gone up. I could no longer
play Starcraft a few nights a week. I could no longer touch my xbox360.
I had to PvP, or I would drop in rank. Tuesdays were my favourite days.
Not because the honor updated, but because I could sleep. I wished the
servers would go down for a day, perhaps a week, just so I could enjoy
the rest. I was getting ranked (standing) in the top 20 every week, and
I since I was playing every moment I had, there was no feasible way for
me to increase my honor per week.
And then I became a 'regular' to the PvP group. Often people would get
kicked so I could join the PvP raid. I felt bad for them, but then I
remembered what had happened to me at rank 9. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I
need the honor more than you do. I often led the raids in the morning,
and although I tried to get everyone in, sometimes I had to tell people
'no, you can't join, its full.' And then when the regulars got on, we
had to reform the raid. The 5-6 people that were left out... I had to
explain to them what was happening. Did I like it? No, but I had no
choice.
Any of the steady PvPers are basically living an unhealthy life. One of
the kids I PvPed with couldn't wake up with an alarm clock, so he
rigged a cup of water to fall onto his face at 10:30 (5 hours of sleep)
every morning. (7) Another raid had started; we had to 'step it up' to
beat them. Their leader was rank 13, and could have gotten rank 14 with
standing one. Our raid leader slammed back the mountain dew, the pep
pills, and stayed up for a god 50 something hours straight PvPing. He
beat him, and their leader ended up with 59990 rating points (60,000 is
rank 14). (8) Our leader nearly died, but hey, he got standing one, and
that's all that matters, right?
Most of our members blew off at least a few hours of sleep a night, and
drank a case of mountain dew a day just to stay up and beat out the
other raid. Why did we hate them so much? Well, they were of a certain
race, I won't say what race, but they were farming honor and we had to
beat them. (9) Me? Hell, I was in their guild (the opposite raid), so I
tried to stay out of it. I joined the guild to play with a friend (one
who quit when I was rank 7), and I just never left. So I heard the
flames (often not in English) aimed at our raid, the (insert white guy
slur here)s! Being white, I really didn't care, but it did get on my
nerves. I asked them to stop, they didn't, so after another week I
reported them. I was told 'tough noogies' by the GM (expected, it IS
their guild), but I remained in just because I had no other guild to
join.
And I finally hit rank 13. I went for a walk, I played some basketball,
and I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to be at my computer anymore.
Will I miss it? I'll miss it the same way a prisoner misses prison when
he gets out - yes, its good to be out, but I'll miss the regularity of
it. (10) Now I don't know what the hell to do. I spent an hour running
around Ironforge just because I had nothing to do. I have joined a new
guild, a raiding one, and I will be doing pve with them.
But, this post was written for 3 reasons:
1) A call for help to blizzard. Please fix this. You're selling a
product that's, well, worse than cigarettes. The only difference is
that when you get your rank at WoW, you stop. You don't stop smoking
until you die. But during that time, you live a lot unhealthier playing
wow. (11)
2) To blow off steam. Bleh, there, I said it.
3) To warn others: don't get involved with PvP. Even if it seems easy
at first, don't do it. It's not worth it.
So please blizzard, please, change the system so it's not based on time
played. I know its 'under review,' but if this system isn't changed
within a month or so, I will just be cancelling. I don't want to
support a company that's promoting this.
My Comments:
(1) The higher your ranking, the better the armor you can buy from the
official military suppliers. Ranks 7-11 get to buy their lower tier
Blue set, while Levels 12-13 get to buy their upper tier purple set!
(2) All of this is due to the Honor Decay system, a high standing
player may gain a lot of rating for a week, but he would have also lost
a lot of honor due to rating decay! This is why only dedicated
individuals can reach the upper ranks.
(3) The "There is light at the end of the tunnel" psychology is what
drives many people to play more and more without stopping, hoping to
reach their goal. This is also the cause of compulsive gambling. (ie.
You think your next bet with make up for your losses!)
