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The best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery are particularly interesting. The early talents for Protection are not thrilling. They use more DPS abilities since their early talents aren’t especially helpful. One thing that makes the Paladin special is that it is the only one of two classes that can perform in all three roles efficiently: Tank, DPS, and Healer. So we’ll go over all three builds and give you the best choices for each.
However, as time passes, the best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery will surely change. This article will be updated as each new phase happens to keep players ready to perform at their best — whether solo or in a group. That said, here’s everything you need to know.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.
Best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery
1) Protection
Unfortunately, the best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery do not include Protection talents. The reason for this is the lack of defensive stats they gain in the first 25 levels. Despite that, they’re still decent tanks in the Classic-era gameplay right now.
Depending on what you want to do, you’ll need different builds for your Paladin. The single-target build, for example, is a high-DPS, two-handed weapon build. The AOE build is also solid, but you need to be the main tank in raids in this one. Otherwise, you won’t be able to deal significant damage, and that’s important.
The AOE build uses Consecration to deal AOE damage and pull threats. It employs talents like Divine Strength to enhance your strength 10%. You will also make your Seal/Judgement better via Improved Seal of Righteousness and Benediction.
Conversely, the single-target, two-handed build uses a primarily Retribution build. Improved Blessing of Might, Improved Judgement, and Seal of Command are the big winners here. This build does have a bit of parry though, via Deflection.
Both of these builds are excellent. The items they use are worthy of being the best Runes and talents for Paladins in Season of Discovery. That said, I like the single-target build more.
AOE talents
- Divine Strength: 5/5
- Improved Seal of Righteousness: 5/5
- Consecration: 1/1
- Benediction: 5/5
Single-target/Small Pack talents
- Improved Blessing of Might: 5/5
- Improved Judgement: 2/2
- Deflection: 5/5
- Conviction: 3/5
- Seal of Command: 1/1
Here are the Runes you should use for Protection:
- Enchant Chest: Divine Storm (single-target and AOE)
- Enchant Hands: Crusader Strike (single-target) or Hand of Reckoning (AOE)
- Enchant Legs: Avenger’s Shield (single-target and AOE)
Divine Storm is a powerful AOE strike, and Crusader’s Strike is a popular high-damage attack that also regenerates 2% of your mana. Finally, Avenger’s Shield is an ability Paladins should have had from the outset. It throws a holy shield at the enemy, which bounces to several other targets and deals damage to them.
With the AOE build, consider going with Hand of Reckoning instead of Crusader's Strike if you’re going to be in a battle that requires a taunt.
These four are hands down, the best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery, if you’re tanking.
2) Retribution
Retribution Paladins are easily among the best DPS on the WoW Classic Season of Discovery servers. These units use a similar setup to the single-target Prot build.
You can use Benediction for cheaper Judgement and Seal spells in this setup. That said, if you’re playing with someone who already runs Improved Blessing of Might in your party, consider running Improved Judgement and Improved Seal of the Crusader instead. This will improve your damage and won’t waste talent points.
You'll also use the incredibly fun Seal of Command in WoW Classic Season of Discovery, which deals additional Holy damage equal to 70% of your weapon's normal damage. This can be a huge chunk on a good two-hander.
Talents
- Improved Blessing of Might: 5/5
- Benediction: 5/5
- Conviction: 5/5
- Seal of Command: 1/1
Here are the Runes you should use for Retribution:
- Enchant Chest: Divine Storm
- Enchant Hands: Crusader Strike
- Enchant Legs: Exorcist
The only difference here is that Exorcist is being used instead of Avenger’s Shield. This build ensures the former is castable on any target and has a 100% increased critical strike chance on Undead and Demons alike. It turns an occasionally useful ability into one that’s great at all times as a Paladin in WoW Classic Season of Discovery.
3) Holy
When looking at the best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic, Holy Paladins’ talents are kind of boring but still useful. Increasing your intellect (Divine Intellect) is handy in this build and so is raising the amount of healing you can do with Holy Light and Flash of Light (Healing Light).
Spiritual Focus gives you 70% less chance to lose casting time when taking damage; however, that’s only really useful when you’re soloing WoW Classic Season of Discovery content.
You also use one point in Improved Blessing of Wisdom for the 10% bonus to reduce the cooldown and increase the effectiveness of Lay on Hands with Improved Lay on Hands. The improvement offers a 30% bonus to the target’s armor value from items for two minutes.
Talents
- Divine Intellect: 5/5
- Spiritual Focus: 5/5
- Healing Light: 3/3
- Improved Lay on Hands: 2/2
- Improved Blessing of Wisdom: 1/2
These are the Runes you should use with this build:
- Enchant Chest: Horn of Lordaeron
- Enchant Hands: Beacon of Light
- Enchant Legs: Inspiration Exemplar
While I think the early-level Holy talents are underwhelming, they have some remarkable Runes, including the powerful Beacon of Light. I’m a huge fan of Horn of Lordaeron, even if it has a two-minute cooldown. It offers +6 Strength and Agility to all nearby allies; just keep casting it over and over.
Beacon of Light is a buff you grant a teammate. It debuted in Wrath of the Lich King. With it equipped, any heals you cast on party or raid members will heal the Beacon target for 100% of the value healed as well.
You can only have one Beacon of Light out at a time, and it lasts for one minute. It's an incredible way to get extra value out of your single-target heals in WoW Classic Season of Discovery.
Inspiration Exemplar is just an interesting ability because it can periodically inflict Fear and Sleep effects on nearby party members for two minutes after being cast. In PVP and PVE alike, this is going to be a game changer.
Paladin is an Alliance-only class on these servers, but it’s an incredibly flexible option. Whether you want to DPS, Heal, or Tank, you have options. As with other phases of content release, we’ll keep updating this article with the best Runes and talents for Paladins in WoW Classic Season of Discovery.
