Holy Paladin Beginner's Guide

This is intended to be a simple guide to the basic rotation and dynamics of the spec that gets you up and running without requiring more advanced optimization.

Information on hero talents will be coming soon, but in general know that overall they add a minor layer on top of how each spec plays, and most of what’s here should be applicable regardless.

Talent Build #

This is a simplified talent build designed to avoid complex interactions and skip unnecessary abilities. While not optimal in all cases, it should be a great way to get started learning the spec and should work reasonably well in world content, delves, dungeons, and raids. Abilities and talents not chosen in this build are not described here, and the rotation information assumes you’ll be using the build.

For healer specs like Holy, the recommended talent build is designed to be workable for beginning delve, dungeon, and raid content. It’s going to be a bit rough for levelling, questing, and outdoor content - for that you’ll either want to tinker with the build to drop group-focused effects and emphasize damage, or use a DPS spec instead.

Copy the text below to import the recommended build:
CEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADAAzAAmZAAAGgtZmhZGmxyMzsZGz2MgllZSZMzwMDGMGgZGDAYADsBMwADACAAIAMA

Wowhead Link

Resources #

Holy Power – All Paladins use Holy Power as their primary resource. You can build up to five Holy Power points with healing and damage abilities like flash of light, holy shock, and crusader strike. These points can then be spent on more impactful abilities like word of glory and shield of the righteous. In current gameplay these spenders, especially word of glory, are a substantial part of your overall healing so much of your rotation will be focused on efficiently accumulating Holy Power to cast as many as possible.

Mana – Like all healers Holy Paladins use mana for many of their core abilities, but fortunately with current tuning it’s very difficult to run out. A number of talents will effectively reduce mana usage and help you regenerate it without much active consideration.

Auras #

Paladins have the unique ability to activate Auras, which are a set of permanent buffs that affect you and your entire group within a wide area. They can be changed at any time without cost or cooldown. You’ll always want to have at least one active.

devotion aura – Provides a minor reduction to all damage. This is what you’ll want to use in almost all situations. If you’re in a group with another Paladin that’s already using this Aura you can safely select another.

concentration aura – Shortens the duration of interrupt and silence effects. Mainly useful if you know you’ll be encountering enemies that actively disrupt spellcasts, which isn’t super often. Even in these situations you’ll want to swap back to devotion aura when this isn’t needed.

Healing Abilities #

holy shock – Instant cast minor healing or damage on allies or enemies respectively while generating 1 Holy Power. 2 charges on an ~8s cooldown. With crusader's might the cooldown is reduced with each use of crusader strike, encouraging you to stay in melee and weave in damage abilities while healing. This should be used as often as possible for easy to use top-off healing and to keep a steady supply of Holy Power.

  • infusion of light – When Holy Shock has a critical hit your next flash of light will have its mana cost reduced, or your next judgement will prevent additional damage. With imbued infusions consuming this effect will reduce Holy Shock’s cooldown. You’ll probably want to prioritize using it on Judgement unless you’re in serious mana trouble.
  • overflowing light – Overhealing from Holy Shock becomes an absorb shield on the target, giving you more room to use it purely for Holy Power generation even on targets that don’t need healing.

flash of light – Short cast to do minor healing to the target and generat 1 Holy Power. You’ll use this when healing is needed but you don’t have enough Holy Power for word of glory and other abilities are on cooldown.

word of glory – Spend 3 Holy Power to do substantial instant healing on the target, and with faith's armor provide a short armor bonus. With extrication it becomes more likely to crit on low-health targets, further improving its ability to recover from dangerous situations. This should be your primary way to spend Holy Power unless group healing is urgently needed, and building up enough Holy Power to cast this frequently is the central focus of your rotation.

light of dawn – Spend 3 Holy Power to do moderate healing in a cone in front of you. With breaking dawn the range of the cone becomes quite far, meaning as long as you’re generally facing the allies you want to heal and are able to reach them with your other heals this should hit them. This is useful if you truly need full-group healing, but anything short of that you’ll likely want to prioritize spending Holy Power on word of glory, especially in combination with beacon of virtue.

  • unending light – Builds up a healing bonus for word of glory with each Light of Dawn cast, letting you follow up group healing with powerful single-target healing if needed.

Healing Cooldowns #

barrier of faith – 30s cooldown. Applies a substantial absorb shield to the target. For the next 24s, healing from flash of light and holy shock will replenish/reapply the shield. This is a powerful way to mitigate damage and should be used when available to save someone in danger or prevent a large chunk of expected damage.

beacon of virtue – 15s cooldown. For 8s the target and 4 additional nearby allies will be affected by 10% of all healing you do. With moment of compassion your flash of light will also be 50% stronger on anyone affected, and with saved by the light and glistening radiance affected allies will receive absorb shields as they take damage or as you spend holy power. The short cooldown makes this a great way to spread healing to your group and it should be used frequently as needed. It’s also worth noting that affected targets benefit from mastery: lightbringer via beacon of the lightbringer.

avenging crusader – 1m cooldown. Gain a number of bonuses for ~18s. They’re listed below, but the idea is to activate this then enter into an accelerated version of your damage rotation, and in doing so do substantial healing to your group. This should be used in any dangerous situation or whenever you need to amplify your damage.

divine toll – 45s cooldown. Casts 5 holy shocks on nearby targets, prioritizing allies if the initial target is friendly, and prioritizing enemies if the initial target is hostile. With rising sunlight, your next two holy shocks will cast two additional times. This all adds up to pumping out a large number of Holy Shocks and likely fully refilling your Holy Power. Should be used when available on healing if needed, or on damage if not.

lay on hands – 7m cooldown. Instantly heal the target for a huge amount, usually their full health except on near-death tanks. The massive cooldown here can thankfully be reduced as you spend Holy Power via tirion's devotion. Note that using this on yourself will prevent the use of divine shield for 30s, and visa versa.

