Paladin leveling guide for WoW Forever

The Paladin levels slowly but safely. You heal yourself, you have a shield against almost every mistake, and in Forever you press more than auto attack: Judgement and Holy Strike go out on cooldown. At level 30 you choose between Retribution, Protection and a Holy build that deals damage with Holy Shock. This guide covers the builds, the rotation, the key levels, the class quests and the seals, auras and blessings.

Easiest spec for leveling	Retribution, with a slow two-handed weapon
Key talents	Seal of Command, Conviction, Sanctified Judgement, Vengeance, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
Strength	Hard to kill, heals itself, a seal for every situation
Weakness	Kills one monster at a time, mana between pulls, little to escape with
Talent order per level	Paladin level build
Builds to level 60	After the launch on 4 November

Which spec to level with

You can level with all three. Retribution is the classic choice: a large two-handed weapon, Seal of Command and big hits. Protection is just as fast if you like to gather four monsters and burn them down with Consecration while you barely lose health. Holy does little damage until it has Holy Shock, but then plays much like Protection, with more spell power and more healing.

For the first 20 to 30 levels, spend your points in Retribution, even if you plan to tank dungeons with a shield later. Most of your damage comes from the same three buttons in every spec: a seal, Judgement and Holy Strike.

The builds below are made for the beta, which stops at level 30. Each has 26 points: you reach that at level 30 with five extra points from Talented in the Legacy system, or at level 35 without them. The talent calculator shows such a build as level 35, because it counts every point as a level. Builds for level 60 follow after the launch.

Levels 1 to 10

You start with Seal of Righteousness, Holy Light and Devotion Aura. Judgement and Blessing of Might follow at 4, Divine Protection and Holy Strike at 6, Hammer of Justice at 8. Until level 6 you mostly hit with your weapon.

1. Keep a blessing and an aura on yourself.
2. Cast Seal of Righteousness before you pull.
3. Cast Judgement as you run to the monster.
4. Cast Holy Strike.
5. Cast Judgement and Holy Strike on cooldown and renew your seal when it runs out.

Use Holy Light to heal yourself when needed. If you need a heal in combat, cast Divine Protection on yourself first: then nothing can interrupt the cast.

Stats at these levels: Strength and attack power first, then Stamina, then spell power, then armor.

Level 30 Retribution build

The recommended leveling build. You hit hard with a slow two-handed weapon, and the build is all about mana: Sanctified Judgement gives mana back on every Judgement, so you kill monster after monster with little rest. That also works on groups, with Consecration kept up. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Deflection	5/5
Improved Judgement	1/2
Holy Conduit	2/2
Conviction	5/5
Sanctified Judgement	3/3
Seal of Command	1/1
Pursuit of Justice	2/2
Sacred Arbiter	1/1
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization	3/3
Vengeance	3/3

Seal of Command gives your swings a chance to deal 70% of your weapon damage again as Holy damage, so the slower and heavier your weapon, the better. Conviction and Vengeance work together: more critical strikes, and every critical strike raises your damage for 30 seconds. Sacred Arbiter makes Holy Strike stronger and lets it refresh your Judgement on the monster. Pursuit of Justice makes you run 15% faster, which saves a lot of time between quests.

There is little room to change it. The only real option is one point less in the fifth row for Repentance, which takes a humanoid out of the fight for up to 6 seconds.

1. Keep Blessing of Might and Retribution Aura up.
2. Cast Seal of Command before you pull. Below level 20, with a one-handed weapon or with a lot of spell power, use Seal of Righteousness.
3. Cast Judgement as you run to the monster.
4. Cast Holy Strike.
5. Cast Judgement and Holy Strike on cooldown and renew your seal.

The Judgement of Seal of Command deals almost double damage to a stunned target. Open with Hammer of Justice, then judge.

Stats: Strength and attack power, then Stamina, then spell power and Intellect, then armor.

Level 30 Protection build

Built to take hits. Gather a group of monsters, put down Consecration and let them wear themselves out on your shield. You need a one-handed weapon and a shield. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Redoubt	5/5
Precision	3/3
Anticipation	2/5
Improved Seal of Fury	1/1
Improved Righteous Fury	3/3
Shield Specialization	3/3
Swift Judgement	1/1
One-Handed Weapon Specialization	3/3
Templar’s Bulwark	1/1
Reckoning	4/5

Redoubt and Shield Specialization make you block often, and every block gives mana back. Improved Seal of Fury returns mana when the shield of Seal of Fury is used up. Reckoning gives you extra attacks after blocks and critical hits against you. Templar’s Bulwark is your emergency button: a shield as large as your maximum health for 8 seconds.

