Paladin – Holy (Level 80)

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Introduction

Races:
-Draenei: Best holy PvE race for alliance because of the extra heal
-Human: Nothing useful i can think of (except the ocassional “trinket” for SOME boss spells)
-Dwarf: Extra armor…noty
-Blood Elf: 8% mana on a 2min cd? GIEF!!! best PvE race for horde
Pro tip: Everything i wrote above is for ppl who wanna min/max, i recommend rolling the race you like most (belfz are smexy, nuff said)

Specs:
http://wotlk.openwow.com/?talent#sxAzg0zsVu0tgdxZVcbx 51/5/15 – Basic 10man spec.

http://armory.twinstar.cz/talent-calc.php?cid=2&d=wotlk&tal=503501520001130531005152212000000000000000000000000005032050003000000000000000 51/2/18 – Only 2 points in Divinity for the extra crit chance

http://armory.twinstar.cz/talent-calc.php?cid=2&d=wotlk&tal=503501523001130531005152215032013120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 54/17/0 – Like other people said, you should use this for LK/sindy, but if you got this far, i dont think you need any help 😛

I recommend the 2nd one for fresh pallys/crit-starved pallys

Gemming:
“Stack int trololololol” true and not
There are 2 types of holy pallys: FoL builds and HL builds (Check bellow for more info)

a) The FoL Build
-The FoL build focuses on maximizing the out-put of our Flash of Light (duh) by stacking not int, but sp and to a lesser extent crit, and you dont have to worry about mana since FoL is allready mana-efficient by design
-The FoL build should NEVER, i repeat, NEVER EVER be used in icc (I dont really recommend FoL build at all outside 5mans, but i guess its OK for raid healing, even tho i can raid-heal as HL build better)

Red Sockets: SP gems
Yellow Sockets: SP+crit gems unless ur haste starved, in which case go for sp+haste
Blue Sockets: SP gems
Meta: Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond

b) The HL Build

-The HL build focuses on maximizing the efficiency of spaming Holy Lights by increassing your mana pool to absurd levels (40k+ in icc25 gear buffed) so that you never run out of mana
-INT is a very good stat for holy pallys in general cause not only does it increass your mana pool, but it also grants every other healer stat you could need (sp, crit, mp5) except sadly, haste
-The HL build is best for raids in my opinion, but feel free to try both builds out and decide for yourself

<Insert Color here> Socket: INT gems
Yes, go for full int, and add a tear to activate ur meta (Use the tear somewhere with a int socket bonus)
Meta:Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (cool fact: the proc is worth around 70mp5, yes, 70!)

Gearing:

-Gearing a holy pally is, in my opinion, the easyest class/spec to gear looking at gear choices. Dont let those ignorant bastards tell you that you cant use that nice cloth/leather/mail gear that just droped (as long as no one needs it that uses it as their main armor type, and as long as it doesnt have spirit). Mail, cloth, leather and plate caster gear are ALL equal for a healer (owait, i lose armor!!! thats so not worth it!!! /endsarcasm), but NEVER roll against a shammy for a mail piece (unless you kindly ask them if you may roll for that piece of gear) or against druids/maeg’s/locks/priests.
-when starting a holy paladin, the first stat you should care about is the holy intelect. Your talents are gonna take care of your cast times (1.8sec holy light if im right) and you’ll get enough crit from int (enough for 5mans, since thats what you’ll run as a fresh pally)
-Haste/mp5>Crit/haste>Crit/mp5, haste is never bad for a HL build, for a FoL build however, you should get haste until your FoL cast time is 1sec-lag (for example, lets say Hammerqt has 200ms regular “lag”, his FoL cast time would idealy be 0.8sec, since 100ms=0.1sec) but for a HL build, i doubt u can get enough haste gear to drop HL under 1sec without BL/engi glove enchant

NOTE: I forgot to mention this, you need 676 haste to get haste soft-capped (1sec gcd), must-have

Trinkets:

Tears of the Vanquished: 84int and 500mana proc (same as the metas proc i think) Pretty OK if you wanna get something with VPs, but want something cheaper (even tho you should be saving for the meteorite stone)

Darkmoon Card: Greatness: Still a good trinket even tho its just ilvl200, and the int proc might seem a little wasted (since it doesnt give you any mana back…not directly), but it does give a fair amount of sp (20% of the proc), some crit, and more mana from replenishment and divine plea, if you happen to use DP during a proc

