Updated 11/12/2008: Yeah!! Finally updated to 3.0.3! Let me know if you see anything that is inaccurate or really bad advice especially when I start talking about Holy.
Choosing the Paladin as your class shows remarkable good taste and high intelligence. As a level 70something Paladin, I'd thought I'd share some thoughts on leveling a Paladin character.
Honors, you are a rare combination of brains and good looks, what race should I make my Paladin?
Well, I'm glad you asked. Roll Horde, you're a Blood Elf. Next Question! Oh, wait, you're Alliance, excellent choice, my lad. Of the 3 Alliance races, I would say Draenei. The Draenei starting area is really cool, and tons of fun. It's also the best put together of any of the Alliance starting zones making questing and leveling much easier and frankly more fun. I'd even consider taking your Human or Dwarf over to Azuremyst Isle via the Stormwind Harbor. There is a boat in Stormwind Harbor that takes you to Darkshore, and a boat in Darkshore that takes you directly to Azuremyst Isle.
Draenei get Shadow Resistance and a free scaling Heal over Time work well with Paladins. This is especially good for healing Paladins as the Heal Over Time also gets better as you get better gear.
Humans are very nice aesthetically, and the rep bonus they get is very nice. Also Every Man For Himself is handy as Paladins lack any kind of Fear break, and Mace and Sword Specialization cover pretty much every weapon a Paladin is likely to use. Yes, we can use Axes, but I have used mostly Maces and Swords. Of course as soon as I say that, I realize I'm using an axe at the moment.
If I had it to do all over again, I would have probably rolled Human. Maybe its because I'm a dwarf, I don't know, I just like how Human Paladins look.
For Dwarves Stoneform is really nice, and I dig the expertise from Mace Specialization. Find Treasure will actually help you complete a quest or two (as the quest items show up on your tracking), but some of the other dwarf racial bonuses don’t seem to help a Paladin much (can you say Gun Specialization, yes, I thought you could).
In the end, race isn't going to make or break your character.
An honest hard working guy like yourself, do you have anything to say about Professions?
Good question. Gather. Gather. Gather. Mine/Skin or Mine/Herb (annoying but doable). Once you get to level 50 or 60 and have some cash, you can start thinking about a Production profession.
Any of the productions profession will serve you well. Blacksmithing (extra sockets), Jewelcrafting (make your own gems, and get better JC only gems), Alchemy (everybody needs pots, and your Flasks are more powerful), and Enchanting (and they need enchants, plus you can enchant your Rings). Engineering is nice while leveling as it gives a low level Paladin some ranged attacks, but seems pretty lackluster at max level.
But if I had to do it all over again, I'd be a double gatherer all the way to 70 and beyond (and I'm double Production, Engineering and Jewelcrafting. Practice what I preach? No, not so much.)
Levels 1-10
Zones: You are going to be in your starting area for your race. Do all your quests.
Talents: None available at this point
Combat: Seal of Righteousness, then Judge. Judge Righteousness every time the cooldown is up.
Keep an aura and a blessing up at all times. Your Aura will be Devotion at first, but switch to Retribution when you get it. Your Blessing can stay Might throughout this level range. Purify any poison you get.
Gearing: Look for gear with Strength, Stamina, and a little Intellect wouldn't hurt. If you find a piece or two with Spell Damage, that's bonus, but those pieces are fairly rare. You'll mostly be wearing quest rewards.
Levels 10-20
Zones: You'll move from your races starting area into a secondary area (Westfall, Loch Modan, Bloodmyst Isles, or Ghostlands). Do the quest from your trainer to learn your resurrection spell. Continue to quest through your starting area. I actually recommend staying in these secondary areas as long as you can on a PVP server. Having an extra level or two is nice when you start venturing into the contested zones which come in the next range.
Talents: Honors, you are wise beyond expectations, but I have these talent points now. What should I do with them?
Well, I'm glad you asked, me lad. I'm going to suggest you put your points in Retribution. First 5 in Benediction and then 2 into Improved Judgement and 3 into Heart of the Crusader. Putting your first 5 points in Protection for Divine Strength is also a great idea, but you want to get Seal of Command as soon as you hit 20, so I advise you stick with Ret.
