My 5x Paladin Guide

[Ualaa]

In anticipation of playing Retribution Paladins, as a Mists of Pandaria team, I've decided to level them up.

They're currently playing as Shock'adins (Caster DPS spec, primarily using Holy Shock and Exorcism).
I'll likely keep this as an off-spec come MoP.



The Holy Section is designed to have the ability to DPS, as a Shock'adin; and with four or five Paladins, even if Shock'adin damage is lower than most other specs (it is a Healer spec), you should have the ability to kill on your own or contribute to a kill while in a group.
Plus in the beta, the damage of Holy has been significantly raised (at least compared to their current live version), purely so a Holy spec can solo their dailies/quests at a somewhat reasonable pace; that translates into a degree of killing power while speced to heal.

However, the focus of Holy is the healing...
As a class the Paladin likely has the highest level of PvP survivability of all the healing classes... they also have very impressive healing power, when keeping a single target alive; plus they passively heal both themselves and their Beacon target, when healing others.
With four/five Paladins, that is several targets that will survive a significant amount of focused fire for a short duration (almost a minute)... and keeping those targets alive will allow them to destroy your opposition or possibly tank Drek/Vann with several of the Tower/Bunker guys still alive on a rush type game.

While in the Holy spec, whether healing or inflicting damage, the team will likely be towards the back.
They'll play very much like casters, in both modes... so normal follow of a lead toon will make the team relatively easy to control.



I'll likely add a few round-robin healing effects; these will be set up much like the Healer Mode/DPS Mode round-robin.
Basically, when its not hectic (ie, no focus is set), I generally heal via the Grid... but 4/5x Divine Light will be massive overhealing and a waste of mana.
But having each click based heal round-robin... will be much more mana efficient, whether playing whack-the-mole or spamming 2-3 clicks on the same frame and then setting one Pally to Healing Mode, with that character as their focus.



Holy Section
I really like the Healing of the Paladin on the 1x Holy Paladin & 4x Frost Death Knight team ( http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/3...n-DK-Manifesto ).
So I decided to go for a "toggle", which can move the Pallies individually between Shock'adin and Healer mode.



The Toggle is made up of several pieces.

Spam Mapped Key
Hot Key: 1
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > FTL Assist Me > Current Window
- Do Mapped Key > DPS Mode > All Windows
- Do Mapped Key > Heal Mode > All Windows
- Do Mapped Key > Rebuke > Current Window
I have a single spam key, for both sides of the toggle; the spam key does the assist and Rebuke which is the equivalent of the DK's Mind Freeze.

DPS Mode
Hot Key: None Set
Advanced: Reset to Step 1... 2.0 seconds after last press.
Step One
- Keystroke Action > Keybind One > Current Window
Step Two
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Two > Current Window
I want to always open with an Exorcism (Denounce will replace Exorcism, in MoP), hence the reset.

Heal Mode
Hot Key: None
Advanced: Option Checked, 'Do not load this Mapped Key when the Key Map is loaded'.
Step One
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Three > Current Window
Step Two
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Four > Current Window
This mapped key is not loaded by default, so there won't be conflicts with the spam key attempting to call both DPS Mode and Heals Mode.

Rebuke
Hot Key: None
- Keystroke Action > Rebuke Keybind > All Windows.
---- Do Not Advance (checked), For At Least 2.0 seconds (checked), and Trigger Only Once (not checked).
---- Round-robin within selected Target (checked)
This mapped key will spam (once per click) in one window for 2 seconds, then the next window spams; Rebuke is off of the GCD, so will not impact our other spells/abilities in any way.

Toggle to DPS
Hot Key: Control + Right Click (Mouse Two)
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > Round Robin Toggle DPS > All Windows
---- Check: Round Robin within target group.
We cannot round robin Mapped Key State Actions, but can round robin Do Mapped Key Actions.

Toggle to Heals
Hot Key: Control + Left Click (Mouse One)
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > Round Robin Toggle Healer > All Windows
---- Check: Round Robin within target group.
We cannot round robin Mapped Key State Actions, but can round robin Do Mapped Key Actions.

Round Robin Toggle DPS
Hot Key: None
Step One
- DPS Mode > On > Current Window
- Heals Mode > Off > Current Window
- WoW Macro Action > 'Clear Focus' in 'IS Boxer Macros' > Current Window
This is done with: Key Map Actions > New Mapped Key State Action.

Round Robin Toggle Healer
Hot Key: None
Step One
- DPS Mode > Off > Current Window
- Heals Mode > On > Current Window
- Wow Macro Action > 'Focus' in 'IS Boxer Macros' > Current Window
This is done with: Key Map Actions > New Mapped Key State Action.

To create the IS Boxer macros, I did:
a) Expand the Game Helpers, in the top left pane.
b) Left click on World of Warcraft, under Game Helpers still in the top left pane.
c) Right click on Macro Sets, under World of Warcraft in the lower left pane.
d) Created a new Macro Set, and named it IS Boxer Macros.
e) Left clicked on IS Boxer Macros (lower left pane) and checked my Character Set (lower right pane) and the Toon's on this team (lower right pane).
f) Right clicked on IS Boxer Macros (lower left pane), and selected New WoW Macro (did this twice, since I have two macros).
---- i) Named the first, 'Focus', gave it a unique key combination and the command: /focus [target=mouseover]
---- ii) Named the second, 'Clear Focus', gave it a unique key combination and the command: /clearfocus

Within the game, I created a Repeater Region which I placed over my Grid Frame.
This is set to broadcast to an Action Target Group, which includes the entire team.




In Practice:
Everyone starts in the DPS Mode (because this is loaded at startup, while Heal Mode is not).
When I spam my "1" key, everyone assists the main window and alternates between keybinds "1" and "2" within Warcraft.
I have my two step macro there; it needs refining but is functional for leveling up.

Macro on Keybind 1
#show
/castsequence Exorcism, Exorcism
/cast Holy Shock

Macro on Keybind 2
#show
/castsequence reset=5 Judgement, Null

When I (Control + Left Click) on any Grid Frame, the toggle occurs.
The first character on the team turns off DPS Mode and turns on Heals Mode.
They also set focus to whichever character corresponds to the Grid Frame which my mouse is over (on the current window).
So when I continue to spam my "1" key, this character now heals their focus with these two macros (credit for which goes to Mosg2, from the original DK Manifesto):

Macro on Keybind 3
#show
/castsequence [@focus,exists,nodead] Flash of Light, Flash of Light
/cast Holy Shock

Macro on Keybind 4
#show
/castsequence [@focus,exists,nodead] Holy Shock, Holy Shock, Holy Shock, Word of Glory

If I (Control + Left Click) on another (or the same) Grid Frame, the next character will enter Heals Mode.
The same process occurs as above.
I can have multiple Paladins healing the same target, or I could have each healing a different target.

The reverse toggle is triggered by (Control + Right Click).
The relative ordering is the same, meaning whichever toon first entered Healing Mode will be the first toon to cancel Healing Mode and return to DPS Mode.
Their focus is cleared, and they receive keybinds "1" and "2" as a result of my spamming the Hot Key: 1.