Holy Paladin in Shadowlands
Welcome to the Overgear guide on the Paladin’s “Holy” spec! This guide will show you all the intricacies of the “Holy” spec in various aspects of the game. You’ll learn which talents to use, how to equip your character, and which covenant to choose. In each section, you will find answers to these and many other questions.
Holy Paladins are healers who specialize in pinpoint the healing of solo targets while simultaneously healing tanks. They also support the group with their auras and blessings, making them indispensable in most raids.
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- Fantasy: A holy warrior who uses holy magic to heal themselves and their allies and deals melee damage to opponents.
- Resources: Mana is used for most spells. Holy Power is used as an additional resource for Word of Glory and Light of Dawn.
- Weapon: One-handed swords, blunt weapons, and shields.
- Armor: Plate armor with bonuses to Intellect.
- Races: Alliance: Humans, Dwarfs, Draenei, Dark Iron Dwarfs, Lightforged Draenei; Horde: Tauren, Blood Elfs, and Zandalari.
- Mastery: Lightbringer — the closer you are to the target, the more effective your healing is.
Pros
- Great healing of solo targets and tanks
- Good survivability
- High damage
- Unique utility: blessings
Cons
- Limited mobility
- Weak AoE healing capabilities
- High dependence on cooldowns
About the author
This guide was written by Chaosyasha, a raider of the Russian “Bannhammer” guild, a fan of Mythic+, and an honored WoW veteran. I’m proficient in many different classes and roles, and on my Twitch streams you can watch walkthroughs of high Mythic+ dungeons and exploration of the current raid content on the highest difficulty.
Main Abilities
Healing abilities
- Flash of Light — a quick but mana-consuming spell that heals a moderate amount of health.
- Holy Light — a slow spell that heals a large amount of health.
- Holy Shock — an instant spell that can heal an ally or damage an enemy. Has a 30% increased crit chance. Generates 1 Holy Power.
- Light of Dawn — for 3 Holy Power heals up to 5 allies within a 15 yd frontal cone.
- Word of Glory — for 3 Holy Power instantly heals an ally.
- Light of the Martyr — sacrifice a portion of your own health to instantly heal an ally for double the amount. Does not cause your Beacon of Light to be healed. Cannot be cast on yourself.
- Beacon of Light — marks an ally with holy energy, causing your heals on other targets to also heal that ally for 50% of the amount. Healing this ally directly with Flash of Light or Holy Light grants 1 Holy Power.
Offensive abilities
- Consecration — consecrates the land beneath you, damaging enemies in the area.
- Crusader Strike — damages the enemy and generates 1 Holy Power.
- Judgment — deals Holy damage and causes the target to take 30% increased damage from your next Crusader Strike or Holy Shock.
- Shield of the Righteous — consumes 3 Holy Power and deals damage to all targets in front of you.
- Hammer of Wrath — deals massive damage to the target and generates 1 Holy Power. Only usable on targets that have less than 20% health.
Main cooldowns
- Aura Mastery — enhances your current aura for 8 sec.
- Avenging Wrath — increases your damage, healing, and critical strike chance by 20% for 20 sec.
- Lay on Hands — instantly heals a friendly target for an amount equal to your maximum health. Cannot be used on a target with Forbearance. Causes Forbearance for 30 sec.
Defensive abilities
- Divine Protection — decreases incoming damage by 20% for 8 sec. CD 1 min.
- Divine Shield — or “bubble” — grants immunity to all damage and harmful effects for 8 sec. CD 5 min. Cannot be used on a target with Forbearance. Causes Forbearance for 30 sec.
Auras
All auras affect allies within a 40 yd radius.
- Devotion Aura — decreases incoming damage by 3%.
- Crusader Aura — increases mount speed by 20%.
- Retribution Aura — gives you Avenging Wrath for 8 sec when an ally dies.
- Concentration Aura — decreases the duration of Silent and Interrupt effects by 30%.
Utility abilities
- Absolution — mass resurrection outside of combat with a 100 yd range.
