#0 - Oct. 17, 2010, 2:03 a.m.
Hi everyone! Since there hasn't yet been updated a thread on the new changes and how they will affect the holy tree in general, I will see if I can cover the basics. Any previous poster who's already linked in the "Paladin Guides & Useful Links" thread are more than welcome to copy or use any of this to update their stickied threads.
Please try and keep this thread constructive. I will update it if you find errors or additional information.
This is not a thread to complain about the current state of holy paladins, nor is it a thread you should reply to for hand holding. You can find the needed information in the sections below, so please don't post a question which has already been answered. Thanks in advance.
These subjects will be covered:
- - Spells.
- Stats.
- Talents.
- Enchanting, gemming and glyphs.
- Addons.
1. SPELLS:
We have gotten a lot of spells in 4.0.1, and I'll just quickly run over them and give some hints as to which situations they're good for.
Holy Shock: This is your new main healing ability as it stack the new combo point system which was added to the paladin class in 4.0.1. You should aim on using this every time the cooldown wears off. It is also coupled together with some talents making it very neat.
If you get a critical hit with Holy Shock, whether it is on an enemy or friendly target, and you have the talent Infusion of Light, 1.5 seconds will be cut off your next Holy Light making it a very quick cast.
If you have the talent Daybreak, there is a chance when you cast a Divine Light, Holy Light or Flash of Light, that your next Holy Shock won't trigger a cooldown. This makes stacking of Holy Power very quick.
Flash of Light: This spell has in 4.0.1 gotten its healing done increased dramatically in the expense of costing a lot more mana. This has gone from being the small heal you could spam when no real danger was happening, to the spell you should only use in few situation such as quick large amounts of incoming damage. Be very careful not to spam this because you're used to doing so: it will run you dry of mana in no time.
Holy Light: This spell has had the opposite revamp of Flash of Light. It has gone from being an expensive large but slow heal, to a slow, small and inexpensive heal. This is a healing spell you can spam all you want without being afraid of going out of mana. However what you should be afraid of, is the tank dying. The amount it heals has been decreased a lot in the patch.
Divine Light: The new spell Divine Light is pretty much the old Holy Light. It's great for tank healing and situations where members are taking heavy amounts of damage.
Light of Dawn: This spell is Blizzard's attempt of making holy paladins more suited for raid healing. It will shoot a beam of healing in a cone, healing everyone in front of you. This spell is very situational, which means it's only effective on certain times in certain fights. If the raid is bundled up and taking raid-wide damage, feel free to shoot this at them. Do not use this to heal a tank.
Word of Glory: Is the healing spell coupled with the combo point system Blizzard has implemented. It's basically an instant heal requiring no mana, and healing in accordance to the amount of Holy Power you're currently having. It's a healing spell you should always use when you have 3 Holy Power. It saves mana and heals a decent amount.
Seal of Insight: This is the new holy seal, and is basicly a merge between the old Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom. It should always be the seal you select when healing.
Plate Specialization: This is a new passive spell paladins have gotten in this patch, and what it basically means for holy, is that if you've equipped plate items only, you will get 5% more overall intellect. This has turned around the BiS list for paladins, meaning that the ilevel 264 plate belt is actually better than the ilevel 284 mail belt you can obtain in Ruby Sanctum 25HC. The same is the case with Crypt Keeper's Bracers and Bracers of the Fiery Night.
2. STATS:
The stat priority of your holy paladin should be as following: Intellect > Haste > Spirit > Crit > Mastery
Intellect is your all in one stat as it since 4.0.1 gives Spellpower, Spell Critical Hit and Mana. You will no longer be able to obtain Spellpower in items (with the exception of your main hand), and you will therefore have to get intellect in PvP as well to obtain the needed Spellpower.
Haste is a fantastic stat for holy paladins as it allows you to great increase the speed of your heals. It will be needed in many encounters where a slow 2,5 second Divine Light can easily result in a dead tank. Haste is only beneficial to a certain point for holy paladins though, as the latency sets a softcap on the effectiveness of haste. If you have ~50ms you should be aiming to get around 750 haste. 0ms softcap is at ~1000 haste.