Silver of Pure Ice: SP+65.8 to 86.6(repeating ofcourse) mp5, and the instant mana isnt as useful as it is for other classes (its enough for a HL+FoL i think) so its pretty useless compared to the next one as far as mp5 goes

Solace of the Fallen/Defeated: 8 less sp than the above, but 128mp5 when fully stacked, which, depending on how long the fight is, might be even double the mp5 of the Silver (norm+hc version is also said to be BiS for…all healing classes i think)

Purified Lunar Dust: you gain 50sp but lose around 50mp5 by using this instead of the Solace, i dont know about you, but i’d rather get mp5 than sp, but thats just me.

Talisman of Resurgence: Great trinket, get it, love it, use the sp use effect with wings to mitigate the -healing effect of divine plea

Meteorite Crystal: My personal favorite, paired with the talisman of resurgence, awesome mana pool boost, and i tend to pair this with divine illumination (got this macro’d, i use this when/if i get to 50% mana for some awesome mana regen, or on lootwalker before the first portal, and i actually get more mana than i can spend by spamming HL’s), great int passive, awesome on-use effect, great if you hate mp5 trinkets like i do

Glowing Twilight Scale: A truly GREAT trinket, which basicly adds something every pally would give all his int for: A AoE heal, and a great one! Really, an out-put focused trinket, but if you get this, you’ll have enough mana/mp5 from the rest of your gear to make up for it, deff one of the best trinkets for a hpally.

Librams:

-Just like prot, you might wanna get a few librams
1. Libram of Renewal
Best libram to date for a HL pally, even tho its gonna hurt your skill-score (i got a 264 libram just too boost my skill score when im not raiding)
2. Libram of Binding Light
avoid it like the plague! (unless you wanna boost your skill-score, but NEVER use it for raiding)
3. Libram of Veracity
Every single fresh pally gets this…its not a BAD libram, but its only useful on fights where output>efficiency (i currently use this for icc10 up to sindy, since i dont really have mana problems at 42k mana buffed)
4. X Gladiator’s Libram of Justice (aka pvp librams)
only useful for FoL builds, dont even think about them if ur HL…

Glyphs:
Go check specs, they are all there, but i got a little note to make
-Some time ago, i watched a guide on youtube, and he said that he would rather use glyph of FoL than HL, “we’re not AoE healers, let the AoE healers take care of it” or something along the lines but, thats like saying “Lets not help the group, lets just put another 5% crit on a heal we nearly never use (and when we do, its to top someone off)
Note: Those glyphs are for a HL build, for FoL replace HL with FoL glyph, and Seal of wisdom glyph with Seal of Light

Enchants

Head – 30 sp 10 Mp5
Shoulder – 24 sp 8 Mp5
Cloak – 23 Haste
Chest – 10 to all stats or 250 Mana
Bracers – 16 Intellect
Gloves – 28 Spell Power
Legs – 50 Spell Power+stam, DONT get the spirit version, as its useless
Shield – 25 Intellect
Weapon – 30 Intellect(preff.) or 63 Spell Power
Boots – Run speed or 12 crit/hit or 7mp5

Elixirs
-Guru’s Elixir + Elixir of Mighty Thoughts or the good ol’ vanilla Flask of Distilled wisdom (65int) but GL finding someone to make it (guru+thoughts is still better since u get 65int+20stam and some other useless stats)
-Use flask of the Frost wyrm for FoL

Proffessions:

Jewelcrafting
42 extra int/48 extra sp

Alchemy
I heard alchemy is bugged, but anyway, you would get 47sp/20int/20mp5 depending on flask/elixir used

Blacksmithing:
40 int/sp from extra sockets from bracers+gloves

Enchanting:
46sp from ring enchants

Engineering:
Haste CD on gloves+24crit on boots+27sp on cloak instead of haste

Tailoring:
Around 44mp5 from the mana proc on the cloak/295sp for 15sec proc on cloak

Inscription:
46 extra sp on shoulders over Sons of Hodir enchant

Leatherworking:
46 extra sp on bracers over other sp on bracers enchants

Skinning: 40crit/Mining: 60stam/Herbalism: small self-HoT

Holy Light vs. Flash of Light

Rather well-made pros/cons guide on HL vs FoL builds

Holy Light Focus
+ Big mana pool; 40k+ with 245+ gear if you use mostly Int gems
+ Spam Holy Light for 2-4+ minutes without outside help
+ Divine Plea restores a ton of mana, 10K+
+ Easier to play since you mostly focus on one heal and healing a tank via Beacon
– Slighter slower healing
– Sacred Shield absorbs less
– The FoL HoT isn’t too useful for HL focus

