PALADIN in Cataclysm Classic: Was It Any Good Though?

[@WillEmmo]

RestedXP has the best guides for leveling up fast and efficiently in Cataclysm so you can get straight into the end game ASAP - check them out there! www.restedxp.com/cataclysm/ref/WillE/ Use Code: WILLE for 5% off!

[@shadowdragon8168]

11:49 Omg, that explosion of numbers was so good

[@godsparcethelord5604]

The beauty that is Holy Radiance. It's such a satisfying AoE healing spell

[@Dwane7D9]

Brightens my day when I see an upload from ya, every time. Thanks for the content my man.

[@phantom0456]

He makes more WoW content than ya can shake yer WillE at!!!

[@Zoltri]

I think something to note about Ret in Cata, and Imho a major element to if you'll enjoy the spec or not. Its Damage profile is heavily focused on its burst output. Your CD's stack together incredibly well to make your 2 minute spikes extremely high compared to other classes, especially with Guardian ontop of it. But the other side of that coin is to balance it, their downtime DPS isn't that great. I always felt when maining ret in Cata it had really high highs, and really low lows, when you're half way through your downtime window, and you're just not getting any procs, the whole spec feels like it stalls out, but when you get the pay out of chaining Divine purpose procs and just spamming out high damage options, your damage skyrockets during a zealotry window

[@AegeanGaming]

Great vid dude! so much info about every spec 😃 keep up the good work! Hopefully Shaman will come soon haha

[@phantom0456]

@5:31 gotta love the pally wearing str dps belt, shoulders and boots while wielding an int weapon and shield 😁

[@caprisunsrgood]

mans is observant

[@Numbers_Game]

Never mind that, what kind of a holy build doesn't take the Eternal Glory talent? Nah dawg, I don't want a 30% chance to keep my holy powers when casting word of glory, it never comes up while healing -_-"

[@runeserpent1449]

What is that weapon? I want it so bad xD

[@StevenOyston]

I loved leveling as a prot pally. Pull a bunch of stuff in deepholm and aoe it down, the old Hobbs way of pulling 😅

[@shadowdragon8168]

1:00 Holy power is combo points for paladin, they function almost identically, the only big difference is how many are spent per ability and that they are tied to your character instead of your target. Good chance that if you dislike combo points, you'll dislike holy power too. While I like that they tried something different for pally, I hate them for going with a combo point system for them, it doesn't feel right on paladin.

[@actuallypierce]

Thank you for all this Cata classic content my dude

[@Mike-yw5jv]

S11 ret is the most fun I've ever had playing WoW. The amount of comps in arena that are viable and the extra holy power from judgement 2set bonus DS really fulfills the spec and makes inquisition less irritable to press for those who don't enjoy maintenance spells in their rotation.

[@Wyrmshield]

I mained holy and ret during original Cata and it was the first time I actively did not enjoy playing the game. I still don't know if it was my irl situation at the time or cata dungeon difficulty or just paladin itself, but in my mind I associate this era of paladin and holy power in particular with just being bad. Especially when you know what each future expac will bring to the class to make things smoother. As a lifelong paladin main cata is really paladin at it's lowest most frustrating point in the game's history and I sure as hell won't play it in classic

[@sahidcm]

Ikr, it feels too sudden to change from few healing buttons to a lot of them. They should have added maybe half of those and it'd be better

[@MrPerlew]

Seeing that the Paladin character you made for this hasn't learned it's res ability lends extra authenticity to it.

[@ashrasmun1]

Prot Paladin can hit unhittable cap in T11, while warrior can't. It's a huge difference to have a tank that cannot get hit for 100% damage. It's also the best tank for Nefarian skeletons because of passive mitigation - feral and dk needs to attack to create a bubble, and warrior can get slapped.

[@ioanfilip6430]

you cant actually not unless you go with a semi clown item build, this was also the case back in 4.0.6 btw

[@phantom0456]

Cata Classic will be running on the 4.3 build, which almost certainly means that prot pally won’t be able to hit the unhittable cap in T11. Just wanted to point that out, though to be fair, warrior will almost certainly suffer even more from this than paladins will, or any other tank for that matter.

