A Brief Paladin PvP Guide

Given the same gear plenty of people argue that Paladins are more overpowered than Death Knights. Certainly they make excellent tanks, damage machines, and healers and that’s the reason that you’ll see so many of them in PvP (though not so many of those will be Protection.)

Keep in mind that the most important factor in PvP success is you. If you’re really serious about PvP you’ll know your character inside out and you’ll know the other guy’s character inside out, as well. You’ll know what he’s likely to do and what you can do about that.

This page is just an overview of Paladins in PvP. See the individual pages below for more in-depth detail.

Check these pages for the individual PvP guides:

Holy Paladin PvP – Superb healers and very hard to kill.
Holy Paladin PvP Gear – Just the gear, please.
Retribution Paladin – Crush the opposition
Paladin changes for 5.4
Paladin patch notes for patches 5.2 and 5.3
Paladin leveling – if you’re not yet max level.
Paladin overview – A top level view of the Paladin, in general.

Best Stats

These days, in patch 8.3?

Retribution: Item level > Strength > Haste > Versatility > Mastery> Critical Strike.
Holy: Intellect > Critical Strike > Versatility > Haste > Mastery.

Are you corrupted?

Corruption is not great for PvP as you will take too much damage and too many annoyances. But there are a couple of positive points. For example…

Writhing Segment of Drest’agath is a pretty decent damage trinket. Nice Strength boost and a decent “spike” of damage every 1 minute and 20 seconds.

Once you have done appropriate quests with Magni, MOTHER will be happy to remove the corruption from your items for a very low price.

The Gems and Enchants

PvP Power and Resilience gem values were cut in half in patch 5.3 and later slain completely. joining the Hit, Expertise, and Multistrike group.

Gem sockets are pretty uncommon. Rare, even. But if you find one on a decent piece of gear…

Retribution: Quick Sand Spinel has +50 Haste
Holy: Deadly Lava Spinel has +50 Crit.

And of you happen to be working in Mechagon you might find gear with slots for punchcards. Some of which are pretty interesting. Yellow cards provide stats, Red some support ability, and blue misc abilities, which might turn out to be useful in certain situations.

For Enchants, look into

Ret: Force Multiplier – Occasionally increase Strength and your highest secondary stat.
Holy: Machinist’s Brilliance – Occasionally increase Int and your highest secondary stat.