WoW Forever Paladin Guide

Blizzard has not published a Paladin deep dive. These are the Paladin changes from the September 13 deep dive recap and the beta development notes (September 24 and October 1 updates). Each line links to its source.

• Holy Strike is learned at level 6: an instant weapon strike that deals Holy damage on a 12 second cooldown. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Holy Strike's weapon damage per rank is 25%, 29%, 32%, 36%, 39%, 43%, 46% and 50%. For Holy, its cooldown is 10 seconds and the Holy Power talent adds 15% critical strike chance to it. Improved Holy Strike was removed from the Holy tree. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Casting Judgement no longer uses up your Seal. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Seal of Fury is a new tank Seal for Protection. The Protection talent Improved Seal of Fury returns Mana when the Seal's shield absorbs damage. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Consecration is baseline at level 20. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Holy Shock has a 10 second cooldown. Infusion of Light rewards critical heals from Holy Shock and Flash of Light. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Vindication now lowers the enemy's Attack Power. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Paladins still have no interrupt. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Blessing of Kings is baseline. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Righteous Fury's Holy threat bonus is 60% (was 90%). Retribution Aura scales with spell power. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Retribution: Vengeance procs from non-periodic critical strikes and stacks to 3 (was 5); Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is 2, 4 or 6%; Sacred Arbiter adds 20% Holy Strike damage (was 10%); Twist of Light makes Seals 20% cheaper. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Protection: Redoubt's block bonus is 4 to 20% (was 6 to 30%) and Holy Shield's block chance is 30% (was 20%). Retribution: Champion of the Light converts 20, 40 or 60% of Intellect into spell damage. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]

What the beta client shows

Our own read of the client tables. Blizzard has not posted these, so treat them as beta data that can change.

• Holy Shock is listed from level 30 with four ranks, against level 40 and three ranks in Classic Era. It is still a Holy talent, so you need the talent before the trainer ranks matter.
• Hammer of the Righteous is a trainer spell at level 40 in the beta client. Its tooltip hits your target and nearby enemies for Holy damage based on your main-hand weapon, on a cooldown shared with Crusader Strike. Blizzard has not posted it.
• Blessing of Sanctuary, Greater Blessing of Sanctuary and Sanctity Aura are no longer in the class spell list. Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger are gone too, which fits the riding change.

The Paladin has three trees and 51 talent points at level 60, one per level from 10. Each tree opens a new row every 5 points. The 1-point picks behind the 10, 15, 20 and 30 point gates are the milestones Blizzard talks about: the 11, 16, 21 and 31 point talents. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026] The text below is the client's own tooltip at full rank, from build 1.60.1.70205. Plan a build in the Paladin talent calculator.

Holy

The healing tree. Its milestones are Voice of Truth (6 seconds of immunity to Silence and interrupts), Divine Favor, Holy Shock and the new Light's Vigil, which empowers your next Holy Shock on a target. The tree has 17 talents worth 46 ranks; the first row is Divine Strength, Divine Intellect.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Voice of Truth	Grants you immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects for 6 sec.
16	Divine Favor	When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.
21	Holy Shock	Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 134 Holy damage to an enemy, or 114 healing to an ally.
31	Light's Vigil	Applies Light's Vigil to the target for 30 sec. Your next Holy Shock cast on them triggers no cooldown and causes enemy targets to suffer 182 Holy damage and refund 75% of Light's Vigil's Mana cost, or allied targets to heal their party...

Protection

The tank tree. Its milestones are Improved Seal of Fury, Swift Judgement, the new Templar's Bulwark (a shield worth your maximum health for 8 seconds) and Holy Shield. The tree has 16 talents worth 48 ranks; the first row is Toughness, Redoubt.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Improved Seal of Fury	When Seal of Fury's shield is fully absorbed, restore X Mana, increased by 15% per level the attacker is above you, up to 45%.
16	Swift Judgement	Finishes the remaining cooldown on your Judgement ability and reduces the Mana cost of your next Judgement by 100%.
21	Templar's Bulwark	When activated, this ability grants you an absorb shield equal to 100% of your maximum health for 8 sec. Applies Forbearance for 1 min. Cannot be cast while Forbearance is active.
31	Holy Shield	Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec, and deals 110 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 20% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges.

