10-03-2005, 12:51 AM
Paladins - the unfortunate class in my opinion. If you disagree what I say in this post, please post reasonings instead of just saying I don't know what I'm talking about.
Role - unfortunately, in a raid, a paladin's role is to buff the raid every 4.5 minutes and use heals and Cleanse. A lot. A paladin's DPS pales in comparison to a rogue or a DPS role warrior. So do what you can do that the rogues and warriors can't, and maybe you can save the raid with a timely Divine Intervention/Blessing of Salvation. Rarely, the paladin will be asked to offtank something. One more role that will be discussed later is the Out of Combat Rezzer.
Heals - you will mostly be using Flash of Light to chip in little heals here and there. Holy Light tends to be too slow for most healing occasions, and Laying of Hands is only available every hour (40 min. talented). Holy Light is nice to do if you have time to drop a nice heal on a rogue or something.
Cleanse - This will get a lot of use. There are a lot of important debuffs that need to be cleared in raids, so keep on your toes and be ready to cleanse. Decursive is one of those love/hate mods. I find that I lag too much in raids to contribute much, so I use it. If you are fortunate enough to have great FPS in massive groups, more power to you and I would encourage you to do it manually in case Blizzard does prevent Decursive from working in a future patch.
Blessings - the major reason why paladins get taken for raids. Usually, the 40 man raid will be divided by even and odd groups for paladins to divide labor. A 10/15/20 man raid will usually be covered by all paladins. The class leader will usually inquire what blessings people have and delegate blessings to paladins.
Every 4 minutes or so, you will be expected to refresh your blessings. The raid will not wait for you, so do it on the move or in the middle of combat if necessary. For the purposes of a ready check, paladin blessings count. So finish your blessings before hitting ready or hit not ready and let the raid know what's going on.
Re: Buff mods - if you need them, use them. It is far more impressive to show that you are paying attention and keeping your blessings up on your own. Whispercast personally drives me nuts, as it gives other people control of the casting when the blessing they need is from someone else.
Might - Warriors and Rogues.
Wisdom - Priests, Druid, Mage, Warlock, Hunter - Hunters because BoMight doesn't seem to help their ranged DPS :|
Kings - Everyone. Not essential to get but very nice to have. You may want to respec for it or respec out depending on the long term raid composition.
Salvation - Everyone but the tank and the lead mage when they are using AOE. Probably the most important blessing available, the Improved version is highly recommended as 15 minutes seems like an eternity at times.
Light - Everyone if possible, tanks otherwise. Very nice to have because of the nice boost to paladin healing.
Sanctuary - This one is less important in raiding because of the DPS of Mobs this high. Occasionally nice to have for mages in AoE situations. Let the class leader know and see if it will be needed.
Sacrifice - Very useful situationally. Tanks and mages when they will be taking a lot of damage. Remember to heal yourself as 55 damage on each hit can kill a paladin very quickly in raids.
Freedom - Very useful situationally. Not so much in Molten Core, but quite useful for High Priestess Mar'li in Zul'Gurub. Save it for the tank so they can continue rushing around and holding aggro.
Protection - Very useful situatationally, but be very careful to avoid using it on tanks and lead mages as it clears aggro. Key usage is when the healer gets aggro. Talent is nice to have as it makes it available close to every fight unless Anadrol is pulling :P
Auras - a specific buff for your party. Very nice to have, but remember to keep flipping around to ensure the best aura is active for the situation.
Devotion - a fine choice for most situations. The extra armor is rarely bad.
Retribution - for some AoE situations. An extra 20 damage here and there never hurt.
Concentration - Coupled with Spiritual Focus, heals are essentially uninterruptable. In a raid, the paladin should not be in risk, but nice to have active if you need to offtank something and heal.
Shadow, Frost, Fire Protection - when your group is low on resistances, these auras can be lifesavers. Know or ask about damage in advance so you can keep the proper aura up.
Sanctity Aura - if you ever need this aura up, congratulations on finding a unique situation. The other 6 are almost always more useful.
