Playstyle & Rotation
General Playstyle
Holy Paladins are typical reactive healers. Unlike proactive healers who rely on set rotations and pre-emptive “ramps” to build up healing before damage occurs, we respond to damage directly as it happens.
The core gameplay of a Holy Paladin is a very straightforward build-and-spend playstyle. We use Holy Power-generating abilities like Holy Shock, Judgment, and Flash Of Light to accumulate Holy Power and then spend it on Light Of Dawn, Word Of Glory, and Shield Of The Righteous.
Remember, the name of the game is Holy Power; the goal is to gain and then spend as much of Holy Power as possible.
Spell priority list:
- Spend Holy Power if you’re at 5 HP
- Divine Toll
- Consume Infusion Of Light proc with Flash Of Light
- Holy Shock
- Spend Holy Power
- Judgment
Use it sparingly, and only when you know you will get full value from its massive heal. This is especially important if you’re running Beacon Of Virtue, as your mana will drain much faster compared to Beacon Of Faith builds.
Holy Power should mostly be spent on Eternal Flame (both in Raid and M+), unless you don’t have any good targets and it would significantly overheal, in which case you can spend it on Light Of Dawn.
If you don’t need healing at all, spend Holy Power on Shield Of The Righteous to deal damage. This will also restore 1.5% of your mana
Infusion Of Light - These procs should be spent on Flash Of Light, from a pure healing standpoint it’s always better to use Flash of Light with an infusion than it is to use Judgment. On the flip side, it's better to use Judgement when you don’t have an Infusion Of Light proc.
Judgment - As previously mentioned, from a pure healing perspective it’s better to use Flash of Light to consume Infusion of Light procs, and it’s better to use Judgement if you don’t have an Infusion of Light proc. That said, in M+ you should be using Judgement on cooldown, because it will also proc Consecration.
Holy Light - This is one of the biggest single target healing spells in the game, but it also has a very high mana cost, especially with the new 4 set tier bonus. Use it only when you absolutely need to do healing but have no Holy Power and no Infusion Of Light.
Beacon of Virtue
Beacon Of Virtue is usually the biggest spell on a Holy Paladin’s healing breakdown, so getting the most out of it is a major part of playing the spec well. Here are some tips for maximizing its value:
- Use Beacon Of Virtue as close to on cooldown as possible, while still trying to line it up with incoming damage.
- If you’re running Moment Of Compassion (which you should be), use your Infusion Of Light procs to cast Flash Of Light and target people with Beacon of Virtue (or Beacon Of The Savior) on them.
- Use Divine Toll while Beacon of Virtue is active. This is your biggest burst of healing and allows you to heal the most targets at once. It also fills your Holy Power bar and is likely to generate additional Infusion of Light procs, making it an especially strong combination.
- Pre-cast Holy Light and spell queue Beacon Of Virtue as the cast finishes. This allows Holy Light to transfer its healing through Beacon of Virtue and will also ensure you have Infusion Of Light procs going into your Beacon of Virtue window (thanks to Holy Paladin 4p tier set bonus). While this is a very powerful combo remember that Holy Light is a massive mana drain, so use this combo sparingly.
Cooldown Usage
Avenging Wrath is very unique since it is a healing and damage cooldown. You basically want to use it on cooldown and only delay it when it’s assigned to a specific event in a Boss fight by your Raid Leader or Healing Officer. For Mythic+, you need your own timing where you and/or your group need extra healing throughput.
Aura Mastery is mainly assigned to specific points in the fight by your raid leader or healing officer. If that’s not the case, use it right before big raid-wide damage hits. If you’re running Ringing Of The Heavens, try to pair it together with Beacon Of Virtue.
Divine Toll is a powerful burst heal with a short cooldown that also generates a full bar of Holy Power. In most situations you want to keep it on cooldown. The main reason to hold it is if you know a significant damage event is coming soon and holding it will let you line it up with the incoming damage.
In Raid, always try to pair it with Beacon Of Virtue. Using Divine Toll while Beacon of Virtue is running will be your biggest burst of healing and is also likely to trigger Infusion Of Light procs.
Divine Shield - 8 seconds of full immunity. The obvious and most common way to use this will be to hold it and use it to save yourself in an emergency. Another way to use it is to skip mechanics, for example, there are many soak mechanics in the game that can be solo’d if you just pop a bubble and do it by yourself. But you can also use bubble more aggressively, as a healing cooldown. If your party is taking a lot of damage, you can pop a bubble and simply stand your ground for 8 seconds, focusing on nothing else but healing.
Blessing Of Protection - This is a great cooldown that often gets overlooked because it's “only” a partial bubble (it only gives immunity against physical damage). But a partial bubble is still a very strong ability. Not only does it give complete immunity to any physical damage, it will also dispel any physical debuffs, such as bleeds and save people from unintentional aggro (just don’t use it on your tank).
Blessing Of Sacrifice - 30% DR is a very powerful ability. The way you use Sac is obvious: if someone is about to take a lot of single-target damage, cast Sac on them. What’s less obvious, however, is the downsides to the paladin. Reduced damage to an ally is instead diverted to the paladin, and while the paladin can’t die from this damage, as it will fall off at 20%, it can still put you in a very dangerous situation where any other source of damage can easily finish you off. To avoid this, don't cast Sac on someone if you know you’re about to take potentially lethal damage yourself, and while Divine Protection won't help in reducing damage received from Blessing Of Sacrifice, you can absorb all of it with a Divine Shield.
Mastery and Positioning
Holy Paladin Mastery makes it so we do increased healing based on how close we are to our target, being fully efficient at 10 yards. Don’t play around this.
Beacon Of The Lightbringer makes it so our Mastery works in relation to our Beacon targets as well. This is why you should always have a Beacon on someone in the range stack if you yourself are standing in melee. This way, melee camp benefits from being close to you directly, and range camp benefits from being close to a Beacon.
Further, not only should you NOT play around Mastery, but in Midnight, you’re not really locked in melee either. All of our healing can now be done from range, so the biggest priority in positioning is simply standing somewhere safe.