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World of Warcraft Paladin Strategy Guide by Alasdair Lo
System: PC, CD-ROM
E-mail: kylohk@netvigator.com
Date: 30th March, 2006
Version 1.6.2
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Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
---a. Reasons why I Chose a Paladin
---b. Getting Started
3. Racial Characteristics
4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job
---a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you
---b. Equipment
---c. Auction House
---d. My current equipment
---e. Paladin Armor Sets
5. Paladin Skills
---a. Blessings
---b. Auras
---c. For the Undead's Eyes Only
---d. Seals and Offense
---e. Healing and Protection
6. What you should do for a Living
---a. Recommended Professions
---b. Talents
7. The General Strategy
---a. Going Solo
---b. Partying in an Instance
---c. Hoarding Horde Kills
8. Some Interesting Tidbits
---b. About Earning Money in Detail
---c. Letters from Readers
9. Conclusion
Appendix I. Feedback Information
----------------
1. Introduction
----------------
World of Warcraft is Blizzard Entertainment's first foray into the
world of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for
short. This game allows the player to create his own character, either
of the Alliance Side or the Horde Side and play in a virtual world
filled with other characters created by other players. The game is set
in the continuing conflict between the Alliance of Humans, Dwarves,
Gnomes and Night Elves, and the Horde of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and
Undead. So, if you create an Alliance Character, not only you can
complete quests for the 4 races, you can also engage in combat with
other Horde players, in a Player versus Player (PvP) Combat. (Of course,
a truce had been signed between the Alliance leader and the Horde Chief,
but tension is still existent.)
As for most MMORPGs, there are plenty of servers that require
maintenance. Therefore, a dedicated staff will have to be used to fix
errors, a team of gamemasters are to be hired to monitor all channels
in order to help players and enforce the terms of service. All of this
requires money, and hence a monthly subscription is required for all
who wish to play. Subscription policies may wary from country to
country. In the UK, where I am currently living in, you should pay
£8.99 a month to pay the game. (In Hong Kong, where I came from, things
are nastier. This is because you have to PAY BY THE HOUR!)
In World of Warcraft, as of now, there are a total of 8 races, and 9
classes. They are the Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest,
Shaman, Druid and Warlock. Each class has their own distinctive
fighting styles, and it is hard to judge each class in a short period,
since it may take weeks to raise a character up. This is why I decided
to choose one single character, and focus on it, like many other
GameFAQs writers have done before. That class is the Paladin. (Oh, and
I am currently playing with my Paladin character, that should help me
in my writing.) Let's begin, and stop with the chatting.
I have now added information on how a Paladin should play in a raid.
Please note that what I am stating contradicts with what most players
think about the Paladin after the 1.9 patch.
*****IMPORTANT!*****
I will appreciate it if any experienced Paladins share their thoughts
about the class in emails. They may be added. What I am interested in
the most are e-mails concerning:
* How to Maximize a Paladin's front line capabilities
* The good equipment that a Paladin should get after
* Defeating all classes in PvP combat
* Why so many Paladins whine in the World of Warcraft Class Forums
---------------------------------
a. Reasons why I chose a Paladin
---------------------------------
The first time I heard of the term "Paladin" was when I played the Age
of Empires II: The Age of Kings (A Real Time Strategy Game made by
Ensemble Studios and Microsoft). In that game, a Paladin is the most
powerful cavalry character. I also came to the Paladin in Command and
Conquer: Generals (An RTS game made by EA Games). This time, it's a
tank of the American Army. Their motto is "Preserving freedom" and
"Doing what's right". This type of honorly mood is why I want to become
a Paladin. I just like to play as the good guys, after all.
Another reason I chose the Paladin is due to his melee abilities. The
Paladin can wield most powerful melee weapons like maces, swords and
polearms. At the same time, they can wear considerably heavy armor.
Starting from Mail in the lower levels, they can learn to wear heavy
Plate Mail in the later levels. This gives them all the edge they need
to survive. In fact, the Paladin is one of the two classes in the World
of Warcraft who can use Plate Armor. (The other class is the Warrior, a
pure blood and guts fighting class) At the same time, they are also one
of three classes that use Shields in Combat. Shields are held Off Hand
and many give a large chunk of armor protection to the person equipping
it. So, it's always good to look out for shields. For all I know, only
Warriors and Shamans can learn to use Shields aside from the Paladins.
At this point, one may ask, if you like direct combat that much, why
not pick a Warrior or a Rogue? Sure, I will explain myself to you.
Paladins may have less damage potential than the Warrior or less attack
speed and versatility than the Rogue. At the same time, Paladins cannot
learn to use ranged weapons like Bows, Crossbows and Guns.
However, they do have some things that Warriors and Rogues cannot do.
Those features come in form of their holy spells. Paladins get the
ability to give abilities that enhance themselves and others (they are
known as buffs in the in game jargon). If you are fighting as a Warrior
or Rogue, many special moves can only be executed at certain conditions
For instance, you may have to be behind the enemy, or you have wait
until the next melee hit before it takes effect! The Paladin's
offensive spells often work instantly and regardless of the direction
you face. At the same time, they get to heal and resurrect.
Now, whenever a Warrior or Rogue takes damage, the best way to heal
themselves fast is to rely on perishable items, like food, potions and
bandages. And even so, potions and bandages cannot be applied that
often, and they all tend to run out! Mana, on the other hand, can
regenerate over time, and thanks to a certain buff, they can regenerate
even faster! So, Paladins are really self sustaining people, and can
solo very well. Their battle of attrition techniques is why I can
survive very long battles against 2 to 3 enemies at once, which other
classes often cannot handle.
Another interesting feature of the Paladins is that they get a FREE
warhorse at level 40. Other classes but the Warlocks don't have this
luxury. They have to spend a lot of Gold at that stage to buy the mount
(I remember it's around 100 Gold!) With the Paladin, all you need to do
is to walk up to someone with a yellow exclamation over their head in
the Cathedral of Stormwind and the warhorse is yours to summon! With
all that money saved, have fun buying tough armor at the auction house.
Some people are concerned that when selecting people for a group,
people will pick the Warrior as the main tank over you and the Priest
as the healer over you. This is because "people prefer specialists to
all balanced but average". However, whenever I have to play an instance,
I never seem to get left out. So, that really is not a concern for me.
In conclusion, the Paladin is a hybrid warrior/priest that leans
towards the warrior side. (Unlike the Shaman, that leans towards the
mage side). Their considerably balanced traits are what drove me to
choose them. I myself have a tendency to choose the class that is the
most all rounded in games that provide such options. (eg. The Clavat in
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles) If you prefer this type of fighting
style over "specialists", then the Paladin is for you. But if you lean
towards one trait, then select some other class, understand?
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you choose the Paladin class to play a class that fights like a
warrior with heals and weaker physical damage to balance it out, you
are VERY LIKELY to be disappointed. In fact, the fighting styles can be
very different.
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b. Getting Started
-------------------
This section concerns how you set up your World of Warcraft game for
you MMORPG experience.
Now, assume that you have just bought the World of Warcraft game disk
from the store. You take it home, and open the box. Inside, is the
instruction manual. You should find a CD-Key on the manual. You will
need to use this key to create your account. But let's not worry about
that first. First install the game. Go through the wizard and follow
the instructions. It takes a considerable amount of time to install
World of Warcraft. It is so big that it has 5 whole disks! While it's
installing, you can create your account.
Go visit World of Warcraft's Europe website. It is at: http://www.wow-
europe.com. You will find the latest news about the game on the main
page. To the right is a series of options. One of them is "Account
Creation". Click it to create your account. There are a total of 7
steps to take in order to create a new account.
Firstly, you must accept the Terms of Use. At the same time, you will
be informed that Blizzard reserves the right to scan your computer for
any cheating devices at all times. If you accept that, check the box.
(You HAVE to check it to proceed anyway!)
Then, you will be asked to input your authentication key. The key can
be found on the game manual. Copy it character by character into the
space. At the same time, if you are using a Guest Pass from a friend,
input that key from the small slip of paper you have and click next.
In the third step, you will be asked to provide your contact
information. This is the usual step you take to register for many
online accounts. You should write down you name, address, e-mail and
other mumbo jumbo there. Next step.
Afterwards, you will be asked to choose your payment method. You get to
pay using credit cards or debit cards. You get to use MasterCard, Visa
and American Express for Credit Cards. At the same time, you can pay
using Delta and Visa Electron. If you are a UK customer, then you get
the choice of using Switch or Solo. (Note: Users of Maestro Cards
should select Switch, since Switch has been acquired by the MasterCard
company.) Click next to proceed.
In Step 5, Payment Details, you get to write down the details of your
payment methods. You have to write down your Card Number, its Expiry
Date, and its issue number, if there is any. You also get to choose the
subscription duration. There are 3 choices currently available. If you
take a 1 month subscription, it will cost £8.99, if you take a 3 month
subscription, it will cost £25.17, on the other hand, if you are a die
hard player, you might as well subscribe for 6 whole months for £46.19.
Please note that the game comes with 1 month free subscription out of
the box. So, your bank account will be debited after 1 month.
It's obvious that the more months you subscribe for at once, the
cheaper per month it is. Then, you will come to the account creation
page, where you set the name of your account, and its password. You can
also create a password reminder question, like what your mother's
maiden name is. However, many people do know your mother's maiden name,
(like your evil cousin). To thwart such attempts, consider encrypting
your name. (eg. Writing it in leetspeak, or alternating capital letters
for instance). The last step is to confirm everything, when it's
confirmed, you are ready to play!
Well not, actually, you must ALWAYS be at the latest version of the
game to play. And, so, you must download the patch, either by the
Blizzard Downloader or a mirror site. I do not recommend the Blizzard
Downloader, since it is horribly slow! Instead, go over to
http://www.filefront.com and search for the World of Warcraft patches.
As of now, the latest update is version 1.9 patch. Download that, and
install.
Double click the World of Warcraft icon on the desktop, and you will
first be provided with the latest in game news. Then, click play and
you are in. Type in your login name and password and login. You will be
asked for your preferred language and playing style. There are a total
of 4 realms (servers). Normal, PvP, RP and RPPvP. Normal realms allow
you to choose when to participate in Player versus Player combat. When
it's turned on, players of opposing factions can attack you, and you
can attack them. If it's turned off, then you are safe. For PvP servers,
you must always be on the lookout, since players of opposing factions
can ALWAYS attack you! Hence it's a Player versus Player realm. Role
Playing Realms are purely single player. You are to complete quests,
and quests, and quests. Nothing more, you can NEVER attack any players
of opposing factions. Choose this if you are the people oriented
towards single play. As for RPPvP, it's a hybrid realm.
I personally recommend Normal Realms, since you get to choose, and it's
the most flexible of all realms. You should be automatically assigned
to a realm. If you are not satisfied, you can always click View Realm
List to change Realms. Then, you can click Create New Character to
create your character.
If you want to create a Paladin, you must either select a Human or
Dwarf. Then, you can customize their gender, looks, and such, and make
a name for them. Then click Create Character to create it. With your
new character selected. Click Enter World and you are all ready!
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2. Updates
---------------
Version 1.6.2:
Added information about the Lawbringer and Judgement sets. Also rated
each set with a score.
Version 1.6.1:
Added information about the Lightforge and Soulforge armor sets.
