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Soloing 1-40 | Soloing 41-60 | Soloing 61-80

The first 60 levels are considered Vanilla WoW, or Classic WoW. This
all changes as levels 61-70 take place during the Burning...

Soloing 1-40 | Soloing 41-60 | Soloing 61-80

The first 60 levels are considered Vanilla WoW, or Classic WoW. This
all changes as levels 61-70 take place during the Burning Crusade
expansion, and 71-80 takes players into Northrend for the latest
expansion Wrath of the Lich King. The zones will change, but the
message stays the same, kill unto others before hey kill unto you! Each
expansion brought about massive changes to the Paladin class, and a
player working through the game post launch of Wrath of the Lich King
is better off for it. During Vanilla WoW, Paladins were considered a
healing support class only (heal and buff bots to be precise). When
Burning Crusade changes took effect, the Paladin came into its own as a
solid tanking class (thus the Tankadin was born). It wasn't until most
recently that the Retribution tree and accompanying spells provided
Paladins a way to enter as a true damage dealing class. Since the
progression from 61-80 is probably a solo endeavor, please check in on
the other guides for leveling from href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/solo1-40">1-40
and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/solo41-60">41-60.
Enough history, let's move on to how life is different post level
60. 



Auras,
Spells, Seals and a
partridge in a pear tree



Aura Dancing
style="font-weight: bold;">
Up until level 60, it's fairly common to have one Aura as a staple
(i.e. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Devotion_Aura">Devotion
Aura). That all changes when you get href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Crusader_Aura">Crusader
Aura. This handy Aura gets you and your group mates places
faster,
and everyone will love you for it. They won't love you if you forget to
switch back to the appropriate Aura when the group rolls into battle
though. Helpful tip: keep an eye on those Auras! It's easy to set them
and forget them, but you will be doing yourself and party a disservice
if you don't watch those.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65065" target="_blank"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: left;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/65065">Can
you Spell drought?

Through 20 levels from 61-80 there are exactly 4 new spells added to
the Paladins repertoire. That's it. Of course that doesn't include
Seals, Auras, Talents, or upgrades to previous spells. The good news is
that the spells are well worth the wait. Let's look briefly at them and
how they will help a solo player advance to the level cap.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Avenging_Wrath">Avenging
Wrath

Every 3 minutes, a Paladin can do 20% more damage and healing. Use this
early and often with one caveat; make sure you won't need to bubble for
30 seconds because Avenging Wrath places a debuff on you preventing
bubbles. It's a classic risk versus reward spell. More damage and
healing, but you may wish you hadn't if you overpull too many bad guys.




href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Divine_Plea">Divine
Plea

Another interesting risk/reward spell that replenishes mana at the
expense of healing. While soloing, use this spell every time it is
available, period. The debuff isn't that long and mana replenishment is
excellent. Use this spell a lot, did I mention that already?



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Shield_of_Righteousness">Shield
of Righteousness

A shield-bearer only spell, this is a damage spell for the Paladins
leveling as protection for the most part. The damage this spell dishes
out is enough to make it worthy for damage and not just generating
threat in a group situation.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Sacred_Shield">Sacred
Shield

The "Oh No! Save me or I"m gonna die!" spell. This spell puts an
immediate barrier of 500 hit points around the target and provides a
50% chance for the Paladin to crit with href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/Spells1-40.html#Flash_of_Light">Flash
of Light. Barrier against damage is good, extra healing crits
are
always good. Probably not used a lot in soloing, this will become a
friend during group battles.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65066" target="_blank"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/65066">Seals:
When does 2 plus 2
equal 2?

There are four seals added between levels 60 and 70, none post 70. The
four seals are really two seals with Horde and Alliance flavoring. The
Horde gets href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Seal_of_Blood">Seal
of Blood and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Seal_of_Corruption">Seal
of Corruption which are more Horde-like names than the
Alliance
versions of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Seal_of_the_Martyr">Seal
of the Martyr and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Seal_of_Vengeance">Seal
of Vengeance, respectively.



Seal of Blood/Martyr are more of a raiding tactic where the Paladin is
likely to be receiving periodic heals from someone else to offset the
damage from this seal.



Seal of Corruption/Vengeance are a Paladin's version of a damage over
time (DOT) spell. The Seal stacks up to five times on a mob and causes
more periodic damage per stack. The Paladin usually doesn't let things
live long enough for this to be very effective on most mobs though, so
try this out on longer fights to determine it's usefulness for yourself.



At level 61 you're not in
Kansas
anymore.

The Burning Crusade lore is all about Demons marching on Outland on
their way to Azeroth. The heroes (that's you) are dispatched to in turn
dispatch the demons. The leveling in Outlands is superb for Paladins
(especially since the leveling curve was shortened up to level 70). As
discussed previously, Paladins excel against demons and undead. Lucky
for us, the zones of Hellfire Peninsula, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon
Valley are loaded with demon targets. If undead are more your style,
head to The Bone Wastes (in Terokkar Forest) and don't forget the large
undead city of Kirin'Var Village in the Southeast of Netherstorm.



Off to the frozen tundra
at level 71.

With Arthas the Lich King, ruler of undead presiding over Northrend, it
is a safe bet that there are a lot of undead targets for any swinger of
the light. Both starting zones (Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord (the
"J" is silent people!) have undead targets ripe for the picking. And it
doesn't stop there, every zone has undead enemies so keep that target="_blank"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/Spells1-40.html#Exorcism">Exorcism
spell handy!



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65067" target="_blank"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/65067">Gear
Grab Bag

Questing through Outland and Burning Crusade will keep your Paladin up
to date in decent gear. While you probably won't end up in epic items,
there are some very good rare (blue named) gear from quest rewards.
Some may require a 5-10 minute group session, but can be worth it. The
Ring of Blood in Nagrand offers up some great weapons and the group
quests in Northrend (namely Zul'Drak)  typically offer very
good
rewards. My solo tactic is to level past the quests rated for 3 people
and then come back at a level or two higher and solo the quest.
Paladins are that tough and we can do what a lot of other classes
can't; namely deal damage and be able to take a hit.



In closing...

Even though there are not a lot of abilities added during these last levels,
a level 80 Paladin will have a screen full of action buttons. Don't get
overwhelmed though, remember to keep it simple. Work on Aura and Seal
rotations which are more general and then spells and Judgements that
are specific to the action taking place. For casters and runners, keep
your stuns ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/spells1-40#Hammer_of_Justice">Hammer
of Justice and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin/talents">Repentance
the Retribution Talent) available. Try and start working in the spells
with longer cooldowns like Avenging Wrath so you don't miss out on
doing more damage (or getting more healing power). Use Seal of the
Martyr/Blood to determine when you would use it. Watch the cool downs
of various spells and work through the rotation of Judgements and
attacks to find the most efficient way of staying out of cooldown
territory.

Soloing 1-40 | Soloing 41-60 | Soloing 61-80