
moonshadow
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May 31, 2006, 7:32 PM
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Paladin guide.
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Disclaimer: Not my guide, not taking credit for it. -------------------------------------------------------- World of Warcraft Paladin Strategy Guide by Alasdair Lo System: PC, CD-ROM Date: 11th May, 2006 Version 1.7.3 -------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: 1. Introduction ---a. Reasons why I Chose a Paladin ---b. Getting Started 2. Updates 3. Racial Characteristics 4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job ---a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you ---b. Equipment ---c. Auction House ---d. My current equipment ---e. Paladin Armor Sets 5. Paladin Skills ---a. Blessings ---b. Auras ---c. For the Undead's Eyes Only ---d. Seals and Offense ---e. Healing and Protection 6. What you should do for a Living ---a. Recommended Professions ---b. Talents 7. The General Strategy ---a. Going Solo ---b. Partying in an Instance ---c. Hoarding Horde Kills ---d. High Level Instance Tips 8. Some Interesting Tidbits ---a. How I got my Charger ---b. About Earning Money in Detail ---c. Letters from Readers 9. Conclusion Appendix I. Feedback Information ---------------- 1. Introduction ---------------- World of Warcraft is Blizzard Entertainment's first foray into the world of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing game, or MMORPG for short. This game allows the player to create his own character, either of the Alliance Side or the Horde Side and play in a virtual world filled with other characters created by other players. The game is set in the continuing conflict between the Alliance of Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves, and the Horde of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Undead. So, if you create an Alliance Character, not only you can complete quests for the 4 races, you can also engage in combat with other Horde players, in a Player versus Player (PvP) Combat. (Of course, a truce had been signed between the Alliance leader and the Horde Chief, but tension is still existent.) As for most MMORPGs, there are plenty of servers that require maintenance. Therefore, a dedicated staff will have to be used to fix errors, a team of gamemasters are to be hired to monitor all channels in order to help players and enforce the terms of service. All of this requires money, and hence a monthly subscription is required for all who wish to play. Subscription policies may wary from country to country. In the UK, where I am currently living in, you should pay £8.99 a month to pay the game. (In Hong Kong, where I came from, things are nastier. This is because you have to PAY BY THE HOUR!) In World of Warcraft, as of now, there are a total of 8 races, and 9 classes. They are the Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Druid and Warlock. Each class has their own distinctive fighting styles, and it is hard to judge each class in a short period, since it may take weeks to raise a character up. This is why I decided to choose one single character, and focus on it, like many other gameFAQs writers have done before. That class is the Paladin. (Oh, and I am currently playing with my Paladin character, that should help me in my writing.) Let's begin, and stop with the chatting. I have now added information on how a Paladin should play in a raid. Please note that what I am stating contradicts with what most players think about the Paladin after the 1.9 patch. *****IMPORTANT!***** I will appreciate it if any experienced Paladins share their thoughts about the class in emails. They may be added. What I am interested in the most are e-mails concerning: * How to Maximize a Paladin's front line capabilities * The good equipment that a Paladin should get after * Defeating all classes in PvP combat * Why so many Paladins whine in the World of Warcraft Class Forums --------------------------------- a. Reasons why I chose a Paladin --------------------------------- The first time I heard of the term "Paladin" was when I played the Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (A Real Time Strategy game made by Ensemble Studios and Microsoft). In that game, a Paladin is the most powerful cavalry character. I also came to the Paladin in Command and Conquer: Generals (An RTS game made by EA GAMES). This time, it's a tank of the American Army. Their motto is "Preserving FREEdom" and "Doing what's right". This type of honorly mood is why I want to become a Paladin. I just like to play as the good guys, after all. Another reason I chose the Paladin is due to his melee abilities. The Paladin can wield the most powerful melee weapons like maces, swords and polearms. At the same time, they can wear considerably heavy armor. Starting from Mail in the lower levels, they can learn to wear heavy Plate Mail in the later levels. This gives them all the edge they need to survive. In fact, the Paladin is one of the two classes in the World of Warcraft who can use Plate Armor. (The other class is the Warrior, a pure blood and guts fighting class) At the same time, they are also one of three classes that use Shields in Combat. Shields are held Off Hand and many give a large chunk of armor protection to the person equipping it. So, it's always good to look out for shields. For all I know, only Warriors and Shamans can learn to use Shields aside from the Paladins. At this point, one may ask, if you like direct combat that much, why not pick a Warrior or a Rogue? Sure, I will explain myself to you. Paladins may have less damage potential than the Warrior or less attack speed and versatility than the Rogue. At the same time, Paladins cannot learn to use ranged weapons like Bows, Crossbows and Guns. However, they do have some things that Warriors and Rogues cannot do. Those features come in form of their holy spells. Paladins get the ability to give abilities that enhance themselves and others (they are known as buffs in the in game jargon). If you are fighting as a Warrior or Rogue, many special moves can only be executed at certain conditions For instance, you may have to be behind the enemy, or you have wait until the next melee hit before it takes effect! The Paladin's offensive spells often work instantly and regardless of the direction you face. At the same time, they get to heal and resurrect. Now, whenever a Warrior or Rogue takes damage, the best way to heal themselves fast is to rely on perishable items, like food, potions and bandages. And even so, potions and bandages cannot be applied that often, and they all tend to run out! Mana, on the other hand, can regenerate over time, and thanks to a certain buff, they can regenerate even faster! So, Paladins are really self sustaining people, and can solo very well. Their battle of attrition techniques is why I can survive very long battles against 2 to 3 enemies at once, which other classes often cannot handle. Another interesting feature of the Paladins is that they get a FREE warhorse at level 40. Other classes but the Warlocks don't have this luxury. They have to spend a lot of Gold at that stage to buy the mount (I remember it's around 100 Gold!) With the Paladin, all you need to do is to walk up to someone with a yellow exclamation over their head in the Cathedral of Stormwind and the warhorse is yours to summon! With all that money saved, have fun buying tough armor at the auction house. Some people are concerned that when selecting people for a group, people will pick the Warrior as the main tank over you and the Priest as the healer over you. This is because "people prefer specialists to all balanced but average". However, whenever I have to play an instance, I never seem to get left out. So, that really is not a concern for me. In conclusion, the Paladin is a hybrid warrior/priest that leans towards the warrior side. (Unlike the Shaman, that leans towards the mage side). Their considerably balanced traits are what drove me to choose them. I myself have a tendency to choose the class that is the most all rounded in GAMES that provide such options. (eg. The Clavat in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles) If you prefer this type of fighting style over "specialists", then the Paladin is for you. But if you lean towards one trait, then select some other class, understand? IMPORTANT NOTE: If you choose the Paladin class to play a class that fights like a warrior with heals and weaker physical damage to balance it out, you are VERY LIKELY to be disappointed. In fact, the fighting styles can be very different. ------------------- b. Getting Started ------------------- This section concerns how you set up your World of Warcraft game for you MMORPG experience. Now, assume that you have just bought the World of Warcraft game disk from the store. You take it home, and open the box. Inside, is the instruction manual. You should find a CD-Key on the manual. You will need to use this key to create your account. But let's not worry about that first. First install the game. Go through the wizard and follow the instructions. It takes a considerable amount of time to install World of Warcraft. It is so big that it has 5 whole disks! While it's installing, you can create your account. Go visit World of Warcraft's Europe website. It is at: http://www.wow- europe.com. You will find the latest news about the game on the main page. To the right is a series of options. One of them is "Account Creation". Click it to create your account. There are a total of 7 steps to take in order to create a new account. Firstly, you must accept the Terms of Use. At the same time, you will be informed that Blizzard reserves the right to scan your computer for any cheating devices at all times. If you accept that, check the box. (You HAVE to check it to proceed anyway!) Then, you will be asked to input your authentication key. The key can be found on the game manual. Copy it character by character into the space. At the same time, if you are using a Guest Pass from a friend, input that key from the small slip of paper you have and click next. In the third step, you will be asked to provide your contact information. This is the usual step you take to register for many online accounts. You should write down you name, address, e-mail and other mumbo jumbo there. Next step. Afterwards, you will be asked to choose your payment method. You get to pay using credit cards or debit cards. You get to use MasterCard, Visa and American Express for Credit Cards. At the same time, you can pay using Delta and Visa Electron. If you are a UK customer, then you get the choice of using Switch or Solo. (Note: Users of Maestro Cards should select Switch, since Switch has been acquired by the MasterCard company.) Click next to proceed. In Step 5, Payment Details, you get to write down the details of your payment methods. You have to write down your Card Number, its Expiry Date, and its issue number, if there is any. You also get to choose the subscription duration. There are 3 choices currently available. If you take a 1 month subscription, it will cost £8.99, if you take a 3 month subscription, it will cost £25.17, on the other hand, if you are a die hard player, you might as well subscribe for 6 whole months for £46.19. Please note that the game comes with 1 month FREE subscription out of the box. So, your bank account will be debited after 1 month. It's obvious that the more months you subscribe for at once, the cheaper per month it is. Then, you will come to the account creation page, where you set the name of your account, and its password. You can also create a password reminder question, like what your mother's maiden name is. However, many people do know your mother's maiden name, (like your evil cousin). To thwart such attempts, consider encrypting your name. (eg. Writing it in leetspeak, or alternating capital letters for instance). The last step is to confirm everything, when it's confirmed, you are ready to play! Well not, actually, you must ALWAYS be at the latest version of the game to play. And, so, you must download the patch, either by the Blizzard Downloader or a mirror site. I do not recommend the Blizzard Downloader, since it is horribly slow! Instead, go over to http://www.filefront.com and search for the World of Warcraft patches. As of now, the latest update is version 1.10 patch. Download that, and install. Double click the World of Warcraft icon on the desktop, and you will first be provided with the latest in game news. Then, click play and you are in. Type in your login name and password and login. You will be asked for your preferred language and playing style. There are a total of 4 realms (servers). Normal, PvP, RP and RPPvP. Normal realms allow you to choose when to participate in Player versus Player combat. When it's turned on, players of opposing factions can attack you, and you can attack them. If it's turned off, then you are safe. For PvP servers, you must always be on the lookout, since players of opposing factions can ALWAYS attack you! (In particular, when you are in Contested Territories or Horde Territories) Hence it's a Player versus Player realm. Role Playing Realms are purely single player. You are to complete quests, and quests, and quests. Nothing more, you can NEVER attack any players of opposing factions. At the same time, you must invent a background story for your character, and behave as such. Choose this if you are the people oriented towards single play, and that you enjoy speaking like someone from a medieval film! As for RPPvP, it's a hybrid realm. I personally recommend Normal Realms, since you get to choose, and it's the most flexible of all realms. You should be automatically