lrn2play: Paladin Leveling Builds
This post is being dedicated to Gamer Mommy, who asks
"So I started an alt because I have a problem. My blood elf pally is coming up in the ranks. Mind sharing a good leveling talent tree spec with me?"
Hey, it's like I'm BRK now! Neat! Ahem... so, here we go.
Well ma, there are a lot of different specs you could try out, you would think that there was a single spec that excelled at leveling, and I suppose there is, but I'd like to give you a grinding spec based around each talent tree, that way you'll have more choices, and be able to learn how to play your class according to your chosen spec while you're leveling, because really, each talent tree for a paladin is like playing an entirely new class (much like a druid or shaman and their trees.) Here we go:
OOMadin
First up we have the Holy Tree, now a lot of people say "Hey! Holy is for healing, not for soloing." and for the most part I would say you're right, but with the right gear you can quickly become something I've coined the "OOMadin", you spend a lot of time drinking and spamming all your spell abilities, but it gets the job done, and did spectacular for more while leveling in Hellfire Peninsula later on.
The basic idea is to blow your various abilities and unleash some holy damage, spam that consecration if you have multiple enemies, and just keep on trucking with bubbles & crit heals from divine favor when you need to. If you're going OOM and struggling to get by, pop the 41 pt talent and keep on going. It's VERY hard to die with this build unless you get jumped while you're low on mana. This build will also allow you to be a relatively effective healer if you feel the need to do instances and such on your way to the top. Obviously you'll want to respec to be more healing effective if you plan on sticking with Holy. Also, feel free to swap out Redoubt with Devotion Aura if you enjoy two-handers over shields, Imp. Devotion Aura is actually surprisingly effective pre-outland, then it goes down hill.
Shockadin
This is the same basic idea as above, except you focus more on burst damage than healing, it's great for a PvP build, but it really isn't cut out for leveling, as it doesn't really entirely come together until 70, but I think it's fairly self explanatory, it's just a different method of the above option, allowing you to judgment more, etc.
Tankadin
Okay, you can basically do WHATEVER you want and live with the right gear. Always carry a shield around with you, keep righteous fury up, do whatever you need to do. You've got spiritual focus to heal yourself without interruption (unless they shield slam or kick) while you AoE farm and basically kill things by STANDING THERE. That's right, the mobs will slowly kill themselves just by attacking you. Holy Shield is your Thorns, Retribution Aura as well, and let's not forget Reckoning, you're just sitting there, sipping your iced tea, watching the sunset as millions of murlocs fall as they end up breaking their flimsy little hands on your plate armor. Fall back on bubbles or run or whatever if you really need to. But as far as I've been told, you're unstoppable. You can even solo out of instance elites that are a level or 2 above your current one, it'll be a long process, but you can do it.
Retribution
Just how BRK has the dreaded 'marksman' spec that everyone uses, this is that dreaded retribution spec that paladins use. I still have no experience with the retribution tree, but I respect it and admire the players who can make the tree work well. It's a VERY gear dependant tree, but it's the 'solo' tree as admitted by Kalgan, one of the lead game developers for WoW, and enemy to all paladins apparently. This one is more of a PvE raiding spec, but it's practically the same for solo.
You have a few options and choices you can make, if you enjoy 2-handers, take Imp. Devotion Aura (In fact, 2-handers are the way to go, and you'll probably be using devotion aura early on until you get Sanctity Aura, so go with that early on and make the switch to redoubt if you stick with retribution in the long run.) Also, if you'd like drop Precision and aim for Vindication since it works fairly well on the trash you'll be leveling up on, but it really seems to be more of a PvP talent. Here's a quick explaination on the balancing act of retribution stats and then I'll send you on your way.
