Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.2)
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 — The War Within (11.0.2).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Holy Paladin rotation.
Holy Paladin Rotation Guide for The War Within
Welcome to our Rotation page for Holy Paladins. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Holy Paladin Rotations
Each of the sections below explain the rotation for Holy Paladin depending on the build you choose and the content you are doing.
Holy Paladin Rotation
The buttons below can be used to select between curated Raiding and Mythic+ loadouts. You can also use the switches below to add or remove individual talents you may also be using:
Talent Selections, etc. | ||
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Spell Priority for Holy Paladin
Regardless of build choice, your primary focus will be casting as many Holy Shocks
as possible, as well as spending as much Holy Power as possible through one of:
Light of Dawn,
Word of Glory (or
Eternal Flame), or
Shield of the Righteous.
When you can do none of the above, you will begin casting abilities that are less important or
serve as maintenance buffs that you need to keep on cooldown as much as possible (think
Holy Prism).
When no healing is needed, the priority will change slightly, and your goals will be to keep
Consecration down as much as possible and spending Holy Power on
Shield of the Righteous.
If you end up talenting into
Righteous Judgment, then you will want to also keep
Judgment
on cooldown to have a chance at spawning extra consecrates.
When you select a desired build, you will be given much more detailed priority lists that explain how and when to use each ability.
Holy Paladin — Raid Casting Build
When playing this build, keep in mind that despite being a "Casting" build,
you will still want to stay towards melee. This will allow you to not only auto-attack the boss, but also gain value from abilities such as Crusader Strike,
Consecration, and even the rare
Shield of the Righteous.
Where this build differs from the "melee" build is that it focuses on consuming
Infusion of Light as much as possible to gain extra healing through not
only the proc consumption, but the extra
Holy Shock and Holy Power spender casts
- Keep
Beacon of Light and
Beacon of Faith on two ranged targets who have weak survivability (Hunters, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, etc).
- Use
Blessing of Summer as much as possible during a fight. Every buff can be safely placed upon yourself with only
Blessing of Summer requiring any additional thought (when possible, aim to have it up during cooldowns.)
- Keep
Holy Prism on cooldown as much as possible to proc
Dawnlight. When possible, you will want to use Holy Prism during
Awakening to generate extra
Sun's Avatar procs.
- Cast
Eternal Flame when you have the
Empyrean Legacy proc off cooldown.
- Spend Holy Power on
Light of Dawn or
Eternal Flame.
- Cast
Holy Shock as much as possible.
- Aim to cast
Holy Light when you have both a
Divine Favor proc availableAND a
Infusion of Light proc.
- Spend remaining Holy Power if possible.
- Consume
Infusion of Light when you cannot
Holy Shock and do not have enough Holy Power to use
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Keep
Tyr's Deliverance on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Judgment when you cannot do any of the above.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when you cannot do any of the above.
Holy Paladin — Raid Melee Build
Where this build differs from typical "Casting" builds is that
you will be primarily using Crusader Strike as your filler global.
By talenting into
Crusader's Might, you allow yourself to gain extra
Holy Shocks while still generating Holy Power and outputting extra damage.
- Keep
Beacon of Light and
Beacon of Faith on two ranged targets who have weak survivability (Hunters, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, etc).
- Use
Blessing of Summer as much as possible during a fight. Every buff can be safely placed upon yourself with only
Blessing of Summer requiring any additional thought (when possible, aim to have it up during cooldowns.)
- Keep
Holy Prism on cooldown as much as possible to proc
Dawnlight. When possible, you will want to use Holy Prism during
Awakening to generate extra
Sun's Avatar procs.
- Cast
Eternal Flame when you have the
Empyrean Legacy proc off cooldown.
- Spend Holy Power on
Light of Dawn or
Eternal Flame.
- Cast
Holy Shock as much as possible.
- Aim to cast
Holy Light when you have both a
Divine Favor proc availableAND a
Infusion of Light proc.
- Spend remaining Holy Power if possible.
- Consume
Infusion of Light when you have a proc available and nothing else to do, generally through casting
Judgment.
- Keep
Tyr's Deliverance on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Judgment when you cannot do any of the above.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when you cannot do any of the above.
Holy Paladin — Avenging Crusader
This build plays a bit unique in the fact that it takes Avenging Crusader
and specs into
Lightsmith instead of the common
Herald of the Sun.
