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    Holy Paladin: An In-Depth Guide (Patch 5.4)


    Contents

    1) About Me
    2) About "Holy" Paladins
    3) Holy Paladin Toolkit
    4) Talents
    5) Glyphs
    6) Stat Priority
    7) Reforging
    8) Gemming
    9) Enchants
    10) Healing in a Raid Situation
    11) Food, Flask and Potions
    12) Professions
    13) Holy Paladin Best in Slot (Patch 5.4)
    14) Your UI

    1) About Me

    Hello everyone,

    I am Bathrobe of Promethean on Malfurion-US. I have been playing a Paladin on and off since late Vanilla. Basically the Holy Paladin has
    become my main character due to the high skill-cap of the class as opposed to the other healing classes. There is a large gap between amazing Holy Paladin's and mediocre ones I feel as there are a plethora of beneficial spells at our disposal. I have been able to achieve many top 20 healing parses throughout Throne of Thunder while playing with some amazing healers as well. With that said, I am not bragging or claiming I'm good, but I do feel that I can provide the community with some more insight on the class coming into the next patch.

    2) About "Holy" Paladins

    Basically as a Holy Paladin, we have evolved from being a "Tank" healer class into providing a large support for both tank and raid healing.
    With that said, since the release of MoP, there really isn't too much "effective" tank healing especially in 25 man's. With things like Beacon
    of Light, Eternal Flame and the wide variety of other healers spell's on the tank, we no longer need to spam Holy Light or Divine Light on the tank. I've found that in certain situations, of course you do need to pop a heal or two into the tank to keep them alive, but it is nowhere near as badly was it previously was.

    Every raid core wants a Holy Paladin in their group whether it is 10 or 25 man raiding. We provide excellent throughput, amazing tank healing and also cooldowns throughout the encounter for every type of situation. If you want to not only be a tank healer, but also a good, well-rounded healer type of class, I highly suggest playing a Holy Paladin as we have one of the largest kits available for a healer at the moment.

    Our class also has exceptional cooldowns including but not limited to Devotion Aura, Hand of Protection, Hand of Sacrifice, etc. We have always excelled in the cooldown department making us a "must-have" healer for the longest period of time.

    3) Holy Paladin Toolkit

    Seal of Insight
    Basically the only seal that Holy Paladin's use. With the release of 5.4, it doesn't give us back any mana on melee swing which is a huge loss but it was made up for with the buff to Divine Plea. Basically no other main uses of it as it gives us our increased cast speed and healing %.

    Holy Light
    Basically the original "heal" for Paladin's. It's always been an inexpensive heal and the way to go for efficient healing. I only tend to use
    this on people during periods of no raid / tank damage to keep up our mastery buff.

    Flash of Light
    The quick but expensive heal as people tend to say. It really hasn't been used too often throughout this expansion due to it's large mana cost.
    Mainly used for times where the tank needs a quick heal that will save up due to his low health from mechanics / boss melee.

    Divine Light
    Since the start of the expansion, this spell has been used less and less. It has a very high mana cost, isn't as effective as it once was and
    it really isn't seen as the best heal in our toolkit. With that said, this spell is used during times of high tank damage or when you can afford
    the extra time to cast it on someone who is low. Definitely better to use than Flash of Light when you have Infusion of Light up.

    Holy Radiance
    An extremely strong AOE spell that has been buffed a few times over the past year. This is basically going to be your second to Holy Shock's "Holy Power Generator." You just have to make sure that you time the spell correctly so it hits the most people possible. More will be discussed on this later.

    Holy Shock
    Our quick, low mana cost, amazing spell. This is always used on cooldown and has always been a great spell in our toolkit. More discussed on Holy Shock later.

    Word of Glory
    The baseline spell for Holy Paladin's in terms of "Holy Power" usage. It is a good quick heal but it is also replaced by Eternal Flame which
    will later be discussed

    Light of Dawn
    Our second to WoG/Eternal Flame heal. Light of Dawn really isn't that great anymore as compared to Eternal Flame even when people are stacked. With Eternal Flame being buffed and nerfed, it still has put Light of Dawn to the side.

    Beacon of Light
    A great tank healing addition to our toolkit. This spell basically gives free healing to the person that it's on whenever you heal somebody else. This is one of those spells that been around forever it feels like and has always had it's niche. Definitely a spell I would recommend being put on the main tank or the second tank (if main tank is out of range).