- Blessing of Freedom — removes all movement impairing effects from the target, granting immunity to them for a few seconds. CD 25 sec. Try using it preemptively when you or your ally can get slowed.
- Blessing of Protection — makes the target immune to physical damage for a short time. Cannot be used if you have Forbearance. Causes Forbearance for 30 sec. Allows your allies to ignore some game mechanics that otherwise would kill them.
- Blessing of Sacrifice — transfers 30% of the target’s damage taken to you for 12 sec. It’s your main external save, so coordinate with your tanks to know when this ability would be most useful. CD 2 min.
- Divine Steed — increases your movement speed by 100% for 3 sec. CD 1 min.
- Cleanse — removes all Poison, Disease, and Magic effects from the target. CD 8 sec. Usually, removing a negative effect is much more beneficial than healing its consequences, so try using this spell more often.
- Hammer of Justice — stuns the target for 6 sec. Great in Mythic+ for interrupting dangerous spells.
- Hand of Reckoning — provokes the target to attack you. In conjunction with Divine Shield allows you to ignore certain game mechanics and could save your tank from imminent death.
- Redemption — resurrection outside of combat.
- Turn Evil — banishes the target, forcing it to flee for a few seconds. Can be used as a sort of an interrupt in some situations.
Passive abilities
- Infusion of Light — your critical Holy Shocks increase the effectiveness of your next Flash of Light or reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light.
Talents
On reaching several levels, you will open new Talent tiers. In each tier, you can choose one Talent at a time. Talents can affect your abilities in different ways: add new ones, replace old ones, passively modify various effects and spells. You can change Talents while you’re in Sanctums or in rest areas, but if there are no such places nearby, you can use Tome of the Quiet Mind, which allows you to change Talents within a minute. Note that Talents can’t be changed in combat. Also, if a Talent selected in a certain tier is on cooldown, you’ll have to wait for it to recharge in order to change it.
Tier 1 — 15 lvl. Talents that enhance healing
- Crusader’s Might — Crusader Strike reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1.5 sec.
- Bestow Faith — buffs the target, healing it after 5 sec. CD 12 sec.
- Light’s Hammer — hurls a hammer to the ground for 14 sec, healing allies and damaging the enemies in the area. CD 1 min.
Crusader’s Might — the most effective talent in this tier. It allows you to cast Holy Shock more often, increasing HPS and boosting Holy Power generation.
Bestow Faith can be used when you can’t attack targets in close combat.
Light’s Hammer — the weakest talent in this tier due to low hammer effectiveness.
Tier 2 — 25 lvl. HPS talents
- Saved by the Light — allies with your Beacon of Light once a minute absorb some damage when their health drops below 30%.
- Judgment of Light — the target of your Judgment heals their attackers.
- Holy Prism — when cast on an ally, heals them and deals damage to 5 nearby enemies. When cast on an enemy, damages them and heals 5 nearby allies.
Judgment of Light is best suited for raids as a source of small passive healing. Holy Prism is more suitable for Mythic+, granting additional HPS or DPS bursts. Saved by the Light may also be a good choice for Mythic+, but it’s less effective than Holy Prism.
Tier 3 — 30 lvl. Control
- Fist of Justice — each Holy Power spent reduces the remaining cooldown on Hammer of Justice by 2 sec.
- Repentance — neutralizes the target for 1 minute.
- Blinding Light — blinds all targets around for 6 seconds every 1.5 min. Non-Holy damage will break the effect.
The most universal talent for M+ in this tier is Blinding Light. Fist of Justice is also useful if your party lacks single-target stuns.
Usually, this talent tier is not used in raids.
Tier 4 — 35 lvl. Utility
- Unbreakable Spirit — reduces the cooldown of your Divine Protection, Divine Shield, and Lay on Hands by 30%.
- Cavalier — Divine Steed now has 2 charges.
- Rule of Law — increases the range of your heals and the reach of Mastery: Lightbringer by 50% for 10 sec. 2 charges, CD 30 sec.
The choice depends on the type of content. Rule of Law is the default choice for raids. Pick Unbreakable Spirit for Mythic+. Nevertheless, even Cavalier has its uses whenever you need extra mobility.
