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Category Archives: Paladin

MoP’ing up the Twinks

25 Oct

Today we’re going to take a look at the talent trees that are proposed for being in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and how those talent trees might impact twink brackets. As we continue on, keep in mind the fact that this stuff was just announced at BlizzCon 2011 and this expansion isn’t scheduled to come out for who knows how long yet so any and all information here could potentially change.

I’m not going to look at every bracket in this post because there are just too many talents to smash them all into a single post. Instead I’m going to break in into two parts; one for the 10-14 bracket, and one for the 15-19 and 20-24 brackets as the impact on the two should be roughly the same.

I did not attend or in any way participate in this year’s BlizzCon, so I’m only going off of what the MoP Talent Calculator from Wowhead has to tell me, and what I heard people say on Twitter or on other blogs. If any of this information is incorrect, incomplete, or false please notify me of such in the comments so that I can get it updated with the correct information.

Right now we don’t know much of anything about the Monk class, so they won’t be included in this particular post. It is safe to say you better be careful around those pandas with their racial sleep attack though.

Level 10-14
At first glance this bracket doesn’t seem like it would be effected much by talent trees that are switching to every 15 levels. However, this has a huge impact on some classes because spells they enjoy right now at level 10 aren’t going to be available until much later. We don’t know all of the details of which spells might be changing to different level ranges, but we do know some of them from changes to the talent trees.

Druids:
Druids don’t have any obvious change of this nature. None of the spells shown in the new talent trees are ones that are currently granted at level 10. If Feral Druids still have access to Mangle in this bracket, they should be fine. Balance Druids will likely remain unviable in this bracket without significant changes. Resto Druids will likely remain the weakest of the four healers in this bracket.

Hunters:
The only talent tree change we’ll see is Beastmastery, who lose the stun effect of Intimidation as it’s changed to a level 30 talent. We don’t know yet what they’re going to give BM in place of Intimidation, but a BM Hunter combining the Bat’s ranged stun with Intimidation’s stun can be a brutal combination in today’s low level brackets.

The biggest announcement of all – no more minimum range. This means that Hunters are going to lose their only weakness in low level PvP as they’ll be able to shot you from melee range. Unless Hunter damage is decreased or general player survivability is increased, Hunters are going to be even more powerful than they already are.

Mages:
Mages don’t see any talent-related hits, but there is one big difference to point out. In MoP, some of the Mage’s baseline spells get restricted to your spec. Fireball can only be cast by Fire Mages, Frostbolt by Frost, and Arcane Blast (I think) can only be cast by Arcane. Meaning that the primary slow effect of most Mages in this bracket is removed from two of the specs. Granted, Arcane Mages typically kill you rather than slowing you down, and Fire kind of sucks in this bracket, but that does remove the ability for non-Frosties to slow you down in this bracket.

Paladins:
Paladins didn’t lose any of their level 10 talents either, and I did not see any major functionality changes mentioned either. Unless Blizzard changes spell levels or adds/removes other spells then the Paladins should remain about the same in this bracket.

Priests:
Priests have no changes due to talents in this bracket either. The one thing that could be worth mentioning is that Wands are now base weapons for casters which could mean that we’ll see more mana-free ranged attacks from the casters. Then again, we might not. The one change we do know about is that Priests lose their AoE fear spell, Psychic Scream, as it becomes a level 15 talent instead of a level 12 spell.

Rogues:
Rogues may or may not see any impact from the removal of ranged weapons, it depends on which level they give us the ability to throw melee weapons instead and at what range. As far as talents go, non-Rogues give praise for Shadowstep has been moved to level 60, which means you shouldn’t find yourself on the receiving end of a one-shot Ambush any more. Well, not as often anyway. Maybe…

Shamans:
Shamans are going to see some changes in their totems as all buff totems will be removed. We don’t have enough information yet to know whether that’s a good thing or bad, but it does remove some of the low level functionality at the least. There are no talent changes that will directly impact Shamans, so only more information on the other aspects will tell us for sure how Shaman play will change.

Warlocks:
Warlocks are going to have a different resource pool for each spec now instead of everyone using Soul Shards. I haven’t seen the details on those yet, so I don’t know exactly how or what that’s going to impact for low level Warlocks. None of the talent changes will have an impact on this bracket.

Warriors:
No talent tree changes here either that I can see. I don’t recall hearing anything about specific Warrior changes either, beyond the removal of ranged weapons, so we’re probably looking at very little overall change here either.