[@dova1072]

@@ioanfilip6430 you can 100% hit in t11, its fairly easy esp since windwalk can be accounted for an additional 2.7%~ avoidance due to its very high uptime as a prot pala. I was able to hit it with using rawr and playing on whitemanes server at about 360 ilvl

[@kaliek5281]

@@phantom0456 Itll take a bit for Prot pally to hit its true stride in Cata Classic. Prot was very Mastery dependant and the earlier content in Cata didn't really give a lot of it. Right now Blood DK will be top dog for the early raids, but Cata Protadins have serious power creep (like they did in actual Cata). By Dragon Soul they should essentially unstoppable murder machines. Warriors are in the same boat, honestly. It's going to be a very Blood DK -centric tanking space for T11, but after that the others should catch up if not even surpass them.

[@phantom0456]

@@kaliek5281 I hope so, since the only one of those three I’ve hit 85 in is my warrior, with my Paladin following closely behind.

[@bisalissy3846]

Paladin has a lot of nice changes. Unfortunately, I just hate Holy Power. If I wanted to play Combo Points, I'd go for a Rogue. Even if not Seal Twisting, I can't help but believe there would've been a better way to give Paladin a more interesting rotation!

[@cnh7262]

Williiiiiiee Man, I said I wouldn’t play Cata, but this is temping me seeing my old class lol.

[@Ibop23]

I've mained hpal all of wrath, decided to change to dps/fire mage for cata, but this video has completely made me want to play pally again xD I guess I know what I'm playing in the 10 man's!

[@deenman23]

cata holy is such an improvement over wrath,its insane,granted it will feel a bit different than when it was live with holy radiance having no cd from the start

[@AL_145]

Holy pvp was the tits. I remember giving gold to any arms warrior that could beat me in a duel. Had a surprising amount of burst that came in clutch in arena and can even FC in bgs. Dam might come back to cata for pvp.

[@HolisticHabits88]

i have a pally for bgs arenas & its my favorite support battle medic

[@JayTheProduct]

Shaman next please!

[@natecw4164]

As a shaman main from 1.4 till I quit at MoP, I'd developed such hatred for Pallys (primarily during Vanilla) that I've never touched the class. May have to check this out, it does look fun!

[@General12th]

Hi Will! I remember Glyph of Harsh Words letting you do crazy damage while leveling because of how well Word of Glory scaled in the beginning.

[@Lotuswalker]

Appearently that Glyph was added in MoP

[@General12th]

@@Lotuswalker fudge

[@shadowdragon8168]

I'm pretty sure Harsh Words was MoP, I'm not seeing it listed in the Glyph section for Cata Paladin Glyphs.

[@magesticalmysterium6856]

yes it was in MoP, but it also let Word of Glory cause roughly Equivelent Damage to what it would have Healed

[@PhilerinoBTW]

Harsh Words was so insane while levelling, it was so much fun :')

[@YoungFree213]

paladin was great, played a holy paladin up to late BRM raid to Fireland, but started my mage more. Paladin was amazing for everything and i strongly recommend main spec being holy or tank with a dps offspec since some fights you dont need 2 tanks or need less heals.

[@Kahuno-WoW]

There are so much paladins in tlk right now, I expect a lot of them to change their main. Healing spec looks fun though

[@ak-1271]

It's incredibly fun in PvP, most of the time you don't even have to hard cast!

[@KnolanCross]

I guess you forgot the most unique thing about paladins in arena, the ability to play triple DPS. Mostly this plays with Ret/hunter/Rogue. With all those classes having a death saving/ immunity spell, it is very hard to get a good target, they all burst like hell, they have very strong burst, instant CC and rogue brings smoke bomb. With last word and selfless healer you can bring a friend back from death. It is a very unique play style for people who love fast games (in general you either win in the first minute or lose).

[@BNFuFu]

Cata was my favourite expansion. It just dropped at the right time in my life and I played it a lot. Like so much it was the first time I felt burn out in wow since starting in 05 and mop was the first expac I didn't play on release. I mailed a ret paladin from tbc through to cata and honnestly cata was my favourite version of it. In pvp they were so busted. I remember doing 2s arena with my partner an unholy dk and we versed a disc priest rogue comp that went for 45 mins. By the end of it i had like almost double the healing done of the priest and still a significant amount of damage. That one arena match will always hold a special place in my memories. I kept the ravager axe from SM and used to duel people with it out front of org. I always loved the confusion of players seeing a paladin "bladestorm" and because of mastery and how much holy damage they did It was never a true handicap. Gosh paladins were busted during that time. I wish all the paladins going into cata the very best it should be a fun time for y'all.

