How to PvP as Paladin

[DeadlySpeed]

Hey,


Cause paladin can almost beat every class, i decided to google a guide and build so here you go:



By:
Dave Opdyke (Gallek)
Let me start by saying that there are a lot of misconceptions as to the role of a Paladin in PvP. When people think of Paladins in PvP, they think of a weak warrior that does nothing but melee, but there is so much more to the class. I’ll discuss PvP as both a Holy Spec and a Ret Spec, and the relevant gear for each, as well as some general tips, and recommendations for User Interface Modifications.
PvP as a Holy Spec:
Holy Spec Paladins require the correct gear style to really be most effective. Holy Shock becomes the bread and butter of any offensive Holy-spec spell casting. When I was Holy Spec and PvP’ing, I found that around 300 spell damage was a sufficient amount to make many of my spells crit for around 1000, and of course this is not mitigated by armor. Depending on your guild and raid progression, places like Zul’Gurub can be excellent sources of Spell Damage items, such as the BloodCaller off of Hakkar. At the same time, being holy spec, you do not want to limit the other roles that you can perform. You’ll be one of the best healing options for any group in Warsong Gulch. Being able to cast almost un-interruptedly with Spiritual Focus (Talent) and Concentration Aura makes for excellent heals, even when under pressure. Cleanse is even more powerful in PvP because of its multiple spell types covered in a single cleanse. If you can understand the balance between using Flash of Light for fast, efficient healing, and Holy Light, when you have the time to cast and need to land a big heals, you’ll be invaluable to your teams’ success.
PvP as a Ret Spec:
This was a very different build for me. As a primary healer in raid environments, the biggest change was the gear requirements. Paladins must have Attack Power, Agility, and Crit to really be effective. Don’t be afraid to use blues like Blackhands Breadth in place of your healing trinkets in this spec, because you’ll want to have Vengeance up as much as possible. Repentance (31 Point Talent) is a great spell interrupter, and you’ll want to make sure that you always have that and Hammer of Justice ready against offensive spell casters. I prefer Seal of Command with 2-H weapons with this spec, as you’re only like to burst someone down if you can mix Vengeance, Seal of Command Crits, and Judgments of Command. Paladins are all about attrition with this spec, and will want to manage their Mana efficiently. Sometimes, being able to Stun and Heal, or cast Repentance and Heal will turn the tide in the battles, so managing your cool downs is of the utmost importance.
So what Blessings should I use?
Each Blessing has its own unique purpose:
Blessing of Wisdom and Might are both fairly straightforward. If you need that extra mana regeneration to last through a longer fight, use Blessing of Wisdom. If you feel like you can DPS someone down with that extra attack power boost, certainly use that. Remember, in either Holy or Ret spec, you’ll be improving these blessings through talents, so take advantage of what you’ve spent points in.
Blessing of Freedom is our bread and butter. Especially when you’re with a flag carrier, Blessing of Freedom can be what makes the difference. This will clear nearly every moving impairing effect, and will allow a Druid, for instance, to be able to travel safely away from a battle in travel form. Remember, this Blessing wipes any previous blessing that you have on the target, and it only lasts 15 seconds, so be prepared to Re-bless when needed.
Blessing of Sacrifice is maybe the most underused Blessing that we have in PvP. If you are with a group, casting Blessing of Sacrifice will not only help take the edge off of your primary damage takers, but will keep you from being Crowd Controlled. If a Mage polymorphs you, and then hits the target you have Blessing of Sacrifice on, the damage that you take from your Blessing target will break the sheep. Many times, this will also break Fear within a few ticks, and seduction. This can be invaluable in groups, as you’ll render almost all forms of Crowd Control completely null and void.
So when should I use Divine Shield?
This is maybe the single more misunderstood ability that Paladins have. In group PvP, Divine Shield is more than a tool to avoid direct deaths. Divine Shield is often most useful when you cast it to remove debuffs, such as Mind Control or Polymorph. Remember, it can also remove all forms of player casted debuffs, so often times you can allow the competition to unload on you, and divine shield to force their attention elsewhere. Also remember, for the duration of the shield, you’re invulnerable and not losing health. Many times, it’s better to heal others while Divine Shield starts and they’re taking damage, and then heal yourself near the end of the effect, right before you’re vulnerable.
Other miscellaneous tips!
Divine Favor, which is a guaranteed crit, will also affect Holy Shock. If you have any trinkets you’d like to use, chaining the three can provide very high burst damage. In order, you’d want to cast the damage trinket, then divine favor, and then Holy Shock.
Remember, any Spell Damage trinkets also affect things like Consecration, and Judgment of Command. These trinkets often have a duration, rather than single spell, so make the best use of their entire duration, but do not dump mana unnecessarily.
Blessing of Protection will allow friendly spell casters to continue casting even when immune to physical attacks. Against a Warrior or Rogue, this will give a caster 12 seconds of complete invulnerability, and will save then cast time with no interruption. This ability can be dispelled, so make sure to keep an eye on all targets of Blessing of Protection.
Hybrid gear might give you flexibility, but it will not make you the most effective at specific roles. Getting healing and mana gear will make your Melee DPS significantly lower, while Attack Power and Critical Strike gear will make your healing much less, and severely limit your mana pool. Always make sure you have the gear in line with what you’d like to specialize in, and don’t be afraid to swap gear out constantly.
Suggested User Interface Mods
Holy Hope Mod:
This mod helps a Paladin maintain control over Judgments and Blessings in an easy to use Graphical Interface. It also has controls for summoning the Paladin mount.
Decursive:
This mod is a must have for any Paladin that PvP’s in groups. It will allow you to push one button, and the mod will target and cleanse any effected targets. It also gives a detailed list of who is debuffed, and gives options about priority and debuffs to ignore.
TheoryCraft:
This mod will calculate your damage and healing from spells based on your current gear. It will give you a fairly accurate reading of how often you will critical strike, and what your average hits would be. Very helpful when comparing gear and understanding how upgrades will affect your character.
Conclusion:
PvP as a Paladin can take on many forms. We are a hybrid class, and will be able to perform many roles. Paladins must make choices about what they are most comfortable doing, and tailor their spec and gear to that decision. Remember, you play your character, and you know your individual strengths and weaknesses so don’t be afraid to play your own way!


