TheLightAndHowToSwingIt
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The Light and How to Swing It: I leveled a Holy Paladin
As Elizabeth mentioned last week, leveling builds for a paladin are... shall we say limited? You can spec Holy and struggle with solo-play or farming; you can spec Retribution and get laughed out of instances; or you can spec Protection and spend your time convincing your fellow players that yes, you do wear plate and you can take a few hits. So with such appealing options, which spec do you chose? We know that Elizabeth picked Protection, for all its AOE goodness. But for my part, I picked Holy. Why, you ask, would anyone choose to level up as a Holy-spec Paladin? Doesn't it gimp you beyond belief for soloing? I've asked myself these questions more than once, but I'll try to explain just why I've stuck with it through the levels.
The Light and How to Swing It: The sadist's guide to PalAOEadins
"Paladins are for masochists," say the wise elders on pally boards and blogs. "You either spec healbot and can never farm, spec ret and can never find a group, or spec prot and spend half your time trying to convince people that prot pallies can actually tank. You're either being ordered around by your raid leader and tank or wandering in the wilderness soloing stuff." As I was leveling my paladin, I began to feel that this statement had some truth to it. Ret had nice, big numbers, but I couldn't take on many mobs, had to heal a lot, and found myself constantly out of mana. Holy ... well, I didn't have enough talent points yet to take Holy Shock, and I didn't even want to know how tough leveling would be with a spec mostly invested in healing. Then one day, while talking to some other belfadins, I discovered the wonders of protection AOE, the most sadistic spec in paladindom.
The Light and How to Swing It: Bugs or Features?
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Paladin issues, interviews experienced Paladins and reports her findings in The Light and How to Swing It, formerly The Paladin Report.I used to work in Software Development and later tested Video Games. A prevailing joke in all software companies is "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Today, we are looking at some issues that Paladins have encountered and determining if they are Bugs or Features.Purging Divine Shield: Bug or Feature?Biggillard complained in the forums that his pally's Divine Shield was purged by a Shaman in PvP. He assumed it was a Nerf. Others who complained about the same problem thought it was a Bug. But Byzantine got it right. According to Hortus:Because of the Client-Server nature of the game it is possible for two mutually exclusive actions to occur at the same time resulting in some unexpected behavior. Although efforts are made to minimize these situations they will still happen on occasion.So, if your Divine Shield gets dispelled as soon as it is cast, rest assured that this is not a Nerf or a Bug, but in fact a Feature of WoW's Client-Server architecture.
The Light and How to Swing It: Bless you
Whether you're retribution, protection, holy, or something in-between -- whether you swing a two-hander, tank all the mobs, or heal your party -- there's one thing that all paladins have to do in groups, and that's bless people. Blessings are a five-minute buff that you can cast on a single target at early levels. After about level 50, you begin getting Greater Blessings, which you can use to cast a 15-minute blessing on all members of one class in your party or raid group.
The Light and How to Swing It: What is a paladin?
Welcome to The Light and How to Swing It, one of our new class-specific features. Robin and I will be switching off on pallies by the week. We're both belfadins, so beware: we probably haven't been playing them as long as you have. The topic I've chosen for my inaugural column cuts to the very heart of the class. What is a paladin, and what should a paladin be? Are we healing clerics, supporting the raid through magic and buffs? Are we defenders, standing in front of the foe with our shield and our sword? Are we holy warriors, charging into battle like Uther? Or are we a mix of two or three of these -- a capable tank that can switch off and heal, a healer that does best in melee situations, or a true hybrid that can step up to any challenge?
