Where are all of the Holy Paladins?

[Kendaus]

I've been noticing a trend (on our server anyways) and was wondering if it's a game wide or server only trend.

It seems that these days there are very few new Holy Paladin characters being created or (more importantly) being played as peoples mains. After some time of trying to recruit a (decent) Holy Paladin, it seems that by far, Ret and Prot are the clear winners when you look at general population availability. This made me wonder, where are all of the Holy Paladins?

The only conclusion that I could come up with is that those of us who have been playing Holy Paladins probably have been doing so for a LONG time... no doubt if we took a survey it would show most of us, Pre-BC. So where am I going with this... well here's the thought.. as much as I'd like to believe that raid leaders bring the player, not the class, when looking at filling the healing spots, it seems that it's generally considered that 3 of the 4 healing classes are (almost) interchangeable and will tend to limit the 25-man raid to no more than 2 Holy Paladins.

This mentality almost makes the PvE raiding Holy Paladin spot(s) coveted as it seems there will only ever be just 'so' many Holy Paladin positions available in any given raid where with the other 3 classes it's almost interchangeable.

Now Before I get blasted, yes I know Holy Paladins aren't the only Class/Spec that suffers this and yes I also am aware that one of the 3 other classes has more than one viable healing spec but as I said, this all occurred to me when I was trying to figure out where the heck all of the Holy Paladins were?

So I thought I'd throw it out there. We all know that with 3.2 Blizzard is trying to change the myth that Holy Paladins are only tank/single target healers and give us some tools/utility to help us change our role (a bit anyways) and hopefully peoples opinions. I'd like to know what you guys think the problem is? Do you see a similar trend on your servers or are you overflowing with Holy Paladins? Do you think because the PvE Holy Paladin raid spot is so coveted, and there are only just so many spots available within any given raid, that this is the reason that keeps the Holy Paladin population so low?

/discuss

Ken

[Raiss]

Gurubashi - US - Horde is full on Holys. Shame most are really bad, there aren't more than 6 that really know something about the class.

[Deaths]

Crushridge-Horde US doesn't have that many.. just a crap ton of ret pallys and a buncha prot, and most suck.. i find myself bouncing between prot and holy depending on the group make up.

[Deleted]

Well tbh your guild should not bring more than 1 holy paladin in their raids.

Paladins are one of the worst healing classes atm (shared with shammy)

I am the only holy paladin in my guild I've got a 95%+ attendance tho and you really dont need more than one, atm when you bring more than one holy paladin into a raid you will gimp both paladins healing output if there is only one tank on the encounter (asuming the paladin would beacon the tank) I can only name Freya as a fight where two holy paladins would be usefull.

I dont see many of us on my server (horde has a ton, alliance however does not) but the way blizzard designed us there is only need for one per guild if his attendance in raids is high enough.


In 3.2 it may change and im really looking forward to the beacon change and also since it will be able to stack it would be much more usefull to bring more than one holy paladin.

[Sanguissa]

On our server it isnt lack of holy palas, its lack of good palas..

In our guild, we have 4 active holy paladins(active like 70% of times they all want go to raid) and we are all good. Raid ussually takes 2 holy paladins, no more, no less. But sometimes raid takes 3palas, when theres small lacko fo other classes.

[Kendaus]

Well tbh your guild should not bring more than 1 holy paladin in their raids.

Paladins are one of the worst healing classes atm (shared with shammy)

I am the only holy paladin in my guild I've got a 95%+ attendance tho and you really dont need more than one, atm when you bring more than one holy paladin into a raid you will gimp both paladins healing output if there is only one tank on the encounter (asuming the paladin would beacon the tank) I can only name Freya as a fight where two holy paladins would be usefull.

I dont see many of us on my server (horde has a ton, alliance however does not) but the way blizzard designed us there is only need for one per guild if his attendance in raids is high enough.


In 3.2 it may change and im really looking forward to the beacon change and also since it will be able to stack it would be much more usefull to bring more than one holy paladin.

I would agree. Most raids that are put together the RL when they can... the preference is 1 Holy, 1 Prot, 1 Ret. This actually gets to the heart of my observations. In our guild we have 2 Holy Paladins and I'd say we split the attendance between the 2 of us. But I fear that the current design of the Class/Spec has (or is going to) lead to a real shortage of quality Holy Paladins (if it hasn't already) who understand the class and actually enjoy playing the class/spec. I guess this is where I <Insert Patch 3.2>

I don't want to confuse the issue or the point I'm trying to make, but I do hope that 3.2 at least opens up a few more raid spots... thereby increasing the demand for a Holy PvE population...

