Honor's Code: Leveling a Paladin in World of Warcraft
Updated 5/3/2008: Changed Sanctified Crusader to Sanctified Seals
Choosing the Paladin as your class shows remarkable good taste and high intelligence. As a level 70 Paladin, I'd thought I'd share some thoughts on leveling a Paladin character.
Honors, you are a rare combination of brains and good looks, what race should I make my Paladin?
Well, I'm glad you asked. Roll Horde, you're a Blood Elf. Next Question! Oh, wait, you're Alliance, excellent choice, my lad. Of the 3 Alliance races, I would say Draenei, if you haven't done their starting area with another class. The Draenei starting area is really cool, and tons of fun. Shadow Resistance and a free Heal over Time work well with Paladins. Humans are very nice aesthetically, and the rep bonus they get is very nice. Perception is okay, but I’d rather have Stoneform for fighting Rogues. If I had it to do all over again, I would have probably rolled Human. Maybe its because I'm a dwarf, I don't know, I just like how Human Paladins look. Stoneform is really nice, but some of the other dwarf racial bonuses don’t seem to help a Paladin much (can you say Gun Specialization, yes, I thought you could). In the end, race isn't going to make or break your character.
An honest hard working guy like yourself, do you have anything to say about Professions?
Good question. Gather. Gather. Gather. Mine/Skin or Mine/Herb (annoying but doable). Once you get to level 40 or 50 and have some cash, you can start thinking about a Production profession. Any of the productions profession except maybe Leatherworking will serve you well. Engineering (sweet helms), Blacksmithing (nice BoP stuff), Jewelcrafting (make your own gems), Alchemy (everybody needs pots), and Enchanting (and they need enchants). But if I had to do it all over again, I'd be a double gatherer all the way to 70 and beyond (and I'm double Production, Engineering and Jewelcrafting. Practice what I preach? No, not so much.)
Levels 1-10
Zones: You are going to be in your starting area for your race. Do all your quests.
Talents: None available at this point
Combat: Seal of Crusader, immediately Judged, then Seal of Righteousness. Judge Righteousness every time the cooldown is up, and immediately reseal.
*Alternatively, you can Seal and Judge Righteousness as your opener, then Seal Crusader for the attack speed bonus while waiting for your Judgement to cooldown. Then Judge Crusader and continue with the Seal/Judge Righteousness pattern. This will actually produce highter DPS but it is less mana efficient.* (submitted by reader Krasagrado of Warsong)
Keep an aura and a blessing up at all times. Your Aura will be Devotion at first, but switch to Retribution when you get it. Your Blessing can stay Might throughout this level range. Purify any poison you get. At level 6 you get your first taste of the bubble.
Gearing: Look for gear with Strength, Stamina, and Intellect. If you find a piece or two with Spell Damage, that's bonus. You'll mostly be wearing quest rewards.
Levels 10-20
Zones: You'll move from your races starting area into a secondary area (Westfall, Loch Modan, Bloodmyst Isles, or Ghostlands). Do the quest from your trainer to learn your resurrection spell. Continue to quest through your starting area. I actually recommend staying in these secondary areas as long as you can on a PVP server. Having an extra level or two is nice when you start venturing into the contested zones which come in the next range.
Talents: Honors, you are wise beyond expectations, but I have these talent points now. What should I do with them?
Well, I'm glad you asked, me lad. The tree you seek is Retribution. First 5 points in Benediction, next 2 in Improved Judgements, then 3 in Deflection.
Combat: Combat sequence is essentially the same. Consecrate if you are fighting more than 2 mobs. Bubble and bandage, or bubble and heal if you get into trouble. Stun and heal works well too. You may want to buff with Blessing of Wisdom instead of Might if you run into mana issues.
Gearing: Continue looking for Strength, Stamina, and Intellect. A little Agility on your gear would be nice as well. In this range you'll run DeadMines which has a couple of decent blue drops (Cookie's mace). Hordeside, you'll be running Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns. Not much of note there, except that your level 20 Paladin quests requires a run through Ragefire.
Levels 20-30
Zones: So you've got your Fist, you've got your Seal of Command (see talents), now high tail it to Duskwood and start working on the Undead in that zone. For Blood Knights, it's either Ashenvale or Tarren Mill. I always go Ashenvale/StoneTalon/Thousand Needles on my Horde characters. Stockades, Shadowfang Keep, BlackFathom Deeps, and Razorfen Kraul are all options in this range.
