[MoP] Paly Healing Guide?

[drahcir1302]

Alright...

So I'm not quite getting it. I feel Paly healing has changed more so than I am fathoming, and I'm no where near as good of a healer as I use to be...

My first problem lies around mana consumption. I am just burning through it way too quickly... What am I missing out on? I can't rely on WoG or LoD freebies cause they are few and far between, and for some reason, when they do proc, they like to just rapid proc one after another... It's to the point that to even consider casting Divine or Flash of Light is wrong.

Holy Shock is expensive, and I really only use it to try and lead into a procced WoG or LoD freebie... It just seems trying to amass Holy Power is too expensive.

So can anyone relay to me their standard healing rotation? Is Judging even something to bother with anymore? Is the Stat Order of Importance still Int>Spirit>Haste>Crit>Mastery?

I guess what I'm saying is... Speak to me like a noob. Where do I start?

[Speedy92286]

I have been playing my Holy Paladin like on live, but I have been using Sacred Shield on the tank while healing the party as needed. Also, the glyph of Divine Plea is a life saver that after using it on beta really ruins DP on live for me.

What talents/glyphs are you using? Depending on your choices, your play style will probably be different than mine.

P.S. As for Flash of light and divine light, you cannot spam these. Flash light is more of an emergency button and divine light is best saved for when the tank is at half life or lower.

[Edea]

Use holy shock on cooldown, it does alot of healing now and mana cost is not high relative to the healing done. Also, stand in melee range and do crusader strikes for holy power, its very cheap mana wise.

Also, i've been using Sanctified Wrath so far, i dont think the randomness of Divine Purpose is very good.

Judging does nothing unless you're specced for Selfless Healer - if you are then obviously you need to judge, if not, then only judge when you need the speed boost (which you should be specced into).

To regen mana simply stand in melee range and hit the boss with seal of insight, you're gonna be in there anyway for crusader strikes.

Hope that helps

[Direction]

Use holy shock on cooldown, it does alot of healing now and mana cost is not high relative to the healing done. Also, stand in melee range and do crusader strikes for holy power, its very cheap mana wise.

Also, i've been using Sanctified Wrath so far, i dont think the randomness of Divine Purpose is very good.

Judging does nothing unless you're specced for Selfless Healer - if you are then obviously you need to judge, if not, then only judge when you need the speed boost (which you should be specced into).

To regen mana simply stand in melee range and hit the boss with seal of insight, you're gonna be in there anyway for crusader strikes.

Hope that helps

Helps me :P i just got my holy pally to lvl 83 and had no idea i was suppose to use crusader strike Thanks

[Pasture]

Helps me :P i just got my holy pally to lvl 83 and had no idea i was suppose to use crusader strike Thanks

You're not supposed you use Crusader Strike. It's something you can do, but it's not something you should ever NEED to do. As a healing class we aren't balanced around using it.

At the start of the expansion it's always going to be more of a struggle to heal. The best thing you can do is to stack as much spirit as possible until you feel comfortable. You need to get out of the mindset that you had at the end of Cata. You won't be able to heal like that again for a few tiers.

[Stevemcqeen]

You're not supposed you use Crusader Strike. It's something you can do, but it's not something you should ever NEED to do. As a healing class we aren't balanced around using it.

At the start of the expansion it's always going to be more of a struggle to heal. The best thing you can do is to stack as much spirit as possible until you feel comfortable. You need to get out of the mindset that you had at the end of Cata. You won't be able to heal like that again for a few tiers.

Lets just say using CS is something we need to do with mana regen in its current state.

Is Judging even something to bother with anymore?

I guess you missed the part where judge does 0 for us anymore(outside of selfless healer, but that was nerfed and we don't use it anymore)

Also, i've been using Sanctified Wrath so far, i dont think the randomness of Divine Purpose is very good.

Probly better off using holy avenger, holy shock + crusader strike lets you put out a lot of healing

So can anyone relay to me their standard healing rotation? Is Judging even something to bother with anymore? Is the Stat Order of Importance still Int>Spirit>Haste>Crit>Mastery?

TL : DR This first tier is going to be about what it takes to get to the end of a fight with 1 mana left, start thinking about stats that get you there.
Int>Spirit>Mastery>Haste>Crit

This is what I really hope people get over. We have mana issues, no one in their right mind will deny that. What does Haste do, allows you to cast more quickly thus depleting your mana pool faster. The other thing, look at what spells we are using right now, Holy Shock, WoG/EF, LoD, Crusader Strike, tier 90 talents etc. What do they all have in common? Instant cast spells! In reality less than half of the spells we cast in a fight will have an actual cast time, that number is then also reduced thanks to hasted casts from holy shock crits. We also are not getting extra ticks from any spell like we did in cata(holy radiance). We may get an extra EF tick just because the first extra one is a low haste point, but after that nothing.

