WoW Forever Paladin

01 Is a Paladin right for you?

The Classic Paladin was a healer first: Retribution leveled on auto-attacks and a seal, and Protection could hold one enemy at a time. Forever reworks the class more than any other. Paladins get a button to press in melee (Holy Strike), a tank seal (Seal of Fury), Consecration for everyone, a Judgement that no longer eats the seal, some group healing, and in the beta client an area attack, Hammer of the Righteous, at 40. Undead can be Paladins for the first time, with a story of their own.

Solo play and gold

Solo, a Paladin keeps a seal up, judges it at the start of the fight (it stays active now), and fills the gaps with Holy Strike, a weapon attack with Holy damage on a 10-second cooldown. From 20, Consecration adds damage on everything around you. With kills taking 10–15 seconds from about level 10–15, a Paladin heals itself between pulls instead of eating, and Seal of Light or a Flash of Light covers most fights.

Plate and a two-hander mean Mining and Blacksmithing, as for Warriors: the Mining Lodestone and the Blacksmithing Sharpening Wheel add melee Attack Power and Strength at camp. Paladin mounts are no longer trainer spells in the beta client but sit with your other mounts; the Forsaken epic mount comes from its own quest.

02 Three ways to play a Paladin

Holy and Retribution end in new 31-point talents, Light’s Vigil and Twist of Light; Protection keeps Holy Shield. Holy Shock moves up to the 21-point row and Divine Favor to 16, so Holy’s signature spells come earlier. The icons show the talents in the Paladin Talent Calculator; hover or tap one for its full tooltip.

Dual Specialization opens at level 40, Blizzard’s class deep dives say; you change talents at a class trainer in a major city.

03 The road to 60

The Forever Paladin has something to press from level 6: Holy Strike joins Seal of Righteousness and Judgement, and since Judgement no longer uses up the seal, you judge on cooldown instead of re-casting the seal after every one. Seal of Fury at 10 makes tanking possible early, and Consecration at 20 changes leveling from one enemy at a time to small groups.

Dungeon enemies give much less experience in Forever and dungeon quests much more, so a Paladin that can tank or heal finds groups for each dungeon’s first run easily; the WoW Forever dungeons guide lists all 9 new ones by level. The experience needed to reach 60 is the same as in Classic: Wowhead retracted its datamine of a lower curve after Blizzard explained the file isn’t used by the game (see the WoW Forever leveling guide).

Paladin key levels

The levels where the abilities in the table below arrive. Hover, focus or tap a level to see everything a Paladin trainer teaches that is new at it; every icon has its tooltip.

1. Level 1 Seal of Righteousness

   New at level 1: 3

   Devotion AuraHoly LightHuman and Dwarf onlySeal of Righteousness
2. Level 4 Blessing of MightJudgement
3. Level 6 Holy Strike
4. Level 8 Hammer of Justice
5. Level 10 Lay on HandsRighteous FurySeal of Fury
6. Level 20 Blessing of KingsA talent in ClassicConsecrationA talent in ClassicExorcismFlash of Light
7. Level 34 Divine Shield
8. Level 40 Hammer of the Righteous
9. Level 44 Hammer of Wrath

New trainer abilities per level band

Each ability counted once, at the level its first rank is trained in the Forever beta client; abilities the beta removed are left out. Pick a bar to list them.

101–9810–19920–29630–39540–49550–60

Every raceSome races only

New at levels 1–9: 10

Devotion AuraHoly LightHuman and Dwarf onlySeal of RighteousnessBlessing of MightJudgementDivine ProtectionHoly StrikeSeal of the CrusaderHammer of JusticePurify

Paladin abilities by level

The trainer abilities that shape a Paladin’s leveling, in the order you learn them. The middle column is read from the Forever beta client against Classic Era, so it can still change.