Tier 5 — 40 lvl. Talents that enhance healing
- Divine Purpose — Holy Power abilities have a 15% chance to make your next Holy Power ability free and deal 20% increased damage and healing.
- Holy Avenger — triples your Holy Power generation for 20 sec. CD 3 min.
- Seraphim — increases your haste, crit, and versatility by 8% and your mastery by 12% for 15 sec. Consumes 3 Holy Power.
Divine Purpose — default choice for most types of content. Free finishers will improve your rotation and save some mana.
Holy Avenger. Unlike in BfA, Holy Avenger and wings are used separately in the new addon, so think about how useful Holy Avenger can be in a particular battle or dungeon.
Currently, Seraphim can’t compete with other talents in this tier, as it costs too much and expires too quickly to get the most out of it.
Tier 6 — 45 lvl. DPS and HPS talents
- Sanctified Wrath — Avenging Wrath lasts 25% longer and decreases the cooldown on Holy Shock by 40% for the duration.
- Avenging Crusader — replaces Avenging Wrath, empowers your Crusader Strike, Judgment and auto attacks by 30% for 20 sec. Crusader Strike and Judgment cool down 30% faster and heal up to 3 injured allies for 250% of the damage they deal.
- Awakening — Word of Glory and Light of Dawn have a 15% chance to give you Avenging Wrath for 10 sec.
Awakening is the most effective talent in this tier. Despite some randomness, the duration of your wings in a boss fight or Mythic+ key increases greatly, along with your effective DPS and HPS.
Sanctified Wrath is still a good passive choice, but it’s slightly less useful than Awakening.
Avenging Crusader costs too much mana, thus it’s never used.
Tier 7 — 50 lvl. Talents that enhance healing
- Glimmer of Light — Holy Shock leaves a Glimmer of Light on the target for 30 sec. When you Holy Shock, all targets with Glimmer of Light receive additional damage or a heal.
- Beacon of Faith — allows you to cast two Beacon of Light, but at 30% reduced effectiveness.
- Beacon of Virtue — replaces Beacon of Light, 15 sec cooldown. Marks a target and up to 3 nearby allies with Beacon of Light for 8 sec. All affected allies will be healed for 50% of the amount of your other healing done.
Glimmer of Light — default choice for raids, except when you need Beacon of Faith to heal two tanks at once. Glimmer of Light allows you to greatly increase HPS across the raid.
Beacon of Virtue — choice for Mythic+. This ability is not suitable for raids, but in 5-person content it maximizes its HPS potential. It also synergizes perfectly with Kyrian’s Divine Toll ability, giving you a maximum health boost for the entire group once per minute.
Although you can use Glimmer of Light for Mythic+ as well, the effectiveness of healing with Beacon of Virtue will be much higher.
Here are your common builds:
Raid:
- Crusader’s Might
- Judgment of Light
- Any talent of your choice
- Rule of Law
- Divine Purpose
- Awakening
- Glimmer of Light
Mythic+:
- Crusader’s Might
- Holy Prism
- Blinding Light
- Unbreakable Spirit
- Divine Purpose
- Awakening
- Beacon of Virtue
Covenants
Covenant system — one of the main additions in Shadowlands. As you level up, you’ll get to know all 4 Covenants. Each Covenant occupies its own area in Shadowlands. We advise you to take a closer look at each of the Covenants, because at level 60 you’ll have to decide which one to join.
Kyrian reside in Bastion, Necrolords control Maldraxxus, Ardenweald is the home of Night Fae, and Venthyr rule in Revendreth. Selecting a covenant will unlock two new abilities: a signature ability for all Covenant’s allies and a class ability.
In this guide we’ll look at all the new Covenant abilities and how they affect gameplay.
Covenant rating
Mythic+:
- Kyrian > Venthyr > Night Fae >= Necrolord
Raids:
- Kyrian = Venthyr > Night Fae >= Necrolord
Venthyr has a stronger cooldown and better dps output in raids.