[@lucadel920]

I literally looked for this video yesterday 😂 ty for the video 😊

[@ccgamerlol]

correction: ret actually gets inquisition duration tripled from talents, referring to 18:50

[@runeserpent1449]

What is that mace the holy paladins has with the head and jaw that opens up n closes?

[@garrybessant826]

Nice video. I'm tempted to start a holy pally as an alt and its good to see they look like a fun spec. Thanks 👍

[@kris9145]

I remember solo tanking gnomeregan on my 29 twink warrior in cata....good times

[@Knocktoff]

This one is really eerie without the music 😅

[@Maybeabandaid9]

Only thing I remember about Paladin in cataclysm was during the Dragon Soul raid, on Ultraxion with a blue crystal they could basically solo heal the fight after awhile.

[@l.g.4455]

I remenber healing Alyzrazor in firelands 10 men hero solo as paladin. that was sick.

[@phantom0456]

@@l.g.4455Mmm, Alysrazor was fun. Loved going up as a Fury Warrior and getting the ridiculous haste buffs from flying through the rings…

[@RaduAdrian-f7k]

Cata rework feels like an unfinished version unlike MoP ret, which was the peak of the class, WoD was decent aswell. Everythig after was WoD was a sorry excuse of a spec that resembles nothing that used to be.

[@mateca911]

you really should cover the change to the block mechanics in Cata.

[@hoffyc.h393]

Cata and hopefully MoP will be a fun middle ground for WoW, is a bit tired of all the early Classic versions and Retail isn't WoW at all for me, so Cata will be half old/new version :)

[@Sunsation01]

Thank you very much. Very good informative video!

[@skymonger302]

Please do warlock next asap before the pre patch drops

[@notafortnitegamer]

Any ret pros out there that can explain to me the difference In play style for ret in wrath compared to ret in cata, which one did you like more and why?

[@thomaswilliams1533]

Hated holy power and this is the xpac I dropped maining a pally

[@phantom0456]

Ret was boring AF prior to Cata. You just pressed buttons off of cooldown. The mistake Blizz made in Cata was not allowing pallys to stack HP beyond 3 stacks, but they fixed that later on.

[@drewpatton9808]

could you do Warlock? thanks!! love your videos!

[@scooberz2015]

Prots still good especially early when it can avoidance cap before all of the tanks. Can cheese a lot of firelands as well. Guarentee they'll still be super popular. Paladins man. Always popular. Expect to see Pali => Blood >>> Bear > Warrior among the tanks.

[@svsv1191]

can you use cata to farm tokens are they doing gdkp ban in cata too?

[@easycake3251]

Still remember the Sanc. Wrath nerf near the end of the xpac. Went from like 60-70% crit during wings to 6%... talk about overnerfing to the ground. The only issue Ret had in PvP was the massive healing, not dmg. And even tho Ret was very bursty (Same as always), Blizzard still nerfed the wrong thing... now you will need to run the WHOLE XPAC with this nerfed talent.

[@isaquemarechal]

Good morning my great friend! As always your content is good. One question I have is whether when the Cataclysm expansion launches we won't be able to choose whether we want to stay in the LK or not, otherwise we will have that choice. The other is to know which was the TOP best classes in PVP at the time of Cataclysm. I don't remember that time very well. Help guys with your opinion, it helps a lot

[@R3ar3ntry]

Akways excited to see your uploads

[@aly_snowdrop]

holy was INSANE!❤😂 i was solo healing so many bosses

[@Rafaela_S.]

firelands hc was so bored with healing that I said, that I could heal shannox hc solo. My guild at that time said go for it our druid will switch to dps. That was one of the best times I ever had as a healer.

[@Matenkai]

Man I miss guardian for ret

[@rhysjones7856]

Making me wanna play ret now !!

