The Problem with Paladins

I’ve played Thalenir, my blood elf paladin, for about a month. He got into his early 30’s and enjoyed a variety of play styles, including soloing, grouping, and instances. On several occasions, I even had the opportunity to tank instances with him, which was a blast. Unfortunately, I’ve come to recognize a harsh reality that I just have to get off my chest.

Paladins suck. Yes, I said it, and I’ll say it again. Pallies suck. They are the very definition of a jack-of-all-trades, able to do many things but none of them well. They can do adequate DPS with a retribution spec, they can be respectable healers with a holy spec, and they can be decent tanks (or better-than-average off-tanks) with a protection spec. Without a solid talent spec and gear to match, their performance in every regard is sub par, and they can’t do any of these jobs as well as a specialty class that’s specced for it.

I can hear the objections now. “That’s the whole point of playing a paladin.” Perhaps, but the game has two other multi-purpose classes: The druid and the shaman. I’ve played both of them, and the fact is that both are better at the jobs they can fill than a paladin can ever be. Druids, for example, are right up there with warriors as the end-game tanks of choice. Shamans, likewise, can dish out melee DPS on par with a rogue. Even as party healers, arguably the one area that paladins should out-perform them, druids and shamans are just as viable.

I know it’s been said many times, but I think it’s worth saying again. Paladins need to be fixed. Give them some better healing abilities to make them really shine in one discipline over druids and shamans. Give them a reliable way of generating threat en masse and becoming uncrushable so they can be end-game tanks rather than off-tanks. Heck, give them some freakin’ DPS so they don’t have to die repeatedly while soloing. Any improvement would be great, because right now there’s no real reason to play them except for character reasons.

Alright, I’ve said my peace. Hopefully I haven’t offended the paladin-lovers out there. If you feel affronted by my comments, please realize that I gave the class a chance to prove itself, despite my brother’s objections (which were always valid, seeing as he has a 70 dwarf pally). Remember, it’s still possible to love a class while recognizing its numerous and glaring shortcomings. Personally, I’ll be trading in my paladin for a tauren druid.