[Archived] Holy Paladin 5.4

[Guest puppytoes]

I just wanted to point out that the "statistics priority and reforging" section contradicts the "geming and enchanting" section. One tells you to prioritize int, the other spirit.

[MadMonk 156]

I just wanted to point out that the "statistics priority and reforging" section contradicts the "geming and enchanting" section. One tells you to prioritize int, the other spirit.

Intellect is your most important stat, but since the spirit gems give you double the stats from intellect gems (320 spirit vs 160 int) gemming for spirit probably is more worthwhile. If however you think you have enough spirit and never seem to run out of mana, you can switch some spirit gems to intellect or int/spir gems.

[Guest puppytoes]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, silly me, I wasn't even thinking about the different values of the stats on the gem. You may want to change the "jewlcrafting" portion of the profession bonuses portion of the "Gems, Enchants, and Consumables" page as it recommends the spirit serpents eye which grants a flat 160 bonus of either spirit or int per gem.

Lastly, I was wondering if you or any other 10man raiding holy paladins had any thoughts on the synergies (or lack there of) between the holy paladin mastery and having a disc priest healer in raid. I had been considering switching from reforging mastery to haste (I believe I have the mana regen to sustain it) as I feel like having double absorption effects may devalue mastery somewhat in certain situations where the disc priest absorb causes the mastery absorb to not be used. I'm not really sure how realistic of a concern that is given the amount of damage and frequency on most fights though.

Basically the question is when would you recommend haste of mastery assuming you are not having mana issues...which is true most of the time, especially if I am able to weave in the occasional melee hit on the boss (something that I would think haste would help, what with the lower swing time). I know that mastery is still better in almost every case though.

[Guest Jena]

1. Tier 5 talents

I agree with you that Divine Purpose is not ideal for healer. And I highly plause that you point out the choice should be based on utility of the cooldowns. Holy Avenger requires you to use as much as possible Holy Power generating spells: DL or FoL on beaconed tank, HR, HS, and Crusador Strike. I don't know whether it procs with blessed life. HS has a cooldown, CS requires you be in melee range, and has missing issues, DL, FoL and HR are all situational and expensive, making this cooldown a scary mana dump. Sanctified Wrath allows you to use HS more. HS is a very good filling skill for either single target or aoe healing, due to its great mana efficiency, its instant casting, its intrinsic high crit chance, its nice crit proc and also with Daybreak effect its aoe effects. But, of course HA is independant, while SW is passive with AW, thus HA gives you one more cooldown at hand, as long as you have the mana to burn.

2. Tier 6 talents

I believe stay of execution be the worst of this tier for a healer. Simply because this guy goes slowly at beginning, and becomes stronger as the hammer falls, and finishes with a big boom, usually the group is not going to allow tank or anyone's health to stay low for that long time for a final big boom. Even if you don't do that, other healers will quickly top tank off, and your big boom goes to overheal, hopefully you recycle some through mastery, unless you can time your spell with an incoming big damage preciesely, such as your hammer booms right after an impale or psychic drain. This cooldown is hard to manage. Holy prism is best at least for 5 man group. I only use this spell offensively. The 5 targets it heals almost surely includes the tank, and the other 4 will provide 15% through beacon. This is a very nice cooldown to quickly heal the tank and several nearby dps, it's strong and quick. Light's Harmmer is great for 25 man as you have more ppl stacking together. In 10 man, might be weaker.

Tier 5:

Holy Avenger is the best choice for fights where you have major hp hit to your raid but then a break from heavy raid damage. I would say Divine Purpose would really work great for fights where your raid is taking constant damage. Either you dump the procs as dawns to give an illuminated healing coat to your raid or it being constant damage the dawn will never really go to overhealing. Being a proc it becomes less useful for fights without aoe damage all the time. But at least Divine Purpose is free. It costs no mana (obviously the spells would cost holy power not mana but they also proc off spells that cost holy power). The key to using Divine Purpose is tracking the proc and the time on it. It's random but you CAN force procs by spending holy power one at a time either on eternal flames or dawns. Dunno why Im defending Divine Purpose right now. lol Guess it's cos people have really made a joke of it when in fact I do find it has it's purposes.