assigned to a realm. If you are not satisfied, you can always click View Realm List to change Realms. Then, you can click Create New Character to create your character. If you want to create a Paladin, you must either select a Human or Dwarf. Then, you can customize their gender, looks, and such, and make a name for them. Then click Create Character to create it. With your new character selected. Click Enter World and you are all ready! --------------- 2. Updates --------------- Version 1.7.3: I have finally completed my Lightforge Set! Version 1.7.2: Added information regarding my alternate equipment. Version 1.7.1: Updated my gear, and added the guide for the Paladin Epic Mount Quest. Version 1.6.4: Added some tips in doing high level instances like Scholomance, Stratholme and Blackrock Spire. Version 1.6.3: Added another interesting letter from a reader. Version 1.6.2: Added information about the Lawbringer and Judgement sets. Also rated each set with a score. Version 1.6.1: Added information about the Lightforge and Soulforge armor sets. Version 1.55: I have added the walkthrough for a solo run of the Scarlet Monastery Library in Chapter 9b. Version 1.5: Added some specific information on killing Mages. Version 1.45: Added the description of my shield in the equipment chapter, and added a new letter from a reader. Version 1.4: Added a new section that talks about earning money in detail. Also mentioned that you can make Elemental Reflectors as an engineer. Version 1.35: I have started to list out my own Paladin equipment. Version 1.3: Added a small section on raids. Version 1.2: Added some formulas when it comes to stats, and made an adjustment to one of the suggested talent builds. Also added letters I received from readers. Version 1.1: Added the PvP section. -------------------------- 3. Racial Characteristics -------------------------- As I said in Chapter 1b, you must either choose the Dwarven or Human Race to make a Paladin. Since different races have different characteristics, the Paladin you make can be slightly different than the one of the other race. Here's the lowdown on the racial characteristics, and see whether they can benefit your Paladin. --------------- Dwarves --------------- Frost Resistance: Frost Resistance by default is 10 (passive) Gun Specialization: Your Maximum Skill for guns is always 5 points higher than the other races (passive) Stoneform: A technique that gives you immunity to poison, disease and bleeding. At the same time, you will get 5% more armor. This effect lasts for 20 seconds and takes 3 minutes to cool down. Treasure Finding: When active, this ability shows the positions of all nearby Treasure Chests on you mini-map. This thing stays active when it is on. Of all the 4 characteristics of dwarves, only 2 of them are really beneficial. They are the Frost Resistance and the Stoneform. After all, many enemy mages use Frost attacks, and a little more resistance goes a long way. At the same time, it is important that you can be made to be immune to effects that can cause gradual health loss. However, I find Gun Specialization to be completely useless. Why? It's because Paladins can't use ANY ranged weapons. What's the purpose of specialization if you can't even use it huh? As for Treasure finding, I don't think it's a good specialization. The only thing that can really help is to help you get rich quick. (The chances of finding rare items or above are just so remote, that you have to shuffle through a bit too many of them to get what you want!) --------------- Humans --------------- Perception: This technique allows you human player to be more alert of stealthy enemies. This lasts for 30 seconds and has a cool down time of 3 minutes. Human Spirit: Humans get a 5% bonus on their spirit. (Passive) Diplomacy: Whenever humans do things or complete quests that benefit a particular faction, their reputation will rise 10% faster than the other races. (Passive) Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization: Humans get 5 more proficiency points for their Mace and Sword skills, no matter whether they are for the 1 handed weapons or 2 handed weapons. (Passive) Judging by all of this, I find the characteristics of humans much more beneficial, as nothing is useless. Paladins are a class that is a tank, and caster in one. Hence maintaining high health and mana is important. If they can get back to fighting fit status faster, every bit helps. Reputation is important for certain factions, since when you reach a certain status in their eyes, you can get a discount on all goods, and even purchase some new rare items! The faster you reach at least Honored Status, the better it will be for you. Now, Paladins are fighting characters that usually use Swords and Maces. In fact, you should start with a 2 handed mace. Now, due to some fortunate coincidence, Humans just get what they need for their weapons. This is just a great deal. Sure, it may seem little late in the game, but it can always make all the difference. I don't really care about Perception. Since you can detect most stealthy enemies just by hearing their characteristic hum. But if you want to ambush one, Perception is the way to go. --------------- Conclusion --------------- Judging by such characteristics, I find Human Paladins to be a better choice, even though at the start, the Human Paladin has less Strength, Stamina and Power than the level 1 Dwarf Paladin. ----------------------------------------- 4. Proper Tools and Physique for the Job ----------------------------------------- In any MMORPG, or any RPG game in particular, stats of a character determine how strong he is and what his role be in a group. One of the official weaknesses of a Paladin is that he is a "Gear Dependent" class. Owing to this, playing a Paladin is like playing Rainbow Six. You must plan in advance in order to win. In fact, having the wrong stats will mean defeat even before you have started! In the World of Warcraft, a character generally has 5 stats. They are Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Armor. ----------------------------------------------------- a. An in-depth look at Stats and what they do to you ----------------------------------------------------- Strength: Strength is the strength of the character, and determines how well he can hit the enemy target, and directly affects how much damage will be dealt as well. To be precise, each unit of Strength constitutes 2 attack power to the Paladin. At the same time, a stronger Paladin will block more damage than one with less Strength. Please note that the overall attack power of a Paladin is given by: (Level*3) + (Strength*2) - 20. Divide attack power by 14 to obtain the damage dealt per second. Now you know. Agility: Agility is the speed of the character. It determines on how well he can dodge the enemy attacks. At the same time, Agility also increases your armor and determines the chance of you performing a critical strike on the enemy. Each unit of Agility is equivalent to an extra 2 points of Armor. For every 20 units of Agility you have, you have 1% base critical hit chance. That is barring your weapon skills. At the same time, for every 20 units of Agility you have, you will have 1% extra chance of dodging an enemy's attacks. Stamina: Stamina is directly related to the Paladin's health bar. Each unit of Stamina is the equivalent of the Paladin having 10 more health points. Intellect: Intellect determines how much mana he has. Each unit of Intellect is equivalent to 15 Mana Points. Intellect also determines the critical hit chance of the Paladin's Holy abilities. Each 28 Intellect is equivalent to 1% spell critical chance. Intellect also determines how fast you improve your weapon skills. Spirit: Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. Health is regenerated outside combat. Each 4 units of Spirit equal 1 unit of health restored every 2 seconds. At the same time, mana regeneration every 2 seconds is given by the formula: (Spirit/4) + 8. Armor: Armor is the measure of the Paladin's defense. Of course, the higher armor he has got, the less damage he will take from the enemy, physically, at least. The percentage of physical damage reduced is equivalent to: (Armor/(Armor + 85*(Level of Enemy) + 400))*100%. This value is capped at 75%. So, no matter how strong your armor is, you can't possibly suck up more than 75% of the damage the enemy would have dealt you. Magic Resistance: Armor is used in defense against magic attacks. When it comes to magic users like Mages, Shamans, Warlocks and Priests, elemental resistance matters. There are 5 elements in World of Warcraft. Arcane, Fire, Nature, Frost and Shadow. Magic Resistance can be obtained by equipping proper gear, and by applying auras. The average percentage of damage resisted from an attack is given by the formula: (Your Resistance/The enemy's level*5)*0.75*100%. This means that in order to suck up half of the damage dealt by a spell by a level 60 enemy, you will need 200 Resistance. Since a Paladin is a melee combat class, it is recommended that whenever you find armor with stat boosts, you should aim on ones that improve your strength and stamina. --------------- d. Equipment --------------- Whenever you pick an item up, they can be judged by their rarity, with their colours as a guide. Grey Items are inferior and best sold to vendors for cash, no matter whether they can be equipped or not. White Items are the common items, and many can be bought at vendors. Green Items are the Uncommon Items. They are rarer than white items, and have better attributes than the white items. Vendors usually have a limited stock of Green items for sale. Blue items are where it starts to get pretty rare, most enemies have a low chance to drop blue items, probably less than 1%. However, most instance bosses drop Blue Items, and they are much more powerful than Green Items. Blue Items can be purchased from people of certain factions, if you get a high enough reputation with them. Blue Items may be crafted, but they require many obscure materials and sometimes a lot of the same item. Purple Items are the Epic Items, even more powerful and rarer than blue items. It's even harder to craft a Purple Item than a Blue Item! I wish you the best of luck in getting them, since even bosses rarely have them. These things sell for tons in the Auction house, but if you can use them, use them! --------------- Armor --------------- Paladins, like the warrior, are quite privileged in the armor department. At the get go, they get to wear cloth, leather and mail armor. Of course, the tier of armor that gives the most protection is the mail armor, and hence you should wear this all the way from the start, at least for the first 40 levels. Whenever you want to use mail armor, make sure that it has boosts in your strength and stamina. Like the Warrior, the Paladin can use shields. Shields provide additional armor, and are held in the off-hand slot of the Paladin. With the Shield Equipped, you cannot equip 2 handed weapons. For the first 20 levels, you should consider buying the standard generic armor from the shops, since uncommon armor items are hard to come by. In many quests that you can find in the game, you will have the opportunity to get various pieces of armor as a reward, whenever mail armor is offered, you should complete that quest. These sets of armor are typically Green and hence are much better than the stuff you will find in the shops. At level 40, your Paladin can learn to wear the highest tier of armor in the game, the Plate Armor. To learn Plate Armor, please go and speak to any Paladin Trainer in Goldshire or inside the Stormwind Cathedral. A small price is paid, and then you can use it. Decent Plate Armor can be purchased at around 1 Gold a piece at the Auction Houses, located in all major cities. All of them tend to be Green Items, so go and take your pick. At the same time, as you level up, Plate items that offer increases in Intellect should always be among your highest priority. In fact, Paladins are the only class in the game that wears plate AND uses Mana as a measure of their special abilities. --------------- Weapons --------------- Paladins are a melee fighting class, but their starting weapons differ from the warriors. Paladins start with the ability to use Maces, and maces include items like clubs, maces and hammers. You will most likely be holding a wooden mallet to start off in the early parts of the game! This really is silly, isn't it? But still, maces will have 2 variants, 1-handed maces and 2-handed maces. You can use both types right off. Once you reach level 10, you would have the benefit of extending your range of weapons. In Stormwind, you can go and find a Weapons Trainer inside the weapons shop in the Trade District. He will teach you how to use 1 handed swords and 2 handed swords for 10 Silver each. You better learn them, it's cheap for that period, and swords are quite powerful and popular, and deal more damage than maces. Meanwhile, at Ironforge, the Weapon Trainer inside Ironforge will teach you how to wield an axe. Both 1-handed axes and 2-handed axes will be taught to you, and they both cost 10 Silver Each. At level 20, you will learn how to use a Polearm. Polearms are weapons that are sort of on a stick, like the spears. It costs 2 Gold to learn Polearms, and after that, you have learnt all possible weapons a Paladin could use. (No guns allowed, sorry.) Note that for each weapon, there is a skill bar for them. The higher the skill you are at using each weapon, the more damage you can deal and the more accurate you can hit. 1-handed weapons and 2-handed weapons have separate skill bars. So, at the start, you will find that you have separate skill bars for one-handed maces and two-handed maces. Different weapons increase in skill levels at different rates. I find that maces increase the fastest, followed by swords, axes and Polearms. I also discovered that if you were to maximize the skill levels of all you weapons within a level, you could only have time to use both maces, the polearm, and either both types of swords or both types of axes. So, if you want to stay up to date, either stick with swords or axes. Still, learn all the weapons that can be wielded. You don't know when you will pick up a nice weapon that you CANNOT use. The best way to catch up will be to grind on enemies with much lower levels than you. You may not gain experience by defeating those enemies, but you will still gain proficiency in your weapon skills. 