Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.0.7
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 10.0.7.
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 priortize 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.
Easy Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Easy Mode page, which 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 using the correct spells for the specific circumstances in which you find yourself, particularly with regard to how many raid members are taking damage, how much damage they are taking, where they are located, and what spells you have available.
Single Target / Tank Healing
Healing a single target is a matter of performing a few straightforward tasks.
- Always keep
Beacon of Light on the target.
- Use
Holy Shock on them on cooldown.
- If the target is not in immediate danger and
Holy Shock is on cooldown, use
Crusader Strike to generate 1 Holy Power.
- Use
Word of Glory on them if you have the Holy Power available.
- Use
Holy Light for low damage, and add
Flash of Light for higher damage as needed and as your Mana permits.
Naturally, if the target is not taking enough damage to justify using all of the above on them, you should instead use the spells to heal other raid members as needed.
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).
If you are interested in reading about how the rotation for Holy Paladin
changes with the Maraad's Dying Breath Legendary, please visit the
Legendary page.
Raid Healing for Holy Paladins
To heal raid damage, make use of your spells as follows.
- Keep
Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
- Use
Holy Shock on cooldown.
- Cast
Crusader Strike (if
Crusader's Might is selected) as often as possible for Holy Power and to reduce the cooldown of
Holy Shock.
- Using
Hammer of Wrath when permitted will give you 1 Holy Power for no Mana cost. You will want to use this when you are unable to cast any of your higher priority abilities.
- Use
Light of Dawn if you have the Holy Power available and the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it.
- Cast
Judgment whenever you do not have the
Empyrean Legacy debuff, allowing you gain a much stronger
Light of Dawn cast.
- When above abilities are on cooldown, use
Consecration to gain healing through
Golden Path.
- Use
Holy Light if you have an
Infusion of Light proc and you can cast it without putting yourself in danger or impacting the rest of your rotation.
- Use
Flash of Light if you have an
Infusion of Light proc and you do not have a chance to use
Holy Light. You can use it on a raid member in danger, or on your
Beacon of Light target to generate 1 Holy Power.
- If no one in your group is in need of healing, and you will not need to
heal them in the next couple seconds. Use
Shield of the Righteous to deal damage.
The key to Holy Paladin raid healing requires you to generate and spend holy
power as frequently as possible. Whether it be through Holy Shock,
Crusader Strike or even
Hammer of Wrath it is important that you
consistently generate and spend Holy Power as efficiently as possible. In raid
you will primarily spend Holy Power on
Light of Dawn as this is higher
HPS than
Word of Glory. By generating and spending frequently and without
wasting Holy Power, you are able to keep higher uptime of
Avenging Wrath
thanks to
Awakening.
If you are playing the Maraad's Dying Breath build, then you will want
to make sure you are casting
Light of the Martyr after each
Light of Dawn
cast. This will give you exceptionally strong single target healing.
When playing a Avenging Crusader build, your priority will change
slightly.
Judgment and
Crusader Strike gain significant power
as they now heal allies. You will want to make sure that you get as many casts
as possible of these abilities during your
Avenging Crusader window.
Just ensure that you are not overcapping Holy Power as you will still want to
cast
Light of Dawn as much as possible.
Casting Rotation
When playing a talent build focused on casting abilities, your rotation
will not overly change except for the fact you will want to make use of your
Infusion of Light procs more than you would with a melee playstyle.
That being said, it is still more optimal to cast either
Holy Light
or
Flash of Light on your
Beacon of Light target. The more holy
power you are spending, the more healing you will be outputting. The main
difference between a caster playstyle and a melee playstyle is simply how you
generate Holy Power. Where a melee build may rely on
Crusader Strike for
its Holy Power generation, casters instead focus on both Holy Light and Flash
of Light, once again prioritizing casting them on your beacon target to
generate extra Holy Power thanks to
Tower of Radiance.
The general rotation will follow something along these lines:
- Keep
Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
- Use
Holy Shock on cooldown in order to proc
Infusion of Light.
- Cast
Holy Light on a
Beacon of Light target when you get a proc of
Infusion of Light.
- Use
Flash of Light instead of Holy Light with a proc if someone is in immediate danger that could kill them before you get a Holy Light cast off.
