Pally Powers Pt. 1: Holy

So I've been beating around the bush too much. I've been making CA more of a WoW diary than an informational site about Paladins, as I had initially intended. I enjoy doing both, so I'm going to be doing both. Anything with the label "WoW Journal" will be just that. My WoW journal. My Epic flight form post, guild posts, things like that will fall here. Anything labeled "WoW Info" will be informational posts, intended to increase the knowledge about paladins to whomever happens to be reading this.

That being said, let's get some Info down. Pally Powers. Namely, the skills and abilities you as a paladin will have at level 70. I mentioned before that I wanted to do something like this, and I figure now is as good a time as any to do it. I will start this three-parter with the holy skills.

[Edit] Hey, look at that! I managed to create the post divider! Look!



HEALING SPELLS:

Holy Light Rank 11
840 Mana 40 yd range
2.5 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 2196 to 2446.

This spell is the paladin’s second strongest heal, save only for Lay on Hands. It is a relatively fast, hard healing, extremely mana-intensive heal, and is only truly useful in emergency situations where you need those huge numbers. Holy-specced paladins can buff this for higher crit, as well as for Light’s Grace; whenever you cast this spell, your next holy light spell will cost .5 seconds less, giving you 2-second HLs.

Flash of Light Rank 7
180 Mana 40 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 448 to 502.

This is the paladin’s main heal. Most of the time, it is their only heal. If you’re a raid paladin, this is often the only skill you’ll use. It has a very short cast time to heal for a decent amount, and is one of the most mana-efficient spells in the game. I’ve seen paladins go on for well over 10 minutes spamming nothing but this and not running out of mana.

Lay on Hands Rank 4
40 yd range
Instant 1 hr cooldown
Heals a friendly target for an amount equal to the Paladin's maximum health and restores 900 of their mana. Drains all of the Paladin's remaining mana when used.

This is a very unique skill. It depletes the paladin’s entire mana pool (be it 1500 mana or 0 mana) to heal his or her target for…well, you can read. It’s an emergency-only skill, obviously, with its one hour cooldown. If Prince is down to 8% life and you’re out of mana, you see the tank with a chunk of life from him, pop him a Lay on Hands, drink a pot (nub) and let the rest of the raid kill kill kill. Talented, you reduce the cooldown on LoH by 10/20 minutes, as well as increasing your target’s armor by 15/30% for 3 minutes.

Purify
6% of base Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast
Purifies the friendly target, removing 1 disease effect and 1 poison effect.

Purify is a very nice move, allowing the paladin to effectively remove two debuffs at one time for a moderate mana cost. This skill becomes obsolete, however, once you learn Cleanse.

Cleanse
6% of base Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast
Cleanses a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 magic effect.

Cleanse is Purify + magic. And it costs the same amount of mana. Extremely nice, giving the paladin one move to remove all debuffs save for physical and curses. Talk to your neighborhood druid about that.

Redemption Rank 5
64% of base Mana 30 yd range
10 sec cast
Brings a dead player back to life with 600 health and 800 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.

It’s a resurrection. It’s nice to have. It’s more expensive than the priest rez, but much less expensive as the shaman rez. It heals for less than the priest rez but the same amount as the shaman rez. Did Shamans get hosed? Reincarnation, anyone?

SEALS:

Seal of Righteousness Rank 9
260 Mana
Instant cast
Fills the Paladin with holy spirit for 30 sec, granting each melee attack an additional [cond(eq(HND,1),0.85 * (2610.43 * MWS / 100) + 0.03 * (MW + mw) / 2 - 1,1.2 * (2610.43 * MWS / 100) + 0.03 * (MW + mw) / 2 + 1)] Holy damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time.
Unleashing this Seal's energy will cause 208 to 228 Holy damage to an enemy.

SoR is a pretty important skill for both shockadins and tankadins (though some do opt for Seal of Vengeance). It adds steady, nonmitigated damage to every swing. That mathematical mumbo jumbo, simply put, means that you will deal more holy damage with each swing when using a slow weapon, as opposed to a fast one. This is to balance out the skill so that you deal roughly the same amount of damage no matter what weapon you use. “Unleashing this Seal’s energy” means that the said effect will occur when you cast Judgment, a retribution skill, on your enemy.

Seal of Light Rank 5
280 Mana
Instant cast
Fills the Paladin with divine light for 30 sec, giving each melee attack a chance to heal the Paladin for 133. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time.
Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy for 20 sec, granting melee attacks made against the judged enemy a chance of healing the attacker for 95. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.

One of the paladin’s lesser-used skills. It gives you a chance to regain life with each swing of your weapon. Judged, the effect is weakened and every person who attacks the mob can gain life. It is mainly used when you have a retribution paladin in the group as well as a few other paladins. The ret paladin can keep all judgments on the mob, so the healer paladin can quickly run in and judge this to give the tank a bit of extra healing.