    Cleanse
    The dispel spell that takes away poison, disease and magic debuffs. Costs a lot of mana, but of course well worth it when it is needed.

    Lay on Hands
    A large cooldown, gigantic heal that will save someone. This spell has always been one of those "great usage" kind of spells. Best to use this on a tank when they are exceptionally low and need a quick heal to get back to full health.

    Divine Plea
    With the change in patch 5.4, this spell will grant us a ton of mana back based on your spirit. Since seal of insight has changed, this will be
    our main "mana generator."

    Avenging Wrath
    A huge cooldown that provides us with more healing on the fly. Basically used during periods of high sustained raid damage. Should be used with Divine Favor, more on that later.

    Divine Favor
    Another great cooldown to be used with Avenging Wrath. Great during periods of high sustained raid damage.

    Guardian of Ancient Kings
    This spell once was something that was a 5 minute cooldown, but didn't provide us with too much throughput. Since 5.4, this spell has received amazing buffs. It is now 3 minutes and provides exceptional healing through points of high sustained raid damage.

    Devotion Aura
    The spell in which raid leaders "call for" on every single fight. This has always been a great spell in our toolkit and really helps lower
    raid's incoming damage from magic.

    Hand of Protection
    Did you forget your /cancelaura macro? An amazing spell when you know someone is about to take some heavy melee damage, needs a debuff off, etc Always make sure that you own a cancelaura macro for yourself and this spell.

    Hand of Sacrifice
    A great tank cooldown that will transfer damage that they take to you unless glyphed. I always try and use it when I know that the tank is
    about to get trucked down by the boss / adds.

    Hand of Freedom
    Not used too often in PVE but still a great spell. Always make sure to have this keybound as it provides people with movement freedom.

    Hand of Salvation
    Great cooldown when someones threat is way too high or a main tank / second tank needs to lower their threat in a hurry. I still use this
    every raid when my tank needs to lower his threat so the second tank can take over.

    Divine Protection
    Our "one minute" cooldown of grace. Amazing cooldown that will lower your incoming damage from magic (and physical if glyphed) for a short period of time. Should always be used when you know you are going to take sustained damage.

    Divine Shield
    Got your immunity + hearthstone macro? Has always been an amazing spell that grants us immunity for a short period of time. Should be used to prevent death or when you know you will be taking a boat load of damage.

    4) Talents

    I will talk a bit about each of the talents and discuss which and why talents I think are best for you to have.

    Tier 1
    Speed of Light | Long Arm of the Law| Pursuit of Justice

    Basically this tier is the movement speed tier. Speed of Light provides us with a quick boost in our movement speed when used and has a decent cooldown. Long Arm of the Law will give us movement speed somewhat on the go but you need to use Judgement on a mob in order to do so. Pursuit of Justice is a "don't have to do much" kind of spell as it provides us with a baseline movement speed increase and more speed depending on Holy Power.

    Pick? Speed of Light
    Why? Basically this talent is a must-have for anybody. It will help you get to a raid stack point faster, help you escape a boss mechanic, hell it saved me on Lei Shen so many times. It is just an amazing spell as it really can save your life on the fly for a mana cost that is virtually nothing.

    Tier 2
    Fist of Justice | Repentance | Evil is a Point of View

    This is the ?? tier for us. Basically none of these spells is truly beneficial in PVE for Holy Paladins. Fist of Justice provides a longer stun,
    Repentance is never used in PVE and and Evil is a Point of View is something I don't see us using in a raid anytime soon. With that said,
    the pick is really up to you.

    Pick? Evil is a Point of View
    Why? Just because the other talents aren't really beneficial either, and this could potentially be helpful in certain situations.

    Tier 3
    Selfless Healer | Eternal Flame | Sacred Shield

    This is now the biggest tier for us as Holy Paladin. With the changes to all 3 talents, it really has become a bit more competitive. Selfless
    Healer will give you a free buffed version of Holy Light, Divine Light or Holy Radiance after 3 judgement casts. Eternal Flame's HoT was buffed same with it's initial heal through Holy Insight but it's HoT no longer grants our Mastery shield. Sacred Shield can now be cast on 3 different people but now costs mana.

