Classic Holy Paladin Healer Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

As a Holy Paladin, you only have two main healing spells that you will use, and your "rotation" will mainly consist of choosing different ranks of Flash of Light and Holy Light to use. Calling it a rotation is disingenuous since you are reacting to different situations, different damage outputs, and your Mana. There are 5 healing spells that you should be ready to make use of, listed below.

• Holy Light Rank 6
• Holy Light Rank 9
• Flash of Light Rank 4
• Flash of Light Rank 6
• Holy Shock

Most of your decision-making as a Holy Paladin comes from choosing which of these to use. You will want to consider factors such as your current Mana, where you are in the fight, is more damage coming, and the target's current health. If the person is low during a dangerous portion of a fight you will probably want to use a Rank 9 Holy Light to get them topped with one heal, whereas if they are moderately low in a low damage part of the fight you will want to use your most efficient heal, which will be Rank 4 Flash of Light. Keep in mind that Flash of Light is going to be a fast heal while Holy Light has a slightly longer cast time, but Flash of Light will be much more Mana efficient than Holy Light. In most fights, Flash of Light will make up the vast majority of your casts. Holy Shock is an inefficient heal that should be saved for whenever you need to heal someone at the same time that you need to move for a mechanic in a fight. If you can cast, it is better to cast a Flash of Light or a Holy Light instead.

Another important decision as a Holy Paladin is what Seal to use. There are two main seals that you will want to make use of: Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom. In a raid setting, you will want at least one Paladin with each, but on your own, you will need to decide if having the extra healing or the extra Mana is more important. As a default, you should opt for Seal of Wisdom since more people will benefit from the extra Mana, especially early on when Mana pools are low. Seals also will need to be refreshed every 30 seconds, whichever you choose to use.

To be clear, Seal of Wisdom will only let you regenerate Mana unless you use Judgement to unleash it, which puts a debuff on the target that lets anyone who attacks it regenerate Mana. Because this takes up a debuff slot, you might not be able to use this all of the time. You will want to talk with your raid to see if they are fine with Judgement of Wisdom taking up a debuff slot. With these seals active, it is important to remember that you can auto-attack the target to regenerate health or Mana, so try to be in melee range attacking between casts for maximum efficiency.

While Seals are a powerful tool when you can make use of them, they are very situational. It is not realistic to be in melee range of every boss, and Paladins already generate plenty of Mana without the help of Seal of Wisdom. Do not feel like you must keep a Seal up at all times; try to make good use of your Seals when you have downtime and you are safely in melee range.

In WoW Classic, every class that uses Mana can follow the 5-second rule. The 5-Second Rule is that if you do not use any Mana for 5 seconds, you will begin to passively regenerate Mana from your Spirit, even while in combat. As a Paladin, you will be able to generate tons of Mana from your Illumination talent, Mp5, and your Judgement of Wisdom. However, if you find yourself low on Mana and needing more, you can stop casting for awhile to passively regenerate some Mana.

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 15 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.

While you will spend most of your time healing, do not forget that as a Paladin, one of your core strengths is your cooldowns. Lay on Hands can be a great panic button if someone is about to die, but also can be a powerful tank cooldown with Improved Lay on Hands. You will want to pair it with a Mana potion however, since it will drain all of your Mana when you use it. Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Protection can be extremely powerful utility cooldowns as well. Part of mastering Paladin is getting comfortable with using the correct cooldown for the correct situation, both to play defensively and to help others.