World of Warcraft: Forever Holy Paladin Guide

Players who have always enjoyed Holy Paladin should be excited to play this new version. While the Talent Tree can leave a lot to be desired, the spec continues to shine with its powerful single-target healing. Through Light's Vigil, the class can also now compete in AoE healing. There are some concerns about being able to maintain the heavy mana costs, but potential exists for the spec to excel in every domain.

Holy Paladin has additionally received a large number of quality of life changes during Forever. Most notably, Seals are no longer consumed when casting Judgement and all Blessings are now an hour long. This means the frustration of managing short duration buffs has been removed.

While Holy Paladin has the tools to be successful, there are many concerns about how well it can compete with other specs. A ton of power has been placed in Light's Vigil, but the mana cost is so heavy that you won't be able to use it often in raid. Casting it in dungeons can help a lot, but you will be drinking very frequently. Additionally, there are concerns how well the single-target strength can hold up against other healers with much more accessible and powerful AoE healing.

One of the largest complaints of Holy Paladin comes through the talent tree emphasizing a Shockadin playstyle, and not a lot of power being placed for healing specifically. While some adjustments to the talent tree would be nice, it may also just be asking for too much. A mana cost adjustment to Light's Vigil would be the next best thing to hope for. Allowing us more frequent use of the ability enables us to not fall as far behind in AoE healing situations where we could previously only offer single-target heals.

Playing Paladin gives you access to the unique Auras mechanic. Players are given an extra "Aura" bar where they can select a number of buffs to provide to themselves and their allies. In Forever, Auras are raid wide rather than just covering your party. It is important that if you have multiple Paladins in your raid you will want to be running diferent auras.

• Devotion Aura provides players with additional Armor.
• Retribution Aura deals damage to any enemy that damages a party member.
• Concentration Aura gives players a chance to ignore spell interruption when damaged.
• Shadow Resistance Aura provides players with additional Shadow Resistance.
• Frost Resistance Aura provides players with additional Shadow Resistance.
• Fire Resistance Aura provides players with additional Shadow Resistance.

Choosing the best Aura is largely situational. Typically Retribution Aura will be the best choice while questing or doing dungeons, to help speed up the process of killing enemies. That being said, Devotion Aura can be good at reducing some of the damage intake your party is facing. Concentration Aura is similarly helpful when you are in situations where your spells are constantly being slowed down.

During difficult encounters, you can opt for one of the Resistance Auras, especially in groups with multiple Paladins who already have the other Auras covered.

Seals are a Paladin specific system, granting you a powerful buff of your choosing. Additionally, each Seal gets a bonus triggered from casting Judgement or "Unleashing" the seal. It is important to note that only one Judgement can be applied at any time.

• Seal of Righteousness causes melee attacks to deal extra damage. When unleashed, you will deal an extra burst of damage.
• Seal of the Crusader grants additional attack power and causes your auto attacks to be much faster. That being said, each attack will deal less damage. Unleashing this seal will place a debuff on an enemy, increasing their Holy damage taken for a duration.
• Seal of Fury causes auto attacks to deal a very small extra amount of damage. When wearing a shield, you will gain an absorb for some of the damage that your attacks do. Unleashing this seal causes you to taunt the target for 4 seconds.
• Seal of Justice gives your auto attacks a chance to stun the target. When you unleash this seal, you prevent enemies from fleeing for a duration and each melee attack you do will extend the duration.
• Seal of Light causes your auto attacks to heal you. When unleashed, this ability will place a debuff on the target causing any attacks you or your allies deal to heal them.
• Seal of Wisdom restores mana on melee hits. Unleashing this ability will cause attacks and spells used against the target to have a chance to restore mana.

As only one seal can be active on an enemy at a time, you will often times need to coordinate with your group as to which seal you should be using. Unless you need any of the others, you will be using Seal of Light for extra healing.

Blessings are buffs you can apply to party members, granting them strong bonuses. Only one Blessing can be applied to a player at a time and you should always keep your party members buffed. Below are the available Blessings:

• Blessing of Might increases Melee Attack Power for any player with the buff. This is strong on any Melee DPS and Tanks.
• Blessing of Wisdom restores Mana for any player with the buff. This is good on Healers and anyone else who is in desperate need of Mana.
• Blessing of Kings increases a players total stats. This is typically the strongest buff you can provide, and if you are ever unsure what to cast on a player, you can default to this.
• Blessing of Light increases the healing done by Flash of Light and Holy Light to the target. This is the Blessing with the lowest priority and will only be cast when other buffs are already applied.

Additionally, Mass Salvation has replaced Blessing of Salvation and can now be applied in addition to any of the above Blessings. Ensure you maintain this at all times on everyone but Tanks.