Best universal choice:
- Kyrian
Kyrian
- Class ability: Divine Toll — instantly cast Holy Shock on 5 targets within 30 yds. CD 1 min. Synergizes well with Holy Power and such talents like Glimmer of Light and Beacon of Virtue.
- Signature ability: Summon Steward — summons a minion that gives you 3 Phials of Serenity that restore 20% health and remove all diseases, poisons, curses, and bleeds. These potions have a separate cooldown.
Kyrian — the most universal covenant and the most HPS-oriented. The amount of healing from Divine Toll surpasses all other covenants. Moreover, this ability synergizes with Holy Paladin talents, increasing their effectiveness.
Phial of Serenity, which removes almost all negative effects, looks pretty strong, but it requires an appropriate encounter. Mythic+, on the other hand, has plenty of debuffs for this flask.
Overall, Kyrian is great for raids and Mythic+ and Phial of Serenity is especially good for removing debuffs.
Venthyr
- Class ability: Ashen Hallow — hallows the target area for 30 sec. Enemies in the area suffer damage, while allies heal. Within the Hallow, you may use Hammer of Wrath on any target, and its damage is increased by 100%. 1.5 sec cast time, CD 4 min.
- Signature ability: Door of Shadows — blink with a 1.5 sec cast time. CD 1 min.
Venthyr is a good covenant for raids, since Ashen Hallow is essentially a raid cooldown that lets you dish out massive DPS and healing. This DPS potential was the sole reason why Venthyr paladins were used in the World First race. However, outside of raids it’s easier to heal your party with the Kyrian ability.
Door of Shadows is a great additional ability that increases the paladin’s extremely limited mobility.
Night Fae
- Class ability: Blessing of Summer (increases ally’s DPS), Blessing of Autumn (reduces cooldowns), Blessing of Winter (increases damage and slows enemies), Blessing of Spring (boosts healing). Although this ability sounds interesting, it’s rather problematic to use effectively. You have to wait 1.5 min for a healing bonus while applying other blessings to your allies — they will benefit more from them.
- Signature ability: Soulshape — teleports you 15 yds forward and increases your movement speed by 50% for 12 sec. CD 1.5 min. While this effect is active, you can activate it again to use blink every 4 sec.
Night Fae is a rather strange covenant. Their class ability kinda makes you a “buffer” or “support”. Even though Soulshape greatly increases mobility, for now Night Fae are a weak covenant for Holy Paladins.
Necrolord
- Class ability: Vanquisher’s Hammer — deals shadow damage to the target and empowers your next Word of Glory to automatically trigger Light of Dawn. CD 30 sec. Generates 1 Holy Power.
- Signature ability: Fleshcraft — after channeling for 3 sec, grants a shield equal to 30% of your max health. Channeling near a corpse boosts the shield even further — up to 50% of your max health. Bosses and powerful enemies grant the maximum shield bonus. CD 2 min.
Necrolord — another weak choice for a Holy Paladin. Vanquisher’s Hammer just doesn’t cut it in terms of damage and healing compared to other covenants. Fleshcraft can’t match either the effects from Kyrian, nor added mobility from Fae and Venthyr.
Soulbinds
After you join a Covenant, you’ll have the ability to link your souls and powers with three soulbinds.
Soulbind is a specific NPC, with whom you create a spiritual connection, granting you access to a separate talent tree. Each tree has both common passive effects and slots for conduits.
A Conduit is an item similar to a gem that has a unique effect for your class and specialization. By visiting The Forge of Bonds at your Covenant sanctuary, you can apply Conduits and then swap them out just like the essences in Battle for Azeroth.
It’s worth noting that each Soulbind has predetermined slots for Conduits in their talent tree, and each of them comes in three types. A Conduit of a certain type can only be inserted into a slot specifically designed for its effect.
Plan your Soulbind’s talent tree carefully — if you make a mistake when choosing Conduits, you’ll have to wait a long time to replace them.
Let’s look at the more powerful passive effects of every Soulbind.