Talents: You've just dinged level 20! Congratulations! Put that talent point in Seal of Command. In this range your talent points go into Conviction, Crusade, and either Eye for Eye, or Vindication. I prefer Vindication as it procs more than Eye for Eye.
Combat: Combat is the same as before, except that your Seal of choice is Command. Throw an Exorcism on anything that's undead, and Judgement of Justice on any humanoids that like to run at low health. Since you picked up Crusade, try to fight mobs that it affects (Humanoids, Undead, Demons, and Elementals). Be sure to stun your target as often as the cooldown allows and then immediately follow up with a Judgement of Command. Command does double damage to stunned targets. It's also a great time to drop a Consecrate as your enemy (mob or player) is sort stuck there eating tick after tick of Consecrate, and there is nothing they can do about it.
By level 20, you've gotten all the baseline tools you need to heal, dps or tank an instance. I highly, highly recommend you try out each "job" several times in this range and the next. It will help you decide what path you which to follow later in your Paladin playing days.
Gearing: Alliance Paladins should stop whatever they are doing and get back to the trainer and pickup the level 20 Paladin quest. Start the quest and make it your top priority to finish it. This quest will yield you your Verigan's Fist (or Blood Tempered Ramsuer for Blood Knights).
Blood Knights don't have quite the sense of urgency to finishing their quest as the reward they get from completing main Ghostlands Quest (Warblade of the Sin'dorei) is comparable to the Blood Tempereed Ramsuer. Verigan's is quite overpowered for its level. I used mine well into my 30s. Most steps are labeled as group quests, but all can be done solo save for the Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep steps. Deadmines groups are plentiful, but Shadowfang may pose a bit of a challenge.
Often, a high level Paladin will be willing to aid you with these quests. I've helped quite a few Paladins get their Fist in my playing days, but back when I was leveling, I teamed up with another Paladin. We were both about level 24 and able to duo the Shadowfang Keep part of the quest. Save your long cooldowns like Lay on Hands for when you reach the courtyard. Once you get your fist,I recommend putting a Firey enchant on it. You will have this weapon for a while and Firey is a good bang for buck type of enchant.
Levles 30-40 You're halfway there. Awesome.
Zones: Start yourself with the quests in eastern Thousand Needles around the Mirage Raceway, then move in Stranglethorn Vale. You are pretty much permaPVP flagged from here on out. Yes, you will get ganked in Stranglethron. You'll get ganked in nearly any zone you level in on a PVP server. It happens. If you have a high level main, park them in the zone and get a little revenge. Also try to travel in groups. That will help against equal level characters. The level 70s who just want to one shot you, well nothing much to be done about it. If that's how they want to spend their playtime, okay. I've never found it very fun, myself.
The new Quest Hub of Mudsprocket in Dustwallow Marsh is an excellent way to make your way through this range. Ganking still happens but it seems like there is less of it because the area is not well known (at least not yet). In addition, its new content. I'm leveling a new character (not a Paladin) just so I can experience the new stories and quests.
In this range you should spend some time in the Scarlet Monastery. There is a mail set that drops in there. Don't go out of your way to collect the whole set, you'll level out of it quickly enough, but if you find a piece or two, pick it up. Herod has his shoulders and there is a nice Axe that drops from him that I finally replaced my Verigan's Fist with. (Note, my Fist still rests proudly in my bank. If we ever get player housing, its going right over the mantle) Remind any warrior that wants Herod's axe that they can get an even better one from their Warrior only quest.
Talents: For talents you are picking up Two Handed Weapon Specialization, Sanctity Aura. At level 35, you pick up one of the more important talents, Vengeance. Fill that bad boy out.
Combat: Combat remains pretty much the same, expect that you are running Sanctity instead of Retribution Aura.
Gearing: Continue to look for gear with Stamina, Intellect, and Strength. For weapons, you want the highest possible top end damage. DPS is nice but look for the damage range and find the one with the biggest top end number. If you think you might like to go sword and board in next level range look for some pieces with defense. Firey is a good choice on your weapon as every time it crits, you will get a Vengence proc.
Level 40-50
Ding 40. Go to Stormwind, walk out with Mount. Sure beats walking!
Zones: You can wear plate now, but mail will be okay for a couple of levels. Start picking up Plate where you can. You will be in Stranglethorn Vale, Hinterlands, Tanaris, and Feralas.
Run Razorfen Downs. You can pickup a Carapace of Tuten'kash and an Ice Metal Barbute.