Strength/AP -> Crit Rating/Agility -> Hit Rating -> Everything Else
Make sure you don't eliminate yourself from INT gear though in Azeroth, as INT Plate is very hard to find outside of the blood elf starting zones, wear shaman mail if you really need to or if you're very low on INT, but for the most part, just make sure you try to balance things out instead of focusing strictly on a stat or two. You are, more or less, a warrior with healing.
Remember everyone, I am in no means an expert on these things, if anybody else would like to provide comments or ideas or simply say that I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, feel free to do so. I hope these build ideas will give you a basic understanding of each spec, and some of the builds you can use to level/solo to 70.
"So I started an alt because I have a problem. My blood elf pally is coming up in the ranks. Mind sharing a good leveling talent tree spec with me?"
Hey, it's like I'm BRK now! Neat! Ahem... so, here we go.
Well ma, there are a lot of different specs you could try out, you would think that there was a single spec that excelled at leveling, and I suppose there is, but I'd like to give you a grinding spec based around each talent tree, that way you'll have more choices, and be able to learn how to play your class according to your chosen spec while you're leveling, because really, each talent tree for a paladin is like playing an entirely new class (much like a druid or shaman and their trees.) Here we go:
OOMadin
First up we have the Holy Tree, now a lot of people say "Hey! Holy is for healing, not for soloing." and for the most part I would say you're right, but with the right gear you can quickly become something I've coined the "OOMadin", you spend a lot of time drinking and spamming all your spell abilities, but it gets the job done, and did spectacular for more while leveling in Hellfire Peninsula later on.
The basic idea is to blow your various abilities and unleash some holy damage, spam that consecration if you have multiple enemies, and just keep on trucking with bubbles & crit heals from divine favor when you need to. If you're going OOM and struggling to get by, pop the 41 pt talent and keep on going. It's VERY hard to die with this build unless you get jumped while you're low on mana. This build will also allow you to be a relatively effective healer if you feel the need to do instances and such on your way to the top. Obviously you'll want to respec to be more healing effective if you plan on sticking with Holy. Also, feel free to swap out Redoubt with Devotion Aura if you enjoy two-handers over shields, Imp. Devotion Aura is actually surprisingly effective pre-outland, then it goes down hill.
Shockadin
This is the same basic idea as above, except you focus more on burst damage than healing, it's great for a PvP build, but it really isn't cut out for leveling, as it doesn't really entirely come together until 70, but I think it's fairly self explanatory, it's just a different method of the above option, allowing you to judgment more, etc.
Tankadin
Okay, you can basically do WHATEVER you want and live with the right gear. Always carry a shield around with you, keep righteous fury up, do whatever you need to do. You've got spiritual focus to heal yourself without interruption (unless they shield slam or kick) while you AoE farm and basically kill things by STANDING THERE. That's right, the mobs will slowly kill themselves just by attacking you. Holy Shield is your Thorns, Retribution Aura as well, and let's not forget Reckoning, you're just sitting there, sipping your iced tea, watching the sunset as millions of murlocs fall as they end up breaking their flimsy little hands on your plate armor. Fall back on bubbles or run or whatever if you really need to. But as far as I've been told, you're unstoppable. You can even solo out of instance elites that are a level or 2 above your current one, it'll be a long process, but you can do it.
Retribution
Just how BRK has the dreaded 'marksman' spec that everyone uses, this is that dreaded retribution spec that paladins use. I still have no experience with the retribution tree, but I respect it and admire the players who can make the tree work well. It's a VERY gear dependant tree, but it's the 'solo' tree as admitted by Kalgan, one of the lead game developers for WoW, and enemy to all paladins apparently. This one is more of a PvE raiding spec, but it's practically the same for solo.
You have a few options and choices you can make, if you enjoy 2-handers, take Imp. Devotion Aura (In fact, 2-handers are the way to go, and you'll probably be using devotion aura early on until you get Sanctity Aura, so go with that early on and make the switch to redoubt if you stick with retribution in the long run.) Also, if you'd like drop Precision and aim for Vindication since it works fairly well on the trash you'll be leveling up on, but it really seems to be more of a PvP talent. Here's a quick explaination on the balancing act of retribution stats and then I'll send you on your way.