Start looking at Mastery, 30% shields in the first tier is no joke, and it works to lessen the strain on a ridiculous regen problem.


General Healing Strategy

This is what I wrote in a thread on my guilds forums commenting on paladins on the beta

Now in MoP healers have been met with a new problem, the fact that even when trying to conserve mana we oom. To make it clear, when healing on the beta this is how I go about things:

1) keep Holy shock on cd
2) try to keep CS on cd for faster HP generation
3) rely heavily on Holy Light as my main cast spell, I may use Divine Light or Holy Radiance based on imminent threat/higher damage but those are last resort things that I steer away from simply because I know what happens if I use them(OOM).
4) cool downs are planned to fill a specific purpose. If i know heavy aoe is coming up I look to cover most of that time with Holy Avenger( putting CS ahead of HS in my mind to get the most LoD out in the 15secs I have ). Avenging Wrath I have also moved towards a use only during aoe damage, when we get Divine Illumination back that will also be a use this only during aoe as well. Now of course you're probly commenting "So Steve what the hell are you going to do during high tank damage etc. and my answer to that is we simply have a lot of tools to combat high single target damage. 1) our mastery is pretty sweet 2) Eternal flame is OK at mitigating high damage and dot's 3) LoH, Goak, Hand of Purity/Clemency give us tools to help mitigate that. For any situation where a cool down can benefit aoe healing it must be used for such, it is our weak point now and any way we have to make ourselves more effective at it must be utilized. Single target damage is easy enough to figure out simply using what we normally have. Trying to handle heavy aoe without Holy Avenger, Wings, or DI becomes troublesome really quickly.

Even when trying to regen mana where ever possible, using this method still eats through mana. As of yet I still haven't found a more efficient way of doing things, and something that does it better while using less mana certainly does not exist.

Spells that i didn't mention like holy prism,arcing hammer, and exec sentence are all situational and can be used at the discretion of the user.

[Rizendragon]

I haven't been using the CS strategy on beta yet, but i'm also not lvl 90 yet.

My talent set:
PoJ (it's simply the best of the 3. 15%-30% passive movement speed depending on HP)
Repentance (haven't found a use yet, but if CC is needed I like to bring what I can)
Eternal Flame (haven't healed since the bug has been fixed, but EF is a nice heal between 3HP periods)
Clemency (this seems to be the best talent of the 3 on this teir. 2x sac, freedom, prot, and salv. I personally use these quite often so this is a big boost for me)
Holy Avenger (Allows a ton of control of HP generation. During HA you can basically shock or HR then either WoG/EF or LoD)
Light's Hammer (Fits my style. In 5 and 10 mans this spell will be pretty decent. The AoE cap is 6 before DR and this doesn't require a whole lot of positioning)

HS really isn't that expensive tbh. If you use HR before using shock you get an AoE heal out of both. This leads to a decent amount of AoE healing with HR>HS>HR>LoD.

What you need to remember is that everyone has mana issues right now. The only thing that will mitigate mana problems is better gear and spell choice. I try to only use DL on my beacon when it is procced, I stay away from the AoE rotation listed above unless it's a high AoE phase, keep EF up on the tank/anyone taking a decent amount of damage, and since I have Clemency I liberally use all of my hand spells.

[Deleted]

Most of it has already been said, but generaly holy paladins are now even more a cooldown-based healer.

Our cooldowns are massive and should be used mostly in heavy AOE damage. In single target we are strong and in most situations clemency double hand of sacrifice is more than enough to get us around heavy single target damage, with EF helping out a little aswell.

Everytime you see you can't keep up with tank damage, push a Hand of sacrifice out, with clemency you have another chance to use it afterwards. Other than that, holy shock + holy light + Eternal Flame should be enough for most situations.

Everytime you see you can't keep up with 3+ people damaged, don't be afraid to start using cooldowns.

Also, if you interested in 10 men healing, this video below is quite interesting. You can see the playstyle to melee when possible for mana return, using holy prism to help melee aoe healing (wich i love btw), and using judgement for selfless healer (wich i don't like btw).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9VTD...3&feature=plcp

As for the playstyle i would only replace selfless healer for either sacred shield or eternal flame.


