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Cyverion
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re: Paladin Megathread v3.2: Bacon, Ramps, and 1up Mushrooms

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1. Introduction

A Paladin is a melee class with many defensive support abilities. We wear the heaviest armor, wield the heaviest weapons, cause a mix of holy and physical damage, and have the biggest heals. We live longer than other classes in most situations and people hate fighting us but love grouping with us. We have lots of raid utility, much of it unique to the class such as Judgments, Auras, and Blessing of Kings, but are very good even outside the buffs we bring. Paladins can specialize in three different play styles: Holy for healing, Protection for tanking, and Retribution for dealing damage.

This thread covers the basics of leveling, gearing, and speccing a Paladin. For more in-depth information visit any of the following websites:

http://elitistjerks.com/f76/
http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/
http://www.retpaladin.com/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/

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Healing Paladins have two main spells: Flash of Light, an efficient and fast but weak heal, and Holy Light, an expensive and slow but very powerful healing spell. Specializing in Holy boosts your mana pool, spell critical strike chance, raw healing output, and spell casting speed. It also gives access to some unique tools that are very useful to a healer, such as an instant cast heal (Holy Shock) and a nifty ability that lets you heal two people at the same time (BaconBeacon of Light). Holy Paladins are able to put out massive amounts of healing per second with Holy Light, but have a difficult time dealing with large amounts of group damage. Holy Paladins are the only healer that can wear plate armor, giving them a strong passive defense against physical damage. Like most healers, Holy Paladins prefer to stay at range - they have talents that boost the range of their Judgment spells to help them stay at a safe distance.
This spec gives you lots of spell crit, which is useful when gearing up. More discussion on specs later on.

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Tanking Paladins focus on sacrificing themselves, taking damage instead of their teammates. The Protection talent tree greatly increases your ability to take damage by boosting Stamina, armor, your ability to avoid or block incoming damage, and also increases the effectiveness of important tanking abilities, such as Divine Protection and Shield of Righteousness. Specializing in Protection also adds awesome new abilities like being able to throw a glowing holy shield so hard that it silences enemies (Avenger’s Shield), and Hammer of the Righteous which lets you slam three people in front of you with glowing holy hammers. Protection Paladins, like Protection Warriors, use a shield and one-handed weapon. Unlike a Warrior who causes physical damage like bleeds and weapon and shield strikes, Paladins generate threat by causing tremendous amounts of holy damage, which ignores armor.
A typical level 80 Protection spec looks like this. More discussion on specs later on.

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Damage Paladins focus on using the biggest and slowest maces, axes, hammers, or spears, as well as an assortment of magical abilities called Seals to hit stuff really hard. Retribution focuses on boosting your damage, and it does it very well – almost every talent is a direct boost to your damage output. Going deep enough gives access to new damage abilities like Crusader Strike and Divine Storm. Deep in Retribution you'll find a talent that converts your Attack Power into Spell Power, allowing you to focus purely on melee gear but still having decent spell damage and healing. Retribution also allows you to reduce the cast time of Exorcism and Flash of Light to instant after getting a critical hit, giving you the ability to cast these important abilities while on the move.
A typical level 80 Retribution spec looks like this. There are a lot of extra talent points, more on that later.

2. Starting a Paladin - Choosing a race and leveling

2.1 Races

Alliance
Humans - Free Expertise with Maces and Swords (+3), a free boost to reputation gains, a free level of stealth detection, and arguably the strongest PVP racial in the game: Every Man For Himself (which also helps in some PVE encounters). Humans are probably the best choice for an Alliance Paladin.
Dwarf - Hate how Humans look? Love being a beer-chugging, mace-swinging, waist-tall stone wall? You also get free expertise with Maces (+5), a great tanking and PVP ability in Stoneform, and a somewhat useful -2% chance to be hit by frost spells.
Draenei - A raid-wide 1% hit aura that is very useful but doesn’t stack with another Draenei, an instant heal over time, free jewelcrafting skill, and -2% chance to be hit by shadow spells. Unless you really like being a blue space squid, you’re better off with Human or Dwarf.

