Holy Paladin Leveling Guide - Bright Hub

With the release of the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, there have been numerous class changes. Holy Paladins have been affected by these changes in a positive way. The addition of the Holy Power system, along with a host of new spells and abilities can make the Holy Paladin a bit confusing. These changes also make the Holy Paladin one of the most powerful single target, tank healers in the game. The Holy Paladin is not a solo class. That said, this guide will center around maximizing your healing in a group setting. Whether you decide to join a party exploring a dungeon or one defending its borders, you will be ready to keep your teammates alive and well.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/video-games/pc/articles/103016.aspx#ixzz1BDP2nTK4

Leveling a Protection Paladin- Bright Hub

How to Spec your World of Warcraft Protection Paladin to best level in Cataclysm is an oft asked question with the recent release of the new expansion. The cookie cutter Protection Paladin spec has we had all grown to love has been changed by Cataclysm. The best spec to level your new WoW Protection Paladin relies on a few new abilities. These abilities revolve around building and using Holy Power. Fear not though...

Read more: Protection Paladin Leveling Guide

Cataclysm Protection Paladin Reforge Priority

With the removal of Defense on Cataclysm gear, the new goal for your Protection Paladin is to reach 102.4% combined avoidance and mitigation. Though I do not believe this has been attained by anyone yet, here are the basics to get you started.

You want to reach 102.4% avoidance and mitigation by combining

• 5% base chance to miss


• % chance to parry


• % chance to dodge


• % chance to block

Stack parry rating up to 21.21% and dodge rating up to 21.6% (931 rating for both stats).   Dodge and parry are our most effective ratings up to this point.  After this reforge excess parry and dodge into mastery rating until you reach 102.4% combined avoidance and mitigation.  You can check your character sheet and add these yourself or use this easy macro in game for a periodic one-click check:

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 combat table coverage. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance() +5))

You want to reach your Expertise and Hit caps, which should come with gear (and by glyphing Seal of Truth).  Besides these you can follow 5 easy Reforging rules to start capping your Paladin avoidance and mitigation.

1. Mastery + Dodge/Parry = perfect, don't touch


2. Mastery + Hit/Exp = reforge Hit/Exp into Dodge/Parry, whichever is lower


3. Mastery + Haste/Crit = same as #2, but you'll piss off the DPS rolling on it.


4. Dodge + Parry = reforge more numerous stat into


5. MasteryDodge/Parry + Hit/Exp = reforge Hit/Exp into Mastery

This should help you start getting your gear ready for 5 man regular and heroics.  Good hunting!

Chosen AoE Tanking

Wondering how the new changes will affect this guide, but so far it is an amazing farming spec. It will also allow you to off tank well and main tank some smaller jobs.

I have found Warhammer Chosen make quite good AoE tanks. You can start this around level 15. You can do it well in groups around level 20 once you receive your AoE taunt. At 25 it really starts to shine. I'll try to point out the best talents I've found at each level (15, 20, 25). This is as far as I've made it so far. I do this mainly in between Scenarios, AoE grinding PQ/Kill task mobs when I can for good XP.

It is important to take Apothecary and Scavenging as your skills. This will allow you to make Thorn Potions and HoT Potions. Use the highest level you can make at the time. Here is a good Google spreadsheet I found with recipe/formula info Apothecary. The Thorn potion should always be up. The HoT potions are just in case, I usually don't need them.

You will be stacking Toughness, Wounds, and Armor gear. You are not worried about Strength for your melee damage as we are more concerned with the mobs beating themselves to death on us.

As far as attacks I am usually lazy. I cycle through the targets reapplying Seeping Wound until they are dead. You can be more involved than this if you want.

My career points I went straight up the Corruption tree and am now bringing up Dread. I have no idea if this is a good idea at this point. It does increase the potency of most of the skills I use to AoE Tank. I guess we'll see.

Level 15
Tanking 3-4 melee mobs at a time
Warped Flesh.
This will proc constantly and absorb damage.
Shield Wall
Not a necessity, but can help offset all damage for 10 seconds while you pop a HoT potion.
Corrupting Wrath
Just run this toughness aura for now.

Level 20
Tanking 6-8 melee mobs at a time
Raze
Your new Tier 2 Morale ability (replaces Shield Wall). This will hit all mobs in front of you for 300 every second for 3 seconds. With alot beating on you its usable every 60 seconds.
Chaotic Advantage This is your 2nd career tactic until we change it in a few levels. Just helps to build action points as you will parry quite a bit.
You also have a few new abilities:
Blast Wave
More AoE Damage. Hit it every time it refreshes.
Corrupting Retribution
Your self HoT Aura to help keep you alive. Run this instead of your toughness aura, unless you like twisting. Ideally twist them both.
Challenge
Only when grouped or to help solo pull. Your AoE taunt.

