Hi! I'm Kaelseth and I'm a holy paladin main. I play on Sargeras. I am by no means the best paladin player on the server, let alon in the world, but I think that I can clear up a few things, and since this forum lacks PvE holy paladin guide for cataclysm, I thought I'm gonna make one myself.
If you think I made a mistake, or if you disagree, or if you just want to give me a compliment, I'd appriciate it if you'd leave a comment.
EDIT: Since some people started arguing that crit > haste and were asking for a proof, I'm providing some sources which also claim that haste > crit. Basically, crit has bad conversion factors, gives less HPS point for point and is RNG, while haste provides reliable healing output. Crit is just a bonus and unless you have 100% crit chance there's always a chance that you'll not get a crit in 100 spell casts. If you disagree, you can still gem/gear/reforge for it, it's not like I'm your boss *sigh*.
Spoiler:Show
Table of Contents
1. Talents
2. Glyphs
3. Stat priority
4. Spells
5. Gems, Enchants, Flasks etc.
6. Macros
1. Talents
You can play around with it a little bit.
Core talents:
Judgement of the Pure - prevents you from going OOM in raid environment, also the casting haste is very important, 3/3
Protector of the Innocent - good to help you sustain in AoE battles, increases your healing done, put at least 2/3
Clarity of Purpose - basically a spell haste talent, awesome 3/3
Last word - critical strike on one of our big heals is pretty good, needed to proceed to next tier, at least 1/2
Divine Favor - your big cooldown, when a lot of healing needs to be done, you'll pop this, 1/1
Infusion of Light - great talent, gives you reduced casting time on some of your heals, put 2/2
Daybreak - gives you more holy shocks, which equals to more holy power, which equals to more heals, 2/2
Beacon of Light - useful in AoE situations, so that you don't have to always heal your tank, mandatory, 1/1
Speed of Light - haste; we need it, 3/3
Sacred Cleansing - paladin's cleanse is the cheapest cleanse in the game, you'll need this to dispell magic effects on bosses such as Temple Guardian Anhuur in Halls of Origination
Conviction - scales incredibly well with crit and also increases your healing. 3/3
Aura Mastery - good in raids, 1/1
Paragon of Virtue - Avenging Wrath is one of your big cooldowns, so the more you can use it the better. Cooldown reduction on the other two spells is good too
Tower of Radiance - if you need to use big heals to heal your tank, you might as well gain some holy power from it, put 3/3
Light of Dawn - good in raids where there's a lot of AoE and your raid's stacked (like Majordomo Staghelm's scorpion form)
Divinity (prot tree) - 6% increased healing, need I say more? 3/3
Crusader (ret tree) - holy shock is one of our core spells, and 30% increased healing on it is great, also gives you 300% heal on holy light, so you can heal better on trash mobs
Optional talents:
Enlightened Judgement - your judgements now heal you, also gives you a lot of hit rating, so you don't ever have to worry about missing
Blessed life - normally you wouldn't be taking much direct damage, but should that happen it's nice having free holy power
Eternal glory - even though it's not mandatory I love this talent. I can't count how many times this talent saved our party. Having multiple words of glory casts with 3 holy power can heal your tank from 10-100%. Strongly recommend
Improved Judgement - not great, but can sometimes be usfeul, since you must be casting your judgement, but moving to do so means you're most likely not healing
2. Glyphs
Prime Glyphs: Glyph of Word of Glory, Glyph of Holy Shock, Glyph of Seal of Insight, Glyph of Divine Favor
Major Glyphs:: Glyph of Light of Dawn, Glyph of Divine Plea, Glyph of Divinity, Glyph of Lay on Hands, Glyph of Divine protection
Minor Glyphs: Whatever you want
3. Stat Priority
Intellect > Spirit > Haste > Mastery > Crit
You don't need any hit rating, since you only need to hit with Judgement and you'll get plenty of hit rating from Enlightened Judgement talent, so reforge all your hit rating ASAP.
Mastery and Crit are almost on the same level. Personally I prefer Mastery.
Intellect gives you spell power and mana, which makes us put out more heals. Spirit refills that mana and also gives us Hit Rating (not that we actually need it much). Haste is awesome, since we only have 1 instant cast (Holy Shock) and will increas our HPS. Some may even argue that Haste is better than Spirit once you reach certain level of spirit.
