The guide below (scroll down) is up to date for WoW 4.3 and includes PvE and PvE info for the Holy Paladin. Eventually it will be removed entirely and redirected to the newer pages.
Please see the following pages for the most up to date info:
Paladin overview - General info for all Paladins, including some Mists of Pandaria info.
In Wrath of the Lich King the Holy Paladin was pretty much a single
target healer, if you wanted to heal whole groups/raids at a time you
would need to look elsewhere.
With 4.0 the Holy Pally has gotten some serious buffage. How long
will that last? Who knows?
With Cataclysm, the Devs have stated: "You should feel more comfortable
having a paladin heal the raid and a druid heal the tank than most
groups typically do now. "
Nerfage and the Buff
With the release of WoW 4.0 class balance is bouncing all over the
place and it may take some time for things to settle down. Therefore
we won't play the "Flavor fo the Moment" game, instead we'll
concentrate on solid numbers. As things settle down we may add more
detail. Raiding in Cataclysm should be a very different game that Wrath
of the Lich King.
New Spells:
Lev 62: Divine Light - A large heal that heals a friendly target
for 8538.19 to 9512.95. Good for periods of heavy damage.
30% of base mana, 40 yd range, 3 sec cast
Lev 81: Inquisition - Consumes all Holy Power to increase your
Holy Damage by 30%. Lasts 4 sec per charge of Holy Power consumed.
/ 1 Mana, Instant cast
Lev 83: Holy Radiance - Heals all friendly targets within 10
yards for 612.78 every sec. Lasts 10 sec. / 40% of base mana, Instant
cast, 1 min cooldown. Diminishing effectiveness on larger groups
and greater distance.
Lev 85: Guardian of Ancient Kings -
The effect varies with your spec, for Holy:
Holy Shock : Summons a Guardian
of Ancient Kings to protect you for 30 sec. While active,
your next 5 heals will cause the Guardian to heal the same target
for the amount healed by your heal, and friendly targets within
10 yards of the target for 10% of the amount healed.
Other changes to the Holy Pally
Intellect now also increases how
hard each heal hits in addition to its previous benefits. Consider
Int to be the new Spellpower. The same is true for all casters.
Beacon
of Light has been changed. The heal effectiveness
has been cut by 50% but it now lasts 5 minutes.
Divine
Favor has been revamped. It now increases
spell casting haste and crit by 20% for 20 seconds.
Divine Sacrifice, Divine
Illumination, and Sacred Cleansing have
been removed from the game.
Race Choice for the Holy Paladin
Ignoring profession skills and such, which racials are useful for
the holy Pally? Not in any particular order:
Dwarf - Stoneform washes bleeds and other effects and reduces damage
by 10%
Human - Every Man for Himself is a PvP trinket. Their increased
Spirit is probably too small to notice.
Tauren - the War Stomp stuns nearby enemies and might have use when
your personal space is infested with Rogues.
Draenei - Gift of the Naru might have very situational use
for certain "out of mana" times. The +1 to hit chance is useful if
you're attacking raid bosses.
Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent silences all
enemies within 8 years and returns 6% of your mana, which has definite
use. This is probably the only generally useful Holy Paladin racial
ability.
Holy Paladin Talents
Like all specifications for all the classes, once you've pikcked Holy
as your build you are locked into that spec until you have spent 31
points in it. After that you can move out.
These are the abilities you get for choosing Holy (Mastery is trainable
at level 80:)
Holy Shock: Damages an enemy or heals an ally. Generates a charge
of Holy Power. This is what you'll will generally use to power your
Word of Glory "finisher."
Meditation: Allows 50% of your mana regeneration from Spirit
to continue while in combat.
Walk in the Light: Increases the effectiveness of your healing
spells by 10%.
Mastery:
Illuminated Healing: Your healing spells also place
an absorb shield on your target for 10% of the amount healed lasting
8 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an addtional
1.25%.
