Blackrock Foundry - Holy Paladin Tips and Tricks

[Miirsal 4]

{Hope it's not presumptuous of me to start this but there isn't one for Holy Paladins so I thought I'd start it. Unless I'm told otherwise, I can also edit it and hope that it gets pinned with up votes.}

 

General Talent Choices: May I suggest the "quick talents" addon. If you haven't tried it, you'll love it and wish there was a quick glyphs addon that worked the same.

 

Tier 1 and 2 are mostly situational and use as you see fit but:

Tier 1: I generally useSpeed of Light 

Tier 2: I generally use Fist of Justice or Blinding Light On Operator, Beastlord and Heart of the Mountain and other mob heavy fights you can interrupt a huge number of adds with the latter. Very useful if your tank is getting overwhelmed. This tier's talent is best reserved for when you are drawing healing aggro regularly.

 

Tier 3: I generally run with Eternal Flame 

Tier 4: Unbreakable Spirit is my default except for Kromog and Iron Maidens where I use Clemency; Others recommend using Clemency for default so that you get extra sacrifices on tank. 

Tier 5: Unlike the Holy Paladin Guide, i generally prefer Sanctified Wrath (even with a four piece tier set). There is variation in playstyle on which may be best here.

 

Tier 6:Holy Prism is my favorite for all fights. I played with Light's Hammer on fights like Flamebender and Thogar and never felt that it added enough to switch. 

Tier 7:Beacon of Faith 

 

Glpyhs: Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice is a must-have for me. 

I also prefer Glyph of Merciful Wrath so that our biggest cooldown is available more often.

I haven't had mana problems in awhile but that maybe because I use Glyph of Divinity

Olisawow recommends Glyph of Protector of the Innocent if going EF and DP and glyph of divine protection if physical damage is a problem.

 

 

 

Before the Pull: Greater Draenic Intellect Flask and Pickled Eel; I prefer Draenic Channeled Mana Potion and plan stages of the fight to use it. I like to prepot Draenic Intellect Potion for my first eternal flames and aoe heals to have extra punch to build up shields.

 

Build up 5 holy power and also overheal your tanks to build up Illuminated Healing on them. I can generally build a 109k+ illuminated healing shield on both tanks before any boss pull but need to keep it up or it will reset to zero. Just holy light or holy shock to keep the illuminated healing shield up to max before pull.

 

Pre-Pot with 2 seconds left in pull and THEN cast Eternal Flame  on the main tank,Holy Shock the off tank to get back to 3 holy power and then Eternal Flame the off tank. Tanks should be good for a bit to build shields on the rest of raid that you anticipate damage coming in the next 15 seconds (time for illuminated healing to fall off).

 

 

 

Gruul

 

Not that you would but do not glyph divine protection. Use Divine Protection before each Inferno Slice 

 

Build up  Illuminated Healing  on the group about to get hit by  Inferno Slice.  Can start casting a Holy Radiance followed instantly by Holy Shock just as the boss starts casting Inferno Slice so that it lands just as it hits  and then Holy Prism.

 

Best time to channel mana pot is just after the first intermission. The Petrifying Slam or Overhead Smash has yet to be cast while I'm channeling at that point.

 

I tend to use Devotion Aura on the second slice and then off cooldown.

 

If you need more holy power, can Crusader Strike here.

 

Oregorger

 

Hand of Sacrifice glyphed if a tank doesn't have a cooldown during Acid Torrent

 

In mythic if you are struggling to get through torrent because of damage, consider using Hand of Protection on the tank, but make sure they're prepared to taunt or you'll wipe the raid when they lose aggro. Must be timed well.

 

Devotion Aura only lasts 6 seconds so it's actually not as useful during the rolling phase where he hesitates after hitting a wall and then it's about 10-12 seconds before he hits another wall. Use when tank doesn't have a cooldown for Acid Torrent instead.

 

Some have suggested that Long Arm of the Law is useful if he smashes a wall near you so that you can use judgment and quickly get behind him before he rolls again. Rolling Fury is also physical damage so you can bop yourself through it in an emergency.

 

Some have suggested not to take  Glyph of Merciful Wrath so long as you are talented for sanctified wrath. 

 

Channel mana with  Draenic Channeled Mana Potion  when it looks like oregorger will be at least 2 wall crashes from you.  

