Geld's Revised Guide to the Paladin Class

[Sakritan 217]

Thanks to awesome Webarchive.org we can still have the pleasure of reading this 2006 guide from Geld about all aspects of the Paladin in vanilla. Its a long one. Enjoy!

Summarized Table of Content quoted here:

Quote

Table of Contents
 

• 1) Statistics and you: What do paladins need?
  2) Talent Guide: Holy
  3) Talent Guide: Protection
  4) Talent Guide: Retribution
  5) Paladin talent specs with Pros and Cons
  6) Etiquette in a group: playing a hybrid class.
  a. A Paladin’s Role
  b. Looting
  7) Combating classes, one on one
  a. Druid
  b. Rogue
  c. Priest
  d. Hunter
  e. Shaman
  f. Warrior
  g. Mage
  h. Paladin
  i. Warlock
  8) Master of group PvP: Why do they want you?

Rest found here:
web/20061110225817/http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11931828&sid=1

I especially like this part of the guide.

Etiquette in a Group: Playing a Hybrid Class

A Paladin’s Role
The paladin’s roll in a group has always been a difficult one to define, for both the paladin and his group. For instance, a paladin can act as a very viable tank in the five-man content before level 60, but many argue that at level 60 they become less and less viable. A paladin’s DPS is frequently argued to be the lowest in the game, making it unviable for raids, but people will also frequently argue that our heals are too small to have any serious effect on the raid. Don’t let yourself get belittled, rise above this. A paladin can easily be the longest-lasting healer in the game. A paladin is the lowest maintenance DPS supplement in the game (since we wear plate and no healer needs to show serious concern for us). A paladin is a very viable AoE tank, and can off tank and even main tank many endgame instances, based on gear, spec, and open mindedness of their group. In fact, a paladin can work at constantly morphing to fill the current needs of the raid every second. It’s even possible to achieve many of these goals all at once. If someone tries to tell you that you are playing in a poor fashion, take a second to reflect. Have you been using the full range and scope of your class? Could you be doing something better? Is something you’re doing detrimental? Just think about what you’re doing and make sure that you’re doing the best you can.

On the other hand, if you have been called into a group to fill a single roll (supplying a blessing, cleansing, healing, tanking, DPS, whatever it is), fill that role or leave the group. Just because you are a hybrid class does not mean you always get to do whatever you want. More often than not, a paladin is brought into the group with the group expecting it to act as a healer, and you should always be prepared for this eventuality. Remember that a paladin’s gear has more effect than a paladin’s spec when it comes to filling a role, so either use a very balanced set of gear, or bring several sets for multiple purposes.


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And of course the PvP one on one guides:

Welcome to the duel grounds at the gates of Ironforge.
One on one encounters on a totally level playing field are rare in this game, but when they happen, ask yourself: how do I win?

Druid
A druid has, effectively, 2 methods of defeating a paladin. They can either be feral or restoration build. Balance druids exist, and you’ll probably have to fight one some day, but this is an extremely mana inefficient playstyle, so it should be possible to just heal through their damage then defeat them once they are out of mana without much effort. A feral build druid will try to ambush you and kill you before you can save yourself. This is just shy of impossible. A cat form druid has minimal defense and deals very little damage against a plate wearing class. The real threat is a restoration built druid, and the only serious threat to the paladin is if he makes a mana-consumptive mistake. A restoration druid will attempt to outlast the paladin by using bear form and healing, waiting until the paladin goes out of mana. Against a druid, it’s wise to increase your mana regen as high as you can by using Blessing of Wisdom and placing Judgment of Wisdom on the druid, then just slowly wear down on it. Don’t use any major, mana-consumptive finishing moves on the druid until the druid’s mana has been fully drained via heals or you are certain you can finish him off before he reacts. Always cleanse off the Moonfire debuff, since it deals more damage then the instant portion of the spell, and do the same for any Entangling Roots or Insect Swarms. Stay melee with the druid at all times and you’ll out survive it and win. Use your most efficient spells possible to keep your health high enough that they can’t combo you to death.

