On this page, we list your Holy Paladin coreabilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of WarcraftMoP 5.4. We also explain whento use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtletiesthat you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a HolyPaladin.

The other pages of our Holy Paladin guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.

1. Rotation↑top

Healing is in great part based on your ability to react to the damagethat the raid takes, and as such there is no set rotation. Rather, you mustunderstand what spells are best suited to the different situations that canoccur during a raid encounter.

Holy Paladins are good raid healers, and at the same time they can be goodtank/single target healers. In the sections that follow, we will treat bothroles.

1.1. AoE/Raid Healing

AoE/raid healing (with Beacon of Light support on one of the tanks) iscurrently the role at which Holy Paladins excel.

To pull off this playstyle, you will need to have taken the Eternal Flame talent, and you should be gearing for Mastery Rating. Then,you will have to follow a series of steps, much like a checklist.

1. Apply Beacon of Light on the tank who is taking the highest amount ofsustained damage.
2. Cast Eternal Flame on as many raid members as possible.
   • Cast Eternal Flame with 3 Holy Power.
   • Cast it primarily on players who will benefit the most from the initialheal (that is to say, they will not be overhealed). If no one is in immediateneed of healing, cast it on players who are going to take damage (most likelythe tanks).
3. Generate Holy Power to fuel your Eternal Flame usage, as follows:
   • Cast Holy Shock on cooldown (prefer those raid members on whom it willnot overheal).
   • Cast Holy Radiance on stacked raid members, in case there is raiddamage, or Divine Light on the Beacon of Light tank otherwise.
     • If the raid damage is truly heavy, then replace Crusader Strike with Holy Radiance altogether.

Three notes are in order.

Firstly, if you cannot be in melee range to use Crusader Strike, youwill have to make much more extensive use of Holy Radiance for HolyPower.

Secondly, you can use Light of Dawn instead of Eternal Flame ifthere at least 6 targets that will not be overhealed (or at least, not toomuch) by it, although do note that if you are facing heavy raid damage, thismay be insufficient.

Thirdly, if there is no raid damage, you should try to keep your Masteryshields up on as many players as possible.

It is also important to make use of your Daybreak charges, since thiswill provide strong raid healing (as well as shields from your Mastery).

1.1.1. Selfless Healer Cycle

If you have taken the Selfless Healer talent instead of Eternal Flame, there is a very useful "rotation" you can perform.

1. Cast Judgment (generating 1 Holy Power and proccing SelflessHealer).
2. Cast Holy Radiance (using up the Selfless Healer buff, generating1 Holy Power, and proccing Daybreak).
3. Cast Holy Shock (generating 1 Holy Power, using up Daybreak).
4. Cast (a 3-Holy Power) Light of Dawn.

1.2. Tank Healing

Tank healing is not your strength, but if you are required to perform thisrole, you can do so quite well. The bulk of tank healing is done throughmaintaining Eternal Flame on both tanks (as well as on some raid members),with direct heals being used only when the damage is very high.

• Keep Eternal Flame (or Sacred Shield) and Beacon of Light upon your assigned tank. Do not hesitate to move your Beacon of Light around(especially if you are using Glyph of Beacon of Light).
• Low damage
  • Make extensive use of Eternal Flame (use Holy Light and Word of Glory if you are not using Eternal Flame as your talent) on anyraid members that require healing. The healing done by the initial heal, aswell as the HoT component will both heal your Beacon target.
  • Use Holy Shock (on cooldown).
• Moderate damage
  • Continue using Eternal Flame on other raid members.
  • Start casting your Holy Shock ( Word of Glory if you do not havethe Eternal Flame talent) on your assigned tank.
  • Use Divine Light on your assigned tank if their health drops toolow.
• High sustained damage
  • Make extensive use of Divine Light, Holy Shock, and Eternal Flame on your assigned tank.
  • Forsake Holy Light, as its low throughput will cause you to fall behind in healing.
• Emergency situations
  • Use Flash of Light, but only if you feel that the target will die before you have a chance to complete a Divine Light cast on them.
  • Healing with Flash of Light will drain your mana very quickly and should not be used lightly.

Note that you can choose to spend your Holy Power on Eternal Flameinstead of Word of Glory, if you prefer. This will provide your Beacon ofLight target with a nice stream of healing.

1.3. Additional Actions To Perform

Always use Holy Shock when it is off cooldown (try to minimiseoverhealing, though).

1.4. Seal

You should always use Seal of Insight.