And i strongly believe that holy radiance is a 25 men healing spell only, sorry to say.

[Stevemcqeen]

I'd like to hear what people think they are going to do from a gemming standpoint.

As much as I want spirit, can we give up all the int, meaning going full spirit instead of something like int/spirit.

does the extra mana regen from full spirit gems outweigh picking up int through gems? Personally I never make it anywhere near the end of a fight before going oom, and thats when I'm trying to be as conservative as possible... idk wtb regen improvements >.>

[Azshira]

I'd like to hear what people think they are going to do from a gemming standpoint.

As much as I want spirit, can we give up all the int, meaning going full spirit instead of something like int/spirit.

does the extra mana regen from full spirit gems outweigh picking up int through gems? Personally I never make it anywhere near the end of a fight before going oom, and thats when I'm trying to be as conservative as possible... idk wtb regen improvements >.>

I'm trying full spirit almost on beta including reforges where possible. It's working out a lot better than without I tell you that. Int is good and all for sp and a little crit, but it's main reason for stacking before was because it also affected mana, now spirit is the most sought after secondary stat. The more the better, I'd also include this for the helm meta for spirit.

[Deleted]

playing like on live.

less HR, less DL
more Holy shocks and fkn keep Eternal Flame ( OP!) up ..

[Pasture]

playing like on live.

less HR, less DL
more Holy shocks and fkn keep Eternal Flame ( OP!) up ..

Eternal Flame isn't OP any more. It got really, really heavily nerfed. 70% nerf or there abouts.

But on the whole healing is the same, with some subtle differences.

For tank healing you have the addition of Eternal Flame or Sacred Shield to maintain. You can also use Holy Prism or Stay of Execution as a tank heal. Despite the latter healing for more, the former is probably better just because it's on demand rather than some daft Lifebloom with a 1 minute cooldown.

For AoE healing you have the addition of Holy Shock after Holy Radiance, as well as Holy Prism or Light's Hammer depending on what you spec.

And then, more generally, if you spec it you have Holy Avenger as an extra cooldown.

The main difference from how we currently play on Cata is that we're likely relegated to tank healing again while spot healing the raid. It won't be until later in the tiers that all the fights become stack up fights again and we can AoE.

---------- Post added 2012-08-14 at 08:49 PM ----------

New build:

I realise they want to make WoG more attractive comparatively to LoD but nerfing LoD is such an ugly way to go about it. As a standalone ability it isn't that powerful and it's our only option for AoE healing in a spread raid. Just a silly decision because an entire expansion later they still haven't been able to balance WoG vs LoD. WoG needs to do something in addition to just heal to make it more attractive to plant on the tank. It's not rocket science. You've tried adjusting the value of WoG vs LoD before, many, many times. You can't do it so stop trying.

Buff for EF after the over-severe nerf it received last patch.

[mcbubble]

Here's a very quick guide on how I heal (I'm one of the main healers in a set 10m group that just formed from a core 25m group). I've tested BETA in 10m and 25m heroic and normal raids.
Here's my 10m PVE spec:
http://mop.wowhead.com/mists-of-pand...tor#ljN|IrydcM

For most of the fights, it's imperative that you stay in melee range in order to gain the 4% base mana from seal of insight, and it's also important if you use Glyph of the Battle Healer to it's fullest potential. While in melee, get as many crusader strikes in as you can without sacrificing your healing.

It seems that there are two debates as a holy paladin: What LVL 45 ability to take and what lvl 90 ability to take.
For my LVL 45 ability - I've chosen sacred shield. I'm not a big fan of judging since it doesn't really offer anything, so I will not choose selfless healer (plus, SH is like having to manage two holy power resources). It heals for a good amount, but it takes a while to ramp up 1+ judges. I do NOT like Eternal Flame. Even though they gave it a soft buff today (8/14 beta notes), our last nerf made it heal for so little with the HOT that it's undesirable. I do like SS. Cast it on the tank every 30 seconds, and stick to the normal rotation.
For my level 90 talents: Sanctified Wrath (SW) really isn't the best choice for holy. A 50% cool down on Holy Shock is nice, but Divine Purpose (DP) and Holy Avenger (HA) trump it by far.
HA is nice for fights when you know there's going to be burst... unfortunately, it seems that the fights in beta have a lot of aoe damage throughout the entire encounter (with a few exceptions). My gripe with this: You still need abilities that generate HP in order to get your 3 HP ability. So you have to spend mana for these 'free' spells. Granted, you can Crusader Strike for low mana output - but you still waste a GCD, spend mana and then that GCD wastes ~1/15 of the cooldown (since it has a 15 second cooldown).
DP gives you the chance for another 3 HP spell (with a 25% chance to proc) after using a HP spell. This means you don't have to spend mana to get a FREE 3 HP spell, which means you save mana for a big heal (which will be huge early in MOP).
On Beta, DP procs a LOT and it really helps with my mana efficiency. I've tried both SW and HA in raid testing, and there's no doubt in my mind, at least early on, that I will be taking DP.

