Holy Paladin FAQ

Here is a list of the most Frequently Asked Questions that I have gotten, seen, or look up myself. Note that some answers may vary depending on what content level you're at, healing composition, etc. Think of this as a starting place for answers, with the final answer coming from your own esperience.

Q: What build should I be using? This question comes up a lot, and it can vary depending on your current content level. Personally I think this 32/5/4 build is solid enough to cover any content. You can shuffle a few points around here and there, but it's a good place to start.

Q: Who gets my Beacon of Light? Generally this will be your tank in 5 mans, and whichever target is going to be taking a ton of damage. Beaconed this costs you zero mana to cast, so don't be afraid to move it around.

Q: Mastery - super good or super bad? Right now I think our mastery is pretty terrible. The shields don't stack, and they won't abosorb much damage. It's better than nothing, but I don't go out of my way to pick it up.

Q: Do I gem Intellect, or is the Christmas Tree the way to go now? In Wrath we put Intellect into everything, Ret did the same with Str, and Prot with Stam. Now the socket bonuses seem to follow the trend of +10 to a stat for each socket (i.e. a piece with 2 sockets will have a +20 bonus). We obviously want to activate our meta, after that it's personal choice. Right now if the socket bonus is Int or Spirit, I will shoot for the bonus. 20 INT plus 20 Spirit with a 10 INT bonus is a fair enough trade.

Q: OK, so I'm going Christmas Tree - which gems do I use? Red: Brilliant Infernal Ruby (+40 INT). Yellow: Reckless Ember Topaz (20Int, 20Haste). Blue: Purified Demonseye (20INT, 20SPI). Meta: Ember Shadowspirit Diamond (54INT and 2%Mana).

Q: Which glyphs should I use? This is one of those questions that will vary depending on what you're doing. I'll cover the highlights.

Prime Glyphs:

• Holy Shock (+5% Crit) and Seal of Insight (+5% healing) are non negotiable.
• Swap Word of Glory (10% boost to WoG) or Divine Favor (+10 sec to DF, for 30sec on a 3min CD). Personally I use WoG, but I run only 10s and I use WoG a lot.

Major Glyphs: We have a lot of options here, and I change mine out depending on the encounter.

• Beacon of Light - Reduces the mana cost to zero. Great if you're changing BoL targets a lot - not as good if you don't.
• Divine Plea - An extra 5% mana (6% in the patch) is worth a glyph slot.
• Divine Protection - I use this in raids, since almost all the damage we take is magical. 40% damage reduction every 40sec is insane.
• Divinity - 10% mana return when you use LoH. If you're using LoH during boss fights, take this.
• Lay on Hands - Takes another 3min off the LoH CD, putting it at 7min. Useful in heroic 5 mans, not as useful in raids (fights don't last long enough to use it).
• Cleansing - reduces the mana cost of cleansing by 20%. I use this in 5 mans and on Cho'gall.
• Turn Evil - Makes it an instant cast. I use this if I get SFK so I can help CC the adds on the 3rd boss.
• Light of Dawn - hits 6 targets instead of 5. Great in 25m raids, situational in 10s, useless in 5s.
• Long Word - I haven't played with this as much as I need to. I think it has promise for 10s and certainly for heroics. Probably not very useful in 25s.

Minor Glyphs: Kings, Might, and Insight. It's the only spells we use anyway.

Q: Spirit, Crit, Haste, or Mastery? What do I reforge? My personal setup was to get my Holy light under 2sec, I stopped around 1.9. I stack Spirit like it's going out of style, and Crit is pretty nice. I'll sacrifice Mastery for the followign order Spirit>Haste(to 9%)>Crit. This is a personal choice. The more mana I have, the more DLs I can cast without feeling like I'm going to OOM in the first minute.

Q: Just how big is Light of Dawn anyway? This depends on how you look at it. According to our melee DPS, it covers their whole screen and blinds them. I think of it as showering them with love. The range on LoD is 30yds, and the cone effect seems to be about 20yds wide at the furthest point. It's certainly wider than the animation suggests.

Q: OK, so how do I make the most of my HP? This all depends on your setting. Right now using a 1HP WoG, followed by HS, and then another 1HP (2 if you're lucky) WoG will do about 20k-30k in healing to your beaconed target in 3 GCDs. This is due to the mechanic between PotI and BoL. In a raid setting, using a 3pt LoD on a group will do significantly more healing than a 3pt WoG on a target. For some EJ style math - you can go here.

Q: I'm running out of mana every fight - what am I doing wrong? This is a really tough question to answer, but a few things come to mind. First, this isn't Wrath. When we first started doing heroics I didn't even look at the DPSers unless they were under 50% HP. Anything over that and they might catch a HS or WoG if I had a moment - They don't need to be topped off. Second - FoL is an emergency heal, and DL is the same. Good tanks will be helping to heal themselves, and you're just there to keep them from hitting the floor. Finally, use HoSac and Aura Mastery all the time. The tank should also be using thier damage reduction talents - since the days of 10m Shield Wall CDs are gone.

Q: Any other tips? Judge early, and judge often. Positioning will vary by fight, so use the appropriate AoE heal or WoG. Remember that it's a new healing game, and the pace is a little slower than Wrath. Don't rush to heroics - run a few normals to get a feel for the encounters and pick up a few of those hard to get items.

In the end remember that you should enjoy what you're doing, and that the game has changed. You can't heal stupid, ignore boss mechanics, or take on extra trash when you're starting out. Don't be afraid to ask that they use CC, in fact I'd insist on it until you've done a few. You'll run into the occasional group that refuses to help out with this, but those groups generally aren't worth your time.

Also, don't give up after one or two failures. You will wipe - I gaurantee it.