Originally Posted by Amera
Paladins - Carbon Copies?
Also, after playing some of the top teams, I've also noticed I am almost never impressed with their paladin, or paladins on any team. They all seem to be carbon-copies of each other; either you control them, kill them, or you lose, but their skill and choices seem largely irrelevant to this. Now obviously there are many poor paladins, but I guess my point is that the difference between an average paladin and a great paladin is razor-thin, whereas I see the difference between a great warrior/rogue/lock/mage etc and a good one as possibly being match-changing.
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I disagree, its just harder to
see the paladin win the match. Paladins exercise an enormous amount of control over who lives and dies (specifically on your team, but on the opposition as well). You have 2 trump cards, DS and BoP, then a couple lesser cooldowns that nonetheless significantly influence a match (HoJ, BoF, PvP trinket, Scrolls of Blinding Light). Choosing to use those equalizers, and when, and for what purpose (offensive BoP off the bat? Wait for your cloth to come under fire? Wait to remove a MS? BoF on which slowed teammate...sometimes its defensive too) are not easy decisions. You may not see immediatly that your choice tipped the match, but given the massive amount of control you do possess, its inevitable that it did.
Originally Posted by Amera
Anyway, on to some more specific questions:
Spec
A cursory glance at the top teams reveals a ridiculous similarity in specs with Paladins, more so than any other class. I believe a few weeks ago 97 of the top 100 5v5 paladins were 41/20/0.
Has anyone tried any radically different specs? Healing as prot? Going Ret for repentance?
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I have run across some ret pallies healing in 2v2 and 3v3...but they were few and far between...and bad.
Originally Posted by Amera
Gear
The only current PvP gear debate I see is some paladins insisting that PvE healing gear is better than arena gear because it gives more throughput. Yet most of the top teams are packing gladiator gear. Personally I noticed that past about 1800 rating you need to have hp like anyone else or you are going to get smoked.
What types of gear do people prefer? Are you into the Dmg/Crit type, or Heal/crit type? Do you use PvE or PvP gear?
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Stam, let SoBL and Light's Grace make up for throughput loss.
Originally Posted by Amera
Play style
The accepted play style of paladins in every bracket is the "cleric" approach, healing/buffing/cleansing and generally outputting virtually no damage. The general wisdom is that no other class can output as much raw healing as a paladin in a PvP situations.
Have you tried alternate play styles in arena? Has anyone gone the +spell power, more "hybrid" approach (like an elemental shaman)? Has anyone gone Ret and been primarily a melee force?
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I retain pure healing gear, but a well placed holy shock and HoW isn't totally unknown. I hear rumours of very effective Ret paladins even in the upper echelons of 5v5 in my battlegroup, but they remain...rumours.