WoW: ForeverCGN planner & guide
Paladin class art

Class guide

Paladin

Seals, Judgement and Blessings. Now with a baseline Holy Strike, a tanking Seal of Fury, and an Undead option on the Horde side.

Blizzard Confirmed Beta BuildCGN checked October 7, 2026

Races that can play Paladin

Horde

  • Undead New combination

Alliance

  • Dwarf
  • Human

Skyborne: neither Windshaper nor High Order Skyborne can play this class.

CGN does not rank races for this class yet. Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever, and Blizzard reworked most of them.

Full race and class table →

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗

What changed from Classic

Every Paladin gets Holy Strike at level 6 and Consecration at level 20, Seals are no longer consumed by Judgment, and Protection gets a tank Seal that makes Judgment taunt. Blizzard's identity line: tank, healer or Retribution melee, but no interrupt, no slow, and a taunt that runs through Seal and Judgment.

Baseline changes

  • Holy Strike, an instant Holy-damage weapon strike, comes at level 6. Blizzard announced a 12-second cooldown; the September 24 build made it 10 seconds.
  • Seals are not consumed by casting Judgment. Seal of Fury is a tank Seal that favors fast weapons, grants small absorb shields and makes Judgment taunt while it is active.
  • Consecration is baseline at level 20 with high damage and threat on the first four targets it hits and less beyond that.

By talent tree

Holy

  • Infusion of Light: critical Holy Shock and Flash of Light heals shorten Holy Light's cast time, which rewards mixing spells. Holy Shock has a 10-second cooldown.
  • Voice of Truth gives temporary immunity to Silence and interrupts, Reverence gives Mana from Spirit while casting, and Consecrated Ground makes enemies in Consecration take more Holy damage.
  • Light's Vigil is a high-cost cooldown that can reset Holy Shock and then add damage on an enemy or healing through an ally.

Protection

  • Templar's Bulwark gives a large absorb shield based on maximum health and interacts with Forbearance. Reckoning was redesigned to trigger from blocks as well.
  • Swift Judgment can reset Judgment once a minute so a missed taunt does not end the pull. Iron Creed lets timed Holy Strikes cut incoming damage briefly.
  • Improved Seal of Fury and Shield Specialization give Mana back from absorbs and blocks.

Retribution

  • Vindication lowers enemy attack power and raises yours. Sacred Arbiter empowers Holy Strike and refreshes Judgments. Instrument of the Law reduces threat and makes Holy Wrath instant.
  • Twist of Light supports Seal twisting without an addon by echoing a new Seal into the next swing. Champion of the Light adds spell damage from Intellect, so Holy Shock builds can fight at range.

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Sep 13, 2026 ↗ (summarized in CGN's words; the Blizzard article has the full list)

Blizzard says class abilities and talents may keep changing during the beta. Where a later beta build changed something, the beta section below has it.

How talents work: Talents start at level 10 and keep Classic's rows. One-point milestone talents sit at 11, 21 and 31 points spent, and a new 16-point milestone was added. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some are changed, and some class buffs that used to be talents (Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild, Divine Spirit) are now baseline. To respec, including Legacy talents, visit a class trainer in a major city. Dual Specialization arrives at level 40.

Talent trees and milestone talents

Each tree has one-point milestone talents. This table is built from the same beta talent data as the planner (October 1 build, with Blizzard's October 8 talent changes). A level 30 character has 21 talent points (one per level from 10 to 30), so the 31-point talents are out of reach at the beta cap. The Legacy perk Talented can unlock talent points up to five levels earlier.

Paladin milestone talents
Tree11 points16 points (new)21 points31 points
HolyVoice of TruthDivine FavorHoly ShockLight's VigilOut of reach at level 30
ProtectionImproved Seal of FurySwift JudgementTemplar's BulwarkHoly ShieldOut of reach at level 30
RetributionSeal of CommandSacred ArbiterRepentanceTwist of LightOut of reach at level 30

Open Paladin in the planner

Beta Data Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗ (talent data is Icy Veins' calculator data for the October 1 build, with the October 8 talent changes from Blizzard's notes)

Tier placement at level 30

These are Wowhead's October 6 level-30 beta placements, verified on October 7 and shown on CGN's tier lists. Wowhead groups several DPS classes at this level bracket, and CGN expands those class placements across the applicable DPS trees. Level-30 Beta Rankings: not level-60 launch or raid rankings.