Strength/AP -> Crit Rating/Agility -> Hit Rating -> Everything Else
Make sure you don't eliminate yourself from INT gear though in Azeroth, as INT Plate is very hard to find outside of the blood elf starting zones, wear shaman mail if you really need to or if you're very low on INT, but for the most part, just make sure you try to balance things out instead of focusing strictly on a stat or two. You are, more or less, a warrior with healing.
Remember everyone, I am in no means an expert on these things, if anybody else would like to provide comments or ideas or simply say that I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, feel free to do so. I hope these build ideas will give you a basic understanding of each spec, and some of the builds you can use to level/solo to 70.
posted by Sylvina Solaris | 8:38 AM
11 Comments:
Thank goodness for my blogging mentors! What would I do? Hmmm... a lot to think about. I started in the Retribution tree before asking after reading it was a good solo build. Our guild is in serious need of healer types - is it possible to be a decent healer if you are a tankadin or is Holy the route to go?
You're an EXPERT healer with Holy, but as long as you have the proper gear, it is my belief you can do ANYTHING (even DPS as Holy).
Example:
Healing as Holy is Easy
Healing as Prot in Holy Gear is more effort.
Just like:
Healing a Prot Tank is a snooze fest for Holy.
Healing a Fury Tank is effort for Holy.
Prot healing a Prot tank is relatively easy still.
Prot healing a Fury Tank is pure chaos.
It really depends on gear, group make up, and specs. You can do anything as Holy for healing, but, you can still heal or off-heal in Karazhan (when you're not tanking) with the right gear.
Also, Retribution is an ideal spec for leveling in Azeroth due to the complete lack of paladin gear between levels 20 - 57, you'll have a lot of warrior plate, and you may need to sacrifice blues for greens in order to get your 'fix' for INT. It's bad pre-expansion itemization that really hurts the class, once you hit Outland you have a lot more freedom and a Holy leveling build is more accessible.
A nice basic right up in the general sense of the Paladin class in simple terms. Yes it be nice if we had like what BRK is for Hunters but one for Paladins. Someone someday i'm sure.
As for me 2 bars from 62 and i've been talent spec Protection my entire wow life. So never been Ret or Holy so its only tree i can speak on. So solid protection tree.
I chose Protection even when i knew it was the slowest lvling spec initially to start out. Two reasons. Been hard to kill and great for soloing. I'm a prime solo player and self sufficient. Initially lvling is slow but i barely could tell, i've never spec the other Paladin trees.
However until you get like Blessing of Santuary and Holy Shield, Ret Aura things are slow and killing is slow. Both allows reflect damage back to mobs. In essence mobs kills themselves on your 1H and Shield as your prime weapons. When and if you get Reckoning as a Protection spec it gets really fun then. Here is where you now starts to shine as a Protec spec. Killing mobs become a slaughter with a quick 1H and Shield and you have a blast in killing multiples. You live to kill things in packs just not Casters. You can also effectively use a 2H weapon 1 vs 1 though with not as much damage as a Ret Paladin due to spell set from tree in Ret.
If you getting Reckoning your pretty much going deep Protection Paladin. Because you'll want to get the 5 points in it period. A paladin deep with talent points in Protection Tree is a Porcupine Killer. Your damm tough to kill vs mobs, The toughest Paladin spec and killing is very fast with Retribution Aura and Holy Shield vs lots of mobs all at once. The Imp Holy Shield is even better. As a Protec Spec you generate massive amount of threat and can front load it quick to stick agro to mob.
