Spooncraft

Guardians of the Holy Light and defenders of Justice, paladins bolster their allies with holy auras and blessings to protect their friends from harm and enhance their powers. Wearing heavy armor, they can withstand terrible blows in the thickest battles while healing their wounded allies and resurrecting the slain. In combat, they can wield massive two-handed weapons, stun their foes, destroy undead and demons, and judge their enemies with holy vengeance.

Paladins make excellent tanks, can hold their own as powerful healers, and devestate the battlefield with swift retribution. Here are the three talent trees: Holy, Protection, and Retribution.

Holy: Holy paladins have access to tons of curing abilities more so than most other healing classes in the game. They have improved auras that stretch further than the typical paladin. A holy paladin can also use their Holy Shock not only to instantly heal a friendly player, but as an offensive strike. Finally their new 51pt talent can make a friendly player into a beacon of light where all heals recieved will be spread 100% to all targets within a 40 yard radius. For groups consisting of multiple melee fighters, this heal can replenish an entire raid group very quickly.

Protection: Prot paladins are your tanks, a prot paladin has incredible amounts of staying power and armor. They can hold aggro on multiple mobs at once making most instance runs somewhat easier as crowd control isn’t as much of an issue, and they can throw their shields charged with holy power dealing considerable damage and generating good threat. Through Holy Shield, prot paladins can block massive quantities of damage and inflict holy damage on their attackers. The new 51pt talent for prot paladins causes three times the normal damage a regular weapon swing to three targets hammering them for holy damage.

Retribution: Ret paladins used to be somewhat of a joke spec in the game until recently. Retribution paladins are fierce battlemasters wielding holy powers and smiting their foes with 2H weapons. A retribution paladin can disorient their enemies at a distance allowing them to either ambush a target or help them escape overwhelming odds. Retribution paladins hands down deal some of the nicest burst damage for 2H wielding classes and their judgements can replenish their raid or party’s mana.

Wowhead has a really great talent calculator where you can experiment with new builds for your Paladin.