World of Warcraft: Paladin guide

Welcome to the first installment of a nine part set all about the classes of World of Warcraft. With Arena PVP debuting in 2007, it’s time to take a look at how you can become a better player. This guide will show you how to get better, what to look out for and what you should be doing in PvP.

Paladins: Your primary role is as a healer. I know I’m going to get some hate mail for this but it’s true. Sure, you can go Retribution or Protection but how often do you see a successful Paladin swinging a mace in arena? Not often. With Divine Shield and strong and fast heals, you’re nearly unstoppable.

Let’s take a look at the Paladin spells. These are calculated for a level 70 character with no extra gear.

Main Spells:
Holy Light (840 Mana, Heals 2196 to 2446) - This is your bread and butter “big heal” spell. Even without any gear this will heal for at least 2196, and with talents this can be as fast as a 2 second cast. Use this spell if you see your teammates dying quickly and a Flash heal just won’t cut it.

Flash of Light (180 Mana, Heals for 448 to 502) - This is an amazing heal. For such low mana you get around 500 health back. Now, this is somewhat low in arenas where that Rival Warrior is doing 2500 per hit but in some cases you won’t need anything stronger. Use this spell as much as you can and as fast as you can, if you see your teammate getting too low, bust out a stronger spell but if you can keep them at nearly full health with this spell, you’ll never run out of mana.

Holy Shock (Talent. 435 Mana, Heals/Damages 530 to 574) - This spell is very useful when your teammates are very low and you need something to delay their death long enough to get a heal off. This can also be used on an enemy to do the same amount of damage to finish off someone.

Hammer of Justice (100 Mana, Stuns the Target for 6 sec. ) - HOJ is incredibly useful for locking down the enemy healer. If you see them casting a spell run up and cast this spell to not only make them waste the casting time but also 6 seconds. In 3v3, 6 seconds is long enough for a good team to take down an enemy. Just make sure the enemy isn’t able to stun you or crowd control you back; it could cause a loss.

Cleanse (6% of Base Mana, Removes 1 Magic, 1 disease and 1 poison) - Cleanse is what makes a Paladin so useful in 2v2 arena. With no cooldown, this spell is spammable and very powerful. It removes Fear, Frostnova, Polymorph and other magic, disease and poison-based debuffs. Whenever possible, Cleanse your teammates. It’s much easier to heal someone if they don’t have Corruption, Siphon Life, and fear on them. Something that makes this so powerful is that it also dispels Hunter’s stings, which means Viper Sting can’t drain you for any mana, and nearly stops that 2v2 drain team in their tracks. NOTE: Don’t Cleanse Unstable Affliction! Your teammates will take a ton of damage if you do.

Divine Favor (Talent. 3% base Mana, gives Flash of Light, Holy Light or Holy Shock a 100% Critical chance) - If your teammate is falling fast, and one Holy Light just won’t be enough, pop this spell and get an instant 4,000-5,000 Holy Light, PLUS 60% of your mana back if you have Divine Illumination. Use this spell whenever a regular heal just won’t cut it.

Divine Illumination (Talent) - When you’re running low on mana, and the battle isn’t over, pop this spell and cast your hands off. All mana costs are reduced by 50% for 15 seconds. This can make or break a fight that’s lasting a long time.

Divine Shield (110 Mana, Also known as “Bubble”) - This is what makes a Paladin so powerful. The ability to escape every debuff is fairly insane, and highly useful. Keep this for the worst situations, because you can only use it once every five minutes. If you’re low on health, or being attacked and can’t heal, pop your shield and heal up. It’s incredibly useful against any team with a Druid, as Cyclone cannot break Divine Shield thus making Druid crowd control useless for 12 seconds; plenty long enough to kill someone.

