This build hereis the typical 51 points spent for Holy Paladins.

Where do you put the remaining 20 talent points?
Theres two common builds for Holy Paladins these days and both have trade offs. Which build would be better for you? Let’s take a look.

HOLY(51) / PROTECTION (20)
The first build is the Holy/Protection build, which puts all 20 talent points into the Protection tree.

The main feature of this build is Divine Sacrifice, which absorbs incoming raid damage up to 150% of your Paladin’s health. When combined with Divine Shield, you are absorbing raid damage at no cost. This makes it easier for healing massive raid damage such as XT Deconstructor’s Tantrum, Kologarn’s Shockwave.

But of course there are disadvantages, Divine Shield can only be used once every 5 minutes, so you probably can use it once per fight. Also you trade 5% spell critical chance in the Retribution Tree for this spell. This brings us to the Holy/Retribution build.

HOLY(51) / PROTECTION (5) / RETRIBUTION (15)
The Retribution Build offers more utility than the Holy/Prot build with talents such as Heart of the Crusader and Conviction. Conviction offers additional 5% spell critical chance, which is substantial in healing.

SO? WHICH SPEC DO I USE?
Well, both specs honestly are equally effective, but it’s down to your preference. A heroic geared paladin prepped for raids shld have about 20% spell critical at the very least, but 25% spell critical chance is recommended for beginners who are raiding. If your raid can handle AoE damages, it’s better to use the Holy/Ret build. Or if you want a high critical holy healing build it’s obviously Holy/Ret.

Whereas some people would choose Holy/Prot because of Divine Sacrifice/ Divine Shield Bubble, which can be a raidsaver at times. It is a good emergency combo that would prevent a wipe. But they would have lower healing due to 5% loss in spell critical chance. Also, if you are highly geared and can hit 25% spell critical chance just from gear, going Holy/Prot build is a good choice.

Ultimately it comes down to your opinion which build would benefit your raid more. Some people would think having more CRIT would help raid healing more than Divine Sacrifice, whereas some find Divine Sacrifice more useful since their raid might be more subjectible to raid damage.

Try both builds and find one that fits your style and your raid composition.

Gearing up for Retribution has become quite the hassle these days, on top of Warriors fighting loot with us, we have those damn Death Knights rolling on them as well.

Besides that, various plate gear have different stats such as Haste, Armor Penetration and of course, Critical Rating. Unfortunately some of these stats don’t benefit us that much and most Retribution paladins I encountered have no idea about it. Among the many plate gear in the game it is best to select those that benefit you the most and maximize your DPS. Thus you need to know which stat is more valuable and which gear provides better DPS. Oh and it saves ur DKP or EPGP.

Let’s start with the basics.
On top of dealing great damage, a melee DPS firstly MUST NOT MISS and reduce the chance the raid boss dodges his attacks. Therefore you need 8% HIT (263 Hit Rating) and 26 EXPERTISE (214 Expertise Rating).

DO NOT MISS = 263 HIT RATING
REDUCE DODGES = 214 EXPERTISE RATING

Remember that! This is the foremost gear requirement you should reach. Well actually just make sure you get 8% HIT (263 HIT RATING), Expertise can be slowly accumulated as you gear up.

Now that I made myself clear about Hit Rating and Expertise. Let’s look at other Retribution stats:

STRENGTH (STR)
Once you reach the HITCAP (8% Hit), the next stat to stock up on is Strength. Strength is the primary stat that increases our damage. 1 Strength (STR) = 2 Attack Power (AP) baseline. Talented with Divine Strength, 1 STR converts into 2.3 AP. The conversion further increases with Blessing of Kings. So 1 STR can actually give you about 2.6 AP.

Attack Power (AP)
After reading the above about Strength, some might think since STR converts into AP? Might as well stock up on AP straightaway, right?
Wrong. Firstly you will hardly find any plate gear with AP on them, AP is mostly found in leather or mail. But they are also included in cloaks and rings. The point is this, AP does not scale as well as STR for paladins, let’s do a little math.

Compare Cloak of Bloodied Waters to Ice Striker’s Cloak. Most would just conclude Ice Striker’s Cloak would be the better choice since it’s epic, but take a closer look.

Cloak of Bloodied Waters gives 60STR. Converting to AP where 1 STR equals to 2.3AP, 60STR gives 138AP, 38 more AP compared to Ice Striker’s Cloak. With talent Strength can grant way more AP from gear, so next time do a little math when comparing items.

CRITICAL RATING (CRIT) VS AGILITY (AGI)
I combine these two stats because both Agility and Critical Rating increases Critical Chance. But Critical Rating is more valuable as it increases Critical Chance more than Agility for us.

