Paladin builds

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Paladin builds can be either Holy, Protection, or Retribution. Holy leans towards healing, Protection leans towards tanking, and Retribution leans towards melee DPS.

Instructions to WoWWiki editors: In order to keep this page precise and concise, please do not add complete builds here. For those who are interested in contributing their own builds, please add them to Paladin build samples. Any complete builds found on this page will be moved to Paladin build samples.

Holy

With good healing gear, paladins of any spec can provide reasonable healing. However, for those who are dedicated to becoming a main healer in PvE and PvP, you need to go deeper into the Holy tree. There is also a special type of Holy paladin, the shockadins, who are capable of doing a good amount of Holy damage in PvP. However, with the excellent performance of retribution paladins in PvP now, few people would spec shockadin builds anymore.

PvE Healing Build

Paladin healers, or healadins, are well-known for mana-efficiency. Illumination is the major reason for this and no good healing specs can do without it. Otherwise, the talent points of the paladin healers are not as tight as those of the paladin tanks or DPS, so you can easily find a lot of viable healing builds out there. Nevertheless, the majority of people would agree that these are the core talents of PvE healadins: Spiritual Focus, Divine Intellect, Healing Light, Illumination, Sanctified Light, Holy Power, Light's Grace, Holy Guidance, Divine Illumination, Judgements of the Pure and Beacon of Light. Other optional but good-to-have talents include Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Improved Lay on Hands, and Divine Favor. A basic healing build would look more or less like this:

Basic PvE Healing Build (51/0/18)

The rest of the points can go to other useful talents in the Holy tree, as well as Protection or Retribution trees as you see fit. It is common for healadins to pick up Benediction to reduce mana cost of Holy Shock and Hand spells. Sanctified Seals and Sanctity of Battle from Retribution tree also help increase critical chance (for more mana returned from Illumination)

PvP Healing Build

In the cutthroat environment of PvP, being mana-efficient is not as important. Rather, having high survivability while providing good healing to teammates becomes the top priority. Being able to wear plate armor as well as having various self-protection abilities make paladins good candidates for PvP healers. Talents that are useful for PvP healadins include Spiritual Focus, Unyielding Faith, Pure of Heart, Holy Shock, and Blessed Life.

Basic PvP Healing Build (35/0/0)

Beyond that foundation, PvP healing builds are split between Divine Purpose in the retribution tree, and Beacon of Light in the holy tree, which cannot both be acquired. Divine Purpose builds reward the Paladin with extra freedom from stuns and lots of extra Critical Strike chance, and can still reach high in the holy tree. Beacon of Light builds, on the other hand, favor going into the Protection tree for Improved Hammer of Justice, Guardian's Favor, and other non-healing tools.

PvP Deep Prot Healing Build

With the changes of 3.1 affecting the powerhouse of the 34/0/37 holy/ret build, a new PvP build has come forward to fill its shoes.

Deep Prot PvP Healing Build (18/53/0)

At first glance, this may seem like a very odd build to heal in, seeing as it skips over virtually all holy talents. However when one couples a full set of healing PvP gear with it's huge amounts of stamina and the large amount of free spell power from Guarded by the Light, as well as very large crit heals from Touched by the Light the healing potential of this build is quite high. It also has some very good utility in 20 second Hammer of Justice, ranged silence/daze in Avenger's Shield, reduced party/raid damage in Divine Sacrifice and 60 second Sacred Shield.

The loss of Holy Shock is significant in fights where spell lock out's are prevalent, however the VASTLY superior survivability allows the paladin to simply absorb the damage and keep going.

Glyph of Flash of Light, Glyph of Salvation, Glyph of Divine Plea complement this build well as you will be relying on large, frequent crits from Flash of Light with Sacred Shield as well as the survivability and damage reduction of the other two to outlast your opponents. Glyph of Judgement is useful to those wishing more burst, and Glyph of Hammer of Justice makes for a good choice for those teams lacking crowd controls.

Shockadin Build

Getting gear with spell critical strike rating improves this build's DPS, as it focuses on Holy Shock and Seal/Judgement of Righteousness for DPS while still being able to adequately support a team with healing and debuffing. Compared to Retribution builds, the DPS is relatively weak, though the ability to heal remains intact, even in raids and PvP encounters.

Basic Shockadin Build (35/0/0)

Many shockadins will go with a build that includes some important Retribution talents to further boost the holy damage they dish out.

