The paladin got more new toys in Forever than any other class: nineteen new talents, two new trainer abilities you will press all game, and a real tanking seal. Holy Strike gives Retribution and Protection a melee button from level 6, Seal of Fury makes shield tanking work without reckoning tricks, and seal twisting is now an official talent. Undead can be paladins for the first time.
At a glance
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Roles | Healer (Holy), tank (Protection), melee damage (Retribution) |
| Resource | Mana |
| Armor | Plate from level 40, shields |
| Races | Human, Dwarf and, new in Forever, Undead |
| New on the trainer |  Holy Strike at 6,  Seal of Fury at 10, Judgement of Fury at 25 |
| Moved to the trainer |  Blessing of Kings and  Consecration, both at 20 |
What changed from Classic
- Holy Strike is an instant melee attack that adds Holy damage to a weapon swing. At level 60 it hits for 50% weapon damage plus 97 to 121 Holy damage. Retribution and Protection both build around it.
- Seal of Fury adds Holy damage to every swing for 30 seconds. With a shield equipped, each hit also gives you an absorb shield worth half the Holy damage dealt. It is the tanking seal, and Judgement of Fury unleashes it.
- Blessing of Kings and Consecration are trainer spells. Every paladin gets both at 20, so no tree pays for them any more.
- Light's Vigil caps the Holy tree. Put it on a target and your next Holy Shock on them has no cooldown and heals their whole party, or deals extra damage and refunds mana on an enemy.
- Templar's Bulwark gives Protection an absorb equal to 100% of your maximum health for 8 seconds on a four-minute cooldown. It applies Forbearance, so it shares the lockout with Divine Shield.
- Twist of Light makes seal twisting a talent: replace one seal with another and your next swing still applies the old seal's effect.
- Reverence lets Holy keep 30% of its mana regeneration while casting, something paladins never had.
- Removed: Blessing of Sanctuary, Sanctity Aura and Lasting Judgement, the three aura improvements, Improved Blessing of Wisdom and Might, Improved Lay on Hands, Improved Seal of Righteousness and Improved Seal of the Crusader.
Holy
Holy Shock, Light’s Vigil and Infusion of Light form the core: prime a target, Shock it for a party heal, then land a faster Holy Light.
Holy is a single-target healer with a burst of party healing on demand. 
Holy Shock at 36 and 
Light's Vigil at 42 are the heart of it.
How a healing cycle looks:
- Keep Light's Vigil on the main tank's group. Only one can be active per party.
- When the party takes damage, Holy Shock the Vigil target. It costs no cooldown and heals everyone in that party.
- Holy Shock and Flash of Light crits trigger
Infusion of Light, which takes a full second off your next Holy Light. - Fill with Flash of Light for efficient top-ups and Holy Light for the big hits.
Divine Favor guarantees a crit on your next Flash of Light, Holy Light or Holy Shock. Save it for a tank in trouble.
Mana comes from three places: 
Illumination refunds half the base cost of every critical heal, Reverence keeps some regeneration while casting, and 
Sanctified Judgement in Retribution returns 60% of a seal's cost each time you judge it. 
Voice of Truth makes you immune to silence and interrupts for 6 seconds when a boss starts casting at the healers.
The Retribution points also add 
Benediction for cheaper instants, 
Vindication to lower the attack power of whatever you hit, and 
Pursuit of Justice for 15% movement speed.
Protection
Seal of Fury is the new tanking seal; Templar’s Bulwark is a full-health absorb on a four-minute cooldown, and Holy Shield caps the tree.
Forever's Protection paladin is a shield tank first. You build threat with Holy damage and sustain mana by blocking.
Threat: keep Righteous Fury on, then Seal of Fury, Judgement, Holy Strike, and 
Holy Shield whenever it is down. On packs, add Consecration. 
Iron Creed raises Holy Strike's threat by 25% and, while Righteous Fury is active, makes each Holy Strike reduce your damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds. 
Swift Judgement resets the Judgement cooldown and makes the next one free, which is your opener on a fresh pull.