1 handed weapons tend to hit faster than 2 handed weapons, but they deal less damage. (even if you take the Damage per second into account). However, you can hold a shield off hand if you were to do so. Since Shields provide more and more armor as you progress in the game, you should take care when to use either type of weapon. If you are fighting an enemy one on one, it's better to deal more damage per hit to end the battle quickly, and hence 2 handed weapons are a better choice. At the same time, if you are fighting several enemies at once, which a Paladin is quite good at doing so, it is much better to sacrifice damage for extra protection. (I do mean it, shields can provide over 1000 extra armor late in the game!). Use a One-Handed Weapon and a Shield to fight your way through. Like the Armor, stick with the stuff purchased from vendors. From Levels 20 to 30, you will start to find weapons, in particular Green weapons from quests. So, you should always look for those things over what you will find from the vendors. You will be pleased to know that there is a Paladin Quest that is quite laborious, but will result in you earning a very powerful Blue Two-Handed Mace in the game, so you must go to the Stormwind Cathedral, and follow through with all the quests given to you by Dauthorian Rall. In the mid level 30s onwards, you should go to the Auction House in one of the major cities and start searching for Blue Items. I would suggest that you purchase a Blue Polearm, One-Handed Mace and Two Handed Sword. The reason why I will pass on One-Handed Swords is because you will get something much better in a quest at the late 30s. I will talk about that quest later. ----------------- c. Auction House ----------------- Don't think the vendors are selling things up to scratch? Then it's always good to buy things at places where people do meet you needs, that place is the Auction House. Before the well awaited v1.9 patch, Auction Houses are found only in Ironforge and one of the Steamwindle Cartel ports. But now, they can also be found at Stormwind, Darnassus and Booty Bay. All Auction houses are linked and you can buy stuff according to what you need. So, if you are looking for a powerful Polearm, please click weapons, and at the subcategories that follow, click Polearm and click Search. The catalog of goods will appear. You can arrange the items by name, rarity, level or length of auction. I would suggest rarity. A Buyout option is available for most auctions, and you can buy the good out instantly with that. Consumer protection really is important, if you are not careful, you will end up wasting a lot of money on equipment. --------------- Armor --------------- I would suggest that unless you are desperate, you should not go buying armor, even if it is a Blue Item from the auction house until you are level 40 and are using Plate Armor. This is because basically all Mail Armor is inferior to Plate Armor, and all that spending will be for nothing, nothing at all, I say! Once you reach level 40, it is time for a major revamp of your armor. Go to the Auction House and buy Plate Armor for bargain prices. (All of them are Green items, so they do give some nice boosts to you stats.) Cover yourself from head to toe, well, except the legs, with Plate Armor. (I will explain this later.) Each piece of Plate Armor typically sells for around 1 Gold and 50 Silvers (hereby known as 1 G 50 S), so to cover up your head, shoulders, hands, chest and feet with Plate Armor, expect to spend around 7 G 50 S. Hey, don't be sad, remember that you have saved 100 G from buying a horse (or ram!)! --------------- Weapons --------------- As I said earlier, you should go to the Auction House in one of the major cities and start searching for Blue Items when you reach the mid level 30s, at around level 35. This is when the market begins flooded with blue items. Since Blue Items typically provide powerful attack and stat bonuses, I doubt if you would want to be left out. In my experience, the typical blue weapon sells for around 15 G each, so if you want to get a Blue Polearm, a Blue Two Handed Sword and a Blue One Handed Mace, expect to spend 45 G! But fortunately, there are many places to grind in, for you to get the cash by then. ----------------- Guide to Selling ----------------- Besides buying, you can also go out to sell the stuff you get. Things that you should sell most of the time are crafting materials. For instance, there are many people who are so desperate for Silk Cloth that they are willing to pay loads of Silver, or even Gold just to have a stack of 20 instead of fighting enemies again and again. So, whenever there is a demand, meet it! Most reagents can be sold at a much higher price than they sell to the vendors. But whenever you sell, make sure that your item has taken up its capacity on you slot, so consider selling an entire stack of 20 copper bars at once, for example. This is why all gathering professions are just so profitable! Another thing that sells so well are Blue Items and Above. There are so many enemies, and very occasionally, they drop the rare items, known as the Blue Items, judging by the text color they appear in. Can't use it, or is it just too weak to be equipped? Simple, sell it! Most Blue Items can sell at 10s of Gold at the Auction House, and it is crucial that you provide a Buyout Price for the item at that price. Oh, and you must be careful not to be a curious person and equip the item. All Green, Blue and Purple Items are bind on equip at least. This means that whenever you wear the item, it cannot change hands again, which means that it cannot be sold at all. As for the Blue Items that are Bind on Pickup, well, if you can equip it, do so. If not, just sell it to a vendor, and if you are in a group, do not roll for it at all! (Explained later.) Whenever you have a rare item, you must be careful of any additional requirements that are found on them. For instance, an Engineer can make many Blue Items later in the game, however, they all require a certain degree of Engineering Skill, so, it's not very profitable to sell those things at the Auction house, since you will attract a limited number of customers. ------------------------ d. My current equipment ------------------------ Paladins are a gear dependent class. Yes, this is right, but to what extent? Well, now, I will show the equipment of my own Paladin in World of Warcraft, and show you how my equipment affects my stats. Of course, I will show you exactly how I got every single piece of equipment. Please note that the type of armor is indicated in round brackets, while the rarity of the items mentioned is shown in the Square Brackets. For your information, this is taken from my level 60 Human Paladin. (Yep, you see it, it is a level 60 Paladin now.) You will find that I have collected EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 8 pieces of the Dungeon Set 1 Armor, which is the Lightforge Armor, and am currently reaping all 4 of the 4 set bonuses. You will notice that for the comments regarding the Lightforge pieces, I have included the number of successful kills of each boss before I got the item. Please note that they do not necessarily equate to the number of runs before I got them. This is because, for all of the runs, I entered through Pickup Groups in a capital city. Not all of the players are skilled or have superior determination. So, there were also a considerable number of failed runs which I have lost count of! I also must admit that I have more than one piece of armor of each slot that I would consider viable. Hence, I will list them out as well. *****MY MAIN ARMOR AND TRINKETS***** --------------- Head --------------- Lightforge Helm (Level 57 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 526 Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +6 Agility, +14 Intellect, +10 Spirit Where I found it: Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance (5% drop rate) Number of Darkmaster kills it took me to find it: 1 Lightforge Helm is the Helm in the Paladin's Lightforge Helm. It is one of the better pieces in the set, since it provides 4 different stats at the same time. This particular goes for its Stamina, a massive 20 Stamina, as well as its Intellect. To share my experiences with you, in an attempt to get this helm, I have tried so many times. This is due to all the new instance caps introduced into the game. Now, for the instances that give the Dungeon Set 1, the caps have been lowered. For instance, Scholomance, where I found this helm, now can only accommodate 5 people! (Down from 10!) As a result, only the truly skilled can prevail. For the first few runs, even though we are all level 60 characters, several group members always quitted because they can't bear to pay gold to repair their items! Anyone, one day, me and my friend (a hunter) teamed up with a Rogue, Priest and another Paladin (who already had the helm) to Scholomance. We fought our way through, and the group wiped something like 5 times, and I died something like 8 times the whole run. So, in the process, we actually have to go back to the Chillwind Camp to repair our gear and continue. Yep, we may have wiped, but we still went on, and fought all the bosses we find, like the Barovs and Ras Frostwhisper. Finally, we reached Darkmaster Gandling. The whole process is so hard, since you have to clear all the minibosses to summon him out. Eventually we won, and the Helm dropped! Of course, I rolled Need for it straight away, and won! And do you know how many hours did it take us? 2? No. 3? No. 75? No! It took us 5 WHOLE HOURS just to finish this place. Meanwhile, my friend, the hunter got a consolation prize from the run. He managed to win the greed roll on the Purple plan on the Hide of the Wild. He first thought that he could see this plan for a fortune, but guess what? It's Bind on Pickup, so he can only gain 1 Gold 50 Silvers from selling it! So, if you really want the Lightforge items, I would recommend that you know some people who have ENORMOUS will power and determination, or you can never pull it off! Good luck to all! Grand Crusader's Helm (Level 58 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 584 Stats: +16 Strength +16 Stamina +12 Spirit +15 Shadow Resistance Where I found it: Balnazzar, Stratholme (10% drop rate) As you can see, on my numerous Stratholme (Scarlet Side) runs, I got other stuff rather than the one I really desire. The Grand Crusader's Helm is an example, found the second time I have beaten Balnazzar. The Stamina is 4 points lower than that of the Lightforge Helm, attributing to a 40 health point loss. However, it does have 3 more points of Strength. Most importantly, it gives me an extra 15 points of Shadow Resistance. Thus saving me the trouble of buying a Darkrune Helm! Since the Baron Rivendare in the Undead Side has an Unholy Aura that deals Shadow Damage, every little resistance helps. I consider this as a prerequisite gear before fighting him up close. --------------- Neck --------------- Gemshard Heart (Level 49, Bind on Pickup) Stats: +10 Stamina +10 Intellect +6 Spirit Where I found it: Princess Theradras, Maraudon (15% drop rate) The Gemshard Heart is one important intellect gear I found during a Maraudon instance run. I defeated the princess boss (the final boss) with my group, and she dropped this necklace. It is time to roll for the item, and for some reason, I was the only player in the team to roll Need for it. Therefore, I won the item without competition, much to the dismay of my teammates (including a Hunter, a Priest and a Mage!) Diana's Pearl Necklace (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) Stats: +8 Stamina +8 Intellect Equip: Improves your chance to hit with spells by 1% Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells by up to 9 Where I found it: Cannonmaster Willey, Stratholme (13.6% drop rate) Although the Cannonmaster of the Scarlet building of Stratholme does not drop any attractive stuff for me, I still went forth with my group to him at the Rogue's request (He may drop Shadowcraft gear, it seems). However, much to the Rogue's disappointment, there is no Shadowcraft gear. Instead, this necklace. Hmm... Who's this Diana, Willey? Your wife? Anyway, a Priest and I both rolled Need and I won the roll. There is nothing wrong with me rolling, but I will only equip this when I feel like doing a little more damage with my Holy Shock, and other judgments! --------------- Shoulders --------------- Lightforge Spaulders (Level 55 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 470 Stats: +9 Strength, +4 Agility, +15 Stamina, +11 Intellect, +5 Spirit Where I found it: The Beast, Upper Blackrock Spire (13.6% drop rate) Number of times I killed the Beast before finding it: 1 Well, I must say that I was really not prepared for a 10 man raid, in this state. But one night I was bored, and saw someone right "LF2M UBRS, need rogue, pala, hunter". Of course, out of curiosity I decided to whisper the person who wrote it, and was invited on the