Paladin Guide for TBC Anniversary

Paladin Guide for TBC Anniversary Quick Summary:

• New talents, abilities, and changes to existing ones for every specialization.
• A short explanation of how to play each of the Paladin’s specs.
• Most popular builds for Protection Paladin, Retribution Paladin, and Holy Paladin.
• Best stats and attributes for each specialization.
• Best-in-Slot gear list for all Paladin specs
• The best professions for Paladins are Engineering and Blacksmithing, with Mining as a secondary job.

The Burning Crusade is a very gold-demanding expansion, with flying mounts or BiS gear  costing an arm and a leg. Farming gold for all of it will take ages, so why not use our TBC Classic Anniversary Gold? Lots of offers with very fair prices are available.

 

 

 

Paladin Changes in TBC Classic Anniversary

Paladin is one of a few classes whose specs are all viable. He received a major rework from Classic to TBC, so let’s overlook these Paladin changes in TBC. The list is reaaaaally huge. Let’s break it down into parts for each spec.

Protection Paladin Ability and Talent Changes

Protection Paladin is a powerful tank, focusing on aggroing enemies and dealing AoE damage. The addition of Spiritual Attunement makes you extremely powerful and lets you cast abilities without stressing about mana. New seals are also really strong, but aren’t as strong as Retribution Paladin ones.

• Avenger’s Shield: Great mob and boss pulling ability.
• Avenging Wrath: Strong threat generation buff.
• Ardent Defender: Makes you take less damage at low HP.
• Crusader Aura: Extra mobility when riding mounts.
• Combat Expertise: Stamina and expertise boost.
• Consecration: Used to be a Holy talent, now an ability. Generates even more threat now.
• Improved Holy Shield: Every 10 seconds, you get 4 bonus charges. Raise it to above 100% and ignore damage for 8 strikes total. This is your bread and butter in raids to do AoE damage, raise threat, and tank it out.
• Improved Righteous Fury: A buff to a talent. You generate 10% more threat and gain 6% damage reduction.
• One-Handed Weapon Specialization: Increases damage from all damage types. Another good option for threat generation.
• Reckoning: One of the biggest updates to a talent. Basically, what it does is it allows you to land an extra attack with 10% chance after being hit.
• Redoubt: Compared to the previous version, this one procs from any attack, not from a critical hit. In short, it increases the chance of blocking.
• Righteous Defense: Target your ally and aggro the enemies attacking them.
• Sacred Duty: Kinda like Combat Expertise. Gain additional stamina, reduce the Divine Shield cd by 60 seconds, and remove the attack speed penalty.
• Seal of Corruption/Seal of Vengeance: Same skill, but it depends on your faction. A debuff that does stacking DoT and amplifies your Judgement damage.
• Seal of Righteousness: This no longer triggers weapon procs. Deals Holy damage to an enemy.
• Spiritual Attunement: One of the best mana regen abilities. It’s one of the strongest abilities on Prot Paladin, letting you cast your abilities all the time and not worry about mana management.

Your classic tank with understandable gameplay. If you like being on the frontline and eating tons of damage, this is your pick.

Retribution Paladin Ability and Talent Changes

Let’s set this straight: Ret Paladin isn’t a top DPS in the meta. It’s the most complex specialization to play to its absolute best. Ret Pals have a hidden mechanic called Seal Twisting. In short, you need to cast the Seal of Command and Seal of Blood before your auto attack lands. It’s a tricky thing to do, especially when you take into account that you still need to manage your mana and use your Blessings to support the raid. If you are certain you want to play a Retribution Paladin, use a swing timer addon to make it easier.

• Avenging Wrath: Damage cooldown. The damage increase applies to everything, but don’t forget that you can’t use Divine Shield, Divine Protection, or Blessing of Protection for 1 min. The buff itself lasts for 20 seconds.
• Consecration: Same as described above, but for Ret Pal, it’s important because the spell power scales much better now.
• Crusader Strike: Judgement reset for you and other paladins. Deals physical damage in percentage of your weapon damage.
• Improved Sanctity Aura: A nice little boost for party members that are around you. You raise the damage you all deal by 2%.
• Improved Seal of the Crusader: An updated version. An absolute beast of a skill and the main reason you’ll likely be included in a raid. You provide an additional 3% crit chance to anyone attacking your target.
• Sanctified Seals: A great PvP utility. Your seals cannot be dispelled, and you gain a little damage boost.
• Seal of Blood/Seal of the Martyr: Same skill for different factions. You deal an additional 35% Holy damage, based on your weapon damage, but you also pay 10% of your health for total damage dealt. Note that you cannot Seal Twist from this Seal, as it doesn’t have a delay when dissipated, unlike other seals.
• Spiritual Attunement: Not as strong as on Prot Pal, as you will take less damage, but it also gives you mana when you’re healed, so it’s still very good. 
• Vengeance: An update to a talent. Lasts for 30 seconds and gives you 5% bonus to Physical and Holy damage after you deal any critical damage. Stacks up 3 times.

A Retribution Paladin is a strong DPS, but maybe not strong enough to take multiple of you into a raid. It’s probably the weakest spec of all Paladin specs, but it’s still good. Just note that you will lose your mind when learning the timings. It almost feels like playing drums with a separate rhythm for your hands and feet.

Holy Paladin Ability and Talent Changes

One of the strongest healing classes in TBC Classic Anniversary. Even though your overall healing isn’t as strong, the healing you do to a single target is just unmatched. Here are some of the new and changed abilities and talents:

• Aura Mastery: Increases the range of your auras.
• Blessings: Not one skill but multiple of them. Probably one of the most important changes is that they last much longer now. Normal blessings last 10 minutes, and Greater blessings last 30 minutes.
• Divine Illumination: Reduces the mana cost by 50%. Can be really handy when you need to pop a lot of buttons during the boss’s high damage phase.
• Holy Guidance: The more Intellect you have, the better healing you provide. It’s a good spell, but don’t min-max the INT attribute for it.
• Illumination: The only nerf in the list. You now return only 60% of mana when Flash of Light or Holy Light crits.
• Judgement: The judged Seals last for 20 seconds now.
• Light’s Grace: Your safety cushion. It’s good to protect you from sudden burst damage.
• Sanctified Light: As Holy Light will be utilised much more in this expansion, this talent is very useful. Your Holy Light has +6% chance to crit.

And that’s it for all Paladin spec changes. What’s cool about the Paladin specs is that you can’t go wrong with any of them. They’re all pretty desirable in raids, but the most desirable is, of course, a tanking Paladin. It was a lengthy intro on my side, but now let’s talk about the reasons you’d want to play Paladin.

Paladin Pros & Cons

Paladin is mostly a defensive class. Even when you are a healer, you’re still very tanky. You’re always needed in raids in every specialization, but there are some pros and cons for Paladins that come with playing this class.

Pros:

• Always in Demand
• Great Buffs and Blessings
• Utility Abilities are Very Useful

Cons:

• Needs Gear
• Annoying Mana Management
• Isn’t Flashy

Playing Paladin is all about getting the job done. You’re a cog in the machine that would break without you. Your buffs let other party members shine and actually do their job, and your utility skills save them when they need it the most. Basically, you’re a mom to a crowd of egomaniacs playing Warlocks and Hunters. 

If you like this style of gameplay (doing what others won’t), then Paladin is definitely a class for you. I gotta add that when playing this class, you actually feel like a noble warrior, whose job is to save and protect. So if you’re into roleplaying and not just a loot goblin, dead focused on stats and % increases that items give you, this might be a big pro for you. I know for me it was a big draw.

 

 

How to Play Paladin in TBC Classic Anniversary

For the most part, Paladin isn’t too difficult to play, but that depends on the role. Retribution Paladin is infamous for its complexity and difficulty of actually playing it on a good level. Lucky for you, Prot and Holy Pals are much more desirable as party members. If you’re a new player or haven’t played Paladin in a while, try them. They’re not brain-dead, boring, and still require understanding to perform well, but they’re nowhere near as challenging as Ret Paladin. Let me shortly explain how to play each Paladin spec in TBC Anniversary.

