Paladin guide for WoW Forever

The paladin is the plate hybrid: mana, seals and judgements, auras for the group, blessings and heals that in Classic made it more useful supporting than hitting. It can heal, tank and deal damage, and it is the class that changes most in Forever, with 14 entries in the build 1.60.1.70009 list, almost all so that Retribution and Protection work as real specializations.

Holy (healer)

The plate healer: Holy Light and Flash of Light, Illumination refunding half the base mana of every crit and now Holy Strike with Holy Power, which gives it something to do when nobody needs a heal. It is the sturdiest healer in the game and the one that spends the least mana per point healed.

Protection (tank)

Shield tank whose threat comes from Consecration, Holy Shield and seals, so it scales with intellect and spell power as well as stamina and defense. In Forever, Righteous Fury (level 10) grants 33% more of all threat and 90% more from Holy damage, and since October 1 Holy Shield gives more block and Redoubt less.

Retribution (damage)

Two-handed damage with Seal of Command and very slow weapons. It is the tree Forever rebuilds most: Holy Strike as a weapon attack, Sacred Arbiter, Unsealed Wrath and a Vengeance that triggers on direct crits. It is the leveling spec.

Update, November 2 (launch): Blizzard's launch notes removed Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke, Blessing of Light, Twist of Light, Voice of Truth, Improved Seal of Fury, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and Instrument of Law, and added Oath of Light, Boundless Light, Stoicism, Shieldsworn, Turn Evil and Unsealed Wrath. Righteous Fury is now learned at level 10 and grants 33% more of all threat plus 90% more from Holy damage.

On October 15 Blizzard closed its Forever class deep dives with the paladin. These are the changes you will notice most, in our own words. Blizzard warned that abilities and talents could keep changing during the beta. A new 16-point milestone joins those at 11, 21 and 31 points.

• Baseline abilities: Holy Strike (level 6) is an instant Holy damage strike built on your weapon damage, with a bonus that grows every rank. Seal of Fury (level 10) is the tank seal: flat Holy damage per swing, which rewards fast weapons, a shield that absorbs 50% of that damage and a Judgement that taunts the target from 10 yards. Judgement no longer consumes your seal, Consecration is learned by every paladin at level 20 and deals moderate damage to the first 4 enemies that enter it and very little to the rest, and Lay on Hands' cooldown drops from 1 hour to 20 minutes. Blessing of Kings is no longer a talent: every paladin learns it.
• Salvation, Mass Salvation and Revoke were removed in the November 2 notes, together with Blessing of Light. Classic's seal twisting no longer exists baseline, and Twist of Light, which brought it back in the beta, was removed too: Unsealed Wrath is now the 31st talent of Retribution.
• Holy: Holy Shock moves from the 31-point milestone to the 21-point one and its cooldown drops from 30 to 10 seconds. Light's Vigil, the new 31-point milestone, makes your next Holy Shock on that target trigger no cooldown: since the launch notes it only works on friendly targets, whose whole party it heals. Voice of Truth was removed. Illumination now refunds 50% of the base cost and Divine Precision is now a 2-point talent granting 4/8% hit with Holy spells and shortening Silence effects on you by 10/20%.
• Protection: Templar's Bulwark (21-point milestone) is the defensive cooldown it lacked: it absorbs 100% of your maximum health for 8 seconds, every 5 minutes, and applies Forbearance. Swift Judgement (16-point milestone) now instantly unleashes your active Seal and shares no cooldown with Judgement; Improved Seal of Fury and One-Handed Weapon Specialization were removed. Reckoning can also trigger on blocks; Blizzard acknowledged it could not store 4 charges yet and could interrupt auto-attacks, and promised a fix in a patch; the same notes already announced it.
• Retribution: Unsealed Wrath (31-point milestone) stores a copy of your active Seal for 15 seconds with your melee attacks, up to 3 times; landing an attack with a different Seal consumes the stacks and gives the stored Seal its normal chance to activate once per stack. Sacred Arbiter (16-point milestone) raises Holy Strike's damage by 20% and refreshes every Judgement on the target, other paladins' included. Vengeance now stacks up to 5 times and requires Seal of Command, and Champion of the Light turns 12/24/36/48/60% of your intellect into spell damage and shortens Hammer of Wrath's cast by up to 1 second. Twist of Light and Instrument of Law were removed.