Level 25
Tanking 6-10 melee mobs at a time, maybe more
Dreadful Agony
This is your AoE damage aura. You should now be twisting it with Corrupting Retribution and Corrupting Wrath. At the minimum twist this with your heal Aura.
Backlash
This will now fill your 2nd career tactic (replacing Chaotic Advantage) causing a DoT on any enemy that hits you. You can actually change this when you get it at 23.

Level 35-40
Tanking anywhere from 10-25 equal level mobs depending on type.
I've added these, buy it is more speculation at this point. Bane shield is an excellent source of AoE DPS, but I am not sure if Baneful Shielding is worth the Tactic slot.
Bane Shield
Baneful Shielding
These two together seem powerful.
I also like these as your 3rd and 4th Tactic slot:
Chaotic Advantage
Mixed Defenses
These two together should keep your Action Points almost full from parrying so much.

If anyone has ideas, comments, or experience with AoE tanking please leave your comments so I can try them out. I am by no means an expert. This is just info I have learned as I played around with AoE farming PQ xp in between scenarios. For some reason this play style intrigues me. Remember that melee mobs are easier. Ranged mobs can be a pain unless you have a spot to get out of Line of Sight, and can then pull them to you. Don't ask me why, but I enjoy making huge pulls and watching the damage numbers fly

Choppa AoE guide

Where to grind (general info):

This is the same general info from my Chosen AoE guide, but it should be repeated here. For the best xp find a PQ filled with kill task mobs. If you can find them they should be your level or one higher, lower than that and you should be looking for a new spot. Caster mobs are nice to round up if you can pull them around a corner out of LoS to stack them. If they are melee then just make sure they don't stun/knockdown/disarm/etc. If you can't find a PQ/kill task spot, then just agood fast spawn of kill task mobs. If you can't find these then just a good concentrated spot of anything.

Basic Spec:

Dual Wield. Parry is your friend , the increase in damage from a two hander will not out weigh the lost 10% parry when it comes to AoE grinding.

Spec straight up the Wrecka tree. Get Longer and Stronger, Extra Choppin, and Get to Da Choppa (for some AoE CC when you need a breather).

Tactics:These are no brainers and pretty much cookie cutter by now, but here you go...
Longer & Stronger (heal tick) ( if you have a healer add in another damage tactic instead)
Extra Choppin' (up to nine targets for Lotsa)
Brute Force (added str)
Easy Killin' (Reduced AP cost when raged)

Strategy:

• At low levels use the good 'ol body pull. At higher levels you can pull with your Frontal Cone dot.


• At low level just spam Lotsa Choppin.


• Don't bother using your using exhaustion attacks. You want to keep up your max damage, plus I believe it will stop your heal tick. As long as you are not over pulling the damage + heal outweigh the loss in armor.


• Use you T1 shield morale every time it pops.


• Use heal pots when you need to reduce downtime.


• Use Thorn pots for the added damage.


• Keep the mobs dotted, if the run they should die.


• Run Hurtin Time, it deals good damage when AoE pulling and will enhance your kill speed.


• Don't get greedy. If you over pull and die then you lose time and therefore efficiency.


• AP regen gear or a guild standard with AP regen is always helpful if you have acess to them.

There is a lot of personal preference that can change this info. You may pick up certain skills depending on whether you are grinding straight thru or doing some RvR along the way. But this should give you the basics to get you started.

New Pally Tank Blog - ByBaylor.com

ByBaylor.com tags itself as the blog for Pally tanking for random heroics.  There is a ton of useful information.  It covers boss and trash mob tips, gold farming instances, gearing your Pally, and general Pally info for all three trees (Prot, Ret and Holy).

He uses a good combination of articles and videos to show the strengths and how-to's of Pally tanking.  Here's a brief sample of how to use Judgements for chain pulling in Nexus.



So make sure you check out the site, you won't be disappointed.

Paladin Powerleveling with RAF

Here is a list of instances you can powerlevel guildies or Recruit-A-Friend accounts.  The 300% XP bonus from the RAF accounts will allow you to level from 1-60 in one (very long) day.  This is by no means set in stone, they are only recommendations.   A lot of the instances overlap, some are more PL friendly than others (SM Cath is heaven). There are others, but this should get you started.  These should work for any class that is able to lay down respectable AoE.

Levels	Alliance	Horde
1-10	Quest	Quest
8-14		Ragefire Chasm
10-15	Deadmines
14-19		Wailing Caverns
15-25	Stockades
19-25		Razorfen Kraul
25-42	Scarlet Monastery	Scarlet Monastery
40-50	Sunken Temple	Sunken Temple
42-52	Zul'Farrak	Zul'Farrak
50-55	Statholme	Statholme
52-56	Blackrock Depths	Blackrock Depths
55-60	Hellfire Ramparts	Hellfire Ramparts

If you have any others that work really well let us know!

