Clothadin

A paladin wearing a mixture of Cloth, Mail and Plate armor

Clothadin is a term used to describe Paladins who wear Cloth Armor to increase their healing abilities. Since the only benefit of plate is increased mitigation of physical damage and healers don't take part in melee, a large number of paladins who heal in high-end content use cloth or leather healing drops. Often times paladins will wear any gear that strongly benefits healing, regardless of the armor type.

Since many cloth items yield high intellect bonuses, a primary attribute for paladins, it is not uncommon for them to wear one or more pieces of cloth armor, especially when they are the main healer for a group and their ability to heal becomes critical. While wearing cloth armor can certainly increase a paladin's mana reserves, it also causes them to take more physical damage when struck in combat. This makes preventing mobs from attacking a clothadin even more important for the group's tank.

For any paladin considering wearing cloth armor, it is important to always keep a spare set of plate armor on you. When in a party that is struggling with particular mobs, switching to plate armor can give the other members of the party a few more seconds to pull mobs off of the healer before they die, thus making a wipe less likely.

Some paladins may keep cloth armor only for certain bosses where they know they will not receive melee damage, like for the final boss of Shadow Labyrinth, Murmur.

Some members of a party may object to a Paladin Need rolling on a cloth item, so it is always best to discuss such an option before doing so. As long as there is not a healing priest in the party, most will allow this.

The term clothadin is often used as a joke and has been seen in two famous WoW videos, Leeroy and Illegal Danish.