[7.1.5] Holy Paladin Q & A

[Elvenking]

Holy Paladin Q & A by Madeleine

There are many guides that explain how to play the holy paladin and which talents to use, so I thought about something more advanced. This topic basically targets player who already learned the basics and also experienced player who want to maximize their effectiveness as healer.
Everything I explain here is just my own playstyle and experience on freakz. Like every class there is not only one way to play it so just see this as an opinion you can agree or disagree on.
I want to answer you the following questions:

-Talents: Which do you use in mythic+ or raids?
-Stats: What are the bis stats for holy pala on freakz?
-Auras: Which is the best to use?
-Legendary: Which are the best and how to play with them?
-Do I use Holy Light or Flash of Light?
-Shockadin: How do you maximize mythic+ dmg and still keep the group alive?

You can ask me even more questions and I will update this topic in the future with more important things to know.

Talents: Which do you use in mythic+ or raids?

Mythic+:


Ok why do I use these talents in mythic+ now? In short mythic+ is time based so having a healer that does some dps will obviously give you a better overall time.

Tier 1: Light’s Hammer provides a lot of aoe dmg, in general you place it into every big trashgrp after it’s pulled and the tank doesn’t have to kite for the next 14 seconds. Sometimes you can use it for healing on bosses but it’s rather a dps spell for us.
Tier 2: You can either use Unbreakable Spirit for very high keys or Rule of Law. I recommend Rule simply because in higher keys you want to bring more ranges and there are many situations where you need it (example: eoa serpentrix).
Tier 3: Unlike most other paladins I recommend using Fist of Justice and not Blinding Light, because having more stuns actually mitigates more dmg on the tank than having a blind effect that’s instantly broken. As bloodelf you have your arcane torrent for aoe interrupt so there is no need to use blinding light. The light is also kinda useless as dmg abilitiy, because you have to go into the mob grp, which can lead to a fast death in most higher keys. Putting the Light’s hammer from a save distance and Consecration in the tanks path will save you from unnecessary dmg and you still have your 1m dps on trash. The biggest benefit from having more stuns is simply to interrupt certain mobs (hulk in nel, giants in eoa) or to reduce tank dmg by stunning hard hitting trash mobs (shaper in nel, swiftblade in mos).
Tier 4: In mythic+ you need Devotion Aura nothing else. I will discuss auras later in more detail.
Tier 5: Holy Avenger is the best choice for m+. It provides a haste cd if you need fast burst healing on the grp and also increases your burst dmg combined with avenging wrath. In general it’s a good situational cd to mitigate dmg spikes or doing some dmg.
Tier 6: Sanctified Wrath increases your burst dmg and duration. It’s in general the most important talent for doing a decent amount of dmg as holy pala.
Tier 7: Beacon of Virtue is the only choice we have for m+, it lets you heal the whole group at once and therefore perfect for dungeons.

Raiding:


In raids we don’t really care about our dps for most bosses, so these are in general the best talents for effective healing.

Tier 1: If used correctly with Beacon of Virtue together Bestow Faith provides tons of healing with almost no mana cost. Simply use BoV after Bestow and not before it. For some bosses Light’s Hammer isn’t bad either, for example on chronomatic or skorpyron I use it, because people are stacked and the fight is in general short so you won’t oom yourself from the hammer.
Tier 4: For raids all 3 auras are viable with Aura of Sacrifice being a little better but the hardest to play.
Tier 5: Same as in dungeons the Holy Avenger is a good situational cd and mitigates dmg spikes.
Tier 6: Judgment of Light is incredible strong in raids, I recommend using it on all bosses.
Tier 7: Here it’s a little harder to choose for raids. Personally, I like playing with Beacon of Virtue because it has strong synergy with Velens. Also, the tanks I usually raid with can heal themselves against most dmg so Beacon of Faith or Beacon of the Lightbringer are most of the time “dead” on tanks. For incoming dmg spike on tanks you have Bestow Faith or use Holy Avenger, no need to extra use a beacon on tank all the time.

Stats: What are the bis stats for holy pala on freakz?

Intellect: This is your most important stat and you really want to hit 60k as soon as possible. All your spells scale strong with spellpower and a 3k int trinket can make a big difference in healing.

Critical Strike: This is your second most important stat. You need to reach atleast 45% crit to get a 90% chance on holy shock, more is not really necessary.
As you will play with t19 2p in your bis gear you have a perfect 100% HS crit chance then (drape of shame is no longer viable as you have to go 50% crit with it).

Mastery: This stat can be really strong if rule of law is used on cd or on aoe dmg income. Try to reach about 50% there.

Haste: For raiding you can ignore haste if you get better mastery/crit values. Still having 5-10% is not bad so your heals won’t arrive too late. In mythic+ haste is stronger than mastery and you should reach 20% there.

Versatility: I don’t have a certain cap here, it’s not a bad stat so having like 5% is totally fine here. If you get a crit-haste and a crit-versa item in same slot/ilvl use the versa one over haste.

In summary the bis holy pala stats are:

bis stats wrote:

Raid = >60k int, 45% crit, >50% mastery, 5-10% haste, 0-10% versa Mythic+ = >60k int, 45% crit, >35% mastery, 15-25% haste, 0-10% versa

Auras: Which is the best to use?

