Coming to a Summoning Stone Near You

They’re everywhere you go. Blood Elf Paladins with spiffy long blonde hair and matching golden spell animations, hammer and judgements raining down while they hack at mobs with a sword. Often leveling in pairs (dare I say, couples?) with names like Holyswordboy and Holyswordgirl. They’re all Ret. And they’re everywhere you turn.

If the population of Blood Elf Paladins has not overtaken the population of Human Paladins I’ll be amazed.

So let’s check it out. Here are some statistics for you:

At level 80, across all realms, there are just shy of 350 thousand Paladins. 43% are Blood Elfs and 38% are Human. On my server, Barthilas, 45% are Blood Elfs.

At level 80, across all realms, 40% of Paladins are Retribution, 33% are Holy and 27% are Protection. At least that seems a little more balanced.

What would my friend Maria (a Holy Paladin who leveled as Holy, raided as Holy and did daily quests as Holy) say if she returned to WoW and saw this mass of Ret Paladins?

Born Again Ret

If you’ve never seen it, I recommend watching Born Again Ret about a Holy Paladin that goes Ret, and doesn’t want to go back. Great for a laugh.

Food for Thought

Remember, Arthas was a (Ret) Paladin at first. And look how that turned out.

Data Sources
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=-1&factionid=-1&minlevel=80&maxlevel=80&servertypeid=-1
http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/paladintalents/

Note: I’ve ignored characters still leveling because talents chosen while leveling most likely do not indicate a player’s preference when they reach max level.