FIRST BLOOD: 3/15/09

This is Part One of my three guides, and will be primarily covering the Holy tree, and giving advice on preparing for and executing Paladin healing. It is still a work in progress, but I’m posting what I have completed, and will continue adding the additional sections as I go along.

I am currently seeking feedback on the present information, and hoping to find out from the community if there is information that is not already set to be added that would be appreciated in the guide. I'm also hoping that the search feature is useful, and if not, would it be helpful to make the information it targets more specific?

For additional Information:
http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t35975-holy_paladin_guide_wotlk/

Table of Contents
Tip for using this guide: By hitting Ctrl+F, you can open a “Search” box. By typing anything from the brackets, you will be sent directly to the relevant information. Including the brackets is recommended.

1. Introduction…[INTRO]

2. Purpose of the Guide…[POTG]
A. Updating old information
B. Destroying old myths
C. Giving beginners a basic understanding
D. Giving advanced players a more in-depth look into the class
E. Giving experienced players a reference guide

3. Know Your Role…[SPEC00]

A. Holy…[SPEC10]
I. Specializing your Tree…[SPEC11]
a. PvE…
b. PvP…
II. Importance of Stats…[SPEC12]
a. Choosing Your Glyphs…[SPEC13]
b. Choosing your Libram...[SPEC14]
c. Gemming…[SPEC15]
d. Consumables...[SPEC16]
e. Gear Listing...[SPEC17]
III. Tricks of the Trade…[SPEC18]
a. Spells and What They Do
b. Flash of Light vs. Holy Light and Intellect vs. Critical Rating
c. Proper use of Beacon of Light
d. Dealing with Movement and AoE Damage

4. Spell Coefficients…[COEFF]
5. Rating Conversions at 80…[RATING]
6. Sources of Information…[BIBLIO]
7. Frequently Asked Questions…[FAQ]
8. Update Log…

[INTRO]Introduction

With the release of Blizzard’s most recent expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, the entire Paladin class went through a complete and total overhaul. Many of even our core mechanics were changed with patch 3.0, and since then, we have gone through dozens of further tweaks and alterations. In an attempt to assist the Paladin community, I have put together this guide, explaining the ins and outs of the Paladin and all of the changes the class has gone through.

[PUTG]Purpose of the Guide

Due to the class going through the overhaul, a lot of information has become outdated, giving birth to new myths and keeping old ones alive in the confusion. This guide has been written for the purpose of dispelling those myths and bringing together all of the new information, updating it as changes to the game outpace the information written in the guide.

Within the text below I will give insight to players new to the Paladin class, teaching the core mechanics of the class in general such as the use of our basic spells, I will give advice for leveling and basic gearing, I will give ways to improve their skills through progressively learning to keybind and make use of macros, and provide a dynamic FAQ section that will be used to answer the more common questions as they appear on the forums.

I hope to give the more advanced players information on how to hone and sharpen their skills, giving them information to assist on the road of raiding and competitive PvP. I will break down the three talent trees for the multitudes of possible specs available, discuss the proper use of our more situational spells, macros, and talents, discuss gear and gemming and the importance of various stats in a more in-depth manner, and give tips and suggestions to further prepare them for any variety of situations that they might encounter.

For the more experienced players, my hope is two-fold; to give the experienced player a reference guide, and to gain their assistance in collecting information written upon their blogs(with links to the blog), websites(with links to the site), and forum posts(giving credit to the quoted) created by these players.

[SPEC00] Know Your Role

Currently, there are a variety of widely accepted builds that have been created for each role, and every role has a variety of specs tailored to even more specific jobs within that role. Each of the specs has its strengths and weaknesses to it. In each of the “Specializing Your Tree for…” sections, I shall show the talent build via a link and follow up with an explanation of the overall purpose of the specific changes to the build that differentiate it from the others. Currently, there are still plans to do an in-depth analysis of every talent point placed in every build. I also opted out of formalizing and PvP builds as of yet, because to do so I would need to explain the benefits and usefulness of every talent. So when I do get around to explaining the talents, it will be done in unison with the PvP sections.

