A Paladin is the Knight in shining armor in the World of Warcraft. The paladin is a hybrid class that was initially for the
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This guide is intended to lay out a plan for leveling a Paladin to level 60 in a short amount of time and with a high degree of enjoyment. I'm also skipping the Battleground PvP. If you're interested in that the only way to learn is get in there and do it. If you need a more in-depth guide specifically for doing alliance quests, you can check out Brian Kopp's 1-70 alliance guide, which has all the quests linked to wow paladin guide for easy reference, there is a small fee for it, but I think it's well worth it in my opinion. If you’re playing a Blood Elf Paladin then you can check out Skewters's 1-20 Paladin Blood Elf guide, which is pretty cool.
I have this 60 Pally, a 60 Priest, an almost 60 Warrior, and another Pally currently at 42. The 42 Pally is the fastest leveling and most fun character I've played. This stems from the combination having leveled several characters and avoiding the mistakes I made with the first Pally. Do it any way you want but the following approach works great.
Guardians of the Holy Light and defenders of the
The Paladin is a mix of a melee fighter and a secondary spell caster. The Paladin is ideal for groups due to the Paladin's healing, Blessings, and other abilities. Paladins can have one active aura per Paladin on each party member and use specific Blessings for specific players. Paladins are pretty hard to kill, thanks to their assortment of defensive abilities. The Paladin can also heal with Holy Light, unlike other combat classes. The Paladin is an Undead specific fighter as well, with several abilities designed to be used against the Undead.
The most important initial consideration is deciding if the Pally is for you in the first place. I would call the Pally decidedly overpowered up until level 45-50. After that the Pallys damage output does not progress much while other classes designed around damage output are beginning to shine and will eclipse the Pally in the damage dept... On the other hand, the Pally can still do sufficient damage but also has excellent defensive abilities and a wide variety of group enhancing abilities that make a well played Pally a huge asset to any group. So the deal in a nutshell is, if you value damage output above all else and don't enjoy having support responsibilities you'll probably end up disappointed at level 60.
Ill break out important development aspects by 10 level blocks.
If you have a high level alt or friend, you will be helped tremendously if you can start with enough gold for bags and some basic equipment. The more the better, the Paladin is a very gear dependant class.
Levels 1-10
Humans get the slightly useful racial talents of +5 to swords and Maces, a tiny Spirit bonus, and Diplomacy which helps you gain reputation 10% faster, which is nice. Dwarves get Stone Form, +5 guns (which a Pally can’t use at all), +10 Frost Resistances, and Find Treasure with you won’t use because you'll be using Find Minerals (will explain soon). I prefer Humans but, in the end, there is not much important difference.
Every time you level up to an even numbered level go see the Paladin trainer. They will have new skills for you to learn. Get them all and learn to use them. At lvl 8 you get Hammer of Justice (HoJ, 3 sec stun) which allows you to heal or stop a fleeing mob. At lvl 10 you get you first taste of overpowered with Blessing of Protection (BoP, castable on either you or others) and Lay of Hands (LoH). BoP makes you immune to physical damage for 6 seconds and LoH restores ALL your health at the cost of all your mana (which you should have pretty much used anyway). If you play wisely its almost like 3 lives if you use BoP to heal.
Find yourself a good 2 handed weapon (preferable a mace or sword if human) and plan to stick with 2H weapons for quite some time. You mail armor will give you the defense you need and the extra hitting power is better than the extra armor from a shield. In fact, only break out the sword and shield when in instances with groups.
Always have your aura up, a blessing on yourself, and seal active when youre fighting. The only aura you have is Devotion at this point. Later you get others which are pretty self explanatory. Use the right one at the right time.
Learn to judge Seal of Rightousness for extra damage. You also get Seal of the Crusader (SotC) at lvl 6. If you judge this it increases subsequent Holy damage. This can be handy.
Acquire 4 bags ASAP. The bigger the better. More space means fewer trips to the vendor to sell the crap you find but don't need.