1. Keep Blessing of Kings and Retribution Aura up.
2. Cast Seal of Fury before you pull.
3. Cast Judgement as you run to the monster.
4. Cast Consecration once you are in melee range.
5. Cast Holy Strike.
6. Cast Judgement, Holy Strike and Consecration on cooldown and renew your seal.

Consecration hits the first four monsters that walk into it harder, so four is the number to pull. Seal of Fury is also your taunt: its Judgement makes a monster attack you for 4 seconds. More about it in this post.

Stats: spell power first, then Stamina, then Intellect, then Strength, then armor.

Level 30 Shockadin build

Leveling as a healer is not recommended, but a Shockadin deals more damage than you would expect. Almost everything a Paladin does now scales with spell power, and this Holy build adds Holy Shock and better healing. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Divine Intellect	5/5
Healing Light	2/3
Spiritual Focus	2/2
Improved Seals	3/3
Reverence	3/3
Infusion of Light	2/2
Illumination	2/5
Divine Favor	1/1
Divine Precision	2/3
Holy Shock	1/1
Consecrated Ground	2/2
Holy Power	1/5

Holy Shock is an instant blast of Holy damage, or an instant heal on an ally. Improved Seals raises the damage of your seals and Judgements. Reverence keeps part of your mana regeneration going while you cast, and Divine Precision makes your Holy spells miss less.

1. Keep Blessing of Kings and Retribution Aura up.
2. Cast Seal of Righteousness before you pull.
3. Pull with Holy Shock.
4. Cast Judgement as you run to the monster.
5. Cast Consecration once you are in melee range.
6. Cast Holy Strike.
7. Cast Holy Shock, Judgement, Holy Strike and Consecration on cooldown and renew your seal.

Stats: spell power first, then Stamina, then Intellect, then Strength, then armor.

Key levels

Level	What you get	From
1	Seal of Righteousness, Holy Light, Devotion Aura	Default, class trainer
4	Blessing of Might, Judgement	Class trainer
6	Divine Protection, Holy Strike, Seal of the Crusader	Class trainer
8	Hammer of Justice, Purify	Class trainer
10	Blessing of Protection, Lay on Hands, Seal of Fury	Class trainer
10	First talent point	Talent tree
12	Redemption	Class quest
14	Blessing of Wisdom	Class trainer
16	Retribution Aura, Righteous Fury	Class trainer
18	Blessing of Freedom	Class trainer
20	Blessing of Kings, Consecration, Exorcism, Flash of Light	Class trainer
20	Polearms	Weapon trainer
20	Seal of Command	Talent tree
22	Concentration Aura, Seal of Justice	Class trainer
24	Turn Undead	Class trainer
26	Salvation, Revoke	Class trainer
28	Shadow Resistance Aura	Class trainer
30	Divine Intervention, Seal of Light	Class trainer
34	Divine Shield	Class trainer
38	Seal of Wisdom	Class trainer
40	Blessing of Light, riding, Dual Specialization	Trainers
42	Cleanse	Class trainer
44	Hammer of Wrath	Class trainer
46	Blessing of Sacrifice	Class trainer
52	Greater Blessing of Might	Class trainer
54	Greater Blessing of Wisdom	Class trainer
60	Greater Blessing of Kings, Greater Blessing of Light, Mass Salvation	Class trainer

With points in Talented from the Legacy system, you reach every talent up to five levels sooner.

The class quests

Paladins have a few class quests with rewards worth the trip. Forsaken Paladins also have their own starting area with many quests of their own; those are ordinary starting quests and are not listed here.

Level	Reward	Alliance	Horde
12	Redemption	The Tome of Divinity	A Lesson in Divinity
20	Bastion of Stormwind and Sense Undead	The Tome of Valor
20	Verigan’s Fist	The Test of Righteousness
20	Moonsilver Blade		The Moonsilver Blade
20	Wolfsbane		Old Fire-Eye
22	Cloak of the Divine Storm	Return to Delgren
60	Summon Charger, Summon Forsaken Charger	Not known yet	Not known yet

Verigan’s Fist is the two-handed mace of the Alliance and now has a proc. More in this post. The Cloak of the Divine Storm comes from a chain that only the Alliance can finish for now, see this post. Forsaken Paladins get a charger of their own at level 60.

Weapons

Weapon	Alliance	Horde
One-handed maces	Known from the start	Known from the start
One- and two-handed axes	Buliwyf Stonehand (Ironforge)	Hanashi, Sayoc (Orgrimmar)
One- and two-handed swords	Woo Ping (Stormwind)	Archibald (Undercity)
Two-handed maces	Buliwyf Stonehand (Ironforge)	Ansekhwa (Thunder Bluff)
Polearms, from level 20	Woo Ping (Stormwind)	Archibald (Undercity)

Whenever you learn a new weapon type, you first have to train its skill before you hit reliably with it.

Gear

Weapons are the most important upgrade, whether you hit with them or carry them for their stats.