 

Suggested Rotation: Prepot through first 25 seconds, then with next Acid Torrent, use Avenging Wrath and heal through with holy radiance and holy shock and holy prism. Next Acid Torrent use a hand of sacrifice on tank or an immunity and if needed a devotion aura. 

 

Channel mana at some point through roll phase, lay on hands for mana on someone who needs it. Divine shield and HOP for the roll phases as needed. Then restack with range and can use second pot for the first 25 seconds, avenging wrath as above for second torrent and then hand of sacrifice for third (although devo may not be back up).

 

Beastlord Darmac

 

On dbm, set a countdown timer for Pin Down 

 

Hand of Protection for people who are pinned.

 

I generally Divine Shield and channel mana whenever I need after the first few minutes

 

Flamebender Ka'graz

 

Can Divine Shield the Molten Torrent (I generally do it when not within 8 yards of anyone else but not sure if that's necessary.

 

Holy Radiance during firestorm and devotion aura.

 

You can also jump the flame between the cinder wolves and the fire on the ground without taking damage. 

 

Save a Hand of Sacrifice for the tank on the overheated cinderwolf's third breath. 

 

Hans'gar

 

Can use  Hand of Sacrifice on a tank during crlppling suplex if they don't have a cooldown. 

 

If you haven't tried it,  Long Arm of the Law really is better during the stamper phase. It's short sprint but with a short cooldown and allows you to maintain more time for healing but it's tricky in that you need to be in range of a boss and generally facing the boss for it to work.  If you're already used to just running back and forth can probably stick with it but we only have holy prism and holy shock as instant heals, so may want to try this. Also, Flash of Light is faster and can be used during stamper phase to get more heals off between stampers than holy light. I found a nice uptick to healing using flash of light/holy shock/prism and using long arm of the law to move. 

 

Also, if you really want to cheese it when things get tough, just bubble/avenging wrath and heal through a nice long stretch of stampers.

 

Operator Thogar

 

Speed of Light ftw.

 

This fight I frequently use  Blinding Light on adds, particularly on the split to save damage on the tanks as the adds are stunned temporarily. 

 

The Hansgar and Franzok addon gives an on screen numbered graph which paints squares as green for safe and red as dangerous. Elarion also recommends standing on the corner of 8,9, 13, 14 as the safest corner to use. Mythic will one-shot most players.

 

Heart of the Mountain

 

This fight I frequently use  Blinding Light particularly when all dps are burning the primal elementalist to avoid a cauterize healing them.   

 

Kromog

 

Consider Clemency for people who don't get into a hand during the smashing phase or to allow a tank to stay out during it.  If you do, Hand of Freedom can help a tank back when they have 3 stacks and are slowed down but I rarely have time to cast it myself.

 

Iron Maidens

Clemency  is very useful in this fight at the end and for yourself for Penetrating Shot. Most raids wipe in the final 10% and the more you can trick penetrating shot, the better. 

 

I would also say that during the bombardment phase, Flash of Light is vastly superior to use than holy light given how quickly you have to move and perhaps even Glyph of Flash of Light 

 

 Long Arm of the Law was not as good as I had hoped.  It's harder here to stay faced towards the boss because of the movement for mines and then when something like rapid fire comes along, the speed boost isn't as good to dodge.  After several tries, I would highly recommend staying with the more usual Speed of Light.

 

Blackhand

Olisawow recommends using Devo during transitions between phases.

 

Phase 1: You will likely go through two demolitions all of which are physical damage (although a lot of it). The demolition channel lasts longer than either divine shield or HOP so wait a tick or two into the demolitions before you cast either on yourself but then can just stand and heal (get out of the orange ones as a rubble falls there right after). You can use one for each set of demolitions. Avenging wrath one, devo the second or vice versa. If you use a lay on hands here and are talented for unbreakable spirit and glyphed for divinity, you will have it available in phase 3 and get 20% extra mana by using it twice. After each demolition phase, get near the rubble so that when marked for death, you can get behind the debris to los the boss( and preferably stack with the other mark of death so that you only use one rubble up).

 

Phase 2: Best time to channel mana is RIGHT after you land. 15 seconds after you land he'll summon first siegemaker and you could theoretically be moving throughout the rest of phases 2 and 3.

