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Holy Paladin Healing Easy Mode in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Last updated on Sep 11, 2018 at 13:50 by Adamselene 27 comments

Table of Contents

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Holy Paladin Theorycrafter Adamselene. He currently raids with War Front of Kel'Thuzad-US. You can find him on the Hammer of Wrath class Discord and the most up to date version of “The Light and How to Swing It” — the spreadsheet he maintains with Rhyno — can be found here.

1. Foreword

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.

2. The Basics of Holy Paladins

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.

That said, their mobility is weak and they lack very powerful raid-wide healing cooldowns like a Restoration Druid's Tranquility Icon Tranquility or Holy Priest's Divine Hymn Icon Divine Hymn.

3. Talent Choice for Holy Paladins

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.

4. Stat Choice for Holy Paladins

Currently, you will want to prioritise secondary stats as follows:

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

5. Basic Playstyle for Holy Paladins

5.1. Single Target / Tank Healing

In case you are forced to move and Holy Shock Icon Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr Icon 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).

5.2. Group or Raid Healing for Holy Paladins

  • Keep Beacon of Light Icon Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage. If you have selected the Beacon of Virtue Icon 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 Icon Holy Shock on cooldown.
  • Use Light of Dawn Icon Light of Dawn on cooldown, assuming it will heal 3 or more damaged targets.
  • Use any Infusion of Light Icon Infusion of Light procs on Flash of Light Icon Flash of Light on low health targets.
  • Use Bestow Faith Icon Bestow Faith on cooldown on targets who will take damage soon or are damaged, but not in immediate danger of dying.
  • Use Holy Light Icon Holy Light for low or moderate damage, prioritizing low health targets, and add Flash of Light Icon 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 Icon Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr Icon Light of the Martyr to heal a target, but we do not recommend using this spell otherwise.

6. Cooldown Usage for Holy Paladins

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

  • Avenging Crusader Icon 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 Icon Lay on Hands should be used to save dying raid members, especially tanks.
  • Holy Avenger Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Divine Protection or Divine Shield Icon 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 Icon Aura Mastery should be used at a time designated by your healing officer or raid leader.
  • Blessing of Protection Icon 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 Icon Blessing of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targeted raid member, which can be very useful in certain situations.

7. Azerite Traits for Holy Paladins

Azerite Traits are additional effects that are available on special helm, shoulder, and chest slot armor 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.

7.1. Best Outer Ring Azerite Traits

  • Grace of the Justicar Icon Grace of the Justicar: This trait is incredibly good combined with Judgment of Light Icon Judgment of Light and has no target limit, which makes it potentially very strong if you can consistently heal 4+ targets. Do not use this trait on bosses with larger hitboxes like G'huun or Mythrax as it will not hit many players.
  • Champion of Azeroth Icon Champion of Azeroth: A small boost to all secondary stats, but the long duration, high proc chance, and ability to stack up to four times, make this trait very strong.
  • Archive of the Titans Icon Archive of the Titans is a stacking Intellect buff; this trait is excellent, especially on longer fights. Like Laser Matrix Icon Laser Matrix, it also activates an Uldir-only buff.
  • Blightborne Infusion Icon Blightborne Infusion provides a large Critical Strike proc, which is always beneficial.

7.2. Best Middle Ring Azerite Traits

  • Azerite Veins Icon Azerite Veins is good mechanically, and an incredibly large heal. Low proc rate is the only downside.
  • Blessed Portents Icon Blessed Portents functions like Highfather's Machination Icon Highfather's Machination, but with half the proc rate.
  • Savior Icon Savior: Excellent trait, especially on progression. Loses value in lower difficulties or when the raid over-gears the content.

7.3. Best Inner Ring Azerite Traits

⋘Introduction
Spell Summary⋙

8. Changelog

  • 11 Sep. 2018: Updated for recent hotfixes.
  • 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
  • 10 Aug. 2018: Updated for 09 Aug. hotfixes.
  • 08 Aug. 2018: Added Information on Azerite Traits.
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