The use of Paladin array of tools

[Powell]

This isn't exactly a guide, but i tend to notice that 90% of the paladins, wether you are Retribution or Protection, don't use the full list of abilities they have to their disposal.
So i'd just tought i could help with realising how useful some abilities are and how great they can be used in not only your own, but your groups advantage.

Protection Paladins are not only meatshields, you'd be suprised how much group support they bring, and how strong they stand to be a Hybrid class/
Same goes for Retribution.
These things may seem, and most likely are, obvious to alot of Paladins, but for large portion of the paladins ive met, being either Random, Guildie or a friend, haven't even considered the usefulness of being a Hybrid class.

- Seals:
An important part as a paladin is Seals. The best way to get the most of it is to rotate them accordingly to each situation.
For example, you are heaving threat issues or need additional expertise on boss fights, use Seal of Truth to start with.
On fights like Cookie on Heroic: Deadmines i switch my seal often to Seal of Insight, due to the mana it gives back, and i can help support my group with mouseover Flash of Light
or Divine Lights, in addition to my Word of Glory. (in addition to ofcourse Divine Guardian and Holy Radiance).
In such a case your mana will go down rapidly, but with Seal of Insight you replenish it very fast. You will be suprised how well even Prot paladins can burst heal. I can
easily cast 3 Flash of Lights for around 10k each allowing me to heal for around 30k in a burst, not including Word of Glory, or any crits.

- Auras;
In addition, ofcourse, we have our Auras. Should also be considered to switch between these for different situations.
I see alot of paladins just staying in Devotion Aura/Retribution Aura the whole instance, but for some fights, including magic AoE phases, its best, not only for yourself, but for the whole group to quickly switch to Resistance Aura.

- Holy Radiance and Divine Guardian:
While we're on AoE phases, its best to tell the Party to try and group up, especially in pugs, so you can use Holy Radiance and Divine Guardian in conjuction with the healers
own AoE healing. Even as a Retribution Paladin a Holy Radiance when you see the group go on low health can save lives.

Cleanse:
Another handy tool we have is Cleanse, eventhough as a Protection or Retribution Paladin it no longer cleanses magic spells, its still an incredibly handy tool on say, trash (example:
Plaguebearers in Tol'vir) to assist your healer. Use this!
Regardless if the healer can dispel diseases or poison effects, you should still use it.
As Ret i always take 1 Point in Act of Sacrifice talent, it gives you the chance to dispel a root effect off yourself. This doesn't only allow you to help your healer with dispelling other people prio, But you can also use Hand of Freedom on someone else instead of yourself.

Hand of Protection/Salvation/Sacrifice
As obvious as Hand of... spells seem to be, a huge portion of the paladins disregards them and hardly if ever uses them.
Hand of Protection is one of our strongest defensive tools for group members. I generally save HoP for casters, priority to the healer when things go haywire.
If a DPS overaggros for some reason i use Hand of Salvation, or Hand of Sacrifice until i get back threat.
In a situations where only one group member is taking damage from some debuff i use Hand of Sacrifice on him/her.

- Lay on Hands
Lay on Hands.. aaah, a second chance to whomever needs it.
Mouse-over macro with this and people will be very happy groupmembers when you grant them this awesome heal.
Don't just use it for yourself, incredible how i see lots of Paladins watch the healer die to then just use LoH on themself because the dead healer cant heal em.

- Damage Reduction
Paladins also have a vast array of defensive abilities for themselves, on a more then reasonable cooldown.
- Divine Protection - 1min cooldown - 20% damage reduction, usable on pretty much every pull and multiple times during a boss fight.
I generally use Divine Protection several seconds after opening a pull, to reduce the first impact of incoming damage, and to not overwhelm my healer with unexpected bursts of damage.
On pulls wich include Undead - or if you have the glyph, Dragonkin and Elementals i save Divine Protection after Holy Wrath stun.
Ret or Holy Paladins can easily combine this in with Hand of Sacrifice.

- Ardent Defender - 3min cooldown - 20% reduction to damage and heals you for 15% of your health if you had Ardent Defender active while you would have received a killing Blow.
I personally don't really use Ardent Defender for its Cheat Death mechanic, usually i intervene such a situation before it gets out of hand by using it in advance and
preventing my healer from getting a heart attack :P

- Guardian of the Ancient Kings - 3min cooldown - 50% damage reduction
Our strongest defensive tool, save this for enrage or high damage phases, or just when shit hits the fan.


On the start of a pull i try to atleast get a 1 HP Word of Glory up so i get my Holy Shield buff active as soon as possible, or keep some Holy Power from the previous pull to get it fast on the next.
Usually use Word of Glory over Shield of the Righteous to assist the group, assist the healer, or give me a bubble to reduce the impact on big hits.


Macros to use as a Protection Paladin:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover,help][help][target=player] XXXXXXXX

is my mainly used macro, ofcourse you should replace XXXXXXXX with wichever spell you want.
I generally have it in use for ALL my group support abilities, Word of Glory, all my heals, cleanse, HoP, HoS, LoH, HoF, HoS

Order:
- Friendly Mouseover Target
- Friendly Target
- Yourself.

so if you have no party member you have mouse-over, or targetted (so if you are just targetting a Boss or other mob) it will cast said spell on yourself.

In addition we have:

/run if GetRaidTargetIndex("target")~=0 then SetRaidTarget("target",8)end

This puts a skull on your target without having to fondle around with the portrait menu.
The red 8 can be changed by any number from 1-8 for different Icons, such as Star, Moon, Nipple, etc.

[tawney]

Good post, I like the macro info alot.

[Ryme]

Bear in mind the raid targeting system can be keybound without the need to eat up macro space, otherwise, decent post.

[blackvivi265]

This is an awesome post, should be put in the sticky of helpful threads and surprised this hasn't gotten more recognition. The amount of people that don't use hands is ridiculous.

[ziggi94]

You forgot how you can spam WoG.
At Valiona and Teralion i swatch (switch, switched>.<) to seal of insight, and started spamming WoG every time i could, on myself or others, and actually did 10% of the healing (1 healer died, he hates the fight)
This is not because our healers suck, they are great

[trulofy]

my favorite macro is

/cast Divine Protection
/cancelaura Divine Protection

then you taunt right after it clears any debuffs and removes bubble and then you just simply taunt back!

[Simca]

Added to http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Helpful-Topics