(4) The three types of people who gain honor quickly are those with
epic items already equipped, the people who always outnumber the
opposition, hence beating them quickly. For example, I was playing
Arathi Basin, and us Alliance were being outnumbered by Hordes `5 to 9!
Hence, we were defeated in a matter of short time, and were steamrolled!
Another way to gain loads of honor is to play long hours, of course.
(5) I see that addiction to videogames is starting to affect your real
life, pal.
(6) One of the advantages of being highly ranked is that people will
notice you and will be more likely to invite you to groups.
(7) If people have to start to take extreme measures in their attempt
to live their lives normally, things really are getting wrong.
(8) To people chasing after Honor Ranks, the worst nightmare that could
happen is that even you have tried all you could, you are just a
spear's throw away from your ultimate goal! This would definitely mean
one more week of slaving under the system!
(9) Since only a fixed number of people can get a certain rank a week,
it is obvious that there is fierce competition to get standing 1 every
week, and when addicts collide, you won't want to know what will happen
between each of them.
(10) In the end, all that effort for getting a few lines of code ends
up dissolved when you are really done with things. Sigh. What's the
point of being addicted in the first place?
(11) The trick to the system is to learn where to stop. Set the rank
you want to achieve and stick to a certain schedule in honor gain. Plan
in advance using special online calculators if needed. Once you reach
the desired rank, it's not hard to keep it, since you only have to play
20% of what you usually play to keep the honor from decaying.
----------------------------
8. Some Interesting Tidbits
----------------------------
This is where I write down some interesting things I find about
Paladins and World of Warcraft in general. Mail from readers may also
be posted here if I find them interesting. Note that I will add my own
comments on their opinion at the bottom of each letter.
---------------------------------
b. About Earning Money in Detail
---------------------------------
Like many MMORPGs out there, World of Warcraft is all about money.
There are lots of things that money can do, and the world of this game
encourages financial interactions between players. Players get to buy
and sell items through the trade channel and auction house. You may
also offer your services, such as Arcanite Transmutation and various
enchants in the Trade Channels of cities.
Money enables one to buy stronger items from the Auction House, and is
also used to get your epic mount once you reach Level 60. In fact, it
may cost up to 1000 Gold to buy an epic mount (or 900 if you are
honored with your home faction). So, how do you get those money? Here's
how you do it. The reason why I am doing this is because, I find making
money a fun thing to do!
---------------------------
Profession Based Activities
---------------------------
This section mentions some of the complex things that few people could
do, and hence are very hard for some irresponsible person to ruin the
market in. Please note that the professions chosen are basically from a
money maker's point of view, but not to help you in the game! Please
note that all prices listed are based on the median price of the items
on wow.allakhazam.com.
*****MINING*****
Some people, like me, enjoy running around the place, and finding
mineral nodes to mine the stuff out of them. This may be for practical
reasons, such as you need some materials to build your grenades. Other
reasons may be to get a stack of 20 of the ore so you can smelt it, and
sell the stack at the Auction House for a profit. Of course, sell the
items that correspond to your level.
I would recommend the following prices for stacks of 20 bars:
Copper Bars: 80 Silver
Iron Bars: 3 Gold +/- 50 Silver
Mithril Bars: 4 Gold +/- 50 Silver
Truesilver Bars: 5 Gold +/- 50 Silver
Thorium Bars: 5 Gold - 7 Gold
Dark Iron Bar: 8 Gold per bar (160 Gold for 20 bars!)
Before you even list the item for auction, perform a search function
and see if the market is flooded. If the supplies are large and the
pricing has gone low, it may be better to wait another time before youp
put it up. On the other hand, if the market supply is low, feel free to
slightly overprice your goods. (In the extreme cases, where supply is
low and all sellers overcharge the item, sell the item at a slightly
lower buyout price and you probably will get your money soon enough!)
When you mine ores, you are likely to find precious crystals with the
ore. For instance, you may find Malachite in copper ore, Aquamarines in
Iron and Mithril ore, and even more valuable stuff like Blue Sapphires
and Arcane Crystals in Rich Thorium Veins!