Level 15-19 and 20-24
Much like the level 10 bracket, some classes are going to see larger changes in this bracket than others because of the shifting of some spells. Both of these brackets have access to only one talent point for level 15, so in general the impact should be the same in both brackets when looking strictly at the changes to talent points.

Druids: Feline Swiftness, Displacer Beast, Tireless Pursuit
The fastest, most mobile flag carriers in the game are about to get a whole lot more mobile. It’s hard to say right now which of these is going to be the most effective in the bracket as they’re all very good, and I look forward to trying all of them out.

Feline Swiftness becomes a baseline 10% buff to movement speed, with an additional 20% while in Cat form. While the benefits of this one aren’t as extreme as the other two, it’s always active and has no cooldown, so you’ll be able to enjoy its effects constantly.

Displacer Beast (3 min cooldown) teleports you 20 yards in a random direction, removes all periodic damage effects, and puts you Cat form and Stealth for 10 seconds (attacking or taking damage cancels stealth, assume breaking cat form does as well). This has huge potential for flag carriers, though they will need to be careful to pick the flag back up after teleporting as the stealth feature will force you to drop it. I’m assuming that this teleport will take you out of combat (since stealth can’t be used in combat normally), otherwise if you’re in combat then the flag shouldn’t be dropped automatically with the current rules.

Tireless Pursuit (3 min cooldown) activates your Cat Form, removes all roots/snares and increases your Cat Form speed by 70% for 15 seconds (does not break Prowl). It’s like a beefed up version of Dash which Druids don’t currently have access to in this bracket. The only way to stop Druids right now is to either kill them quickly or use CC to slow/stop them long enough to kill them slowly, and this talent works to counter both of those.

Hunters: Frozen Arrows, Arcane Arrows, Venom Tipped Arrows
Can you say, “OP just got more OP?”

Frozen Arrows gives your Auto Shot a 30% chance to reduce the target’s movement speed by 30% for 10 seconds. Just what Hunters needed, free CC on top of their already insane ranged damage. It’s hard to imagine any twinks not taking this talent, unless Venom Tipped Arrows just proves to be too good (see below).

Arcane Arrows gives your Auto Shot a 50% chance to restore 5 focus when it deals damage. This one doesn’t seem all that great to me with Haste being so potent in the lower levels already.

Venom Tipped Arrows gives your ammunition a stacking poison DoT effect that deals Nature damage. Stacks up to 5 times. We don’t have any numbers on this one, nor does it specify only Auto Shot, so it’s hard to say how good or bad this one might be at this point.

Mages: Ring of Frost, Cone of Cold, Frostjaw
Stop!..Freezy time! /dance

Ring of Frost (1 min cooldown) creates a 10 yard diameter ring that lasts for 12 seconds, which freezes enemies who enter for 10 seconds. While it’s not the most effective form of CC, it is AoE and does have some great uses. This spell is going to add a level of strategy and area awareness to the low level brackets that many players might not be used to.

Cone of Cold (10 sec cooldown) deals Frost damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster, freezing them in place for 3 seconds and slowing them by 60% for 6 seconds. This is pretty much what the spell currently does, except that only Frost has the talents that add the CC aspect to it. I can already see Arcane Mages making great use of this spell as another instant cast, AoE, and adding CC to their mix. Arcane is already pushing hard on the boundaries of being OP, and this might push it over the edge.

Frostjaw (20 sec cooldown) silences and freezes the target in place for 8 seconds, lasts half as long versus player targets. The only thing keeping this from being truly fantastic is the 1.5 second cast time, but even with that it’s still a great spell. Silence is always good, but the ability to cast a targeted freeze effect at range is a big deal.

I really don’t know yet which of these will see the most use in low level PvP because I can see uses for all of them. If I had to guess, I’d say Frostjaw >= Ring of Frost > Cone of Cold…maybe.

Paladins: Spped of Light, Long Arm of the Law, Pursuit of Justice
Tanks Upgrades: Rocket Boosters Edition!

Speed of Light (1 min cooldown) increases your speed by 60% for 6 seconds, during which you radiate healing to nearby allies. How much healing we’re talking about is the unknown (along with the range), which makes judging this one kind of hard. This could either be really freaking cool, or just pretty cool.

