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• Why Holy Paladin?

• Best Holy Races

• Best Talents For Holy Paladin

• How To Play Holy Paladin

• Best Stats And Gear For Holy Paladin

With the introduction of World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight's new talent trees, many specs have received a variety of new builds. Holy Paladin is one such example, and a healthy number of viable builds have risen to prominence, providing the iconic healer with a plethora of enjoyable options. A flashy and powerful healing spec, Holy enjoyers, both old and new, are sure to find a playstyle to suit them.

This guide will teach you how to play Holy Paladin in PvE content, as well as suggest why you may want to try it out in the first place. The strongest available talent builds will be covered alongside the best healing rotations, consumables, races, and gameplay tips.

Why Holy Paladin?

The recommended advice when choosing a spec is always to play what you enjoy. You tend to perform better if you are having fun, and picking something just because it's parsing well at the time is not always a great option. Every spec has strengths and weaknesses, and Holy Paladin is no exception.

Best Holy Races

Most players will pick their race based on visuals and one that they feel embodies their character. Saying this, some nice perks synergise well with playing Holy Paladin, so if you're not concerned with how your character looks, these are the best options in terms of power.

The difference between races in WoW is minimal, and you shouldn't feel you need to worry about choosing the 'strongest' race unless you are taking part in very high-end content or if you want to completely min-max your performance.

Best Talents For Holy Paladin

Holy Paladin Class Talent Tree

A shared tree between all three Paladin specialisations, the class tree allows you to pick up a healthy amount of useful spells, alongside some powerful passives. Your class talent tree route will vary slightly depending on your build, but the core spells remain very similar.

Being able to talent into an interrupt is great for Mythic Plus, and you can also invest in increased damage if you are comfortable with the healing requirements of your chosen content.

Most of your passive talents do not require you to play around them, with the notable exception of Of Dusk and Dawn, and its follow-up, Seal of Order. These talents are so powerful you will always be taking them, but they require some changes in how you play. The Dawn buff is particularly strong, and you should be aiming to build up to five Holy Power and spending to come back down to zero. Keeping both of the buffs up is doable, but focus on Dawn over Dusk.

Melee Build Talents

• Talent Build Code: BEEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8AAAAAAQEAAAAAAAlASUSLJ0EpIhUSgWyBS0kgkSSyBSSUSJJBoEA

The standard build that Holy used throughout Shadowlands, it relies on reducing the cooldown of your Holy Shock via attacking with Crusader Strike. Staying in melee and attacking the enemies is core to playing this build at max effectiveness. The major strength of this build is the damage that it can output, and Holy Power generation is substantial due to all the attacks you will be performing.

Keeping Glimmer of Light up on as many people as possible is vital, and Holy Shock should be used nearly on cooldown. This setup can suffer when having to move far away from an enemy, as your ranged healing options are weakened compared to other builds.

Maraad's Build Talents

• Talent Build Code: BEEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8AAAAAAQEAAAAAAAlgkEl0SCNRKSIlAaJS0kgkSSyBSSUSJJBoEA

A more niche build is the Maraad's, which focuses on utilising the Maraad's Dying Breath talent. This causes your Light of Dawns to increase the power of your next Light of the Martyr. A spell that is normally only used as an emergency heal quickly becomes your primary source of healing, and you can output some exceptional burst when playing this setup.

Spot healing-wise, this build is probably the best in the entire game and could be pivotal in a difficult progression fight. However, it does take some adjustment to your normal gameplay and might take a little while to fully learn.

Caster Build Talents

• Talent Build Code: BEEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8AAAAAAQEAAAAAAAlIAlIJp1QKJRSJBKJS0kgkSSSSSUSJHIBoEA

A throwback to when Holy Paladin was a proper caster, this new build collects all the talents that benefit your Flash of Light and Holy Light spells. Instead of playing around melee, you are using your Holy Shock for Infusion of Light procs and spamming your casted heals to generate Holy Power when cast onto your Beacon.

This build plays very differently from the others and could be a fun new challenge for players tired of having to output damage to heal. However, missing out on that potential damage could be costly. The Holy Power generation in this build is exceptional, and it does not suffer as much as the others when moving out of melee.

Mythic Plus Talents

• Talent Build Code: BEEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8AAAAAAQSAAAAAAAUSCQJSSKFRKJBlEokcgENRkkiESSUSRSEFEB

A hybrid between the caster and melee builds, for dungeons, Holy Paladin picks up a new selection of talents that empower their own damage and augment their burst healing.

Healer damage is very important when trying to push keys, and Holy is a good choice when it comes to DPSing. Consecration is vital to use on cooldown, and when weaving in your Crusader Strike, Judgment, and Holy Shock, you should be able to contribute effectively on the meters.

For higher keys, you will need to make use of your Flash of Lights to spot heal, and your low AoE healing might be tricky to get used to, so practice using your cooldowns to get you out of tough spots.

A nice bonus of playing Holy is that you will rarely, if ever, need to stop for mana.

How To Play Holy Paladin

Due to being a healing spec, Holy does not rely on a strict rotation. Instead, you will need to decide on a moment-to-moment basis how best to keep your group alive. Whether your group is taking damage, about to take damage, or if you need to deal damage has to be considered, and it makes for a playstyle where there is no set-in-stone rotation.

In essence, you want to build Holy Power and spend it on your strongest healing spells. Holy Power can stack up to five and can be spent in groups of three. Try not to waste Holy power by overcapping, and always be looking to generate, as your smaller healing spells are not sufficient enough to deal with heavy damage.