Version 1.55:
I have added the walkthrough for a solo run of the Scarlet Monastery
Library in Chapter 9b.
Version 1.5:
Added some specific information on killing Mages.
Version 1.45:
Added the description of my shield in the equipment chapter, and added
a new letter from a reader.
Version 1.4:
Added a new section that talks about earning money in detail. Also
mentioned that you can make Elemental Reflectors as an engineer.
Version 1.35:
I have started to list out my own Paladin equipment.
Version 1.3:
Added a small section on raids.
Version 1.2:
Added some formulas when it comes to stats, and made an adjustment to
one of the suggested talent builds. Also added letters I received from
readers.
Version 1.1:
Added the PvP section.
--------------------------
3. Racial Characteristics
--------------------------
As I said in Chapter 1b, you must either choose the Dwarven or Human
Race to make a Paladin. Since different races have different
characteristics, the Paladin you make can be slightly different than
the one of the other race. Here's the lowdown on the racial
characteristics, and see whether they can benefit your Paladin.
---------------
Dwarves
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Frost Resistance: Frost Resistance by default is 10 (passive)
Gun Specialization: Your Maximum Skill for guns is always 5 points
higher than the other races (passive)
Stoneform: A technique that gives you immunity to poison, disease and
bleeding. At the same time, you will get 5% more armor. This effect
lasts for 20 seconds and takes 3 minutes to cool down.
Treasure Finding: When active, this ability shows the positions of all
nearby Treasure Chests on you mini-map. This thing stays active when it
is on.
Of all the 4 characteristics of dwarves, only 2 of them are really
beneficial. They are the Frost Resistance and the Stoneform. After all,
many enemy mages use Frost attacks, and a little more resistance goes a
long way. At the same time, it is important that you can be made to be
immune to effects that can cause gradual health loss.
However, I find Gun Specialization to be completely useless. Why? It's
because Paladins can't use ANY ranged weapons. What's the purpose of
specialization if you can't even use it huh? As for Treasure finding, I
don't think it's a good specialization. The only thing that can really
help is to help you get rich quick. (The chances of finding rare items
or above are just so remote, that you have to shuffle through a bit too
many of them to get what you want!)
---------------
Humans
---------------
Perception: This technique allows you human player to be more alert of
stealthy enemies. This lasts for 30 seconds and has a cool down time of
3 minutes.
Human Spirit: Humans get a 5% bonus on their spirit. (Passive)
Diplomacy: Whenever humans do things or complete quests that benefit a
particular faction, their reputation will rise 10% faster than the
other races. (Passive)
Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization: Humans get 5 more
proficiency points for their Mace and Sword skills, no matter whether
they are for the 1 handed weapons or 2 handed weapons. (Passive)
Judging by all of this, I find the characteristics of humans much more
beneficial, as nothing is useless. Paladins are a class that is a tank,
and caster in one. Hence maintaining high health and mana is important.
If they can get back to fighting fit status faster, every bit helps.
Reputation is important for certain factions, since when you reach a
certain status in their eyes, you can get a discount on all goods, and
even purchase some new rare items! The faster you reach at least
Honored Status, the better it will be for you.
Now, Paladins are fighting characters that usually use Swords and Maces.
In fact, you should start with a 2 handed mace. Now, due to some
fortunate coincidence, Humans just get what they need for their weapons.
This is just a great deal. Sure, it may seem little late in the game,
but it can always make all the difference.
I don't really care about Perception. Since you can detect most
stealthy enemies just by hearing their characteristic hum. But if you
want to ambush one, Perception is the way to go.
---------------
Conclusion
---------------
Judging by such characteristics, I find Human Paladins to be a better
choice, even though at the start, the Human Paladin has less Strength,
Stamina and Power than the level 1 Dwarf Paladin.
-----------------------------------------
4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job
-----------------------------------------
In any MMORPG, or any RPG game in particular, stats of a character
determine how strong he is and what his role be in a group. One of the
official weaknesses of a Paladin is that he is a "Gear Dependent" class.
Owing to this, playing a Paladin is like playing Rainbow Six. You must
plan in advance in order to win. In fact, having the wrong stats will
mean defeat even before you have started!
In the World of Warcraft, a character generally has 5 stats. They are
Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Armor.
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a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you
-----------------------------------------------------
Strength:
Strength is the strength of the character, and determines how well he
can hit the enemy target, and directly affects how much damage will be
dealt as well. To be precise, each unit of Strength constitutes 2
attack power to the Paladin.
At the same time, a stronger Paladin will block more damage than one
with less Strength. Please note that the overall attack power of a
Paladin is given by: (Level*3) + (Strength*2) - 20. Divide attack power
by 14 to obtain the damage dealt per second. Now you know.
Agility:
Agility is the speed of the character. It determines on how well he can
dodge the enemy attacks. At the same time, Agility also increases your
armor and determines the chance of you performing a critical strike on
the enemy.
Each unit of Agility is equivalent to an extra 2 points of Armor. For
every 20 units of Agility you have, you have 1% base critical hit
chance. That is barring your weapon skills. At the same time, for every
20 units of Agility you have, you will have 1% extra chance of dodging
an enemy's attacks.
Stamina:
Stamina is directly related to the Paladin's health bar. Each unit of
Stamina is the equivalent of the Paladin having 10 more health points.
Intellect:
Intellect determines how much mana he has. Each unit of Intellect is
equivalent to 15 Mana Points. Intellect also determines the critical
hit chance of the Paladin's Holy abilities. Each 28 Intellect is
equivalent to 1% spell critical chance. Intellect also determines how
fast you improve your weapon skills.
Spirit:
Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. Health is
regenerated outside combat. Each 4 units of Spirit equal 1 unit of
health restored every 2 seconds. At the same time, mana regeneration
every 2 seconds is given by the formula: (Spirit/4) + 8.
Armor:
Armor is the measure of the Paladin's defense. Of course, the higher
armor he has got, the less damage he will take from the enemy,
physically, at least.
The percentage of physical damage reduced is equivalent to:
(Armor/(Armor + 85*(Level of Enemy) + 400))*100%. This value is capped
at 75%. So, no matter how strong your armor is, you can't possibly suck
up more than 75% of the damage the enemy would have dealt you.
Magic Resistance:
Armor is used in defense against magic attacks. When it comes to magic
users like Mages, Shamans, Warlocks and Priests, elemental resistance
matters. There are 5 elements in World of Warcraft. Arcane, Fire,
Nature, Frost and Shadow. Magic Resistance can be obtained by equipping
proper gear, and by applying auras.
The average percentage of damage resisted from an attack is given by
the formula: (Your Resistance/The enemy's level*5)*0.75*100%. This
means that in order to suck up half of the damage dealt by a spell by a
level 60 enemy, you will need 200 Resistance.
Since a Paladin is a melee combat class, it is recommended that
whenever you find armor with stat boosts, you should aim on ones that
improve your strength and stamina.
---------------
d. Equipment
---------------
Whenever you pick an item up, they can be judged by their rarity, with
their colours as a guide. Grey Items are inferior and best sold to
vendors for cash, no matter whether they can be equipped or not. White
Items are the common items, and many can be bought at vendors. Green
Items are the Uncommon Items. They are rarer than white items, and have
better attributes than the white items. Vendors usually have a limited
stock of Green items for sale.
Blue items are where it starts to get pretty rare, most enemies have a
low chance to drop blue items, probably less than 1%. However, most
instance bosses drop Blue Items, and they are much more powerful than
Green Items. Blue Items can be purchased from people of certain
factions, if you get a high enough reputation with them. Blue Items may
be crafted, but they require many obscure materials and sometimes a lot
of the same item.
Purple Items are the Epic Items, even more powerful and rarer than blue
items. It's even harder to craft a Purple Item than a Blue Item! I wish
you the best of luck in getting them, since even bosses rarely have
them. These things sell for tons in the Auction house, but if you can
use them, use them!
---------------
Armor
---------------
Paladins, like the warrior, are quite privileged in the armor
department. At the get go, they get to wear cloth, leather and mail
armor. Of course, the tier of armor that gives the most protection is
the mail armor, and hence you should wear this all the way from the
start, at least for the first 40 levels. Whenever you want to use mail
armor, make sure that it has boosts in your strength and stamina.
Like the Warrior, the Paladin can use shields. Shields provide
additional armor, and are held in the off-hand slot of the Paladin.
With the Shield Equipped, you cannot equip 2 handed weapons.
For the first 20 levels, you should consider buying the standard
generic armor from the shops, since uncommon armor items are hard to
come by.
In many quests that you can find in the game, you will have the
opportunity to get various pieces of armor as a reward, whenever mail
armor is offered, you should complete that quest. These sets of armor
are typically Green and hence are much better than the stuff you will
find in the shops.
At level 40, your Paladin can learn to wear the highest tier of armor
in the game, the Plate Armor. To learn Plate Armor, please go and speak
to any Paladin Trainer in Goldshire or inside the Stormwind Cathedral.
A small price is paid, and then you can use it. Decent Plate Armor can
be purchased at around 1 Gold a piece at the Auction Houses, located in
all major cities. All of them tend to be Green Items, so go and take
your pick.
At the same time, as you level up, Plate items that offer increases in
Intellect should always be among your highest priority. In fact,
Paladins are the only class in the game that wears plate AND uses Mana
as a measure of their special abilities.
---------------
Weapons
---------------
Paladins are a melee fighting class, but their starting weapons differ
from the warriors. Paladins start with the ability to use Maces, and
maces include items like clubs, maces and hammers. You will most likely
be holding a wooden mallet to start off in the early parts of the game!
This really is silly, isn't it? But still, maces will have 2 variants,
1-handed maces and 2-handed maces. You can use both types right off.
Once you reach level 10, you would have the benefit of extending your
range of weapons. In Stormwind, you can go and find a Weapons Trainer
inside the weapons shop in the Trade District. He will teach you how to
use 1 handed swords and 2 handed swords for 10 Silver each. You better
learn them, it's cheap for that period, and swords are quite powerful
and popular, and deal more damage than maces.
Meanwhile, at Ironforge, the Weapon Trainer inside Ironforge will teach
you how to wield an axe. Both 1-handed axes and 2-handed axes will be
taught to you, and they both cost 10 Silver Each.
At level 20, you will learn how to use a Polearm. Polearms are weapons
that are sort of on a stick, like the spears. It costs 2 Gold to learn
Polearms, and after that, you have learnt all possible weapons a
Paladin could use. (No guns allowed, sorry.)
Note that for each weapon, there is a skill bar for them. The higher
the skill you are at using each weapon, the more damage you can deal
and the more accurate you can hit. 1-handed weapons and 2-handed
weapons have separate skill bars. So, at the start, you will find that
you have separate skill bars for one-handed maces and two-handed maces.
Different weapons increase in skill levels at different rates. I find
that maces increase the fastest, followed by swords, axes and Polearms.
I also discovered that if you were to maximize the skill levels of all
you weapons within a level, you could only have time to use both maces,
the polearm, and either both types of swords or both types of axes. So,
if you want to stay up to date, either stick with swords or axes.
Still, learn all the weapons that can be wielded. You don't know when
you will pick up a nice weapon that you CANNOT use. The best way to
catch up will be to grind on enemies with much lower levels than you.
You may not gain experience by defeating those enemies, but you will
still gain proficiency in your weapon skills.
