I find it funny that Afkasec posted a druid version of this because I was just asking the channel about this when I got home late last night :)

I have a paladin alt who I'm not sure I like yet. I dinged 14 last night (haven't updated RPGO) and still have not spent any talent points - just not sure where to put them.

Any basic advice or recommendations? I imagine I will be soloing her most of the time, unless some lower level alts want to get an instance group together, but that's about it. I am just so unfamiliar with the different talent trees of paladins, and I don't like to respec too often.

Personal thoughts, experiences, etc would be great. Links might help too, although I could have been un-lazy and done some Googling this week.

Certainly! Playing a Paladin is a lot of fun because they are so DIVERSE. There are of course 3 talent trees. Those are Holy, Protection, and Retribution. Really, they just depend on the kind of Paladin you want to play.

The Holy tree is primarily about healing with a bit of smiting. This tree makes you largely a priest, but with the ability to wear plate armor and still smack down. The big advantage of the Holy tree is that at 31 points you can gain Holy Shock. This is the ONLY long range attack a Paladin can ever have to pull mobs with that are not undead or demons. (undead or demons can be pulled from long range with Exorcism, but anything else we can't pull, at all, other than using Holy Shock or Linken's Boomerang). There are a lot of good things in this tree, granting additional damage against undead, additional healing power and abilities, etc. The tree also includes Consecration, the ONLY AOE we can have (VERY important to have), and Divine Favor which allows an instant heal every 2 minutes.

The Protection tree is of course mostly about tanking. It allows you to add additional armor, increase your ability with a shield, increase your abilities with a 1H weapon, and it also provides the Blessing of Kings, which is a favorite in groups as it boosts all stats significantly. This tree is great if you are patient and don't mind doing less damage to enemies at the gain of lasting longer.

The Retribution tree is purely for DPS purposes. It is intended for paladins who primarily use 2H weapons and has a lot of abilities that add damage onto your attacks. Seal of Command, undoubtedly the best damage boosting ability for normal mobs, is in the 4th tier of this tree. The 31 point ability of the Retribution tree is Repentence. It's not a terrifically useful talent - it's an un-resistable 6 second stun on any humanoid mob, with a 1 min cooldown - but it has on occasion worked for me in a useful format.

Most paladins choose one of the following 3 specs:

1) Mostly holy with some protection. This allows a tremendous amount of healing power while still being able to tank to some extent and use 1H weapons and shields fairly well. I believe Ingomar uses this, and Jorack as well. It's very mana efficient, decent for off-tanking, etc.

2) Mostly protection with some holy. This allows you to use the 31 point Protection ability which allows you a huge boost to your shield for 10 seconds, and it only has a 10 second cooldown so it can be repeatedly used. It does consume some mana, but it allows you to main tank very effectively. At this point you'll also be very good with a 1H weapon and shield, and can still heal a pretty good bit.

3) Mostly retribution spec with some holy. In this build, you won't be able to main tank, but you can still off-tank when needed. Your build is mostly DPS based. You can do huge amounts of damage with a 2H weapon, including several bonuses for critical hits. This is how I have Jamisia spec'd at the moment.

In my opinion, Build #3 is the best for solo'ing if that is primarily what you want to do right now. It allows the most damage against mobs. if you go this route, you want to get to Seal of Command on the 4th tier as quickly as possible. That will improve your damage significantly. Once you have SoC, you can start putting some points into holy spec to improve your healing abilities and get Consecration, THEN come back and add more to Retribution.

By the same token if you are patient, the other two builds are perfectly fine for solo'ing. The Holy build is considered the best for end-game content, but that's not what we're about, we're here to play however we like to :)


There's a lot of good information on this page:

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=2;mid=1129930633128486514;num=76;page=1

Jamisia Johnson is RIGHT!
I soloed first with prot/holy, and then holy/prot because I enjoyed healing so much and prefer to be an off-healer when I can, so it is possible, but it's definitely slow.

Without retribution spec, the pally is as I described to Valneron last night. I can set Ing on a mob, go feed my cats, get a drink, take a bathroom break, and then when I come back, MAYBE she'll be almost done fighting the mob. Her survivability is ridiculous though, and will be moreso once I get some +def stuff.

Holy Shock is also good because it adds another holy spell to the pally's repetoire, and if you're planning on tanking at all, you need as much holy damage as you can get. This is because the entire aggro-holding capability of the pally is based on holy spells. All we get is Righteous Fury, which causes a pally's holy spells to cause more threat. (Prot spec has improved Righteous Fury, as an aside.)

I don't know if there's any way to spec so that you can have consecrate from the holy tree and also seal of command from the ret tree (is SoC even holy damage, Jam?), but that might be the best combination for tanking if you can swing it, mostly prot, a little bit in holy just to get consecrate, and SoC if it's holy. Holy Shock is awesome, but has an obnoxious cooldown time.

Ing brings up a good point but there aren't enough points to get all of that. However, if you go the protection/holy route, one common way to hold aggro on a mob other than exorcism (if undead/demon) or holy shock is to make sure you have Righteous Fury up and Judge the mob with Seal of Crusader. This judgement adds additional holy damage to the mob for every successful hit you make. After judging Crusader, go to Seal of Righteousness to increase your DPS a little with some more holy, and the combination of these 3 things (Righteous Fury up as a buff, Judgement of Crusader on the mob, and Seal of Righteousness on yourself) adds a fair bit of aggro handling. Throw in the occasional consecrate, holy strike, etc. and you can usually hold for a while.

I respec'd slightly when I hit 60 this week. I am Holy/Prot (31/20/0). The cooldown on Holy Shock is a bit much, but it is one of my most useful talents. With the patch yesterday, I can also use divine favor to guarantee a crit with Holy Shock. My new build has all of the Holy Power points which gives 5% chance to crit on holy spells. This made a tremendous difference on the undead in Scholo.

In the holy tree, I really like the Spiritual Focus. It gives a 70% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.

In Prot I focused on redoubt/shield, and also have blessing of kings and righteous fury bonus. With this, my righteous fury generates 90% threat.

My dps isn't the greatest, but by using some of my engineering gadgetry it does help (gnomish death ray / bombs / etc). I have primarily played solo and have done well so far. I have been able to take down some 60 elites solo, but it can take a while.

I agree totally with Jorack on Holy Shock, I just wanted to check with Jam and see of SoC was even possible. Since it isn't, I wouldn't give up my holy shock for anything. I have the same point spread as Jorack, but have some different abilities, so it will be fun to see how that works out. I didn't take the improved aggro, but I have redoubt and toughness, because I wanted to up my armor. (I also picked up BoK.)

Thanks for all the input, guys! I have not been on much this week and don't forsee much game time either this weekend but that should give me some time to process all of this. :D