[How-to] 5x Paladins Disscusion

[Tdog]

I've been getting alot of private messages lately asking me about my 5x pally set-up, heroics, and pvp. So instead of answering ever question individually, several times over which I unfortunately just don't have the time for I decided to go ahead and through up this post.

First off, THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE GUIDE TO 5X PALADINS!!! Nor is this a MY WAY IS DA BEST WAY EVAR!!! This is just my set-up and how I do things. These are some of the things that work for me, and if you see something that you do that is superior to what I do, by all means share with the class :P

Table of Contents
Post #1:
Set - Up

• Buttons

Post #2:

• Talents
• Glyphs

Post #3: This post's contents are temporary and will be changed as I require more space.

• Links to other Member's useful inputs.

Post #4:
Post #5:

Set-up - I run with 1 Protection Paladin and 4 Retribution Paladins. I 5 box on one machine using just a keyboard and mouse with 2 monitors.

Buttons - If you're unfamiliar with making macros Cogwheel has put up a very nice guide to making macros on WoWwiki.
This is a list of what attacks I have assigned to which buttons. This isn't every last button I use but just the attacks/spells that get used quite often. Also depnding on what you use whether you use a keyboard of w/e you may choose to place different spells in different areas. In the end use what works for you!

1
Prot - Shield of Righteousness/SoRight

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift] Seal of Righteousness; Shield of Righteousness

Ret - CS / SoComm

#showtooltip crusader strike
/assist focus
/use [modifier:shift] seal of command
/stopmacro [noharm], [dead]
/startattack
/use crusader strike
/follow focus

2
Prot - JoJ/HS / Main spam button

#showtooltip judgement of justice
/startattack
/target frost tomb
/stopmacro [noharm], [dead]
/use 13
/use 14
/castsequence reset=combat/5 judgement of justice, Holy Shield
/startattack

Ret - JoL/JoW / Main spam button
Note that even though this is for judgement of light, I only use JoL on two ret pallies, the other two I use JoW. Judgements no longer stack but this decreases the chance that either judgement won't be up.

#showtooltip judgement of light
/assist focus
/stopmacro [noharm], [dead]
/use 13
/use 14
/use judgement of light
/startattack
/follow focus

3
This just happened to be the button I put Avenging Wrath into. You can put it in whatever macro you want, it just seemed to fit nicely for me here.

Prot - HoRight / AV

#showtooltip
/startattack
/stopmacro [noharm], [dead]
/use [modifier:shift] avenging wrath; hammer of the righteous

Ret - DS / AV

#showtooltip
/assist focus
/stopmacro [noharm], [dead]
/startattack [target=focustarget]
/use [modifier:shift] avenging wrath; divine storm

4
All
Exorcism

5
All - Consec / HW

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift] holy wrath; consecration

7
All - HoF / Repent
Yes I know prot pallies can't use repentance but I have it there when I switch his specs I don't have to use seperate macros :P

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift] repentance; hand of freedom

8
All - DP / SS

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift,target=player] Sacred Shield; Divine Plea

9
All - Aura / Bless
This is actually just the macro I use on my prot pally but I'm sure if you can read the macro you understand how to spread around the various blessings/auras. The 5 auras I use are Devo, Retri, Shadow, Frost, Fire.

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift] greater blessing of sanctuary ; !devotion aura

R
Prot - HoW
Hammer of Wrath

Ret - HoW

#showtooltip hammer of wrath
/assist focus
/use [target=party1target] hammer of wrath

F
Ret - Heals

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift, target=player] flash of light; [modifier:ctrl, target=player] holy light; [target=focus] flash of light

*NOTE* Do not have your tank heal while in combat! You do not parry/block while casting! You'll usually take more damage while casting the heal from not parrying/blocking then you'll actually heal yourself for.

V
All - Mounts
Insert your flying mount name in place of "snowy gryphon" and your land mount name in place of "charger"

#showtooltip [modifier:shift] snowy gryphon; charger
/use !crusader aura
/use [modifier:shift} snowy gryphon; charger

*Note* You only need to have one Paladin use the /use !crusader aura line.

C
All - HoJ / Repent
I use this button on Round Robin, repentance is included in this macro for mostly pvp purposes but it helps also for interrupts on trash mobs when I'm not CC'ing other mobs.