Seals - The most useful ones are Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice, and Seal of Command. Light and Wisdom are amazing to have judged on a mob, but only one of each needs to be on the mob. Ask the class leader if you should be running in to use Judgment. Justice is for those times that something needs to stay put, but often ranged DPS, Crippling Poison, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Exhaustion, Hamstring, Concussion Shot, Leg Clip, or Frost Nova will have taken care of things. Seal of Command is likely the best DPS output a paladin will have when using a two hander, Seal of the Crusader is probably better for a one hander.
Hammer of Justice and Hammer of Wrath - Often, mobs will be immune to Hammer of Justice, but you will learn in time. Save it for a mob going after a caster or to stop a runner. Hammer of Wrath is nice if you have a nice cushion of mana and you want to contribute. Just remember that the damage is nice, not essential and your primary role is healing and buffing.
Divine Intervention - This ability can save a wipe. Sometimes it doesn't work. If you're going down, it's worth a shot. Divine Shield or BoProtection yourself first so you can calm down and find the person furthest from the action who can rez. Once you land DI, let people know so they can die asap and give your sacrifice meaning. Don't forget the long cooldown and reagent cost.
Offtanking - not often. If you do, be proud that you got tapped for the role and make sure you do your best job possible. Sword/Board, Judge Fury, Seal of Fury, and keep it on you.
Out of Combat Rezzer - some boss fights need an out of combat rezzer. If you are asked to do so, stand as far away from the fight as possible and run in when necessary. If you get tagged in combat, run away first and wait. Sometimes you can drop back out of combat and go back to OOC rez again.
Gear - Start collecting a set of healing gear, focusing on stamina/intellect/+healing or effect on spells/spirit. Your minimum life should be 4000, when buffed. You want more than that if possible. Mana pool should be roughly the same, but will probably be higher. Paladin spells are generally cheap with the exception of Holy Light and BoWisdom helps a lot. This does not mean you should skimp.
Many of these items will be cloth/leather/mail, so what. A few more armor will not matter when something is smashing you for 1500 damage on a normal attack, and you should not be in melee range in a raid anyways. Getting this gear should not be t the expense of people who cannot wear anything but the lower levels of armor (Clothies).
Again, that's my contribution. I hope some of the other paladins can add to this.
Role - unfortunately, in a raid, a paladin's role is to buff the raid every 4.5 minutes and use heals and Cleanse. A lot. A paladin's DPS pales in comparison to a rogue or a DPS role warrior. So do what you can do that the rogues and warriors can't, and maybe you can save the raid with a timely Divine Intervention/Blessing of Salvation. Rarely, the paladin will be asked to offtank something. One more role that will be discussed later is the Out of Combat Rezzer.
Heals - you will mostly be using Flash of Light to chip in little heals here and there. Holy Light tends to be too slow for most healing occasions, and Laying of Hands is only available every hour (40 min. talented). Holy Light is nice to do if you have time to drop a nice heal on a rogue or something.
Cleanse - This will get a lot of use. There are a lot of important debuffs that need to be cleared in raids, so keep on your toes and be ready to cleanse. Decursive is one of those love/hate mods. I find that I lag too much in raids to contribute much, so I use it. If you are fortunate enough to have great FPS in massive groups, more power to you and I would encourage you to do it manually in case Blizzard does prevent Decursive from working in a future patch.
Blessings - the major reason why paladins get taken for raids. Usually, the 40 man raid will be divided by even and odd groups for paladins to divide labor. A 10/15/20 man raid will usually be covered by all paladins. The class leader will usually inquire what blessings people have and delegate blessings to paladins.
Every 4 minutes or so, you will be expected to refresh your blessings. The raid will not wait for you, so do it on the move or in the middle of combat if necessary. For the purposes of a ready check, paladin blessings count. So finish your blessings before hitting ready or hit not ready and let the raid know what's going on.
Re: Buff mods - if you need them, use them. It is far more impressive to show that you are paying attention and keeping your blessings up on your own. Whispercast personally drives me nuts, as it gives other people control of the casting when the blessing they need is from someone else.
Might - Warriors and Rogues.
