Holy Paladin (PvE Guide)

[hacksmith]

Introduction:

I'm sharing this, originally on jsp, because i haven't really seen an up-to-date guide on Holy Paladins here.

This guide will explain almost everything you need to know about playing the holy paladin class, including gear, stats, spec, and more

1. Picking your racials
Horde:
Blood elf is the optimal race for Horde. Arcane torrent in pve is by far the most useful racial in the game currently for horde, it gives you mana, and can aoe silence mobs.

Alliance:
Draenei - Basically useless, has nothing compared to the other two races.
Dwarf - Dwarfs have an ability called stoneskin ( Removes all Poison, Bleed, and Diseases from the Paladin and reduces damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds ) on a two minute cooldown. This may not be used in every fight, but it is great for reducing damage in certain situations.
Human - Humans gain a 3% increase in spirit, and a free pvp trinket as their racial, which makes Human the ideal choice for a holy paladin in PvE.

2. Speccing
31/5/5 is my personal spec that I use, but one point can be substituted somewhere for an extra point in Paragon of Virtue ( reduces the cooldown of divine protection by an additional 10 seconds, reduces the cooldown of hand of sacrifice by 15 additional seconds, and reduces the cooldown of avenging wrath by an additional 30 seconds)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft - Link to the spec on Wowhead. ( Includes glyphs, which I will explain next )

3. Glyphs
Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Holy Shock ( Increases holy shock crit by 5% )
Glyph of Word of Glory ( Increases the healing done by Word of Glory by 10% )
Glyph of Seal of Insight ( Increases all healing done by 5% while seal of insight is active )

Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Divine Plea ( Increases the mana gained from Divine Plea by 6% )
Glyph of Divinity ( You gain 10% of your maximum mana when using Lay on Hands )
Glyph of Light of dawn ( Light of dawn heals one additional target )

Minor Glyphs: ( these really don't matter much )
Glyph of Blessing of Kings
Glyph of Insight
Glyph of Blessing of Might

4. Stat Priority and Reforging
Stat Priority:
Intellect: This is your primary stat, it gives you more spell power, crit, and more mana, which is always great.
Spirit: This gives you your mana regeneration, this is just barely under Intellect
Haste: Healing faster means your target lives longer, this should be used over crit.
Crit: Increases your crit of course, but as a paladin you gain crit from intellect as well.
Mastery: This is your worst stat, try to get gear without this, or reforge it into Spirit or Haste.

Reforging
Int > Spirit > Haste > Crit > Mastery
So if you have Mastery on an item, you want to replace it with spirit first, if the item already has spirit, you want to put Haste on the item.

5. Gemming
Brilliant Inferno Rubies ( 40 intellect ) - in Red sockets
Purified Demonseye ( 20 int / 20 spirit ) - in Blue sockets
Reckless Ember Topaz ( 20 int / 20 haste ) - in Yellow sockets
Brilliant Chimaera's Eye ( 67 int ) - Red sockets ( for jewelcrafters )

These should be the only three gems you use.

6. Enchants
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Haste ( 50 haste )
Boots: Enchant Boots - Lava Walker / Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality. Either will be fine. ( 35 Mastery / run speed | 30 stam / run speed )
Rings: ( If you are an enchanter ) Enchant Ring: Intellect ( 40 int )
Belt: ( If you are an engineer ) Nothing is really super beneficial, since rocket boots can fail in raids now, it is not optimal to use them.
Helm: Arcanum of Hyjal ( Revered with Hyjal - 60 Int / 35 Crit )
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone ( Exalted with Therazane - 50 int / 25 haste )
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent ( chance to proc 500 int ) / Enchant Weapon - Heartsong ( Chance to proc 200 Spirit ) for the cheaper folk.
Shield: Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect ( 40 int )
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect ( 50 int )
Bracer: Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect ( 50 int )
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats ( 20 stats )
Legs: Sanctified Spellthread - ( 95 Int / 55 Spirit )

7. Spells
Holy Light: This is one of your major spells, that should be spammed on high health targets that need healing, or tanks that are not taking a large amount of damage.
Divine Light: This should be used when any target is at very low health and needs a heal, also used for healing tanks taking large amounts of damage
Holy Shock: Should be used on anything not at full HP on cooldown.
Holy Radiance: Used to aoe heal while everyone is near you, one of your highest healing spells.
Light of dawn: Also used to aoe heal while targets are in front of you.
Word of Glory: Mostly used on non aoe intensive fights, heals for a large amount with only the cost of holy power.
Judgement: If you are not healing at the time, use this every time you can, it grants a large amount of mana.
Divine Plea: Use this on cooldown, after you need mana of course.

8. Cooldowns
Divine Protection: 20% reduced damage for 10 seconds, on a 40/50/60 second cooldown. Should be used whenever you know damage is incoming.
Divine Shield: When you are about to die, this is your OH SHIT button.
Hand of Sacrifice: When you know your tank is about to take alot of damage, throw this on them with your divine protection to reduce damage to you and him.
Hand of Salvation: If someone is high on threat, give it to them, dps pulling generally means they are going to die.
Divine Favor: This is great to use coupled with Avenging wrath to increase your haste / crit / healing output in desperate times.
Avenging Wrath: As stated above, it is great coupled with Divine Favor to increase healing output.
Guardian of Ancient Kings: It is a great spell, but on a HUGE cooldown, so you want to use it carefully. I suggest using it when the tank is getting massively owned, or when the raid needs extra heals ( by healing people near that person, since it also aoe heals )
Lay on Hands: If someone is near death and still taking damage, Lay on hands them, it gives you 10% mana and heals them to full, and should be up nearly every attempt.
Rebuke: Throw an interrupt in here or there.
Aura Mastery: Should be used with Resist aura during any high elemental damage times.
Hand of Protection: Should be used on a person who has a bleed on them, or someone taking massive physical damage ( i.e. a non tank tanking something )

9. Professions
Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are the top professions for most classes, as well as holy paladins at the moment.

10. Addons
As a healer, you are probably going to want some form of healing addon instead of standard blizzard frames.
Grid / Vuhdo / Xperl / Healbot are all decent addons to help you in your healing.
Bartender - makes your bars smaller, and makes your UI less cluttered.
Power Auras - Great addon to help with buffs and debuffs for certain fights and abilities.

[dannyh1992]

nice guid here i may try ahealer with myPaladin oneday

[Mirham]

"Alliance: Draenei - Basically useless, has nothing compared to the other two races."

Really?

"Gift of the Naruu - Heals the target for 20% of their total health over 15 sec."

Hmm!

Beside that, nice guide, i personally prefer Divine Favor glyph over holy shock though, as holy shock wont really be a huge part of your healing (maybe like 5-10 %) , and the extra time on favor can be really good if well used.

[Amydas]

Comprehensive guide. But..

I play Holy pal myself and I got to say that i disagree with your glyph choice quite a bit. Glyph of Word of Glory is no match to glyph of Divine Favor. 10 sec more having 20% haste and crit i by far the superior choice. You need the seal glyph and the Divine favor, the third one is arguable. WoG or Holy shock...I prefer holy shock because of the proc which makes your HL/DL pretty fast to cast.

P.S.: Many high end paladins also choose glyph of divine protection which is pretty situational, but pays off on encounter such as Nef, Maloriak HC and so on...