! Holy Paladin
!! Talents
!!! Required
These talents are required to flourish as a Holy Paladin. The main goal of these talents is to increase your healing.
!!!! Holy
* *Healing Light* - 3 points - Increases your healing by 12%. It also increases the damage of Holy Shock by the same amount.
* *Divine Intellect* - 5 points - Increases your intellect by 10%.
* *Illumination* - 5 points - This restores 30% of the mana cost of any heal that crits.
* *Divine Favor* - 1 point - This spell has a 2 minute cooldown that causes your next healing spell to be a guaranteed crit.
* *Sanctified Light* - 3 points - Increases the critical strike chance of Holy Light and Holy Shock by 6%.
* *Holy Power* - 5 points - Increases the critical strike chance of all holy spells by 5%.
* *Light's Grace* - 3 points - Every time you cast holy light, it will reduce the cast time of your next holy light spell cast within 15 seconds by 0.5 seconds. This is useful when you have to chain cast holy light, it helps pump the heals out faster.
* *Holy Shock* - 1 point - An instant cast heal. Remember to train higher ranks.
* *Holy Guidance* - 5 points - Increases your spell power by 20% of your total intellect.
* *Divine Illumination* - 1 point - This spell has a 3 minute cooldown that reduces the mana cost of all of your spells by 50% for 15 seconds.
* *Judgements of the Pure* - 5 points - Whenever you judge a target, your haste is increased by 15%. It also increases the damage done by your seals and judgements by 25%.
* *Infusion of Light* - 2 points - This effect procs whenever your holy shock crits, either as a heal or as a damage spell. You can use this proc with either flash of light or holy light. If you use flash of light, it will be instant cast. If you use holy light, it will increase your critical strike chance by 20% for that spell. Also, this talent allows you to use flash of light on a target that has sacred shield to give them a HoT that heals for 100% of the flash of light you just cast over 12 seconds.
* *Beacon of Light* - 1 point - Put this spell on a target to allow them to receive the same healing you do to other targets within a 60 yard range of them. Note they must be in line of sight of you to receive the healing. Remember to train higher ranks.
!!!! Protection
* *Divinity* - 5 points - Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects on you by 5%.
!!!! Retribution
* *Benediction* - 5 points - Reduces the mana cost of all instant cast spells by 10%.
* *Conviction* - 5 points - Increases the critical strike chance of all spells and attacks by 5%.
This gives an initial talent tree of [url:40/5/10|http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/paladin/talents.html?tal=003500500000130531005152015000000000000000000000000005000050000000000000000000]. However, you cannot actually build a spec like this, because each Tier requires you put in a certain amount of points into the tree. You must assign 11 points in Holy and 5 points in Retribution in order to make this work.
!!! Fillers
!!!! Holy
You must spend 5 points on talents in Tier 1, 2 more points on talents between Tiers 1 and 4, 1 more point on talents between Tiers 1 and 5, 1 more point on talents between Tiers 1 and 7, and 2 more point on talents between Tiers 1 and 10. Here's a breakdown of those talents.
!!!!! Tier 1
* *Spiritual Focus* - 5 points - Reduces pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting flash of light and holy light by 14-70%.
* *Seals of the Pure* - 5 points - Increases the damage done by certain seals and their judgement effects by 15%.
Spiritual Focus is the clear winner here. A Holy Paladin's main responsibility is healing, not doing damage.
!!!!! Tiers 2 through 5
* *Unyielding Faith* - 2 points - Reduces the duration of all Fear and Disorient effects by 15-30%.
* *Aura Mastery* - 1 point - This spell has a 2 minute cooldown that causes your Concentration Aura to make all affected targets immune to silence and interrupt, while improving the effect of all other auras by 100% for 10 seconds.
* *Improved Lay on Hands* - 2 points - Lay on hands will now also give a 25-50% armor bonus for 15 seconds, and its cooldown is also reduced by 2-4 minutes.
* *Improved Concentration Aura* - 3 points - Increases the effect of Concentration Aura by 5-15%, also reducing the duration of silence and interrupt effects by 10-30%.
* *Improved Blessing of Wisdom* - 2 points - Increases the effect of Blessing of Wisdom by 10-20%.