1 handed weapons tend to hit faster than 2 handed weapons, but they
deal less damage. (even if you take the Damage per second into account).
However, you can hold a shield off hand if you were to do so. Since
Shields provide more and more armor as you progress in the game, you
should take care when to use either type of weapon. If you are fighting
an enemy one on one, it's better to deal more damage per hit to end the
battle quickly, and hence 2 handed weapons are a better choice.
At the same time, if you are fighting several enemies at once, which a
Paladin is quite good at doing so, it is much better to sacrifice
damage for extra protection. (I do mean it, shields can provide over
1000 extra armor late in the game!). Use a One-Handed Weapon and a
Shield to fight your way through.
Like the Armor, stick with the stuff purchased from vendors. From
Levels 20 to 30, you will start to find weapons, in particular Green
weapons from quests. So, you should always look for those things over
what you will find from the vendors. You will be pleased to know that
there is a Paladin Quest that is quite laborious, but will result in
you earning a very powerful Blue Two-Handed Mace in the game, so you
must go to the Stormwind Cathedral, and follow through with all the
quests given to you by Dauthorian Rall.
In the mid level 30s onwards, you should go to the Auction House in one
of the major cities and start searching for Blue Items. I would suggest
that you purchase a Blue Polearm, One-Handed Mace and Two Handed Sword.
The reason why I will pass on One-Handed Swords is because you will get
something much better in a quest at the late 30s. I will talk about
that quest later.
-----------------
c. Auction House
-----------------
Don't think the vendors are selling things up to scratch? Then it's
always good to buy things at places where people do meet you needs,
that place is the Auction House. Before the well awaited v1.9 patch,
Auction Houses are found only in Ironforge and one of the Steamwindle
Cartel ports. But now, they can also be found at Stormwind, Darnassus
and Booty Bay. All Auction houses are linked and you can buy stuff
according to what you need. So, if you are looking for a powerful
Polearm, please click weapons, and at the subcategories that follow,
click Polearm and click Search.
The catalog of goods will appear. You can arrange the items by name,
rarity, level or length of auction. I would suggest rarity. A Buyout
option is available for most auctions, and you can buy the good out
instantly with that. Consumer protection really is important, if you
are not careful, you will end up wasting a lot of money on equipment.
---------------
Armor
---------------
I would suggest that unless you are desperate, you should not go buying
armor, even if it is a Blue Item from the auction house until you are
level 40 and are using Plate Armor. This is because basically all Mail
Armor is inferior to Plate Armor, and all that spending will be for
nothing, nothing at all, I say!
Once you reach level 40, it is time for a major revamp of your armor.
Go to the Auction House and buy Plate Armor for bargain prices. (All of
them are Green items, so they do give some nice boosts to you stats.)
Cover yourself from head to toe, well, except the legs, with Plate
Armor. (I will explain this later.) Each piece of Plate Armor typically
sells for around 1 Gold and 50 Silvers (hereby known as 1 G 50 S), so
to cover up your head, shoulders, hands, chest and feet with Plate
Armor, expect to spend around 7 G 50 S. Hey, don't be sad, remember
that you have saved 100 G from buying a horse (or ram!)!
---------------
Weapons
---------------
As I said earlier, you should go to the Auction House in one of the
major cities and start searching for Blue Items when you reach the mid
level 30s, at around level 35. This is when the market begins flooded
with blue items. Since Blue Items typically provide powerful attack and
stat bonuses, I doubt if you would want to be left out. In my
experience, the typical blue weapon sells for around 15 G each, so if
you want to get a Blue Polearm, a Blue Two Handed Sword and a Blue One
Handed Mace, expect to spend 45 G! But fortunately, there are many
places to grind in, for you to get the cash by then.
-----------------
Guide to Selling
-----------------
Besides buying, you can also go out to sell the stuff you get. Things
that you should sell most of the time are crafting materials. For
instance, there are many people who are so desperate for Silk Cloth
that they are willing to pay loads of Silver, or even Gold just to have
a stack of 20 instead of fighting enemies again and again. So, whenever
there is a demand, meet it! Most reagents can be sold at a much higher
price than they sell to the vendors. But whenever you sell, make sure
that your item has taken up its capacity on you slot, so consider
selling an entire stack of 20 copper bars at once, for example. This is
why all gathering professions are just so profitable!
Another thing that sells so well are Blue Items and Above. There are so
many enemies, and very occasionally, they drop the rare items, known as
the Blue Items, judging by the text color they appear in. Can't use it,
or is it just too weak to be equipped? Simple, sell it! Most Blue Items
can sell at 10s of Gold at the Auction House, and it is crucial that
you provide a Buyout Price for the item at that price. Oh, and you must
be careful not to be a curious person and equip the item. All Green,
Blue and Purple Items are bind on equip at least. This means that
whenever you pick it up, it cannot change hands again, which means that
it cannot be sold at all.
As for the Blue Items that are Bind on Pickup, well, if you can equip
it, do so. If not, just sell it to a vendor, and if you are in a group,
do not roll for it at all! (Explained later.) Whenever you have a rare
item, you must be careful of any additional requirements that are found
on them. For instance, an Engineer can make many Blue Items later in
the game, however, they all require a certain degree of Engineering
Skill, so, it's not very profitable to sell those things at the Auction
house, since you will attract a limited number of customers.
------------------------
d. My current equipment
------------------------
Paladins are a gear dependent class. Yes, this is right, but to what
extent? Well, now, I will show the equipment of my own Paladin in World
of Warcraft, and show you how my equipment affects my stats. Of course,
I will show you exactly how I got every single piece of equipment.
Please note that the type of armor is indicated in round brackets,
while the rarity of the items mentioned is shown in the Square Brackets.
For your information, this is taken from my level 53 Human Paladin.
*****MY ARMOR AND TRINKETS*****
Head
Mugthol's Helm (Level 47 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 445 Stats: +10 Strength +17 Stamina +17 Spirit
Where I found it:
In the auction house, bought it for 30 Gold.
Neck
Gemshard Heart (Level 49, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +10 Stamina +10 Intellect +6 Spirit
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (15% drop rate)
The Gemshard Heart is one important intellect gear I found during a
Maraudon instance run. I defeated the princess boss (the final boss)
with my group, and she dropped this necklace. It is time to roll for
the item, and for some reason, I was the only player in the team to
roll Need for it. Therefore, I won the item without competition, much
to the dismay of my teammates (including a Hunter, a Priest and a Mage!)
Shoulders
Wyrmslayer Spaulders (Level 46 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 403 Stats: +12 Strength +8 Agility +12 Stamina
Why and Where I found it:
At this point in the game, there really are only 2 good options for
blue plate shoulder armor. They are the Big Bad Pauldrons from the
Chief Sandscalp of Zul'Farrak, and these shoulders. Having tried
Zul'Farrak many times, I still couldn't get the chief to drop the
shoulders. Getting to the chief was even a tedious task, so I gave up
and bought these shoulders at the Auction House for 50 Gold. These
shoulders have more armor than the Big Bad Pauldrons and they give you
8 more agility, instead of spirit.
Back
Sergeant's Cape (Level 45, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 96 Stat: +14 Stamina Requires: Sergeant
Where I found it:
To get the Sergeant's Cape, you must play PvP until you get rank 3,
Sergeant. Then, you can go to the Stormwind barracks and buy this cape
off the quartermaster at the entrance.
Chest
Hydralick Armor (Level 49 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 567 Stats: +13 Strength +8 Agility +20 Stamina
+10 Fire Resistance
Where I found it: Auction House, 50 Gold
I have long looked for things to improved my outdated Carapace of
Tuten'kash, and hence I looked at the Auction House. Apparently the
best deal is the Hydralick armor, which has more strength and stamina
than the carapace. At the same time, this armor provides an additional
10 points of Fire Resistance, and it is one of the few fire resistant
plate items in the game. In fact, the 50 Gold spent was considerably
worth it, since most of the time, people can charge up to 100 Gold for
such armor. (That armor does not worth that much!!)
Shirt
Stylish Green Shirt
Why I bought it:
I was stuck with Captain Sander's shirt for a long time since I have
completed that quest in Westfall. I noticed that my character appears
to be wearing nothing but his breastplate! Naturally, I want my paladin
to look a little better, so I bought this shirt in the auction house
for 70 Silver. After all, I love the green color!
Tabard
Private's Tabard (Requires Private)
Where I bought it:
Having attained 25 Honorable Kills in a week, you will be given the
rank of private. In that case, you will be eligible to buy the
Private's Tabard from the Accessories Quartermaster in Stormwind
Barracks. The good thing about this tabard is that it covers your
breastplate, preventing it from being seen.
Wrist
Lightforge Bracers (Level 52 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 261
Stats: +7 Strength +4 Agility +10 Stamina +8 Spirit
Part of set: Lightforge Armor (8 pieces in total)
Where I found it: Auction House, 12 Gold
Lightforge Armor is the armor set, designed for Paladins that are in
the 50s. (It can be used by Warriors too) There are 8 pieces in total
in the set. The Bracers and Belt can be purchased in the Auction House,
but the remaining 6 pieces must be obtained by high level instances
like Stratholme, Dire Maul, Blackrock Depths and more! (The breastplate
requires level 58 to use, so it's beyond my reach!) For you to benefit
from additional effects besides the ones described in each piece, you
need at least 3 pieces. I must say I found these bracers by chance in
the auction house. Some idiot was selling it at a knockdown price of 12
Gold, while it should have been sold for 30+ Gold!
Hands
Vice Grips of the Whale (Level 43 Plate, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 318
Stats: +11 Spirit +11 Stamina
Equip: +14 Attack Power
Where I found it: Antu'Sul, Zul'Farrak (33% drop rate)
Zul'Farrak features a troll witch doctor who trains some lizards for
combat. It was a tough battle, and I died in the battle back in my mid
40s, but he was ultimately defeated. He gave it out, I rolled for it,
and had to compete with a Warrior and Paladin. A few seconds after I
rolled Need, I got disconnected. I logged in a few minutes later, and
there were the gloves, in my bag! Oh, and please note that there are
many variations of Vice Grip Plate Gloves in Zul'Farrak. You should try
to get the one which increases your Intellect by 11.
Waist
Girdle of Uther (Level 52 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 336
Stats: +9 Strength +9 Agility +10 Stamina +9 Intellect +10 Spirit
Where I found it: Auction House, 25 Gold
Uther is the first Paladin, and hence it is natural for a plate belt
named after him to be for Paladins. The Intellect bonus clearly shows
this. For a piece of high level gear, the Girdle of Uther really isn't
that expensive at all. In fact, 25 Gold is the median price of the item.
Legs
Elemental Rockridge Leggings (Level 49 Plate, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 496 Stats: +20 Strength +18 Stamina +10 Nature Resistance
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (15% drop rate)
It seems that Princess Theradras of Maraudon is a gold mine of blue
instance drops. She drops 6 different blue items, each has 15-16% drop
rate. At the same time, she may drop TWO blue items at the same times
at times. These fine leggings are just one of them. I have seen this
armor appearing twice in 5 of my Maraudon runs. The first time, there
were 2 other Paladins in my group. As a result, I lost the roll.
However, in the most recent run, which occurred the previous night of
version 1.35 of this guide, I played the main tank, with no other plate
wearers in my group. This time, I have no competition for the item, and
I got it! This armor is a valuable asset for Paladins, since we do not
have Nature Resistance Auras (while Hunters do).