4. Spells
1. Holy light
Our basic heal. When there's nothing else to cast use this to heal your tank/members.
2. Divine Light
Our big heal. Costs a lot of mana so don't use it unless your tank is being hit for a lot of damage. Grant Holy Power through talents.
3. Word of Glory
Use this when you reach 3 Holy Power and you can't/don't need to use Light of Dawn for AoE heal. It can crit for a lot and costs no mana, making it the most efficient heal.
4. Flash of Light
Our very fast heal. Heals for a low amount, but cast time is very fast and it costs a lot of mana. Don't use it unless you really need to heal the whole party fast to avoid wipe. If you find yourself spamming it too much, you'll soon be OOM
5. Light of Dawn
One of our AoE heals. Costs Holy Power + mana and it shoots out a cone. Requires good positioning and your raid/group must be stacked in order to make it work. Heals 6 targets (or 4 if glyphed).
6. Holy Radiance
Our AoE and HoT spell all in one. Cast it on someone, and it wil emit a healing aura that will heal party members in the near vicinity. It will also tick and heal over time. Use this when there's a lot of AoE
7. Holy Shock
A cheap and instant cast spell, that doesn't heal by much, but generates Holy Power. Use this whenever off CD to generate as much Holy Power as possible.
8. Lay on Hands
Our emergency heal. Heals the target for amount equal to your maximum health. Only use it when someone important is about to die. Has a big cooldown, which can be reduced by glyph and also returns mana due to Glyph of Divinity.
9. Hand of Protection
Hand of protection is our bubble that can be used on other people. Use it to shield a person from ticking damage that cannot be dispelled/healed through, but beware, it prevents attacking for the whole duration, so casting it on the tank may make them lose aggro of the boss/mobs.
10. Divine Plea
Gives you back your mana, but reduces healing done by you so that means you should only use it once you're sure your tank won't die from the damage caused by the boss/mobs, or when in combat bug and you cannot get your mana back (yes, that happens).
11. Blessing of Kings
Increases your buffs by 5%, use this unless there's a druid that cna provide the same buff. Then use Blessing of Might.
12. Blessing of Might
Gives AP and MP5. Use it if druid casts Mark of the Wild.
13. Cleanse
Cheapest clensing spell in game, can dispell Poison and Disease, and with talent Magic effects. Use it when someone has a dispellable debuff (kinda obvious right?).
14. Avenging Wrath
Increases your healing done by 20%. It's our big cooldown so use it when there's a lot of damage incoming.
15. Divine Favor
Another big cooldown. Incrases our spell haste and spell crit. Use it in conjunction with Avenging Wrath.
16. Seal of Insight
Our best seal, we glyph it to increase our healing done by 6%.
5. Gems, enchants, flasks etc.
5.1 Gems
Red: Brilliant Inferno Ruby
Yellow: Reckless Ember Topaz
Blue: Purified Demonseye
Meta: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
Red sockets should always be filled with red gems.
Yellow and Blue sockets should be filled with red gems unless there is an exceptionally good Intellect socket bonus.
5.2 Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Hyjal
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Charged Loadstone
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Wrists: Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery
Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Pants: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
Boots: Enchant Boots - Lavawalker
Main Hand: Enchant Weapon - Heartsong
Off Hand: Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect
5.3 Flasks and Potions
Use Flask of Draconic Mind and Volcanic Potion. Those two give you intellect (Flask of Draconic Mind gives 300 for 1hour and Volcanic potions gives you 1200 for 12 second) which is, as written above, our best stat.
5.4 Reforging
If a piece has Spirit and Haste, leave it be.
If a piece has Spirit and Crit, reforge the Crit to Haste.
If a piece has Spirit and Mastery, reforge the Mastery to Haste.
If a piece has Haste and Crit, reforge the Crit to Spirit.
If a piece has Haste and Mastery, reforge the Mastery to Spirit.
If a piece has Crit and Mastery, reforge the Crit or Mastery (this is personal preference) to Spirit (and try to find something better than that piece, seriously).
6. Macros
Judgement macro
Spoiler:Show
This will first check your target, then your target's target, then your focus' target and lastly your target's target's target to find a bad guy to use your Judgement on.
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