For Blizzard, the paladin is still very strong against undead and demons, but with little range and no interrupts or slows. Read our summary of the deep dive or Blizzard's official article.

At launch (November 2), Blizzard's notes rework much of the tree. Holy: Spiritual Focus and Improved Seals become 5-point talents, Holy Power now increases the critical healing bonus of Holy spells by up to 50%, Light's Vigil is only usable on friendly targets, and Oath of Light and Boundless Light are new. Protection: Templar's Bulwark is now a dispellable Magic effect, Sacred Duty also shortens Forbearance and no longer grants Stamina, Iron Creed is a 3-point talent, Holy Shield moves to row 5 and Shieldsworn (row 7) makes Holy Strike strike with your shield. Retribution: Conviction gives 2/4/6% crit to all spells and attacks, Vindication no longer raises your attack power, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization also raises Holy damage and lowers your threat while wearing a two-hander, and Unsealed Wrath is the new 31-point talent. Judgement of Fury lasts 3 seconds (was 4). What follows is the history of the beta builds.

Build 1.60.1.70170, from October 1, splits Protection's block differently: Redoubt drops to 4/8/12/16/20% block (was 6/12/18/24/30%) and Holy Shield rises to 30% (was 20%), so from 40 block depends less on luck and more on keeping Holy Shield up; while leveling, without Holy Shield, you will block less than before. In Retribution, Champion of the Light turns 20/40/60% of your intellect into spell damage (was 33/66/100%), and Blizzard removes a mention of healing from its tooltip that never actually worked. Watch out for a known issue in this build: Retribution Aura uses the target's spell power instead of yours.

In the previous build, 1.60.1.70009, the paladin had fourteen documented changes: no class moved this much. Everything centres on Holy Strike, a new attack that does not exist in Classic and dealt 25-40% weapon damage per rank in the beta; it now progresses from 25 to 50% (25/29/32/36/39/43/46/50) and for Holy its cooldown drops from 12 to 10 seconds. Three talents orbit it: Sacred Arbiter raises its damage by 20% (was 10%), Holy Power adds 15% crit to it on top of its old effects, and Improved Holy Strike disappears from the Holy tree.

For Retribution, in build 70009 Vengeance triggered only on non-periodic crits and dropped to 3 stacks (5 in the beta), Two-Handed Weapon Specialization settled at 2/4/6%, the same as in Classic (3/6/9 in the beta) and Twist of Light cut the mana cost of seals by 20%. The tree left that build with less burst but more base damage and more mana. At launch (November 2), Vengeance stacks up to 5 times again and requires Seal of Command, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization raises Holy and Physical damage by 2/4/6% and lowers your threat while you wear a two-hander, and Twist of Light was removed in favor of Unsealed Wrath.

The rest are general adjustments: Righteous Fury moved between 60% and 90% threat during the beta (since November 2 it grants 33% more threat, plus 90% from Holy damage), Retribution Aura scales dynamically with spell power, Consecration fixes three bugs (targets missing the increased damage, the Z axis and the vertical pull), Echo of Justice fixes its activation chance, Light's Vigil reorders its tooltip and Flash of Light fixes its animation. For a tank, what matters is that Consecration now hits everything standing in it, although Blizzard designed it to deal moderate damage only to the first 4 enemies that enter it and very little to the rest.

Recommendation: Retribution from 10 to 60. In Classic, leveling a paladin was judgement, auto-attack and waiting; in Forever, with Holy Strike at 25-50% weapon damage, Sacred Arbiter and Unsealed Wrath boosting the seals, Retribution finally has a rotation and the mana to sustain it. Protection for leveling is still slow solo, though it is the most sought-after tank in dungeons; Holy only if you will heal group after group.

