LogFAQs > #946953047

CoolCly posted...

how do you feel about the class's fun to play value over the years? I know it became godlike in Wrath, not sure what it its like now.

Very good question, and oh man, do I have mixed feelings about paladin.

In General: Do not play a paladin in classic/tbc. It's boring as shit. The main reason I did so was because my parents' internet was garbage and I needed a class that wouldn't instantly die to 800 ping. Heavy armor, self healing, few active abilities, powerful auto-attacks, bubble-hearth... there's the ticket. (there's an iconic tbc era official forum meme about it that i might look up later) My first attempt was to create a troll axethrower, but after i realized that wasn't possible I ended up settling on paladin.

Ret: I don't really care about ret. It was overpowered in early wrath, but once it was toned down, the silly rotation was still fun. Then cataclysm saddled it with an awkward combo point mechanic, which wasn't tuned for fun until WoD and it's been shaky since. The spec is still okay today, but it's not my cup of tea. Utility still feels too low/passive.

Holy: Good since the creation of beacon of light (wotlk), and absolutely terrific since WoD. The niche of single/dual target healing, combined with good cooldowns and decent throughput and spot raid healing is extremely satisfying to me. There was a time when I'd say I was as good as any other non-professional paladin player in the world. My personal nadir was the period from the end of cataclysm to... I think maybe mists? Whatever period it was that they gave us "Holy Radiance"- a boring spammy AoE spell, sometimes with a HoT- to help us keep up in lame LFR. It didn't feel like paladin healing to me. I used to be envious of priest healers, but they've given paladins so many new toys over the years that I can't complain.

Protection: It's been up and down. Always functional. I think it's in a good spot now. Peak was probably Legion, but it hasn't sunk far since then. Nowadays I prefer leveling and questing as prot over ret- I feel invincible, can pull as many mobs as I want, and don't get dazed when punched in the butt. Gets me from point A to point B at the fastest possible mounted speed.

Overall, the class is always great in dungeons + raids. Healing is always solid in PvP. The class is always functional if boring while questing. The class respects your attention- it doesn't try to distract you with 500 balls to juggle when you'd rather be focusing on the fight and the rest of your team.

Tier lists will always go up and down, but for the last ten years paladins have always had a passing grade in tanking and healing. Rets can roll around in their wheelchairs for all I care.

I main paladin because I love both tanking and healing, love instant queues for any content, and love being good at what I do. When adding everything together paladin usually has the most fun combo of both roles. If there existed a half entertaining shockadin ranged dps spec i might not have ever leveled another class

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You did indeed stab me in the back. However, you are only level one, whilst I am level 50. That means I should remain uninjured.