Paladin (character Class) - World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Paladins were at first a class exclusive to the human and dwarf races of the Alliance. When The Burning Crusade expansion was released, the Horde faction gained these holy warriors with the addition of blood elves, while the draenei race were added to the Alliance faction and given the shaman as a playable class. With the release of the Cataclysm expansion, tauren are also permitted to become Paladins.

In the Warcraft universe's lore, the Paladin was first conceived by Archbishop Alonsus Faol of Northshire Abbey. Faol felt that the contribution to the war effort by pure clerics during the First Great War (Warcraft: Orcs & Humans) would not be sufficient for the battles ahead, and decided to create a more versatile cleric that didn't need protection in combat. Faol's apprentice Lord Uther the Lightbringer became the first Paladin. Uther used his natural leadership skills to rally the best knights of Azeroth to be blessed as Paladins, and formed the Knights of the Silver Hand. In Warcraft II, they were upgraded knights who could heal injured comrades and exorcise undead. At this point, Paladins were amongst the Alliance's most powerful melee units.

By the time of Warcraft III, the Paladin had become a separate class, rather than an upgrade. They were less powerful individual units, and were relegated to more of a support role in combat. In-game, they were Hero units, meaning they could gain experience and improve their abilities. They possessed the weakest direct offensive skills of the four Alliance heroes, instead protecting the troops with their aura, healing and resurrection abilities. During his later life, Uther trained Prince Arthas as a Paladin. In Warcraft III, Arthas was corrupted by the Lich King, and ultimately abandoned the way of the Paladin, killing his father the King and betraying the Alliance to the Scourge. After Uther became possessor of the late King's ashes, he was killed by Arthas, who wished to take possession of the magical urn containing the ashes. This led directly to the collapse of the Silver Hand, and the Paladins became scattered. They now fight under any Alliance flag.

In World of Warcraft game play, the Paladin is considered to be a melee-oriented hybrid class, which is a class that fulfills more than one role. Paladins have various protective auras they extend to party or raid members, 60 minute blessings which affect the entire group or raid (either Blessing of Kings to give 5% to major stats or Blessing of Might to give 10% attack power/mana regeneration), the ability to heal allies and ones self, and a unique system of seals and judgments for combat. Paladins can be specialized using talent points awarded at level 10 and above. The three talent trees are holy, protection and retribution. The holy tree helps the paladin specialize as a healer (acting as an armored cleric), the protection tree toward the role of a damage-absorbing tank for a group, and the retribution tree towards increasing the paladin's ability to do melee damage (representing a zealous crusader). In the Player versus Player (PvP) aspect of World of Warcraft, these talent trees are often combined in new ways to adapt to other classes in the game.