Holy Paladin needing help

[princessofslaanesh 0]

I'm a new Holy paladin that has recently started healing. In WOTLK and Cata, I played a Resto shaman and that was the only healing class I ever mastered. Now, it seems that I am having problems learning Holy paladin. I've read guides on them from here, MMO Champion, and what I could from Elitist Jerks.

But my performance does not seem to be getting any better despite getting gear upgrades. My HPS normally stays around 29k-35k (normally 35k with CDs) in LFR. I want to remedy this problem so that when I start raiding outside of LFR, I actually shine.

I think my problem is that I just have not mastered this class, and also it could be my "rotation". I have gotten into a habit of focusing on raid healing, and I know paladins tend to be a little "eh" at AoE healing. I find myself using Holy Radiance a lot. Otherwise, I am using Holy Shock, Eternal Flame, Holy Light and Divine Light... flash heal in emergencies. Holy Light seems a bit too slow for raiding, so maybe I should not be using it?

I'm a little lost here on how to improve my HPS. I am still gearing up, so I know that is probably a factor.

If anybody would like to lend a hand and look over my Armory and tell me things I could improve on to improve my HPS, I'd be very grateful.

In terms of builds, I am trying out a Mastery build but I am not sure if it is doing any good.

Thanks.

Edit: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/illidan/Cyrelis/simple

Edited June 27, 2013 by princessofslaanesh

[Teddy 0]

Hi Cyrelis,

I play mainly healers and have gone from Disc Priest and Resto Shammy at the start of 5.1 and moved over to Holy Paladin and Mistweaver Monk. Whatever the teams need I guess :P, just makes the legendary rewards a struggle lol.

I think I'm pretty decent and will try help with what info I have. My luck with drops is just terrible :/ and we've only done 4/12 so far. So I guess it's good and bad, as I can only tell you what works for me and our group while doing normals. People doing the Heroic stuff might have some different advice .

On builds: I would stick to a full mastery build, even after the 20% mastery nerf we've just had with 5.3. Especially at lower gear levels it really helps your healing. Just reforge for spirit and mastery, even if casts feel slow. My own Divine Light cast time is 2.17 seconds with all buffs, so it feels slow at times.

Spirit of course as you feel comfortable. I know everyone says "until comfortable", and I've reached the point now where I feel I can cut back a bit. Our team has been changing a little bit every week and I felt confident having that extra bit of spirit.

Personally I prefer mastery over crit over haste at this point still, as mastery will give you the absorb and crit on Holy Shock will give you a much quicker cast on your next Divine Light / Holy Radiance or even Holy Light. Haste at this point might 'feel' better (I bet you remember those quick casts after a shammy riptide? :P ) but will definitely not help your mana.

It might sound funny, but the askmrrobot mastery build has worked just fine up to now. It's filled up both spirit and mastery and has felt good so far.

Going from LFR to Normals, your spells used will differ quite a bit. You'll be more worried about keeping people alive than pushing numbers. Let's not kid ourselves, it's always nice seeing your name at the top of those numbers but it becomes less and less of an issue as you progress with your other healer(s). Each healer class / spec will have fights suited a little better to them.

Because you're asking about LFR ;) What works well for LFR is a basic AOE rotation of Holy Radiance x2 and a Holy Shock for the Daybreak heal, followed by a Light of Dawn if there's raid wide damage or an Eternal Flame if damage is isolated. Remember that your Guardian heals players near your primary target and increases your haste by 10% per heal, so it has AOE use when stacked, and helps with the next few casts of Holy Radiance, leading to faster Light of Dawns ;)

In 10 man you'll be still be using Holy Shock off cooldown but will have, in most fights, much less sensible chances to use Holy Radiance / Light of Dawn for instance [apart from lightning phase on Jin Rokh, and maybe stacking on Megaera] As for the rest I would just dump all Holy Power into Eternal Flames in most cases.

Glyphs and Talents are also dependant on the fight [there's a reason we can change them with dusts now] so make sure you glyph for Divine Protection if there is physical damage or Divine Plea if there is time to cast it mid-fight. Always keep a stack and adjust as you go along.

Play around with our 4th Tier Talents. Having Unbreakable Spirit, a talent I thought pretty useless, on Tortos made a huge difference for me. And in the same breath, having Clemency on Horiddon feels absolutely necessary.

I used to use Divine Purpose as my go-to Tier 5 Talent. I just loved the procs. These days I'm running with Holy Avenger and while I still mess it up from time to time, it seems to work pretty well. You will get 3 Holy Power from doing anything that generates Holy Power, so from Holy Shock, a Flash Heal on the Beacon, a Holy Radiance, and even a Crusader Strike. You pump out so much healing by just being close to the boss (and a little bit of mana in return for auto-attack) with this. This paired with being able to time the ability's use every 2 minutes makes it okay in my books.

I love my hpally. And even though I don't like all the changes/nerfs they implement and plan for 5.4 I still love it. Good luck and have fun! You've got more utility than most people in your raid. That, along with good heals and absorbs makes the class well worth the effort getting to know it.

On gear, armory says you're ready for ToT LFR's. Jump in, who knows you might be lucky and win a few pieces in the first go.

My Armory : http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/doomhammer/blondegirl/simple