1. Take gathering professions to start.  I’ve found that the best professions for a paladin while leveling are skinning and mining.  Both of them generate quite a bit of gold, and mining is complementary to engineering, blacksmithing, and jewelcrafting, which are the 3 best professions for a paladin at endgame, crafting-wise.  Keep mining and pick one of the 3.
2. Make sure to use a good paladin leveling build.  This can make the difference between feeling like an unstoppable beast and feeling like a weakling smacking monsters with a twig.  If you feel like your current spec isn’t working for you, do some research and respec to something better.
3. Keep your weapon up to date.  If you’re leveling as retribution, you must keep your weapon upgraded as often as you can afford it.  If it’s green, every 3 levels is a good marker.  Blues every 5-7 levels depending on what’s available.  Instances are often the best source of good weapons, so try to run each instance once or twice to see what you can pick up.  If you’re leveling protection, this rule applies to your shield as well.
4. If you have a level 80 already, invest in the shoulders and chest that apply the 10% experience gain.  They stack, and it is absolutely amazing how much of a difference 20% extra xp can make in the leveling process.  On top of that, they’re 2 pieces of gear you don’t have to replace till 80.  By the same token, if you can spare the shards, pick up a Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and you’ve got number 3 covered too.

Following these tips will make your time spent leveling a paladin go by much faster and much smoother.  If you have any suggestions for additions to this list, drop me a comment in the box below and we’ll see about getting it added in there.

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A few general points:

• Very happy about the level cap only being raised by 5 levels.  I thought this was the path that WOTLK should have taken, but better late than never.
• I may actually willingly spend some time in Desolace now that the landscape won’t make me nauseous.  For the sake of Paladins everywhere, I hope they keep all of the demons around though.
• I see a Worgen druid alt in my future.
• Also, a Goblin warlock.
• Hopefully the new PVP stuff is better than Isle of Conquest.
• Path of Titans – We’ve been needing an AA system for ages, so this is a good thing.
• I am way more excited than I should be for flying in Azeroth.

As far as Paladin changes go, I’m hoping for a much more dynamic and flexible Holy tree, a more… active… Protection tree, and, well, as for Ret, maybe they could make it more smashy?  Not sure really, I think Retribution is fine as is.  They’ve said they’re going to focus more on active abilities and less on passive stat / damage boosts, so I’m not sure how they’re going to work that out with Ret, given that a large percentage of the tree is dedicated to just making our melee stronger.

In any case, I’m incredibly stoked for the expansion, and I will make sure to let you guys know about anything cool that comes up.

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This lovely piece of kit is the Haunting Blade, available as a drop from the Rare Elite (Read: You’ll be doing a lot of runs for this) boss, Deathsworn Captain.  The super-slow speed makes it ideal for Seal of Command, and if the rest of your gear is at all decent you should be 3-shotting same level mobs with this.  Leveling a Paladin at 20 with Seal of Command is already cake, throw in this weapon and it’s a total joke.  Shadowfang Keep is a great instance for leveling Paladins what with all the undead too.

If you haven’t checked out my review of Zygor’s Paladin Leveling Guide yet, make sure to give it a look.  If you’re wanting to burn through the levels, that’s the way to do it.

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With how large of an area this is, you won’t really need to plan your route to optimize respawn times, so just plow through them in rows like some sort of simile that I’m too tired to think up… of DOOM! As usual, we’ll have more Paladin leveling tips in the next installment of Paladin Leveling Guide.

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Leveling as a Protection Paladin

Now available in technicolor!

OK, I know a lot of people get sick of the whole "Grab a big 2 hander and make with the smashy smashy" thing. I get that. I personally think that ye who scorn the smashy need to get your gray matter checked out, but that’s as may be. What it comes down to is that I’ve seen a lot of people leveling their Paladins as Protection spec, and I know for a fact they’ve been getting some bad advice on the forums and in-game.

Since my goal is to reduce the level of Paladin suckitude by 1000% while simultaneously increasing the fun factor by a similar amount, I decided to lay bare what you will need, in terms of both gear and spec, to succeed while leveling as a Protection Paladin.

Gear

Make sure you have a blue-quality shield and weapon. Update them whenever you can, within reason. I personally would not start until I had Aegis of the Scarlet Commander and Hand of Righteousness as their awesomeness will carry you until the later talents kick in and really make you into a beast. Focus on Block Value, Strength, Stamina, and Defense in your gear. When you start pulling camps of 10 mobs that run out to get their friends, trust me, you’d rather drink after than run out of health.

Also, very important… GET A SHIELD SPIKE. The best one you can afford. Seriously, it makes a huge difference.

Talent Build and Strategy

In my estimation, this is the best Protection Paladin leveling build possible. I skipped the group talents, for the most part. Why? Because I’m assuming you’ll be grinding it out. Do yourself a favor and don’t touch the Protection tree until you hit level 40. The build revolves around Reckoning, Holy Shield, and Blessing of Sanctuary. Without all 3 of those, it’s pretty weak.

