Holy Paladin
“ Sorry for copy/pasting this article to my blog. It’s just to damn good not to 
”
The Burning Crusade and beyond, by Zyuu
A well played Paladin is a great addition to any raiding guild or small group, PVP-wise too. With this guide I will try to
cover how to play your paladin to the best of its abilities. I will not cover any off-specs such as Retribution and
Protection, only Holy.
This guide will cover the basics of healing to the more advanced ways — level 70 only. It’s also primarily meant for
Paladins that raid. I’ll go into details about how to react in certain situations PVE-wise. Talent-specs and information
regarding most spells that a paladin has will be covered as well. Important to understand is that this guide covers how I
play a paladin and it’s purely PVE. I don’t offer five-to-ten different ways to play a Paladin, but instead I show you how
I play. And I believe it’s the best way to do it.
Talent Builds
In reality, there is only really one build that I believe in when it come to PVE. This can be argued about endlessly, but I
firmly believe in going as heavily into Holy as possible, without sacrificing the necessary talents from the Protection
tree. Some feel that putting more points into Protection gives them a more viable role in both PVP and PVE — that’s true,
but what I’m aiming for is the most optimal build for PVE.
Holy: 50, Protection: 11
Break down of this talent build (which I now name Best Paladin Healing Build).
Holy Tree
* Divine Intellect 5/5 — No brainer, it’s a must. Obviously you do not want more strength over intellect.
* Spiritual Focus — Another no brainer, great talent.
* Healing Light 3/3 — 12% more healed by your healing spells, yet another no brainer.
* Aura Mastery 1/1 — You will want your aura’s to reach as far as possible. Great during Illidan Phase 2 for example.
* Improved Lay on Hands 2/2 — Some will instantly jump the bandwagon when they see this and say ‘but… it’s not that
great, it has a long CD!’ or ‘other paladins can have it’. Let’s be serious here. It’s an incredible nice talent, it reduce
the CD of this life saving ability by 20 minutes and it also give the target 30% extra armor bonus for its duration, at the
end of the day this is a no brainer choice too. For pure PVE obviously. And this is what I’m covering right now. No
tri-spec’s or “multi-spec’s”, call it whatever you want, really.
* Unyielding Faith 2/2 — Typical PVE and PVP talent. 10% extra chance to resist fears and disorient effects are
obviously situational. But that goes for a lot of things, and in the end it all adds up! This talent is great and a must
for any paladin that want to perform and survive at the same time.
* Illumination 5/5 — This is the core of a Paladin’s mana regeneration. We all know it, no further explanation is
needed, except that, later I will cover how you will want to balance crit/mp5 and +healing.
* Improved Blessing of Wisdom 2/2 — Every paladin should have this. Don’t be cheap. It helps the guild a lot overall if
all paladins spec into this, since you can’t always depends on just one person. The benefits of more mana regeneration are
obvious. What I want to stress is that it’s well worthwhile to have this, especially since I’m hoping you do more than just
raid. In all situations having this talent; is a great thing. Don’t leave Silvermoon or whatever city you’re from, without
it.
* Pure of Heart 3/3 — 15% resistance to Curse and Disease effects is great. Especially since we can’t even remove curse
effects, so this effectively gives us a 15% chance to not get something on us that we can’t remove, unless we bubble or
have a consumable. My view is that a Paladin is a class with great survivability, and the few weaknesses we have is those
we should try to fix. By getting this talent, you reduce one of our largest weaknesses by 15%. Yes please. Great for PVE,
less cleansing needed for disease effects and 15% less worrying to get that mage or druid to decurse you.
* Divine Favor 1/1 — Excellent talent which I use all the time. No need to explain it. Who doesn’t want a guaranteed
critical strike?
* Sanctified Light 3/3 — 6% more crit on Holy Light is very powerful. Don’t think twice. Get it.
* Holy Power 5/5 — Another crit talent, this time 5% on all holy spells, very powerful. Don’t even think. Get.
* Light’s Grace 3/3 — In order to keep up with other classes and reducing your overhealing, you will want this talent.
It helps you land those slow casting Holy Lights. Can also pre-heal with a low rank to get the buff effect.
* Holy Shock 1/1 — Instant heal (or damage). Do I need to say more? Okay, it rocks. It’s sexy and you will want it.