Horde
Blood Elves - the only race you can choose, but it has great racials so don't fret! You get an AOE Silence that also restores 6% of your mana, free enchanting skill, and -2% chance to be hit by all kinds of spells.


2.2 Leveling a Paladin

All that awesome stuff I said about Paladins a few paragraphs ago? Unfortunately most of it comes at higher levels. Leveling a Paladin, while efficient and easy, is a very un-engaging experience at low levels. You run into something with auto-attack turned on and use Judgment every 10 (8 with talents) seconds.

Spec and Glyphs
Retribution is your best bet. It gives you amazing mana regen, the highest damage output, and best of all more button to push while in combat. Follow this guide for the most effective use of talents:

10-14: 5/5 Deflection or 5/5 Benediction
15-16: 2/2 Improved Judgment
17-19: 3/3 Heart of the Crusader
20: Seal of Command
21-22: 2/2 Pursuit of Justice
23-24: 2/5 Conviction
25-27: 3/3 Sanctity of Battle
28-39: 4/5 Conviction
30: Sanctified Retribution
31: 5/5 Conviction
32-34: 3/3 Crusade
35-37: 3/3 Vengeance
38-39: 2/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
40: Repentance
41-43: 3/3 Judgments of the Wise
44-45: 2/2 The Art of War
46-48: 3/3 Fanaticism
49: 1/2 Sanctified Wrath
50: Crusader Strike
51-53: 3/3 Sheath of Light
54: 2/2 Sanctified Wrath
55-57: 3/3 Righteous Vengeance
58-59: 2/2 Improved Blessing of Might
60: Divine Storm

After level 60 you take Divine Strength in Protection for +15% strength and then Seals of the Pure in Holy for +15% Seal/Judgment of Vengeance/Corruption damage (which you'll learn soon and you can drop Seal of Command). Afterwards go finish off Two Handed Weapon Specialization and take whatever else strikes your fancy.

For Glyphs you'll want Judgment (Major), Blessing of Might (Minor), Lay on Hands (Minor), and later on Seal of Vengeance (Major). Use Exorcism (Major) until you get Seal of Vengeance.

Gear
You want to use gear suited for melee. That means you want Strength, Agility, Crit Rating, Hit Rating, Expertise Rating, etc. Try to stay away from Spell Power, Intellect, Spirit, Defense Rating, bonus armor, and other stats that don't boost the damage your attacks do.
If you have a choice between two different items that both have melee stats, go with whichever item has more stats. An item with 9 strength will be better than an item with 3 agility and 3 stamina, but an item with 6 agility and 6 stamina would be better than the 9 strength.

Staying Alive
Paladins have amazing tools for avoiding death while leveling. Divine Protection, Divine Shield, Lay on Hands, Hand of Protection, Hammer of Justice, and decent healing spells. Either way I recommend leveling First Aid so you don't have to waste mana healing yourself.

Pulling enemies
At level 16 you learn Hand of Reckoning a fantastic tool for engaging enemies. At level 20 you can learn Exorcism, but due to the 1.5 second cast time it resets your auto-attack timer, and you're better off just attacking. You can use Exorcism to pull, but Hand of Reckoning does the job better.

The Art of War
If you follow the guide posted above at level 35 you'll get full access to The Art of War. As well as a passive damage boost to your special abilities, getting a critical melee attack lets your next Exorcism or Flash of Light be an instant cast spell. This is extremely useful and very fun. Unlike spells with a cast time, instant spells don't reset your auto-attack timer, letting you use Exorcism as another damaging ability any time.

Healing and tanking
Yes, you can still heal and tank for dungeon groups if you want but not without the gear for it. That means you need a 1h+shield for tanking and armor with intellect and spell power for healing. Don't be afraid to wear cloth, leather, or mail for healing. Just collect a set of gear on the side as you level and you'll be fine tanking or healing as Retribution. If you can afford it, Dual Specialization helps greatly, but it's not necessary.

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3. I'm level 80 now what? or "how the hell do I play?"

Congratulations on reaching the max level! Now you can learn how to tank, heal, and dps properly. The Paladin combat system has a mix of passive abilities like Seals and Auras, activated abilities like Judgment, short and long-term buffs called Hands and Blessings, respectively, and powerful cooldowns like Divine Shield and Lay on Hands.