* *Blessed Hands* - 2 points - Reduces the mana cost of Hands of Freedom, Sacrifice, and Salvation by 15-30%, increases the effect of Hand of Salvation by 50-100%, and increases the effect of Hand of Sacrifice by 5-10%.
* *Pure of Heart* - 2 points - Reduces the duration of Curse and Disease effects by 15%.
Let's start off with what we don't want. Pure of Heart is a waste because any curses and diseases that are going to cause serious problems are going to be decursed or cleansed off.
After that, it's really up to the individual paladin to select their talents. I personally choose Aura Mastery and Improved Blessing of Wisdom.
!!!!! Tiers 6 and 7
* *Purifying Power* - 2 points - Reduces the mana cost of cleans, purify, and consecration by 5-10%, and reduces the cooldown of exorcism and holy wrath by 17-33%.
* *Blessed Life* - 3 points - All attacks against you have a 4-12% chance to cause half damage.
Blessed Life isn't really viable since you're a healer. As a general rule, you shouldn't be taking damage that's going to kill you, and if you do the chance the damage is halved is abysmally low.
With only one point available, you can choose to use it on Purifying Power or on any of the talents in the previous tiers. I personally put a point in Purifying Power to reduce the cost of cleanse, as I tend to cleanse a lot in raids.
!!!!! Tiers 8 through 10
* *Sacred Cleansing* - 3 points - Gives your cleanse target a 10-30% chance to have 30% increased resistance to disease, magic, and poison for 10 seconds.
* *Enlightened Judgements* - 2 points - Increase the range of judgements of light and wisdom by 15-30 yards and increases your chance to hit by 2-4%.
I simply find Enlightened Judgements too useful to pass up. Increasing the range means you can hit pretty much anything within your field of healing, and the extra hit chance helps land the spell, especially on bosses.
!!!! Retribution
!!!!! Tiers 1 and 2
* *Deflection* - 5 points - Increases your parry chance by 1-5%.
* *Improved Judgements* - 2 points - Decreases the cooldown of your judgement spells by 1-2 seconds.
* *Heart of the Crusader* - 3 points - A debuff caused by judgements that causes the target to be 1-3% more likely to be crit by attackers. It lasts as long as your judgement does.
* *Improved Blessing of Might* - 2 points - Increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 12-25%.
Deflection is pointless, as you're not a tank and shouldn't need to parry. I don't think Improved Judgements is useful either as a healer, because the effect of your judgements last 20 seconds, which is more than twice as long as your judgement cooldown.
Heart of the Crusader is a great buff to provide your raid members. You're judging anyway because of Judgements of the Pure, why not give your raid a bonus? Also, Improved Blessing of Might is an excellent utility talent for your raid as well.
!!! Summary
Because of all of the required talents, holy paladins pretty much have to always be at 51/5/15. [url:Here|http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/paladin/talents.html?tal=503501500200131531005152215000000000000000000000000005032050000000000000000000] is the spec that I use.
Some Paladins may be inclined to dump 3 points from Divinity into Sanctity of Battle. However, be warned that adding a percentage bonus to your healing will usually outweigh adding percentage to your critical strike percent. Use a theorycrafting tool such as [url:Rawr|http://rawr.codeplex.com] to determine which spec is best, but bear in mind usually it's going to be 51/5/15 and not 51/2/18. In my case, 5/5 Divinity and no Sanctity of Battle gives 50% more of a bonus to total healing for me than 2/5 Divinity and 3/3 Sanctity of Battle.
!! Gemming
There are several methods to gemming as a holy paladin. *Almost always, you are going to want to match your sockets.*
No matter how you gem, you'll always want to use the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond for your meta slot, which grants 21 intellect and a chance for 600 mana every time you cast.
!!! MP5
New healers may wish to strive for gemming for Mana Per 5.
* Red: Royal Dreadstone (12 spell power, 5 mp5)
* Yellow: Dazzling Eye of Zul (10 intellect, 5 mp5)
* Blue: Lustrous Majestic Zircon (10 mp5)
!!! Spell Power
For the biggest heals, maximize your spell power.
* Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby (23 spell power)
* Yellow: Luminous Ametrine (10 intellect, 12 spell power)
* Blue: Royal Dreadstone (12 spell power, 5 mp5)
!!! Intellect
For large mana pools and lots of crit, maximize intellect.
