Holy Paladin

[Evilbuffy]

Buffy's Paladin Guide

In this thread you will find a lot of handy tips about what to, when to, and how to play a paladin depending on spec and if you are doing PvE (Player Vs. Enviorment) or PvP (Player Vs. Player). You will also find talenttrees and addon guides for paladins.

As a little extra I want to mention that Paladins are one of the few classes in World of Warcraft that you can actually call a Hybrid Class. Your probably wondering what a hybrid class is, well, it's pretty simple.. A hybrid class is a class that can solo instances and raids, by only using that class, because as we know (and if you don't then keep on reading) paladins have three different specs they can be; Holy, Retribution and Protection. So, as a paladin you can either chose to be a healer, a dps or a tank depending on what you like the most and what is needed on your server.

1.0 - Holy Paladins
1.1 - How to?
1.2 - What do I need & How do I gear up?
1.3 - Talenttrees
1.4 - Helpful Addons


1.0 - Holy Paladins

Chosing to be a holy paladin will guarantee that you get spots in instances and raids. This is because a holy paladin is a very good healer based on the amount of mana they have, the way of regenerating mana and at the same time being able to handle a bit of damage towards them. But I want to add that paladins are not very good raidhealers, they are best focusing few targets, like the tanks in a raid.

1.1 - How to?

Now, if you are new to the paladin class you are probably wondering how to play to get the maximum out of your class. To start off, you need to chose the right Seals and Judgements to use, and the most common used are either Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom. Seal of Light simply gives you a chance to heal on hits, while Seal of Wisdow gives you a chance to regenerate mana on hits. Paladins have three different Judgements, Judgement of Wisdow, Judgement of Justice and Judgement of Light. Judgement of Wisdow is the most common used since this one allowes you to regenerate mana on spellhits, while Judgement of Justice only gives you a chance to slow down your target and Judgement of Light only deals holy damage.

Paladin also has a spell called Beacon of Light. This ability can only be casted on one target, which means it is best to cast it at a tank. This spell simply gives you the ability to heal any other raid or party member and at the same time that heal will heal the target you casted the Beacon of Light on. You also got a spell called Sacred Shield, as you can see in the name it is a shield you can cast on any target in a raid or party. This shield absorbs up to 500 damage, and increases the chance for the holy paladin to critically hit the person with Sacred Shield on him by 50% for 6 seconds. This shield also can't be casted on more then one target at a time, which means it is best to cast it at a tank.

The paladin also has three other high priority spells during a fight, Divine Illumination, Divine Favor and Divine Plea. Divine Illumination simply reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 seconds. Divine Favor gives you a buff that gives you a 100% chance to crit your target with either Flash of Light, Holy Light or Holy Shock. Divine Plea is one of the best abilities a paladin has to regenerate mana, this spell regenerates 25% of your mana over 15 seconds, but you heal 50% less with any healing spell while it's active.

A paladin also has a handy spell called Hand of Salvation. This spell reduces the threat of the player getting the target by 2% every 1 second, for 10 seconds. This spell can be casted on anyone in your party or raid group, including yourself, but be ware, only one Hand can be placed on a player at a time, meaning you can't get another paladin to also give you Hand of Salvation reducing your threat with 4% every 1 second, for 10 seconds.

1.2 - What do I need & How do I gear up?

As a holy paladin the most important stat you need is Intellect. You really don't need to worry about critical strike raiting, mp5 or haste, because all these you get enough of from the equip bonuses on gear. But when it comes to enchants and sockets, you want to go for pure intellect except on your weapon which you want to enchant with 63 spellpower, because the best intellect enchant you can have on a weapon at the moment is 30 intellect, which is not more then 6 spellpower. But except by the weapon you want to go with pure intellect, this is because intellect increases spell crit and +Healing. But, the reason you don't need to socket with spellpower gems is because of the talent "Holy Guidance", This talent increases your spellpower by 20% of your total intellect.

Gearing up can be done in several ways, depending on if your character is already good geared in 80 or if it has just dinged 80. If it has good retribution gear (Dps) you can always join heroic instances to gear up for holy, since very few need items from heroics nowdays.
If your character hasn't dinged 80 yet, but is around 75, you may want to get healing items from quests while leveling, this way you can start of healing heroic's at the same moment as you hit 80, and start earning your epics.

