Starting a paladin

So, you're thinking of playing a paladin? This page is intended to give a short overview of the class, just to get you started on the right path. If you're looking for more detailed information on the class's abilities, see the main paladin page. For more advanced topics, see paladin tactics.

Things to consider when picking a paladin:
 * Do I like to be able to play any of three roles on demand (DPS, tank, and healer)?
 * Do I mind being the class with the least movability in the game?
 * Do I like to be able to solo effectively?

For a more general overview on starting out playing WoW, please check out the newbie guide.

Introduction
The paladin is a class for those that prefer strength over speed and light over darkness. They can deal damage, protect teammates, and heal allies. They excel at self-preservation. They cannot easily hide or escape from danger, but are made to stand and survive against dangers that would kill other classes.

As one of the most versatile classes in the game, they can play all major PvE roles: tank, healer, and DPS. Their main limiting factor is that they do primarily melee (close-combat) damage, not ranged damage.

Race selection
In the original World of Warcraft game, paladins were an Alliance-only class. Even in the Alliance, only dwarves and humans could be paladins. With Burning Crusade and the introduction of the blood elves, the Horde gained access to paladins as well. As of Cataclysm, there are five available races that can be paladins.

Alliance

 * Diplomacy's Reputation bonus makes all Human classes worthy.
 * Every Man for Himself is useful for PvP, allowing the paladin to stay within (or out of) range of their opponents.
 * Sword and Mace specializations mean increased damage when using maces and swords, which are the most common paladin weapons.
 * The Human Spirit gives increased Spirit, which increases mana regeneration -- important for healers.
 * Human paladins ride a special type of paladin warhorse and charger, which they share with dwarf paladins.


 * Stoneform is an excellent defensive spell, especially useful for tanking or PvP.
 * Mace specialization means increased damage when using maces, which are one of the two most-used paladin weapons.
 * Dwarf paladins ride a special type of paladin warhorse and charger, which they share with human paladins.


 * Heroic Presence gives +1% chance to hit, which is worthwhile for a DPS or tank.
 * Gift of the Naaru gives an extra heal with no cast time and no mana cost.
 * Draenei ride two unique elekk mounts.

Horde

 * Arcane Torrent silences opponents and restores mana, making it a powerful asset in both PvP and PvE, in all specs.
 * In-game, blood elf paladins are known as Blood Knights, and ride a 'dark' version of the paladin warhorse and charger.


 * War Stomp stuns opponents, useful especially for PvP and tanking.
 * Endurance gives a slight bonus to health, also good for PvP and tanking.
 * In-game, Tauren paladins are known as Sunwalkers, and ride two unique kodo mounts.

Racial mounts
Each paladin order has a different mount.
 * Human, Dwarf: Summon Warhorse, Summon Charger
 * Draenei: Summon Exarch's Elekk, Summon Great Exarch's Elekk
 * Blood elf: Summon Warhorse, Summon Charger
 * Tauren: Summon Sunwalker Kodo, Summon Great Sunwalker Kodo
 * All: Argent Charger

Starting Stats
Overall though, particularly for casual gamers, there's really no major difference between the races aside from faction - choose the race that you want to play, whether for its looks, its voice, or because it's simply good fun!

Early leveling
The easiest way to progress through the early levels is to simply do any and all of the quests you can find. Not only will you breeze through the first 5 to 10 levels, but you'll get useful gear and precious money. Money is particularly important so you can purchase your spells and abilities.

You will spend levels 1 to 5 in your starting town. Make sure you get all the abilities and spells you can from your trainer. Between level 5 and 6 you'll find yourself heading off to your second town and a new trainer who can teach you various things. At the second town, repeat the process - do each and every quest you can find. It's important to keep up with your abilities and your gear. Now is also an appropriate time to start training in your chosen professions.

