Is a Paladin Viable in Arenas?

Right now half of the top ten arena teams on the tournament realm have a Paladin. Looking at the current top ten teams for this season of PvP shows there is only one Paladin in the 2v2 Arena teams, there are four Paladins in the 3v3 bracket and all but two teams have a Paladin in the 5v5 bracket. In the year of the Death Knight it is fairly amazing to see this kind of Paladin participation. Rogues have been a staple in PvP, but Paladins are giving them a run for their money in the pseudo and actual professional ranks.

Holy, Protection, Retribution and You

The Holy spec Paladin has a long history in PvP. With Cleanse, Blessing of Freedom (now Hand of Freedom), Blessing of Protection (now Hand of Protection), and of course some great single target heals, the Holy Paladin has been a very popular choice for PvP. It never hurts to wear plate either. So what’s new? Well now that seals last 30 minutes, the Judgement button should be your friend. Even if you aren’t contributing damage, you should be judging anything around you. Since healing is more of support role, there aren’t many different strategies – just keep your team alive! That and stun the Rogues that get within range. Don’t forget Lay on Hands and the Paladin signature move, the bubble.

Protection is not the typical PvP spec, but with 35,000 hit points, 25,000 armor and all kinds of instant cast spells, Protection can be quite fun in PvP. The Protection tree includes instant casts of Hammer of Righteousness (hit a few at a time) and Shield of Righteousness (if you have a high block value this can hit nice and hard). These spells in addition to the Captain America-type shield throw (Avenger’s Shield) really allow the Player to choose with their spec of choice instead of only seeing one or two viable options.

Retribution continues its climb up the PvP ladders. Paladins came out of the shoot fast when the latest post Patch 3.0 arena season started, but fell out of favor briefly before returning to prominence. The amount of damage a Retribution Paladin can pump out in a very short time has made them prime targets for nerf bat. Burst damage has been addressed on the Public Test Realm (PTR), so expect fights to last a little longer when Patch 3.2 arrives. Crusader Strike and Divine Storm are both nice and proccing an instant Flash of Light through The Art of War talent really adds to survivability.

Laying on the Pain

Now that we’ve been brought up to speed on some of the various specs available to the Paladin, let’s run through some basic moves and tactics for fighting the other classes in the game. Blizzard has said repeatedly that they do not balance the game for 1v1 which is nice because more times than not we (as Paladins) have the upper hand!

General Note on PvP – Monoy Mon

One on one PvP is decided almost always by the player who gets the drop on the other player. Not necessarily the first hit, but the character that is able to set up first and prime a few moves will typically win the day. What this means is that you must always keep your “Head on a swivel” as my football coach used to say. Do not get caught with blinders on, someone invariably has you in their sights and you’ll be in spirit form faster than you can say “I hate rogues.”

Class by Class

Druids are one of our hybrid brethren that have also enjoyed quite a boost to all three of their talent trees. Once a Boomkin (Balance Druid) would have been laughed out of an Arena, now they can really bring a lot of tricks and damage to a fight. Regardless of the Druid spec (actually this applies to any PvP scenario) have your Hand of Freedom spell ready. A Balance Druid will try to keep some distance so expect Roots. Clean that with HoF and also be ready to dispel Moonfire’s DOT with Cleanse.