Mythic+:
Here the answer is simple, always use Devotion Aura. It is simply the strongest in any situation and provides a strong 20% grp cd. If we look at the other auras sacrifice is kinda negative and can lead to your death and it’s aura mastery is also kinda useless on 5 people. Mercy is also pretty bad because you won’t have 3 people 100% of time in your range and it’s active is too weak to heal a dmg spike on 5 people.

With devotion aura you can position yourself smart, stacked it gives 4% reduce on whole grp and on high individual dmg spikes you can spread and position yourself to the targeted person to share a 10% reduction (example: nightmare bolt on last boss dht or simple 10% reduce on tank).
The aura mastery of devo can be pretty strong on many boss mechanics. For example brh first boss Soul Burst and last boss on the first Shadow Bolt Volley your aura mastery can save people.

Raiding:
In raids it depends on the boss which aura you wanna use. For most bosses aura of sacrifice is the strongest but sometimes you want to have a devotion aura too. Aura of Mercy is in general the weakest but also easiest to use aura. To understand which aura is best I first want to explain how to use them:

Aura of Mercy: Very simple, position yourself with all people in range and press aura mastery.

Devotion Aura: Look timers or predict when big dmg is incoming (example fire orb explode on botanist). Position yourself with all people in range and use aura mastery right before the dmg income.

Aura of Sacrifice: Harder and requires teamwork to be used at its full power. The aura replicates 15% of your effective healing to everyone else in it’s range (no overhealing). First predict a phase of very high dmg income (example chronomatic during power overwhelming or skorpyron right after the pull). Then you can stack your aura mastery with multiple cds. What you really wanna have up is beacon of virtue and one of your other cds.

A simple but effective aura would be Holy Avenger > Beacon of Virtue > Aura Mastery > Light of Dawn into grp of low people > Holy shock on lowest person > Flash of Light >Flash of Light > continue flash on low people and raid should be full hp.
If you have velens I recommend to use it togheter with aura mastery, this makes it a little easier to use if other people interfere in your healing. Also, if you have no better use for it press your artifact spell after holy avenger.

Now the most important thing about aura of sacrifice: In order to really heal efficient all other healers in your raid have to stop healing. This sounds hps greedy but it is simply necessary for your aura to work at all. The problem is, you need low health targets to get tons of healing out of the aura. Now all healers have the tendency to spotheal low people, which is totally correct in general. So if they stop their aoe healing and continue spothealing you still have no low people and after an initial burst of healing from LoD the aura does simply nothing. If the other healers now respond to your strange “stop all healing” call and you actually get certain people drop low your aura continues to be powerful and nobody wasted his mana.

That’s in general the basic concept of healing, don’t overlap cds or you just waste your mana and in the end your own hps.

With that in mind I use following auras in Nighthold:
-Scorpyron: Aura of Sacrifice
-Chronomatic: Aura of Sacrifice
-Trilliax: Aura of Mercy (no real dmg spikes, use it during beam)
-Aluriel: Aura of Sacrifice or Devotion (use it for replicate orbs in arcane phase)
-Krosus: All 3 viable, I use Mercy (if you reach the last bridge part a sacrifice is strong on the first orb followed by slam)
-Botanist: Aura of Devotion or Mercy (with sacrifice you will have mana problems)
-Augur: Aura of Devotion or Mercy (doesn't really matter here, devo is good if you push the boss in last phase)
-Tichondrius: Aura of Sacrifice or Mercy (if your raid breaks both brands during your sacrifice it can be incredible strong)
-Elisandre: Aura of Mercy (raid always stacked and it's really strong here, use it begin of fight and then in phase 2 during the 3rd rings while raid is moving)
-Gul'dan: Aura of Devotion (sacrifice would be strong too, but you have serious mana problems without innervate then)

Note: If your raid consists of 2 holy paladins the weaker geared uses devotion and the stronger mercy or sacrifice. It's simply more efficient, because devo doesn't scale with int, but the other 2 auras do. More than 2 holy paladins will lead to an overall hps loss and you should rather use a weaker geared healer than stacking more than 2 holy palas.

Legendary: Which are the best and how to play with them?

I don’t wanna tank about all legendaries, just about the ones I use.

Mythic+:
Here it’s again more dps oriented and the best choice is Chain of Thrayn for more dmg during your burst with avenging wrath and Kil’jaeden’s Burning Wish for strong aoe dmg on trash coupled with tons of int that buffs your healing power. On higher key level you might switch the belt with Prydaz so you survive otherwise 1 shot mechanics and for some situations you switch KJ with Velen's Future Sight. If your key is overflowing you might want to go with velens instead of KJ the whole dungeon, because you can use it on dmg spikes without constantly healing against overflow.

Raiding:
I use Velens + Ilterendi for all raid bosses but playing with belt instead of ring is also ok. I don’t recommend using the cloak (Maraad’s Dying Breath) at all because your desired set choices won't allow an open cloak slot (T19 2p + T20 4p). If you can get set pieces >900 ilvl it's better to use the bonus with different legendary slots.

