Paladin builds

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Paladin builds can be either Holy, Protection, or Retribution. Holy leans towards healing, Protection leans towards tanking, and Retribution leans towards melee DPS.

Instructions to WoWWiki editors: In order to keep this page precise and concise, please do not add complete builds here. For those who are interested in contributing their own builds, please add them to Paladin build samples. Any complete builds found on this page will be moved to Paladin build samples.

Holy[]

Any build that has over 40 points will be moved to the Paladin build samples.

With good healing gear, paladins of any spec can provide reasonable healing. However, for those who are dedicated to becoming a main healer in PvE and PvP, you need to go deeper into the Holy tree. There also used to be a special type of Holy paladin, the shockadins, who were capable of dealing surprising bursts of Holy damage in PvP while also providing healing and support for their team. Some variations on this concept still exist, but Blizzard has restructured the holy and retribution talent trees so that the shockadin as we know it is no longer viable in PvP (and has never been viable in PvE).

PvE Healing Build[]

Paladin healers, or healadins, are well-known for mana-efficiency. [Illumination] is the major reason for this and no good healing specs can do without it. Otherwise, the talent points of the paladin healers are not as tight as those of the paladin tanks or DPS, so you can easily find a lot of viable healing builds out there. Nevertheless, the majority of people would agree that these are the core talents of PvE healadins: Spiritual Focus, Divine Intellect, Healing Light, Illumination, Sanctified Light, Holy Power, Light's Grace, Holy Guidance, Divine Illumination, Divine Favor, Holy Shock, Infusion of Light, Judgements of the Pure and Beacon of Light. Other optional but good-to-have talents include Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Improved Lay on Hands, and Aura Mastery.

PvE Core Holy Paladin Build (Patch 3.3.3)

The rest of the points can go to other useful talents in the Holy tree, as well as Protection or Retribution trees as you see fit, though it is common for healadins to focus the remaining points on one of the trees. In the Retribution tree the primary talents to pick up are Benediction to reduce mana cost of Holy Shock and Hand spells, and Conviction plus Sanctity of Battle to increase critical chance (for the additional healing and mana returned from Illumination). In the Protection tree, the common talents are Divinity to increase healing, Divine Sacrifice coupled with Divine Guardian to provide a party and raid wide damage reduction cooldown, and Improved Devotion Aura to provide an alternative to the Restoration Druid 6% raid wide healing buff.

PvP Healing Build[]

In the cutthroat environment of PvP, being mana-efficient is not as important. Rather, having high survivability while providing good healing to teammates becomes the top priority. Being able to wear plate armor as well as having various self-protection abilities make paladins good candidates for PvP healers. Talents that are useful for PvP healadins include Spiritual Focus, Unyielding Faith, Pure of Heart, Holy Shock, and Blessed Life.

Basic PvP Healing Build (35/0/0)

Beyond that foundation, PvP healing builds are split between Divine Purpose in the retribution tree, and Beacon of Light in the holy tree, which cannot both be acquired. Divine Purpose builds reward the Paladin with extra freedom from stuns and lots of extra Critical Strike chance, and can still reach high in the holy tree. Beacon of Light builds, on the other hand, favor going into the Protection tree for Improved Hammer of Justice, Guardian's Favor, and other non-healing tools.

Shockadin Build[]

Getting gear with spell critical strike rating improves this build's DPS, as it focuses on Holy Shock and Seal/Judgement of Righteousness for DPS while still being able to adequately support a team with healing and debuffing. Compared to Retribution builds, however the shockadin's DPS is extremely weak, and without Beacon of Light, its healing ability is significantly hampered.

Basic Shockadin Build (35/0/0)

Many shockadins will go with a build that includes some important Retribution talents to further boost the holy damage they dish out.

Protection[]

Main article: Tankadin

Any build that has over 40 points will be moved to the Paladin build samples.

Paladins are one of the four classes in the game that can be adapted to absorb damage like a sponge and keep others from harm. They are particularly famous for the ability to tank multiple (10+) mobs at the same time. Besides, Paladins are also well known for their ability to survive with their unique combination of invulnerability, plate armor and healing spells, which makes them very good for AoE farming.

PvE Tanking Build[]

For those who want to tank in 5-man instances or raid, investing heavily into protection tree is advised.

Most tanks include the following Protection talents in thier build: Seals of the Pure, Divinity, Judgements of the Just, Toughness, Hallowed Ground, Sanctuary, Hammer of the Righteous, Wrath of the Lightbringer, Reckoning, Shield of the Righteous, Grand Crusader, Vindication, Holy Shield, Guarded by the Light, Sacred Duty, Shield of the Templar and Ardent Defender.

PvP Protection Build[]

Protection Paladins have their advantages and disadvantages in PvP. They are by no means a raw DPS spec, there still are many ways to be useful in battleground based PvP. Most of the damage of protection paladins depends on reflective damage, which allows them to win easily against rogues, warriors, other paladins, and enhancement shamans. The disadvantages is, melee players have the option to retreat; however this may benefit the paladin if he is defending a specific location. Against casters or hunters, the chance to win is reduced.

Protection paladins are effective at tanking (multiple) bosses in Alterac Valley, holding the flag in Warsong Gulch or Eye of the Storm (because of their high survivability and Hand of Freedom), or defending bases in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley.

Protection paladin's excel at keeping allies alive, two important talents for this are Guardian's Favor, and Divine Sacrifice. Improved Hammer of Justice is also important for stunning enemies. With some of these a protection paladin and a caster(especially) can be a formidable team.

AOE/Grinding builds[]

Aside from mages, paladins have the highest potential for AoE grinding, combining their incredible survivability against melee attacks with talent procs that occur when they are the victim of enemy attacks. This build is mainly viable against melee targets, preferably those that do not run or use magic/ranged attacks. To make this spec viable, Holy Shield must be obtained. A shield spike, and any other item that causes damage when struck or extra weapon swings, would be very useful as well. Paladins speced this way can singlehandedly take out 5-6 mobs (easily up to 10+ at level 70 with good gear) or 2-3 elites of equal level, and often end up with full health and mana due to Seal/Judgement of Light/Wisdom.

Before level 30 and getting Blessing of Sanctuary it is much easier to level as retribution. At level 30, you can respec into protection and start AOE grind. You will need a shield, a fast weapon and a good shield spike. The goal is to get hit by a lot of mobs. Always have Blessing of Sanctuary running before you pull.

You can aggro multiple mobs with either your warhorse or with Avenger's Shield. After the mobs surround you, cast and refresh Consecration as an AOE. Apply Seal of Light to a target. Where cool down is available apply either Judgement of Wisdom or Judgement of Light depends on if you are low on health or low on mana. The new judgement system allows to use different judgements without releasing the original seal. Your blessing should return your mana while your seal should return your health. If you have a runner you can stop it by either using Judgement of Justice or Hammer of Justice.

If your health is dropping faster than it can be replenished, you can bubble up and heal. In case of emergency, do not forget to use mana pots or Lay on Hands.

Retribution[]

Any build that has over 40 points will be moved to the Paladin build samples.

Retribution paladins are excellent DPS offenders in PvE and PvP. The instrinsic high survivability of paladins coupled with the potential of high burst damage provided by the Retribution tree make them capable of disposing almost any classes one on one and valuable both in dealing and absorbing damage in group PvP. In PvE, besides the high damage output, they also provide various useful utilities to their party members.