Critical: As soon as you can get to your major city and learn your two professions Mining and Engineering. If you want something else you're making a big mistake. Remember, all the crap others make you can always buy but all the great Engineering stuff is for Engineers only. Engineering serves to fill in designed in gaps in the Paladin character. Paladins benefit from engineering more than any other class benefits from any profession. You take mining because it supports Engineering.
See the weapons trainer in your major city and learn 2 handed Maces and Sword at a minimum. Learn everything you can afford except maybe daggers.
Get your mining pick and turn on Find Minerals ASAP. Mine every node of copper you see and start advancing your Engineering Skill as aggressively as possible. In no time you'll be able to make Rough Copper Bombs and will have a ranged means of pulling non-player character opponents (referred to as mobs from now on). Other Engineering goodies include mechanical pets whose level is your Eng. Skill divided by 5. So, if at level 40 you have 300
Do all the quests you can in your starting area.
Look for equipment with stamina and intelligence (of the eagle suffix) or strength (of the bear suffix), or strength & intelligence (of the Gorilla). Mana wont be much of an issue at this point and strength gear is more common thanks to Warriors so you'll likely end up with plenty of that.
Learn First aid, saving mana by using bandages is a very good thing.
At level 10 you get your first talent point, put it in Improved Blessing of Might (IBoM). You are going to put your first 31 points in Retribution so its that or Benediction. At this early stage IBoM will help you more.
Levels 11-20
At lvl 11 you should have no problem taking on 2 or even 3 mobs of your same level or one mob 3 levels higher and living through it. You cant do it all the time but you should be able to do it. Other characters wont be able to though. From lvls 10-20, after some practice, you should be able to beat any class in a duel. Between your mail, healing, BoP, HoJ, relatively good DPS, Blessing of Freedom, and LoH (shouldn't have to use) you have everything you need to succeed.
You learn some good new skills in this range such as Redemption (resurrect dead players), Blessing of Wisdom (quicker mana regen), Retribution Aura (deals a bit of damage), Blessing of Freedom (immunity to movement impairing effects), Divine Protection (total immunity to all damage and debuffs for 8 secs), Seal of Command (excellent damage dealer w/ 2H weapons) and Righteous Fury (generates extra threat to focus mobs attention on you). Divine Protection activates a debuff that prevents BoP from being cast for one min... So, you can’t have back to back immunities.
Head to Westfall and do the many quests there. The Deadmines is also the first instance you should encounter. You get the main quest for the place by following The Defias Brotherhood quest chain. Use this as an opportunity to learn to group with people. In addition to killing mobs keep everyone blessed all the time, heal and purify them when they need it and keep the appropriate aura up all the time (usually Devotion). You need to master doing this combination of jobs in order to be an effective Paladin. If you don't have some way to get a decent money supply besides grinding you’ll probably wants to do the Deadmines several times for the better than average equipment drops and stuff to sell.
Your talent points will be spent on filling out IBoM, then 2 in Improved Judgment, and the other 3 in either Improved Seal of the Crusader (ISotC) or Deflection. I could argue the merits of either of those two about equally so you decide. I tend to favor ISotC since it improves damage and encourages the use of Judgments. Bad Paladins seldom use Judgments. The 11th point goes in Seal of Command (SoC).
Continue to aggressively advance your Engineering. At 85 skills you get to make Target Dummies which are very helpful in soloing hard quests or when you have no choice buy to take on larger groups than you would like. When they are destroyed/expire doesn’t forget to loot the Dummy. You get some of the materials back and may get the, hard to otherwise get, Fused Wiring. Fused Wiring is used in advanced Engineering devices. It can also be sold at the auction house for 10-15 gold. At skill 100 you can make Flying Tiger Goggles. If you've been doing a good job advancing your
At level 20 you get the quest in SW Cathedral for your seriously overpowered (for its level) hammer known as Verigans Fist (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4190) . Focus on this alone until you get the hammer. See Thottbot for where/how to get the components. You'll need help with Jordans Hammer and I recommend asking a level 60 Pally for help. They have an emotional tie with the class and that weapon and it they know it won’t take them long so the chances are good that they will help. Have your griffen point in Southshore established so you don't waste their time. Now you have a weapon that is waaaay overpowered for level 20 and will be better than anything else you can get until you are in your mid/late 30s. SoC with Verigans Fist = some of the heaviest damage a level 20 can do. Get a good enchant on there as soon as you can. Firey Weapon is ideal but somewhat pricey. Get the gold somehow.