Retribution

The melee damage tree. Its milestones are Seal of Command, Sacred Arbiter (a stronger Holy Strike that refreshes Judgements), Repentance and Twist of Light, which turns Seal swaps into an extra Seal effect. The tree has 17 talents worth 44 ranks; the first row is Deflection, Benediction.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Seal of Command	Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 sec.
16	Sacred Arbiter	Increases the damage of your Holy Strike ability by 20% and causes it to refresh all Judgement effects on the target.
21	Repentance	Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 6 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works against Humanoids.
31	Twist of Light	Reduces the Mana cost of your Seal spells by 20%, and when you replace your Seal of Command, Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Fury, or Seal of Justice with a different Seal, you gain an Echo of that Seal.

Changed between beta builds

We hold 5 snapshots of the Paladin trees (70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205). These are the differences, oldest first. Wording-only fixes are left out.

• 70124 to 70170: Holy Shield (Protection) changed from "Increases chance to block by 20% for 10 sec, and deals 110 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active." to "Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec, and deals 110 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active."; Redoubt (Protection) changed from "Damaging melee attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 30%. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks." to "Damaging melee attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 20%. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks."; Champion of the Light (Retribution) changed from "Increases your spell damage and healing by up to 100% of your Intellect." to "Increases your spell damage by up to 60% of your Intellect.".

These apply to every class, so they change how you play a Paladin too.

• Talents open at level 10 and use the same number of rows as Classic. The 1-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points in a tree are joined by a new 16-point milestone. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40. Talents, including Legacy talents, are changed at a class trainer in a major city. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Talents that used to hand out a key group buff are now baseline: Divine Spirit (Priest), Blessing of Kings (Paladin) and Improved Mark of the Wild (Druid). [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are one stat now, and so are spell, melee and ranged critical strike chance. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Bonus healing also gives one third as much bonus damage, so healers are not stuck when questing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Weapon skill works as before, but items give less of it per item. Some items add a new stat that lowers the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried, and caster weapons carry spell damage and healing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Riding follows the Burning Crusade model: the cost moves into riding training and you get a mount when you learn the skill. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Each race now has two active and two passive racial abilities, tuned to give a similar amount of offensive power. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]

Every Paladin spell rank the beta client (1.60.1.70205) lists from level 1 to 30, the level cap of the beta. Read from the client's SkillLineAbility and SpellLevels tables on the class skill lines. Spells marked talent need the talent first; the level is the level the client requires. Training costs are set on the server and are not in the client.

Level	Spells and ranks
1	Devotion Aura (Rank 1), Holy Light (Rank 1), Seal of Righteousness (Rank 1)
4	Blessing of Might (Rank 1), Judgement
6	Divine Protection (Rank 1), Holy Light (Rank 2), Holy Strike (Rank 1), Seal of the Crusader (Rank 1)
8	Hammer of Justice (Rank 1), Purify
10	Blessing of Protection (Rank 1), Devotion Aura (Rank 2), Lay on Hands (Rank 1), Seal of Fury (Rank 1), Seal of Righteousness (Rank 2)
12	Blessing of Might (Rank 2), Holy Strike (Rank 2), Redemption (Rank 1), Seal of the Crusader (Rank 2)
14	Blessing of Wisdom (Rank 1), Holy Light (Rank 3)
16	Retribution Aura (Rank 1), Righteous Fury
18	Blessing of Freedom, Divine Protection (Rank 2), Seal of Fury (Rank 2), Seal of Righteousness (Rank 3)
20	Blessing of Kings, Consecration (Rank 1), Devotion Aura (Rank 3), Exorcism (Rank 1), Flash of Light (Rank 1), Holy Strike (Rank 3), Repentance (talent), Seal of Command (Rank 1) (talent), Sense Undead, Voice of Truth (talent)
22	Blessing of Might (Rank 3), Concentration Aura, Holy Light (Rank 4), Seal of Justice, Seal of the Crusader (Rank 3)
24	Blessing of Protection (Rank 2), Blessing of Wisdom (Rank 2), Hammer of Justice (Rank 2), Redemption (Rank 2), Turn Undead (Rank 1)
25	Seal of Fury (Rank 3)
26	Blessing of Salvation, Flash of Light (Rank 2), Retribution Aura (Rank 2), Seal of Righteousness (Rank 4)
28	Exorcism (Rank 2), Holy Strike (Rank 4), Shadow Resistance Aura (Rank 1)
30	Consecration (Rank 2), Devotion Aura (Rank 4), Divine Intervention, Holy Light (Rank 5), Holy Shock (Rank 1) (talent), Lay on Hands (Rank 2), Seal of Command (Rank 2) (talent), Seal of Light (Rank 1), Templar's Bulwark (talent)

