by Irwezsh
(Firstly, I would like to thank Trollvink for his fantastic Shaman levelling guide which inspired me to create this guide. You my notice our guides are similar, thats because he’s doing things well!)
Welcome!
For patch 3.0+, focus’d on PALADIN solo game play!
Table of content:
1. Foreword.
2. What’s the best levelling spec?
3. Talents.
4. Abilities and Rotations.
5. Tips.
6. Stats.
7. Gear.
8. Class Quests.
9. Glyphs.
10. Addons.
I intend to show you in this guide, the best talents for leveling and what spells to use when pewpewing. I want to give you some useful tips, so you know how to play your paladin to a better standard. I want to give you information about what you need to look for with your gear and to explain your class quests. As well as some useful enchants and glyphs; as well as any addons which will be useful to you.
Before you start I do recomend if you are new to the Paladin class you check out Harper1990’s guide to starting a new paladin.
2. What’s the best leveling spec?
The best leveling spec for the paladin is Retribution. This is because it has a high damage output, while having a minimal mana usage (you have less downtime.)
Many would argue that that protection is a good way to level, and I couldn’t disagree with them, however it is only exceptional when you are leveling with a partner (Healer/Mage) as it allows you to take a large amount of mobs once.
For this reason I’m going to write this guide about Retribution as it is the best choice of spec for solo leveling, which is what this guide is about. I will however, give you a good choice of talents for leveling as protection so you have a good idea of what you are doing (I leveled my paladin from 40-65 as a protection paladin.) I will not however give you much more information above that, unless there is a call for it.
A – Retribution
Level 10-14:
5/5 Benediction
Level 15-16:
2/2 Improved Judgement
Level 17-19:
3/3 Heart of the Crusader
Level 20:
1/1 Seal of Command
Level 21-22:
2/2 Pursuit of Justice
Level 23-27:
5/5 Conviction
Level 28-30:
3/3 Crusade
Level 31-33:
3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
Level 34-36:
3/3 Sanctified Seals
Level 37-39:
3/3 Vengeance
Level 40:
1/1 Repentance
Level 41-43:
3/3 Judgements of the Wise
Level 44-45:
2/2 The Art of War
Level 46-49:
4/5 Fanaticism (Only 4)
Level 50:
1/1 Crusader Strike
Level 51:
5/5 Fanaticism
Level 52-54:
3/3 Sheath of Light
Level 55-59:
5/5 Righteous Vengeance
Level 60:
1/1 Divine Storm
Level 61-62:
2/2 Sanctified Wrath
Level 63-65:
3/3 Swift Retribution
Level 66-70:
5/5 Divine Strength
Level 71:
1/1 Sanctified Retribution
Level 72-73:
2/2 Improved Blessing of Might
Level 74-75:
2/2 Improved Retribution Aura
Level 76-80:
5/5 Spirtiual Focus
B – Protection
Level 10-14:
5/5 Divine Strength
Level 15-19:
5/5 Aticipation
Level 20-22:
3/3 Improved Righteous Fury
Level 22-27:
5/5 Toughness
Level 27-29:
2/2 Gaurdian’s Favour
Level 30:
1/1 Blessing of Sanctuary
Level 31-35:
5/5 Reckoning
Level 36-37:
2/2 Sacred Duty
Level 37-39:
2/5 One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Only 2)
Level 40:
1/1 Holy Sheild
Level 41-43:
5/5 One-Handed Weapon Specialization
Level 44:
1/5 Ardent Defender (Only 1)
Level 45-47:
3/3 Redoubt
Level 47-50:
3/3 Combat Expertise
Level 51-53:
3/3 Touched by the Light
Level 54:
1/1 Avenger’s Shield
Level 55-57:
3/3 Shield of the Templar
Level 58-59:
3/5 Ardent Defender (Only 3)
Level 60:
1/1 Hammmer of Righteous
Level 61-62:
5/5 Ardent Defender
Level 63-64:
2/2 Guarded by the Light
Level 65-69:
5/5 Benediction
Level 70-71:
2/2 Improved Judgements
Level 72-74:
3/3 Heart of the Crusade
I’ll leave the last 6 points for you to choose. There is a few different directions you could go from here, such as going for Blessing of Kings for instances.
Always take the slowest 2 handed weapon available
1 – 9:
– Start by ‘turning on’ your first seal, Devotion Aura.
– When fighting keep up Seal of Righteousness.
– When you get Blessing of Might, once again keep it up at all times.
– When you get Judgement of Light, use when ever available.
– Take the best DPS weapon you can 1H with Shield or 2H. (A this stage the slow weapon is not too important.)
Rotation: Auto attack + JoL when possible. Make sure Devotion Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Righteousness Buff on yourself.
10 – 19:
– Same as above but:
– When you get Judgement of Wisdom, start using instead of Light. (This helps keep your mana up)
– When you get Retribution Aura, ‘turn it on’ instead of Devotion Aura.
– Start looking for a slow 2 handed weapon, so you have one for level 20. (Remember you can train other weapon skills, so if you find a good 2H Axe, Mace or Sword you may not have the skill as base but you can train them in cities. You can also use Polearms when you hit level 20.)
Rotation: Auto attack + JoW when possible. Make sure Retribution Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Righteousness Buff on yourself.
20 – 39
– Same as above but:
– When you get Seal of Command, keep it up when fighting.
– If fighting more that 2 mobs use Consecration.
– Make sure you are now using that slow 2H weapon.
Rotation: Auto attack + JoW when possible. When you are fighting more than 2 mobs use Consecration. Make sure Retribution Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Command Buff on yourself.
