Mists of Pandaria Classic Holy Paladin Rotation and Cooldowns
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Holy Paladin Healer, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving while doing PvE content in Mists of Pandaria Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency.
Holy Paladin Rotations
If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.
Spell Priority
Regardless of build choice, your primary focus will be casting as many Holy Shocks
as possible, as well as spending as much Holy Power as possible through one of:
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory (or
Eternal Flame).
Outside of this, you will use
Holy Radiance for AoE healing and maintaining
Illuminated Healing
on players, as well as single target heals such as
Divine Light or
Flash of Light.
When you select a desired build, you will be given much more detailed priority lists that explain how and when to use each ability.
Holy Paladin Builds
Eternal Flame Build
This build focuses on the Eternal Flame talent, which replaces
Word of Glory. Rotationally, you will
continue the principles of generating and spending Holy Power, you will just do it at a slower rate. The priority will look
something like this:
- Cast
Holy Shock on cooldown.
- Consume
Infusion of Light procs when possible. Ideally with
Holy Radiance, when only single target healing is needed you can instead cast one of the single target heals.
- Spend Holy Power on
Eternal Flame.
- When you cannot do any of the above, spend time generating Holy Power through
Holy Radiance,
Crusader Strike, or by casting a single target heal onto your
Beacon of Light target.
When you need single target healing, you will have the choice of casting Flash of Light,
Divine Light,
or
Holy Light. Your best choice will come down to the situation you are facing, but
Divine Light offers the most
healing and
Flash of Light offers the quickest cast meaning that you will tend to use one of these two abilities. If nothing
is happening but you want to do some single target healing, then you can use
Holy Light but keep in mind these casts
should only occur when you cannot do the above rotation or are in desperate need of single target healing.
Selfless Healer Build
When playing a Selfless Healer build your rotation will change quite significantly. Most notably, Judgment will gain
significant priority in your rotation. The overall priority will look something like this:
- Cast
Holy Shock on cooldown.
- Cast
Judgment on cooldown.
- Consume
Infusion of Light procs when possible. Ideally with
Holy Radiance, when only single target healing is needed you can instead cast one of the single target heals.
- Cast
Holy Radiance with a
Selfless Healer proc.
- Spend Holy Power on
Light of Dawn.
- When you cannot do any of the above, spend time generating Holy Power through
Holy Radiance,
Crusader Strike, or by casting a single target heal onto your
Beacon of Light target.
By casting Judgment on cooldown, we not only generate Holy Power at a much
quicker rate but we also proc
Selfless Healer, greatly enhancing one of
our core abilities.
Holy Radiance tends to be the best way to consume
this proc as it will make the ability have a much shorter cast, do more
healing, and cost way less mana. This will allow you to also
extend your
Illuminated Healing shields on players. Similarly,
by consuming Holy Power with
Light of Dawn, we are able
to maintain
Illuminated Healing shields much easier and on more players at once.
When you need single target healing, you will have the choice of casting
Flash of Light,
Divine Light, or
Holy Light. Your
best choice will come down to the situation you are facing, but
Divine Light offers the most
healing and
Flash of Light offers the quickest cast meaning that you will tend to use one of these two abilities. If nothing
is happening but you want to do some single target healing, then you can use
Holy Light but keep in mind these casts
should only occur when you cannot do the above rotation or are in desperate need of single target healing. You should still be
casting
Holy Shock and
Judgment on cooldown.
Cooldowns
Holy Paladin has some of the most potent
cooldowns in the game when it comes to raw healing output. It is crucial to properly utilize them to
avoid an excessive amount of overhealing while still keeping your group healthy.
Avenging Wrath. — Increases your healing done by 20% for 20 seconds. This ability is best used in a situation where there is a considerable amount of incoming damage that would otherwise not able to be managed. This is your primary cooldown and your goal will be to use it as much as possible during the course of a fight.
Divine Favor — Increases your Haste and Spell Critical Strike rating by 20% for twenty seconds. While you can combine this with other cooldowns, it can often result in you doing more healing than what is actually needed, resulting in high overhealing.
Holy Avenger — Causes your abilities that generate Holy Power to instead gennerate 3 Holy Power rather than 1. This is extremely powerful in getting out quick
Word of Glory or
Light of Dawn casts out.
Guardian of Ancient Kings — Summons a guardian of the light that duplicates your healing while also granting you a small amount of haste.
Divine Plea — A two-minute cooldown that regenerates a large amount of mana. You should aim to use this as much as possible during an encounter.
Devotion Aura — Reduces the magic damage taken by your party during its duration, while also providing them with an immune to silence/interrupt effects.
More MoP Paladin Guides
More Mists of Pandaria Spec Guides from Other Classes
MoP Dungeon Guides
MoP Profession Guides
MoP Reputation Guides
This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, a former RWF progression raider and analyst for Pieces and Liquid. He is also a Templar in the Paladin Class Discord, as well as one of the class experts in the Evoker Discord. You can reach him on Twitter and watch him stream occasionally on Twitch.