Tier list

Paladin

Rank 1 of 9 · build 2026-10-16

S81%

Strongest all-rounder this patch: hits hard, heals itself, and levels fast.

Leveling81%
Endgame80%
PvP82%

Mostly agree

Specs

Holyhealer
A 78%
Leveling77%
Endgame94%
PvP64%

Raid healing and Holy Shock burst

S 85%
Leveling87%
Endgame89%
PvP79%

Easy dungeon tanking with a ranged taunt

Retributionmelee dps
S 88%
Leveling95%
Endgame79%
PvP92%

Fast leveling and duels

Why it scores this way

  • Retribution levels almost on autopilot, so Paladin scores high for solo play.
  • Champion of the Light now turns 10/20/30% of Intellect into spell damage (Oct 16).
  • Protection holds dungeon threat easily with a ranged taunt and mana back from blocks.
  • Holy Shock now has a short cooldown, so duels turn on burst and big shields.
  • Salvation no longer takes a blessing slot, so every Paladin adds more raid buffs.

Strong at

  • Levels on autopilot
  • Shields and Lay on Hands
  • Wins duels with burst

Weak at

  • Twist of Light is disputed
  • Can feel strong but boring
  • Undead racial may be too good

What changed in Forever

BuffChampion of the Light restored to full spell power2026-10-16
NerfTouch of the Grave nerfed for Undead Paladins2026-10-15
ChangeConsecration damage cut, Righteous Fury threat raised2026-10-15
BuffSalvation split from Blessings, Revoke added2026-10-15
BuffReckoning gains one charge per trigger; saving 4 charges is a known issue2026-10-15
NerfRetribution Aura damage cut2026-10-08
BuffHoly Strike reworked with shorter cooldown2026-09-24
Sources & every model's scores
ModelLevelingEndgamePvP
beam989
big-pickle998
deepseek-v4.1-flash889
glm-5.3-flash878
longcat-2.5-preview769
mimo-v2.6-flash987
nemotron-3-ultra989
inception_mercury-2.5898
nvidia_nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b999
poolside_laguna-s-2.1787
thinkingmachines_inkling899
xingchen-agi_xing4.0-29b-a4b676
Each model scored 1–10 from the same fact pack. The page shows the average × 10.

Sources