Combat: Combat sequence is essentially the same. Consecrate if you are fighting more than 2 mobs. Bubble and heal if you get into trouble. Stun and heal works well too. You may want to buff with Blessing of Wisdom instead of Might if you run into mana issues.
Gearing: Continue looking for Strength, Stamina, and Intellect. A little Agility on your gear would be nice as well. In this range you'll run DeadMines which has a couple of decent blue drops (Cookie's mace). Hordeside, you'll be running Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns. Not much of note there, except that your level 20 Paladin quests requires a run through Ragefire.
Levels 20-30
Zones: So you've got your Verigan's Fist (see gearing), you've got your Seal of Command (see talents), now high tail it to Duskwood and start working on the Undead in that zone. For Blood Knights, it's either Ashenvale or Tarren Mill. I always go Ashenvale/StoneTalon/Thousand Needles on my Horde characters. Stockades, Shadowfang Keep, BlackFathom Deeps, and Razorfen Kraul are all options in this range.
Talents: You've just dinged level 20! Congratulations! Put that talent point in Seal of Command. The next two points go into Pursuit of Justice, which you will fill out at level 22. This is actually one of the most important leveling talents because you do a ton of running around while you level. You are still 8 levels from a mount at this point. Now you dip into Protection for Divine Strength, and put 2 points in Conviction.
Combat: Combat is the same as before, except that your Seal of choice is Command. Throw an Exorcism on anything that's undead, and Judgement of Justice on any humanoids that like to run at low health. Be sure to stun your target as often as the cooldown allows and then immediately follow up with a Judgement of Command. Command does a guaranteed critical strike to stunned targets. It's also a great time to drop a Consecrate as your enemy (mob or player) is sort stuck there eating tick after tick of Consecrate, and there is nothing they can do about it.
By level 20, you've gotten all the baseline tools you need to heal, dps or tank an instance. I highly, highly recommend you try out each "job" several times in this range and the next. It will help you decide what path you which to follow later in your Paladin playing days.
Gearing: Alliance Paladins should stop whatever they are doing and get back to the trainer and pickup the level 20 Paladin quest. Start the quest and make it your top priority to finish it. This quest will yield you your Verigan's Fist (or Blood Tempered Ramsuer for Blood Knights).
Blood Knights don't have quite the sense of urgency to finishing their quest as the reward they get from completing main Ghostlands Quest (Warblade of the Sin'dorei) is comparable to the Blood Tempereed Ramsuer. Verigan's is quite overpowered for its level. I used mine well into my 30s. Most steps are labeled as group quests, but all can be done solo save for the Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep steps. Deadmines groups are plentiful, but Shadowfang may pose a bit of a challenge.
Often, a high level Paladin will be willing to aid you with these quests. I've helped quite a few Paladins get their Fist in my playing days, but back when I was leveling, I teamed up with another Paladin. We were both about level 24 and able to duo the Shadowfang Keep part of the quest. Save your long cooldowns like Lay on Hands for when you reach the courtyard. Once you get your fist,I recommend putting a Firey enchant on it. You will have this weapon for a while and Firey is a good bang for buck type of enchant.
Since you have Divine Strength, Strength is better point for point than Attack Power.
I should also mention Corpsemaker, which is a two handed axe that drops from Overlord Ramtusk in Razorfen Kraul. It is a really nice weapon, arguably better than either quest reward, but it's a drop. There is no guarentee that it will drop for you, and it's in an instance that is somewhat out of the way for Alliance toons. I see far more groups for RFK on my Horde toons than I do with my Alliance ones.
Levles 30-40
Ding 30. Go to Stormwind, walk out with Mount. Sure beats walking!
Zones: Start yourself with the quests in eastern Thousand Needles around the Mirage Raceway, then move in Stranglethorn Vale. On a PVP server, you are pretty much permaPVP flagged from here on out.
Now that you can transfer from PVE to PVP, you may think about leveling on a PVE server then transferring to a PVE server. However, I would caution against it. You learn many tricks leveling up on a PVP server that you will need even at max level like how to rez to avoid getting corpse camped, and how to be on guard at all times. You can also make friends while you are leveling up, that you may still group with at max level.