Long Arm of the Law increases your speed by 45% for 4 seconds after using Judgment. This is meant to be the Paladin’s “gap closer” similar to the Charge abilities of other tanks. I think we could end up seeing a lot of Paladin’s use this skill in these brackets as all three specs make frequent use of the Judgment spell.

Pursuit of Justice increases your speed by 10% for each current charge of Holy Power. This one is probably going to be the overall favorite. Holy uses their HP off and on depending on the situation, and they can almost always keep a full stack of HP ready with Holy Shock casts on themselves. Protection is almost always full of HP with nothing to dump it into besides Word of Glory (I did see someone mention the cooldown was being removed, but I can’t verify). Retribution uses their HP pretty frequently, so they’ll most likely use Long Arm of the Law (above) instead.

Priests: Void Tendrils, Psyfiend, Psychic Scream
Top Heals + AoE CC = MWAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!

Void Tendrils (30 sec cooldown) summons shadowy tendrils out of the ground, rooting all targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds. Killing the tendril will cancel the effect. This is either really cool, or it’s going to sucks. It all depends on how easy or hard it is to kill the tendrils, and right now we don’t have any information on that.

Psyfiend (1 min cooldown) summons a Psyfiend that stands in place. The Psyfiend casts a Psychic Scream on a nearby enemy within 40 yards every 2 seconds lasting for 10 seconds, preferring anything attacking the Priest or her friends. This one is also missing some key information to know just how good or bad it will end up being. For protecting your flag carrier I see this being a pretty amazing spell, but if killing the Psyfiend takes one attack then it kind of sucks.

Psychic Scream (30 sec cooldown) works just like the version that exists right now, fearing up to 5 enemies around you. This is a solid fear spell, and one that I make very frequent use of right now. With so many unknowns in the other two talents, it’s hard to say where this one will end up in relation to them.

Rogues: Nightstalker, Subterfuge, Shadow Focus
What the..? Who? /dead Ah, $#&@!

Nightstalker increases your speed while stealthed by 20%. Right now this talent only increases speed by 10%, so doubling that means Rogues are going to be even more mobile and be able to outrun many of the other classes. Faster speed in stealth is one of my favorite traits of the Rogue right now, and I would definitely put this one to good use.

Subterfuge Your Stealth breaks 3 seconds after dealing or receiving damage, rather than doing so immediately. That extra three seconds gives you time to cast 1-2 additional attacks before your stealth is broken. If you happen to have your hands on a stash of Thistle Tea (restores 100 Energy) then you can double-Ambush people with this talent. Otherwise it’s a fair amount of protection from having your stealth broken by AoE damage and gives you a chance to use attacks like Ambush even after someone spots and attacks you if you can get behind them in time.

Shadow Focus abilities no longer cost Energy while you are stealthed. We’ll have to wait to see what abilities we have available to us before we know how good this one really is. It does mean you can Sap ALL THE THINGS for free, and you can Ambush for free instead of 60 Energy. If you have access to Ambush and Backstab then you can do Ambush/BS/BS combos with this for some very high damage, but we don’t know enough about other changes to know how good this will be just yet.

Shamans: Frozen Power, Earthgrab Totem, Repulsion Totem
Stop! Freezy ti- wait, didn’t we just do this?

Frozen Power Frost Shock now also roots the target in ice for 5 seconds. This is an existing talent deep in the Enhancement tree. I really like that this is going to be available at early levels as a ranged freeze is super cool, especially when it’s an instant cast like Frost Shock. When playing a DPS spec, I’m pretty sure I would want this one for that extra level of control knowing that I’m going to freeze the one I want to freeze (hello EFC) and I can do it at a range.

Earthgrab Totem summons a totem for 45 seconds that pulses every second to root all enemies within 8 yards for 5 seconds. Recently rooted enemies will instead have their movement speed reduced by 50%. This talent is currently deep in the Elemental tree, but it’s a pretty sweet spell. The only thing that I’m concerned about is what kind of survival this totem is going to have. If a hunter can one-shot it or a caster can wand it to death in a second, then it’s still good but not very. If it has a decent health pool, then it’s going to be fantastic.

Repulsion Totem summons a toem for 15 seconfds that repels enemies. In the world of PvP this thing is call “Totem of complete and total garbage”. If it repels Hunter and Warlock pets then it might be useful, otherwise it’s worthless.

