Holy Paladin Healing Stat Priority — The War Within (11.1.5)

The stat priority for a Holy Paladin varies based on your spell selection or fight duration, your proximity to your healing targets, and your talents. We will give the general stat priority, then explain how each of these can change it for you. Having said that, our secondary stats are so close in value, and Intellect is so strong at current gear levels that an item-level upgrade will usually be worth equipping. You should use the information on this page to help you decide if one similar item-level piece of gear is superior to another.

In general, Haste is a good stat. However, the value of Haste is difficult to determine because it can change significantly even on the same boss encounter. It does so because of your Mana usage and spell selection. If you find yourself out of Mana before a fight is over, you should check to see if you were casting too many expensive spells. If not, then you can likely improve the situation by removing some Haste. You should aim to strike a balance between having enough Haste to respond quickly when others take damage while also not going out of Mana on longer fights.

The value of Mastery depends on your positioning relative to your healing targets. In situations where the entire group is very close to you, Mastery outperforms Critical Strike. In situations where the group is spread out, and your targets are further than 30 yards away from you, Mastery becomes your least valuable stat.

It is important to remember, also, that while Mastery is generally a good stat for healing dungeons, it provides no increase to your damage, and your other secondary stats will.

When playing a caster focused playstyle that utilizes Infusion of Light, you may want to prioritize critical strike instead of mastery in order to help smooth out the rotation and ensure you always have an Infusion proc available.

The stat priority for raiding is as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Haste
3. Mastery
4. Critical Strike.
5. Versatility;

The stat priority for raiding is as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Critical Strike.
3. Haste
4. Mastery
5. Versatility;

Critical Strike gains significantly more priority in this build due to Hammer and Anvil. It is recommended you have a nice amount of both Haste and Crit.

Within Mythic+, your stat priority shifts slightly:

1. Intellect;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Mastery.

Haste reduces the cooldowns of Holy Shock, Crusader Strike, and Judgment as well as the cast time of Holy Light and Flash of Light. With it impacting every one of our core abilities as well as quickening the rotation to help make it feel smooth, it becomes our best stat by a decent margin. Mastery provides us with the next largest boost, as previously mentioned, but Critical Strike has some nice synergy with Infusion of Light. These two stats are fairly interchangeable, with Mastery taking a slight lead. Versatility falls behind the other three stats in raiding but can be more desirable in Mythic+ as it provides damage that Mastery doesn't.

If you are interested in min-maxing your stats to gain the highest amount of HPS is possible; you can visit QuestionablyEpic, a website dedicated to healer theorycrafting. This website will compare your stats based on gear and logs to tell you which items in your bags you should equip to make your character as strong as possible.

Although tertiary stats such as Speed, Leech, or Avoidance only appear as a bonus on gear at random, the Leech stat is so valuable for healers that it deserves to be mentioned. Any Leech on your gear is free healing that allows you to focus on other people rather than healing yourself. Its value will vary a bit based on how much damage you are taking in an encounter, but it is typically at least as valuable as your other secondary stats and often more valuable. You should keep this in mind when comparing lower item level gear with Leech to higher item level replacements without it.

The gems, enchants, and consumables you will use are directly derived from your stat priority, and you can find our advice on this topic on our dedicated page.

Intellect is your primary stat. You should look for this stat in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the power of your heals.

Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and abilities. Crits deal double damage by default, but several effects can increase your crit damage, and make crits even stronger.

Haste lowers your global cooldown and your cast time.

Mastery ( Mastery: Lightbringer) causes the healing you do to be increased the closer they are to you. The actual increase depends on the amount of Mastery you have.

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done, and decreases all damage taken.