⚔️ Paladin Forevercommunity intel on WoW Forever paladins, distilled daily from the class Discord

Builds

Last updated 2026-09-15. Everything here is pre-launch community reading of BlizzCon demo data. Nothing is confirmed.

Most links open in talentsforever.com, which encodes a build as one digit per talent; a few use other calculators. Nothing is confirmed; the beta caps at level 30, so no capstone is testable before launch.

The one number that decides everything

Champion of the Light (bottom of Ret) reads “up to 33% of Intellect” at rank 1. If it’s 100% at 3/3, the 23/0/28 builds win for healing and damage. If it’s 33%, deep Holy is just as good and immune to the nerf everyone expects.

Healing

# Build Split Best for Depends on Champion? Link
1 Champion Healer 23/0/28 Raid tank healing Yes open
2 Champion Healer, Steady 23/0/28 Fear-heavy fights Yes open
3 Champion Healer, Fast Light 23/0/28 Holy Light loop Yes open
4 Arena Vigil 31/18/2 PvP No open
5 Vigil Raid Healer 31/0/20 Raid party healing, hedge No open

Shockadin (holy damage)

# Build Split Best for Depends on Champion? Link
6 Melee Shockadin 23/0/28 Raid damage Yes open
7 Sword-and-Board Shockadin 23/0/28 Shield playstyle Yes open
8 Two-Hander Hybrid 24/0/27 Two-hander under hit cap Partly open
9 Vigil Shockadin 33/0/18 Dungeons, hybrid No open
10 Vigil Shockadin, damage-tuned 32/0/19 Dungeons, hedge No open

PvP

From the PvP channel. None depend on Champion of the Light. Splits are read from the link encoding. Details on the PvP page.

# Build Split Best for Link
11 Deep Ret 16/0/35 PvP melee with self-healing open
12 Three-Tree Ret 13/7/31 PvP melee, Holy utility open
13 Stun Burst Ret 0/20/31 PvP burst with a healer open
14 Shock Ret 26/0/25 PvP Holy Shock with Ret multipliers open
15 Holy Reckoning 25/26/0 PvP attrition open
16 Arena Vigil, PvP-channel variant 31/18/2 PvP, deep Holy shock open
17 Arena Vigil, Ret dip 31/7/13 PvP, deep Holy shock open
18 Holy/Prot Shockadin draft 31/20/0 PvP Shockadin, rough draft open
19 Reckoning Bulwark about 4/26/21 PvP two-hander Prot open

Protection

From the Prot channel. Only one link was posted and its author disclaimed it; the rest are point lists or screenshots. Details on the Protection page.

# Build Split Best for Link
20 Deep Prot 8/36/7 Dungeon and raid main tank none posted (point list)
21 Shock Prot 23/28/0 Ranged pull, single-target threat none posted
22 Vengeance Prot Ret to Vengeance, rest Prot Leveling dungeons, tank-or-damage swap none posted
23 Spell Power Tank unknown Seal of Fury scaling concept screenshot only
24 Day-one placeholder 8/36/7 (encoding trims zeros) none open

One-line verdicts

  1. Champion Healer: the right raid build today, and the one you respec out of when the talent changes.

  2. Steady variant: drops Infusion of Light entirely, which is a mistake for PvE.

  3. Fast Light variant: no Divine Favor, which is your on-demand fast Holy Light. Build 1 is better.

  4. Arena Vigil: coherent for arena, worst sustained mana of any option. PvP only.

  5. Vigil Raid Healer: the only raid build with a group heal and the only one not hostage to Champion.

  6. Melee Shockadin: every damage multiplier plus Intellect scaling. No Holy Power, no threat reduction.

  7. Sword-and-Board: a Season of Discovery habit. Seal of Righteousness needs about 30% more to match Seal of Command.

  8. Two-Hander Hybrid: the only Shockadin with a weapon spec, but trades a Champion rank for 6% hit.

  9. Vigil Shockadin: +15% Shock crit and a double Shock every 30 seconds. Wastes five points on Illumination.

  10. Damage-tuned Vigil Shockadin: build 9 with the healing points moved to Divine Favor and utility.

  11. Deep Ret: the PvP channel’s current favorite. Improved Holy Strike plus enough Holy for silence immunity and real self-heals.

  12. Three-Tree Ret: Divine Strength on top of the same Holy utility. A revised version exists (see the PvP page).

  13. Stun Burst Ret: double Seal of Command stun judge. Only with a pocket healer.

  14. Shock Ret: Holy Shock as the main button with Ret multipliers. Untested.

  15. Holy Reckoning: Reckoning plus Divine Intellect and big heals. The most annoying build to fight.

  16. Arena Vigil, PvP-channel variant: the Holy channel’s Arena Vigil with a slightly different Holy core. Skips the block-mana talent on purpose.

  17. Arena Vigil, Ret dip: same Holy core, Ret dip for Benediction-side value instead of Prot.

  18. Holy/Prot Shockadin draft: takes one-hander damage over 6% damage reduction. Its author calls it rough.

  19. Reckoning Bulwark: Reckoning and twisting can’t coexist, so the two-hander half is wasted.

  20. Deep Prot: the sketch several agreed on. Improved Holy Strike, Divine Intellect, Improved Seals in Holy; Deflection and Improved Judgement in Ret; everything else Prot. Toughness versus Reckoning is the cut.

  21. Shock Prot: buys a ranged pull and Shock threat at the cost of padding talents. Untested.

  22. Vengeance Prot: no seal games and it deals damage off-tank. The channel’s leveling-dungeon default.

  23. Spell Power Tank: drops Holy Shield to bet on absorb scaling nobody has confirmed.

  24. Day-one placeholder: same split as 20, but posted by someone who said they had no idea. Ignore.

If you had to pick today: 1 to heal, 6 to deal damage. 5 and 10 are the respec targets if Champion of the Light gets nerfed. For PvP, 11 is the channel’s pick; 16 or 17 if you want to shock and heal. To tank, build 20 at 60 and 22 on the way there.

Retribution builds will be added after that channel is processed.