Although, many players may believe that the Paladin class is a powerhouse in terms of raw healing and efficiency (which, I completely agree upon), Arena certainly does put a spin on this — having both its positives and negatives. As a Paladin myself, I do recognize the potential of this class in Arena; but, at the same time, realize it’s not going to be the definitive, best healer in the game.

Other healer classes, such as priests and druids, are able to provide other forms of support (Cyclone, Manaburn, heals over time… etc), which Paladins, obviously, cannot. Does this mean that the Paladin class is at a disadvantage in Arena to these other healers? Not necessarily. Paladins are a very versatile class with skills and tricks, just as notable as other healers are.

Before continuing with this article, I’d like to clear up a common misconception about the Paladin class: it being a very simple, “easy class to play” (Blizzcon 2005). Maybe, in lower Arena brackets, battlegrounds and raiding, Paladins are simple to play — pressing Holy Light, Flash of Light, Hammer of Justice and using Blessing of Protection (BoP)/Divine Shield (bubble) when death is imminent. However, with the implementation of Arena PvP, the competitiveness among the WoW community has tremendously increased, bringing both skilled and novice players together. Here, players are able to really show the amount of skill they truly possess. As one climbs the Arena ladder in ranking, the harder the competition will be, naturally. With this in mind, if all Paladins were “easy to play,” we wouldn’t really be seeing that many Paladins with low Arena ratings. The point being, Paladin players require as much situational awareness, skill and time to reach full mastery of the class in Arena as any other class would. I will attempt to discuss the advantages, disadvantages and viability in the 2v2 and 5v5 Arena brackets.

In terms of gear available to the average player for Arena play, Paladins have a tremendous advantage over other healing classes. Being able to wear plate armor and equip a shield, make Paladins less vulnerable to attacks and less appealing to opponents as prime target for focus firing, or “nuking”. Most Paladins, whether in blues or epics, have at least 12,000 armor unbuffed and without Devotion Aura. That’s about 3 times more armor than a Soul-Link Warlock (and, we all know how hard those are to kill). So, we are talking about a very resilient class versus melee attacks. Even, if a Paladin has very little resilience, the fact that they have skills and talent points which reduce damaging effects, compensates for that lack of resilience; which, brings us to our next point of discussion: skills and talents.

Split among 3 different talent trees (Holy, Protection and Retribution), Paladins are offered a wide array of specs and skills to utilize in PvE and PvP. But, to be pertinent to this article, I will discuss the talents and skills which really matter to the Holy Paladin class in Arena. If you have already used armory to look at top Paladin builds, you would know that a very popular build is 41/20/0. That is, 41 points spent in the Holy tree and 20 into the Protection tree. Recalling some basic knowledge about Paladins, Holy Light and Flash of Light are your main heals, Blessing of Protection saves a life, and your Auras are what make you unique. Now, if you look at the Holy tree, there are plenty of talents which allow you to enhance your healing efficiency: Divine Intellect, Spiritual Focus, Healing Light, Illumination… etc. Then, there are other talents which can increase resistance to Curses and Disease effects, reduce damage by half on chance, and increase the chance to resist Fear and disorient effects.

Based on different group compositions that a player may run, certain talents may be more useful than others. For example, my 5v5 team has no de-curse (which can be very problematic versus other warlocks), so I invest my points into 3/3 Pure of Heart (increases resistance to Curses and Diseases). Or, if my team had a mage, I would invest my points into Blessed Life instead of Pure of Heart, this way the probability of me dying would be very small. Situations such as these should be taken into account while creating your own talent build. Don’t just copy some other player’s spec just because they have a high Arena rating! Make your own and discuss it with your team, as this should be done, since competing in Arena is a cooperative effort. For the Protection tree, it is fairly self-explanatory where to place the talent points; Blessing of Kings should be invested in — it increases the overall attributes of each player. And, Stoicism, Improved Righteous Fury and Improved Concentration Aura should be invested into, as well. With Stoicism and Improved Concentration Aura, you are looking at a 10% to resist stuns, 30% chance your spells will resist a Dispel (great against a mass Dispel), a very minute chance of your spells being interrupted, and reduced durations caused by silences and interrupts. And, with Improved Righteous Fury, you’re basically looking at a 6% damage reduction. This talent build is very popular, as one can see; and, for a good reason, too. Based on this information, it is easy to see why Paladins are a popular class, and why they are such a strong healer in Arena.

So, now you may pose the question, “how exactly does this all come into play?” Stay tuned for Part 2.

Tags: Paladin · 5v5 · 2v2 · Articles

12 Responses to “2v2 & 5v5: Viability of Paladins in Arena, Part 1”

1. Vicious Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 9:15 am

   Great article! I feel the same way in some respects about paladins. Great tips, nice depth coverage of the popular spec, and why most people spec that. I look forward to your next article, don’t wait too long! 5/5

2. Cukrik Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 3:38 pm

   41points to holy and 20points to prot theres a small mistake.
   Dont agree on 3/3PoH tho, if you resist a CoT a lock will just happily apply it again waste of points in pvp.

