Holy Paladin Healing Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Introduction

If you are new to Holy, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialisation, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Holy and are comfortable with it in Legion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resource of Holy Paladins

Mana is your only resource as a Holy Paladin. All of your healing abilities cost Mana, so managing it so that you do not run out over the course of each encounter is crucial to being able to heal competitively.

3. Basic Abilities for Holy Paladins

These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents, and form the core gameplay of the specialization.

Beacon of Light is not a healing spell in itself, but rather a buff you place on an ally. The buffed player will receive 40% of the healing you do to all other players, and any healing done to the Beacon target directly with Holy Light and Flash of Light will refund 25% of the Mana cost. Beacon of Light can only be up on one player at a time, and you should essentially always have this buff active.

Holy Light is your most basic, single target heal. It is has a long cast time and it is relatively inexpensive.

Flash of Light is the emergency variant of Holy Light, it is more expensive and faster, and it also heals for slightly less per cast. Using Flash of Light extensively will probably be unsustainable in terms of Mana.

Holy Shock is an instant-cast single-target heal that has a 9-second cooldown, which is reduced by Haste, and a 30% increased critical strike chance. This is typically used on cooldown, as it is not expensive.

Light of the Martyr is a strong and cheap instant-cast spell that has no cooldown, but which has the drawback of damaging you for 50% of the amount healed. Moreover, its healing does not heal the Beacon of Light target.

Light of Dawn is an instant-cast spell with a 12-second cooldown, which is reduced by Haste, that heals up to 5 injured allies in a cone in front of you. It is relatively inexpensive.

3.1. Utility for Holy Paladins

Divine Shield makes you immune to all damage and loss of control effects for 8 seconds, and is an excellent way for you to survive dangerous mechanics and continue healing your raid in the meantime.

Blessing of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targeted ally, also granting them immunity to such effects for 8 seconds.

4. Important Procs

Infusion of Light causes your Holy Shock critical strikes to reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light by 1.5 seconds or to increase the healing of your next Flash of Light by 40%.

Typically, it is best to use Infusion of Light procs on Flash of Light, assuming that your Mana is sufficient and that the healing will not be wasted as overhealing.

5. Cooldowns for Holy Paladins

Holy Paladins have a number of cooldowns in their arsenal.

• Avenging Wrath increases your healing done and Critical Strike chance by 30% for 20 seconds. It is very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
• Lay on Hands heals the targeted ally for an amount equal to your maximum health, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It should be used to save dying raid members, especially tanks.
• Blessing of Sacrifice lasts 12 seconds, transferring 30% of the damage taken by the target to you, and reducing this damage transferred by 25%. 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.
• Aura Mastery empowers your chosen aura (tier 4 talent), 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 protects the targeted ally from all physical damage for 10 seconds, and it has a 5-minute cooldown. It can be used to clear harmful physical damage debuffs and bleeds from the target. Bosses will not attack targets affected by Blessing of Protection.

6. Changelog