Paladin Arena Guide
Really only two of the Paladins Spec's are viable in arena, Holy and Retribution. You may occasionally see a prot pally but they are nothing to fear and will more then likely mean an easy win. Generally you'll be asked to heal in an arena team, over DPS. Of course you'll be able to find a team as ether spec but finding a team as a Holy Pally will be much easier.
As a Holy Pally you'll be spending most of your time healing and supporting your team mates. You have excellent heals and tons of abilities to break Slows, Stuns, Decrease damage taken and more. Generally you'll be healing and Cleansing, Stunning and Dealing Damage when you and your group are fully topped off. Since you don't have any Heal over times, you'll always want to "predict" incoming damage. What I mean by this is if you see the enemies damage dealers running towards another one of your team mates start channeling a Holy Light on that Teammate.
As a Ret Pally you'll be focusing on killing your enemies quickly and also supporting your team with the large array of abilities you have to Stun, Cleanse, Remove Slowing Effects and BoP. Ret pallies are best known for their "Shock Damage" What this means is they can put out a ton of damage over a 1 to 2 second period, but you'll be waiting another 5 seconds to see them do that damage again.
Tips
- Make sure if you have a Mage or a Druid in your group they know to remove Curse of Tongues from you. Curse of Tongues is the bane of a Holy Paladin's Existence.
- Remember aside from just healing you can also Cleanse and deal damage. A Good Paladin should know when its safe to throw a Judgment, Cleanse, Stun and even sometimes help finish off an enemy.
- Be smart with bubble. If the other team has a mage and you know your team can take out one or two people on their team within 12 seconds blow bubble to stop a Counterspell.
- Avoid Mana Burn and Mana Drain's. If a Hunter or Warlock starts to drain your mana cleanse that shizzit immediately! If a priest starts to Channel Mana Burn on you use anything to stop him.
- Remember Blessing of Sacrifice a Team Mate when you Bubble or when the match starts to avoid Crowd Control. This isn't the most reliable method to use to avoid Crowd Control but once in awhile it will work and save your ass.
- If you're a ret pally don't forget about your support abilities! You will still want to help out team mates with Cleanses, BoPs, Hands of Freedom and HoJ + Repentance to Interrupt heals. Also keep in mind it may be smart to stop and help heal if you're in a tight situation.
Specs
Holy: Probably the most popular Pally spec for Arenas and the only spec they have for healing. This spec allows the Paladin to do effectively Heal and Support his allies. A Holy Paladin has the best direct healing abilities, but no healing over time abilities. Their two biggest weaknesses are Counterspell and Curse of Tongues.
Protection: You'll almost never see this spec in arenas and if you do it shouldn't be something you should fear. Just kill who ever is healing him or his team mate, don't try to kill the prot pally first.
Retribution: This is the damage dealing spec for a paladin. As a Ret paladin you'll be focusing on killing your enemies as fast as possible and supporting you and your group with Stuns, Cleanses, BoP, Freedom and an occasional heal.
Tactics
As a holy paladin in arenas you'll be fearing two classes... Mages and Warlocks. A mage can shut you down for 8 seconds, just with counterspell. Then they also have Sheep that you need to worry about. Warlocks have Fel Hunters, which can spell lock you and the worst of all... Curse of Tongues.
As a Paladin you'll be able to fear the Warlocks pet and easily bring it around corners to try and kill it, which you will probably need to do from time to time. In a 2v2 situation you'll need to focus somewhat on killing the pet as much as possible, since with Curse of Tongues up the Fel hunter has plenty of time to Spell Lock you.
As a Ret pally you will be DPS'ing as well as assisting you and your other group members with Stuns, BoPs, Freedoms and Cleanses. It's very important for you to not get tunnel vision on an enemy and just try to focus him. You need to focus on keeping you and your team alive and waiting for a lucky string of burst damage to take your enemy down.
Of course if you're running a full DPS team then assist on whoever your team is killing. The only toss up that you'll ever come to with a Ret Pally is whether or not to bubble or use Avenging Wrath. It really all comes down to if you're getting focused or not, also after you pop Avenging Wrath and the other team notices you have Forbearance on you may be focused. Use your best Judgment.
If you would like to learn more about the Paladin class click here to see my Paladin class guide.