Flash of Light Focus
+ All Heals are more sizable due to using more spell power gems
+ Sacred Shield absorbs more and FoL HoT is strong enough to be a useful tool
+ Flash of Light enables one to quickly top the raid’s health off
– 10k+ less mana than the Holy Light build
– Mana pool will burn quickly if you don’t mostly use FoL
– Divine Plea restores less mana
– Desire to keep 4/5 Tier 9 for the FoL HoT bonus
– This healing focus is a poor idea if you are the only Holy Pally in a your raid.
– Since you need to be constantly casting to deal with lower HPS, so Judgement debuff will have a lower up-time.

Macros:
-One of the mandatory macros for a pally healer (unless you’re using healbot/grid/clique) are the mouseover macros, paired with some raid units (i tend to use healbot’s mouse commands+mouse-over macros, depending on how i feel in that moment)
Example: /cast [@Mouseover] Holy Shock (also add a showtooltip above that)
Just replace holy shock with any other spell (i use this for every single targeted spell except Lay on Hands)

-If you’re gonna use the 54/17/0 spec, you might wanna get this macro:
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Divine Sacrifice
/cast Divine Sacrifice

Click once to cast it, click again to remove it

–Divine Plea: Many paladins tend to avoid it since it reduces healing done by 50%, but you can either counter this with wings+sp trinket (like the EoT trinket), or with wings+t10 2pc bonus (extra 40% i think healing when you use Divine Illumination), or you could cast it in periods of low raid dmg, when the other healer can heal the tank if needed, but you wont want to try finding the Divine Plea buff to click it off, right?
well then use a macro similar to the one above:

#showtooltip
/cancelaura Divine Plea
/cast Divine Plea

Abilities:

Holy Light:
The go-to heal for HL build pallys, pretty mana-intensive heal (costs around 1.1k with glyph of Sow and libram of renewal), but heals for a massive amount (heals for 20k crit with my 2.6k sp in icc). This is the reason for stacking int, a high-mana-cost high-healing spell, since it allready heals for alot, you dont have to worry for your sp, but rather you should focus on beeing able to cast it (note: the cast time of HL goes down to 1.7sec with talents).

Flash of Light:
The go-to heal for FoL build pallys, the exact oposite of HL, very mana effective (i think around 300 mana cost) but the healing itself should be improved via more sp, thats the reason for stacking SP. HL build pallys dont use this often (maybe to top off a dps that took a little amount of dmg, or if your HL left someone 5k or so short of full, just top him off with a quick FoL, or just keep HLing others and let the other healer top him off :P)

Holy Shock:
A very under-estimated heal, the healing is somewhere between FoL and HL, and so is the heal (FoL crits for 7k, HS crits for 11k, HL crits for 20k), BUT its instant, and if it crits (i have 45% crit in raids) your next FoL is instant, or your next HL has a 20% increassed crit chance, but HS is usually either used on the move OR to top ppl off for lazy pallys (like myself). Both builds should use this, but many people dont use it at all (i used to get 5% of my total healing from HS, now i get close to 15%), and it also has a chance equal to your crit chance to be a mana regen spell, look at it this way: Your HS crits, you get mana back from Illumination, but it also makes your next HL usually crit (65% crit for me), so its not THAT mana-intensive as many ppl think.

Beacon of Light:
Glyph it! half a min extra duration is HUGE, its basicly +50% duration, meaning you have to cast it 33.3%(repeating ofcourse) less, so it basicly reduces its mana cost by 33.3%. Un-glyphed, you use it 9times in a 8min fight, while you only use it 6 times if its glyphed.
Now about the spell, it basicly doubles any heal you do, you usually have this on your tank, BUT there are some fights where u might consider BoLing yourself, one example is marro, BoL yourself and you wont have to give a **** about the flames, just keep healing the raid and you wont be even close to dieing, or on other fights with massive raid dmg, and not so massive tank dmg. You might not think about it this way, but BoL, even tho it costs a ****load of mana, actually SAVES you mana, since you wont have to heal your beaconed target at all, meaning less HLs, meaning less mana spent ^^.