3.1 Holy
Specs
51/0/18 +2: A spec that is useful for gearing up and entry-level raids. It gives you lots of mana, spell power, spell crit, and spell haste.
51/11/0 +9: Although you lose 8% crit from Retribution you gain 5% healing The most important reason you take this spec is for Divine Sacrifice which is invaluable for many of the Ulduar fights. This spec is only recommended for players regularly raiding Ulduar. With the extra points you can fill out Improved BOW and still get Improved BOM for maximum raid utility or fill in more points in Protection for a stronger Sacred Shield.

Paniolo posted:
PvP builds (just healing, I don't know/care about ret.)


Deep Prot (20/51/0)
Surprisingly, deep prot is the most offensive-oriented healing spec for paladins. You have Hammer of Justice on a 20 second cooldown and Avenger's Shield, which can crit for 7k+ and dazes and silences the target on a 30 second cooldown. You are also a tank and have most of the survivability talent tree, including the massively buffed Argent Defender. You gain spellpower from stamina meaning you can socket for pure stamina and reach comically large HP totals while still having effective heals. You also get an extra-strong Sacred Shield and a 30% bonus to your healing crits, which is significant since you will mostly be spamming FoL in this spec (with a near-100% chance to crit on your Sacred Sield target.) The downside to this spec is that you have no mobility; without Holy Shock you cannot heal on the move, and no Pursuit of Justice to move quickly. You are also completely reliant on spells with cast times to heal, making you more vulnerable to interrupts (although you do get Aura Mastery to help with this.)

NOTE: If you don't run battlegrounds or arenas with other healers you should avoid specing into Spiritual Attunement as you will get no benefit.

Ret/Holy Hybrid (31/0/34)
This is a healing build centered around picking up Judgments of the Wise (for infinite mana) and Repentance (for extra CC) from Ret while still getting Holy Shock. You have a fair amount of flexibility with your talents along the way, and some leftover to spend afterward. This is a nice build to start with if you are undergeared as it lets you completely ignore mana as long as you are in the habit of judging as often as possible. (In fact, I'd even recommend it as a starter PvE healing build - great for healing Naxx while undergeared.) The main downside to this build is that you lose Beacon, 15% spell haste, and some spellpower compared to deep holy. With the changes to Beacon it's likely that deep holy will become the dominate healing spec for 3's and 5's, while the ret and prot hybrid specs will be more powerful in 2's.

Deep Holy (51/20)
This is fairly similar to the standard PvE holy/ret build with a few talents switched around. With the changes to Beacon in 3.2 I don't think deep holy without Beacon will be common anymore (a semi-popular variation in the past was to drop Beacon and a few other Holy talents to go deeper into Ret for Divine Purpose.) This build lacks the versatility of Ret or Prot, but gains in raw healing power. With the changes to Beacon (including a 60 yard range) you can sit out of line of sight and spam heals on yourself, or heal two people at once.

Variations on this build include getting both PoJ and Stoicism at the cost of 8% crit (51/8/12) or a full prot sub (51/20/0). You could also try picking up Seal of Command and its glyph as a poor man's JotW, though I don't know if this is at all worthwhile.


Glyphs
The must-have Major raiding glyphs are Glyph of Holy Light, Glyph of Divinity*, and Glyph of Seal of Wisdom. Minor glyphs include Glyph of the Wise and Glyph of Lay on Hands. The third choice is completely up to you.
*Using this glyph gives you 3900 every time you cast Lay on Hands on somebody else or 7800 mana when you cast it on yourself. This gives you an instant ~8k mana restore on an 11 minute cooldown, basically once per fight.

Gear
You want to focus on gear with Intellect, Crit Rating, Spell Power, and Haste. Intellect is by far the best stat to gem for - it increases your mana, healing, and crit chance.