Soulbinds rating
Kyrian:
- Raids, Mythic+: Pelagos — best choice
Venthyr:
- Raids, Mythic+: Draven
Night Fae:
- Raids: Dreamweaver
- Mythic+: Korayn
Necrolord:
- Raids, Mythic+: Emeni
Kyrian
- Pelagos
- Let Go of the Past — reduces incoming magic damage in combat.
- Combat Meditation — grants a bonus to mastery for 10 sec after using Divine Toll.
- Kleia
- Valiant Strikes — occasionally, depending on the frequency of your critical hits and those of your allies, it stacks a buff and heals you when you drop below 50% health.
- Mikanikos
- Bron’s Call to Action — after using 90 abilities, summons Bron, who’ll attack your enemies.
In summary:
- Pelagos: universal choice for any type of content.
- Kleia: good choice at high renown.
- Mikanikos: not used.
Venthyr
- Nadjia
- Thrill Seeker — being in combat and killing opponents grants you stacks of “Thrill Seeker”. At 40 stacks it grants you Euphoria, increasing your Haste by 20% for 10 sec.
- Theotar
- Refined Palate — extends the duration of combat potions by 50-150%.
- Wasteland Propriety — Ashen Hallow increases versatility of you and your allies by 4% for 30 sec.
- General Draven
- Enduring Gloom — Door of Shadows grants you a shield that absorbs damage equal to 15% of your maximum health.
- Service In Stone — damage taken below 40% health is reduced by 10%. Upon death you leave a stone husk behind which shatters after 3 sec, inflicting damage to enemies around it.
In summary:
- Nadjia: good choice at low renown.
- Theotar: weak option.
- General Draven: best choice at high renown.
Night Fae
- Niya
- Grove Invigoration — your abilities generate up to 10 stacks of Redirected Anima. Blessing of Summer increases your max health by 1% and mastery by 25 per stack for 30 sec.
- Dreamweaver
- Field of Blossoms — Blessing of the Seasons creates a zone at your feet for 15 sec that increases Haste by 12%.
- Podtender — when you take fatal damage, creates a wildseed with 9700 hp. If it gets destroyed in 10 sec, you’ll die. Otherwise, you rejuvenate with 30% health. May only occur once every 30 min.
- Korayn
- First Strike — damaging an enemy before they damage you increases your chance to critical strike by 25% for 5 sec.
- Hold the Line — after standing still for 5 sec, you take 15% less physical damage until you move.
- Wild Hunt Tactics — your damage to targets above 75% health is increased by 10%.
In summary:
- Niya: weak option.
- Dreamweaver: great for raids.
- Korayn: good for Mythic+.
Necrolord
- Marileth
- Volatile Solvent — casting Fleshcraft near corpses grants a benefit based on the creature’s type.
- Ooz’s Frictionless Coating — when reduced below 50% health, you gain a shield equal to 20% of your max health. May only occur once per 30 sec.
- Ultimate Form — while channeling Fleshcraft, you are immune to crowd control for 4 sec.
- Emeni
- Emeni’s Magnificent Skin — Fleshcraft increases your maximum health by 5% for 30 sec.
- Emeni’s Ambulatory Flesh — Fleshcraft can be cast while moving.
- Lead by Example — Vanquisher’s Hammer increases your primary stat by 5% and nearby allies’ primary stat by 2% for 10 sec. You gain 5% additional primary stat for each ally affected, up to 15%.
- Bonesmith Heirmir
- Serrated Spaulders — enemies that attack you in melee, take damage from dark magic.
- Heirmir’s Arsenal: Marrowed Gemstone — after landing 10 critical strikes, you gain 12% increased crit chance for 10 sec. May only occur once every 50 sec.
- Forgeborne Reveries — upon death your armor comes to life for 10 sec, allowing you to continue fighting. You cannot be healed and your damage is reduced by 50%.
In summary:
- Marileth: weak option.
- Emeni: the only good Necrolord choice.
- Bonesmith Heirmir: not worthy of attention.
Conduits
Now let’s talk about Conduits. They come in three types — Potency, Endurance, and Finesse. Let’s look at the ones the Holy Paladin has.
Potency
For Mythic+ pick Ringing Clarity.
In raids and in the second Mythic+ slot put Focused Light.
