Holy Paladin Healing Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Heading into Midnight, Blizzard wanted to focus on reducing the amount of healing sources that Holy Paladin has while also removing the need to track multiple different buffs such as Awakening. Additionally, they wanted to cut back on the number of cooldowns available to the spec while also making Aura Mastery feel more impactful. Even Crusader Strike has been removed as more emphasis is placed on Holy Shock and Infusion of Light. Finally, Light of Dawn received adjustments its targetting and now no longer heals players in front of you but instead players around you. Some of the core changes will be listed below:

• Holy Prism and Divine Toll now share a choice node.
• Hammer of Wrath is no longer castable and instead replaces Judgment during Avenging Wrath. Hammer of Wrath will gain all the talent benefits that Judgment does when this occurs.
• Crusader Strike has been removed, but when you talent into Avenging Crusader it returns during the cooldown.
• Crusader's Might has been redesigned. It now causes Holy Shock to reduce the cooldown of Judgment and your Judgment to reduce the cooldown of Holy Shock.
• The following talents have been removed: Barrier of Faith, Blessing of the Seasons, Boundless Salvation, Merciful Auras, and Relentless Inquisitor.
• Numerous new talents were added, and some have been redesigned.

In addition to these changes, you will gain access to the new Apex Talents as well as 3 new Hero Talent choices. Our Apex Talent: Beacon of the Savior is incredibly powerful but you will be unable to access it until Midnight Launch. Additionally, you will be unable to select every Hero Talent until you reach max level in Midnight.

In both Pre-Patch and Midnight, Holy Paladin gameplay will remain largely intact with a focus on maximizing the amount of Holy Power you can spend on either Eternal Flame or Light of Dawn. In previous iterations we heavily relied on Flash of Light and Crusader Strike as "filler" globals, but now you should have much less filler globals overall. Most of the time you will find yourself alternating between Holy Shock and Judgment followed by spending your Holy Power. Very rarely you may need to use a Flash of Light. Due to Crusader Strike being removed, there is also almost no reason to play entirely in melee. If things get extremely crowded or you are having trouble seeing certain mechanics, you can step back for a second with absolutely no punishment.

When playing a Avenging Crusader build, your rotation will look largely the same, but you will have some slight differences in ability usage. During Avening Crusader, you regain access to Crusader Strike. This means that you will still follow the typical gameplay of rotating between Judgment and Crusader Strike, while still spending as much Holy Power as possible.

Herald of the Sun has two notable changes in Midnight. The very first is the new talent: Walk Into Light. This talent provides an interesting bonus, causing your next Holy Shock after casting Avenging Wrath to generate an additional 2 Holy Power and guaranteeing a proc of Blessing of An'she. This gives you a very strong Holy Shock cast heading into your primary throughput cooldown. The other change is the reduction of power placed into Dawnlight. Throughout The War Within, Dawnlights made up a large percentage of your overall healing. After different buffs and nerfs to the spec, Dawnlight has lost a lot of power and it will be much less punishing. While you still will want to maximize your casts and target players where you can get high value, it will be much less important.

Lightsmith has gained some interesting talents in Midnight that will increase its power. Reflection of Radiance causes you to have a chance of triggering Awakening when Holy Armaments are active and being utilized. While Awakening no longer triggers Avenging Wrath in Midnight, this is still a powerful addition to Lightsmith that should improve the healing done by Hammer and Anvil. It is important to note that this talent does not require you to be talented into Awakening to work, it will trigger regardless of your talent choices.

We hope this summary helped you prepare for the Midnight launch on March 2nd, or February 27th with Early Access. If you want to prepare for your leveling journey in Midnight, make sure to check out our recommended consumables and items that can help you reach max-level in Midnight faster!