Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Holy Paladin, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Holy Paladin rotation.
Foreword
Welcome to our Rotation page for Holy Paladins. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
While healers do not follow strict rotations, there are many different ideas to consider, and once you gain a general understanding of how to prioritize your different spells, you will want to continue reading down the page to find more info on how to play some of the more advanced elements of the spec.
Beginner Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our page dedicated to Beginners and those who want an easier experience; this outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Rotation / Playstyle for Holy Paladins
Healing as a Holy Paladin is, for the most part, all about casting the core abilities as much as possible and in the right circumstances. Regardless of if you are focusing on Raiding, Mythic+, or even PvP, your rotation will be somewhat similar, making it easy to transition between the different types of content.
Standard Melee Rotation
The standard melee rotation focuses on casting Holy Shock as much
as possible to gain healing through
Glimmer of Light and to generate
as much Holy Power as possible for
Light of Dawn. Our goal is to cast
these two abilities as much as possible. We will also be making use of
Infusion of Light
as much as possible in order to reduce the cooldown of Holy Shock through the
Imbued Infusions talent.
- Keep
Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
- Apply
Barrier of Faith to a tank or another target taking high damage.
- If at 5 Holy Power, cast
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Use
Holy Shock if you have two charges.
- Consume
Infusion of Light.
- Cast
Holy Shock.
- Cast
Judgment.
- Spend Holy Power.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when possible.
- Cast
Consecration if you have nothing else to do.
- Cast
Crusader Strike as your lowest priority.
Avenging Crusader Rotation
The main rotational changes for the Avenging Crusader build come
in the form of maximizing your healing during the Avenging Crusader window.
This means you will be prioritizing
Judgment over any other ability.
When you have Avenging Crusader active, your priority will be the following:
- Keep
Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
- Apply
Barrier of Faith to a tank or another target taking high damage.
- Cast
Judgment.
- If at 5 Holy Power, cast
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Cast
Crusader Strike.
- Cast
Holy Shock on cooldown.
- Cast
Holy Prism.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath.
- Spend Holy Power.
When Avenging Crusader is not active, your rotation will change slightly.
Holy Shock will be much more important, and we want to make sure we are
constantly consuming
Infusion of Light when possible.
- Keep
Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
- Apply
Barrier of Faith to a tank or another target taking high damage.
- If at 5 Holy Power, cast
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Use
Holy Shock if you have two charges.
- Consume
Infusion of Light.
- Cast
Holy Prism.
- Cast
Judgment.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when possible.
- Cast
Holy Shock.
- Spend Holy Power.
- Cast
Crusader Strike.
- Cast
Consecration if you have nothing else to do.
5-Man Healing
5-man healing is very similar to raiding rotations, with the exception
that you will be casting Word of Glory much more frequently.
- Cast
Beacon of Virtue whenever your group is in need of healing.
- When you have 5 Holy Power, cast
Word of Glory for single-target healing and when your group members aren't stacked. Cast
Light of Dawn when your group members are stacked (especially if
Beacon of Virtue is active).
- Cast
Holy Shock on cooldown.
- Consume
Infusion of Light on
Flash of Light when necessary.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when possible.
- Cast
Judgment.
- Cast
Crusader Strike.
- Cast
Consecration if it is not already active.
- Spend Holy Power if you have 3 or 4.
While every Infusion of Light proc will have some use,
Flash of Light
has very strong synergy with
Divine Revelations,
Tower of Radiance
and
Beacon of Virtue. One of the strongest heals you can output in small
group content comes from using Beacon of Virtue, followed by a Flash of Light
on one of the beacon targets.
If you in more information about how Holy Paladin plays in 5-man content please refer to our dedicated Mythic+ page which you can find below:
DPS Rotation
Dealing damage as a Holy Paladin is fairly simple, and most of it will come when you are doing healing anyway. If you find yourself trying to maximize your overall damage output with no regard for your healing, you can follow this rotation:
- Keep
Consecration on the ground. This is especially important in AoE situations.
- Cast
Shield of the Righteous if you have the Holy Power available to do so.
- Cast
Judgment off cooldown if using the
Righteous Judgment talent.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath off cooldown.
- Cast
Holy Shock off cooldown.
- Use
Crusader Strike if everything else is on cooldown.