Sacred Shield:
Use on tanks or yourself, unless theres a dps thats gonna get hit trough the whole fight. SS only absorbs dmg AFTER you get hit, so lets say Omgwtfbbq is tanking lootwalker trash, SS is only gonna pop the actuall shield AFTER Omgwtfbbq gets hit, so using this save someone is…bad…
Also note that if you heal someone that has the shield on (the one that absorbs dmg) he also gets a HoT that heals him for the amount healed by FoL (if you’re going for the FoL build, get 4pc t9 bonus, or just dont go FoL), or double the amount healed by FoL if you have t9 4pc bonus.

I recommend using either mouse-over macros for all he above, OR using clique/healbot to bind the to your mouse (I use scroll-up for FoL, mouse button 3 for HS, scroll down for HL, and SS and BoL on the left and right mouse buttons.)

Hand of Sacrifice:
I know its not so normal for a healer to use CDs to take MORE dmg, but it could save someone (i cant think of any big hit that only hits 1 person in icc, but you could and SHOULD use this in FoS on the last boss, to dampen the dmg of those green spells he casts, cant remember name). The idea is, that you take some of the dmg of your target, avoiding a kill-shot, and saving the day (I dont think bubble makes you immune to the dmg, but i might be wrong).

Divine Sacrifice:
Group-wide Hand of Sacrifice, very useful on sindy and LK, but also good on BQL from my experience (BoL yourself on flight phase, pop DS and start healing, doesnt make the phase trivial, but it does help.) Bubble does NOT make you immune to the dmg redirected to you.

Divine Plea:
Regens ALOT of mana, BUT it reduces healing done by 50%, best paired with wings+t10 2pc bonus to actually do 5% more healing, while regenerating alot of mana, or you could use it durring low-dmg phases, where the other healer can heal the raid easily without your help.

Auras:
A friend of mine recently (last night) got his pally to 80 and decided to go holy, and the first question he asked me after reading my guide was “what aura do i use?”. Short answer: all of them. Long answer: Depends on fight, on fights with massive fire/shadow/frost dmg, use the resistance auras, and pair them with aura mastery for 260 resi for 6sec if you know a big hit is gonna come in that period (or just pop it when ur bored like i do). Ret and devo auras are usually used when another pally can provide the resi auras (but prots/rets usually use devo/ret aura, since they have the improved version). One idea would be (if you got no one to use ret aura the whole fight) to change to ret aura for lolstorm on marro, IF the dmg he does procs ret aura (for 112 extra dmg/hit, asuming he hits all 10players, thats 1120 dmg, since he hits 10times trough one whole bone-storm, thats 11200 extra dmg, not HUGE, but it helps).

Blessing of Might and Greater Blessing of Might
BoM and GBoM
These are given to physical DPS only. Meaning you do not give it to casters. You may give it to tanks if they already have GBoS or GBoK. Also, if you have a Warrior in your group that is keeping up their attack power shout, then you may wish to talk to him/her about who should do such buffs.
This buff is best used by the following classes:
Death Knight
Warrior
Paladin
Rogue
Feral Druid
Hunter
Enhancement Shaman
– And again, it can be given to tanks that already have GBoS or GBoK. This will increase their threat generation.

Blessing of Wisdom and Greater Blessing of Wisdom
BoW and GBoW
This buff is obviously only given to characters who have and use mana. Now, this buff is generally considered weak because usually BoK or GBoK is preferred by such classes. However, it is still useful as a secondary buff, and may be used as a primary buff on very weakly geared mana users.
This buff is best used by the following classes:
Restoration Druid
Balance Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin (Especially Holy)
Priest
Shaman
Warlock

Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings
BoK and GBoK
This buff is attractive to everyone. Especially the players with good gear. The better their gear is, the more they will get out of this buff. Generally this buff is given first to casters, and is a secondary to physical DPS. It is primary for tanks especially because it gives stamina and agility to them.

Blessing of Sanctuary and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary
BoS and GBoS
Now, you won’t normally have this spell, but it is important that you understand what it is and what it does. It is primarily given to tanks to increase their survivability through stamina and damage reduction, and also increases their threat generation by increasing strength. It is commonly given out to the entire raid mainly because of the 3% damage reduction, as that is the only portion of the buff that stacks with Blessing of Kings. (Or should)

Credits for Buffs go to Lynea

Gear Guide

Fresh 80

So, you just got to 80 and have no idea what the hell to do?
Well, the first thing you should do is rep farming (Note: You can start this at lvl70+ if you’re still lvling, helps out alot).
Here’s a breakdown of rep items you should get (by item slot).