At lvl 19-20 you can proceed to The Wetlands and Duskwood for some appropriate questing. Duskwood has plenty of undead which is nice since at lvl 20 you get Exorcism from your trainer. Do the Stalvan quest chain as soon as possible. It involves a lot of running around but you get tons of experience for it. Almost a whole levels worth from just that quest chain. You'll have to wait a bit for the final part. Stalvan himself is level 32 I believe.
Continue to look for equipment with stamina and intelligence (of the eagle suffix) or strength (of the bear suffix)or strength & intelligence (of the Gorilla). Really try to keep your gear up to date with a level requirement near your current level.
Levels 21-30
Most of your questing will be in Duskwood,
Put your next 5 talent points in Conviction followed by 3 more in Vindication. These compliment you SoC/Verigans fist combo. The next 2 will go in Eye for an Eye. This helps with the casters.
Keep on that Engineering. At lvl 30 and 175 Eng. Skill you get the Compact Harvest Reaper which is your first helpful mechanical pet. At that same point you learn to make Iron Grenades which are useful the entire game. The key thing about this grenade is that you can use it while you are moving and it stuns the target for 3 secs. This allows you to stun a runner so you can catch up. You'll need to learn to throw the grenade where the will be when it hits. At lvl 30 and 200 Eng skill you gain access to your Mechanical Dragonling which will likely be your fist trinket. It’s a shorter duration pet but does good damage and is reusable without additional materials.
If you're on a PvP server here's where you'll start seeing Horde. With the exception of Hillsbrad Foothills you'll mostly see level 60s who enjoy killing low level players. Not much you can do about it except run if you can. If you do see a Horde player (even up to 5-8 lvls higher than you) you stand an excellent chance of winning if you stay cool and all you special abilities are not on cooldown. Keep them in melee range and they should be dead.
Continue to look for equipment with stamina and intelligence (of the eagle suffix) or strength (of the bear suffix). Really try to keep your gear up to date with a level requirement near your current level.
Levels 31-40
Most of your questing will be in Desolace,
Use your talent points on Two Handed Weapon Specialization, Vengeance, Sanctity Aura, and possibly Repentance. Repentance is yet another great way to stop runners. For PvP it’s great but it’s not as much use in regular play (PvE). If you don't take this you'll be able to get a combination in the holy tree that gives a free critical heal every 2 mins. I've recommended a pretty rigid talent path but when a Pally is young and has Verigans fist Retribution just works best.
In this area you will venture into the Scarlet Monastery. This quest line begins in Desolace (at lvl 30) from Brother Anton who is in the upstairs of the
Have you kept on the Eng. Advancement? Its about to pay off big time. You probably had to buy some of the materials that were not available to you in the auction house but that's money well spent.
In this range you should be able to make some of the best Eng. Items. At
When you meet Horde anywhere near your level its dead horde time. Even two at a time is quite possible with all your abilities coupled with these Engineering goodies. Initiate fight, use hammer/grenade to keep the opponent in range. If that's not enough Divine Shield and fire up the Death Ray then heal. Still not enough? Let the Dragon rip. At this level with what we've discussed so far you're just about invincible against anyone whose level you can see. You can even beat up on some skull level players thanks to the dragon and Death Ray.
At level 40 proceed to SW Cathedral for your free horse.