Yes, you will get ganked in Stranglethron. You'll get ganked in nearly any zone you level in on a PVP server. It happens. If you have a high level main, park them in the zone and get a little revenge. Also try to travel in groups. That will help against equal level characters. The level 80s who just want to one shot you, well nothing much to be done about it. If that's how they want to spend their playtime, okay. I've never found it very fun, myself.
The new Quest Hub of Mudsprocket in Dustwallow Marsh is an excellent way to make your way through this range. Ganking still happens but it seems like there is less of it because the area is not well known (at least not yet). In addition, its new content. I'm leveling a new character (not a Paladin) just so I can experience the new stories and quests.
In this range you should spend some time in the Scarlet Monastery. There is a mail set that drops in there. Don't go out of your way to collect the whole set, you'll level out of it quickly enough, but if you find a piece or two, pick it up. Herod has his shoulders and there is a nice Axe that drops from him that I finally replaced my Verigan's Fist with. (Note, my Fist still rests proudly in my bank. If we ever get player housing, its going right over the mantle)
Remind any warrior that wants Herod's axe that they can get an even better one from their Warrior only quest.
Talents: You want to go ahead and finish out Conviction, the pick up Crusade. Next up is Two handed Weapon Specialization and Sanctified Retribution.
Combat: Combat remains pretty much the same. Continue to work on timing your Hammer of Justice stun when Judgment is not on cooldown so you can get some nice burst. Since you picked up Crusade, try to fight mobs that it works against (Humans, Demons, Undead, and Elementals).
Gearing: Continue to look for gear with Stamina, Intellect, and Strength. For weapons, you want the highest possible top end damage. DPS is nice but look for the damage range and find the one with the biggest top end number. If you think you might like to go sword and board in next level range look for some pieces with defense.
Level 40-50 You're halfway there. Awesome.
Zones: You can wear plate now, but mail will be okay for a couple of levels. Start picking up Plate where you can. You will be in Stranglethorn Vale, Hinterlands, Tanaris, and Feralas.
Run Razorfen Downs. You can pickup a Carapace of Tuten'kash and an Ice Metal Barbute.
In Marauadon, there is a very nice Paladin Shield off the goblin boss. He also drops a nice sword (Inventors Focal Sword), especially if you are Holy. Landslide drops a mace called The Fist of Stone which is great for grinding, and tanking. It has a chance on hit that returns mana and procs fairly often. There is a quest out in Desolace that takes you into the pre-instance part of Maraudon that nets you a pretty nice trinket called Mark of the Chosen. I know it only says a 2% chance, but I found it was up very often.
In Zul'Farrak, Antu'zul drops Sang'thraze the Deflector (very, very rare drop), and Chief Ukorz Sandscalp drops Big Pad Pauldrons.
Okay, Squire! Decision time. You've picked up some skills and the ability to pick up some talents that make a Sword and Board (Protection) approach just as viable as a 2 hander (Retribution) for leveling. The lack of spell crit, intellect and plus spell damage plate makes Holy a bit of a tough choice in this range. So let's talk about your choices, lad.
Path of the Crusader
This is an extension of what you've been doing. Your main role focus is on damage and taking down mobs while adding great utility to a group through your Auras, Blessings, and other buffs.
Talents: You can stick with Ret and 2 hander. Pickup Vengeance, Vindication, Judgement of the Wise and Art of War.
Combat: This can be very fast or very slow. Your fights depend on if Seal of Command procs, if you crit, etc. Try to fight caster mobs when you can, as their low armor allows you to tear through them quickly. Keep an eye on your Buffs. As soon as you see Art of War proc, go ahead and drop an instant Flash of Light on yourself. With Judgment of the Wise, you should be Judging Light instead of Wisdom and finishing fights at 75% health and mana or better.
Gearing: Keep looking for slow two handers with high top end damage. There is a nice one that drops in Uldaman, and the Auction House will sometimes have an Executioner's Cleaver. Nice weapon. Firey remains a good choice for a cheap enchants. Continue looking for Strength, Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating, and Stamina on your gear.