45.9 CRITICAL RATING = 1% MELEE CRITICAL CHANCE
52 AGILITY = 1% MELEE CRITICAL CHANCE

As you can see Critical Rating is a better stat for obtaining higher critical chance.

HASTE & ARMOR PENETRATION (ArP)
These two are combined because, well, they are the least benefit to Retribution paladins. Haste gives you more melee damage and Seal damage as you make more swings at the boss, but that’s about it. Armor Penetration (ArP) on the other only increases melee damage, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm damage, but NOT damage done by Seals and Judgements. Thus the benefit from Haste and Armor Penetration loses out to pure Strength.

I think I wrote a rather long post and you might not digest it well, So I’ll summarise it.

Gearing Up the RET Way
1. Get Hit-Capped which is 8% HIT (263 Hit Rating)
2. Stock up on STRENGTH (STR) and CRIT RATING
3. Slowly obtain 26 EXPERTISE (214 Expertise Rating) as you upgrade gear
4. Haste & Armor Penetration are lowest priorities.
5. Gemming go for STRENGTH primarily and followed by CRIT RATING.

Hope this article help you guys make better gear selection.

Finally Patch 3.1 has finally been released. Changes have been made to the talent trees. Holy got a little nerfed, Protection got some new talents and Retribution gets somewhat balanced. Unforunately still no improvement on Seals.

With my exams coming within a month and busy preparing for it, I am sorry to say I can’t post a detailed informative document on the new talent specs. I will post core talent builds for each spec, so there will be leftover/spare talent points. These talent points are for you to decide on the kind of build you want.

The good thing (or bad depending the way you see it) about Patch 3.1 is that talent points are freed up, so you can have more variation with your build. Holy Paladins used to spec probably 51/0/20 to amp their critical chance, now with 3.1 you can spec into Protection for Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian. Retribution paladins can also opt to have that talent now that less talent points are needed for a proper Retribution build. This makes the paladin a more “hybrid” class.

HOLY (51/5/5)

In the Holy tree it is still the same old 51 points allocation, feel free to switch between Improved Lay on Hands and Blessed Hands.

Divinity is a exciting new talent, improving heals given and received by 5%.

Benediction is specifically for Holy Shock, so if you find the 5 points here not worthwhile simply pump them into Protection for Divine Sacrifce and Divine Guardian. Divine Guardian increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 100% and amount absorbed by 20%, which is a solid talent. Alternatively invest remaining points in Retribution tree for more critical chance.

PROTECTION (0/56/6)

While reading through sites for info on Protection build, the ironic thing is that the new talent Divine Sacrifice is deemed more a offtank/non-tank spell. This seems more usable in a situation when the whole raid is taking heavy damage, such as EoE Phase 2 ,instead of in a boss fight, so use it wisely. You are only bringing more hurt upon yourself if it is used in a boss fight, apart from boss damage you are taking damage from other party members. In my build you can see I left Divine Sacrifice out, but it is optional. Probably in 25 man raids where raid takes heavy damage it will be needed.

Remember to spend only 1 point in Improved Judgements, this is because of the 9 6 9 rotation. If you don’t already know, 9 6 9 rotation is a spell rotation for tankadins. You can read about it HERE and the SacredDuty blog has a post on it.

Divinity might seem to be a Holy talent, but it works for Protection as well. It increases healing received by 5%, that is enough reason to take it.

RETRIBUTION (0/5/52)

Retribution tree went through some tweaks, what used to require heavy points investment, now has talent points reduced considerably. Seal of Blood/Martyr had Judgement damage reduced but Seal damage increased, bringing a balance to it.

You can see I have no points in Improved Blessing of Might, this is due to Warrior’s Battle Shout. There are problems of Blessing of Might clashing with Battle Shout (Sorry but I will have to look into it in detail in later posts.) Seal of Command is optional.

From then on it’s pretty much the core talents for Retribution paladins. The remaining talent points can be invested in the Protection Tree for the new talents, it will help raid survivability. With instant Flash of Lights and Divine Sacrifice, you can provide additional support in situations where the raid is taking damage or you are unable to DPS the target.

Alright, let’s continue from where we left off, last post I introduced addons such as Grid, Power Auras and Ghost: Pulse.

I have used these addons and they have been an immense help to me. This time I’ll introduce 2 more addons I always use and cover other useful addons.

Today’s post will be more beneficial to the Holy paladin as the addons featured are more useful to them.

QUARTZ
Quartz is a castbar mod that is able to track and compensate your latency/lag in your spell casting. If you’re a healer/caster and you don’t have it, you don’t know what you’re missing. Most WoW players are plagued by latency problems in game. (especially now, I haven’t been able to raid 25M, WTH man!?) Quartz is able to reduce the latency problem by correctly tracking your spell casting. It’s hard to explain, but you will understand once you installed it. Basically you can fire off your spell earlier than you think you need.