Warlocks: Dark Regeneration, Soul Leech, Harvest of Life
There’s a reason my high school mascot was a Harvester…of Life.

Dark Regeneration (3 min cooldown) restores 50% of your Maximum health over 25 seconds. This one is a little…odd. On the one hand, that’s what heck of a healing spell, but on the other…that’s going to take forever. It feels like Gift of the Naaru to me, which is a bit too little too late to really matter in most cases. Still, that is a lot of healing and flag carriers could especially make good use of that.

Soul Leech Shadowbolt, Incinerate, and Malefic Grasp heal you for 25% of the damage dealt. I’d have to see some damage numbers and cast times to really be able to say how powerful this could be. My initial thoughts are something along the lines of, yes please thank you!

Havest of Life (channeled) drains life from the target and all targets within 20 yards, causing 94 Shadow damage and restoring 2% of the caster’s total health per target every 1 second. Lasts 3 seconds. Empowered Channel: recasting this spell before it finishes boosts the duration by 3 seconds. Stacks 5 times. Now THIS is what I’m talking about. I’d like to see the mana cost and damage potential for the appropriate level before saying too much about this one, but I love the look of it so far.

Warriors: Juggernaut, Double Time, Warbringer

Juggernaut you can charge every 12 seconds instead of every 20. This one isn’t bad, I guess. More charging is always good, but I don’t know that it’s good enough to really thrill me. If they removed the restriction of Charge to be used during combat then this could be a really useful talent, otherwise I admit I’m a bit disappointed in this talent.

Double Time you can use Charge twice before incurring its cooldown. Now this one is really interesting. As far as I’m aware, Charge can still only be used outside of combat, but using it puts you into combat, which leaves me confused. If you can use it during combat and twice in a row, then that’s pretty cool for chasing down flag carriers or even for returning the flag yourself.

Warbringer your Charge also roots the target for 5 seconds. Now this is something to write home to mama about. Right now Warriors aren’t in the best of places in low level PvP, but adding some more utility and CC to their toolbox just might do the trick. Assuming that charge hasn’t been changed to allow use during combat by default, I’d say this is the clear winner. If Charge actually is being changed, then it’s a bit of a toss up depending on the situation.

Foreseen Overall Changes
So to sum all of those changes up, this is what I see happening with low level PvP.

1. The return of CC
2. Hunters even more OP
3. Faster games

With so many classes getting CC talents in the first tier, I don’t know how we could not see more CC used in the low level brackets. The only thing I like better than killing my opponents is locking them down to the point that I can hear their furious screams over the internet, even over the sound of my own maniacal laughter. On the one hand, this is probably going to piss me off more than once (being on the receiving end of it), but on the other I look forward to adding some more tactical choices to the mix.

I don’t want #2 up there to seem too much like I’m crying here. I like playing classes that are super powerful. I love playing with Sub Rogues and Arcane Mages, and seeing how many kills I can get out of a lowbie game. But, there does come a point where things are so unbalanced that they just aren’t fun anymore. There’s an honest to goodness problem with the power of Hunters in low level PvP right now, and things only seem to be getting worse. I don’t want to see them nerfed into oblivion, but I would like to see them pulled back a bit for low levels. We’re almost at the point right now that matches are decided before the gates even fall, based purely on the number of Hunters on the opposing team.

I see faster games coming from a couple of reasons. First, because a lot of classes get more speed buffs which does have a direct impact on the speed of WSG and AB matches. Second because of the increased CC options. Teams who use CC well are going to make short work of teams that don’t know how to use it or how to fight against it. If neither team uses it, then matches stay the same. If both teams use it, then we could end up seeing longer games. With non-premades still being the norm though, I think we’ll end up with faster games overall. Personally, I’d love to see a match where both teams were making good use of CC and we had to honestly struggle for a win.

 
4 Comments

Posted by on October 25, 2011 in Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

 

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Project: High Heals

06 May

Finding information on how to level a particular class in a DPS spec isn’t hard to do. Most classes (except Rogues, apparently nobody likes being a Rogue) have at least a decent blogging community dedicated to them and/or you can find posts for it on forums all over the place. You can find most of the same for leveling as a tank as well. But when it comes to healing guides, almost all of them are aimed at healing in heroics or raids, or how to switch from a non-healing spec to the healing spec.

