I welcome to my blog our guest poster and owner of 4 level 70s, Haruka. His main is a paladin and he has some opinions he drafted up about different builds. Between using them live and playing around on the test server, he feels he's tried out just about every combination of talents, (which we all know is mathematically improbable... letting that fly though, Haru). Here's his guide to help you figure out what kind of paladin you should be if you like to do x.
Thanks Haru!
"Healadin" - BUILDLINK
Description- for the paladin that wants to heal and nothing else. This build offers the fastest biggest heals with the highest mana efficiency and best buffs for the group.
Gear- healadin's rely on critical hits with spells (in conjunction with blessing of light) to make their healing the most efficient in the game. Bonus healing is boosted substantially through the "holy guidance" talent and thus int is very important. At earlier levels and to a certain extent at end game supplementing lower level armor pieces is the best way to go.
Stat priority list - +healing, Int, spell crit rating, Stam, mana/5sec, spirit, defense, strength, agil, AP (attack power), melee crit rating
Playstyle- Blessing of wisdom almost exclusively (only using salv when needed). High armor allows the healer to get into the mix and judge beneficial seals (such as wisdom and light) on the mob. Easily functional in 5man normal mode through end game raid content. Not a reaction healer but a preemptive healer; spamming flash of light, mostly.
"Shockadin" - BUILDLINK
Description- solid healing with reliable if mana-intense burst damage at your command. This build can get in there and help out the dps while buffing the group for maximum efficiency and when the going gets rough has solid healing to help the group out.
Gear- spelldamage, spelldamage, spelldamage. Almost every ounce of a shockadin's dps is derived from spell damage. Everything from consecration and seal of righteousness through holy shock is affected by it. Holy guidance helps out a lot with this and by shirking the top point in the holy tree it allows the pally to gain sanctity aura from retribution raising that holy damage another 10%. Stength is all but useless in this build and you will want to use a caster weapon (even with its lower dps) for the boost in spell damage.
Stat priority list- +spelldamage, Int, Stam, spell crit rating, mana/5sec, strength, agil, AP, melee crit, spirit.
Playstyle- Blessing of wisdom is your friend! Because this is not a tanking focused build you won't be getting the hits/getting healed thus you aren't getting the mana from spiritual attunement which makes mana inefficiency a big draw back for this build. That being said you can turn out some really respectable damage for non-raid length battles. Haru's holy shocks with a similar build regularly crit around 1200 and bear in mind that I can have a 220/tick consecrate 250 perstrike righteousness + 850 non crit judgment every 8-10 seconds on top of it. And it would even be 10% higher thanks to sanctity aura from the retribution tree. Get in there and judge seal of the crusader (which thanks to your spec grants 3% additional crit to everyone melee or caster) and fire up righteousness and shock and judge everytime you can. Combine that with the ability to throw big mana efficient heals when the situation demands it and this becomes a versitle damage/off-healing build.
"Haru's Tanking Shockadin" - BUILDLINK
Description - Similar in most ways to the prior build but exchanging a lower damage output for more threat/tanking survivability. Improved righteous fury means every 10 holy damage you deal is perceived as 19 which means even at 3rd on the damage charts the perceived threat puts you at number one at no problem :). The big issues it presents is that without delving deeper into the protection tree you can't get the stamina/mitigation required to do tanking beyond the 5 man normal mode instances.
Gear- gear presents the other problem for this build. Ideally you'd need gear which has high stam, intellect, spelldamage, and also gives defense rating, dodge+parry rating. It is a hard balance to find as the majority of the pieces you have access to are lower stam or warrior pieces which have stats like strength/agil/AP which have little to no function for this build. As with the Shockadin build a spell damage weapon is the optimal choice as with some boosted spell damage there you can afford a few warrior pieces in other areas. Mana tick is less important since as long as you are getting healed you won't have to worry about mana.