Your best healing rotation will vary depending on which build you are playing, but some fundamental spells you need to understand are:

Some general rules to follow with any of the Holy Paladin builds are:

• Build Holy Power with Crusader Strike, Judgment, and Hammer of Wrath, as well as Infusion of Light procs
• Keep Consecration down underneath the enemies
• Keep Judgment of Light (if talented) up on the boss
• Spend Holy Power with Word of Glory, Light of Dawn, or Shield of the Righteous (for damage)
• Use cooldowns such as Avenging Wrath, Divine Toll, or Aura Mastery to deal with heavy incoming damage

Holy Paladin Macros

One of the best macros you can use as a Holy Paladin is the mouseover macro, meaning you don't need to click player frames to heal them. You will have to make a macro for each ability you wish to mouseover cast, e.g. Holy Shock.

• #showtooltip /cast [@mouseover,exists][@target,exists][@player]Holy Shock

Another helpful macro is using your active trinket(s) with your Avenging Wrath cooldown to further empower your healing/damage. You can easily do this by calling whichever slot the trinket is placed in, either 13 or 14.

• #showtooltip /cast Avenging Wrath /use 13

Sometimes you will want to cancel certain buffs. For example, Blessing of Protection will make you completely immune to Physical Damage, but there may be times when you need to be hit by an ability, and instead of right-clicking the buff, you can use this macro to remove it.

• #showtooltip /cast Blessing of Protection /cancelaura Blessing of Protection

If you are talented into Rebuke for Mythic Plus, you might need to be interrupting enemies, and setting them as your focus target will allow this macro to interrupt them instead of retargeting them during the fight.

• #showtooltip /cast [@focus,harm,nodead] [ ] Rebuke

As a healer, you often cast utility spells on other players. Instead of targeting their player frame, you can instead use this macro, e.g. for Blessing of Sacrifice

• /cast [@NAMEOFPLAYER] Blessing of Sacrifice

Best Stats And Gear For Holy Paladin

Once Season One begins, you will find the majority of your BiS (best in slot) PvE gear will come from the Vault of the Incarnates raid or high-level Mythic Plus. Before that, however, there are certain pieces you can target that can reliably be sourced from either Mythic Zero dungeons or early Renown levels.

Although your best stats will vary between builds, all of them heavily rely on Haste, and this list will prioritise acquiring as much of that as possible. Here are the following recommendations for your Best in Slot Pre Raid gear.

The true pre-BiS gear is a full set of level 384 epic gear from Blacksmithing. However, at the start of the expansion, these pieces will be very expensive and may be tricky to acquire, depending on your gold reserves. This list shows you more easily obtainable gear, but if you want to splash out for the start of the season, those 384 items are the way to go.

If you can only choose one crafted item, then try to focus on acquiring your Sustaining Alchemist Stone, as it will be your best Trinket for quite a while.

If you are not able to craft one yourself as an Alchemist, you can place a work order to obtain one instead.

Stat Priority

Your primary stat is Intellect, which will increase the power of all of your abilities. Alongside this, there are four secondary stats available.

• Critical Strike, which increases the chance for extra effective attacks and heals.
• Haste, which increases your attack speed and decreases certain cooldowns.
• Mastery, which increases your healing based on proximity to your target.
• Versatility, which increases damage and healing as well as reduces damage taken.

As far as a general priority goes, your stats will change depending on what build you are running and what content you are taking part in. Try to adhere to the following orders:

For Melee and Maraad's Build:

• Intellect > Haste > Mastery > Versatility > Critical Strike

For the Caster Build:

• Intellect > Critical Strike to 24 percent > Haste > Mastery > Versatility > Critical Strike beyond 24 percent

For Mythic Plus:

• Intellect > Haste > Versatility > Critical Strike > Mastery

It is heavily recommended you learn to sim your character, using the special healer simming website called QuestionablyEpic. This will be able to give you a very precise breakdown of all your gear and stats and allow you to develop a better understanding of your performance.

The above priorities are quite flexible, as their relative values will fluctuate due to stat breakpoints. For all-around gameplay, you should be trying to take the highest item-level gear you can acquire. This will provide you with the most Intellect, which is always your most important stat.

The exception to this rule are the Neck, Ring, and Trinket slots, where it is better to focus on acquiring your best stats, or the highest-performing healing/DPS Trinkets, sacrificing a certain amount of item level to gain these.

Gems, Enchants And Consumables

For customising your gear, there is nearly always the best option. Following on from the previous section on stat priority, you will normally want to increase your Intellect, followed by whichever secondary is best for your build. Buffing your gear correctly and using the proper consumables will provide a large bonus to your healing and can prove pivotal in saving your allies in a tight spot.

Your best gems are:

• One Fierce Illuminated Diamond (Intellect and Haste)
• Multiple Keen Ysermerald for raiding (Haste and Mastery) or Energized Ysemerald for Mythic Plus (Haste and Versatility)

As with all consumables created via professions, you need to try and use the highest quality gems you can find, which will increase their power.

Your best enchants are:

Your list of consumables is as follows:

• Phial: Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage
• Potion: Potion of Chilled Clarity (for Melee/Maraad's), Aerated Mana Potion (for Caster), Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power (for damage)
• Health Potion: Refreshing Healing Potion
• Food: Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak
• Weapon Buff: Howling Rune

As with gems, try to procure the highest quality consumables you can, and remember to be well-supplied before taking on any end-game content.

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