Since coming back to the game I’ve really struggled to pick my main. I’ve been drawn to both monk and pally because they can fulfill all roles and, unlike Druid, I can see my mog. The forms are a main reason I’ve never been able to get into Druid.
Anyways… I am highly leaning towards pally. All three specs are relatively fun and seem to be decent in m+ and casual PvP which is really the only content I do.
I know this is the Paladin forum, but would you all choose pally over monk? Does pally get boring long term?
Of the 2 monk or paladin I would lean more into paladin for your choice of game modes: m+ and casual pvp.
I don’t pvp but m+ alone paladin is and has been historically better than monk.
Mostly it’s holy paladin that’ll end up being the best spec for paladin keys (s3 bfa or whenever glimmer of light was introduced, s1, s2 of SL because of ashen hallow even without ashen hallow kyrian hpal was still good just less damage, s2 DF) prot paladin has had its moments but not as often as holy.
Monks spec that normally is bis for m+ is WW and sometimes brew.
So I guess of the 2 classes, historically speaking would you rather play paladin and get easy invites as holy and maybe prot?
Or go monk and get invites as WW and brew? (Dps spec being in the meta is not an easy thing to come by so I wouldn’t rely on it too much)
P.S. ret changes this expansion made the spec a lot more fun imo and super easy to pick up and go but it’s still a paladin and most of the time there are better dps options especially when prot or holy are meta
With all that being said I tried not to sound bias.
I’ve recently started messing around on a brew monk and it’s very fun more fun than I expected WW as well
For me - paladin is better because of great armor sets, and big 2 hander wielding feeling. It’s closer to a traditional RPG warrior archetype. I think the spells also look more fun on paladin, as well as sounds. It’s also convenient in all forms of content.
I’ve been a paladin main since vanilla, so I’m biased, but my personal opinion tl;dr
Paladins have had a lot more work put into them recently by the dev team.
A) Retribution Paladins are much easier to play than Windwalker Monks, without being boring. Ret Paladins are firmly mid-range now, giving them tons of options for positioning and movement, while retaining the fun and feel of a melee class.
B) Holy Paladins are extremely fun and intuitive right now compared to Mistweaver, and thanks to the rework are no longer stuck directly in melee range at all times to heal. They still count as a melee spec, but like Retribution you have incredible freedom to position yourself as needed and, thanks to their kit filled with instants, you are an extremely mobile healer most of the time as well. They also have a large kit of smaller cooldowns that can be rotated through for any situation or damage profile.
C) Protection Paladin is much more straightforward to play than Brewmaster, but still incredibly fun and very competitive. Hasn’t seen any kind of huge rework, but that’s because it already works pretty well.
Paladins of all three specs have SIGNIFICANTLY more utility than Monks of any spec. Despite the recent nerfs to tank and dps off-healing abilities, Prot and Ret Paladins can still lay down some emergency bomb heals when needed. All paladins have access to strong, instant Word of Glories, Lay on Hands, Blessing of Sacrifice, Blessing of Protection, and Cleanse. A DPS or tank bringing these abilities to M+ especially is incredible utility that many classes have to rely on a healer for.
Even outside of direct healing abilities (flash of light, word of glory) all paladins have significant self-sustain and survival cooldowns that are almost always ready when you need them. Ret and Holy Paladins are relatively extremely tanky for dps/healing specs.
Prot is really fun, it’s not the peak meta but it’s really fun and its pretty good.
Ret however, is extremely fun and I love it. I haven’t enjoyed a dps as much as ret in years. It’s easy, strong, and feels impactful, the aoe is solid and you’re actually very sturdy as a dps, I would debate even that ret paladins are the beefiest dps spec, with great armor, defensives, self healing. It’s really just great. 10.0.7 really did ret justice.
Short term, all 3 specs are competitive, and more importantly to me, wicked fun. I mostly tank and heal, but with DF dropped healing. But in 10.1.5 starting healing again with Holy. And yup…its a blast. It feels like they finally got the playstyle right.
Prot has been consistently strong expansion after expansion since TBC. Maybe not always meta, but also strong and fun.
Ret has finally got me interested in DPS. And yup, fun.
As mentioned, long term paladin has been pretty consistent. Prot and Holy have generally been in pretty good positions. Ret will wax and wane a bit, so if you are looking to just DPS, may want to look elsewhere like a pure dps spec.
Thematically, I love em. Good mogs options. Pretty fun visuals.
pal is the best class. all 3 specs are king. you just can’t give up the utility man. but importantly it’s what you have fun with pls remember
fun > all else
As for monks I have done keys on both KSH and KSM for the seasons of DF and also on multiple toons,. I really cannot recall that last time I ever saw a monk DPS in any one of my keys. Ive seen a few as tanks, a couple as heals but never ran into any as DPS yet and as for high end PvP, they are not common there much either. Pallies though… much better at it.
Monks are the least played class in the game. There’s a reason for that.
This may seem biased but as someone whos played both my main has become my Pally for so many reasons. I feel so spoiled with Ret that I cant even enjoy my alts anymore half the time. Melee class but your range lets you be outside certain things like the Warscourge’s Ragestorm in Brackenhide. Incredibly tanky for a dps class I rarely die unless tank goes down or I goof. Self heals are great, Word of glory does great side heals to help your healer out. You got B rez, you can handle all affixes, Clense, 1 min burst, just so much I could go on and on. This is from a pve standpoint as Ive not pvped this season.
WW has consistently outperformed ret until very recently. Monk is the least overall class played, for a multitude of reasons, but insinuating that ret historically outperformed WW is disingenuous at best.
And as for pvp, Chunli has been playing his WW in the Arena Cups for years. Again, until recently you never saw rets run in any cups.