Stat priority list- Stam, spell damage, Int, defense, dodge, parry, block, spell crit, strength, AP, agil, melee crit . . .
Playstyle- tanking as a shockadin demands you frontload your threat at the beginning of the fight. Pull with Holy Shock and have a seal of righteousness ready to judge immediately on that mob or the secondary target. Reposition as you can away from CC so that you can consecrate without fear and judge and shock every time the cooldown is up. about 3/4 through the first target switch to the second to start building threat on it. Because the your healthpool is a little smaller you will be required to heal yourself periodically during fights with harder hitting bosses and so you will need to have concentration aura on to avoid loosing cast times on those heals.
"Tankadin" - BUILDLINK
Description - The tanking paladin thrives where other tanking classes falter, tanking several mobs simultaneously. This build offers you 16% boosted stamina avenger's shield for a pull as well as holy shield and reckoning for added threat generation. While healing is still possible it is stripped to its bare bones in order to pick up increased parry rating and reduced judgement cooldown in retribution.
Gear- Focus on getting spell damage gear with high stam. Without having holy guidance to boost your spell damage int becomes less of a priority. You will need a good caster weapon to help with your threat. Once again warrior gear is less useful and itemization which focuses on what we need is harder to come by, but a select few warrior plate pieces can be used to help bring up your mitigation and stam.
Stat priority list- Stam, spell damage, defense, Int, dodge, parry, block, spell crit, strength, AP, agil, melee crit . . .
Playstyle- Playing this build is drastically different than playing haru's old tanking build. Threat for pally tanks depends on holy damage (physical damage accounts for so little that if you could avoid strength/AP/melee crit completely it wouldn't affect your tanking at all), and as a proto specced pally Holy Shield is how you get that threat. In general it benefits this build to fight more than one mob at a time so pull with avenger's shield (it will hit up to 3) and judge your main target with seal of the crusader. Pop holy shield and seal of vindication and consecrate liberally. Make your party wait for a 2 stack of vindication before going to town and then you play the watch the cooldowns game: holyshield, judge, vindication, consecrate, and repeat. Because you have more than one target on you reckoning will proc a lot giving every you extra attacks, and helping your threat. The drawback to this type of tanking is that because your high threat move (holy shield) results from the monster attacking you not vice versa you can be up shit creak if you loose aggro or if your party is a little over zealous at the start of a fight.
"Retrib (Retnoob)" - BUILDLINK
Description - DPS? as a paladin? SURE :D WHY NOT!!! This tree has seen a lot of love in the last half a year from patches and itemization. Roo and I fought a duo of retrib pallies in the arena last week and were convinced that one of them was a rogue . . . yeah its pretty respectable damage. Healing aint this builds forte but there is nothing to stop it from lending a hand here in and there. The 41 point talent has added benefit in that it refreshes all judgements on that target, and when I say all I mean the judgements of any other pally that might be judging on it. This means if you have a healing pally with you who has run in and judged wisdom on the target to help the group regen mana, YOU can keep it and your own seal up for the entire fight through crusader strike where it would have only gotten 10 seconds of life otherwise. Also the improved sanctity aura and seal of the crusader make give added group functionality with 2% increased damage and 3% crit.
Gear- Get yourself a slow (3.0 second or higher) 2H weapon, and stack strength and melee crit. A handfull of pally specific pieces and dps warrior gear will suit you fine with this build.
Stat priority list- Strength, Int, Stam, Melee crit, mana/5, spell damage, AP, spell crit, spirit
Playstyle- Bless yourself with Might, and be sure righteous fury is OFF. Run in and judge improved crusader, open up seal of command, crusader strike and judge every time they are up. Consecrate isn't mana efficient when not getting spam healed and your lack of spell damage gear will make it a poor return on investment. Heal your friends when they need it and intercept the baddies on the way to your squishy compadres with your taunt or a well timed blessing of protection.
-- "Pallies is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one judgement. Yours." -Uther Lightbringer
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