Path of the Avenger:
This is a full on switch from Retribution to Protection. This is the path of the Tank, the one who sacrifices his himself and his gear to save his friends.
Talents: Your talents change to Divine Strength, Anticipation, Improved Righteous Fury, Toughness, Improved Devotion Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, 3 points in Reckoning, Sacred Duty and 4 points in 1 handed spec. Then from 40 to 50, we finish up 1 handed Specialization, grab Holy Shield, Ardent Defender, 2 in Combat Expertise and Avenger's Shield.
Combat: For combat, you want to look to AoE grind. Make sure you have Blessing of Sanctuary on, Retribution Aura on, and Righteous Fury on (for the 6% damage reduction). Pull at least two or three mobs (preferable melee types if you can).
Seal Righteousness and Judge Light. Judge every time the cooldown is up. Reckoning will proc often as well giving you 2x the Judgement of Light procs and 2x the Seal of Righteousness procs. Blessing of Sanctuary will keep your mana up. Consecrate on cooldown. Start slow with only 2 or 3 of your same level. When you get comfortable work your way up to larger and larger packs. Every time you get an add its like "oh, yeah!". If you get into trouble, use your Panic buttons: Divine Protection, Divine Shield and heal, Health Potions, etc.
Your dps is proportional with the number of mobs hitting you. Basically if you are only fighting one mob, you aren't doing much DPS, but 3 or 4, now you are talking. Watch out for slow hitters too, you want mobs that hit fairly often. And your tanking will be better than it was before, so get out there and lay down the aggro.
Gearing: Look for gear with Stamina, Defense, Parry, Block, and Dodge, and a high dps 1 handed weapon. Speed is really not all that important, solid white dps is. Something like Hanzo's Sword or the Doomforge Straightedge is recommended.
Also, I strongly recommend you put a Shield Spike on your main shield as soon as you can. Mithril Shield spikes are fairly cheap. A Shield Spike can be very helpful with threat in this range and it gets you into the mindset of Block = Threat which will serve you well especially with Holy Shield.
I will mention this final path here, but in my opinion it's in the next range that this path becomes more workable.
Path of the Cleric:
This is the path of the Priest in Plate, the Healer, the clue that holds every group together. He champions his friends, not by taking the blows, but by curing them, enabling his allies to defeat foes that they never could without his blessing. This Path is not as strong soloing as Ret or even Protection, but it is a very strong in groups.
Talents: Seals of the Pure, Divine Intellect, Illumination, Healing Light, Improved Concentration Aura, Divine Favor, Sanctified Light, Holy Power and Holy Shock, get you to 40. Some might want to take Spiritual Focus over Seals of the Pure, but I disagree. With Improved Concentration Aura and the spell pushback changes, I believe the points are better spent improving your DPS with Seals of the Pure.
From 40 to 50, you want Light's Grace, Improved Blessing Of Wisdom, and Holy Guidance.
Combat: Pull with Holy Shock; use Blessing of Wisdom for your blessing. Judge Wisdom and go to town. Use a sword and board for melee types and bust you’re two-hander for the clothies. Your lifeline is no longer the green one, but the blue. As long as you have mana, you are nigh unkillable.
Gearing: You want to look for gear with Intellect, Stamina, Spell Power, and Mana per 5 seconds, Spell Crit Rating. This is why I say that this path doesn’t really open up to you just yet. This gear basically doesn’t exist in this range if you insist on plate. If you are willing to go with Mail then you can find those stats. The items were probably intended for Shamans, but they will work well for Paladins.
Level 50-58
You’re in the home stretch now. This can be a rough stretch, but Outland is just around the corner.
All Paths:
Zones: Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands, Un’goro, Silithus. I strongly recommend you spend some time at Sorrow Hill in Western Plaguelands during the early part of this range. Black Rock Mountain (BRD, LBRS, UBRS), Scholomance, and Strathholme open up to you in this range.
There are some good drops for all paths from these instances. Earthslag Shoulders, Spiderfang Carapace, Foreman's Head Protector, Entrenching Boots all come from BRD. Plate of the Shaman King drops in LBRS.