* Blessed Life 3/3 — I realize some will argue this as not that necessary, but I digress. Having another survivability
talent is a great thing. Especially if you compare with what else you could get for these 3 points. Not to mention you’re
already so deep into the Holy Tree. It’s truly a no brainer, those of you that think twice, just don’t really understand
it. I’ll lay it out: “All attacks have a 10% chance to cause half damage”. That’s insane for survival. Especially if you
end up unlucky and have to tank several mob’s that hit very fast, this talent can turn the tide for you and at the end of
the day (or fight) you’re still alive. It’s also one of our key talents for survival in PVP. Really, think about it – you
play a Paladin and not a Priest here, we’re a Plate Healing Class with powerful talents that make us survive like no other
healers, of course we want to take advantage of it! Get it.
* Holy Guidance 5/5 — More +healing and spell power is always welcome. Powerful talent.
* Divine Illumination 1/1 — This talent is great and very powerful if used right. It really helps our overall mana
usage.
Protection Tree
* Improved Devotion Aura 5/5 — Having your party (and the tank) take less overall damage is a great thing, besides, we
already have a lot of survivability talents from the Holy Tree, so the other option; Redoubt isn’t as good. Not to mention
IDA gives us survivability as well. We’re a support class.
* Guardian’s Favor 2/2 — Core talent. Shorter cooldown on Blessing of Protection and longer duration on Blessing of
Freedom is a must.
* Toughness 3/5 — More armor. Filler talent so we can get the next one with the one point we have to spare.
* Blessing of Kings 1/1 — Our best buff. Every paladin should have this.
Further Explanation
The build I just outlined is a build I call “Best Paladin Healing Build”. It’s based around gear that balance mp5/crit but
with the focus on +healing. Basically, you need to take a look at your gear and decide what makes the most sense to get.
This isn’t always an easy thing; it’s something that comes with experience. People often ask me why I don’t have only pure
+healing gems for instance. My answer is that I believe in a balance of all stats. For instance, you need a certain amount
of crit to make Illumination as useful as possible. It heavily affects your overall mana regeneration and how long you’ll
last in fights and certain situations. My general rule is that you shouldn’t have to hold back, ever. You should be able to
keep chain (no pun intended Shamans) healing all the time, without having to go out of mana till the fight is over.
My paladin has around:
* +2500 Healing
* 25% Crit chance on Holy spells
* 205 MP5
I feel this is fairly close to being the optimal Paladin balance of stats. There are a few minor upgrades I could get, but
the core idea remains the same. I’ll get to gear later. To break it down more: you really want to balance Healing/Crit and
Mp5. It’s important to understand how and in what way, though. You should prioritize them in this way:
* Healing
* Critical
* MP5
However, there’s the delicate balance I’ve mentioned previously. To reach it is something you must ‘feel’ with your
character. Based on how well you do in fights. The golden rule is that you should never have to hold back, if you have to,
then your gear is lacking a lot or you simply haven’t balanced the stats the right way. Many paladins think that getting
lots of +healing is the way to go. But they don’t realize how wrong they are. Down-ranking (I will cover it a bit more
later; I do use it sometimes) is a thing of the past in 95% of the situations, since as long you have the mana at the end
of the fight and still have used max rank of your spells, then down-ranking is pretty pointless yes? Yes. Exactly, so if
you balance Mana Regeneration per 5 second with Critical Spell Chance (Illumination goodness) together with sufficient
+healing you end up with a very powerful healing (holy) Paladin.
You want your Flash of Light to heal sufficiently. If they can’t keep up very well on trash for instance, or they don’t top
off your party fast enough, that’s a first indication that your +healing is lacking. If you feel you don’t crit enough to
get your Illumination goodness to kick in, that’s a sign that you want more critical chance on spells. Also, obviously, mp5
is the overall mana-regen that is ‘passive’ (per say). You want some of this too. But remember, it’s the third thing you
want to think of. Let me make an example: Girdle of Hope.
This item looks pretty bad when you see it like that, but it has two sockets. Now, the initial thought that hit many is, oh
neat… I’ll get 2x +healing gems! But, why should you? It’s a belt with high +healing, crit chance to spells and good stats
already. What it lacks is mp5. Remember, balance. So the logical and best solution is obviously to socket it with 2x 4mp5 —
giving it a total of 8mp5. Now it’s all of the sudden a better belt than the Karazhan Paladin belt, Girdle of Truth. It has
more mp5 and more +healing, more stats and also Critical to Spells. If you had socketed it with +healing, it would have had
more +healing yes, but if you follow this path, you will quickly find that you stand there with too much +heal and you lack
in the other stats. It’s all about balance. Also, just to make it clear, I only wear plate items. I’m no cloth/mail
Paladin. I suggest you aim for plate items as well. Obviously, this isn’t always possible — but we’re a class that can wear
plate armor — so we should really take advantage of it.