Talent specializations
At level 10, you will gain your first talent point. You can now choose what specialization your paladin will be. If you are unhappy with your selection, you can reset your talents for a fee at any of your class trainers. At level 30, you will be able to buy access to another talent tree, so that you can have two ready specializations to choose from without having to reset talents.


 * Holy is the specialization for those that would like to heal and help other players. It is a great leveling specialization whether questing, doing dungeons, or playing battlegrounds. At high levels it does not do much damage.
 * Protection is the specialization for those that would like to protect other players and be a leader or be able to kill hard bosses and solo dungeons by yourself. It does not do much damage, but is very hard to kill. As a leveling spec it is great for doing dungeons or playing battlegrounds, but is slow to level while questing.
 * Retribution is the specialization for those that want to deal damage and be holy warriors. They are easier to kill than holy or protection paladins, but deal by far the most damage, especially at higher levels. As a leveling spec it is great for questing and battlegrounds and fine for dungeons.

Armor and weapons
Paladins start in mail armor, which gives more defense than cloth or leather. At level 40 they become able to wear plate, which on average provides the strongest defense. It is recommended that you switch completely to plate armor by level 50, so that you can take advantage of the bonuses given by Plate Specialization.

The weapons and type of armor that work best depend on what talent specialization you choose:
 * Holy: Armor and weapons should have intellect, not strength. One-handed weapon and shield.
 * Protection: Armor and weapons should have strength, not intellect. One-handed weapon and shield. At higher levels, items with parry and dodge are better than haste and expertise.
 * Retribution: Armor and weapons should have strength, not intellect. Two-handed weapon. At higher levels, items with haste and expertise are better than parry and dodge.

Paladin quests
Paladin quests are solely available to paladins. Quests start at level 20 and 50, in addition to the level 60 raid set quests.

Soloing
During the early levels, you should choose Retribution as your specialization, Paladins are innately good at surviving and the Retribution adds very good damage to the mix. Use the best Two-hand weapon you can find that uses Strength as its main stat and wear Mail armor (Plate after level 40) with Strength as its main stat. All Plate wearing classes use Strength for their DPS roles (Warriors, Paladins and Death Knights use Plate armor). You may want to keep a One-hand Sword and a Shield available, lest you need the additional Armor that the Shield provides, though Paladins generally are very good at taking damage even without one due to their high armor stemming from their Plate armor. Picking Long Arm of the Law as your Level 15 talent usually works best, as you should be using Judgment as soon as it is off cooldown and Long Arm of the Law will allow you to quickly move between targets if you use Judgment just before they die. Fist of Justice is generally the best choice for your Level 30 talent, the ability to stun twice as often means you can more easily interrupt Spell casts and can be more survivable as targets cannot deal damage whilst stunned. For a Retribution Paladin, taking Selfless Healer is generally the best choice as Flash of Light is buffed by Sword of Light and Supplication, which means the Paladin can very easily top themselves up using it. Holy and Protection Paladins may find more use in Eternal Flame, as Holy Paladins do not cast Judgment as much as the other two specializations, and the Healing over Time effect helps both specializations to keep themselves (and their allies) topped up on HP.

Paladins do not have many buttons to press when playing solo. Use Crusader Strike, Judgment and Exorcism as soon as they're off cooldown, prioritising Exorcism, Crusaders Strike and Judgment in that order, in order to make sure that Crusaders Strike and Judgment do not come off cooldown at the same time. When you have The Art of War (paladin ability), Exorcism has its cooldown instantly reset and should be used whenever possible in order to ensure that The Art of War (paladin ability) does not proc again. Use Templar's Verdict at 3 Holy Power, and once you get Boundless Conviction build up as much Holy Power as you can, waiting until all your Holy Power generating abilities are on cooldown, or you reach 5 Holy Power, before casting Templar's Verdict. Paladins have very effective AoE skills, using Hammer of the Righteous and Divine Storm will allow you to take on several enemies at once, melting all of their health in unison for easy kills.