spot. In this ten men raid, things were not as hard as I predicted as before. We actually managed to breeze through the instance. Of course, a number of players died when we confronted the Beast, which is some giant 2 headed monster. But in the end, the Master Looter announced that the Lightforge Spaulders are available for collection. Of course, I yelled Need, and since the other paladin in the raid already got it, I got the prize! And to make things sweeter, it is my first kill of the Beast! The Lightforge Spaulders is another all round armor piece with many stat increases. It has all 5 main stats a Paladin should worry about. It also looks quite nice, albeit like a layer of 3 pancakes for some greedy people. Well, in that run, we made it to General Drakissath without any wipes, but that's where it gets so hard. In spite of me healing to help the ONLY priest in the raid, we died so many times over, that we had to call it quits. But I guess I will just have to try it some other time, right? --------------- Back --------------- Sergeant's Cape (Level 58, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 117 Stat: +17 Stamina Requires: Sergeant Where I found it: To get the Sergeant's Cape, you must play PvP until you get rank 3, Sergeant. Then, you can go to the Stormwind barracks and buy this cape off the quartermaster at the entrance. Pale Moon Cloak (Level 57, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 44 Stats: +8 Strength +12 Stamina +10 Shadow Resistance Where I found it: Maleki the Pallid, Stratholme (13.2% drop rate) Well, the Pale Moon Cloak is one of the few high level cloaks in the game that provides me with extra Shadow Resistance. It is also one of the first drops I received from that Frost Mage Maleki inside the undead side of Stratholme. The extra Shadow Resistance will help even more, when I face the Baron Rivendare and his Unholy Aura. Well, I might as well ask an enchanter to add another 15 points of Shadow Resistance in the near future, I bet. Archivist Cape (of the Whale) (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 43 Stats: +10 Spirit +10 Stamina Equip: Restores 4 mana ever 5 seconds Where I found it: Archivist Galford, Stratholme (18.1% drop rate) It's really amazing that they still have those pieces of equipment with random attributes at this level. But anyway, the first time I got the cape, it was the one of the Owl, which adds Spirit and Intellect, which is not so good. So I rolled need when this version came out, and dumped the other cape. (Although ideally, I would like the Eagle cape, since it adds 10 Intellect and Stamina at the same time.) Note that the 18.1% drop rate is the chance of the cape to drop as a whole, but not this particular cape. --------------- Chest --------------- Lightforge Breastplate (Level 58 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 567 Stats: +13 Strength +21 Stamina +16 Intellect +8 Spirit Where I found it: General Drakkisath, Upper Blackrock Spire (4.4% drop rate) Number of times I killed General Drakkisath before finding it: 1 It was one Thursday afternoon. I have returned home after a session at the University. I decided to play some World of Warcraft to relax. I was in Ironforge, and discovered that someone was looking for 2 more for Upper Blackrock Spire. They actually needed a Paladin! Of course I joined up for the fun. Sometime later, we made a full 10 man raid and entered Blackrock Spire, the upper part. In the Raid was another Paladin, who only needed the Lightforge Spaulders. So, I was safe. We downed Pyroguard Emberseer and Warlord Rend Blackhand without much trouble at all. At this point, the Hunter in the raid made a foolish pull and cause the entire raid to wipe out. The Priest, who failed to win a single blue item left the group in protest. Fortunately, the Raid's determination was superior, and we quickly found the Priest and summoned her in. The run then was uneventful at large, and we downed the Beast next. The Lightforge Spaulders dropped. The other Paladin won it without competition. I expected my jig to be up, since it is highly unlikely for both set pieces to drop at the same time. We eventually arrived at General Drakkisath's throne room. Having killed all the guards, we engaged Drakki. The other Paladin decided to dedicate his healing to the warrior who is holding Drakkisath in his place. Meanwhile, the Warlock continuously feared one of his subordinates, while the other Warrior and I tanked the other minion. Eventually, the 2 minions were killed. The focus was on General Drakkisath. We got him down to 40% health, and the first Warrior died. This is when I decided to help keep the other Warrior up until he is down to 20% health. At that point, I started hitting Drakkisath again and he was eventually down. We resurrected any dead members in our group, and the Raid Leader looted the corpse. Guess what? Lightforge Breastplate dropped! This was my first successful General Drakkisath kill, and the Breastplate already dropped! I am such a lucky devil. Now, my Lightforge set is complete. This new Breastplate does not have a single point of Agility in it, and I lost 10 health by equipping it over the Carapace of Anub'shiah. However, it's still worth it. This is because of the large Intellect increase. With this on, I get 16 more Intellect points, which translates into 240 mana points. Now, My health and mana points really can be extremely close! --------------- Shirt --------------- Stylish Green Shirt Why I bought it: I was stuck with Captain Sander's shirt for a long time since I have completed that quest in Westfall. I noticed that my character appears to be wearing nothing but his breastplate! Naturally, I want my paladin to look a little better, so I bought this shirt in the auction house for 70 Silver. After all, I love the green color! --------------- Wrist --------------- Lightforge Bracers (Level 52 Plate, Bind on Equip) Armor: 261 Stats: +7 Strength +4 Agility +10 Stamina +8 Spirit Part of set: Lightforge Armor (8 pieces in total) Where I found it: Auction House, 12 Gold Lightforge Armor is the armor set, designed for Paladins that are in the 50s. (It can be used by Warriors too) There are 8 pieces in total in the set. The Bracers and Belt can be purchased in the Auction House, but the remaining 6 pieces must be obtained by high level instances like Stratholme, Dire Maul, Blackrock Depths and more! (The breastplate requires level 58 to use!) For you to benefit from additional effects besides the ones described in each piece, you need at least 3 pieces. I must say I found these bracers by chance in the auction house. Some idiot was selling it at a knockdown price of 12 Gold, while it should have been sold for 30+ Gold! Vambraces of the Sadist (Level 54 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 270 Stats: +6 Strength +7 Stamina Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1% Where I found it: Timmy the Cruel, Stratholme (14.1% drop rate) Timmy the Cruel is that lonely ghoul found outside the Scarlet headquarters of Stratholme. He will appear once you kill all the Scarlet enemies outside. He's not that hard to beat, and may drop these bracers. Although I was not very interested in it at that time, I rolled, a 14, over the other Paladin's 13. So I got it. So, whenever I feel like playing around in an instance, there is always this to improve my crits! (By 0.8% over the Lightforge Bracers, by the way.) --------------- Hands --------------- Lightforge Gauntlets (Level 54 Plate, Bind on Equip) Armor: 318 Stats: +14 Strength +9 Stamina +14 Spirit Where I found it: Auction House, 20 Gold Where to find it in an instance: Timmy the Cruel, Stratholme After the 1.10 patch of World of Warcraft, all Dungeon Set 1 gloves will be bind on equip, and their drop rates would have increased. For the Lightforge Set Gauntlets, it is now dropping off Timmy the Cruel. He is one of the minibosses you will fight when you are about to enter the Scarlet building inside Stratholme. However, I decided to take a different path. It is to simply buy it off the Auction House! Please note that at the time of purchase, people were simply unaware of the value of the item, so I bought it cheap. Nowadays, expect to pay over 100 Gold if you really want to buy it! Death Grips (Level 57 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 404 Stat: +22 Strength Equip: Immune to Disarm Where I found it: Magistrate Barthilas, Stratholme (15.39% drop rate) I really cannot say much for these gauntlets. I mean, being Immune to Disarm is good, but honestly, why would you just add 22 points of Strength to its stats? Anyway, this glove is used when 90 health points don't seem to make much of a difference for my Paladin, and I am fighting in places where people can disarm you. -------------- Waist -------------- Lightforge Belt (Level 53 Plate, Bind on Equip) Armor: 336 Stats: +10 Strength +9 Stamina +15 Intellect +6 Spirit Where I found it: Auction House, 25 Gold Having reached a high level, I decided that it is time for me to collect the Lightforge Set, which is known as the Dungeon Set 1. All I had to do is to pay 25 Gold in the Auction House, and this shiny Golden Belt is mine. This belt is about the Intellect. With it, I had to sacrifice 9 points of Agility from the Girdle of Uther, but the set bonuses kind of help a bit. Deathbone Girdle (Level 56 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 358 Stat: +15 Stamina Equip: Increases Defense by 9 Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Where to find it: Anyone of the 6 minibosses just before Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance (0.5 to 1.5% drop rate) The Deathbone Guardian set really is a set heavily specialized in tanking. However, in my opinion, it is still far too specialized. It gives you nothing but Stamina, increased Defense skills, and mana regeneration. Nothing else! The 5 set pieces are found on the 6 minibosses in their separate rooms just before Darkmaster Gandling appears. (At the end of Scholomance) Any of those minibosses may drop any of the 5 pieces of this set, so keep your eyes peeled. There is no reason why a Warrior should be able to roll this over Paladins, due to all the mana regeneration. --------------- Legs --------------- Lightforge Legplates (Level 56 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 557 Stats: +20 Strength +14 Stamina +8 Agility +12 Intellect +9 Spirit Where I found it: Baron Rivendare, Stratholme (4% drop rate) Number of times I killed the Baron to find it: 15 Baron Rivendare is the Dungeon Set 1 trousers vending machine of Stratholme. He may drop either 1 of the 8 Dungeon Set pieces for each Alliance class when he's beaten. Hence the drop rates of each piece will appear to be obscenely low. Anyway, it took me somewhat like 15 times before those things would appear. Anyway, there was a little bit of drama involved in the run leading to Baron. The Druid of my group was rather not concentrating on her job, and I died 6 times before I reached the magistrate. Meanwhile, the Warrior in the group was getting increasingly frustrated due to the lack of plate drops. Eventually, I won the Death Grips over him, and he became even more bitter. We then killed Ramstein the Gorger, and the mobs of skeletons that come out. We wiped again at the 5 elite Skeletons, and had to fight through the respawns of the first street before we could get back here again. Then we faced the Baron. I expected the warrior to hold aggro, so I did not turn on Righteous Fury. But the Warrior lost it immediately after one single critted shot from the Hunter, and we wiped. At this point, many of my gear are damaged to 0 durability and hence I had to get out and repair. I went back, and walked back to the Baron. This time, I told the Warrior to Sunder, but we failed again due to the Druid being healing not fast enough. Third try, everyone but me went out for repairs. We made our way back. This time, our group, but me aggravated one of the groups of enemies that we skipped, and 4 of them died. I resurrected them all, and went to Baron again. This time, I did not attack until the Warrior has Sundered Baron 4 times. It all worked according to plan, this time, and the Baron fell. I looted the corpse. Lightforge Leggings dropped. "Yes!" I exclaimed. The Warrior felt even more bitter at this point, and immediately hearthed away! So, I was the big winner of this run, and he's the big loser, since he could not win anything of value in Greed Rolls, and he will be spending 5 or 6 Gold in repairs! -------------- Feet -------------- Lightforge Boots (Level 54 Plate, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 417 Stats: +8 Strength +18 Stamina +9 Spirit Where I found it: Balnazzar, Stratholme (11.2% drop rate) Number of times I killed Balnazzar to find it: 11 The Lightforge set pieces are really the hardest to find, when the Bind on Pickup items are concerned. 