    The problem with Selfless Healer is that 3 judgement casts is still a substantial amount of mana and it uses up 3 GCD's. It just isn't worth
    using at this point in time since even casting a free and buffed Holy Radiance doesn't quite add up to Eternal Flame. Eternal Flame's HoT no
    longer gives Mastery shield but it's initial heal and HoT were buffed which is still a buff in my opinion. Sacred Shield uptime has to be
    incredibly high for it to be even somewhat competitive with Eternal Flame. Even then, it just isn't worth taking in raiding situations as
    it's ineffective in periods of no incoming damage.

    Pick? Eternal Flame
    Why? Eternal Flame is just still way too strong. It's initial heal got buffed and it's HoT is stronger than ever. You can keep the buff uptime at 100% and on at least two people at any given time making it a great tank heal. It also gives off Beacon of Light healing which is another plus why also being free (uses Holy Power). While it seems like it not giving Mastery shield anymore would be considered a nerf, I feel that it actually got buffed if you don't play with full Mastery gems. The total healing % it gives is exceptionally strong now when looked at in 5.4

    Tier 4
    Hand of Purity | Unbreakable Spirit | Clemency

    This tier is always my "change on the fly" tier. I always use all three talents depending on the situation and that's exactly how it was meant to be. Hand of Purity is exceptional on fights where there is a DoT ticking that does a large amount of damage. Unbreakable Spirit is great for fights where there is a lot of raid damage so you can use Divine Protection and Divine Shield much more often. Clemency is great for fights where neither of the past two situations apply so you want to have two Hand of Sacrifice's, Protection's, etc.

    Pick? Fight by fight basis
    Why? As stated above, it really all depends on the boss fight and which one will be beneficial to you.

    Tier 5
    Holy Avenger | Sanctified Wrath | Divine Purpose

    Holy Avenger basically is 18 seconds of spamming Eternal Flame on the raid. Sanctified Wrath is still somewhat the same with the exception of lowering it's cooldown (Patch 5.4) making it the least favorite of the tier. Divine Purpose has a lot of RNG involved which makes it extremely inefficient as you don't know how many times it could proc on any given fight.

    Pick? Holy Avenger
    Why? Holy Avenger is by far the best talent in this tier. It provides you with 3 Holy Power from any Holy Power generated ability. This allows for getting Eternal Flame on multiple targets (5-6 usually) which makes it great when used with Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor and GoAK. Putting the four cooldowns together means your throughput is going to go through the roof as you can really pump out healing.

    Tier 6
    Holy Prism | Light's Hammer | Execution Sentence

    Holy Prism is a great low mana cost, low cooldown spell that allows for 5 people to get healed if it hits a boss or 1 person if you directly heal.
    Light's Hammer is great for fights where the raid is stacked for a good amount of time. Execution Sentence still is not strong as the other
    two talents provide exceptional raid healing.

    The pick here is more like tier 3 talents as the choice really depends on the boss fight.

    Pick? Either Holy Prism or Light's Hammer
    Why? Holy Prism is great for fights where people are not stacked up and you want to get people healed fast and effectively. Light's Hammer is for fights where there is a lot of sustained raid damage and people are grouped together. It then provides everyone within it a heal that then becomes much more effective than that of Holy Prsm.

    5) Glyphs

    Below, I will list the glyphs that are relevant to our specialization and some background.

    Glyph of Beacon of Light
    Removes the GCD from Beacon of Light casts.
    A good glyph on fights where there is going to be a lot of tank switches or you just need to move your Beacon quite often.

    Glyph of Denounce
    Not really a PVE talent as we don't denounce mobs.

    Glyph of Devotion Aura
    Reduces the cooldown of DA by 60 seconds but
    it's only usable on you. Of course not a glyph I would recommend since DA is a very valuable raid cooldown

    Glyph of Divine Plea
    Returns 50% less mana but has a 1 minute cooldown.
    A very strong glyph as even though you won't get the same amount of mana, you can pretty much use it more frequently as it will never feel wasted or that you couldn't use it since there was 30 seconds left on the cooldown when the fight left (if not using DP glyph)

    Glyph of Divine Protection
    This glyph is very nice for fights where there is heavy raid damage and it is physical damage. This allows your DP to help
    you take less damage in this situation.

    Glyph of Divine Shield
    Not really a glyph that I would use in PVE as the other choices come much more handy in a wider variety of situations. Plus the
    heal isn't for very much (10% per harmful dispel).

    Glyph of Divinity
    Grants you mana for the sacrifice of a 2 minute longer (making it 12 minute) cooldown.

