WoW Forever Paladin Guide

The Paladin in WoW Forever is still the plate-wearing support class built on Seals and Judgements, but it finally has buttons to press. Every Paladin learns Holy Strike at level 6, Consecration and Blessing of Kings at 20, and Judgement no longer eats your active Seal. Tanks get a real taunt through the new Seal of Fury, and the Horde gets Paladins for the first time: Undead can now take the class.

The specs pull in different directions. Retribution adds Sacred Arbiter and an easier form of Seal twisting through Unsealed Wrath, Protection gains the Templar's Bulwark cooldown, and Holy gets Light's Vigil and a 10-second Holy Shock that also powers the hybrid Shockadin build. What has not changed is the gap in the kit: Paladins still have no interrupt and no way to slow enemies.

This guide sums up every Paladin change, lists the abilities you learn at each level, explains Seals, Auras and Blessings, compares Holy, Protection and Retribution and helps you pick a race before the November 4 launch.

Paladin Changes in WoW Forever

Blizzard kept the Seal and Judgement system at the heart of the class and built most new talents around it. The changes fall into three groups: new baseline buttons, a reworked Seal and Judgement loop, and retuned utility.

New Baseline Abilities

In original Classic, a Retribution Paladin mostly auto attacked and a Protection Paladin had no taunt. Forever gives every Paladin more to press from the first levels:

The bonuses of Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Lasting Judgement and the Judgement part of Improved Seal of the Crusader are now baseline as well, so those talent points went to new talents.

Seals and Judgement Rework

Judgement no longer consumes your active Seal. You judge it and keep it for its full 30 seconds, which removes the old habit of recasting a Seal after every Judgement. The flip side is that baseline Seal twisting is gone. Swapping Seals mid-swing for double procs now comes only from the 31-point Retribution talent Unsealed Wrath, which is easier to time than the Classic trick.

Seal of Fury is the biggest addition. Its bonus Holy damage is the same on every swing, so it favors a fast one-handed weapon, and half of that damage becomes an absorb shield. Its Judgement taunts from 10 yards, twice the range of the Warrior's Taunt and the Druid's Growl, so a Paladin tank can reach enemies other tanks cannot.

Reworked Spells

Several familiar spells were retuned:

• Lay on Hands has a 20-minute cooldown instead of 1 hour.
• Shadow Resistance Aura, Frost Resistance Aura and Fire Resistance Aura now reach every raid member within 30 yards, not only your party.
• Consecration deals moderate damage to the first 4 enemies that enter it and very little to the rest, which keeps Paladin AoE threat on par with the Warrior's Thunder Clap.
• Righteous Fury is learned at 10 and now adds 33% threat to everything plus another 90% to Holy attacks.

Latest Beta Changes for Paladin

The October 30 hotfixes brought the last big round of Paladin tuning before launch. They rebuilt all three talent trees around new picks such as Oath of Light, Shieldsworn and Unsealed Wrath, and trainers stopped teaching Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke, Blessing of Light and Greater Blessing of Light. These changes are not in Blizzard's development notes and can still change. Earlier, the October 15 beta build took more than half of the spell power scaling from Consecration, while Reckoning went back to working like in Classic Era with up to 4 stored extra attacks and Shield Specialization was cut.

We compare every talent in all three trees with its Classic version in our WoW Forever Paladin talents guide.

Key Paladin Abilities

A Paladin learns new spells from the class trainer every two levels. Paladins start in mail and can wear plate from level 40, and talent points start at level 10, one per level, for 51 points at 60. Dual Specialization opens at level 40.

The table below shows only the key abilities, the ones that change how you play, and the level at which you get each of them.

Every other ability, each stronger rank level by level, what changed against Classic and a planner that shows what you learn at your level are in our WoW Forever Paladin abilities by level guide.

Talents add the rest of the toolkit. The key talented abilities are Seal of Command and Repentance for Retribution, Holy Shock and Divine Favor for Holy, Swift Judgement, Templar's Bulwark and Holy Shield for Protection, and the 31-point capstones Light's Vigil and Unsealed Wrath.

Our WoW Forever Paladin leveling guide shows how to use these spells at each stage from 1 to 60.

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Paladin Seals, Auras and Blessings

Seals, Auras and Blessings are the three toolkits every Paladin shares, whatever the spec. A Seal empowers your own weapon, an Aura buffs everyone around you, and a Blessing goes on one player or, in its Greater version, on a whole class in the raid.

Seals

You can have one Seal active at a time. It lasts 30 seconds, adds an effect to your melee swings, and Judgement turns it into a separate hit or debuff on the target without removing it from you.

