paladin abilities (WoW)  

see also: Paladin, Category:Paladin

The three ability paths for Paladins are Holy, Protection and Retribution.

The Holy path is both the healing path but it also contains powerful abilities to use against the undead.

Protection is centered on strengthening and shielding (sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice) party members.

Retribution focuses on justice and judgment, and is the damage path for paladins.

Note that there are several sets of abilities that set the paladin apart from other classes: Auras; Blessings; Seals and Judgments; and Shields.

Only the first rank of each spell is listed here.

Auras

A paladin may have one aura up at a given time. These auras will apply to every member of the paladin's group within 30 yards. An aura costs no mana to change and can be switched at any time. In some instances or cases it's worth changing the aura to one, even mid-battle, to react to a changed scenario.

• Devotion Aura (Level 1) - Increases the armor of all party members. While this is very useful at lower levels, it doesn't scale very well as armor levels increase and there is almost always a better aura option.
• Retribution Aura (Level 16) - Reflects Holy damage to enemies when the paladin or anyone in the party is struck. This is useful as a tanking aura for the additional threat generated from the Holy damage.
• Concentration Aura (Level 22) - Gives a change to avoid spell interruption when casting. This is useful in PvP for healing purposes.
• Shadow Resistance Aura (Level 28) - Increases resistance to Shadow spells.
• Sanctity Aura (Level 30) - Increases Holy damage done by the paladin and party members. This is available only through talents in the Retribution tree.
• Frost Resistance Aura (Level 32) - Increases resistance to frost spells and effects.
• Fire Resistance Aura (Level 36) - Increases resistance to fire spells and effects.
• Crusader Aura (Level 62) - Increases mounted speed for all players in the paladins party.

Blessings

There are 2 classes of blessings: Buffs and situational blessings. Buffs work like other classes buffs and can be used to increase stats on a player. Situational blessings will generally not be placed on a player for a long duration, but only used for a specific purpose. The blessings are broken out into those two classes below.

There are also 2 levels of blessings, regular and greater. Only the regular blessings will be listed below. The greater blessings are the same as the regular of the same name but the blessing mechanism itself has some differences

• Greater blessings last longer than their regular counterpart.
• A greater blessing can only be applied to people in your party or raid (you can't "drive by buff" someone with a greater blessing.
• Greater Blessings require a reagent: Symbol of Kings
• Greater Blessings are applied on a class by class basis (unlike other classes reagent, high level buffs which are applied to the entire group). This means that if you have 2 rogues in your group and you give one Greater Blessing of Might, they both will have the buff applied. This can be tricky with hybrid specs. For instance, you have a druid tank and a druid healer in your group. If you give the druid healer Greater Blessing of Salvation, then it will also be applied to the tank which will make it significantly harder for the tank to gain aggro. You can, however, overwrite the greater blessing on the tank with a regular blessing of kings. Just note that that blessing will run out earlier than the greater ones.

Sometimes paladins have trouble (if their not using a mod like PallyPower to monitor their blessings) keeping blessings on a group. The easiest way to manage this is to buff yourself first and then buff everyone in the party. When your buff wears off you know that everyone else's will be wearing off soon after and it's time for a re-buff.

Blessing Buffs

• Blessing of Might (Level 4) - Increases attack power. This applies to both melee and ranged attack power making this a good choice (when there aren't aggro issues) for hunters, rogues, cat DPS, enhancement shaman among others.
• Blessing of Wisdom (Level 14) - This increases mana generation both in and out of combat. Until you get Blessing of Salvation, this is a good choice for healers and casters and can be useful when soloing if you find yourself running out of mana.
• Blessing of Kings (Level 20) - This blessing is only available through talents in the Protection tree. It increases all of a player's stats. This is sometimes nice for tanks in that it will increase stamina, among other things.
• Blessing of Salvation (Level 26) - This reduces the amount of threat generated by a player. Since this requires someone else to stay below on threat for it to actually be useful it's only really useful in groups. But it is very, very useful in groups. Healers benefit because it's less likely that their healing is going to pull threat. However it's also incredibly useful for casters and any other DPS that has problems staying under the tank's threat. Some casters believe this to be a poor blessing, almost like it's an insult. But basically what this blessing does is allows them to crank out 30% more damage! When you put it that way, it sounds a heck of a lot better than some extra MP5.
• Blessing of Sanctuary (Level 30) - This blessing reduces all incoming damage. In addition, if the player blocks an attack the shield will reflect holy damage back onto the attacker. This is a talented blessing and is only available in the protection tree. Typically this is only really useful for paladin tanks or paladin AoE grinding.
• Blessing of Light (Level 40) - This blessing increases the effects of Holy Light on the target. While this is very useful if you have a paladin healer, if you do not, it's completely pointless.

