Redundant spellsFollow

Levelling up my Paladin (currently 31) I've been looking through the spells and there seem to be a few which confuse me.

Devine Shield - After we get this, why do we still need Devine Protection?

Why do we get Turn Evil as well as Turn Undead?

More to the point: once you get Divine Shield, there is no longer any reason to be using Divine Protection. They are essentially the exact same spell except you can attack (at a reduced rate without talents) while under Divine Shield. They share the same CD, so once you get Shield, remove Protection for ever.

Same with Turn Undead and Turn Evil: once you have Turn Evil, there is no reason to use Turn Undead. It's essentially the same spell, just with an additional effect.

Lastly, you didn't mention this one, but the same applies to Purify. Once you get Cleanse there is no reason to use Purify.

Thanks guys!

I'm curious why they didn't just use ranks of the same spell, oh well, it won't bother me once I remove it from my bars.

Rate ups all round.

I had honestly never thought of that Tommy, so yes, there are few occasions to use it :)

No he said it right. Purify only removes disease and poison, so if you cast it, you don't have to worry about removing Unstable Affliction which is magic.

Judging by the other reactions in this thread, I'm at least encouraged that I'm not the only one who didn't know this. :)

I had Purify sitting on some obscure bar for easily 6 months without any use on the odd chance that "maybe I won't want to dispell a magic effect with a poison" until I finally got around to getting rid of it. Like Maulgak, I don't PvP and it really falls into that "Redundant Spells" category for me.

Turn Evil was recently changed in 2.4. The highest rank of Turn Undead had the extra Demon effect added to it and the one rank was renamed. Divine Shield is not just a longer version of Divine Protection -- it allows you to continue attacking (though at a much slower speed untalented). Same deal with Purify/Cleanse. They are a new spell because they add new (not just more powerful) effects. The other way to achieve this is to add talents that modify them, but all of these abilities wouldn't be base-line if they did.

I have heard that it depends on the order in which abilities were stacked on you, though I am unclear if it's first on-last off, first on-first off, or whatever. Regardless of whether or not that is how it works, no you can't choose the debuff that is removed.

Debuffs (and buffs in the case of dispel/purge) are removed in the order that they were placed in starting with the last one applied. So if you had gotten Earth Shield as your first buff and Water Breathing as your second, Water Breathing would be dispelled first (this is a handy pvp tip). If you were to recieve Corruption as your first DoT followed by Curse of Agony and finished with Unstable Affliction, UA would be dispelled first, followed by CoA, and finally Corruption would go. Hope this helps!

Really glad someone asked this. I have been wondering about these spells for a while but was embarrassed to ask ^^

I shall now free up a little space by promptly removing Turn Undead and Divine Protection.

Thank you!