A Holy Paladin Preview of 5.0.4
Greetings fellow Holy Paladins. Come patch day the majority of you will experience a new light of Holy Paladins and they will play slightly different from what you are used to. This is a recap of the changes that you will face on patch day and it will serve as a summary. I will not be including anything with level 86-90, this purely is about 85 and patch day expectancies. More in-depth posts about the following can be found across the web and you'll be certain to see guides on MMO-Champion in the dedicated section.
So what major things have changed:
- The Talent System has been completely re-hauled and each spec has received many appropriated spells and abilities (discussed below).
- All Paladins have had auras removed.
- You can now have up to 5 Holy Power, the Holy Power bar has also been changed to accommodate this change (Boundless Conviction).
- Maximum mana will now be capped at the same amount as other casters 100k at 85 (at 90 this will be 300k). There are very few exceptions of increasing a caster's maximum mana ie. Meta Gem with increased mana by 2%. All spells will still be cast at percentages based on your base mana.
- Intellect will no longer provide mana. It will be the best stat for throughput and will also provide a little crit.
- Spirit will be our best regen and most sought after secondary stat. Be prepared to stack this.
- Judgements of the Pure has been removed. This means that you no longer need to cast Judgement (unless you use talents which involve it).
Talent System:
As you may be already aware, there will be 6 talents in total, earning a new talent every 15 levels. This re-cap will mention 5 of these talents (the 6th tier is un-locked at 90)
You may choose 1 of the following talents per tier, you can always change your mind by purchasing a regent to remove your choice:
Tier 1 (lvl 15) - Choice of Movement you want:
Largely will depend on encounter. I have tried all three and they all have merit, I think Long Arm of the Law and Pursuit of Justice are the most favourable, but it does depend on your playstyle too.
Tier 2 (lvl 30) – Your Control of your opponent/enemy:
Once again depending on your playstyle. I always like Repentance so I always take it as a very good CC ability.
Tier 3 (lvl 45) – Choice of Healing:
Here's a tough choice! This can be changed depending on boss but also it is to suit you. Selfless Healer requires you to use 3 Judgements to get an instant free cast Flash of Light. I think this is the weakest choice for us. Eternal Flame replaces Word of Glory and heals the same instantly with a small, yet valuable, HoT, the downside is this HoT will be replaced if you cast it again on the same target. Sacred Shield is great to just click and forget about for 30 seconds, it provides a very big absorb and did I mention it's free?
Tier 4 (lvl 60) – Choice of Utility:
Hard to tell here and very situational. Hands of Purity will help on any boss with dots dramatically reducing the damage. Unbreakable Spirit can bring our Lay on Hands down several minutes to help us get more mana back (glyphed) and an extremely great heal, also of course allows shields to come right down in time too. Clemency could be godly allowing two Hands to be cast.
Tier 5 (lvl 75) – Choice of Throughput:
Another though choice! Divine Purpose is RNG but procs often granting many free heals. Holy Avenger allows extra healing and instant Light of Dawn or Word of Glory over the duration which has immense advantages with a short cooldown. Sanctified Wrath could be good for faster generation of Holy Power whilst pumping out Holy Shocks more often. I do think currently: Holy Avenger or Divine Purpose will be the most selected.
Abilities:
Several abilities will have changed icons. Along with gaining new abilities from the above talent tiers, Holy Paladins also experience the following changes:
New/Changed Spells:
Holy Radiance - no longer provides a HoT.
Cleanse - has an 8 second cooldown but will not be incurred if you do not actually dispel anything, it will cost you your mana though.
Denounce (New)- is a single target damage dealing spell which will serve mostly useful for leveling.
Beacon of Light - no longer has a timer associated with it and will stay on the target until removed by the Paladin or the player dies. It has a 100 yard radius and transfers 15% of the healing from Light of Dawn and Holy Radiance.
Seal of Insight - increases your casting speed by 10%, as well as improving the healing done by 5%, and granting a chance of 4% base mana per melee attack.
Blessing of Kings - no longer provides 5% Stamina and extra magicial resistance.
Blessing of Might - now grants mastery instead of increased mana regen and attack power.
Devotion Aura (New) - is a defensive raid cooldown. Which overs 20% magic damage reduction, also immunity to silence and movement interrupt effects. It is a mix between Aura Mastery (Holy) and Divine Guardian (Prot).
Guardian of Ancient Kings – re-designed, still with 5 minute cooldown. Whilst healing the target of your heal for the full amount it also heals nearby friendly targets for 10% of the amount healed. While the Guardian is active, you gain a stacking buff that increases your haste by 10% per stack (maximum 5 stacks) per single heal used (example: casting Holy Light will give you 10% haste, casting another gives you 20%). The Guardian disappears once 5 single heals are cast or when 30 seconds elapse.