WARNING! Parental Advisory: Contains mild nudity
It seems that the Elemental Rockridge Leggings come in the form of
trousers for men, and just fancy stockings for women. If you are a
female paladin, you will appear to be wearing plate stockings, without
any skirt or pants! So, this means that your string panties will be
revealed, and if you choose not to show your cape, you plump bum will
also be clearly seen! Of course, you will look more like a holy slut
than a holy fighter with that on. I bet Archbishop Benedictus would
have his eyes on you. Hehe...
Feet
Sapphiron's Scale Boots (Level 53 Plate, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 417 Stats: +14 Strength +9 Agility +14 Stamina
Extra Enchantment: Minor Speed Increase
Where I found it: Auction House, 40 Gold
The Sapphiron's Scale Boots are a direct upgrade of the Obsidian
Greaves. They provide more Strength, Agility and Stamina than its
predecessor. I again got a great deal from this purchase, since it
usually cost 60 Gold or more. In fact, I remembered seeing this on a
Tuesday night, and the buyout was at 60 Gold, therefore I just got the
starting bid of 40 Gold, and took advantage of the maintenance period.
Therefore, I was not outbid and got this at a relatively low price. At
the same time, I also bought a minor speed enchant for 4 Gold 50 Silver.
This allows my Paladin to run somewhat like 8% faster. (Equivalent to
the Pursuit of Justice, only that it is stackable with other effects!)
Finger 1
Blackstone Ring (Level 49, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +6 Stamina
Equip: +20 Attack Power, Increases Chance to hit by 1%
Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (19% drop rate)
This ring is one of the 6 blue instance drops that can come from the
princess of Maraudon. It is great for Paladins since it increases our
melee power. This time, it was luck that gave me it, since basically
everyone in my group rolled Need for it, and I won the roll.
Finger 2
Masons Fraternity Ring (Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Stats: +13 Agility +5 Stamina
Where I found it: Quest Reward, Tanaris
There is a goblin called Tran'rek, which asks you to perform various
quests for him involving Zul'Farrak. One of them involves collecting
something for him, I believe it involves killing Sergeant Bly inside
the instance after freeing him, so as to get his Divinomatic Rod. After
you complete the quest, you will get to receive this item, which
increases your crit chance through agility.
Trinket 1
Blazing Emblem (Level 38) [Blue]
Stat: +15 Fire Resistance
Use: Increases Fire Resistance by 50 for 10 seconds
Where I found it: Off some troll in Stranglethorn Vale (By chance)
The Blazing Emblem is a fire resistance trinket, and allows you to
increase Fire Resistance for a further 50 for 10 seconds. This may help
to mitigate damage when in a very high level instance.
Trinket 2
Gnomish Death Ray
How I got it: I made it myself with Engineering
Engineering works wonders for Paladins. The Gnomish Death Ray leeches
health from its user to power up, then unleashes a catastrophic blast
that deals a big dent at the enemy. For your information, note the
amount of health leeched from you every second during the charging
period. The damage dealt is approximately 7 times the amount of health
leeched each second. Usually, the higher your total health, the more
damage you can deal. And, if you see health leeched at the rate of 200
per second, you can be rest assured of the impending doom of the target!
The extra perk is that if you use Divine Shield, no health will leech
off you while it charges!
Shield
Gizlock's Hypertech Buckler (Level 48, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 1835 Block: 32
Stats: +5 Stamina +10 Intellect
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 second
Where I found it: Tinkerer Gizlock, Maraudon (30.8% Drop Rate)
With all these mana related stats on this shield, it definitely has the
big words "RESERVED FOR PALADIN" stamped on it. Tinkerer Gizlock is a
goblin boss found inside Maraudon. You will go out of the main path,
down a steep path to find him. He really is not a hard boss, and
frequently drops the shield. In fact, I got this shield the second time
I beat Gizlock. Since I was the only shield user in the group that day,
I was able to get it without competition! (In fact, if you have read
this far, you should learn a valuable lesson in instance grouping: If
you want to play an instance for the goodies, never group with a
Warrior or other Paladins!)
The reason why this shield is very important to a Paladin is because it
is one of the few intellect gear you will find even at such a high
level. The constant mana regeneration will speed up the Blessing of
Wisdom even further. This shield is quite nice looking, for an engineer
like me. In fact, it looks like one large gear that is always turning!
*****MY MAIN ARSENAL*****
The weapons listed below are the ones which I consider as up to date
with my corresponding level. Any other weapons I happen to have are not
listed below.
Sword
Thrash Blade (Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
66-124 Damage, Speed 2.70 (35.2 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Grants an Extra Attack on your next swing
How I got it: Quest Reward, Maraudon
There is a quest that involves killing the Princess of Maraudon in
Nijel's Point. If you complete it, you can get to choose this nice
sword as a reward. The good thing is that sometimes, you will see the
Paladin do an extra whoosh attack on top of his normal attack on the
next swing!
Two Handed Sword
Lightforged Blade (Bind on Pickup, Level 47) [Blue]
118-178 Damage, Speed 3.30 (44.8 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +9 Strength, +9 Stamina, +10 Shadow Resistance, +10 Frost
Resistance, +10 Fire Resistance
How I got it: Quest Reward, Western Plaguelands
There is a Paladin specific quest that begins inside the Stormwind
Cathedral. You are to get to the Western Plaguelands, and report to
Argent Dawn. You will then be commissioned to collect Scourgestones for
them. Once you collect enough, complete the quest, and get another one,
which involves getting 6 feathers from the Troll priests inside the
Sunken Temple. Collect them all, turn them in, and you get to choose a
reward which includes this item. The biggest surprise is that it
actually is a resistance gear, so it will come handy when you fight
mages and the like of them.
Mace
Fist of Stone (Bind on Pickup, Level 48) [Blue]
44-83 Damage, Speed 1.80 (35.3 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Recovers 50 Mana
How I got it: Landslide, Maraudon (16% drop rate)
I must say that I have never seen a mace that swings this fast. It may
deal little damage per hit, but its fast swinging speed makes up for it.
The chance to recover 50 mana makes it ideal for Paladins like me, and
maybe priests, if they ever had to defend themselves. I was amazed that
all 4 of my team members think this weapon is crap and let me have it.
That is my gain of that day, after beating that giant stoner Landslide.
(I do mean it, he really is made of stone!)
Two Handed Mace
Twig of the World Tree (Bind on Equip, Level 53) [Blue]
147-221 Damage, Speed 3.70 (49.7 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +14 Strength, +12 Spirit, +21 Stamina
How I got it: Auction House
I had been waiting long for a good two-handed mace to replace the long
obsolete Verigan's Fist (got from Paladin specific quest). One of the
good ones was a Two Handed Mace dropped from Princess Theradras.
However, that mace is lacking since it is slow, and like many of the
instance drops, provide a proc rather than improved stats. This is why
I bought this from the Auction House for 35 Gold. This mace may be slow,
but it's deadly. Since it's slow, whenever the Seal of Command works,
devastating damage can be dealt. Also, the stats really help to
compensate for the lack of a shield. Finally, the name of this mace is
just so funny. So, to make a powerful mace, all you need to do is to
cut a twig of a tree, huh?
Axe
Ripsaw (Bind on Pickup, Level 45) [Blue]
63-117 Damage, Speed 2.70 (33.3 Damage Per Second)
Chance on hit: Wounds the target for 75 additional damage
How I got it: Chief Sandscalp, Zul'Farrak (20.7% drop rate)
This is what I got instead of the Big Bad Pauldrons when I went to
Zul'Farrak so many times. I tend to think of it as a consolation prize.
There were no axe users in my group at that time, so I won it with out
competition, in the same night, I won the Diabloic Skiver, as shown
below. Hence starting the incident where that Warlock complained, "You
need to roll Need on anything, do you?" Anyway, this axe as a chance of
making a splat sound, cause blood to spurt out of the enemy, dealing
extra damage. It's quite fun to hear the sound, actually.
Two Handed Axe
Lord Alexander's Battle Axe (Bind on Equip, Level 51) [Blue]
123-185 Damage, Speed 3.20 (48.1 Damage Per Second)
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Agility, +Stamina
How I got it: Auction House, 40 Gold
You will notice that for a long time, I have not included a Two-Handed
Axe in my main arsenal section. This is because I have basically
neglected that department long since I got Thermaplugg's Left Arm!
(That was obsolete long, long ago). Anyway, it seems that I have a
choice between this and the axe Brain Hacker [Purple]. The latter is
just so expensive and offers 1 proc, although fast. Of course, the one
with stats is the better one to choose! The good news is that with the
additional Strength and Agility, Lord Alexander's Battle Axe will deal
more damage than the Frenzied Striker below. The 17 additional agility
also effectively provides for almost 1% extra critical hit chance.
Polearm
Frenzied Striker (Bind on Pickup, Level 51) [Blue]
108-162 Damage, Speed 2.80 (48.2 Damage Per Second)
Equip: Increases your chance to parry an attack by 1%
Equip: Increases your chance to hit by 2%
How I got it: Trade Channel
I was wandering around Ironforge, and saw someone sell this. I paid a
price of 15 Gold, which is slightly lower than the median price on
Allakhazam. The good thing about this polearm is that it his quite fast
for a two handed weapon. In fact, it is only 0.1 second slower than 2
of the one handed weapons I am using! The increased chance to hit will
make life slightly easier. So will the damage.
*****MY STATS*****
Now, to show the gear dependence of my Paladin, I will show you my
stats. Note that each stat is preceded by a bracket with a sum. The
first number is the base value, and the following one is the bonus
value from items. The following stats are taken when my shield and the
Thrash Blade are equipped. Also, Retribution Aura is on.
Strength: (105 + 94 =) 199
Agility: (60 + 51 =) 111
Stamina: (91 + 152 =) 243
Intellect: (64 + 29 =) 93
Spirit: (72 + 63 =) 135
Armor: 5338 (51.3% damage reduction against level 55 attacker)
As you can see, almost half of my Strength, Agility and Spirit are
obtained from my gear, and more than half of my total health is
contributed by my gear! So, it can really be seen that gear is what
makes or breaks the Paladin. If you want even more specialized, you
will have to find equipment that increases damage or healing done by
spells up to a certain amount. Certain gear will also increase your
critical strike chance by 1 or 2%, and those are also what you may need.
----------------------
e. Paladin Armor Sets
----------------------
All classes in World of Warcraft have their own armor sets. They are a
group of armor pieces, that when equipped together, will give
additional bonuses on top of the additional stats. Paladin armor sets
start to be available as you reach the higher levels, that is from
level 52 to 60. Also, item sets are ranked into tiers, which show how
powerful they are, and the relative difficulty to obtain them. The Tier
0 sets should be usable before level 60, while the rest of them will
require level 60.
