Holy 3.3.5 PVE Heal
Introduction
Holy paladin is one of the best healing classes in this expansion and the best tank healing class without any doubt. It can never run out of mana with correct itemization and can always cast non-stop. Holy paladins have many utilities and a really useful class to bring it to all the raids.
Talent
Option 1
You would always want to use this talent to maximize your healing. Normally with a good raid setup this is the BEST ever talent for 25 raids. For some 10 setups and 25 raids without a protection paladin you would want to use the Option 2 talent below.
Option 2
This tree includes more supportive talents (Divine Sacrifice, Guardian's Favor, Blessed Hands, Improved Blessing of Might) which is really good for 10 raids and badly composed 25 raids.
Glyphs
Major Glyphs:
- Glyph of Holy Light : Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 8 yards of the initial target.
- Glyph of Seal of Wisdom : While Seal of Wisdom is active, the cost of your healing spells is reduced by 5%.
- Glyph of Beacon of Light : Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.
Minor Glyph:
- Glyph of Lay on Hands : Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min.
- Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom : Increases the duration of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 20 min when cast on yourself.
- Glyph of the Wise : Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.
Enchants
Head - Arcanum of Burning Mysteries : +30 spell power +20 crit ( mp5 has more value, this one gives simply much more crit)
Shoulder - Greater Inscription of the Storm : +24 spell power +15 crit
Option 2 : Greater Inscription of the Crag : +24 spell power +8mp5
Cloak - Greater Speed : +23haste
Chest - Powerful Stats : +10 all stats
Bracers - Exceptional Intellect : +16 intellect
Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower : +28 spell power
Waist - Eternal Belt Buckle : +1 belt socket
Legs - Sapphire Spellthread : +50 spell power +30 stamina ( spirit legs enchants has no point since you get nothing out os spirit, stamina is atleast survivability)
Boots - Icewalker +12 hit +12crit
Option 2: Greater Vitality : +7mp5/+7hp5
One-handed - Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower +63 spell power
Option 2: Major Intellect : +30 intellect
Shield - Greater Intellect : +25 intellect
Gems
Meta - Insightful Earthshiege Diamond : +21 Intellect and Chance to restore mana on spellcast.
Red - Brilliant King's Amber : +20 intellect
Yellow - Brilliant King's Amber : +20 intellect
Blue - Brilliant King's Amber : +20 intellect
You want to use Nightmare Tear +10 all stats to activate your Meta Gem (try to use it to gain the most Spell Power from socket bonus)
Stat Priorities
(I will give you stat values @BiS Gear to do some math at gemming and gear choices^^)
1. Intellect (Hands down your best stat.) (Outstandingly Highest Value: 6.42)
- gives you +spell power from talent
- gives you crit
- gives you mana regen from Divine Plea
- flat mana pool
2. Haste - Soft cap is 676, but to start ICC you would want to have at least about 800, in end game gear you will have 1100+ Haste) (Value: 4.83)
3. Mana/5 sec (Yes, this is over crit, you gain a LOT of crit from intellect) (Value: 4.39)
4. Spell Power (good stat in a flat form, too) (Value: 4.34)
5. Crit (Still really good stat, most of your gear will have crit on it) (Value: 3.89)
Professions
1. Jewelcrafting - 42 intellect from big gems.
2. Blacksmithing - 40 intellect from extra 2 gem socket.
These are the best options. Otherwise you can choose any profession that gives you spell power.
Best in Slot Gear
Head - Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece
Neck - Blood Queen's Crimson Choker
Shoulders - Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders
Cloak - Cloak of Burning Dusk
Chest - Rot-Resistant Breastplate
Bracers - Bracers of Fiery Night
Gloves - Fallen Lord's Handguard
Waist - Split Shape Belt
Legs - Rippling Flesh Kilt or Kilt of Untreated Wounds (Yes these are the best, not the haste hit 277 one from Fester 25HC. Simple math here. Crit has the lowest value but not too low it's enough to make these leggings better than the one with 1 useless stat.)
