Holy Paladin Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.1.5)

Holy Paladin is one of the best leveling classes in the game. You have extreme versatility in the fact that you can either tank or heal dungeons while also swapping to DPS for solo questing.

At lower levels, you will often have the easiest time leveling up by playing Holy or Prot and queueing for dungeons due to the nearly instant queue time. Even if you find yourself uncomfortable healing or tanking, early leveling dungeons aren't too difficult, so they are a good opportunity to learn! At higher levels where questing becomes faster and, in some cases, mandatory (expansion campaign), you will want to spec into either Ret or Prot as they offer much higher damage than holy.

When leveling up, always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

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Your first talent point unlocks at Level 10.

This is the recommended talent build:

When you first create your Paladin, you will only have one ability available to you: Crusader Strike. At level 2, you will unlock Shield of the Righteous, and at level 3, you gain Judgment. At level 10, you can officially spec into Holy.

1. Use Holy Shock on cooldown.
2. Use Judgment on cooldown.
3. Use Crusader Strike on cooldown.
4. If you are fighting multiple targets, you can choose to drop Consecration.

Once you reach level 10, you will be able to queue for dungeons. If you plan on leveling as Holy, you will want to make use of the dungeon finder tool. It will be by far the most efficient way to level up when playing Holy. If you are interested in an in-depth rotation breakdown, you can check out our rotation page. Otherwise, we have a summary of how to use some of the healing spells available to Holy Paladin:

1. Cast Holy Shock off cooldown.
2. Cast Hammer of Wrath when an enemy is below 20% Health to generate 1 Holy Power. Only do this if no one is in danger of dying.
3. Cast Divine Toll if your party is in need of quick burst healing or if you want to damage enemies.
4. Cast Aura Mastery if your group is taking large amounts of damage. Make sure you have Devotion Aura selected!
5. Cast Avenging Wrath if your group is taking a lot of damage or you would like to deal more damage. This is your primary cooldown to increase your healing/damage.
6. Cast Light of Dawn if you have 3 Holy Power and you have 3 or more allies in need of healing.
7. Cast Word of Glory if you have 3 Holy Power and your target is in need of healing.
8. Cast Holy Light if your target will not die before you finish the cast.
9. Cast Flash of Light if your target is in danger of dying if they do not receive an immediate heal.
10. Use your DPS rotation (detailed above) if no healing is required.

While most classes received spec abilities that were specific to what they wanted to play, Paladin is relatively generic. Despite specializing in Holy, you gain access to the majority of your healing abilities before you reach level 10 and have the opportunity to select Holy. That being said, there are still important cooldowns and utility abilities unique to Holy, which you will only unlock once you begin leveling up as Holy.

To prevent cluttering the guide with a lot of the same information, we recommend you take a look at our dedicated spell page, which will provide you with more in-depth information on Holy Paladin spells.

Here, you will find information on the best PvP talents for both leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content.

1. Avenging Light is excellent in group content, as it provides free damage to your party. Holy Light is an ability you will likely use a lot, and Avenging Light will cause it to damage enemies whenever you choose to heal an ally with Holy Light.
2. Light's Grace makes one of your main abilities ( Holy Light), significantly stronger. This talent will not have much use in solo play, but it is excellent when healing allies.
3. Darkest before the Dawn allows you to stack up your Light of Dawn to do quite a bit more healing. As you will not be casting this ability very frequently, it makes it even stronger when you do choose to use it to keep your group healthy.

Holy Paladin unfortunately does not have any strong solo leveling PvP talents. Most of their benefits will only be seen while playing in group content. PvP talents not listed above are not worth considering as they do not provide use outside of very niche situations.