Welcome:


For the first specific class guide, I'll post for Holy pala or holydin. In a previous post I mentioned the importance to have a pvp talent build. This is the very first thing you must set correctly in order to pvp properly. The following builds are variants and they're both useful, only changing depending on your arena partner.

This talent build is mostly defensive, and its oriented to be played with: Destruction warlock, feral druid.

The cataclysm version of this talent build would be:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scIbdrdzucbhZfM:aVcrfkMcV
Notice how I choose to empower defensive abilities, and I don't reduce the cooldown on hammer of justice, mostly because ferals and destro have stun abilities, therefore they wont suffer DR (diminishing returns) from my stun. This spec is good for 3s and 5s too. You might ask why I only have 4 talents in reduced pushback; the reason is that most dps with spell based damage will have ~130 spell pen, making your resistances useless, also having +1300 armor with devotion in pvp its kinda nonsense. Having concentration aura on is the best option.

This talent build is offensive, and focuses on helping your partner on dps, while producing the same amount of heals, however your defense and damage reduction skills will be affected. The version of this talent build is just remove talents in improved divine sacrifice and sacred shield, and move them to improved hammer of justice.
Cataclysm version: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scIrdrdzucbhbMZz:aVMrfkMc0

• Glyphs on WotLK:

Major: Glyph of Salvation (it reduces 20% damage on you).
            Glyph of Holy Shock (+instant heals)
            Glyph of Seal of Wisdom (if your intellect is low) or Seal of light (if your intellect is high).

Minor: Glyph of blessing of kings.
           Glyph of Seal of Wisdom.

• Team Combos:

Holy/warlock:

This comp is very dangerous because warlocks reduce a lot of dmg as long as their pet is alive. You should only get an affliction or destruction lock, not a demonology. Depending on the spec, you'll be more defensive (choosing an affliction warlock would make you more defensive, due to the low burst). You should always keep the pet alive, and your warlock immune to pushback with your concentration aura. Playing with an affliction warlock is a bit easier due to lock's selfheals and drain mana your opponent's healer, but it makes it hard if your enemies are bursting types or resistant to fears, like undead warr....oh god.

Pros: Good survival. Mage teams are easier with this comp.

Cons: Depending if your lock part is afflic, you can have problems with bursting classes, and fear resistant teams.

Holy/warrior:

This is very popular, and has subsisted since previous expansions of WoW. Effective against almost everything, except mage/priest teams. Make sure your warrior (do I have to say he/she has to be Arms spec?) knows how to use properly spell reflect, mage/priest is effective against this team, if well played.

Pros: Healing reduction. Good overall damage.

Cons: You cant avoid easily CC, your warr can only avoid fear, and he cant remove CC from you, he'll be mostly the target of DPS.

Holy/DK

Your DK partner can be either frost or UH, either way you'll have to watch out for him for almost the same stuff as if you played with a warrior partner, except that DKs are very resistant to magic damage. An unholy partner will prolong the fight, since damage is not as bursting as frost DK. If you play with UH, make sure your mana endures.

Pros: If your mana endures, the fight can prolong enough until your enemies are oom.

Cons: Both DK and you are easily CC.

Holy/feral:

This team comp is not the strongest but still if both are skilled it can take you past 2k rating in an average populated server. This comp is strong against mage teams, and provides good dispel since druids can remove curses. Still, the damage can be low if the target of your druid faces him. Your mana regen has to be really nice.

Pros: Effective against cloth teams.

Cons: Fights can last long. Warr teams are hard.

• What not to try:

The following Comp dont work, so dont even thing about it:

1. Holy/mage.
2. Holy/fury.
3. Holy/holy (lol).

• What spells you should use?

As of WotLK, you'll mostly be casting HS (holy shock) and instant FoL (flash of light). Keep one of you with beacon of light always and the target of dps with sacred shield. If DPS turns to you, apply sacred shield to yourself FIRST, then heal yourself. Try to avoid interrupts by using HS and instant FoL, you can also fake cast FoL. If a melee foe is attacking you, turn to face him, that way you'll be able to parry or block some of his attacks. In pvp most melee won't have any expertise, making your 5% parry a damage reduction of 5%.

If you see your mana is going down, use damage reduction skills such as Blessing of salvation (with 20% reduced damage glyph ofc), and pop your divine plea, unless a purging class is around, in such case you'll have to stun or any CC on him, then hide (los).

As for Cataclysm content, sacred shield is no more an absorb every 6 seconds, but a buff you get below 30% hp. Instead of FoL you'll be using Holy light, that's why you have the reduced cast time on it, and word of glory. Because of Protector of the Innocent, you'll have beacon of light on yourself, that way you'll get heals from talent and buff while healing your partner. Divine favor no longer reduces mana cost by half of all spells, its now a save-my-ass spell, so use it only when you're in trouble. If you feel overwhelmed by your foe's damage on you, go divine shield (watch out for mass dispel/shattering throw); if your partner is getting huge amount of melee damage, give him Hand of Protection, and heal him full. If the damage is spell, Hand of Protection wont reduce anything, instead use Avenging wrath, and heal.

• What buffs to use?

For you, kings. For your partner, kings too! approaching end gear, your stats will be high enough, no need to buff might to your partner. If you get purged at beginning of fight, just rebuff, if you have glyph of BOK.

• "My partner is getting buffs and damage at same time, heal or clense?"

Depending on the dps your partner is taking, you'll choose to heal, or cleanse. If you cant heal due to damage, pop defensive cooldowns, such as hand of sacrifice, and cleanse, or heal. I prefer to cleanse against certain specs such as shadow priests. Against envenom rogue, not letting him stack 5 deadly poison highly reduces its dps. The same is true for affliction warlock, you might avoid cleansing due to Unstable Affliction, who wants to get silenced 5 seconds? yea the first one is painful, but subsequent cleanses of UA will make the silence last fewer due to DR, until he either stops casting it, or you cleanse every dot he applies, which hampers affliction dps nearly totally. If your mana is going down due to so many cleanses, you can use divine plea while cleansing, since only your heals will be affected.

• How to gear up your Holy pala:

 Most holy palas stack +intellect(yellow) on yellow gems, +spell power(red) on red gems and +10int+5mp5(green) on blue gems. This works wonders, because your divine plea regens more by having +intellect. My choice is usually stacking +10int+5mp5(green) on yellow, because of purges on divine plea. The new cataclysm content replaces mp5 with spirit, and makes spell power come from intellect, the subsequent update of this would be stacking intellect, spirit and critical rating. Making the gem combination is up to your choice. Haste or crit? Crit, criting procs more stuff in your talents, in both WotLK content and cataclysm. As for stamina, its mostly dependent on your amount of resilience, and usually paladins aren't the target of DPS. In either way, neither your stamina or resilience should be low. In WotLK, the trinket that solves a lot of your survival problems is http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=50356 because it can be used when you're silenced.

So, that's all for this post. If you have any questions feel free to post them, and I'll answer them. Good luck in your arena games and see ya next post!