WotLK Classic Holy Paladin Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

If you have not already, please read the Spell Summary page. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Holy Paladins do not have a set 'rotation' of abilities to do optimal healing, but rather focus on making sure you are using the correct spell and rank to minimize overhealing, while maximizing your throughput. The vast majority of the healing will be done with Holy Light and Flash of Light.

This guide assumes you are using the talent build that can be found on our Talents page and are playing a max-level character. If you are looking for leveling-based help, please refer to the leveling page for a leveling-specific rotation.

• Flash of Light is the spell you will cast the least. Due to a lack of an AoE or multi-target healing spell, Flash of Light is very useful for spot-healing, thanks to its quick cast but should be used only in a situation that you are certain you would not be able to finish a Holy Light cast.
• Holy Light is your largest, most powerful heal, and will be your default heal. You should be using almost exclusively Holy Light unless you are not confident you will be able to finish the cast. Casting Holy Light will grant you the Light's Grace buff, which makes the cast considerably faster. Using lower ranks is no longer a thing in Wrath of The Lich King as the Mana cost of spells is normalized, so make sure to always be using your maximum rank available.
• Holy Shock is a very expensive instant-cast heal that should only be used in emergencies where you believe your target will die if they are not immediately healed or during movement where you are not able to stop and cast either Holy Light or Flash of Light.

The seal you are judging has minimal impact on your 'rotation' as a Holy Paladin, but each unique seal can offer benefits. As a Holy Paladin, you will want to keep Seal of Wisdom up to take full advantage of the Glyph of Seal of Wisdom which reduces your mana costs allowing for more Holy Lights. Always make sure to judge at least once a minute to ensure you keep the Judgements of the Pure buff active for almost free casting speed.

Your Blessings are incredibly powerful buffs that should be kept up at all times. You will want to coordinate with the other Paladins in your raid to see who should be buffing what on each class, since you can only use one on any given person at a time. With the Greater Blessings, they will last 60 minutes, so you generally will not need to worry about refreshing them in the middle of a fight, but you will want to check between pulls to make sure none are in danger of falling off.

• Hand of Freedom — Makes the target immune to roots and other movement impairing effects for 10 seconds.
• Divine Protection — Reduces all incoming damage by 50% for 12 seconds but causes Forbearance.
• Hand of Protection — A shield that causes your target to be immune to all Physical attacks for 10 seconds, but they cannot attack during that time. This also procs a 1-minute debuff that makes you unable to cast your other immunities during that time.
• Divine Intervention — You sacrifice yourself to place a 2-minute shield on a target, making them invulnerable, but unable to move or use abilities while inside the shield. This is mainly used as a wipe recovery tool in raids to ensure someone will stay alive.
• Divine Sacrifice — A powerful raid cooldown that will redirect a percentage of the group's incoming damage to the Paladin. This effect will automatically cancel if the Paladin goes below 20% health, but it can kill you.
• Divine Shield — A shield that causes you to be immune to all attacks and spells for 12 seconds and slows your attack speed drastically while the shield is active. This also procs a 1-minute debuff that makes you unable to cast your other immunities during that time.
• Lay on Hands — Instantly heals your target for a massive amount and gives them some Mana, but drains all of your Mana.
• Hand of Sacrifice — A 30-second buff that transfers some of the damage taken by the target to you while active.
• Avenging Wrath — A 20-second buff that increases the damage dealt by the Paladin by 30% for 20 seconds. This also procs a 1-minute debuff that makes you unable to cast you other immunities during that time.
• Divine Illumination — Reduces the Mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 seconds.
• Divine Favor — A buff that causes your next healing spell to have a 100% chance to crit.
• Aura Mastery — increases the range of your auras by an additional 10 yards, making their range 40 yards and increasing their effectiveness by 100%.