Paladin instance grouping guide
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| Instance grouping guide | |
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| Main Roles | |
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Instance tanking (Tank) † Currently a stub. | |
| Other Roles | |
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Instance leader † Currently a stub. | |
| Class Roles | |
| Other Topics | |
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Marking up mobs | |
| Related Topics | |
Back to the Instance grouping guide
This page contains some handy tips for paladins in an instance group. For details of different roles of paladins in group, please refer to Paladins as healers, Paladins as tanks, and Paladins as DPS.
Contents |
General tips as a Paladin
- At the beginning of the Raid/Group, set a macro to use Divine Intervention:
/target [Party Member Name] /s <<< Casting Divine Intervention on %t >>> /cast Divine Intervention
- If the leader announces a wipe is going to occur, cast Divine Intervention. You must weigh whether or not the spell is worth the effort into the instance thus far, as the cool down is 1 hour on the spell. Discuss at the start of the raid who you have targeted and what Divine Intervention does. Target someone who can resurrect, and who will be safe from mobs (they are out of combat and cannot be attacked until the spell wears off, but cannot move either). The targeted person can begin to resurrect people after the mobs have dropped aggro. MAKE SURE you bring reagents for the spell!
- Buff Party Members. Blessings can be a pain to manage because of their limited timer, but they are beneficial. Be sure to coordinate with other Paladins for strengths of buffs (buffs don't stack) and to give multiple types of buffs to party members.
- Recast your Blessings often - do not wait for them to expire. However, casting them in combat can draw aggro, so be careful.
- Buffs for Party Members:
There are fairly standard buffs for different classes, depending on their roles in the group.- Tank: Blessing of Kings, (Blessing of Light if the healer is a paladin,) Blessing of Sanctuary. They need stamina, healing and damage mitigation.
- Healer: Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Salvation. Mana regeneration is what the healers need most. Salvation reduced the chance of drawing aggro, though normally both the tanks and DPS would have much higher threat level than healers.
- DPS blessing by class
- Fury Warriors/Rogues/Feral Druids: Blessing of Salvation, Blessing of Might, Blessing of Kings.
- Retribution Paladins/Enhancement Shamans: Blessing of Salvation, Blessing of Might, Blessing of Wisdom
- Mages/Warlocks/Shadow Priests/Elemental Shamans/Balance Druids: Blessing of Salvation, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Kings
- Hunters: Blessing of Might, Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Wisdom (especially since changes to mana regen in patch 2.4). As of Patch 2.0.3 Blessing of Might affects ranged attack power, so it is useful for hunters. Note that hunters past level 30 should feign death regularly in groups to clear their threat, and so it should be unnecessary to give them Blessing of Salvation. Salvation also breaks two of a high-level hunter's signature abilities: Misdirection (it reduces the amount of threat transferred to the target) and pulling to traps (which can require a great deal of threat to be put out quickly, if your tank is a paladin pulling with Avenger's Shield). Even during single-target boss fights, hunters will often use Misdirection regularly to increase the tank's threat. Situations where hunters truly benefit from Salvation are vanishingly rare.
- Blessing of Salvation is the most effective blessing currently in game in turn of improvement in damage output. Unless your group manages aggro spectacularly then every DPS in the group except hunters (or some rogues during boss fights) should expect to have this blessing cast on them. Hunters need it less because their Feign Death is such an efficient threat reduction ability. Salvation is definitely better for rogues during trash clearing. However, during boss fights, if the threat generated by the tank is much higher than that of the rogue (or the rogue's DPS is low), he may prefer Blessing of Might and a well timed Vanish.
- Blessing of Kings is useful on anyone, but when you're limited to only one or two blessings in a group, there are often better choices.
- If you've got spare paladins, Blessing of Light is marginally useful on anyone, since they might need healing.
- If there are more than one paladin in the party, coordinate auras and ask who has improved talents. They don't stack. During fights that fire, frost or shadow damage is expected, the respective resistance auras are very valuable.
- Know how to use your seals and judgements.
- Judgement of Justice stop any target from running when they get low on health, and when they have already started running, they will come back. However, it will not stop them from running for other reasons, such as after getting off a Frost Nova.
- Judgement of Wisdom is extremely useful during long fights, as it will help the casters regain mana.
- Judgement of Light is a useful way to heal the tank without drawing aggro. It can also be used to heal otherwise non-healable NPCs, if they're in melee combat.