   Anyway. Its a good start. Hope you’ll write about the “dependence of skill of other teammembers problem”. So more people open their eyes and finally realize that playing a paladin on high lvl competitive arena IS fucking hard, on 2v2/3v3 hardest imo.
   You can be the best paladin in the world but as 41/20/0 you are only as good as your teammates are :-/. Maybe except the 2v2 with a SL lock

   Ziss: Fixed the typo, thanks!

3. Szletica Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

   Hey Cukrik, I appreciate your input. The reason I do put 3/3 into PoH is because my team has no decurse as I said before. If you think about the game in the long run, resisting a CoT can make you or break you! So resisting one, means you have a few extra seconds before another is attempted to be re-applied and extra time to heal, possibly save your teammates life. Although placing the extra 3 points into Blessed Life could prevent some damage taken, you have to keep in mind that most of the time, you will really not be focused, especially if you’re playing with a SL lock. You’ll just be the main target of mana drains/manaburns. So essentially, having these points here really can benefit the team.

   In regards to “dependence of skill of other teammembers problem”, you really shouldn’t view it that way. There are plenty of players out there with respectable talent. You just have to find one that you really have great chemistry with! In my case, it took some several months before actually acquiring the great teammates I have today. Don’t have to be so pessimistic! lol. And I do agree that high level arena is difficult! My upcoming article will go into detail about 2v2 and 5v5 arena brackets.

   “You can be the best paladin in the world but as 41/20/0 you are only as good as your teammates are :-/.” — Sounds like you’ve had some tough luck finding some reasonable teammates. Keep trying new players out though, I’m sure you’ll find the match soon! good luck, hope you continue reading this article when the next one comes out =)

4. Boldric Says:
   October 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 am

   What are you giving up in order to get 3/3 PoH?

5. Szletica Says:
   October 2nd, 2007 at 5:17 pm

   Nothing really.

6. Joe Says:
   October 3rd, 2007 at 8:46 am

   PALLYS ARE FUCKING OVER POWERED SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND PLAY A REAL CLASS

7. Angry Healbot Says:
   October 9th, 2007 at 5:11 am

   Wow. Joe.

   Looks Like someone got pwnd by a pally arena team.

   QQ

   I’m sorry for your loss but there is no need for you to be so angry. You’ll learn to play this game after you practice some more. Just stick it out and someday you’ll be really good! I belive in you!

8. Habib Says:
   October 9th, 2007 at 11:17 am

   Snore. Another Paladin=Holy=Paladin thread. Come back when you decide to break from the lemmings and write a Retribution PvP post. Granted, the spec is extremely limited right now, but things are looking up in 2.3 with changes to CS, Vindication, etc. With said changes and some healing support, there is potential for Ret burst damage to surpass Warrior burst damage (without the healing debuff, of course).

   As for requiring skill as you climb the ladder, you’re going to have an extremely difficult time convincing people of this with the infamous Bubble still in play.

9. Senor Ding Dong Says:
   October 9th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

   Warriors are not brought for solely their burst damage, burst damage in upper arena begins to sizzle out for most classes, you cannot “’splode” well geared, smartly played teams when everyone has 400 resilence and 12,000 hp minimum.

   They’re brought for their metric ton of utility and unique attacks, Warrior burst isn’t just cumbersome single target DPS. The aforementioned is just not that useful, I’m afraid, even if it was on par with Warriors (which it still will not be)you’d still be left in the dust. Enhancement Shamans aren’t even accepted as useful additions to good 5v5s, and theyre light years ahead of Retribution Paladins.

   Not to say you cannot make a Retribution Paladin work in a good 5v5, I’m sure there’s a slice of teams out there with a Ret Paladin, a Moonkin, etc, but its done at the expense of others. Unique does not equal good.

10. Spencer Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Since 2.3 came out… Retadins have actually become very very good in Arena.

    some of the best arena combos in the game are Frost Mage/Ret pally in 2v2
    Retadin Warrior Resto Druid and Retadin Enh shaman and Disc priest in 3v3.

    in 2v2 retadins are very very hard to kill and provide very good burst dps as well as a lot of utility for keeping their partner alive and mobile(Bop, BoF, Dispell)

    in 3v3 the combination of a warrior and retadin is something that very very few single healer teams can heal through for any duration.

    Holy pallies are not the only useful spec in pvp anymore.

    I play a ret pally myself on Bleeding hollow, and my Teams have all done very very well with the right combos and chemestry.

11. LANCE Mary Says:
    September 11th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    Normally I just silently read posts on blogs, but your article and blog has forced me to say something, and you know what that is? GREAT JOB!

12. rift mage pyromancer Says:
    December 1st, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    A person necessarily help to make critically posts I’d state. That is the first time I frequented your web page and thus far? I amazed with the analysis you made to make this actual submit amazing. Excellent process!

Leave a Reply