Level 80 Shockadin Build (48/0/23)

Protection

Main article: Tankadin

Paladins are one of the four classes in the game that can be adapted to absorb damage like a sponge and keep others from harm. They are particularly famous for the ability to tank multiple (10+) mobs at the same time. Besides, Paladins are also well known for their ability to survive with their unique combination of invulnerability, plate armor and healing spells, which makes them very good for AoE farming.

PvE Tanking Build

For those who want to tank in 5-man instances or raid, investing heavily into protection tree is advised. The following talents can be considered as the most important at level 80:

Threat-improving talents

One-Handed Weapon Specialization, Touched by the Light, Hammer of the Righteous and Improved Judgements (Retribution, note that only one point is necessary to provide a smooth spell rotation).

Survivability talents

Anticipation, Toughness, Improved Righteous Fury, Blessing of Sanctuary (also a mana source), Sacred Duty, Ardent Defender, Redoubt, Guarded by the Light, Judgements of the Just and Deflection (Retribution).

Both

Divine Strength (strength provides both attack power and block value), Holy Shield, and Combat Expertise.

Common gap-filling talents skilled are:

Improved Devotion Aura: This talent was buffed enormously compared to its TBC version. It provides more extra armor than before at lesser talent points cost, as well as the additional healing bonus to the whole party.
Avenger's Shield (tankadins' main pulling method, as of 3.1 it also provides a silence effect with Shield of the Templar).
Improved Hammer of Justice: When combined with Judgements of the Just provides a paladin with a stun that also interrupts spell casting every 20 seconds.

So a basic tanking build would look something like:

PvE Tanking build with 11 points left

The last few points can be added to other useful talents, such as Seals of the Pure, Heart of the Crusader, Conviction or Pursuit of Justice.

Other viable but less desirable choices:

Stoicism: The main use of this talent is PvP, but if you do not want to talent Blessing of Kings, this can be used as gap-filler. Not recommended for pure PvE tankadins. Generally, the points are better spent in Divine Guardian or Improved Hammer of Justice.
Reckoning: Useful for leveling and AoE farming but its contribution when main-tanking is minimal. Thusly, it can be replaced in a manner similar to Stoicism.
Improved Blessing of Might is only worth the points for tankadins when you buff it to your group/raid members - you will mostly buff yourself with Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Sanctuary.

Choices that you MUST avoid:

Benediction is essentially worthless. A detailed explanation for this can be found at [1]
Guardian's Favor is very useful in PvP but a waste of talent points for tanks.
Seal of Command is NOT a good seal for tanking because its damage is not as good as Seal of Vengeance/Corruption or Seal of Righteousness when using a one-handed weapon.
Vindication may look wonderful at first. Unfortunately, most of the mobs (especially bosses) are immune to it.

PvP Protection Build

Protection Paladins have their advantages and disadvantages in PvP. They are by no means a raw DPS spec, there still are many ways to be useful in battleground based PvP. Most of the damage of protection paladins depends on reflective damage, which allows them to win easily against rogues, warriors, other paladins, and enhancement shamans. The disadvantages is, melee players have the option to retreat; however this may benefit the paladin if he is defending a specific location. Against casters or hunters, the chance to win is reduced.

Protection paladins are effective at tanking (multiple) bosses in Alterac Valley, holding the flag in Warsong Gulch or Eye of the Storm (because of their high survivability and Hand of Freedom), or defending bases in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley.

Protection paladin's excel at keeping allies alive, two important talents for this are Guardian's Favor, and Divine Sacrifice. Improved Hammer of Justice is also important for stunning enemies. With some of these a protection paladin and a caster(especially) can be a formidable team.

AOE/Grinding builds

Aside from mages, paladins have the highest potential for AoE grinding, combining their incredible survivability against melee attacks with talent procs that occur when they are the victim of enemy attacks. This build is mainly viable against melee targets, preferably those that do not run or use magic/ranged attacks. To make this spec viable, Holy Shield must be obtained. A shield spike, and any other item that causes damage when struck or extra weapon swings, would be very useful as well. Paladins speced this way can singlehandedly take out 5-6 mobs (easily up to 10+ at level 70 with good gear) or 2-3 elites of equal level, and often end up with full health and mana due to Seal/Judgement of Light/Wisdom.

Before level 30 and getting Blessing of Sanctuary it is much easier to level as retribution. At level 30, you can respec into protection and start AOE grind. You will need a shield, a fast weapon and a good shield spike. The goal is to get hit by a lot of mobs. Always have Blessing of Sanctuary running before you pull.