- Resplendent Light — Holy Light heals up to 5 targets within 8 yds.
- Focused Light — increases crit chance of Holy Shock.
- Untempered Dedication — Light of the Martyr damage and healing is increased each time it’s cast, stacking up to 5 times.
- Enkindled Spirit — Aura Mastery increases the healing of your next 3 Light of Dawn.
- Ringing Clarity (Kyrian) — Divine Toll has a chance to hit the main target 3 extra times.
- Righteous Might (Necrolord) — Vanquisher’s Hammer deals more damage and heals you.
- The Long Summer (Night Fae) — Blessing of Summer lasts 25% longer.
- Hallowed Discernment (Venthyr) — Ashen Hallow strikes the lowest health ally and enemy within it an additional time.
Endurance
Shielding Words is a must.
Second slot (if available): Divine Call.
- Divine Call — reduces Divine Shield cooldown by 5 sec when you take damage, has a cooldown.
- Shielding Words — Word of Glory grants you a shield, absorbing a certain amount of damage.
- Golden Path — Consecration heals you every second.
Finesse
- Echoing Blessings — Blessing of Freedom increases movement speed, Blessing of Sacrifice reduces damage taken. Good for all types of content.
- Light’s Barding — Divine Steed lasts longer. Good choice for PvP.
- Pure Concentration — Concentration Aura reduces the duration of incoming fear effects. Good for PvP.
Legendaries
Let’s look at the best legendaries for the Holy Paladin:
- Shock Barrier — Holy Shock protects the target for 18 sec, absorbing 20% of the applied healing every 6 sec. Affects up to 5 targets.
This is the best legendary for a Holy Paladin. In addition, it’s enhanced by Kyrian’s Divine Toll ability.
- Relentless Inquisitor — spending Holy Power grants you 1% haste per finisher for 12 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
This is a good second choice for a Holy Paladin legendary. It’s good in Mythic+ where you already have enough healing and can afford to remove Shock Barrier. This legendary boosts your DPS a bit, and can also be used in other specs.
Rotation
Now let’s see what a Holy Paladin needs to do to keep allies alive as effectively as possible while still dealing damage.
Base priorities
Unlike DPS tankspecs, WoW healers don’t have a strict rotation. Rather, a general description of how to use their abilities effectively.
- Avoid Holy Power overcap. Use Word of Glory or Light of Dawn at 5 Holy Power.
- Always keep Holy Shock on cooldown. This ability is better used for healing.
- Don’t keep your Crusader Strike charges, spend them. If you have Crusader’s Might, use this ability on cooldown.
- Spend Infusion of Light on Flash of Light or Holy Light. If you decide to use Flash of Light, it may be more beneficial to heal your Beacon of Light target to generate additional Holy Power.
DPS-rotation
If you want to deal as much damage as possible, use this rotation:
- Hammer of Wrath
- Judgment
- Holy Shock
- Crusader Strike
- Consecration
- Shield of the Righteous in case you’re not gonna need Holy Power for healing any time soon. This ability is especially good in AoE situations.
Cooldowns
Unlike DPS specs that use their cooldowns simultaneously for max efficiency, healers use theirs somewhat differently. In raids and Mythic+ you sometimes have to save your cooldowns for a specific moment and activate them one at a time.
- Avenging Wrath — your main cooldown that increases all healing and damage. It has a higher uptime with the Awakening talent.
- Aura Mastery — with Devotion Aura it reduces incoming damage by 15%. Should be used to negate high incoming damage.
- Holy Avenger (with the talent) — triples your Holy Power generation. With it, your rotation should look like this: Holy Shock > Word of Glory > Crusader Strike > Word of Glory > Crusader Strike > Word of Glory > Holy Shock > Word of Glory, and so on.
- Divine Shield — makes you immune to a lot of game mechanics. Some boss abilities will still be able to ignore the shield, though.
- Divine Protection — try maximizing the use of this ability, especially when receiving increased damage both from gameplay mechanics and your Blessing of Sacrifice and Light of the Martyr.