Builds:


PvP Healing Build

In the cutthroat environment of PvP, being mana-efficient is not as important. Rather, having high survivability while providing good healing to teammates becomes the top priority. Being able to wear plate armor as well as having various self-protection abilities make paladins good candidates for PvP healers. Talents that are useful for PvP healadins include Spiritual Focus, Unyielding Faith, Pure of Heart, Holy Shock, and Blessed Life.
Basic PvP Healing Build (35/0/0)
Beyond that foundation, PvP healing builds are split between Divine Purpose in the retribution tree, and Beacon of Light in the holy tree, which cannot both be acquired. Divine Purpose builds reward the Paladin with extra freedom from stuns and lots of extra Critical Strike chance, and can still reach high in the holy tree. Beacon of Light builds, on the other hand, favor going into the Protection tree for Improved Hammer of Justice, Guardian's Favor, and other non-healing tools.

PvP Deep Prot Healing Build

With the changes of 3.1 affecting the powerhouse of the 34/0/37 holy/ret build, a new PvP build has come forward to fill its shoes.
Deep Prot PvP Healing Build (18/53/0)
At first glance, this may seem like a very odd build to heal in, seeing as it skips over virtually all holy talents. However when one couples a full set of healing PvP gear with it's huge amounts of stamina and the large amount of free spell power from Guarded by the Light, as well as very large crit heals from Touched by the Light the healing potential of this build is quite high. It also has some very good utility in 20 second Hammer of Justice, ranged silence/daze in Avenger's Shield, reduced party/raid damage in Divine Sacrifice and 60 second Sacred Shield.
The loss of Holy Shock is significant in fights where spell lock out's are prevalent, however the VASTLY superior survivability allows the paladin to simply absorb the damage and keep going.
Glyph of Flash of Light, Glyph of Salvation, Glyph of Divine Plea complement this build well as you will be relying on large, frequent crits from Flash of Light with Sacred Shield as well as the survivability and damage reduction of the other two to outlast your opponents. Glyph of Judgement is useful to those wishing more burst, and Glyph of Hammer of Justice makes for a good choice for those teams lacking crowd controls.
Shockadin Build

Getting gear with spell critical strike rating improves this build's DPS, as it focuses on Holy Shock and Seal/Judgement of Righteousness for DPS while still being able to adequately support a team with healing and debuffing. Compared to Retribution builds, the DPS is relatively weak, though the ability to heal remains intact, even in raids and PvP encounters.
Basic Shockadin Build (35/0/0)
Many shockadins will go with a build that includes some important Retribution talents to further boost the holy damage they dish out.



