Why Do I Play A Paladin?

The answer to this question is really easy: flexibility.

Bandin began life as a Retribution paladin. I had just come from playing an Arms warrior and it seemed like the most logical transition. This was before the changes that came about to the specs and rotations with the advent of the Cataclysm expansion, and I loved it. Things died fast, I was self-healing all over the place, and I felt like a wrecking ball of holy light.

It was with Bandin that I first had a taste of tanking in a group setting. Running dungeons with anyone other than my level 80 friend was a daunting thing, but my brother-in-law had just started fiddling around with a Frost mage, so at level 15 or so we jumped into a group. We queued as DPS, but quickly realized that the designated tank had queued for all three dungeons roles as a Balance druid.

Obviously that didn't go well on the first pull.

The guy had no idea what he was doing and he quickly revealed that he was just goofing around. Without asking I tossed up my Righteous Fury buff to improve threat generation and started Divine Storming my way around Wailing Caverns.

I had my brother-in-law with me on the couch so we simply communicated to each other what we needed. If something got away from me he'd freeze it in place and I'd grab it back up real quick. I'd call out what I needed sheeped, and we blew through that dungeon in no time.

The best part was that I did the entire thing in Retribution spec without a single piece of tanking gear. Something that could be done back in the day before the newer changes came about (although not recommended of course). That hooked me on the Paladin class pretty quick after that. I made it all the way to 80 before trying out tanking with proper gear, but once I did I loved it. The Wrath of the Lich King dungeons didn't stand a chance with me leading the way.

After a while I got curious about what it would be like to heal, so I gathered up the materials to have a blacksmith craft me the level 80 healing plate set of gear, grabbed a couple trinkets and rings from drops while tanking and jumped back in as Holy spec. That was even better than tanking. People's lives were in my hands, and I'll admit I had a few "god mode" moments that really got me going.

To this day Bandin is still main-specced Holy and has healed through probably a hundred dungeons or more at this point. I dabbled with a Shockadin (gasp, I know) spec for questing and dailies at the end of Wrath of the Lich King and absolutely loved it. It was a bittersweet day when the talent changes of Cataclysm ruined the opportunity to quest very effectively as Holy at maximum level. I thought that was awfully fun.

I've been out of tanking for a little while now since the talent changes, and have recently been running with a co-worker some older raids to gather tier sets and get some practice back in the rotation. When I reach a certain gear mark I think I'll try tanking normal dungeons again and save healing for heroics.

Having the chance to play all three roles in a dungeon makes the Paladin perfect for me. I know that Druids can do the same thing, but let's be honest, plate gear looks a hell of a lot more awesome than leather gear does.

Welcome to Hammer Heals

Bandin relaxing on his Winged Guardian near the lake in Stormwind.

I've been playing World of Warcraft since just before the launch of the Icecrown raids. My very first character was a dwarven warrior by the name of Tierk who still exists out in the world of Azeroth somewhere but was not actually on my own account. Before getting to level 80 the first time I decided to re-roll a new warrior on an account in my own name. 

That warrior lasted a pretty long time, but then I discovered the Paladin class and Bandin was born. He's been through a lot over the past 14 months, changing back and forth from dwarf to draenei a few times, but he's finally settled into his rightful place as a dwarven beast of holy light. 

Over the time I've been playing I've rolled several characters of many different classes, but as of this past weekend I decided it was time to focus on my one true love, the Paladin. With the decision came the cleaning out of my character stable, leaving me with three level 85 characters; my main, Bandin; my main alt, Segovax; and a spritely shaman by the name of Alakavish.

This blog is going to focus mainly on Bandin and his many adventures through Azeroth. I'll update on what I've accomplished recently with him, discuss the mechanics of playing the paladin class, and muse on other things paladin related as well. Another main feature of this site will be to express my opinions and thoughts about World of Warcraft in general. It might be to state my opinion on an upcoming change, highlight something interesting I've recently discovered, or anything else game related.

From time to time alt characters will make appearances, but things will mostly be about paladins and the game in general. 

I would especially like to undertake a very detailed and comprehensive guide to each of the three paladin talent specializations starting from level 1 all the way up to level 85 (and beyond). Hopefully that will get started by the end of the month.

That's enough of an introduction for now, return tomorrow for more news of the paladin kind.