Specialization	How to Play
Protection	Your life as a tank heavily centers around aggroing enemies and blocking their attacks using Holy Shield. Prot Paladins have a decent amount of builds available to them, so you’ll find what you like fast.
Retribution	This spec’s gameplay centers on the aforementioned Seal Twisting. Without it, you won’t be dealing enough damage. It’s a hard mechanic to master with little payoff in TBC, apart from enjoyability of being able to pull it off well.
Holy	A very strong single-target healer with great buffs. You’ll mostly be healing other tanks and be somewhat of a tank yourself, thanks to the ability to wear plate armor.

Made up your mind who to play yet? Well then, let’s take a look at what races you should combine it with.

Paladin Best Race in TBC Classic Anniversary

The easy answer for the best race to play as paladin in TBC Anniversary is humans. Other good races are Dwarves and Blood Elves. 

The humans are a strong pick thanks to their sword and mace proficiency, which helps when playing Prot and Retribution specs, but the real value comes from their Diplomacy racial. It lets you gain reputation with multiple factions 10% faster. Considering how much Paladins need good gear, this is by far the best option.

Dwarves are a good pick thanks to their Stoneform racial. This skill makes you tankier and grants immunity from Bleed, Poison, and Disease. Your armor is also increased by 10%. It can come as another panic button for when you need extra damage reduction.

Blood Elves are a good choice if you want to play as Horde. Arcane Torrent, Magic Resistance, and Consume Magic are all brilliant skills to have as a Paladin. Arcane Torrent helps with crowd control, Consume Magic helps with mana management, and Magic Resistance lets you be tankier.

It doesn’t matter which race you pick. Paladin works equally well with all of them, and the benefits described are useful only if you’re into heavy min-maxing. Otherwise, you can play as any race and faction and still be very strong.

Paladin Stat and Attribute Priority

Your stats and attributes will heavily depend on what specialization you’ll decide to main. As I’m reviewing all three viable specs that Paladin has, let’s cover them one by one. First - Holy Paladin:

1. Healing Power
2. Intellect
3. Spell Crit
4. Mana per 5 Sec.
5. Stamina

While healing power is obvious, Intellect is a new one. As mentioned before, Holy Guidance benefits well from it. As it comes to the attributes:

• Intellect
• Stamina
• Spirit

These are the three attributes that you need to invest in the most. Intellect influences your mana pool size and gives spell crit chance. Stamina is needed for you to survive. Spirit is for your health and mana regen. Out of three, it’s the least important on Paladin, though, but it’s good to have, as until you get some good Mp5 rolls, it’ll get you going.

Now let’s talk about Retribution Paladin:

1. Expertise
2. Hit Rating
3. Strength
4. Attack Power
5. Crit Chance/Agility

No surprises here, as most DPS classes benefit from having high Expertise and Hit Rating. You want to reach the 9% Hit Rating cap and 26 for the Expertise cap. For attributes, we obviously prioritise Strength and Agility. Stamina, Intellect, and Spirit aren’t that important, though Intellect influences spell crit for Exorcism, but come on. Just max out Strength and Agility.

Finally, we have Protection Paladin stats & attributes. This one is probably the most interesting, as Prot Paladin can become effectively immune to crits with the right stat numbers:

1. Crit
2. Crush
3. EHP (Effective HP)
4. Threat

These are the most important ones to upgrade. You want to reach caps for Crits and Crushing Blow avoidance. The Crit cap is 490 defense, and the Crush cap is 102.4% avoidance. Though some bosses don’t crush or crit, you still want to have these stats maxed out, as they are always helpful. All builds and gearing center around reaching these caps. Now for the attributes. What’s curious about Prot Pal is that it benefits from every attribute, even Spirit.

• Stamina
• Intellect
• Strength
• Agility
• Spirit

As you’re a tank, you need lots of Stamina to survive anything that can be thrown at you. Int is equally as important, due to this spec requiring lots of mana. It’s essential for Raid encounters, as the longer the fight is, the harder it is to manage mana. Strength is useful for having an easier time raising the threat level on mobs. Agility and Spirit are the least crucial attributes. You do gain armor and dodge with Agility, but the numbers are too small to care. The same goes for Spirit.