PvP Protection Build

Protection Paladins have their advantages and disadvantages in PvP. They are by no means a raw DPS spec, there still are many ways to be useful in battleground based PvP. Most of the damage of protection paladins depends on reflective damage, which allows them to win easily against rogues, warriors, other paladins, and enhancement shamans. The disadvantages is, melee players have the option to retreat; however this may benefit the paladin if he is defending a specific location. Against casters or hunters, the chance to win is reduced.
Protection paladins are effective at tanking (multiple) bosses in Alterac Valley, holding the flag in Warsong Gulch or Eye of the Storm (because of their high survivability and Hand of Freedom), or defending bases in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley.
Protection paladin's excel at keeping allies alive, two important talents for this are Guardian's Favor, and Divine Sacrifice. Improved Hammer of Justice is also important for stunning enemies. With some of these a protection paladin and a caster(especially) can be a formidable team.



PvP Retribution Build

While most of the core talents of a PvE Retribution build is still useful for PvP, the PvP retribution paladins need several different talents to enhance their survivability from enemy players and help to defeat them. These include Vindication, Repentance, and Pursuit of Justice in the Retribution tree. Although PvE retribution paladins normally also have Repentance, it is only needed for them to get Fanaticism. However, it is a MUST for PvP retribution paladins by itself, no matter if you are going to get Fanaticism or not.

This PvP retribution build although odd in it's design makes for an awesome PvP ability. One of the First things you will notice is that more points are spent in protection. The reason for this is the enhanced survivability it provides. For instance, both Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian and even Improved Righteous Fury are now being used to take more damage. Also, Seal of Command is no longer used at all since Seal of Blood is now viable with the massive damage absorption from Sacred Shield. Another reason that Seal of Command has been ignored is due to it's proc rate being based on chance unlike Seal of Blood which procs on every melee strike. Swift Retribution has also been ignored in favour of Sanctified Wrath which improves the amount of damage done significantly.

PvP Retribution Build (Patch 3.1)
Using The Build
This PvP Build is strange in comparison to other PvP builds available and because of this knowing the right Auras, Buffs, Judgements and Seals to use is extremely important for it's success. Firstly make sure that you have on Blessing of Might, Retribution Aura and Righteous Fury. Righteous Fury should be used during PvP at all times but the paladin can easily change between blessings when needed. Next, the paladin should use Sacred Shield just before a fight or during. During combat Judgement of Light should be used whenever it's available as although Sacred Shield and Righteous Fury provide protection against damage from Seal of Blood and by other players, damage can still occur and the healing effects of Judgement of Light allow the paladin to continue fighting, shrugging off most attacks. Any other spell that the paladin wishes to use is fine, so long as they remember to judge regulary and to make sure that Sacred Shield is still running.

Judgement of Wisdom should be avoided unless the paladin is in desperate need of mana, mana consumption shouldn't be too great and it isn't really needed. If mana consumption is too high however, try switching the blessing to Wisdom instead or switching judgements. You may also consider getting Glyph of Divine Storm as the healing it provides in PvP is more than useful.

Useful Hammer of Wrath Macro
This Macro is extremely simple but extremely effective at the same time. All it does it macro Avenging Wrath and Hammer of Wrath together into single button press. Using it pops the paladins wings before throwing their hammer creating a large critical strike thanks to Sanctified Wrath. This macro can be edited to also use items not affected by the global cooldown.

#showtooltip Hammer of Wrath
/Cast Avenging Wrath
/Cast Hamemr of Wrath

[DutchNinja]

Ty mate! ur doing grate jobs for D3scene!

[Love]

good guide +rape (i mean rep) mate.
btw: any pally should know all about seals, blessings bla bla, i play holy pala since 3 years and i love it :x

[DeadlySpeed]

Well, Is there something wrong with my rep?
Cause i didn't receive rep =/

[krkkrk]

wow awesome tnx a lot bro

[Love]

oh maby i forgot,,,anyhow i ed now