- Retribution Aura — don’t forget to switch to this aura when one of your allies is about to die. It could be a planned death to avoid certain mechanics, or an accidental one, like at the end of a boss fight.
Stats
Before you start choosing gear, remember one important rule — item level comes first! Never equip an item that is 10 or more ilvl lower, even if it has better stats. This rule also means that Strength and Stamina are the best stats for us, so they will not be mentioned in the priorities below.
Moving on to the stat priority for max HPS:
Haste > Crit = Versatility > Mastery
Haste reduces cast time and cooldown, as well as increases attack speed.
Mastery: Lightbringer — increases your healing the closer you are to the target. Sounds good in theory, but other stats are more profitable than mastery.
Versatility passively increases all healing and damage you deal, and decreases the damage you receive.
Crit increases the chance of your attacks and spells to deal additional damage or healing.
Based on the priorities above and simulations of your character you can choose gems, enchants, and consumables.
Gems
Enchants
- Rings: Tenet of Haste
- Chest: Eternal Stats
- Cloak: Fortified Leech
- Bracers: Eternal Intellect
- Weapon: Celestial Guidance
Food
Flasks
Temporary buffs
- Kits: Heavy Desolate Armor Kit
- Temporary weapon enchant: Embalmer’s Oil
- Healing potion: Potion of Divine Awakening
- Mana potion: Potion of Spiritual Clarity
- Universal potion: Potion of Spectral Intellect
Choosing a race
Keep in mind that in any content the difference between racial bonuses is relatively minor. So if you’re not aiming to get on the first page of WowProgress, you can safely choose a race by their appearance.
Below I list the races with the most significant bonuses for each faction.
Alliance
- Human — best race for a Paladin due to bonuses to secondary stats.
Horde
- Blood Elf — great choice because of the passive crit bonus.
BiS Gear + Trinkets
Understand that BiS Gear for a tank in Shadowlands is relative. Apart from rings and accessories, you should prioritize item level over stats.
Nevertheless, here is a list of the gear that you can strive for.
- Head: Diadem of Imperious Desire (Castle Nathria, Sire Denathrius)
- Neck: Charm of Eternal Winter (Castle Nathria, Huntsman Altimor)
- Shoulder: Epaulettes of Overwhelming Force (Castle Nathria, Hungering Destroyer)
- Back: Crest of the Legionnaire General (Castle Nathria, Commanders of the Stone Legion)
- Chest: Rampaging Giant’s Chestplate (Castle Nathria, Sludgefist)
- Wrist: Hellhound Cuffs (Castle Nathria, Huntsman Altimor)
- Hands: Colossal Plate Gauntlets (Castle Nathria, Sludgefist)
- Belt: Binding of Warped Desires (Castle Nathria, Lady Inerva Darkvein)
- Legs: Ceremonial Parade Legguards (Castle Nathria, Commanders of the Stone Legion)
- Feet: Stoneguard Attendant’s Boots (Castle Nathria, The Council of Blood)
- Weapon: Spellblade of Antiquity (Castle Nathria, Sire Denathrius)
- Shield: Elysian Sentinel’s Aegis (Castle Nathria, Commanders of the Stone Legion)
- Finger: Most Regal Signet of Sire Denathrius (Castle Nathria, Sire Denathrius)
- Finger: Ritualist’s Treasured Ring (Castle Nathria, Lady Inerva Darkvein)
- Trinket: Cabalist’s Hymnal (Castle Nathria, Sire Denathrius)
- Trinket: Unbound Changeling (Mists of Tirna Scithe)
Macros
Although you can use appropriate addons, it’s still possible to heal effectively without them. To achieve this, create mouseover macros for all your healing spells:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Holy Shock
Add another line for blessings:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Blessing of Freedom
A similar macro can be used for Divine Protection to cancel a spell and instantly activate immunity:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Divine Shield
Holy Prism should have a slightly different macro — always cast it on the enemy, so:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][@target,harm,nodead][@mouseover][] Holy Prism
Addons
Addons for World of Warcraft is a purely subjective matter. Many experienced players don’t use addons or use them sparingly. Others completely rework the UI. I’ll recommend those I use myself, that not only change the game’s appearance, but also can be useful in a variety of situations.