Another example is Crown of Empowered Fate. I chose this head item over the Lightbringer Greathelm because of the extra
Critical Strike. At the time of this decision, I was lacking a bit in Crit and I still feel it’s a good choice. It’s not
that big of a difference, sure. But as always, things add up. And you can really tell a difference if you balance your
stats instead of just being ‘careless’ and focus on only one stat — trying to think you’re all smart. Think out of the box
instead!
Finally, we have +healing. I choose to put 3x +22 healing gems in my Lightbringer Chestpiece to find the perfect balance
between the three core stats. I use the epic gem with +healing and Mp5 in the rest. Again, you might ask “why” — and again
I answer you: matter of balance. If you regen more mana, you can simply heal more and not hold back. Chances are that you
overheal a lot anyway, so having way too high +healing is a bad thing. And yes, you will go out of mana, if you’re not
close to out of mana often, it simply means that you don’t heal enough and you hold back; sad times. This is a fact. I’ve
seen it many times in raids. There are always people who will need healing. I feel that the gem that has +11 healing and
2MP5 is quite powerful. So it’s a great balance for the stats I want to have.
Gear Breakdown
I will go into Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6 gear. The new Badge of Justice items will not be covered. I might do that in a
future article.
Tier 4
* Boots of Valiance – Maiden of Virtue (Karazhan)
* Bracers of Justice – Moroes (Karazhan)
* Breastplate of the Lightbinder – Terestian Illhoof (Karazhan)
* Emberspur Talisman – Nightbane (Karazhan)
* Girdle of Truth – Netherspite (Karazhan)
* Helm of the Fallen Champion – Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)
* Gloves of the Fallen Champion – The Curator (Karazhan)
* Libram of Souls Redeemed – Opera Event (Karazhan)
* Legplates of the Innocent – Chess Event (Karazhan)
* Pauldrons of the Justice-Seeker – Shade of Aran (Karazhan)
* Ribbon of Sacrifice – Opera Event (Karazhan)
* Shard of the Virtuous – Maiden of Virtue (Karazhan)
* Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted – Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)
* Triptych Shield of the Ancients – Chess Event (Karazhan)
* Jade Ring of the Everliving – Prince Malchezaar (Karazhan)
* Scarab of the Infinite Cycle – Aenous (Black Morass)
Tier 5
Mainly you will want to do a lot of Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep. Acquiring the full Crystalforge Raiment will
take quite some time. It also depends on the way your guild distribute items of course. The best tier 5 mace you can obtain
is from Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Cavern, Lightfathom Scepter. The ring listed below is from Zul’Aman. Pretty interesting
that a 10-man zone have such high quality gear. Also as you notice, the libram from Karazhan still haven’t been replaced.
Neither have the belt or trinkets.
After you’ve spent quite some time in both Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep, your gear should look something like
this:
* Crystalforge Raiment – Various bosses (Serpentshrine Cavern & Tempest Keep)
* Lightfathom Scepter – Lady Vashj (Serpentshrine Cavern)
* Lord Sanguinar’s Claim – Kael’thas Sunstrider (Tempest Keep)
* Sunshower Light Cloak – Kael’thas Sunstrider (Tempest Keep)
* Girdle of Truth – Netherspite (Karazhan)
* Libram of Souls Redeemed – Opera Event (Karazhan)
* Ribbon of Sacrifice – Opera Event (Karazhan)
* Scarab of the Infinite Cycle – Aenous (Black Morass)
* Signet of the Quiet Forest – Zul’Aman
Tier 6
Well, this will most likely take the longest, depending on where you are in the game right now and your guild. But, Tier 6
gear use to be exclusively in Black Temple and Hyjal Summit. However, with Patch 2.4 — you will be able to buy Tier 6
quality items with Badge of Justice. Also, Sunwell Plateau have items superior to Tier 6 gear. Let’s call it Tier 6.5. I
will list the most optimal tier 6 gear in my opinion. Usually it’s a no brainer, but it also depends what you’re able to
obtain. Anyway, the most optimal gear is listed below. Rave or rant all you want about it. Interesting to note is that
there’s new Tier 6 boots available with Patch 2.4. I pick Shroud of the Highborne due to it’s spell haste. Spell haste is a
lot more useful after the changes in 2.4. Same goes for the Dawnsteel Bracers. The rest is pretty much nothing to discuss
about.
