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)

PvE Holy Crit Build

http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=2&tal=503501503000130531005152215000000000000000000000000005230050000000000000000000 This build has been great when stacking Int, crit, haste. When haste thinket procs I'm spaming Holy Light in less than 1 sec bursts for 12 sec and criting more than a third of the time. But this is with >200ilvl gear.

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.

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)

New to patch 3.2, exorcism becomes a deadly tool for PvP battles when used in tandem with Holy Shock and Judgements.

Elmoski's Level 80 "Facemelter" Shockadin Build (49/0/22)

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 30 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 Vindication, 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.

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. Your blessing should return your mana while your seal should return your 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 priorities 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. The basic PvE retribution paladin build would look like:

Ret PvE (5/6/60)

Purpose	Raiding
Talent Link(s)	Wowhead
Tested patch	3.2

With this build you're going to want Seal of Corruption/Vengeance as your primary DPS seal. The rotation is as follows:

1.Consecration 2.Divine Storm 3.Judgement of Wisdom 4.Crusader Strike 5.Exorcism

Exorcism is saved for last because as of 3.2 it has a short cast time. This cast time is reduced to instant if you have a proc of The Art of War. The Art of War procs from a critical strike of the other abilities used in the Retribution rotation.

After the initial rotation listed above, the rotation becomes quite a bit simpler and now is only affected by cool downs. Since none of the abilities relies on the others (Besides Exorcism and The Art of War) all you have to do is use those abilities constantly as soon as its cool down is finished. You should also have Sense Undead up at all times while in an instance/raid for that extra 1% against undead targets.

Vindication has been changed in patch 3.2 to now decrease the target's attack power similar to a warrior's Demoralizing Shout or druid's Demoralizing Roar. Unlike Vindication in previous patches, this new Vindication is extremely useful to raids as it does affect boss targets.

PvP Retribution Build

Playing a Retribution paladin in PvP is quite diffrent from playing it in PvE, however the core abilities stay the same. These builds are designed for good survivability by including good damage and stun resistance, whilst also supporting high damage output. It's also focused on avoiding redundant talens such as Vindication and Eye for an Eye which may seem like valid choices for PvP at first glance but are fairly meaningless since their effects are rather trivial if one stops to think a step ahead. Another part of these specs are that they're focused on Seal of Command for high burst damage since it can often be problematic to get enough stacks out of Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption respectively, against a Player foe.

Damage Resist/Imp Hammer of Justice (0/20/51)

Purpose	PvP Damage
Talent Link(s)	Wowhead
Tested patch	3.2

Panic Heal Ret PvP (5/15/51)

Purpose	PvP Damage/Self Heal
Talent Link(s)	Wowhead
Tested patch	3.2

Using The Build

This build is to be used with Seal of Command, Blessing of Kings, Judgement of Wisdom and Righteous Fury active at all times. However, when encountering foes who are mounted and will try to escape the fight it's adviceable to start the fight with Judgement of Justice instead of Judgement of Wisdom to cripple their escape. It's also adviced to use Sacred Shield often to minimize incoming damage. Art of War procs are to be used for Exorcism whenever it's up and Flash of Light the rest of the time, to compensate for Judgement of Wisdom instead of Judgement of Light. Avenging Wrath can be useful to open with, followed by your offensive rotation but can in some cases be more useful in the later stages of a fight.

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)