Most high end crystals sell for like 4 to 5 Gold, and it seems that
Arcane Crystals can worth up to 18 Gold per gem. So, start picking man!
*****MINING/ALCHEMY*****
With a combination of mining and alchemy, you can perform Arcanite
Transmutation. What this does is that you take a single thorium bar,
and sort of react it with an arcane crystal to create this bar. Every
time you do this, you will create 1 Arcanite Bar, which is an important
component in many high end crafted items.
To transmute Arcanite, you will need to have a Philosopher's Stone in
your inventory, you will also need 1 Thorium Bar and 1 Arcane Crystal.
Mine the Thorium, and create the Arcane Crystal by finding it inside a
Rich Thorium Vein, or simply buy it from the Auction House for
somewhere around 18 Gold. Then, you can create the Arcanite Bar.
An Arcanite Bar typically sells for 25 Gold. Had you found the Arcane
Crystal by yourself, it would mean pure profit, and if you bought the
crystal from the auction house, it would mean 7 Gold profit. (Barring
Auction House Cuts). There is a trick to this process. It seems that
you can only create 1 bar of Arcanite every 2 days. So, in order to
maximize your profit, you might as well keep mining from Rich Thorium
Veins and hope to find at least 1 Arcane Crystal in them (around 2-3%
chance). Also use the trade channel, since there is always bound to be
someone who is waiting to buy those bars.
Highest possible gain: 12 G 50 S every day.
*****MINING/BLACKSMITHING*****
Blacksmithing is quite a complicated profession of World of Warcraft,
the fact that it branches into 2 branches at Master level, one of which
branched into 3 more! But please take note, those high level items are
extremely difficult to craft and hence are not worth selling. In fact,
for many of them, the materials used to craft will cost much more than
the recommended price of the item you made! Just look at the things you
can make in Allakhazam! All of them require so many Arcanite Bars and
Blue materials like Lava Cores! (The individual prices of those
materials will far outweigh the recommended price of the item
themselves!)
Before you start making money off blacksmithing, check the auction
house for any plans for items that you currently cannot create. All of
these additional skills can help in making you superior to the other
wannabes. There are basically two ways to make money in blacksmithing.
The first way is to craft the items yourself, and then putting them up
on auction. This may be tempting, but it really is not a good idea.
This is because, all the decent items, although not requiring many rare
or epic materials, still require a large amount of the same material to
craft! For instance, a low end Armorsmith plan, the Truesilver
Gauntlets requires something like 10 Mithril Bars, 8 Truesilver Bars, 3
Aquamarines, 3 Citrines, 1 pair of Guardian Gloves and 2 Solid Grinding
Stones. It is going to take a long time to find those Truesilver
Deposits, since they are the rare version of Mithril Deposits. Same
goes for those gems you mine.
It may be profitable, but you won't be able to sell them very
frequently. In that case, it is better to simply advertise on the Trade
Channel in cities that you will be crafting certain weapons or armor,
and tell people to bring you the materials so you can make it for them.
Of course, charge something like a 5 to 20 Gold processing fee for your
services. This is more likely to attract more customers, and you only
have to sit and wait, rather than go out there mining all the materials.
If you really want to craft the very high end items, make sure you have
plenty of Gold as a starting investment. Otherwise, you might as well
attend many raids in dungeons that drop the materials you need. For
instance, there is one Blacksmithing 300 plan for Dark Iron Leggings.
Once you buy it off the vendor inside the Blackrock Depths for 18 Gold
(you have to be exalted with the Thorium Brotherhood to do this), you
can learn to make it. This item is an Epic Plate Leg armor, and
requires 16 Dark Iron Bars, which can be mined and forged inside
Blackrock Depths, 4 Fiery Cores and 6 Lava Cores. The cores each have a
150 Gold median price in the game, and they also frequently drop from
the enemies inside the Molten Core. If you decide to buy those cores,
you will have to pay around 1500 Gold! However, all of this is worth it,
those leggings, when sold has a median price of something like 1900
Gold, so that's extremely profitable, only that you may not be able to
do it very often.
