I don’t know where this idea comes from the paladins are not good in PvP but they definitely are. I can’t remember the name of the ability they use and I think it’s in the protection tree or something but basically they store instant attacks and can just rapidly kill you in half a second and just devastate your cheeks
They actually do pretty frightening amounts of burst and I can see why people play them.
They’re like a better version of enhancement shaman
You’re referring to reckoning, it’s not as powerful as it used to be and seems to have been changed from it’s original vanilla design but yeah I guess it does slap pretty hard if a paladin manages to store enough stacks and not lose them.
It does require alot of points in prot though so it’s basically a one trick pony build.
Holy paladins are where it’s at. They have the best survivability of any healer by a mile and some really amazing utility spells like freedom, BoP and a three-in-one dispell/remove disease/de-poison.
I’d say they’re the best PvP healers. And healing is what wins group PvP. So they’re probably the best PvP class for group PvP.
Unfortunately they’re also Alliance scum.
Honestly what healing spec you choose is very dependent on your team comp and what bg you prefer between wsg/ab.
Healing as deep ret is actually bis for wsg, while holy shock/prot is bis for AB. It doesn’t surprise me that a rogue thinks reckoning is powerful lol but it’s pretty much trash for doing anything practical in a Battle Ground.
Paladins are damn difficult to take down and are great in small-scale fights. In large-scale fights they don’t have many multi-target abilities so they fall far behind.
holy paladins are the best group pvp healer in the game
incredibly durable, amazing utility, amazing ability to defend with bubble
elemental shaman I’d say is second best just because of their offensive pressure and ability to strip consumables
Honestly I just hear horde complaining about paladins being OP, not about them being bad in PVP.
When playing my alliance everyone hates getting grouped with ret paladins though.
Which is kind of funny don’t you think.
If your opponent hates playing against you it means your not the 0 damage pushover baby that all your allies think you are.
Priests are second best in my opinion because of both offensive and defensive dispels and psychic scream for cc, and can still provide a little offensive punch here and there to get you over the top. Granted it’s nothing like an ele shaman punch, but it’s not insignificant either.
Can totally see the argument for sham as second best healer, this is just my take. Overall group comp is a factor too obviously.
All healers have weaknesses, there isn’t a “best”, paladins while they are defensive heavy that is most of what they do, they have very few offensive abilities, their weakness is definitely having to hard-cast things and fairly low output, in full plate an average fol is probably like 60% of a priest’s flash heal, they are good in small scale fights especially vs non casters, warlocks and mages destroy them
Agreed. The perspective is certainly interesting.
Yeah that’s because ret pallies tend to awful players who don’t actually try to itemize well or use their utility on anyone else. But a good one can single handedly turn a match around by gear swapping into a healer, carry the flag, or gear swapping to kill an unsuspecting FC
Their durability is certainly nice too. Druid or priest gets caught in caster by a rogue/warrior, there’s a really good chance of instafrag. Shaman with a shield? They can actually be saved by their team sometimes.
Paladins can’t drop like 5 totems purge chain lightning or chain heal shamans are wayyyyy better. Think you guys underestimate how much clutter totems produce, soaking every cc in the game while your team has wotf and hardiness.
You can’t burst a paladin? So what no1 can burst through 4 grounding totems and 30 additional tab targets. Literally have to overextend to have a chance at dying
You’re comparing a single paladin to a whole roster.
Holy paladin single-handedly makes Alliance the better PvP faction.
In duels, paladins are pretty good but are weak to mages and shaman especially. This applies regardless of spec. It’s especially true for Holy.
Reckoning is strong if and only if you have excellent warrior gear. And at that point, you’d be better off as a warrior. Nevertheless, with good gear, it can be pretty fun. Earlier in Classic, it was amazing.
Holy reckoning with a 1hd weapon is good for dueling. It’s kind of handy in pug BGs, but I never que for pugs as a healer anymore. If you go 1hd holy reckoning, get a DB. Otherwise, don’t bother.
In small skirmishes they help a ton. In mass battles? Shaman are much, much better. Paladins are great at single-target healing, debuffing, and damage. Shaman are great at AOE healing, debuffing, and damage.
In like, what, 40v40? I guess? But, I don’t know if anyone really takes that very seriously. Shamans bring great damage and allow Horde teams to be a lot more aggressive than Alliance once. Alliance teams are a lot more resilient than Horde ones and that can be leveraged in objective-based games better than raw damage.
Furthermore, in small skirmishes, say 3v3s, a paladin with another healer and a warrior is almost unstoppable.
AV would like to have a word with you.
Riiight, but AV has problems that are entirely separate from Shaman. They definitely do work there, but I don’t think they’re the decisive reason why Horde dominate there.
Also AV is hardly very competitive.
In almost every other scenario, a healer who basically can’t be CC’d, with plate armor, a shield, and extremely potent buffs is difficult to argue with. The biggest weakness is CS from mages and Curse of Tongues from Warlock. So, as long as you’ve got another supporting healer (preferably a druid), Paladins do incredible work.