To further the three roles that I will be delving into, Paladins are a hybrid class, meaning that our specialization trees allow us to tailor our spec to one of three possible roles; Healer, Tank, or Damage Dealer.
-The Holy tree contains the largest number of talents that are most desirable to healing; thus, the healing tree.
-Protection, as the name implies, is the tree that contains the largest number of talents that are desirable to Tanking; thus, the tanking tree.
-Finally, last but not least, the Retribution tree, which contains the largest number of talents tailored towards damage dealing (DPS’ing); thus, the DPS tree.

[SPEC10]Holy

[SPEC11]Specializing Your Tree for…

...Player versus Environment.

Breakdown of, and advice on, talents:
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2008/11/holy-holy-batman.html

51/0/18 (+2)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gMzhVuMxRtZVcbx0h

This is currently the most popular spec. It captures all of the key talents of Holy, maximizing healing power and efficiency, and dives into Retribution for an additional 8% increase to spell crit. The spec also has two ‘bonus’ points left over, which allows for a little more flexibility, but the points are often put into Pursuit of Justice to help with movement heavy fights. There are no real weaknesses to this build, outside of not having access to Divine Guardian.

51/5/15
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gMzhVuMxRtaZVcbx

This build is a variation of the 51/0/18 build, dropping three points out of Sanctified Seals and combining them with the two ‘bonus’ points to Blessing of Kings and 4/4 Improved Blessing of Kings. This build is more suited for the situations when there aren’t any Retribution Paladins in the group/raid to give out Blessing of Kings. The strength is improved utility through Blessing of Kings, the weakness is losing 3% critical and the flexibility that the extra two points granted, as well as not having access to Divine Guardian.

51/17/0 (+3)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gMzhVuMxRta0VVb

This build is used for fights where particularly hard hitting attacks are present, where if left unmitigated except through regular means, the damage caused will wipe the raid (See: Sartharion with 3-Drakes). These are usually bleeding-edge content fights, where tanks are still somewhat tender in the face of new, harder hitting bosses, or fights where heavy hitting attacks are used in combination with reduced health pools or coordinated with periods of time where a tank will go without heals for a few seconds. The build comes with the strength of having a tide-turning button in their arsenal, but it comes at the cost of 10% mana reduction on Holy Shock, Improved Blessing of Might, and 8% less spell crit as well as access to Pursuit of Justice. The build does, however, have three ‘bonus’ points that can be used for a little extra customization.

...Player Versus Player

N/A

[SPEC12]The Importance of Stats

Gearing will always be an incredibly crucial part of getting a job done, and this is extraordinarily true for healers. For this section, I’ll give a quick and simple explanation of what stats to shoot for, why you’re going after them, and throw in a section on how to get started on building a healing set.

Something that a lot of people do when inquiring about gear, is ask about which stats are the most importance. The typical response is a variety of flowcharts based upon the answering party’s preference. The problem is that while simple and accurate to an extent, the A > B > C > X > Y flowchart doesn’t explain why those stats are important, which can lead to problems when one wishes to tailor their gear to their specific needs.

For a mathematical explanation on how useful MP/5, Critical Rating, and Intellect are in terms of mana regeneration, go to the Spell Formulas [MATH01] section.

Intellect: This stat is one of the most important stats a Holy Paladin can get. Intellect increases the size of the mana pool (1 int = 15 mana before talents), increases spell power (5 int = 1 SP), and increases spell crit (166.6667 int = 1% spell crit). It’s importance lays not in the SP or crit, though—those are too marginal to be the real benefit, but they are a nice bonus. The huge benefit in Intellect is its scaling with Divine Plea, the spell that regenerates 25% of our mana back every 60 seconds. This allows us to make heavy use of Holy Light for extended periods of time, increasing our HPS dramatically. It also makes it possible to spam Flash of Light near infinitely.
It is also important to note that the MP/5 of Intellect increases further with the precense of each Restoration Shaman in the same group as the Holy Paladin, an additional 24% of the mana pool will be replenished with every use of Mana Tide Totem (5m CD).

Spell Power: This stat is responsible for increasing the power of our heals. Coefficients and the formulas for running calculations can be found under the Spell Coefficients [COEFF] section of the guide.

Spell Critical: This stat increases the likelihood that our spell casts will crit, increasing both our HPS (albeit unreliably) and our mana efficiency with 5/5 Illumination. Increased critical rating also substantially increases our burst healing by increasing the chance of Holy Shock critting, allowing for either an instant cast Flash of Light, or a ~1 second Holy Light, both of which can also crit.

