Paladin is Alliance-only in Vanilla. It is hard to kill and slow to kill things, so leveling tests your patience while raiding hands you a healer everyone wants. Here is how to get through the levels and what you do at 60.
Leveling: retribution and seal twisting
Put your points into Retribution. You fight in melee with a big two-hander, a Seal up, and Judgement on cooldown.
- Seal twisting is the trick that doubles your damage on a swing: cast a Seal, then Judgement, then immediately re-cast the Seal so it lands as the weapon hits. It takes practice and it is the difference between slow and bearable leveling.
- Seal of Command with a slow weapon gives you random extra hits. Seal of the Crusader before a Judgement boosts the damage of the next one.
- You almost never die, so your limit is killing speed and mana, not survival. Drink when you must and keep moving.
The mount
Paladins get a free warhorse from a quest at level 40, so you do not pay for your first mount. The epic charger is a longer quest chain later. Do the level 40 quest as soon as you can ride.
Verigan’s Fist
There is a paladin class quest, Verigan’s Fist, that gives a strong early two-hander. It needs a group for a dungeon step, but the weapon carries you for many levels. Worth doing on the level.
At 60
Paladins raid as Holy healers. You assign Blessings to the raid (Might for melee, Wisdom for casters and healers, Kings where you have the talent), keep Blessing of Protection and Sacrifice for emergencies, and heal with Holy Light and Flash of Light. Blessing management is half the job, so learn which buff each class wants. Protection paladins can tank dungeons, and Retribution can raid as melee, but Holy is where most raids slot you.