* Red: Luminous Ametrine (12 spell power, 10 intellect)
* Yellow: Brilliant King's Amber (20 intellect)
* Blue: Dazzling Eye of Zul (10 intellect, 5 mp5)
!!! Haste
For maximum throughput, you will want to bring haste to the soft cap (676 rating) and then gem anything further for spell power.
* Red: Reckless Ametrine (12 spell power, 10 haste)
* Yellow: Quick King's Amber (20 haste)
* Blue: Energized Eye of Zul (10 haste, 5 mp5)
Note that the haste soft cap assumes the 15% haste from Judgments of the Pure, the 3% haste from Improved Moonkin Form or Swift Retribution, and the 5% haste from Wrath of Air Totem.
!! Glyphs
!!! Major Glyphs
* Glyph of Holy Light - Grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 8 yards of the initial target.
* Glyph of Flash of Light - Grants an additional 5% crit chance.
* Glyph of Seal of Wisdom - While Seal of Wisdom is active, the cost of healing spells are reduced by 5% mana.
* Glyph of Seal of Light - While Seal of Light is active, the effect of healing spells is increased by 5%.
* Glyph of Divinity - Lay on Hands grants double the mana, and grants the same mana to yourself as it did the target.
* Glyph of Holy Shock - Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second.
I really find the Divinity and Holy Shock glyphs to be mostly useless. On the other hand, Holy Light and Flash of Light glyphs are almost a necessity, especially if you spam one or the other. You should definitely take a Seal glyph, though your choice depends on whether you like larger healers or more mana. I personally choose Wisdom because Seal of Wisdom is overpowered by itself as it is. Plus, the overhealing I do makes Seal of Light less attractive, because the extra 5% is usually just going to contribute to even more overhealing.
!!! Minor Glyphs
* Glyph of Lay on Hands - Reduces the cooldown of Lay on Hands by 5 minutes.
* Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom - Increases the duration of Blessing of Wisdom by 20 minutes on yourself.
* Glyph of the Wise - Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom by 50%.
* Glyph of Blessing of Kings - Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings by 50%.
* Glyph of Blessing of Might - Increases the duration of Blessing of Might by 20 minutes on yourself.
* Glyph of Sense Undead - Damage against undead increased by 1% while Sense Undead is active.
Sense Undead and Blessing of Might glyphs are rather useless as you shouldn't be dealing damage. The other four are pretty much up to preference. I use Blessing of Wisdom, Wise, and Blessing of Kings glyphs, but don't overlook the Lay on Hands glyph if you're running low on mana a lot.
!! Healing Spells
Paladins are provided with 5 healing spells:
* Flash of Light - A quick 1.5 second cast that doesn't heal much but is low on mana.
* Holy Light - A long 2.5 second cast that heals for a lot but also costs a lot of mana.
* Holy Shock - An instant cast heal that heals for a bit more than Flash of Light at a significantly higher mana cost.
* Beacon of Light - A very high mana cost spell, but allows you to heal two people at the same time.
* Sacred Shield - A nice low cost utility spell that, in addition to providing the target with a way to absorb damage, allows you to place a HoT on that target using Flash of Light.
Here are some general rules for healing as a holy paladin.
* Always have Beacon of Light up on the tank you are healing. Don't worry if there are other paladins in the raid because these can stack.
* Always have Sacred Shield up on someone important, preferably the tank you are healing. This doesn't stack, so be aware of Sacred Shields cast by other Paladins.
* Always have Judgements of the Pure proc'd. The 15% haste is a big deal.
* Only use Flash of Light on the tank, and only if they have a Sacred Shield. This is only to apply the HoT, and that's the only reason you should ever have to directly heal the tank. If you have Beacon of Light up on him, you're wasting heals. Help out the raid healers and heal someone who isn't topped off.
There are several methods to healing as a Holy Paladin:
* Holy Light spam - Holy light is the most mana efficient spell when it comes to how many points of mana you've used vs. how many points of health you've healed for. As a holy light spammer, you must remember that you have a limited mana pool. You don't really spam holy light, you only cast it when it is needed, conserving mana by not casting when it is not needed. It's also a good idea to use Flash of Light every so often to refresh the HoT on your sacred shield target. This requires high critical strike rating and lots of patience.
