Paladin Seals and Judgement in WoW Classic: Full Guide

◆How seals and Judgement work

Every seal lasts 30 seconds, and only one can be active on the paladin: a new seal replaces the old one. Judgement is learned at level 4, has a 10 yard range, costs 6% of base mana and has a 10 second cooldown. When cast, Judgement consumes your current seal and transfers its effect to the enemy, either as instant damage or as a 10 second debuff.

An important 1.12.1 detail: a target can only carry one Judgement from each paladin. Your melee strikes refresh the duration of that debuff, so a melee paladin can keep it up almost indefinitely. The Improved Judgement talent in the Retribution tree cuts the cooldown by 1 second per point, down to 8 seconds with two points. The Benediction talent lowers the cost of seals and Judgement by 3% per point. For the complete list of class spells see the paladin abilities page.

◆All paladin seals in Vanilla

Seal of Righteousness

The starting seal, available from level 1. It adds Holy damage to every swing, and slower weapons get more damage per hit. Judgement of Righteousness is plain instant damage that is handy to use on cooldown while leveling.

Seal of the Crusader

The main raid support seal. The seal itself makes you attack 40% faster but lowers the damage of each swing, so it is rarely kept up for auto attacks. Its value lies in Judgement of the Crusader: the target takes additional Holy damage, which boosts every paladin in the raid. The Improved Seal of the Crusader talent increases both the attack power bonus and the debuff.

Seal of Justice

Gives a chance to stun the target for 2 seconds, and Judgement of Justice prevents the enemy from fleeing. Useful against humanoids that run away at low health and in PvP.

Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom

Both seals are raid batteries. Judgement of Light gives attackers of the target a chance to be healed, and Judgement of Wisdom gives a chance to restore mana with attacks and spells. They are usually applied by a healing or tanking paladin, then maintained by melee strikes or a fresh Judgement.

Seal of Command

A third tier talent in the Retribution tree. It gives a chance to deal extra Holy damage equal to 70% of weapon damage and works best with a slow two-handed weapon. Judgement of Command deals Holy damage, doubled against a stunned or incapacitated target, which makes it a great combo with Hammer of Justice.

Seal rotations by specialization

Retribution

The classic pattern for Retribution: cast Seal of the Crusader and Judge to apply the debuff, then cast Seal of Command and keep swinging. When Judgement comes off cooldown you can spend it on Command damage and immediately reapply the seal. If the raid already has a paladin assigned to the Crusader debuff, keep only your damage seal. Step by step priorities are covered in the paladin rotation guide.

Holy

A healer from the Holy paladin guide rarely melees, so the seal job is to apply Judgement of Wisdom or Light on the boss as assigned by the raid leader and refresh it in time without spending too much mana.

Protection

For a Protection paladin tank, Seal of Righteousness provides steady Holy damage, and Holy damage under Righteous Fury generates increased threat. Judgement of Wisdom or Light on the target helps the group recover resources in long fights.

See paladin talent builds for point distribution, and paladin macros for convenient seal swapping buttons.

◆Related materials

• Paladin guide
• Paladin leveling
• Paladin rotation
• Paladin abilities
• Raid group setup

Ready to test your seals in combat? Create an account, connect to the WoW x5 server and build your paladin in the 1.12.1 world of Azeroth.