Utolsó módosítás Lysora, ekkor: 2015.03.24.
In this article, we list your Holy Paladin (WoW 4.3) core abilities and how they should
be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various
cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing
a Holy Paladin will face you with.
The other articles of our Holy Paladin guide can be accessed
from the table of contents on the left.
1. Basic Rotation↑top
Healing is in great part based on your ability to react to the damage that
the raid takes, and as such there is no set rotation. Rather, you must understand
what spells are best suited to the different situations that can occur during a raid
encounter.
- Low to moderate damage (raid or tank)
- Moderate to high tank or single-target damage
- Moderate to high raid damage
- High sustained tank or single-target damage
- Make extensive use of
Divine Light.
- Forsake
Holy Light, as its low throughput will cause you to
fall behind in healing.
- High sustained raid damage
- Make extensive use of
Holy Radiance and
Light of Dawn.
- Keep in mind that 50% of the healing done by Light of Dawn is transferred
to your
Beacon of Light target, which means that healing the raid
with Light of Dawn will not necessarily cause you to fall behind on the tank
(if you are assigned to tank healing).
- Emergency situations
- Use
Flash of Light, but only if you feel that the target will die
before you have a chance to complete a
Divine Light cast on them.
- Healing with
Flash of Light will drain your mana very quickly
and should not be used lightly.
1.1. Additional Actions To Perform
As a Holy Paladin there are a number of spells and abilities that you should
use regularly during any encounter.
- Always use
Holy Shock when it is off cooldown (try to minimise
overhealing, though).
- Use
Judgement at least once a minute to refresh your
Judgements of the Pure.
- Use
Crusader Strike whenever possible to generate additional Holy
Power.
- Try to melee the boss whenever possible in order to regenerate as much
mana as possible from Seal of Insight.
- Track the duration of your
Beacon of Light and make sure it is
refreshed before it expires.
The above actions will grant you mana and Holy Power and as such, with the
exception of Holy Shock, will not generate any healing. They should be used
in between your other heals, or during periods of low damage. In the case of
judging, because of the very high mana gained from it, it should be done even
when there are raid members in need of healing, provided that they are not in
immediate danger of dying.
1.2. Seal
You should always use
Seal of Insight.
2. Cooldown Usage↑top
As a Holy Paladin, you have a total of 4 healing cooldowns, which we briefly
present below (ordered from the least powerful to the most powerful):
Divine Favor temporarily buffs your spell haste and your critical strike
chance, making it very useful when you need to temporarily increase your healing
output.
Avenging Wrath temporarily increases your healing output by 20% and
is very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
Guardian of Ancient Kings enables you to replicate up to 5 heals and
is extremely useful during periods of extremely high tank damage. You can also use
it for AoE healing, when the raid is stacked together.
Lay on Hands is your most powerful healing ability, but it is realistically
usable only once per fight.
In a subsequent section, we present these cooldowns more thoroughly, so that
you get a better understand of when to use them.
2.1. Aura Mastery
Aura Mastery is not a healing cooldown but this ability can be very
useful to help your raid survive a very damaging magic attack of Fire, Frost,
or Shadow damage (provided you are using
Resistance Aura).
3. Choosing Your Aura↑top
Before you begin the fight, you should already have a general understanding
of what types of damage you are expecting to occur and you should prepare for
this damage by using the right aura:
Occasionally it may be useful to utilise
Concentration Aura, especially
if other Paladins in your raid are already providing the other two auras.
4. Beacon of Light Target↑top
You should place your
Beacon of Light on the target that is going to need
it the most, even if you are assigned to heal the raid or another raid member.
Generally, it is best used on one of the tanks (whichever is taking
more damage) or someone in your raid who will be taking constant damage
throughout the encounter.
5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Paladin↑top
While the information presented above should enable you to perform
very decently as a Holy Paladin, there are many things that you need to
perfectly understand if you are to play your character to its full potential.
In particular, you need to know the mechanics of all your procs and spells.
5.1. Procs To Watch Out For
Holy Paladins have two procs that they need to watch out for:
Daybreak
and
Infusion of Light.