* Flash of Light spam - The opposite of holy light spam, this uses the quickest spell. You save mana in the long run because you're not throwing out the big, costly heals. But you're not healing for much, either. However, unlike holy light spam, you actually ARE spamming flash of light. To be most effective, you should have high spell power and high haste.
* A balanced attack - With this method, the paladin heals as needed. When the damage is light, flash of light is cast. When it's heavy, holy light is cast. Holy shock is thrown in to quickly recover health for someone who is low enough to be one shot, affording you or another healer time to top them off without having to worry about whether they're about to die or not. For this method, you need to have a lot of attention to detail, because you're going to be watching health bars a lot closer with this method than with others, which can affect your ability to GTFO of the fire. A high crit rate can't hurt either, as critical holy shocks give you instant cast flash of lights.
!! Utility spells
Most of these spells aren't particularly related to healing, but can have their uses both in raids and while questing alone.
!!! Auras
* *Devotion Aura* - Increases the armor of other raid members within 30 yards. Normally holy paladins don't have to worry about this if a protection paladin is present, but in the event that there is no protection paladin, you may have to use this.
* *Retribution Aura* - Causes holy damage to anything that strikes raid members within 30 yards.
* *Concentration Aura* - Gives raid members within 30 yards a 35% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged.
* *Shadow Resistance Aura* - Increases shadow resistance on all targets within 30 yards. Doesn't stack with a priest's shadow resistance buff.
* *Frost Resistance Aura* - Increases frost resistance on all targets within 30 yards.
* *Fire Resistance Aura* - Increases fire resistance on all targets within 30 yards. Useful in raids with people who don't know how to GTFO. :)
* *Crusader Aura* - Increases mount speed. Useless in raids.
!!! Blessings
Blessings come in two flavors, normal and greater. The normal blessings work on one target for 10 minutes, while the greater blessings work on all raid members of one class.
* *Blessing of Might* - Increases the attack power of the target.
* *Blessing of Wisdom* - Increases the target's MP5.
* *Blessing of Kings* - Increases stats by 10%.
!!! Seals
* *Seal of Righteousness* - Does extra damage to your target. Not really useful for holy paladins.
* *Seal of Justice* - Gives a chance to stun the target for 2 seconds.
* *Seal of Light* - Gives a chance to heal yourself by using melee attacks.
* *Seal of Wisdom* - Gives a chance to restore mana to yourself by using melee attacks. Don't underestimate the power of this spell, the amount of mana it gives back is significant for holy paladins.
* *Seal of Vengeance* - Applies the Holy Vengeance damage over time debuff to the target, and stacks up to 5 times. Not real useful for holy paladins.
!!! Judgements
You cannot use judgements without an active seal. In addition to the effect below, you do an amount of holy damage depending on the seal you're using.
* *Judgement of Light* - Debuffs the target, allowing for melee attackers a chance to gain health with each melee swing.
* *Judgement of Wisdom* - Debuffs the target, allowing for all attackers a chance to gain mana with each attack.
* *Judgement of Justice* - Debuffs the target, preventing them from fleeing and slowing their movement speed.
!!! Bubbles
All bubbles except Divine Intervention cause Forebearance, preventing that target from being bubbled again for 2 minutes.
* *Divine Protection* - Also known as the "Half Bubble" or "Bubble Wall", this reduces incoming damage by 50% for 12 seconds.
* *Hand of Protection* - Shields the target from physical attacks for 6 seconds, but prevents that target from attacking. Useful for getting rid of some bleed effects.
* *Divine Intervention* - Kills yourself and bubbles your target, removing them from combat for 3 minutes. Useful on a wipe, as it saves repair bills for yourself and your target (assuming your target can get away).
* *Divine Shield* - The true bubble. Completely protects you from all damage and spells for 12 seconds, but reduces damage you do by 50%. There are exceptions to this, but they are few, far in between, and make sense for the encounters.
!!! Cleansing
Typically you want to use Cleanse, as it does more than Purify for the same mana cost.
* *Purify* - Removes 1 disease and 1 poison effect from the target.
* *Cleanse* - Removes 1 poison, 1 disease, and 1 magic effect from the target.
!!! Hands
Only one hand may be on a target at one time. Note this includes Hand of Protection.
