#0 - March 13, 2008, 1:11 a.m.
So who is this giving you all this free advice? My name is Nex, I have been playing both holy and retribution spec in all the PVE content currently in the game, as well as protection for all 10-man raids and half the 25-man raids out there. When it comes to PVE I've done most of it on all three specs of paladin, my current spare time fun is checking how high i can get my DPS rank on www.wwsscoreboard.com currently doing okay for a ret paladin in both T6 content and ZA. As for PVP I've managed to get top 5 in both 2v2 and 3v3, as both holy and retribution. Suffice it to say THIS info is not some second hand anecdotal evidence, i will advice you whether YOU should roll a paladin based on this vast experience playing this game.
I'm here to help you decide when to roll a paladin and what to expect if you're a new player trying to decide whether this paladin class might be something for you.
Should i roll a paladin or a class X?
This is often the case, you want to play a specific role in the game, be it healer, tank, DPS or hybrid. As there are different roles we will have to discuss them separately.
Paladin or X? (Healer version)
If you want to play a healer the strong point of paladin is that it has extremely few healing abilities, so few actually that it's mostly a matter of clicking one key only. This online game accurately describes how paladin 10 and 25-man raid healing works:
http://www.bostonapartments.com/games-whackamole/games-whack-a-mole.htm
If this is the game for you and you'd enjoy playing it for 4 hours per day a few days of the week you've hit jackpot. Holy paladin is the class for you. Don't look back, get off your ass and start grinding towards 70 already, you'll have loads of fun!
If you'd prefer to have slightly more abilities to use which require more skill and activity on your part, not just whack-a-mole with one key, but instead using different keys for different situations then go with any of the other 3 healing classes, because they have something holy paladins lack, which is options.
One more thing to keep in mind when healing as a paladin is that due to this limited healing arsenal in quite a few places you will need a babysitter. As you eventually will take your first step into heroics this babysitter is known as the shadow priest. Having classes babysit you as a paladin is quite common, we'll see more examples of this later on.
Paladins have no heal over time spells, and as such can't heal through silence and interrupt mechanics, also we only have single target heals and have almost no chance to handle AOE damage unless we're at a gear level far past what other healing classes would need to handle the same situations. If you lack a shadow priest and decide to go to, say the easiest of all heroics, Slave Pens, then by the last boss be prepared to point at one guy in your group and tell him that he will be the sacrifice you need to finish Quagmirran. Because you sure as hell will not be able to heal through that AOE on 5 people more than once and someone will have to die. Unless of course you brought your babysitter, the shadow priest, or you're overgeared.
I'd like to comment a bit about PVP, generally if you enjoy being a god for 12 seconds (bar priest presence) then spend the rest of a game either running in fear, as a furry animal, or being silenced, then holy paladin is the %!!!.
To sum it up...
If you want to PVP, chose X where X is either a druid or a priest, if X in your case happened to be shaman, though %!!!, roll a priest or druid anyway. If you prefer to have several different heals, an interactive class with many options and you deciding when and how to use all the options have a large impact on the results you get, then chose class X.
If you like to play whack-a-mole for several hours a night every night, and don't mind that you can't manage many heroics without having a babysitter shadowpriest or vastly outgearing the content, then paladin is the class for you.
Paladin or X? (Tank version)
Paladins are quite awesome tanks, i hate to admit it but it's true... in 5 and 10-mans, but once again only if you're overgeared. If you want to tank anything hard be ready once again to bring your babysitter, for tanking this babysitter is known as the warrior, it's the class which has all the nifty things you lack to be an effective tank.
