wow Holy Paladin in the Shadowlands: Spec Highlights and Class Recommendations

[Starym 3,800]

 

Update: the Holy pre-patch guide is ready and you can check it out here:
Holy Paladin Shadowlands Guide

We have another big one today, as Holy Paladins have received some really big changes, with the return of Holy Power being pretty close to a reword of the spec. There's also Aura changes on top of the usual Talent changes, Covenants, legendaries and more, as Mytholxgy takes us through the new state of Holy Paladins.

Exciting Changes for Holy Paladin in Shadowlands

Heading into Shadowlands, Paladins have one of the biggest changes of any class which is the reintroduction of Holy Power. This will completely alter our healing as we will transition back to a playstyle of generating holy power, and then spending it on powerful single-target or AOE heals in the form of Word of Glory and Light of Dawn. On top of just class changes, Covenants will be introduced and they provide both a class-specific and generic ability depending on which you chose. Some classes aren't too impacted by their Covenants, but luckily for Paladin, we have some exciting options that will make an impact not only on your base rotation but also your talent choices. In this article we will go through some of the new changes and how they impact Holy Paladin.
 

Holy Power Reintroduction

As previously mentioned, Holy Power has been brought back to Holy Paladin which greatly impacts how we play. Many of our core abilities have been turned into Holy Power generators. Holy Shock,  Crusader Strike, Hammer of Wrath, and healing directly into your Beacon of Light target with Holy Light or Flash of Light will generate 1 Holy Power. These abilities have been a core part of the Holy Paladin kit for some time now, and with them generating Holy Power, this will stay the case in Shadowlands. So we know how to generate Holy Power, now the question is how do we spend it?

Light of Dawn was changed from being a cooldown-based ability to one that now requires 3 Holy Power. On top of that, two abilities were given back to Holy with minor reworks to make them better suited for the kit.
Word of Glory returns in the form of a powerful 3-cost single target heal.
Shield of the Righteous unfortunately is our only damage spender and given its focus on AOE damage, it is underwhelming when used for single-target.

Overall, the changes to Holy Paladin are what's needed to breathe some life back into what turned into a stale spec for most players at the end of BFA. It brings decision-making back which Holy Paladin has significantly lacked for the last few raid tiers. And it was implemented in a way that keeps the spec flowing nicely and generating/spending Holy Power feels good.

Aura Reworks 

Arguably the next biggest change to Holy Paladin would be the changes made to Auras. Aura of Sacrifice and Aura of Mercy were both removed from the game. Ultimately, removing these two was a good decision because the Talent row that contained them had become a bit stale with you never picking either of them. In their place we gained Crusader Aura , Concentration Aura, and Retribution Aura , All of which are pretty disappointing and have very limited use in PvE situations. Retribution Aura can potentially be strong when swapping to it if you know someone is in danger, giving you 12 seconds of wings. However, swapping Auras is on the Global Cooldown which causes it to feel incredibly awkward when trying to switch in the middle of combat. Auras have the potential to be incredibly useful and impactful but they have consistently been underwhelming abilities that you never really think about. Devotion Aura has been the staple choice throughout BFA and now that it has become baseline, in a group with Crusader, Concentration, and Retribution. You will pick Devo and then never think about it again unless the rare circumstance to swap to Retribution without losing throughput/damage presents itself. I really wish more thought was put into Auras and we had some interesting alternatives to Devotion that would provide actual benefits in PvE situations. 
 

Talent Changes

Level 15 Talents: Crusader's Might / Bestow Faith / Light's Hammer

Level 25 Talents: Saved by the Light / Judgment of Light / Holy Prism

Level 30 Talents: Fist of Justice / Repentance / Blinding Light

Level 35 Talents: Unbreakable Spirit / Cavalier / Rule of Law

Level 40 Talents: Divine Purpose / Holy Avenger / Seraphim

Level 45 Talents:Sanctified Wrath / Avenging Crusader /Awakening

Level 50 Talents: Glimmer of Light / Beacon of Faith / Beacon of Virtue

Holy Paladin has two major talent changes heading into Shadowlands. Glimmer of Light was added to the final row and Holy Avenger was reworked. In order to put Glimmer in line with the rest of the talents on its row, it's spell coefficient was nerfed significantly to be not even half as good as three of the Azerite traits were. Despite that, it currently remains a strong choice given Virtue's clear weaknesses in raid and Faith requiring two targets with high amounts of damage taken per second. 

Holy Avenger was transformed from being a steroid giving Haste to Holy Power. When using the ability, every ability that generates Holy Power will generate 3 HP instead of 1. Given that Paladin is reliant on Cooldowns for most of it's healing, Holy Avenger will help this by just giving us another cooldown like it did throughout BfA. It also remains incredibly flexible given you can use the Holy Power generation on either damage or healing.  

