TBC Anniversary Paladin leveling guide: Get to level 60 in prepatch with ease
Want to level a Paladin faster in TBC prepatch? This Paladin leveling guide breaks down talents, zones, and key tips.
Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- TBC prepatch significantly speeds up leveling with reduced XP requirements and higher quest rewards.
- Paladins are slow early but scale extremely well with strong survivability and solo potential.
- Choosing the right talents and zones makes a massive difference in leveling speed and comfort.
TBC Anniversary launches on February 5, with the prepatch available starting January 13. The prepatch introduces several leveling changes and adds two new race–class combinations: Blood Elf Paladins for the Horde and Draenei Shamans for the Alliance. Our Paladin leveling guide covers everything you need to level efficiently in the TBC prepatch, whether you prefer solo play or dungeon-focused progression.
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Now let’s get to our TBC Paladin leveling guide.
Leveling in TBC prepatch
The main differences for leveling in the TBC prepatch are that the total XP required from levels 20 to 60 is nerfed by about 15%, and quest XP is increased by up to 40%. There are some other XP buffs that are not direct, like ground mounts being available for purchase starting at level 30 and the addition of more than 50 quests to Dustwallow Marsh, but overall the main buffs are pretty evident.
Besides that, Blood Elves and Draenei start in new zones that are packed with quests and will streamline your leveling in the TBC prepatch. Although, expect high competition, as many players will be looking to level the new races.
Fast Paladin Leveling guide for TBC prepatch
Now let’s get to the main part of our Paladin leveling guide. Let’s focus on Paladin pros and cons when it comes to leveling.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great healer, DPS, and can tank | Very slow start when leveling up to 30 |
| Free mount on level 40 | Very gear reliant |
| Self reliant | Low mobility overall |
| Can solo elites and some group quests | Not many control option |
Wether you choose leveling through dungeon or solo leveling, you need to keep a track on these key things as Paladin in Classic:
- Stat priority is Strength = Spirit > Agi > Stam > Intellect;
- Key levels for trainers are 12 and 20, don’t miss out these Paladin quests;
- Although you have free mount on level 40, you can always buy mount at 30;
- Learn extra weapon choices from weapon trainers at level 10, can do at any faction capital;
- Don’t skip dungeons, quest XP rewards from those are massive;
Leveling route for Paladin in TBC prepatch
The leveling routes for paladins are mostly straightforwards, but here is the route for Alliance:
- Level 1-10: Starting zones for your races;
- Level 11-20: Westfall, Loch Modan, Darkshore, Redridge (After Westfall), Bloodmyst Isle;
- Level 21-30: Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Wetlands, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills;
- Level 31-40: Dustwallow March, Thousand Needles, Desolace, Arathi Highlands, Stranglethorn Valley;
- Level 41-50: Badlands, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Feralas, Searing Gorge;
- Level 51-60: Felwood, Western Plaguelands, Un’Goro Crater, Azhara;
For Horde Blood Elves the guideline is the same, except for level 1-20 you will be stuck in your starting zone Ghostlands, and then can continue with Silverpine Forest.
Complete zones fully, unless you are overlevelled and don’t skip dungeons, especially starting from level 30.
Best Paladin items for leveling in Classic
Key items that you should look for while leveling in our Paladin leveling guide are:
| Level | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Large Axe | Sold by Weapon Merchants in starting areas |
| 4 | Wooden Mallet | Sold by Weapon Merchants in starting areas; Paladins learn 2H Mace skill by default |
| 8 | Copper Battle Axe | Crafted with Blacksmithing (35), can be bought from Auction House |
| 13 | Edge of the People’s Militia | Quest reward from The People’s Militia in Westfall (Unavailable for Horde) |
| 26 | Strike of the Hydra | Dropped by Aku’mai in Blackfathom Deeps |
| 29 | Corpsemaker | Dropped by Overlord Ramtusk in Razorfen Kraul |
| 34 | Bonebiter | Reward from In the Name of the Light in Scarlet Monastery (Unavailable for Horde) |
| 35 | X’caliboar | Dropped by Ragglesnout in Razorfen Downs |
| 37 | Ravager | Dropped by Herod in Scarlet Monastery Armory |
| 44 | Diabolic Skiver | Dropped by Shadowpriest Sezz’ziz in Zul’Farrak |
| 44 | The Rockpounder / Stoneslayer | Dropped by Archaedas in Uldaman |
| 48 | Gatorbite Axe | Dropped by Rotgrip in Maraudon |
| 49 | Princess Theradras’ Scepter | Dropped by Princess Theradras in Maraudon |
| 54 | Dreadforge Retaliator | Dropped by Emperor Dagran Thaurissan in Blackrock Depths |
As you can see Maraudon is one of the best dungeons item-wise for Paladins, even more so as Maraudon has Blackstone Ring one of the BiS items.
Paladin leveling talents in Classic
Finally, let’s focus on leveling talents in our Paladin leveling guide. Even so Protection Paladin feels really good in TBC, we don’t recomend leveling Protection (Unless you want to run dungeons fast without looking for group too much). We will focus on Retribution Paladin solo leveling talent build and Holy Paladin talents.
Holy Paladin talents:
- From levels 10–20, prioritize Divine Intellect to increase your total Mana pool and improve early sustain, finish this bracket with Spiritual Focus to improve healing even more.
- Between levels 21–30, invest into Healing Light to improve healing throughput. Take Consecration on level 20 and Improved Lay on Hands on level 24 but only take 1. Then take Improved Blessing of Wisdom, as it will be your core Blessing for a while. Finish bracket with Illumination and Lasting Judgement, upgrade them all to rank 3.
- Leveling 31-40, start with maxxing out Illumination. Always take Divine Favor on 35, for your burst healing. Finish this bracket with Holy Power and Holy Shock on level 40.
- From level 41 finish Holy Power and then take full Benediction. From then on the leveling is straightforward: Benediction, Improved Blessing of Might, Pursuit of Justice, Improved Devotion Aura, and Guardian’s Favor.
Retribution Paladin talents:
- From levels 10–14, prioritize Benediction to reduce Judgement and Seal mana costs, making early leveling much smoother.
- From 15–19, invest into Deflection to increase parry chance and improve melee survivability. Finish this bracket by taking Pursuit of Justice at levels 20–21 for increased movement speed and better control resistance.
- Between levels 22–30, pick up Seal of Command as your main damage Seal, then invest fully into Conviction to scale critical strike damage. Take Improved Blessing of Might during this bracket to increase your Attack Power, and always grab Sanctity Aura at level 30 as a core damage increase.
- From levels 31–40, max out Two-Handed Weapon Specialization to scale weapon damage, then finish Improved Blessing of Might. After that, fully invest into Vengeance to massively increase damage after critical strikes, and always take Repentance at level 40 for crowd control.
- From levels 41–52, complete Improved Blessing of Might, then max Divine Strength to scale Attack Power further. Follow up by fully investing into Improved Seal of Righteousness to increase consistent Seal damage.
- From levels 53–60, take Consecration for AoE farming and dungeon utility, then Improved Lay on Hands for cooldown efficiency. Finish with Healing Light and Improved Judgement.
Paladin spells to buy in Classic
Let’s round up this Paladin leveling guide for pre TBC with spells to buy from trainers:
Seals
- Seal of Righteousness
- Seal of Command (For Retribution Paladin only)
- Seal of Light
- Seal of Wisdom
Blessings
- Blessing of Might
- Blessing of Wisdom
Healing spells
- Flash of Light
- Holy Light
And that wraps up our Paladin leveling guide for Classic to TBC! Don’t want to run this challenge?Consider to buy WoW Classic boost.
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