Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.2
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 — Shadowlands 9.0.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic Holy Paladin Healer 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.
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.
- Use
Bestow Faith on them on cooldown.
- 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).
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.
- Make sure to use
Judgment on the target on cooldown, to keep maximum uptime on
Judgment of Light if you have selected this talent.
- Use
Light of Dawn if you have the Holy Power available and the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it.
- Use
Holy Prism on cooldown, assuming the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it, if you have selected this talent.
- 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.
As in the case of single target healing, if you are forced to move and
Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of
Light of the Martyr to heal a target, but we do not recommend using
this spell otherwise.
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 BfA.
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 Battle for Azeroth, Holy Paladin did not really ever use their
Infusion of Light procs and ignored them to continue their normal
rotation. In Shadowlands, this changes quite a bit. When you get an
infusion proc you now 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.
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. While normally it isn't worth
wasting Mana on Flash of Light, it is now our best way to use infusions with
the intention to gain Holy Power. Casting
Holy Light is generally not
worth as the risk of overhealing is so high and it does have such a long cast.
Flash of Light is quick and costs a small amount of Mana.
What ability you use will be situational and you will have to decide in
the moment. Generally you will want to prioritze 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.
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.
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.
You also gain various abilities from your talents. We cover these in a later section.
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 maximised 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.
Infusion of Light
Infusion of Light causes your
Holy Shock critical
strikes to reduce the cast time of your next
Flash of Light by 30%
or to increase the healing of your next
Holy Light by 30%.
Which ability you use your Infusion on will vary depending on the siutation. If you have time to cast a long heal before the target is healed up or dies, Holy Light will be the way to go. If your target is in danger of dying if not healed extremely quickly, you will want to use Flash of Light.
Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
Tier 1 Talents
Bestow Faith should be used on cooldown, ideally on the tank. You
can also use it on another player, provided you can be sure that they will
need healing when Bestow Faith expires (for example, if they are affected by
some debuff that is damaging them).
You need to make sure to cast Bestow Faith before the player
actually needs the healing, since it operates on a delay. This will also help
to minimise overhealing done by the ability, since it will be harder for other
healers to top off the target before Bestow Faith finishes.
Light's Hammer should be used during AoE raid damage.
Tier 2 Talents
If you have taken Judgment of Light, simply make sure to use your
Judgment on the boss on cooldown, to keep maximum uptime on the
debuff it applies.
Holy Prism should be cast on the boss, or another enemy target that
is near to raid members. This can be especially useful when the boss or an add
has an aura that damages nearby players.
Tier 3 Talents
None of the abilities granted from the tier 3 (Level 30) talent row will impact your healing or damage rotation.
Tier 4 Talents
Rule of Law works mainly to boost your healing on targets that are
farther away from you than 10 yards, so you should use it when you need to
heal such targets. It can also be helpful when you want to heal someone who
is out of your maximum range. Note that it also increases the range of
Light of Dawn, so using it before a Light of Dawn cast can be a good
practice.
Tier 5 Talents
Divine Purpose procs will simply be used passively. You
should only make sure to use them up before they expire, so that they are not
wasted.
Seraphim should be used when you can pair it with damage events.
Because it increases your secondaries, that means it also increases your healing
output. Trying to time it when damage is going out or when you need to do
significant healing will yield the best results.
Holy Avenger should be treated as a healing cooldown. Simply use
it during a time of intense damage.
Tier 6 Talents
Sanctified Wrath increases the duration of your
Avenging Wrath, an effect that occurs passively and does not
concern you except that your cooldown will last longer. You should also make
sure to use
Holy Shock on cooldown while Avenging Wrath is
active.
Avenging Crusader replaces
Avenging Wrath. You
should make sure that you are in melee range of a target at all times while
Avenging Crusader is active and prioritize casts of
Judgment
and
Crusader Strike while it is active.
Awakening can give you more time with
Avenging Wrath active if you are casting Holy Power abilities
consistently. The chance is completely random, however, and cannot be relied
upon.
Tier 7 Talents
Beacon of Faith should be used on another target (other than the
Beacon of Light target) that is taking a lot of damage, such as on
the other tank.
As mentioned earlier, if you select Beacon of Virtue you should
use it when multiple party or raid members are taking damage. You should
prioritize healing targets that do not have the Beacon of Virtue buff on them
if possible.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Rotation updated to reflect changes in Shadowlands gameplay.
- 29 Oct. 2020: Added Shield of the Righteous to the rotation.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Paladin Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, who plays healer in Pieces. 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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