Personally, I don’t like just grabbing a random spec I’ve never tried before when my character is a high level. I don’t like learning when I have all the tools I’ll ever need thrown at me all at once. Rather than grabbing a spec I know nothing about I prefer to reroll the character, especially if the spec in question is tanking or healing because of their nature. If I pick up an unfamiliar DPS spec my team can usually carry me while I’m busying sucking and trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing, but I can’t do that as a tank or a healer because I’m the only one filling that role at the time and my failure would lead to the group’s failure.

I believe that the best way to become truly skilled and knowledgeable about a particular spec is to level in it. I’m not saying it’s the only way, you could certainly do it without ever experiencing the spec until you reach max level, but that knowledge is so much easier to pick up if you’ve had the time to learn about each and every ability as it becomes available to you rather than just having them all thrown at you at once.

So I’m going to do a little mini-project, which is to level a character form 1-85 in their healing spec the entire way. I know it can be done, my wife did it on her first Paladin. The results of this test, which are going to be based on how fun it was and how hard/easy it is will determine whether it becomes a larger project (leveling all of the healing classes in their healing spec), or if I just say, “that was fun, but uh…yeah, never again.”

But I’m not going to take the easy route, I’m not just sticking to LFG where four other people do my leveling for me; I’m going to experience the leveling content in every aspect of the game. So I’m going to take the healer(s) into dungeons, I’m going to take them into battlegrounds and I’m going to quest with them all with the healing spec. I’m not even going to purchase dual specs for them because I know if I do I’m going to be tempted to cheat and grab a DPS spec that I’m sure I’ll tell myself “oh, it’s just for a BG or two so I can throw someone off of the Lumber Mill in AB.” None of that, these suckers are going to live or die (/delete) by their own healing power.

Having done at least some leveling with all of the healing classes with varying degrees of healing experience, I already know a few things off the bat about each class:

  • Druid: Can be very boring as HoT’s are very powerful and quick/instant cast.
  • Paladin: Some healing spells or related spells can be used offensively to help leveling.
  • Priest: Similar to the Pally, they have some heals that can be used offensively.
  • Shaman: Passive healing from Earth Shield can make up for time spent DPSing.

Knowing that Druid healing is frequently boring, I’m less inclined to have them be the class I use for the first test. On the flip side, their powerful HoT’s could very well make up for their boring factor by allowing me to deal damage during the downtime. I’m still considering the druid, but right now they’re the lowest on the list.

Paladin healing I’ve only done in the low level battlegrounds and tiny bit in Northrend during Wrath. I don’t think I have any real “need” for another Paladin right now, so I might leave this one for one of the last slots as well as the character would likely end up deleted and rarely/never played.

The Priest is a class I’m really enjoying right now, but still in the Shadow spec that I’ve recently blogged about. I’m not a great Priest healer and that’s something that I want to work on, and I’d really love to learn it by leveling instead of just flailing into it on my 85. As such, this is a big contender for first or second. I would likely go Holy over Disc because Holy is labeled more as the “used for heals only” spec where Disc is more “use for heals or leveling”.

Lastly we have the Shaman, a class I’m also having a lot of fun leveling right now, but both of my existing Shaman are in DPS specs. My Resto Shaman experience extends to about level 25 as my current Enhancement Shaman was originally a level 19 Resto Twink (which is why he’s named Tiklemonster, btw). I know that Shaman healers are very powerful at low levels as even after Cataclysm I managed to solo a couple of the low level dungeons, one of which (SFK) my buddy Cynwise hasn’t managed to solo yet on his super-twinked 19 Prot Warrior…yet. This ranks the Shaman near the Priest in priority as I had a lot of fun with the Resto spec.

So for right now I’m left with the big question – Resto Shaman or Holy Priest.

 
14 Comments

Posted by on May 6, 2011 in Caster, Class, Druid, Leveling, Paladin, Play Styles, Player vs Player, Priest, Shaman

 

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Paladin Leveling: 70-85 Protection

16 Feb

Here we are now in the final stretch, finishing up Wrath content and both starting and finishing Cataclysm leveling content as you prepare for your gear and reputation grinds as you strive to get your gear improved enough for heroics and eventually raids as well.

This guide will get you all the way to the level cap so you’ll have all of your spells and talents available to you at the end of this. If you aren’t already familiar with your various cooldowns and buffs, then now is the time to learn them. Go queue yourself up for a random dungeon and make a point of using all of your cooldowns at some point. If you’re still under level 81 then queue for Wrath dungeons so that you don’t have to worry about new mechanics just yet, and focus on learning how and when to use the spells you may have been ignoring up to this point.