3 of the pieces, like all other classes' are found in the final bosses of the 3 famous level 60 Instances. As for the other 2 pieces, they are usually found on certain minibosses. As for the Paladins, they have no such luck. The shoulders are found in a "not so much of a mini" boss in Upper Blackrock Spire, while these boots are found on the final boss of one extreme end of Stratholme, the Scarlet side, known as Strat Light. The drop rate, according to Allakazam, is 11.21%, however, it took me 2 more tries to get it! What luck. Anyway, these boots are nice for their Stamina. Having 18 of the mentioned unit. Of course, I will take an Aquamarine and ask my enchanter friend to improve its running speed for FREE. Now, with all these pieces, my Paladin really is looking golden! ----------------- Fingers (2 slots) ----------------- Magni's Will (Quest Reward, Bind on Pickup) Stats: +6 Strength +7 Stamina Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1% Where I found it: Quest reward from King Magni Bronzebeard When your level is high enough, you can talk to the Royal Historian inside the Throne Room in Ironforge. Having listened to her story, you can go to the Burning Steppes to collect some relics. With that, you can return them to the historian, complete the quest. Then, the king will tell you that his princess is missing. You will have to partake in a quest chain which involves killing Emperor Thaurissan, and rescuing the princess. Having completed the quest, you will be sent back to Ironforge where the King will reward you with either this ring or the songstone of Ironforge. Of course, I will always take the crit ring over the other spell related stuff! Band of Flesh (Bind on Pickup) Stats: +6 Strength +3 Agility +16 Stamina Where I found it: Ramstein the Gorger, Stratholme (8.5% Drop Rate) Inside the Undead side of Stratholme (Strat UD), there is one final cpen square that you have to clear that is infested with Abominations. Once the last Abominations are killed, one more miniboss Abomination called Ramstein the Gorger will come. Having defeated him, he may drop this ring. It gives me significant health. This is one good ring for front line fighters, only that its drop rate is so low. Blood of the Martyr (Quest Reward, Bind on Pickup) Stats: +15 Stamina +10 Intellect Inside the Scarlet Side of Stratholme, there is an enemy called Malor the Zealous who guards a chest. Inside his chest is a Medallion of Faith. Giving the Medallion to someone in the house in the first street of the Undead Side of Stratholme will cause him to fight Baron Rivendare along with you. When the Baron is down, he will be mortally wounded. Talking to him will complete a quest which nets you this ring as a reward. Not bad, I must say. Not bad. --------------- Trinket 1 --------------- Blazing Emblem (Level 38) Stat: +15 Fire Resistance Use: Increases Fire Resistance by 50 for 10 seconds Where I found it: Off some troll in Stranglethorn Vale (By chance) The Blazing Emblem is a fire resistance trinket, and allows you to increase Fire Resistance for a further 50 for 10 seconds. This may help to mitigate damage when in a very high level instance. ---------------- Trinket 2 ---------------- Cannonball Runner (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) Use: Summons a cannon that will fire at enemies in front of you Where I found it: Cannonmaster Willey, Stratholme (12.3% drop rate) This is one funny Trinket. Using it will cause a cannon to appear in front of you. The cannon will fire a considerable number of blasts at the enemies, as long as they are in front of it. Afterwards, it will shatter. This really is quite a fun thing to use in PvP, since it should help stop those blasted runners, with all those shots. It doesn't work very well against enemies that are computer controlled, however. I guess this is just one of the signature drops of the Cannonmaster Willey, inside the Scarlet bastion inside Stratholme. --------------- Shield --------------- Crest of Supremacy (Level 51, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 1930 Block: 36 Stats: +6 Strength +6 Agility +7 Stamina +7 Intellect +7 Spirit Where I found it: Shade of Eranikus, Sunken Temple (19% Drop Rate) One day, when we were still at level 58, me and my Hunter pal decided to search for a group that will bring us to Stratholme. However, the overall response is lukewarm, since people kept saying stuff like "Stratholme is for level 60s only" and all that crap, so we decided to do something to sooth our boredom. To do that, we went to the Sunken Temple with 3 others. I did something I was never able to do before, I defeated the Shades of Eranikus. And, guess what, this shield dropped! No warriors in the group, and I won it without competition. Sure, the Intellect is lower, but just look at all the stats it gives me! *****MY GOLF BAG***** The weapons listed below are the ones which I consider as up to date with my corresponding level. Any other weapons I happen to have are not listed below. Sword Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge (Level 58, Bind on Pickup) 81-151 Damage, Speed 2.80 (41.4 Damage Per Second) Stat: +4 Strength Equip: Increases your chance of getting a Critical Strike by 1% How I got it: Warlord Rend Blackhand (6.9% drop rate) In one of my Upper Blackrock Spire runs, I ran across Warlord Rend as usual. He dropped this sword. For some reason, I was the only person in the 10-man Raid to click Need for it. Therefore, I won it without competition. Yippee! FREE crit gear for me. The relatively slow speed of this one-hander makes it an ideal candidate for Seal of Command use. Add that to the crit gear that I am looking for right now, well, I just cannot imagine how powerful I can be with this on. Of course, this is not something I would like to equip when I am tanking. (Need all the health I could get!) Two Handed Sword Lightforged Blade (Bind on Pickup, Level 47) 118-178 Damage, Speed 3.30 (44.8 Damage Per Second) Stats: +9 Strength, +9 Stamina, +10 Shadow Resistance, +10 Frost Resistance, +10 Fire Resistance How I got it: Quest Reward, Western Plaguelands There is a Paladin specific quest that begins inside the Stormwind Cathedral. You are to get to the Western Plaguelands, and report to Argent Dawn. You will then be commissioned to collect Scourgestones for them. Once you collect enough, complete the quest, and get another one, which involves getting 6 feathers from the Troll priests inside the Sunken Temple. Collect them all, turn them in, and you get to choose a reward which includes this item. The biggest surprise is that it actually is a resistance gear, so it will come handy when you fight mages and the like of them. Mace Hammer of the Vesper (Bind on Pickup, Level 56) 70-131 Damage, Speed 2.50 (40.2 Damage Per Second) Stats: +7 Strength +12 Stamina How I got it: Lord Alexei Barov, Scholomance (6% drop rate) I must be a lucky guy. On the same Scholomance run I mentioned above, I managed to get this item on a Need roll from that undead Russian chap. Since there are no one else rolling Need on it, I won it without competition. The extra stats and the extra strength make it a potential front line combat weapon. And it seems that Alexei Barov also drops loads of other good stuff. And it's just my luck then. In fact, this mace is now my primary weapon. Two Handed Mace Hammer of the Grand Crusader (Bind on Pickup, Level 58) 116-175 Damage, Speed 2.70 (49.7 Damage Per Second) Stats: +10 Stamina +22 Intellect +9 Spirit Equip: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 22. How I got it: Balnazzar, Stratholme (11.40% drop rate) While I was hunting for Lightforge pieces for my set, I happened to come across Balnazzar. In one of the runs, he dropped this 2 handed mace. Since it had Intellect, and an increase in healing done by spells and effects on it, the warrior is willing to let me get it without competition. Anyways, this two handed mace is a considerably decent mace for a front line healing Paladin. (Assuming the Warrior(s) in the group/raid are able to hold Aggro. Then, while you are bashing with this hefty hammer, you can toss slightly stronger heals on them when the situation requires (such as when the priests are low on mana!) This mace is another first for me, since it is the first mace since the Verigan's Fist that provides Intellect! Axe Bone Slicing Hatchet (Bind on Equip, Level 56) 48-90 Damage, Speed 1.70 (40.6 Damage Per Second) Stats: +13 Agility +5 Stamina How I got it: Maleki the Pallid, Stratholme (13.9% drop rate) The Undead side of Stratholme is home to 3 minibosses, whom all must be defeated, and their houses cleared before the gate leading to the slaughterhouse is opened. Maleki the Pallid is the third one. The Bone- Slicing Hatchet is an extremely fast axe with a high agility stat. This provides an extra critical hit chance of 0.65%. It is definitely the weapon that I will play around with. In fact, besides the Lightforge, I have other gear that provides me with extra critical chances and more! Of course, this is not my main weapon. You will be interested to know about the reactions of my Stratholme group when I won the roll without competition. I said, "Nice Agility Axe. Good thing to play around with." This is what ticked the other members of my group. One hunter asked, "WTF! You rolled on it so as to play around with it?!" Well, it may not be better than the Hammer of the Vesper, but it is certainly better than the Serathil! Two Handed Axe Lord Alexander's Battle Axe (Bind on Equip, Level 51) 123-185 Damage, Speed 3.20 (48.1 Damage Per Second) Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Agility, +Stamina How I got it: Auction House, 40 Gold You will notice that for a long time, I have not included a Two-Handed Axe in my main arsenal section. This is because I have basically neglected that department long since I got Thermaplugg's Left Arm! (That was obsolete long, long ago). Anyway, it seems that I have a choice between this and the axe Brain Hacker . The latter is just so expensive and offers 1 proc, although fast. Of course, the one with stats is the better one to choose! The good news is that with the additional Strength and Agility, Lord Alexander's Battle Axe will deal more damage than the Frenzied Striker below. The 17 additional agility also effectively provides for almost 1% extra critical hit chance. Polearm Frenzied Striker (Bind on Pickup, Level 51) 108-162 Damage, Speed 2.80 (48.2 Damage Per Second) Equip: Increases your chance to parry an attack by 1% Equip: Increases your chance to hit by 2% How I got it: Trade Channel I was wandering around Ironforge, and saw someone sell this. I paid a price of 15 Gold, which is slightly lower than the median price on Allakhazam. The good thing about this polearm is that it his quite fast for a two handed weapon. In fact, it is only 0.1 second slower than 2 of the one handed weapons I am using! The increased chance to hit will make life slightly easier. So will the damage. *****MY STATS***** Now, to show the gear dependence of my Paladin, I will show you my stats. Note that each stat is preceded by a bracket with a sum. The first number is the base value, and the following one is the bonus value from items. The following stats are taken when my shield and the Hammer of the Vesper are equipped. Also, Retribution Aura is on. Strength: (116 + 122 =) 238 Agility: (65 + 53 =) 118 Stamina: (100 + 174 =) 274 Intellect: (70 + 57 =) 127 Spirit: (79 + 60 =) 139 Armor: (5763 + 200 =) 5963 (52.1% damage reduction against level 60 attacker) Attack Critical Hit Chance: 11.87% (With Conviction Talents) As you can see, almost half of my Agility and Spirit are obtained from my gear, and more than half of my total Strength and Health is contributed by my gear! So, it can really be seen that gear is what makes or breaks the Paladin. If you want even more specialized, you will have to find equipment that increases damage or healing done by spells up to a certain amount. Certain gear will also increase your critical strike chance by 1 or 2%, and those are also what you may need. ---------------------- e. Paladin Armor Sets ---------------------- All classes in World of Warcraft have their own armor sets. They are a group of armor pieces, that when equipped together, will give additional bonuses on top of the additional stats. Paladin armor sets start to be available as you reach the higher levels, that is from level 52 to 60. Also, item sets are ranked into tiers, which show how powerful they are, and the relative difficulty to obtain them. The Dungeon Set 1s should be usable before level 60, while the rest of them will require level 60. -------------------------------- Dungeon Set 1: Lightforge Armor -------------------------------- Lightforge Helm (Level 57, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 526 Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +6 Agility, +14 Intellect, +10 Spirit Lightforge Spaulders (Level 55, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 470 Stats: +9 Strength, +15 Stamina, +4 Agility, +11 Intellect, +5 Spirit Lightforge Breastplate (Level 58, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 657 Stats: +13 Strength, +21 Stamina, +16 Intellect, +8 Spirit Lightforge Bracers (Level 52, Bind on Equip) Armor: 261 Stats: +7 Stamina, +10 Stamina, +4 Agility, +8 Spirit Lightforge Gloves (Level 54, Bind on Equip) Armor: 386 Stats: +14 Strength, +9 Stamina, +14 Spirit Lightforge Belt (Level 53, Bind on Equip) Armor: 341 Stats: +10 Strength, +9 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +6 Spirit Lightforge Leggings (Level 56, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 557 Stats: +20 Strength, +14 Stamina, +8 Agility, +12 Intellect, +9 Spirit Lightforge Boots (Level 54, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 424 Stats: +8 Strength, +18 Stamina, +9 Spirit Set Bonuses 2 Pieces: You gain extra 200 Armor 4 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS 6 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds 8 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic Set Stats Armor: 3622(+200) Strength: 94 Stamina: 116 Agility: 22 Intellect: 68 Spirit: 69 All Resistances: 0(+8) My comments: Lightforge Armor is the first set of Armor that Paladins should go after, and can be usable from level 52 onwards. All the bind on pick up pieces are obtainable from Upper Blackrock Spire (10 man), Scholomance (5 man) and Stratholme (5 man) instances. The chest, helm and leggings are definitely the best pieces of the set, since they cater more specifically to the Paladin's stats (Intellect), while providing good overall stats. The shoulders are decent, but the