Protector of the Innocent - Rank 3/3 -
Casting a targeted heal on any target, except yourself, also heals
you for
2605 to 2997
.
Judgements of the Pure - Rank 3/3 -
Your Judgement increases your casting and melee haste by 9% for
1 min.
Clarity of Purpose - Rank 3/3 -
Reduces the casting time of your Holy Light and Divine Light
spells by 1 sec.
Last Word - Rank 1/2 -
Gives your Word of Glory a 30% increased critical chance when
used on targets with 35% or less health.
Divine Favor - Rank 1/1 -
Increases your spell casting haste by 20% and spell critical
chance by 20% for 20 sec.
Infusion of Light - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Shock by 10%.
In addition, your Holy Shock critical effects reduce the cast
time of your next Holy Light or Divine Light by 1.50 sec.
Daybreak - Rank 2/2 -
Your Flash of Light, Holy Light and Divine Light have a 20% chance
to make your next Holy Shock not trigger a cooldown if used within
12 sec.
Enlightened Judgements - Rank 2/2 -
Grants hit rating equal to 100% of any Spirit gained from items
or effects, and increases the range of your Judgement by 10 yards.
In addition, your Judgement instantly heals you for
2481 to 2853
.
Beacon of Light - Rank 1/1 -
The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all members of your party
or raid within a 60 yard radius. Each heal you cast on party or
raid members will also heal the Beacon for 50% of the amount healed.
Only one target can be the Beacon of Light at a time. Lasts 5 min.
Speed of Light - Rank 3/3 -
Grants 3% spell haste and reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance
by 30 sec. Casting Holy Radiance increases your movement speed
by 60% for 4 sec.
Sacred Cleansing - Rank 1/1 -
Your Cleanse spell now also dispels 1 Magic effect.
Conviction - Rank 3/3 -
Gives you a 3% bonus to damage and healing for 15 sec after causing
a critical effect from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This
effect stacks up to 3 times.
Aura Mastery - Rank 1/1 -
Causes your Concentration Aura to make all affected targets immune
to Silence and Interrupt effects and improve the effect of all
other auras by 100%. Lasts 6 sec.
Paragon of Virtue - Rank
2/2 -
Reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection by 20 sec, Hand of
Sacrifice by 30 sec and Avenging Wrath by 60 sec.
Tower of Radiance - Rank 3/3 -
Healing the target of your Beacon of Light with Flash of Light
or Divine Light has a 100% chance to generate a charge of Holy
Power.
Blessed Life - Rank 1/2 -
You have a 50% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power whenever you
take direct damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every
8 seconds.
Light of Dawn - Rank 1/1 -
Consumes all Holy Power to send a wave of healing energy before
you, healing up to 5 of the most injured targets in your party
or raid within a 30 yard frontal cone for
606 to 674
per charge of Holy Power.
Protection (3 Points)
Divinity - Rank 3/3
Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects on you by
6%.
Retribution (5 Points)
Crusade - Rank 3/3 -
Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous,
and Templar's Verdict by 30%, and the damage and healing of your
Holy Shock by 30%. In addition, for 15 sec after you kill an enemy
that yields experience or honor, your next Holy Light heals for
an additional 300%.
Improved Judgement - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the range of your Judgement by 20 yards.
Glyphs
Glyph of Seal of Insight (Prime Glyph) -
While Seal of Insight is active, the effect of your healing spells
is increased by 5%.
Glyph of Divine Favor (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the duration of Divine Favor by 10 sec.
Glyph of Holy Shock (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the critical effect chance of Holy Shock by 5%.
Glyph of Divinity (Major Glyph) -
When you use Lay on Hands, you also gain 10% of your maximum mana.
Glyph of Light of Dawn (Major Glyph) -
Light of Dawn can affect 1 additional target.
Glyph of Lay on Hands (Major Glyph) -
Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 3 min.
Glyph of Insight (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of Seal of Insight by 50%.
Glyph of Blessing of Might (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%.
Glyph of Blessing of Kings (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings by 50%.
