For The Paladin

For most holy paladins, you’ll find that a 1-handed mace and shield combo is the only way to go. By the time you’ve hit 80, you should’ve already seen the War Mace of Unrequited Love. Some who prefer the stamina for PvP will take the Titansteel Guardian, but for PvE purposes the former is better. It’s probably your best bet wihle doing heroics to get your emblems. During your heroic runs, you should pick up Mariel’s Sorrow off of Eadric the Pure in Trial of the Champion. If you’re in a PvE guild that enjoys raiding different instances throughout the week, I would look for the Argent Resolve which is dropped by Anub’arak in the Trial of the Crusader. I would also keep an eye out for Aesuga, Hand of the Ardent Champion, which is taken from General Vezax in Ulduar. The cream of the crop; however, is the Royal Scepter of Terenas II. Those stats, the socket, and an enchantment all lead to best in slot for patch 3.3.3.

We’ve got one more spec left, so stay tuned for Paladin Weapons – Finding the Right One For Your Retribution Paladin

So you’ve decided to help the population of WoW by healing. First off, let me say that healing as a Paladin relies on 3 main spells: Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock. For the most part, your healing relies on just these spells. But there are other factors that apply to being the best Paladin Healer in your group, your raid, and quite possibly your server. Lets start with the basics:

Holy Light

This spell is your big heal, for the most part it is used when someone has taken a lot of damage. However, Paladins are well known for being very mana efficient. Through the talent Illumination and the spell Divine Plea, Paladins are very well at making sure that having mana isn’t a problem. Therefore, some Paladins choose to use Holy Light a lot more often, and stack a lot of Intellect to make up for the lack of Spell Power (Holy Guidance brings the Spell Power back up though, so with the right gear, you should have enough Spell Power). Add in Light’s Grace and your Holy Light is already half a second faster. With enough haste, it is definitely possible to bring Holy Light down to a 1 second cast.

Flash of Light

This spell is (for the most part) your most often used spell. Small mana cost, quick casting time, scales with Spell Power, what’s not to like? Used in conjunction with Sacred Shield, a correctly timed Flash of Light can also throw a Heal Over Time (HoT) spell on the affected character, causing him to be healed for 100% of that Flash heal over 12 seconds. So think about it for a second. Crit with a Flash heal on a player that has the Sacred Shield buff….need I say more?

Holy Shock

This is your Instant Cast spell. Use it whenever you can (every 6 seconds) because the more you use it, the more you have a chance of proccing Infusion of Light which will make your next Flash of Light instant cast OR give your next Holy Light a 20% increase in your critical strike rating. Casting a Flash heal right after a Holy Shock can be the reason your tank stays alive. Like I stated before, use it well, use it often.

Now that I’ve talked about the basics, here are the other spells to use in your rotation while being a great Holy Paladin.

Sacred Shield

This spell is a 30 second buff which you put on a character (mainly the tank). This buff also applies a buff (a buff within a buff…a super buff?) which, once activated, shield the character, absorbing 500 damage. At level 80, 500 damage isn’t much (especially when you’re fighting a raid boss), but consider that this buff reapplies itself every 6 seconds…in a 5 minute fight, if you are applying the spell to the tank every 30 seconds, the tank will have absorbed 25,000 points of damage…and most fights last longer than 5 minutes. Sounds a lot better when you think of it that way huh? What I feel is most important about this spell is that once the Shield is active, a Flash of Light spell increases its critical strike chance by 50%! As if that wasn’t impressive enough, if you also heal a character with Flash of Light while that character has the Sacred Shield buff active, Flash of Light heals the character for 100% of the heal over 12 seconds. So, to recap: PUT SACRED SHIELD UP ON SOMEONE (EVEN YOURSELF) AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH IT. ALWAYS.

Seal of Light/Judgement of Light

You NEED to have Seal of Light on you at all times while healing. Judge every 20 seconds. Everytime you cast it on a mob, your group has a chance on hit to heal themselves for 2% of their maximum health. That’s healing that you don’t need to worry about while concentrating on healing your tank. Also, casting Judgement of Light will proc Judgements of the Pure and Heart of the Crusader. So just by using one spell, your group is being healed, your casting speed is increased by 15% for a full minute, and increases crit chance for everyone by 3%. This spell is SUPER IMPORTANT to use, I cannot stress that enough.

Beacon of Light

Placing this spell on someone will allow them to be healed without having to heal them. Simply put it on someone (mainly the tank) and heal everyone else. That person will be healed for 100% of the heals you give to other people. Perfect for fights where everyone is taking damage and you need to cast Holy Light on everyone while keeping the tank up. Make sure you are keeping this up at all times, because it only lasts a minute at a time. There you have it, the ins and outs of Paladin Healing. Hope that by reading this article, you’ve learned just what it takes to be the best Holy Pally out there. ~Baros