-------------------------
Tier 0: Lightforge Armor
-------------------------
Lightforge Helm (Level 57, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 526
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +6 Agility, +14 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Lightforge Spaulders (Level 55, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 470
Stats: +9 Strength, +15 Stamina, +4 Agility, +11 Intellect, +5 Spirit
Lightforge Breastplate (Level 58, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 657
Stats: +13 Strength, +21 Stamina, +16 Intellect, +8 Spirit
Lightforge Bracers (Level 52, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 261
Stats: +7 Stamina, +10 Stamina, +4 Agility, +8 Spirit
Lightforge Gloves (Level 54, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 386
Stats: +14 Strength, +9 Stamina, +14 Spirit
Lightforge Belt (Level 53, Bind on Equip) [Blue]
Armor: 341
Stats: +10 Strength, +9 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Lightforge Leggings (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 557
Stats: +20 Strength, +14 Stamina, +8 Agility, +12 Intellect, +9 Spirit
Lightforge Boots (Level 54, Bind on Pickup) [Blue]
Armor: 424
Stats: +8 Strength, +18 Stamina, +9 Spirit
Set Bonuses
2 Pieces: You gain extra 200 Armor
4 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS
6 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing
and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds
8 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic
Set Stats
Armor: 3622(+200) Strength: 94 Stamina: 116 Agility: 22
Intellect: 68 Spirit: 69 All Resistances: 0(+8)
My comments:
Lightforge Armor is the first set of Armor that Paladins should go
after, and can be usable from level 52 onwards. All the bind on pick up
pieces are obtainable from Blackrock Spire (10 man), Scholomance (5 man)
and Stratholme (5 man) instances.
The chest, helm and leggings are definitely the best pieces of the set,
since they cater more specifically to the Paladin's stats (Intellect),
while providing good overall stats. The shoulders are decent, but the
boots are so-so. As for the other 3 parts, they can be bought at the
Auction House, since they are bind on equip.
Of the set bonuses, I find the 2 piece and 4 piece bonuses the most
attractive. If you must wear only 4 out of the 8 pieces, I suggest that
you wear the Helm, Chest, Bracers and Leggings. However, this does not
mean you should neglect the other 4 pieces, since you must have all 8
Lightforge pieces in order to complete a quest chain that allows you to
upgrade your set to something even better! That is the new Tier 0.5 Set,
Soulforge Armor!
Score: 3.5/5
--------------------------
Tier 0.5: Soulforge Armor
--------------------------
Soulforge Helm [Purple]
Armor: 556
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Shoulders [Blue]
Armor: 507
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Soulforge Breastplate [Purple]
Armor: 684
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Bracers [Blue]
Armor: 296
Stats: +9 Strength, 10 Stamina, +9 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 8
Soulforge Gauntlets [Purple]
Armor: 393
Stats: +9 Strength, +10 Stamina, +10 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11
Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1%
Soulforge Belt [Blue]
Armor: 380
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Soulforge Legplates [Blue]
Armor: 601
Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11
Soulforge Boots [Blue]
Armor: 380
Stats: +12 Strength, +13 Stamina, +12 Intellect, +10 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage don by magical spells by up to 12
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Set Bonuses
2 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic
4 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing
and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds
6 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS
8 Pieces: You gain extra 200 armor
Set Stats
Armor: 3797(+200) Strength: 98 Stamina: 106 Intellect: 104
Spirit: 44 All Resistances: 0(+8)
Increased healing and damage by magical spells: 94
Extra Mana Restoration every 5 seconds: 12
Increased chance of delivering a critical hit: 3%
My comment:
Having collected the entire Lightforge Set, you can go and find a
Paladin trainer in the Stormwind Cathedral in order to partake in a
chain quest that will result in all you Lightforge pieces upgraded into
Soulforge.
When you put the 2 sets together and compare stats, you will find that
Soulforge gives you a little more Armor, Strength and a lot more
Intellect in the expense of a little Stamina. So, you would expect to
have 100 health less than when you have a full Lightforge set. However,
this is easily offset by enchanting one of your armor pieces to provide
for 100 HP.
Soulforge provides more bonuses that are set in stone. Wearing all
pieces will increase the amount of damage and healing dealt by spells
by up to 94. It is always a welcome addition to deal more damage than
normal. And just imagine what will happen when you judge your enemy
with Crusader! At the same time, such a fixed value increase in healing
value means that the spell that heals less to begin with will benefit
more. So, start using more Flash of Light, baby!
The extra 12 mana restored every 5 seconds will mean that the 2 talents
invested in Improved Blessing of Wisdom can be used in other places,
like Improved Lay on Hands or the Retribution Tree.
Some people have complained in the official class forums that this set
does not give a single point in Agility. However, you don't have to see
this as a bad thing. After all, they ARE giving you an extra 3% chance
in delivering critical hits. This is equivalent to having 60 extra
Agility points, only that you won't be able to dodge as much.
As I see it, Paladins have 5% base crit chance. Add the 3%, the 5%
obtained through the Conviction Talent, and the 60+ or so base Agility
that you have, you should have more than a 16% chance of delivering
critical hits. And this does not take in account your weapon skills and
Agility obtained through your finger, necklace or cloak!
Score: 4.3/5
-------------------------
Tier 1: Lawbringer Armor
-------------------------
Lawbringer Helm (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 608
Stats: +9 Strength, +20 Stamina, +24 Intellect, +10 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 562
Stats: +10 Strength, +22 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +8 Spirit,
+7 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Chestguard (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 749
Stats: +8 Strength, +26 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +13 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Bracers (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 328
Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Spirit, +8 Intellect
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Lawbringer Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 468
Stats: +10 Strength, +15 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +14 Spirit,
+7 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 421
Stats: +13 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +8 Spirit,
+7 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Lawbringer Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 655
Stats: +7 Strength, +24 Stamina, +18 Intellect, +18 Spirit,
+10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 3 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22
Lawbringer Boots (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 515
Stats: +7 Strength, +20 Stamina, +13 Intellect, +10 Spirit,
+7 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 2 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18
Set Bonuses
3 Pieces: Everyone has an extra 10% of getting healed if they hit an
enemy affected by your Judgment of Light
5 Pieces: You have an extra 1% chance of dealing a critical hit with
spells or normal physical attacks
8 Pieces: Every time you hit an enemy, there is a chance to heal every
member of your party for 189-221 health.
Set Stats
Armor: 4306 Strength: 74 Stamina: 153 Intellect: 134 Spirit: 92
Fire Resistance: 34 Shadow Resistance: 24
Increased healing by magical spells: 138
Extra Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds: 13
Increased chance of critting with magic and melee: 0(+1%)
My comment:
The Paladin's Tier 1 armor set can be found on many bosses in the
Molten Core (40 man raid!). Compared with Soulforge, the Lawbringer
Armor provides more Armor, Stamina and Intellect, but at the expense of
lots of Strength. The Fire Resistance is quite nice, though. One major
difference in the bonuses between Soulforge and Lawbringer is that
Lawbringer only increases the HEALING effect of your spells. So, your
Judgment of Righteousness and Holy Shock will NOT get a damage increase.
In return, you can heal more effectively, so Flash of Light is the way.
Like Soulforge, Lawbringer Armor does not provide any Agility points.
What you do get is a 1% chance of getting a critical hit with magic and
physical attacks by 1%. This is just peanuts compared to the bonuses
that Soulforge offers.
In conclusion, Lawbringer Armor is entirely focused towards a Paladin
who spends most of his time healing. One mitigating factor is that when
you have all 8 pieces, you may heal your group slightly when you hit
the enemy, and that the chance of Judgment of Light working on your
pals is increased. However, Judgment of Light works very frequently to
begin with, and dealing improved damage may just be more fun for many.
So, if you are more interested in magical ATTACKS while meleeing, you
might as well stick with Soulforge Armor until you get the ultimate
high-end set, the Judgement Armor.
Score: 1.7/5
------------------------
Tier 2: Judgement Armor
------------------------
Judgement Crown (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 696
Stats: +17 Strength, +18 Stamina, +23 Intellect, +6 Spirit,
+10 Frost Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 32
Judgement Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 642
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +6 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 13
Judgement Breastplate (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 857
Stats: +16 Strength, +21 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +5 Spirit,
+10 Fire Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 25
Judgement Bindings (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 375
Stats: +9 Strength, +21 Stamina, +9 Intellect, +8 Spirit
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 7
Judgement Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 535
Stats: +6 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Equip: Restores 6 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 15
Judgement Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 482
Stats: +8 Strength, +14 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit
+10 Shadow Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 23
Judgement Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 749
Stats: +10 Strength, +26 Stamina, +27 Intellect, +6 Spirit
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 20
Judgement Sabatons (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) [Purple]
Armor: 589
Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +8 Spirit
+10 Fire Resistance
Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 18
Set Bonuses
3 Pieces: Your Auras' radii will be increased by 10.
5 Pieces: Your healing and damage dealt by magical spells will be
increased by up to 47.
8 Pieces: Every time you judge an enemy, you will deal 60 to 66 damage
in addition to the base effect of that spell.
Set Stats
Armor: 4925 Strength: 92 Stamina: 155 Intellect: 148 Spirit: 50
Arcane Resistance: 10 Fire Resistance: 40 Nature Resistance: 10
Frost Resistance: 10 Shadow Resistance: 30
Extra mana restoration every 5 seconds: 20
Increased healing and damage dealt by magical spells: 153(+47)
Extra damage dealt by Judgments: 0(+66)
My comment:
This is the ultimate Paladin set. It is obtained from various boss in
raid instances like the Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. Of course, to
have any hope of getting this armor, you better find 39 more dedicated
players to come with you. The desperation of getting those items is why
certain guilds set up a Dragon Kill Points (DKP) system, so as to
guarantee that people who have played longer get it before the ones who
played less. However, this is against the spirit of the game. (This is
not Everquest, pals!) When you wear this set, you get some dark knight
style helm, and you will be wearing a plate robe like those crusaders!
Anyway, this set is superior to the Lawbringer in every possible. The
only downgrade is that you get less Spirit. Like Lawbringer, this set
has not a single point of agility, nor does it have any fixed crit
chance increases. However, it does have a large increase in spell
damage, in fact, it is something like up to 266 when you use Judgments
of Righteousness and Command, and 200 when you use Holy Shock. Of
course, these numbers are likely to increase when you judge Crusader on
the enemy first.
So, you can be an even deadlier plate caster than Soulforge, although
you will lose critical chances. This is also why I only give this set a
4.7 out of 5, due to this imperfection.
Score: 4.7/5
------------------
5. Paladin Skills
------------------
A Paladin is characterized by their melee attacks, and their holy
spells, namely the Auras, Blessings and Seals. Of course, there are
also abilities to heal others, to remove any status ailments and even
resurrect a fellow group member. So, let's look at each type of thing
in turn, shall we?
To train for most of the skills, one must consult a Paladin trainer.
Paladin trainers are located in Goldshire, and the capital cities of
Stormwind (Stormwind Cathedral) and Ironforge (Mystic Ward).
---------------
a. Blessings
---------------
Blessings typically are spells that temporarily enhance a character's
abilities. These types of enhancements are called buffs. Some blessings
are also used to protect fellow group members from bad effects. Each
Paladin can affect their group members with 1 Blessing at a time, so if
there are 2 Paladins in each group, each group member can be affected
by 2 blessings at once.
Blessing of Might
Ranks: 1 to 7 Levels Learned: 4, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 60
Mana Cost: 20, 30, 45, 60, 85, 110, 130 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing is symbolized by a fist with a blue background. It has
the effect of raising the target's attack power for 5 minutes. The
higher the rank of the blessing, the more attack power it gives out.
This buff is to be applied to the direct combat classes of the group,
notably the Warriors, Paladins, Rogues and Hunters.
