Holy Paladin Guide

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Holy Paladin Guide

#1 » Post by Tempx » 17 Aug 2013 14:42

Introduction

Chapter 1: Spells

Chapter 2: Talents

Chapter 3: Gear

Chapter 4: Macro’s

Chapter 5: Tips and tricks

Chapter 6: How to Holy Paladin / Warrior

Conclusion



This guide is written for those of you who are new to Holy Paladins and would like to know more about them in PvP, arena in specific.


1. Defensive spells

As a Holy Paladin your job is to keep you and your teammate alive and free from crowd control effects (such as: sheep, blind, freezes, etc.).

Even though in the highest rated teams your partner also plays a vital role in keeping the group safe from snares (such as: warrior intervening blinds/saps) we cannot be dependant on our teammate for this, as a healer.

Now, having that said, I will move on to explain the most important defensive spells used by a paladin in PvP. Please note that these do not include major cooldowns! In order of importance:

[Sacred Shield]: the most important Holy Paladin spell. This spell absorbs damage on the sacred shielded target and the absorption is based on the amount of spell power you have. Also increases chance to critically hit withflash of light.

[Holy Shock]: the most important Holy Paladin healing spell. This spell is instant and gives a great burst of heal on your friendly target.The reasons that this spell is the most important are:

1. It is instant which means people can’t interrupt it!
2. It does a (...)(...)(...)(...)load of healing (or damage)!
3. If it critically strikes, your next flash of light becomes instant! (Please note that this is bound to a talent!)

[Cleanse]: important to keep your partner or yourself out of snares. Also very important because of the talent Sacred Cleansing which increases resistance to diseases, poisons and magic effects by 30%. In other words, when Sacred Cleansing is on your friendly target, that target will take significantly less damage from classes that are dependant on diseases, poisons and magic effects [such as: Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, Death Knights].
[Flash of Light]: fast cast healing spell. Very flexible and can be instant when your Holy Shock crits (Please note that this is bound to a talent!).

[Judgement of Light/Wisdom/Justice]: instant cast used for two defensive purposes. First purpose is to get in combat so you can’t get sapped. The other purpose is to gain health back, mana back or to slow your opponent. Judgement of Justice is a must on Druids and Shamans since they can easily get out of your partners snares and/or slows.

[Hammer of Justice]: Stuns the enemy target for a few seconds. Thise ffect can only be broken if the opponent uses a major cool down. Such as trinket, blink or any other similar effect. Normally this spell is used offensively, but you could also use it defensively to make sure your opponent can’t deal damage or crowd control you or your partner.

[Holy Light]: slow cast healing spell. Not flexible, but does a(...)(...)(...)(...)load of healing when it’s finished. Don’t recommend using it much in arena,since it can be easily interrupted and you need to be absolutely sure that when you’re casting it, your partner will be able to survive any burst damage duringthe time you cast it.

2. Offensive Spells

As a Holy Paladin,it is sometimes vital to support your teammate in damaging the opponent, especially when your enemy target is about to die and you can’t risk him to regain health. Every little bit of damage can help. In order of importance:

[Hammer of Justice]: Stuns the enemy target for a few seconds. This effect can only be broken if the opponent uses a major cool down. Such as trinket, mage blink or any other similar effect. You can use it to stop people from healing themselves or their partner.

[Judgement of Light/Wisdom/Justice]: instant cast used for two offensive purposes. First purpose is to keep your enemy target in combat so that he cant restealth or drink. The other purpose is to gain health back, mana back or to slow your opponent. Judgement of Justice is a must on Druids and Shamans since they can easily get out of your teammates snares and/or slows.

[Cleanse]: important to keep your partner or yourself out of snares. It may look strange that I’ve added this spell in here, but when you cleanse your partner good, your team will be able to keep the pressure on your enemies team up high at all times. I can’t stress enough how important it is to cleanse your partner, even when the situation looks dire. Be a good offensive cleanser under pressure is one of the most hard things in arena as a Holy Paladin.

[Holy Shock]: Instant cast that can not only heal your friendly target, but can also deal damage to your enemy target.

[Shield of Righteousness]: Instant cast that does damage based on your shield block value and some extra.