As for glyphs:
The beacon glyph is huge since it removes the GCD for beacon, so you can swap and heal at the same time - this is HUGE.
Divinity gives us 10% mana return after casting LoH, which will be huge early on
Battle healer: i'll be in melee range to get as many CSs as possible and to take advantage of the mana return of seal of insight. I know some will take the flash of light glyph, because a 7% increase in healing is LARGE - I'm still undecided which to take.

As far as play-style goes: Keep your beacon and use Sacred Shield on the tank. Don't let SS fall off. Stay in melee range to maximize the amount of CS's that you can get. You also want to Holy Shock on CD. The only time you don't want to HS on cooldown is if you're about to cast a holy radiance. This sounds like common sense, but it took me a while to get used to that. I would cast Holy Shock then Holy radiance and then have to wait 3 seconds before I could Holy Shock again.
I also find that Holy Light heals for a LOT and is very mana efficient. It has a long cast time, but it's easy to cancel cast if don't need it. I also heals the tank for 100% of the amount absorbed (as opposed to the normal 50 or 15%).
Holy Prism is fun to manage. You can either use it as a burst heal on the tank or as an AOE heal if cast upon an enemy. Since it has a 20 second CD, I'm using it (usually) to cast upon the enemy, which in turn heals 6 players around the enemy. This has basically replaced my judgement. I absolutely love it, especially since 15% of the healing goes towards the beacon.

All of that said, it will be difficult to manage mana - so it's imperative early on to manage your free holy power spells.

My stats will be: Spirit > Int > Haste > Mastery > Crit

If you're wondering why haste is so high up there: It's from our passive, Sanctity of Battle, which states: Haste effects lower the cooldown of your Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities. More CS = More HP = more free spells!

If you have any questions, let me know!

[Pasture]

I know some will take the flash of light glyph, because a 7% increase in healing is LARGE - I'm still undecided which to take.

The glyph is only useful if you cast Flash of Light. Unless you're specced Selfless Healer you probably won't. Flash has never really had a place in the Holy Paladin toolbox since Cata.

My stats will be: Spirit > Int > Haste > Mastery > Crit

If you're wondering why haste is so high up there: It's from our passive, Sanctity of Battle, which states: Haste effects lower the cooldown of your Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities. More CS = More HP = more free spells!

I know this discussion has been had before but I think you're going about it the wrong way there. If mana is a massive concern you go for mastery over haste. You can still CS every 6 seconds so you can still get your free HP heals but you're gaining extra hps just through your normal healing.

I do find it a little off that you dismiss judging every 6 seconds for Selfless Healer but choose to CS every 6 seconds instead. I will add that in heroic encounters chasing haste for extra CS is going to be pretty fruitless. Unless you can cast CS every time it comes off cooldown it is a waste stacking haste for this purpose. You already have one spell you have to cast every 6 seconds. In a heroic encounter you just aren't going to be able to afford another spell you have to cast every 6 seconds. I appreciate there will be some healing downtime but not that much, so going for haste just for more CS is not the best idea. If you aren't doing CS on cooldown you have wasted that haste.

[Azshira]

Taking what Pasture said and I'm quoting Mcbubble:

"My stats will be: Spirit > Int > Haste > Mastery > Crit"

I also feel you are going really wrong here. Mana regen is very important and we're relying on free cast spells and instants most of the time. Since we want to also keep our regen up, negating damage via mastery is key here so we might not have to heal too soon.

IMO your stats should be: Spirit > Int > Mastery > Haste > Crit , heck I'd almost make haste=crit in a way. Mastery will start off the best without a doubt.

I am torn between divine purpose and holy avenger though, DP procs a lot as you said, but avenger is guaranteed free heals

[Deleted]

Managing Holy shock cooldown is mandatory, so managing crusader strike cd AND judgement cooldown for Selfless healer while keeping prism Cooldown is just too many cooldowns for me to handle on beta, so i had to change my talents a little bit.