Holy Power
With many different ways to generate Holy Power, you will often have to make
the decision of whether to cast Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
In raid settings,
Light of Dawn will almost always be superior unless
a player is about to die. In small group content and Mythic+, it is harder
to get full value from Light of Dawn, making
Word of Glory a more
desirable cast. That being said, if you do find your group members stacked
up and not in need of a strong single-target heal, then
Light of Dawn
can still be extremely effective.
Using Infusions
Throughout Shadowlands and BfA, Holy Paladin did not really ever use their
Infusion of Light procs and ignored them to continue their normal
rotation. In Dragonflight, this has changed specifically due to
Imbued Infusions. With so much our kit revolving around
Holy Shock
and
Glimmer of Light, we want to cast Holy Shock as much as possible.
Reducing the cooldown of it through Imbued Infusions is what helps to enable
the general playstyle for every build. There are currently three ways to consume
Infusion of Light:
Holy Light generates 2 Holy Power.
Flash of Light reduces the mana cost by 70%.
Judgment prevents an additional 100% damage dealt by the target.
In general, consuming an Infusion of Light proc on any of these three abilities
will give you close results. The actual best choice is highly situational. In most
cases, you will want to use
Flash of Light as your default cast due to
Divine Revelations and the opportunity to gain a quick Holy Power through
Tower of Radiance. When your group is not taking heavy damage, then you should
instead be consuming infusion with
Judgment.
Holy Light is very strong
if you will have time to finish the full cast before damage is healed and your
group is well stacked to make use of
Resplendent Light. In general,
you will be using Holy Light the least and cast Judgment or Flash of Light 50/50.
Beacon Target Selection
With the reintroduction of Beacon of the Lightbringer, choosing the best
beacon targets is a bit more complicated due to
Beacon of Faith. In Mythic+,
you will generally use it on your two squishiest DPS players unless your tank is
taking very heavy damage. In raid, you will use one beacon on the tank taking the
most damage and the other on a ranged DPS. By standing in melee and having a
beacon on a ranged target, you will have full mastery effectiveness at all times,
resulting in a massive healing increase. If you are facing an encounter where
the raid is stacked, or both tanks are taking heavy damage, you can instead
place the beacons on both tanks or on players who are most in danger. You should
not aim to be swapping it mid-combat, though, unless a player with it dies.
Cooldown Usage for Holy Paladins
As a Holy Paladin, you have several healing cooldowns. You should use them as we explain below:
Avenging Wrath increases your healing done and damage done by 20% for 20 seconds. It is very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
Daybreak is fairly simple to use as it just instantly causes all of your active
Glimmer of Lights to trigger and be consumed, returning mana. This is an extremely strong burst heal, and you will want to be making constant use of it for not only the healing but the mana return as well.
Divine Toll is a strong burst heal that can be used to quickly apply
Glimmer of Light to your allies. For that reason, it is best used after
Daybreak in order to get glimmers out on your allies right after consuming them.
Tyr's Deliverance will buff your allies, increasing the healing you can do to them with
Flash of Light,
Holy Light, and
Holy Shock. When using this ability, you will want to make sure you are casting these spells on buffed allies, as well as extending the duration as long as possible with the
Boundless Salvation.
Lay on Hands should be used to save dying raid members, especially tanks.
Blessing of Sacrifice lasts 12 seconds, transferring 30% of the damage taken by your target to you. The effect is automatically canceled if the transferred damage would cause you to fall below 20% health. This cooldown 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 empowers your chosen aura, increasing its range to 40 yards and also improving its efficiency. It is a raid cooldown, and it 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.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Paladin
The above information should be sufficient to allow you to play a Holy Paladin at a very high level. There are only a few more details that you need to understand to further improve your performance.
Mastery: Lightbringer
Mastery: Lightbringer increases your healing to targets the closer
they are to your position. Specifically, your healing is maximized on targets
that are within 10 yards of you, and it decreases the farther away they are
from then on. In general, being with the melee group will maximize your benefit
from Mastery, and you should be there unless you can identify a specific reason
to do otherwise.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Page Updated for 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 07 Aug. 2023: Updated rotation and added more info about Beacon of Light targetting.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Rotations updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 27 May 2023: Avenging Crusader rotation updated.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, who plays healer in Liquid. He is a Templar in the Paladin class discord. You can reach him on Twitter and watch him stream on Twitch.
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