[Hand of Reckoning]: Unorthodox instant spell. Very useful to keep people in combat when judgement is on cooldown or you would like to use judge on one target and still keep the other in combat. It is also nice cause it doesn’t give a global cooldown after you use it!

[Consecration]: Does damage over time and is good against rogues to get them in combat in the start of a fight and thus prevent saps. Can also beused to kill snakes in snake traps.

[Exorcism]: Relative slow cast damage spell that deals a certain amount of damage. Not really strong, but still a nice addition to your damage rotation as far as Holy Paladins have one.

4. Major Cooldowns

Apart from the short cooldown spells as described above, there are also some spells that take longer to be able to be casted again. These are the so called ‘major cooldowns’.

[Trinket]: Not related to the Paladin class in specific, but removes you out of any snare effect.

[Divine Shield]: Also known as ‘bubble’.Protects yourself from any damage or interrupt for 12 seconds.This spell can only be removed manually or by someone mass dispelling it. When you use it and you expect a Priest mass dispelling it, make sure you run circle striving (left strive/ right strive) so that you might miss it.

[Hand of Protection]: Protects your friendly target from any PHYSICAL DAMAGE (so: melee damage, not spell caster damage!) for a few seconds.This spell can only be removed manually or by someone mass dispelling it. Thisspell can be used to break stuns such as blind/kidney shot on your friendly target.

[Hand of Freedom]: Removes any snares and slows from your friendly target. DOES NOT REMOVE sheeps, blinds, saps, kidney shots, freezing traps and the likes.

[Avenging Wrath]: Also known as ‘Wings’. Gives you increased spell powerfor a certain amount of seconds. This spell can come in handy when you already used divine shield and you or your partner is about to die and you could some extra healing. Could also be very handy when your opponent is about to die and you want to help your partner finish the target. But when you use it for offensive purposes, make sure that it won’t get dispelled or spell stolen or that it was a low chance that you could kill your opponent.

[Divine Protection]: Reduces damage taken on yourself for a few seconds. This spell can be very beneficial when enemy teams with a Priesta re bursting you and they expect you to use Divine Shield. They will wait for you to Divine Shield and mass dispel to finish you. But if you pop divine protection instead of divine shield, you may prevent an early kill because you will leave your enemy surprised as they expected you to use divine shield.

[Divine Plea]: Gives up to 30% of your max mana back over 15 seconds.However, the amount you can heal during the period Divine Plea is on is also reduced. Only use this when you are sure that your partner is fine for at least a portion of the spell. If you use this against Shaman or Priest teams, make sure you Hammer of Justice or lign of sight them because else they will attempt to dispel it. When you are low on mana and really need to put this spell up to regain some, make sure you rebuff righteous fury (if you don’t got it on). It lowers the chance that your opponent will dispel the Divine Plea and Righteous Fury doesn’t cost mana.

[Divine Favor]: Gives a 100% chance that your next holy shock or flashof light is a critical strike. Always save this for dire times and only use it in combination with Holy Shock because of the talent that gives you an instantcast on flash of light when your Holy Shock critically strikes.

[Aura Mastery]: Enhances the effect of the aura you are having on by100% and makes sure you cant be interrupted by silences when you have consecration aura on (only on use!). Fun fact, if you use this in combination with Crusader Aura, the aura’s speed boost will also increase with 100%.

[Hand of Sacrifice]: Reduces damage taken by your partner.This can be dispelled or stolen by Mages, Shamans or Priests. Watch Druids as they can Cyclone you as a healer so that your opponent does not benefit from the sacrifice anymore during the time you are cycloned. This spell can be of vital use when you are fighting Mages or Rogues and you expect them to sheep orblind you during their burst.

[Divine Sacrifice]: Reduces damage taken by your partner and also reduces damage taken to you for a portion of its duration. Cannot be dispelled. This spell can only be removed manually or by someone mass dispelling it. Watch Druids as they can Cyclone you as a healer so that your partner does not benefit from the sacrifice anymore during the time you are cycloned. This spell can be of vital use when you are fighting Mages or Rogues and you expect themto sheep or blind you during their burst.

[Divine Illumination]: Reduces cost of your spells for a few seconds. Never use it together with Divine plea, cause if you do you will make it easy for your enemy to dispel both and thus make you lose your mana efficiency.

