WoW: Forever
Paladin
Paladin is a plate-wearing melee fighter that runs on mana, and it is no longer faction-locked — Undead Paladins are new in Forever, with their own class hub in Tirisfal Glades.
Which spec?
| Spec | Role | Levelling | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy | Healer | Viable, slow | Plate healer with the best buffs in the game, and now an area-heal capstone |
| Protection | Tank | Slower solo | The only tank that gears for Spell Power, because its threat is Holy damage |
| Retribution | Melee DPS | Best of the three | Two-hander plus Holy, and Holy Strike arrives at level 6 |
Retribution is the levelling answer and it is not close. Forever improved it more than any other spec by giving every Paladin Holy Strike at level 6 — twenty levels earlier than Classic gave you a button. Protection used to have dungeon levelling as its escape hatch; Forever cut dungeon experience, so that route is largely gone.
A warning that applies to two of the three specs: stale build lists still spend points on Crusade and Improved Holy Strike. Neither talent exists in the beta client — both were removed on 16 September without a Blizzard note, and builds containing them cannot be entered as printed.
Is Paladin for you?
Play Paladin if you want to be very hard to kill, to fill whichever role a group is short of, and you do not mind killing things slowly to get it.
Levelling milestones
| Level | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1 | Holy Light, Seal of Righteousness, Devotion Aura. Mail from level 1 |
| 4 | Judgement, Blessing of Might |
| 6 | Holy Strike, new in Forever — a real attack this early, and universally liked |
| 8 | Hammer of Justice |
| 10 | Lay on Hands (20 min, was an hour), Seal of Fury, new — the tank seal, and judging it taunts |
| 16 | Righteous Fury |
| 20 | Consecration is now trained for every spec (was a talent), Blessing of Kings now trained, Exorcism, Flash of Light, and Seal of Command via talent |
| 26 | Blessing of Salvation — now 1 hour, was 5 minutes |
| 30 | Divine Intervention, Holy Shock via talent — moved down from a 31-point capstone |
| 34 | Divine Shield — now −50% your damage, and applies Forbearance |
| 40 | Plate armour, Summon Warhorse, Hammer of the Righteous, new — needs a one-hander |
| 50 | Holy Wrath — now also stuns for 2 seconds |
| 52–60 | Greater Blessings — now 1 hour, so timers stop desyncing |
Blessing of Sanctuary is not in Forever, in either form.
Which race
Alliance — Human or Dwarf. Human's Sword Specialization is +2% crit to spells and abilities off a sword used purely as a stat stick, which is the largest weapon racial and feeds both gearing paths. Dwarf's Stoneform is a real solo cooldown.
Horde — Undead, and it is forced, being the only Horde Paladin. It is good anyway: Cannibalize now restores 35% health and mana, which on a mana-using melee class is close to a free recovery on every corpse.
Forever changed the answer outright — "Paladin is Alliance" is dead. Undead Paladins get their own hub at Bandarion Keep in the previously inaccessible Whispering Wood, Tirisfal Glades, and their own level 40 and 60 mount quests.
Quality of life
- Seals, Blessings and Auras are three separate always-on systems, and new players drop one. Set an aura and forget it. Keep a blessing on yourself. Keep a seal up always — and since Judgement no longer consumes your seal in Forever, there is no excuse for letting it lapse.
- Only one-handed maces are known by default. Every other weapon skill, including all two-handers, must be bought from a weapon master. Polearms from 20.
- Do the level-20 class quest — it rewards a deliberately over-budgeted weapon. Alliance get Verigan's Fist; Horde get a new Forsaken chain out of Bandarion Keep.
- Consecration at 20 changes the class from single-target to area-capable, and every spec now gets it. Budget mana for it.
What changed from Classic
| Change | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Judgement no longer consumes your seal | You stop re-casting after every Judgement. This is the most-discussed change in the beta |
| Consecration and Blessing of Kings trained at 20 | Every spec gets both, without spending talent points |
| Holy Strike at 6 and Seal of Fury at 10 | Two new baseline buttons inside the first ten levels |
| Blessings last 1 hour, Greater Blessings too | No more desynced buff timers |
| Seal of Command moved to Retribution tier 3 | Live at level 20 rather than as a 31-point capstone |
| Resistance auras are raid-wide | |
| Undead Paladins exist | With their own hub, quests and mounts |
At level 60
Unknown. No source publishes a Paladin build past 30, so whether Retribution's Seal of Command path or the new Spell Power path wins is untested — and two talents in the published level-30 builds do not exist in the current client, which is the clearest illustration of why those builds are projections. Raids open 9 December.