The only other notable change would be Saved by the Light being added to the Level 25 row. Unfortunately, this talent's design is very poor and will likely never be used in any form of content besides potentially PvP. Having a talent only affecting one player is not ideal, when you add in the fact the player must be below a certain HP threshold, it makes the talent extremely undesirable. It reminds me of the druid talent Cultivation, but Cult can apply to anyone with your HoTs. With Saved by the Light only affecting one player, I am not entirely sure how Blizzard intended this talent to be viable. 
 

New Covenant Abilities

Night Fae Ability - Blessing of the Seasons

By far the most interesting Covenant, Night Fae provides 4 different abilities in one. 

• Blessing of Spring  - Provides your target with 10% increased healing and 20% increase to healing received. Spring is the best blessing by far because you can pair this with your cooldowns or one of your co healers cooldowns to provide a strong increase to throughput. 
• Blessing of Summer - Summer causes your target's abilities to have a chance to proc Holy damage. Not very interesting but it is a damage increase to your party so it still is beneficial. 
• Blessing of Autumn  - Another interesting blessing. This one causes your target's cooldowns to recover faster. Very similar to the Ineffable Truth corruption. Ideally, you would use it on someone who wanted higher cooldown up-time (Rogues, Holy Paladins, Disc Priests, etc). 
• Blessing of Winter - Reduces the attack speed and movement speed of enemies within its range, as well as doing some damage (less than summer). The extra damage is nice but given that it is only impactful outside of raid it's usefulness is limited. 

Spring, Summer, and Autumn are definitely very strong and if used at the right time can be very good. You'd want to line up Spring during high damage events and Summer/Autumn during lust or when cooldowns are being used. However, it isn't always easy to line up the right Blessing when you want it given their cooldowns. Each blessing has a 45 second CD and they follow a set rotation. Upon entering combat you will be reset back to Summer. After using it, you will be given Autumn, then Winter, and finally Spring. Each buff lasts 30 seconds which is quite noticeable, but with a 45 second CD, it leaks to pretty low up-time on the spell. In its current iteration, Night Fae will likely never see playtime until it can get improved up-time. If Blizzard were to reduce the cooldown of each blessing, the Covenant could definitely skyrocket to being the top choice. Regardless, it isn't worth considering in its current iteration.
 

Necrolord Ability - Vanquisher's Hammer

Throws a hammer at your target dealing (170% of Spell power) Shadow damage, and empowering your next Word of Glory to automatically trigger Light of Dawn.

The Necrolord covenant ability is a 30-second CD that provides a free Light of Dawn after using Word of Glory. While the free healing from the Light of Dawn is nice, it does not provide nearly large enough throughput to justify taking it over some of the other options. Necrolord has two main issues, the first being its cooldown, the second being it costing Holy Power. Ideally, the covenant would generate on-use instead of costing Holy Power which would make it significantly more desirable. If Necrolord wants a chance of being viable, it will likely need to become a generator instead of a spender. Reducing the cooldown of the ability would also be nice. Only providing a light of dawn simply isn't enough to justify a 30-second CD. If Necrolord manages to get either of these changes between now and Shadowlands release, it could see some play, but currently, it isn't worth thinking much about.
 

Venthyr Ability - Ashen Hallow  

Hallow the target area for 30 sec. Enemies in the area suffer up to [(55% of Spell power) * 30 / 2] Shadow damage, and allies are healed for up to [(42% of Spell power) * 30 / 2], reduced if there are more than 5 targets.Within the Hallow, you may use Hammer of Wrath on any target, and its damage is increased by 100%.

Originally unusable, Ashen Hallow has since been reworked to be a strong covenant choice. However, it does have some very noticeable strengths and weaknesses.

I believe the easiest way to breakdown Ashen Hallow is to start off by looking at its weaknesses. It has a very long cooldown which is the opposite of what you want from healers, currently sitting at 4 minutes. It also is an ability you place on the ground (similar to Healing Rain from shamans or Efflorescence from Druids) and then you are unable to move it again. This is normally not an issue for Shamans or Druids because they can easily replace it. With Ashen Hallow you are unable to reposition it if you make a mistake or the raid has to move given its long cooldown timer. If you are forced to move out of it early, you are going to lose very high amounts of healing and effectively waste your Covenant ability. If you are also interested in other aspects of the game besides just Raiding (Mythic+ and Arena), Ashen Hallow will likely not be a strong choice because it is significantly worse than its Covenant counterparts in those aspects of the game. 

Looking at its strengths, it does fairly strong healing and will perform extremely well on encounters with extended damage periods. For example, when facing raid-wide ticking damage (think G'huun last phase / Jaina) Venthyr will be extremely impactful and useful. Especially if you are in an encounter where the raid is able to stay stacked and doesn't have to move very frequently. On top of its healing, it gives a noticeable damage increase from not only its passive ticking damage, but from Hammer of Wrath casts as well.

Final Verdict: Under the right circumstances in Raid, Venthyr will be very strong and impactful. But if you are unable to meet the positional requirements or the damage pattern is more burst heavy than sustained, Venthyr will suffer. Because of this, it's hard to recommend as a strong generic pick when other Covenants are more well-rounded. Don't be surprised if you see some top Holy Paladin players selecting it purely for raid.
 