Boots - Foreshadow Steps
Ring1 - Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom
Ring2 - Ring of Phased Regeneration
Trinket1 - Talisman of Resurgence
Trinket 2 - Pandora's Plea
Trinket3 (option) - Meteorite Crystal
Weapon - Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings / Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony / Royal Scepter of Terenas II
Shield - Bulwark of Smouldering Steel
Libram - Libram of Renewal / Libram of Veracity ( Use Libram of Veracity on Dreamwalker Valithria and really quick fights)
(Unfortunately Blizzard thought it's fine to give such a small amount of mana/5 sec on the mail haste+mana/5 sec chest and gloves that by stat weights in ICC end gear they are simply worse than these plate ones on the list ^^)
My trinket choice of Talisman of Resurgence + Pandora's Plea may need some explanation:
Talisman of Resurgence works as a pretty good CD and also gives a great amount of intellect that is your main stat by far. This is an easy choice, you are in control of using it. If you know bossfights well you know when to use this as a "little CD".
Pandora's Plea's great amount of intellect. It's great amount of proc can be used well with any CD tracker. You might not need to use any other CD on many fights if you're using for instance the Heatsink addon that shows you the iCD of your trinkets. You can combo it with a Divine Plea sometimes (when the raid damage or tank damage is normal) and still have enough healing output without using any heal-increasing CD! That's actually a big deal.
BUT!!! For this combo of trinkets you have to know every boss mechanics (ofc lol), keep an eye on and feel the melee swing timer of the bosses, track the parry-haste mechanic... So basically you have to be good to know when you have time to hit the boss to gain back some mana. In a good group tho you should not really have problem with mana with these trinkets either.
Best in Slot Gear
This is the gear you would want to use
Gameplay
Use Seal of Wisdom.
Use Potion of Wild Magic (prepotion) then Runic Mana Potion later when needed, if not needed use Potion of Speed or Potion of Wild Magic depending on the type of the fight.
Use Flask of Distilled Wisdom.
You should have a 100% uptime of Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield on tanks (use Sacred Shield on tank that is not a protection paladin). Also Judgement of Light should have a 100% uptime on the boss, and on fights (like Professor Putricide) you should use Judgement of Light on adds that the raid is DPS'ing.
Ideally you should use Holy Light on the tanks, with a 10% of Holy Shock usage on emergency ( cast just at the end of a Holy Light to save a GCD) and you should keep Flash of Light-ing the target with Sacred Shield with a 31% uptime (very ideally). On Holy Shock crits you gain Infusion of Light which you would use with a Holy Light afterwards, only use instant Flash of Light with it in emergency situations (should be really rare).
Use CD's like Avenging Wrath when you are in need of mana and use Divine Plea on it. If you need more healing because the raid / tank seems to / going to take more damage use Divine Illumination. Also if you have Avenging Wrath on CD you can use Divine Illumination + Divine Plea combo to gain mana. Use your trinket Talisman of Resurgence when the raid damage or tanks damage taken is going up a bit.
On most of the fights you can just stand in the melee group to be able to gain some mana when you just can through the fight by hitting the boss with melee hits (and use Shield of Righteousness, too to increase the chance of gaining mana).
On Valithria Dreamwalker use Seal of Light and Glyph of Seal of Light, also ask for Focus Magic, use Potion of Wild Magic x2, Libram of Veracity, Flask of the Frost Wyrm, Pandora's Plea with Talisman of Resurgence, ask your Holy Priest (if you have one) to use Guardian Spirit on the boss when you use your "CD macro" (which should be a special ALL-IN-ONE macro with all your CD's in it), ask for your Discipline Priest to give you Power Infusion, ask for Amplify Magic on Valithria Dreamwalker and Heal anyone with any Healing increasing ability (like warlock with Demon Armor (there's even talent for it for some extra healing) or assassination rogue with Quick Recovery etc... and they should be buffed with Amplify Magic, too, and ask your heal target to stand right under the boss for the whole fight to benefit more from Glyph of Holy Light !!! ) and use Beacon of Light on Valithria Dreamwalker.
The most important about ANY healer is trying to predict what will happen next. Watch boss mechanic timers, try to watch what are people doing in your group (if they unstoppably run towards fire just start casting a Holy Light on him already :D) and kinda try to see into the future with mana management in your group.