Hurray, you can wear plate mail now. Continue to look for equipment with stamina and intelligence (of the eagle suffix) or strength (of the bear suffix) or strength & intelligence (of the Gorilla). Intelligence is becoming more of a concern here. Start to really try to find some of the Eagle plate soon. Somewhere in here it’s also time to trade in your Verigans Fist for a better 2H weapon. There really aren't many to choose from. There is an epic called Nightblade with a 39 level requirement. It’s nice. Fiery remains a good choice for an enchant. With Nightblade and Firey, just about every hit you'll proc either SoC, Fiery, or the shadow bolt. Good times. Maybe throw a little Frost Oil on for fun. My 42 Pally is using this combo right now. I'm killing mobs absurdly quickly and have no problems with horde except the level 60 gankers.
Levels 41-50
Questing areas include
You can slow down on the Engineering now but the sooner you get to 300 the better. Remember, the mechanical pet’s level is your
continue to kick the crap out the horde whenever you see them. As you get nearer to lvl 50 you many notice it’s not as easy as it used to be. Just concentrate on outlasting them and you'll continue to do well.
For these 10 talent points I recommend the Holy tree for your remaining points since it is more group friendly. I like Divine Intellect and Spiritual Focus for this level range. As you approach level 50 you may even decide to give up on your Retribution focus in favor of Holy for group support emphasis. You could also go protection for tanking or the dreaded Reckoning for PvP burst damage but I think the Protection tree isn't what it used to be. More on this soon.
This level range also has 3-4 instances that should help hone your group skills Uldaman,
Make sure to get your Thrash Blade after you kill the princess in Maraudon. The quest for this is Corruption of Earth and Seed. It’s a fine 1H sword that you may well be using at level 60.
At lvl 44 you get Hammer of Wrath. This is hammer of Holy energy that that you can fling at runners. It can crit for up to 1200 armor penetrating Holy damage but is only usable when the target is at or below 20% health.
Levels 51-60
The home stretch. Here you'll spend most of your time in Un Goro Crater, Searing Gorge, Winterspring, and the Eastern and
There is also a Paladin specific quest in Chillwind point available at level 50. This is fun.
In BRD get all the Marshall Windsor related quests out of the way up to and including Jail Break. This is the quest chain that you need to get your key to Onyxia's lair. You also need to do Attunement to the Core to allow you access to Molten Core later.
Other quests of interest that provide good rewards are The Battle of Darrowshire and Order must be restored. You can knock out both back to back with a group of 15-20 folks. Tons of people have these but haven't gotten around to doing them. Look for a group in IF for both and you'll get it soon enough. Tip: In order to complete Darrowshire you have to leave the raid group after all the killing is done. See Thottbot for details.
The advancement from lvl 50 to lvl 60 is pretty quick, Id say, with all the quests and content available and all the undead that allow you to use Exorcism and Holy Wrath. This turns into a Grind guide at later levels from 57-60 mostly.
Now for the biggest consideration of all. In this range, you will find it hard to deny the fact that your relative damage is now below that of other classes. You still have enough to get the job done but the easy superiority you once enjoyed simply aren’t there anymore. Your damage dealing abilities quit advancing a while ago and the other classes and mobs continued to advance. When you run into Horde it’s not the all but guaranteed victory it was 10ish levels ago. Even Engineering does not work as well as it did. A level 60 Dragon is less effective against an lvl 60 player than it was against an lvl 45 player.
This is where many acquire their dissatisfaction with the class. Hey I liked this overpowered character, what happened?! It is my opinion that balance happened. Given the broad combination of Paladin abilities like plate armor, the ability to equip a shield, healing, LoH, two forms of invulnerability, buffs, cleanse, ability to resurrect, and auras, how could the damage stay relatively high without making the other classes look like crappy alternatives? Other classes have some of these attributes but none has all of them all the time like the Pally. Like it or not, this is what we get. After 1.5 years it is safe to assume that the class will not be changed much so try not to think in those terms.
