Don't-Quit-Your-Day-Job Holy Paladin PvP  

Posted by Dristanel in ,

Disclaimer: I am not a PvPer. Never have been never will be. I am a PvEr who sometimes dabbles in PvP when she is after something. Like stone keeper's shards for heirloom shoulders. Or a new mount. Or because I get mildly crazy when I'm not sleeping and for some reason actually have the desire to PvP. Take all of this for what it is: A PvE-paladin's guide to PvP.

Little known fact about me: I started on a PvP server. In fact, it's where I learned to love being a paladin. Originally I leveled a hunter to 50 before I began leveling the paladin, and the difference was night and day. People left me alone. And people that didn't leave me alone soon learned I just wasn't worth the trouble. I couldn't kill anybody, no. But damned if I couldn't just annoy people until they went away. There's something about being invulnerable, then invulnerable again, then healing yourself that really irks some folks. Can't imagine why.

So yes, I have delved into pvp as a paladin. In fact some of my fondest memories of the class were right after Alterac Valley opened. I was on my human paladin (obviously) with a prot warrior in tow. She'd charge in and distract a mass of people, I'd heal her from afar, and when the cavalry arrived to back us up or swoop in on an objective, it was a very satisfying feeling. Did we contribute directly to a kill? Hell no. But without us there, our allies would have had a much rougher go of it.

That's what playing a holy paladin in PvP is like, more or less. All of the work, none of the glory. But you're used to that, right? You're a PvE healer. Everybody hates you and it's always your fault. Also, 3.45647784 mins til Kings drops, refresh it NOW, bitch.

As if that wasn't bad enough, now you've decided to martyr yourself for some noble cause and queue for a random battleground, or perhaps boldly step through the Wintergrasp portal. My guess is you want something shiny. War mounts now at 50k honor? Sure! Free yellow gems (let's be realistic here, you're not gemming anything else) for life? Why not! Whoring out your paladin for heirlooms? That's cold, brah.

Regardless, here are the top five things (in no particular order) I've learned as a PvE player trying to PvP. Note that this is primarily BGs. I have very little experience in arenas. With no resilience gear, most of my time in arenas has been spent... dead.

1. You are a defender. Your best place is on defense, holding an objective with at least one other person. This means nodes in Arathi Basin, towers/bunkers in Alterac Valley, the fortress in Wintergrasp, etc. There are exceptions to this, of course. You make a great flag assist in Warsong Gulch due to hands, cleanses, and other utility spells, but that's still a role that's focusing on the defense of an ally. You're there to help other people do their job. It's not as glorious as the person topping the killing blows chart, and if you're doing your job to its full potential, you may not even see huge healing numbers. Your job is to keep yourself alive first, so that you may keep your allies alive.

2. Use the right buffs. Under most circumstances, you should be Beaconing yourself. You can also Sacred Shield yourself, but if you notice someone being focus-fired, your shield can help them out. You have other ways of saving yourself. Forget blessing wisdom - mana won't be an issue, period. Bless kings on yourself and on your allies unless they request something different. And don't forget Righteous Fury if you're spec'd for the damage reduction! Every little bit helps.

3. Forget your PvE healing know-how. Just toss it out the window. Holy Light is not going to cut it here, and there is no slow, predictable damage. PvP is all about quick reaction time, and you need to be on your toes. Holy Shock and Flash of Light will comprise most of your healing arsenal. If you are properly hasted you might be able to get away with Holy Light on players who aren't being heavily focus-fired, but it can be very dicey.

4. Learn to love your utility spells. All those hands you only use situationally in PvE? (You are using them in PvE, right?) You should be using them all the time in PvP. Hand of Protection on the mage who just got jumped by a rogue. Hand of Sacrifice on the gent who's bravely broken through the front lines and is now taking heavy siege damage. Hand of Freedom on the flag carrier who just got snared. Hand of Salvation... alright, not so much. And for the love of your Holy tree, Ceanse those hunter stings, paladins! There's no excuse to let your health or mana be drained.

5. Expect to die. A lot. Even as a paladin, you're going to die. Just get used to it. Until you build up a resilience set, if you care to do so, there will still be folks who can just tear through you. Eventually someone is going to notice you're the one keeping everyone else from dying, and you'll be focus-fired. You can and should bubble if staying alive will mean the difference between a goal and/or match, but eventually you have to have a nice chat with reality: you're going to be face down in the dirt/snow/sand. That's life. Or death, as it were. Suck it up and deal.

To reiterate, I am not one to be giving you the best PvP advice, but if you're after something specific and want to dabble, these general tips should help you toward that feat. Good luck and happy annoying-people-to-death!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at Saturday, March 27, 2010 and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

1 comments

Windsoar  

One of my favorite stories is actually when the hubby and I were dual leveling paladins on a PvP story. We were 38 or 39 (so no mounts yet) and a 60 Tauren hunter thought we'd be easy pickings. We were traveling on our way to Desolace and he caught us right around Sun... whatever the Horde town is in the mountains there!

Anyway, we were scared, but we managed to kite him all the way to the elven town in the mountains there--you know the one at the very north end of the map? We were hoping that the druid-y horse guy would give us a hand, but no luck! However, the flighmaster was quite obliging once he hit it with a scattered shot and we managed to kill him!

We were so proud, and everyone should know--don't mess with pallies!

March 27, 2010 at 11:57 PM

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