- Foreword
Spreadsheet
Spec
Stats
Ability usage
Gearing
Sacrifices
Miscellaneous information
Changelog
Foreword
As the title says, this is is a guide on doing the highest possible dps under the current circumstances on Nostalrius. This is not:
- A place for discussion on the viability of paladin dps.
- A source of basic paladin information.
- A bug report.
I will try to avoid covering anything already mentioned in one of the existing guides on this forum. While there will be some unavoidable overlap, if you are new to playing a paladin in vanilla, I suggest reading those guides first.
Spreadsheet
Found here. While it is mostly untested and might contain some bugs, it should give a fairly decent idea on the value of different items.
The spreadsheet is not yet feature-complete. Planned features are on the TODO list. If you have any requests that are not yet on this list, please contact me. Do the same if I made a mistake/bug that's not yet on under Known Issues.
Spec
The best paladin dps spec is linked here.
Apart from a few points that don't affect dps, this is the optimal dps spec. Going 20 or 21 points in Holy allows for better healing, but at the cost of 3% hit from precision.
Stats:
I'm trying to work stat weights into my spreadsheet, but I'm running into some trouble. Excel/Google sheets masters please pm me.
The following gives a general indication on PRIORITY of having a stat on an item.
Using SoC:
Str >= Hit until cap > AP > Holy Damage > Crit > Agi > Spell Damage > Int
Using SotC:
Str > AP > Hit until cap > Crit > Agi > Spell Damage >= Holy Damage > Int
Ability usage
Seals
Currently, both SoC and SotC are viable seals for dps. As always, the best way to find out which one is better is to consult the spreadsheet, but generally:
SotC is better when:
Using a fast 2h.
JotC can't be used because of any reason.
Fights last only a short time or you switch targets a lot.
You're able to hit 2 or more targets with Consecration.
Your weapon is a BRE.
SoC is better when:
Using a slow 2h.
Using spell damage gear (especially pvp gloves).
Having multiple Ret paladins in the raid.
You have a high mana pool.
Note that SoC does scale with spell damage, and scales too much with JotC, but isn't affected by Sanctity Aura. It also doesn't have the proc delay and therefore isn't affected by a certain percentage of Vengeance procs.
SotC does not reduce damage by 40% as it should, and functions as a steady AP/Haste buff.
Judgements and other abilities
JotC: Keep up 100% of the time unless forced to keep up JoW or JoL. Different ranks of these stack, so coordinate with other rets in your raid, and consider asking holy paladins to judge a lower rank of crusader every now and then.
For these three spells, use rank 1 by default. If you have spare mana, uprank according to Exorcism > JoC > Consecration. Always uprank Consecration above others on multiple targets. Damage/mana/rank scaling is not static i.e. using r2 Cons over r1 Cons is less extra damage per mana than going from r2 to r3. There's a table in the spreadsheet.
JoC: Affected by SP, and JotC. Use rank one as mana allows.
Consecration: Affected by Sanctity Aura, AP, SP, and JotC. Use rank one on cooldown. This ability snapshots your stats when casted, so try to get it off during Vengeance and other procs. However, do not delay it for longer than one global to do this.
Currently bugged where it won't work if the boss' debug slots are full, and it can be overwritten by different ranks of Consecration used by other paladins. Coordinate Consecration rank usage with other paladins in the raid.
Exorcism: Affected by Sanctity Aura, SP, and JotC. Use rank one on cooldown.
HoW: Affected by Sanctity Aura, SP, and JotC. Resets swing timer and has a high mana cost. Use situationally.
Holy Wrath: Affected by Sanctity Aura, SP, and (most likely) JotC. Extremely high mana cost and resets swing timer. Use situationally on high amounts of undead.
Priority:
JotC > SotC or SoC > Consecration > Exorcism (undead) > JoC (using SoC)
Sacrifices
A vanilla paladin was primarily intended to be a support class. This means that a large amount of the tools Blizzard gave us are a boon to the entire raid. In many cases (auras, blessings, cleansing) this can be done at no or very little loss in dps. However, in others, it can't. In those cases, you might be asked to sacrifice personal dps for the good of the raid.
Auras: Most paladin auras have some situational use in some case or another, easiest example being Fire Res Aura in all of MC. As Sanc Aura isn't a major damage boost, just use other auras if the raid requires it.
JoW/JoL: Both are very useful to the raid and your RL might ask you to keep them up. However, doing is completely cripples SoC damage, as you cannot keep up JotC at the same time. Wear warrior gear, use SotC, and spend your mana on Cleanse.
Nightfall: Greatly increases the damage of your raid's casters. Depending on your gear levels this could either completely cripple your dps or have a negligible impact. Either way, if there's no offtank to do this, this job will probably fall to the ret paladin. Wear warrior gear, use SotC, and spend your mana on Cleanse.
Healing: Ah, the elephant in the room. Holy paladins are amazing healers, and ret paladins in healing gear aren't bad at all. On fights where mdps are next to useless, such as Shazzrah in MC, just wear a dress and throw heals. And, of course, at some point you'll be asked to heal for the entire raid. That moral question is out of the scope of this guide.
Keeping a healing set in your bags at all times is never a bad idea.
Also, have pallypower and decursive set up, and always carry enough symbols. People WILL expect you to buff and dispel.
Gearing
I won't be covering most of it as there's this great thread.
But here are some under/overrated items.
BoE:
Destiny: Until SotC gets fixed this thing rivals TUF in dps. And that for only 50g. Get it.
Brain Hacker: Destiny's little brother. Not nearly as good, but even cheaper. Still beats out level 60 blues.
Cloudkeeper Legplates: BiS until BWL. I've seen them go for 300g and at that price they're a bargain.
Lionheart Helm: You probably already know, but this thing's amazing. BiS. Worth the money if you have it. Seems to be slowly dropping in price.
Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom: At best, a little better than BhB. Not really worth getting.
PvE:
The Judgement set is currently a healing set and completely unviable for dps.
Lightforge 6set uptime is higher than it should be, making it almost as good as normal preraid gear.
Lastly, this is stressed everywhere, but let me say it again: HoJ is extremely strong. Get it.
PvP:
Getting exalted with AV can be done in one AV weekend and rewards a very good epic ring and TUF (and a healing offhand). I highly suggest doing so.
Honored AB has a very decent belt, although you can get a similar one by doing a simple quest in ZG. The higher ranks of reputation, while still having some good items, are tons of work for marginal gain. See WSG.
WSG: Don't bother unless you're PvPing anyway.
Rank: The blue PvPgear is considerably better than pre-raid gear and getting rank 8 is very doable solo. Rank 10, for the helm and shoulders, is harder but still worth the effort if you enjoy PvP.
Last words
I will be doing my best to keep it updated with new patches or bug fixes, but if you spot anything incorrect with either the guide or the spreadsheet, please let me know.