Seal of Wisdom Rank 4
270 Mana
Instant cast
Fills the Paladin with divine wisdom for 30 sec, giving each melee attack a chance to restore 121 of the Paladin's mana. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time.
Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy for 20 sec, granting attacks and spells used against the judged enemy a chance to restore 74 mana to the attacker. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.

Seal of Light, only with mana. It’s more commonly used when soloing if the paladin has a small mana pool, but is less often used in raid situations, as only hunters and protection paladins can benefit from it (casters can wand to regain mana, but really, they should have the means to keep their mana up without sacrificing so much dps).

BLESSINGS:

Blessing of Wisdom Rank 7
150 Mana 30 yd range
Instant cast
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, restoring 41 mana every 5 seconds for 10 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.

Paladin buff of choice among healers and casters whose dps isn’t quite enough to pull agro from the tank. It’s simply marvelous, too. Only downside is it’s only a 10 minute buff. Expect to either rebuff everyone often or invest some money into Symbols of Kings.

Greater Blessing of Wisdom Rank 3
310 Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast
Reagents: Symbol of Kings
Gives all members of the raid or group that share the same class with the target the Greater Blessing of Wisdom, restoring 41 mana every 5 seconds for 30 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.

Blessing of Wisdom to each person of the class. It’s rather silly how they made paladin buffs, what with all the hybrids and such. At least they buffed the duration from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Blessing of Light Rank 4
180 Mana 30 yd range
Instant cast
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing the effects of Holy Light spells used on the target by up to 580 and the effects of Flash of Light spells used on the target by up to 185. Lasts 10 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.

This is a great buff for tanks with the majority of the heals coming from paladins. It’s often not used, however, when the tanks opt for either might or wisdom(pally tanks) or kings if you have it.

Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2
360 Mana 40 yd range
Instant cast
Reagents: Symbol of Kings
Gives all members of the raid or group that share the same class with the target the Greater Blessing of Light, increasing the effects of Holy Light spells used on the target by up to 580 and the effects of Flash of Light spells used on the target by up to 185. Lasts 30 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.

Not much more to say on this. It’s the same as BoL as far as buffing.

VS. UNDEAD AND DEMONS:

Exorcism Rank 7
340 Mana 30 yd range
Instant cast 15 sec cooldown
Causes 619 to 691 Holy damage to an Undead or Demon target.

A very cheap, hard hitting move directed toward undead and demons. As a shockadin or a holy paladin soloing, I consider it a free Holy Shock. Great for soloing these enemy types and Kara.

Holy Wrath Rank 3
825 Mana
2 sec cast 1 min cooldown
Sends bolts of holy power in all directions, causing 635 to 745 Holy damage to all Undead and Demon targets within 20 yds.

This is a hard skill to judge (haha pun, get it?). On one hand, it deals a lot of damage to undead and demons. On the other hand, it has a huge mana cost and a 2 second cast time. I’ve seen this as a prot paladin’s preferred way of pulling in Kara. It’s also nice for a ret pally on those ballroom dancer pulls in there. When soloing, it’s rather difficult for it to be worth the mana cost, as the only reason you would use it is if you had a bunch of undead or demon mobs pummeling you. However, trying to pull this off with a bunch of undead or demon mobs pummeling you will turn the 2 second cast time into a 6 second cast time, and by then it’s just not worth it. Maybe DS HW? I dunno. I don’t use this skill.

Turn Undead Rank 3
75 Mana 20 yd range
1.5 sec cast 30 sec cooldown
The targeted undead enemy will be compelled to flee for up to 20 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only one target can be turned at a time.

Another seldom-used skill in the arsenal of a paladin, and for good reason. While soloing, you fear your enemy and it will run away faster than you can keep up with it. And it may run into other mobs. In raids, you’ll only see it used in Kara, on moroes. If the hunter’s trap breaks early, you may pally fear them. It’s on a 30 second cooldown and only a 20 second duration, so you can’t pally cc like a lock can fear cc.

Sense Undead
Instant
Shows the location of all nearby undead on the minimap until cancelled. Only one type of tracking can be used at a time.

Not many paladins even have this skill, as it’s a quest reward. It’s pretty useless, in all honesty. However, completing the quest chain will grant you a nice mace or polearm.

MISCELLANEOUS SPELLS:

Consecration Rank 6
660 Mana
Instant cast 8 sec cooldown
Consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing 512 Holy damage over 8 sec to enemies who enter the area.

This skill sends out a radius around the paladin for eight seconds, dealing constant damage to enemies within it. It’s useful for pally tanks for agro gain, though its large mana costs means you won’t see it up constantly. It’s great to protect the paladin from rogue sap/cheap shot ( so long as you downrank to rank 1 so as not to waste all of your mana). It doesn’t deal a lot of damage to a single enemy, but if the paladin is the target of a lot of enemies, using it can really help.