Combat: Combat for all Paths stays pretty much the same as in previous ranges. You pickup some new ranks of what should by now be familiar tools. You start to pickup your Greater Blessings in this range. These are 15 minutes rather than 5 minutes. They require a relatively cheap reagent called Symbol of Kings. They stack to 100. Always have 1-2 stacks on you at all times.
Gear: Look for BoE pieces of Lightforge armor and the Aegis of Stormwind on the AH.
Crusader
Talents: Respec! Sorry. Divine Strength was a big help in getting here, but we once again need all our points in Ret in order to pick up Crusader Strike. An instant attack on a short cooldown is more damage than the extra strength from Divine Strength. We'll pick up Divine Strength again, but not until we get to the top of the Ret tree.
Pickup all the talents you previously had (expect for Divine Strength). Then with the points from Divine Strength, pick up Repentance, and 4 points in Fanaticsim, then put your level 50 talent point into Crusader Strike. Then you pickup Sheath of Light, and finish off Fanaticsim, and pickup Righteous Vengeance.
Gearing: Same stats as before (Melee crit, stamina, Attack Power, Strength and Agility). Green "Of the Beast" may be on the AH. Since you dropped Divine Strength, 1 Strength is worth 2 Attack Power, so a piece with 20 Strength is the same as 40 Attack Power.
Avenger
Talents: Finish Combat Expertise and pickup Redoubt. Alternate between Shield of the Templar and Touched by the Light. You will have two points in each by level 58.
Combat: Combat favors battling multiple mobs. When Redoubt procs (and with multiple beasties hitting on you it will be up often) activate Holy Shield.
Gearing: The AH may yield up "Of The Knight" "Of The Champion" and "Of The Crusade" in addition to the Imperial Armor set. This set is usually levelup fodder for Blacksmiths and you can get it cheap. Also, if you can get a group for Scholo there is a set of armor called Deathbone that is the first piece of true Prot Pally gear you’ll likely find. Also there are BoE pieces of Valor on the AH. If you intend on rolling on BoP Valor pieces that drop in the 58-60 dungeons, inform the Warrior in the party prior to the run. He may not feel exactly comfortable with the idea. Force of Will is a fantastic trinket that drops in BRD. There is a long quest chain in EPL that yields a nice chest piece (Ornate Adamantite Breastplate) and provides a very nice bit of lore for a major questline/plotline in Wrath of the Lich King. The chain starts from Tirion Fordring.
Cleric:
Talents: In this range, we are picking up Infusion of Light, Enlightened Judgments, Divine Illumination, 3 points in Judgements of the Pure.
Gearing: spell power, spell crit, some mana per 5, intellect and stamina. You actually start seeing a bit of gear in this range that has those on plate. Green "Of the Physician" "Of Healing" gear may show up on your auction house. Don't be afraid of wearing Shaman healing Mail or Druid healing Leather, or even Priest cloth at this stage. If you have a good tank, you shouldn't be getting hit. As always, be considerate of those classes as they are more limited in the gear they can wear.
Level 58-70
Zones: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrorkar Forest, Blade’s Edge Mountains, Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm
All Paths: Ding 61! Back to Stormwind. Trade in your old and busted Pony for your new HOTNESS, The Charger. Back in the day, you had to do this very long and involved quest chain to get this beautiful ride, but now it's as simple as a training it.
Crusader
Talents: For talents, finish up Righeteous Vengeance and get that point into Divine Storm. Then it's back to Protection to pickup Divine Strength. Then back to Ret for Swift Retribution, then Sanctified Seals.
Combat: At 70, you'll get Avenger's Wrath. It's a nice damage boost on a long cooldown. Use it when you need a nice burst. In your mid 60s you will also get two new spells, Seal of Blood(Martyr) and Seal of Vengenace (Corruption). Command is still your Seal of choice, but in dungeon parties, you want to use to Seal of Blood. It does a little bit of damage to you, so don't let yourself get too low. A quick Flash of Light (hopefully instant from Art of War) will help keep you up.
Gearing: Melee Crit and AP, Strength, Stamina. You will find drops and quest rewards more in abundance here than in any other range. PVP gear also has a specific Ret set. If you see Scaled in the name, it's meant for Ret (Crusader's Scaled Chestpiece). Once you ding 70, you can buy a blue set from the various Faction vendors that will help you out as you move to Northrend.