Paladin tier placement at level 30
SpecDPSHealerTank
Holy PaladinNot rankedBHealer listNot ranked
Protection PaladinNot rankedNot rankedSTank list
Retribution PaladinADPS listNot rankedNot ranked

Community Observation Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ (Wowhead's terms bar automated reading; see the tier lists page for how CGN handles that)

Level-30 builds

CGN publishes one 21-point level-30 build per role-spec, each decoded from Icy Veins' level-30 guides and validated against the planner data.

Paladin level-30 builds
SpecRoleSummary
Holy PaladinHealerMana first: Divine Intellect, Reverence and Illumination, with Holy Shock at 30.See the build →
Protection PaladinTankBlock and mana: Redoubt, Shield Specialization and Improved Seal of Fury, with a Retribution dip for Holy Conduit.See the build →
Retribution PaladinDPSTwo routes: a Retribution build for melee and mana, or a Holy "Shockadin" build with Holy Shock.See the build →

A build here is not "best in slot": CGN has not validated a full item pool at the beta cap.

Beta changes so far

October 8 build (Oct 8, 2026)

  • Retribution Aura now uses the Paladin's spell power, not the spell power of the target being struck.
  • Retribution Aura: base damage is back to Vanilla values (about 33% lower) and the spell power ratio is 6% (was 13.3%).
  • Protection: Reckoning can trigger at most once every 1.5 seconds.
  • Protection: Seal of Fury no longer returns Mana without the Improved Seal of Fury talent, and Improved Seal of Fury and Shield Specialization no longer cause threat when they restore Mana. Blizzard's note: Tanking Paladins were restoring enough Mana to generate more threat than intended.

October 1 build (updated October 2) (Oct 1, 2026)

  • Protection: Redoubt's block chance is 4/8/12/16/20% (it was 6/12/18/24/30%).
  • Protection: Holy Shield's block chance is 30% (it was 20%).
  • Retribution: Champion of the Light's Intellect-to-spell-damage ratio is 20/40/60% (it was 33/66/100%). Blizzard's note: The tooltip wrongly said it increased healing. It did not, and the line was removed.

September 24 build (Sep 24, 2026)

  • Retribution Aura scales with the Paladin's spell power. The Flash of Light cast animation plays at the end of the cast.
  • Consecration fixes: it now applies its increased-damage effect to all targets, its vertical position is consistent, and it no longer pulls targets from above or below the caster.
  • Holy Strike's weapon damage per rank is 25/29/32/36/39/43/46/50% (it was 25/25/30/30/35/35/40/40%). Blizzard's note: Early ranks did not always feel like an upgrade when you trained them.
  • Echo of Justice no longer activates more often than intended. Righteous Fury's Holy threat bonus is 60% (it was 90%).
  • Holy: Holy Strike's cooldown is 10 seconds (it was 12). Improved Holy Strike was removed from the tree and its effect made baseline. Blizzard's note: A talent that cuts a core ability's cooldown that early in a healing tree felt required, so it was made baseline.
  • Holy: Light's Vigil's tooltip was reorganized, and Holy Power now also adds 15% critical strike chance to Holy Strike.
  • Retribution: Vengeance triggers from non-periodic crits and stacks to 3 (it was 5). Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is 2/4/6% (it was 3/6/9%). Sacred Arbiter adds 20% Holy Strike damage (it was 10%). Twist of Light also cuts Seal mana costs by 20%.

Every change, by build → · Known issues →

Beta Build Blizzard, Sep 24, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗

What we don't know yet

  • How Paladin compares at level 60: the beta cap is 30 and the 31-point talents cannot be tested yet.
  • Final abilities and talents, which Blizzard says may change during the beta.

Sources on this page

Labels: Blizzard Confirmed Beta Build Beta Data Developer Interview Press Report Community Observation Survey / Concept Only Not Yet Known