In Marauadon, there is a very nice Paladin Shield off the goblin boss. He also drops a nice sword (Inventors Focal Sword), especially if you are Holy. Landslide drops a mace called The Fist of Stone which is great for grinding, and tanking. It has a chance on hit that returns mana and procs fairly often. There is a quest out in Desolace that takes you into the pre-instance part of Maraudon that nets you a pretty nice trinket called Mark of the Chosen. I know it only says a 2% chance, but I found it was up very often.
In Zul'Farrak, Antu'zul drops Sang'thraze the Deflector, and Chief Ukorz Sandscalp drops Big Pad Pauldrons.
Okay, Squire! Decision time. You've picked up some skills and the ability to pick up some talents that make a Sword and Board (Protection) approach just as viable as a 2 hander (Retribution) for leveling. The lack of spell crit, intellect and plus spell damage plate makes Holy a bit of a tough choice in this range. So let's talk about your choices, lad.
Path of the Crusader
This is an entension of what you've been doing. Your main role focus is on damage and taking down mobs while adding great utility to a group through your Auras, Blessings, and other buffs.
Talents: You can stick with Ret and 2 hander. Continue filling out the Ret tree. Sanctified Crusader, Repentance, Fanaticism make good fill on your way to Crusader Strike at level 50
Combat: This can be very fast or very slow. Your fights depend on if Seal of Command procs, if you crit, etc. Try to fight caster mobs when you can, as their low armor allows you to tear through them quickly.
Gearing: Keep looking for slow two handers with high top end damage. There is a nice one that drops in Uldaman, and the Auction House will sometimes have an Executioner's Cleaver. Nice weapon. Firey remains a good choice for a cheap enchants. Continue looking for Strength, Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating, and Stamina on your gear.
Path of the Steadfast
This is still Retribution, but you switch to a Sword and Shield approach. This is the path of the hybrid, who by his presence multiplies the power of his group. In the course of a fight (with a group) you will heal, do damage, and tank depending on the situation. You are your group's healer's best friend and bodyguard. You'll be throwing a debuff on the mob, healing an ally, laying down some damage, saving a caster with a well timed Blessing of Protection.
Talents: The goal of this approach is building full Vengeance stacks and keeping them up as long as possible. Talent points go into Sanctified Crusader Sanctified Seals, Redoubt (in protection), and Precision (last point needs level 51).
Combat: Combat changes a bit. You want Wisdom as your primary Blessing, Retribution for your Aura. You Judge the mob with Judgement of Light and seal with Seal of the Crusader. Swinging with a fast weapon, and even faster now with Crusader's haste, will give you more chances to crit (your weapon, your Judgement, or firey can crit). Anything crits and you get a Vengeance stack. You will get the full stack (3 stacks) and keep it up for the whole fight, all the while getting healed by your Judgement of Light. If you notice you are a bit low on mana, Judgement of Wisdom, then back to Seal of Crusader. Mobs die at a fairly decent rate, but the advantage you have over other classes, and approaches that will kill stuff faster is that you never have to stop to drink, eat, bandage, etc. You pretty much finish every fight with full mana and health. You are better off engaging melee type mobs as you can mitigate more of their damage than you can with casters. This is also nice on a PVP server as you never look like that great a target to the other faction who is just looking to pick you off at low health/mana.
Gearing: You want a fast weapon, something in the 2.0 or faster range. Slap Firey on that bad boy. Hanzo Sword is an AH buy that works really well with this approach. You want Intellect, Crit Rating, Stamina. Strength is still nice but not quite as needed as before.
Path of the Avenger:
This is a full on switch from Retribution to Protection. This is the path of the Tank, the one who sacrifices his hit points and gear to save his friends.
Talents: Your talents change to Redoubt, Toughness, Kings, Shield Spec, Kings, Improved Righteous Fury, Anticipation, Reckoning, Blessing of Sanctuary, Sacred Duty, Holy Shield. From 40 to 50, you pick up Improved Holy Shield, Spell warding, Ardent Defender, and Captain America (Avenger's Shield).
Combat: For combat, you want to look to AoE grind. Make sure you have Blessing of Sanctuary on, Retribution Aura on, and Righteous Fury on (for the 6% damage reduction). Pull at least two or three mobs (preferable melee types if you can). Judge the first one with Wisdom and Seal Righteousness. Judge and reseal every time the cooldown is up. When Redoubt procs (and with multiple beasties hitting on you it will be often) activate Holy Shield. Reckoning will proc often as well giving you 2x the Judgement of Wisdom procs and 2x the Seal of Righteousness procs. Consecrate as your mana regen allows. Start slow with only 2 or 3 of your same level. When you really get it down you can take larger packs. Every time you get an add its like "oh, yeah!".
