Paladin in Retail seeking reassurance for Classic

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
21

Just do what I did in vanilla WoW - create a ret paladin and create your own guild. Then you can do whatever the hell you want, because you run the show.

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22

That seems like something that would work on all versions of WOW. :smiley:

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23

I plan to do mainly dungeons, pvp and maybe some casual raiding. Seems like i should be accepted for 5 man tanking or ret without much issue. As for raids, most likely i will need to be holy. If they let me off tank or go ret, that’d be great.

I almost considered rolling a warrior due to how everyone seems to feel about paladins. Why not roll the only tank, one of the best dps and amazing pvp? However, i dont want to roll what 25% of the server is and prefer the paladin theme. I’ll make it work

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24

Just be the one Paladin who valiantly offers to spec into Protection for Blessing of Sanctuary. :wink:

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25

Pally of 14 years and here is how it goes mostly for the average gamer and guild: You can do ret or prot to 60 no issue since we aren’t the best 5 man healer or tank, but we do in a pinch with the right gear and skills. When you raid you will be a last choice for DPS or tanking if the guild is serious so do, so do holy and wear your dress. But if the guild is fine with slow progress and you are an active member you will be fine to join as Ret, especially if you are trying to gear for holy spec and aren’t expecting the weapons to go to you. Pally is fun but just accept back in vanilla we aren’t the best raid class, and with the bosses being so tough a lot of guilds will focus on getting the best mix if possible

26

There is a hybrid holy/prot spec that you could raid with that heals and tanks.
The idea is to pick up BoSanc and illumination so you can provide the buff if healing or use it if tanking.

something along the lines of https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/paladin/AzfQwAQ8k8NAAA with the extra points going wherever you feel will best help you.

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27

Roll a warrior and find an addon that puts “holy” or “light” in front of each of your abilities.

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28

For real, you can easily play ret and make it fun. You pretty much get hand of rag and Corrupted ashbringer. Plus, you will destroy every single rogue you come across and warlocks will be your dessert.

Everyone tells me the same thing about druid, im just going to prove them wrong! Believe it!

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29

Did you raid in Vanilla? Because most guilds had half their roster filled with people who were a hindrance (and it wasn’t due to class/spec). It didn’t stop guilds from raiding every week.

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30

Its amazing how wildly different perspectives can be.

On one hand we have those saying being ret in vanilla is fine.

On the other we have those for retail saying a spec doing 10% less damage than the best spec in the game is unacceptable trash and should never be used.

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31

Someone should tell him…

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You’re fine as long as your willing to be flexible in the roles you can do, as Paladins can be. Fortunately, having good offset gear resolves most of the issues, if say, you needed to heal for a fight.

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Yes, I did raid in vanilla.

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Unless you are the 1 in 1000 on your server or can talk a guild into carrying you, you are going to be a healer.

Protip: Date the guild leader. :grin:

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35

You most likely won’t be tanking anything. Your single target threat is too low, you have no tank gear from raids and you have a mana bar. Forget about tanking progression raids of any kind.

If you are a really good Ret you might get a spot. Paladins are pretty valuable and a utility DPS that can do all the Paladin stuff is nice.

On the bright side Paladins are the most annoying and sometimes pretty lethal class in the game in PVP.

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36

What a lot of people seem to miss when talking about weather or not Ret, Boomkin, Shadow Priest, or any of those hybrid dps specs, are able to raid. They forget that 40 people in a lot of people. There is going to be a lot of guilds that run into MC without a full raid. While you are never going to top dps as a Ret, you know what Ret does out dps? An empty raid spot.

If you don’t want to be in one of the top in guilds, you will be able to raid as Ret without many problems. Same goes for most other hybrid dps specs. Very few guilds are going to have so many people ready to raid that they have the luxury to pick and choose what they bring as dps.

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37

I wouldn’t listen to what “everyone” says. Ply you class well, gear well, show up on time and don’t be a drama queen in a raid and you should be able to find a raid group without much trouble in your desired spec. Don’t stand in the fire, etc.

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38

^ This also works :wink:

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39

Steel thy heart for it is a dark and unforgiving world, but should you follow the light you shall walk the path of righteousness.

When leveling up, you’ll find that you can safely tank most dungeons without too much setup. You have no taunt, as such, so you’ll need to be a little mindful of that. It’s not so bad as long as the group knows what’s what, though.

While leveling you can also DPS. You won’t have much of a DPS rotation, though. There is no Crusader Strike, no Templar’s Verdict, and exorcism only works on undead. You’re relegated to auto attack and judgments for the most part. You will, however, bring a fair bit of utility.

Healing, of course, is always possible.

Once at max level, you can still pull off 5Man dungeon tanking and DPS. Some players may not approve as much, so it might be easiest to try starting your own groups. It’s usually all right, though.

It’s the raids that really hit you.

For tanking you can not reach the necessary defensive levels to remove glancing blows from the equation. This makes you a significantly more chaotic tank to heal. There are fights where you’ll be able to do it well enough, and fights where it’s not worth using a paladin at all in the tank spot. While there are tricks you can employ, they’re time consuming and don’t bring you up to parity with a warrior.

For DPS you can kind of get away with it, but you’ll need a guild who doesn’t mind sub optimal builds. You’ll still bring all your utility, but your DPS is below standard.

So, is there hope? That’s a resounding yes with a side of but. The but being the fact that you’ll need a guild who doesn’t mind letting you engage in sub optimal play styles. There are a few considerations, such as whether you want to try melee ret or spelladin.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a solid guaranteed tank/dps situation you won’t find it here. You can pull off some cool stuff and you can bust your butt to get as close as possible. It’s a case of trying 5x harder for 70% as much result, though.

TLDR

You can tank some fights, and DPS anything. You just need people who aren’t min maxing and understand fun.

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40

Get ready to be a heal bot and buff bot if you want to do much besides solo or 5 man content with friends. Ret dps was laughable in comparison to other classes, and pally tanks were non-existent in vanilla. It wasn’t referred to as lolret for nothing, and a prot pally was like a unicorn sighting in Vanilla.

I was fortunate enough to have a guild of crazies that liked to experiment back in MC and BWL, they let me try to offtank adds in raids but it was hopeless compared to just having a warrior do it. I seem to recall it wasn’t until SSC that I was allowed to try ret in our raids full time though.

The lack of a taunt will also make it a nightmare in PUG’s where you’re going to actually require cc and some level of coordination. Everyone nowadays is just used to running around zerging everything, which should make for some brutal experiences if people can’t learn to adjust.

Healing was actually not bad though, we were a top guild back in the day and a geared up holy pally was quite enjoyable to play in both PvE and PvP. Find a good warrior for PvP and follow him around while he lays out the dps. If you like that you’ll have no trouble finding groups that love having you.

1 Like