Holy Paladin Healing Guide — 12.1

Midnight Season 2 is well underway, and has all of the usual endgame offerings available. Two new raids are available: Venomous Abyss and Tidebound Grotto as well as the new Seasons of Mythic+ and PvP. Below, we have some quick links to dedicated hubs covering everything available!

While Patch 12.1 may not offer any new systems, many of the previous ones including Bonus Rolls and Great Vault gear have been updated to make acquiring high level Myth track gear even easier to acquire. Additionally, as with any new patch, there will be a new zone, new items to collect, and many other quality of life improvements.

New Patch Content

Patch 12.1 Overview

Check out our 12.1 Patch Hub for all the information you may need on new content, new gameplay systems, and more!

Midnight Patch 12.1 Guide

In Patch 12.1, Holy Paladin received numerous buffs to throughput, allowing it to better compete with the top throughput specs, providing more choice within talent selections, and increasing the power of Word of Glory. Below we will lost some of the key changes:

• Pillars of Light, Saved by the Light and Glistening Radiance all received numerical buffs which increases the power of Beacon of Virtue as these talents synergize much better with it than Beacon of Faith
• Word of Glory/ Eternal Flame was buffed to the point of being stronger than Light of Dawn, meaning that you will always prioritize it in Raid and Mythic+ settings.
• Call of the Righteous now decreases the duration of Avenging Wrath and Avenging Crusader by less. This is unlikely to have an impact in raid settings but may make it more desirable in Mythic+.

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.
• 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.

In Midnight, you will gain access to Beacon of the Savior, the new Apex talent. This ability has 3 separate ranks that all increase its power. Below we will break down what each individual rank does:

• Rank 1 — While in combat, you will gain an additional beacon called Beacon of the Savior. This beacon will automatically be placed on the lowest health ally and will transfer to the new lowest health ally if it heals a player above 50% or another ally drops below 50%.
• Rank 2 — Increases the amount of healing transferred by Beacon of the Savior and increases the amount of healing you do to the target with Beacon of the Savior.
• Rank 3 — Every 8 seconds or when Beacon of the Savior transfers, an absorb shield is placed on the target that also provides damage reduction until the shield is broken.

The most important aspect of Beacon of the Savior is that it also benefits from any talents that amplify Beacon of Light. This means that Commanding Light, Saved by the Light, Light's Protection and even Beacon of the Lightbringer all buff Beacon of the Savior. This effectively means that you have an extra Beacon at all times. Additionally, due Rank 2 of Beacon of the Savior also increasing the healing you do to Savior targets, it is significantly less punishing than normal to heal directly into your Beacon of the Savior. At some times it can even be beneficial compared to standard beacons where you tend to avoid healing into them.

Herald of the Sun has two notable changes in Midnight. One being the new talent: Walk Into Light. This gives you two Holy Power when entering Avenging Wrath. You will ideally want to make sure that you aren't capped on Holy Power when pressing your major cooldown, but it isn't the overall end of the world. 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.

In 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. This choice will continue to depend on the form of content you are doing, with Mythic+ wanting to cast Eternal Flame and Raid Light of Dawn. Outside of this, you will be focused on maximizing your casts of Holy Shock while weaving in Flash of Light casts when necessary. Judgment has lost a ton of power and you will typically only press it when doing Mythic+ content and when you want to increase your damage. Healing will focus on Holy Shock, Flash of Light and a Holy Power spender. 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 Avenging 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.