DOWNLOAD QUARTZ

DECURSIVE
Decursive is a debuff tracking/removal addon. Once installed, you will see another panel of small unitframes on your screen. Afflicted units will be shaded red and all you need to do is just click to dispel the debuff if you have means. So for a paladin raid members afflicted with magic effects, diseases and poisons will be shown red, but cursed raid members will not show for the paladin because he does not have the spell to dispel it. Instead druids will be able to the cursed members as red.

Unforunately I could not find a video for this addon, but scroll down in the addon page you will see screenshots of Decursive.

DOWNLOAD DECURSIVE

HEALBOT CONTINUED
I don’t use Healbot but it has been getting a lot of cheers and boos. It really simplifies the healing process so there’s one side singing its praises and another side saying it degrades healers and makes the game too easy.

It has nice features like tracking who’s healing who, which prevents overhealing, but it also would dull you alertness in the long run. And in raids awareness/alertness is a vital attribute for healers.

My thoughts, I would not recommend using this addon because this kinda automates healing. Where is the fun in that? But if you are really a healer in dire straits, by all means use it. For the Raid.

DOWNLOAD HEALBOT CONTINUED

There’s pretty much I want to cover about addons. Of course there are plenty more addons out there for you to explore. Keep looking and try them out and see which one suits you.

Be careful though, some addon/mod takes up memory and might slow down your game.

Been away from WoW lately, busy preparing for exams. Most people have been waiting for 3.1 to be launched, so can’t find any news to write up on. Was checking through the guides and I realised I never done a proper post on addons, so here we go.

If you don’t already know, addons/mods are external programs in WoW that enhances gameplay and capability.

Raiders are familiar with raid mods such as DeadlyBossMods, Omen Threat Meters and such.

The addons I’ll be covering today will be mainly to improve your gameplay and capability in raids. You can look for other addons at either WoWInterface or Curse WoW Addons page.

How to use these addons are really simple, just make sure to read the information posted on the addon page, or the README note in the files.

POWER AURAS
A very powerful addon. Its purpose is to provide visual aid for your spells and buffs.
For example if you’re a Holy Paladin, a visual marker will appear for the duration of Judgement of the Pure after you cast it. A tanking paladin can configure it for Holy Shield so he knows he keeps the spell up. Say you got a Holy Shock crit, Infusion of Light procs, there will be a graphic on your screen when that effect is in duration.

It is a simple to use addon, after installing just type /powa to bring up the configuration window. Say you want to provide a visual aid for your trinkets, create a New Icon and insert the name of the buff. Play around with the settings and you have it. If you are not sure the video below is a tutorial on it.

DOWNLOAD POWER AURAS

GHOST: PULSE
Ghost: Pulse is another visual aid addon. The difference is that it informs you of cooldowns. When spells finish their cooldown, a icon of that spell pulses on the screen to let you know the spell is up and ready.

Say you casted Holy Shock and after 6 seconds when it finishes its cooldown, a Holy Shock icon will pulse on your screen. Alternatively you can configure it to show what spell you are casting, shown in the video below.

DOWNLOAD GHOST: PULSE

GRID
A raidframe addon that can also work as a healing addon. If you’re a healer and you don’t use any raidframes addon but the default raidframes, this is a MUST HAVE. This will increase your healing capability TENFOLD.

Although small and compact, it is able to convey enough information for you to perform your duties efficiently. If you find it hard to understand GRID, it will come to you eventually, or you could configure it to be larger and more instructive.

In non-combat it doubles up as a raidframe, showing all members currently in your party or raid. I really like the fact it does not take up a lot of space. In combat each unit frame will display any loss of health, debuffs, if its in range of your spells and other information.
For instance, a raid member having aggro will have a small red square on the top left corner of his unit frame. Raid members out of range of your spells will have their unit frames transparent.

DOWNLOAD GRID

That’s it for now, I will cover a little more on addons the next time round. See ya.

Was browsing the WoW paladin class forums and saw this guide, very informative. Still relevant even if patch 3.1 hits although its written for 3.0.7 content.

Written by Absol of Skywall, this guide covers stuff like gylphs, blessings, stats and DPS rotation.

Click here to read the guide

Finally came up with gear guides to prepare yourselves for raids.

All three specs are here:

Holy Gear Guide

Protection Gear Guide

I excluded some items either they are deemed too low level or restricted to selected people. For example Sonic Booster is excluded due to the fact you have to be an Engineer to be able to use it. It does not cater to the majority so I will not put it in the list.

If you feel I have left out some items feel free to comment or email me.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Once again we’ll be touching on WotLK Pre-Raid gears, today let’s look at trinkets. Trinkets provide some support for these “OH-SHIT!” moments and such.