Haste Rating: Haste rating increases the speed at which our spells are cast, allowing for more spells to be cast in an allotted amount of time. This increases our HPS, while reducing the chance that the target of our heals will take a fatal burst of damage in between heals. However, casting faster increases the speed at which our mana is consumed, and thus mana regeneration and management becomes more important with higher levels of haste. It should also be noted, that Light’s Grace is taken into effect before haste, meaning that Holy Light is calculated as having a base cast time of 2.0 seconds.

Mana per Five: Stacking up Mana Per Five, or MP/5 for short, does exactly what it sounds like it does; every five seconds, you regenerate a set amount of mana.

[SPEC13]Choosing Your Glyphs

Currently, there are six beneficial Major Glyphs and four beneficial Minor Glyphs that are available to Holy Paladins to improve their healing.

Major Glyph...

...of Seal of Light: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41110
This glyph increases all healing done by the Paladin by 5% while Seal of Light is active. This glyph is rather useful for increasing the power behind the Paladin's smaller heals, such as Flash of Light and the splash effect of Glyph of Holy Light. The risk is that the glyph could also simply increase overhealing done, and so it loses much of its effectiveness with a heavy Holy Light spamming Paladin in fights that don't have copious amount of AoE damage.
Pros: Increases the power of all heals done, lowering the chances of damage surpassing healing done.
Cons: Much of the power of the glyph can be lost to overhealing.

...of Seal of Wisdom: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41109
This glyph decreases the mana cost of all spells cast by the Paladin by 5% while Seal of Wisdom is active. This glyph is incredibly useful for increasing the mana efficiency of Holy Light spam, which allows for incredibly high HPS when the Paladin obtains the level of gear required to sustain heavy Holy Light use. The risk is that if the Paladin's mana pool is capable of sustaining Holy Light spam without the glyph, then the saved mana was essentially wasted.
Pros: Allows for increased longetivity, increased usefulness in longer fights.
Cons: Wasted in non mana intensive fights.

...of Flash of Light: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41105
This glyph increases the critical chance of Flash of Light by 5%. Very straightforward, increases the HPS and mana efficiency of Flash of Light.
Pros: Increases the power and usefulness of Flash of Light.
Cons: The glyph sees very little use when heavy Holy Light spam is used in place of Flash of Light spam.

...of Divinity: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41108
This glyph will allow your Lay on Hands spell to restore mana to you equal to the amount restored to the target. This is an incredibly powerful, and incredibly situational, glyph. In an emergency, this can allow Lay on Hands to be an emergency 'mana pot' by 'doubling' the mana returned to the Paladin when the spell is cast on his or her self.
Pros: Allows for a zero-drawback mana replenishment emergency button.
Cons: Because of the lengthy cooldown on Lay on Hands, this glyph is incredibly situational.

...of Holy Light: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41106
This glyph causes Holy Light to heal up to five party or raid members within eight yards of the target of the spell to be healed for 10% of Holy Light's healing. This is the one glyph that absolutely every Holy Paladin must have. This effectively turns Holy Light into a moderately powerful AoE heal, allowing for Paladins to better handle AoE damage.
Pros: Gives Paladins a method of handling raid splash damage.
Cons: This glyph is borderline mandatory.

Minor Glyph...

...of Lay on Hands: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43367
This increases the mana return of Lay on Hands by 20%, which can put even more power behind the Major Glyph of Divinity if used in conjunction with it.

...of the Wise: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43369
This decreases the cost of casting Seal of Light, which can be useful when used in conjunction with Major Glyph of Seal of Wisdom. It can also be used to cast Seal of Wisdom somewhat sooner if the Paladin runs oom, allowing them to melee for mana slightly sooner. This will become much less useful with the changes that are increasing seal duration to 30 minutes.

...of Blessing of Wisdom: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43366
This allows for casting Greater Blessing of Might for the Retribution and/or Protection Paladins while still keeping a 30 minute duration Blessing of Wisdom on the caster.

...of Blessing of Kings: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43365
This allows for less mana expenditure on those who die early in a fight, and are brought back up needing to be re-blessed with Blessing of Kings.

[SPEC14]Choosing your Libram

Currently, there are up to five beneficial Librams available to Holy Paladins, but that number drops to three if the PvP librams are considered as a 'single libram'.

