'So you think you're a healadin?'

This is a guide that one of the officers: Opalene of Fallen From Grace posted in forum. Opalene is a female gamer! (GIRL POWER!) she plays a BE holy/prot pally. I thought the guide was so helpful I asked Opalene if I could post it on my blog..

'So You Think You're a Healadin?'
by Opalene aka Kim
Here's my rather extensive and lengthy overview of being a Healadin. I hope you find it helpful, and if you have any questions about any part of this guide, please contact me.

Strengths: Holy Paladins have some of the largest single-target heals in the game. Holy Light is a huge heal, but it has a 2.28 sec cast (I might have some talents reducing the cast time down from 2.5 sec). Unbuffed, my holy light will heal for 10k - 15k (crit). When the tank has +30k health, this is a pretty significant heal. When you combine that with Holy Shock (a nice instant cast heal) and Flash of Light (small heal, but short cast time) we have a nice trifecta of single-target healing spells.

Aside from healing spells, healadins also have the standard pally buffs (Kings, Wisdom and Might), as well as Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light. Our Hand spells and various other buffs are great, although in a chaotic fight, I find myself not having time to utilize them as much as I would want to.

Weaknesses: Since I love my class, I'd like to just say "none", but that's just not true. Being one of the best single-target healers comes with a cost. We have virtually no group healing. Sure, you can throw Beacon of Light on your tank, and he/she will be healed any time you heal another party member, but it's a small amount, and doesn't equal a group heal. And yes, you can use the Glyph of Holy Light which will grant 10% of your Holy Light's healing amount to up to 5 targets within 8 yds. of the initial target, but that again does not equal a group heal. So, when your party takes AoE damage, be on your toes, you've got a lot of heals to cast.

Talents: I don't believe there is a right and wrong way to spec, but I do think there are some key talents which you should pick up if you are going to think about being a healadin. Once you know how the healadin "works", gearing, gemming and enchanting will be very simple.

Divine Intellect (5/5): Simple - more intellect = more mana = more crit = more spell power = more heals cast before running out of mana.

Divine Favor (1/1): Every 2 min, you get a guaranteed crit of Holy Light, Flash of Light or Holy Shock. Sensing a trend here? Critical heals are what the healadin is all about.

Sanctified Light (3/3): Again, increased crit.

Holy Power (5/5): More holy crit.

Holy Shock (1/1): I shouldn't have to tell you to get this talent. It's one of your main healing spells, and if you don't know that, you should just go ret.

Holy Guidance (5/5): Increases your spell power by 20% of your total intellect. This talent is partially why you will want to stack intellect. Intellect gives you more bonuses than just the increase in spell power, but why gem for spell power, when intellect can give you SP and more?

Infusion of Light (2/2): "Your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Flash of Light by 1.5 sec or increase the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 20%." This talent is huge (thus the bold). What this means is that you can Holy Shock, followed immediately by Flash of Light, and if your Holy Shock crits, then your Flash of Light becomes a 2nd instant cast. The combo of these 2 might not equal the amount healed by one Holy Light, but it also didn't take you 2.5 seconds to do it, either. If your tank just took a big hit, and you need to get him some health quick, then you can use Divine Favor to insure your next cast crits, then use Holy Shock, followed by Flash of Light, and you've just gotten your tank some nice heals in very little time.

Beacon of Light (1/1): Throw it on your tank, heal the party, tank stays alive. If you're healing the OT off by yourself keeping something busy while your party clears something else, you can cast Beacon on yourself, and since you'll only be healing your tank, you'll stay alive. Not a complicated spell, but so useful.

Conviction (5/5): Head over to the 3rd tier of the Ret tree for this beauty. Since so many of our holy spells rely on crit, who can pass up a nice 5% crit to all spells? On your way down the ret tree, you can grab Benediction which reduces the mana cost of instant cast spells, Heart of the Crusader which your party will enjoy and Improved Blessing of Kings.

Sanctity of Battle (3/3): We're already 3 tiers into ret, why not go one further and grab another 3% crit.

Stats to Stack: There's definitely going to be different opinions here, but this is my guide, so here are my opinions. I stack intellect. Period. If intellect is not an option (no +int enchant for that slot, etc) then I go for spell power or crit. Very little else matters. I have my reasons for not stacking other stats...

Spell Power: I don't stack this because I get spell power from intellect. I used to stack this with crit, but have found that my spell power did not go down much when I went to only stacking intellect, and the benefits of the larger mana pool and crit bonuses out-weighed the slight loss in this stat. Additionally, the base healing on our spells is already huge. Bonus healing will really just result in more overhealing.

Crit Rating: I don't stack this because I get crit rating from intellect. I used to stack both spell power and crit, however, when I replaced my gems with only intellect gems, and shifted just a few talents around (added the extra crit talents from the ret tree listed above), my crit rating went up. As important as crit is to a holy pally, using crit gems is actually not the best way to get crit. The crit we get from intellect is greater than just pure crit gems can give.

Haste: I don't stack this because with my talents, I have reduced cast time for most of my spells, or with the right rotation of spells, cast times are reduced.