Here is a nice list of Holy starting gear, courtesy of mewse.

quote:
Mainhand
Mariel's Sorrow New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Heroic
Titansteel Guardian - crafted
Argent Tournament Sword Horde, Alliance - has hit rating, not optimal
War Mace of Unrequited Love - Heroic Nexus
Gavel of the Brewing Storm - Wyrmrest Revered

Shield
Protective Barricade of the Light - 35 Heroic badges
Facade Shield of Glyphs - Heroic AN
Bulwark of Redemption - Icecrown Quest

Libram
Libram of Renewal - 15 Heroic badges, BiS for a looong time

Head
Helm of the Bested Gallant New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Normal
Helm of Purified Thoughts - Argent Crusade Exalted
Brilliant Titansteel Helm - Crafted
Helmet of the Constructor - Heroic Utgarde Keep

Neck
Symbol of Redemption New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Heroic
Titanium Spellshock Necklace - Crafted
Lattice Choker of Light - 25 Heroic badges
Amulet of the Spell Flinger - Heroic Old Kingdom

Shoulder
Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Snake Den Spaulders - Heroic Gundrak
Pauldrons of Destiny - Heroic Culling of Strat

Back
Deathchill Cloak - Crafted (needs a loremaster tailor?)
Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape - Heroic Oculus

Chest
Patina-Coated Brestplate - BoE, from Heroic Halls of Stone
Ornamented Plate Regalia - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle

Wrist
Flamebeard's Bracers - Heroic AN
Bands of Fading Light - BoE, from Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Catalytic Bands - Heroic Oculus

Hands
Gauntlets of Revelation New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Heroic
Web Winder Gloves - BoE
Argent Tournament Gloves Horde, Alliance - 10 tokens

Waist
Trueheart Girdle New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Heroic
Magroth's Meditative Cincture - 40 Heroic badges
Girdle of Ice - Heroic Nexus

Legs
Legplates of the Argent Armistice New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Heroic
Leggings of Protective Auras - Heroic Oculus
Shardling Legguards - Heroic Halls of Stone

Feet
Greaves of the Grand Paladin New in 3.2! - Trial of the Crusader 5man Normal
Brilliant Titansteel Treads - Crafted
Mojo Frenzy Greaves - Heroic Gundrak
Skywall Striders - Heroic Halls of Lightning
Sabatons of Erekem - Heroic Violet Hold

Finger
Signet of Hopeful Light - Argent Crusade Exalted
Band of Guile - Heroic Culling of Strat
Annhylde's Ringe - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Solitaire of Reflecting Beams - Heroic Violet Hold
Titanium Spellshock Ring - Crafted

How to heal
Holy Light: your best overall healing spell. You will want to cast it before the tank takes damage on hard-hitting bosses. Your mana isn't as important as people staying alive and your talents let you cast multiple Holy Lights in a row.
Flash of Light: a very weak heal, but fast and has a low mana cost. When used in conjunction with Sacred Shield you can get nifty bonuses like +50% crit and placing a heal over time (HOT) that causes 100% of the regular heal over 12 seconds.
Holy Shock: not the most powerful or efficient heal, but you can use it while moving. If it critically hits you get bonuses on your other heals. This is the only heal Paladins can use while moving.
Sacred Shield: learned at level 80, this is a 30 second buff you place on a friendly target. Casting Flash of Light on a target with this buff places a heal over time (HOT) that heals 100% of the original Flash over 12 seconds. Also, when a target with the Sacred Shield buff takes damage they gain a mini absorption shield.
Beacon of Light: A very neat ability. You place the Beacon on any friendly target and then any healing you do to anyone within 60 yards of the Beacon also heals the Beacon. It lets you do quick heals on dps or other healers while still healing the tank.

Before combat you want to cast Seal of Wisdom and make sure everybody in your party is Blessed properly. Try to keep Sacred Shield on the tank.
Typically you want to use Holy Light. Flash of Light may be sufficient if you have high spell power and the tank isn't taking a lot of damage, but in general keeping the tank alive with Holy Light is more important than being efficient. Sacred Shield is a great tool to mitigate boss attacks and Beacon of Light is invaluable any time more than one person is taking damage.
If you are running low on mana you cast cast Divine Plea to give yourself 25% of your mana back but be careful - your healing is reduced by 50% while Divine Plea is active. If you need to heal during those 15 seconds you can right-click the buff off, allowing you to heal normally again.

3.2 Protection
Specs
0/53/18: There's really only one tanking spec for Paladins, but you can shift a few points around if you want.