Avenger
Talents: Now you finish either Touched by the Light or Shield of the Templar. Then pickup Hammer of Righteousness and finish off whichever one is sitting at 2/3. Put 5 points in Benediction and 1 (and only one) point in Improved Judgement. At level 64, You will learn Seal of Vengeance/Corruption. This will be you main Seal from here on out. I recomend you respec and drop Reckoning, and put those points in Blessing of Kings. You will still want to put Sanctuary on yourself but if you group up others might like Kings. Then put a point into Guarded by the Light.
Combat: Combat doesn't change a whole bunch. For Alliance Paladins, Seal of Vengence will replace Seal of Righteousness for soloing. Hammer of the Righteous everytime it's off cooldown. You will get a 'Vengeance stack' on all 3 mobs it hits. Vengeance puts a Damage over Time debuff on your target that stacks up to 5 times. The more stacks, the more it ticks for. Continue to work on your tanking skills, as the opportunity presents itself.
Gearing: Tank quest rewards remain fairly rare. Continue to look for Strength, and Stamina. "Of the Soldier" and "Of the Knight" greens are good choices. There is a quest in Nagrand to kill one of the big elites there that yeilds a pretty nice 1 handed weapon, the Crystaline Kopesh. Be sure to work towards your flying mount at level 70.
Cleric:
Talents: BACON!!!! 1 more point in Judgements of the Pure and then pick up Beacon of Light. Leave Judgments of the Pure at only 4/5 so you have the points to use in the Ret tree. Now head on over to the Retribution tree to pick up Benediction, Heart of the Crusader and Improved Judgments. You are building towards being able to take Conviction later which is very nice for Holy.
Combat: Combat remains pretty much the same. You have Avengers Wrath for some additional damage. Use the range from Enlightened Judgements and think of yourself as a sort of Mage in Plate. Get really well practiced at healing your groups. You will have no trouble finding groups and will even get random tells to heal whatever instance you may want to see.
Gearing: Don't bother with spirit, the 5-second casting rule makes it completely useless for paladins (we don't have a spirit talent like priests do). You best stat to stack is Intellect. It gives you more regen through replenishment and gives you more crit to trigger Illumination. Also focus on stacking spell power and Spell Crit with some mana/5.
Level 70-80
Zones: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, The DragonBlight, Zul'Drak, Grizzly Hills, Azjol-Nerub, Sholazar Basin, The Storm Peaks, Icecrown Glacier
All Paths:
Crusader
Talents:
Thank you for reading this guide. I hope you find the Paladin class as enjoyable and exciting as I have.
I actually have 3 Paladins I maintain to keep this guide going. One is my main at max level. The other is around the mid 40s and the last one is in his 20s.
Updated 10/31/2008: Continued being Patch 3.0 edits. Ret and Prot are pretty much done, just to need to finish up Holy. The Guide does stop at Level 70. I will continue to update it for level 80 as soon as I get there, lol.
Updated 10/20/2008: Continued being Patch 3.0 edits. As I got into the 40-50 range, I start to break the Paladin down into different paths. I've got the Crusader (Ret) path updated, but not the Holy or Protection. Please be patient, this should all be updated this week.
Updated 10/15/2008: Continued being Patch 3.0 edits.
Updated 10/13/2008: Clarified Verigan's Fist in the 20-30 Range
Updated 5/3/2008: Changed Sanctified Crusader to Sanctified Seals
Updated 4/18/2008: Expanded on Combat in the 20-30 level range to emphasize using Hammer of Justice (stun) with Judgement of Command
Updated 4/8/2008: Changed Path of the Steadfast Aura after an alert read pointed out a typo (was Sanctity, should have been Retribution)
Update 1/15: Added an alternative low level Seal rotation from Krasagrado of Warsong
Update 1/2/2008: Added some comments about the importance of a Shield Spike for Protection Builds.
Update 12/14/2007: Blizzard has made some major improvements to leveling with Patch 2.3. I have some modifications to my guide to reflect those changes, but they are very minor.