[Fortoss]

Bring only 1? Tbh that's your guild's personal choice. If a pally knows how to heal 2-3 is fine, hopefully one will have Divine Sacrifice build. On fights where only one tank is needed they can go ret. What if their offspec isn't ret? Don't bring them then. A pally can effectively heal a raid with proper positioning. Blizz has said bring the person not the class, amirite? Will other healers be better, maybe. One per guild, oh boy heard it all now!

XT- if you raid is grouped properly a holy pally with DS build can heal the raid very effectively.

Mimron-same

That's just a few examples. Aura mastery also combined with the right aura is very useful also. Hodir,Mimron,and XT

The problem with Holy Pallys are most don't understand how powerful a holy pally can be. Pally one of the worst healers with shammys? Dude are you high? Stop reading forums about who's the best healers to bring to a raid shiit!


Pally ignorance is contagious glad I know how to cleanse!

[Jpkto]

Bring only 1? Tbh that's your guild's personal choice. If a pally knows how to heal 2-3 is fine, hopefully one will have Divine Sacrifice build. On fights where only one tank is needed they can go ret. What if their offspec isn't ret? Don't bring them then. A pally can effectively heal a raid with proper positioning. Blizz has said bring the person not the class, amirite? Will other healers be better, maybe. One per guild, oh boy heard it all now!

XT- if you raid is grouped properly a holy pally with DS build can heal the raid very effectively.

Mimron-same

That's just a few examples. Aura mastery also combined with the right aura is very useful also. Hodir,Mimron,and XT

The problem with Holy Pallys are most don't understand how powerful a holy pally can be. Pally one of the worst healers with shammys? Dude are you high? Stop reading forums about who's the best healers to bring to a raid shiit!


Pally ignorance is contagious glad I know how to cleanse!

That ^^

[Kendaus]

I'm sure that the question of how many Holy Paladins do you have in your guild has been asked before... (I'll do a Search Later ;D) but I'm guessing that in most cases its has alot to do with Attendance, Performance and Class Availability (especially if you have lots of the other healing classes in your guild). Typically I'd expect to find a low number of (Main) Holy Paladins in any given guild but at the end of the day, unless your the GM or the RL, and you've been progressing through content with what you have... it's going to be a hard sell to (for example) in the event of a departure of a healer from any of the other 3 class's, replace/recruit them with a Holy Paladin.

[remic20]

As for me, after I got tired of how bad warlocks are in arena I rolled a holy paladin and went to naxx 25 with holy spec
until 3.1 released I played holy spec(beacon and repentence) for arena then switched to prot healing and face rolled.

Now that I realized stamina was giving spell power to healing, I just took all furious offset and deadly gears right to ulduar 25.

Prot healing in raid is great, when paladin are meant to heal tanks, prot healing can heal raid effectively with just Flash of Light

Good part about raid healing in this spec is that, you can offer so many things that holy paladin can't.
-Blessing of Sanctuary whether or not if there is a Prot paladin tank, you can give this buff to everyone.
-You can also sponge absorb all the AoE damages with Divine Shield + Hand of Sacrifice + divine sacrifice..people don't realized how effective this is in raids, like Emalon's Nova.
- Since you are in PvP gear, your health is 28000 with raid buff, you can take some damage by using hand of sacrifice on dps who's taking damage.
Good part is that when you take damage, other healers will be there to heal you up, and with spiritual attunement you get mana returned.
Divine plea+spiritual attunement = unlimited mana (Mana starts to drain only when you use holy light where with this spec you hardly use it)
-if you're bored you can actually score 500 dps while maintaining good healing (500 dps = Warlock's Imp dps)
-Sacred shield absorbs a lot of damage too... and it is 60 sec


Like having Discipline Priest and Holy Priest
there is Holy Paladin and Prot-healing Paladin

Tbh, I trashed holy spec, and now I only do prot healing in heroics instances for fun.

So, to the OP, if your asking where all the holy paladins go...well im on of them and I went prot healing in PvE raids

[Kendaus]

So, to the OP, if your asking where all the holy paladins go...well im on of them and I went prot healing in PvE raids

LOL... this is something I hadn't considered. It's possible that the lack of Holy Paladins is due to the popularity of the other 2 specs getting more raid time leading to many to switch main spec's.

I've toyed with the Deep Prot/Holy build in PvE but at the time I didn't have good enough gear to make it viable (or maybe I just sucked :P) but for now, my other spec is a Holy Prot PvP spec.

BTW great discussion. I see that the problem isn't just on our server and that others feel the same as I do about the current situation.

[Raiss]

-You can also sponge absorb all the AoE damages with Divine Shield + Hand of Sacrifice + divine sacrifice..people don't realized how effective this is in raids, like Emalon's Nova.