Greater Blessing of Might
Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 52, 60
Mana Cost: 220, 260 Range: 30 yards
This is a weird Raid Oriented buff. You will need a special reagent to
use it. It gives all the members of the raid or group that has the SAME
CLASS as the target an increase in attack power for 15 minutes. I mean,
how often will you party with 4 Rogues or 4 Warriors, say? But still,
this thing saves the hassle of casting individual members, and it
already pays off even if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost
is twice as that of the Blessing of Might, but you get 15 minutes of
buffing, and not 5.
Blessing of Protection
Ranks: 1 to 3 Levels Learned: 10, 24, 38
Mana Cost: 25, 45, 60 Range: 30 yards Cooldown time: 5 mins
This Blessing puts up a shield on the target, allowing him to be
invincible for an amount of time. The amount of time increases with
rank. Although he is protected, the target cannot use any attacks.
However, they can apply buffs to themselves. Please note that whenever
you use this effect on anyone, they cannot be affected by Divine
Protection, Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection for a minute.
Blessing of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 to 6 Levels Learned: 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, 60
Mana Cost: 30, 45, 65, 90, 115, 125 Range: 30 yards
This is more like a "healing" effect. Only that is long term, lasting
for 5 minutes. This blessing allows the target to regain a certain
amount of Mana every 5 seconds. The higher the rank, the more mana is
recovered. Mages, Priests and Warlocks are the prime targets, and if
you are to act the healer in your group, buff yourself.
Blessing of Salvation
Level Learned: 26 Mana Cost: 88 Range: 30 yards
Blessing of Salvation protects the user. Well, it means that anyone who
is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the
enemies' attention when they attack them. Since Mages and Priests are
supposed to cast at the back of the pack, as the artillery, they might
as well be blessed with this so they are not likely to be killed.
Greater Blessing of Salvation
Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 176 Range: 30 yards
This Raid Oriented blessing protects the target, as well as any
character the same class as it. It allows them to receive 30% less
threat from enemies, whatever that means. Well, it means that anyone
who is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the
enemies' attention when they attack them. It lasts for 15 minutes, and
hence is a better deal for your mana. What a pity that you have to wait
until you are at level 60 in order to learn this. (And also you need a
reagent!)
Greater Blessing of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 54, 60
Mana Cost: 230, 250 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing gives all the members of the raid or group that has the
SAME CLASS as the target mana generation of a certain amount every 5
seconds for 5 minutes. I don't seem to get it. The only sensible time I
could think of to use this is when you have 2 Mages in your group at
once. I just cannot think of times when there will be 2 Warlocks or 2
Priests! (Let alone a large 3!!!) But still, it already pays off even
if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost is twice as that of the
Blessing of Wisdom, but you get 15 minutes of buffing, and not 5. (You
also need a reagent to use it)
Blessing of Freedom
Level Learned: 18 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana
Range: 30 yards Cooldown Time: 20 seconds
This Blessing may only have one rank, but it really is worth its weight
in Gold. The reason is that it allows your target, or in particular,
yourself to be immune to all movement impairing effects for 10 seconds.
This is particularly effective in PvP combat against Horde Hunters and
Mages. Most of the time, they will try to use moves like Concussive
Shot (slowing down effect) or Frost Nova on you (freezes you in place).
Whenever you cast this on yourself, you will break free of that effect
instantly, and go forward to hack the enemy down! Please note that this
Blessing has a 20 second cooldown time, so you will be vulnerable for
10 seconds. But fortunately, as long as you are playing one on one, the
cooldown time of their slow down ability is also similar!
For some strange reason, this Blessing is not so effective in PvE
combat. Moves that leave you dazed will not be removed when you cast
Blessing of Freedom on yourself. Weird.
Blessing of Kings
Level Learned: 20 Mana Cost: 75 Range: 30 yards
Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents
This Blessing is learnt by first applying 10 Talent Points in the
Protection branch of Paladin Talents, and then spending another Talent
Point on the Blessing. After that, the move will be learnt instantly.
This buff increases the stats of its target by 10% for 5 minutes. I do
mean ALL of the stats, so this really is a hot one. If only you could
spend that many points in the Protection Tree.
Greater Blessing of Kings
Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 150 Range: 30 yards
Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents
This Blessing raises the stats of all characters of your group that are
of the same class as your target by 10% for 15 minutes. If only it
raises the stats of all characters of your group, no matter what class
they are for 15 minutes. But still, the 15 minute buff duration is
better than the 5 minute duration of the standard Blessing of Kings. So,
it may still pay off in the long run. (But buy the reagent!)
Blessing of Light
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 85, 110, 135 Range: 30 yards
If there were any "food additives" for the Paladin, this is it. Any
member of your group targeted will receive a bonus effect by the Holy
Light and Flash of Light healing spells. The bonus healed amount
increases with rank. But still, unless you are the healer of you group
(which is not much fun), you wouldn't be applying this Blessing to
anyone, I believe.
Blessing of Sacrifice
Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 46, 54
Mana Cost: 80, 100 Range: 30 yards
This Blessing is a damage absorber. Whenever you apply this Blessing to
a fellow group member, a small portion of the damage taken (45, then 55)
will be transferred to you instead of him! This blessing lasts for only
30 seconds though. This Blessing should only be used whenever you are
the designated healer. It's not a good idea to use it whenever you have
to fight yourself, or you really will suffer. And don't even think
about applying this to all other 4 members of your group, I do mean it!
--------------
b. Auras
--------------
Devotion Aura
Ranks: 1 to 7 Level Learned: 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
This Aura, signified by its shield logo, provides additional armor to
the Paladin that uses it, as well as all group members within 30 yards
of the Paladin. The extra armor provided increase with rank, from 55 in
rank 1 to 735 in rank 7. This is definitely the most commonly used Aura
for a Paladin to use, and hence when you are not really up to anything,
keep this turned on at all times!
Retribution Aura
Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 16, 26, 36, 46, 56
This Aura affects the Paladin and any group member within 30 yards of
him. Anyone in its area of effect will definitely not be attacked with
impunity. This is because any attacker who strikes a member will
receive a small amount of Holy Damage for each hit they make on you.
This may seem small, but adds up as time passes. The Holy Damage
increases from 5 in rank 1 to 20 in level 56.
Concentration Aura
Level Learned: 22
The Concentration Aura gives the Paladin and all group members within
30 yards of him a 35% chance of ignoring spell interruption when taking
damage. This is particular effective if you want to ensure that fellow
mages and priests can cast their spells even when they are attacked. At
the same time, there is a Talent for the Paladin that enables him to
have an extra 70% chance of avoiding spell interruption! So, with that
in conjunction with this aura, you can never be stopped!
Shadow Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 28, 40, 52
This Aura provides resistance to Shadow attacks, like those from enemy
Warlocks. Initially, you will have 30 resistance, which is rather poor.
Then, at level 40, you will gain 45 resistance. At level 52, you will
gain 60 Shadow Resistance.
Frost Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 32, 44, 56
This Aura provides resistance to all those icy Frost attacks, in
particular the ones from enemy Mages. You will get 30 Frost Resistance
at Rank 1, 45 Resistance at Rank 2 and finally, 60 Resistance at Rank 3.
Fire Resistance Aura
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 36, 48, 60
Sick of being hit by all those fireballs? This Aura is here to help.
This Aura provides resistance to fire attacks to all group members
within 30 yards. You get 30 resistance at Rank 1, 45 resistance at Rank
2 and 60 resistance at Rank 3.
Sanctity Aura
Level Learned: 30 Prerequisite: 20 Retribution Talents
This Aura increases the Holy Damage done by all group members within 30
yards by 10%. Since it is a group bonus, you definitely cannot learn it
right off the bat. Instead, you have to spend 20 Retribution Talent
Points before you can even use it!
------------------------------
c. For the Undead's Eyes Only
------------------------------
Paladins are holy warriors, reckless hunters of undead. Hence they have
a lot of skills that only work against them. However, these skills are
strictly for PvE combat only, and will not work against human Undead
players. All of this is for balance issues. Thanks to the v1.9 patch,
all of the following spells will now work against Demons too!
Sense Undead
Level Learned: 20
Sense Undead allows the Paladin to see the positions of all nearby
undead and demon enemies on his minimap. This will stay on until you
decide to turn it off. All undead enemies will appear as red dots.
Exorcism
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60
Mana Required: 85, 135, 180, 235, 285, 345 Range: 30 yards
Cool Down Time: 15 seconds
This is the specialist anti undead spell for the Paladins. It works
instantly, and deals Holy Damage to the undead or demon target. The
higher the rank, the more damage will be dealt. It's just fun to pull
Undead enemies this way. The 15 second cooldown is not an issue.
Holy Wrath
Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 50, 60 Mana Cost: 645, 805
Casting Time: 2 seconds Cooldown Time: 1 minute
Holy Wrath takes Exorcism to a whole new level. The Paladin will file
bolts of Holy energy all around the place, dealing Holy Damage to all
targets nearby! Any enemies within 20 yards of the Paladin will feel
the pain! The damage dealt has the potential to be more than that of
Exorcism, so whenever there are 3 or more Undead at once, use it.
Turn Undead
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 24, 38, 52 Mana Cost: 35, 50, 75
Casting Time: 1.50 seconds Range: 20 yards Cooldown Time: 1 min
This is not an effective spell. It induces fear in Undead and Demons
only. But the problem is, when they run randomly in fear, they are
likely to aggravate all of his friends and cause them to run after you.
So, you might as well not bother with this.
---------------------
d. Seals and Offense
---------------------
It must really pay to be Holy Fighters, in fact, they have various
seals to enhance themselves. Seals are also the reason that make the
playing style of Paladins VERY DIFFERENT FROM HUNTERS AND ROGUES.
Seals are typically temporary effects that enhance your ability, for a
short 30 seconds. A Paladin can only activate one seal at a time. Many
seals give a chance for something good to happen in each blow you hit
the enemy. Such occurrences are called procs, or Programmed Random
Occurences. Many procs occur at a procs per minute basis. So, every
minute, expect the proc to occur a relatively constant number of times,
so the slower the weapon you use, the more frequently a proc will
accompany your blow.
However, that's not all, you can use Judgment to apply the effect to
the enemy, and hence giving some weird effects to them, making them
more vulnerable. If a Judgment has a continuing effect, its duration
can be prolonged if you continue hitting him with melee attacks, so
basically, as long as you are doing what you should do, the effect will
stay until the fight ends! Besides seals, other useful offensive spells
are written down here.
Judgment
Level Learned: 4 Mana Cost: 6% Range: 10 yards
Consider the Paladin to be a gun. Activating the seal loads the gun,
and using Judgment is equivalent to pulling the trigger, and judging
the enemy with the seal you are having. Various seals do different
effects on the enemy.
For instance, the Judgment of Righteousness deals direct Holy Damage to
the character, while the Judgment of the Crusader increases the enemy's
vulnerability to Holy Damage. This is the medium in which the Paladin
deals most of his ranged damage, so use it well. One more thing to note
is that the Judgment ability consumes 6% of the Paladin's total mana,
so as the Paladin levels up, he is bound to have to spend more and more
mana on this spell. The good news is that all judgments can be cast no
matter in which direction you are facing. So, even if this Horde Rogue
is running circles around you, you can still judge without fail!
