Holy Paladin PvP Guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic

Holy Paladin remains one of the kings of healing in PvP. In Mists of Pandaria Holy Paladin finds itself with even more tools to deal with the constantly changing landscape that is PvP. Check out our guide to get a better idea of how to optimally play your Holy Paladin in any PvP format.

Strengths

• Incredible healing output on two targets thanks to Beacon of Light.
• Tons of powerful throughput cooldowns like Avenging Wrath.
• Great utility in abilities like Hand of Freedom.

Weaknesses

• Struggles when being targeted.
• Vulnerable to crowd controlling abilities when Hand of Sacrifice is on cooldown.
• Reliant on hard casting heals during periods of heavy incoming damage.

• Glyph of Flash of Light — Each time you cast Flash of Light your healing to the target will be increased by 10% for 7 seconds.
• Glyph of Devotion Aura — causes your Devotion Aura to no longer affect your group but reduces its cooldown by 60 seconds, giving us yet another powerful cooldown to avoid interrupts.
• Glyph of Divine Protection — reduces the Magic damage reduction of your Divine Protection ability by 20% but now causes it to reduce Physical damage taken as well by 20%. If you find yourself constantly facing double caster teams consider swapping this out for Glyph of Divine Shield.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary Page. Having an understanding of how each of your abilities work as a Holy Paladin is key to not only maximizing your healing output but also recognizing how each of your utility abilities work to mitigate and in some cases entirely prevent incoming damage.

1. Maintain Beacon of Light on a target at all times.
2. Holy Shock — on cooldown, this is by far our most efficient heal and our primary way to generate Holy Power.
3. Spend Holy Power on Eternal Flame.
4. If you find yourself in melee range of an enemy, cast Crusader Strike to generate Holy Power if you can spare the global from healing.
5. Cast Flash of Light when Holy Shock is not available and you do not have enough Holy Power for Eternal Flame.

Holy Paladins is known for its seemingly endless supply of cooldowns. Make sure to get a proper understanding of each of them so you can best react to any given situation.

• Avenging Wrath — 2-minute cooldown. Increases both your healing and damage for 20 seconds. This should be used reactively in any situation where you expect large amounts of incoming damage from your enemies.
• Divine Favor — 3-minute cooldown. Increases your Haste and Critical Strike by 20% for 20 seconds. This is another great way to increase your healing output in any situation that you may not otherwise be able to keep up with the incoming damage.
• Guardian of Ancient Kings — 5-minute cooldown. Summons a Guardian that will replicate your heals, healing your target for 100% additional healing and increases your Haste by 10% for 15 seconds. This is especially powerful in a situation where you suspect you may be getting crowd controlled and need a quick burst of healing.
• Devotion Aura — reduces incoming Magic damage by 20% for 6 seconds but most importantly makes you immune to interrupts for its duration.
• Divine Protection — 30-second cooldown. Reduces the damage taken for 10 second. This should be used early and often, really anytime you find yourself taking incoming damage consider popping this to keep yourself ahead.
• Holy Avenger — 2-minute cooldown. This ability increases the healing done by your Holy Power generating abilities by 30% for 18 seconds and causes them to generate 3 Holy Power. This is a great way to not only increase your healing done by Holy Shock but also greatly increase the amount of Eternal Flames we are able to cast with this extra Holy Power.
• Divine Shield — 5-minute cooldown. Makes you immune to damage. With such a long cooldown you will need to use this very cautiously and for emergency situations only. Keep in mind this can be dispelled by abilities like Mass Dispel from a Priest or Shattering Throw from a Warrior.

While Holy Paladin is known for its massive healing output you will also have a massive arsenal of utility that can help not only keep your team healthy but active to allow you to apply as much pressure as possible in PvP.

• Hand of Protection — Causes a player to become immune to physical damage but during the duration they also cannot use physical spells. This can be used a number of ways but should be used primarily to either remove a Physical debuff that is greatly impacting a teammate or to stop incoming Physical damage in a situation where the incoming damage may be unhealable.
• Hand of Sacrifice — Transfers 30% of the damage that a player takes to you. You can use this a number of ways, ideally it will be used to prevent incoming crowd controlling abilities like Polymorph but if you find yourself in a situation where your target is just taking too much damage than it can be a great way to smooth out incoming damage.
• Blinding Light — instantly blinds enemies within 10 yards for 6 seconds. This effect is broken on damage taken but is a great way to crowd control enemies either when you are being targeted to get some distance or as a way to begin a crowd control chain on a nearby enemy.
• Hand of Freedom — Causes a friendly player to become immune to movement impairing effects for the duration. Make sure to cast this early and often to keep your team active.
• Hammer of Justice — Stuns an enemy; when paired with our Fist of Justice talent the cooldown is reduced to 30 seconds. Make sure to use this early and often either to peel for an ally or to apply pressure to your kill target.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Holy Paladin in Mists of Pandaria PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Blacksmithing — Grants you two additional sockets, one in your Wrist and one in your Gloves. Even with the removal of Resilience the extra Intellect these two bonus sockets will provide is a massive increase to your healing output.
2. Engineering — will allow you to equip Synapse Springs to your gloves. This can be used by itself as a small healing cooldown but can also be paired with Guardian of Ancient Kings of Divine Favor increasing the potency of these cooldowns considerably.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for an Paladin in PvP.

Holy Paladin synergizes incredibly with almost any DPS but highlighted below are some of the best compositions you to play when entering the Arena.