Paladin Talent Builds (WoW)  

Choosing a Spec

Paladins are a hybrid class. One of the banes of the hybrid class is you may, for efficiency's sake, spend some time in a build that's not where you ultimately want to be. Or you may change your mind about the role you want to fill. There are many combinations of the three talent trees especially when you factor in the goal of the paladin. Are you just starting out and want to level efficiently? Do you want to raid? As a tank? Healer? Support class? PvP?

So before asking about or deciding on a spec, you're going to want to determine where you're at and what you want to do. But note that whatever choice you make in spec, you're not stuck with it. You can always go to your trainer and re-spec your talents (Just tell him you'd like to unlearn your talents and you'll start with a blank slate). It does cost gold, and each time you re-spec that cost increases to a cap of 25 gold per re-spec. That may seem like a lot when you're just starting out (the first re-spec costs 1 gold) but at end game or even mid-game, 25 gold is easily spent to improve or change your playing experience.

Leveling Specs

There are 2 main specs that can be used for leveling, but Retribution is generally the spec of choice for fast, efficient questing. This is especially true in the early levels. What makes something a "leveling build" is a combination of the capacity for high damage as well as survivability and low down time. Retribution is the damage tree so it makes sense that it's the preferred spec, however at the higher levels, Protection can put out high damage on large numbers of mobs and has significantly greater survivability than Ret does.

However, at level 35 or so re-speccing to Protection can also be a viable alternative. Note also that leveling specs, while they can be pretty cookie cutter, aren't as nailed down as things like a Raid tanking spec. There's some flexibility here. I'll list one or two varieties but if you find yourself thinking you'll be using a different spell or skill more, then change things up.

I think it's important to note that you do not have to level as Retribution. If the play style doesn't sound fund to you but Holy does then, by all means, level as Holy. People have done it. It can be slow going at times because the damage just isn't there initially or, to be perfectly honest even late game, but as long as you're enjoying yourself it doesn't really matter.

Retribution Leveling

Level 1-35

This build focuses on the power, and the eficient use of that power, in the Retribution tree. Typically this early in the game, survivability is less of an issue. If you find yourself having trouble surviving then, after you pick up Divine Strength in the Holy tree you can choose to keep moving down the tree picking up Spritual Focus which will make it easier to heal yourself while enemies are hitting you.

It's possible you can continue further down the holy tree at this point, but to get the full benefits from it you're going to have to gear for some of the talents you pick up (if you don't have the Int to crit very often on your healing spells you're not really going to get the mana return benefits from it. And if you gear for Int then your damage is going to suffer).

But again, none of the leveling builds are set in stone.

At this point you can make a choice. You can continue with Retribution for leveling or you can switch to a Protection or Protection/Holy hybrid build (skip to the Leveling Prot section). For now, continuing on with Retribution:

Level 35-60

What we're going for now is, obviously, more power but we'll also dip back into the holy tree now for Spiritual Focus and then jump back to Retribution. Spiritual Focus should help with any survivability issues allowing you to heal yourself better while being hit.

In addition to the little survivability boost, there are some hefty damage options in the lower section of the tree that we've picked up. Picking up Sanctified Judgements should help with some mana issues that are probably cropping up as well. Note that until you get Fanatacism, you will have no inherent threat reduction. If you're grouping with another paladin and having problems staying under the threat cap, have them give you Salv, you can buff yourself with the good stuff.

A note about Pursuit of Justice. This can be a nice talent to pick up for the run speed boost as well as the spell damage mitigation. But it's a matter of personal preference. It is nice for PvP, having the boost to speed. But if you're ok with running at normal speed and just PvEing it's really not that great. An annoying part of it is that, unlike a Hunter's Aspect of the Cheetah, you can't turn it off. So if you frequently group with friends, running or mounted , you end up having to stop every so often and wait or annoy the crap out of them but occasionally running laps around them. Of course, that may be seen as a benefit of it. It's up to you.

Gearing for Retribution leveling

Protection (or Holy/Protection) Leveling

As previously mentioned, it's not nearly as efficient to start off right away in Prot at level 10. It's certainly possible, people have done it. But it's far from ideal. And if you've played another faster leveling class like... all of them that aren't Resto/Holy specced, it's going to feel painfully slow.

Also if you think you want to level as Prot because starting off as Ret will make you not know how remember that until level 35 or so, with some small exceptions, the talents just aren't going to effect things that much. As long as you have a (level-appropriate) sword and board and tanking set handy, and you pay attention, you can easily tank any instance up to level 35 without being Protection specced and then switch over when you start getting more things to support your spec.

For those interested in a Holy/Prot spec, the 1-35 talents are going to be the same as the straight protection talents. There's a reason for this. While paladins can fulfill any role, they are inherently better at healing than they are at tanking, particularly at earlier levels. In other words, you need more talents to be able to tank effectively than you need to heal effectively. So if you're going to hybrid prot/holy route because you want to be able to effectively tank or heal any instance, you want to pick up the key tanking skills first.

Level 1-35 (or starting level 35 build)

That said, the folks that want to re-spec Prot at 35 need to know whet they should put points into so I'm just going to start there. I'll put the levels in that are probably a good progression but note that I'm focusing on a level 35 build here, not the actual ideal progression.

Yes, there is a reason why we didn't immediately pick up Blessing of Kings (BoK). It's a nice talent though some Prot builds don't even have it. But that's not why we didn't pick it up just now. BoK is a percentage-based blessing, which is great. It scales well. However at level 35, unless you're twinked, it's really just not worth the point yet. When you and your party gets to higher levels, we'll cylce back and pick it up (if desired).

Protection/Hybrid Leveling 36-60

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