Seal of Righteousness
Ranks: 1 to 8 Level Learned: 1, 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58
Mana Cost: 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, 140, 170, 200
Activating this seal will allow your melee attacks to have a high
chance of dealing additional Holy Damage with each blow. The higher the
rank, the more attack bonus you gain. This is quite a popular seal
throughout your leveling life cycle. Who would like to miss the ability
to deal a little more damage per hit? (Usually, whenever the seal is
trained at the highest rank for your level, the Holy Damage should be
at least 25% of your melee damage!) When you judge the enemy using this
seal, they will deal raw Holy Damage. It has a 10 yard range, so it's
one way of dealing with fleeing opponents, and opponents that run
around, making themselves hard to hit.
Seal of the Crusader
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 6, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52
Mana Cost: 25, 40, 65, 90, 125, 160
This seal has 2 different effects, depending whether you are applying
it to yourself or to the enemy. When you first apply it to yourself,
you will allow your melee attacks to hit faster, but you will deal less
damage than when you are not using. The correct thing to do is to judge
the enemy with this seal. Then, they will take more Holy Damage
whenever you hit them with the related attacks. This gives one key
combo. Whenever you fight, first judge the enemy with the Seal of the
Crusader, and then activate the Seal of Righteousness. Then your attack
bonus on the enemy will be further increased.
Seal of Justice
Level Learned: 22 Mana Cost: 13% of Paladin's total Mana
Like the Seal of the Crusader, the Seal of Justice has 2 separate
effects, depending on whether you are using it on yourself or the enemy.
When you first activate the seal, your melee attacks will have a chance
to stun the enemy for two seconds. Two seconds may not seem long, but
you do get to get a free hit on the enemy, and any spellcasting enemies
will have their spells completely interrupted. So this seal is most
effective against casting enemies like Mages, Warlocks and Priests.
(Although there is one other seal that provides raw power that may be
just as effective). The judgment effect of this seal, however, is only
useful in PvE encounters. It prevents the enemy from fleeing when they
are about to die. Many a time has an enemy run off, alerted his friends
and sent a large army to outwit you. This can be prevented by judging
them with this seal at the start of the battle! As for PvP encounters,
your enemy will definitely be not forced to stay!
Seal of Light
Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 30, 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 110, 140, 180, 210
The Seal of Light is really healing related, as with most skills that
mention the word "Light" for the Paladin. The Seal of Light, when
activated, gives your melee attacks a considerably high chance of
healing yourself slightly. On the other hand, judging the enemy will
give the melee attacks made against them a chance to heal the attacker
slightly. (God knows how this works) The slower the weapon you use, the
more likely you are going to be healed. However, as long as you keep
hitting the enemy, the duration will be prolonged. So, the healing is
spread out over time. I prefer the seal to the judgment anyday. This
seal is good when you are playing in a group with several mates against
a strong boss. Since all attackers may benefit. It is also good when
you are low on mana and want to heal yourself. Just engage some weak
enemy and activate the seal. The amount healed will definitely be
larger than the damage they deal to you! However, don't do this in PvP,
since it's likely to be a much faster paced fight than those dumb bots!
Seal of Wisdom
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 38, 48, 58
Mana Cost: 135, 170, 200
The Seal of Wisdom works a lot like the Seal of Light, but instead of
health, you get a chance to regain mana with every hit you take.
However, I believe this spell is not worth it. Firstly, the mana cost
is very high compared to the amount of mana that will be restored to
you. Furthermore, the proc is less likely to occur than that of the
Seal of Light, and in group fights, the casters will tend to stay away
from the tough enemy to actually get any hits! (And, if they are being
hit, they are likely to die soon if it's an elite, which happens a lot
during group instances!)
Seal of Command
Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
Mana Cost: 65, 110, 140, 180, 210 Prerequisite: 10 Retribution
Talents
This seal may require a considerable number of talent points spent in
the Retribution Tree, but it really is worth it. When active, you will
have a considerable chance of doing a roundhouse blow with your weapon,
dealing Holy Damage equal to 70% of the standard melee damage you deal.
This proc has a slightly lower chance of occurring than that of Seal of
Righteousness, but it's still high ever since the 1.9 patch. Another
thing to note is that the critical hit chance of the proc is directly
related to your standard attack crit chance. (so build up your agility
or equip yourself with Crit Gear!)
The good thing is that the extra damage won't be necessarily 70%. In
most cases, the amount of Holy Damage dealt is 80%, 90% or even more
than the standard damage dealt by your weapon in that specific hit!
What's better than that? On the other hand, judging this seal will deal
Holy Damage to the enemy, which is less than that of the Seal of
Righteousness. However, if the enemy is hit while stunned, they will
get much more Holy Damage than the Judgment of Righteousness. (So,
combine with Hammer of Justice for the best results)
It seems that some people claim that this move procs at a rate of 7
procs per minute, and hence in spite of an increase from 5 procs per
minute, the seal of command deals inferior damage. Now, I tell you what,
this move has procced for me for something like 8 to 9 times in a
minute when I used a faster weapon, so it actually has experienced a
net damage increase due to the Version 1.9 patch.
Tip! Righteousness or Command?
As a rule of a thumb, use Seal of Righteousness while you use 1-handed
weapons, and use Seal of Command when use 2-handed weapons, which are
usually slower than 1 handers.
Hammer of Justice
Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 8, 24, 40, 54
Mana Cost: 30, 50, 75, 100 Range: 10 Yards Cooldown Time: 10s
Hammer of Justice is a stunning move of the Paladin. Using it will
immediately stun your target for a number of seconds. The time stunned
starts from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 6. There are several uses of
this move. One is to stop the enemy caster from using his spells.
Another one is to stun him for a considerable amount of time so that
you can heal yourself. Another use is to stop the enemy from fleeing
(or trying anything funny) while you deal several hits on him.
Furthermore, if you are being attacked by a human Horde player, you may
want to freeze him in place for a few seconds so you have time to run
out of range. At the same time, while fighting elites in an instance,
using Hammer of Justice to stun an enemy is a surefire way of getting
him to get off that cloth wearer and hit you instead.
Hammer of Wrath
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 44, 52, 60
Mana Cost: 295, 360, 425 Casting Time: 1 second Range: 30 Yards
Cooldown time: 6 seconds
This move has been given to the Paladin at the Version 1.7 patch over
concerns that the Paladins are far too easy to run away from. Therefore,
you have this new Hammer of Wrath ranged attack. Now, whenever the
enemy has 20% or less health, and is trying to run away from you, all
you have to do is to use this and throw the hammer over long distances
to hit him, most likely to finish him off! This is one cool finishing
move, so make sure you have enough mana to spare!
Holy Shock
Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40 minimum, 48, 56
Mana Cost: 255, 325, 380 Range: 20 Yards Cooldown time: 30 s
Prerequisite: 30 points in Holy talents, 1 point in Divine Favor
The Holy Shock move is the Paladin's one and only ranged damage spell
that works any time. Using this will instantly blast the enemy with
Holy energy, dealing a considerably high amount of damage to them from
a 20 yard range. That's not all, if you use this on a friend, you will
heal them instantly for that particular amount. Holy Shock is powerful
and hard to get. To get that, you must have designated at least 30 of
your Talent Points in the Holy Talent Tree. Afterwards, you must invest
5 points in all 5 Illumination Talents, then invest another point in
Divine Favor. Then, you can get to invest one more point in Holy Shock.
Therefore, you must wait all the way until level 40 to get it! Since
it's a ranged attack, you can use this to pull enemies in instances. A
better way to use it still, is to use it in a finishing combo in a PvP
combat! Consider first using Judgment of Righteousness, then Holy Shock,
and then finally Hammer of Wrath! This should deal more than 700 damage
and certainly finish them. (Considering the enemy has around 3000 HP
and is at around level 47.)
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e. Healing and Protection
--------------------------
One of the Paladin's prized skills is his ability to fight and heal at
the same time. Surely, they may not heal as good as the Priest, it is
still very vital to keep the others alive. At the same time, the
Paladin has some abilities to help protect themselves during critical
moments of the fights. Here are the skills that you can use to help.
Holy Light
Ranks: 1 to 9 Level Learned: 1, 6, 14, 22, 30, 38, 46, 54, 60
Mana Cost: 35, 60, 110, 190, 275, 365, 465, 580, 660
Casting Time: 2.5s Range: 40 Yards
Holy Light is the standard healing move of the Paladin. After a short
charge, the Paladin will heal his target. The higher the rank of the
move, the stronger the healing power. Since it takes 2.5 seconds to
cast this spell, you might as well do something to help avoid spell
interruption. Investing 5 Talent Points into Spiritual Focus should
help, since it allows 70% of hits dealt to the Paladin while he is
casting the spell to not interrupt his casting. Combine this with
Concentration Aura, there really is no way standard hits can stop him
from casting.
However, you should still watch out for effects such as Kick or Silence,
since they stop the spell completely, and you have to wait a
considerable while before you can cast again. One way to cope with
those moves is to attempt to heal when your HP is still high, get
interrupted, and then heal again. Then, there is no way for the enemy
to interrupt you! Another way is to stun the enemy or protect yourself
in an invincibility shield, as you see later.
Flash of Light
Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58
Mana Cost: 35, 50, 70, 90, 115, 140 Casting Time: 1.5 seconds
Range: 40 Yards
Flash of Light is a move that allows the Paladin to heal his friends
slightly, but with a shorter casting time. The range is the same.
However, please note that the amount healed per unit time for Flash of
Light is lower than that of Holy Light. However, but the mana cost per
unit healed of this move is generally lower than that of Holy Light. So,
if you are outside of battle, consider using this instead to heal
yourself. But while in fierce battle, use Holy Light instead.
Divine Favor
Level Learned: 30 minimum Mana Cost: 4% of Paladin's Total Mana
Cooldown Time: 2 minutes
Prerequisite: 20 Points in Holy Talents, 5 Points in Illumination
This move is an instant cast buff, and allows the next Holy Light or
Flash of Light cast by the Paladin to always give a critical effect (ie.
Heal more than usual). Since you have already spent 5 points in
Illumination in the Holy Talent Tree, you will definitely not spend any
mana in this Holy Light! So, use this whenever you do not have any more
mana to spare. This shows why it is worth it to spend points in the
Holy Tree of the Paladin! Do yourself a favor, in particular a Divine
Favor and spend 20 Holy Talent Points, man!
Purify / Cleanse
Level Learned: 8, 42 Mana Cost: 8% of Paladin's Total Mana
These moves are moves that allow Paladin to remove ailments from
himself and friendlies. Purify removes one disease effect and one
poison effect each time it is used. Cleanse removes the above, and one
magic effect as well. Both cost the same, so might as well Replace
Purify with Cleanse upon hitting level 42.
Righteous Fury
Level Learned: 16 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana
Lasting Time: 30 minutes
This self buff increases the aggro, of threat drawn from the enemies
from your Holy attacks by 30%. This means that if you use this on
yourself, and cast Seal of Righteousness, with every hit you take, the
enemy will be more likely to hit you than the mage or priest in your
group. Much better for tanking, eh?
Divine Protection / Divine Shield
Ranks: 1 and 2 (DP), 1 and 2 (DS)
Level Learned: 6, 18 (DP), 34, 50 (DS) Mana Cost: 15, 35, 75, 110
Lasting Time: 5 to 12 seconds Cooldown Time: 5 minutes
Both of the above spells are invincibility spells. The Paladin will
become invulnerable for a short time, and all conditions will be cured.