    Glyph of Flash of Light
    Grants a more effective heal on the person that you cast Flash of Light on. We rarely use Flash of Light so this glyph isn't too great.

    Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice
    The damage won't be redirected to you, but whenever you use Hand of Sacrifice, you usually use Divine Protection as well which mitigates a lot of the incoming damage on you.

    Glyph of Holy Shock
    Just like the Denounce glyph, not very good in a PVE raiding situation.

    Glyph of Illumination
    This glyph isn't all that great, after doing some testing you actually gain less mana over the time allotted. Another glyph that I would not recommend.

    Glyph of Light of Dawn
    Since we spend our Holy Power on Eternal Flame, Light of Dawn glyph won't be beneficial to us in any situation.

    Glyph of Protector of the Innocent
    Basically a free heal on you when you use Word of Glory or Eternal Flame. Very beneficial as the heal that it does really does add up.

    Now I will listen my three picks and why:

    Pick? Glyph of Divine Plea
    Why? I have thoroughly tested this glyph on PTR and it is just amazing. You may feel that it's just another cooldown to use more often but that's not how it really feels. You can use it much more often and it feels as if you won't find yourself at the end of the fight being OOM with the two minute Divine Plea on cooldown. Definitely a glyph that I would recommend.

    Pick? Glyph of Divinity
    Why? Basically this glyph will work extremely well with the Unbreakable Spirit talent. It will allow for two Lay on Hands in a 6+ minute fight which means a free 4% mana return overall. It may not seem like much but the mana gain is still beneficial to us.

    Pick? Glyph of Protector of the Innocent
    Why? As stated earlier, this glyph is a free heal on us and it really does add up on an encounter. The heal may seem like nothing at times but think of it this way. If you had a 2000 damage overkill, and you didn't use this glyph, it could've saved you. A great glyph in all aspects.

    Pick? Glyph of Beacon of Light (Situational)
    Why? I will switch this glyph with the Glyph of the Protector of the Innocent on occasions where I know there is a lot of Beacon of Light swapping. Other than that, this glyph is not being used aside from those very specific situations.

    I won't list any of the minor glyphs as they are all personal preference so you can choose whichever three you want to pick.

    Word of Glory: Since we don't need damage as we are healers, this glyph doesn't provide us with any benefit in the raiding scenario.

    6) Stat Priority

    Int > Spirit > Mastery > Haste > Crit

    People tend to say that Spirit is ahead of Intellect or equal to it but that is not the case. Saying that would then make us reforge into Spirit, prioritize pieces of gear with lower Intellect but Higher Spirit, etc. That is not how you want to gear yourself. Always check the piece of gear that you plan on upgrading and think of it this way:

    Is it a higher item level?
    Yes: Does it have more intellect but no spirit
    ** Upgrade to the item

    Yes: But my current item has Spirit
    ** Still upgrade the item

    With that said, at higher item levels, mana doesn't become a huge issue anymore so gemming straight for Spirit just isn't worth it anymore.

    Mastery of course is still extremely strong even after the nerf to Eternal Flame's HoT tick applying it. You want to get as much Mastery as
    you possibly can through reforging, gems, enchants, etc. without sacrificing too much Spirit.

    Haste hasn't really been that great for us as of late as it provides us with less mana efficiency and less "protective" overhealing

    Crit Rating has always been on the bottom of our list as it also doesn't help with "protective" overhealing, any extra eternal flame ticks, etc.

    With regards to the theorycrafting behind 5.4, Haste pulls ahead of Mastery when it comes to Eternal Flame, but every other spell in our toolkit becomes buffed with Mastery making Mastery the overall better pick than Haste throughout the Tier.

    Below is a picture of the Eternal Flame and Sacred Shield breakpoints:



    Ideally, you want to reach the extra 3 ticks of Eternal Flame (3506 haste) which is rather easy to obtain through gear. Most pieces have haste as a secondary stat so it isn't much of a problem to obtain that breakpoint.

    I want to post this from Bouchbagette of <Full Spectrum>. It's an amazing read and great quality work on Haste vs. Mastery. As you can see, Haste beats out Mastery in Eternal Flame HPS, but every other heal loses out it's effectiveness vs. Mastery.

    Haste Effective Healing
    Mastery Effective Healing

    7) Reforging

    Here is the general idea of reforging as a Holy Paladin:

    Reforge any NON-Spirit/Mastery stat into Spirit or Mastery.
    Most items have either Spirit or Mastery so you won't have to be in the situation where you don't have either on the item.