Highest possible gain if you offer to craft armor for people: There is
no limit in the amount you can make in a day. Just take it as being a
shopkeeper.
Highest possible gain if you sell Dark Iron Leggings every now and then:
Let's say it takes 10 days for you to gather all the materials without
using the Auction House. Then, having sold it for 1900 Gold on the
trade channel, you can earn an average of 190 Gold a day.
---------------------------
Scarlet Monastery Solo Run
---------------------------
Requires: Level 50+
You may wonder how I accumulated so much gold in such a short time, and
to buy all those items from the auction house. My secret is that I tend
to play the instance Scarlet Monastery by myself. I can farm all the
enemies quickly and efficiently, without the interference of the other
Hordes! At the same time, most of the items sell well to vendors, and I
usually can get 8 Gold to 10 Gold per run! Each run takes almost an
hour to complete, and hence gold can rack up quite fast.
Getting to the Scarlet Monastery:
To get to the Scarlet Monastery, you should begin from Ironforge. Take
the flight to Chillwind Camp, Western Plaguelands. Move north from the
camp and then west, to the river. Move until you are west of the Ruins
of Andorhal (That is where you will get to if you cross the river on
the path.) Then swim across the river, getting ashore on the other side.
Then, mount, and move north until you get to the main path. Go west,
and you should reach the Bulwark. Once you get through the gate, you
would be in the Tirisfal Glades, which is Horde Territory. Now, you
must try to avoid any encounters with Hordes, since many level 60s may
enter the Plaguelands from there. Move to the northeast corner of the
map and you should reach the Monastery (cut through the Balnir
Farmstead if needed.) Climb up the stairs, and there will be 2 Instance
Portals and 2 locked doors. The far left portal leads to the graveyard.
Skip that. The left door, which is locked, requiring the Scarlet Key
leads to the Cathedral, while the right door leads to the Armory. To
get the Scarlet Key, you must first enter the far right portal, to the
library.
---------------
Library
---------------
The enemies of the Library range from level 33 to 36. The enemies found
in the first area are Gallants, which bash you with their mace, and may
attack using Crusader Strike. Crusader Strike is like the Judgment of
the Crusader, only that it is in a Strike Form. At the same time, you
will find Scarlet Adepts, which are like Priests. They attack with Holy
Smite, and should be mostly resisted due to your high level. They may
heal themselves, but that is trivial. At the same time, you will find
Scarlet Beastmasters, which are like hunters with their pet dogs.
In the later section, you will find Scarlet Diviners, which are mages
using fireballs. They may try to mana burn you. Both of the above
spells should be easily resisted. Scarlet Monks are obviously clones of
the Shaolin Monks, since they punch and kick you. (The latter can
interrupt your heals) At the same time, the Scarlet Chaplains will be
mace wielding Priests, who can shield themselves and cast renew, a
healing over time spell. The boss, Arcanist Doan is found at the end of
the instance.
Ok, let us start by entering the Library. Follow the entry way and you
will find the first corridor. You should see 2 enemies there (either
Gallants or Adepts). Kill them and turn right. There are somewhat like
2 or 3 more pairs of Gallants standing in the middle of the hallway, as
well as 2 lone guards standing by the walls, on opposite sides. Another
Gallant or Adept may also patrol this hallway. Feel free to take them
out one by one, and watch out for the patrolling Scarlet Beastmaster
and his hound. (Take them out too!)
At the end of the passageway you will come to an opening, that leads to
the courtyard, this is the Huntsman's Cloister. There are numerous
Gallants and Adepts standing around on the passageway around the
courtyard. In the courtyard itself, there are 3 Scarlet Beastmasters
with their pet hounds. After all the above are killed, you will notice
on the map that there is a small room off the cloister. Inside, you
will find the sub-boss of this area.