You can aggro multiple mobs with either your warhorse or with Avenger's Shield. After the mobs surround you, cast and refresh Consecration as an AOE. Apply Seal of Light to a target. Where cool down is available apply either Judgement of Wisdom or Judgement of Light depends on if you are low on health or low on mana. The new judgement system allows to use different judgements without releasing the original seal. our blessing should return you mana while your seal should return you health. If you have a runner you can stop it by either using Judgement of Justice or Hammer of Justice.

If your health is dropping faster than it can be replenished, you can bubble up and heal. In case of emergency, do not forget to use mana pots or Lay on Hands.

Leveling as Protection

It is not advised to start a paladin off in the Protection tree. However, once the Paladin can cast and judge the Seal of Light at level 30, it is truly possible to level as a Protection paladin by AoE grinding and enjoy it.

Before level 30, put all the points in Retribution tree. Once you are ready for leveling by AOE grinding at level 30 to 40, respec at any class trainer and put all your point into Protection:

At level 30: 5/5 Divinity, 5/5 Divine Strength, 5/5 Anticipation, 3/3 Improved Righteous Fury, 2/5 Toughness, 1/1 Blessing of Sanctuary

Prot AoE build at Level 30 (Patch 3.1)

Level 31-35: 5/5 Reckoning

Level 36-37: 2/2 Sacred Duty

Level 38-39: 2/3 One-Handed Weapon Specialization

Level 40: 1/1 Holy Shield

Prot AoE build at Level 40 (Patch 3.1)

As you may see, this comes up to the core AoE farming talent. You can spend the remaining talent points as you like. Here is an example build at level 60. The talents are listed in the suggested order taken.

Level 30: Divinity - 5/5

Level 30: Divine Strength - 5/5

Level 30: Anticipation - 5/5

Level 30: Improved Righteous Fury - 3/3

Level 30: Toughness - 2/5

Level 30: Blessing of Sanctuary - 1/1

Levels 31-35: Reckoning - 5/5

Levels 36-37: Sacred Duty - 2/2

Levels 38-39: One-Handed Weapon Specialization - 2/3

Level 40: Holy Shield - 1/1

Level 41: One-Handed Weapon Specialization - 3/3

Levels 42-44: Ardent Defender 3/3

Levels 45-47: Combat Expertise - 3/3

Levels 48-50: Redoubt - 3/3

Levels 51-52: Guarded by the Light - 2/2

Levels 53-54: Toughness - 4/5

Level 55: Avenger's Shield - 1/1

Levels 56-57: Shield of the Templar - 3/3

Levels 58-59: Toughness - 5/5

Level 60: Hammer of the Righteous - 1/1

Prot AoE grinding build (level 60)

Retribution

Retribution paladins are excellent DPS offenders in PvE and PvP since the major retribution buffing in Patch 2.3.0 and Patch 3.0.2. The instrinsic high survivability of paladins coupled with the potential of high burst damage provided by the Retribution tree make them capable of disposing almost any classes one on one and valuable both in dealing and absorbing damage in group PvP. In PvE, besides the high damage output, they also provide various useful utilities to their party members.

PvE Retribution Build

For those who want to play as damage dealers in instances/raids, the top priorties are doing high substantial damage output and controlling threat. Talents that can provide benefits to other party members are also very helpful in raid progression, so should be emphasized as well. The core talents that helps to ensure high and continuous damage output include Benediction, Improved Judgements, Conviction, Crusade, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Vengeance, Sanctified Seals, Fanaticism, Crusader Strike, and Divine Strength. Fanaticism is also the one and only one threat controlling talent that enable the retribution paladin to get past the threat-limited dps threshold in the past. Heart of the Crusader and Sanctified Retribution provide solid increase for retribution paladins as well as other party members' damage output and therefore are usually maxed as well. Seal of the Martyr is a must for Alliance paladins as it is the seal they would use most of the time. For Horde players, some would skip it because Blood Elves' Seal of Blood is at least as good, or even better. The basic PvE retribution paladin build would look like:

Basic PvE Retribution Build (Patch 3.1)

Common pitfalls:

Vindication may look wonderful at first. Unfortunately, most of the mobs (especially bosses) are immune to it. However, one point into it will make it proc Judgment of Wisdom even though the mob is immune to it, so it is worth putting one point in for PVE builds. With Patch 3.1 however, quite a few talent points were taken out of the Paladin talent trees. Because of this, it is ok to keep Vindication talents due to the drop in potential uses of the talents. Vindication does work in PvP against other players, which makes the above talent build also a viable build for PvP as of patch 3.1.