[@thijsdeckers2083]

Another great video, thanks again. Can we have rogue next plz 😊

[@Elaksomfan]

Both Ret and Holy of will be in demand for the buffs they bring in any optimized 10man group

[@exmaarmaca]

The funny thing of pally on cata was that since Tauren were able to become one as soon the pre patch fell people created one to get names like "Holycow" or "Redbull", you can't do a Tauren character without the puns.

[@phantom0456]

My favorite Tauren name is “Moofassa.”

[@DrPluton]

I really hated Inquisition, but I loved the Holy and Protection changes.

[@fadenkreuzjohn4369]

Yeah, this was the only reason for me to stop play paladin.... I mean how did this even work ? Did paladin do 30% less damage than other classes baseline ? You always had to keep this buff up.. it was so annoying..

[@mcdick1621]

@@fadenkreuzjohn4369 yea right. especially in tier11 content. like it worked like rogues bloodlust though it used the paladins combo points and the duration was limited by the usage of combo points and only lasted 30 seconds (if i remember correctly) at best to begin with. having to refresh something that does nothing but amplifying your damage and having to do so in an 15-30 second interval feels completely ass. its one thing to have talents that "only" amplify your dmg but in your combat rotation its just so boring. funny how they scrapped "boring" talents in cata that did nothing but amplifiy your numbers yet went ahead and gave the ret a core ability in his dmg rotation that did nothing but that. not to mention in the beginning of cata accumulating holy power was uber ass.

[@TheRuudoslaw]

21:37 such a holy timer

[@phantom0456]

I guess that’s better than a Holy Diver!

[@zariygo]

Holy power but expecially inquisirion are the main reasons that made me drop ret for almost 14 years. I hated that system deeply

[@kyoden1928]

old ret is just auto attack and random press buttoms xd

[@naejimba]

It's funny... that's when I like it the most and I prefer the Cata iteration. Really divisive mechanic. I think it's the only thing that makes Ret think and plan ahead and without it it's simply a "whack a mole" spec of hitting what lights up. Which is fine... Warrior is like that and I enjoy Warriors. But with Ret you always had to keep an eye on health bars and had powerful CDs; in Cata your offhealing is INSANE so you are juggling in PvP between damage and healing, and having a shared resource for both makes for interesting decisions. I feel like it doubles down on what distinguished a Paladin from a Warrior; the utility and having to manage that and damage at the same time. So to me I think Inquisition is only continuing with that concept and giving you another ball to juggle within your damage rotation itself. It simply adds another layer with a similar mechanic. ... but then again I do enjoy dot classes that have to juggle and plan ahead. So I get 100% why many Rets might not care for this iteration. Some people just don't care for a combo point style system. I'm curious as to your specific reasons.

[@Dystinction1]

@@kyoden1928 It's still just auto-attack and press random buttons. Nothing changed. The buttons are just spammier and feel worse.

[@zariygo]

@@naejimba Yeah, sadly I loved the spammy nature of Ret in wrath nd having a spell that you have to keep up every 12 seconds was just, not for me.

[@mcdick1621]

@@kyoden1928 yea just like a pala should be. i play my combat rogue if i wanna juggle combo points and buffs/debuffs.

[@StefanTalerico]

Warriors next please and thank you.

[@fabihallo6018]

Ret Rogue was the most oppressive combo in 2s, so they where actually pretty good

[@daben7145]

Preparing chars for cata right now, so hyped. Although the only interest I have in paladins are the BoPs, freedoms and wings I'm gonna steal, muhahaha.

[@kevinpadot7545]

I'm loving Ret this expansion. Actually shitting on every body , except freakin udk's lol

[@ario2019]

I never played PVE in OG Cataclysm, but as for PVP, from the best class in WOTLK, Paladin will be one of the worst and weakest unless we see some changes in the classic version.

[@pawjabes2847]

does anyone else have mandella effect with holy radiance being a cd that did healing around yourself or just me? :D

[@josedavidmunozmartinez4722]

It's not Mandella effect, Holy Radiance used to work like that during most of the expansion, they reworked it for the Hour of Twilight patch.

[@naejimba]

@@josedavidmunozmartinez4722 , lol good catch. I saw the OP and was like illuminati confarmed.