 

Hard to heal the tank and yet stay close enough to siegemaker to get behind it when you get marked for death. Siegemakers come out every 50 seconds so execution and lights hammer with 60 sec cds didn't work out. Once more holy prism ftw with a 20 second cd. Basically preheal everyone in melee who will take damage from the shattering smash, once the siegemaker comes out, get close enough to siege maker to be able to sprint behind it but if possible also close enough to tanks to heal while avoiding mines. Can use a prism just about every siegemaker (rather than every cd). Also the damage from the siegemaker is physical. Hardest part was just the mechanic of watching for the next siegemaker and getting close to it. You can bop yourself if you need to run in front of it. Stand duty is actually easier than the floor so volunteer if you can. Stack with the tank getting tossed up and then just yawn through a few heals and a holy prism.

 

Phase 3: Don't get thrown off platform and save divine shield and a sprint for if you get thrown into molten later in fight to get out of it quickly. If you used lay on hands in phase 1, it should be back up now or very shortly into the phase for a quick 10% mana.  The first smash seemed easy to survive so I started saving avenging wrath for the second and devo for third smash.  If you get marked for death AND smash is coming, side step enough to clear raid but you still won't get thrown off. If you go too far to the side, you'll be thrown off and look like a noob (voice of experience talkin' here).

Edited May 22, 2015 by Miirsal

[Lightbender 1]

Just curious, do you use both DPS trinkets?

 

Because I see no point wasting seconds channeling mana potion if you use atleast one trinket with 700+ spirit. Then the instant mana return with glyph of divinity + the mana potion is more than enought :-)

 

I am usually top durring our raids and no one is underperforming (atleast not with great numbers!)

 

 

otherwise a great guide sir.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Lightbender

[Jedai 0]

I have a few pointers on individual fights to add.
 

Oregorger

Personally I do not take Glyph of Merciful Wrath for this fight, as I find the burst healing available for Acid Torrent is neccessary. I tend to use this right as Orey casts the first one , allowing my pre-fight Draenic Intellect Potion to align pretty healthily for a short amount of time. As long as you are talented into Sanctified Wrath, you should be able to easily handle any problems with healing. Make sure to use Holy Radiance and Holy Shock to proc Daybreak (especially powerful). Use your HP on EF.

Sometimes depending on your strat, the melee and tanks will be out of range. With the process before, you will have zero problems keeping them up with Holy Prism on Orey. Watch for spikes, top em off with a single cast.

As mentioned in the previous post, Devotion Aura is best used after your cooldown falls off and on an Acid Torrent to reduce damage.

Dont be afraid to blow your mana up during this part of the fight, you will get it back shortly.

 

A few casts later you should be near your first roll phase. Somewhat atypically, this is your regen phase. Right before the start of roll phase is the optimal time to use a Draenic Channeled Mana Potion. Orey will typically move away from you for about 2 ~ wall crashes, by wich time you will be finished. During roll phase, follow melee to boxes, and Holy Prism boxes as they approach them. Spot heal and make sure to use your Glyph of Divinity charged LoH here for the mana, in addition to the typical failure of one of your raid members.

 

Eventually roll phase will end, and a restack of ranged will occur. This lines up pretty close to your 3 min cd on AW, typically only a cast or 2 of Acid Torrent will happen before you can blow every back full easily. Repeat your domination of healing during this phase again, and don't be afraid to use that mana.

 

Next rollphase repeat. With decent dps, boss will die before a nessesary 3rd phase, but even without, AW will come back up for a third stack phase as well.

 

Flamebender Ka'graz

Not much here, typically once Molten Torrent goes out, I start HR on the Melee, and then Holy Shock (for Daybreak) and Holy Prism the boss for the damage spike.

 

 

More will be posted shortly.

[Miirsal 4]

Just curious, do you use both DPS trinkets?

 

Because I see no point wasting seconds channeling mana potion if you use atleast one trinket with 700+ spirit. Then the instant mana return with glyph of divinity + the mana potion is more than enought :-)

 

I am usually top durring our raids and no one is underperforming (atleast not with great numbers!)

 

 

otherwise a great guide sir

 

Lol point well taken. I actually don't go bone dry on mana and I also try to get two lay on hand mana returns.  I do run bone dry at times in blast furnace still but I agree that with proper trinkets a pot is much more convenient to use.  But hopefully those that are a little anxious about opening the valves on AOE healing will be less timid if they can get a bigger mana return.

[Olisawow 0]

Hope you don't mind me adding my two cents. Background, I am a holy paladin (Olisaholytan) in a 10/10 H 1/10 M guild, consistently averaging >90% on most fights. 

Firstly, to any holy paladins reading this thread, remember that these are tips. None of these should be taken as gospel or anything, figure out something that's comfortable for you. 

