Holy Paladin Healing Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

Holy Paladins specialize in very strong single-target healing, being one of the few healers that can truly impact whether a single player will live or die at any given moment. They also possess several tools that help them mitigate or avoid damage, both on themselves and on other raid embers, such as Blessing of Protection and Devotion Aura. With so much utility, they are consistently one of the strongest specs in every form of content and have been that way for years.

In order to properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our healing guide.

Strengths

• Strong single-target healing through Holy Shock and Word of Glory.
• High damage output in both Raiding and Mythic+. Core spells like Crusader Strike and Judgment offer both damage and healing through Holy Power generation.
• Very valuable utility in the form of Aura Mastery, Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Freedom.

Weaknesses

• Struggle to heal multiple spread targets quickly since it relies heavily on Light of Dawn for Area of Effect (AoE) healing.
• Lacks a powerful throughput cooldown compared to other specs (relies on strong casts during Avenging Wrath).
• Can lose minor throughput when forced away from enemies.
• Generally not a very mobile healer, with only Divine Steed as a movement speed increase.

If you want to play a Holy Paladin but currently do not have one at max level, you can check out our leveling guide for tips on your journey.

Once you reach the max level, it can be somewhat overwhelming to completely change the way you play by suddenly implementing a large number of addons in a short space of time, especially if they have a heavy visual impact on your UI. We recommend using some of the more basic addons recommended on our Addons page below while leveling so that you have more time to get used to them during the easier phases of playing your class.

Having a not only comfortable but solid UI is incredibly important, especially once you hit max level. To prevent yourself from being overwhelmed by all the choices, we recommend starting with some basic addons while you are going through the leveling process. This will help you get accustomed to the different addons while the class is still in a relatively easier phase.

Holy Paladin, like any healer, is all about using your abilities strategically. Rather than a fixed rotation, you will be using your flexible spell kit to adapt and overcome whatever the game throws at you.

In order to be a successful Holy Paladin, you must make use of your cooldown abilities as efficiently as possible.

If you are an absolute beginner to the spec but would like to learn the fundamentals of the class, I recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below.

If you are familiar with Paladin and how it plays, you can jump right into our Talent and Rotation pages.

If you are interested in finding out what gear will put your Holy Paladin in the best possible position to perform well, I would recommend looking at our gear page. Here, you can find information on the best items available for Holy Paladin.

To be successful, you will want to make sure you have the correct consumables, gems, enchants, and more. On top of this, you will want to check our stats page to help you make the correct decision when choosing what consumables to use.