Seal of Truth is the best Seal to keep up for Retribution Paladins, as it adds the most damage. Seal of Righteousness generally does not deal enough damage to warrant its use over Seal of Truth, which gets buffed for Retribution Paladins. For Holy, Seal of Insight's Cast Time reduction and Healing buff makes it invaluable and too good to pass up. For Protection, you can choose between Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Insight, depending on what the situation calls for, as Seal of Righteousness' AoE will aid in keeping aggro whilst Seal of Insight's melee proc will allow the Paladin to stay healed up and lengthens the time needed before casting Flash of Light or Word of Glory which allows for more Holy Power to be built up and spent on Shield of the Righteous.

The Paladin's toolbelt is very much orientated towards the survival of themselves and their allies. Hand of Protection and Divine Shield can buy Paladins much needed time to apply stuns and retreat or heal themselves up when the situation becomes dire, whilst spells and talents such as Eternal Flame, Word of Glory and Selfless Healer can allow Paladins to heal themselves up very quickly without having to waste time with interruptible spell casts. They also have standard crowd control tools, namely Turn Evil, Hammer of Justice, Rebuke and Repentance. The talent Fist of Justice can be chosen to decrease Hammer of Justice's cooldown by 30 seconds. Protection Paladins are very good at soloing high-damage bosses, due to Shield of the Righteous and Mastery: Divine Bulwark. Bastion of Glory, the effect stemming from Shield of the Righteous, is very effective when paired with Eternal Flame, providing the Paladin with insane amounts of self-healing allowing them to take on bosses alone that other classes would have trouble taking on in even a small group. As such, Protection Paladins should choose to take Eternal Flame for soloing content, as the healing additional healing provided in the form of the Heal over Time makes their lives easier as they can spend more Holy Power on Shield of the Righteous, instead of having to keep using Word of Glory. Unfortunately for the Paladin, Holy is very bad at dealing damage. Having only Crusader Strike, Judgment, Holy Shock and Denounce available, they will have to spend a very long time slowly chipping away at the health of mobs. As such, Holy Paladins should seek to change to Protection or Retribution for soloing whenever possible.

Grouping
As a paladin you can play any of the major roles (described in greater details in the paladin tactics section), those being melee DPS, tank, or healer, but which of these roles you are strongest at is based on your talent spec and the gear you bring with you. It is important to know what your role is before getting into combat and acting accordingly to prevent unnecessary party deaths and disasters.