5.1.1. Daybreak
Daybreak, indicated
in Blizzard's UI by two shining yellow brackets on either side of your
character, has a 20% chance to occur when you cast
Holy Light,
Flash of Light
and
Divine Light. The effect is simple: your next
Holy Shock
(used within 12 seconds of your proc) will not trigger a cooldown,
effectively enabling you to chain two Holy Shocks one after the other,
for a nice amount of overall burst healing. Due to the fact that your
two Holy Shocks will have generated two charges of Holy Power, your
burst can further be enhanced by following it up with a
Word of Glory.
It is important to always make use of Daybreak and not let it go to waste.
5.1.2. Infusion of Light
Infusion of Light is caused by your
Holy Shock critical strikes,
and provides you with a 1.5 second cast time reduction on your next
Holy Light,
Flash of Light,
Divine Light or
Holy Radiance. This
proc is extremely beneficial, and should only really be used with Divine
Light or Holy Radiance, and not Holy Light, unless there is practically no damage to be
healed. Due to the very low cast time of your Holy Light while this proc
is active (0.7-0.8 seconds) it is not really possible to cancel your cast,
so you should have a way to track this proc through use of an addon
(such as Power Auras).
5.2. Healing Spells In Detail
Beacon of Light, the iconic Holy Paladin spell, is a very powerful tool.
It transfers 50% of all healing done by your
Word of Glory,
Holy Shock,
Flash of Light,
Divine Light and
Light of Dawn,
and 100% of all healing done by your
Holy Light to the Beacon target. It
also allows for Holy Power
generation through use of Flash of Light and Divine Light on the Beacon target
thanks to
Tower of Radiance.
Holy Shock is an instant cast spell, and your main source of Holy
Power generation. It is a core ability that should be used on cooldown. It
has a good healing per mana ratio, but the amount it heals for is quite small.
In addition, it has a chance to proc
Infusion of Light.
Holy Light, thanks to its decent sustainability, is your most spammable
spell. It has a very low mana cost, heals for a very low amount and has a long
cast time. It also has a chance to proc
Daybreak.
Flash of Light is your emergency heal. It has a high mana cost for
relatively low healing, but it has a very short cast time which also
generates Holy Power if cast on the Beacon target. It also has a chance to
proc Daybreak.
Due to the very inefficient nature of
Flash of Light and its
very low cast time, Flash of Light should indeed only be used when you feel
that your target will die before you have a chance to complete a Divine Light
cast on them. While that is the general rule, a few exceptions do exist, most
notably when there is a need to top off the tank (or any raid member) before
a period of time when you cannot effectively heal them at all due to having
to move extensively. Flash of Light healing will drain your mana very quickly
and should not be used lightly.
Divine Light is your bread and butter tank healing spell. It costs a
large amount of mana, heals for a large amount and has a high cast time. It
generates Holy Power when cast on the Beacon target. It also has a chance to
proc Daybreak.
Word of Glory is an instant cast, free of mana and without cooldown,
but it consumes all Holy Power and requires Holy Power to use. This spell is
one of your two Holy Power outlets. It provides you with a good amount of
healing especially when
Eternal Glory is talented.
Light of Dawn is your second Holy Power outlet. This spell will heal 6
targets in a 30 yard cone in front of the caster. It is instant cast, free of
mana and has no cooldown, but it consumes all Holy Power and requires Holy
Power to use.
Holy Radiance is your AoE healing over time spell. It has a rather long
cast time, no cooldown and a rather high mana cost. Holy Radiance lasts 3 seconds
and heals all raid members within 10 yards of the targeted player.
5.3. Healing Cooldowns In Detail
Divine Favor grants 20% spell haste and 20% critical strike chance for 20
seconds (30 seconds with Glyph of Divine Favor), and is extremely useful
in times when you need a temporary increase in your healing output.
Avenging Wrath is the trademark paladin cooldown. The part that
interests Holy Paladins is the 20% increased healing. It is yet another
useful spell during periods of high damage.
Guardian of Ancient Kings, in its Holy version, provides a minion which
will replicate any single target heals that you cast, free of mana cost or any
casting time. It is limited to a 30 second duration and a maximum of 5 heals.