boots are so-so. As for the other 3 parts, they can be bought at the Auction House, since they are bind on equip. Of the set bonuses, I find the 2 piece and 4 piece bonuses the most attractive. If you must wear only 4 out of the 8 pieces, I suggest that you wear the Helm, Chest, Bracers and Leggings. However, this does not mean you should neglect the other 4 pieces, since you must have all 8 Lightforge pieces in order to complete a quest chain that allows you to upgrade your set to something even better! That is the new Tier 0.5 Set, Soulforge Armor! Score: 3.5/5 ------------------------------- Dungeon Set 2: Soulforge Armor ------------------------------- Soulforge Helm Armor: 556 Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14 Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1% Soulforge Shoulders Armor: 507 Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12 Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Soulforge Breastplate Armor: 684 Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +12 Spirit Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 14 Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1% Soulforge Bracers Armor: 296 Stats: +9 Strength, 10 Stamina, +9 Intellect Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 8 Soulforge Gauntlets Armor: 393 Stats: +9 Strength, +10 Stamina, +10 Intellect Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11 Equip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike by 1% Soulforge Belt Armor: 380 Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Intellect Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 12 Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Soulforge Legplates Armor: 601 Stats: +16 Strength, +17 Stamina, +17 Intellect, +10 Spirit Equip: Increases healing and damage done by magical spells by up to 11 Soulforge Boots Armor: 380 Stats: +12 Strength, +13 Stamina, +12 Intellect, +10 Spirit Equip: Increases healing and damage don by magical spells by up to 12 Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Set Bonuses 2 Pieces: You get 8 extra resistance to all schools of magic 4 Pieces: When you hit an enemy, there is a chance that your healing and spell damage will increase by 95 for 10 seconds 6 Pieces: You gain extra 40 Attack Power, that's almost 3 extra DPS 8 Pieces: You gain extra 200 armor Set Stats Armor: 3797(+200) Strength: 98 Stamina: 106 Intellect: 104 Spirit: 44 All Resistances: 0(+8) Increased healing and damage by magical spells: 94 Extra Mana Restoration every 5 seconds: 12 Increased chance of delivering a critical hit: 3% My comment: Having collected the entire Lightforge Set, you can go and find a woman inside King Magni Bronzebeard's throne room in Ironforge in order to partake in a chain quest. That chain will result in all you Lightforge pieces upgraded into Soulforge. When you put the 2 sets together and compare stats, you will find that Soulforge gives you a little more Armor, Strength and a lot more Intellect in the expense of a little Stamina. So, you would expect to have 100 health less than when you have a full Lightforge set. However, this is easily offset by enchanting one of your armor pieces to provide for 100 HP. Soulforge provides more bonuses that are set in stone. Wearing all pieces will increase the amount of damage and healing dealt by spells by up to 94. It is always a welcome addition to deal more damage than normal. And just imagine what will happen when you judge your enemy with Crusader! At the same time, such a fixed value increase in healing value means that the spell that heals less to begin with will benefit more. So, start using more Flash of Light, baby! The extra 12 mana restored every 5 seconds will mean that the 2 talents invested in Improved Blessing of Wisdom can be used in other places, like Improved Lay on Hands or the Retribution Tree. Some people have complained in the official class forums that this set does not give a single point in Agility. However, you don't have to see this as a bad thing. After all, they ARE giving you an extra 3% chance in delivering critical hits. This is equivalent to having 60 extra Agility points, only that you won't be able to dodge as much. As I see it, Paladins have 5% base crit chance. Add the 3%, the 5% obtained through the Conviction Talent, and the 60+ or so base Agility that you have, you should have more than a 16% chance of delivering critical hits. And this does not take in account your weapon skills and Agility obtained through your finger, necklace or cloak! Score: 4.3/5 ------------------------- Tier 1: Lawbringer Armor ------------------------- Lawbringer Helm (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 608 Stats: +9 Strength, +20 Stamina, +24 Intellect, +10 Spirit, +10 Fire Resistance Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22 Lawbringer Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 562 Stats: +10 Strength, +22 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +8 Spirit, +7 Shadow Resistance Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18 Lawbringer Chestguard (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 749 Stats: +8 Strength, +26 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +13 Spirit, +10 Fire Resistance Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22 Lawbringer Bracers (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 328 Stats: +10 Strength, +11 Stamina, +11 Spirit, +8 Intellect Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Lawbringer Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 468 Stats: +10 Strength, +15 Stamina, +15 Intellect, +14 Spirit, +7 Fire Resistance Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18 Lawbringer Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 421 Stats: +13 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +8 Spirit, +7 Fire Resistance Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18 Lawbringer Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 655 Stats: +7 Strength, +24 Stamina, +18 Intellect, +18 Spirit, +10 Shadow Resistance Equip: Restores 3 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 22 Lawbringer Boots (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 515 Stats: +7 Strength, +20 Stamina, +13 Intellect, +10 Spirit, +7 Shadow Resistance Equip: Restores 2 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing done by magical spells by up to 18 Set Bonuses 3 Pieces: Everyone has an extra 10% of getting healed if they hit an enemy affected by your Judgment of Light 5 Pieces: You have an extra 1% chance of dealing a critical hit with spells or normal physical attacks 8 Pieces: Every time you hit an enemy, there is a chance to heal every member of your party for 189-221 health. Set Stats Armor: 4306 Strength: 74 Stamina: 153 Intellect: 134 Spirit: 92 Fire Resistance: 34 Shadow Resistance: 24 Increased healing by magical spells: 138 Extra Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds: 13 Increased chance of critting with magic and melee: 0(+1%) My comment: The Paladin's Tier 1 armor set can be found on many bosses in the Molten Core (40 man raid!). Compared with Soulforge, the Lawbringer Armor provides more Armor, Stamina and Intellect, but at the expense of lots of Strength. The Fire Resistance is quite nice, though. One major difference in the bonuses between Soulforge and Lawbringer is that Lawbringer only increases the HEALING effect of your spells. So, your Judgment of Righteousness and Holy Shock will NOT get a damage increase. In return, you can heal more effectively, so Flash of Light is the way. Like Soulforge, Lawbringer Armor does not provide any Agility points. What you do get is a 1% chance of getting a critical hit with magic and physical attacks by 1%. This is just peanuts compared to the bonuses that Soulforge offers. In conclusion, Lawbringer Armor is entirely focused towards a Paladin who spends most of his time healing. One mitigating factor is that when you have all 8 pieces, you may heal your group slightly when you hit the enemy, and that the chance of Judgment of Light working on your pals is increased. However, Judgment of Light works very frequently to begin with, and dealing improved damage may just be more fun for many. So, if you are more interested in magical ATTACKS while meleeing, you might as well stick with Soulforge Armor until you get the ultimate high-end set, the Judgement Armor. Score: 1.7/5 ------------------------ Tier 2: Judgement Armor ------------------------ Judgement Crown (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 696 Stats: +17 Strength, +18 Stamina, +23 Intellect, +6 Spirit, +10 Frost Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 32 Judgement Spaulders (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 642 Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +6 Spirit, +10 Fire Resistance Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 13 Judgement Breastplate (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 857 Stats: +16 Strength, +21 Stamina, +21 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +10 Fire Resistance, +10 Shadow Resistance Equip: Restores 5 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 25 Judgement Bindings (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 375 Stats: +9 Strength, +21 Stamina, +9 Intellect, +8 Spirit Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 7 Judgement Gauntlets (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 535 Stats: +6 Strength, +15 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit Equip: Restores 6 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 15 Judgement Belt (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 482 Stats: +8 Strength, +14 Stamina, +20 Intellect, +6 Spirit +10 Shadow Resistance Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 23 Judgement Legplates (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 749 Stats: +10 Strength, +26 Stamina, +27 Intellect, +6 Spirit Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 20 Judgement Sabatons (Level 60, Bind on Pickup) Armor: 589 Stats: +13 Strength, +20 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +8 Spirit +10 Fire Resistance Equip: Increases healing and damage dealt by magical spells by up to 18 Set Bonuses 3 Pieces: Your Auras' radii will be increased by 10. 5 Pieces: Your healing and damage dealt by magical spells will be increased by up to 47. 8 Pieces: Every time you judge an enemy, you will deal 60 to 66 damage in addition to the base effect of that spell. Set Stats Armor: 4925 Strength: 92 Stamina: 155 Intellect: 148 Spirit: 50 Arcane Resistance: 10 Fire Resistance: 40 Nature Resistance: 10 Frost Resistance: 10 Shadow Resistance: 30 Extra mana restoration every 5 seconds: 20 Increased healing and damage dealt by magical spells: 153(+47) Extra damage dealt by Judgments: 0(+66) My comment: This is the ultimate Paladin set. It is obtained from various boss in raid instances like the Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. Of course, to have any hope of getting this armor, you better find 39 more dedicated players to come with you. The desperation of getting those items is why certain guilds set up a Dragon Kill Points (DKP) system, so as to guarantee that people who have played longer get it before the ones who played less. However, this is against the spirit of the game. (This is not Everquest, pals!) When you wear this set, you get some dark knight style helm, and you will be wearing a plate robe like those crusaders! Anyway, this set is superior to the Lawbringer in every possible. The only downgrade is that you get less Spirit. Like Lawbringer, this set has not a single point of agility, nor does it have any fixed crit chance increases. However, it does have a large increase in spell damage, in fact, it is something like up to 266 when you use Judgments of Righteousness and Command, and 200 when you use Holy Shock. Of course, these numbers are likely to increase when you judge Crusader on the enemy first. So, you can be an even deadlier plate caster than Soulforge, although you will lose critical chances. This is also why I only give this set a 4.7 out of 5, due to this imperfection. Score: 4.7/5 ------------------ 5. Paladin Skills ------------------ A Paladin is characterized by their melee attacks, and their holy spells, namely the Auras, Blessings and Seals. Of course, there are also abilities to heal others, to remove any status ailments and even resurrect a fellow group member. So, let's look at each type of thing in turn, shall we? To train for most of the skills, one must consult a Paladin trainer. Paladin trainers are located in Goldshire, and the capital cities of Stormwind (Stormwind Cathedral) and Ironforge (Mystic Ward). --------------- a. Blessings --------------- Blessings typically are spells that temporarily enhance a character's abilities. These types of enhancements are called buffs. Some blessings are also used to protect fellow group members from bad effects. Each Paladin can affect their group members with 1 Blessing at a time, so if there are 2 Paladins in each group, each group member can be affected by 2 blessings at once. Blessing of Might Ranks: 1 to 7 Levels Learned: 4, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 60 Mana Cost: 20, 30, 45, 60, 85, 110, 130 Range: 30 yards This Blessing is symbolized by a fist with a blue background. It has the effect of raising the target's attack power for 5 minutes. The higher the rank of the blessing, the more attack power it gives out. This buff is to be applied to the direct combat classes of the group, notably the Warriors, Paladins, Rogues and Hunters. Greater Blessing of Might Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 52, 60 Mana Cost: 220, 260 Range: 30 yards This is a weird Raid