PvP Retribution Build

While most of the core talents of a PvE Retribution build is still useful for PvP, the PvP retribution paladins need several different talents to enhance their survivability from enemy players and help to defeat them. These include Vindication, Repentance, and Pursuit of Justice in the Retribution tree. Although PvE retribution paladins normally also have Repentance, it is only needed for them to get Fanaticism. However, it is a MUST for PvP retribution paladins by itself, no matter if you are going to get Fanaticism or not.

This PvP retribution build although odd in it's design makes for an awesome PvP ability. One of the First things you will notice is that more points are spent in protection. The reason for this is the enhanced survivability it provides. For instance, both Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian and even Improved Righteous Fury are now being used to take more damage. Also, Seal of Command is no longer used at all since Seal of Blood is now viable with the massive damage absorption from Sacred Shield. Another reason that Seal of Command has been ignored is due to it's proc rate being based on chance unlike Seal of Blood which procs on every melee strike. Swift Retribution has also been ignored in favour of Sanctified Wrath which improves the amount of damage done significantly.

PvP Retribution Build (Patch 3.1)

Using The Build

This PvP Build is strange in comparison to other PvP builds available and because of this knowing the right Auras, Buffs, Judgements and Seals to use is extremely important for it's success. Firstly make sure that you have on Blessing of Might, Retribution Aura and Righteous Fury. Righteous Fury should be used during PvP at all times but the paladin can easily change between blessings when needed. Next, the paladin should use Sacred Shield just before a fight or during. During combat Judgement of Light should be used whenever it's available as although Sacred Shield and Righteous Fury provide protection against damage from Seal of Blood and by other players, damage can still occur and the healing effects of Judgement of Light allow the paladin to continue fighting, shrugging off most attacks. Any other spell that the paladin wishes to use is fine, so long as they remember to judge regulary and to make sure that Sacred Shield is still running.

Judgement of Wisdom should be avoided unless the paladin is in desperate need of mana, mana consumption shouldn't be too great and it isn't really needed. If mana consumption is too high however, try switching the blessing to Wisdom instead or switching judgements. You may also consider getting Glyph of Divine Storm as the healing it provides in PvP is more than useful.

Useful Hammer of Wrath Macro

This Macro is extremely simple but extremely effective at the same time. All it does it macro Avenging Wrath and Hammer of Wrath together into single button press. Using it pops the paladins wings before throwing their hammer creating a large critical strike thanks to Sanctified Wrath. This macro can be edited to also use items not affected by the global cooldown.

#showtooltip Hammer of Wrath
/Cast Avenging Wrath
/Cast Hammer of Wrath

Leveling as Retribution

Retribution (with Patch 3.0.2) has become a very powerful leveling spec, all the way to 80. When leveling as Retribution, using a two-hand weapon and dealing with one mob at a time is recommended. Below is an efficient talent build for leveling your character:

Basic Retribution Leveling build (Patch 3.1)

Level 10-14: 5/5 Benediction

Level 15-16: 2/2 Improved Judgement

Level 17-18: 2/2 Improved Blessing of Might

Level 19: 1/3 Heart of the Crusader

Level 20: 1/1 Seal of Command

Level 21-22: 2/2 Vindication

Level 23-24: 2/2 Pursuit of Justice

Level 25-26: 2/2 Eye for an Eye

Level 27-29: 3/3 Sanctity of Battle

Level 30-32: 3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization

Level 33: 1/1 Sanctified Retribution

Level 34-35: 3/3 Heart of the Crusader

Level 36-39: 4/5 Conviction

Level 40-42: 3/3 Judgements of the Wise

Level 43: 1/1 Repentance

Level 44-45: 2/2 The Art of War

Level 46-48: 3/3 Fanaticism

Level 49: 5/5 Conviction

Level 50: 1/1 Crusader Strike

Level 51-53: 3/3 Swift Retribution

Level 54-56: 3/3 Vengeance

Level 57-59: 3/3 Righteous Vengeance

Level 60: 1/1 Divine Storm

Level 61-65: 5/5 Divine Strength (Protection Tree)

Level 66-68: 3/3 Sheath of Light

Level 69-70: 2/2 Sanctified Wrath

Level 71-73: 3/3 Crusade

Level 74-75: 2/2 Divine Purpose

Level 76-80: 5/5 Divinity (Protection Tree)