* Crown of Empowered Fate – Reliquary of Souls (Black Temple)
* Nadina’s Pendant of Purity – Mother Shahraz (Black Temple)
* Lightbringer Pauldrons – Mother Shahraz (Black Temple)
* Shroud of the Highborne – Illidan Stormrage (Black Temple)
* Lightbringer Chestpiece – Illidan Stormrage (Black Temple)
* Dawnsteel Bracers – Various monsters (Black Temple)
* Crystal Spire of Karabor – Illidan Stormrage (Black Temple)
* Felstone Bulwark – Supremus (Black Temple)
* Libram of Souls Redeemed – Opera Event (Karazhan)
* Lightbringer Gloves – Azgalor (Hyjal Summit)
* Girdle of Hope – Azgalor (Hyjal Summit)
* Lightbringer Leggings – Illidari Council (Black Temple)
* Lightbringer Treads
* Band of the Eternal Restorer – Restorer’s Covenant (Hyjal Summit)
* Blessed Band of Karabor – Various monsters (Black Temple)
* Memento of Tyrande – Illidan Stormrage (Black Temple)
* Ribbon of Sacrifice – Opera Event (Karazhan)
Macros
Blessing of Protection whisper macro. This macro will whisper the target you BoP. It’s great for several reasons. If you
accidentally (cough) BoP a tank, they will get a whisper and click it off faster. You will also notify other classes that
might think you’re lazy and never BoP. This is something that is very normal to hear. Sadly, most people in the raid
doesn’t have a clue. So by whispering them when they get BoP’d they will quickly learn to appreciate being saved. Obviously
it’s a great overall way to notify your target that they have been saved so they can take appropriate actions.
* /cast Blessing of Protection
/script SendChatMessage(”** BoP on you! **”, “WHISPER”, nil, UnitName(”target”))
Divine Intervention whisper macro. This macro is similar to the BoP macro and whispers the target you attempt to cast DI
on. Nothing special about it, but it’s nice to let the person know who DI’d them. Also, I would never ever bind DI to a
key, instead I mouseclick it. Accidentally DI’ing someone would be extremely silly.
* /cast Divine Intervention
/script SendChatMessage(”** DI on you! **”, “WHISPER”, nil, UnitName(”target”))
User Interface / AddOns
The User Interface do play a role on how effective a healer can be. Most healers have fairly complex and far developed user
interfaces. This is for a reason… you really need certain add-ons to perform better. It doesn’t have to do with the lack of
skill and thus add-ons help you appear better — just like a car will take you to a destination faster than by feet (as long
it’s not up a mountain), having certain add-ons will make you perform better as a healer. Those that say otherwise just
don’t know what they are talking about and are extremely ignorant and most likely don’t know how to setup a user interface
anyway.
Another thing you should think of is the placement of your raid and unit frames. This is quite vital to your reaction
times. Since the World of Warcraft default way is to have the unitframes to the left, most of you who read this article are
likely to have it there. It’s not optimal, though. Back in EverQuest it was more normal to keep the unit frames at the
middle/center bottom of the screen (including the target frame) for optimal reaction times. Your eyes tend to send the
signals to the brain faster if what you are focusing on exists in the middle/center of the screen. The difference hasn’t
been studied or anything like that, but it’s kind of obvious. If you want to experiment and are willing to try new things,
I would suggest to place your unitframes at the bottom/middle/center of the screen. Your eyes fixate at the center much
faster. As for your raid frames, have them nearby, perhaps very close to the left of your unit frames. It’s important to
not keep them too far away. Since your eyes have to fixate further that way and if you plan to (or already do) use Clique
for mouse click healing, it takes longer to move the cursor. Oh and if you prefer to just use one type of frames, for
example, Grid for both unit and raid frames, they can be placed in the bottom center stand alone. It’s a pretty good
solution, if not the best!
I use Clique and Grid for raid healing. Right mouse button when hovering over a target in Grid will cast Flash of Light.
Left mouse button casts Holy Light. Middle mouse button casts cleanse. Since I use a Razor Copperhead, I have several more
buttons, so button 4 is used for Blessing of Protection (although I also have BoP bound to 1, but sometimes it’s faster to
use it via Grid and vice versa). Mouse 5 casts rank 7 of Holy Light.
ag_Unitframes
This is an addon I recommend every healer to use. Alternative you can use Pitbull. It’s an addon that replace the default
unitframes (and that’s a dire need if you play a healer). It display a lot more information than the normal unitframes and
it’s a lot more customizable. You will react faster and better when to remove certain debuffs, it’s easier to spot who need
to get healed first and there’s plenty of other features that warrant replacing the default unitframes. Obviously
non-healers don’t care about this as much. Going into exact details as to why using ag_Unitframes or Pitbull instead of the
default uf’s would take quite some time. Trust me on this recommendation, though!