Disclaimer – You cant use Avenging Wrath, Divine Protection and Divine Shield within a certain amount of seconds after each other. So make sure that when you pop one of them,you do not need the other one within the ‘lockout’ period.

x CHAPTER 2: TALENT CHOICES AS A PALADIN

HOLY TREE

[5/5 Spiritual Focus]: when someone damages you during your cast, you will suffer less from push backs which means your spells cast time is less affected by your enemies damage.

[5/5 Divine Intellect]: increases intellect and thus your manapool, your critical strike rating and mp5.

[3/3 Healing Light]: More heals on your Holy Shock, Flash of Light and Holy Light. What’s not to love.

[2/2 Unyielding Faith]: Reduces duration of Fears and Disorient effects by 30%. This spell can be very handy against Hunters. If they scatter you they will probably put a freeze trap on you during the stun. If you spam your divine sacrifice/hand of sacrifice button during the freezing trap while spamming your ‘jump’ key at the same time you will have a small interval between the trap effect ends and you actually gets frozen. The sacrifice will make sure that the freeze will break the second they attack your partner (that the sacrifice isput on). This is because a sacrifice will redirect the damage on your team mate to you and thus break a crowd control.

[5/5 Divine Illumination]: You get 30% of your mana back when you cast a heal on anyone and it critically strikes.

[1/1 Aura Mastery]: Life safer. Take it. Period.

[3/3 Improved Concentration Aura]: Nice, too bored to explain, just read.

[1/1 Divine Favor]: Critical strike on your next holy shock or flash oflight, what’s not to love.

[3/3 Sanctified Light]: Increase chance to critical strike. Youknow it’s BAWS!

[1/2 Pure of Heart]: In my opinion best filler talent.

[5/5 Holy Power]: Increased critical effect of holy spells. Always nice.

[1/1 Holy Shock]: GET THIS. PERIOD.

[3/3 Sacred Cleansing]: When it is on, enemy targets that rely on poisons, diseases or magic effects will do a significant lesser amount of damage on that target. Spam cleanse on a target till you get this on!

[1/1 Divine Illumination]: Reduces mana cost for 15 sec.

[5/5 Holy Guidance]: Increases spell power, and thus the amount you heal or deal damage.

[3/5 Judgements of the Pure]: Haste is increased when you judge someone for 1 minute after the judge. If you keep judgement on,this will stay on too.

[2/2 Enlightened Judgements]: Increases range of judgements, which is nice to keep people in combat, get yourself in combat and also good cause your hit will get increased when you judge. Hit rating is important for your hammer of justice or turn evil spells to not miss. Turn Evil is used to fear demon pets (warlocks/death knight pets).

[2/2 Infusion of Light]: BAWS TALENT!!! INSTANT FLASH OF LIGHT AFTER CRIT ON HOLY SHOCK =D

[1/1 Beacon of Light]: Will heal the beaconed friendly target when you heal someone else.

PROTECTION TREE

[5/5 Divinity]: Increases heals.

[2/2 Guardian’s Favor]: Longer Hand of Freedom is major reason to take this. But the reduction on the cooldown of Hand of Protection makes sure that you will always be able to use it when your enemies Blind is useable (same cooldown time).

[3/3 Improved Righteous Fury]: Reduces damage taken when you have this on.

[3/3 Stoicism]: Reduces duration of stuns on you.

[1/1 Divine Sacrifice]: A second sacrifice, yeeey!

[1/5 Toughness]: Best filler talent.

[2/2 Divine Guardian]: Improvements on sacrifice, what’s not to love.

[2/2 Improved hammer of Justice]: Reduces cooldown on your most important offensive spell.

1. Attributes

Spell power - Is one the most important attribute for Holy paladins(Eg. 2000 spell power will add 2000 to your flash of light heals).

Intellect – Increases your mana pool, critical strike chance on spells and mana regeneration. Higher mana pool will be useful for long arena matches.

Haste, resiliance and mp5 are less important then Intellect and Spell power, so i dont recomend socketing those.

Step 4.