Keep Retribution Aura up, round up a camp of melee mobs (the faster they hit, the better) on your mount, drop a Consecration, Seal and Judge as needed, and pop Holy Shield. Now it’s just a matter of hoping all of the little numbers don’t crash your computer. Since you’ll be dodging, blocking, and parrying like crazy, Blessing of Sanctuary should keep your mana pretty decent. Between Retribution Aura, Consecration, Holy Shield, and your shield spike you’ve got crazy reflective damage. Keep Seal of Light and Judgment of Light up and you’re good to go!

And we’ll be back to the whole "Best Leveling Spots" deal with the next installment of my Paladin Leveling Guide. Happy tanking!

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The first one is:

Paladin Leveling Spots - Raven Hill

The infamous Raven Hill. A short walk from the lovely town of Darkshire in Duskwood, Raven Hill is packed to the brim with ghouls, skeletons, shades, and the odd spider or 10. From 24-30ish there aren’t any better places to level a Paladin. Sense Undead, Turn Undead, and Exorcism all get their fair share of use here with all the roaming Undead.

You can basically just work in a circle around the whole cemetery. If you run out of mobs or there’s too much competition, feel free to drop into the crypts and clear those out. Make sure to tackle the Mor’Ladim quest chain and the usual “Kill X zombies” quests while your here, and the levels will fly by.

Stay tuned for more solid Paladin leveling spots in the next installment of my Paladin Leveling Guide!

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Retribution Paladin Glyph Choices

Aside from choosing talents, one of the most difficult things to figure out while leveling is which glyphs you should choose.  Obviously, different glyphs are geared towards different playstyles and situations, and as such, it can be way too complicated for someone new to the class to figure out what works where.  Thankfully for you, I’ve put together this handy primer that takes the guesswork out of it and saves you from wasting gold on trying out different glyphs.

1.  First Major Glyph (Level 15) – Glyph of Judgment.  Your Judgments deal 10% more damage.  Pretty self-explanatory.  Paladins are not exactly DPS gods at lower levels, so this is definitely a good boost in the right direction, and since you’ll be using a Judgment spell every time it’s off cool down, there’s no rocket science involved here.

2.  First Minor Glyph (Level 15) - Glyph of Blessing of Might.  Increases the duration of your Blessing of Might spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.  Another simple choice.  Retribution means smashing, and smashing means Blessing of Might.  Less self-buffing means more mana for smashing.  It’s an easy choice.

3.  Second Major Glyph (Level 30) -  Glyph of Seal of Command.  Increases the chance of dealing Seal of Command damage by 20%.  By the time you can get this, Seal of Command should be your primary damage Seal, so increasing your chance for it to activate by 20% is a pretty sweet deal.  You will notice a serious DPS upgrade with this glyph, much more so than with any other of your choices at this level.

4.  Second Minor Glyph (Level 50) – Glyph of the Wise.  Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.  When you need to mana up, the less you have to invest to get yourself refilled, the better.  Since you’ll probably still be using Blessing of Might most of the time at this level, it’s not worth grabbing any of the other minor glyphs yet.

5.  Third Minor Glyph (Level 70) – Glyph of Lay on Hands.  Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min.  At this point it’s less a question of “What’s most useful?” than it is “What’s less useless?”.  This glyph is mildly useful if you find yourself in bad spots more often than you should, but in general it’s just filler.  If you find yourself using other Blessings frequently, or you plan on grinding a lot of Undead, you may find one of the other minor glyphs more useful.

6.  Third Major Glyph (Level 80) – Glyph of Crusader Strike.  Reduces the mana cost of your Crusader Strike ability by 20%.  It’s nice to go longer without drinking.  Since you’ll be using Crusader Strike every time its up, this works out to a good bit of mana saved in the long run.  If you find yourself in more AoE-friendly situations, you may want to get Glyph of Divine Storm instead.

Remember that what works for me may not necessarily work for you.  If you find that one of the glyphs isn’t working for your playstyle, swap it out for another that augments a spell you use more.  All in all, I feel that the set of glyphs I detailed are the best selections for their level, and are the ones best suited to the standard tasks associated with leveling.  Happy hunting!

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10-14: Benediction. Less mana spent = less time drinking, and less time drinking = more time killing, which means faster experience. I like math!

15-19: Heart of the Crusader and Improved Judgments. More Judgments and more crits means BIGGER NUMBERS, and everyone loves big numbers!

20-24: Seal of Command and 4/5 Conviction. Remember that whole numbers thing we talked about last time around? Yeah, still applies. Smashy smashy!

25-29: Sanctity of Battle and Vindication. By now I think you probably get that more crits = VERY YES, so no need for details there. Vindication, well, when is weakening your enemy ever a bad thing?

30-34: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Sanctified Retribution, and finish out Conviction. With these talents, your DPS should be starting to get pretty decent.

35-39: Vengeance and Eye for an Eye. Bigger numbers, plus a bit of a counterattack when enemies crit you. Between that and Retribution Aura, mobs should know better than to take a swing at you.

