Paladin abilities

Nearly all of the paladin abilities are mana-based and are split into three disciplines.


 * Holy
 * Includes all healing spells, supportive seals, and spells.


 * Protection
 * Includes spells that protect yourself and others.


 * Retribution
 * Includes most damage-related skills.

Trainable abilities
These abilities are available to all Paladins, at the appropriate level, regardless of Talents.

Auras
Auras are buffs that benefit the Paladin as well as raid and party members within 40 yards. There are a wide variety of Auras, but only one Aura can be activated on the Paladin at any one time. If there are other Paladins in the group, the same Aura's effects do not stack, but different Auras can be used to further strengthen the group. Changing Auras does not cost mana, but does trigger the global cooldown. Therefore it is not feasible to change Auras just to absorb a certain magic school (such as Devotion Aura to Resistance Aura to absorb a single Shadowbolt), then reverting back to the previous one. These Auras are very much support buffs that make grouping easier, but they are not so vital that they are the key factor in determining whether the group will succeed or fail.
 * The range of your Auras can be increased by an additional 10 yards with the 3-piece bonus from Judgement Armor.

For more information see

Blessings
Paladins have 2 powerful Blessings, which provide 60 minute buffs. Like Auras, only one Blessing can affect a target per Paladin. This means two Paladins cannot cast the same Blessing on a target, but two different Blessings on a target is possible.

For more information see

Hands
Hand spells are used in very situational events. When used correctly, these Hand spell effects are very powerful, especially in a Player versus Player environment. Only one Hand spell can be cast per Paladin on a target at any one time.

For more information see

Judgement
Judgement instantly deals damage to an enemy target, and will often trigger secondary effects depending on talent specialization. Judgement cannot be used without an active Seal, and damage dealt is dependent on which seal is active. Judgement has an 8 second cooldown. Since Judgement is a staple of the Paladin's combat system, it is a highly used spell if the Paladin is utilizing melee potential.

For more information see

Seals
Seals are Paladin self-buffs that trigger upon melee attacks. They are instant cast and last 30 minutes; only one Seal can be used by the Paladin at a time.

For more information see

Abilities by Function
This section is under review for removal.

Protection
Paladins have several protective blessings at their disposal for use on group members: Hand of Protection, which will temporarily protect a member from all physical damage; Hand of Sacrifice, which will send a small part of damage taken from the target player and send it to the paladin unmitigated; Hand of Freedom, which will make the target player immune to movement hampering effects; and Hand of Salvation, which will reduce the threat of the target player.

Tanking
Seal of Truth is the preferred seal to use when tanking. It takes a slightly longer time to build up threat than Seal of Righteousness but will eventually deal more Holy damage.

Debuffs

 * Censure is a damage-over-time debuff that causes Holy damage on the target over 15 seconds, and its effect can be stacked up to 5 times. It is applied while attacking with Seal of Truth active.
 * Vindication is a passive ability talent obtained in the Paladin's Protection tree. It reduces the target's physical damage done by 10% for 30 seconds.

Area of Effect & Damage over Time
Paladins have one universal AoE ability: Consecration. Holy Wrath is another paladin AoE ability (very effective against Undead and Demons). Consecration is also one of two of the Paladin's damage-over-time spells - the other being Censure (from Seal of Truth).

Direct Damage
Paladins are a melee Hybrid class, with no ability to use ranged weapons. They deal direct damage with weapons and also have damaging spells such as Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Holy Shock. There are various Seals, which deals holy damage with melee strike. When a Seal is active, Judgement spells can be used to do an amount of direct damage and apply a specific debuff to the mobs. Hammer of Wrath is a ranged spell usable on targets under 20% health and is instant cast; if the target heals or regenerates above 20% health at any time - even if the projectile is in flight - the spell will be cancelled.

Most of the paladin's damage is done within melee range. There are four paladin ranged attacks: Holy Shock (primary Holy talent), Avenger's Shield (primary Protection talent), Hammer of Wrath (only usable against targets under 20% health) and Exorcism. Enlightened Judgements increases the range of the Judgement spells by up to 20 yards.