Leveling Holy Pally, have a few questions

[Töasty]

Hi. After getting my mage to 85, I decided to level a tauren paladin (finally! could not stand blood elf). My two buddies and I are leveling together, one is a hunter, the other is prot warrior. So far I'm having a blast with holy, in both PvE and PvP. I have played alliance paladins in the past, never past lvl 70 or so, but only played as prot and ret.

I'm level 33, and maybe I'm just overgeared for the content with BoA gear and what not, but I'm finding that I can actually pull decent DPS while I'm healing at the same time. I generally run in with the tank, hit holy shock on the mob, then judge, then crusader strike, then just auto attack the mob. Once crusader strike comes off of CD, I hit it again, and have 3 holy power for word of glory. If the tank needs more heals than that, then I either use my next holy shock on him, or I cast holy light. I also do some PvP, so I have spec'd into Denounce for the instant zero mana cost exorcisms.

What I'm wondering is this, is this playstyle something viable at higher levels, or should I just enjoy it while it lasts? I know judgement will always be beneficial for mana return and 9% haste, but the holy power generation of crusader strike is nice, especially since I have the major glyph that reduces the mana cost by 30%. Does anyone use crusader strike in at lvl 85?

I've healed some lvl 80 raids on a druid and disc priest, and healed 5 mans on a shaman, but I've never had a healing class that was this fun, I really like juggling the damage/healing and being up in front in all of the action.

Thanks for any feedback/ suggestions.

[eternalwhitemoon]

At 85, you won't have time to Crusader Strike, most of the time (I do for Magmaw when his head is impaled, I Judge and CS on cooldown to get some mana back and get some Holy Power ready to start healing again). You'll be using all your Holy Shocks for heals to generate Holy Power.

So basically, enjoy it while it lasts. It won't be a viable way to heal at 85.

Edit: Whether to CS or not to CS at 85 is at hot debate over at EJ. Most say it's not worth it, but some say it is for Seal of Insight procs (you gain a minute amount of mana if it procs, but you lose mana if it doesn't, even glyphed supposedly). I personally don't think it's worth it unless it's a situation where you don't need to do any actual healing.

[kardar]

Since i am having zero mana problems right now at 85 i use CS as part of my "rotation" when heavy damage is incoming so i can quickly build up 3 hp. i go holy shock > cs > DL on tank > LoD/WoG, but maybe it will change once i get into harder content. I have only done 9/12 so far so things are subjective to change for sure

[eternalwhitemoon]

Since i am having zero mana problems right now at 85 i use CS as part of my "rotation" when heavy damage is incoming so i can quickly build up 3 hp. i go holy shock > cs > DL on tank > LoD/WoG, but maybe it will change once i get into harder content. I have only done 9/12 so far so things are subjective to change for sure

You can't be in melee range for every part of every fight, though. Maloriak comes to mind with his blue phase. It's better for you to be out with the ranged than risk accidentally iceblocking the tank because you got too close.

Personally, I'm specced into Eternal Glory and Blessed Life for Holy Power generation, and I find them to be serving me well so far, especially in conjunction with Tower of Radiance. Here were my gains for last night's raid:

Holy Shock 486 holy power
Tower of Radiance 149 holy power
Eternal Glory 135 holy power
Blessed Life 133 holy power
Crusader Strike 8 holy power

As noted above, though, I ONLY CS for Magmaw. So Eternal Glory net me 45 3-HP WoG/LoD, and Blessed Life net me 44 3-HP WoG/LoD, alogether 89 free WoG/LoD from those two talents. I actually got a tiny bit proc-unlucky on the Eternal Glory; last raid was 171 Holy Power from Eternal Glory.

YMMV.

[Elessa]

You will be able to exorcism the bosses sometimes in normals, but you will NEED to spec denounce or you will oom yourself in no time. By specing Denounce you're obviously gimping your healing.

If you don't need a second spec for something else, I would recommend getting a Deounce spec as your offspec while having a normal holy spec as your mainspec. The Denounce spec is actually quite useful on a few bosses, as there are phases where the damage output is really low.

[Drekor]

What I'm wondering is this, is this playstyle something viable at higher levels, or should I just enjoy it while it lasts? I know judgement will always be beneficial for mana return and 9% haste, but the holy power generation of crusader strike is nice, especially since I have the major glyph that reduces the mana cost by 30%. Does anyone use crusader strike in at lvl 85?

CS is very very situational and often not a great idea. If you really need HP go for it but otherwise stay out of melee and the PBAoEs flying around. If you want to do a little pew pew grab denounce and exo spam.