Libram of Renewal: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40705
Reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 113.
This libram is favored amongst Holy Light spamming Paladins, as it lowers the cost of Holy Light by ~8.8%. This further increases longetivity, allowing for the Paladin to continue Holy Light spam through even mana intesive fights. The libram loses it's effectiveness in heavy Flash of Light spam, however.

Deadly Gladiator's Libram of Justice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42614
Increases the spell power of Flash of Light by 267.
Hateful Gladiator's Libram of Justice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42613
Increases the spell power of Flash of Light by 236/
Savage Gladiator's Libram of Justice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42612
Increases the spell power of Flash of Light by 204.

The Savage/Hateful/Deadly Libram of Justice from PvP increase the healing of Flash of Light by 204/236/267, respectively, but these numbers increase with talents and auras (1.12 and 1.06 multipliers). This is useful for incresaing the power of Flash of Light spam, but loses much of its luster in heavy Holy Light spam, and is also susceptible to simply push up overheal numbers.

Libram of Tolerance: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40268
Increase the spell power of Holy Light by 141.
This Libram can increase the power of Holy Light by ~234 before talents and auras (1.12 and 1.06 multipliers), and so can be useful for pushing up the power of Holy Light. being that Holy Light is already such a hard hitting spell, however, there is a risk that most of this will be lost to overheal.

[SPEC15]Gemming

Meta Gems

Only meta gems that assist with mana regeneration will be shown, and they will be compared to Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. Non mana regenerating meta gems will not be included in the guide at this time.

Insightful Earthsiege: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41401
+21 Intellect and Chance to restore mana on spellcast. (5% chance to restore 600 mana).
Requires at least one red gem, one yellow gem, one blue gem.

21 Intellect = 12.9045 MP/5
600 Mana on Proc / 45s ICD = 13.333~ mana per second.
13.333~ * 5 = 66.666~ MP/5
12.9 + 66.67 MP/5 = ~79.57 MP/5

Ember Skyflare Diamond: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41333
+25 Spellpower and 2% Intellect
Requires at least three red gems.

1 Intellect = 0.6145 MP/5
129.5 Intellect = ~79.57 MP/5
104 * 1.25 = 130 Intellect
104 / 2 = X / 100
10,400 = 2X
x = 5200

5200 Intellect required before talents/buffs to match mana returns of Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.

Beaming Earthsiege Diamond: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41389
+21 Critical Rating + 2% Mana
Requires at least two red gems, one yellow gem.

(Assuming Holy Light, 2.0 Speed Cast Time)
1 Critical Rating = 0.415625 MP/5
21 Critical Rating = 8.728125 ( ~8.73) MP/5
8.73 MP/5 = ~11% of 79.57

We’ll be exceedingly generous, and assume 20%.

1 Mana = 0.0325 MP/5
2448.3 Mana = 79.57
2448.3 / 2 = X / 100
X = 122,415
122,415 * 0.8 = 97,932

97,932 Mana required (Or ~6528.8 Intellect After Talents/Buffs) to match Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.

Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond
+8 MP/5 and +3% Critical Healing Effects
Requires at least two red gems.

8 MP/5 will never match the ~79.57 MP/5 of Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.

Non Meta Gems

Information based upon stacking ten gems of one type. For individual gems, simply divide the results by ten.

60 mp5 vs 160 crit vs 160 int

60 MP/5
-----------
...60 MP/5
-----------

160 Critical Rating
-----------
3.48% Crit

Holy Light = 1274 Mana
1274 * .6 = 764.4 Mana Returned on Crit
(Assuming 2.5 second casting speed)
764.4 * (1/250) = 3.0576 Mana Per Second from 1% Crit
3.0576 * 5 = 15.288 mp/5
19.11 * 3.48 = 53.20224

160 Critical Rating == ~53.2 MP/5
-----------

160 Intellect
-----------
160 Intellect
0.96% Chance to Crit
2400 Mana

2400 Mana * .25 = 600 Mana returned per DP cast
600 / 60 = 10.0 mana per second
10.0 * 5 = 50.0 MP/5

2400 Mana * 0.0025 = 6.0 Mana returned per second from Replenishment
6.0 * 5 = 30.0 MP/5 from Replenishment

Holy Light = 1274 Mana
1274 * .6 = 764.4 Mana Returned on Crit
(Assuming 2.5 second casting speed)
764.4 * (1/250) = 3.0576 Mana Per Second from 1% Crit
3.0576 * 5 = 15.288
15.288 * 0.96 = ~14.67648 MP/5

