How is Holy for leveling/soloing mobs?

[Deleted]

I am lvl 47 Retribution and Protection off spec. I would like to replace both of them with Holy: 1. Holy for healing dungeons and 2. Holy for soloing mobs (questing) while waiting for dungeons. So i will have two Holy specs: the healing one and more dps oriented one.
For my "dps" Holy spec i need to put 4 points into Denounce and Blazing Light and later 3 in Crusade (ret) for stronger Holy shock dmg. My q is: would this talents + more dps glyphs will help me soloing mobs until lvl 85? I have been told then Holy can do pretty well untill lvl 81 or 82 but when i hit 83 i will need about 30/45 seconds to kill 1 mob as Holy, even if i have all 7 points in dps talents. Is it true? Any advice?

[Histidine]

I attempted to level on the Cata beta as a holy paladin; gave up quite quickly. The damage you output is just pitiful. It is possible to do it, but you need to be prepared for the long grind.

[Deleted]

No way 30-45sec per mob but takes a bit, did it on my paladin while waiting for dungeon ques but it gets boring spamming exorcism and holy shock.

[mtawney1313]

I am lvl 47 Retribution and Protection off spec. I would like to replace both of them with Holy: 1. Holy for healing dungeons and 2. Holy for soloing mobs (questing) while waiting for dungeons. So i will have two Holy specs: the healing one and more dps oriented one.
For my "dps" Holy spec i need to put 4 points into Denounce and Blazing Light and later 3 in Crusade (ret) for stronger Holy shock dmg. My q is: would this talents + more dps glyphs will help me soloing mobs until lvl 85? I have been told then Holy can do pretty well untill lvl 81 or 82 but when i hit 83 i will need about 30/45 seconds to kill 1 mob as Holy, even if i have all 7 points in dps talents. Is it true? Any advice?

Your survivability will be ridiculous. Mana will be a huge issue until you grab denounce. Things will die pretty quickly (though not as quickly as ret), but will take significantly longer from 70ish to 85.

[Tyrilion]

When you get to higher levels Holy can get tedious and boring when Soloing mobs, you wont die, but u might fall asleep on your keyboard id stick for holy in dungeons and Prot for leveling as you can chain pull mobs without thinking twice about it.

But at lower Levels You can be any spec with hierlooms and near enough one hit a mob ... :P

[foxHeart]

It's atrocious. Go ret/holy unless you like spending 30+ seconds on a single mob. Why wouldn't you go ret for leveling and holy for dungeons? Blows my mind.

[Deleted]

Ty for your replys. Also, i have another noobish question about Beacon of Light (i am asking here, becouse i don't want to open another thread :P): I have no idea on who to put my Beacon of Light when in dungeons: on tank, myself, melee dps, caster ...? Or is it more situational?

@foxHeart: good idea Maybe i could have some problems to collect 2 different types of gear, but that's why i am gonna focus more on dungeons to get better gear and weapons more often, becouse prices on AH for low level gear are insane.

[msully]

It's atrocious. Go ret/holy unless you like spending 30+ seconds on a single mob. Why wouldn't you go ret for leveling and holy for dungeons? Blows my mind.

I'm guessing it's the gear.

[Raugnaut]

Holy Exorcism spam is very nice, and you can do alot of damage quickly! Ret is slow for leveling until you hit the 40s/50s. As holy, though, mana is a problem, where it isnt with ret.

[ffaorlandu]

I leveled to 82 when Cataclysm released as Holy dps mainly because I missed being a Shockadin of TBC fame. It was decent at first because 3-4 Exorcisms and a Holy Shock would kill almost anything. After you leave Hyjal or Vashj'ir, mobs have significantly higher health and makes it 5-6 Exorcisms and 2+ Holy Shocks. But if you don't have Denounce, you will burn through mana so it's not recommended for lower levels until this talent is available. And even then, Ret is always faster. The damage from Exorcism does not scale very well with gear. I have all 359 and 2 372s and yet Exorcism still only does 5800-6200 per hit. But getting the necessary talents to use Exorcism reduces my healing effectiveness and utility for raids. Its fun to have for 5-mans just to throw out some DPS when you have excess mana.

[Leobald]

Ty for your replys. Also, i have another noobish question about Beacon of Light (i am asking here, becouse i don't want to open another thread :P): I have no idea on who to put my Beacon of Light when in dungeons: on tank, myself, melee dps, caster ...? Or is it more situational?

On the tank. Always on the tank.

[Deleted]

On the tank. Always on the tank.

Thank you

[Deleted]

I used holy as my levelling up to cata, in the BC dungeons I could be holy as the heal role and clear the entire dungeon with no deaths in the group and the highest damage, it really is an insane spec early on, especially with demonoid and undead mobs in TBC with lots of exorcism crits. However, it fizzled out a bit in wotlk and I switched to ret in cata.

[Kassander]

I tried with my holy paly when cata was released..... just dont do it. I switched to my ilvl 200 ret gear that I got from Naxx and repsec and ending up killing mobs way faster than in fresh holy gear. just respec

[danieltang34]

believe it or not, its the most efficient spec until lv 80
the DPS of holy should be at least as good as ret
i levelled a holy pally last month, ive only been outdps'd a couple times as a healer
and yes, you'll have time to DPS while healing

[Dundebuns]

Would have though prot was the best for leveling. I personally despise ret atm, such a terrible spec to have to use in my opinion.

[Howard Moon]

It's doable, but terribly slow. Mobs last ages! Prot is the way to go