Damage Abilities #

Note that for Holy Paladins keeping up with your damage rotation provides a number of healing benefits, meaning you’ll want to think of yourself as a melee class staying near enemies unless you need to avoid an attack. See the full rotation section for more detail about how to weave these together.

crusader strike – Melee ability on a 7s cooldown that does damage to the target while generating 1 Holy Power. With crusader's might also reduces the cooldown on holy shock and judgement. This is a great source of additional Holy Power and should be used frequently.

judgement – Ranged ability on a 10s cooldown that does minor damage to the target while generating 1 Holy Power. With greater judgement also prevents some of the subsequent damage done by the target to your allies, and with truth prevails provides self-healing that spills over to nearby allies if you’re at full health. All these effects together mean it should be used on cooldown on the most-threatening nearby enemy.

shield of the righteous – Your damage-focused Holy Power spender, dealing damage to all enemies in front of you, and doing minor healing to nearby allies via lightforged blessing, all while reducing the cooldown on crusader strike. With shining righteousness after using Shield of the Righteous 5 times your next word of glory or light of dawn becomes free. If you’re full on Holy Power and don’t need to heal anyone it should be spent on this instead.

consecration – Marks the ground around you for 12s, dealing damage over the duration to enemies within, and heals allies within via golden path and seal of mercy. 8s cooldown, meaning as long as you watch out for it expiring you’ve got plenty of room to keep it active continuously. With strength of conviction your Holy Power spenders gain bonus damage or healing while you’re in the marked area. You’ll want to keep this active as close to fulltime as possible around enemies and allies in melee combat, though picking where to place it while people are moving can be challenging.

hammer of wrath – Ranged ability on a 17s cooldown that does moderate damage while generating 1 Holy Power, but is only usable on enemies that are near death. Should be used whenever possible as an additional source of Holy Power.

Effects #

These are some of the more notable effects, interactions, and passive talents that you should be aware of. It’s not covering effects (even if they’re very strong) that provide flat bonuses or that don’t require much thought to use, and it only includes those used in our recommended build.

mastery: lightbringer – Holy Paladin’s mastery grants bonus healing the closer you are to your target, providing another encouragement to stay in melee range near your tank. The degree of this bonus increases with more Mastery points. With beacon of the lightbringer the full bonus will be applied to anyone affected by beacon of virtue regardless of your distance from them.

divine purpose – This talent will occasionally make your next Holy Power spender free and gain bonus damage/healing. You’ll want to watch out for it activating and adjust your Holy Power building/spending approach accordingly.

forbearance – Your lay on hands and divine shield both apply this effect on the target, preventing them from receiving either benefit for 30s. This applies to the same abilities used by any other Paladins in your group as well.

Rotation Overview #

This is an overview of the core rotation. It’s not a strict priority order but rather an outline of how the different abilities interact and are used. It assumes you’re using the recommended talent build above.

Maintenance

  • Keep yourself in melee range near enemies and your tank
  • Keep consecration down around where melee combat is happening

Healing & Damage

  • Use holy shock whenever available to build Holy Power and do minor healing, or on enemies for damage if no healing is needed
  • Use barrier of faith if an ally is at risk of dying or about to take substantial damage
  • If single target healing is needed
    • Use word of glory if you have enough Holy Power and someone needs moderate or substantial healing
    • Use flash of light as a last resort if immediate healing is needed, you’re short on Holy Power, and holy shock isn’t available
  • If multiple target healing is needed
    • For minor or non-urgent group damage, use beacon of virtue then do single-target healing on the most at-risk allies
    • Use divine toll followed by two directly-cast holy shocks on the most at-risk targets
    • If immediate and substantial group healing is still needed, use light of dawn
  • To do damage and generate Holy Power while healing isn’t urgently needed

Emergency

Defensives #

divine protection – 42s cooldown. Reduces all damage you take by 20% for 8s. Should be used any time you’re in danger or about to take substantial damage.

divine shield – 3.5m cooldown. Makes you impervious to all damage and harmful effects for 8s. This is a signature Paladin ability and is extremely powerful - look for opportunities to use it to protect yourself if about to die, or to negate major attacks or negative effects from bosses. Note that it applies forbearance so will prevent you from using lay on hands on yourself for 30s.

Crowd Control #

rebuke – Melee interrupt with a 15s cooldown. Your primary interrupt that you should try to use any time a nearby enemy is casting something dangerous.

hammer of justice – 1m cooldown. Stuns the target for 6s. The cooldown can be reduced as you spend Holy Power via fist of justice. Great either as a last-ditch interrupt or to prevent damage from dangerous enemies.

Mobility #

divine steed – Doubles movement speed for 5s. 45s cooldown with 2 charges when talented.

blessing of freedom – Removes and prevents all roots or slows for 8s from the targeted ally. 25s cooldown.

Utility #

absolution – Out-of-combat resurrect for your whole party or raid

cleanse – Removes all poison, disease, or magic effects from an ally. 8s cooldown.

hand of reckoning – Makes the target attack you. More used for tanking, but niche usefulness to pull enemies towards you when solo or move a dangerous add around in a group.

redepemption – Out-of-combat resurrect for the targeted ally

intercession – Resurrects the targeted dead ally, even while in combat. 10m cooldown. The long cooldown means you’ll have a limited number of times you can use this during a dungeon or raid, but can save your group if things have gotten dicey.

Quality of Life #

sense undead – Tracks undead enemies on the minimap. Unlikely to be useful in most content.

Not Used #

holy light – This is used in more advanced Holy Paladin builds and gameplay, but can be ignored entirely when starting out.

© 2024 rotate.gg

World of Warcraft, Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.