Aggro
This is a very simple addon that I’ve used since 2004. It puts a big red text in the middle of the screen when a hostile
target has you on their target. It says – AGGRO -. When they stop targeting you it will fade away. Very helpful to
preemptively react upon aggro. Saves your life a lot of times.
aUF_Banzai
Colors a healthbar in your unitframes (only works with ag_Unitframes) red when they/you have aggro. Very helpful in
assisting with who to heal. Makes it possible to plan ahead. Especially as a paladin, since we lack heal over time and
group healing spells.
aUF_Barfader
Another addon that only work with ag_Unitframes. It “fade” away hp and mana when it’s lost, instead of just disappearing in
chunks. Purely cosmetic, but I find it more relaxing to look at. And honestly, it’s possible to plan a bit better due to
how it fade down hp and mana. Might save life’s.
AutoBar
This addon is a must. Dynamic bars with buttons that automatically add potions, water, food and other items you specify
into a button for use. Does not use action slots.
Bartender 3
Addon that replace the normal actionbars. Highly customizable. Very nice to have, not a must, but makes it more tidy and
clean.
Big Brother
A raid addon that check who have what flasks on them, what buffs and consumables. Also tells you who break sheep’s and
more. I personally came up with the concept and idea of this addon. It’s great to see how far it have come now. I take no
credits for making it, just giving the idea of it.
BigWigs
Constantly updated Boss warnings addon. Gives you different warnings based on timers. Very helpful if new to certain
encounters.
Natur EnemyCastBar
Shows Debuffs (e.g. Sheep timers), Casts, Gains, Stuns, DoTs, BossTimers, Cooldown’s, Diminishing Returns by lovely colored
CastBars – Supports ‘target’ and ‘focus’. Recognizes unknown spell casts, stops and delays.
Clear Font
Replaces the default font with something much much better. A must have.
Clique
Clique is a simple GUI that lets you assign click-casting for any number of unit frames. Click casting allows you to define
the behavior the game takes when you click on a frame. This can be casting spells, running a macro, using an item, or
something as simple as changing targets or assisting a unit. I use this for click casting on my raid frames (Grid).
Closet Gnome
Must have if you have several sets of gear and don’t want to switch all items out manually. If you need to switch to Shadow
Resist gear, simply set up your profile with SR gear and then in one simple click Closet Gnome will change all your items.
Make sure you save a profile for your healing gear prior to that – so you can switch back just as fast. PVP profile, etc is
a nice way to use it as well.
Deuce Commander
A graphical interface for all Ace2 add-ons Much nicer then having to configure them with slash commands.
Grid
What can I say, one of the core add-ons that truly help you as a healer. Best raid frames period. Grid is a modular,
lightweight and screen-estate saving grid of party/raid unit frames. It takes quite awhile to configure it the way you’d
like it to be I bet. Don’t let that scare you away though!
NRT
Raid tracker addon. I came up with the concept and idea. My friend Rabbit developed it. It’s currently the best
raid/dkp/item tracking addon out there. Great to use if you’re the DKP officer or Guild Leader.
One Bag
Combines all bags into one window. Neat and tidy.
One Bank
Combines all bags in the bank into one window. Clean and tidy.
Pally Power
This addon assists you with buffing of your Blessings. A must have for every Paladin. Pally Power is an add-on that
provides an interactive and easy to use interface that allows you to control assignments of blessings for yourself and, if
you are a party leader or an assistant, for other paladins in your group or raid. Pally Power supports six blessings:
Blessing of Might, Wisdom, Salvation, Light, Kings and Sanctuary. You don’t need to be a paladin to control raid/party
blessings.
Prat
The entire focus of the Prat system is to add chat related functionality. There’s too much to list. Mouse scrolling
support, many ways to customize how things are displayed (colors), etc. Check it out.
Scrolling Combat Text
This is by far superior compared to the default SCT Blizzard has. Use it. Love it. Enjoy it.
Shut Up
This is an addon I use to turn on if I got way too many whispers and I didn’t feel like replying. What it does is simple,
it block every single whisper from everyone except people on your friendlist, in your party/raid and guild. It’s another
idea I came up with the idea and concept for. Rabbit coded it.
SimpleCombatLog
Revamps the combat log and makes it a lot more neat and tidy. Not much else to add.
Sw Stats
Is a damage/heal (and more) meter addon designed to be very customizable in what you want to see with a built-in Sync
channel that is running in the background. The design here is especially geared towards raid groups, but also has useful
info for soloers. (A few of my testers respecced after seeing the numbers). Want to know which healer in your raid healed
which target? Or want to know by whom your MT was healed and for how much? Want a pure damage list or heal list? Want to
know what the main school (fire, ice etc.) was that your raid made damage with, or was damaged by? Want to know what skills
that guy used? Want to know if that mob mainly did arcane or fire damage?