As always, remember that my guides are focused on getting you leveled up. I’m not here to get you ready for raiding, that’s for other bloggers who focus specifically on certain classes and the raiding aspect of the game.

Playing a Protection Paladin
So now you’re in Northrend level content and moving up towards Cataclysm content and the level cap. As far as playing your Prot Pally goes there’s not much difference at all, save that Northrend mobs are harder than Outlands mobs and Cataclysm mobs are harder than Northrend mobs. You can still do big AoE pulls in all the content you’ll level through in this range, though I suggest you go back to starting with small pulls of 2-4 until you get a feel for the mobs and then work your way up to bigger groups.

Questing as Prot is both simple and effective. Keep on doing what you’ve been doing the whole time, keep an eye on your health when you enter new areas so you know what to expect in the way of healing and pulling, but otherwise just have at it.

If you’re looking for specs, rotations, gear guides, and so forth for getting into heroics and raids, then I direct you to Righteous Defense, a blog written by my buddy @Rhidach, who I consider my go-to source for end game Paladin information.

Protection-Specific Tips
I don’t have much in the way of specific tips for you in this level range other than I love taking advantage of kill quests to use my AoE. I didn’t have any trouble at all with Northrend group quests until I got to the last couple of levels in Northrend, there’s one Group 5 quest in Ice Crown that I couldn’t handle at 78. Not a big deal, I just skipped it and went on to other quests.

As you get into Cataclysm you’ll notice a big jump in how powerful mobs are compared to how relatively weak your gear is if you’re leveling straight through and weren’t raiding in Wrath before. While not specific to Prot, I suggest you check the Auction House or your crafting alts to get yourself some Cataclysm gear from level 78 on. Get yourself a new set of armor, a new weapon, and a new shield. You should be able to get a couple of rings and a neck for fairly cheap since Jewelcrafters mass produce them to level their profession. A good weapon and shield are probably going to cost you a couple hundred gold each, but it’ll be worth it.

Important Spells & Abilities

Level 70-85:

  • Avenging Wrath: Increases all damage and healing caused by 20% for 20 sec.
  • Resistance Aura: Gives additional Fire, Frost and Shadow resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
  • Turn Evil: The targeted undead or demon enemy will be compelled to flee for up to 20 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only one target can be turned at a time.
  • Hand of Sacrifice: Places a Hand on the party or raid member, transfering 30% damage taken to the caster. Lasts 12 sec or until the caster has transfered 100% of their maximum health. Players may only have one Hand on them per Paladin at any one time.
  • Mastery: Divine Bulwark: Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of Mastery increases block chance by an additional 2.25%.
  • Inquisition: Consumes all Holy Power to increase your Holy Damage by 30%. Lasts 4 sec per charge of Holy Power consumed.
  • Divine Radiance: Heals all friendly targets within 0 yards for up to 683 every sec, with effectiveness diminishing on targets farther than 8 yards away and for each additional player target beyond 6. Lasts 10 sec.
  • Guardian of Ancient Kings: Summons an Ancient Guardian who reduces all damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds.

Avenging Wrath, at level 72, is what gives your Paladin their “wings”. It’s a flat 20% increase in damage and healing that you do. It’s a great buff and you should use it whenever you have the opportunity to do so, whether you’re solo questing or tanking.

Level 76 gives you Resistance Aura which is a pretty decent buff when used at the right now. If you’re in a situation where you’re going to take elemental damage and you don’t particularly need any of your other auras, then you might as well use this one. If you aren’t taking significant elemental damage though, I wouldn’t bother with it. As Protection Paladins we can take a melee style beating for days and just keep right on going, but we have very little resistance to Magic damage, so if you find yourself facing a lot of casters it might be a good idea to switch this baby on for a bit.

At level 78 you’re able to send the fear of righteousness into undead and demons thanks to Turn Evil. It’s a fear spell that can only target Undead and Demons, but at least it’s somewhat reliable CC when it can be used. There aren’t a whole lot of undead in Cataclysm, but there are some demons hanging around here and there. Honestly I only use this in AoE situations so that I can get a mob to socially agro his buddies for me. I leave the CC to other classes when I’m tanking.

