How do you self-heal while in-combat as a ret paladin (espically with groups)?

[raogrimm]

I will admit I'm noobish to the ways of the paladin having played warrior as main, but I've been trying to get an alliance alt going having been horde by going with a paladin (chose it as I played a hume paladin in FFXI). However, I find keeping my health up in combat cumbersome compared to my warrior who has passive self-healing and with a talent choice you can spam one ability for health each time you kill a mob. Am I missing something obvious or are you expected to do series of abilities to keep yourself up along side trying to kill what is in front of you?

[Colmadero]

Lay on Hands, FoL (with the Selfless Healer, it's so much better), Leech, SoV, HoP, Divine Shield. These are all meant to keep you and your group alive. If you want some crazy spot healing in lieu of dps for a global, spec into Word of Glory

[Wondercrab]

Selfless Healer is the go-to talent for keeping yourself topped off. Every four finishers you use gets you an instant cast Flash of Light with 40% more healing. If you're taking steady damage then using it every time it's fully stacked will make a big difference. Shield of Vengeange is good for predictable spikes, or just giving you a bit of breathing room while you build up Selfless Healer stacks again. If you're low level you might not have all of your tools available to you yet, but ret paladins have very good survivability compared to a lot of other DPS. You do have to use your Flash of Light and cooldowns to make the most of it, though.

[Deathpony]

I will admit I'm noobish to the ways of the paladin having played warrior as main, but I've been trying to get an alliance alt going having been horde by going with a paladin (chose it as I played a hume paladin in FFXI). However, I find keeping my health up in combat cumbersome compared to my warrior who has passive self-healing and with a talent choice you can spam one ability for health each time you kill a mob. Am I missing something obvious or are you expected to do series of abilities to keep yourself up along side trying to kill what is in front of you?

Hi Raogrimm I'm a Paladin/Warrior player,
I'd like to have a better picture of what kind of dmg you're dealing with. What content are you having difficulty keeping your health up?
Are you still leveling the toon or is this a 120?
We talking in PvP? PvE?
If PvE, Questing? Dungeons (N/H/M+)? Raiding (LFR/N/H/M)?

In general taking the talents: Selfless Healer and Divine Purpose will work very well together to give you improved survive-ability.
These will basically turn your Flash of Light into a 'half strength' Victory Rush you can do after 2-4 Divine Storms or Templar's Verdict's instead of after the mob is dead.

If you have Azerite skills, take one Empyrean Power and it will further add to this aspect, as it works exactly like Divine Purpose but only towards Divine Storm. Working together it will quickly give new or replenished stacks of Selfless Healer.

Retribution Paladin compared to Arms/Fury Warrior is definitely about being more mindful of your current health and popping a quick heal to keep it up vs Warrior tunnel them til their dead then omg I gotta quick hit Victory Rush on something.


Tip - You can act/play more like a warrior on herding up mobs and aoe'n them down and then healing at the end by using Divine Shield with Avenging Wrath once you collapse the pack, as Paladins no longer have a dmg reduction using this invulnerability shield. By the time your shield is down you'll probably of accumulated 4 stacks of Selfless Healer. To do this more often take the skill Unbreakable Spirit.

Tip 2 - Unbreakable Spirit supports the "Forget this BS mechanic, I'm just gonna bubble and unload for 8 seconds on my target" style of play.


EDIT: Basically before you hit Crusader Strike, check your health, see if you need to sneak in a quick Flash of Light heal.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Well, you said in groups. I would assume it would depend on what content you are doing. While doing M+ I always use Word of Glory. If you are not running WoG as a Ret Paladin in M+ dungeons I got some less than good news for you.


In battlegrounds and arena, I'll run Selfless Healer since I can utilize it more often than WoG. Tried doing WoG in 2's and 3's and it ended up being on cooldown (both charges) in little over a minute and it's not pragmatic to save charges for those perfect "oh shit" moments anyway.

[Bunchie]

Well, you said in groups. I would assume it would depend on what content you are doing. While doing M+ I always use Word of Glory. If you are not running WoG as a Ret Paladin in M+ dungeons I got some less than good news for you.


In battlegrounds and arena, I'll run Selfless Healer since I can utilize it more often than WoG. Tried doing WoG in 2's and 3's and it ended up being on cooldown (both charges) in little over a minute and it's not pragmatic to save charges for those perfect "oh shit" moments anyway.

I've been running WoG with Divine purpose and using it as a convenient proc for either when I have wings up (I have Perfection in neck) and they can crit for up to 200k. So if used correctly your healing will end up matching up to half of your damage overall.

Needing to use globals to stack the buff for flash of light is tedious compared to getting a divine purpose proc and hitting a WoG. I've basically off healed BGs.