A powerful and very flexible addon that displays almost any information at any time you need. It started out by displaying buffs, debuffs, and alerts during fights, but has improved considerably over time. Today WAs allow you to create and send other players important information on bosses, replace standard interface elements, track other players’ abilities, and much more.
WAs can be found on wago.io, but I’ll list the most important ones:
- ZenTracker + Interrupt Tracker and Party CDs. An essential tool for M+, allowing you to keep track of party cooldowns. For raids, tracking the defensive cooldown of your healers can be useful.
- Dungeons – Targeted Spells — highlights party frames if a mob casts a dangerous spell, also shows their targets on the enemy’s nameplate. Useful for M+.
- Afenar Paladin — a nice WA for Paladin’s class abilities and active buffs.
- Castle Nathria + Co-Tank Auras — WA for main abilities of bosses in the first Shadowlands raid — Castle Nathria, as well as important debuffs on other tanks in the raid.
- Clique
This addon allows you to bind healing spells to mouse buttons and heal allies on mouseover, which is imperative for a healer.
A multipurpose addon for nameplates. With it you can easily see which enemies are aggroed on you, how and who they attack. In addition it shows you certain buffs and debuffs on enemies, including control effects.
Moreover, Plater supports third-party mods suitable for a variety of situations. You can download them on wago.io in the Plater section.
An addon that shows your group/raid damage and healing. That’s it? Not quite — it can show you the uptime of buffs and debuffs, damage to specific targets and during specific boss phases. In M+ you can see who broke control, who and how many times interrupted spellcasting, and much more.
Shows you the cooldown of bosses and mobs, reminds you when these abilities are about to go off. Very useful for raids and Mythic+. Alternatively, you can use the Deadly Boss Mods. Their functionality is very similar.
Useful little addon that allows to automatically repair gear, sell junk to vendors, accept and complete quests, includes the ability to quickly loot items, and much more.
Despite it not having any particularly important features, it’s very popular among players. With it, you can customize frames, command bars, and almost every aspect of the UI.
Pro Tips & Tricks
In this section I’ll talk about the intricacies of the spec and how to effectively use Holy Paladin’s abilities.
- Mana management. Your spells cost mana, at the start of combat you have 100 000 points and regenerate 4,000 every 5 seconds. You can’t cast spells when it runs out.
Holy Paladin doesn’t have AoE healing spells that consume mana, usually they cost more. So the only way to quickly drain mana is to spam Flash of Light. Try focusing on other spells that cost less or are free.
- Use Potion of Spiritual Clarity to restore mana.
- Using Blessing of Sacrifice. Keep an eye on your tank’s cooldowns before using it. For example, a Demon Hunter with Metamorphosis or a Warrior with Shield Wall can survive without it. Use this blessing when your tanks don’t have their own cooldowns and need help.
- Dealing damage. Maximize your damage if you can keep the party alive and you have mana to spare. Use as many damage dealing abilities as possible, don’t be afraid to spend Holy Power on Shield of the Righteous and cast Holy Shock on enemies.
- Mastery: Lightbringer — enhances healing to the targets closest to you. At 40 yds it’s not effective, at 20 yds it’s 50% effective, and so on.
Always study the current boss fight or Mythic+ dungeon to be closer to the targets. Rule of Law talent increases the range of this spell, making it 50% effective at 30 yds.
- Healing tanks. Holy Paladin is considered the best tank healer. Although the paladin also allows you to heal the entire raid very well, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the health of your tanks. Although most of the time your Beacon of Light and their own healing will be sufficient to keep them alive, sometimes you’ll have to heal your Beacon of Light targets. This may seem ineffective, but a dead tank would likely lead to a party wipe, which you can prevent.
Summary
Shadowlands have breathed new life into the Holy Paladin. Holy Power mechanics made this class a lot more interesting and powerful in virtually all situations. Covenants complemented this spec in an interesting way and came in handy.
Thanks for tuning in! Best of luck in the world of Azeroth!
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