Concerned about my future new main

[Jeffx]

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...rmscale&n=Erah

compete ;$

anyways, thanks for the answers. What I find interesting that most of you are mainly giving your feedback about PvE. I'd appreciate some more feedback about PvP, as that's where I'm mostly focussed on.

Is it really that boring? To clarify, with 'decent rating' I mean ~2550, so I can be decently competitive.

[Monkeysausage]

If you're planning on starting up a 2v2 team, then i'd very much avoid attempting it with a ret pala/healer combo. We're very much lacking at the moment compared to other dps classes, mainly through the lack of any ability to reduce healing on targets, and the reduction in burst damage we've been steadily receiving over the months. You'll just end up eating your arms in frustration.

[OnlineSamantha]

My Paladin is the only class I played where I actually ENJOY random slaughtering (yes, I know ) without it being for a quest or just farm. I just like the class SO much! ;D

[Niroshi]

I can't honestly speak to the PvP aspect of the class, but as far as the PvE aspect of the class I have to say I thoroughly enjoy Holy Paladins more than any other healing spec/class I've played thus far (which since I'm now gearing and playing a Priest, is basically all of them). The amount of utility you can bring to a raid is quite nice, Hand of Protection/Salvation/Sacrifice, and Divine Sacrifice are all extremely useful abilities. Gearing is fairly straightforward and gear competition is almost nil, so you'll gear up quickly assuming RNG gods are nice to you. The only real challenge to a Holy Paladin though is AoE healing, you can cover about 4 targets reliably, but beyond that you're getting into choppy waters.

The fact that you have a DPS, Tank or Healing option with this one class is why you see so many people spending so much time on their Paladins, aside from Ranged DPS there's a flavor for you no matter what you decide to do.

[Laskai]

i can't really speak for PvP but i would say that as a paladin, I have raided as ret, holy AND prot so there is a large scope for versatility and trying new roles within the class

[Moshy]

If you like to do arena:
DO NOT GO RET PALADIN
We got the nerfbat treatment and as a class without MS, are forced to always pick another class with MS to be competitive in arena and as for 2s its double dps or spam 45 minute matches where your healer gets gibbed or you get gibbed at 44 minutes 30 seconds.
If you enjoy holy on the other hand, Pick any type of cleave and you'll win pretty hard.

[Yooya]

I don't care much for my Paladin in Arenas but I do absolutely love him in Battlegrounds, and Raiding.

[Glassjaw]

If you're wanting to know how holy paladins are going to be in arenas in cataclysm, you can't honestly expect any kind of reliable answer. No one has a clue how any class is going to turn out at 85. Besides that, you sound like an alt-freak. I'm not trying to be offensive - I'm one too. I can't play a class at 80 for more than a few months before I'm bored to tears with them. If that's the case, the best you can hope for is a class like paladin that has 3 different roles they can fill. It's the best chance of overcoming boredom.

But the main point is it's a total crap-shoot as to how viable any class will be in lvl 85 arenas.

[Flower]

I'll start off by saying you're asking for advice for who should be your 85, which you will not be able to get a straightforward answer for a while. On that, not I, or anyone in this forum can address.

On the pvp note (glad to see a pvper on these forums btw!), I'm a big fan of you should choose the spec you have the most fun with and are the most comfortable with. Regardless, I'll do my best at explaining both retribution and holy in the bg and arena setting.

Retribution
I feel people overreact a bit about the state of rets at the moment. Although I do voice their concerns about some issues (survivability, mostly), it's not as bad as some people make it seem to be. In BGs, you're extremely self-sufficient, with enough defensive CD's to save a teamate and yourself pretty effectively. In short, ret is very, very fun to play in BG's in my opinion.

In arenas, ret's ARE viable, but you're pretty much stuck to a ret/MS class/healer setup (ret/rogue/disc priest... ret/warr/druid... etc) in 3s, but then again that's the case of many classes. You'll find that our damage isn't where it used to be back in s6/s7, but we can still put the pain where needed and are able to switch very nicely. Our survivability is also very nice - but once you use your bubble you're very open to getting bombed, and there's also two very predominant hard counters to it: Mass Dispel and Shattering Throw. We bring a lot of defensive CD's to the table (Sac, HoP, HoF), and also a somewhat reliable CC, Repentance, in addition to your good ol' stun. In all, if you want to be a defensive melee hybrid with solid damage and overall great defensive abilities, ret's for you.

Holy
I find BG's to be very iffy as a holy pally, you put out big heals but its very hard to judge who to throw Beacon of Light on, since there's so many options. Also, you're very dependent on other players, as with any other healers. Whether that be a bane or a burden is up to the player playing, but still a Holy pally in the BG setting is a very formidable healer.

Many argue, like the person you asked, that in arena holy is the way to go. That's a matter of preference. You'll pretty much be running cleave setups (warr/dk/H pally... Destro/Ele/H pally... etc) or some double healer team, which are very strong at the moment. The thing is you're very reliant on your partners to do the damage, and your CC (stun) can sometimes put you in a bad position. Be prepared to practice positioning and fake casting as you're very susceptible to interrupts. Holy pallys are arguably the most defensive healers in the class, and with tons of survivability and defensive CD's, they are very scary to go up against.


Overall, I'd try both and pick the one I find the most comfortable and fun. Both are viable, and if you're shooting for gladiator, you can get it with both specs.

Edit: The BE Silence is extremely nice in arenas, but come Cataclysm don't expect it to be there anymore.