Ability	Learned	In the Forever beta	Why it matters
Seal of Righteousness	Level 19 ranks, levels 1–58	Tooltip numbers changed (9 ranks)	Your first seal: extra Holy damage per swing, more with slower weapons.
Blessing of Might	Level 47 ranks, levels 4–60	Duration: 5 min → 1 hr (7 ranks) Tooltip numbers changed (7 ranks)	Attack Power for you or a melee ally, an hour long in the beta client instead of 5 minutes.
Judgement	Level 4	Tooltip wording changed	Releases your seal’s energy without consuming the seal any more.
Holy Strike	Level 68 ranks, levels 6–60	An instant strike that causes 25% weapon damage plus an additional 11 to 14 as Holy damage.	New at 6: an instant weapon attack with Holy damage, the button Classic Paladins never had.
Hammer of Justice	Level 84 ranks, levels 8–54	Unchanged	Your stun: the closest thing a Paladin has to an interrupt.
Seal of Fury	Level 107 ranks, levels 10–58	Fills you with divine fury for 30 sec, causing melee attacks to deal an additional 6 Holy damage. While a shield is equipped, each attack also grants an absorb shield equal to 50% of the Holy damage dealt. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Unleashing this Seal's energy inflicts 22 to 24 Holy damage to an enemy and taunts the target to attack you for 4 sec.	New tank seal at 10: Holy damage, a small absorb with a shield, and Judgement taunts.
Lay on Hands	Level 103 ranks, levels 10–50	Cooldown: 1 hr → 20 min (3 ranks) Tooltip wording changed (3 ranks)	A full heal on a much shorter cooldown than in Classic (20 minutes in the beta client).
Righteous Fury	Level 10	Level: Level 16 → Level 10 Tooltip numbers changed	More threat from Holy damage; tanks keep it on, Retribution keeps it off for Instrument of Law.
ConsecrationA talent in Classic	Level 205 ranks, levels 20–60	Consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing 16 Holy damage over 8 sec to enemies who enter the area. The first 4 enemies who enter the area will take an additional 32 damage over 8 sec.	A trainer spell at 20 now, not a Holy talent; the first four enemies take the most damage.
Blessing of KingsA talent in Classic	Level 20	Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats by 10% for 1 hrs. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.	A Protection talent in Classic, now a trainer spell at 20 for every Paladin.
Exorcism	Level 206 ranks, levels 20–60	Tooltip numbers changed (6 ranks)	Heavy damage on Undead and Demons, still one of the Paladin’s few ranged attacks.
Flash of Light	Level 206 ranks, levels 20–58	Tooltip numbers changed (6 ranks)	Cheap, fast healing between pulls and in dungeons.
Divine Shield	Level 342 ranks, levels 34–50	Tooltip numbers changed (2 ranks)	Immunity when things go wrong; Sacred Duty (Protection) shortens its cooldown.
Hammer of the Righteous	Level 40	Hammer the current target and up to 3 additional nearby targets, causing Holy damage to each equal to 3 times the damage per second of your main hand weapon. Cooldown shared with Crusader Strike.	New at 40 in the beta client: hits your target and up to three more nearby.
Hammer of Wrath	Level 443 ranks, levels 44–60	Tooltip numbers changed (3 ranks)	Finishes enemies below 20% health; Instrument of Law (Retribution) makes it faster.

04 Pick your race

Only three races can be Paladins. Since the October 15 beta build their racials no longer depend on a weapon, and the October 26 notes keep it that way: Human Ruthless is 1% crit (was 2%) on Holy Shock, heals and swings alike, and Dwarf Earth Fury is gone (Artisan’s Precision is 1% hit); Humans also break stuns with Will to Survive, and Dwarves remove poisons, diseases and bleeds with Stoneform.

The Undead are new to the class and the Horde’s only Paladins. Will of the Forsaken breaks fear, charm and sleep, which matters in PvP, and Touch of the Grave drains a little health on attacks. Their journey starts at Bandarion Keep in Tirisfal Glades and ends in an epic mount quest of their own; the story is below.

Races for Paladins

Every race that can be a Paladin in Forever and what it brings to the class.

HumanAlliance Ruthless crit on spells and attacks alike; Will to Survive breaks stuns.