The beta class spell list (1.60.1.70205) compared with Classic Era (1.15.9.70003), levels 2 to 60, matched by spell name. A renamed spell shows up once as removed and once as new. Passive form auras and helper records are left out.

New in Forever

Spell	First level	Ranks	Type
Holy Strike	6	8	Trainer
Seal of Fury	10	7	Trainer
Voice of Truth	20	1	Talent
Templar's Bulwark	30	1	Talent
Hammer of the Righteous	40	1	Trainer
Light's Vigil	40	3	Talent

No longer in the class spell list

Learned at a different level

Spell	Classic Era	Forever beta
Holy Shock	40	30

Different number of ranks

Spell	Classic Era ranks (levels)	Forever beta ranks (levels)
Holy Shock	3 (40, 48, 56)	4 (30, 40, 48, 56)

Field by field changes to every Paladin spell (damage, costs, cooldowns) are on the Paladin spell changes page.

The beta client (1.60.1.70170) allows 3 races to be a Paladin. "New" means the pair is not in the Classic Era client (1.15.9.69722). Blizzard can still switch a pair off on its servers. All pairs are on the races and classes page.

Racial notes from Blizzard

Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026] Blizzard has described these so far:

• Dwarf: Stoneform focuses on removing and blocking Bleeds, Poisons and Diseases, and its defensive bonus now lowers physical damage taken. Find Treasure can stay on with other tracking. Mace Specialization raises critical strike chance with all spells and abilities while a mace is equipped. Big Game Hunter adds damage against Beasts. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Human: Will to Survive got a new visual, matching Dispel Magic. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken still removes Charm, Fear and Sleep but no longer grants immunity. Cannibalize restores Mana as well as Health. Touch of the Grave is a new damage racial. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control and no longer fires from spells without a damage part. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Cannibalize cannot be used while you are immune to Physical damage. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]

We do not publish guesses. These wait for launch or for Blizzard to say more:

• Stat priorities. Itemization is still moving in the beta, and Blizzard has posted no stat weights.
• Best in slot lists. The two new raids in the client (Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps) have encounter names but no loot data yet.
• Raid roles and group makeup at 60. The beta stops at level 30.
• Training costs. Trainer prices are set on the server and are not in the client files.
• How Retribution compares with the other melee classes at 60.
• Whether Paladins ever get an interrupt. As of September 13, Blizzard says they still do not.

Blizzard

• Blizzard: WoW Forever launches November 4, September 12, 2026
• Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever deep dive panel recap, September 13, 2026
• Blizzard: Class Deep Dives, Priest and Warrior, September 30, 2026
• Blizzard: The WoW Forever beta is live, September 17, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, September 24 update, September 24, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, October 1 update, October 1, 2026

Beta client data

• Talent trees: the beta client's Trait tables, build 1.60.1.70205, decoded into our talent snapshots (beta builds compared: 70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205).
• Spells by level and the Classic Era comparison: SkillLineAbility, Spell and SpellLevels for build 1.60.1.70205 against Classic Era 1.15.9.70003, read from our datamine on October 5, 2026.
• Races: the client's character creation table, build 1.60.1.70170, against Classic Era 1.15.9.69722.

How we work: Blizzard statements are quoted in our own words and linked with their date. Client data is shown as the client stores it, with its build number, and is not a promise about the live game. Press reports and datamining rumors are not used on this page.