Protector of the Innocent - Rank 3/3 -
Casting a targeted heal on any target, except yourself, also heals
you for
2605 to 2997
.
Judgements of the Pure - Rank 3/3 -
Your Judgement increases your casting and melee haste by 9% for
1 min.
Clarity of Purpose - Rank 3/3 -
Reduces the casting time of your Holy Light and Divine Light
spells by 1 sec.
Last Word - Rank 2/2 -
Gives your Word of Glory a 60% increased critical chance when
used on targets with 35% or less health.
Divine Favor - Rank 1/1 -
Increases your spell casting haste by 20% and spell critical
chance by 20% for 20 sec.
Infusion of Light - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Shock by 10%.
In addition, your Holy Shock critical effects reduce the cast
time of your next Holy Light or Divine Light by 1.50 sec.
Daybreak - Rank 2/2 -
Your Flash of Light, Holy Light and Divine Light have a 20% chance
to make your next Holy Shock not trigger a cooldown if used within
12 sec.
Enlightened Judgements - Rank 1/2 -
Grants hit rating equal to 50% of any Spirit gained from items
or effects, and increases the range of your Judgement by 5 yards.
In addition, your Judgement instantly heals you for
1241 to 1427
.
Beacon of Light - Rank 1/1 -
The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all members of your party
or raid within a 60 yard radius. Each heal you cast on party or
raid members will also heal the Beacon for 50% of the amount healed.
Only one target can be the Beacon of Light at a time. Lasts 5 min.
Speed of Light - Rank 3/3 -
Grants 3% spell haste and reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance
by 30 sec. Casting Holy Radiance increases your movement speed
by 60% for 4 sec.
Sacred Cleansing - Rank 1/1 -
Your Cleanse spell now also dispels 1 Magic effect.
Conviction - Rank 2/3 -
Gives you a 2% bonus to damage and healing for 15 sec after causing
a critical effect from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This
effect stacks up to 3 times.
Aura Mastery - Rank 1/1 -
Causes your Concentration Aura to make all affected targets immune
to Silence and Interrupt effects and improve the effect of all
other auras by 100%. Lasts 6 sec.
Paragon of Virtue - Rank 2/2 -
Reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection by 20 sec, Hand of Sacrifice
by 30 sec and Avenging Wrath by 60 sec.
Tower of Radiance - Rank 3/3 -
Healing the target of your Beacon of Light with Flash of Light
or Divine Light has a 100% chance to generate a charge of Holy
Power.
Blessed Life - Rank 1/2 -
You have a 50% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power whenever you
take direct damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every
8 seconds.
Protection (5 Points)
Divinity - Rank 3/3 -
Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects on you
by 6%.
Eternal Glory - Rank 2/2 -
Your Word of Glory has a 30% chance not to consume Holy Power.
Retribution (5 Points)
Crusade - Rank 3/3 -
Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous,
and Templar's Verdict by 30%, and the damage and healing of your
Holy Shock by 30%. In addition, for 15 sec after you kill an enemy
that yields experience or honor, your next Holy Light heals for
an additional 300%.
Improved Judgement - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the range of your Judgement by 20 yards.
Glyphs
Glyph of Word of Glory (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the healing done by Word of Glory by 10%.
Glyph of Holy Shock (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the critical effect chance of Holy Shock by 5%.
Glyph of Seal of Insight (Prime Glyph) -
While Seal of Insight is active, the effect of your healing spells
is increased by 5%.
Glyph of Divine Plea (Major Glyph) -
Your Divine Plea provides an additional 6% of your total mana.
Glyph of Cleansing (Major Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse by 20%.
Glyph of Turn Evil (Major Glyph) -
Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%, but increases
the cooldown by 8 sec.
Glyph of Blessing of Kings (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings by 50%.
Glyph of Blessing of Might (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%.
