I am having a hard time deciding which class to start maining. Ive been a DK main since Legion and want to change now. I am between Shaman and Paladin. I plan to do Normal raids, lower keys, rep grind and solo old content for transmog and mounts. I dont care for tanking, I barely used Blood on my DK. I do want to learn to heal. If I had a tank spec, I would gear it for the sake of gearing it but I probably wouldnt use it anyways. I enjoy Ret and Enh. Havent really tried Ele because I dont normally play casters.
Help me decide. Let me know what the pros and cons are of the classes. Im going to be going as either a Draenei Shaman or a Lightforged Draenei Paladin if that helps.
There was something I didn’t like about Holy Paladin. I LOVE Disc Priest playstyle but something about dpsing on Holy Pal to heal efficiently wasn’t appealing to me. Shaman is maybe not #1 on the Mythic + high-tier leaderboards but they’re very good and it was surprising just how in-demand lust is. Ret is arguably always going to be better than Enh so if you’re committed to a good melee, Ret is probably safer (CERTAINLY in PvP) but Enh is flashier.
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If you play paladin they wont want you to tank anyway. All i see is paladins being ushered into healing roles.
Paladin is less likely to be neglected by Blizz so I’d go with that one.
Based on the most important factor, transmog, I’d say that Alliance Shaman have the short end of the stick. Many transmog options look good on Horde Shaman, but look odd or out of place on Alliance Shaman.
Just my depreciated 2 cents. 
If you like dying, shaman is an excellent choice
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Shaman is the answer, lots of fun at max level, elemental just feels nice to play
Do you prefer a complex class or simpler class?
This video is a meme but it shows you the greatest feeling of being a Paladin
Nothing better than a Paladin
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I was literally going to say the same thing.
I love paladins defensives/utility/healing but having to close range dps to heal effectively at all was just way too jarring for me and I ultimately moved away from paladin. That said though I loved ret, and protection is also great fun if you tank.
Shaman healing is great fun especially because their dps rotation is so nice to use in between healing and I love the effects of all their spells. Their raid wide heals aren’t as exciting to use (I’m a sucker for holy preists mega raid heals) but they are good, and their utility/mobility is just amazing. I love elemental as well especially since they got sizably buffed, and enhancement is great fun if you like melee.
There are a few things I’ll point out from my experience with both class
Sham (mail wearers) have the worst mogs in the game by a huge margin, you’ll most likely end up using an eon old slutmog.
Ret is among the most boring rotations in the game and feels awful outside of pvp
For heal I would recommend resto rather than hpal awkward melee heal hybrid
if you want resto or elemental shaman will be fine if you want melee stay away we ain’t looking good for new patch. honestly i would pick pally i love prot and ret always seems to be good in something as well as hpally.
Paladin seem to be a better fit for your needs. Even if you don’t want to play it in groups, Prot Paladins are gods at soloing. All specs are good solo.
Shaman shine a lot more in group play, the larger scale the better usually.
Paladin’s defensive kit is also easier to use, its almost entirely comprised of “get out of jail” that can be used reactively with no penalty while Shamans need to play proactively (hence the memes about them being “squishy”).
I don’t know if it’s important to you, but shamans have a lot more fun TG powers than pally imo. Not only fun, but really good, too. Out of all the level 60s I have played in SL shaman has definitely been the king of TG. I’ve heard others say the same thing.
I mained resto shaman in 9.0 and was strongly considering maining either MW, holy pally or resto druid in 9.1. In the end I decided to go with shaman again. I pugged my way to KSM and I really think hero helped me get into groups. Plus the utility is nice. After having an interrupt for so long it’s hard to live without one. Cap totem is damn useful.
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i used to pvp as a holy paladin. as battlefield healers they are great because in between healling you can actually dish out some damage. i think it was holy shock or something like that? idk its been awhile but i remember holy paladin actually being able to wreck people. i have not tried it in a while tho so things are probably different now. you know how blizzard feels about us actually having fun.
Thank you everybody for the responses. I decided I am going to go Shaman.
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