Spirit is the new Mana per 5 second in WoW, and almost all the plate healing gear you will meet will have spirit on it. It's a very good stat for holy paladins now, since many of the mana regeneration spell we had in the previous patch have been nerfed such as Divine Plea, Seal of Wisdom (Seal of Insight), and Judgement of Wisdom (Judgement).
Crit is the same as always, and is still one of the least sought after stats. You will get plenty of crit from the items you obtain, which means it isn't a stat you should be going for directly like in the above cases. This is mostly because your healing spell already are quite powerful and a critical hit will in most cases lead to overhealing.
*Could be wrong here, there are still no significant data on how much the shields help, as it doesn't show in logs nor on skada/recount*
Mastery is the newly implemented stat which for Holy Paladins creates a shield on the target you're healing for 8 % of the amount healed. When you obtain mastery the percentage of absorbed damage increases. This is not yet a good enough stat to overthrow any of the others. The shield is very weak and it is definantly not a stat you should be aiming for though reforging at the moment.
3. TALENTS:
There is currently a pretty standard cookie cutter spec for paladins: 31/5/0
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sMIbzrduuszhb
As I see it, there isn't room for much variation with the exception of taking Paragon of Virtue over Enlightened Judgements. Personally I prefer the security of landing a judgement every time, since I find it very important to get Judgement of the Pure of and running immediately. It all boils down to personal preference really. A reduced cooldown on Avenging Wrath means more times where you'll be able to use Divine Plea if you're having mana problems.
The reason why you shouldn't take Blessed Life is that there aren't really enough encounters in the current content which deals direct damage, for you being better of choosing that over the two other talents.
A very good idea if you're very good at always using Holy Shock when it's ready, is taking Crusade in the Retribution Tree, over Divinity in the Protection Tree.
4. ENCHANTING, GEMMING AND GLYPHS:
Enchanting:
Enchanting is pretty much as it always has been, look up the enchants available for the items you wish to enchant and prioritize according to the stats chapter above. As an example you should go for +25 intellect on your shield as intellect is you main stat and it's available as an enchant.
Gemming:
As you're probably already aware, intellect is still what you should be gemming all the way. Intellect is now a red gem (Cardinal Ruby) which will probably make a lot of your socket bonuses disappear. You should still stick to pure intellect though.
You should use Insightful Earthsiege Diamond as your meta gem, and therefore also have one Nightmare Tear in one of your sockets as it will cover the requirements for the meta. Make sure you place the Nightmare Tear intelligently to get the greatest benefit from socket bonuses!
Glyphs:
A new type of glyphs have been introduced in 4.0.1: Prime Glyphs.
Prime Glyphs for Holy: Glyph of Divine Favor, Glyph of Seal of Insight, Glyph of Holy Shock and Glyph of Words of Glory. The BOLD ones are the ones I suggest you take. The reason I've not chosen to leave Glyph of Holy Shock out, is that it's simply not a good enough upgrade compared to the others. Yes, Holy Shock is our main spell, but 5% extra critical chance is hardly a great improvement and won't be any where near as beneficial as the others.
Major Glyphs for Holy: Glyph of Light of Dawn, Glyph of Beacon of Light, Glyph of Divine Plea, Glyph of Divinity, Glyph of the Long Word (not currently in the game). The choice for me here was mostly between Glyph of Divine Plea and Glyph of Divinity. I decided to go with Glyph of Divine Plea though, since it's a much more reliable source of incoming mana than Lay on Hands. Some might argue that Glyph of the Long Word is the best options, as it makes Word of Glory less overhealing capable, and I could agree to that. I think this again comes down to personal preference.
Minor Glyphs for Holy: The only glyph having any real connections to holy is Glyph of Lay on Hands, which you should definantly have.
