My thoughts on holy paladins...

[Atheyst]

The issue I currently have with healing as a paladin is that Beacon of Light has a 1 minute duration. I know that Beacon can be amazing in the right situations, but I feel the short duration makes this ability very sub-par and annoying. Having its duration buffed to say 2 or 3 minutes would cure most of the issues I run into, but knowing that may never happen, I'd like some feedback on how to manage healing as a paladin.

For example, I have found that during most boss fights (heroics and 10-mans so far), I need to reapply Beacon at least one to two times. This means I am spending time tracking Beacon's duration instead of watching health bars and debuffs and spending 1300 mana and a GCD on a buff that I feel is required for Pallys to successfully heal many of these encounters. I have set focus macros to apply Beacon to the proper targets, but it still feels like an additional distraction that is not necessary or fun.

This is even more true when you factor in trying to keep up JoW/JoL as much as possible, along with the haste buff they provide. As a healer, I feel I have become more of a clock watcher than ever before, and this takes away from time I would spend actually healing and dispelling, and subsequently makes healing as a paladin feel more like a chore than anything else.

I am currently running Grid and/or XPerl with Clique, along with Spellreminder to track Beacons's duration.
Has anyone else run into these problems? Are there any addons out there that would make this process more manageable/fun?

Thanks in advance.

-"He who dies with the most toys still dies."

[HallytehPally]

I was healing just last night and was thinking about this. Basically, I've concluded that Beacon isn't worth using at all in dungeons, lvl 80 dungeons and some heroics simply because of the mana cost. Admittedly I haven't healed Naxx yet, so this might change, but since it is only up for 1min and costs so much to cast, I usually just ignore it. Too bad really, its a very cool idea.

[ishy]

I love the bacon, if the duration was longer then the mana cost would likely be a lot higher too. Though, I do agree it is sometimes a bit hectic to keep track of all cooldowns / buffs that you need to keep up.

[jst1998]

I don't quite understand why you guys are not happy about Beacon of Light. HOTs are unlikely to ever become part of a pallys arsenal. For a direct healer this is as good as it gets. Beacon has 1 min duration, no cooldown and the mana cost is reasonable considering the healing you get in return. It makes a lot of sense to me and really makes a difference in groups/raids, especially if your group is undergeared for a boss.

[antidan]

Its a situational move, like riptide, except more so. Don't use it at all times, just alot of times.

[Wraith]

i really can't fathom how you can't find this hard? or not useful?

Don't you have a cool down counter and buff counter running?

I can see exactly how much time beacon has left at all times, and i have it active all the time unless the pulls are so mundane there is no need.

How do you do it. Clique mod.

Shift Left click - FL
Shift Right Click - HL
Ctrl Left click - Shock
Ctrl Right click - Apply beacon

I then have buttons for the trinket from H MGT to heal, 100% crit button (forgive me for not remembering the name, Reduce mana cost and Divine Plea. All these are located right next to the frames for my party or raid members.

If you can't manage keeping Beacon active and healing the group then i would suggest healing is not your bag or your UI needs some mods.

Clique is a must for all healers IMO. Any buff \ cooldown mod will be enough to track beacon. When to apply it? Anywhere in its last 5 seconds as long as your not under uber heal load as it does take a GC.

I don't understand your issues with teh mana cost of this spell. With alot of grps doing AOE style pulls with zero marks now that all tanks can AOE (not just pali tanks). If you have to flash all grp members in these pulls then Beacon means you have 1 less person to heal. It doubles your healing output....i can't see why you wouldn't use it. I use it constantly and never have issues with mana. I am sure someone on elitest jerks has done a write up on its mana efficency vs heal.

[Furin]

complaining that you have to do something other than fol spam? im quite happy with changes and cant wait to heal heroics and raids. set your UI up so your eyes dont have to travel far, i got all my health bars and buttons right in the middle under my char to minimize eye travel. toss in a CD counter for bacon and ill be set.

[Zimna]

I was healing just last night and was thinking about this. Basically, I've concluded that Beacon isn't worth using at all in dungeons, lvl 80 dungeons and some heroics simply because of the mana cost. Admittedly I haven't healed Naxx yet, so this might change, but since it is only up for 1min and costs so much to cast, I usually just ignore it. Too bad really, its a very cool idea.

It's very useful in naxx, especially on patchwerk. But also, when running 10 man naxx (with 2 healers) it's almost always useful in there. Also, if the manacost it has is a problem for you, just use divine plea alot. When raiding, you're going to need it if you're not outgearing the instance.

On sapphiron I would prefer a paladin and a priest as healers. I'm a paladin myself, and I didn't know what to do with beacon there. But my guildmates told me to try using the beacon on myself while spam healing the tank (due to blizzard), and that worked out great. So that's a tip to all of you who are going to heal the maintank. Don't move out of blizzard, just keep healing the tank. Moving out of blizzard while standing in range of the tank can be dangerous because A) you might run into sapphirons cleave (really big cleave!) or B) you might run out of range >> killing the tank.

Another thing is to use the beacon on the tank that will be tanking kel'thuzad while assisting the other healer. Throw in a holy shock on those who get the "frost trap". When the adds spawn, just spam heal the add tank, he should be taking more damage than the maintank.

Zimna,
Ravencrest EU

[Ulgut]

Beacon of Light is useful in most Wotlk instances with all the aoe going on. A prime example is Loken in Halls of Lightning, which seems like a really fucked up fight for a holy pally at start, with all the running around.

Just pop Beacon on yourself, stand on a decent range and heal all the rest of the group as they run in and out from the boss. Sure you will take quite a bit of damage, but it will not be an issue since you will be topped off all the time by Beacon.

[cerbul]

It sure is useful for heroics where paladin is only healer, and if you find the right player to apply the beacon at, can be realy nice. Tanks and melee are usualy best targets, but in cases where the entire group is taking damage, may be useful to use it on yourself.
Also, I believe that would be a nice idea, to have some spell to refresh the beacon, and mana cost reduced in case is still on. Same spell or different spell with reduced cost for refreshing the beacon only. I personaly change the beacon in fight and I don't care if is not on at some point, but when the "x" phase comes on that boss I apply it and reorganize all my heals to have the best benefit of it. In my opinion best results I got were using it on tank in massive damage situations and on melee when having a boss that hits melee also.
Best situation was Halazzi in Zul'Aman on wich I was using beacon on offtank to be able to focus more on the main tank. At Nalorak I was using beacon the bear form offtank, to be able to focus on the bear main tank. Also at hex lor malacras I was using the beacon on me or on the other healer, especialy in the case when Shadow Bolts were in the air.
So yes, is interesting, but something based on the distance from the beacon of the light making heals bigger I believe would have been nice.
If I heal let's say a caster who is far from beacon, the beacon will receive a small amount of heal and less will be distributed to the players near the beacon. Healing the beacon directly or someone close to the beacon would have to make beacon "pulse" more healing to the nearby players.
This would make very efective the small groups of players with every group having a beacon of light around just like protos pilons on Starcraft