Season of Discovery Holy Paladin Healer Leveling
Welcome to our leveling guide for Holy Paladin Healer. Here, you will learn how to efficiently level your Paladin in Classic - Season of Discovery.
Overview
Paladin is one of three classes that can play every role, with Holy being
their healing specialization. Holy Paladin is an incredible companion for
any kind of group content, be that duo leveling or 5-man dungeon grinding. Paladin provides unique
buffs in the form of auras and blessings that help maximize efficiency in a group setting while also
providing some of the best single target healing and consistent AoE damage via Consecration.
If you intend on solo leveling, it is recommended that you consider playing Retribution which is much faster.
Holy Paladin Healer Talents

The talent build recommended above focusing on maximizing your personal survivability
and Healing output as most people planning to level in a Healing specialization are often
grouped with another player. The talent build above will enable you and your partner(s) to
pull more mobs due to the emphasis on bonus healing and powerful tools to regenerate mana and
limit down time. If you do find yourself solo leveling as Holy, consider putting a point into Consecration
to add some AoE damage to your relatively limited damage arsenal.
Healing Rotation
Healing does not necessarily have a rotation, but rather a constantly changing
list of priorities. As such you must be always ready to handle different situations as they
occur. Holy Paladin has two primary healing abilities, Holy Light
and
Flash of Light.
Holy Light is a bigger, slower heal that costs considerably
more Mana, while
Flash of Light is a smaller, faster heal that is relatively inexpensive.
Which ability you use depends largely on the situation at hand, but you will primarily be casting
Flash of Light.
In a situation where you need a large single-target heal or are just topping someone off out of combat you should
use
Holy Light.
Once you have reached level 40 you can talent into Holy Shock, an instant
cast that either heals an ally or deals damage to an enemy. This is incredibly inefficient, but in an emergency
or on the move this should be used.
Leveling Runes
- Chest —
Divine Storm
- Hands —
Crusader Strike
- Pants —
Divine Sacrifice
- Waist —
Sheath of Light
- Feet —
Sacred Shield
- Helm —
Light's Grace
- Wrist —
Purifying Power
- Cloak ‐
Divine Light
Divine Storm is a great way to deal damage to multiple targets while providing a small amount
of healing as well, though your primary focus is Healing. Most of the content available
while leveling does so little damage that you will find yourself with the opportunity to weave in some damaging
abilities.
Crusader Strike, much like
Divine Storm, should be used if you find yourself with downtime
to deal some additional damage.
Crusader Strike deals damage and returns 5%
of your maximum Mana when used.
Exorcist allows you to cast
Exorcism on any kind of enemy, adding another damaging button.
Most of the Runes found in the leg slot are very specific niche situation utility, whereas this is another button
you will be able to consistently use.
Sheath of Light increases the potency of both your damaging abilities and heals in exchange for
melee attacking once a minute.
Sacred Shield provides a small amount of mitigation and synergizes incredibly well with
Flash of Light
which will likely be your most frequently cast healing spell.
Light's Grace is the default choice as it reduces the cast time of your
Holy Light ability.
If you find yourself talented into
Consecration and have time to cast it,
Wrath will
allow you to deal even more damage.
Purifying Power reduces the cooldown of your
Exorcism ability by 50%, greatly increasing
your possible damage output and allowing you to use your
Holy Wrath ability against all mob types.
Divine Light offers you extra healing while leveling which can be valuable in both solo and group content thanks to the absorb shield.
If you are unsure where to find these Runes or are just curious what other options may be available, feel free to check out our Paladin Rune guide listed included below to get a better idea of how to plan this all out in your leveling journey.
Holy Paladin Leveling Stats
Gear while leveling as a Holy Paladin is largely focused on maximizing your Holy Damage and minimizing your downtime. Holy Paladin damage is very low, and as such we are not particularly focused on trying to lower kill speeds, but more so maximizing uptime. You won't have many items that increase just your Holy damage, so keep an eye out for items that increase spell damage.
- Holy Damage;
- Spirit;
- Intellect;
- Stamina;
- Strength.
Professions
Leveling Professions while leveling can slow down your time if you are in a rush to max level however, working towards leveling them while you are out in the level appropriate zone will generally save you more time in the long run if you level as you go, this is especially true with Gathering professions such as Herbalism, Skinning and Mining. These can be used both to create supplies for the crafting profession of your choosing or simply to supplement your income by selling the material on the Auction House to help pay for things like new abilities and even a mount at level 40.
First Aid is incredible even as a class that can self heal the fact that you can quickly heal yourself at no mana cost can sometimes be the difference between surviving an encounter or dying.
Changelog
- 09 Jul. 2024: Updated for Phase 4.
- 30 Mar. 2024: Updated for Phase 3.
- 11 Feb. 2024: Updated for Phase 2.
- 16 Dec. 2023: Guide updated.
More Classic Paladin Guides
More Season of Discovery Class Guides
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Reputation Guides

This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, who plays healer in Liquid. He is a Templar in the Paladin class discord. You can reach him on Twitter and watch him stream on Twitch.
- Season of Discovery Hotfixes: March 4th
- Nightmare Dragons Update: March 4th
- Guild Reputation Set To Neutral Bug in Cata Classing Being Worked On
- Season of Discovery and Cataclysm Classic Hotfixes: February 21st
- New Cataclysm Classic Valor Cap Set to Week 2 Due to Bug
- Season of Discovery Naxxramas Soft Reset Issue Fix and Warning
- Cataclysm Classic: Hour of Twilight Is Now Live!
- Currency Conversions, New Caps and Ways of Acquiring Them Coming With Hour of Twilight Patch