Because Emalon's Nova is SRSRS BUSINESS. And I hope you know that Hand and Divine sacrifice do not stack, and that a holy paladin can have almost everything you listed, apart from SA and SP from stamina. And if you have only 28k HP raid buffed as prot-healer you are bad.

Please do not start again with prot pve healing, pleease.

[Prophyt]

XT- if you raid is grouped properly a holy pally with DS build can heal the raid very effectively.

Come 3.2 it won't be...the bubble bug will be fixed and will cap at 150% of your health QQ but currently right now you are right DS is pretty hot for hard modes or for that matter anytime there is going to be mass amount of raid damage. I mean I love playing my paladin and will continue to do so until I stop playing wow. It sucks for any class that gets nerfed you just have to be smart and find out how to adapt.

[shockpally]

If you or anyone else is wondering where all the "New" Holy paladin are you should save yourself the trouble.

Due to the other healing classes getting buffed single target healing and improved mitigation (disc priests) Holy paladin are not the only viable MT healer anymore. Since you can put almost any combination of 2 non paladin healers in a 10 man and still come out on top there is no need to bring one anymore unless you think you have to. Maybe if you are pushing into Hard modes but you certainly dont need them for anything short of that.

Why would anyone put a significant amount of time into leveling and gearing up a healer who only has 1 viable raid healing role while every other healing class has almost equal single target healing ability and also brings AE's and HoTs with some very good buffs.

[Nagios]

Imo bringing a Holt Pally instead of a Disc Priest is just as bad as a guild bringing a Mage over a Warlock, Holy Pallies bring nothing that a Ret and a Prot can't bring.

[FiveDkp]

Because Emalon's Nova is SRSRS BUSINESS. And I hope you know that Hand and Divine sacrifice do not stack, and that a holy paladin can have almost everything you listed, apart from SA and SP from stamina. And if you have only 28k mana raid buffed as prot-healer you are bad.

Please do not start again with prot pve healing, pleease.

Beat me again...

Prot PvE healing is made kind of viable next patch if you can get enough spell power to make that HoT tick for insane amounts.

[La]

I`ll say this, IMO of all the healing classes.. holy paladins are probably the most boring. Seriously, I like them because they have really powerful burst heals. 17k holy lights, 6k FoLs 6k HS, it`s great. But they`re tank healers, that can be really, really boring. I mean, half the time I was spamming HL/FoL on the raid because I had SO much mana. Hell, I almost never used Divine Plea until I heard that under 35% mana noise. And slowly, the current healers are becoming very effective at tank healing.

Why tank heal, when you can spam raid heals as the other healing classes? Trust me, they`re 10x funner. I played a holy priest in BC, and a resto druid recently (after qutting my paladin). You`ll never want to go back.

[Caean]

I`ll say this, IMO of all the healing classes.. holy paladins are probably the most boring. Seriously, I like them because they have really powerful burst heals. 17k holy lights, 6k FoLs 6k HS, it`s great. But they`re tank healers, that can be really, really boring. I mean, half the time I was spamming HL/FoL on the raid because I had SO much mana. Hell, I almost never used Divine Plea until I heard that under 35% mana noise. And slowly, the current healers are becoming very effective at tank healing.

Why tank heal, when you can spam raid heals as the other healing classes? Trust me, they`re 10x funner. I played a holy priest in BC, and a resto druid recently (after qutting my paladin). You`ll never want to go back.

Haven't dropped down to 2 healers on 10 man hard modes on the holy paladin, have ya?

[Kendaus]

I`ll say this, IMO of all the healing classes.. holy paladins are probably the most boring. Seriously, I like them because they have really powerful burst heals. 17k holy lights, 6k FoLs 6k HS, it`s great. But they`re tank healers, that can be really, really boring. I mean, half the time I was spamming HL/FoL on the raid because I had SO much mana. Hell, I almost never used Divine Plea until I heard that under 35% mana noise. And slowly, the current healers are becoming very effective at tank healing.

Why tank heal, when you can spam raid heals as the other healing classes? Trust me, they`re 10x funner. I played a holy priest in BC, and a resto druid recently (after qutting my paladin). You`ll never want to go back.

You have touched on exactly what I suspect... I'm wondering if most people who use to roll with a Holy Paladin as a main, re-rolled a different healing class? It's unfortunate that many people place such a high value on healing meters but it's hard to ignore the fact that while Holy Paladins are generally viewed as tank healers, we are no longer (or were ever?) the only ones that can do the job. It doesn't bother me where I sit in the healing meters unless another Holy Paladin is in the raid. But I can totally see where folks who do care, probably would just re-roll a different healing class.

So all of this begs the question what would have to change with the Holy Paladin in order for you to consider coming back?

[Nikoll]

my server doesnt really have a lot of excess. The raiding guilds have their one or two, but i don't see a lot of Holy apps floating around.