Paladins...is it as bad as they say?

[JustAGuy]

In my previous post, I wrote that the Paladin has no direct damage/instant cast (damage-on-demand) abilities. That is incorrect, as he has four real castable skills: two AoEs and two direct damage instant cast spells. You have to spec one way or another for the non-undead only skills. There's also a judgement that deals damage (Righteousness, very weak) but it's practically not worth mentioning. This list is for all skills at their maximum levels:

1. Exorcism. Direct holy damage, instant cast, 505-563 damage to undeads. The 15 second cooldown and the relatively low mana cost of 345 make this skill a staple of Paladin vs Undead combat (note: not undead players. Why? I'll never know. They're undead too...). It's got long range, instant cast, a low cooldown, and relatively low mana cost; can't really ask for more when it comes to a direct damage spell. BUT, it's undead only, so that severely limits its use, making it PvE only.

2. Holy Shock. Does 365-395 damage at it's highest level. Instant cast, but costs 480 mana to use, 30 second cooldown. You need to specialize in the Holy Tree, as it's the last talent. If you do so, you can't get Consecration. Basically, you choose AoE or direct damage... Considering the damage it does, the 480 mana to cast for only 395 damage is hard to justify.

3. Consecration. You need to specialize in the retribution talents to a certain degree. It's a weak AoE-DoT, hitting for 384 damage to all who enter the consecrated area for 8 seconds. 565 mana to cast. This has more uses than just damage, so it's definitely worth looking into over holy shock. As far as PvP goes, it can unstealth rogues, and damages mages through their mana shields. It's only a little bit of damage, but still...

4. Holy Wrath. Big mana hog at 805 mana to cast, 2 second cast time. Does 490-576 damage to all undeads in 20 yard radius (huge!). It's undead only. Works well enough in Plaguelands, but at 805 to cast it and 1 minute cooldown, it's not something you can run around spamming.

So there you have it. Four skills you can use to do damage-on-demand, two of which are severely limited by the undead only restriction, and two that do poor damage and are mutually exclusive. In non-undead areas, such as any PvP setting, your options are still Consecration OR Holy Shock, both of which end up being pretty harmless. Consecration stands out because it is an AoE-DoT that can uncloak a rogue.

The only other thing that is semi-instant cast is the judgement of righteousness. Judging a mob or player with this inflicts 133 holy damage. It costs 11% of your base mana to cast a judgement plus the 175 mana to cast the seal, so this isn't necessarily a mana friendly damage dealer, especially since judging with crusader first is usually what's done in PvE. In PvP, you won't have enough time to even bother with judging anything. Either your team mates will kill him before the cooldown wears off, or he'll get away, or if he's a serious damage dealer, he'll force you to bubble, making you use your mana for more important things, like heals and cleansing.

All of these skills' damage output are amplified by two skills: Judgement of the Crusader, and the Sanctity Aura. Sanctity amplifies holy damage by 10% (big wow...) and the Judgement of the Crusader adds "up to 140" holy damage. "Up to 140" basically means you're only going to add about 50 damage to your direct stuff like Exorcism and Seal of Command, and 3 or 4 damage per second on your Consecration.

Consecration vs Holy Shock: Consecration wins, in my opinion. It does less damage, but does it to more than one target. Sure, you can pull with Holy Shock, but there are other ways to pull with a Paladin. Engineers have that area covered, and non-engineers can use Linken's Boomerang.

So you see, I didn't mention these skills previously because they pretty much amount to jack-squat in PvP and non-undead encounters. Even with these added abilities, most monster encounters boil down to, "Click... wait... click... wait...". I'm probably going to grind to get my 60th level in the Plaguelands when the server comes back up, so my undead only skills will make me feel good about my decision to start my second go 'round with WoW as a Paladin.

Here's 45 seconds of combat against an undead: "Exorcize... Click... Wait... Click... Wait... Holy Wrath... Drink...".