Rogue
Against an equally geared rogue, a paladin usually has nothing to fear.. Consecrate (Rank 1) and Retribution Aura are both highly effective, particularly against dagger rogues. Sit through the stunlock sequence and fire off hammer of justice. Take this opportunity to heal once (if your health deficit is low enough) and proceed to beat down on the rogue. The rogue can and will run from you, and will likely restealth, so be prepared to activate consecrate again at any time. [If you look at the builds I posted earlier, nearly all of them contained the spell Consecration. It is an intrinsic part of the paladin class, along with Spiritual Focus.] The rogue should crumble after the first or second hammer of justice, just remember to spam rank 1 Consecrate and to keep the rogue in combat as often as possible. It will restealth, but the moment it does you can take the opportunity to heal to as full as possible, using Flash of Light to conserve mana. If you find yourself in need of a heal while getting attacked, you may be in trouble. All it takes is one kick while you’re healing to totally disable you for more then enough time to finish you off. You can use Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection to heal, if this is the case, but remember that the spell Blind can hit you and disable you through Blessing of Protection. Stoneform helps a lot here, if you’re a dwarf.

Priest
This is a rough fight. Defeating a priest, particularly a shadow priest, as a paladin is an extremely difficult task, and as such there is no certain strategy for coming out on top. Instead, I will tell you what to expect during the course of the fight.
1) Periodic Dispel Magics on you. Your combat system (a Seal and a Blessing) will go away completely at the touch of a key to the priest, so if you have Seal of Command, use rank 1 (which is cheap) and open with Blessing of Wisdom on, but don’t go overboard about resealing it.
2) Mana burn. The priest will burn your mana away, leaving you helpless. Once your mana is gone, the fight is basically over, they can damn-near wand you to death.
3) Lots of dots and debuffs. Particularly against a shadow priest, you can expect to get hit by Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Weaving constantly, and when you cleanse yourself it’s not certain to hit the more powerful debuff, Shadow Word: Pain and instead remove Shadow Weaving.
4) Fear. Once an opportunity, the priest is going to fear you and start beating down on you (after healing to full).
A few strategies for dealing with this fight are: Shadow Resistance Aura, self-mana burning (spending most of, if not all, of your own mana as damage/healing BEFORE the priest manages to drain it all), Seal of Justice to interrupt casting, a prayer to the gods, and a good warrior buddy ambushing the priest out of no where. I have yet to defeat a competent 60 priest in a duel.

Hunter
You wear plate, you are unshakeable (due to Blessing of Freedom and Cleanse), so the hunter won’t deal unduly huge sums of damage do you and won’t be able to keep you at a range for long. Get in melee range, keep Viper Sting cleansed or purified, and run straight for the guy. You’ll hit his traps, but this is almost inevitable. You can bubble out of a trap if you feel it necessary, but for the most part it isn’t. Once you’re melee, do your best to stay there. Consecrate when you see him feign death and he might not drop out of combat and retrap you. Really good hunters can stay at a range from you for a considerable amount of time, and possibly even defeat you by staying far away, but it’s a hard fight for them.

Shaman
Although the shaman does have purge, it isn’t nearly as difficult a fight as a priest. The shaman’s mana pool tends to be much smaller, its regen smaller still, and the price of purge and all of the Shaman’s other spells are quite high, so you can safely reseal and maybe even rebless knowing that he’s going to go out of mana before you do. In fact, this is the best way to win, wait for his mana to drain away completely then beat him down. Shaman are the least efficient class in the game, mana wise, while paladins are the most mana efficient, and they are helpless without their mana. Kill the totems with either a melee hit or a rank one Seal’s Judgment. Killing them all never hurts. Remember that, if you try to heal, the shaman will more often than not use Earth Shock on you and interrupt you. You can try to fake them out by starting a heal and immediately canceling, and if you get hit by Frost Shock or (lol) Flame Shock you have a window of 6 seconds to heal uninterrupted. It frightens me how many times a shaman has cast Flame or Frost Shock on me. Earth Shock’s spell lockdown timer is very short, so for each time he successfully interrupts you, you should be able to pull off one large heal.