Blessings - Blessings are one of the major parts of being a Paladin, and knowing when to use certain blessings is what separates the good from the bad. Don’t be afraid to change up the blessings on the fly.
Kings (Increases all stats by 10%) - This increases everything from Health, Mana, Damage caused and armor. Unless they are a healer, Kings is the best Blessing to start a fight.
Wisdom (Restores 41 [49 With Talents] mana every 5 seconds) - Wisdom is great for the healers other classes have ways to stop going out of mana (Life Tap, Innervate, Evocation) but as a Paladin or Priest this can really help you last longer.
Protection (Target is immune to all melee attacks) - Read that again: MELEE attacks. Spells can and will still do damage, including DoTs. But if you are fighting a team with most of it’s damage coming from Melee and that mage is about to die, switch his Blessing to protection and heal him up to full. There is nothing a Warrior or Rogue can do. Just be careful when fighting a Hunter, as Arcane shot can now remove Blessing of Protection.
Freedom (Immune to movement impairing effects) - When your 2v2 partner is a Warrior, you depend on them to be in Melee range at all times and with this spell they can be. That slow poison, frost trap or frost nova won’t be able to slow him down. Make sure you are ready to pop this on the fly, because using it too early can spell disaster.

Auras - Auras make a Paladin. The ability to switch auras on the fly can really help you’re game. When fighting a Warlock make sure you have Shadow Resistance Aura up. When fighting a Warrior/Rogue team, put up Devotion Aura and give that Mage some more armor. If you’re fighting hunters, put up Concentration Aura and don’t lose casting time against his pet.

Stats to watch for:
Intelligence - One of the two Primary stats, this increases your mana and spell critical strike chance.
Stamina - Major stat for every class, every point increases your health by 10.
+Healing - The more +healing you have, the easier it is to heal.
+Spell Crit - With Illumination, you want all the critical spells you can get, and this stat can greatly increase that. +22.1 Spell Crit is 1% chance to crit.

Important Talents
Illumination - This talent is found 16 points deep into the Holy Tree, and gives you back 60% of your spell cost when you get a critical cast.

Holy Power - Again, a Paladin gets his strength from spell criticals and Holy Power can increase your chance by 5%.

Builds
41/20/0 - Divine Illumination, Blessing of Kings

Good Arena Compositions:
3v3:
Paladin/Priest/Warrior - The classic 2 healers 1 damage works out great, and two heals coming in makes sure that you are always healing. With the Priest’s Mass Dispel nothing can stop you from doing damage.

Paladin/Warrior/Mage - The team that was used for many of the WSVG tournaments by Pandemic, this composition can really deal some damage while controlling the other team. With the mage Dispel Curse ability, no DoT’s can stay on for too long and sheep can cause that healer a lot of grief. Evocation also means the mage won’t run out of mana.

2v2:
Paladin/Warlock - A very strong team, as the Warlock has a pet and can keep someone fear-locked for a long time. As a Paladin, just make sure you keep both the Warlock and his pet alive and you have a 3v2 advantage.

Paladin/Warrior - One of the strongest compositions in the 2v2 bracket. Blessing of Freedom and strong heals makes a good Warrior a tough target to take down. Just make sure that Warrior stays in Line of Sight.

Job in Arena
Your job in Arena is to keep your teammates alive. The longer they live, the more damage they can cause. You’re one of the most important parts to an arena team, because without you, the team would die a lot faster. In arena, make sure you stay away from Druids, warlocks and other Paladins. All of them can stun you and stop any heals you have. Make sure you keep your Divine Shield ready for emergencies. Try to keep yourself at the opposite end of the arena from you’re enemies. This will make sure you can still heal (30 yards) but you won’t be in Cyclone range (40 Yards).

Don’t forget to drink! Especially with a Mage as a teammate, if you get the chance to run behind a pillar, do so quickly and get a few ticks off of that drink. The longer you can sit and drink while your teammates run away, the better off you will be in the long run. The best Paladins are the ones that know when to sit and drink and when they can’t.

Job in Battlegrounds
I know, I said you shouldn’t be anything but Holy but as a Protection Paladin you make for an OK flag carrier. You can have strong, uninterruptible heals and, with over 10,000 armor, pretty good damage mitigation. Use the bubble to hand off the flag in case of emergency. However, in anything but Warsong Gulch, the best healer is always a Paladin.