At level 80 you get both Hand of Sacrifice and access to your Mastery, Divine Bulwark. Hand of Sacrifice is a great spell for saving the lives of your teammates by taking 30% of the damage they deal and directing it to yourself instead. The only time I cast this as a tank is when my healer is taking damage and my taunts are on cooldown. I use this a lot more during the rare moments I’m in a spec other than Prot. We make great use of our Mastery stat.

Level 81 sends in the (Spanish) Inquisition, our final method of burning Holy Power, this time to increase our Holy Damage. I’m not going to lie to you, I forget this thing exists constantly. It seems to me it’s more of a DPS spell, though it could of course be used for tanking as well. I generally don’t bother with it, but that’s me.

Level 83 brings Holy Radiance which is an AoE heal centered on you that heals for more the closer they are to you. I actually like using this as Prot, even though it’s a heal and my heals typically suck. It’s something I can cast during combat to add a little buffer to myself and the other melee DPS. When I talk about the 939 rotation down below, this is one of those spells I fit into a 9-slot that doesn’t typically belong there.

And finally, level 85 gives us Guardian of Ancient Kings, a spell that has a different effect based on your spec. For Prot that means we get 50% damage reduction for 12 seconds. It’s a great way to mitigate some damage and ease up the load on your healers, or to add some more survivability when you’re solo grinding large packs of mobs.

Leveling a Protection Paladin
Buffs List: Righteous Fury, Seal of Insight/Truth, Blessing of Might/Kings, Retribution/Devotion Aura
Multi-Target Rotation: Avenger’s Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Wrath, Hammer of the Righteous, Judgement, Hammer of the Righteous
Single-Target Rotation: Exorcism, Avenger’s Shield, Crusader Strike, Judgement, Crusader Strike, Holy Wrath, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous
Boss Rotation 1: Avenger’s Shield, Judgement, Divine Plea, Shield of the Righteous, Crusader Strike, Holy Wrath, Crusader Strike, Judgement, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous
Boss Rotation 2: Divine Plea, Shield of the Righteous, Crusader Strike, Judgement, Avenger’s Shield, Consecrate, Holy Wrath, “939″

The Buffs List contains the buffs you should have up at all times. You’ll notice that most of those have a This/That option as well. I tend to use Seal of Insight at all times while I’m leveling. Most mobs aren’t going to live long enough to make SoTruth worth it, and it’s better to keep your life and mana topped off instead. For Blessings I generally use Might when soloing and Kings when I’m in a group or a Battle Ground. The Aura is up to you, though I lean towards Retribution unless I’m taking a ton of damage.

The reason why the Boss Rotation 1 changes from everything else we’re doing is because you want to start off as strong as possible on the threat front. This is my own preference for boss fights, it’s how I like to handle them. Avenger’s Shield and Judgement give you a decent start on threat but the real kicker is using Divine Plea which your talents trigger to give you 3 Holy Power and Shield of the Righteousness burns those three for a big burst of threat as well. Doing this should put you far enough ahead of all your DPS that you won’t have to worry about them pulling off of you. Also, if you have your Avenger’s Shield cooldown reset from your talent procs go ahead and fit it in whenever you have a moment to do so.

Boss Rotation 2 brings up the mysterious Paladin rotation known as 939. Prior to 939 you’re building up your threat with various cooldowns and then settling into the 939 rotation. See the following section for details on what 939 is, and how to use it.

Understanding the 939 Rotation
939 – Those numbers more or less represent the cooldowns of your spells. The 9′s represent your longer cooldown attacks while the 3′s always represent Crusader Strike (single target) or Hammer of the Righteous (AoE). So the basic idea to do Special Attack > Crusader Strike > Special Attack, and repeat that over and over. That’s why Paladins are “so easy” to tank with, because they have a literal rotation and it’s easy to follow.

The easy part of 939 is remembering that you’re going to use Crusader Strike or Hammer of Righteousness every time they’re off cooldown, which will end up being every-other attack.

The “hard” part, which really isn’t hard, is remembering when to use your 9′s, which are all of your other special attacks. On one hand you could say to just use whatever happens to not be on cooldown and you’ll probably do just fine while you’re leveling. But the key to making 939 work, and work well, is knowing the priority of your 9′s.

Before you learn their priority, you probably need to know what the 9′s are: Judgement, Avenger’s Shield, Holy Wrath, and Shield of the Righteous. There are also a couple of spells that can fill the 9′s slot that don’t have a dedicated place in the rotation and instead are used as needed in a 9 slot: Word of Glory, Consecration, Hammer of Wrath, Hammer of Justice, and Rebuke.