An example would be a tanking using Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch when he is about to go down and hopefully he gets topped up before the next strike mauls his face.

But of course Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch is so yesterday. Let’s look at what trinkets are available before you start hitting 10-man or 25-man raids.

NOTE: Items are not ranked accordingly.

PROTECTION

• Valor Medal of the First War (40 Emblem of Heroism)
• Figurine - Monarch Crab (Jewelcrafting)
• Essence of Gossamer (Hadronox, Azjol-Nerub HEROIC)
• Indestructible Alchemist’s Stone (Alchemy)
• Lavanthor’s Talisman (Lavanthor, Violet Hold HEROIC)
• Seal of the Pantheon (Loken, Halls of Lightning)

HOLY

• The Egg of Mortal Essence (40 Emblem of Heroism)
• Figurine - Sapphire Owl (Jewelcrafting)
• Mercurial Alchemist Stone (Alchemy)
• Spark of Life (Sjonnir The Ironshaper, Halls of Stone HEROIC)
• Talisman of Troll Divinity (The Prophet Tharon’ja, Drak’Tharon Keep HEROIC)
• Winged Talisman (Ionar, Halls of Lightning HEROIC)
• Soul Preserver (Dark Runed Chest, The Culling of Stratholme)
• Cannoneer’s Morale (Quest: The Last Line of Defense)
• Cannoneer’s Fuselighter (Quest: The Last Line of Defense)

RETRIBUTION

• Mirror of Truth (40 Emblem of Heroism)
• Figurine - Emerald Boar (Jewelcrafting)
• Mighty Alchemist Stone (Alchemy)
• Incisor Fragment (King Dred, Drak’Tharon Keep HEROIC)
• Meteorite Whetstone (King Yimiron, Utgarde Pinnacle HEROIC)
• Sphere of Red Dragon’s Blood (Keristrasza, The Nexus HEROIC)
• Vestige of Haldor (King Yimiron, Utgarde Pinnacle)
• Fezzik’s Pocketwatch (Quest: The Last Line of Defense)

Caught between school, leveling up and trying to write guides for this site, I decided to churn out small posts first before compiling them into full gear list in the future.

So we’re in Northrend, rushing to hit 80. Looking through I decided to first post on the new librams.

NOTE: This is a PRE-RAID libram list, so items from raid instances will be omitted. Keep a lookout for these librams while you’re in Northrend.

Libram of Furious Blows
The first libram you will receive in Northrend, which replaces Libram of Avengement easily. Nice for Retribution paladins. Obtained in Borean Tundra.

Venture Co. Libram of Retribution
Bigger critical chance and a longer duration definitely puts this better than Libram of Furious Blows, but be careful that your Divine Storm does not break nearby CC-ed mobs. Obtained in Grizzly Hills.

Venture Co. Libram of Protection
Finally a libram for Protection paladins, while the damage bonus is nice, Tanks might prefer older librams such as
Libram of Repentance for more defensive stats such as Block Rating. Good for aggro generation and AoE tanking. Obtained in Grizzly Hills.

Venture Co. Libram of Mostly Holy Deeds
For the Holy paladins, additional healing to Holy Shock is nice. Just watch your mana while using it. Obtained in Grizzly Hills.

Savage Gladiator’s Libram of Fortitude
For level 80 the additional 94 Attack Power seems kind of low. Venture Co. Libram of Retribution might be better? I’ll look up more on this libram and let you know which is better for PvE.

Savage Gladiator’s Libram of Justice
Increases spellpower of Flash of Light by 204, easily purchasable with honor points. Makes a good starting raiding libram for Holy Paladins.

Libram of Renewal
Reduces mana cost of Holy Light by 113. With downranking removed, mana conservation is more important for Holy paladins now. Purchased with Emblem of Heroism, basically the level 80 version of Badge of Justice.

Libram of Reciprocation
With Seal/Judgement of Command nerfed in its damage, this libram might not be desirable. Especially with Seal of Blood/Martyr having a bigger damage output. Get this, my Judgement of Command crits at 2200+ max, while my Judgement of Blood crits mat 3300+ max. Go figure. In PvP this might shine more with haste scaling with Seal of Command.

Libram of Obstruction
A great libram for Protection paladins. Increasing Block value by 325 whenever you judge, this reduces damage to you when you block and you hit harder with Shield of the Righteous. MUST-HAVE.

That’s all for Librams. These are obtainable before you start raiding, most of them obtainable through token systems such as honor points or Emblem of Heroism.

Meanwhile stay tune for Trinkets and Weapons and Shields for those preparing to raid

Holy 3.0 Guide added.
Based on previous raids in Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, healing style has changed and will take some time to get used to.

Click this link to read the guide