- Judgement of the Crusader increases holy damage and is stackable with the Sanctity Aura.
- If there are more than one paladin in the group, make sure all of the paladins use the judgements in concert. Retribution Paladins' Crusader Strike can refresh ALL judgements on one target, including other Paladin's - this is useful for Holy Paladins who tend to avoid melee combat.
- If you are going to resurrect someone, resurrect another rezzing class if one is in your group. This is will speed up the wipe recovery process, and fewer people will be left waiting.
The Paladin as a melee DPS
- Crusader Strike should be used often. This also refreshes all judgements on the target.
- Use Sanctity Aura. Improved talents will add 2% damage to your group. If your tank is a Protection Paladin, he will love you for the 10% extra holy damage!
- If you have Improved Seal of the Crusader, use it often as it also increases the chance of critical strike of other party members.
- Make sure you are using a 2-handed weapon. The slower the better.
- Make sure your melee hit base is 142, w/precision: 95. Then work on attack power and crit. High attack power and crit are no good if you cannot hit your enemy 100% of the time. [1]
- Even though dps is your usual job, there are many situations that you may need to temporarily withhold your attack and help the others. For example, when a mob get loose and is heading for a clothy, you can Repentance and/or stun it, or taunt and off-tank it. If the main healer(s) can't keep up with all the healing required, you can help and throw out some Holy Light. Keep an eye on the main healer's mana bar so you know when they're running short.
The Paladin as a tank
- Retribution Aura is useful for producing threat. Devotion Aura improves a small amount of armor, which is only useful for beginner tanks during difficult encounter.
- Make sure to keep Righteous Fury up, a Paladin's aggro generation is heavily improved and possibly dependent on this skill.
- Seal of Righteousness should be the seal in use in most situations, as a source of holy damage for aggro. Judgement of Righteousness is useful if you need to produce a large amount of aggro quickly.
- Judgement of Wisdom on an enemy will be useful for paladins that go through mana quickly. Against enemies that run away, Judgement of Justice may be needed if no one else in the group has an ability to prevent running away. Otherwise, Judgement of the Crusader will be useful during boss encounters for improving holy damage.
- Consecrate is very good at keeping aggro on multiple enemies, but is also a mana drain for Paladins with little mana, and will also break crowd control. Learn to pull the tanking mobs to a place that is clear of CC'ed mobs before using it. In many cases, 1-2 consecrates will be useful for a large amount of initial aggro, but no more will be needed.
- Exorcism A good skill when tanking undead or demon, especially to keep the threat on a good level.
- The above tips are only the very superficial basics of paladin tanking. For those who are interested in learning more details, please read the related articles: Paladins as tanks, Paladins as tanks: Gear Mechanics, Paladin Builds: Protection.
The Paladin as a healer
- Devotion Aura is usually the preferred aura by groups for it allows your group/raid to take less damage, and thus to need less healing. If another paladin in the group is already using it, the next good aura for a paladin healer (and for other casters and healers too) is Concentration Aura, to reduce spell interruptions.
- It is always advisable to have a separate healing set even if it contains cloth, mail, or leather. However, always have a shield (with healing stats) equipped in case you draw aggro. It will give you about 10% extra armor plus block chance.
- Cast Blessing of Light on the tank to improve your healing effects done by Holy Light and Flash of Light.
- Place Judgement of Wisdom on the target which is currently being attacked (and attack the target too) to keep your (and other people) mana being restored.
Working with a Paladin
- Ask for Blessings if the paladin is not diligent in giving them out. They require very little mana, and while they last only 10 minutes, they do benefit. Remind the Paladin between battles to reapply blessings, if they don't remember on their own. Please however do not demand blessings or changes to applied blessings. There are also some Greater Blessings, for example: Greater Blessing of Might , which last 30 minutes, but greater blessings require reagents to be cast, for example: Symbol of Kings .
- If the paladin has recently been resurrected, ask him to put up his aura if he has failed to do so. And if you want a specific aura, request that.
- Ask for Cleanse if you need one. It's hard to keep track of lots of people's buffs/debuffs.
- Paladin tanks are excellent at keeping aggro on multiple enemies, thanks to their reactive holy damage skills and consecrate. If you are in a group with such a paladin, you can often use AoE spells after a consecrate without fear of pulling aggro off the paladin.
Categories: Guides | Partying | Instances | Paladins