Holy Paladin Leveling
As a Holy Paladin you will likely to find grinding or questing a
painful way to level. Not because you'll be in any danger of dying,
but that it will take a while to kill things. This is why many Paladins
level as Retribution, or even Protection, and then switch to Holy at
the end game.
At 30 you can can get the dual build ability from your trainer for
some trivial amount of gold and then level as Ret while dungeoning
as Holy.
Grouping for dungeons, through the dungeon finder tool, can be a fast
way to level if you don't mind seeing the same dungeon a few times.
Wait times for healers are also somewhat shorter than for DPS.
PvP leveling can result in a lot of fast XP if your side wins. As
a healer you will be in demand and it should be easy to find a pocket
warrior or rogue to keep alive and kill things for you.
See our Paladin leveling guide for leveling builds and tips. If you
want to cruise quickly by questing through the world of Azeroth then
check out Zygor's guide.
Holy Paladin Stats, Numbers, and Gear in Cataclysm
What's the Value of Your Stats?
In part it depends on how you play, your gear level, and what kind
of fight you're in. For example, if you don't raid you need less hit
raiting than if you do. More or less in order of importance:
Intelligence is the #1 stat for the Holy Paladins,
by far. Gemming and enchants should be for Int wherever possible.
Int adds to mana pool, spellpower, crit chance, and some mana replenishment.
Your Plate Specialization
abiliity and your Blessings
of Kings both
increase this stat.
Spellpower increases the effect of your heals, but
is only available on some trinkets and from a few enchants.
Haste reduces cooldown times and allows for more
healing. It will also run you out of mana just that much faster.
Spell crit does not return extra mana and is not
as useful as the above, due to the small amount of extra healing
from crits and that very few talents depend on it.
Mastery provides a shield to the target in addition
to the heals, but not all of your abilities produce that shield.
It's value seems to be roughly that of spell crit.
Spirit is important for mana regeneration, and
Meditation allows 50% of your mana regen from Spirit to
continue while in combat. Enlightened Judgements grants
hit rating equal to 100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
Increased Int increases the amount of mana regenerated as well. You
will only need 5% hit for the part of PvP where you are actually
attacking players and up to 17% in raids if you are casting spells
at the boss.
Resilience for PvP only. A very valuable stat. The
less damage you and your teammates take the less you have to heal.
Strength and Agility are pretty much useless for
you.
Reforging - For PvP the weaker stats should be reforged
to Spirit for the extra mana regen. For PvE Haste might be the better
choice.
Gems
Meta
Ember
Shadowspirit Diamond - 54 Int and 2% max mana, requires
at least two yellow gems and is probably the best overall pick.
Insightful
Earthsiege Diamond - 21 Int and a chance to restore mana on
spellcast, requires 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue gem
How to Heal as Holy, what to use and why. This is a pretty nice video
for the beginner. The music will get a bit loud inbetween the parts
where he's talkling.
In this video the author goes over the talents he uses along with
the "why he took them" remarks. There's also some pretty good stuff
of mana management.
1-85 Paladin Leveling Guide
Many playeres level as Retribution or Protection, then switch
to Holy for Dungeons or the end-game. While dungeoning is a fast
way to level one gets tired of seeing the same dungeon over and
over again, so people do a lot of questing with a few dungeons
or some other mixing of the two.
For questing, the fastest way to go is to go with an in-game
leveling guide, like Zygor's
Guide. Much like having a skilled partner
helping you out every step of the way Zygors will show you
where to go, what to do, what to get, track everything, and
show you the best order in which to do all that stuff. With
the ginormous number of mobs and quests in WoW having a leveling
guide to show you the way will save lots of time as you blast
to 85. Heck, you might find
yourself never looking at your quest log again.
One really nifty feature is that if you get ahead of the guide
then it will skip quests and catch up to you. If you do dungeons
of PvP for a couple of levels then it will still catch up with
you. Sweet.
Fully updated for WoW 4 and Cataclysm, Zygor's will
get you where you want to go as quickly as possible. Check it
out (and grab your copy) here.
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