The boss is Houndsmaster Loksey. You may remember him from the quest
that involves killing 4 of the Scarlet Monastery's high command. He has
3 pet hounds that will fight with him. So, equip your shield and 1-
hander and charge in using Retribution Aura. Kill Loksey's hounds first.
When you attack, he will cry, "Release the hounds!" The hounds are
slightly different than the others you have seen in the monastery.
Those hounds can get enraged and attack faster but with less accuracy,
so can Loksey, who is equipped with 2 axes. Even if you are over level
50, it is always a good thing to heal yourself whenever your health
falls to 1000.
When Houndsmaster Loksey is killed he can drop 3 bind on pick up items.
They are, in ascending order of vendor price, the Dog Training Gloves
(less than 30 S), Dog Whistle (~65 S) and Loksey's Training Stick (>1
G!) Of course, the best drop is the blue staff. If you do get the dog
whistle, you can use it to summon a hound that fights with you. Note
that you can only do that for 3 times.
Now that is dealt with, go to the other end of the Huntsman's Cloister
and go through the opening there. There is another corridor, with
Gallants and Adepts. Fight your way to the other end. Take care when
taking the 2 Scarlet members at that end, since an enemy from the
second half of the instance will patrol, and walk from the opening to
the right, while the opening to the left leads to a room with a chest,
that is sometimes locked.
Inside that room, the chest is guarded by 3 Scarlet Gallants or Adepts.
Open the chest if it's not locked, and move to the next half of the
instance. You are now in the first of 3 corridors to the final boss.
You will now be fighting Scarlet Monks, Chaplains and Diviners. The
latter 2 are just too easy to kill. Even so, try not to draw too much
attention to yourself. The enemies are grouped into pairs, some
standing by themselves, some reading some stuff. There are also 2 side
rooms in this hallway that have 2 or 3 enemies in each room.
Clear the place out. Then turn right to reach the second corridor.
There are 2 rooms, and there are 2 or 3 Scarlet enemies hanging around
the sides, with 1 member patrolling this room and the next. The next
room is similar with its enemy distribution. With that room cleared,
it's time to get to the third and final hallway.
The first room of the 3rd corridor is the library. There are 2 enemies
hanging around to the left corner, and another Scarlet member is
patrolling the room from the right. To the right are a pair of Scarlet
members who are reading something by the side of the path, as well as
another pair to the far corner to the right.
Having left that room, you will find a final room before the boss,
Arcanist Doan. The entry into the room is guarded by 2 enemies, and
there are 2 more guarding the door to the boss, and 2 sets of 3 enemies
to the 2 sides of this hallway. With them all taken out, it is time to
face the Arcanist himself. "You will not defile those mysteries!" He
yells.
Arcanist Doan is just the average mage, who attacks frequently with
Arcane Explosions. Those can be resisted easily by your high level. So,
just slowly hack him down. As he drops to half health, he will bubble
up and yell "Burn in Righteous Fire!" This shows that he will be
letting lose a fire nova type of attack. Just turn on your Fire
Resistance Aura and there will be no chance of the fire hurting you.
Continue hacking and he will die.
Arcanist Doan drops either a Hypnotic Blade or Illusionary Rod as the
blue item, and a Mantle or Cloak of Doan as the Green Item. The former
item sells for over 40 Silver. Be sure to open the small lockbox in the
room for the Scarlet Key, if you don't already have it. This enables
you to access the Armory and Cathedral parts of the Monastery. Now, you
can teleport back to Ironforge to fix your gear, sell your drops and
silk, and maybe come back again for more!
------------------------
c. Letters from Readers
------------------------
Letter 1:
Well I hope you read all this, sorry for it being so extensive, if I am
wrong please correct me as I have not all your experience in the PvP
area, I am just a dueler that likes to PvP.
Hello Kai: I cant agree more with you about the PvP system in this game,
thank you for explain it with that grade of detail, and I can see the
time abuse Blizzard force us to endure to get certain stuff(like the
price of a normal mount that you cant sell when you hit 60, the time it
takes to go to some locations the first 39 levels when you don't have a
mount, when you are seated in your griffon is wasted money and time too,
etc)...