In addition to replicating the heals, it also provides 10% of the amount healed
to all targets within 10 yards of the target. This ability is useful in times of
extremely high tank damage (it practically allows you to cast two
Divine Lights
within the space of two seconds, up to 5 times) but can also be used in times
when the raid is stacked closely and there is a need for AoE healing. It can
also be used as a mana conservation tool with some success.
Lay on Hands is an extremely powerful ability, and with a 10 minute
cooldown, it is only realistically usable once per fight, but it remains of
great use. This spell is not on the global cooldown, making it truly an
emergency heal.
5.3.1. More on Cooldown Usage
Use of healing cooldowns such as
Avenging Wrath and
Divine Favor
should be
quite liberal, and as it is mostly reactive, or encounter specific, it is not
worth delving into.
When using
Guardian of Ancient Kings, it is
important to delay or stagger your heals as much as needed so that your
Guardian does not overheal the target and essentially waste its effect. It
should also only be used with high heals, for more efficiency — either
Divine Light or
Word of Glory.
5.4. Beacon of Light Subtleties
Beacon of Light provides the benefit of free healing on a secondary target
(and should certainly be used with that in mind. Nevertheless, it is very
important to keep track of the fact that through
Tower of Radiance, healing
your Beacon target directly with
Flash of Light and
Divine Light will generate
Holy Power quickly. This enables you, at least every 3rd Divine Light (assuming
you had no time to weave in any
Holy Shock between your Divine Lights due
to the high tank damage) to use an instant cast, mana free
Word of Glory
on your tank (or someone else, in fact!) with the chance of a Holy Power refund.
5.4.1. Beacon Assignment
If you are assigned to raid healing, then cast your
Beacon of Light on
the raid member that takes the most damage (usually a tank) and occasionally
heal them if needed.
If you are assigned to tank healing, then cast your
Beacon of Light
on the tank that takes the most damage and heal them directly with
Divine Light
or
Flash of Light, using
Word of Glory to dump your Holy Power and
conserve some mana.
5.5. Mana Regeneration With Divine Plea
Divine Plea is a mana
regeneration cooldown that allows you to regain 12% (18% if glyphed) of your
total mana over the course of 9 seconds, at the cost of a 50% reduction
to the efficiency of all your heals for the same duration. On a two minute
cooldown, this ability is somewhat situational, and while some fights do
not allow for any breathing room to cast this, most of the time it is
possible to use it during a time when the healing required is low.
It is a common and incorrect practice to use healing cooldowns
such as
Avenging Wrath or
Divine Favor during Divine Plea in order
to counter part of the reduced healing you are doing. You should not do this
in any case because Divine Plea's penalty will diminish the effectiveness of
your healing cooldown, effectively wasting it. Furthermore, if you find yourself
in need of extra healing from your spells during Divine Plea it means you have
used Divine Plea at the wrong time. For those situations where something
unexpected happens during your Divine Plea, and which requires you to heal without
the penalty, it is useful to have /cancelaura Divine Plea as a macro.
5.6. Tips
Here are a few useful tips to conclude this guide on the Holy Paladin play style:
- Use
Holy Shock and
Flash of Light on your Beacon target before
the fight (and then drink) to start with 3 Holy Power charges.
- Use
Holy Light on someone before the fight until you get a
Daybreak proc.
- Use
Word of Glory even with a single Holy Power charge to generate more
self healing and Beacon healing through more frequent self heals from
Protector of the Innocent
(not a generally recommended strategy, but extremely useful when you and/or
your Beacon target can make use of many small and quick heals).
- Pre-heal the tank before the fight starts, in order to build up the shield
from your Mastery (it will stack up to a shield equal to 33% of your maximum
health, so a nice amount).
- Use
Divine Shield to totally bypass encounter mechanics to either
save you time, or save your raid dps/movement, or allow you to stand still and
channel heals when your raid's health is low.
- Use
Guardian of Ancient Kings to conserve mana in times where the tank
is taking large but steady amounts of damage by letting him get to low hit
points and healing him with a
Divine Light, then waiting until he is low
again and doing the same.
- Use
Hand of Sacrifice on the tank at the same time that you are using
Divine Plea, to counter some of the healing penalty that you are
suffering by lessening the damage that the tank takes.
- Use
Divine Protection when using
Hand of Sacrifice on someone, in
order to reduce the amount of damage taken by you from Hand of Sacrifice.