Gear Up Your New Level 80 Paladin the Easy Way

Gearing up fast as a new level 80 is easy in World of Warcraft if you plan it right and use this strategy. World of Warcraft is an extremely gear dependent game and you will be at a disadvantage as a new paladin just starting out with a build of green and blue gear. The most important thing to know is that DPS classes(damage per second) are everywhere and they are better geared than you! Tanking is highly gear dependent but fortunately healing is not.

As a DPS class you can spend close to an hour looking for a group, as a healer you spend under two minutes! When you are first starting out and need gear fast, a holy build is the best way to go. Think about all of the death knights, rogues, mages and warlocks you see walking around in decent gear and you will see why a party leader would be slow to pick up a brand new retribution or tank paladin build. Most parties are happy to find any kind of a healer!

At level 80 go holy or dual specialize for holy and retribution. As you level through the 70's pickup DPS gear first because this will help you level quickly and efficiently. Occasionally add rare blue items that are plus spell damage and critical hit. When you reach level 80 you should have a modest set of gear for holy, whatever pieces you are missing fill in with the brilliant saronite set. When I did this, my paladin started out with only 1200 spell power and 26.95 critical hit for holy spells. As horrible as those statistics are, I could heal just fine in regular Trial of the Champion and heroics.

During my first few heroic and Trial of the Champion regular runs people laughed at my gear but they were surprised at how efficient and effective the healing was! I was even a bit surprised. I found that paladin healing is simple with the holy build. It only took a few runs for about ½ of my set to get replaced with epics and the healing got easier and easier. Simply cast beacon of light and shield your tank, spam holy light and flash of light, using divine illumination when needed. As you go through heroics you will soon learn what healing spells work best!

When the items you need drop don't be shy to mention that you are trying to build up gear for your new paladin's DPS or tanking specialization. Most people do not care if you roll need on heroic gear in a random pug simply because they can. You may want to offer the vendor or shard value for the item if people grumble and remind them that you honestly need the gear.

As you begin to farm heroics you can save badges up for gear that is ideal for your specialization of choice. When you are not farming heroics work up your reputation with dailies and finish your north end quests. Soon your paladin will have the gear to run any instance in World of Warcraft.