Talent-wise, tiers 1 and 2 shouldn't matter for a raid setting. They are primarily situational at best and for utility. Tier 4, while unbreakable spirit is good at times (2 lay on hands is a great ability), clemency should be the go-to. Especially if a raid doesn't have too many external cds, your hand of sacrifice is the only thing holding a tank together, and it's best to have 2 of them in most cases (rolling sacs is great if you're on the side in Thogar with the boss, or on hans/frans, toss one on both tanks before the slam). Tier 5, it depends purely on your personal playstyle. If you like proc-based builds, then divine purpose is great. If you want a 33% uptime on a good-great cd, get Sanctified Wrath.

On Oregorger, it is not recommended that you use Hand of Protection on tanks. There's no point in casting a cooldown that, while great for mitigation, can destroy a raid in the span of 3 seconds if threat is not handled. Beastlord, use hands of protection on those that are pinned. Flamebender, holy radiance is your friend during firestorm, and devotion aura if you have none or weak healing cooldowns (if the healer using the cd [healing tide totem, tranquility] is ungeared, pulling low numbers, etc.). Blackhand, Devotion Aura is good either for the transitions (p1>p2, p2>p3) or the massive shattering smashes in p3 assuming you lack the other cds. On all fights, it's really difficult for a holy paladin to run out of mana. You have to be wasting it to actually run out. This comes from a paladin running with a resto shaman, disc priest, resto druid, and a fill-in and consistently finishing as one of the top 2 healers. Good, easy glyphing is hand of sacrifice, protector of the innocent (if going EF and DP), and either divinity (if mana is an issue) or divine protection (if physical damage is a problem). 

[Elarion 6]

For hasgar you coud download addon - hansgar and franzok assist. It will help a lot in myph and heroic.

http://media-curse.cursecdn.com/attachments/140/616/2abd4a3dc47a28a56f36039f873715b3.png

Also there is "magic spot" where you coud easy dodge all stampers - you coud stay between 8,9,13,14 plates, all you need is do some steps to right/left/top/down. But be carefull, for myph all range camp shoud stay there, not only you(you coud be one-shoted).

[Miirsal 4]

Hope you don't mind me adding my two cents. Background, I am a holy paladin (Olisaholytan) in a 10/10 H 1/10 M guild, consistently averaging >90% on most fights. 

Firstly, to any holy paladins reading this thread, remember that these are tips. None of these should be taken as gospel or anything, figure out something that's comfortable for you. 

Talent-wise, tiers 1 and 2 shouldn't matter for a raid setting. They are primarily situational at best and for utility. Tier 4, while unbreakable spirit is good at times (2 lay on hands is a great ability), clemency should be the go-to. Especially if a raid doesn't have too many external cds, your hand of sacrifice is the only thing holding a tank together, and it's best to have 2 of them in most cases (rolling sacs is great if you're on the side in Thogar with the boss, or on hans/frans, toss one on both tanks before the slam). Tier 5, it depends purely on your personal playstyle. If you like proc-based builds, then divine purpose is great. If you want a 33% uptime on a good-great cd, get Sanctified Wrath.

On Oregorger, it is not recommended that you use Hand of Protection on tanks. There's no point in casting a cooldown that, while great for mitigation, can destroy a raid in the span of 3 seconds if threat is not handled. Beastlord, use hands of protection on those that are pinned. Flamebender, holy radiance is your friend during firestorm, and devotion aura if you have none or weak healing cooldowns (if the healer using the cd [healing tide totem, tranquility] is ungeared, pulling low numbers, etc.). Blackhand, Devotion Aura is good either for the transitions (p1>p2, p2>p3) or the massive shattering smashes in p3 assuming you lack the other cds. On all fights, it's really difficult for a holy paladin to run out of mana. You have to be wasting it to actually run out. This comes from a paladin running with a resto shaman, disc priest, resto druid, and a fill-in and consistently finishing as one of the top 2 healers. Good, easy glyphing is hand of sacrifice, protector of the innocent (if going EF and DP), and either divinity (if mana is an issue) or divine protection (if physical damage is a problem). 

 

 

Great tips! I'll incorporate.

 

The HOP on oregorger was something that is tried on mythic with some frequency given the very large amount of damage that goes out and when timed correctly, could still be useful but I'll add the cautions.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions! Keep em coming!

 

Edited May 22, 2015 by Miirsal