I seem to remember from 2004-2005 that Paladins were crap at DPS, have they made any changes in Classic these days? I am about to level one and am naturally curious. I know they were hardy healers able to take a beating when the tanks lost aggro (at the first sign of a heal 
) .
2 Likes
Don’t.
And if you do, don’t be mad if people won’t invite you to dungeon groups and raids.
Paladins are the best healers in the game, don’t try to stand out by being a meme spec.
8 Likes
Should also note, part of why paladins were good healers were that they didn’t actually pull aggro easily. Pally healing aggro was intentionally nerfed to stop them just tanking by spamming heals. And this was part of many guilds tactics for razorgore.
1 Like
You can make up to 90% of a similar geared warrior if you stack Spelldmg instead of Melee Stats.
Nobody knows atm how this spec will work out in classic, but it could be competetive in raiding.
Most people dont know this, but it is a fact, that paladin can be a decent dps
5 Likes
Paladins bring much utility.
Frost / Shadow resistance auras are raid savers.
EDIT: also fire.
2 Likes
With the right gear, maybe.
I haven’t tested it in Classic, but you do remenber well. Back in the those years my main was a retardin and I did pretty good DPS…with full Grand Marshall gear. I didn’t get that gear because of the class/spec, but because I am a decent PvPer and a very good team player, so I got into the best PvP guild of my server. In a premade, retardin is viable. In PvE, only against undead. If you are up for a challenge, go on with a retardin.
Otherwise, healadin is pretty good: IMO second only to priest healing wise (start of discussion), but more resilient. Not that funny the Flash of Light spamming though…
Protadin…just don’t bother, surpassed by prot war and bears, except against undead.
Paladins weren’t crap at DPS, people were bad and prejudiced, not bothering to actually test things.
Throughout recent years, the classic pserver community has (despite the stigma that ret pallies still have, as you can see with Zentus’ inane gibberish) found out that ret pallies are actually good dpsers with the right gear.
Their downside is that they have to be selfish to achieve this damage.
A dps paladin brings good utility and good dps in the only content that matters - raids (aka they’re not that good in 5-man content, but 5-man content is obsolete so being “optimal” or not isn’t important.)
Your future (or current, if you have one) guild will love bringing you to 40-mans if you wield Nightfall.
The only thing you really have to come to terms with as a ret pally is that you’re utility dps - NOT mr. “I top the dps charts coz that is all that matters harharhar”
7 Likes
You got proof on this? I seriously doubt that a Priest’s heal would pull more aggro than a similar Pally heal!
The only reason to have ret in raid. As all the OTs are with Annihilators.
1 Like
Paladins could not taunt (and therefore tank) until sometime into TBC or even later I seem to remember. And even then it was a convoluted “taunt” that needed to be macroed.
2 Likes
So retadin is only good in raids…and they need the best gear to be good…and you value them more for the utility than for the DPS…
The OP asked if they were good at DPS. They aren’t. Do they bring utility to a raid? Yes, indeed. That doesn’t make them good dpsers, it’s a bad spec for solo content (farming for raids), in 5-man, in PvP. Only viable in raids, because of their utility.
They don’t need taunt to tank. You seem to regard taunt as the be all end all tanking tool 
Like everything else, Protadins had to adapt. There are plenty of ways to “soft-taunt” mobs.
completely misconstruing my words.
They’re not only good in raids, they’re at their best in raids. They don’t need the best gear to be good. Their utility is valued over their dps because they have a ton of utility. Doesn’t make them bad dps, just makes them more valuable purely for utility.
Ret dmg is bad show me 1 ret on classi performing well in raids
1 Like
I’d say I’ve never seen anybody write anything as stupid as this, but I probably have.
Still, this gets into the top 100.
People are barely level 60 on Classic. About 0.1% of people make video content. About 10% of those 0.1% are decent players. About 1% of those 10% of those 0.1% are ret paladins.
How in the hell do you expect anybody to show you something like that?
As far as I can remember, the only reason to make a ret paladin was to build up those charges and 1 shot somebody in duels 
About 11 alliance guilds have posted logs onnwarcraftlogs, none have a ret. I wonder why. If rets were good, good guilds would be using them
1 Like
Paladin’s are perfectly viable Dungeon DPS. Hell, they compete with / out-compete most classes till the higher levels in Dungeons (except Undead Stratholme and Scholomance). In a raid? You have to build a certain way, stack Spell Power etc. But you’ll have a stigma against you, as Paladin DPS really falls off hard in raids for those who don’t know how to build 'em.
Judgement actually tried this spec in Molten Core already and it performed quite as expected.
Check out the VoD from the raid here.
1 Like