With Forever launching today, we’re looking at how each class performed during beta, how players received their changes from Classic, and how they are shaping up for the Forever launch and level 60.
Check out all our series:
- 8: Druid
- 7: Mage
- 6: Shaman
- 5: Warlock
- 4: Priest
- 3: Rogue
- 2: Hunter
- 1: Warrior
- 0: Paladin (You’re here!)
The info below was written based on our experiences during beta and feedback from our Paladin writers, Mytholxgy and Meyra.
Holy Paladin
Forever is here, and Holy continues with its signature healing style. If you enjoy single-target healing specialization, Holy is still your spec. While it’s the same at its core, the spec gained a lot of new tools and a very interesting capstone node, making it way more versatile than before, with very quick burst healing in the shape of 
Light’s Vigil and 
Holy Shock.
Light’s Vigil enabled Holy to have AoE healing, rewarding proactive instead of reactive healing; it is incredibly expensive mana-wise. Holy Shock, while versatile and cheap, is weak and overall a low healing-per-mana as well. This combination means Holy does have coverage for burst healing, but it has a steep cost.
One of the best changes Holy has seen in Forever is 
Reverence, which slightly helps with the mana economy. Besides that, general Paladin quality-of-life changes in Forever also make Holy’s life better, like hour-long Blessings and 
Judgement not consuming Seals anymore.
At level 60, we expect Holy to play similar to what it did in Classic, but with shiny new tools to enhance its burst healing potential. If the issues with Light’s Vigil are addressed, Holy will be a healer that is able to prepare for incoming damage and execute large bursts of healing. Then, during downtime, the player can focus on regenerating mana and keeping tanks alive.
Protection Paladin
Prot in Forever is a spec that doesn’t offer much depth rotationally; most of its “fun” comes from its utility and the ability to support other group members. This comes from both old and new tools, like 
Swift Judgement giving you a second taunt, Blessings to manage dangers to the group, and even 
Divine Intervention, which offers a way to prevent your group from having to run back after a wipe.
One of the largest concerns Prot has right now is mana consumption. Its toolkit is very expensive to cast and, while Blizzard has added new mana tools and talents, it is uncertain if it will be sufficient. The situation gets worse as part of your mana return is based on your damage taken, meaning you might run out of mana when not actively tanking in a raid environment.
Compared to Classic, one of the largest quality-of-life improvements has been the change to Seals. No longer are they consumed by Judgement, meaning you don’t need to keep reapplying them over and over. Another great change is the addition of an actual taunt, which Prot lacked in Classic.
For endgame content, Protection is looking better than ever. While there are points of concern for the spec, the ability to taunt enemies and changes to talents feel great, making the spec feel like a real tank. Overall, the gameplay is similar to what already existed in Classic, with really good AoE damage, farming capabilities, and an amazing utility kit, but now with real tanking tools.
Retribution Paladin
Playing Retribution in Forever is night and day when compared to Classic. The spec now actually feels like a real spec. At level 30, you already had access to most of your rotation abilities, and the kit felt almost complete, but not quite there. With beta’s restrictions, going into the Holy tree for Holy Shock made the rotation feel better, but without the mana talents from the Retribution tree, you ran out of mana very fast.
When looking at concerns for Ret in Forever, one of them is itemization. During beta, two main variants surfaced for Ret: Seal Twisting and Shockadin. The former focused on more traditional melee stats like Strength and Agility, with the latter favoring Spell Power and Intellect. This means that the itemization available during Forever might decide for you what build to play if you’re looking to optimize your character. This decision also shows up while leveling, with Ret often picking up Leather or Cloth pieces for their Spell Power.
There have been a lot of overall improvements when compared to Classic. Blessings were streamlined, their durations increased, and Salvation was removed. Auras are now raid-wide as well, meaning one Paladin has a bigger impact than before. The addition of Twist of Light also adds a lot of depth to the spec, which now gets rewarded by constantly doing something. The ability to become a Ret Shockadin also favors Spell Power and Intellect, something that no Ret build did in the past, and fast two-handed weapons, something that never happened in Classic.
With all the love received by Rets, we expect the max-level gameplay to be very smooth, with the two aforementioned builds offering distinct playstyles depending on your taste. If anything, Ret might’ve received too many changes in Forever, making the spec completely disconnected from its Classic counterpart. Overall, it is a pretty novel spec, likely to receive even more iteration in the near future.
