Holy Paladin Healing Guide — Dragonflight 10.2

Heading into Dragonflight, many beloved Holy Paladin abilities such as Divine Toll and Tyr's Deliverance have returned. Overall the spec feels closer to previous iterations where Holy Shock feels like a very powerful ability. Many talents were also added to increase the power of casting in order to give players desiring a casting playstyle stronger options to increase their output. The biggest reason for excitement in the Holy Paladin talent trees is that you will be able to play the spec however you wish to. If you want to cast, there are plenty of options, and if you prefer a melee playstyle, then you also have talents amplifying that playstyle. The talent tree has everything you could hope for and then some.

Holy Paladins specialize in tank and single-target healing, with this being their primary role. They excel at this because of Beacon of Light and Holy Shock, as well as their efficient single-target heals. They also possess several tools that help them mitigate or avoid damage, both on themselves and on other raid members, such as Blessing of Protection and Devotion Aura. With so much utility, they are consistently one of the strongest specs in every form of content and have been that way for years.

In order to properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our healing guide.

Strengths

• Provide excellent passive tank healing through Beacon of Light.
• Have many utility spells such as Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Freedom that can be cast on themselves or others.
• Have very high survivability due to plate armor, as well as defensive spells like Divine Protection or Divine Shield.
• Extremely high damage output for a healer as our core healing abilities like Crusader Strike and Judgment provide both healing and damage in the same cast.
• Very valuable in raiding content thanks to having a very powerful raid cooldown in Aura Mastery.

Weaknesses

• Struggle to heal multiple spread targets quickly since it relies heavily on Light of Dawn for Area of Effect (AoE) healing
• Generally not a very mobile healer, with only Divine Steed as a movement speed increase.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Paladins, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.

In Patch 10.2, Holy Paladin received fairly decent nerfs to its overall healing, damage , and mana. That being said, it did receive some buffs to spells such as Flash of Light, Holy Light, Holy Prism, and Word of Glory. Overall, the class still remains fairly strong and viable in every form of content.

For a full list of Holy Paladin changes in Patch 10.2, you can visit the dedicated Class Changes page below:

The Holy Paladin playstyle and talent choices were only minorly changed heading into the new patch. While every page has received minor tweaks, it is recommended to visit the talent page specifically to ensure your talents are up to date with the latest builds.

As more data is collected from Raid and Mythic+, there is a good chance that minor adjustments are made to the recommended talents. Keep an eye out for changes over the next few weeks.

If you want to play a Holy Paladin but currently do not have one at max level, you can check out our leveling guide for tips on your journey.

Once you reach the max level, it can be somewhat overwhelming to completely change the way you play by suddenly implementing a large number of addons in a short space of time, especially if they have a heavy visual impact on your UI. We recommend using some of the more basic addons recommended on our Addons page below while leveling so that you have more time to get used to them during the easier phases of playing your class.

Having a not only comfortable but solid UI is incredibly important, especially once you hit max level. To prevent yourself from being overwhelmed by all the choices, we recommend starting with some basic addons while you are going through the leveling process. This will help you get accustomed to the different addons while the class is still in a relatively easier phase.

Holy Paladin, like any healer, is all about using your abilities strategically. Rather than a fixed rotation, you will be using your flexible spell kit to adapt and overcome whatever the game throws at you.

In order to be a successful Holy Paladin, it is vital you make use of your cooldown abilities as efficiently as possible. This means using Holy Shock, Judgment, and Crusader Strike as many times as possible over the course of a fight as well as consuming Infusion of Light.

If you are an absolute beginner to the spec but would like to learn the basic fundamentals of the class, I recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below.

If you are familiar with Paladin and how it plays, you can jump right into our Talent and Rotation pages.

If you are interested in finding out what gear will put your Holy Paladin in the best possible position to perform well, I would recommend looking at our gear page. Here, you can find information on the best items available for Holy Paladin.

To be successful, you will want to make sure you have the correct consumables, gems, enchants, and more. On top of this, you will want to check our stats page to help you make the correct decision when choosing what consumables to use.

Even with the introduction of a new talent system, Holy Paladin remains a top healer choice for any form of content. Holy Paladin will continue to bring extremely high damage, unique utility, an immunity, and very strong single-target healing. In many cases, these strengths that have existed for multiple expansions at this point are only amplified by new talents in Dragonflight. Divine Toll, a popular covenant choice throughout Shadowlands, returns in the form of a new talent. Holy Shock has received many talents to increase its power and have the ability to feel as strong as ever. Regardless of whether you prefer Mythic+, Arena, or even raiding, Holy Paladin will be one of the strongest healers.

There are three main forms of end-game content. Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP. In each of them, the class plays slightly differently. In order to perform as well as possible for your preferred form of content, we recommend reading one of our dedicated pages, which you can find below.

If you feel like you are not performing as well as you should be. You can visit one of our pages below to help find information on common mistakes and frequently asked questions.