#showtooltip
/assist focus
/use [modifier:shift] repentance; hammer of justice

X
All - Cleanse
*NOTE* I set up this macro to cleanse your other pallies first, then to cleanse your focus/self thru modifiers. The reason I have it like this is if you get stunned, silenced, slept, MC'ed, etc. you cannot cleanse the magical debuffs off of yourself. With this cleansing your neighbor first this will not be a problem. Having a modifier to cleanse your focus which in my case is always the tank/leader always me to mass cleanse the lead toon which is especially important in pvp as he/she will likely be debuffed 9 ways to sunday. Having a modifier to cleanse yourself is in case the neighbor who suppose to cleanse you is dead or for whatever reason unable to cleanse said toon.

#showtooltip cleanse
/use [modifier:shift, target=focus] [modifier:ctrl, target=player] [target=INSERT TOON NAME HERE] cleanse

Z
All - DS / DP

#showtooltip
/use [modifier:shift] divine protection; divine shield

E
All - Interact with target
Some people only like to use this on their followers, I have no problem using it on all 5 but I guess that comes down to personal preference.

[Tdog]

Talents

Below are some links showing how I currently have my paladins specc'ed atm. This will probably vary slightly depending on what you do with your paladins and your personal preference. I both complete heroics and pvp with these currents builds. Not to say that they are the absolute best or anything like that but simply that they work and work well. As always do what works best for you.

Protection - LOL, So I just realized that some of my Paladins' specs are messed up while I was writing up this portion. I'm going to instead link a build that I meant to have for each.
Prot - Aederin - Use GBofSanctuary and Devotion Aura on this paladin.

I think most of the talents are pretty self explanatory as to why I took them, however...
Reckoning is fantastic for boosting as it will always be up, however on heroic boss fights or pvp it's rarely ever up and while it is nice when used with SoL I didn't feel that it was worth the 5 pnts.
Guardian's Favor / Stoicism are nice additions to a pvp build but they aren't necessities by any means, nor are they as valuable in a pve setting.
Divine Sacrifice / Divine Guardian - I am not a fan of Divine Sacrifice for an all paladin team as I use Divine Storm as a group heal and having all that damage go to one toon defeats that purpose, I'll explain more on this when I write up my section on Heroics. Divine Guardian is however quite nice for the increased effects to Sacred Shield. More passive mititagation is always a good thing, especially when you're not running with a dedicated healer.
Imp. Hammer of Justice - With 5x HoJ and the 20 sec HoJ cd reduction from Judgements of the Just, you hardly need this talent. I dropped it for Pursuit of Justice which is crucial in PvP and nice to have in PvE.

Retribution
Ret 1 - Clarke - The important thing to note on this build is that he is specced into imp. BoMight. Use GBoMight on this Paladin.
Ret 2 - Harrison - The important thing to note on this build is that he has taken the imp. Ret Aura talents. I also went with 2/3 Crusader to get 2/2 imp. HoJ, I figure being able to have all the HoJs on the same timer would be more valuable than +1% damage to a few creature classes, if you don't agree feel free to move the point back. Use Retribution Aura on this Paladin.
Ret 3 - Evans - This build is identical to the 4th paladin's build. This build doesn't have imp. anything so you can use whatever blessing, other than BoMight, and aura, other than Devo or Ret, you want on this Paladin.
Ret 4 - Phillips - Identical to the 3rd Paladin's build.

Eye for an Eye - Pretty much useless in PvE as your Ret paladins should rarely be getting hit. Useful in pvp but once you get some practice in you are going to be running people over like a freight train, not to mention most people are foolish enough to only attack your main toon which in my case is my prot pally. If you are planning on heavy pvp or arena however you may try switching it into your builds.
Divine Purpose - Useful for PvP and pretty much useless for PvE for the same reasons as Eye for an Eye.
Toughness - I choose to go with 4/5 Toughness mostly for the reduction to movement slowing effects which is useful in both PvP and PvE, although the increased armor definietly helps for damage mitigation as it will always mitigate physical damage while Anticipation will only rarely mitigate additonal damage. If you plan to PvP alot you may consider Stoicism and/or Guardian's Favor but again the reduction to movement slowing effects is quite nice.

With these 5 builds you will have...