2. Cooldown Usage↑top

As a Holy Paladin, you have several healing cooldowns. You should use themas we explain below:

• Divine Favor temporarily buffs your spell haste and your criticalstrike chance, making it very useful when you need to temporarily increaseyour healing output.
• Avenging Wrath temporarily increases your healing output by 20% andis very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
• Guardian of Ancient Kings essentially duplicates all the healingyou do, for 15 seconds, as well as increasing your haste by 10% for thistime.
• Lay on Hands should be used to save dying raid members, especiallytanks.
• Hand of Sacrifice transfers 30% of the damage taken by the target,over 12 seconds, to you, and you can use Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice tocause the ability to no longer transfer the damage to you (instead, the targetsimply takes 30% less damage), which we recommend doing in practically allsituations. The effect is automatically canceled if the damage Hand ofSacrifice prevents on the target reaches 100% of your maximum health. Thiscooldown is excellent for reducing the damage taken by the tank, or other raidmembers. If you are not using the glyph, you must be aware of your currenthealth and of the damage of the abilities being used against the target.
• Devotion Aura is a raid cooldown, and it should be used at a timedesignated by your raid leader, or as part of a rotation with the otherhealers.
• Hand of Protection can be used to clear harmful physical damagedebuffs and bleeds from the target. Be mindful of the fact that bosses willnot attack targets affected by Hand of Protection, though, so only cast it onthe current tank if the off-tank is prepared to take over.
• Hand of Salvation is useful in temporarily removing a target's threat.It is especially useful on the tank which has just been taunted off of bythe other tank. If the "old" tank has a high amount of Vengeance, it can bevery hard for them to continue attacking the boss without over-aggroing the"new" tank, so Hand of Salvation helps a lot with that.
• Hand of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targetedraid member, which can be very useful in certain situations. Note that Hand ofFreedom also removes other "hand" spells from raid members, so it can be usedto remove a Hand of Protection from a tank.

You also gain various abilities from your talents. We cover these ina later section.

3. Beacon of Light Target↑top

You should place your Beacon of Light on the target that is going toneed it the most, even if you are assigned to heal the raid or another raidmember. Generally, it is best used on one of the tanks (whichever is takingmore damage) or someone in your raid who will be taking constant damagethroughout the encounter.

4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Paladin↑top

While the information presented above should enable you to performvery decently as a Holy Paladin, there are many things that you need toperfectly understand if you are to play your character to its full potential.In particular, you need to know the mechanics of all your procs and spells.

4.1. Pooling Holy Power

Thanks to Boundless Conviction, a passive ability, you can have upto a maximum of 5 Holy Power at one time. However, no ability that consumesHoly Power can consume more than 3. This means two things:

• You have to worry less about capping your Holy Power.
• You can pool Holy Power in preparation for a damage burst. For example,you can cast two 3-Holy Power Light of Dawns in the space of 3global cooldowns.

We strongly advise trying to keep 1 or 2 charges of Holy Power in reservefor emergencies or times of need. Naturally, if you need to do a lot of healing,this is not possible, but otherwise you should attempt it.

4.2. Procs

Holy Paladins have two procs that they need to watch out for: Daybreak and Infusion of Light.

4.2.1. Daybreak

Daybreak, a passive ability, causes your Holy Radiancecasts to make your next Holy Shock heal players in an area around thetarget, in addition to healing the target itself. You can have up to twoDaybreak procs (or charges) at one time, and players around your target arehealed for 75% of the healing done to the Holy Shock target, per charge.

This proc is very useful, since you should only be using Holy Radiance onplayers who are near other players, and only during times when you want todo AoE healing. Therefore, it is very easy to simply use the Holy Shock onthe same person you used Holy Radiance on. You can, of course, use it onother players for different reasons.

4.2.2. Infusion of Light

Infusion of Light causes your Holy Shock critical strikes toreduce the cast time of your next Holy Light, Divine Light, or Holy Radiance by 1.5 seconds. This proc is extremely beneficial, andshould only really be used with Divine Light or Holy Radiance, and not HolyLight, unless there is practically no damage to be healed. Due to the very lowcast time of your Holy Light while this proc is active (0.7-0.8 seconds) it isnot really possible to cancel your cast, so you should have a way to trackthis proc through use of an addon (such as Power Auras).

4.3. Beacon of Light Subtleties

Beacon of Light provides the benefit of free healing on a secondarytarget (and should certainly be used with that in mind). The amount of healingthat the Beacon target receives depends on the spell used, as follows:

• Holy Light: 100%;
• Flash of Light, Divine Light, Holy Shock, Word of Glory (and Eternal Flame), and Execution Sentence: 50%;
• Holy Radiance, Light of Dawn, Light's Hammer, and Holy Prism: 15%.

Additionally, it is important to keep track of the fact that through Tower of Radiance (a passive ability), healing your Beacon targetdirectly with Flash of Light and Divine Light will generateHoly Power quickly. This enables you, at least every 3rd Divine Light (assumingyou had no time to weave in any Holy Shock between your Divine Lightsdue to the high tank damage) to use Word of Glory.

4.3.1. Beacon Assignment

If you are assigned to raid healing, then cast your Beacon of Lighton the raid member that takes the most damage (usually a tank) and occasionallyheal them if needed.

If you are assigned to tank healing, then cast your Beacon of Lighton the tank that takes the most damage and heal them directly with Divine Light or Flash of Light, using Word of Glory todump your Holy Power and conserve some mana.