[@pawjabes2847]

@@josedavidmunozmartinez4722 thanks for saving my sanity lol

[@ermelloth8632]

Hope Rets will get Emancipate at start, not mid expansion. We need that.

[@SoulHero777]

Retadin all the way 💯

[@callee85]

tankadin in pvp was godlike

[@yaboityler2617]

But how will this effect Pwueeeeh Vwheeeeh Pwhueeeh?

[@SillyGirlKisser74]

I don't even plan on playing Cata but I love these kind of videos

[@quinn562]

As a hpal main in LK still feel iffy about going into cata - and on top of that the tier sets don't look that great at first glance...the firelands set looks to be best one, the shoulders on the others are waaay too huge and the helm for the final tier is also gigantic lol - he seems to be switching shoulders in different scenes at the end so im sorta confused about those the final tier shoulders as well, guessing he had the wrong ones on at some point

[@AZWings]

Count me in the hate holy power camp.

[@ramones1314]

youre spot on, holy is still a pretty mandatory raid spot, ret can do pretty well but gets outclassed by other melee but does bring might/kings, aura, replenishment, and 3% damage so it can fit into many raid comps. prot is usable, but like, youre kind of throwing if you dont run BDK/feral as your tanks. BDK is basically the "3rd healer" meaning you can fit in another dps, and then feral just dps' most of the time so bosses die WAAYYYYY quicker making bosses cleaner and easier

[@Dystinction1]

I have never been able to come back to pally after the Cata rework.

[@okerbel]

Can't wait to play ret

[@ЮраДиез]

What about ench shaman?

[@Caine1996]

Tier 11 for paladins was honestly the worst set we ever got, Tier 12 was amazing, Tier 13 was meh

[@deenman23]

t13 with 20% radiance was bonkers,i actualy dont remember when and even if it was nerfed,but if that is how it will be,its gonna make pala prime in aoe healing also

[@borislovothered8124]

do warrior next

[@Godswead]

Yes play disc/Ret in 2s, you're unkillable, no dampening in arena, and games will last ages, have fun!

[@jackstrife3821]

WillE videos: Were they ever any good though? Nope.

[@markbay9275]

Get lost, chump.

[@aaronmcpherson1297]

Noooo I just found these looking for dk and shaman

[@Tropicocitwo]

I think dropping the 'though?' from your video titles would sound better, random thought haha

[@begerbingchilling]

paladin tanks will be statistically better than guardian, but as the guardian is leagues ahead in terms of damage output while not tanking it will be the go to pick. as for main tanking roles, having a tank require no healer is a no brainer so blood will outshine any other tank in that role. that being said, specced and played right prot paladin can do both off tank and main tank roles with ease and shouldnt under any circumstance be shoved under the rug.

[@TheRealCeeJai]

TAUREN PALADIN LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO

[@rattlehead999]

I'm still surprised that people dislike holy power. I guess they just want to have an easy spec to play, but it gets boring after an entire expansion.

[@RegardedZero]

If i wanted to play a combo point class, i would have played a rogue or feral. Thats my gripe with it.

[@rattlehead999]

​@@RegardedZero So how do you propose the Paladin's rotation to be? It can't stay the same as in WotLK and you can't have enhancement 2.0. By that logic the Monk is also a Rogue. It's about the rotation flow and CDs.

[@RegardedZero]

Bringing up a class that's not related to vanilla > cata is irrelevant to this. I never said i was giving a fix to the rotation, just my opinion on why people dont play it. It was hit buttons in vanilla, hit buttons in tbc (apart from twisting) and was hit buttons in wotlk. Then it magically got a point generator. Why cant it stay the same?

[@rattlehead999]

@@RegardedZero The paladin struggled with being too CD focused the entire time, now in Vanilla and especially TBC the seal was what was the whole gimmick, even though it wasn't the best. In WotLK they turned the paladin into a purely Cooldown class(outside of Holy) with a proc. The gimmick was that you recover mana as you fight, but that was only fantasy-wise, technically there was no reason not to recover your mana and that mechanical part was removed. Now a purely CD based class would be cool, but in that case you would have needed a ton more spells and a very complex rotation. The thing is that after Cata mana started mattering less and less sadly, so in reality a lot of DPS casters became casting/channeling + proc classes. Btw by the same logic Enhancement is also a rogue, since you build maelstorm stacks, which are essentially the same as combo points, just more to the right on your screen.