Glyphs
The three best major glyphs to use as a tank are Righteous Defense, Divine Plea, and Seal of Vengeance. The only minor glyphs that have an effect on your tanking are Sense Undead and Lay on Hands.

Gear
The first thing you want to do when gearing for tanking is get to a point where bosses cannot critically hit you. This can be reached by stacking your Defense Skill high enough. For level 80 this means you need 540 Defense Skill (or 535 for Heroics). Note: Defense Skill is the stat listed on your character panel under Defense. Defense Rating is found on gear and increases your Defense Skill.

To see a list of starting tank gear, check the Protection Paladin Field Manual on Elitist Jerks. Scroll down to "Quick and Dirty level 80 Gear Set".

How to tank
Before you pull make sure you cast Righteous Fury, Seal of Vengeance, and make sure your party is properly Blessed. In almost every situation you want to use Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself instead of the other Blessings.
Righte before you pull you'll want to cast Divine Plea - with proper talents it will refresh itself indefinitely as long as you are attacking, giving you 3% mitigation and unlimited mana. To start combat you'll want to cast Avenger's Shield, giving you a good threat lead and silencing any casters that would normally stay back out of your range.

To properly generate threat Paladins use what is called the "96969" rotation, where the 9's and 6's refer to the cooldowns of your abilities. Holy Shield, Judgment, and Consecration are your 9's while Hammer of the Righteous and Shield of Righteousness are your 6's. To generate maximum threat while keeping Holy Shield up you want to cast a 9 then a 6 then a 9 then a 6, etc. Always prioritize Holy Shield over any other 9. If there's a loose mob or somebody pulls threat you can use Hand of Reckoning or Righteous Defense to instantly get back on top of the threat list.

A typical pull would go like this: Divine Plea and Avenger's Shield to initiate combat. Activate Holy Shield while your Avenger's Shield is flying towards the enemy. If there's lots of targets you'll want to use Consecration right away to keep all mobs on you. Keep using your abilities in the 969 order and if everything goes well you'll be throwing another shield at more mobs before you know it.

3.3 Retribution
Spec
5/5/53: The basic Retribution raid spec that covers all the essential raid talents. As you can see there are 8 points left over. You can go for Swift Retribution for a raidwide dps boost or Divine Sacrifice to help healers.
0/17/51: The basics of a PVP Ret spec. There is a lot of variation to be had here, but in general you want both Divine Storm and Improved Hammer of Justice. Seal of Command really isn't useful, stick to Righteousness and Vengeance.

Glyphs
PVE
For PVE you want to use Glyph of Consecration, Judgement, and Seal of Vengeance.

PVP
For PVP Ret you'll want to use [http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45747]Glyph of Salvation[/url], Judgement, and either Turn Evil or Seal of Vengeance.

Gear
Retribution is the only spec that gets no Expertise or Hit from talents; we get 10 Expertise from a glyph, instead. For help with finding upgrades, I reccomend using Rawr, a very cool program that simulates Retribution dps very well.
You can find some easy starting gear from Blacksmithing (Titansteel Helm, Titansteel Destroyer) as well as just doing a lot of heroics and buying items with emblems. A lot of the Emblem gear is very good, like the Bladed Steelboots and your tier sets.

Gearing as Retribution is easy: get melee hit capped (8% or 263 rating) and then stack Strength. Expertise, crit, haste, and armor penetration are all less valuable than more Strength on a 1:1 ratio. Stat priorities are as follows:
Hit (until capped) > Strength > Expertise > Crit > Agility > Haste > Armor Penetration > Attack Power
For more information visit the 3.2 Retribution thread on Elitist Jerks.

How to dps
Before combat you'll want to make sure you have Seal of Vengeance (for long fights like bosses) or Seal of Righteousness (for short fights) active. You'll also want to make sure your party or raid is Blessed properly.
Unlike Protection which follows a rotation, Retribution Paladins just hit whatever ability is available and resolve GCD collisions on a priority system. If you have two or more abilities available at the same time use this priority:
Crusader Strike > (Hammer of Wrath) > Judgement > Divine Storm > Consecration > Exorcism

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4. Hands, Auras, Seals, Judgments, and Blessings, oh my!