Tier 6:

Ah yes Holy Prism is my standard pick and on some fights I use Light's Hammer. The cooldown on Light's Hammer is a little steep though and of course so useless when people are moving around. Of course, there will always be that time you see people positioned just perfect for you to smack your big wet hammer right in between them but you have Holy Prism activated. Holy Prism is never really as useless as Light's Hammer CAN be though. I always start off with Holy Prism when it's a new fight I'm trying to figure out. Then I can see if Light's Hammer will fit better.

[Chronis 1]

Quick question just because I'm curious: does haste affect out hots from EF like it does for other healers' hots? I see no reason why it shouldn't, but I don't remember seeing anything on this anywhere thus far. I obviously don't see this as being a big game changer for us. It did occur to me that since EF puts a 30 second hot on each use, that it would take less haste % per extra tick as compared to other healers hots (assuming my understanding of hots and dots is accurate).

Decided to look outside the regular places I look and found this:

http://www.totemspot.com/vb/entry.php?b=41&page=2

Curiousity: Sated.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Chronis

[Tarazet 144]

I like to think outside the box a little bit and come up with ideas to improve my play in ways that might be a little unconventional. This probably comes from playing a Druid as my main, which is a flexible class that can take on different roles as the situation calls for it. So take this suggestion for what it is: something to experiment with and use in a situation where it is merited.

I believe that Glyph of Holy Shock can be desirable even in raiding situations. If you take this glyph, obviously you won't want to heal with the spell unless you have no choice, and this will have an impact on your healing output and flexibility. However, using a glyphed Holy Shock to damage the boss and generate Holy Power is far superior on a pure efficiency basis, compared to healing with an unglyphed Holy Shock. It hits hard and has an increased critical chance as well. So from a perspective of putting mana to the best possible use, Glyph of Holy Shock can be a benefit to the raid while still providing the secondary resource that Paladins use to heal efficiently.

My feeling is that the best use of this particular glyph would be in 25-mans, or in some 10-man encounters in the event that you can't quite two-heal an encounter, but you don't need the third healer to be healing 100% of the time. If you do take this glyph, I recommend not to use Glyph of Divine Plea, so that you can use your damaging abilities while the debuff from Divine Plea is active rather than doing nothing while you wait for the cast to finish.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Tarazet

[Guest Holycow]

I would like to poit out that Alcemy Flask Grants you 320 Extra int and 480 extra spirit, Not 320 spirit

[Guest Luvbacon]

I really love the treatment your other class guides have recently received with top 100 players reviewing them. Any idea when we can expect the same treatment for the Holy Paladin guide?

[Vlad 419]

I really love the treatment your other class guides have recently received with top 100 players reviewing them. Any idea when we can expect the same treatment for the Holy Paladin guide?

Yes indeed. Atismund of Envy has recently submitted his notes, and I've been updating the guide. I'm practically done, so you can expect to see the changes on the site tomorrow!

[Shazwozza 1]

Hey Guys, I think this part is worded incorrectly...

Healing with Flash of Light will drain your mana very quickly and should not be used lightly.

[Vlad 419]

Hey Guys, I think this part is worded incorrectly...

Healing with Flash of Light will drain your mana very quickly and should not be used lightly.

I think the guide is correct. We when say "it should not be used lightly", we mean that you should not be too liberal with it.

[Guest Jaenalys]

Hello,

With patch 5.3 the mastery of holy paly has been changed. The patch announce a nerf of 2%.

But in fact, the nerf is much bigger.

For example, before the patch, I had 29% of mastery. After the patch, in game, I have 22%.

Mr robot announce that I should have 27% which is wrong...

It looks like before the patch, it was:

12 (illuminated) + 17 (stuff mastery) = 29

and now something like:

(10 (illuminated) + 17 (stuff mastery)) * 5/6 = 22.5

I think this change a lot the stat priority...

[Vlad 419]

Hello,

With patch 5.3 the mastery of holy paly has been changed. The patch announce a nerf of 2%.

But in fact, the nerf is much bigger.

For example, before the patch, I had 29% of mastery. After the patch, in game, I have 22%.