4.4. Denounce

Denounce deserves a special mention. This spell can be a usefuland much-needed DPS boost during progression content, provided that you canspare the mana required for it.

4.5. Mana Regeneration With Divine Plea

Divine Plea is a mana regeneration cooldown that restores mana equal to135% of your Spirit every 3 seconds, for 9 seconds, on a 2-minute cooldown.

You can use Glyph of Divine Plea, which reduces the benefit and thecooldown of the spell by 50%. This is generally not preferable, since you donot want to use too many global cooldowns on this spell, but it is an optionif the situation somehow calls for it.

4.6. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents

4.6.1. Tier 3 Talents

Sacred Shield should be kept up with 100% uptime on three targets. Oneof the targets should be the current tank, and the other two should bewhoever you believe will be taking the most regular damage.

Eternal Flame should also be kept up with 100% uptime on the tank oron a target that is taking constant damage. You can also use additional HolyPower (or Divine Purpose procs) to place it on secondary targets.

Selfless Healer is best used in the way we describe here.

4.6.2. Tier 4 Talents

Hand of Purity should be used on a target that is affected by apowerful DoT. Usually, this will be the tank, or another raid member who isbeing targeted by a specific ability.

Clemency allows you to use your Hand spells twice in a row. Simplyexploit this to the maximum when you use your Hands in the encounter.

Unbreakable Spirit works passively, so it is not of any concern toyou.

4.6.3. Tier 5 Talents

Holy Avenger should be treated as a healing cooldown. Simply use itduring a time of intense damage, and enjoy the extra Holy Power you gain.

Divine Purpose procs will simply be used passively.

Sanctified Wrath increases the duration of your Avenging Wrath, an effect that occurs passively and does not concernyou. To make full use of this talent, you will need to also use Holy Shock on cooldown (3 seconds) while Avenging Wrath is active,something that is not always possible.

4.6.4. Tier 6 Talents

Holy Prism should be cast on the boss, or another enemy target thatis near to raid members. This can be especially useful when the boss or anadd has an aura that damages nearby players.

Execution Sentence can be used as a minor healing cooldown. Try touse it as many times as possible.

Light's Hammer can also be used as a minor AoE healing cooldown. Justuse it when you want a bit of burst to your AoE healing.

4.7. Tips

Here are a few useful tips to conclude this guide on the Holy Paladin playstyle:

1. Use Holy Shock and Flash of Light on your Beacon targetbefore the fight (and then drink) to start with 5 Holy Power charges.
2. Pre-heal the tank before the fight starts, in order to build up the shieldfrom your Mastery (it will stack up to a shield equal to 33% of your maximumhealth, so a nice amount).
3. Use Holy Radiance to set up Mastery shields on your raid membersbefore the fight starts, on fights with pulsing AoE damage.
4. Use Divine Shield to totally bypass encounter mechanics toeither save you time, or save your raid DPS/movement, or allow you to standstill and channel heals when your raid's health is low.
5. Crusader Strike can be used to generate Holy Power.

5. Changelog↑top

• 14 Jan. 2014: Made several improvements and updates, mostly to therotation sections of the guide.
• 18 Sep. 2013: Removed a mention of the Mastery shields beingrefreshed by Eternal Flame ticks.
• 11 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
  • Added a small section regarding how to use Selfless Healer, as partof the AoE/Raid Healing section.
  • Removed mentions of Seal of Insight restoring mana, since it no longerdoes so.
  • Updated the description of Guardian of Ancient Kings to match itsnew mechanics (heals only a single target, grants a flat 10% haste buff).
  • Updated the descriptions of Hand of Sacrifice to account for how itworks with Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice (which we recommend using).
  • Updated the Divine Plea mentions.
  • Removed the tips referring to Guardian of Ancient Kings and Divine Plea, since they were no longer relevant.
• 02 Aug. 2013: Fixed an issue in the description of Daybreak(the original Holy Shock target is actually healed, in addition to alliesaround it also being healed).
• 23 May 2013: Removed mention of using Eternal Flame with 2charges of Holy Power in 25-man content, since this is no longer optimal.
• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: made a few small adjustments toaccount for the change to Daybreak (it now has up to two charges, and itno longer heals the original target).
• 04 May 2013: Made a few updates.
  • Added a distinction between how much Holy Power to use Eternal Flamewith in 10 vs 25-man.
  • Added a mention of keeping Mastery shields up on raid members when there isno raid damage.
  • Added a mention that pooling Holy Power is recommended.
  • Added a short section about Denounce.
  • Made a few other small tweaks.
• 30 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Revamped the Rotation section, splitting it into raid healing and tankhealing.
  • Added Hand of Protection and Hand of Salvation to the cooldownlist.
  • Made it clearer that you should use Glyph of Divine Plea.
  • Added a mention that the damage transferred to you through Hand of Sacrifice retains its damage school.
  • Added using Crusader Strike for Holy Power to the list of tips.

Builds, Talents, and Glyphs

Buffs, Debuffs, and Useful Abilities