Oriented buff. You will need a special reagent to use it. It gives all the members of the raid or group that has the SAME CLASS as the target an increase in attack power for 15 minutes. I mean, how often will you party with 4 Rogues or 4 Warriors, say? But still, this thing saves the hassle of casting individual members, and it already pays off even if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost is twice as that of the Blessing of Might, but you get 15 minutes of buffing, and not 5. Blessing of Protection Ranks: 1 to 3 Levels Learned: 10, 24, 38 Mana Cost: 25, 45, 60 Range: 30 yards Cooldown time: 5 mins This Blessing puts up a shield on the target, allowing him to be invincible for an amount of time. The amount of time increases with rank. Although he is protected, the target cannot use any attacks. However, they can apply buffs to themselves. Please note that whenever you use this effect on anyone, they cannot be affected by Divine Protection, Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection for a minute. Blessing of Wisdom Ranks: 1 to 6 Levels Learned: 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, 60 Mana Cost: 30, 45, 65, 90, 115, 125 Range: 30 yards This is more like a "healing" effect. Only that is long term, lasting for 5 minutes. This blessing allows the target to regain a certain amount of Mana every 5 seconds. The higher the rank, the more mana is recovered. Mages, Priests and Warlocks are the prime targets, and if you are to act the healer in your group, buff yourself. Blessing of Salvation Level Learned: 26 Mana Cost: 88 Range: 30 yards Blessing of Salvation protects the user. Well, it means that anyone who is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the enemies' attention when they attack them. Since Mages and Priests are supposed to cast at the back of the pack, as the artillery, they might as well be blessed with this so they are not likely to be killed. Greater Blessing of Salvation Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 176 Range: 30 yards This Raid Oriented blessing protects the target, as well as any character the same class as it. It allows them to receive 30% less threat from enemies, whatever that means. Well, it means that anyone who is blessed with this move will be 30% less likely to attract the enemies' attention when they attack them. It lasts for 15 minutes, and hence is a better deal for your mana. What a pity that you have to wait until you are at level 60 in order to learn this. (And also you need a reagent!) Greater Blessing of Wisdom Ranks: 1 and 2 Levels Learned: 54, 60 Mana Cost: 230, 250 Range: 30 yards This Blessing gives all the members of the raid or group that has the SAME CLASS as the target mana generation of a certain amount every 5 seconds for 5 minutes. I don't seem to get it. The only sensible time I could think of to use this is when you have 2 Mages in your group at once. I just cannot think of times when there will be 2 Warlocks or 2 Priests! (Let alone a large 3!!!) But still, it already pays off even if you cast it on yourself, since the mana cost is twice as that of the Blessing of Wisdom, but you get 15 minutes of buffing, and not 5. (You also need a reagent to use it) Blessing of FREEdom Level Learned: 18 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana Range: 30 yards Cooldown Time: 20 seconds This Blessing may only have one rank, but it really is worth its weight in Gold. The reason is that it allows your target, or in particular, yourself to be immune to all movement impairing effects for 10 seconds. This is particularly effective in PvP combat against Horde Hunters and Mages. Most of the time, they will try to use moves like Concussive Shot (slowing down effect) or Frost Nova on you (FREEzes you in place). Whenever you cast this on yourself, you will break FREE of that effect instantly, and go forward to hack the enemy down! Please note that this Blessing has a 20 second cooldown time, so you will be vulnerable for 10 seconds. But fortunately, as long as you are playing one on one, the cooldown time of their slow down ability is also similar! For some strange reason, this Blessing is not so effective in PvE combat. Moves that leave you dazed will not be removed when you cast Blessing of FREEdom on yourself. Weird. Blessing of Kings Level Learned: 20 Mana Cost: 75 Range: 30 yards Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents This Blessing is learnt by first applying 10 Talent Points in the Protection branch of Paladin Talents, and then spending another Talent Point on the Blessing. After that, the move will be learnt instantly. This buff increases the stats of its target by 10% for 5 minutes. I do mean ALL of the stats, so this really is a hot one. If only you could spend that many points in the Protection Tree. Greater Blessing of Kings Level Learned: 60 Mana Cost: 150 Range: 30 yards Prerequisite: 10 points in Protection Talents This Blessing raises the stats of all characters of your group that are of the same class as your target by 10% for 15 minutes. If only it raises the stats of all characters of your group, no matter what class they are for 15 minutes. But still, the 15 minute buff duration is better than the 5 minute duration of the standard Blessing of Kings. So, it may still pay off in the long run. (But buy the reagent!) Blessing of Light Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40, 50, 60 Mana Cost: 85, 110, 135 Range: 30 yards If there were any "food additives" for the Paladin, this is it. Any member of your group targeted will receive a bonus effect by the Holy Light and Flash of Light healing spells. The bonus healed amount increases with rank. But still, unless you are the healer of you group (which is not much fun), you wouldn't be applying this Blessing to anyone, I believe. Blessing of Sacrifice Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 46, 54 Mana Cost: 80, 100 Range: 30 yards This Blessing is a damage absorber. Whenever you apply this Blessing to a fellow group member, a small portion of the damage taken (45, then 55) will be transferred to you instead of him! This blessing lasts for only 30 seconds though. This Blessing should only be used whenever you are the designated healer. It's not a good idea to use it whenever you have to fight yourself, or you really will suffer. And don't even think about applying this to all other 4 members of your group, I do mean it! -------------- b. Auras -------------- Devotion Aura Ranks: 1 to 7 Level Learned: 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 This Aura, signified by its shield logo, provides additional armor to the Paladin that uses it, as well as all group members within 30 yards of the Paladin. The extra armor provided increase with rank, from 55 in rank 1 to 735 in rank 7. This is definitely the most commonly used Aura for a Paladin to use, and hence when you are not really up to anything, keep this turned on at all times! Retribution Aura Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 16, 26, 36, 46, 56 This Aura affects the Paladin and any group member within 30 yards of him. Anyone in its area of effect will definitely not be attacked with impunity. This is because any attacker who strikes a member will receive a small amount of Holy Damage for each hit they make on you. This may seem small, but adds up as time passes. The Holy Damage increases from 5 in rank 1 to 20 in level 56. Concentration Aura Level Learned: 22 The Concentration Aura gives the Paladin and all group members within 30 yards of him a 35% chance of ignoring spell interruption when taking damage. This is particular effective if you want to ensure that fellow mages and priests can cast their spells even when they are attacked. At the same time, there is a Talent for the Paladin that enables him to have an extra 70% chance of avoiding spell interruption! So, with that in conjunction with this aura, you can never be stopped! Shadow Resistance Aura Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 28, 40, 52 This Aura provides resistance to Shadow attacks, like those from enemy Warlocks. Initially, you will have 30 resistance, which is rather poor. Then, at level 40, you will gain 45 resistance. At level 52, you will gain 60 Shadow Resistance. Frost Resistance Aura Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 32, 44, 56 This Aura provides resistance to all those icy Frost attacks, in particular the ones from enemy Mages. You will get 30 Frost Resistance at Rank 1, 45 Resistance at Rank 2 and finally, 60 Resistance at Rank 3. Fire Resistance Aura Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 36, 48, 60 Sick of being hit by all those fireballs? This Aura is here to help. This Aura provides resistance to fire attacks to all group members within 30 yards. You get 30 resistance at Rank 1, 45 resistance at Rank 2 and 60 resistance at Rank 3. Sanctity Aura Level Learned: 30 Prerequisite: 20 Retribution Talents This Aura increases the Holy Damage done by all group members within 30 yards by 10%. Since it is a group bonus, you definitely cannot learn it right off the bat. Instead, you have to spend 20 Retribution Talent Points before you can even use it! ------------------------------ c. For the Undead's Eyes Only ------------------------------ Paladins are holy warriors, reckless hunters of undead. Hence they have a lot of skills that only work against them. However, these skills are strictly for PvE combat only, and will not work against human Undead players. All of this is for balance issues. Thanks to the v1.9 patch, all of the following spells will now work against Demons too! Sense Undead Level Learned: 20 Sense Undead allows the Paladin to see the positions of all nearby undead and demon enemies on his minimap. This will stay on until you decide to turn it off. All undead enemies will appear as red dots. Exorcism Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60 Mana Required: 85, 135, 180, 235, 285, 345 Range: 30 yards Cool Down Time: 15 seconds This is the specialist anti undead spell for the Paladins. It works instantly, and deals Holy Damage to the undead or demon target. The higher the rank, the more damage will be dealt. It's just fun to pull Undead enemies this way. The 15 second cooldown is not an issue. Holy Wrath Ranks: 1 and 2 Level Learned: 50, 60 Mana Cost: 645, 805 Casting Time: 2 seconds Cooldown Time: 1 minute Holy Wrath takes Exorcism to a whole new level. The Paladin will file bolts of Holy energy all around the place, dealing Holy Damage to all targets nearby! Any enemies within 20 yards of the Paladin will feel the pain! The damage dealt has the potential to be more than that of Exorcism, so whenever there are 3 or more Undead at once, use it. Turn Undead Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 24, 38, 52 Mana Cost: 35, 50, 75 Casting Time: 1.50 seconds Range: 20 yards Cooldown Time: 1 min This is not an effective spell. It induces fear in Undead and Demons only. But the problem is, when they run randomly in fear, they are likely to aggravate all of his friends and cause them to run after you. So, you might as well not bother with this. --------------------- d. Seals and Offense --------------------- It must really pay to be Holy Fighters, in fact, they have various seals to enhance themselves. Seals are also the reason that make the playing style of Paladins VERY DIFFERENT FROM HUNTERS AND ROGUES. Seals are typically temporary effects that enhance your ability, for a short 30 seconds. A Paladin can only activate one seal at a time. Many seals give a chance for something good to happen in each blow you hit the enemy. Such occurrences are called procs, or Programmed Random Occurences. Many procs occur at a procs per minute basis. So, every minute, expect the proc to occur a relatively constant number of times, so the slower the weapon you use, the more frequently a proc will accompany your blow. However, that's not all, you can use Judgment to apply the effect to the enemy, and hence giving some weird effects to them, making them more vulnerable. If a Judgment has a continuing effect, its duration can be prolonged if you continue hitting him with melee attacks, so basically, as long as you are doing what you should do, the effect will stay until the fight ends! Besides seals, other useful offensive spells are written down here. Judgment Level Learned: 4 Mana Cost: 6% Range: 10 yards Consider the Paladin to be a gun. Activating the seal loads the gun, and using Judgment is equivalent to pulling the trigger, and judging the enemy with the seal you are having. Various seals do different effects on the enemy. For instance, the Judgment of Righteousness deals direct Holy Damage to the character, while the Judgment of the Crusader increases the enemy's vulnerability to Holy Damage. This is the medium in which the Paladin deals most of his ranged damage, so use it well. One more thing to note is that the Judgment ability consumes 6% of the Paladin's total mana, so as the Paladin levels up, he is bound to have to spend more and more mana on this spell. The good news is that all judgments can be cast no matter in which direction you are facing. So, even if this Horde Rogue is running circles around you, you can still judge without fail! Seal of Righteousness Ranks: 1 to 8 Level Learned: 1, 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58 Mana Cost: 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, 140, 170, 200 Activating this seal will allow your melee attacks to have a high chance of dealing additional Holy Damage with each blow. The higher the rank, the more attack bonus you gain. This is quite a popular seal throughout your leveling life cycle. Who would like to miss the ability to deal a little more damage per hit? (Usually, whenever the seal is