Holy Paladin Healing Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

Holy Paladins specialize in very strong single-target healing, being one of the few healers that can truly impact whether a single player will live or die at any given moment. They also possess several tools that help them mitigate or avoid damage, both on themselves and on other raid embers, such as Blessing of Protection and Devotion Aura. With so much utility, they are consistently one of the strongest specs in every form of content and have been that way for years.

Heading into The War Within, Holy Shock feels like a very powerful ability. Many talents were also added to increase the power of casting in order to give players desiring a casting playstyle stronger options to increase their output. That being said, Holy Power spenders have also had their power increased, making builds that consistently use Crusader Strike much more powerful as well. Overall, there are many different ways to play Holy Paladin, including the introduction of Hero Talents and the changes that come with a new expansion. If you want to cast, there are plenty of options, and if you prefer a melee playstyle, then you also have talents amplifying that playstyle. The talent tree has everything you could hope for and then some.

In order to properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our healing guide.

Strengths

• Widely considered to have the best single-target healing in the game.
• Offers many utility spells such as Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Freedom that can be cast on themselves or others.
• Have very high survivability due to plate armor, as well as defensive spells like Divine Protection or Divine Shield.
• Extremely high passive damage for a healer. Core spells like Crusader Strike and Judgment offer both damage and healing through Holy Power generation.
• Very valuable in raiding content thanks to having a very powerful raid cooldown in Aura Mastery.

Weaknesses

• Struggle to heal multiple spread targets quickly since it relies heavily on Light of Dawn for Area of Effect (AoE) healing.
• Lacks a powerful throughput cooldown compared to other specs (relies on strong casts during Avenging Wrath).
• Can lose minor throughput when forced away from enemies.
• Generally not a very mobile healer, with only Divine Steed as a movement speed increase.

Paladin as a whole has received some major changes heading into Patch 11.0.5. The class tree specifically has been reworked with many new talent choices added, and many old ones removed. Overall, the changes aren't positive or negative, they primarily just add extra niche utility to the class tree that won't overly impact any form of content. It is recommended that you visit the talent page to get a look at the new talent tree and how you should aim to build it!

Holy Paladin has received some changes that will significantly alter how the spec plays in The War Within. The most notable changes will be listed below:

• Glimmer of Light — Removed from the game.
• Daybreak — Removed from the game.
• Rising Sunlight — After casting Avenging Wrath or Divine Toll, your next 2 Holy Shocks will cast 2 additional times.

Along with these changes, Holy Paladin received significant aura buffs as well as buffs to Word of Glory and Holy Shock. This has resulted in a playstyle where consuming Infusion of Light has become significantly less important. The main gameplay will consist of pressing Holy Shock as much as possible and spending Holy Power as often as possible. When neither is possible, you will aim to drop Consecration as a Herald of the Sun Holy Paladin in order to buff Eternal Flame through Strength of Conviction. Otherwise, you will then proceed to consume Infusion of Light with Holy Light or Flash of Light when healing is needed, or Judgment when no major healing is necessary.

If you want to play a Holy Paladin but currently do not have one at max level, you can check out our leveling guide for tips on your journey.

Once you reach the max level, it can be somewhat overwhelming to completely change the way you play by suddenly implementing a large number of addons in a short space of time, especially if they have a heavy visual impact on your UI. We recommend using some of the more basic addons recommended on our Addons page below while leveling so that you have more time to get used to them during the easier phases of playing your class.

Having a not only comfortable but solid UI is incredibly important, especially once you hit max level. To prevent yourself from being overwhelmed by all the choices, we recommend starting with some basic addons while you are going through the leveling process. This will help you get accustomed to the different addons while the class is still in a relatively easier phase.

Holy Paladin, like any healer, is all about using your abilities strategically. Rather than a fixed rotation, you will be using your flexible spell kit to adapt and overcome whatever the game throws at you.

In order to be a successful Holy Paladin, you must make use of your cooldown abilities as efficiently as possible.

If you are an absolute beginner to the spec but would like to learn the fundamentals of the class, I recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below.

If you are familiar with Paladin and how it plays, you can jump right into our Talent and Rotation pages.

If you are interested in finding out what gear will put your Holy Paladin in the best possible position to perform well, I would recommend looking at our gear page. Here, you can find information on the best items available for Holy Paladin.

To be successful, you will want to make sure you have the correct consumables, gems, enchants, and more. On top of this, you will want to check our stats page to help you make the correct decision when choosing what consumables to use.

Even with the introduction of a new talent system, Holy Paladin remains a top healer choice for any form of content. Holy Paladin will continue to bring extremely high damage, unique utility, an immunity, and very strong single-target healing. In many cases, these strengths that have existed for multiple expansions at this point are only amplified by new talents in Dragonflight and now The War Within. Holy Shock has received many talents to increase its power and have the ability to feel as strong as ever. Regardless of whether you prefer Mythic+, Arena, or even raiding, Holy Paladin will be one of the strongest healers.

There are three main forms of end-game content. Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP. In each of them, the class plays slightly differently. In order to perform as well as possible for your preferred form of content, we recommend reading one of our dedicated pages, which you can find below.

If you feel like you are not performing as well as you should be. You can visit one of our pages below to help find information on common mistakes and frequently asked questions.