As you probably know, there are special "requirements" for stats in raids, to prevent so called whiping. I will start of by mentioning a few bellow, just so you have a qlue of what you need to start:

Naxxramas: 1500-1750 spellpower unbuffed, depending on other raidmembers and build-up.
Obsidian Sanctum: 1600-1800 spellpower unbuffed, depending on the raid.
Vault of Archavon: 1600-2000 spellpower unbuffed, depending on the raid.
Eye of the Eternity: 1600-1750 spellpower unbuffed, depending on the raid.

Always remember before raids, to fill up with flasks, food and potions to get even higher stats even after being buffed. Just 40 spellpower more in a raid counts a lot, remember that.

As we know you may have trouble getting into a raid these days, because everyone is so into "Link Achive or no inv" for the raids. What you want to do to have a higher chance of getting into a raid is telling them your stats, and maybe go watch some videos or read tacts about bosses, and make sure you tell him you know tacts.

1.3 - Talenttrees

I will post a few holy paladin talenttrees bellow, and which you find best is different from one person to another.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Crit based PvE healing spec.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
High regenerateing PvE healing spec.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Holy PvE spec based on keeping tanks alive.

1.4 - Helpful Addons

VuhDo is a great addon supporting various functions between healing and buffing.

VuhDo - Addons - Curse

Project manager: Iza_Gilneas


PallyPower is a addon based on making buffing easier for paladins. This addon has a quick setup where you can adjust buffs for every class in your raid or party.

PallyPower - Addons - Curse

Project manager: Aznamir


Deadly Boss Mods is a boss encounter. It can simply by a few adjustments give raidwarnings in chat for every boss in World of Warcraft, making it easier to kill the boss without wiping the first times.

Deadly Boss Mods - Addons - Curse

Project manager: Tandanu


I want to inform all you here on mmowned that I do not take any credit for the addons I have in this guide, the project managers of each addon are listed under the addons, and I want to thank those for the addons that make the game as a paladin easier.

I hope you liked my first guide, about holy paladins. Later on when I have more time I will come with guides for the two other paladin specs, Retribution and Protection. Please give comments and critics on my guide, so I can adjust / improve the guide for the best of us all.


Sincerely
- Buffy

[CimSlunt]

Seems the "How To Roll" threads are becomming popular.

[Swordcaller]

First of all use seal of wisdom + unless you have any other paladin in the raid then you should use judgement of light since your a healer >.< also judgement of justice doesnt have a chance to slow the target at all .. it simply makes the target unable to run quicker then normal speed .. + the way you describe it u make it sound like sacred shield is some kinda power word shield spell like the priests when its more like a buff that procs every 6 seconds. as far as im concerned this guide failed and i suggest u fix it a bit

[metus]

Don't make a guide if you don't know shit about the class.

[Quagmire]

Um, to start off.. ALL Judgements deals damage, just do different things. Wisdom regenerates mana to all in the raid, light heals everyone in the raid, justice is pretty useless in pve...

And this about enchanting with ONLY intellect, why? Like on a weapon, 63sp is so much better than 30 intellect. Stacking ONLY and ONLY intellect is no idea, would be like only stacking stamina as a tank. And if you do that you have no idea what you're doing.

Oh and also, like metus said.

[ryanlist]

there is only really 1 judge u should use and that judgment of light, you cannot beat the op-ness of this move, on healing meters this is generally my 2nd or 3rd top healing ability

[Evilbuffy]

Metus, don't come here and try to flame me and tell me I don't know what a paladin is.. I've played paladin since far out in pre-tbc.

And to all you saying judgement of light is the best, well.. That may be, but you will go oom a lot faster, therefor my suggestion is to use Judgement of Wisdom to regenerate mana faster.

Also, Swordcaller; If you had read what I wrote about the Sacred Shield, you would know that I am not saying it's like the power word shield from priests, because it's not.. But the shield does absorb 500 damage and does give you a 50% higher crit chance on the target.

And Quagmire, to answer your question, which I actually did in the guide if you had read it and taken time to actually understand it; Socket and enchant only with intellect because of the talent you are supposed to chose as a holy paladin, which increases your spellpower by 20% of your total intellect.


Now, stop flaming, and actually take time to read the guide and have a bit knowledge before coming here telling me I don't. Because this is childish, and pisses me of.. People actually spend a lot of time on guides like this, like I did on this one, and all you do is go around flaming people for actually trying to contribute.