Imp. Devotion Aura - For the increased armor and 6% healing to anyone affected by the aura.
Blessing of Sanctuary - For the 3% damage reduction from all sources and gaining 2% mana from all blocks, parries, or dodges.
Divine Guardian - For the increased duration and absorption to Sacred Shield for all 5 paladins.
Judgements of the Just - For the reduction to enemy attack speed.
3x Heart of the Crusader - Will ensure that this effect is always up.
3x Vindication - Will ensure that this effect is always up.
5x Pursuit of Justice - Very useful in pvp to be able to outrun almost everyone. If you don't take this on your prot paladin then it makes it useless on your ret paladins.
Imp. Blessing of Might - 25% extra AP from BoM.
Sanctified Retribution - For increased retribution aura damage as well as increasing all damage by 3% for entire group.
Swift Retribution - For 3% increased attack speed for entire group.

Glyphs

Protection
Major
Glyph of Judgement - Your Judgements deal 10% more damage. Judgement gets used quite often, helps with threat and dps output.
Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous - Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target. Since I use HotR on the same button as Divine Storm having HotR hit 4 targets like DS helps to keep aoe aggro.
Glyph of Divine Plea - While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources. Since you should be keeping Divine Plea up 100% of the time on boss fights, it's a constant 3% damage reduction.

Minor
Glyph of Sense Undead - Damage against Undead increased by 1% while your Sense Undead ability is active. Nothing major but its an increase damage.
Glyph of Lay on Hands- Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min. Using LoH on round robin gives you 5x emergency buttons. This glyph just makes sure that Lay on Hands is up alot more often.

Retribution
Major
Glyph of Judgement - Your judgements deal 10% more damage. Judgement should be your main attack, increasing its damage would obviously be a good thing.
Glyph of Seal of Command - Increases the chance of dealing Seal of Command damage by 20%. With no dedicated healer using SoBlood/Martyr causes too much damage and requires too much healing to be really effective. Thus I use SoCommand for both PvP and PvE and use this glyph to increase the frequency of SoCommand procs.
Glyph of Divine Storm - Your Divine Storm now heals for and additional 15% of the damage it causes. Divine Storm is a large source of healing in this group set-up. Increasing it's healing is a very good thing.

Minor
Glyph of Sense Undead - Damage against Undead increased by 1% while your Sense Undead ability is active. Nothing major but its an increase damage.
Glyph of Lay on Hands - Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min. Using LoH on round robin gives you 5x emergency buttons. This glyph just makes sure that Lay on Hands is up alot more often.
Glyph of Blessing of Kings - Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings spells by 50%. You obviously only need this glyph on the Paladin that blesses Kings. I know it isn't anything great, but there is no other minor glyph worth a thing so why not?

[Tdog]

Thanks to Stealthy for putting together some gear guides for ret paladins while leveling in Outland and Northrend.

Stealthy's Outland Gear Guide for leveling Ret Paladins.

Stealthy's Northrend Gear Guide for leveling Ret Paladins.
Northrend Gear Guide part two.

[Tdog]

Post 4

[Tdog]

I have more to type but writing a well constructed post takes lots of RL time which isn't something I have alot of these days. I'll post more about heroics, pvp, and just handling 5x melee in general later. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I'll try to include what I do. Also if you have anything to add feel free to do that as well.

[Stealthy]

Hey Tdog,

Thanks for the list of macros. I did have a question about spec though - what spec are you running for your Ret Pallies? Do you have exectly the same spec on all your toons, or do you spec them differently?

The reason I ask - there are a few talents, like Heart of the Cursader and Sanctified Retribution, where it would seem that only one of the party members needs to have them...

Cheers,
S.

[Tdog]

I was actually planning on including that in the next part I threw up, going over the different talents and why I chose what. But in short yes, they 4 ret are all differently slightly differently specced to make the best use of things like improved blessings/auras and such.

Unfortunately I got to run off and pull a 12 hour shift so I'm not quite sure if i'll be able to do it all tonight.

[Multibocks]

I didnt know /use was interchangeable with /cast. I noticed you have it in a few macros, does that actually work? i.e. /use Hammer of Wrath

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I didnt know /use was interchangeable with /cast. I noticed you have it in a few macros, does that actually work? i.e. /use Hammer of Wrath

Yes, they are functionally identical.

[Tdog]

I didnt know /use was interchangeable with /cast. I noticed you have it in a few macros, does that actually work? i.e. /use Hammer of Wrath

Yes, they are functionally identical.

They do the exact same thing, I just got into the habit of it back in the day to save alittle bit more room on the macros. However with some of the add-ons today, macro character limits aren't so much of a problem anymore.

To all those waiting for more info, sorry but I'm really just that busy IRL atm. I will be updating this with more info when I can.