50.0 + 30.0 + 14.67648 = 94.67648 MP/5

184 Intellect with 5/5 Divine Intellect
~1.1% Chance to Crit
2760 Mana

2760 Mana * .25 = 690 Mana returned per DP cast
690 / 60 = 11.5 mana per second
11.5 * 5 = 57.5 MP/5

2760 Mana * 0.0025 = 6.9 Mana returned per second from Replenishment
6.9 * 5 = 34.5 MP/5 from Replenishment

Holy Light = 1274 Mana
1274 * .6 = 764.4 Mana Returned on Crit
(Assuming 2.5 second casting speed)
764.4 * (1/250) = 3.0576 Mana Per Second from 1% Crit
3.0576 * 5 = 15.288
15.288 * 1.1 = ~16.8168 MP/5

57.5 + 34.5 + 16.8168 = 108.8168 MP/5

200 Intellect with 5/5 Divine Intellect and 4/4 Improved Blessing of Kings
~1.2% Chance to Crit
3000 Mana

3000 Mana * .25 = 750 Mana returned per DP cast
690 / 60 = 12.5 mana per second
11.5 * 5 = 62.5 MP/5

3000 Mana * 0.0025 = 7.5 Mana returned per second from Replenishment
7.5 * 5 = 37.5 MP/5 from Replenishment

Holy Light = 1274 Mana
1274 * .6 = 764.4 Mana Returned on Crit
(Assuming 2.5 second casting speed)
764.4 * (1/250) = 3.0576 Mana Per Second from 1% Crit
3.0576 * 5 = 15.288
15.288 * 1.2 = ~18.3456 MP/5

62.5 + 37.5 + 18.3456 = 118.3456 MP/5
-----------

[SPEC16]Consumables

Flasks and Elixirs

Flask of Distilled Wisdom: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13511
Increases Intellect by 65 for two hours. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
(After talents and Kings: 81.25 Intellect - 49.928125 MP/5, 16.25 spell power, ~0.489 critical rating.)

Flask of the Frost Wyrm: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40082
Increases spell power by 125 for two hours. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
Prefererred for Flash of Light spamming.
(Increases Flash of Light by (125 * 1.00) * 1.12 * 1.06 = 148.4
Increases Holy Light by (125 * 1.66) * 1.12 * 1.06 = 246.344)

Flask of Pure Mojo: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40404
Increases mana regeneration by 38 mana per 5 seconds for two hours. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.

Battle

Guru's Elixir: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40076
Increases all stats by 20.
(After talents and Kings: 25 Intellect - 15.3625 MP/5, 5 spell power, ~0.15 critical rating.)

Spellpower Elixir: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40070
Increases spell power by 58.
(Increases Flash of Light by (58 * 1.00) * 1.12 * 1.06 = 68.8576
Increases Holy Light by (58 * 1.66) * 1.12 * 1.06 = 114.303616)

Guardian

Elixir of Mighty Thoughts: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44332
Increases Intellect by 45.
(After talents and Kings: 56.25 Intellect - 34.565625 MP/5, 11.25 spell power, ~0.34 critical rating.)

Elixir of Mighty Mageblood: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40109
Increases mana per five by 24.

[SPEC18]Tricks of the Trade

How To: Leveling as Holy
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-holy.html

How To: Healing Five Man Instances:
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-healing-5-mans.html

How To: Healing Raids
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-heal-raids.html

Spells and What They Do

Bacon of Light: Goes well with an omlet, sausage, biscuits and gravy. Oh, and a nice tall chilled glass of ice cold milk. Mmm...

Beacon of Light: Beacon is typically used in one of three ways; on the main tank to allow the Paladin to raid heal, on the Paladin to allow him/herself the freedom to stand in any non-lethal damage, limiting the need for movement, and for dual healing, and putting the Beacon on a secondary target, while healing the primary target, whom is typically taking consistent, heavy damage, allowing the Paladin to keep both targets alive easily.

Cleanse: Very basic spell, used for removing poisons, diseases, and magic debuffs. This can be vital in fights such as Heigan the Unclean, whom puts a devestating damage-over-time disease on raid members, while also reducing their maximum health by 50%.