Believe me, I understand what it's like to have to report someone for a
racist comment, even if the person is from your own guild, really sad
indeed...
As for the build I saw in your guide 2 options: the holy and protection
ones, but what about the retribution one as being the most hated and
underrated by people who does not understand the needs of our class (1)
(comments like: "put a shield on and be a good paladin" or "this sword
is not for you" for example), as for this build I see the need to
revaluate the main attributes for our paladin... agility and stamina
first, and later intellect or strength if desired, the build will go
like this: 19/0/32
Holy Talents (19 Points Spent):
Divine Strength Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Divine Intellect Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Healing Light Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 3, 3 Points Spent)
Consecration (Tier 3, 3 Points Spent)
Unyielding Faith Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 3, 2 Points Spent)
Illumination Rank 3 of 5 (Tier 4, 3 Points Spent)
Retribution Talents (32 Points Spent):
Improved Blessing of Might Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 1, 5 Points Spent)
Improved Judgment Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 2, 2 Points Spent)
Improved Seal of Crusader Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 2, 3 Points Spent)
Vindication Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 3, 3 Points Spent)
Conviction Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 3, 5 Points Spent)
Seal of command (Tier 3, 1 Point Spent)
Pursuit of Justice Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 3, 2 Points Spent)
Eye for an Eye Rank 2 of 2 (Tier 4, 2 Points Spent)
Two Handed Specialization Rank 3 of 3 (Tier 5, 3 Points Spent)
Vengeance Rank 5 of 5 (Tier 6, 5 Points Spent)
Repentance (Tier 7, 1 Point Spent)
With this build (and I have tried the others), I have found a really
powerful paladin for PvP (2 interrupts: the Hammer of Justice and
Repentance)... Take note that the gear I aiming is not the PvP ranked
ones, but the rewards from the Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley and Arathi
Basin. This will make me avoid to be forced to run MC or BWL for gear.
(2)
Some weapons would worth a trip there, but it can be compensated with
the unstoppable force from Alterac Valley or one from Zul'Grurub, and
the reputation doesn't drop so you can take all the time you want to
get the reward epic gear, and even Blue Items are better than some
Epics in my opinion...
My last paladin, 60 one had only a 6% of crit chance and I was using
him like you said: "a warrior that can heal"...sad... (3) I saw him so
weak that I had to delete him... now I regret it (4) But anyway a have a
new one, currently 53 with this build in progress, looking to get the
respective gear and as for enchants everything must be +9 to agility,
even the weapon, this will give the character a 30% of crit chance at
60 (my 53 have 17% with green items and a couple of +5 agility enchants
so far and I can tell you he is not a warrior or rouge and I don't want
him to be one, but he packs a nice punch with a simple destiny ...)and
leaves room for a decent healer.
Note too that agility will boost your armor rate and dodge so is really
useful too.
My comment:
(1) Those 2 are just some examples; there are obviously even more good
builds out there. At the same time, I believe that it is the protection
tree that the majority of the Paladin community has an issue on, not
Retribution.
(2) In my opinion, grinding for reputation is the hard way to get good
gear. Grinding for PvP rank to get good gear is well, the hellish way!
(3) I did not ever say that the Paladin is to be played like a Warrior
with healing abilities. People who choose the class and expecting that
are the ones to be disappointed. Read the introduction carefully.
(4) You should have paid to have your talents reset, and you can start
your build over again.
Letter 2:
Hi, I have read version 1.1 of your WoW paladin guide, and it seems to
me you really like to play a paladin, and I'd like to point some things
out from my experience.
First, a little about my World of Warcraft experience. I have played a
paladin on a PVE realm since December/2004, and hit level 60 in late
2005. I have for the past 2 months been raiding MC/Onyxia/BWL with my
guild, so a lot of my comments will be from a raiding/group perspective.
