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Paladin spells come in several types: Auras, Blessings, Seals and Regular casts. Auras are long term effects that the paladin puts into play that stay in effect until canceled. A paladin may only have one active Aura at a time. Blessings are short term buffs (benefits) for the paladin or other characters. A paladin can only have one blessing on each character at a time. He can cast blessings on as many different characters as he has mana though. Seals are short term buffs for the paladin only. Seals normally have two abilities, one while active and one when released with judgment against a target. The rest of the paladins spells are normal spells just like any other character.

Spells are also sorted by the school of magic that the spell belongs too. Paladin spells are broken down to three schools: holy, protection and retribution. I use the word school so that we do not confuse it with the type as above.

A complete list of skill can be found here: Ten Ton Hammer Paladin Skill Lists.

As a Paladin you gain the Parry ability at level 8. This gives you a chance to parry an enemy melee attack.

A very important thing to note about talents is that you can unlearn them if you need to. This allows you to build your character one way for early levels and then change mid-way or even late game to a different style. This is a general tip and works for all classes not just paladins.

To unlearn all your talents, the first time only costs 1 gold, the second time only costs five gold, and it increments from there. This is a very nice bonus, it means you do not have to play your end-build from level 1 (well.. 10). Not many argue that a retribution specialist paladin is the best until the 30+ level range. So go with retribution until the 30s, then switch.

Once you get there, many people say that soloing and playing in general becomes a lot easier if you have a shield and are specialized a little more defensively. Well, spend a gold and do that! Then finally, once you hit 60, you can re-specialize your character to be the best you can for PvP or whatever you plan on doing.

Plan on using the re-specs, the first few don't cost that much. Do not use them as an excuse to just throw points anywhere, as that would waste your re-specializations and make you spend much more money, but rather take advantage of your ability to switch between proven existing builds at certain levels.

It may seem obvious to some, but we see people running around in the 20s doing things that are not really optimized, and they know it, but they always do it because they think it will be 'better in the end'. Well, in this game, you can wait until 'the end' to do that if you wanted.

For a complete listing of all of the paladin talents visit our Paladin Talent Guide. It walks you through all of the talents, pointing out which is great, good, or not so good.

Also a complete talent calculator can be found on the official World of Warcraft site here.

The following are various tried, true, and tested builds that are very good at doing what they are designed to do. As a notice, though, you should ALWAYS try to make your own build and play how you want to play. That's just way more fun! If you need a good push in the right direction, then check out these following top builds!

Leveling Build

This build is designed for those players still leveling up. This takes you to level 45, from where you can begin filling out the rest of the retribution line or do what many players will do and begin going for their endgame talent spec at that time. The way this build flows is that you pick up Benediction which really helps conserve your mana while Improved Judgement increases your DPS. Deflection is some of the best defense you can get (additional 3 percent chance to negate a physical attack). Seal of Command is an amazing DPS skill. From there, you should max out Conviction. Then grab Sanctity Aura. From there, place 5 points in Divine Strength and then 5 in Spiritual Focus. Pick up all of Healing Light at which point you’ll be at level 49. From there, you can fill out the Retribution line to gain Vengeance or fill out the holy line for better healing!

For details on each talent in this build visit the talent calculator for this build here: Paladin Leveling Build.

DPS Build

Designed for: Those looking for the best possible DPS, giving up healing and some defense for the ability to lay the holy smack down on the enemy!

This build gives you the highest amount of possible damage. There are few compromises for anything else in the build. While using this build properly geared you will be able to amaze your guild mates that a retribution paladin actually works and is capable of 700+ DPS in Karazhan. However you will also be an aggro magnet, so make sure your tank is up for it.

For details on each talent in this build visit the talent calculator for this build here: Paladin DPS Build.

So you want to take prove everyone out there wrong? Want to prove that Paladins can dish it out as well as they can take it? Well, you have your work cut out for you, but we have a guide that will walk you through the basics of playing a Retribution spec'ed Paladin. Since patch 2.3 Retribution paladins have seen a huge buff in ability, however most players are still skeptical. For even more information on a Retribution based Paladin visit our How to play a Retadin (DPSadin) guide.

Healing Build

Designed for: Those looking for the most efficient ability to heal while at the same time having good defense. This is one of the best raiding builds.

This build is a solid raid type holy build. It goes into protection just far enough for blessing of kings, and spends the rest in holy. It can heal big and for a long time. Mana conservation isn't usually an issue, and neither is the size of the heal. For PvP you will probably want to go a bit further into protection to add improved concentration aura and stoicism, but other than that you will be a solid healer all around.

For details on each talent in this build visit the talent calculator for this build here: Paladin Healing Build.

So you really want to be everyone's knight in shining armor and save the day?   Well, we've got a guide that will walk you through the basics of playing a holy based Paladin, or Healadin as they are commonly called.  Check it out here How to Play a Healadin.

Protection Build

Designed for: Those who want to Tank

This build lets you tank pretty much anything out there. It grabs all the best of the protection tree and then visits the retribution tree for some nice addons. One thing that is missed is retribution. Many paladins swear by it, however I find that it does not do enough to justify its spot on the list, I far prefer being able to go a bit further into Retribution. You can easily swap out some points (3) if you really want it though, it's just hard to come up with all 5 points from anywhere.

For details on each talent in this build visit the talent calculator for this build here: Paladin Protection Build.

So you want to take a beating, do you? Well, we’ve got the right place for you. Our Protection guide will walk you through the basics of playing a protection based Paladin, or Tankadin as they are commonly called. You can find it here: How to Play a Tankadin.

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? I would love to hear from you! Please post in our Paladin Class guide forum, or email me at messiah@tentonhammer.com