Good Partner for Ret/Holy Paladin?

[Froot434]

My friend and I are going to level alts together on a new realm, and he's going to role a Ret/Holy Palaldin. Our endgame focus will likely be semi-serious arenas and random BGs, with some mild PvE thrown in.

What's a decent class that will complement his choice? I main a druid, and my personal inclination is towards a Warlock, or maybe even a Hunter. Will either of these work? I'm not looking for anything overpowered, just something that is mechanically fun and can synergize with a Pally.

[Divinism]

There is currently the only one r1 viable comp for ret (PHP) and probably the easiest to play in general. Of course, anything works to a certain extent, so I'm listing the general comps ever played with Ret.

Ret/Hunter/Disc or Rdruid also known as PHP.
Ret/DK/Rdruid, Disc or MWMonk, also known as Vanguards Cleave.
Ret/SP/Rdruid, rare comp, but I've seen it being played.

Holy paladin is considered to be the best healer currently, so paladin healers fit very nicely in most, if not all comps that are currently played in the meta. But here are some examples using your classes:

Feral/Hunter/Hpaladin, also known as Junglecleave.
Rogue/Hunter/Hpaladin, also known as Thug cleave.
Warrior/Hunter/Hpaladin, also known as KFC. This comp is traditionally played with resto shaman, but paladin will also do just fine.
Warrior/Warlock/Hpaladin, this comp is usually played with shaman (known as WLS.
Ele shaman/Demo-Affli Lock/Rdruid or Hpally also known as LSD. This was more popular in s15 and is usually played with rdruid, but as always, paladin will perform almost as well.

As you can see, warlock mostly synergizes better with other healers, so if you care about playing "optimal" comps, then feral / resto druid might be your best bet, although I just recommend playing whatever you like, the difference between "optimal comp" and paladin variation is probably minimal.

[DirtyDotter]

In case you were wondering about 2s comps, paladins work pretty well with most classes.

Personally I do 2s as Holy Pally / Arms Warrior and the only 2 comps that beat us consistently are Combat Rogue / Disc Priest and Holy Paladin / Shadow Priest. We did meet 1 Holy Pally / Demo Lock team which is extremely hard to fight against when they cross CC and burst. All other comps that we've fought are atleast a 50% win rating. If we lose, it's because we messed up and use cooldown improperly.

Probably the best 2s partners for holy paladins atm are (...mind you im only 1900 rating atm):

Combat Rogue (won't be as good next season, maybe another rogue spec will work just as good though)
BM Hunter (getting a burst damage nerf next patch)
Warrior (arms and fury both work)
Feral
Demo Lock (if you set it up your burst properly you can absolutely destroy people, but I think demo's getting a slight nerf next patch)
Affliction Lock (should be good too, but would likely have a bit of a skill cap to running the comp)

[Froot434]

I really appreciate the detailed responses. I guess Ret/Affliction isn't very competitive? How do the two fare in RBGs? Is Holy viable there too, or just arenas?

And, so as not to make a different thread, are casters/ranged still vulnerable? I've had some bad experiences in Cata as Shadow, so I've generally avoided them.

[wombats23]

Affliction in 2s is garbage without a healer. That's just how affliction warlocks function.

Both warlocks and holy paladins are very common components of any RBG team. Warlocks for either the nice rot + dispel protection as affliction or the nice burst on kill targets as demo/destro. Also having a pet makes them decent node defenders (can't get ninja'd by a rogue when trinket is down). Holy paladins are just holy pallys. As long as RBGs have a heavy reliance on choosing out single targets and killing them, holy pallys will probably always be in high demand. To be blunt, healers will always be in high demand no matter what you do. The amount of healers that play is disproportionate to the amount of DPS that play, so healers are always accepted to every thing.

As far as casters and ranged being vulnerable, that's wayyyyy too open ended of a question. Everyone is "vulnerable" in the 3v3 meta nowadays. You get put into a stun or horror and then blown up while your healer (and ideally your 3rd team mate) are all (cross) CC'd. In these situations, it doesn't really matter what class you are. You're gonna take an ass ton of damage and you (as a team) need to respond with CDs. Yeah, mages will probably last longer thanks to double ice block compared to an spriest, but you'll still feel "vulnerable" because that's the nature of the game right now. It's a pretty tough question to answer. Maybe you could be more specific?

[Froot434]

It's a pretty tough question to answer. Maybe you could be more specific?

My brief PvP experience as a caster involved getting trained by melee in both arenas and BGs. I felt frail and hopeless whenever one spotted me, and didn't seem to have the proper tools to kite them or survive.

It really turned me away from ranged classes, because I hated always being the target and not the aggressor.

To be fair though, I was pretty inexperienced and played alone during Cata. I just don't want to make the same mistake again.

[Divinism]

Certain casters are vulnerable. Classes like shadow priest, warlock and ele shaman are all very prone to tunneling. Especially SP suffers from this, as they have little means to get away, and depend on partners (mage/paladin) to get away. This makes SP the primary kill target for most teams. Fortunately, Godcomp (Mage/SP/Hpally) is comparable to RMD in potential, as you have retarded amount of CCs and quick burst windows, so the games won't last very long either way.

Classes like mage and moonkin are rarely targeted, because they have a combination of many escapes and strong passive defenses. Mage has two ice blocks, blazing speed, blink and flameglow talent that make them very unattractive target for many comps other than Turbocleave.

Moonkin has high armor, shapeshifting, displacer beast and CC talents of choice. Additionally, tunneling the moonkin (melee) will actually grant him starsurge procs, so going for moonkin is often avoided for that reason alone.