Kyrian Ability - Divine Toll

Instantly cast Holy Shock, Avenger's Shield, or Judgment on up to 5 targets within 30 yds (based on your current specialization).

Currently the most well-rounded Covenant, Kyrian is a no-brainer if you are looking for something that will excel in all aspects of the game. On a 1-minute cooldown, Divine Toll will fire off 5 Holy Shocks which will all generate holy power. If you end up selecting Glimmer of Light, each Holy shock from the Kyrian ability will trigger the Glimmers, resulting in very strong healing in 5-mans and Raid. You combine that with the Sanctified Wrath talent, and you find yourself playing a playstyle very similar to what we saw throughout the second half of BFA. With a short cooldown, solid burst, and strong talent synergies, Divine Toll makes Kyrian an exceptional covenant choice. 
 

Legendary Effects

Looking at only Paladin specific legendaries, we, unfortunately, have relatively uninteresting and weak options. I will only highlight specific ones 

• From Dusk till Dawn - While this legendary seems okay on paper, it unfortunately flows very poorly and can make the rotation very clunky. In general, you don't want to have to sit on holy power in order to get the healing buff, you want to spend your Holy Power as you need to keep people alive. Having to delay healing your allies in order to gain the buff can lead to potential deaths or unnecessary defensive cooldowns being used in extreme cases. 
• Inflorescence of the Sunwell - By far the biggest question mark when it comes to the legendaries. It can be good in situations where you are casting a lot and making use of your Infusions. At the moment though, I believe infusions are in a similar spot to BFA where we will never really be using them. If we do start using infusions again, this legendary could be good.
• Maraad's Dying Breath - Maraad's is currently the strongest legendary available for raiding. It provides very strong single-target healing which lines up well with damage patterns in Castle Nathria. It has the obvious drawback caused by using Light of the Martyr more frequently, which is the increased damage intake. We just don't unfortunately have many options for raiding.
• Shadowbreaker, Dawn of the Sun - Shadowbreaker is one of my favorite legendaries. It, unfortunately, has the same problem as the rest of the paladin legendaries - it isn't very good. While the healing bonus is nice, the buff is only applied to whoever the Light of Dawn actually healed. In mythic+ this is a nice constant 20% healing bonus which could be very important in tough healing situations. It just isn't as beneficial in raid due to the lack of targets it covers. If it was changed to buff everyone hit by the cone, it would be incredibly good. But in its current design, it leaves a lot to be desired.
• Shock Barrier - At the start of beta, Shock Barrier was extremely powerful and would've been the easy choice. Even with the loss of some of the Glimmer of Light synergies, you are still casting a lot of Holy Shocks causing Shock Barrier to have insane value early on. However, it has since been nerfed. Just like Glimmer of Light, it also received a target cap. Currently it only affecting 3 targets, so it doesn't do enough to justify being a good choice.  All it will take for Shock Barrier to rise will be a removal of the target cap or increasing it to more targets. 
• Vanguard's Momentum - A flexible legendary that can provide both damage and healing increases and I am for the most part a fan of this one. Gaining an extra charge of Hammer of Wrath just gives you an extra Holy Power. It is more noticeable in mythic+ when you can make more use of the extra charges and I expect it to see a decent amount of playtime there. For raiding, it likely will not be used as it's up-time will just bee significantly lower without constant targets being low health.
• The Mad Paragon - Primarily a Retribution legendary, it is still usable as Holy Paladin similar to how the Ret Azerite trait Light's Decree was used with the Glimmer of Light build throughout BFA. While I don't see this legendary being popular, it is worth noting because of just providing a damage increase as well as a couple more free GCDs during wings. Hammer of Wrath becomes "free" in a sense because the GCD spent using it will not punish you since you get that second back. Could be useful in mythic+ or PvP but it still is very early and we won't know for sure until we get closer to release. 
   

Conclusion

Holy Paladin received quite a few changes going into Shadowlands, with Holy Power being the most noticeable. The downfall of the Glimmer playstyle might frustrate some players, but Holy Power has reintroduced much-needed decision making back into the spec. If you fell out of love with Holy Paladin because of what Glimmer did to the spec, now might be the time to give it another try. We won't be sitting in range only castingHoly Lights still, instead we will be using our casts much more frequently than we did in BfA. Even with all the changes and playstyle differences, Holy Paladin will still remain a top-tier healer that every guild will want to have. 

 

Other Spec Highlights:

• Vengeance Demon Hunter
• Balance Druid
• Restoration Druid
• Beast Mastery Hunter
• Marksmanship Hunter
• Arcane Mage
• Frost Mage
• Assassination Rogue
• Outlaw Rogue
• Elemental Shaman
• Enhancement Shaman
• Shadow Priest
• Affliction Warlock
• Protection Warrior