First of all there are two ways of healing with a holy paladin: Flash of Light oriented vs Holy Light oriented. This guide is about Holy Light oriented holy paladins.
What does Holy Light oriented means?
-> main stat: intellect.
-> neglect spellpower bonuses from gemming, enchants.
-> main spell casted: Holy Light.
-> The pushback without the talent is not felt while casting. Only useful fight that can make use of this talent is at transition phase during Lich King encounter which reduces the silence duration. Not worth if you look at the other talents.
o Why go for critical strike rating talent (Sanctity of Battle) instead of maximizing the healing talent (Divinity) ?
-> A holy light oriented paladin should focus on getting as much crit as they can from gear, gems and spec. Why? Due to Illumination talent, which gives mana for each critical strike heal done. A Holy Light paladin should focus on mana returning not mana regeneration.
o Why 1/2 Enlighted Judgements, 1/2 Improved Blessing of Wisdom and 1/2 Improved Lay on Hands?
-> Utility. You don't need 2/2 Enlighted Judgements in most of the fights. Bonus granted from 1/2 to 2/2 IBoW is not that high so it is worth killing a talent from there. 1/2 Improved Lay of Hands is mostly due to the buff that the ability gives when used (Reduces phisical damage taken by 10%, which stacks with similar effects from Disco priest talent and Resto shaman talent, boosting the defense of the tank in some situations.)
o Blessed Hands 2/2: This talent can be a life saver in most of situations when you will use Hand of Sacrifice. From my own experience I saved a wipe at Blood Council by doing Hand of Sacrifice with this talent 2/2, on the Keleseth tank in 25man heroic. It dropped my hp very low and tank survived that one blow with very low hp left. On top of this, improving the threat ammount decreased by Hand of Salvation through this talent is always welcomed. Very good utility talent.
o Why 2/2 Improved Judgements?
-> Having the cooldown reduced on Judgements can allow the paladin to put Judgement of Light on multiple targets at once, useful.[/hide]
[hide="Glyph comments"]o Glyph of Seal of Wisdom: Excelent mana save tool since holy light mana cost is high.
o Glyph of Beacon of Light: Use this mostly due to indirect mana save, aprox. 1400 mana is spent when you refresh beacon, so you want to reduce the number of times you cast this ability during a raid since it costs more mana than Holy Light.
o Glyph of Holy Light: Best glyph ever made for a holy paladin. The off heal of 4+1 10% ammount may not seem high, but with good critical rating and often Holy Light crits, this glyph is mostly second, sometime first in healing recount.
o Minor glyphs: self explained.[/hide]
Meta gem: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41401)
Head slot: Nightmare`s Tear (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=49110)
All other gem slots: Brilliant King's Amber (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=40123)
[hide="Gems comments"]o Intellect gives these stats:
"21 Intellect, with BoK and Divine Intellect
1815 Mana at the start of the fight
37.8Mp5 from Divine Plea, if it is used on CD.
18.1Mp5 from Replenishment.
4.54Mp5 from Arcane Torrent, if you are a Blood Elf.
24.2 Spell Power
0.726% Spell Crit"
All of these bonus stats are a need for Holy Light oriented holy paladins. (quoted ElitistJerks)
o Nightmare's Tear: to activate meta. Why head slot? At end gear that is the best bonus to get (+9 spell power).
o Insightful Earthsiege Diamond: Good mana fountain during a fight, and solid intellect bonus.[/hide]
Headslot: Arcanum of Blissful Mending (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44152)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Crag (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44134)
Cloak: Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=39003)
Chest: Scroll of Enchant Chest - Exceptional Mana (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38912)
Wrist: Scroll of Enchant Bracers - Exceptional Intellect (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38968)
Weapon: Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38926)
Shield: Scroll of Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44455)
Hands: Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38979)
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41611)
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41602)
Feet: Scroll of Enchant Boots - Icewalker (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38986)
[hide="Enchants comments"]o Chest mana enchant vs +10 all stats. Yes, higher mana pool in any condition.
o Feet enchant: hit + crit. Mostly used due to crit bonus. Best is Engineering enchant (24 crit rating)
o Hands enchant: spellpower. No other alternative. Best is Engineering enchant (+haste bonus on use each 1 minute)[/hide]
There is a debate going on regarding which stats a Holy Light oriented paladin should follow. The discussions are about critical strike rating, haste and mp5. There are two types of gear a Holy Paladin should seek to use:
1) Haste + mp5 gear (Example: Belt of the Blood Nova - http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50671)
2) Critical strike rating + haste gear (Example: Crushing Coldwraith Belt - http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50613)
From my point of view, as stated before, a holy paladin should focus mainly on mana save and return instead of regeneration. Regeneration is good, helps, but mana save&return should be the priority. So the best itemization for a Holy Paladin is 2) Critical strike rating + haste gear.