Divine Favor: This used to be saved solely for a huge Holy Light macro, being a 'Lay on Hands' of sorts on a two minute cooldown. Now, it has the same purpose, but with more flexibility. It can be used in conjunction with Holy Light for a guarenteed heavy hit, or it can be used for guarenteed Holy Shock critical, which procs Infusion of Light, allowing for an incredibly fast cast on Holy Light, or an instant cast Flash of Light. This allows you to drop a single heavy blast on one target, split it up amongst two targets, or get in an emergency heal without having to stop to cast.

Divine Illumination: This can save thousands of mana whenever it's used, shaving off hundreds per cast. To get the most out of this, try to save it for those times when chaincasting Holy Light is absolutely necessary, rather than chaincasting Holy Light *because* you just burned Divine Illumination, which is wasteful of your mana and defeats the purpose of the spell.

Divine Intervention: Looky here, a warning label... "Warning: Do not use on the Main Tank."

Divine Plea: With the recent blow to the family jewels this took from the nerf bat, using it on every cooldown has gone from 'recomended' to 'stupid'. It's best to save this for lulls in combat, when reducing the power of your heals, or not healing at all, won't lead to otherwise avoidable deaths.

Divine Shield: The ultimate in "Ohshi-" buttons. This grants you full Immunity to damage, interupts, silences, everything in the book for a full 12 seconds. If enough talent points are put into Protection that it becomes possible to pick up Divine Guardian, which reduces all damage taken by allies by 30% during the duration of Divine Shield, this can be an incredibly powerful, tide turning move.

Flash of Light: The ammunition to our machine gun, this allows for a powerful spray of fast cast healing. Whenever Sacred Shield procs its barrier, it increases the chance of Flash of Light critically healing by 50% -- with avoidance streaks, this can cause long periods of Flash of Light being given an 80 - 90% chance to heal critically, turning it into an explosive tipped ammunition shell that lands every 1.5 seconds, or as fast as every one second with ~700 haste.

Hand of Freedom: This can be a very useful tool, giving the tank (or oneself) the ability to remain immune to snares and roots, so as not to fall victim to an onslaught of ranged attacks while standing helplessly at the attackers mercy. If points are put into Divine Purpose, then this spell also gives the ability to break an enemies stun on you, or your partner, at will. Notice: This does NOT break disorients or incapacitations, such as Dragon's Breath or Maim.

Hand of Protection: While useless when used against a caster, casting this on Priest about to get smeared across the floor by one of Kel'Thuzad's bugs can lead to much singing of praises, especially in an Undying/Immortal run.

Hand of Sacrifice: This is a miniature "Shield Wall" that can be placed on an ally who is taking heavy amounts of damage, reducing it by 30%. Keep in mind that all damage mitigated by this spell is transferred to the Paladin who cast it, so using it in combination with Divine Shield is usually a good course of action to take, so as not to kill oneself in an attempt to save another.

Hand of Salvation: This allows for the saving of an aggro machine once every two minutes. High DPS classes without adequate threat dumps can creep up quickly on the threat meter; when this happens, drop Hand of Salvation on said ally and it will reduce their overall threat by 20%.

Holy Light: The bread and butter spell of the Holy Paladin healer, this is the newest addition to the Spamalot Enterprise line; a powerful, AoE heal with a moderate mana cost that allows the spell to be chain cast from start to finish. The HPS of this spell is nothing short of incredible, and with high levels of spell power and haste, allows the Paladin to heal throgh absolutely any level of non one-shot caliber damage.

Holy Shock: With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Holy Shock gained a substantial amount of kick, and with the introduction of Infusion of Light, gave it the power to become a devestatingly effective one-two punch. With the ability to force it to crit through Divine Favor, it can even fight dirty as an underhanded headbutt! Metaphors aside, Holy Shock is now a very dangerous tool in the Holy Paladin arsenal, giving the ability to cast on the move or land a series of high powered heals.

Judgement: This is used approximately once a minute for the purpose of activating Judgements of the Pure, which grants a 15% haste buff. It is usually best to use Judgement of Wisdom, increasing the raids mana per five, as Judgement of Light is only useful in low, repetetive AoE damage fights, and then is more beneficial if used by a Retribution or Protection Paladin (in that order), as their judgement will heal for more per proc.