Hammer of Wrath Rank 4
440 Mana 30 yd range
0.5 sec cast 6 sec cooldown
Hurls a hammer that strikes an enemy for 665 to 735 Holy damage. Only usable on enemies that have 20% or less health.

Ahh, paladin execute. It’s a great move, no doubt. In PvP and in soloing, it’s the finisher. In raids, you can spam it every six seconds for massive damage. It’s not listed, but the crit damage for this spell is doubled (whereas it’s usually 1.5x, I believe), so critting is especially nice.

Summon Warhorse Summon
100 Mana
3 sec cast
Summons a warhorse, which serves as a mount. Speed is increased by 60%.

Free mount FTW

Summon Charger Summon
150 Mana
3 sec cast
Summons a Charger, which serves as a mount. Speed is increased by 100%.

Not-so-free mount. You don’t need to spend the gold to train in epic land riding, but you do have to dish out a lot of gold while in the quest to get this beauty of a mount. You end up saving about 200 gold, which is nice, but it’s much more hastle and, with BC, it’s very difficult to find people willing to do the Pre-BC 60 instances you need to do in order to get it.

TALENTS:

Divine Favor
3% of base Mana
Instant cast 2 min cooldown
When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.

Need a big heal? Here it is. Blast your Divine Favor and push out a huge heal with your Flash of Light. Also great for shockadins, as the damage part of Holy Shock still triggers DF’s crit.

Holy Shock Rank 5
650 Mana 20 yd range
Instant cast 15 sec cooldown
Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 721 to 779 Holy damage to an enemy, or 913 to 987 healing to an ally.

A versatile skill, and an expensive one. It’s an instant cast heal, able to be used every 15 seconds. At the same time, it’s the paladin’s burst damage. Shockadins can make this skill hurt. A lot.

Divine Illumination
Instant 3 min cooldown
Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 sec.

A very nice move, especially when used in conjunction with Holy Light spamming for those emergency situations. Usable every 3 minutes, you can pop two or three of these in many raid bosses, effectively saving you a lot of mana.

Continue reading 'Pally Powers Pt. 1: Holy'

Follow Up 2:Shockadins

Told you I'm forgetful, didn't I?

Here are some suggested builds for the three types of paladin healers.

Raid Healer

These are pretty much the talents you're really going to want to get as a raid healer. In the holy tree, most of it is self-explainatory. Intellect, more heals, higher crit, etc etc etc. Improved Lay on Hands is good in the last moments of a boss battle and you have no mana and no way of getting more. It will heal your MT for the total of your life (anywhere between, say, 5000 and 8000 for Karazhan) with a chance to crit, and it gives a major armor buff of 30% for 2 minutes. Unyielding faith isn't particularly necessary, but is the best option to progress further into the tree. It could save the team when your other healers are running around in circles.

In the protection tree, you have improved devotion aura for your tanks (even if you have a paladin tank, they usually don't get this in favor of better talents), Guardian's favor for a reduced cooldown on an aggro drop, and Blessing of Kings. Toughness is a filler. Many healing specs I see opt for redoubt over Improved Devotion, which I never really understood. Maybe all of the other holy paladins I've played with were really pvp specced and I never knew.

With your remaining eight talent points, you can pretty much do whatever you want with them.If you look at my current spec (subject to change), I chose Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Pure of Heart, and Blessed Life. I'm...not sure why. Improved BoW is nice - I believe it gives about 8 extra mp5 - but the others are far less useful. Few enemies curse the healer and I can dispel diseases. Blessed Life isn't even worth having. I'm considering switching over my three Blessed Life points and two of my Pure of Heart points over to Improved Blessing of Might. Since we have two Paladin tanks and a Retadin, I'll be able to bless everybody with my improved blessings while they salv/king/etc.

PvP Healer

A pvp healer has all of the same healing abilities of a raid healer with the exception of improved LOH since that's not usable in arena. Where to spend those extra points is what you want to consider now. Unyielding faith is a must for just about any pvper, Pure of heart is a filler that can help against warlocks.

In the protection tree, redoubt is generally taken over Improved Devotion since you're going to want Concentration Aura up most of the time anyway. It's not to say that redoubt will be very useful since you can't block while casting, but if your team is at full health and you have a warrior coming at you, it's better than five wasted points. Toughness is the next choice as, since you're in a pvp setting, you are going to be taking damage. The more armor you have, the less damage you take (Also note that, even though it's generally accepted to downgrade from plate in a raid setting, you DO NOT want to do this in pvp). Guardian's favor would be nice for the increased Blessing of Freedom time, but lack of points makes it hard to take. Blessing of Kings is generally the preffered buff in pvp and Righteous Fury gives you 6% less damage taken from all sources. Shield Spec is a filler, though one that may help on occasion (I'm not sure whether or not it would be more adventageous to take 1 point in Anticipation instead). Improved Concentration Aura is a must with its ability to reduce silence/interrupts by 30%. Stoicism is another good talent for pvp, but a lack of talent points makes it tough to get.

