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Playing a Paladin

Playing a Paladin is in many ways a balancing act. Sure you can heal, tank or DPS, but you can't do any of them especially well unless you specialize in one of them through gear and talents. By doing so you give up much of your flexibility by becoming weaker in the other two areas. Part of playing a Paladin is finding the balance point that suits your play style. Do you want to specialize in one thing or stay a jack of all trades?

Here are some useful tactics that are helpful in the daily life of a Paladin. Nothing can beat out experience, but some helpful advice can really improve your playstyle! Should you have any questions or want to know more advanced Paladin tactics then check out our Paladin forums.

As mentioned above, playing a Paladin involves alot of choices. As soon as you get past level 10 you will have to start making those choices as you collect talent points. From that point on you should start focusing on your style and collecting gear that will enhance it. Between talents and gear you can be formidable at whatever you choose to do. Be prepared though for those times when you want to play in a group and they need something other than your primary role.

For those times you need to do something else, make sure you have a collection of gear either in your bank or bags that allow you to fullfil other roles. If you are mainly a DPS based Paladin for example, make sure you have a set of healing gear for those times when you might need it. Doing this will allow you to join far more groups that you could normally find if you just had gear for one thing. Even though you are not specialized in what that group is looking for, with the right gear you can be competent.

To help choose a playstyle we have created guides for each of the main choices available. You can find the here:

• Tankadin - Control PvE combat, be the tank in the group
• Retadin - Do massive damage, a must for PvP
• Healadin - Be the savior in the group, heal everyone and keep the group alive

There are few other classes that can take as much of a beating as a Paladin and none that can do it as well on thier own. Sure a warrior or Druid in bear form can have as much or more armor and health, but neither can heal themselves (unless the druid drops to normal form and takes a beating). As soon as you hit level 40 you are the only class other than warriors that can wear plate armor.

Between good armor, a shield, stuns, heals and your bubbles you can survive or escape almost anything within several levels of you.

When you get in a tight situation focus on mana and health as a priority and don't worry about doing a ton of damage. Wear the opponent down over time. this should include having a seal of light or wisdom judged on them and the opposite up on you. Use one of your bubbles or stuns whenever you can and bandage yourself during that time to conserve mana. Drink mana potions instead of healing potions as you can heal yourself with mana.

Run as a last resort. However if you use the above method you can generally survive an enemy several levels higher than you quite easily. The fight will not be quick (sometimes 5-10 minutes) but you will survive.

Blessings are 5 minute buffs that you place on players (15 minute buffs for the later level raid versions) that grant solid bonuses. You are able to put one blessing on each player in your group or raid. If using the high level raid buffs it is one buff per class.

Using the proper blessing is critical and somtimes complicated. As a basic tactic you should apply them as follows:

Rogues, Warriors, and Feral Druids – Blessing of Might (or Kings if you have it)
Wizards, Warlocks, Druids, and Hunters – Blessing of Wisdom

If you are fighting very hard enemies who you absolutely need to be tanked by one person or if casters and DPS are not managing their own aggro, then Blessing of Salvation should be applied to everyone but the person tanking the enemy.

Blessing of Kings is sometimes preferred over Blessing of Might and Blessing of Wisdom. If you have Blessing of Kings (which is a talent) then you should ask what each person in the party prefers.

Auras are like blessings but apply to the whole group. You cna have one aura up at any given time and it will effect everyone in your group within 30 yards of you (40 yards with talents). Auras should be used based on the enemy you are fighting and who is in your group. For instance, if you are fighting melee damage MOBs then Devotion Aura would be the best aura possible at the time. If you are fighting caster MOBs who are using Frost based spells, then the Frost Resistance Aura would be the best possible aura to use (this aura comes at later levels, this is just an example). Retribution Aura is good against lower level enemies (and swarm MOBs) where you need the damage over the defense (or while you are tanking and need the holy damage to hold the enemies attention). Concentration Aura is great in a group with more then one caster (although Devotion Aura will provide a great benefit in keeping them alive) or when multiple enemies are hitting you and you need to heal.

Multiple Paladins complicate things by making you coordinate who is casting what as each paladin can have a different Aura and Blessing affecting the players. Make sure you spend the time beforehand to ensure there is no overlap and you maximize your bonuses.

This is an often overlooked ability since no one "wants" to die. It is however a very powerful ability and one that should not be forgotten about. This ability allows you to select one member of the group and remove them from combat and place them in a bubble. It does so at the cost of your life though!

This is an amazing little ability though as by removing another player that can rez people, you can prevent a group wipe. Just make sure you target the correct player and that they will be out or aggro range from the MOBs or Boss when they release from DI. Also make sure you always carry the reagent to cast this ability. While you don't want to die, you will be praised by your party members and ressurected right away. You prevent the whole group form having to run back from the graveyard.

Mostly you’ll want to organize your bars into different sets. You’ll want a bar for your combat abilities or tanking abilities, one for healing and one for buffs. and then a bar for various skills like your non-combat trinkets and abilities. One each bar you should ensure that you have the most used skills bound to your 1-5 slots so that while you are controling wiht the WASD keys you can access them quicly with the same fingers.

If you’re looking for some good U.I. mods then be sure to check out our U.I. Mod Repository!

The following are some extra resources that may be of some help!

• Decursive 2.0 (Macro Edition)
  Decursive may be gone, but there are still easy ways to handle removing curses.