How To Gear Your Level 80 Tank

The following is an excerpt from Maintankadin for  gearing with patch 3.3

You can read the full post by yappo with all the goodies here.

"Gearing fully according to this list should have the tank ready to run ToC 25 as well as ICC 10. However, I'll need input on ICC 10 and if a tank geared this way could possibly do ICC 25 as well.

The premise is to gear up a tank by farming heroics without relying on a single drop. However, I'll still assume that drops from normal mode instances have a 100% availability because they can be reset and reentered immediately.

For simplicity's sake we could assume the paladin runs the daily quests and the daily random heroic for a net value of 150 gold a day. After all we want to be exalted with Hodir, and if RNG hates us we need to run the AT dailies for a tanking weapon. The reason I have increased the amount by 50 gold daily compared with the 3.2 guide is that each random heroic awards gold for completion.

This way gemming, enchants and bought craftables can be weighed against the effort needed. For example, the craftable ilevel 245 chest would be out of the question as the first slot geared, but Titansteel Shieldwall should be considered an early buy.

The realistic approach, however, is probably to have your naked tank run the first 20 - 30 heroics as dps if you want to argue that a naked tank tanks nothing. This way we ensure that the perceived inability to get tanking gear without tanking remains a myth.

Assumptions:
Tank generates a surplus of 150 gold per day played by means of dailies done and vendor-trash.
Tank generates 22 emblems of triumph per day played (four random heroics).
Tank generates 2 emblems of frost per day played (first daily random heroic).

There is no inherent order between weeks a such. They're only there to visualize what you get for seven days worth of grinding following the schedule above. For each week I have summed up the cost in emblems out of of the 154 (7 X 22) available.

Week: 1
ilevel 245 [Headplate of the Honorbound] / [Faceplate of the Honorbound], 75 emblems
ilevel 232 [Liadrin's Breastplate of Conquest] / [Turalyon's Breastplate of Triumph], 50 emblems
ilevel 226 [Libram of the Sacred Shield], 19 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Conquest

144 emblems of 154 used

Week 2:
ilevel 226 [Shard of the Crystal Forest] (neck), 19 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Conquest
ilevel 232 [Liadrin's Legguards of Conquest] / [Turalyon's Legguards of Conquest], 50 emblems
ilevel 232 [Liadrin's Handguards of Conquest] / [Turalyon's Handguards of Conquest], 30 emblems
ilevel 226 [Shieldwarder Girdle], 28 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Conquest

127 emblems of 154 used

Week 3:
ilevel 213 [Bracers of Dalaran's Parapet], 60 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Valor
ilevel 200 [Axe of the Senjin Protector]/[Teldrassil Protector], 25 Champion's Seal from AT dailies
ilevel 245 [Shoulderguards of the Enduring Order]/[Shoulderplates of Enduring Order], 45 emblems
ilevel 213 [Signet of the Impregnable Fortress] (ring), 25 downgraded to Emblems of Valor
ilevel 245 [Glyph of Indomitability], 35 emblems

165 emblems of 154 used

Week 4:

ilevel 245 [Clutch of Fortification], 35 emblems
ilevel 213 [Kyzoc's Ground Stompers], 40 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Valor
ilevel 213 [Platinum Mesh Cloak], 25 emblems downgraded to Emblems of Valor

100 emblems of 154 used

After week four we're lacking a shield and a trinket.

Trial of the Champion on normal five man difficulty drops the following:
ilevel 200 [Boots of Heartfelt Repentance]
ilevel 200 [Mercy's Hold] (hands)
ilevel 200 [Legguards of Abandoned Fealty]
ilevel 200 [Girdle of the Pallid Knight]
ilevel 200 [The Black Heart] (trinket)

Forge of Souls, normal difficulty drops:
ilevel 219 [Lucky Old Sun]
ilevel 219 [Legplates of Frozen Granite]
ilevel 219 [Sollerets of Suffering]

Pits of Saron, normal difficulty drops:
ilevel 219 [Titanium Links of Lore]
ilevel 219 [Scourgelord's Frigid Chestplate]

Halls of Reflection, normal diffuculty drops:
ilevel 219 [Eerie Runeblade Polisher]
ilevel 219 [Splintered Door of the Citadel]
ilevel 219 [Crystalline Citadel Gauntlets]

These instances are included because you can clear it, exit, reset, enter, clear it...

Of the items in these instances we want The Black Heart (trinket), Splintered Door of the Citadel (shield), Eerie Runeblade Polisher (cloak) and Lucky Old Sun (weapon).
Black Heart and Door because we lack one shield and one trinket in the emblem list, and the cloak and weapon because they are arguably better than what's available from emblems."

Maintankadin, 2010

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