Mr.WoW Gold - WoW Class Guides - WoW Paladin Equipment Guide
WoW Paladin Equipment Guide
Basic Stats
Lets Start out by looking at the basic stats and see which is best for each of the types of Paladin. For a breakdown of what the stats provide check back to the Paladin Basics page. Remember though that these are only your basic stats – Strength, Stamina, Intellect, Agility, and Spirit, not your advanced stats. The next section will cover your advanced stats and they are at least as important as the basics, if not more so.
Retribution – As a Retribution Paladin your main goal is to get as much Strength as possible since it allows you to cause the most damage. Beyond the stats that come on the gear that brings you the most Strength, don’t even worry about other stats.
Holy – As a Holy Paladin your main stat will be Intelligence, since it provides more mana to use to cast spells and more spell power and spell crit.
Protection – As a Protection Paladin you will be looking to stack Stamina as a primary stat. Even more than the other two spec’s though Protection Paladins really need to balance this with their Ability Bonuses.
Advanced Stats
The advanced stats in WoW are all the extra things past what would be considered normal stats in most RPG’s. These advanced stats include things like your critical hit chance, block chance, defense score, and more. These stats are critical to your character and must be watched closely to ensure you are getting the right ones.
Retribution – Retribution Paladins require several bonus stats. While leveling you should just focus on bonuses to Crit and Attack Power. Once you have reached max level then you should also focus on getting enough Hit and Expertise to reach their caps. Armor penetration is also an important stat but since it is known to be too good, Blizzard has already started to nerf it and will continue to in the future. How much effort you put into obtaining it is up to you, just be forewarned it will change.
Holy – As a Holy Paladin your key advanced stats to get are Spell Power and Crit since the Spell Power makes all your heals larger and the more times you critically heal the more mana you get back and the longer you can keep healing. MP5 is also good to have so that you have enough passive mana regeneration so you do not run out. This is true while leveling or at the end game raiding.
Protection – Protection Paladins probably have the worst of it when looking at Advanced Stats since they have so many to worry about. Protection Paladins must focus on Defense at all times, as they need to be at the defense cap for their level or they can suffer critical hits. The cap at level 80 is 540 for raid bosses. In addition to Defense they must also stack Dodge, Parry, Block Rating, Block Value, and to a lesser degree Hit and Expertise.
Gems
Now that you understand the best stats for each of your builds, gems should be pretty easy to understand as well. You should always gem for your most important basic or advanced stat. Ideally every gem will be the same other than your meta gem in your helm and enough other gems to meet its requirement. This means that for most slots you will not be matching the slot color. This is important to understand, since many players think that they must follow the slot color and therefore hurt themselves by not getting the biggest benefit possible.
Retribution – You should be gemming and enchanting for hit and expertise until you reach the caps and then focus on Strength. If you are still leveling just focus on Strength. The best meta gem is a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond since it provides crit and a causes all critical hits to cause more damage.
Holy – You should gem and enchant for Spell Power as much as possible. This means red “Runed …” gems. The best meta gem is Insightful Earthsiege Diamond which provides Intellect and a chance to restore mana each time you cast.
Protection – You should gem and enchant for Defense until you are defense capped and then for Stamina. For Defense this means either yellow “Thick …” gems or green “Enduring …” gems until you are capped. When focusing on Stamina it will be “Solid …” gems. As a Protection Paladin while leveling or new to max level an Eternal Earthsiege Diamond is the best meta since it provides more Defense and extra Block Value. However, once you can easily be Defense capped it is better to change to an Austere Earthsiege Diamond which provides more Stamina and increases your armor value.
Enchants
Enchants are much the same as gems. Focus on the stats that are best for the type of Paladin that you play and you should be good.
A very important thing to remember with both gems and enchants is that each time you get a new piece of gear your balance will change. For example: if you are a Protection Paladin and had 540 Defense and replaced a piece and the new piece has much more stamina and dodge, but less Defense, you may need to re-gem or re-enchant a different piece to make up for the change. This is critical for any spec and you should remember to look all the time and see where all your stats are currently.