Headslot: Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51272)
Shoulders: Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51273)
Neck: Blood Queen's Crimson Choker (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50724)
Cloak: Frostbinder's Shredded Cape (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50628)
Chest:Sanctified Lightsworn Tunic (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51274
Wrist: Crypt Keeper's Bracers (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50721)
Weapon: Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50732)
Shield: Bulwark of Smouldering Steel (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50616
Libram: Libram of Renewal (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=40705)
Hands: Fallen Lord's Handguards (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50650)
Belt: Crushing Coldwraith Belt (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50613)
Legs: Sanctified Lightsworn Greaves (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51271)
Feet: Plague Scientist's Boots (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50699)
Ring1: Ring of Rapid Ascent (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50664)
Ring2: Marrowgar's Frigid Eye/Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50610/htt ... item=50400)
Trinket1: Meteorite Crystal (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=46051)
Trinket2: Solace of the Fallen (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=47432)
[hide="Gear discussion"]As stated before, these gears all have crit/haste on them. Now the debate can be made on several items:
o Meteorite Crystal: Yes, best in slot of Holy Light based paladin. The tooltip wasn`t updated by blizzard in earlier patches, and it actually gives 75 mp5 per stack, at max stacks giving around 1875 mp5 (huge). You can gain a stack from beacon aswell, so you basicly gain 2 stacks per cast. From my experience, you gain 20 stacks when you have around 8 seconds left of the regen buff.
o Libram of Renewal: Such a low gearscore item? Yes, but very effective. 113 mana save on Holy Light, analogically speaking makes your 10th casted Holy Light mana cost to be 0. This works very well combined with Glyph of Seal of Wisdom (Check glyph section).[/hide]
You have average gear score and you don't know what to do from that point to the BiS road end? Your gear is a mess?
1) Farm EoF for Tier10 pieces: Headslot + Shoulders (most important)
2) Buy with emblems:
-> Purified Lunar Dust (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50358) (pre gear for Solace trinket)
-> Gauntlets of Overexposure (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50976) (pre gear for BiS hands)
-> Talisman of Resurgence (pre gear for Meteoryte Cristal trinket)
3) Buy BoE items:
-> Belt of the Lonely Noble (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50451)
-> Earthsoul Boots (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=49896) - crafted item
-> Marrowgar's Frigid Eye (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=49967)
-> Blood Queen's Crimson Choker (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50182)
-> Crypt Keeper's Bracers (http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50175)
- Power Auras: very good for tracking cooldowns.
- Heal Bot: everything a paladin needs to heal/support.
- Dhud3: Hp/mana bars right in middle of the screen.
- MoveAnything: Customize almost anything from UI.
Few of them can be found at: http://www.truewow.org/download.
This section is about specific things about healing with a paladin, and it will be updated further depending if you have any questions.
[hide="Conjunction of Divine Plea, Avenging Wrath and Divine Illumination."]-Divine plea (http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=54428) cuts all the paladin healing output for around 50%.
-Avenging Wrath (http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=66011) increases the paladin healing output for 20%.
-Divine Illumination with 2xT10 pieces (http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=70755) increases paladin healing output for 35%.
Most of the time, we use the last two cooldowns with Divine Plea to make up for the healing loss while gaining mana. But, even if you use Avenging Wrath + Divine Illumination with Divine Plea, overall your output will be decreased by around 10% of your heal for the whole 15 seconds duration of the Plea.
That's why you should struggle to gain mana during fight from anything else except Divine Plea, and keep your heal increasing cooldowns. If you really have problems with mana, ask a druid (or two ) for inervate once per fight.
As a side note, RS trinket, http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=54589, get's its heal output boosted by Avenging Wrath and Divine Illumination, so it's good to keep the cooldowns and use them togheter with this item.
What do I do in raid: Let's say you have 3 cooldowns (Divine Illumination, RS trinket, Avenging Wrath). I never use Divine Illumination and Avenging Wrath togheter. If the raid healing is decent, what I do is I use one cooldown now, next one after 1 minute and the last one after another minute. In raids that doesn't take much time, I use RS trinket togheter with one of the other two cooldowns, and I keep the one that is left for another in-need moment.[/hide]
Here you can observe how the stats look like with almost bis gear. (Still missing heroic hc T10 shoulders.)
Thanks everyone for reading this. I used a source of information + I edited everything from my point of view.
Used Fastor`s fast guide layout. (http://www.truewow.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14170)
Constructive comments are welcomed.
This is available for pre RS25hc gears. When RS25hc opens, I will update the tables.
Main source: http://forums.elitistjerks.com/topic/90 ... play-them/