DwarfAlliance Stoneform; Artisan’s Precision for 1% hit on heals and hits.

UndeadHordeNew in Forever Will of the Forsaken; Touch of the Grave.

05 Coming from Classic

Four things change how a Classic Paladin plays. Judgement no longer consumes your seal, so the Classic loop of seal, judge, seal again becomes seal once and judge on cooldown. Holy Strike adds an active melee button. Blessing of Kings and Consecration are trainer spells, so every spec has them. And Protection is a real tank spec, with a seal that taunts and area threat from Consecration and, at 40, Hammer of the Righteous.

The weaknesses Blizzard kept on purpose: no interrupt, few ranged attacks, taunts through a seal and Judgement. Every changed trainer ability is in WoW Forever Paladin abilities.

What changes for Paladins

• Blizzard

  Holy Strike at level 6: an instant weapon attack that deals Holy damage, on a 10-second cooldown (12 seconds before the September 24 beta build).

• Blizzard

  Seal of Fury is the Protection tank seal: suited to fast weapons, it adds a small absorb and makes Judgement taunt.

• Blizzard

  Consecration is baseline at level 20, dealing heavy damage and threat to the first four enemies and less to the rest.

• Blizzard

  Judgement no longer uses up your seal, and Holy Shock has a 10-second cooldown.

• Blizzard

  Blessing of Kings is no longer a talent: every Paladin has it.

• Blizzard

  Light’s Vigil (Holy) makes your next Holy Shock on its target trigger no cooldown and adds damage or party healing; Twist of Light (Retribution) makes seal twisting possible without add-ons.

• Blizzard

  Still no interrupt, few ranged tools and taunts that come from a seal and Judgement, but strong against undead and demons.

• Player reports

  Players report Blessings lasting 60 minutes.

• Blizzard

  October 1 beta build: Redoubt gives 4/8/12/16/20% block chance (was 6–30%) and Holy Shield 30% (was 20%).

• Blizzard

  Champion of the Light turns 20/40/60% of Intellect into spell damage (was 33/66/100%) and no longer claims to add healing.

• Blizzard

  Known issue in that build, fixed on October 8: Retribution Aura used the target’s spell power instead of the Paladin’s.

• Blizzard

  On the WoW Forever Podcast episode 2, the developers said Lay on Hands is down to a 20-minute cooldown from an hour and still costs all your mana, and that a Holy Shock build is meant as Retribution’s alternative to Twist of Light.

• Blizzard

  October 8 beta build: Retribution Aura’s base damage is back to its Classic values, about a third lower, and it takes 6% of your spell power instead of 13.3%. Reckoning can trigger only once every 1.5 seconds, and the Mana restored by Improved Seal of Fury and Shield Specialization no longer causes threat.

Forsaken Paladins

Undead Paladins pick up where Warcraft III’s new Forsaken Kingdom campaign leaves off. These former Paladins are deeply mistrusted by other Forsaken and still learning what it means to channel the Light in undeath.

Their journey centers on Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal Glades, a local struggle for acceptance and purpose. At level 60 they get an epic mount quest of their own: Alliance Paladins claim their charger in the name of Redemption, Forsaken Paladins ride in the name of Retribution.

06 Before you log in

• Undead Paladin? Only on the Horde, with its own starting story; see the Forsaken Paladins section above and the Undead page.
• Plan for tanking at 10. Seal of Fury and a shield are enough for early dungeons; compare Protection and Retribution in the WoW Forever Talent Calculator.
• Spend Legacy Points on Reagent Economy if you buff raids. Greater Blessings use a vendor reagent in Classic; Reagent Economy removes class ability reagents. The WoW Forever Legacy guide has the perk.
• Hardcore? Divine Shield and Lay on Hands make a Paladin forgiving; the WoW Forever Hardcore page has the ruleset.
• PvP? Still no interrupt, but Holy Strike, Twist of Light and hour-long Blessings change Retribution in battlegrounds; see WoW Forever PvP.