First to come out was Selfless healer judgements ... i just can't keep up so many short cooldowns while healing efectively.
Prism is just too fun to give up so i kept it
Managing crusader strike is taking a long while for me to keep up. I know i SHOULD do it for mana, extra holy power and even a little healing, but most of the time i'm endangering my positioning too much for its benefits, so is still a work in progress.

Also, having holy avenger as yet another powerfull cooldown is not working out as good as i wanted it since i tend to have the idea that its powerfull so i must keep it ready most of the time. Divine Purpose changes our healing on the fly and its great fun when it works (wich is often btw). Granted its random but heck having 2 words of glory back to back its huge on mana saving on the tank and 2 light of dawn is massive for our weak AOE healing.

Holy Prism is for me no contest at lvl90 talents. Its fun to use, moderately powerfull, a somewhat good complement for our weak AOE healing, cheap, lowish cooldown and versatile since it can help on tank healing and AOE healing.

About stats:

Spirit >>>>> INT > Mastery > Haste > crit

In the first tier we simply cannot afford to use Divine Light as before, this will take a lot geting used to aswell. Its important for us to get mastery so that we can build a good "cushion" for our holy lights to reach our tank and avoid using too many Divine Lights. Sacred shield + Mastery is a pretty interesting "cushion" now, we must go away from the brute force Divine lights on the tank and go more towards absorbs + free spells + holy light beacon transfers.


Our healing gained more "finesse" in exchange from the brute force we had in cataclysm. Its way easier to go dry now so we have to play much smarter now. I personaly feel its exciting times for holy paladins tough. Only thing i dislike is the terrible efficiency of holy radiance in 5 and 10 men.

[Blitzago]

I plan on gearing with spirit > int > mastery > haste = crit. I think mastery will play a huge role in us managing our mana, especially early on in MoP, And I dont think we'll be able to CS on cooldown, therefore stacking haste to reduce the CS cooldown will be wasted. And I plan on going with Sacred Shield, Clemency, and switching between Holy Avenger and Divine Purpose, depending on the style of the fight. With holy prism of course.

[Pasture]

Sacred shield + Mastery is a pretty interesting "cushion" now,

My only gripe is that mastery doesn't effect Sacred Shield. Surely increasing the size of the absorb by the %mastery boost would be an easy implement. This would truly make mastery the efficiency stat, compared to haste the throughout stat.

On a side note, I'm terrified they are going to nerf Holy Prism in a desperate bid to make the other top tier talents more attractive. It's just so versatile the other talents can't really hope to compete, one being a minute cooldown and fixed to the floor and the other being an awful, uncontrollable lifebloom with massive waste.

[Kerfax]

Throwing my two cents in as far as stats and gemming go:

My stat weights are going to be Int>Spirit>Mastery>Haste>Crit. I agree that since Mastery has been the mana friendly secondary stat that it is going to do the most for us as far as longetivity goes. It may not be the best for sheer throughput, but early on we need to worry more about being able to have mana the whole fight.

To that end I'm also going to be gemming with an aim towards making socket bonuses.
My gemming strategy (at least early on) is going to be:
Red- Brilliant
Blue- Purified/Sparkling
Yellow- Artful
Prismatic- Sparkling

I may end up favoring Spirit a lot more in my gemming, but for now this is my plan.

[Deleted]

My only gripe is that mastery doesn't effect Sacred Shield. Surely increasing the size of the absorb by the %mastery boost would be an easy implement. This would truly make mastery the efficiency stat, compared to haste the throughout stat.

On a side note, I'm terrified they are going to nerf Holy Prism in a desperate bid to make the other top tier talents more attractive. It's just so versatile the other talents can't really hope to compete, one being a minute cooldown and fixed to the floor and the other being an awful, uncontrollable lifebloom with massive waste.

Indeed, it would be an easy fix. They stated in the recent past they were still not happy with sacred shield and considering some buff to it, probably remove the 1 target limit, but still not sure, could be the mastery scalling, who knows...

I believe that holy Prism on itself is not overpowered for a lvl 90 talent. The others are lackluster imho. They could lower the cooldown on both of them to 30s/45s perhaps to make it more competitive (even tough execution sentense is good for ret atm).

Also, just new, crusader strike mana cost will be increased in a next build. This is blizzard answer for us starting to go melee for more holy power and dumping it easily with light of dawn. Standing in melee just got a little bit less rewarding for us.