Head: Helm of Purified Thoughts
Neck: None
Shoulders: None
Cloak: Shroud of Dedicated Research
Chest: Robes of Crackling Flame
Wrist: Bracers of Accorded Courtesy
Main-Hand: Gavel of the Brewing Storm
Off-hand: Warsong Stormshield/Lordaeron’s Resolve
Gloves: Grips of Fierce Pronouncements
Belt: Ghostflicker WaistbandNote: You might want to grab Belt of the Lonely Nobleinstead, it’s cheap and you wont replace it till icc25.
Legs: Kilt of Dark MercyNote again: You might want to grab Leggings of Dubious Charmsinstead, they are cheap aswell and are gonna last you for a long time.
Boots: Sandals of Crimson Fury
Ring: Signet of Hopeful Light
Trinkets: Sadly, Frenzyheart Insignia of Furyand Oracle Talisman of Ablutionhave the only trinkets available via reputation. I do not recommend them, but if you got the time to get exalted with them and want to boost your gearscore(meh) a bit, go ahead and get the frenzyheart one.

Now, you’ll notice you’re missing a neck piece and shoulder armor. For the neck piece, you can either get Titanium Spellshock NecklaceJC neck, which may cost a bit, or Sky Sapphire Amuletwhich is probably cheaper, but is considerably worse, but it’s better than nothing.
For the shoulder armor, you should try to get a LW to make you Purehorn Spaulders, they are the best thing you can get without stepping foot into a hc dungeon.

Right, so you got decked out in blues/epics from rep, what now?
Well, first you should do some rep farms to get the ashen rep ring. Personaly, I only get it to the first lvl (ilvl251) on my fresh 80s, cause I’m too lazy to farm more and the stats doent make that big of a difference. However, feel free to get it to 277 right away. And just in case you didnt figure it out, Ashen Band of Endless Wisdomis the ring you’re looking for.
While rep farming, you might see the 2 icc trash items I listed above drop (the belt and the legs), so you might want to wait untill after you’ve done your icc rep farming to buy them.

So you’re stuck in dala wondering what the hell to do now?
Well, go check your vote points. Do you have enough for Meteorite Crystal? Buy it. If you dont have enough, start voting and get it, you wont replace it unless you can get The Solace of the Fallen hc and normal versions, and that wont happen any time soon.
Do you still have vote points? Well try getting a weapon, Aesuga, Hand of the Ardent Champion|Constellus|Torch of Holy Fire|Bone Golem Scapula, in this order.
Other vote points items may be found in Lynea’s Vote Points guide found here .

EoT Farm

This is probably the most boring part of gearing up, the infamous Pit of Saron farm.
Firstly, you’re gonna have to get to dala and get this(alliance) quest from this( Forge of Souls and turn the quest in to Sylvanas/Lady Proudmore. After you have done this, the kind lady will give you another quest to kill the 2 FoS (Forge of Souls) Bosses, which you then turn back in in the tunnel before the first boss.
Now that you have finished the quest, you can go into PoS (Pit of Saron) where you’ll spend a big part of your gearing time. FoS/PoS normal drop ilvl219 items, while the hc mode drops 232 items (but can only be done once a day) and the bosses award you with 1 Emblem of Triumph (EoT) each.
Next, I will list the available items for every slot, after which you can find the BiS EoT/PoS “set”.

Head:
Neck: (Has hit, but its the only thing you can get outside hc’s)
Shoulders: (Has spirit, but its the only thing you can get without EoT)
Cloak:
Chest:
Bracers:
Main-Hand: Altho it has hit, it is the only thing you can get without raiding/voting, exceptwhich you get after doing the quest starting from , which is a very rare trash drop on HC mode.
Off-hand:
Gloves:
Belt: is the only thing you should get right now, its cheap and awesome, no reason not to get it.
Legs: If you havent allready gotten the ,
Boots:
Ring: You should allready have the Ashen Verdict rep ring (Check fresh 80 section), the 2nd ring should be either or
Trinket: You should allready have the Meteorite Stone (check fresh 80 section) to which you should add