What sets Paladins apart from other classes is that we have a number of different "classes" of abilities. Like a Hunter that can only have one Sting or a Warlock that can only have one Curse, Paladins can have one Hand... and also one Aura, one Seal, one Judgment, and one Blessing! Knowing which spell to use in which situation is key to playing a Paladin.

4.1 Hands
"Hand" spells are our short-term combat buffs that you cast on friendly players. They have short durations and lengthy cooldowns because they can completely change the flow of combat. You can only have one Hand spell on a target at a time.
Hand of Salvation: Primarily a PVE spell, this reduces a friendly target's threat on all targets by 20% over 10 seconds. Incredibly useful when a dps class is riding a tank close. Warriors and Warlocks in particular absolutely love this spell. Can be glyphed to also provide a 20% mini shield wall when cast on yourself, which makes it great in PVP.
Hand of Sacrifice: Transfers damage from the friendly target to the Paladin that casts it. Useful in PVE to split damage from a tank so he doesn't get killed by large hits and in PVP to prevent crowd control effects like Polymorph from lasting long on you.
Hand of Protection: Protects the target from physical damage of all kinds for 10 seconds and also removes them from all enemy threat lists for the duration. Great when somebody pulls aggro or when somebody is getting clobbered by melee.
Hand of Freedom: Arguably the most useful Hand spell, Freedom removes and grants immunity to snares. Paladins have no snares or roots of their own so this ability is a wonderful way to stay on or away from your enemies. Retribution Paladins can spec to make this ability break stuns when cast, making it even more valuable.

4.2 Auras
Auras are passive abilities that effect your entire group or raid, chosen before combat generally not switched often (although it is possible to do so). Most auras are defensive in nature, reducing the damage taken by physical or magical damage. Each talent tree offers a talent that grants bonuses while any aura is active. You can only have one Aura active at any time.
Devotion Aura: A simple increase to armor value. Useful for reducing physical damage taken.
Retribution Aura: The only aura with direct offensive use, Retribution Aura causes reflective holy damage to anyone that hits you. Also causes bonus threat, making it useful for tanks.
Magic Resistance Auras: These auras come in Fire, Frost, and Shadow flavors. Activating one of these auras gives you a good boost to your Resistances.
Concentration Aura: Primarily used when healing, Concentration Aura reduces the amount your spells are pushed back by taking damage.
Crusader Aura: A 20% mounted speed boost. Helps for cutting down traveling time and reaching objectives in PVP sooner.
If you know a fight will deal a certain type of nature damage, run with the proper resistance aura. They don't stack with similar buffs, so make sure you discuss this ahead of time with your group.

4.3 Seals
Seals are the basis of the Paladin combat system. A passive buff that lasts 30 minutes, each Seal grants a different bonus to your attacks ranging from bonus damage to self-healing and short stuns. Some Seals can be glyphed to also effect your healing. You can only have one Seal active at a time.
Seal of Righteousness: Learned at level 1 this is your basic damage Seal. It adds extra holy damage to each attack. Eventually you replace this with stronger abilities.
Seal of Wisdom: Primarily used by Holy Paladins in conjunction with the glyph to get a mana cost reduction on healing spells. Can also be used to gain mana back with auto-attacking when nobody is taking damage.
Seal of Light: A very situational ability, primarily used by Paladins that are soloing old raid content. Can be glyphed to increase all healing you do by 5% while active.
Seal of Justice: Gives your melee attacks a chance to stun the target. Situationally useful in PVP.
Seal of Vengeance/Corruption: (Corruption is for Horde, Vengeance is for Alliance) Although it takes some time to build up to its full damage potential, this is the best dps, PVP, and tanking Seal. In shorter fights you'll want to use Seal of Righteousness.
Seal of Command: The only Seal learned through talents, Seal of Command is a decent leveling Seal and nothing else. At higher levels Seal of Vengeance is preferred for raiding, with Seal of Righteousness does more damage on short encounters.