40 – 49
– Same as above but:
– When you get Hammer of Wrath, use it when the mob has less than 20% HP. Your finishing move!
Rotation: Auto attack + JoW when possible. Use HoW when the mob has less than 20% HP. When you are fighting more than 2 mobs use Consecration. Make sure Retribution Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Command Buff on yourself.
This may seem boring spending all these levels doing basically the same thing, but you’ve got a nice little surprise coming your way!
50 – 59.
– Same as above but:
– When you get Crusader Strike, use it when ever it is up! (This is an extra attack that also does slightly higher damage.)
Rotation: Auto attack; JoW and CS when possible. Use HoW when the mob has less than 20% HP. When you are fighting more than 2 mobs use Consecration. Make sure Retribution Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Command Buff on yourself.
60 – 80.
– Same as above but:
– When you get Divine Storm, use it when ever it’s up! (The same as Warrior’s Whirlwind, but it also heals you.)
– When you get Divine Plea, use it when you are low on mana.
Rotation: Auto attack; JoW, DS and CS when possible. Use HoW when the mob has less than 20% HP. When you are fighting more than 2 mobs use Consecration. Make sure Retribution Aura is ‘turned on.’ Keep the Blessing of Might and Seal of Command Buff on yourself. Use Divine Plea, when low on mana.
Instances
– Learn your Resistance Auras. Some bosses do a hell of alot of damage from a school of magic you can protect against.
– Remember to buff other party members with your Blessings. Also give the approprite buff: don’t give a Warlock BoM, like-wise don’t give a Warrior BoW.
– When healing use BoW on your self. This way you will regain the mana quicker as heals cost a large amount.
Solo
– Just heal yourself with Flash of Light whenever you need to heal. (Helped with by the The Art of War talent, which will give you instant flash of light heals after doing Crits with your moves.)
– Bandages help as well, use this if you have the feeling you are using to much mana (to heal).
– There a few oh**** methods when you can use to protect your self when you are low on health. You could:
– Use Hammer of Justice and then use a Heal.
– Use Repentence (once gained through talents) and then use a Heal.
– Use Divine Protection and then use a heal; or quickly kill the target if it is on low health then heal up.
Professions
– The best options are Skinning/Mining, they make lots of money, skinning gives critical strike rating and mining gives health (this little bonus was added in patch 3.0). These bonuses are small and not needed at all, there just a good choice. (Well said Trollvink!)
In the following order: Strength > Stamina > Intellect > Agility > Mp5 .
( Strength > Stamina means Strength is greater than Stamina, sorry if this seems obvious but I always get confused. )
Strength: Needed for Attack Power.
Stamina: Needed for health.
Intellect: Needed for mana, also gives spell critical strike chance. Needed for the heals and other spells.
Agility: Needed for Critical strike chance, also gives armor.
Mana Per 5 Seconds: You won’t see this alot until outland, and that is probabbly the only place you’ll need it as in Notherend you’ll be using divne plea for mana.
Weapons & Shield’s
I’ve chosen these weapons based on their DPS and Weapon Speed!
10 – 20:
Lvl 18 – 2H – Smite’s Mighty Hammer
20 – 30:
Lvl 22 – 2H – Strike of the Hydra
Lvl 27 – 2H – Corpsemaker
30 – 40:
Lvl 37 – 2H – Ravager (I was reading throught the comments on Wowhead about this axe. You need to watch out if you are doing an instance that you don’t break CC with this axes proc. Perhaps use a different axe in instances.)
40 – 50:
[Change to come]
50 – 60:
Lvl 51 – 2H – Ice Barbed Spear (Very hawt spear, all you have to do to get it is win an AV!)
60 – 80:
Your choices here are really linear, you will be given a really nice 2H all the way to 80.
You will gain a few quests specific to your own class, in your carrer as a paladin. I recomend you to do this, especially the level 12 quest for getting your resurection spell. I’m not going to give you much information about them however I will link you to Wowhead’s page on paladin’s quests. The comments and information over there will help you through!
Oh and remember you can now train your Charger mount, instead of having to do the long quest chain as long as you have 150 riding skill.
Glyph’s…? Have a look here.
Click here for a list of Paladin glyphs.
The following glyph’s are a good choice for retribution:
Major – Glyph of Judgement
Major – Glyph of Seal of Command
Major – Glyph of Crusader Strike
Major – Glyph of Hammer of Wrath
Minor – Glyph of Blessing of Might
Unfortuently there is nothing else currently worth speanding your hard earned gold on. Get on it Blizzard!
I currently can’t think of any essential Paladin add-ons, if you have ideas please say!
Special Thanks to:
Trollvik for creating the guide which I have semi-based this one off. Your style and formatting is fantastic. You are 100% awesome!
Jame for his awesome leveling guides and guide creation guide! Also for creating an awesome website like WoW-Pro.com!
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rotationi don’t agree at useing JOW or JOL on level 28 i prefer to use JOJ
Essential Paladin add-on[url=http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info6370-PallyPower.html]PallyPower[/url]
For all blessing chore, solo/party/raid.
Especially great for the times when you are the only paladin, and your teammates want specific blessing. For example, three druids, One wants Might, one wants Wisdom, and one wants King.
You just set up PallyPower once, and it will takes care that for you. It’s easy to make changes on the fly, with its small, unobtrusive interface. Does all the work, makes it easy to keep the exact blessing people want up all the time.
Thank you a lot for theThank you a lot for the answer. It really cleared up things and gave a much better understanding than before.