Choosing the Best WoW Classic Paladin Specialization

A summary of all specializations to help you choose

World of Warcraft Paladins are holy warriors, using their faith as a basis for supporting their allies. They can fill any party role (healer, tanker, DPS) reasonably well. However, their best skills are those that defend, heal, or support allies rather than dealing damage themselves. While DPS is their weakest aspect, they can still dish out significant damage if you so choose.

Now, you might be troubled about which specialization to pick for your WoW Classic paladin. You’ll want to save up your WoW Classic gold for other more important stuff anyway. Planning saves you some time, WoW Classic gold, and effort. Resetting and changing builds mid-progress can cost you much of those. So here are the three WoW Classic Paladin Specializations and the pros and cons of each!

Holy, the Support Specialization

This specialization is for those who seek to heal and support their allies. It centers around healing, with skills that give back mana or boost healing. It has minor DPS talents, such as Consecration and Holy Shock. With Illumination and Lasting Judgement, they can even give back mana to themselves and their group.

It’s a solid specialization, and healers are always in demand for parties. Taking a few talents from the Protection Tree can boost your utility into a tanky healer according to your preference. Gear for Holy WoW Paladins should provide boosts to Intellect, Mana, and Health/Stamina as your priorities. Crit chance will also be good, for more chances to proc Illumination.

Protection, the Tank Specialization

Focusing on defense and damage mitigation, the Protection Tree is how you’ll build the tankiest WoW Classic Paladin around. You might have to get some talents from other trees to further raise your efficiency, but trust us when we say that it’s a worthwhile investment. Its main problems are no taunts or ranged pulls as well as mana management, so be warned and compensate accordingly. Holy Shield Paladins get around these limitations through threat management, good positioning, and downranking spells.

Tanking Paladins need a firmer hand in management. Keeping track of where you are, your threat and aggro, and your mana is a very stressful task that requires a keen eye for micromanagement. You could have help from some add-ons, but it’s still not recommended for beginners or those looking for a more casual style. Equipment for this type of WoW Classic Paladin should prioritize Defense, Health/Stamina, and Mana/Intellect.

Retribution, the DPS Specialization

This is perhaps the weakest spec of WoW Classic Paladins. Even with the best gear, you’ll still be outclassed by specialized damage-dealing classes. Because of the inherent characteristics of WoW Paladins, however, they become incredibly durable and have good cooldown skills. Especially prominent in PvP, as even with the lower DPS output, being hard to kill lets you catch up with damage.

DPS Paladins aren’t very mobile, requiring the use of a stunning ability to run away. That also means you can’t chase after more agile enemies without some kind of crowd control skill. While it’s good for leveling up, it’s not a popular specialization for the class. Gear for this talent branch should boost Hit Rate, Stamina/Health, Strength, and Agility/Crit. To a lesser degree, Attack Power and Intellect.

Conclusions

To an extent, you can mix any of these three in combination for a bit more versatility. However, the best World of Warcraft Paladins are those who play to the strengths of the class. Pick the specialization that best suits how you want to play. If support is outside of your preferences, maybe you’d be better off playing a different class.

Any character can be good as long as you enjoy playing it. So choose the one that calls to you the most, and have fun. Most importantly, commit to it so you can save WoW Classic gold!