Mr robot announce that I should have 27% which is wrong...

It looks like before the patch, it was:

12 (illuminated) + 17 (stuff mastery) = 29

and now something like:

(10 (illuminated) + 17 (stuff mastery)) * 5/6 = 22.5

I think this change a lot the stat priority...

I do not know exactly by how much Mastery has been nerfed, but I do know that it is still the best stat, so there isn't anything to change in the guide.

[Guest Cyn]

The nerf was a 2% nerf to the base our base mastery and then scaling went from 1.5% to 1.25%.

And yes mastery is still better.

[Guest Zenima]

Hi!

Could someone clarify please, if the suggested JC gem (sparkling over brilliant) is correct? Doesn't seem to be right for me, as the gems give a flat bonus, not percent, therefore we compare +160 int vs +160 spirit. Even in this guide it clearly states our stat prio is int > spi.

Thanks!

Zenima

[Krazyito 521]

Intellect is a higher weight than spirit, you are correct, but with gems secondary stats have double the state.

Example: Sparkling is 320, while brilliant is 160, thus since intellect does not have a weight greater than double of spirit, it means that spirit wins out in gemming

[MadMonk 156]

Hi!

Could someone clarify please, if the suggested JC gem (sparkling over brilliant) is correct? Doesn't seem to be right for me, as the gems give a flat bonus, not percent, therefore we compare +160 int vs +160 spirit. Even in this guide it clearly states our stat prio is int > spi.

Thanks!

Zenima

Intellect is a higher weight than spirit, you are correct, but with gems secondary stats have double the state.

Example: Sparkling is 320, while brilliant is 160, thus since intellect does not have a weight greater than double of spirit, it means that spirit wins out in gemming

I believe Zenima is talking about the JC specific gems. The bonus is indeed 2x+160 int or 2x+160 spirit. However, you should still compare the gems themselves (480 spirit vs 320 intellect) in which case i believe the spirit gems still win, unless you are already very comfortable with your current spirit.

[Guest Alextros]

Hey there, A very nice guide indeed.

The only thing I would be worried about, is the wording of Daybreak, as it is abit missleading right now. The holy shock does still heal the original target, but the additional healing is not, where as it tells now, it heals targets around the original, but not healing the original at all.

[Vlad 419]

Hey there, A very nice guide indeed. The only thing I would be worried about, is the wording of Daybreak, as it is abit missleading right now. The holy shock does still heal the original target, but the additional healing is not, where as it tells now, it heals targets around the original, but not healing the original at all.

Thanks for pointing this out. Seems this came with 5.3 and I somehow missed it. Updating the guide now!

[Guest Basttion]

Hey there, love the guide.  I check in every so often to see what the smart people think of holy rotations and what not.

 

One minor correction from 5.4.

 

"Thirdly, if there is no raid damage, you should try to keep your Mastery shields up on as many players as possible. Simply stack them with Holy Shock and Holy Light, and keep them refreshed with Eternal Flame (each HoT tick refreshes the shields)."

 

The bold part is actually incorrect.  The HoT no longer refreshes the shield from mastery.

 

I've been wondering if this nerf would cause people to rethink going for mastery and eternal flame, but so far I've been sticking with it and in two raids I think the other buff's to EF really make it comparable in situations of large raid damage.

[Guest outlaw1712]

The Eternal Flame HoT ticks do no longer refresh the shields.

[Vlad 419]

Thanks! Updating the guide as we speak.

[Guest Stonedhealer]

not sure if it has been mentioned but Ethernal Flame tick(HoT) does not add or refresh the illumination shield as of 5.4, might want to change that in the rotation guide

[Guest Rades]

You may wish to remove the macro for canceling Divine Plea since it no longer reduces your healing, and therefore there is no point in canceling it early (and is actually quite bad to do so)

[Guest AV]

Just a note, even though the glyph of divine plea reduces the duration and mana gain by 50%, it still has to give 12% back.  

This glyph is only a detriment if you gain 25%+ of your mana back from spirit, which I don't think is easily attainable.

 

Taking the glyph will always be an increase in mana.  Of course, don't take my word, verify.