Wisdom - Priests, Druid, Mage, Warlock, Hunter - Hunters because BoMight doesn't seem to help their ranged DPS :|
Kings - Everyone. Not essential to get but very nice to have. You may want to respec for it or respec out depending on the long term raid composition.
Salvation - Everyone but the tank and the lead mage when they are using AOE. Probably the most important blessing available, the Improved version is highly recommended as 15 minutes seems like an eternity at times.
Light - Everyone if possible, tanks otherwise. Very nice to have because of the nice boost to paladin healing.
Sanctuary - This one is less important in raiding because of the DPS of Mobs this high. Occasionally nice to have for mages in AoE situations. Let the class leader know and see if it will be needed.
Sacrifice - Very useful situationally. Tanks and mages when they will be taking a lot of damage. Remember to heal yourself as 55 damage on each hit can kill a paladin very quickly in raids.
Freedom - Very useful situationally. Not so much in Molten Core, but quite useful for High Priestess Mar'li in Zul'Gurub. Save it for the tank so they can continue rushing around and holding aggro.
Protection - Very useful situatationally, but be very careful to avoid using it on tanks and lead mages as it clears aggro. Key usage is when the healer gets aggro. Talent is nice to have as it makes it available close to every fight unless Anadrol is pulling :P
Auras - a specific buff for your party. Very nice to have, but remember to keep flipping around to ensure the best aura is active for the situation.
Devotion - a fine choice for most situations. The extra armor is rarely bad.
Retribution - for some AoE situations. An extra 20 damage here and there never hurt.
Concentration - Coupled with Spiritual Focus, heals are essentially uninterruptable. In a raid, the paladin should not be in risk, but nice to have active if you need to offtank something and heal.
Shadow, Frost, Fire Protection - when your group is low on resistances, these auras can be lifesavers. Know or ask about damage in advance so you can keep the proper aura up.
Sanctity Aura - if you ever need this aura up, congratulations on finding a unique situation. The other 6 are almost always more useful.
Seals - The most useful ones are Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice, and Seal of Command. Light and Wisdom are amazing to have judged on a mob, but only one of each needs to be on the mob. Ask the class leader if you should be running in to use Judgment. Justice is for those times that something needs to stay put, but often ranged DPS, Crippling Poison, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Exhaustion, Hamstring, Concussion Shot, Leg Clip, or Frost Nova will have taken care of things. Seal of Command is likely the best DPS output a paladin will have when using a two hander, Seal of the Crusader is probably better for a one hander.
Hammer of Justice and Hammer of Wrath - Often, mobs will be immune to Hammer of Justice, but you will learn in time. Save it for a mob going after a caster or to stop a runner. Hammer of Wrath is nice if you have a nice cushion of mana and you want to contribute. Just remember that the damage is nice, not essential and your primary role is healing and buffing.
Divine Intervention - This ability can save a wipe. Sometimes it doesn't work. If you're going down, it's worth a shot. Divine Shield or BoProtection yourself first so you can calm down and find the person furthest from the action who can rez. Once you land DI, let people know so they can die asap and give your sacrifice meaning. Don't forget the long cooldown and reagent cost.
Offtanking - not often. If you do, be proud that you got tapped for the role and make sure you do your best job possible. Sword/Board, Judge Fury, Seal of Fury, and keep it on you.
Out of Combat Rezzer - some boss fights need an out of combat rezzer. If you are asked to do so, stand as far away from the fight as possible and run in when necessary. If you get tagged in combat, run away first and wait. Sometimes you can drop back out of combat and go back to OOC rez again.
Gear - Start collecting a set of healing gear, focusing on stamina/intellect/+healing or effect on spells/spirit. Your minimum life should be 4000, when buffed. You want more than that if possible. Mana pool should be roughly the same, but will probably be higher. Paladin spells are generally cheap with the exception of Holy Light and BoWisdom helps a lot. This does not mean you should skimp.
Many of these items will be cloth/leather/mail, so what. A few more armor will not matter when something is smashing you for 1500 damage on a normal attack, and you should not be in melee range in a raid anyways. Getting this gear should not be t the expense of people who cannot wear anything but the lower levels of armor (Clothies).
Again, that's my contribution. I hope some of the other paladins can add to this.