This chart provides some suggestions as to which enchant is good for which slot based on your talent build.
Enchants
Holy
Protection
Retribution
Head
Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Revered - Wyrmrest Accord) +30 Spell Power and +8 mana per 5
Arcanum of the Stalward Protector (Argent Crusade - Revered) +37 Stamin and +20 Defense
Arcanum of Torment (Argent Crusade - Revered) +50 Attack power and +20 Critical Strike Rating
Shoulder
Greater Inscription of the Storm (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +24 Spell Power and +15 Crit Rating
Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +20 Dodge rating and +15 Defense Rating
Greater Inscription of the Axe (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +40 Attack power and 15 Critical Strike Rating
Chest
Powerful Stats +10 All Stats
Greater Defense +22 Defense Rating
Powerful Stats +10 All Stats
Cloak
Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed (+23 Haste Rating)
Titanweave +16 Defense Rating
Greater speed adds 25 Haste Rating
Wrist
Superior Spell Power +30 Spell Power
Major Stamina +40 Stamina
Greater Assault adds 50 Attack Power
Hands
Exceptional Spell Power +28 Spell Power
Armsman +10 Parry Rating and +2% Threat Generation
Crusher adds +44 Attack Power
Legs
Sapphire Spellthread +50 Spell Power and +30 Stamina
Frosthide Leg Armor +55 Stamina and +20 Agility
Icescale Leg Armor Adds +75 Attack Power and +22 Critical Strike Rating
Waist
Eternal Belt Buckle
Eternal Belt Buckle
Eternal Belt Buckle
Boots
Icewalker +12 Crit Rating and +12 Hit Rating
Greater Fortitude +22 Stamina
Icewalker adds +12 to Critical and Hit Rating
Weapon
Mighty Spell Power +63 Spell Power
Accuracy +25 Critical Strike and +25 Hit Ratings
Berserking adds a chance to increase attack power by 400 at the cost of reduced armor.
Shield
Greater Intellect +25 Intellect
Defense +20 Defense
N/A
Glyphs
Glyphs are found in two different types, Major and Minor. Once you reach max level you can have 3 of each type. As a Paladin the three majors vary depending on your talent spec, while the minors do not have a huge effect as we do not have very good minor glyphs.
Retribution – As Retribution your main goal is to do more damage, therefore your glyphs focus on that. Your three major glyphs should be Glyph of Judgement, Consecration, and Vengeance. Judgement provides 10% more damage each time we judge a spell, since this is a primary way for us to get damage, it is a solid glyph. Consecration allows you to save some mana and time in your rotation by not having to cast Consecration nearly as often. Vengeance grants 10 Expertise while the seal is active allowing you to gear slightly differently and not have to look for as much expertise gear.
Holy – For a Healing Paladin it is all about big heals and mana. This means that your glyphs focus on these things. The best to get for general purpose are Glyph of Flash of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Beacon of Light. Flash of Light gives you an additional 5% crit chance on all casts of Flash of Light which is a huge boost in both healing and mana regeneration. Seal of Wisdom makes all your heals 5% cheaper which allows you to heal longer. Beacon of Light makes your Beacon last longer which can be critical in raids.
Depending on what you are doing as a healer Glyph of Holy Light, Holy Shock or Seal of Light all have their places as well. Holy Paladins have many great choices here.
Protection – Tanking Paladins have several solid Glyphs but none as good as Glyph of Divine Plea. Since the talent Guarded by the Light essentially allows Divine Plea to be active 100% of the time this Glyph provides a 3% constant damage reduction. After that you should also get Glyph of Vengeance for 10 expertise and Hammer of Righteous to hit additional targets. If you tend to tank solo targets the Glyph of Avenger’s Shield is a solid choice as is Righteous Defense if you do not have a lot of hit gear.
There are no really solid minor glyphs for any of the talent specs specifically. Everyone should take Lay of Hands to reduce the cooldown. Other than that though, there really isn’t a whole lot. You can take Sense Undead to do slightly more damage, or increase the time on your blessings, the choice is really yours.
