Hello!
Currently in classic i’m leveling a paladin.
I want to know how it is in late game.
I’ve heard that people want you to heal in raids and I’m fine with that.
But what do you think about paladin.
Is it fun and good and other stuff.
I want your opinions
Terrible at tanking,
Terrible at dps,
Great at single target healing and an almost infinite pool of mana.
It’s not playable by horde so don’t bother. Roll a shaman instead.
Be prepared to autoswing a lot!
But it’s truly a “hybrid”, you can tank heal and dps in dungeons at the same time. I always am excited that I can seamlessly go from healing to dpsing, to picking up a mob or two if a caster is in trouble.
They are excellent bringers of utility, great healers and can survive a massive beating. In pvp scraps I almost always escape if I want to escape.
They are pretty boring to level but I guarantee it gets better the higher you get.
Healing with them feels solid and impactful and people are always happy to take you to groups as holy.
Don’t be put off by all this “they are crap” malarky, in a min-max setting they are not optimal, but in a general setting they are fine.
difficult to answer, if you just want mainstream, roll a Mage or Hunter. The Paladin is unfortunately (I have no idea why Blizzard made it so) terrible at 2/3 trees, Tanking is a slow process, Damage is almost non existent, and it is a Utility Healer at best, in most Raids (vanilla) their job was to buff (they have some very useful buffs) and heal the MT, whilst Priests could heal the whole group, or simply as a secondary Healer, with certain talents that were useful in particular dungeons.
@Hybrid@ is the name of the game, personally I prefer to run 5 mans and use that utility as much as possible.
Probably under-rated and it’s a shame they (Blizzard) couldn’t have buffed it a little with at least a single target taunt (which it gets in later releases).
After saying that, I wouldn’t want to play any other char…
They dont have much to do in solo levelling but they have millions they can do in group content
Buffbot and healbot. Decent in some 1 vs 1 PvP action as retri.
Thank you!
You made me wanna keep my paladin and now I look forward to hit level 60 
Good Paladin players are incredibly powerful and appreciated in both PvE and PvP. Paladin DPS is so-so, the biggest issue being that the class heavily favors 1h weapons and having lots of spell damage, something that isn’t really readily available for a long time. Most players fall into the trap into thinking that gearing them up as a Warrior and using Seal of Command is the way to go, and the class designer of the original Paladin concept himself has said that this has caused him lots of headache.
I’ve had a couple of tank paladins and they were awesome.
Incoming damage isn’t that high. Tools to save themselves. An extra rez in the group and they keep track of mana because without it then they can’t do anything either.
I would definitely run with paladin tanks more often .
You should be capable of filling all three roles.
In reality, you are only capable of filling one - healer.
You have two heals.
In reality, you only use one.
1/4 of your time in boss fights will be spent re-applying buffs due to their short duration.
People meme on Paladins, but let me hit you with some truth;
Their tanks are great for dungeon content. They have excellent AoE threat once they get Consecration coupled with Righteous Fury. They do, however, fall off hard in raids except for an off-tank role against certain bosses and trash mobs. The drawback is having to stop and drink, but if you can handle your mana bar (not always slamming max rank spells) and use JoW properly, this can be mitigated quite well. Mana pots from alchemy help.
They are the best single-target healers in the game. Once specc’d and geared, they can essentially have infinite mana and a rapid fire heal. Not much to say here.
Their DPS really isn’t trash-tier until later in the game, despite the memes. And even then, a Ret Paladin will do fine for most dungeons. Especially Dungeons filled with Undead. The thing you have to remember as a Ret Paladin is that you are a hybrid class, which means you shouldn’t be looking solely at that DPS meter. You should be buffing, Cleansing poison and disease, throwing out the odd heal, throwing out CC with Turn Undead or Hammer of Justice, throwing BoP on the healer or DPS who drew aggro or BoF on those snared / rooted…
Example: Ran Gnomeregan yesterday, had an under-levelled Paladin. He was sitting at 27 which is fine for the first part of the instance, but struggles the lower down you go. Firstly, the Paladin made sure to keep us all topped up on buffs. For the first part of the instance, his DPS was fairly respectable as well. But when we got down to Electrocutioner 6000 and onwards? His DPS fell off hard as he was barely hitting. So what did he do?