Lay on Hands: Lay on Hands has two uses: It can be used as a 16-20 minute cooldown Divine Favor+Holy Light --> Holy Shock, healing for a similar amount with no cast time and costing only a single GCD, or it can be used on oneself in combination with the Glyph of Lay on hands and Glyph of Divinity to replenish just under 5k mana, allowing for several more minutes of healing, netting hundreds of thousands of additional healing.

Sacred Shield: This is a thirty second long buff that procs a shield whenever the target takes damage, limited by a six second internal cooldown. It absorbs a base amount of 500 damage, scaling with 75% of spell power except for that which is granted through Sheath of Light. (Originally a bug, but now believed to be an intended effect). While the proc'd shield is active, Flash of Light is given a 50% increased chance to crit. Overall, this shield both lowers damage taken, and increases the HPS of Flash of Light.

Seal of Light: See Major Glyph of Seal of Light.

Seal of Wisdom: See Major Glyph of Seal of Wisdom.

Flash of Light vs. Holy Light and Intellect vs. Critical Rating

During the Burning Crusade, Holy Paladins often relied heavily on spamming Flash of Light, or lowered ranks of Holy Light, for fast and mana efficient heals. With decent levels of gear, the Paladin's mana pool was limitless with this healing style. Each of the other healers had a specific role in healing; Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and Chain Heal allowed for a 'scatter bomb' style of healing; raining down layers of heals between blasts of AoE raid damage. Lifebloom, Renew, and various other Heal over Time spells were used as 'covering fire', keeping the tank alive during periods of AoE silence or sleep effects when they would otherwise be exposed.

Keeping with the current theme of metaphors, the Paladin was the machine gun of heals; loaded with infinite 'ammunition' that allowed for the constant casting of Flash of Light which was often used as a method of keeping a tank alive through long, mana intensive encounters. With no real method of handling raid damage, it was typically the job of the Holydins in the raid to keep the tank alive with a continuous stream of fast, moderately powerful and extraordinarily mana efficient heals. Our HPS to HPM ratio was untouched, and that's where our strength was.

However, recent changes to mana regeneration, the addition of new spells, and the destruction of downranking has completely altered the board for healers. With the changes came a paradigm shift, and Paladins have started to change from machine guns to an AC-130 Gunship. While we still have our smaller caliber guns, the option is now open to use to fire out a barrage of Holy Light bombs, and many Holy Paladins have come to embrace this brand new toy.

Now, to explain what these changes were... First was the death of downranking. By eliminating the option to downrank heals, Paladins were effectively left with only two non-cooldown healing spells, Flash of Light and Holy Light. This meant that we could spam our mana efficient heal once again for moderate levels of healing, or drop Holy Light on our targets for incredibly large bursts of healing. Uncomfortable with the idea of running out of mana, many Paladins found themselves stuck with only one real option: spamming Flash of Light.

However, with high levels of crit from Retribution talents and access to crit-heavy gear, Illumination immediately provided a solid source of 'passive' mana regeneration. The new active regeneration available, however, which comes in the form of Replenishment from other classes and Divine Plea, allowed for Paladins to actively regenerate mana. By stacking Intellect, Paladins are able to push their benefits from these two active forms of regeneration to extraordinary levels. This resulted in Paladins finding themselves with a large surplus of mana.

With such a surplus of mana, using Holy Light more often didn't seem so taxing on the mana pool. This, with the introduction of Major Glyph of Holy Light allowing for dealing with most AoE splash damage, began to make Holy Light increasingly more popular. This, coupled with keeping Beacon of Light on the tank, allowed for the Paladin to drop Holy Light on a heavily wounded party or raid member, heal up the surrounding members, while still keeping the tank alive with all of the healing being transfered.

And so, the general population has begun to agree that stacking Intellect for maximized mana regeneration and spamming Holy Light is the most effective method of healing. Still, however, there are the options of sacrificing mana regeneration for healing output by stacking Critical Rating rather than Intellect, or eliminating the mana regeneration of gemming and stacking pure spell power, and both options are entirely viable.

Disclaimer: The following section states the opinions of the author, and as such, is heavily biased.

The best option, however, is still stacking Intellect.

Scenario: There is a hard hitting boss, with a talented group of decently geared players running with the Holy Paladin. The Paladin spams Holy Light throughout the fight, and the boss dies with the Paladin at 30% mana and Divine Plea coming off of its cooldown.