This is not to say that the Pally can’t do damage, they can. Its just that relative to other classes it is lower and more random.
Finally, in this range you might consider a talent respec. Everything will depend on how you want play your Paladin. PvP oriented? Configured for raid instances? Other? You decide.
At lvl 60 groups will expect you to use your group support capabilities very fully. You will be expected to have a mana pool of around 4,000+. You will be asked to heal and cleanse because you can. You will not be welcome as a tank, Warriors have always been better than you at that. You can still focus on the Retribution tree and have enough in Holy to be an effective Pally. However, you need to acquire a bunch of Intelligence heavy gear. You should really keep multiple sets of gear so you can change your focus by way of gear.
In conclusion, do you like but understand the limitations of the class and the reasonable expectations of those you group with. Try to avoid sacrificing everything for a bit more damage. You'll never be on a par with other classes but you will diminish your other virtues that are your real strength. You are a hybrid; efforts to strongly specialize are an unproductive exercise in futility. This is by design.
Paladins can be one of the hardest classes to kill. They traditionally don’t put out a lot of DPS, can’t heal groups very well, aren’t bad at tanking, but with the recent talent tree changes it should be interesting to see if any of this changes. Paladins require +healing gear in order to heal efficiently with heavy focus in the holy tree. Tankadins are Paladins who have chosen the protection tree and have things such as armor bonuses and better tanking abilities. Retribution Paladins have been known to put out a bit of DPS with the right talent structure and are considered to be the best soloing tree to use. Typically you will want to use a shield with a good 1hand in the early levels if you are having difficulties dying while using a 2handed weapon.
Holy Paladin
Not typically used to solo level fast, but very efficient for groups and against undead NPCs. The Holy tree has a few talents that focus on healing and increased damage. Since this is a leveling guide we will focus on using the holy tree to help you level.
10-14: Divine Strength 5/5
15-19: Improved Seal of Righteousness 5/5
20-21: Improved Lay on Hands 2/2
22-26: Spiritual Focus 5/5
27-29: Illumination 3/5
30: Divine Favor 1/1
31: Sanctified Light 1/3
32: Finish sanctified light and continue placing talent points into things that increase holy damage. Holy Shock is a great talent to pickup on the way.
Protection Paladin
This tree is not much for damage, but is very good for being a defensive paladin. This is where you would typically spend most of your points if you were going to be a main tank for instances. Paladins have a hard time living at lower levels. That’s where this paladin tree comes in.
10-14: Improved Devotion Aura 5/5
15-17: Precision 3/3
18-19: Guardian’s Favor 2/2
20: Blessing of Kings 1/1
21-24: Toughness 4/5
25-27: Improved Hammer of Justice 3/3
28: Toughness 5/5
There are very few offensive talents in this tree. Finish them off when they become available and keep placing points into defensive talents that will directly affect your paladin.
Retribution Paladin
This is considered the fastest paladin tree to use for leveling and soloing. It has the highest DPS output you can get with a paladin (without burning through your mana). The route I like focuses on reducing mana costs for your judgments and cool downs so they are more ready for you to use.
10-14: Benediction 5/5
15-16: Improved Judgment 2/2
17-19: Improved Seal of the Crusader 3/3
20-24: Conviction 5/5
25-26: Improved Retribution Aura 2/2
27-29: Crusade 3/3
30: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 1/3
This paladin build focuses on a mix of judgments and melee DPS with a 2handed weapon. Continue to place points into talents that will improve the abilities you are most commonly using at this level.
Paladin Summary
Paladins are a very powerful class at higher levels but extremely slow to start off. They are hard to kill in PvP. There’s a saying that used to go around “Never fight a Paladin unless you have to; they won’t die, and by the time you get them close to dying they will either bubble hearth or one of their friends will show up.” They can heal very well with healing gear, tank very well with tanking gear, or do some decent DPS; it depends how you play the class. If you want to really master your paladin.