    Reforge Crit into Haste if the item has Spirit, Mastery and Crit.
    Example being, Item A has Spirit, Crit and Mastery. You of course want to make use of the third stat by turning it into a more important stat.

    8) Gemming

    There are three ways of gemming that I will talk about in this section:

    A) Straight Spirit Stacking
    This was the older way of gemming in which it provided us with the healthy mana regeneration that we needed back at the beginning of this expansion. This is still something to be done by an "entry-level" Holy Paladin, as in someone who just hit 90 a few days ago. This method is no longer effective in PVE raiding as mana isn't too much of an issue in today's content.

    Meta: Courageous Primal Diamond / Revitalizing Primal Diamond
    Blue: Sparkling River's Heart

    B) Gemming for Socket Bonus
    Basically this has become the way to go for most Holy Paladin's. You want to basically grab all the socket bonuses by putting into either blue, purple or green gems. This has become very popular as it provides us with a variety of stats including Intellect, Spirit and Mastery which as stated earlier, are the top three stats for our class and spec. I highly suggest this build for most Holy Paladin's as it will not only
    help control mana issues, but also give us a boost in other stats.

    Meta: Courageous Primal Diamond / Revitalizing Primal Diamond
    Blue: Sparkling River's Heart
    Green / Yellow: Zen Wild Jade
    Purple / Red: Purified Imperial Amethyst

    C) Straight Mastery
    This is also a very popular route that a lot of top EU Holy Paladin's have taken. I have personally tried this route on a number of occasions
    and I have a few things to point out. This route really shines when you have one or two resto shaman's and a priest who Hymm's through an encounter. It really relies on extremely effective healing as well as mana generation. With the nerfs to Seal of Insight and Eternal Flame's HoT providing our Mastery buff, I do not see this being the best route to go in 5.4. I would only recommend this route to those with a high skill-cap as there is little to no room for error with this spec. Every spell that you cast must be effective or else you are putting yourself behind which leads to mana issues and less overall HPS during the encounter.

    You can also go with all yellow gems, or mix them with the Artful Vermilion Onyx.

    Meta: Courageous Primal Diamond / Revitalizing Primal Diamond
    Yellow: Quick Sun's Radiance
    Orange / Red: Artful Vermilion Onyx

    9) Enchants

    There is really only one route for enchants to go for us Holy Paladin's (excluding chest)

    Shoulders: Greater Crane Wing Inscription
    Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Superior Intellect
    Chest: Enchant Chest - Mighty Spirit or Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats
    Bracers: Enchant Bracer - Super Intellect
    Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Superior Mastery
    Legs: Greater Pearlescent Spellthread
    Feet: Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step
    Main-Hand: Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit
    Off-Hand: Enchant Off-Hand - Major Intellect

    10) Healing in a Raid Situation

    This is the part where I will be very detailed in explaining how to effectively use our toolkit for maximum effectiveness.

    These are the two main goals during a raid encounter:

    1) Keep the tank alive: We are basically the "tank healers" and will always be found in this niche. With Beacon of Light, we don't need too many direct heal casts on the tank since we also have Eternal Flame. You will only want to cast direct heal spells on the tank when they are getting hit hard and/or you can expect them to get hit very hard.

    2) Help the raid healers: We may not be as strong of raid healers as resto druids and resto shamans come 5.4, but we can still raid heal at a very high level. You want to ensure that you are getting the mastery shield on as many people possible while also keeping up Eternal Flame on people at all times. With Eternal Flame, raid healing has really been something that Holy Paladin's can actually compete in with the classic raid healers of resto druids and resto shamans.

    Basically there are three main points before I start:

    1) Beacon of Light Target: Always make sure that this spell is on the tank that will be taking the damage. If you have it on the wrong tank, you are effectively wasting the healing that it is providing. If the other tank is out of range, ensure to keep it up on the person who is close range to you so that they receive the heals.

    2) Eternal Flame Usage: There are situations where you feel that Light of Dawn would be better to use so you use it. You may
    also forget a Holy Shock which in turn delays it's usage which then delay's your Holy Power Generation. You ALWAYS want to keep 99% uptime for Eternal Flame. Start the fight with 5 Holy Power and cast your first Eternal Flame on the tank a second before the pull. You want to ALWAYS make sure that you are using 3 Point Eternal Flames. It isn't beneficial to use a a 1 Point or 2 Point Eternal Flame as there isn't any problem for us to generate Holy Power during fights.