Warrior
Warriors are one of the easier classes for a paladin to kill. We want to stay melee, so hamstring is meaningless to us. We wear plate, reducing the damage the warrior deals by 40%-60%, and our damage is largely holy, which ignores armor. The fight against a warrior is slow and steady. Heal high (so that you never risk getting executed or combo’d) and be prepared to bubble if your health gets too low and Mortal Strike is on you, ruining your heals. Remember that the warrior has Pummel and Shield Bash to interrupt your casting, so be very careful about healing when melee. The interrupt costs rage, so if you see their rage bar is empty, go for it.

Mage
If you can survive their opening burst damage sequence of a mage, you can beat the mage. Just keep your health high and flying with Flash of Light and watch amusedly as their mana bar empties out on you. Counterspell is a threat to you, but if they don’t hit you with it as you cast, you can just bubble out of it. If you get spell locked, the fight is over, because the mage will have 10 solid seconds to do whatever he wants to you. The longer this fight takes, the more likely you are to win. Once the mage runs out of mana, the fight is over, but it’s not going to be easy for you.

Paladin
Do not fight another paladin if you are in a Battleground queue, it will take too long.
But if you have to, the winner is the paladin who’s mana lasts longer. Seal of Wisdom, Blessing of Wisdom, efficient heals and efficient damage, just be careful not to be wasteful. I don’t want to even think about these fights, I’ve seen them take 15 or more mintues.

Warlock
The second hardest fight for a paladin. Between Fear and Seduce, the warlock will get free reign over beating on you when it wants to, and if it has a Felhunter out you can expect to lose your blessings and get spell locked every time you try to cast. Similar to a priest, there is no very reliable method for downing a warlock, but if you can treat them as a mage and heal through the damage you can come out on top. If it starts relying on Life Tap to get mana back, you can kill it without resistance, but getting the fight to this point is very difficult. Expect to be feared often enough to make you want to throw your mouse through the wall. Cleanse the dots and keep melee with him if you can, and if you see s Succubus or Imp, you should cast Exorcise on it and finish it off with melee, as it will remove reasonable amount of the warlock’s fighting power

 

Link again: web/20061110225817/http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11931828&sid=1

Cheers!

Edited October 4, 2016 by Sakritan

[Zunnie 48]

http://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=25503&sid=a2d98a49392b3d15776848621250a1f3

 

Think your links are wrong

 

8 hours ago, Sakritan said:

Remember that a paladin’s gear has more effect than a paladin’s spec when it comes to filling a role, so either use a very balanced set of gear, or bring several sets for multiple purposes.

I personally disagree with this (for instances at lvl 60, not leveling) , the holy three makes a world of difference for healing. 

Edited October 4, 2016 by Zunnie

[Sakritan 217]

Ye apparently the links to webarchive.org doesnt work.... its webarchive.org then / web/20061110225817/http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11931828&sid=1

*I updated the links now!
 

4 hours ago, Zunnie said:

I personally disagree with this (for instances at lvl 60, not leveling) , the holy three makes a world of difference for healing. 

Ye. I also thought that was a little wierd, but hey, its from 2006 ^^. The whole "bring multiple sets for different situation" is pretty accurate though. But no matter what you do, some talents go into holy regardless.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Sakritan

[fruitsalad 33]

On 4.10.2016 at 8:36 AM, Zunnie said:

I personally disagree with this (for instances at lvl 60, not leveling) , the holy three makes a world of difference for healing. 

A good thing is that with investing only 21 points you have access to the most important healing talents (Divine Intellect, Healing Light, Illumination, Divine Favor). That leaves 30 points to spend (more or less) freely.

