PvP Holy Paladin Guide

PvP Holy Paladin

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-BiS & Best In Slot (BiS)

Glyphs, Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to the Holy Paladin PvP guide for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King!

In this guide, you will learn how to properly play a Holy Paladin in PvP scenarios, whether those might be a duel, battlegrounds, or the arenas. The Holy Paladin is a mighty healer in a heavy suit of armor that protects the downtrodden, rushing to those in need found on any battlefield.

This righteous and “holy” healer comes with powerful healing spells, rejuvenating even the most deadly of wounds. The Holy Paladin is a specialization that offers powerful damage mitigation and utility tools, while also bringing huge, “chunky” heals for his allies. In the Wrath of the Lich King, this specialization is considered to be the best one for single-target healing, and we can assure you that this fact shines in Player-versus-Player content.

This guide covers the Holy Paladin as of the patch 3.3.5., and includes BiS gear, gems, enchantments, gameplay, and spell rotation tips.

Arena Team Setups

You will want to try the following combinations in the Arena:

2 vs 2 teams:

• Arms Warrior/Holy Paladin- This is the best-ranked team in WotLK
• Holy Paladin/Affliction Warlock
• Holy Paladin/Unholy Death Knight
• Holy Paladin/Beast Mastery Hunter
• Holy Paladin/Destruction Warlock

3 vs 3 teams:

• Destruction Warlock/Holy Paladin Arms Warrior
• Affliction Warlock/Balance Druid/Holy Paladin
• Arms Warrior/Retribution Paladin/Holy Paladin
• Unholy Death Knight/Holy Paladin/Marksmanship Hunter

Best Races

Since the expansion we are reviewing is Wrath of the Lich King, the Paladin class has somewhat of a one-sided availability: the Horde only has the Blood Elves to offer, but the Alliance comes with several choices – Human, Dwarf, and Draenei.

Horde

• Blood Elf: The Blood Elves offer three distinct racial abilities: Arcane Torrent, Arcane Affinity, Magic Resistance. In PvP, any form of crowd control gives you an advantage. The Arcane Torrent ability will help you control a target for setting up a kill.

Alliance

• Human: Out of the three available races for the Paladin class in Alliance, Humans have the strongest potential when it comes to PvP due to their powerful racial, Every Man for Himself. This racial removes the need to buy a PvP trinket by acting as its own trinket, available right since the character’s creation. This allows you to utilize double PvE trinkets, which will offer far stronger burst capabilities than you could get with the other races.
  
  We can also mention two other very potent racial effects which are extremely beneficial for PvP scenarios: The Human Spirit, which amplifies your spirit stat by 3%, and Perception, which greatly increases your stealth detection and is very useful when fighting against Rogues and Druids.
  
  Humans also have several other racials which can benefit the player greatly, but they do shine more in PvE content. Some of these racials are Diplomacy, Sword Specialization, and Mace Specialization.

• Dwarf: The Dwarves benefit from Frost Resistance, which helps you negate some of the damage you will face. Dwarves also have another interesting defensive racial, Stoneform, which can be applied in PvP content – you can combine Stoneform with your Divine Protection in order to survive a clutch situation, or to just heal yourself without worrying about getting burst down.

• Draenei: Another suitable choice for the Paladin class, the Draenei has one major racial which is used to buff up the entire party – the Heroic Presence. This is a highly sought after buff which increases the entire party’s hit rating by 1%. This buff can help you min-max your stats better in PvP, while also helping your party achieve the same effect.
  
  Other than this, Draenei benefits from the Gift of the Naaru, which is similar to a bandage effect, offering a heal over time that can help you survive burst classes, and Shadow Resistance, which helps you mitigate shadow damage from casters.

Best Professions

• Mining will generate you a good source of income, while also generating enough raw materials to level up professions like Engineering or Jewelcrafting. Most people underestimate the profitability of mining, but rest assured that it will go a long way.
  Not only will it provide you with a sustainable source of gold, but it will also grant you a special passive that will enhance your PvP potency – Toughness, which will increase your stamina by 60 at max rank.

• Jewelcrafting is one of the professions which can lend you plenty of gold, while also contributing to the min-maxing aspect of the game. A Jewelcrafter can create special gems such as the Mystic Dragon’s Eye, which boost your resilience by a considerable value.

• Engineering has always been the number one profession when it comes to player-versus-player content. Since the early days of WoW, it has provided players with several gadgets that have given them an edge over their opponents, some of those being the Nitro Boosts, Saronite Bomb, Mind Amplification Dish, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and the Frag Belt.

• Skinning is mainly used as a gathering profession, but it also offers you a nice boost to your critical strike rating in the form of Master of Anatomy.

• Alchemy offers a variety of useful potions and flasks. While you are generally unable to use any potions in arenas, you can still use one specific flask dedicated to alchemists: the Flask of the North. It offers either spell power, attack power, or raw strength and is the only usable flask in an arena.
  Alchemy also offers potions like Free Action Potion, which can be used as an improvised trinket in dire situations.

• Herbalism will generate you a very good source of income, especially when paired with Alchemy. It also offers one, potentially life-saving ability for PvP scenarios – Lifeblood, which offers a heal-over-time effect that can save you in clutch situations.

• Enchanting offers you the ability to enchant your equipment, as well as your ally’s equipment with various magical effects that can give you an edge. This profession also allows you to disenchant equipment to break it down into rare magical essences required not only for the practitioners of this craft, but for other professions as well.
  Picking up Enchanting gives you access to special enchantments for your rings. For example, casters can benefit from Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower, increasing their Spell Power by 23 on each ring.
  This profession is best paired with Tailoring due to the Disenchanting ability, allowing you to effectively craft equipment that can be broken down into magical essences.

• Tailoring offers you the ability to craft equipment from cloth pieces and other magical items which are found all around the world. This profession is usually paired with Enchanting, since you can disenchant the gear you create and turn it into useful magical essences.

• Blacksmithing grants you the ability to forge equipment from ingots and other materials. This profession can be quite profitable since you can craft a lot of bind-on-equip gear pieces and either use them as entry-level PvP items, or sell them. Aside from the gold that you can gain from this profession, Blacksmithing allows you to utilize two extra sockets for your equipment: one for the gloves and one for the bracers.