As melee DPS, you'll use a a slow, hard-hitting two-hand weapon and will choose the Retribution specialization, to gain access to an array of hard-hitting abilities. On multiple mobs, keep using Hammer of the Righteous and Divine Storm, using Judgment whenever Hammer of the Righteous is on cooldown, and Exorcism whenever available to prevent The Art of War (paladin ability) procs going to waste. For single target, prioritise keeping Exorcism on Cooldown, incase The Art of War procs, casting Crusader Strike and then Judgment in that order so that Crusader Strike comes off cooldown before, and not at the same time as, Judgment. Use Hammer of Wrath whenever your target is below 20% health, it is by far your most damaging ability that does not use Holy Power, and should never be ignored. It also generate another holy power, making it your fourth ability that generates it. Make sure that your If you or a player who isn't a tank is taking a beating, you have several abilities to help remedy this. Hand of Salvation, Hand of Protection can effectively remove damaging targets from the Paladin and his allies and Divine Shield can help the Paladin to pull themself out of a tough situation. Hand of Protection should be used on Healers who are getting low on health, to buy themselves and other healers more time to heal them back up. Always be ready to cast Flash of Light, Word of Glory and Lay on Hands where the situation calls for it, as a Retribution heal's are buffed by Sword of Light making them very valuable. Lay on Hands and Hand of Protection should be used in last ditch situations only, as Forbearance means that Hand of Protection and Lay on Hands cannot be used again on them for 60 seconds, meaning if they get into a predicament (again) you, or another Paladin, will not be able to bail them out. Hand of Protection also prevents your target from using any Physical Abilities whilst the effect is on them, so using them on classes that deal pure Physical damage such as the Warrior or the Hunter is a very bad idea if it isn't absolutely necessary, as you are completely nullifying their ability to put out damage for Hand of Protection's duration. When it comes to talents, Long Arm of the Law helps you move between mobs very quickly and easily, as Judgment is on a low cooldown and there are generally a lot of mobs spread over a wide area in group combat. Depending on the situation, you can also swap out for Speed of Light, for bosses such as the Iron Juggernaut in the Siege of Orgrimmar, where there is nothing to use Judgment on. Next, taking Fist of Justice will allow you to interrupt non-boss mobs much more often, in the event that Rebuke is on cooldown. It can also help take some pressure off the Healers as less damage is being put out whilst a mob is stunned. Level 45 talents are all fairly useful, though Selfless Healer comes at the least penalty for the best benefit for a Retribution Paladin, as Eternal Flame costs Holy Power and Sacred Shield does not provide as big a benefit, especially when compared to the aforementioned Flash of Light alongside Sword of Light, and Selfless Healer's buff to healing on other targets. At level 60, it is a choice between Clemency and Unbreakable Spirit, that decision should be left to the Paladin, his group and the encounter's needs. At level 75, Sanctified Wrath is generally the best choice for a Retribution Paladin, as Hammer of Wrath deals very high damage and also generates a Holy Power, so putting it on such a low cooldown can make the Paladin's DPS miles higher than without Avenging Wrath activated. Divine Purpose relies entirely on RNG to be effective, so whilst it make proc several times in a row allowing for many Divine Storms or Templar's Verdicts, there will be many droughts where you don't get a single proc, and your DPS is low. For the Level 90 talents, Execution Sentence generally adds the most DPS, and you should seek to use it alongside Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings for the increased damage.

As a tank, you have the benefit of having more health than your allies as well as taking less damage, meaning you're much well suited for taking the brunt of the enemies head on. Make sure Righteous Fury is permanently active, and use Avenger's Shield, Consecration and Holy Wrath to get aggro on enemies. Using Crusader Strike and Judgment to build Holy Power, using Avenger's Shield whenever Grand Crusader (paladin ability) procs, and spam Shield of the Righteous until you have 5 stacks of Bastion of Glory, at which point use Eternal Flame whenever you have some health missing. Shield of the Righteous also reduces Physical damage taken, so use it whenever big damage is incoming. Divine Protection can provide brief periods of reduced magic damage, so make sure to use that whenever a hard hitting magic ability is coming in, 40% is no small number.

As a healer, remember to heal the tank. Since your mana pool will be small at lower levels, use Flash of Light instead of Holy Light (old) whenever possible, since it's far more efficient. Only use Holy Light (old) if the tank's health is dropping too fast for Flash to keep up. Make certain you continue to keep everyone buffed to the best of your ability. Keep Devotion Aura up to help the tank out, unless you need an elemental resistance aura or Concentration Aura for your own heals. If you're low on mana after a fight and need to drink, tell people! Overeager tanks may charge on ahead if you don't ask for time. Be sure to have a stack of water ready before going into a dungeon, though a mage can give you free drinks if you're grouped with one.

Note that in anything below a level 80 heroic you do not need to specced for healing or tanking to perform those roles. You do, however, need appropriate gear. That means a one-handed weapon and shield and plate/mail armor (ideally with lots of Stamina and Defense Rating) for tanking, and gear with Spell Power and Intellect on it for healing. To tank as retribution, keep Righteous Fury on, pull with Hand of Reckoning and use Seal of Command and Consecrate to keep your threat up. To heal, take advantage of Sheath of Light, and consider healing at close range in order to get mana back with Judgements of the Wise.

Useful professions
The paladin can benefit directly and indirectly from many of the professions available.