[Quagmire]

Holy paladins judge with wisdom if there are a paladin dps or paladin tank in the group. As judgement of the light is more effective the more ap you got. If it's not a paladin dps or tank you should judge with light though.

Also.. still the best intellect enchant on a weapon is 30 intellect. That gives give you 6 spellpower. I can live with a 300 mana loss and have 57 more spellpower, hopefully alot of others aswell.

[Evilbuffy]

Well, the choice of Judgements do depend a lot on the build-up of raids, and what the player himself has best experience with using.

Also, I want to apologize for writing only using intellect enchants, because this is a lie.. On your weapon the best enchant you can have is 63 spellpower, but on the rest of your gear intellect is the best.

But as I said, I am only trying to contribute to mmowned and the people on here, the best way I can. And this guide is not something I came up with out of no where, I actually play a holy paladin as my main character, and heal ToTc 10 / 25man, and this guide is made out of my own knowledge and experience as a healer.

[Swordcaller]

And to all you saying judgement of light is the best, well.. That may be, but you will go oom a lot faster, therefor my suggestion is to use Judgement of Wisdom to regenerate mana faster.

Also, Swordcaller; If you had read what I wrote about the Sacred Shield, you would know that I am not saying it's like the power word shield from priests, because it's not.. But the shield does absorb 500 damage and does give you a 50% higher crit chance on the target.

Indeed you might be correct about the judgement which depends a lot on the setup but then again if your a decent paladin then you shouldn't ever go oom anyway + Yes you do make it sound like a shield you have to rebuff every 6 seconds i asked 10 ppl in my guild and they all thought that's what you meant

[frallan123]

I always top healing meters on my paladin, I use judgement of light even if we have 7 other paladins in the raid(lots of paladins in our guild), I only stacked +20int and +10int 12mp5, and for the enchants I use 63sp on wep, and 16int on wrists and 250mana on chest, I'm around 3400sp with all raidbuffs + totems so no need for me sp so INT is the way to go!

[Evilbuffy]

This is a guide of how to start a holy paladin and / or learn how to play, and people are usually not decent geared if they are new to the class, or even not 80 yet, and before this using Judgement of Wisdow is the best in my mind, because it's gives a higher mp5.
Well, I might have wrote the part about the Sacred Shield a bit wrong. But I did my best, and wrote exactly what the spell said it did, but no matter what.

Yeah, Judgement of Light might be good, actually never used it in raids so far, but I will test it out too see how it works. Also, as you state here you have no need for other spellpower enchants then the one on the weapon, because you get more then enough by stacking a lot of intellect.

[lewis10123]

Chances are your Prot/Ret pally is using Light, so Holy pallies should use Wisdom, also if you have the 3% crit talent it may be worth keeping it up all the time (thinking 2pc T9 here).

Also the damage absorbed by sacred shield is increased by your spellpower not just a flat out 500.
You didn't mention Glyphs, anything about keeping up the FoL HoT, and if you have been playing Holy Pally from the start of TBC, god help your guild.

EDIT: You didn't mention the Nightmare's Tear (+10 all stats) gem, which is proven to be better than the 10int/5mp5 or w/e it is. The Nightmare's Tear gives you your blue and red socket bonuses needed for the 21 int + chance to restore mana Meta

[ryanlist]

@ Evil you have a good point if you are gearing up then juj of wisdom could be beneficial but for pallies that are raiding u shouldnt use it period

[lordpip]

Um, to start off.. ALL Judgements deals damage, just do different things. Wisdom regenerates mana to all in the raid, light heals everyone in the raid, justice is pretty useless in pve...

And this about enchanting with ONLY intellect, why? Like on a weapon, 63sp is so much better than 30 intellect. Stacking ONLY and ONLY intellect is no idea, would be like only stacking stamina as a tank. And if you do that you have no idea what you're doing.

Oh and also, like metus said.

+30 Int to weapon is better then the SP after you hit 2k spell power.
And yes at that point only stack Int. If you use anything else when there is +int you can use don't.


And any guide that says to use Pally Power is gonna suck.
ZOMGbuffs is a much better mod, and does not have all the hiccups and pally fail has.

EDIT:
And mouse over macro's are much better then a mod for healing. And when comes time for mods to get outdated you are stuck learning a new mod.