* *Hand of Reckoning* - Taunts the target and then does damage to it.
* *Hand of Sacrifice* - Transfers 30% of the damage your target takes to you for 12 seconds, or until you've received damage equal to 100% of your health.
* *Hand of Freedom* - Removes all snares from the target for 10 seconds.
* *Hand of Salvation* - Reduces the target's threat by 2% each second for 10 seconds. Very useful on aggro monkeys!
!!! Other
* *Hammer of Justice* - Interrupts NPCs and stuns the target for 6 seconds. Not really useful in raids as it has a one minute cooldown, but can be used to interrupt something important in the event no one else is available.
* *Lay on Hands* - The ultimate "oh crap" button, healing the target for an amount equal to your maximum health and restores some mana to the target. This is on a long cooldown.
* *Redemption* - Resurrects a dead party member out of combat.
* *Righteous Defense* - Taunts up to 3 enemies attacking your target. Shouldn't be used much, as holy paladins aren't tanks.
* *Righteous Fury* - Increases threat by 90%. Holy paladins almost never have a use for this.
* *Exorcism* - 1.5 second cast that causes holy damage to the target, automatically criting if it's undead or a demon.
* *Sense Undead* - Shows the location of nearby undead on the minimap.
* *Consecration* - Does holy damage over time for 8 seconds to enemies standing in the consecrated area. This can be useful on trash, but be careful with it, you don't want to pull threat.
* *Turn Undead* - Fears an undead or demon.
* *Hammer of Wrath* - Throw a hammer at an enemy if they are under 20% health. It's hammer time!
* *Holy Wrath* - Causes holy damage all undead and demon within 20 yards and stuns them for 3 seconds.
* *Avenging Wrath* - Increases all damage and healing by 20% for 20 seconds. Can't use this within 30 seconds of all bubbles except Divine Intervention.
* *Divine Plea* - A meditation-like spell, giving you 25% of your mana over 15 seconds, but reducing your healing by 50%.
* *Shield of Righteousness* - A single target shield attack, causing damage based on your block value.
!! Tricks
Running low on mana? If there's not a whole lot of damage going around and it's safe to be in melee range of the boss, you may want to consider firing up Seal of Wisdom and whacking the boss a few times. You'll be amazed with how quickly your mana regenerates, and I believe it to be one of the most overpowered abilities a Holy Paladin has.
If you can't get near the boss but still need some mana, consider Divine Plea. This will give you 25% of your mana back over 15 seconds, which in most cases is over 5,000 mana. The problem is your healing drops by 50%, so you may want to speak up and ask for other healers to cover you for a short period of time. This is also a nice spell to cast in between phases on bosses that take a long time to transition from one phase to the next, such as Thaddius, Mimiron, or Northrend Beasts.
Tanks have a lot of "oh crap" buttons that they press when things get dicey. As a Holy Paladin, you can make one too with this macro:
{{
/cast Divine Illumination
/cast Avenging Wrath
/cast Divine Favor
/use (trinket 1)
/use (trinket 2)
/cast Holy Light (OR) Holy Shock
}} I use Holy Light in this macro, but if you use Holy Shock for a true "oh crap" feeling, you will proc Infusion of Light and your next Flash of Light spell will be instant cast, allowing you to recover your target's health rapidly in the span of a single global cooldown.
!! Addons
* [url:PallyPower|http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/pally-power.aspx] - This allows for a raid to assign paladin blessings and auras easily and quickly.
* [url:BOLT|http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/bolt-beacon-light-timer.aspx] - This allows you to see how much time is left on your Beacon of Light, Sacred Shield, and Judgements of the Pure effects, giving a sound warning when they are about to run out.
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! Holy Paladin
This is not fully up to date. What follows is a quick primer on what you need as of 4.3.
!! Stats
Intellect > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Critical Strike (Mastery surpassed critical strike a couple patches ago)
!! More information
I wrote this up at level 80 when the Shattering hit. Most of it still applies.
[url:http://www.six-minutes.com/Forums/thread.aspx?ThreadID=2283]
Judge to keep your haste buff up (and until 4.3 hits, judge every cooldown if possible to keep mana up), holy radiance for good group heals, and don't forget to holy shock every cooldown for a holy power charge.
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