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'

Follow up: Shockadins

This is a video found of Popov of Malygos. He is a shockadin. And he kicks ass. Continue reading 'Follow up: 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'