Recommended talent order, broadly:

• From 10 to 20, the Retribution talents that raise damage and crit; Two-Handed Weapon Specialization as soon as you can, because the whole tree lives off the slow weapon.
• The 16-point milestone arrives around 25-26; in Forever you can use one of the two class presets if you would rather not decide.
• Sacred Arbiter as soon as you use Holy Strike every fight, and Unsealed Wrath as the 31-point talent (it requires Repentance).
• Vengeance maxed: it now stacks up to 5 times and requires Seal of Command.
• Switching to Protection to tank cost 1 silver in the beta; at launch, check the price at your trainer and switch the day you have a group.

Pacing:

• No level scaling: the paladin handles orange mobs better than almost anyone thanks to plate and heals, but every heal is mana you do not spend on seals. Yellow and a judgement in every fight.
• The mount comes with the riding skill in Forever; if you are undead, the epic mount quest at level 60 starts at Bandarion Keep.
• The campsite repairs your plate and gives you three one-hour buffs before every dungeon: Shadowfang Keep and Wailing Caverns hold Retribution's level-20 BiS pieces, and Razorfen Kraul and the Scarlet Monastery the level-30 ones.
• Dungeon quests: since October 1 they give half the extra experience they used to give on top of a normal quest. Go in for the loot and the mobs, not just the quests.
• Legacy Points: Well Rested, the example perk Blizzard has shown, gives more rested experience, which helps a class that rarely dies but kills slowly.

Retribution: a slow two-hander above everything (Seal of Command deals weapon damage with 7 procs per minute, so speed weighs even more than for an Arms warrior), then strength, hit, crit and a pinch of intellect and spell power for judgements. Protection: stamina and defense like any tank, dodge, parry and block, which is worth more here thanks to Holy Shield and Redoubt (since October 1, with more weight on Holy Shield), plus some intellect and spell power for Consecration threat. Holy: healing and spell power, then intellect (Illumination refunds half the base mana of every crit, so 1% crit ≈ 8 healing) and mana per 5 s; with no ranged slot, librams are not scored. In Forever, hit is one stat for spells, melee and ranged, and so is crit (Blizzard's Deep Dive Panel Recap). Blizzard names Retribution as one of the hybrid specs that benefit: the same hit works for your weapon attacks and for your spells.

At level 30, the beta's last cap, Blacksmithing is still at the centre: Retribution equips four recipes (the veteran's helm and leggings, the Golden Scale Shoulders and the Officer's Belt), Protection three and Holy three plus two from Tailoring and an Enchanting orb. From dungeons, Retribution takes the Avenger's Armor and Pugilist Bracers from Razorfen Kraul and the Ghostshard Talisman and The Frozen Clutch from the Scarlet Monastery. Protection takes Ironspine's Ribcage, The Frozen Clutch, the Scarlet Boots and the Resplendent Guardian shield from the Monastery, and the Jimmied Handcuffs from The Stockade. Holy wears the Death Speaker Scepter from Razorfen Kraul, the Spidertank Oilrag from Gnomeregan and Scorn's Icy Choker from the Monastery. The trinkets, and for Retribution and Holy also a ring, the cloak or the boots, come from the battleground supply officers; our list mixes both factions' versions, so get the one for yours.

On the way, at level 20, the key pieces were The Axe of Severing from Shadowfang Keep and Cobrahn's Grasp from Wailing Caverns for Retribution, the Rift Bracers and the Defias Renegade Ring for Protection, and the Seedcloud Buckler and Mindthrust Bracers for Holy.

Higher up, the Scarlet Monastery is the paladin's gold mine, with nine BiS pieces across the three trees (at level 40, the Raging Berserker's Helm, the Scarlet Leggings and the Aegis of the Scarlet Commander), and the Temple of Atal'Hakkar adds three for Protection (Might of Hakkar, Warrior's Embrace, Nightfall Drape). Shadowfang Keep and Razorfen Kraul hold three each; the Death Speaker Scepter is Holy's leveling weapon from 30 to 50. Forever's new dungeons that are already playable (Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron and Excavation Site) have no BiS-marked loot for the paladin in our data yet. Full list per level on the paladin BiS page.