AND do you want a lot of this info synced IN-Fight ? you found SW Stats.
TinyTip/TinyTipExtras/TinyTipOptions
Revamps the tooltips. Very nice and customizable. Use it.
Witch Hunt
Spell alert addon. It’s sexy.
Consumables
Weapon oil: Brilliant Mana Oil (the old version, not the cheap new one)
Food: Blackened Sporefish
Elixir: Flask of Mighty Restoration
Enchantments and Gems
Head: Glyph of Renewal
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Faith
Chest: Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
Wrist: Enchant Bracer – Superior Healing
Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Major Healing
Legs: Golden Spellthread
Boots: Enchant Boots – Vitality
Shield: Enchant Shield – Intellect
Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Major Healing
As for gems. I previously mentioned you need to find a balance. I will break it down in detail though.
Royal Nightseye is the best Blue Gem by far. You might want to consider Luminous Noble Topaz if you need a certain bonus.
As for epic gems. Use Teardrop Crimson Spinel in red sockets. Royal Shadowsong Amethyst in blue. For yellow sockets use
Teardrop Crimson Spinel. Oh and use Mystical Skyfire Diamond as your meta gem.
Key and Mouse Bindings
I use the following key and mousebindings as outlined below. I’ve done a lot of testing and revamping until I got content.
Enjoy.
* Mouse 1 = Click targeting in normal mode. When hovering over Grid it cast Holy Light (max rank).
* Mouse 2 = Camera turning in normal mode. When hovering over Grid it cast Flash of Light (max rank)
* Middle Mouse = Cleanse in normal and Grid mode.
* Mouse 4 = Holy Light rank 5 in normal mode. Holy Light when hovering over Grid.
* Mouse 5 = Holy Light rank 7 in normal and Grid mode.
* Alt+1 = Divine Shield
* 1 = Holy Light (using the macro listed earlier in this article)
* Q = Divine Illumination
* 5 = Hammer of Justice
* E = Divine Favor
* Alt+3 = Lay on Hands
* 2 = Flash of Light
* Alt+2 = Holy Light
* 3 = Holy Shock
* Middle Mouse Button = Cleanse
* Alt+4 = Blessing of Sacrifice
* 6 = Blessing of Freedom
* Alt+7 = Mana tap
* 7 = Arcane Torrent
* Divine Intervention Macro doesn’t have a key binding assigned to it for safety measures. I click it.
* 0 = Resurrection
* 4 = Judgement
* Shift+3 = Judgement of Light
* Ctrl+1 = Judgement of Righteousness
* Shift+4 = Judgement of Wisdom
* Ctrl+2 =Judgement of Blood
* Shift+5 = Judgement of Justice
* T = Hammer of Wrath
* Y = Consecration
Playstyle and Combinations
This is where it gets hard to explain certain aspects. Not everyone are meant to be a healer. Or at least, an excellent
one. It takes a certain type of person to play a healer. You need to have a lot of patience and superb reaction times.
A couple of combinations I tend to use are: 2+3. This casts a Flash of Light on your target and right after a Holy Shock.
It’s basically two Flash of Lights in one. There’s another combination that is even stronger, E+2+3, this will critical
heal your target and then land an instant heal right after. Combine it in other ways, such as, E+Alt/2+Q+3+2, what this
will do is: land a critical holy light and then reduce the mana cost on all spells after that by 50%., then land a holy
shock, after that simply keep casting Flash of Light for almost no mana for the duration of divine illumination. Great for
fights such as Warlord Naj’entus that can get intensive or council. I like using combinations like that, Holy Shock is also
our only real instant heal that we have. Using it in combinations like that can save life’s. While it might seem very
obvious, not everyone think of it. Well now you will. Try to combine spells as much as possible. Be on top of your game.
Try to anticipate who will take damage and how much and when. That way you will be prepared and can plan better. This
depends a lot on the situation and takes practice.
Fights such as Morogrim Tidewalker and Warlord Naj’entus — you can pre-heal right as they are about to do their AOE. That
way you will have your party healed up by 20% already. Start a Holy Light (remember to use combinations as much as
possible) and heal up the class you anticipate will need the healing the most. There’s numerous of examples like this.
Illidan Phase 3 when he does his AOE etc, etc. Just use common sense and you will save life’s. easily.
Another thing that I do is tab targeting. It’s fast. I press tab to target the nearest hostile creature, then I press F to
assist it. I rince and repeat it and can press tab several times to cycle through hostile targets and F (assist) at any
time. This is very fast, actually the fastest way you can be on top of it when someone might need extra healing or Blessing
of Protection. Will take awhile to get used to if you haven’t played like this before.
