Paladin DPS (getting started)

How Devynity DPSes right now at level 74.

Lets start with the basics.
I have outland level 70 gear mainly with some northrend gear. my health isnt stellar, but almost hitting 10k health. After getting one-shotted by bosses in Ahn Kahet, i think having a little more health would help. shedding some of this outland gear (although it has served me well) will help to not only increase Devynity's dps, but also his survivability.
Most of my gemable gear are gemmed with strength. this gives me maximum output in terms of base damage. But this gear is also gear i've picked up from outland and are pretty much outdated.
Most of my gear are enchanted with +crit, +hit, and maybe some armor if there is nothing else.

So there isnt much else to say about my gear. it isnt the best. heck, i dont even have the basic quests in northrend to get the quest rewards for nexus, ahn kahet, azjol nerub, or drak tharon keep. although those instances do have decent drops for a paladin, it's not enough to fill out my gear. the rest will need to be quested to get, or crafted. i do not want to really switch out my gear tho. although i know i might be doing a lot more dps if i were to be using the spiked cobalt set instead of outland dungeon gear. we'll see. i might just do a makeover tonight. just for the hell of it. hello AH!!

in terms of dps, devynity is doing about 1k to 1.4k dps depending on instances. in AN, he's doing 1.4k dps. in Anh Kahet, he's doing 1k dps. the level difference could be the case, but i find that i should be doing Drak tharon keep and violet hold anyway at my level.

So anyway, gem str, enchant str, crit, hit. thats it for gear.


So when i actually go out into battle, what exactly will i be doing?

1. I always start off with Judgement. Judgement of Wisdom, in the case of 5mans.... since really, no one really needs healing from my Judgement of Light, my only concern here is that i have enough mana. I have the two judgements on toggle, so if another pally continues to judge wisdom, i will switch over to light. Even though my judgement will return mana, and my first attack (if i am full on on mana) will waste my mana return for that judgement. it is ok though. in 8 seconds i will be judging again and will get more than enough mana back to continue to ass kicking. however, if mana is key, you can always start off with a divine storm and crusader strike, then judge to get your mana back.
Assumption: you have talented for Judgement of the Wise.

2. I follow up my judgements with my other attacks. i usually hit crusader strike and divine storm next. if there's a lot of mobs or if it's a boss that will last a while, i would consecrate as well. i would continue to get a crusader strike off while waiting for my judgement to refresh. when i see the big hammer animation, i know that divine storm (and possibly consecrate) will be ready for use in 2 seconds. and the whole time i am spamming crusader strike. it seems that crusader strike is the oddball when it comes to damage rotations. its on a shorter cooldown than the other abilities. making it the button i spam.

3. Procs: when Art of war procs, i hit exorcism. thats it. sometimes i may use flash of light on people, but for the most part, i will use exorcism when art of war procs. this is instant, so it doesnt break my rotation much.
The other proc is the hammer of wrath proc. when a mob hits 15% health, we can use that spell. it never misses, so thats one great thing about it. it deals a big chunk of damage and can be talented to crit more. those are the only two real procs i look out for. which is enough for me, if you ask me.

4. Special cases. if there's a caster that's far away enough for me to CC, i will CC. i will, honestly.
if we are fighting undeads, expect me to use holy wrath in my rotation as well.

Paladin-centric Battle Buffs:
Auras:
Use retribution aura unless the tank is a bit squishy. then use devotion.
If i am in a fight with lots of fire, i'd use fire resist aura. same for shadow and whatnot. it all depends on the fight. but for most trash pulls, i'll use retribution aura.

Blessings:
I use blessing of kings always. why? because its annoying when warrior's battle shout override my blessing of might. that's basically it. besides, kings rock. do not rely on blessing of wisdom to help you with your mana regen. you should have plenty of regen elsewhere.

Seals:
I've talented in seal of command. i use seal of command. do not use seal of wisdom or any other non-dps seal. there's just way too many ways to regain mana at this level its ridiculous. using seal of wisdom usually means you're bad at managing mana with what the game has given you. same goes for blessing of wisdom. dont do it. dont use seal of light, justice, etc. use corruption on bosses and command on trash pulls. always. why? more dps i guarantee. and lets not forget to mention epeen means everything. so top those meters. everyone has a meter. they lie if they say they dont.

Judgements:
Use any. most will use Judgement of Wisdom because it returns mana. You should already have the replenishment effect on you from all judgements. Why i think Wisdom>Light is because the healers should have zero problems keeping the 5man group up. face it, at level 74, no one cares about replenishment either. so what really does matter here is what you think will benefit you the most. you will get healed by healers if they dont suck. but you will not be given free mana by anyone else unless a druid feels generous about his innervate. use judgement of wisdom and let the healers do the healing. besides, divine storm does some healing. if you run with a bear, you get healed every 8 seconds due to crits. why i also think wisdom>light is because they do the exact same damage to the mobs. its the secondary effects that we're after.

Thats basically the gist of paladin dps. i hope this helps others. ask questions if you want, i'll answer them. there's a lot more that goes into paladin play, but this is the basics. questions? comment me.