Best Paladin Builds TBC Classic Anniversary

Alright, it’s time to talk about TBC Anniversary’s best builds for Paladin. Though there are usually slight variations for each of the offered builds, we will focus only on the most popular ones. There are four builds presented below:

• Avenger’s Shield Prot Paladin
• PvE Ret Paladin
• PvP Ret Paladin
• Talent-Focused Holy Paladin

Retribution Pal has one more build covered cause it’s significantly different, and considering this spec’s prominence in PvP arena, it would be strange on my side not to include it. Let’s start covering all the builds now!

Protection Paladin Best Build for TBC Anniversary

This build is the most optimal and meta Prot Pal build. Your main asset here is Avenger’s Shield. In the Retribution tree, you take Pursuit of Justice and then Crusade. Avenger’s Shield becomes a nice damage-dealing ability when it is upgraded.

The whole Shield row with Blessing of Sanctuary, Holy Shield, and Avenger’s Shield is extremely useful and makes this build extra thick and somewhat good at damaging mob trash.

Retribution Paladin Best PvE DPS Build

This build revolves around PvE content and is not to be used in PvP. As most raids pick three paladins, one holy, one ret, and one prot, you would rely on providing a buff from Blessing of Kings, as your holy will have Improved Blessing of Might. You know what that means: invest in Pursuit of Justice and Crusade.

This build revolves around the popular raid trinity of having all three Paladin specs, and this way, you’ll be able to cover all three bases, significantly improving your chances of beating the raid.

Retribution Paladin Best PvP Build

Paired up with Shaman, this build will splat your arena opponents all over the walls. This is like a cult classic for some. The general idea behind this build is that you Seal Twist during Reckoning procs and use Divine Shield as an offensive ability due to the new Sacred Duty talent.

The Sancrified Seals and Stoicism will save you from purges and dispel. This spec, even on its own, is really powerful and has the potential to one-shot enemy players.

Holy Paladin Best Healing Build

The best healing build for Paladin is centered around using things like Blessing of Kings, which synergizes with other blessings provided by other specs. Improved Blessing of Might and Improved Blessing of Wisdom are also essential parts of this kit.

You also take standard Spiritual Focus, Holy Guidance, Illumination, and Healing Light. They are more or less prevalent in all builds. They give you high healing potential and sustainability. This is a very basic build, but it’s super effective.

 

Paladin Best in Slot Gear in TBC Classic Anniversary

Now, for the gearing. As in our other class guides, we will show the Phase 1 gear, as it’s the most current. There are many useful gear options for all of the classes, and it varies drastically most of the time. Here’s the list of BiS gear for Phase 1 Paladins:

Slot	BiS Prot Paladin	BiS Ret Paladin	BiS Holy Paladin	Where to Get
Head	Justicar Faceguard	Justicar Crown	Justicar Diadem	Drop: Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)/
Shoulders	Justicar Shoulderguards	Ripfiend Shoulderplates	Justicar Pauldrons	High King Maulgar (Gruul’s Lair)/Doom Lord Kazzak
Back Armor	Devilshark Cape	Vengeance Wrap	Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted	Warlord Kalithresh (The Steamvault)/Tailoring craft/Prince Malchezar (Karazhan)
Chestguard	Justicar Chestguard	Terrorweave Tunic	Justicar Chestpiece	Matgtheridon (Magtheridon’s Lair)/Doom Lord Kazzak
Wrist Armor	Bracers of Dignity	Bladespire Warbands	Windhawk Bracers	Harbinger Skyriss (Heroic the Arcatraz)/High King Maulgar (Gruul’s Lair)/Tribal Leatherworking craft
Hand Armor	Justicar Handguards	Grips of Deftness	Justicar Gloves	The Curator (Karazhan) / Karazhan’s Mobs
Waist Armor	Girdle of Valorous Deeds	Girdle of the Endless Pit	Windhawk Belt	Aeonus (Heroic The Black Morass)/Magtheridon (Matheridon’s Lair)/Tribal Leatherworking
Leg Armor	Justicar Legguards	Shattrath Leggings	Legplates of the Innocent	Gruul the Dragonkiller (Gruul’s Lair)/Special Delivery to Shattrath City (Quest)/Chess Event in Karazhan.
Feet Armor	Boots of the Righteous Path	Ironstriders of Urgency	Boots of Valiance	Warchief Kargath Bladefist (Heroic The Shattered Halls)/Nightbane (Karazhan)/Moroes (Karazhan)
Neck Jewelry	Barbed Choker of Discipline	Mithril Chain of Heroism	Archaic Charm of Presence	Maiden of Virtue (Karazhan)/Chess Event in Karazhan/Doomwalker
Ring Jewelry	Elementium Band of the Sentry	Shapeshifter's Signet	Naaru Lightwarden's Band	Harbinger Skyriss (The Arcatraz)/Exalted rep with Lower City/The Fall of Magtheridon (Quest)
Ring Jewelry	Ashyen's Gift	Ring of a Thousand Marks	Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer	Exalted rep with Cenarion Expedition/Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)/Eminence Among the Violet Eye (Quest) requires Exalted rep with The Violet Eye.
Trinkets	Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch	Dragonspine Trophy	Essence of the Martyr	Moroes (Karazhan)/Gruul the Dragonkiller (Gruul’s Lair)/G’eras (41 Badges of Justice)
Trinkets	Figurine of the Colossus	Scrolls of Blinding Light	Pendant of the Violet Eye	Warchief Kargath Bladefist (The Shattered Halls)/Firemaw (Blackwing Lair)/Shade of Aran (Karazhan)
Main Weapon/Off-Hand	Gladiator's Gavel (PvP)	Lionheart Champion	Light's Justice	Arena Vendors (Season 1 Gladiator PvP Rank) in Shattrath City/Blacksmithing (Master Swordsmithing)/Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)
Main Weapon/Off-Hand	Bloodmaw Magus-Blade (PvE)	Deep Thunder	Shard of the Virtuous	Gruul the Dragonkiller (Gruul’s Lair)/Blacksmithing (Master Hammersmithing)/Maiden of Virtue (Karazhan)
Shield	Aldori Legacy Defender	-	Aegis of the Vindicator	Gruul the Dragonkiller (Gruul’s Lair)/Magtheridon (Magtheridon’s Lair)
Libram	Libram of Repentance	Libram of Avengement	Libram of Souls Redeemed	G’eras (15 Badges of Justice)/The Maker (Heroic Blood Furnace)/Opera Event in Karazhan

When I mention the bosses, it usually means that the gear drops not from them specifically, but from vendors that exchange specific boss tokens. This is the case with most Raid bosses, but with dungeon and world bosses, the gear drops normally. Some of the best gear can also be crafted, and if you’re unlucky enough not to get any of the mentioned BiS drops, you can always settle for crafted gear.

Best Paladin Professions in TBC Classic Anniversary

In the final part, let’s look at the best professions that a Paladin can get in TBC Anniversary. People’s choice is usually Blacksmithing or Engineering, but you can also settle for Leatherworking, Jewelcrafting, or Enchanting. Here’s how you can decide what’s better for you:

• Blacksmithing: Has the possibility to create BiS max-level gear, like Lionheart Champion or Deep Thunder, for Retribution Paladin. If you go for Blacksmithing, pick Mining as your second job.
• Engineering: Classic job if you like using utility items, bombs, want nice goggles, and a unique flying mount. Also pairs well with Mining.
• Leatherworking: The main reason to go for it is to get drums to buff you and your party members. Good for Prot Paladins.
• Jewelcrafting: A very powerful job for high-level crafting. You can create gems, rings, and necklaces, which are great moneymakers and are very useful in the endgame.
• Enchanting: Probably the least popular job. It offers great ring enchantments, exclusive to this job.

And that’s everything you should know about Paladin and how to make the best out of this class. It’s one of the most iconic classes in WoW, and just in general. It’s really strong at all stages of the game, and it scales really well into the future Classic expansions.

Read our other TBC Classic Anniversary guides:

• Warlock Guide
• Warrior Guide
• Hunter Guide
• Mage Guide

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