- Use
Light of Dawn if you have the Holy Power available and the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it. If only a single target requires healing, you could opt for
Word of Glory but Light of Dawn is the higher HPS spell.
- Use
Hammer of Wrath to generate more Holy Power.
- Cast non-
Infusion of Light
Holy Lights on your
Beacon of Light target to generate more Holy Power.
- Use
Judgment or
Crusader Strike to deal more damage or generate a Holy Power.
- If no one in your group is in need of healing, and you will not need to
heal them in the next couple seconds. Use
Shield of the Righteous to deal damage.
5-Man Healing
5-man healing is very similar to single target healing, with the exception
that you will sometimes find uses for Light of Dawn, and that if you
have the
Beacon of Virtue talent, you should use it when multiple
party members are taking damage.
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:
Holy Power
The two main ways of generating Holy Power come from Holy Shock and
Crusader Strike. While you will want to use Holy Shock on cooldown,
Crusader Strike is a bit different. You will want to use this ability as often
as possible in your rotation, if you have selected the talent
Crusader's Might. If you have not, this ability will have less priority
in the rotation, as it has a high Mana cost. Whenever using Crusader Strike,
make sure to keep an eye on your Mana, as it can deplete a lot more quickly
than our Mana pool did throughout previous expansions.
The other two ways to generate Holy Power is through the use of Hammer of Wrath
and directly healing your
Beacon of Light target with
Holy Light or
Flash of Light. In general, you will want to avoid healing your
beacon target as it can result in overhealing, but the option does exist if you
are in desperate need of Holy Power. Hammer of Wrath should be used
when you cannot
Holy Shock or
Crusader Strike for optimal
healing output.
Whether you use this Holy Power on Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory will depend on what kind of damage the group is taking. If
you need single-target healing, you would use
Word of Glory. If you
needed AoE healing, you would use
Light of Dawn.
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 not changed much. When you get an
infusion proc you still have two options. You can use
Holy Light on a
target who is in need of healing. If you decide you cannot use Holy Light, you
will want to use
Flash of Light on your beacon target (or someone who
is at risk of dying) to generate Holy Power, assuming you have the Mana to do
so. If either of the casts will impact your core rotation, you will want to
ignore the
Infusion of Light proc entirely and not consume it.
Holy Light scales extremely well with the conduit
Resplendent Light which makes it an incredibly strong ability. However,
you do not want to cast Holy Light if you have
Holy Shock coming off
cooldown before the cast will finish. If someone might die without receiving an
immediate heal, casting Holy Light would also be a mistake.
Flash of Light has turned into a very efficient ability when it is
buffed from
Infusion of Light. Because of this, we can use it on our
Beacon of Light target for 1 Holy Power by casting it on a tank or simply
using it on a target in danger of dying. In most cases you will want to
prioritize the extra Holy Power when possible.
What ability you use will be situational and you will have to decide in
the moment. Generally you will want to prioritize casting Holy Light
unless it will impact your rotation or result in overhealing. Otherwise you
will want to use
Flash of Light or delay your
Infusion of Light
cast until a better opportunity arises. In most cases, your Infusion of Light
buff will expire before you have a chance to use it as Holy Paladin has many
abilities that are higher in priority than consuming the buff.
A Word on Light of the Martyr
Light of the Martyr is an instant cast spell that heals your target
and damages you for 50% of the healing amount. It cannot be cast on yourself
and it does not trigger healing on your
Beacon of Light target unless
you are using the
Maraad's Dying Breath legendary.
Due to the damage it causes to yourself, and the fact it does not transfer
healing to beacons, its net total healing is quite poor. But because of the
large up-front heal to the target, it can be a potent life-saving tool. This
is why we do not recommend using Light of the Martyr outside of the
specific situations mentioned above and absolutely never if there is a risk
your low health or incoming mechanics may cause you to die from the additional
damage the spell inflicts on you.
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 Critical Strike chance by 30% for 20. It is very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
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
- 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.
- New Potential Evoker Spells Added in Patch 10.1 Build 48661
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- Mythic+ Tier List in Dragonflight Season 1 (Week 15)
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes: March 22nd
- Class Set Updates and Clarifications in Patch 10.1: March 22nd
- Dragonflight Patch 10.1 PTR Dev Notes: March 22nd