Your dps is proportional with the number of mobs hitting you. Basically if you are only fighting one mob, you aren't doing much DPS, but 3 or 4, now you are talking. Watch out for slow hitters too, you want mobs that hit fairly often. And your tanking will be better than it was before, so get out there and lay down the aggro.
Gearing: Look for gear with Stamina, Defense, Parry, Block, and Dodge, and a fast 1 handed weapon. You need as many Seal of Righteousness procs as you can get in this range. Solid white dps is important as well on this weapon. Something like Hanzo's Sword is recommended. Also, I strongly recommend you put a Shield Spike on your main shield as soon as you can. Mithril Shield spikes are fairly cheap. A Shield Spike can be very helpful with threat in this range and it gets you into the mindset of Block = Threat which will serve you well especially with Holy Shield.
I will mention this final path here, but in my opinion it's in the next range that this path becomes more workable.
Path of the Cleric:
This is the path of the Priest in Plate, the Healer, the clue that holds every group together. He champions his friends, not by taking the blows, but by curing them, enabling his allies to defeat foes that they never could without his blessing.
Talents: The talent choices are fairly straightforward at the beginning. Divine Intellect, Spiritual Focus, Healing Light, Improved Lay on Hands, Illumination, Divine Favor, Sanctified Light, Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Holy Power, Holy Shock, Light's Grace, and then Holy Guidance, and Divine Illumination.
Combat: Pull with Holy Shock; use Blessing of Wisdom for your blessing. Judge Crusader and go to town. Use a sword and board for melee types and bust you’re two-hander for the clothies. Your lifeline is no longer the green one, but the blue. As long as you have mana, you are nigh unkillable.
Gearing: You want to look for gear with Intellect, Stamina, Spell Damage, and Mana per 5 seconds, Spell Crit Rating. This is why I say that this path doesn’t really open up to you just yet. This gear basically doesn’t exist in this range.
Level 50-58
You’re in the home stretch now. This can be a rough stretch, but Outland is just around the corner.
All Paths:
Zones: Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands, Un’goro, Silithus. I strongly recommend you spend some time at Sorrow Hill in Western Plaguelands during the early part of this range. Black Rock Mountain (BRD, LBRS, UBRS), Scholomance, and Strathholme open up to you in this range.
There are some good drops for all paths from these instances. Earthslag Shoulders, Spiderfang Carapace, Foreman's Head Protector, Entrenching Boots all come from BRD. Plate of the Shaman King drops in LBRS.
Combat: Combat for all Paths stays pretty much the same as in previous ranges. You pickup some new ranks of what should by now be familiar tools. You start to pickup your Greater Blessings in this range. These are 15 minutes rather than 5 minutes. They require a relatively cheap reagent called Symbol of Kings. They stack to 100. Always have 1-2 stacks on you at all times.
Gear: Look for BoE pieces of Lightforge armor and the Aegis of Stormwind on the AH.
Crusader
Talents: Here we are going to pickup Sanctified Judgement, then Improved Devotion Aura
Gearing: Same stats as before (Melee crit, stamina, Attack Power, Strength and Agility). Green "Of the Beast" may be on the AH.
Steadfast
Talents: Now we switch over to Holy to pickup Divine intellect and start on Spiritual Focus (finish Spirit Focus out at level 61).
Gearing: "Of the Beast" gear makes a good choice in this range.
Avenger
Talents: Talents here are 1 handed spec, and Benediction. You will finish filling out Benediction at level 60.
Gearing: The AH may yield up "Of The Knight" "Of The Champion" and "Of The Crusade" in addition to the Imperial Armor set. This set is usually levelup fodder for Blacksmiths and you can get it cheap. Also, if you can get a group for Scholo there is a set of armor called Deathbone that is the first piece of true Prot Pally gear you’ll likely find. Also there are BoE pieces of Valor on the AH. If you intend on rolling on BoP Valor pieces that drop in the 58-60 dungeons, inform the Warrior in the party prior to the run. He may not feel exactly comfortable with the idea. Force of Will is a fantastic trinket that drops in BRD. There is a long quest chain in EPL that yields a nice chest piece (Ornate Adamantite Breastplate).
Cleric:
Talents: In this range, we are picking up Blessed Life, and Redobut.
