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Despite the annexation of pagan holidays by Ye Ol’ Catholic Church, there’s one thing the holy light can’t touch: good faction-specifc World of Warcraft (WoW) classes. This follows from Blizzard’s curious design of the shaman class for the Horde, versus the weenie paladin class for the Alliance, causing dispute much akin to Mac versus PC and Democrats versus Republicans. The only difference between the Shaman/Paladin debate and other famous rivalries is that the scales are truly lopsided, because as far as redeeming factors goes, there really aren’t any for the paladin.

Let me construct a little mental diagram of what we’re talking about here. In Blizzard’s infinite wisdom, they decided to create two classes, each unique to one faction (that is, unique to its given “nation”). Blizzard decided to make them similar, but not the same, so as to have them balance one another out. Yet the similarities end at the very basic level - both classes can buff party members, both have abysmal healing abilities, and both can wield a decent set of weapons. Yet when one looks beyond this basic level and considers what’s actually useful, one quickly sees the rather stunning differences.

Firstly, the shaman is a damage-per-second (DPS) powerhouse, that buffs party members by dropping “totems” that have various effects, from healing, to mana regeneration, to resisting certain elemental forces. It’s the combination of these totems that allows the shaman, and his party, to adapt fairly well to various enemies. While the shaman rarely needs to drop these totems in all but the most sticky of situations (since they’re usually a waste of mana), the shaman also has weapon enchancements (which certain totems give to party members also). These enhancements allow the shaman to place one buff on his weapon, giving it a unique effect, such as fire damage, frost damage, or the chance to strike thrice in the span of one normal “hit”. This last effect, Windfury, is what brings smiles to shaman players, and what makes Alliance players scream “nerf shaman!” In short, Windfury is what allows shamans to go from melee meh to melee yay!

It’s the shaman’s versatility that makes him a true “hyrbid” class akin to the druid; the shaman can output incredible damage, can “tank” by drawing aggro (focus) from enemies, and soak that damage with his ability to wear mail gear, hold a shield, and pop healing spells every now and again. While the shaman can’t truly fill the roll of a primary healer (priest/druid) or a real tank (warrior/druid), the shaman can do those things well enough during the lower levels, and make up for failures in healing or tank-related kinks should they arise. In other words, the shaman is a good “off-healer”, and “off-tank”. It’s this versatility that makes the shaman excellent in Player versus Player (PvP) combat, because many players have a tough time determining how a shaman will choose to fight his battle, but it’s also that versatility that makes the shaman poor in later levels, since his role can better be filled by a warrior, priest, or druid. That said, if DPS is what someone wants, the shaman is an excellent fit, and in many ways, is a much better choice than a mage or rogue, the two classes known, and regularly sought out, for high DPS.

The paladin is, on the other hand, not very good at much at all, unless temporarily saving one’s ass is what one’s looking for. Unlike the shaman, the paladin can wear plate armor, making him the only class other than the venerable warrior who can wear the strongest armor in the game. However, while a warrior needs plate armor to properly be a tank, the paladin’s ability to wear plate is pretty much wasted, since the paladin lacks the ability to hold aggro through taunts (like the warrior), or raw DPS (like a shaman). In other words, though the paladin can take hits pretty well, he rarely does, since he’s easily outdamaged by a real tank, and anyone who exceeds the paladin’s damage that doesn’t have the ability to cower (lose aggro), like the mage, will find themselves torn to shreds while the paladin pathetically swings his weapon like a child swatting at a fly. In short, the paladin’s armor wouldn’t be a waste if he could actually hold aggro.

Without the DPS to match his ability to wear plate, the paladin’s only real use in a party is to buff them. Admittedly, a paladin’s buffs exceed those of a shaman’s in most cases, if only because the buffs are mobile, while the shaman’s buffs are area-of-effect (AoE). In other words, if the party moves away from a shaman’s totems, they lose their buffs, while the paladin’s buffs are based on a proximity to the paladin himself (in the case of paladin auras), or based on no proxmity to anything at all.

The interesting thing here is that if the paladin had a shaman’s DPS, he could actually tank worth a damn, and if the shaman had a paladin’s armor, he could do likewise. As it stands, neither can fulfill the role of a tank by themselves, and instead are relegated to support roles in a group. Sadly, however, while the shaman can serve the role of a damage-dealer incredibly well, the paladin cannot, leaving him in the dust as a buff-bot, if anything. This might be why the paladin is one of the least-played classes, despite the fact that people Horde-side constantly complain about how powerful paladins are. In fact, paladin’s aren’t powerful at all, they are simply survivors, and able to outlast most opponents by slowly whittling away at them, hiding behind their strong armor and powerful shields. In the end, one might draw the conclusion that paladins are nothing more than a nuisance, while shamans are a true annoyance, since the damage they deal roughly equates to, if not far exceeds, the damage they can take before they die. Truth be told, shamans don’t last in combat all that long, because that very damage causes quite a lot of aggro if not controlled, and despite their mail armor, any non-melee class can ignore a shaman’s armor by casting spells rather than going toe-to-toe in an outright brawl.

While one might argue that the paladin is for defensive-oriented players, while the shaman is for offensive-oriented players, the difference is only important in solo PvP. When it comes to group quests, group grinding, or group PvP, there is a far greater benefit to a character who can dish out damage and kill the enemy than a character who doesn’t die quickly but whose attacks are rather weak; by the time a paladin’s longevity pays off, his group is already dead, and now he’s easily double or triple-teamed.

While the concept behind the paladin is pretty neat (a lesser warrior with healing capabilities), and the novelty initially high (he’s related to the paladin from Diablo 2), he’s a poor character choice for WoW, at least until Blizzard takes another look at the paladin and works him over. Until then, the only people I’d recommend the paladin to are those who don’t want complexity to their classes, since the paladin plays very straightforward. So straightforward, in fact, that I’d nominate him for the “most boring character class” if such an award existed.

So, dear paladin, I rate you thusly: [rate 1]

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