On a raid, your role will be to buff, heal and cleanse, so as you
approach 60, make sure your equipment fits that role. As a healing
paladin (or "healadin" as it's commonly called), your focus on
equipment should be on:
-> Intellect
-> Stamina
-> + healing
-> Armor
-> Mana Regeneration
Also useful are resistances to the appropriate magic type in the
instance (fire for MC/Onyxia and fire/shadow for BWL) and +% to crit
with spells.
Don't be afraid to collect cloth/leather/mail equipment if it helps you
do that better. You can still have a different setup for
soloing/tanking, but your healing gear will be what makes you valuable
to your raid group.
Where you detail the stats, you forgot to include Spirit. There's
supposedly a "soft cap" at 300 spirit that gives you diminishing
returns on mana/health regeneration.
There are also diminishing returns for armor. Mouse over the armor
number in the character information screen to see how much damage
reduction your armor gives against physical damage from enemies at your
level.
When describing the different item classifications, you call Purple
items Legendary. That's actually incorrect. Purples are Epic items, and
Orange items are Legendary, even better than Epics, but even harder to
obtain.
The "Greater" versions of the Blessings are not weird buffs, they were
rather added in the 1.9 patch to address a paladin's role in raids. On
a typical 40-man Molten Core/Onyxia/Blackwing Lair raid, there will be
approximately 5 players of each class. If you had to buff 40 people
individually, by the time you were done, all your mana would be spent,
and by the time you finished drinking to replenish it, the blessings
would have about 3 minutes left, and some of the big boss battles can
last for upwards of 15 minutes. Greater Blessings cut that buffing time
short, extend the effect to all/most of the fight, and save you mana,
so there's less downtime. They are nice on a 5-man group, and
absolutely crucial for raids.
Rogues may benefit more from Blessing of Salvation than Might, because
their high DPS will eventually cause them to draw aggro.
Blessing of Kings is a good general buff in a 5-man group, and golden
in raid groups, because it stacks with a priest's Power Word: Fortitude
and Divine Spirit, a Mage's Arcane Intellect and a Druid's Mark of the
Wild. Believe me, you can see the difference.
For a lv 60 paladin with good gear that can add more than 400 hp and
400 mana. And you can definitely spend that many points into Protection,
if you're in a guild that raids often and want to coordinate with your
fellow paladin guildies.
Blessing of Light is fantastic, and it's Greater version too. Your
heals become more efficient, and in a raid you're not primarily
meleeing, you're cleasing/healing like a madman.
For Judgement of Wisdom, your casters can benefit from it by firing
their wands. My guild's priests/mages/locks usually ask for that
sometime during the longer boss fights.
Another use for Hammer of Justice (HoJ) is to draw aggro to you. If a
mob is hitting one of your casters, hit it with a HoJ, and start
pummeling, and there's a good chance it will attack you when it comes
out of stun, instead of the caster target.
Flash of Light is very useful. With Blessing of Light, some points into
Healing Light, and a decent amount of +healing gear, you can heal your
target for almost 600 hp in 1.5 seconds, with criticals healing for
almost 900, for the low cost of 140 mana, and you can keep that up for
quite some time too. As a matter of fact, in raids you may find
yourself almost spamming Flash of Light.
Alchemy/Herbalism is a great profession combo for any class. You can
keep yourself and your group supplied with healing/mana potions, get
underwater breathing and bonuses to stats, but the real value comes at
higher skill levels. You can to go into Maraudon against the Princess
and do well on a dry run, but having a Nature Protection/Greater Nature
Protection potion will make your life easier. For many Molten
Core/Blackwing Lair bosses you must have a Greater Fire Protection
potion, or you will die, simple as that. So, if you can't make those
potions, be prepared to pay for them. A lot, as a matter of fact.
You make a good point on Consecration, that it stops channeling
abilities, and that includes bandaging in PvP, so you can go about
smacking that rogue/warrior while they can't heal themselves.
Blessing of Sanctuary actually deals damage when you block an attack,
which makes it a great combo with Redoubt+Shield Specialization.