Gearing: +healing, spell crit, some mana per 5, intellect and stamina. You actually start seeing a bit of gear in this range that has those on plate. Green "Of the Physician" "Of Healing" gear may show up on your auction house. Don't be afraid of wearing Shaman healing Mail or Druid healing Leather at this stage. If you have a good tank, you shouldn't be getting hit. As always, be considerate of those classes as they are more limited in the gear they can wear.
Level 58-70
Zones: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrorkar Forest, Blade’s Edge Mountains, Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm
Crusader
Talents: For talents, we pickup Precision and Guardian’s Favor from Protection, and Improved Sanctity Aura from Ret, and Divine Intellect form Holy.
Combat: At 70, you'll get Avenger's Wrath. It's a nice damage boost on a long cooldown, and makes it so you can't bubble for 1 minute. Use it when you need a nice burst. If you are Horde, Seal of Blood will likely replace Seal of Command as your Seal of choice.
Gearing: Melee Crit and AP, Strength, Stamina, and some spell power. You will find drops and quest rewards more in abundance here than in any other range. PVP gear also has a specific Ret set.
Steadfast
The tough part about the Steadfast path is that as you get into larger and larger groups (10 and 25 man), the role sort of disappears. What we do well following the Steadfast path simply doesn't translate well to the larger encounters. While we can turn an encounter around quickly in 5 man, in these larger encounters there is almost an intertial force and once it starts tiping towards wipe, there is little anyone, even a Paladin, can do to right the ship.
Talents: We finish off our tree with Guardian’s Favor, Improved Righteous Fury, Improved Sanctity Aura, Blessing of Kings, and Repentance.
Combat: Combat stays pretty much the same for you. Pop Avenger's Wrath when you've built up a full vengence stack.
Gearing: Spell Crit, Melee Crit, Intellect, Stamina maybe a little mana per 5.
Avenger
Talents: Now you pickup Deflection, Improved Judgement, and Precision.
Combat: Combat doesn't change a whole bunch. For Alliance Paladins, Seal of Vengence is a decent alternative to Seal of Righteousness for soloing. Really work on your tanking skills, especially holding more than 2 or 3 mobs at a time off your healers and dps. Tank every instance you can.
Gearing: Work towards 485 defense. In this range you will find abundant Quest Rewards and drop tailored for Paladin tanking. For end game raiding: 490 def, at least 13k armor, 10k hp, 200 spell damage. It's a little harder for a paladin to get uncrushable in comparison to a warrior, but it's far from impossible (doable in pre-raid blues). Our biggest problem is stamina...we start with a pretty significant health pool deficit. There is a fair bit of warrior/paladin gear crossover in terms of tanking items. Honestly though, you don't really have to worry about building an uber tanking set until you reach 70 and start doing heroics & raids.
Cleric:
Talents: Finishing out our tree with Purifying power, then back to Protection for Guardian’s Favor, Precision, Blessing of Kings, Improved Righteous Fury
Combat: Combat remains pretty much the same. You have Avengers Wrath for some additional damage. With the new Healing to Spell Damage conversion, you can solo decently in a full Healing set. Get really well practiced at healing your groups. You will have no trouble finding groups and will even get random tells to heal whatever instance you may want to see.
Gearing: Don't bother with spirit, the 5-second casting rule makes it completely useless for paladins (we don't have a spirit talent like priests do). Focus on stacking +healing and Spell Crit with some mana/5. Int, as always is important too.
Level 70-80
Zones: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, The DragonBlight, Zul'Drak, Grizzly Hills, Azjol-Nerub, Sholazar Basin, The Storm Peaks, Icecrown Glacier
Thank you for reading this guide. I hope you find the Paladin class as enjoyable and exciting as I have.
Updated 5/3/2008: Changed Sanctified Crusader to Sanctified Seals
Updated 4/18/2008: Expanded on Combat in the 20-30 level range to emphasize using Hammer of Justice (stun) with Judgement of Command
Updated 4/8/2008: Changed Path of the Steadfast Aura after an alert read pointed out a typo (was Sanctity, should have been Retribution)
Update 1/15: Added an alternative low level Seal rotation from Krasagrado of Warsong
Update 1/2/2008: Added some comments about the importance of a Shield Spike for Protection Builds.
Update 12/14/2007: Blizzard has made some major improvements to leveling with Patch 2.3. I have some modifications to my guide to reflect those changes, but they are very minor.
rage and energy were so much more efficient)