    3) Holy Radiance and Holy Shock: This combination is a one-two punch and will be our main Holy Power generators. You want to ensure that you
    are using Holy Shock on cooldown (unless you have 1 stack of Daybreak, then you want to wait until 2 stacks). You also want to use Holy Radiance very often. The reason for this is because it not only is an extremely effective raid heal, but it also generates Holy Power. Holy Power is ultimately our greatest ally as it allows for a free heal (Eternal Flame). The more Eternal Flames we can get up, the more our throughput will be. Daybreak is very powerful now since it stacks to 2 and heals more targets. You always want to only use Daybreak when it is at stacks of two unless you are out of mana or you have Holy Avenger up.

    With that said, I will throw out some varying situations that require different methods of using our toolkit:

    A) There is no real raid damage going out but the tank is getting hit extremely hard. The boss is expecting to do massive raid damage in 15 seconds.

    What you want to do in this situation is use Hand of Sacrifice on the tank and then use your Divine Protection. You want to start raid healing through Holy Radiance and Daybreak. During this time, you are getting at least 2-3 Eternal Flames up. One will be on the tank and two on targets that you know tend to take more damage.

    You can opt to use Divine Light / Flash of Light on the tank as well during times of extreme tank damage (pref. Divine Light) to also ensure that they are topped off going into periods of heavy raid damage.

    B) There is a lot of raid damage for 20 seconds and the tank is also getting hit hard. The boss will then slow down on it's damage after the 20 seconds.

    In this situation, you want to use Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, Guardian of the Ancient Kings and Holy Avenger. This is then how you will heal:

    Holy Radiance -> Eternal Flame Tank -> Holy Shock -> Eternal Flame 2nd Tank -> Holy Radiance -> Eternal Flame ?? -> Continue same process.

    Basically the goal of this situation is to get as much healing to the raid as possible as well as Eternal Flame on as many people as possible. Since you have your cooldowns popped, your Beacon of Light healing will be extremely high which means tank healing no longer becomes a real problem. If the tank is still getting trucked, you can use Hand of Sacrifice on the tank.

    C) There is no major tank damage or raid damage going out for 40 seconds.

    This situation does come up quite often and you see yourself just wanting to Holy Shock on cooldown and nothing else. During a time like this, I not only ensure that Holy Shock is used on cooldown, but I Holy Light the tanks as well to keep up the Mastery shield. You then of course want to use Eternal Flame on the tanks when you have 3 Holy Power. If you anticipate raid damage shortly after, you will want to start Holy Radiance and Daybreak usage to get the Mastery shield on as many people as possible.

    I also want to point out a few things about Holy Radiance:

    A) Ensure that you are only using Holy Radiance on targets that are near that target. You don't want to be in situations where your Holy Radiance is only healing 2-4 people. You want to have it heal at least 6+ for it to be mana effective. Always try and make sure that the person you are casting it on is not by themselves which leads me to point out that usually melee DPS are the best targets for Holy Radiance

    B) You don't want to Holy Radiance every time Holy Shock is off cooldown. Generally I only want to use Holy Radiance when I know there is incoming raid damage while the Mastery shield is up. Outside of that time, we just cannot afford to cast the spell non-stop so we lean towards using Holy Light for example as a filler.

    C) Daybreak is your friend only on 2 stacks. The only time you ever want to use a 1 stack of daybreak is when Holy Avenger is up. The 75% difference in the stacks is critical in getting not only a bigger Mastery shield on people, but it's heal in general. When you see your 1 stack about to wear off, try and cast a Holy Radiance on a melee target to get to 2 stacks quickly.

    Eternal Flame and Light of Dawn:

    I have always felt like Light of Dawn has been a letdown for me. The heal is abysmal but it still does apply the Mastery shield. The reason I feel that Eternal Flame is the better option is because it effectively will continue to heal the Beacon of Light target and the target for incoming raid damage as well. When I've used Light of Dawn during heavy raid damage situations, there was a high amount of overhealing leading to it's effectiveness being lowered. With large raid cooldowns such as Revival, Healing Tide Totem and Tranq, getting any sort of HoT on targets has proved to work on great to help raid throughput. The only suggestion I would have for using Light of Dawn would be when everyone is stacked up, but even then, I prefer to use Eternal Flame.