• Retribution wants slow, heavy weapons. They make Holy Strike and Seal of Command stronger.
• Protection wants faster weapons, for more hits from Seal of Fury. A weapon with a lot of spell power often has less damage per second, and that trade is usually worth it.
• Holy wants a one-handed weapon with as much spell power as possible. Seal of Righteousness deals more damage per swing with slower weapons, so you do not need the fastest one.

Librams go in the relic slot and give class-specific bonuses. The first one is Tenets of the Silver Hand, made by enchanters and soulbound. It is not worth the effort while leveling, unless you level Enchanting yourself.

Professions

Level your professions alongside your Paladin, so you gather and craft at the right level. Camps give buffs to every profession.

• Cooking is a must: buff food gives extra experience, and you need it for a campfire.
• Blacksmithing makes your own gear, including soulbound pieces with stats you rarely find elsewhere. If you want to build around spell power, Blacksmithing gives you much more of it.
• Mining goes with Blacksmithing, unless you would rather buy all your ore.

Consumables

• Food and water. Stay Well Fed for the extra experience; any buff food is better than none. Carry water of your level, because you will stop for mana. New water comes about every 10 levels.
• Potions. Healing potions for emergencies, now also from First Aid. Mana potions help when you pull one group after another.
• Elixirs with the right stats are expensive to keep up, but worth it for a difficult quest or monster.
• Reagents. You need none while leveling. Greater Blessings from level 52 cost Symbol of Kings, and Divine Intervention costs Symbol of Divinity.

Seals

A seal is a buff on yourself for 30 seconds. Judgement unleashes it on the monster for an extra effect, without using up the seal. Only one seal can be active at a time.

• Seal of Righteousness adds Holy damage to your swings, more per swing with a slower weapon. Its Judgement deals a burst of Holy damage.
• Seal of the Crusader gives attack power and makes you attack 40% faster, but each hit deals less. Its Judgement makes the monster take more Holy damage, which helps a lot, because most of your damage is Holy.
• Seal of Fury is the tank seal. It adds Holy damage to your swings and, while you carry a shield, gives you an absorb shield with every hit. Its Judgement is your taunt.
• Seal of Command is a Retribution talent. Your swings sometimes hit again for Holy damage. Its Judgement deals almost double damage to a stunned or incapacitated target, so combine it with Hammer of Justice or Repentance.
• Seal of Justice gives your swings a chance to stun. Its Judgement keeps a monster from fleeing at low health.
• Seal of Light heals you a little on your swings. Its Judgement lets everyone who hits the monster in melee heal a little.
• Seal of Wisdom restores some mana on your swings. Its Judgement lets attacks and spells against the monster restore mana.

Auras

An aura affects everyone in your group around you. You can have one active.

• Devotion Aura gives extra armor, good against monsters that hit in melee.
• Retribution Aura deals Holy damage to every monster that hits you. Your aura for leveling.
• Concentration Aura makes it less likely that damage pushes back your casts. Mostly for PvP and some bosses.
• Resistance auras for Shadow, Frost and Fire, for monsters or classes that deal that kind of damage.

Blessings

A blessing lasts one hour. Each Paladin can put one blessing on each player.

• Blessing of Might gives attack power.
• Blessing of Wisdom gives mana regeneration.
• Blessing of Kings raises all stats by a percentage.
• Blessing of Light raises the healing you get from Paladin heals.

Then there are short blessings for a specific moment. They count as your one blessing on that player, so give them their normal blessing back afterwards.

• Blessing of Protection makes the target immune to physical attacks, but they cannot attack with a weapon either.
• Blessing of Freedom makes the target immune to slows and roots.
• Blessing of Sacrifice moves part of the damage of each hit to you.

From level 52 you learn Greater Blessings, which buff every player of one class in your group at once. While leveling you rarely need them.

Salvation is no longer a blessing in Forever. It lowers the threat of a group member by 30% for one hour, which helps everyone in a dungeon except the tank. Cast it on your tank by mistake? Remove it with Revoke.

Healing and defense

Even if you are not a healer, you heal yourself often.

• Holy Light is slow and heals a lot.
• Flash of Light is fast and heals less.
• Lay on Hands heals as much as your maximum health, but costs all your mana. It has a 20 minute cooldown.
• Holy Shock, a Holy talent, heals an ally or damages a monster, instantly.

Hammer of Justice stuns for 3 seconds, one of the strongest stuns in Forever. Turn Undead is a fear for undead only. Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Blessing of Protection are your immunities: catch your breath, heal and fight on. They share Forbearance, so you cannot chain them. Divine Shield also halves your damage while it lasts. Purify removes poison and disease, and Cleanse from level 42 also removes magic.

More about food, camps and rested XP is in the experience guide.