With this situation, the argument for stacking spell power or critical rating is fueled. Intellect's mana regeneration would have been 'wasted' in this scenario, as the Paladin's mana pool outlasted the duration of the fight as is. Only, what if a DPS or two had died? The fight could have drawn out longer than the Paladin's mana pool could last, so while the heals hit harder while he or she spams them, the heals will run out sooner than with stacking intellect.

"But what if your heals just don't hit hard enough? Then spell power or crit are better."

The problem with this argument is that, with a spell power level of ~2000, Holy Light will be hitting for approximately 10,000. This is an incredibly high level of HPS, and skyrockets with the haste and crit rating found on gear. Outside of an enraged raid boss, there is no level damage that cannot be healed through by a Paladin with Holy Light spam, especially with most of this healing landing in the 'overheal' range.

Summary: Currently, for Paladins, the best bet would not be to make Holy Light spam hit harder, but to make it last longer.

[FAQ]Frequently Asked Questions

"What is the purpose of stacking intellect if you don't run out of mana as it is? Isn't all of that additional MP/5 you're getting more or less useless, meaning that more SP or crit would be better?"

http://elitistjerks.com/1096602-post1284.html

Q u o t e:

To answer the age old question, intellect provides us with the greatest returns of any stackable stat that we will want. With intellect we gain more throughput and "decent healer 101" tells us that to making the most use of our mana is the prime aim, i.e. finish the fight with 0 mana unless unable to.

Therefore, intellect stackers have 28k+ raid buffed mana, the only way to deplete this lake of mana is to spam Holy Light and by doing so you ensure that your tank will never die. The other by product of this is that you can on occassion cut tank healing down and increase the number of DPS you bring in for clearing farm content. If you can spam Holy Light for 5 minutes and not go oom or play more reserved and be even less oom at the end of a fight, you can be sure that you will find more spam Holy Light for the 5 minutes.

Now I know there may be a counter argument to say "But you can do it like xxx by gearing for xxx" in the same way quite a few have over the last 51 pages but consider that you don't even need to gem at all, turn up in full spirit cloth with another paladin geared the same and you could duo heal Naxx10, take 6 of you and you'd probably be able to clear Naxx25 with that healing power. Just because you can spam flash of light in current content does not mean that this will be a possibility in future.

[COEFF]Spell Coefficients

Assuming 3/3 Healing Light and Improved (Devotion/Tree Form) Aura

Example: Spell Name: ( [Minimum Base Heal + Maximum Base Heal / 2 {=Average Heal} + [ {Your} Spellpower * {Coefficient of Spell} ) * {Healing Light multiplier} * {Aura Multiplier} = {Average Heal of the Spell}

Holy Shock: ( [2401+2599] / 2 + [Spell Power * 0.81] ) * 1.12 * 1.06
Flash of Light: ( [785 + 879] / 2 + [Spellpower * 1.00]) * 1.12 * 1.06
Holy Light: ( [4888 + 5444] / 2 + [Spellpower * 1.66] ) * 1.12 * 1.06

[RATING]Rating Conversions at 80

[BIBLIO]Sources of Information
www.wowwiki.com
www.wowhead.com
http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t35975-holy_paladin_guide_wotlk/
www.Ferarro.blogspot.com

[UPDATE]Update Log

02/06/2009:
Guide Posted

02/09/2009:
Updated Section: Table of Contents
Updated Section: Gear - Glyphs
Updated Section: Gear - Librams
Removed Section: Gearing
Updated Section: Merged "Gearing" into "Importance of Stats"
Added Section: Consumables
Added Section: Gear Listing (To be completed at a later date...)
Added Section: Tricks of the Trade - a. Spells and What They Do (To be completed at a later date...)
Added Section: Tricks of the Trade - b. Holy Light vs. Flash of Light (To be completed at a later date...)
Added Section: Tricks of the Trade - c. Proper use of Beacon of Light (To be completed at a later date...)
Added Section: Tricks of the Trade - d. Dealing with Movement and AoE Damage (To be completed at a later date...)
Removed Section: Spell Formulas

02/10/2009
Updated Section: "b. Holy Light vs. Flash of Light" renamed "b. Flash of Light vs. Holy Light and Intellect vs. Critical Rating"
Updated Section: Tricks of the Trade - b. Flash of Light vs. Holy Light and Intellect vs. Critical Rating

2/18/09
Updated Section: Tricks of the Trade - a. Spells and What They Do

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