What it can wield. In Classic the paladin uses one- and two-handed axes, maces and swords, and polearms, plus a shield; no daggers, staves, fist weapons or ranged weapon, and that slot holds the libram, which our lists do not score. Blizzard has not announced any change to this for Forever. As in Classic, every weapon type has its own skill, which rises with use up to 5 points per character level: with a newly learned type you will miss more for a while.

What our lists score. The types our paladin lists score are one-handed axes, maces and swords, and two-handed axes, maces and swords and polearms. Retribution only compares two-handers; Protection carries a one-hander with a shield, and Holy compares a one-hander with a shield or an off-hand item against a two-hander. The weapon skill points some items carry add nothing to our score.

What changes in Forever. According to Blizzard's Deep Dive Panel Recap, weapon skill works as it always has, but items that grant it give less per piece, and caster weapons now grant spell damage and healing, which suits a Holy paladin. The same recap has what weighs most on your weapon: every paladin learns Holy Strike at level 6, an instant weapon strike that deals Holy damage, and the new tank-minded Seal of Fury favours fast weapons and grants small absorb shields when you carry a shield. Retribution still wants a slow two-hander, and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization has been back at Classic's 2/4/6% since build 70009.

Racials. In Classic, weapon racials were 5 points of skill with that weapon type; in Forever they are critical strike chance while you have it equipped, and they count for spells too. Two paladin races have one:

• Human: Sword Specialization gives 2% crit with all spells and attacks while a one- or two-handed sword is equipped, so a human Holy paladin with a sword also gets crit on heals. Humans lose Mace Specialization.
• Dwarf: gains Mace Specialization, 1% crit with all spells and attacks while a one- or two-handed mace is equipped.

The undead, the new combination, have no weapon racial. The full comparison is in the best race for a paladin.

The big news is the undead paladin, the only Horde race that can be one and one of Forever's six new combinations, with its own Tirisfal storyline and an epic mount quest at level 60 starting at Bandarion Keep. The Alliance keeps humans and dwarves, unchanged. There is no Skyborne paladin. Among the racials changed in the beta, none is paladin-specific; Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control or triggers from non-damage abilities. Choose by faction: for the first time the Horde has paladins, and that changes group play more than any racial.

Mining + Blacksmithing, with more reason than anyone: four to six pieces of each tree's level-20 BiS, and three or four of the level-30 one, are Blacksmithing recipes, and Forever adds more than 600 new recipes and a passive bonus per profession. Legacy also has its own Professions tree, although its perks are not detailed yet.

If you will heal, Herbalism + Alchemy pays for your mana potions; if you will tank, Blacksmithing is almost mandatory for the shield and plate. First Aid even if you heal (bandages cost no mana) and Cooking for the small experience bonus of crafted food. Each profession's leveling path is in the profession guides.

• Leveling the Classic way (judge and wait). Forever gives you Holy Strike and Vengeance; use them in every fight.
• Carrying a fast weapon as Retribution. Seal of Command deals weapon damage: the slower, the better.
• Tanking without Righteous Fury. It grants 33% more of all threat and 90% more from Holy damage: it is your threat multiplier.
• Dropping Consecration and moving the group. It now hits everything standing in it, though only the first 4 enemies to enter take moderate damage; keep the mobs inside.
• Healing yourself mid-fight every time. Every heal is mana you do not spend on seals; bandage between fights.
• Ignoring Unsealed Wrath. Your melee attacks store your active Seal for 15 seconds, up to 3 times; swapping seals is what pays it back.
• Tanking on Redoubt alone. Since October 1 it gives considerably less block. The winner is Holy Shield, now a row 5 talent (was row 7): until you have it, expect to block less.
• Fighting orange mobs. Without level scaling you survive, but it takes twice as long. Yellow.
• Repairing late. Plate breaks expensively; the campsite repairs before every dungeon.