4.4 Judgments
Judgements are the activated part of Seals - unleashing the energy of a Seal causes damage (depends on the Seal you're using) and a debuff based on which Judgement spell you use. There are currently three Judgment spells. Although Judgements have a short range (10 yards), Holy Paladins can spec to increase the range so they can cast them while healing from range. You can only have one kind of Judgment debuff on a target at a time.
Judgement of Light: Places a debuff on your target that gives anyone that attacks them a chance to restore 2% of their maximum health. Great for smoothing out incoming raid damage.
Judgement of Wisdom: Places a debuff on your target that gives attackers a chance to restore 2% of their base mana. Useful for any mana class.
Judgement of Justice: Places a debuff on the target that prevents them from fleeing and limits their movement speed to normal run speed. This is not considered a snare, as it doesn't actually slow anybody down - all it does is negate any speed bonuses.

4.5 Blessings
Blessings are long-term buffs that enhance a variety of stats. They come in two varieties: normal and Greater Blessings. Normal blessings last 10 minutes and are cast on a single friendly target while Greater Blessings last 30 minutes and are cast on everyone that shares the same class as your target. For more information on managing Greater Blessings, see the PallyPower section in part 6 of this post.
Blessing of Might: Increases your targets attack power, raiding melee and ranged damage. Melee classes and Hunters love this buff. Does not stack with Battle Shout from Warriors.
Blessing of Wisdom: Restores a good chunk of mana every 5 seconds. Does not stack with Mana Spring Totem from Shamans.
Blessing of Kings: A 10% increase to every base stat. Every class loves this spell. This is an ability unique to Paladins.
Blessing of Sanctuary: The only Blessing you learn from talents, Sanctuary gives 3% damage reduction, 10% stamina (doesn't stack with Kings), and mana return when you block, dodge, and parry. This is the best Blessing to use when tanking.
Typically if you are the only Paladin in a raid you will cast Blessing of Kings. If there is no DPS warrior present and you are the only Paladin, physical classes will want Might instead.

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5. Professions

Skinning: Small critical strike rating bonus. Don't bother.
Mining: A stamina boost and good way to make money. Great for tanking.
Herbalism: Self heal, useless.
Engineering: Lots of neat toys that help in PVP as well as PVE like rocket boots, a belt attachment that spawns bombs, a rocket launcher in your gloves, access to the auction house while in Dalaran, and much more. I highly reccomend Engineering for Paladins - it makes you Jesus and Batman put together.
Blacksmithing: Gives you two extra sockets (one in gloves, one in wrists). Expensive, but very useful and customizable. You can also craft your own epic plate armor (or just buy it from other Blacksmiths).
Enchanting: Gives you enchants for your rings. The bonuses aren't as good as Blacksmithing or Jewelcrafting, but the difference is negligible. Enchanting is a good way to make money.
Jewelcrafting: Special gems that only you can use that have higher stats than regular gems. Very customizable and very useful but very expensive to level. Very useful for all three specs.
Inscription: Inferior to the other three unless you really, really don't want to grind Hodir dailies, as Inscription's bonus is a free shoulder enchant which is far better than the enchants Hodir gives you.
Alchemy: Makes flasks more effective and last twice as long. Pretty cool bonus, especially if you like to use flasks but you're cheap. Also gives you a 1 hour never-ending Flask that offers a passive bonus you can use anywhere in the world, even the arena.

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6. Addons and Macros, or "How do I use PallyPower?"

In this section I'll cover the top 3 mods every Paladin should use.

#3: Omen A threat meter. It lists how much threat everyone is generating very accurately. Very useful not only for tanks and dps but all Paladin specs because it lets you pre-emptively cast Hand of Salvation on high-threat dps like Warlocks and Warriors.

#2: Grid A replacement for party and raid frames, Grid is a highly customizable addon that allows you to display as much (or as little) information as you want in a compact way. If Grid is too complicated or you're just lazy, you can try Healbot instead.

#1: PallyPower DOWNLOAD PALLYPOWER RIGHT NOW No, casting Blessings is not hard, and no, organizing people in raids to cast certain Blessings is not hard. PallyPower takes an easy thing and makes it very easy. It allows you to assign Blessings to classes and players and informs you of when somebody is missing the assigned Blessing. For a quick video tutorial, click here.


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