    Light's Hammer and Holy Prism:

    Basically Holy Prism is great on fights where people are generally spread apart for most of the fight. An example would be Dumuru from T15. People on that fight are spread out for most of it so Light's Hammer won't be as effective as Holy Prism would be. On a fight where there are lots of people stacked for a good amount of time, such as Magaera, you want to use this spell. Think of it this way, you can effectively heal 15 people with Holy Prism in the time that your Light's Hammer can heal X amount of people (which could potentially be only 2-4).

    Hand of Protection / Sacrifice / Purity:

    All three of these spells are great for the raid as they provide some sort of help. I tend to use these spells when my raid leader calls for it or when I feel that the tank or person is taking a lot of damage. Hand of Protection can be great to get a physical debuff off of someone who could potentially be taking lots of damage. It could also be great when the raid is taking lots of AOE damage from a physical spell. It can be used as an immunity for someone who is really low. Hand of Sacrifice is more used as a tank cooldown as it provides the tank with less damage taken since it is transferred over to you. Hand of Purity is great in situations where there is a length debuff on someone and they need a period of taking less damage due to a personal cooldown being down, etc.

    Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, Guardian of the Ancient Kings and Holy Avenger:

    Ideally, you want to stack all of these cooldowns together to really pump out HPS. They all work extremely well with one another and can really push you to roll high ticking Eternal Flames on the raid. I tend to save Holy Avenger the extra minute so I can use it in cohesion with Avenging Wrath and Divine Favor but it really depends on the situation. If I need to get Eternal Flame on a bunch of people due to high raid damage, I will sacrifice the time lost to use it. If I know that I can afford to save it, I will save it to get the maximum effectiveness. Once you obtain 4 piece T16, we will be able to use Divine Favor and Holy Avenger together as they will both be two minute cooldowns. This works extremely well and is worth going this route:

    AW + DF + GoAK + HA : Early
    DF + HA : 2:00~ later
    AW + DF + GoAK + HA : 4 min Later (pending on situation)


    Legendary Gem / Cloak Usage:

    Whenever the Legendary Meta Gem procs, you want to make sure you are using it's effect right away. The best usage would be getting 2/3 quick Flash of Lights / Divine Light's on the Beacon of Light target to get easy Holy Power. You can also use it for a couple of quick Holy Radiance casts but it really all depends. You just want to make sure that you are getting as mana casts off in the short window as possible.

    When you have your legendary cloak, you also want to make sure that you are pumping out as much throughput as possible. The cloak proc basically transfers any overhealing to people around the target you healed. This means that Holy Radiance and the cloak will work excellent together. You want to make sure that you are getting out as many casts of Holy Radiance and Eternal Flame as possible.

    11) Food, Flask and Potions

    You should be using these potions, food and flasks:

    Intellect
    Flask of the Warm Sun
    Mogu Fish Stew

    Spirit
    Flask of Falling Leaves
    Steamed Crab Surprise

    Potions
    Potion of the Jade Serpent
    Master Mana Potion
    Alchemist's Rejuvenation
    Potion of Focus

    You want to use the Spirit food and flask at very early gear levels to keep mana regeneration up. You will later on switch to Intellect food and flask once mana
    becomes less of a problem.

    Ideally you want to prepot using the Jade Serpent potion. If you have done the encounter before and know how your mana usage goes, you can really gauge which potion you should use during the fight.

    If you find yourself way ahead on mana throughout the fight, you want to use a Jade Serpent potion in cohesion with your 4 major cooldowns to really pump out HPS.
    If you are having mana troubles in the fight, you want to use Potion of Focus to gain some of it back.
    If the raid including yourself is taking a lot of damage and you are struggling with mana, use Alchemist's Rejuvenation for health and mana as well as saving 10 seconds.
    If you generally want just the mana in a less random way, you can opt for Master Mana Potion.

    12) Professions

    I will briefly list the professions from my personal favorite to the least favorite.