It places a high emphasis on
Judgment and
Crusader Strike
in order to output as much healing as possible.
- Keep
Beacon of Light and
Beacon of Faith on two ranged targets who have weak survivability (Hunters, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, etc).
- Use
Blessing of Summer as much as possible during a fight. Every buff can be safely placed upon yourself with only
Blessing of Summer requiring any additional thought (when possible, aim to have it up during cooldowns.)
- Keep
Sacred Weapon on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Judgment as much as possible when
Avenging Crusader is active.
- Cast
Crusader Strike as much as possible when
Avenging Crusader is active.
- Keep
Holy Prism on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Word of Glory when you have the
Empyrean Legacy proc off cooldown.
- Spend Holy Power on
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Cast
Holy Shock as much as possible.
- Aim to cast
Holy Light when you have both a
Divine Favor proc availableAND a
Infusion of Light proc.
- Spend remaining Holy Power if possible.
- Consume
Infusion of Light when you cannot
Holy Shock and do not have enough Holy Power to use
Light of Dawn or
Word of Glory.
- Keep
Tyr's Deliverance on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Judgment when you cannot do any of the above and are outside of
Avenging Crusader.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when you cannot do any of the above.
It is important to note that your rotation slightly differs when inside and outside of
Avenging Crusader. When inside of this cooldown, your priority, above all else,
will be to keep
Judgment and
Crusader Strike on cooldown. They take
priority over even
Holy Shock and spending Holy Power. That being said, when you
do not have
Avenging Crusader active, you will instead prioritize Holy Shock and
spending Holy Power.
Holy Paladin — Mythic+
Many of the priorities you would use in raiding content will stay the same in Mythic+.
The main exception to this is the increased importance of Consecration,
Judgment,
and
Shield of the Righteous in order to output extra damage because no healing
is needed.
- Keep
Beacon of Light and
Beacon of Faith on two ranged targets who have weak survivability (Hunters, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, etc).
- Use
Blessing of Summer as much as possible during a fight. Every buff can be safely placed upon yourself with only
Blessing of Summer requiring any additional thought (when possible, aim to have it up during cooldowns or large packs)
- Keep
Sacred Weapon on cooldown as much as possible.
- Keep
Consecration active at all times.
- Cast
Judgment as much as possible.
- Keep
Holy Prism on cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast
Word of Glory when you have the
Empyrean Legacy proc off cooldown.
- Spend Holy Power on
Word of Glory when healing is needed, or
Shield of the Righteous when no healing is needed.
- Cast
Holy Shock as much as possible.
- Aim to cast
Holy Light when you have both a
Divine Favor proc availableAND a
Infusion of Light proc.
- Spend remaining Holy Power if possible.
- Cast
Hammer of Wrath when you cannot do any of the above.
- Consume
Infusion of Light when you have nothing else to do and a proc available.
- Keep
Tyr's Deliverance on cooldown as much as possible.
Keep in mind that damage may occur in Mythic+ settings that you did not expect. If you are
constantly spending Holy Power whenever possible, you may not have Holy Power available
when healing is needed. For this reason, it can often be wise as a beginner player to only
cast Shield of the Righteous when you have 4-5 Holy Power; that way, you can quickly
generate extra Holy Power when healing is needed unexpectedly.
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.
Divine Toll is a strong burst heal that can be used to quickly generate Holy Power, or simply get your party healthy.
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.
Simplified Holy Paladin Rotation for Beginners
If the rotations above 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.
Addons for Holy Paladin Rotation
Check out our Addons page below for some recommended Addons to get the most out of your Holy Paladin!
Macros for Holy Paladin Rotation
Check out our Macros page below for some recommended Macros to get the most out of your Holy Paladin!
Mythic+ Tips and Tricks for Holy Paladin
For information about Mythic+ as a Holy Paladin, please refer to our Mythic+ page.
Questions for the Author
Thanks for reading my Rotation Guide for Holy Paladin. If you have any questions about it that you would like to ask me directly, feel free to contact me (Mytholxgy)on discord through either the Paladin Discord or through direct messages: mytholxgy.
Changelog
- 21 Aug. 2024: Reviewd and Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Page Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Rotations updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- 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.
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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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