Shockadin Build

This is Popov's build. Under the holy tree, he has just enough points to get him down to Holy Guidance. Only one semi-filler I can see is Light's Grace, which can't even really be called such, since it will greatly increase your ability to heal. The lack of Blessed Life is something I would consider, as I personally feel that any pvp paladin that can get their hands on this should. I would probably switch the 3 points from Light's Grace over to Blessed Life.

Under retribution, there's really not much choice here, I don't think. As a shocky, you're going to be judging and sealing as often as possible, so benediction is the choice here. You're going to want to keep wisdom up on yourself anyway, as your focus is magical damage, and you'll likely need the extra mana regen. Improved Crusader and Judgments is a no-brainer, it gives you a lot of extra damage. The parry would be nice, though you really don't have room to get it. Vindication is incredible. It lowers your enemy's...everything. Any pvp paladin speccing into ret wants this. Pursuit of Justice is nice, as the speed increase helps you stay with your opponent since staying in melee range is important, and the lowered chance to get hit with spells is always a plus. Spells always hurt. A lot. Your seal of choice is Seal of Righteousness, so SoComm isn't needed, and your white damage won't be very high, so Conviction isn't worth it. Eye for an Eye forces a spellcaster to take heavy damage damage when they crit you. And the best part is, you can heal through it. Crusade gives you 2% more damage. You don't want a third point in it, because that last talent point needs to go into Sanctity Aura, increasing your effective damage by 10%. Continue reading 'Follow Up 2:Shockadins'

Shockadins vs. Heal Specs

Meet Bellbell. She is going to be a shockadin. What does this mean? It means she is going to spec into the holy tree down to Holy Shock, and she's going to spec into the retribution tree down to Sanctity Aura. This means that she will be able to heal, as well as deal a great ammount of burst damage. Why, then, doesn't every Healer paladin spec into ret to get the dps as well as heals?

Really, there's not a whole lot of difference between a full holy specced paladin (pvp or pve)and a shockadin as far as healing goes. Both specs take the most important parts of the holy tree, save for spiritual focus and perhaps Light's Grace. The difference is where each of the specs puts their remaining 20-something points.

A shockadin needs to invest the rest of their points into the ret tree down to Sanctity Aura, which increases all holy damage by 10%. This is what makes a shockadin. On the way, there are many other useful talents for them, such as Vindication, Crusade, Improved Seal of The Crusader, and Improved Judgements. Factor in their holy side of the spectrum, are capable of both burst DPS and healing, In an instance, they are able to heal with only 35 or so talents in holy because really, you don't even need that. As for healing a heroic, it's certainly possible, granted you have the healing gear. In the instance of Karazhan, they would best be suited as a dps/emergency healer. Could they MH Kara? Potentially, but you would be in dire need of a healer to recruit one as a main healer (and s/he had better have great healing gear). Without spiritual focus, things might be a bit difficult in situations that deal unavoidable damage to them, and the lack of Aura Mastery means you would be 10 yards closer to the enemies, which could also pose a problem. As an offhealer, I won't dispose of the possibility of them being able to heal (though it would still be difficult for the same reasons).

As for a Holy Paladin, they have some holy talents that considerably improve their healability/survivability. Spiritual Focus and Aura Mastry, namely, as well as Divine Illumination for the long fights. Past that, what does a raid healer have that a shocky doesn't? The ability to better assist the raid as a whole. A shockadin would essentially have 21 wasted points as a healer. Raid healers spec into Prot, giving Improved Devotion Aura for the tank and Blessing of Kings for...well, everybody. As well, they get a 3 minute cooldown on Blessing of Protection, which saves many a trigger-happy caster many a time.

We have one more spec to look at, that of the PvP healer. Their godsends versus shockadins in a healing situation is Blessed Life, Improved Righteous Fury, and Improved Concentration Aura. These talents greatly improve the pvping paladin's ability to survive, and keep others alive in the process. As well, concentration aura is very nice for anybody with a casting bar. Their weakness is the same as that of a raid healer, though is more dire for a pvper: DPS. They still have a very limited ability to deal damage, which can cost you when you need to burn an opposing figure down fast.

Overall, I would say that the shockadin is ideal for Battlegrounds and 5v5s. In these situations, you will likely not be the prime target, giving you plenty of opportunity to heal when you need to and DPS when you don't. They should not be placed in a setting where they need to focus on healing unless those 20 points in ret don't need to be utilized, such as in an instance. Leave the raid healing to the raid healers and the pvp healing to the pvp healers. Continue reading 'Shockadins vs. Heal Specs'