I healed level 60 5 man instances and UBRS with 0 points in Holy and not even close to preraid BiS gear without having any problems at all (except when the tank was geared really bad on some encounters). I don't know whether this is possible for other healing classes. Perhaps the author of the guide was referring to that.

Edited October 6, 2016 by fruitsalad

[Zunnie 48]

Well the 21 points in Holy three gives you your critt chance in reduced mana cost which is essential in raids. I would also say that the 5% extra critt you get from taking 30 points in holy is well worth the investment  

Healing with out proper spec is viable for all healing classes, but raids are a very different thing from dungeons. You can still do it in raids, but if every one did it I am guessing you would whipe. Therefor I am guessing the guide is not referring to that.

PS: I really dont want to get into a discussion about hybrid specs, there is just to much to consider. Most importantly, are paladins the best hybrid to use? Or do druids do more dmg? They certainly bring more buffs when going 31 points in feral. 

[Sakritan 217]

On 2016-10-06 at 4:46 PM, Zunnie said:

Well the 21 points in Holy three gives you your critt chance in reduced mana cost which is essential in raids. I would also say that the 5% extra critt you get from taking 30 points in holy is well worth the investment  

Healing with out proper spec is viable for all healing classes, but raids are a very different thing from dungeons. You can still do it in raids, but if every one did it I am guessing you would whipe. Therefor I am guessing the guide is not referring to that.

PS: I really dont want to get into a discussion about hybrid specs, there is just to much to consider. Most importantly, are paladins the best hybrid to use? Or do druids do more dmg? They certainly bring more buffs when going 31 points in feral. 

I never advocate for anyone to go full ret, or full prot. But always mix holy with one of the other two. Holy is an amazing tree. And also as a hybrid you will heal, but you can also get in close and deal some crappy damage, and then off tank adds! All in one class. And their buffs are awesome as well. Alot of people see hybrids are one thing, heal of GTFO. But in vanilla they werent designed that way, not entirely. Paladins standing back and only spamming one or two heals and never go OOM is doable, but I dont think its neither fun nor the optimal way to play. We got plate gear so make use of it We can be seen as half a dps, half a healer (or full healer if needed), support with buff and offtank. I plan to be a "battlehealer" myself ^^

And about commiting fully to one spec, the best warriors didnt go full prot until way later either right? There were plenty of arms spec prot warriors in MC for example.

And speccing holy to avoid going OOM is the least of our worries though no? I thought pallies had the luxury of never going OOM.

Anyway, thanks for your input! Always interesting to discuss the champion of the holy light!

[Thrixsulpax 7]

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 5:52 PM, Sakritan said:

Consecrate (Rank 1) and Retribution Aura are both highly effective

Why have I seen in multiple locations that it's recommended to use consecrate rank 1? Is this to save mana? Does rank 1 do much dmg?

[Sakritan 217]

1 minute ago, Thrixsulpax said:

Why have I seen in multiple locations that it's recommended to use consecrate rank 1? Is this to save mana? Does rank 1 do much dmg?

I think that was taken from the Guide rather than from me Just to be clear. And yes, Rank 1 is generally used to save mana, if you play as prot/ret you go OOM super fast, and you wont be having all the mp5 either. Personally I have at least 2 ranks of consecration on my actionbar for different situations, same thing with several spells actually. I actually liked the spell rank system because you had to think, plan ahead and adjust what to use and when to use it in relation to your mana.

[Njut 143]

Rank 1 is mostly used for breaking stealths etc in PvP. Full ranked Conc in dungeons (on single targets) is a waste of mana. Conc is mostly used for the AoE aspect of the game. You should have r1, 3 & full on your action bar. R3 or 4 is for tanking (I prefer 3), effectively, without running oom too often and still having somewhat decent TPS. Full rank should only be used in raids in order to maintain AoE threat. It´s too mana consuming if you want to keep a decent pace in 5 man dungeons/UBRS. 

Edited November 1, 2016 by Cinder
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