    Blacksmithing: Still extremely strong as it provides us with two additional sockets to put either two Spirit Gems or two Mastery gems. That is
    +640 of either stat which is amazing still.
    Socket Bracer
    Socket Gloves

    Engineering: Cool cloak enchant, movement speed buff and an Intellect buff from our Gloves.
    Synapse Springs

    Enchanting: Provides us with +160 intellect x2 enchants to our rings and also just a good profession to have.
    Enchant Ring - Greater Intellect

    Alchemy: Provides us with a two hour flask and an extra +320 intellect or Spirit on our flask.
    Mixology

    Inscription: Provides us with a better should enchant which equals to +320 intellect gain as well.
    Secret Crane Wing Inscription

    Jewelcrafting: Another provider of +160 x2 (over a regular gem of the same name) in a stat of your choice.
    Sparkling Serpent's Eye
    Fractured Serpent's Eye

    Tailoring: Also provides us with +320~ in a stat from the cloak enchant when converted to a static stat value.
    Darkglow Embroidery

    Leatherworking: Also provides us with a +320 intellect to our bracers.
    Fur Lining - Intellect

    Gathering Professions: A huge no-no for our class and spec as you will get yelled at by your raid leader since the gains from all of them are
    abysmal.

    13) Holy Paladin Best in Slot (Patch 5.4)

    The 2 and 4 piece is extremely nice this tier so it is a must have for our class. The exception to the 5 pieces is the chest as the tier chest does
    not have any Mastery. This chest provides us with 3 gem slots as well as Mastery.

    With the 2 piece, it buffs our throughput for any Illumination spells (Holy Light, Divine Light and Holy Radiance) by a significant amount making it quite good. The 4 piece allows for Divine Favor to not only be stronger (+4500 mastery during uptime), but also to be used more often and with Holy Avenger.

    The weapons from Garrosh are not upgradeable making this main-hand the better choice.

    The trinkets are also the best option as both cleave trinkets only account for roughly 4% ~ of our healing on a majority of fights on PTR currently.

    Head: Headguard of Winged Triumph
    Neck: Lost Necklace of the Mogu Empress
    Shoulders: Mantle of Winged Triumph
    Cloak: Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji
    Chest: Chestplate of Fallen Passion
    Bracers: Smoldering Drakescale Bracers
    Gloves: Gloves of Winged Triumph
    Belt: Greatbelt of Living Waters
    Legs: Greaves of Winged Triumph
    Boots: Mogu Mindbender's Greaves
    Ring 1: Seal of Eternal Sorrow
    Ring 2: Signet of the Dinomancers
    Trinket 1: Prismatic Prison of Pride
    Trinket 2: Dysmorphic Samophlange of Discontinuity
    Main-Hand: Kardris' Scepter
    Off-Hand: Norushen's Enigmatic Barrier

    14) Your UI

    MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS KEYBOUND.

    Last thing you want to do is go through your spellbook looking for something because it isn't on your bars. You also need your mouse always on your raid frames if you are using mouseover macros / vuhdo, etc so clicking spells is not really an option.

    Generally, you want to keep your UI clean and simple by eliminating clutter so that you can see your character fully during a boss encounter.
    I tend to make sure that my raid frames are in a visible place so that I can see my character as well as the raid frames at all times (ie. not being in bottom right corner)

    Here are some UI addons that I would suggest:

    Vuhdo: Amazing raid frames and sets you up nicely for mouseover macros.

    TellMeWhen: Just like Weak Auras, but I like that TMW is a bit more cleaner and easier to setup. Great for tracking Daybreak stacks, Legendary Meta / Cloak procs, etc.

    WeakAuras: Just like TMW, but more customizable and can look great if you really spend time to set it up.

    Deathnote: A great addon to find out how someone died. It can really help you figure out what you should've done to help keep that person alive.

    BigWigs: Personally I just prefer BigWigs over DBM. The updates are more frequent and I feel that the timers have always been spot on. Definitely a must-have addon.

    Pitbull / sUF: Both are great unit frames to help you see your character and target better. Also allows for much more customization.

    Dominos: Another addon to help minimize your UI and keep it clean.
    Last edited by tr1xst3r; 2013-09-07 at 12:42 AM.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    good guide, only a mistake by listing 2 times holy shock instead of holy radiance+holy shock in the spell list

    greetings

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Change the font to a sans serif for readability

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by xTheVacantx View Post
    good guide, only a mistake by listing 2 times holy shock instead of holy radiance+holy shock in the spell list

    greetings
    Thanks, I'll change it !

    Quote Originally Posted by Reglitch View Post
    Change the font to a sans serif for readability
    Done! Should be more ready for reading now =]

  5. #5
    The Lightbringer Fhi's Avatar
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    As commendable as your efforts are, unfortunately there is already an actively maintained thread in the stickies. Perhaps you may want to consider collaborating with the author of that thread to share your expertise and knowledge. Closing this for now.

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