Primary professions

 * Mining and Blacksmithing
 * This combo affords the paladin an easy way to upgrade arms and armor if they are unlucky with drops. However, nearly all useful blacksmithing gear is bind on equip gear available at the auction house, and the profession can be quite expensive to level.


 * Skinning and Mining or Herbalism
 * Two gathering skills (one of which requires the mini-map to find resource nodes) can provide a strong income. Many players begin their careers as dual gatherers, changing to a crafting profession in later levels as they become more established.


 * Herbalism and Alchemy
 * Since you can heal yourself with spells, even in combat, Alchemy is somewhat less useful to paladins than to non-healing classes. One benefit of Alchemy is mana potions: without mana a paladin is in trouble, so these potions are vital in case of emergencies.  In addition, a health potion can be downed quickly to bring back your health when making a quick escape.  Be aware that potions can be found as drops from mobs and purchased at the auction house, but purchasing them will cost more than making your own.


 * Enchanting
 * Tied to a money-making gathering skill, this would allow you to enchant your weapons in the way you want, when you want. Overall however, it may just be easier to find an enchanter and pay them to do the work for you. Although it is nearly impossible to make money enchanting until you near maximum skill, you can make a decent sum disenchanting unneeded soul-bound quest rewards, since the value of the materials you'll make by disenchanting them is usually greater than the money gotten by vendoring them.


 * Mining and Engineering
 * Engineering can be a great profession pair for paladins for one reason - it's one of the few ways for a paladin to get a ranged attack (see ranged options in paladin overview. Dynamite and bombs allow the paladin to have at least one (albeit minor) ranged attack that they can use.  While difficult to see at lower levels, the disadvantage of not having a ranged attack becomes glaringly apparent when trying to pull enemies (particularly from camps) at higher levels. If you plan on taking your paladin far, Engineering also has some plate pieces for the 60+ levels.


 * Mining and Jewelcrafting
 * This combo is a viable option for just about any class. Rings and necklaces are an advantage at very early levels in the game, and Jewelcrafters can create gems to add significant bonuses to their armor.

In the end, do what you want. Many of the combinations help a certain style of play and selecting a combination based on your play style will just enhance your enjoyment of the game. Remember that you can later change professions if need be. Start your professions early: they are usually inexpensive, and starting early helps ensure that anything a Paladin can create with his/her skills is applicable to the character's level.

If you're choosing professions with an eye toward end-game viability:
 * For tanking, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Enchanting and Mining will all give you about 60 bonus stamina. Engineering gives bonus armor, and is comparable to the others. Inscribing is weaker because the inscriber-only bonus boosts defense rating, which is usually less desirable than straight stamina. Tailoring, Herbalism and Skinning are worthless.
 * For healing, all the crafting professions are about equal, Skinning is marginally valuable, and Herbalism and Mining are worthless.
 * For DPS, Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing are the clear winners because they can give bonus strength, your best stat. The other crafting professions give bonus attack power or haste, which are not quite as good on a per-point basis. Skinning is marginal and the other gathering professions are worthless.

Secondary professions

 * Cooking
 * Fishing
 * First Aid
 * Archaeology

Cooking and First Aid are of less use to paladins than most melee classes, since paladins can heal themselves. Many cooked foods do, however, provide buffs, which are especially useful at higher levels. In addition, cooked foods typically sell for more than their components, providing a useful source of extra money after normal hunting. First Aid can be useful for healing when you are trying to conserve mana (or are simply out of it), although it does heals for a small percentage at higher levels. Fishing is useful to raise your cooking skill and provide buff food. Archaeology provides a few rare good pieces of BoA armor a paladin can wear.

Long-term goals
Paladins are able to capably fill almost all positions in end-game content. They make excellent dungeon and raid healers and tanks (using the Holy and Protection talent specializations, respectively), and are also good at DPS as Retribution. In PvP, Holy can heal teammates, Protection can guard bases and flags, and Retribution can tear down opponents.