MP5: I don't stack this because I have Divine Plea. Divine Plea will refund 25% of my total mana over 15 sec (with a 1 min. cooldown). Since my mana pool is 26.3k at this point (unbuffed) my Divine Plea refunds 6.5k mana... every minute if I so choose. With party / raid buffs, this only goes up. Sure, Divine Plea will reduce the amount healed by my spells by 50%, but I just compensate for that by throwing up Avenging Wrath if I feel it's going to be a problem. Though, most of the time, I don't find it necessary. My heals are big enough that cutting them in half for 15 sec. won't cause a death. I'm also finding that the higher I go in gear progression, the more mp5 there is already on the gear, making it even less of a stat I would want to add with gems / enchants, etc.

I didn't even mention spirit in this section because it is a stat which does NOTHING for a paladin. You can try to argue that it helps your mana regen, but then I will just point out the fact that it only effects mana regen while NOT casting... and if you're not casting, you're doin' it wrong.

Basic Mechanics: Get Healbot. I know people think it's cheating, but when you're healing the main tank, and you can't keep up because you're too stubborn to use a tool which is readily available to make your job easier, the whole raid suffers.

My personal Healbot setup is as follows: Left Click: Flash of Light Middle Click: Holy Shock Right Click: Holy Light Alt+Left: Divine Protection Alt+Middle: Sacred Shield Alt+Right: Beacon of Light Shift+Left: Hand of Salvation Shift+Middle: Lay on Hands Shift+Right: Cleanse Ctrl+Left: Target Ctrl+Middle: Hand of Protection Ctrl+Right: Hand of Sacrifice

Of these 12 spells, I use 7 or 8 of them ALL the time, and try to remember to use the others. Clearly, the healing spells are most used. I have Holy Shock in the middle, being my instant cast, and then since I usually follow it with Flash of Light, that's my main, left click. Right click is my big heal.

Keep Sacred Shield on your tank at all times. With a recent change to Flash of Light, if the target has the Sacred Shield effect, they heal and additional 100% of your Flash of Light over 12 sec. This is your only HoT, so use it. This buys you time to heal other party / raid members - even if it is just second or 2.

Beacon of Light: Keep this active on your tank, it will allow you to cast heals on other party members while still healing our tank.

Cleanse: Until Blizz changes things, the holy pally is one of the only classes who can remove poison, disease and magic all with 1 spell. (The other being priest if I'm not mistaken, but I do not think druids and shaman can remove magic effects - ie. fear, polymorph, etc). Don't be afraid to bubble. You have it, so use it. You might wear plate, but you're not a tank.

Judgments: I typically don't bother judging trash, only because it dies so quickly, but for bosses, I will do everything I can to keep Judgment of Light active. This extra bit of healing definitely helps out the tank and melee dps, as well as the fact that I have "Judgments of the Pure" which will increase my casting haste by 15% when it procs, as well as Heart of the Crusader which increases crit strike chance of all attacks made against that target - which helps the entire party / raid.

Pally Power: Just get it. Being able to see which blessing you are giving to whom as well as which blessings other paladins in the group are giving makes assignments so much less confusing. If I'm in your group, I'll do all the work for you.

Food and Elixirs:
I prefer crit food (listed below) over the fish feast, because holy paladins get more benefit from increased crit than increased spell power. That being said, if you're low on food, or just feel like you need extra bonus healing, go for the feast, or other spell power food options. Additionally, there are circumstances where haste or Mp5 are needed, so I've listed those as viable food options as well.

Spicy Blue Nettlefish: +40 Crit & +40
Stam Spiced Worm Burger: +40 Crit & +40
Stam Fish Feast: +46 Spell Power, +40 Stam, +80 Attack Power (useless)
Firecracker Salmon: +46 Spell Power & +40
Stam Tender Shoveltusk Steak: +46 Spell Power & + 40
Stam Spicy Fried Herring: +20 Mp5 & +40
Stam Might Rhino Dogs: +20 Mp5 & +40
Stam Imperial Manta Steak: +40 Haste Rating & +40

Stam As for elixirs / flasks:
Flask of the Frost Wyrm is a standard choice. It has the benefit of persisting through death which is huge when trying new content where wipes are to be expected. However, some alternatives (and options I prefer) are listed below:

Flask of the Frost Wyrm: +125 Spell Power - Counts as both Battle & Guardian elixir. Effect persists through death.
Flask of Pure Mojo: +45 Mp5 - Counts as both Battle & Guardian elixir. Effect persists through death.
Elixir of Deadly Strikes: +45 Crit Rating - Battle Elixir Elixir of Mighty Thoughts: +45 Intellect - Guardian Elixir.
Elixir of Mighty Mageblood: +30 Mp5 - Guardian Elixir Guru's Elixir: +20 to all stats - Battle Elixir.
Elixir of Deadly Strikes is my personal favorite, but that's just because of my obsession with crit. Using them in raids where you know you're going to wipe a lot just isn't cost effective since their effects do not persist through death.

In Closing: You may find that your healing-style differs from mine. If so, I'd love to hear how you handle different situations, or how you gem, and why. If you have more specific questions, or would like me to look at your spec, or anything like that, just hit me up in game.... I love talking about pally stuff