Combine these with a good shield with Mithril or Thorium shield spikes
and Retribution aura, then grab 3 ogres as you consecrate the floor
under them, and watch them kill themselves as they hit you. For maximum
durability, cast Judgement of Light and Seal of Wisdom, and walk out of
the fight at 95% health and 90% mana. Feel free to laugh like a maniac,
though that's optional.
Keep up the good work and maybe put a 1.2 version out.
Letter 3: (From Kenneth)
Hi again, its me. Sorry to hear about all the crap that people send to
you about your guide. I think you put in a lot of information in and
its very useful.
Anyway, you asked about some information regarding a front line
paladin...
Here are some of my thoughts.
IMHO, most people don't realize is that improved judgment crusader and
improved seal of righteousness plus judgment every 8 seconds is better
than using seal/judge of command to gain and hold aggro on a boss.
First, SoComm has an inconsistent proc rate. Sometimes you hit 5 times
in a row, sometimes you don't hit for the entire seal duration. Second,
as main tank, you should be wearing a shield. Fast 1H weapons using
SoR deal more holy damage than slow 1Hs. With JoC, fist of stone
generates about 50 holy damage a hit compared to about 60 for thrash
blade. Third, bosses can't be stunned so with improved SoR, your
judgments are going to be stronger than JoComm which means more holy
damage.
The first step is to run up to the boss with seal of crusader and judge
it. Then put on SoR and start hammering away. Judge righteousness
whenever possible, use exorcism/holy shock/sanctity aura if those
options are available. Consecration should only be used if you have
tons of mana to burn and should not be spammed. You'll never know when
you need to pull off a heal so keep your mana up for JoR and
emergencies. Have some cheap mana potions in your bag too like greater
mana potions (1g for a stack of
5) for emergencies. If things don't look good, drink one ASAP unless
you have used less than 800 mana at this time.
If you're the off tank, in which case you will be most of the time, do
not use righteous fury. Your job is now to build up some aggro but not
enough to steal it from the main tank. Therefore, use judgment of
light/wisdom for recovery and seal of command for damage. In this case,
slow weapons are your friends. My preference is the twig of world tree
with a ridiculous swing speed of 3.9 seconds hehe. Throw out as much
damage as possible during this time. However with that said, your eyes
should not be focused on the monster. Instead, they should be focused
on the health/mana bars of your party and yourself. Should one of the
casters start getting smacked around, its a priority to cast blessing
of protection on them as well as any heals/cleanse or whatever they may
need. Same case if the main healer gets stunned/silenced/poly/sleep.
Back off and do what's required.
Then go back to smacking the monster. If the main tank gets
dangerously low on health, hit them with a holy shock followed by a
holy light. The 400 extra health gained may just save their life so
that you can bring in the 1500hp heal. Never under any circumstances
cast blessing of protection on the main tank. BoP has a good/bad side
effect of removing all aggro gained during the fight.
Hope that has helped a bit.
----------------
9. Conclusion
----------------
This is where I will have to say goodbye for now. I personally find the
Paladin very fun to play, and am still learning to play better as time
progresses. It's always nice to know that if you want to fight heavily,
there are alternatives to an all out warrior, and if you want to have
protection while you heal, there is an alternative to priests. The
Paladins tend to fill that gap perfectly.
The sad thing is, judging by the general attitude of the gaming
community, the large majority of gamers hate Paladins in World of
Warcraft, and even the people who play them complain of them being weak.
Now, those people definitely don't know who to play a Paladin properly.
If you expect to play a Paladin as a warrior who can heal, with lower
damage to balance it out, you are pretty much mistaken. Paladins are
much more complex than you think.
Even if they are weak in your eyes, there must be some points where
they shine, and special strategies can be used to allow you to win in
spite of your weaknesses. Games are all about the challenge, and a real
sense of accomplishment appears when you overcome it!
This guide is copyright 2006 by Alasdair Lo. It is meant to be posted
EXCLUSIVELY on GameFAQs, so don't bother asking me for publishing
permission, or expect to be ignored.
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