But really, for 5 and 10-mans protection paladins are awesome, at these low difficulty levels not only will you deal a lot of threat, but also a protection paladin is the king of simple. You press two buttons, holy shield every 10 seconds, and consecration every 8 seconds, and you will tank anything like a champ. If you want to be stylish about it all you might want to activate a seal and start hitting things, but that's the advanced course and not really needed to be a master tank at this level. In some fights the big bad bosses hits a bit hard, but fear not! Your babysitter the warrior will be there with his superior utility and make sure to thunderclap and demo shout on the bosses making them hit like gnats again. Luckily you will not have to keep track of these things, just keep pressing holy shield and consecration, remember that using these two abilities will make you the king of tanking. Also make sure to blame the babysitter if either of the debuffs drop and you die, you can't keep track of everything now can you!
That about covered the 5 and 10 man tanking, if this is your goal then a protection paladin is a quite nice choice, if you're at the correct gear level for 10-mans make sure to bring a warrior for thunderclap and demo shout.
So, 25-man raids. Here something interesting will happen, melee and physical DPS will want you to sunder the mob! Claiming that it's the single best raid debuff for increasing DPS! Preposterous, but luckily in a 25-man raid you will likely have your babysitter the warrior along, not only does he provide you with a demo shout that the two other tanking classes have, but also thunder clap and now sunder armor. But you'll be the king because things are hitting on you...except bosses, because warriors are really better there. But YOU will be the king of tanking trash, yea! The downside here though is that for trash any freaking tank will do, and druids are more effective when not tanking, so it's more than likely you'll be standing outside the instance and not in the raid because you're not the best main tank, and you're not really a good offtank either due to not contributing crap when not tanking, unlike a feral druid who can fully compete with a retribution paladin in DPS when not tanking.
Roll a paladin to tank if you want an easy to play tank class which works well in 5 and 10-mans, and don't mind that sometimes you need a babysitter warrior for 10-mans.
Do not roll a paladin tank if you intend to ever tank a real boss in a real 25-man instance, it can be done, but in all cases it will be done better by a warrior, and in most cases it will also be better done with a druid. You're likely to be standing outside the instance all together due to simply being an ill-made spec. Roll X if you ever plan to see the inside of a 25-man raid instance.
Paladin or X? (DPS version)
The only reason to chose a paladin is a burning desire to specifically play a paladin, there is absolutely no advantage to play a paladin as DPS in the current game, not in PVE and not in PVP. You're a poor DPSer who lacks utility to make up for it in PVE.
In PVP you're the only melee class with no way to interrupt spell casting or effect the healing on your target, as well as being a melee class with no snare which makes even the slightest lag cause huge issues with targets getting out of range. Actually you share these problems with feral druids, don't pick a feral druid either for PVP, they are however a better choice for PVE.
So chose X, always. Chose X already i tell you.
Paladin or X? (Hybrid version)
So you expect to do several things with the same character? Talent trees 41 points deep with very specific gear towards filling just one role means you won't be a hybrid, not as a paladin you won't. You need to spend loads of talent points to get abilities which could be seen as baseline to even fill any of the roles a paladin is supposed to. Without spending 41 points into retribution you've just lost 25% of your damage, so unless you're 41points deep into ret you're not any sort of DPS at all. 20 points is not enough to be either a viable tank or healer, so a ret paladin isn't a hybrid. The same goes for being a protection paladin. You need to spend about 49 talent points to be a decent tank, which just prevented you from either dealing damage or healing efficiently (and by efficiently i mean by paladin standards). You're not going to be the guy who tanks or DPSes and tosses an offheal, because the items you wear to either tank or DPS means your mana pool is abyssmal and you have barely any spell damage at all.
If you want to be a hybrid who can both tank and DPS, chose a feral druid. If you plan to DPS and heal, chose a caster hybrid as they can at least do this to a small extent, elemental shaman, balance druid or shadow priest would work well.
If you want to be a hybrid, in all cases chose class X.
So to sum it up for the people who are wondering what class to roll, and are considering paladin as one of your options:
Roll a paladin if your goal is to tank 5 and 10-mans, or if you have a burning desire to specifically play a paladin. For all other possibilities roll that other class you were considering, because that other class will perform better.
