Holy Paladin Healing Easy Mode — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.3

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialisation without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Holy Paladins do best at passively supporting tanks with their beacons and single target healing in general. In addition to this, Holy Paladins are peculiar for having many tools at their disposal that allow them to handle various encounter mechanics in ways that other healers cannot. Additionally, the Glimmer of Light build grants us a powerful raid-wide healing cooldown, similar to a Restoration Druid's Tranquility or Holy Priest's Divine Hymn.

That said, their mobility is weak.

These are currently the best talent choices as a Holy Paladin. Note that some of the suggestions sacrifice a bit of performance for ease of use, but overall the difference is not great. Consult the detailed talents page for the complete picture.

• Level 15: Bestow Faith
• Level 30: Rule of Law
• Level 45: Any
• Level 60: Devotion Aura
• Level 75: Judgment of Light OR Holy Avenger
• Level 90: Avenging Crusader
• Level 100: Beacon of Faith OR Beacon of Virtue (dungeons)

For the Glimmer of Light build we advise the following:

• Level 15: Crusader's Might
• Level 30: Rule of Law
• Level 45: Any
• Level 60: Devotion Aura
• Level 75: Holy Avenger
• Level 90: Sanctified Wrath
• Level 100: Divine Purpose OR Beacon of Virtue (specific dungeons/affixes)

Currently, you will want to prioritise secondary stats for the talent choices given above as follows:

For Avenging Crusader:

1. Critical Strike;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility;
4. Mastery.

With Avenging Crusader selected, Mastery becomes your worst stat. Healing from Judgment and Crusader Strike while Avenging Crusader is active is unaffected by Mastery. Since Avenging Crusader is such a strong cooldown, this greatly reduces the value of Mastery.

For Glimmer of Light:

1. Haste;
2. Mastery;
3. Versatility;
4. Critical Strike.

For Dungeons:

1. Critical Strike;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility;
4. Mastery.

• Always keep Beacon of Light on the target.
• Use Holy Shock on them on cooldown.
• Use any Infusion of Light procs on Flash of Light.
• Use Bestow Faith on them on cooldown.
• Use Holy Light for low or moderate damage, and add Flash of Light for higher damage as needed and as Mana allows.

In case you are forced to move and Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr to heal your target if they are at risk of dying (as long as it does not put you at risk to do so).

• Keep Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage. If you have selected the Beacon of Virtue talent, use it when multiple people have taken damage and continue to heal, preferably a target that does not have the beacon buff.
• Use Holy Shock on cooldown.
• Use Light of Dawn on cooldown, assuming it will heal 3 or more damaged targets.
• Use any Infusion of Light procs on Flash of Light on low health targets.
• Use Bestow Faith on cooldown on targets who will take damage soon or are damaged, but not in immediate danger of dying.
• Use Holy Light for low or moderate damage, prioritizing low health targets, and add Flash of Light for higher damage as needed and as Mana allows.

As in the case of single target healing, if you are forced to move and Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr to heal a target, but we do not recommend using this spell otherwise.

As a Holy Paladin, you have several healing cooldowns. You should use them as we explain below:

• Avenging Crusader should be used as often as possible throughout the fight, but you should also consider saving it for periods of high sustained damage. Make sure that you have a target to attack and can safely be in melee range of a target for the entire duration of Avenging Crusader.
• Lay on Hands should be used to save dying raid members, especially tanks.
• Holy Avenger is a Haste-increasing cooldown that you should use as often as possible, as long as there is healing to be done. It can be combined with Avenging Crusader if incredibly high healing is required, but most often will be used alone in order to speed up your non-instant heals during periods of moderate to high damage.
• Blessing of Sacrifice is excellent for reducing the damage taken by the tank, or other raid members. Be cautious, however, because Blessing of Sacrifice can be dangerous to your own life if used without a damage reduction cooldown such as Divine Protection or Divine Shield, or when simultaneous raid damage independently threatens your life such that the additional damage taken from Blessing of Sacrifice can lead to your death.
• Aura Mastery should be used at a time designated by your healing officer or raid leader.
• Blessing of Protection can be used to clear harmful physical damage debuffs and bleeds from the target. Be mindful of the fact that bosses will not attack targets affected by Blessing of Protection, though, so only cast it on the current tank if the off-tank is prepared to take over.
• Blessing of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targeted raid member, which can be very useful in certain situations.

Cooldown usage for Glimmer of Light is a little different than for the more traditional Avenging Crusader build. In addition to Avenging Wrath Glimmer always plays with Holy Avenger. The key to this is to combine these together (this means delaying the use of Holy Avenger), and to spread as many glimmers as possible. This is done 10-15 seconds before damage hits, so that when damage hits you will have a large number of active glimmers on the raid.

1. Activate Holy Avenger, followed by activating Wings.
2. Use Holy Shock to spread the Glimmer buff (even if this means casting on full health targets).
3. Use Crusader Strike to reduce the cooldown of Holy Shock
4. During downtime when both Holy Shock and Crusader strike are on cooldown, fill with either Flash of Light (single-target) or Light of Dawn (multi-target).

Essences have both Major and Minor powers, with Major powers typically being a new ability you can use, and the Minor powers granting you a passive buff of some kind. Good essences to aim for are as follows.

• Major — Vision of Perfection ( Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection) grants you a short duration of Avenging Wrath, and a cooldown reduction on Avenging Wrath.
• Minor — The Well of Existence ( Refreshment) grants you a strong single-target healing ability that is recharged by your overhealing. The minor ( The Well of Existence) automatically heals players below a certain threshhold.
• Minor — Conflict and Strife ( Conflict) Grants a spec specific pvp talent as major, while the minor ( Strife) grants a large versatility buff with a nearly permanent uptime.
• Minor — Unwavering Ward ( Guardian Shell) grants an ability that spreads orbs around you, with anyone touching it receiving an absorption shield and healing. The minor ( Unwavering Ward) grants a small healing shield to anyone around you.

See the Holy Paladin Essences page for a full ranking of each trait.

Azerite Traits are additional effects that are available on special helm, shoulder, and chest slot armour throughout Battle for Azeroth. These Azerite traits will scale with the item level of the item and all versions of an item will have the same traits. Some of the traits are generic while others are specialization or role specific. Azerite gear will have either two (Rare Armor) or three (Epic Armor) rings of traits. For the purpose of this guide the rings will be referred to as the outer, middle, and inner rings. Rare armor does not have a middle ring.

For your convenience we have listed the best Azerite traits on each ring below. To read our comprehensive trait rankings, please see our Azerite Traits page.

• Heart of Darkness is a buff that grants a static bonus to secondary stats as long as your Corruption level remains above 25.
• Loyal to the End is a big Mastery bonus, both for you and your party.
• Breaking Dawn is an excellent trait to have, since it allows you to use Light of Dawn even on encounters where the raid is spread out. More than one of this trait is not recommended, since the range increase does not stack.
• Grace of the Justicar is incredibly good when combined with Judgment of Light. It is limited to ten targets. It is potentially very strong if you can consistently heal 4+ targets.
• Glimmer of Light is a good trait even if you do not use the talent build that focuses on it as a major source of healing.

• Azerite Veins is good mechanically, and an incredibly large heal. Low proc rate is the only downside. Because of the low proc rate, other strong Azerite traits should be chosen if you have more than one of this trait.
• Blessed Portents functions like Highfather's Machination, but with half the proc rate.

• Impassive Visage is a very strong trait that provides regular healing in all situations.
• Resounding Protection is a new version of the Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus shield, this trait is always effective.