He transitioned to off-healer. And when we got to Sicco Thermaplugg? He spent his time destroying the walking bombs and shutting them down, while continuing to help the healer, who was also slightly under-levelled. A low-level Warrior, Rogue or Mage etc could not have provided that same versatility, range of buffs and what-not.
There’s also that sweet Resurrection spell, which people are always thankful for if the Healer dies. Or if your healer is a Druid and thus doesn’t wanna blow their single battle-rezz.
Pros:
Cons:
Ret is a meme, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Even diehard Rets for life like Esfand are often honest in saying “don’t play Ret, you will not be invited to groups”.
Prot is acceptable while levelling but has no purpose at 60.
I’m having a lot of fun as paladin. But its definatly less fun as a solo player. In groups (quests) and dungeons you have a lot of fun, the tools a paladin has, will be beneficial for any party no matter the composition, and you can adopt any role pre raid.
Leveling Solo
While leveling your restricted to short range, which might make some quests and situations annoying, and of the most part its front loading a judgement and then a seal and auto attack. Dps is mediocre, and really gear dependant, but your sustainability and survival is extremly high.
Leveling Group
When grouping with any other class, you suddenly don’t have weak points anymore, your toolkit is designed to support, and together the toolkit makes it for a fun and fast experiance
Dungeons
At the moment the role i’m doing the most is actually tanking, due to there always beeing a short supply on tanks. Otherwise i’m mostly healing, don’t expect people to invite you for dps, but so far i haven’t been excluded if i replied to someone asking for a dps either. Utility wise a really good class
World PvP
Expect to be kited, you stand no chance against skilled hunters and mages, almost no chance against skilled warlocks and priests but you totally obliterate rogues and feral druids, and against warriors its often a case of timing and gear but you’ll win the fight if its on equal ground. In team fights, you can do decent burst, crowdcontrol, utility and healing, Paladins are the best pvp healers by far.
Ret dps?
1 word - Esfand
I’m not putting up with all that **** again though so I’m maining different classes. But if you wanna go against the flow (and that flow is one colossal tidal wave of poop hate and salty tears) then ignore the haters cos Esfand proved it can be done.
Sidenote: If a ret ever wants to group with my resto druid or MM/S hunter in classic I am totally cool. (As long as you know who Esfand is, then I know youre a true believer.)
I’ll play a paladin as alt once I feel like alting, I played one during vanilla and absolutely loved the class. I greatly enjoyed their support playstyle and their versatility, both during leveling and at max level.
It’s one of those things where I feel it depends a bit on how you like to play tho.
Don’t do it, mate. Did it in vanilla, the payoff at 60 was non existent.
I’ve buffed 39 other people every 5 mins in MC. Never again.
Actually, you should. The moment you stop to throw a heal you arent DPSing. Those heals won’t be appreciated and you’ll just get abuse for the lower DPS. To play Ret as DPS well you basically have to be a selfish dick.
Luckliy your pally was in a group that appreciated his utility and didnt give him hassle for having lower DPS.
As for trash DPS at endgame, well Esfand has proved that isn’t the case. But the secret is to not try and gear like a warrior or by using SoC, you need to use abilities that capitalise on Holy Power buffed with spell power. Buffing spellpower requires potions and other consumables that are expensive and require a lot of farming and grind.
Levelling is rough (not hard, but sloooooow)
Tank is lol unless you’re in 5 mans with good gear, ret is lolret
Holy is amazing though, crits are mana-free with any healing build. And you crit constantly, even in crap gear. Everyone will love you for playing a paladin, and you will make other armor classes cry.
Plate, mail, leather, cloth… If it’s got +healing, you’re probably rolling on it
Great healer and raid dps, mediocre tank (lack of taunt).
That about sums it up.
If anybody tries to tell you paladins are a bad raid dps, just give them the middle finger. They have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.