[@Daldir]

holy power is smelly

[@deathbyspeed2]

I mained Holy / Prot pally when Cata came out the first time. Hands down its AMAZING. WOG and Holy radiance where my favorite spells all throughout. Ret is too good and im surprised they didnt tweak it at all. Keep in mind also that Prot Paladin can use WOG....... hence they can keep themselves up through the most questionable of situations. Cool to see people are embracing Cata now. After the YEARS and YEARS of people talking trash about it because they were bad at the game at the time of catas release. Maybe now since the player base skill cap has increased. MAYBE just MAYBE people will appreciate and see what we Cata enjoyers were raving about all these years.

[@austinfitzroy567]

omg he listened to me lol

[@radguy72]

Rad

[@irmaodofox]

TBC Retribution will always be the most fun class to play.

[@josedavidmunozmartinez4722]

I guess you meant to say the most boring 2 button spec...

[@kyoden1928]

current sod is best ret xd, next would be pandaria ret

[@irmaodofox]

@@josedavidmunozmartinez4722 Seal twisting 2 button?

[@josedavidmunozmartinez4722]

@@irmaodofox Yeah, Seal of Command, Seal of Martyr, literally 2 button.

[@irmaodofox]

​@@josedavidmunozmartinez4722 You forget to acknowledge that this is a CLASSIC version of the game and its not reatil, were u need to press 15 buttons to do your rotation. In an expac where classes spam shadow bolts and arcanes blasts, Retribution paladin had a good roation were you had to actually do something right while twisting in the right time to do dmg. Twisting seals + judgment + crusade strike was something cool to do in a expac of spaming one button.

[@chadlangley2588]

Give me Shaman please sir!

[@Apoxiosis]

boy if you dont take that cow paladin out of your thumbnail

[@dominic2196]

can you try to sound more monotone in your videos, you sound too excited

[@BourneRolling]

Imagine being triggered by this

[@Psilocybin77]

boy do I have a monotone WoW content creator for you!

[@General12th]

@@Psilocybin77 That intro music still rings in my head to this day.

[@cristhianmlr]

​@@BourneRollingimagine misusing the joke

[@o0Donuts0o]

@@BourneRollingForget being triggered. Imagine just being this person.

[@ONLYtheTruthMatters412]

Anyone who doesn’t enjoy holy power is just not a paladin main.

[@aweha]

WOLTK pala was completely braindead 2-button hero in all specs. I think we'll see way fewer palas now.

[@jarrodschobert9763]

Paladin in Cata was/is shit in Cata they tried to make holy paladin to much like holy priest and holy power is an absolute shit function for all classes and the combination of reworked buffs made classes useless like shamans in general all that's needed for DPS is arms warrior hunter and mage every other class is hit or miss if you want to raid

[@Bucketheadxx]

clcRet...

[@fatalexception1269]

3rd.

[@6stringbravo616]

....shaman......

[@doc5201]

Holy pally were God's in cata. Group of 10 of us 3 holy pally 2 druid tanks and the rest random dps held stormwind for hours took almost 80+ people to kick us out. Was so fun 10 of us did for the horde

[@sevastra1516]

Paladins are my favorite prey as a rogue in tol barad 🤣🤣

[@josephflentye6901]

Holy power is not fun and lots of rets went a different route in cata

[@carelesscribo3072]

Nfc

[@brentpearson557]

Still waiting for warrior 😢

[@legendarydragoon1462]

Is this even a paladin anymore? Looks more like a deathknight or rogue now

[@SkeletonBill]

I loved Wrath Paladin and I *hated* Cata Paladin. For me, they ruined it.

[@kyoden1928]

wrath ret is just 123 then afk until procs or cds back up

[@TheWowzz]

Its literally improved wotlk pala. Are you ok?

[@mcdick1621]

@@TheWowzz why would i play a shitty combopoint class when i can just play rogue instead?

[@WhiteMisteryWeed]

@@mcdick1621 then go play rogue and don't cry on youtube about it?