Light of Dawn – No longer has a frontal requirement and heals up to 6 friendly players within 30 yards of the Paladin.
Passives (New/Changed):
Many of the below are marked as (New) due to they are now a passive spell instead of a talent.
Holy Insight (New) - Increases the effectiveness of your healing by 25% and your mana pool by 400%. Increases your chance to hit with Holy Shock, Judgement, and Denounce by 15%. Finally it allows 50% of your mana regeneration from Spirit to continue while in combat.
Boundless Conviction (New) - Passive ability granted to all Paladins. It increases Holy Power capacity to 5 (from 3). Abilities that cost Holy Power can still only consume a maximum of 3 Holy Power.
Heart of the Crusader (New) - Basically Crusader Aura but now passive, granting 20% mount speed.
Sacred Cleansing (New) – This used to be a talent, but now a passive that allows you to dispel magic.
Tower of Radiance (New) – This used to be a talent; Healing the person with Beacon of Light on them with Divine Light or Flash of Light will give you 1 Holy Power.
Supplication (New) – After killing an enemy which can grant experience or honour, for 8 seconds your next Flash of Light will be critical.
Sanctity of Battle (New) – Melee haste effects lower the cooldown of: Judgement, Crusader Strike and Hammer of Wrath.
Infusion of Light (New) - Is now a passive instead of a talent. It no longer makes your Holy Shock stronger. Your Holy Shock criticals now reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light, Divine Light or Holy Radiance by 1.5 seconds. It no longer reduces Flash of Light.
Daybreak – Passive that has been redesigned. After casting Holy Radiance, the next Holy Shock will also heal all players within 10 yards of the target, for the same amount as the original heal, divided amongst all targets. Basically a follow-up aoe heal.
Removed Spells:
Consecration, Holy Wrath and Inquisition are removed from Holy. Auras & Aura Mastery have been removed from the game.
Spell Usage:
Below are some personal tips for your spells:
- Seal of Insight still allows us to regen mana, so being in melee range remains ideal, however, this will not always be possible.
- Holy Shock should still be used on cooldown to generate Holy Power and becomes usable in AoE healing situations thanks to Daybreak.
- Avenging Wrath is still very powerful and is best suited for AoE situations where costly heals are made better with more powerful versions of themselves.
- Guardian of Ancient Kings allows us to stack haste up to 50% whilst active, if we use 5 single target spells instantly the Guardian will disappear and not last the 30 seconds limit. We must be smart with this power due to the 50% will stay for a few seconds after the Guardian has disappeared. This means if we play it clever enough we can weave our spells so we can remain in high haste for the full duration of the Guardian, so be careful when you cast a single target spell. You could potentially have 40% increased healing for near the full duration if you are aoe healing, be smart with your choices!
- With Holy Power being maxed out at 5 you can be extra ready for tough situations. If you pool all 5 Holy Power you can spend it on your next Light of Dawn or Word of Glory, and with a cast of Holy Shock be right back in with another Light of Dawn or Word of Glory. Be smart!
- The new Devotion Aura will allow 20% magical reduction for 6 seconds, co-ordinate this with other healers, it could save you an extra cast or two of mana.
- Holy Radiance will be quite expensive and should only be used when needed. Thankfully with Beacon of Light 15% of the heals are transferred to the Beacon (most likely a tank).
-Divine Light is expensive, you must adapt to the mantra of using the correct heal to fit the situation, it is paramount for your mana's success in lasting. Holy Light will be the most used spell along with Holy Shock as these are relatively cheap, in rare situations Flash of Light will be used (unless specced).
- Forget relying on Crusader Strike, the mana cost is too expensive and would be rarely used, if ever anymore.
- Don't neglect your Hand spells for utility! Also Divine Favor, it is still an awesome cooldown granting 20% spell crit and haste!
- Lay on Hands can be used with a glyph for 10% mana return, possibly even twice during the course of a fight, use it instead of wasting several heals to heal the target. Treat yourself.
- Remember your gameplay and strategies will vary due to the talents you pick. Many talents are situational, so be prepared to be changing at least 1 of them every fight.
Stat Guidelines:
Spirit > Intellect > Mastery > Haste > Crit
Spirit will provide us with the best possible regen, whilst intellect will increase our spellpower and slightly raise crit. The absorb shield from Mastery makes Mastery extremely good early on in the expansion and in this patch. Haste is very close to Mastery however, and should not be neglected. Crit will not be as valuable but never hurts to have some.
I personally recommend on live to get some additional spirit as there may be possible mana issues (not too sure with the DS debuff), but get used to doing it for MoP, perhaps even have some gems with spirit added (purified).
Please note that many glyphs will be changing along with the addition of new glyphs and the removal of Prime Glyphs. This concludes the summary of changes for the Holy Paladin for Patch 5.0.4.