I've been playing a Holy Paladin, and I like it very much because he is very hard to die either in PvP / PvE.. I still remember the days i lvling it from 1-40 and the killing is much slower but I have better survival rate..

I'm lvling a new pally on a new server I've joined with my new friends, and am planning to spec it Ret.. Do I focus Ret build like STR > STA > INT ?

p.s: I will be mana insufficient right in this Ret build? >.< and some people ask me to put more agi instead of str as ret =.= is it true?

This post has been edited by kenzai82: Jan 28 2007, 01:47 PM

Stack more agi because agi = higher crit rate, which will affect the crit % of SoC (seal of command)


FYI, holy dps can be > ret because of the new coefficients of SoR. But this is subjective to the type of gear that u have. So if u have the luxury of choosing between spell damage gear vs. dps gear, u will find that u will do higher dps with spell damage gear + 2h (SOR), vs dps gear (SOC). Good luck!

This post has been edited by Bogardan: Jan 28 2007, 02:01 PM

Oh god thanks for a lvling spec for pally...im struggling with my ret pally as i cant seem to 1-2 mobs...even if i 1-1 a mob abt 1-2 lvls lower than me, i find myself needing to heal after each fight.

Any experienced pallies around can teach me a way to grind more efficiently? thanks

Anyone can share the talent tree configure sample for paladin?

Check out the Paladin forums in wow forums. That is the best place to get some input from the pally community.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com

checked there di...got all basic stuff and know hows..but i need some solid grinding spec...doesnt provide anythere

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...=11931828&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...=11381284&sid=1

These two threads were stickied in the pally forums, you sure you checked?

Agreed. in TBC, Holy dps can be > Ret dps. SoR with a 2 hander with SoC judged on the mob...u get amazing dps.

Im full holy, and i have no probs grinding mobs in TBC, but i have about +400 spell dmg

Not sure how on topic this is but for lvling i've stuck with ret (60 to alliance before switching to Holy for raids) and still running ret now while levelling my BE. Whilst grinding, I focus on more +int gear if possible to reduce downtime between mobs and I always have BoW on(this is so I don't have to drink). More mana also means being able to handle 2-3 mobs with no problems as you don't run out of mana from bubble+heals.

This is a personal opinion so don't QQ on me.

But as always with pallies, it's about finding a fine line to balance on.

The links off the earlier post are a good place to go for info. One of them even goes in depth about which seal+judge combo you're looking at and the best one for the right scenario blablabla but that's nothing you can't figure out for yourself once you've got some time playing a retadin.

More indepth, take a look at this build for lvling.

Retnoob

I favor Benediction over imp. BoM due to mana reasons as well. Less downtime! Unless you're twinked out and have over the top gear this is the best build IMO.

This post has been edited by jackalope: Jan 29 2007, 12:10 PM

I'm also a BE pally on Ki'jaeden. Personally I think Holy Talent is cool
U get to heal nicely
and u dun lose your tanking/dps capabilities alot either. Means U can still tank and dps well. (but dun expect to top the chart on DPS.)

Anyway heres the build I'm going for, comments welcome.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classe...010000000000000

OK, my advice for ret specced paladins trying to grind is to focus on gear with +INT and +STAM. At that level, items normally have only 2 kinds of stats (those with more than 2 are spread too thin). Stack INT & STAM, and get the slowest hitting 2H weapon u can find. Without getting into the details of the coefficients, SOC & SOR holy damage is based on the weapon speed. Simply put, the slower, the higher the holy damage will be (weapon damage being equal).

The rationale behind stacking INT & STAM is simple. To minimize downtime (drinking, eating etc..). Dont spam consecration, just judge crusader on the mob ur attacking, and let seal of command do the rest. Besides minimizing downtime, mana management is also an important factor for grinding. By not spamming various spells (killing mobs faster, but draining mana pool), despite killing mobs slightly slower, you will find that after 1 heal, u can move on to the next mob, only having to drink occasionally..

When grinding, use blessing of wisdom instead of might. The reason for this is the same, to minimize downtime.

This post has been edited by Bogardan: Jan 29 2007, 02:21 PM

Thanks for backing up and adding more to my prev. post ^^

Just to add more to this:-

For people who don't know, slow weapon speed means higher weapon damage. Your procs will factor weapon damage but NOT dps so take that into consideration as well. Procs like seal of command are also on a timer, not a random chance per hit as some people may believe. So it doesn't matter if you hit the mob 500 times a minute.

If you've ever played a MS warrior(maybe with HoJ, that's hand not hammer ) you'd understand the concept

SOC is 7 PPM (Procs per minute) no matter what the weapon speed.

hmm.. so STR + STA wont do any better than INT + STA as ret? coz i tot usually INT + STA if for holy build.. correct me if im wrong..

ps: the downtime reduced by healing with more INT can be replaced by first aid bandages, so we won't have to add so much INT while giving STR a boost to dps ?

healing will give u less down time because its 2.5 sec to cast compared to 8 sec bandage.

I grinded and quested being holy mostly, no SoC even. Being holy, you could take 1 mob easily while dealing with 1-2 adds, even 3. Of course now with SoV, it makes being holy even better (SoV = Seal of Vengeance, stacks 5 times debuff on a mob, 1 debuff = 30 holy dmg/3 seconds. Plus with the number of debuffs, judgement of vengeance dmg will be higner). Also with SoV, the speed at which you apply debuff depends on weapon speed, so a slow 2-hander won't be effective for SoV. SoV, mace/sword and shield. So judge crusader, then SoV all the way plus the occasional holy shocks

My opinion, go holy.

This post has been edited by Odinn: Jan 29 2007, 07:36 PM

Clearly if u look at the coefficients i posted, SOR out dps's SoV. SoV is only good if there are fights where u cant atk all the time.

This post has been edited by Bogardan: Jan 29 2007, 07:59 PM

Did you know that.... Prot spec levelling is the fastest? You can aoe grind a lot of mobs at one time.

You can have a look at this guide here: http://www.wowpaladin.org/2007/01/19/guide...d-aoe-hotspots/

cheers.

The problem in TBC is that there are so many players doing the same quests that most of the places are overcamped. I find myself fighting 1-2 (3 at the most) mobs at a time because I cant get the tag on all of them.

Also, quests > grinding for exp

This post has been edited by Bogardan: Jan 30 2007, 11:36 AM

But still, a lot of quests involve killings. So it would help to be able to aoe grind and finish the quests asap.

And yea, you have a point with the crowded zones. Pick some off-peak hours I guess. Nothing much we can do.