My 5x Paladin Guide

[Ualaa]

Disclaimer: I'm using IS Boxer for my software and am not sure how much of this can be converted for use with another software.



In anticipation of playing Retribution Paladins, as a Mists of Pandaria team, I've decided to level them up.

They're currently playing as Shock'adins (Caster DPS spec, primarily using Holy Shock and Exorcism).
I'll likely keep this as an off-spec come MoP.




Holy Section
I really like the Healing of the Paladin on the 1x Holy Paladin & 4x Frost Death Knight team ( My 4x Frost DK / Paladin Setup - Based on DK Manifesto ).
So I decided to go for a "toggle", which can move the Pallies individually between Shock'adin and Healer mode.



The Toggle is made up of several pieces.

Spam Mapped Key
Hot Key: 1
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > FTL Assist Me > Current Window
- Do Mapped Key > DPS Mode > All Windows
- Do Mapped Key > Heal Mode > All Windows
- Do Mapped Key > Rebuke > Current Window
I have a single spam key, for both sides of the toggle; the spam key does the assist and Rebuke which is the equivalent of the DK's: Mind Freeze.

DPS Mode
Hot Key: None Set
Advanced: Reset to Step 1... 2.0 seconds after last press.
Step One
- Keystroke Action > Keybind One > Current Window
Step Two
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Two > Current Window
I want to always open with an Exorcism, hence the reset.

Heal Mode
Hot Key: None
Advanced: Option Checked, 'Do not load this Mapped Key when the Key Map is loaded'.
Step One
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Three > Current Window
Step Two
- Keystroke Action > Keybind Four > Current Window
This mapped key is not loaded by default, so there won't be conflicts with the spam key attempting to call both DPS Mode and Heals Mode.

Rebuke
Hot Key: None
- Keystroke Action > Rebuke Keybind > All Windows.
---- Do Not Advance (checked), For At Least 2.0 seconds (checked), and Trigger Only Once (not checked).
---- Round-robin within selected Target (checked)
This mapped key will spam (once per click) in one window for 2 seconds, then the next window spams; Rebuke is off of the GCD, so will not impact our other spells/abilities in any way, but until the DK's Mind Freeze this is melee range only.

Toggle to DPS
Hot Key: Control + Right Click (Mouse Two)
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > Round Robin Toggle DPS > All Windows
---- Check: Round Robin within target group.
We cannot round robin Mapped Key State Actions, but can round robin Do Mapped Key Actions.

Toggle to Heals
Hot Key: Control + Left Click (Mouse One)
Step One
- Do Mapped Key > Round Robin Toggle Healer > All Windows
---- Check: Round Robin within target group.
We cannot round robin Mapped Key State Actions, but can round robin Do Mapped Key Actions.

Round Robin Toggle DPS
Hot Key: None
Step One
- DPS Mode > On > Current Window
- Heals Mode > Off > Current Window
- WoW Macro Action > 'Clear Focus' in 'IS Boxer Macros' > Current Window
This is done with: Key Map Actions > New Mapped Key State Action.


Round Robin Toggle Healer
Hot Key: None
Step One
- DPS Mode > Off > Current Window
- Heals Mode > On > Current Window
- Wow Macro Action > 'Focus' in 'IS Boxer Macros' > Current Window
This is done with: Key Map Actions > New Mapped Key State Action.

To create the IS Boxer macros, I did:
a) Expand the Game Helpers, in the top left pane.
b) Left click on World of Warcraft, under Game Helpers still in the top left pane.
c) Right click on Macro Sets, under World of Warcraft in the lower left pane.
d) Created a new Macro Set, and named it IS Boxer Macros.
e) Left clicked on IS Boxer Macros (lower left pane) and checked my Character Set (lower right pane) and the Toon's on this team (lower right pane).
f) Right clicked on IS Boxer Macros (lower left pane), and selected New WoW Macro (did this twice, since I have two macros).
---- i) Named the first, 'Focus', gave it a unique key combination and the command: /focus [target=mouseover]
---- ii) Named the second, 'Clear Focus', gave it a unique key combination and the command: /clearfocus

Within the game, I created a Repeater Region which I placed over my Grid Frame.
This is set to broadcast to an Action Target Group, which includes the entire team.




In Practice:
Everyone starts in the DPS Mode (because this is loaded at startup, while Heal Mode is not).
When I spam my "1" key, everyone assists the main window and alternates between keybinds "1" and "2" within Warcraft.
I have my two step macro there; it needs refining but is functional for leveling up.

Macro on Keybind 1
#show
/castsequence Exorcism, Exorcism
/cast Holy Shock

Macro on Keybind 2
#show
/castsequence reset=5 Judgement, Null

When I (Control + Left Click) on any Grid Frame, the toggle occurs.
The first character on the team turns off DPS Mode and turns on Heals Mode.
They also set focus to whichever character corresponds to the Grid Frame which my mouse is over (on the current window).
So when I continue to spam my "1" key, this character now heals their focus with these two macros (credit for which goes to Mosg2, from the original DK Manifesto):

Macro on Keybind 3
#show
/castsequence [@focus,exists,nodead] Flash of Light, Flash of Light
/cast Holy Shock

Macro on Keybind 4
#show
/castsequence [@focus,exists,nodead] Holy Shock, Holy Shock, Holy Shock, Word of Glory

If I (Control + Left Click) on another (or the same) Grid Frame, the next character will enter Heals Mode.
The same process occurs as above.
I can have multiple Paladins healing the same target, or I could have all five healing different targets.

The reverse toggle is triggered by (Control + Right Click).
The relative ordering is the same, meaning whichever toon first entered Healing Mode will be the first toon to cancel Healing Mode and return to DPS Mode.
Their focus is cleared, and they receive keybinds "1" and "2" as a result of my spamming the Hot Key: 1.

[Ualaa]

Reserve 2 of 4.

[Ualaa]

Reserve 3 of 4.

[Ualaa]

Reserve 4.
(Last Reserve).

[Tim]

Reserving my love for Ualaa and his guide <3

Do you think you could go into all the pros/cons of how the team is now pre-MoP and the strategy behind the team, and then what you anticipate it would be in MoP?

[Ualaa]

Haven't really done much here, except how I toggle between the two modes (Heals vs DPS), while in Holy spec.

I have some specials on round-robin, others that everyone uses.
Will add glyphs, talents, enchants, etc.
Tactics.

Try to come close to the Pally/DK's guide.




I'm leveling up as Holy (Shockadin) because the whole Holy Power mechanic absolutely blows in the current expansion for a Ret Paladin.

A solo Shockadin cannot kill a solo <any class>, they don't have the DPS. They also have the least AoE ability out of every class/spec in the game.
With five of them, you can kill mobs or other players fairly well, although literally anything else would do the job faster.

The strength is that they're a fairly decent healer, with a lot of survival potential or in other words are rather hard to kill.
And in larger scale BG's, they'll make it very difficult to take out their teammates.

In MoP... The Holy build will still do that.
Not sure on how well; haven't really seen anything that looks amazing for my Pally on the DK/Pally team, but haven't seen anything that will wreck the composition from a healer point of view either.

However, the Ret stuff... that looks to be very good, and is a primary motivation for leveling this team now.