Situational Blessings

• Blessing of Protection (Level 10) - Protects a player from all physical damage for a short period of time. However the player cannot use physical attacks while protected. Note that magic damage can still be done to the target. While it's not an aggro wipe, it can be used to turn mobs away from a healer, for instance, but someone is going to have to pick them up quickly or when it wears off the mobs will go right for the healer. It can also be a fun thing to use against over-zealous rogues who like to jump the gun on damage.
• Blessing of Freedom (Level 18) - This is an excellent situational blessing for PvP. It removes and grants immunity to all movement impairing effects for a short duration. It's also useful in some PvE encounters.
• Blessing of Sacrifice (Level 46) - This blessing transfers a portion of damamge taken from the blessed player to the paladin. It has somewhat limited use but is fantastic for fights that may incapacitate the paladin with something that breaks on damage. The Maiden fight in Karazhan is an example of these.

Seals and Judgments

Seals and judgments rely on each other to work. You get the judgment ability at level 4 and from that point on a combination of seals and judgments is a paladin's bread and butter. Typically, especially in solo play, a paladin will cast a seal that, when judged will debuff the target or buff players who hit the target, judge that immediately on the target to open the fight and then immediately re-seal with a different seal that complements the effect of the judgment.

A seal will last for 30 seconds at which point it will need to be re-sealed (typically you will judge it to get the judgment effect and then re-seal). A judgment will last for 20 seconds on the target, however, successful melee attacks by the judging paladin will refresh the seal.

• Seal of Righteousness (Level 1)
• Seal: Each successful melee swing will also cause additional holy damage. This is the most commonly used seal early in the game for all paladins, and throughout the whole game for tanking paladins.
• Judgment: When the seal is judged it will cause additional holy damage to the target (this is a pure damage judgment. It will not apply a debuff to the target nor will it overwrite any judgment currently on the target)
• Seal of the Crusader (Level 6)
• Seal: Increases the attack power of the paladin. Also increases attack speed but deals less damage with each attack. As a seal this is typically only used to train up weapon skills (for the faster swings)
• Judgment: Applies a debuff to the enemy increasing holy damage taken by the enemy. This is usually judged on the enemy at the start of the fight, then the paladin will re-seal with Righteousness.
• Seal of Justice (Level 22)
• Seal: Each successful melee attack has a chance to stun the enemy. This is a situational seal, it doesn't have any broad usefulness but the judgment can be very helpful.
• Judgment: Places a debuff on the target preventing them from fleeing (PvE only). This can be very handy for those mobs that tend to run when low on health (Murlocs). This judgement gains a useful PvP application with the Rank 2 level of the spell which can be trained at level 48. In addition to preventing PvE mobs from fleeing, it will also slow movement of player characters, effectively working as a snare.
• Seal of Light (Level 30)
• Seal: While the seal is active, successful melee swings have a chance to heal the paladin for a set amount of health.
• Judgment: When judged it places a debuff on the target causing successful melee attacks against the enemy to have a chance of healing anyone striking the enemy for a set amount. Two things to note: The amount healed by the judgement is roughly 60% of that healed by the seal. The second is that the effect doesn't apply to the enemy hitting the paladin or party, the heals only have a chance of occurring when the enemy is hit.
• Seal of Wisdom (Level 38)
• Seal: While the seal is active, successful melee swings have a chance to return a set amount of mana to the paladin.
• Judgment: When judged it places a debuff on the target causing successful melee attacks against the enemy to have a chance of returning mana to anyone striking the enemy for a set amount. Two things to note: The amount of mana returned by the judgement is roughly 60% of that returned by the seal. The second is that the effect doesn't apply to the enemy hitting the paladin or party, the mana return only has a chance of occurring when the enemy is hit.
• Seal of Vengeance (Level 64) - This seal is only available to Alliance Paladins.
• Seal: Successful melee attacks have a chance to apply a DoT to the enemy. This DoT causes Holy damage over time and stacks up to 5 times.
• Judgment: When judged, this will cause a set amount of damage per application of the debuff applied while the seal was active (in other words, it's not worthwhile to seal and judge right away but can cause some good, if spiky, damage to the target with a full stack)
• Seal of Blood (Level 64) - This seal is only available to Horde paladins.
• Seal: All melee attacks deal an additional 35% Holy damage, however 10% of damage caused to the enemy is also taken by the paladin.
• Judgment: When judged, a set amount of Holy damage will be inflicted on the enemy, however the paladin will also suffer 35% of the damage inflcted.

A note on Seal of Blood. At first blush this does not sound like the best deal. However, in a grouping situation where the paladin is the tank, it can be quite useful as long as the tank isn't getting completely crushed and the healer is adequantely geared. The additional damage caused will help tremendously with threat since it is holy damage. And since someone will be healing the paladin, the addition damage will amount to addition mana due to Spiritual Attunement. This is especially useful if the paladin out gears the instance.

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