Note that for Divine Protection, the user cannot perform any attacks,
but can cast healing spells on himself. Meanwhile, Divine Shield allows
you to use physical attacks, but the speed will be reduced by 50%. This
move is perfect for healing yourself in emergencies. Since, whenever
you are ambushed by a Horde while you are fighting an enemy for
instance, you can quickly put on the "bubble", and heal yourself to
full strength, run away from the enemy's territory, and fight the Horde
on an evenly basis. You may also try to use the Hearthstone while in
the bubble, but you have to have laser sharp reflexes to ensure that
the warp effect will begin before the bubble expires. (Only works for
Divine Shield, by the way.)
-----------------------------------
6. What you should do for a Living
-----------------------------------
World of Warcraft features a system of professions. A character can get
up to 2 primary professions. They include Herbalism, Skinning, Mining,
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Tailoring and
Engineering. The first 3 professions are collecting professions. They
are used to collect raw materials for your use. The last 5 are
production professions that allow your character to create armor,
weapons and more with your raw materials.
---------------------------
a. Recommended Professions
---------------------------
So many professions, only 2 can be chosen, but which ones are
recommended for the Paladin?
Herbalism allows the collecting of herbs from the ground. The herbs are
usually used to create potions in Alchemy, since the Paladin can
already heal himself and buff himself, these 2 professions are not of
much use for him.
Skinning allows the skinning of dead Beasts. Leather is collected in
the process. However, all of this leather is best used at
Leatherworking, which creates Mail Armor at best. However, the full
potential of the Paladin is realized at Plate Armor, therefore, the
above 2 professions are not recommended.
Tailoring allows you to make clothes, which are cloth armor. The thing
is, Paladins should not wear cloth. Enchanting is a profession that
allows you to boost the abilities of weapons and materials through
shards. However, that is still not as good as Blacksmithing or
Engineering that allow you to create offensive and defensive devices.
At the same time, Enchanting tends to be a money making profession. You
have to make the hassle of advertising yourself through the Trade
Channel of cities to offer enchants to people's equipment, and this is
quite a tedious process.
Blacksmithing is also a choice, since you can make weapons and armor
for your use. However, they do not address the Paladin's weakness,
which is the lack of ranged attacks. So, I would recommend Engineering,
although you CAN take Blacksmithing to help you out a bit.
Since a lot of metal is used in the above two professions, I recommend
that you choose Mining with Engineering.
NOTE: If all you care is making money, just choose any 2 gathering
professions, and sell all you harvest at the auction house!
At the same time, there are secondary professions. These are just
amateurish stuff, giving you some extra bonuses in life. There are 3
secondary professions, and they are First Aid, Fishing and Cooking. You
can learn all 3 of them, but I suggest you prioritize.
First of all First Aid allows you to create bandages and medicine for
yourself. These things make great in battle backup healing items for
you, and whenever you run out of mana, you can always use them to save
your life. Therefore, First Aid should be of the highest priority.
Cooking allows you to cook various dishes. All of the food are to be
eaten outside of battle to heal you, and can buff your stats for 15
minutes if you eat long enough. This is always nice, but it will not be
as good as in battle healing. So, Cooking is at second priority. As for
fishing well, this is to be the last priority, since well, all you
catch is fish, and not all recipes require fish!
---------------
Mining
---------------
Mining allows your character to mine minerals from all the veins and
deposits found in the map. All Miners get the ability to find minerals.
Then, all mineral nodes will appear as yellow dots on your minimap
whenever it is activated. Moving your cursor over the dot tells you
what type of mineral it is. Move your character close to the vein and
click to start mining.
Each node can be mined up to 4 times before it is exhausted. Whenever
you move your cursor over the mine, it will say "Requires Mining", take
note of the color of those words. If they are red, then your mining
skills are not enough to mine from that vein. If it is orange, then you
are guaranteed to at least get a 1 point increase in mining skill when
you mine from this node. Yellow and Green nodes, also have a chance to
give you a boost in mining skill when you mine from them, although the
chances of that happening are lower.
Mining can be learnt from trainers scattered around the world. The same
trainer can train you throughout the way. There are a total of 4 stages
of Mining, that gives you the skill level in brackets. They are
Apprentice (1-75), Journeyman (75-150), Expert (150-225) and Artisan
(225-300). All you need to do is to buy a mining pick and you are set
to go mining!
Trainers for the Alliance include:
Kurdram Stonehammer in Auberdine, Darkshore
Dank Drizzlecut in Gol'Bolar Quarry, Dun Morogh
Yarr Hammerstone in Kharanos, Dun Morogh
Matt Johnson in Darkshire, Duskwood
Geofram Bouldertoe in Ironforge
Brock Stoneseeker in Thelsamar, Loch Modan
Gelman Stonehand in Stormwind
There is also a Neutral Trainer called Pikkle in Gadgetzan, Tanaris.
The nodes that a miner can mine from, in ascending order of skill
required are: Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver and
Thorium. Note that when some mines respawn, they may respawn as a rarer
node. Tin Veins my respawn as Silver Veins; Iron Deposits may reappear
as Gold Veins; Mithril Deposits may respawn as Truesilver Deposits.
Once you get the ore, you can smelt them by a Forge. Sometimes, 2
different ores can be smelt into a new allow, such as in the case of
Copper and Tin, which can be smelted into Bronze if you mining skill
has reached 60. Iron and Coal on the other hand, can be smelted into
Steel, if your mining level is 165 or higher. All Smelting Recipes are
to be learnt from the trainers.
Here are all the Mining Abilities that you can train for:
Apprentice Miner (10 Copper)
Smelt Copper (Initial Ability)
Journeyman Miner (50 Skill, 5 Silver)
Smelt Tin (65 Skill)
Smelt Bronze (65 Skill)
Smelt Silver (125 Skill)
Smelt Iron (125 Skill)
Expert Miner (125 Skill, 50 Silver)
Smelt Gold (155 Skill)
Smelt Steel (165 Skill)
Smelt Mithril (175 Skill)
Artisan Miner (200 Skill, 5 Gold)
Smelt Truesilver (230 Skill)
Smelt Thorium (250 Skill)
Smelt Dark Iron (Learnt from Dwarf Ghost)
To learn Smelt Dark Iron, you must go to the Blackrock Depths, and
bring 10 bars of Truesilver, 20 bars of Gold and 2 Star Rubies to a
Dwarf Ghost in order to learn it. To smelt the Dark Iron, you must use
the specially provided forge there. Sometimes, when you mine a mineral,
you will get some special gemstones too. For instance, mining Iron may
give you Jade. Fortunately, most Blacksmith and Engineering skills do
not require gemstones. If you don't need them, sell them.
---------------
Engineering
---------------
Engineering is the art of creating various devices from raw materials.
Most of these devices created can only be used by Engineers, making
Engineering a not so profitable profession. However, the devices
created can often turn the tide of the battle.
Engineer Trainers in the Dwarven District of Stormwind can train you to
Apprentice and Journeyman ranks. Trainers in Tinker Town, Ironforge can
train you to Apprentice, Journeyman and Expert ranks. To be trained up
to the Artisan Rank, you will have to speak to a trainer in Gadgetzan,
Tanaris. As simple as that.
Most devices require metal to build, some even require gemstones.
Therefore, Mining is very important. At the same time, a small amount
of schematics require the use of Leather, and you better make friends
with a Leatherworker if you want to have a steady supply of them!
Here's a summary of what an Engineer can make and whether they are
useful to a Paladin.
Gunpowder
All Engineers can make gunpowder, known as blasting powder in the game.
This gunpowder is used to make ammo, and a wide variety of explosives.
All Gunpowder items are made from stone, found with certain mineral
ores. When you get Rough Stone, you can make Rough Blasting Powder with
it, and so on. Please note that you can get up to 4 stone per picking
session when you mine from the following nodes:
Copper Vein: Rough Stone; Tin Vein: Coarse Stone; Iron Deposit: Heavy
Stone; Mithril Deposit: Solid Stone; Thorium Vein: Dense Stone
Rough, Coarse and Heavy Blasting Powder require 1 stone for 1 unit of
powder. As for Solid and Dense Blasting Powder, you will need 2 stone
for 1 unit of powder.
Ammo
With your gunpowder, and some smelted metal, Engineers can make ammo.
However, their usefulness is limited to Paladins, since they CANNOT use
guns. So, don't bother learning these, unless you want to sell them at
the Auction House.
Parts
Certain items require complex parts, which are to be crafted beforehand.
I know that it is inconvenient, but for some items, like Explosive
Sheep, you have to make your own Bronze Frameworks before you can do
anything. Parts can be useful, or not, depending on your preferences,
but still, learn to make all of them, as you will not know what will
happen next.
Guns
Another useful weapon that Engineers can create are guns. Unfortunately,
Paladins cannot use guns, so this is one drawback. Fortunately, the
guns do not require Engineering Skills to use. So, you can always
create guns and sell them at the Auction House. Please note that of all
the guns you make, only one is Purple (epic item), it is the Core
Marksman Rifle. It requires 4 Fiery Cores, 2 Lava Cores, 6 Arcanite
Bars, 2 Delicate Arcanite Converters and 2 Thorium Bars. Of course, you
will definitely need to go to Molten Core (a 40 man raid instance) to
get that. So, if you plan to get the stuff, good luck!
Target Dummies
Target Dummies are dummies placed on the ground, to lure enemies to
attack it for a fixed amount of time. Note that this works in PvE only,
so it is definitely not worth it.
Fireworks
Fireworks are just there, well for the heck of it. Using fireworks
really won't do much, except that you can impress your friends. So,
learn if you like, just don't waste your materials on useless junk.
Explosives
This is the type of item made by Engineers that made me choose the
profession. Explosives usually come in dynamite, bombs and grenades.
Dynamite is nothing special, but bombs grenades surely are. Not only
that they deal fire damage over a certain radius, they also stun the
target for a short time. This stunning effect can help supplement the
Hammer of Justice, keeping the enemy player from moving for a few extra
seconds. Since bombs can be thrown, they are excellent in catching
enemies from a range, or just stopping human players who like to run
around you taking random slashes!
Elemental Reflectors
Once you get up to a high level of Engineering, say 260, you can get to
make Blue Trinkets that provide additional elemental resistance when
equipped. Besides that, when used, those trinkets will reflect the
elemental attack back to the enemy caster for 5 seconds!
The 3 Trinkets are the Gyrofreeze Ice Deflector (+15 Frost Resistance,
Engineering 260), Hyper Radiant Flame Reflector (+18 Fire Resistance,
Engineering 290) and Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector (+20 Shadow
Resistance, Engineering 300). All of these items require schematics to
make, some of them require certain parts which require other schematics
to build! (The Truesilver Transformer, for instance!)
These Trinkets are very effective against enemy casters. Before that
Horde gets over to you, equip the corresponding one. (Fire/Frost for
Mages, Frost for Shamans, Shadow for Warlocks and Priests). You should
time yourself so that the shield is activated a second before the spell
hits you, then there will be no time to stop. As for Shamans, simply
put on the Frost Deflector to deter him from using his Frost Shock
before you get to a close enough range!
-----------------------------------------------
Specialization: Gnomish and Goblin Engineering
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