[Heleon]

I have a Prot Paladin and personally, I don't like her (also Blood Elf Female) very much.
A couple of my friends made me role Paladin because they needed a Healer, it was either Pally or Shammy, and I cba to be a Shammy.
Long story short: I started as Holy and am now Prot, but leveling a Mage because Paladins are half-assed at every spec, can't DPS the best, can't heal the best, can't tank the best. I don't like it very much because of that, but hey, that's just me.

actually prot paladins are the best tanks in the game at the moment by a long shot, they have a very easy priority dps rotation which when played when can pull enormous dps, and paladin healers are a must in all raid guilds for fights like herioc northrend beasts etc.

but anyway in response to the OP's original question i do love my holy paladin although i sometimes feel we have fallen into a very specific healing niche, as far as tanking goes prot paladins are the easiest tanks to play, dps wise there really fun and with the changes to crusader strike there is never any down time in your rotation.

[LDG]

Once cataclysm hits your going to have some new choices on what race to roll a pally but if your so concerned about looks and it sounds like your horde, would you roll a tauren pally? The only toon on horde side that actually looks 'pretty' is the BE...so question answered there :P

Holy paladins in PvP are a blast and are fun in PvE also...so there you have it

[davesurfer]

since when? prot pala's are fantastic tanks.

Agreed!!! I switch my bear main to pally. I liked it so much I now have 2 prot pallies (for different raid lockouts). I am leveling a warrior now, so can't speak to that, but my pally is usually the last to die in a wipe (bye bye warrior and DK first)

[Jeffx]

Thanks once again for the replies, especially Glassjaw and Flower.

I am happy with the feedback you gave me, I'll roll a belf at 4.0, give him tabard of flame, tuskarr kite and epic shirt, and enjoy my new main.

Wish me luck.

-Jeffx

[Flower]

Thanks once again for the replies, especially Glassjaw and Flower.

I am happy with the feedback you gave me, I'll roll a belf at 4.0, give him tabard of flame, tuskarr kite and epic shirt, and enjoy my new main.

Wish me luck.

-Jeffx

GL dude, and allow me to be the first to welcome you to the paladin forums! ^^

[Bandeth]

I have a Prot Paladin and personally, I don't like her (also Blood Elf Female) very much.
A couple of my friends made me role Paladin because they needed a Healer, it was either Pally or Shammy, and I cba to be a Shammy.
Long story short: I started as Holy and am now Prot, but leveling a Mage because Paladins are half-assed at every spec, can't DPS the best, can't heal the best, can't tank the best. I don't like it very much because of that, but hey, that's just me.

Wow. Oh man...but.. just.. wow.

[Retrogames]

Greetings OP,

My first character was a Paladin, started a few months after WoW went live, so I've been around the Paladin block for quite a while. After taking a break from the game (I tend to lose interest towards the end of expansions), my circle of friends decided to reroll Horde, and I was content with a Warrior for a while. When TBC was announced, and along with it Horde Paladins, I pretty much knew I was going to be rerolling. My current main was started on TBC's Launch Date and I've stuck with her since.

I've been happy with my choice of a Female Belf Paladin. I find the male character models to be too stereotypical muscle-men, so I tend to roll female characters (I'm male, if that makes a difference).

While I haven't played Holy (I'm not much for casting, I need to smack things or I get bored), I can promise you that if you dislike it, in the long run you're not out an entire character. Despite some... questionable... comments in this thread, Paladins can DPS/Tank/Heal just as well as anybody, and in some cases, better (remember they also bring a ton of buffs and utility, regardless of spec). If you find yourself losing interest in Holy, you can swap to Prot or Ret and still fit nicely into any group.

I'm Prot (I found my love of tanking on my Warrior, but wouldn't give up my Tankadin for anything), and I've never had trouble finding a group, never had a moment where I felt I wasn't capable of performing at the same level as other classes (well, except for not getting a reliable single target taunt for 4 years... :), and never regretted my original choice.

I think you'll be happy as a Belf, as a Paladin, and as Holy (especially with Blizzard redoing talent trees soon), and I think that should you start to waver... you can reroll Tank or DPS, or Race change to Tauren. Your options come Cataclysm will be greatly improved, but I honestly think you'll be happy.

[pallydan]

If you like the vanity RP aspects of the game, pallies are good b/c they can wear plate and below - so you can dress up to your heart's content... and also /dance nekked as a Female BE :P

If you want to top dps meters, it's not going to be easy, unless you're sporting BiS gear - which for plate DPS is not so easy to obtain, unless you are very influential in a well established, good guild. And for the most part, Ret excels in cleave/multitarget, but their single target (Boss) DPS is pretty lacking.

Healing is easy as pie for paladins as you're the only heals that can reliably never run out of mana. Holy is not highly gear dependant to be effective. Also, most spellpower plate gets passed over, so you'll have almost no competition over gear as holy (compared w/ other healers). However, Holy has it's own unique style of healing, which may not be for everyone. Especially if you didn't like priest healing, you might find Paladin heals somewhat lacking. They are by no means a poor AoE raid healer (despite what some may say), but you have to pre-emptively start casting heals before people take damage. You must be proactive and not reactive like other healers as there is a lag time to landing your heals that are for the most part casted (and not instant). You have to predict who and when to heal.

Prot has great tanking tools - except for an AoE taunt. I don't play prot, but that is the biggest complaint I hear from prot pallies. I play a bear tank, so I can imagine not having an AoE taunt being somewhat inconvenient.

[davesurfer]

Prot has great tanking tools - except for an AoE taunt. I don't play prot, but that is the biggest complaint I hear from prot pallies. I play a bear tank, so I can imagine not having an AoE taunt being somewhat inconvenient.

On pull you can use http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48827 Not a taunt, but AoE aggro


If you need AoE taunt: http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31789 with a base 8 second CD vs http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=5209 with a 3 min CD.

[brirrspliff]

i think an elfish paladin would fit you very well