Mana: 
Shield Specialization restores 6% of your maximum mana on a block, at most once every 3 seconds, and 
Improved Seal of Fury returns mana whenever a Seal of Fury shield is fully absorbed, more when the attacker is higher level than you. Block chance from Holy Shield and 
Redoubt keeps both running.
Cooldowns: 
Templar's Bulwark for planned damage spikes, Divine Protection and Divine Shield when the raid can afford it. 
Sacred Duty takes 60 seconds off all three and adds 4% Stamina.
The Holy points are 
Divine Strength, 
Divine Intellect and three points of Reverence for mana during long pulls.
Retribution
Seal twisting is now a talent: Twist of Light echoes the seal you replace onto your next swing. Holy Strike keeps Judgements rolling via Sacred Arbiter.
Retribution is a two-hander spec that layers Holy damage over weapon swings.
Single target:
- Open by judging the seal your raid wants on the boss, usually Seal of the Crusader, Wisdom or Light. In Forever, Judgement does not consume your seal.
- Switch to Seal of Command and keep it up.
- Holy Strike on cooldown. With
Sacred Arbiter it deals 20% more and refreshes every Judgement on the target, so the debuff from step 1 never falls off. - Judgement on cooldown for Seal of Command's burst of Holy damage, doubled against stunned or incapacitated targets.
- Twist seals right before a slow weapon swing: switch from Seal of Command to Seal of Righteousness and
Twist of Light lets that swing apply Command's effect as well. - Hammer of Wrath once the target is under 20% health.
Instrument of Law cuts its cast time by a second. - Exorcism and Holy Wrath against Undead and Demons, Consecration on packs.
Champion of the Light turns 60% of your Intellect into spell damage, and 
Holy Conduit makes Consecration, Holy Wrath, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath 40% cheaper. Together they make the spell side of the kit worth casting. 
Vengeance stacks up to three times after crits, 3% Physical and Holy damage per stack.
In Holy the build takes 
Improved Seals for 15% more seal and judgement damage, plus Voice of Truth and 
Purifying Power.
Stat priorities
Forever converts ratings at 10 Hit Rating per 1% hit and 14 Critical Strike Rating per 1% crit. Blizzard has not published raid hit caps for Forever yet, so these orders assume Classic-like combat against raid bosses and will move once the first raids are logged.
| Spec | Priority |
|---|---|
| Holy | Intellect, healing power, Critical Strike, Haste, mana per 5 seconds |
| Protection | Stamina, Defense, Block Value, Armor, spell power for threat, Hit |
| Retribution | Hit, Strength, Critical Strike, Intellect, Agility, spell power |
Crit sits high for Holy because Illumination, Infusion of Light and Holy Power all key off critical heals. Retribution values Intellect above most paladin builds of the past because Champion of the Light turns it into spell damage. Build and compare sets in the gear planner.
Leveling
Level as Retribution. Holy Strike arrives at 6, long before any talent matters, and Seal of Command comes at 30.
- Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Command, Judgement, Holy Strike, then auto-attack while Holy Strike recovers.
- Consecration comes to every paladin at 20, so you can take on two or three mobs whichever tree you pick.
- Blessing of Might on yourself, Blessing of Kings on groups.
- Exorcism hits hard against the Undead of Tirisfal, Duskwood and the Plaguelands; Hammer of Wrath finishes runners from 44.
- The Retribution build's order puts Seal of Command at 30, Sacred Arbiter at 33, Repentance at 40 and Twist of Light at 46. The Talented Legacy perk moves each of those five levels earlier.
- Seal of Fury and a shield make low-level dungeons tankable in any spec, and its absorb shields smooth out bad pulls.
Races
- Human:
Sword Specialization gives 2% crit with swords for Retribution, 
The Human Spirit adds 5% Spirit for healers, and 
Will to Survive breaks stuns. - Dwarf:
Stoneform removes bleeds, poisons and diseases and reduces Physical damage by 10% for 8 seconds, a strong tank cooldown. 
Mace Specialization adds 1% crit to spells and attacks while you hold a mace, which works for healers too. - Undead:
Will of the Forsaken breaks fear, charm and sleep, and 
Touch of the Grave drains a little health on hits. The Forsaken paladins tie into the story of Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom.