#0 - March 4, 2009, 4:21 a.m.
However, most of this information I've figured out from experience and playing with other people equally good or better than myself. If you, yourself, know a better sollution to the descriebed situation, please feel free to post this, and I will edit the guide in that mather if I am found completely wrong, or there was something you would like me to add.
This is a beginners guide, to how you should be playing a holy paladin at lvl 80.
If a word is marked with *, that meens it gets explained furder at the end of the page.
You can get all the mentioned addons at: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/default.aspx
These tips were made during 3.0.9
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Theme: PvE
Specc: 51/5/15 or 53/0/18. 51/0/20 (Tip provided by Turgil)
What kind of gear: intellect > spellpower > crit > mana per sec / haste > everything else.
If you are having problem healing fast enough, try: Intellect > spellpower > crit > haste > mana per sec > everything else.
Alternative to what kind of gear: Intellect > crit / haste > spellpower > everything else
Depends on playstyle, look furder down to see the debate.
Hotkeys*
1. Divine Shield
2. Hand of Protection.
3. Holy Light
4. Flash of Light.
5. Holy shock.
6. Cleanse.
7. Sacred Shield.
These are the abilities which will be used often or/and within a short reactiontime. And it's very important that you have a hotkey for them that you can reach from your movement keys. Attaching divine shield to nr. 9 when you use aqswde to move around (standar) will not help you reacting to it any faster seeing as your right hand is at your mouse at all times. Try attaching it to a closer button like r or t and learn to use them rather than the mouse.
Feel free to add more hotkeys as your skills improve, but it's these 7 are the basics for what a good healer have to learn to use.
Glyphs. Tip provided by Sweenster and Vathyar.
Minor: Lay on Hands. 20%+ lay of hands mana back. Prob the only usefull minor glypht out there today.
Major: Cleansing. 20% less manacost on cleanse and purify.
Major: Seal of Wisdom. 5% less manacost for each healingspell when seal of wisdom is active.
Major: Seal of Light. 5% extra healing when seal of light is active. Use eider this or seal of wisdom, not both
Major: Flash of Light. 5% extra crit with flash of light, good for early game encounters.
Major: Holy Light. 10% of each holy light heal is transfered to up to 5 friendlies within 8 yards.
So: Cleaning + Wisdom/Light + Flash/Holy
Addons:
Deadly Boss Mode.
Decursive.
Pallypower.
Healbot.
Gender: Tactics.
General: Your lvl 80, surly you have learned to see the signs of when you must heal someone right before they die. However, the trick about good healing is not just about keeping people alive. It's about thinking ahead, using the less costy spells when the needs are not so great, even though they take more time to cast for the same amount of healing.
It will for instance, be a waste to wait for the moment right before they run out of hp, then drain your manapool to the limit each time in saving the day, before you finally blame the dps for not doing enough damage because you run out of mana.
Simple abilities like Cleanse might save you for alot of mana based on how quick you are to use it, by cleansing a poison that lasts for 10 sec, which ticks for 3k every 2 sec, you will "heal" 12k-15k if you cleanse it right away. 200 mana for a 12k damage reduction or 1200 mana for a 12k heal. You make the math. Allways judge the maintarget, this will give you haste and increase +3 crit on the target aswell. If specced right.
Sub Category - Normal tank and spank.
In these fights your tank will be taking all or most of the damage at all time. You should try perserve your mana at the best of your abilities by using sacred shield + flash of light and holy shock if needed.
If your tank is spiking* or you see your healing with this tactick wont make it, dont suddenly start casting Holy Light, keep spamming Flash of Light until your next Holy Shock is ready. After the Holy Shock you may start casting Holy Light and spam it (note that this may be very manaconsuming, but necessary in order to keep the tank alive in sertain situations.) Return to using Flash of Light when you see the danger is over.
Sub Category - Normal partydamage.
Most fights dont mainly focus on 1 target, usually there are atleast 2 targets that are taking damage.
In these cases the tank should be one of the targets taking most damage. So you will put the Beacon of Light on him, together with Sacred Shield. Note that only what you accually heal (not overheal) will be transfered to your Beacon of Light target.
So if your tank aint in range of you, you wont be able to heal him by spamhealing someone with full hp.
Also if someone else heal the target before you, you will "miss" the heal on the tank. So be careful.
When you are in this situation, if under heavy fire you will switz in using Holy Light and Holy Shock on the party members and heal the tank only when he is the only one without close to full hp (note that the transfertime for beacon of light is aprox 1 sec.), if under light fire, you spam Flash of Light on the partymembers, and throw a accationally holy shock on the tank (or even Holy Light) to balance things out.
Sub Category - AoE*
Now, our ways are a bit different here than the other healing classes. We dont accually heal AoE, but we can build up defences against AoE.
If you know your party will be taking AoE damage, plan ahead. Buff everyone with Sacred Shield. This will reduce the aoe your team will be taking greatly, and it will be much easier to singeltarget heal everyone without someone dieing. Also Beacon of Light is a must, pref on the tank, seeing as they usually take more damage than the average partymember and need more attention.
More advanced hotkeys.
8. Hammer of Justice.
9. Beacon of Light.
10. Hand of Freedom.
11. Divine Illumination.
12. Judgement of Light/Wisdom.
13. Divine Plea.
14. Lay on Hands.
15. Healing Potion.
16. Exorism.
17. Holy Wrath.
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Theme: PvP
Specc: 37/0/34, 49/0/22, 51/13/7 (These are the most comon. Try look up the armory at wow-europe and search for high rated arenateams and look around for holy paladines to get some idea of what to get.)
Specc comment: It's very important that you, as holy, have Holy Shock. Also you should sidespecc so you got eider, Stoicism and Improved Righteous Fury or Divine Purpose.
Even though both may work fine, my advices will build upon you having Divine Purpose.
Gear: Intellect > Spellpower / Crit > Stamina > Mp5 (Mana per second) > Haste > Rest.
Alternative Gear: Intellect > Spellpower / Crit > Stamina > Haste > Rest. (If you got replenishment.)
Gender Battlegrounds:
Glyph:
Major: Turn Evil. Makes the Turn Evil Spell instant.
Major: Seal of Light.
Major: Holy Light.
Hotkeys
1) Holy Shock
2) Cleanse
3) Holy Light
4) Sacred Shield
5) Divine Shield
6) Hammer of Justice
7) Judgment of Justice
8) Hand of Freedom (Improved)
9) Trinket
10) Potion
Advanced
11) Consegration (to knock people who are running after you out of stealth)
12) Hand of Sacrefize (Good to prevent cc)
13) Divine Plea
14) Trinket Buffs.
15) Turn Evil (To get pets away)
16) Holy Wrath (Same)
17) Hand of Protection
General: Even though you are the defender of the faith and all the good stuff, you do you work best when you are left alone. Try not to be caught in the middle of something, if your fellow folks fall, you can do nothing by yourself, well nothing other than eider trying to help the battleground objective by luring the enemy away before they manage to kill you, or simply fall back in hope of some more fighters to come to your aid. Remember, you will gain nothing by wasting your divine shield when ambushed by 4-5 people only to face sertain death 12 sec later. Your most important skills is to fakecast* and stay out of LoS*. If you see that someone is going to target you with a fear or simular cc*, eider run furder away or behind something. dont let him hit you, because you will be no good running panicked around for 8 sec, while your teamm8's are dieing. Also you must fakecast in order to prevent interupts. This goes for stuff like counterspell, kick, punnel, etc. If you suspect they will try to interupt you, fakecast until you hear the "interrupt sound".
Sub Category - Wall on Wall.
Well, this is the most normal form you'll see. People of 5-10 bashing into each other and doing dps on whatever they can get within their attackrange. try figure out where the "safespotts" in a bg is so you stay out of range for their counterspells, sheeps, fears and blinds but close enough to heal a target moving forward. Use Holy Shock on people taking "side damage" and spam their maintarget with Holy Light. If you are left alone you can easily keep anything alive to push the line forward, 2-3 good heals will also make their foundation shacke and they will start looking for other targets, but then it's prob too late and 1-2 of their frontmen would be dead or put on the run.
The Guide Continues furder down.