If you know you’re about to cast a lot of heals or are in general fairly low on mana and already used a mana potion, time
in Divine Favor (critical strike; mana returned) and Divine Illumination to make it easier on your mana regeneration.
Again, this is a given to most, but not everyone and sometimes you forget to used it in a timely fashion. To forget is also
what put a good healer aside from an excellent one. By timing your abilities and using them in optimal situations you will
increase your performance overall. It’s a given.
As for using Mana Potions. Learn the fights, take the safe before the unsafe and use them like candy if you have to. You
should know how to anticipate your mana usage. So never wait too long with using your potions. If it’s progression raids or
an important fight, use your mana potion when you’re down the amount of mana a potion can restore for the first time. It’s
a great way to find out how intensive that fight (current) will turn out to be. After that, you can adapt. Potions aren’t
too expensive, don’t be cheap.
Learn how to cancel spells properly. Either hit ESC or jump/move. It depends on the situation. Hitting ESC is the optimal
solution, but sometimes in the heat of battle you might not be able to. It depends a lot on your keyboard, how you play,
where your hands/fingers are placed. Anyway, it’s another obvious thing that you must cancel heals when you realize it will
waste a lot of mana. However! Take the safe before the unsafe. Overhealing isn’t always a bad thing – rather overheal then
heal too little. It’s a thin line, but like I just said: you should overheal rather than heal too little. Just make sure to
manage your mana. Know your limits.
Learn how mob’s do burst damage and heal based on it. For example, in Illidan phase 2 when you get assigned to heal one of
the tanks tanking an elemental, I recommend to *never* stop casting your heals due to the insane burst damage they output.
It’s something you learn the hard way. Instead downrank Holy Light a bit. With 2500 healing I use rank 5 or 7 during that
phase. If your gear is lacking you should probably use rank 8 or 9. It’s mana intensive at times, so remember the
combinations I mentioned previously, just don’t cancel often during said phase, it’s terrible and will result in a dead
tank. Patchwerk is another good example about canceling heals. Depending on the way you’ve been assigned to heal, for
example: heal the tank up to full on each burst or constant stream of smaller heals to support the larger heals; you must
time it well. If you’re one of those that are on a tank that get burst damage from Patchwerk it’s all about timing. There’s
another thing which is a good example of how to use your bubble (Divine Shield) – during Reliquary of Souls Phase 3, when
the Shadow AOE stacks up high, simply use Divine Shield and continue healing whoever you’ve been assigned on. No need to
worry about keeping yourself up. This saves you some time – usually enough to stabilize the situation. Again, this might be
a given to most – but not to everyone. It’s better to use your spells more often than not. So don’t be afraid.
Also, know who to heal. Learn to prioritize, learn who to BoP and in time! Seriously, so many Paladins are slow on BoP’ing.
It might be due to the way you have key/mouse bindings setup or the fact that you don’t use tab targeting/assisting and/or
have no mouse button that cast BoP via Grid. Anyway, if any of those things apply to you, learn from this article. First of
all, look around you, take notice of where people stand. Learn where monsters path and what abilities they have. That way
you can anticipate if someone will need healing. Take advantage of the tab targeting and assisting, this way you will know
right away who to heal and/or BoP. It’s VERY fast. You can switch through many targets quick. Just get used to it. It’s
easy to tell if the tanks are being constantly healed that you can move onto other targets and raid heal instead. Just use
Grid. I tend to heal the raid at all times when the tanks doesn’t need my attention. Another tip I can give is to always
keep an eye on the rogue group. Rogues tend to take burst damage due to a lot of stupid aoe abilities. So watch them
carefully and be ready with that BoP. Same when there’s heavy AOEing having to be done, keep your eyes glued on your
Warlocks and Mage’s.
Thanks to Grid, you can keep a main tank or perhaps a Mage on your target while you continue to mouseclick/raid heal via
Grid. It’s a nice way to increase the healing power of the raid. Requires some multi-tasking, but, it’s really not that
hard. Be quick on Cleansing, Grid and your unit frames should show you debuffs right away. Learn what encounters/monsters
cast debuffs that you need to remove as soon as possible.
Learn to place yourself in a good way and adapt to moving closer to others. As I previously mentioned, you need to keep
track of where people are and adapt. Adapting is a very vital thing that make or break a healer (or a player in general).
This varies a lot depending on where you are, etc. But it doesn’t hurt to bring up. Remember this. Pay attention and be
ready to adapt to new situations and things should turn out okay. Oh and regarding canceling heals and choosing who to
heal, Grid will tell you when a target is getting healed, making it easier for you to chose another person. Reaction times
and paying attention are two of the most important factors that matter a lot when you play a healer. It’s worth to think
about. People will notice right away if a healer is away from their keyboard.