Priority of 9′s: Shield of the Righteous (only with 3 Holy Power), Judgement, [Exception*], Avenger’s Shield, Consecration, Holy Wrath

Shield of the Righteous takes the top spot because if you don’t use it when you’re sitting at 3 Holy Power then you’re going to waste Holy Power with the next Crusader/Hammer cast that you make unless you throw off your whole rotation. Judgement provides you with a lot of different beneficial effects, so use it when you can to reap the benefits.

The [Exception*] is when the target is below 20% health. In those situations Hammer of Wrath takes a priority slot right behind Judgement. If you don’t have 3 Holy Power yet and Judgement isn’t on cooldown, cast Hammer of Wrath before all the others.

Avenger’s Shield, Consecration, and Holy Wrath fill out the remainder of the priority list. I’m not a big fan of Consecration in this expansion, so I usually leave it out completely, but that’s just me.

The other spells I mentioned being able to fill your 9′s slots with are all situational. You won’t necessarily be able to fit in a Hammer of Justice or Rebuke cast on the 9 slot as interrupts are usually needed right now instead of whenever it’s convenient for you, and if you’re in desperate need of a Word of Glory heal then of course you need it when you need it.

Talent Spec: Protection 85

  • Improved Judgement 2/2: Increases the range of your Judgement by 20 yards.
  • Crusade 3/3: Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Templar’s Verdict by 30%, and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by 30%. In addition, for 15 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor, your next Holy Light heals for an additional 300%.
  • Pursuit of Justice 2/2: You have a 100% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect. In addition, increases your movement and mounted movement speed by 15%. This effect does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
  • Rule of Law 3/3: Increases the critical effect chance of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous and Word of Glory by 15%.

I like to take Improved Judgement as my first point outside of the Prot tree. It’s great for pulling additional mobs, patrols, or adds when you don’t have a taunt handy (or want to save it), and for having more to do while you’re rushing in on a boss. It’s not required, but I like it a lot personally. Switching these points to Eye for an Eye would be a decent alternative I imagine.

Crusade is a flat damage increase of 30% to two of our most frequently used spells: Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous. I also like it for the 300% healing from Holy Light after you kill an honor/experience target so that I can easily top off after a big pull with a single, cheap heal.

Pursuit of Justice is a great little talent. First it gives free Holy Power when you’re stunned, feared, or immobilized and then it has the added benefit of increasing your movement speed by 15% on top of it. Increasing your speed from talents frees up an enchant slot on your boots too.

We finish off our talent points with Rule of Law, increasing the crit chance of three of our most common spells.

Again, I want to point out that my guides are here to help you level your toon, not necessarily to get your ready for raiding and farming heroics. If you want to get serious about end game content then you’re much better off looking at someone who’s focused on end game. I level, it’s what I do, and I can help you with that just fine, but end game is not my strong point.

Glyphs
All of your glyph slots will be open to you as of level 75, so you’ve now got 3 of each type to fill. Glyphs are listed in the order I would suggest you take them from a leveling perspective.

Prime

Now that all of our glyph slots are open, it’s time to fill them up with the good stuff. I list these in the order I suggest that you take them.

Major

Again, I list these in the order I suggest you take them. One glyph that might stand out as an oddity to you is the Glyph of Lay on Hands. I mention it solely because of the mana issues that many people are having right now, especially healers. Lay on Hands restores a lot of health, but it also restores some mana to the target as well, and being able to use this on a healer who’s out of mana can be the difference between a loot roll and a corpse run.

Minor

Paladin minor glyphs are crap. We get six glyphs that all do exactly the same thing, reducing mana cost of their respective spells by 50%. Grab the three you cast most often and go with it.

Gearing Up as Protection
As a melee class we’re looking for stats that impact our melee performance such as Strength, Attack Power, Hit, Crit and Haste. As a tank though, you also want to look for survival stats such as Stamina, Dodge and Parry.

Stat Priority: Strength and Stamina, Mastery, Dodge and Parry, Other melee stuff

Use that as a general guide for your stats. If you’re looking to get geared up for heroics and raids then I suggest you do a little more research elsewhere to find the actual stat weights.

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2011 in Class, Guide, Leveling, Melee, Paladin

 

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