Retribution usually runs Seal of Command or Seal of Righteousness, tanks run Seal of Fury, and in groups one Paladin keeps Judgement of Wisdom or Judgement of Light on the boss. With the Sacred Arbiter talent, Holy Strike refreshes every Judgement on the target, even those from other Paladins.

Auras

Only one Aura per Paladin can be active, and each affects party members within range. Pick the one your group needs most and coordinate with other Paladins so you do not stack the same one.

Sanctity Aura, the old Retribution talent, is gone in Forever.

Blessings

Each player can carry one Blessing from each Paladin, and the Greater versions cover a whole class for longer.

• Blessing of Might (4) adds Attack Power; Greater Blessing of Might at 52.
• Blessing of Wisdom (14) restores mana over time; Greater Blessing of Wisdom at 54.
• Blessing of Kings (20) raises all stats and is now baseline; Greater Blessing of Kings at 60.
• Blessing of Protection (10), Blessing of Freedom (18) and Blessing of Sacrifice (46) are short emergency Blessings that save a player from physical damage, snares or burst.

Paladin Specs: Holy, Protection and Retribution

Paladins have three talent trees, and Forever adds a new 16-point gold medal talent to each of them next to the familiar 11-, 21- and 31-point ones. A fourth, unofficial build also returns: Shockadin, a Retribution-style damage dealer that takes Holy Shock from the Holy tree and stacks spell damage.

Holy

Holy still heals mostly with Flash of Light and Holy Light, but now with more variety. Crits from Holy Shock or Flash of Light shorten your next Holy Light through Infusion of Light, Reverence lets up to 30% of your Spirit regeneration continue while casting, and Holy Shock moved to the 21-point slot with a 10-second cooldown. The 31-point Light's Vigil marks one player per party; your next Holy Shock on that player skips its cooldown and heals their whole party, so you can prepare several parties before a raid-wide hit. Healers who tested the beta found Holy behind Druid and Priest in raw throughput, since Illumination now refunds only 50% of a spell's base cost, so watch the launch patch notes before you commit.

Protection

Protection is a real tank in Forever. Seal of Fury gives you a taunt and an absorb shield, and Swift Judgement gives you a second Judgement if a taunt is resisted. Templar's Bulwark absorbs damage equal to your maximum health for 8 seconds but applies Forbearance, so it competes with Divine Shield. Iron Creed turns Holy Strike into a small defensive cooldown, and Shieldsworn caps the tree.

Retribution

Retribution plays with more buttons than ever: keep a Seal up, judge it on cooldown, and fill with Holy Strike, Consecration and Exorcism. A favorite trick while leveling is to stun with Hammer of Justice and then judge Seal of Command for its bonus damage on stunned targets. Sacred Arbiter adds 20% Holy Strike damage and refreshes every Judgement on the target, Vengeance now stacks up to 3 times and lasts 30 seconds after a crit, and Repentance moved down to the 21-point slot. At 31 points you choose between Unsealed Wrath for Seal twisting and a Shockadin build with Holy Shock.

Our WoW Forever Paladin tier set guide lists the raid set bonuses for each spec along with the crafted pieces.

Best Races for Paladin in WoW Forever

Three races can be Paladins in Forever: Human and Dwarf for the Alliance and, for the first time, Undead for the Horde. Skyborne cannot be Paladins. Horde players who want the class therefore have only one choice, while on the Alliance side the decision comes down to PvP versus PvE.

Undead Paladins also get a class weapon quest of their own: a chain through Silverpine Forest and three dungeons that ends with the two-handed sword Wolfsbane at level 20. Our WoW Forever Paladin weapon quest guide covers it together with the Alliance chain for Verigan's Fist.

Human is the strongest all-rounder: Will to Survive is the best PvP racial a Paladin can get, and Ruthless works with every weapon type. Dwarf shines when tanking, because Stoneform is a free defensive cooldown and Artisan's Precision adds 1% hit as of the October 26 update, and Big Game Hunter adds 5% damage against Beasts while leveling. Undead Paladins have a strong answer to Fear in PvP and the fastest downtime between pulls thanks to Cannibalize.

Holy, Protection and Retribution picks for Human, Dwarf and Undead are in our WoW Forever best Paladin race guide.

Our WoW Forever race tier list ranks every race for every class.

WoW Forever Paladin FAQ

These are the questions players ask most about the Paladin before launch.

More WoW Forever Paladin Guides

These guides take your Paladin from the first level to the first raid:

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