Raid healing overall = use Flash of Light max rank. It barely cost any mana as long your gear is decent and you should be
able to Grid/raid heal with it constantly.
Right after a nasty AOE have been cast and the raid is low HP = Holy Light max rank on vital targets that you anticipate
wont get heals right away. With the right gear and spell haste you will land your spells quickly. Especially having the
Meta Gem that give you a chance to half the cast time on your spells.
Remember that people whine a lot about healing. If you know you did all you could and a wipe still occurred – do not accept
whine and make things very, very clear. It’s a common thing that people rarely show appreciation to healers and only tend
to talk about them if there’s a wipe.
The End
I hope this guide inspired and taught you some new things on how to play a Paladin and a healer in general. I’ve tried my
best to summarize my experiences and knowledge of the Paladin class and healing overall. It’s based on years of experience
in World of Warcraft and prior experience in EverQuest and Lineage 2 where I also played a healer. I’m well aware that
there’s things I haven’t covered, but, the guide got long enough as it is. I might make another guide in the future that
include parts that didn’t make it this time. Us Paladins might have been nerfed over and over in The Burning Crusade – but
we still live on. One (giant) step at a time.
This entry was posted on March 10, 2008 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Holy Paladin, WoW Character, World of Warcraft. You
can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7 Responses to “Holy Paladin”
1. eWreckers Says:
March 13, 2008 at 11:13 am
All you “WoW”sers are just playing around 
2. Aryran Says:
April 24, 2008 at 12:18 am
Flask of Distilled Wisdom is preferred. MP5 is for druids/priests…we need more int/crit for mana back.
3. titanhyperion Says:
April 25, 2008 at 5:12 am
Thanks Aryran for the comment…. I tried some of the stuff in this article and there are indeed various point I don’t
agree with.
For me i now use: perfectraid, pallypower and autobar… apart from the obvious bossmods, and raidaddons.
4. Sheep Says:
April 29, 2008 at 3:26 pm
i also dont agree with some of these tips, i also understand that everyone plays their class the way they feel is
better for the raid/group. So with that said, everyone should play the way they feel its right =]
My main issue is with the talent build pure of heart, that 3 points we can put in the prot tree to help us get
improved concentration aura, if u r a raider, just llike u r assigned to cleanse, there r ppl assigned to decurse, I
believe imp concetration aura is far better than 15% chance on resisting curse =/ but again thats just me =D peace
5. Imperius Says:
June 27, 2008 at 2:45 am
I tend to agree with Sheep on the imp concentration, and I don’t really agree with downranking in general. When I’m
in endgame content I’m typically assigned to the MT as healer and when he needs a heal he needs a heal. So spending 1.5-2.5
seconds to cast a downranked spell in the hopes that it will crit and possibly heal almost as much as a max rank gives me a
dead tank and 23 pissed off people.
If you want to make sure you have mana, then stack mana. I currently have over 115mp5 while casting with a 15k mana
pool in raid buffs. I can slam a MT with 100k hp in heals in an intense bossfight and walk out the other side with a decent
amount of mana if I use my skills/spells correctly. Pallies burn pots and Distilled Wisdom is your friend, but if you play
your class right you’ll always be picked to be healing the MT in endgame instances.
6. HolyZin Says:
July 24, 2008 at 8:31 am
There are quite a few things i disagree with, one thing pallies are the purest form of single target healing.
Therefore you will ALWAYS be on the MT unless rare occasions call for rare measures.
Your gemming i disagree with, you do not need to have 2500+ healing, i have 2150 with 25% crit and 220 Mp5 with 250
haste. An endgame paladin NEEDS haste, after 2.4 its actually viable now. i did skip over your T4 and T5 selections but
your T6 ones are questionable, it seems as if you were someone that just searched through your atlas and said “Hey! That
looks good!” that helm is nowhere near as good as T6, your tier pieces have the Mp5 you need on them, if your a good
paladin and you know your class you will use your CDs and chain pot at the right times in order to keep the desirable
amount of mana as well as being with a Spriest at all times in raid. i feel that you need a bit of help in your gearing and
gemming as most paladins do since they lack the proper knowledge of the class.
7. BuckeyeGuyinTN Says:
August 4, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Yeah this artical on T6 Paladins is full of fail. Crit is win for us and yes some haste is needed for SWP, however, I
dont agree with having a whole lot of it. I carry around 35% crit fully buffed these days, around 2250 healing and
somewhere around 150 mp5 and very little haste.