trained at the highest rank for your level, the Holy Damage should be at least 25% of your melee damage!) When you judge the enemy using this seal, they will deal raw Holy Damage. It has a 10 yard range, so it's one way of dealing with fleeing opponents, and opponents that run around, making themselves hard to hit. Seal of the Crusader Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 6, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52 Mana Cost: 25, 40, 65, 90, 125, 160 This seal has 2 different effects, depending whether you are applying it to yourself or to the enemy. When you first apply it to yourself, you will allow your melee attacks to hit faster, but you will deal less damage than when you are not using. The correct thing to do is to judge the enemy with this seal. Then, they will take more Holy Damage whenever you hit them with the related attacks. This gives one key combo. Whenever you fight, first judge the enemy with the Seal of the Crusader, and then activate the Seal of Righteousness. Then your attack bonus on the enemy will be further increased. Seal of Justice Level Learned: 22 Mana Cost: 13% of Paladin's total Mana Like the Seal of the Crusader, the Seal of Justice has 2 separate effects, depending on whether you are using it on yourself or the enemy. When you first activate the seal, your melee attacks will have a chance to stun the enemy for two seconds. Two seconds may not seem long, but you do get to get a FREE hit on the enemy, and any spellcasting enemies will have their spells completely interrupted. So this seal is most effective against casting enemies like Mages, Warlocks and Priests. (Although there is one other seal that provides raw power that may be just as effective). The judgment effect of this seal, however, is only useful in PvE encounters. It prevents the enemy from fleeing when they are about to die. Many a time has an enemy run off, alerted his friends and sent a large army to outwit you. This can be prevented by judging them with this seal at the start of the battle! As for PvP encounters, your enemy will definitely be not forced to stay! Seal of Light Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 30, 40, 50, 60 Mana Cost: 110, 140, 180, 210 The Seal of Light is really healing related, as with most skills that mention the word "Light" for the Paladin. The Seal of Light, when activated, gives your melee attacks a considerably high chance of healing yourself slightly. On the other hand, judging the enemy will give the melee attacks made against them a chance to heal the attacker slightly. (God knows how this works) The slower the weapon you use, the more likely you are going to be healed. However, as long as you keep hitting the enemy, the duration will be prolonged. So, the healing is spread out over time. I prefer the seal to the judgment anyday. This seal is good when you are playing in a group with several mates against a strong boss. Since all attackers may benefit. It is also good when you are low on mana and want to heal yourself. Just engage some weak enemy and activate the seal. The amount healed will definitely be larger than the damage they deal to you! However, don't do this in PvP, since it's likely to be a much faster paced fight than those dumb bots! Seal of Wisdom Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 38, 48, 58 Mana Cost: 135, 170, 200 The Seal of Wisdom works a lot like the Seal of Light, but instead of health, you get a chance to regain mana with every hit you take. However, I believe this spell is not worth it. Firstly, the mana cost is very high compared to the amount of mana that will be restored to you. Furthermore, the proc is less likely to occur than that of the Seal of Light, and in group fights, the casters will tend to stay away from the tough enemy to actually get any hits! (And, if they are being hit, they are likely to die soon if it's an elite, which happens a lot during group instances!) Seal of Command Ranks: 1 to 5 Level Learned: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Mana Cost: 65, 110, 140, 180, 210 Prerequisite: 10 Retribution Talents This seal may require a considerable number of talent points spent in the Retribution Tree, but it really is worth it. When active, you will have a considerable chance of doing a roundhouse blow with your weapon, dealing Holy Damage equal to 70% of the standard melee damage you deal. This proc has a slightly lower chance of occurring than that of Seal of Righteousness, but it's still high ever since the 1.9 patch. Another thing to note is that the critical hit chance of the proc is directly related to your standard attack crit chance. (so build up your agility or equip yourself with Crit Gear!) The good thing is that the extra damage won't be necessarily 70%. In most cases, the amount of Holy Damage dealt is 80%, 90% or even more than the standard damage dealt by your weapon in that specific hit! What's better than that? On the other hand, judging this seal will deal Holy Damage to the enemy, which is less than that of the Seal of Righteousness. However, if the enemy is hit while stunned, they will get much more Holy Damage than the Judgment of Righteousness. (So, combine with Hammer of Justice for the best results) It seems that some people claim that this move procs at a rate of 7 procs per minute, and hence in spite of an increase from 5 procs per minute, the seal of command deals inferior damage. Now, I tell you what, this move has procced for me for something like 8 to 9 times in a minute when I used a faster weapon, so it actually has experienced a net damage increase due to the Version 1.9 patch. Tip! Righteousness or Command? As a rule of a thumb, use Seal of Righteousness while you use 1-handed weapons, and use Seal of Command when use 2-handed weapons, which are usually slower than 1 handers. Hammer of Justice Ranks: 1 to 4 Level Learned: 8, 24, 40, 54 Mana Cost: 30, 50, 75, 100 Range: 10 Yards Cooldown Time: 10s Hammer of Justice is a stunning move of the Paladin. Using it will immediately stun your target for a number of seconds. The time stunned starts from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 6. There are several uses of this move. One is to stop the enemy caster from using his spells. Another one is to stun him for a considerable amount of time so that you can heal yourself. Another use is to stop the enemy from fleeing (or trying anything funny) while you deal several hits on him. Furthermore, if you are being attacked by a human Horde player, you may want to FREEze him in place for a few seconds so you have time to run out of range. At the same time, while fighting elites in an instance, using Hammer of Justice to stun an enemy is a surefire way of getting him to get off that cloth wearer and hit you instead. Hammer of Wrath Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 44, 52, 60 Mana Cost: 295, 360, 425 Casting Time: 1 second Range: 30 Yards Cooldown time: 6 seconds This move has been given to the Paladin at the Version 1.7 patch over concerns that the Paladins are far too easy to run away from. Therefore, you have this new Hammer of Wrath ranged attack. Now, whenever the enemy has 20% or less health, and is trying to run away from you, all you have to do is to use this and throw the hammer over long distances to hit him, most likely to finish him off! This is one cool finishing move, so make sure you have enough mana to spare! Holy Shock Ranks: 1 to 3 Level Learned: 40 minimum, 48, 56 Mana Cost: 255, 325, 380 Range: 20 Yards Cooldown time: 30 s Prerequisite: 30 points in Holy talents, 1 point in Divine Favor The Holy Shock move is the Paladin's one and only ranged damage spell that works any time. Using this will instantly blast the enemy with Holy energy, dealing a considerably high amount of damage to them from a 20 yard range. That's not all, if you use this on a friend, you will heal them instantly for that particular amount. Holy Shock is powerful and hard to get. To get that, you must have designated at least 30 of your Talent Points in the Holy Talent Tree. Afterwards, you must invest 5 points in all 5 Illumination Talents, then invest another point in Divine Favor. Then, you can get to invest one more point in Holy Shock. Therefore, you must wait all the way until level 40 to get it! Since it's a ranged attack, you can use this to pull enemies in instances. A better way to use it still, is to use it in a finishing combo in a PvP combat! Consider first using Judgment of Righteousness, then Holy Shock, and then finally Hammer of Wrath! This should deal more than 700 damage and certainly finish them. (Considering the enemy has around 3000 HP and is at around level 47.) -------------------------- e. Healing and Protection -------------------------- One of the Paladin's prized skills is his ability to fight and heal at the same time. Surely, they may not heal as good as the Priest, it is still very vital to keep the others alive. At the same time, the Paladin has some abilities to help protect themselves during critical moments of the fights. Here are the skills that you can use to help. Holy Light Ranks: 1 to 9 Level Learned: 1, 6, 14, 22, 30, 38, 46, 54, 60 Mana Cost: 35, 60, 110, 190, 275, 365, 465, 580, 660 Casting Time: 2.5s Range: 40 Yards Holy Light is the standard healing move of the Paladin. After a short charge, the Paladin will heal his target. The higher the rank of the move, the stronger the healing power. Since it takes 2.5 seconds to cast this spell, you might as well do something to help avoid spell interruption. Investing 5 Talent Points into Spiritual Focus should help, since it allows 70% of hits dealt to the Paladin while he is casting the spell to not interrupt his casting. Combine this with Concentration Aura, there really is no way standard hits can stop him from casting. However, you should still watch out for effects such as Kick or Silence, since they stop the spell completely, and you have to wait a considerable while before you can cast again. One way to cope with those moves is to attempt to heal when your HP is still high, get interrupted, and then heal again. Then, there is no way for the enemy to interrupt you! Another way is to stun the enemy or protect yourself in an invincibility shield, as you see later. Flash of Light Ranks: 1 to 6 Level Learned: 20, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58 Mana Cost: 35, 50, 70, 90, 115, 140 Casting Time: 1.5 seconds Range: 40 Yards Flash of Light is a move that allows the Paladin to heal his friends slightly, but with a shorter casting time. The range is the same. However, please note that the amount healed per unit time for Flash of Light is lower than that of Holy Light. However, but the mana cost per unit healed of this move is generally lower than that of Holy Light. So, if you are outside of battle, consider using this instead to heal yourself. But while in fierce battle, use Holy Light instead. Divine Favor Level Learned: 30 minimum Mana Cost: 4% of Paladin's Total Mana Cooldown Time: 2 minutes Prerequisite: 20 Points in Holy Talents, 5 Points in Illumination This move is an instant cast buff, and allows the next Holy Light or Flash of Light cast by the Paladin to always give a critical effect (ie. Heal more than usual). Since you have already spent 5 points in Illumination in the Holy Talent Tree, you will definitely not spend any mana in this Holy Light! So, use this whenever you do not have any more mana to spare. This shows why it is worth it to spend points in the Holy Tree of the Paladin! Do yourself a favor, in particular a Divine Favor and spend 20 Holy Talent Points, man! Purify / Cleanse Level Learned: 8, 42 Mana Cost: 8% of Paladin's Total Mana These moves are moves that allow Paladin to remove ailments from himself and friendlies. Purify removes one disease effect and one poison effect each time it is used. Cleanse removes the above, and one magic effect as well. Both cost the same, so might as well Replace Purify with Cleanse upon hitting level 42. Righteous Fury Level Learned: 16 Mana Cost: 10% of Paladin's Total Mana Lasting Time: 30 minutes This self buff increases the aggro, of threat drawn from the enemies from your Holy attacks by 30%. This means that if you use this on yourself, and cast Seal of Righteousness, with every hit you take, the enemy will be more likely to hit you than the mage or priest in your group. Much better for tanking, eh? Divine Protection / Divine Shield Ranks: 1 and 2 (DP), 1 and 2 (DS) Level Learned: 6, 18 (DP), 34, 50 (DS) Mana Cost: 15, 35, 75, 110 Lasting Time: 5 to 12 seconds Cooldown Time: 5 minutes Both of the above spells are invincibility spells. The Paladin will become invulnerable for a short time, and all conditions will be cured. Note that for Divine Protection, the user cannot perform any attacks, but can cast healing spells on himself. Meanwhile, Divine Shield allows you to use physical attacks, but the speed will be reduced by 50%. This move is perfect for healing yourself in emergencies. Since, whenever you are ambushed by a Horde while you are fighting an enemy for instance, you can quickly put on the "bubble", and heal yourself to full strength, run away from the enemy's territory, and fight the Horde on an evenly basis. You may also try to use the Hearthstone while in the bubble, but you have to have laser sharp reflexes to ensure that the warp effect will begin before the bubble expires. (Only works for Divine Shield, by the way.) ----------------------------------- 6. What you should do for a Living ----------------------------------- World of Warcraft features a system of professions. A character can get up to 2 primary professions. They include Herbalism, Skinning, Mining, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Tailoring and Engineering. Th |