Get these enchants:

[Head] : +29 spell power and 20 resilience

[Shoulders] : +23 spell power and 15 resilience

[Cloak] : +23 haste

[Chest] : +10 all stats

[Bracers] : +30 spell power

[Hands] : +28 spell power

[Waist] : +extra slot [eternal belt buckle]

[Legs] : +50 spell power and 30 stamina

[Feet] : +15 stamina and minor speed increase

[Weapon] : +63 spell power

[Shield] : +25 intellect

Step 5.

Make these gem choices:

[Meta Gem slot] : +21intellect and chance to restore mana on spellcast

[Red Gem slot] : +12 Spell power and 10 intellect

[Yellow Gem slot] : +20 intellect

[Blue Gem slot] : +10 intellect and 15 stamina

x CHAPTER4. MACRO’S FOR YOUR PALADIN!

Judgements: /cast [target=focus] Judgement of Justice. This is highly recomended cause u can easylu JoJ druids/shamans/rogues and by doing that they cant be faster then u and ur mate, it's highly great while doing switches.

Cleanse: /cast [@party1] Cleanse /cast [@party2] Cleanse /cast [@party3] Cleanse

Hammer of Justice: /cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice. Also great that u dont have to target player which u want to stun.

Divine Plea: /cast Divine plea /cancelaura Divine plea. By doing cancel aura u can remove it when u need healing burst or when mage is trying to spel steal it.

Sacred Shield: /cast [nomodifier, @party1] Sacred Shield /cast [nomodifier, @party1] Blessing of Kings. By doing that u can quickly rebuff ur mate while he gets spam purged.

Divine Sacrifice: /cast Divine Sacrifice /cancelaura Divine Sacrifice. By doing this u will just reduce dmg and the dmg from ur mate wont be send to u, this is usefull while fighting Dk's, Warlocks and when ur on low hp the dmg wont transfer to u.

x CHAPTER 5. TIPS AND TRICKS FOR A PALADIN





When you fight a rogue team, make sure you only use Hand of Freedom AFTER kidney shot. If you use it before, they will simply kidney shot the Hand of Freedomed target and you will waste vital seconds of the Hand of Freedom during the stun or it can simply be dispelled by his partner.
When you use Hand of Freedom on yourself against Mage teams, make sure you “/cancelaura” it when you don’t need it anymore, else they can spell steal it.
-When you use Divine Plea against Mage teams, make sure that you use “/cancelaura” when they are in your lign of sight and within range. Else they can spell steal it from you and you don’t want them to regain their mana, do you?
-When you fight against opponents that are very dependant on poisons, diseases or magic effects, make sure that you spam cleanse on your partner till you at least got ‘sacred cleansing’ buffed on them. This will reduce the damage they take significantly.
-When you fight against Mage teams, make sure that you always spam cleanse on the one the Mage is sitting on. Even if he doesn’t use Frost Nova or Sheep, it is very important that you cleanse the stacks of ‘Winter’s Chill’ off. Cause Winter’s Chill will make: 1. it harder for you to dispel a sheep or frost nova when they use it after 5 stacks of Winter’s Chill, 2. boost the mages damage, 3. easier for them to crowd control cause you’ll have to cleanse a lot to get the crowd controls off.
-When you fight against a Death Knight, Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Shaman or Warlock with a fellhunter pet, make sure you FAKE CAST when you or your teammate is below 80% of their health. If you don’t and they interrupt they can burst their opponent down rather easily. Also make sure that you fake cast at least once when your health is 30% or lower and their opponent is sitting on you. 90% of the people will not fake cast below 30% and damage dealers know this. If you fake cast their interrupts, it can safe your life.
x CHAPTER6. How to Holy Paladin in Arena!

It depends from the setup ur fighting.
The General idea is to always monitor what's ur partner doing and to give him Freedom on time. Also use ur Sacrifices to avoid cc's like poly's, blinds, hunter traps etc. Positioning is key for every arena, keep on max range and always stay near pillars, they can give u much needed LoS.
I will write a story about every setup tactic witch ur facing as Hpala / warr, just i am too bored to do that now. -.^

x Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading this wall of text and learned something about Holy Paladins in arena, even though they are known as one of the easiest (if not the easiest) class in the game. I recommend you to let the information sink, read it a couple of times.

Good luck!

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