40-44: Judgements of the Wise and The Art of War. This is where we start getting past vanilla damage and move into the cool stuff. Mana refunds plus instant heals after specials crit means your longevity and ability to deal with "uh-oh" situations gets even better.

45-49: Repentance, Fanaticism, and a point in Sanctified Wrath. Woohoo! Crowd control! And of course more crits! Lots to be happy with, and it gets even better in 1 level…

50-54: CRUSADER STRIKE!!! Oh, and Sheath of Light, and finish off Sanctified Wrath while you’re there. Go Crusader Strike a few things. Feel like a righteous force of justice and face-smashing yet? Welcome to Retribution, enjoy your stay.

55-59: Righteous Vengeance. Why? Because you are an instrument of it. Oh, and also for the nice little DoT effect. Grab Improved Blessing of Might too, more attack power is nothing to turn your nose up at, especially leveling as Retribution.

60 and up: Divine Storm, of course. Why wouldn’t you want the Paladin equivalent of Whirlwind? After that it really comes down to a matter of choice. I’m partial to taking 5 Divine Strength, and then putting 15 points in Holy, but your mileage may vary. Depending on your playstyle, you may want to respec Protection or Holy for tanking or healing through instances. If you’re a solo player though, you’ll definitely want to stick with Retribution all the way.

Once I hit 80, I ended up swapping over to Holy for a bit just for a change, and I went through a bit of a Protection phase too. Maybe I should have rolled a Warrior though, because I just can’t get enough of running in and causing havoc with a big 2-hander. Retribution is definitely my style. Holy may actually be a stronger spec over all, but I have way more fun as Ret. Respec fees are cheap, try them out and see which one you like best.

If there’s anything specific you’d like to see in the Paladin Leveling Guide, feel free to let me know in a comment. Until next time, happy crusading!

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Alliance Paladin Races

Human: As a Human Paladin, you gain access to Every Man for Himself, which is the racial equivalent of the PVP trinket.  You also get passive increased stealth detection, an extra 10% bonus to reputation gains, a bonus to Spirit, and Sword and Mace specialization.  All in all, Humans are pretty stacked.  You get a free trinket slot as a PVPer, and a better chance at catching Rogues and Druids in stealth, which is another solid PVP bonus.  The 10% bonus to rep means 10% less time grinding out the same daily quests.  The weapon specialization is great for DPS or tanks, and the Spirit helps all around.

Verdict: Quite probably the best choice for a Paladin.  Human racials are pretty tough to argue with in general, and the hybrid nature of Paladins only makes it easier to choose.

Dwarf: Let’s get this out of the way…  Dwarves are just plain awesome.  As Paladins, they’re like walking beer kegs with big axes and glowy hands.  Getting down to the whole efficiency thing though…  Well, they get Stoneform, which is pretty decent, but aside from that, they get a bit of cold resist, a bonus to Guns (useless) and Find Treasure.  If you intend to use your Paladin to hunt for treasure chests, go Dwarf, otherwise the only other reason is because, well, you like em.

Verdict: My favorite Paladin looks-wise, but doesn’t really cut the mustard when it comes to the numbers game.

Draenei: So you wanna be a Blueberry, huh?  As part of the package, you get Gift of The Naaru, which is a Heal Over Time spell that costs nothing to cast, a bit of Shadow resistance, a bonus to Jewelcrafting, and a bonus 1% to hit.  The extra heal is nice for a Retribution paladin, and the 1% hit is pretty useful overall, especially considering the fact that it is group-wide.  Plus, they’re Russian Blueberries with hooves, can’t really go wrong there.

Verdict: A better choice than Dwarves as a whole, and for some playstyles, may make a better Retribution Paladin than Humans.

Horde Paladin Races

Blood Elf: Wow, are you feeling overwhelmed with options yet?  If you want to be a Horde Paladin, this is it for now.  Thankfully, they don’t do too badly in the Racial department.  Arcane Torrent is great for any PVP Paladin, rounding out the one area where Paladins are distinctly lacking, fight control.  You also get a bit of Magic resistance, a bonus to Enchanting, and a tiny on-demand mana drain.  Not the best of the bunch, but hey, at least you’re doing better than the Dwarves, right?

Verdict: If you’re a die-hard Horde player and you want to roll a Paladin, it’s not like you have a choice.  Pretty decent for PVP, too.

Conclusion: Don’t care which side you’re on as long as you’re a Paladin?  Human is the clear cut choice, with Draenei hoofing their way into second place.  Planning on rolling Horde?  Flip a coin.  Heads you’re a Blood Elf, tails you’re… well, you get the picture.  In any case, you’re pretty much set.  Paladins rock no matter which race they are, as long as they can swing a big hammer and call on the Light.  Let me know if you have any other questions regarding Paladin race choices by leaving a comment.

The next Paladin Leveling Guide topic will be on leveling builds, so make sure you don’t miss it!

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