You vs any melee mob is your forte. Casters is your prime enemy #1, because they range damage you with spells that you can't block with Holy Shield or Redoubt to reflect damage to mob. With casters you have to kill then up close and fast. Melee mobs you can fight to eternity and win. As a Protection spec i loved to take on elite mobs 1-2 lvls above me sometime 2 at a time depending on mob and i can win but its tactical play. You can take on mobs at +5 lvl and win, But takes skill. I've down a +8 lvl mob in a 10 min fight to eternity but it took everything i had to win and then some.
Thing is Protection tree is Built to take damage, low on dps but you win by just wearing out the mob or wearing it down and been able to heal when you need or heal on strike allows you to do it.
Whatever tree you choose should cater to your play style in how you play or want to level or want to do. Mine was to solo & survival with fun build into it. Thats Protection spec to me. Yeah your dps sucks, but when you see a camp of mobs with melee weapons and a smile come across your face, because soon it be 6-8 mobs banging on your shield soon and your gona watch them kill themselve on your shield and aura with some skill in AOE.
Gear wise you will always have gear problem, get used to it. It will be a constant problem. You will mostly in begining 0-58 be in Warriors gear. INT gear is hard to get, but nice if you can find it. I never really did. You can heal but you will not be as good as Holy by far. You Mana pool don't last that long to sustain doing healing alot.
Playing a Paladin is NOT easy mode like lots of people think. You have to constantly think on your feet up close vs mobs. Its either kill it or be killed. And you have to constantly manage your judgements, seals and cooldowns to be effective and most importantly MANA, so no easy mode here. Just some prospective from a Protection paladin or Tankadin i guess.
LAWL @ ur prot spec
LAWL @ ppl who have never researched the wide versatility of their class.
Unfortunatly you have never experienced the joy of aoe prot grinding and so can't emphasise with the fun galoheart has.
Another fail post from Anonnymous
LMAO protection is not the dps class
pallies are the simplest to determine their 3 possible roles...holy = heals, prot = tank, ret = dps
sure a prot pally can deal damage, a holy pally can too - but nowhere CLOSE to a ret pally
Anonymous fails again. Protection is the DPS class for soloing builds at least at the time that this was written. You could just gather up a ton of mobs and AoE them and damage them with shield spikes, etc.
I really like how "tankadin" sounds but for some reason I only see 8 tp filled out in the calculator. This happens a lot when I look in at talent calcs for some reason. Do you think you could elaborate a bit on how you would create the tankadin? I would love to give it a shot. My pally is still below 10 at the moment but I've always been a bit confused about which way to go. This blog is awesome. Thanks!
Been leveling my ret pally since I began in DEC 2009...just hit 70 and have never had a single issue surviving solo or pvp. For PVP I honestly don't think there is a stronger class or spec at this time. I have good gear and have come in first place the 20 or so times in alterac valley. I suggest being a human paladin since the perk of Everyman is too godly for getting out of anything and not having to waste a trinket on the same effect.
Once dual-spec hit I made my other spec PROT and got really good gear made for that spec...I found the spec to be pretty much useless in most respects. Less damage and about the same healing and you run out of mana like crazy if you want to kill things with any urgency.
@ Sylvina Solaris
n00b
Aura mastery + ret aura + holy shock + exorcism + consecrate(you can Talent these in the holy tree for -mana and CD on exo) = holy paladin > all others in terms of leveling. Casters are primary enemies? No... Bubble will pull all casters to you to melee range and typically they stand there meleeing even after it is gone. divine protection + hand of salvation(glyphed) = -70% reduction on dmg to you. Trust me, the fastest leveler In The Game is the holy paladin, as long as you know what you are doing. Its also a lot LOT more fun than going up to a single mob killing it, next mob killing it SNORE SNORE SNORE ret paladins you are boring as shit. Holy paladins pull 6-8 mobs at same level or even orange and still win out if they are being controlled by someone with a brain. Every pull done in this way is challenging and FUN to do. leveling as a ret is slow and stupid. leveling as a prot is OK but its not nearly as good as holy aoe. Bottom line, don't be a single target killer, that's BOOOOORING and way way way too easy.
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