Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.0.7

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.

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.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation tips, please visit our PvP page below.

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.

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.

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.

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 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.