So I made a Paladin when the Classic Fresh Anniversary era servers came out with my primary intention being PvP. Figured I’d focus on healing for PvE and hopefully get some decent pieces come Phase 2 when BG’s and the honor system came out. Everything was going fine up until around level 32. Then it came time to run Scarlet Monastery to get the borderline essential melee leveling gear. I was up to probably 40g at this point with plans to get 10g more and get dual spec at 40 since I didn’t need to spend a small fortune on my mount like other classes. That’s when I started encountering what I’ll call “The Optimizers”.
Finding a tank right now is hard enough. So I thought if I respec’d to prot, or I guess “defensive holy” I could grab Consecration and just dungeon grind SM as a tank. That was a waste of about 8g for a couple reasons. The first being that Paladins don’t seem capable of holding aggro for crap, and the lack of a dedicated taunt button is just a big “wtf was Blizzard thinking?” moment. Secondly, everybody wants to do Spellcleaves or Meleecleaves which you don’t really need a dedicated tank for. So I respec’d back to Ret figuring that I’d at least be able to do SOMETHING, even if it was just marginal dps. Was still better than that abomination that was prot tanking.
After being either completely ignored or just outright kicked out of groups for being a Retribution Paladin I said screw it I’ll respec yet again and try just going full Holy like everybody says I should and just dungeon heal my way to 60. So that’s what I did. I respec’d Holy and dear mother of God everyone and their grandma is a healer this time around for some reason. When I look in the new Group Finder tool I see like 90% healer Priests, then maybe 10% anything else. That’s providing anybody even uses that LFG tool to begin with as it seems like most people prefer to stick to the chat channel-based LFG system. Despite the fact that everybody keeps telling me that Holy Paladins are supposedly goated healers because a Priest bubble is infinitely more valuable in a cleave group than a Holy spec’d Paladin. One spell is better than all of what I am. And despite stating in the LFG tool and chat channels that I’m a full spec Holy Paladin, before I’m invited to group or after I’m invited I get asked “You gonna be rolling on the melee stuff?” and if I say yes I get kicked, if I say no they don’t believe me and I get kicked.
Everybody talks about how great the classic wow community is. Yeah sure, they’re nice if you are playing a meta class. If you’re not though you can go screw yourself apparently. I mean I even stopped buffing people I see out questing or reviving people I saw die out in the zones simply because when I buff someone like a Mage or Priest and don’t get int/fort back and I message them something snarky like “thanks for the buff.” I actually get told “Why does a Paladin need an Int buff just to auto attack? LOL” and crap like that, or I’m told that reviving people is the only thing I’m good for until 60 so I don’t deserve a thanks for doing my job.
Rolling a Paladin has been the biggest mistake I’ve made in this game in a very long time, and quite honestly kills my motivation to log on anymore. I sit AFK in Stormwind on my Paladin most of the time contemplating whether or not I wanna level a different class but then I think of how far behind everyone I know I’ll be so I commit myself to leveling the Paladin, then find I just sit in Stormwind all day as Holy Paladin just dreading having to attempt to jump into the dungeon pool again. I don’t like feeling worthless or being angry, but that’s all the people I interact with make me feel for being a Paladin. Even the people in my own guild don’t respect me for being a Paladin, constantly being the “but” of their jokes.
Meh, not really. They are OK at tanking some things, like the undead dungeons (Scholomane/Stratholme UD), but for AoE Raid tanking, GBoK spam with enough warriors or mages to cast on isn’t super reliable, imo. I’d still much, much rather tank on a warrior.
Not to mention, Paladins just aren’t tanky. Specc’ing into prot doesn’t help that that much.
Yeah, you can ret tank leveling instances good enough with a melee cleave, or maybe even tank for a spell cleave, where everyone is drinking at the same time.
I think that while paladins are super fun to play for people who like the playstyle, there’s another type of player that seems attracted to them, and that’s the type who is just looking to complain. That’s sort of how I see the OP, but I don’t want to cast judgement too quickly.
What server are you on? On the pvp server there has only been 1 instance where i listed myself on lfg and had to wait like 5 minutes max, and i am healer main this go around. Usually it is instant invites.
Go back to tanking, and have a little more confidence in yourself. If you’re not confident AoE tanking, set kill priorities and tell then to single target only. If they pull aggro, let the DPS die until they get the message.
You said it yourself, there’s a dirth of tanks. You can throw your weight around a bit.
Warriors have a far tougher time leveling because they are far more gear dependent than Paladins. I assume you were getting kicked/refused entry into the group by the Warrior tank for fear of loot competition and he’s totally right to do so. I do the same thing. It’s far easier to just avoid playing with Paladins altogether and grab a Priest or Druid, of which there are plenty of.
Suck it up princess. That’s the game. Go play SoD or reroll if you don’t like it.
You try having Consecration + RF hold aggro through a Mages Blizzard. Join a group that has two Mages, a Warrior and a Hunter and record yourself not losing aggro on any of the mobs you pull. And do it at level, not 10-15 levels higher than the dungeon. Record yourself doing it and link me. Go on, I’ll wait.
.
Well I’ll be. You managed to craft a sentence where no matter how I choose to answer you’re gonna be able to go “See? Told you.”. Good job there, sport.
Went the PvE one since I didn’t feel like being camped to oblivion during the leveling process.
My one saving grace being a Paladin is knowing that because there are just SO many Warriors this time around because everybody wants to be the “Big Damage Hero” is that the vast majority of you gear-fearing fledgelings are gonna have to fight against 3/4th’s of your raid group for gear.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m not trying to say “See? Told you.” I’m trying to be that voice that says it how it is. That says it’s OK to play something else, if this isn’t what you like, rather than try to gaslight you into thinking that paladins are something they are not in WoW Classic.
I mean, I actually enjoy paladin playstyle. And I could say something like, “It gets better,” but it doesn’t. If you don’t like the roles that the class you are playing fills, or how it fills them, then remember, it’s a game. Just simply play something else.
Of course, if you just want to complain, then There, there. I hear you.
He made a thread asking for “the truth” about Paladins and spent the better part of ~100 posts or so just railing against any kind of advice he got that wasn’t reinforcing what he wanted to do which was play ret in raids to get gear to go pvp
The guys a total clown
what’s with the glut of healers