How to use Velens in raids: You can generate a huge burst of aoe healing with velens if used correct. What I am doing is: Avenging Wrath > Beacon of Virtue > Judgment for Ilterendi Buff > Velens > LoD in grp > Holy Shock on full HP person > Flash of Light on full HP person > raid should be full HP just continue with flash of light otherwise.

How to use Ilterendi in raids: I already included it in my velens example, that’s one of the best situations where you want the 20% heal increase. Aside from that use judgment before each Beacon of Virtue and couple it with aura of sacrifice or aura of mercy.

Do I use Holy Light or Flash of Light?

I included this question, because many people totally ignore holy light. When you start playing holy pala you soon realize that holy light is kind of useless and you might remove it from your bars. This is in general correct until your stats are close to the bis stats mentioned in this topic, you can see 50k int as breakpoint to put holy light back into your bars. The reason why you suddenly want to use holy light is overhealing. With 50k int, 45% crit and drape of shame your Flash of Light crits are like 50% overhealing most of the time and a simple Holy Light would have done the same job for less mana.

I could talk for hours when to use holy light over flash, but a general situation would be spothealing targets with infusion proc. You can also spotheal with light of martyr, but this might lead to your own death if martyr is critical and a boss mechanic hits you at the same time (example you stand in spores on botanist > press martyr > you dead).
Important to notice is the cast time difference. With infusion of light buff your flash of light gets empowered by 50% healing and your holy light gets a shorter cast time. This actually leads to holy light casting faster than flash and therefore the heal arrives faster which is the reason why its perfect to spotheal.

During Beacon of Virtue its still better to use Flash, because the 40% healing transfer of a Holy Light non-crit is even with bis stats almost nothing.

Conclusion:
Use Flash of Light for tank healing most of the time and spotheal with holy light on dmg > 50% HP.
Use Flash of Light during Beacon of Virtue.
Use Flash of Light to spotheal without infusion proc and Holy Shock on cd.
Use Holy Light with infusion proc outside of BoV to spotheal dps/healer.
Use Holy Light more often in long mana heavy fights (example gul’dan mythic I have it > FoL)

Shockadin: How do you maximize mythic+ dmg and still keep the group alive?

The most efficient talents for the shockadin are already shown in the talent section. Some might notice that I am not using Crusader’s Might as Shockadin. The answer for this is the difference in overall dps in the whole dungeon. Crusader’s Might only gives you a slightly stronger burst, but Light’s Hammer used during all trash fights can easily make a 100k overall dps difference.
Also for single target dmg the Hammer is not that bad, on dummy tests I had like 50k dps difference over 100m dmg.

Basic burst on Shockadin:
Avenging Wrath + Holy Avenger > Judgment > Holy Shock > 2x Crusader > Holy Shock > 1x Crusader > Consecration > Jdg > Holy Shock > …

DPS priority:
1. Judgment if Holy Shock cd <3s
2. Holy Shock if Judgment is active
3. Crusader Strike if Judgment is active or >3s cooldown
4. Consecration if all on cd or Jdg <3s cd and crusader would be waste

If you are doing like 200-300k dps overall with 900+ gear in dungeons you do your job right, otherwise work on your burst or aoe dmg during trash.

Regarding healing during boss fights I rarely stop doing dmg and see myself using LotM or Holy Light with infusion proc very often. Sometimes you need to use BoV + Flash to aoe heal something, but you kind of want to keep your Holy Shock as dmg ability and only rare situations force you to heal with it.
During trash concentrate more on healing in higher keys and just put your hammer and consecration in trash for dmg. On some trashgrps you can also use your burst on a high HP mob (example nel the first hulk after the first boss is a good situation to burst).


Ok that’s about if for now, thanks for reading this Q&A and I hope it could help you improving your playstyle a little bit^^.

[Elvenking]

I will update this topic sometime later.
Stats/talents for m+ and raids are exactly the same for 7.2.5 too.
Just some fine tuning of playstyle will change but need to see new bosses and items first^^.

Update 23-01-19: Stats are no 7.2.5 version. With fixed random enchantments (pvp items) I can give a more realistic answer to this now.
60k int with flask is the first breakpoint to have enough raw heal output.
Togheter with 50% mastery and t20 set you are able to pull out impressive healing numbers with your velen combo.
Haste is very important for m+ as you need to react fast to dmg income as some trash abilities won't necessary just target the tank.

Complete bis stats as 959 holy pala are: 68k int, 45% crit, 70% mastery, 10% haste, 5% versatility (assuming you are full enchanted/socketed).
Noteworthy items to get are:
-high ilvl unstable arcanocrystal (slithly outvalues stat stick trinkets now)
-3x shock treatment relic (very important for burst power).
-t19 2p: very important so you can ignore crit after 45% and put more stats in mastery = more healing power
(drape of shame is no longer viable as 5% more crit healing with 50% crit affects only 50% of your heal spells, while 5% more mastery affects 100% of your healing spells)
-t20 4p: Offers a great option to instantly top the whole raid with velen's from just using LoD + Holy Shock into Beacon of Virtue. Excellent set for raid healing on aoe bosses.