Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Playstyle
    • 4.1. Single Target / Tank Healing
    • 4.2. Raid Healing
  • 5. Cooldown Usage
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Utility
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation / Playstyle
    • 1.1. Single Target / Tank Healing
    • 1.2. Raid Healing
    • 1.3. 5-Man Healing
    • 1.4. A Word on Light of the Martyr
  • 2. Cooldown Usage
  • 3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Paladin
    • 3.1. Mastery: Lightbringer
    • 3.2. Infusion of Light
    • 3.3. Artifact Ability
    • 3.4. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
      • 3.4.1. Tier 1 Talents
      • 3.4.2. Tier 2 Talents
      • 3.4.3. Tier 5 Talents
      • 3.4.4. Tier 6 Talents
      • 3.4.5. Tier 7 Talents
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Paladins
      • 1.1.1. Blessing Mouseover Macros
      • 1.1.2. Lay on Hands Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.3. Divine Shield
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Holy Paladins
      • 1.2.1. Beacon of Light Mouseover Macro
      • 1.2.2. Mouseover Cleanse Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Paladins
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.6. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.7. Raeli's Spell Announcer
      • 2.1.8. Exorsus Raid Tools
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Holy Paladins
      • 2.2.1. Grid and GridClickSets
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Trinkets
  • 3. Tier 21 Set Bonuses
  • 4. Legendary Items
    • 4.1. Raiding
    • 4.2. Mythic+
  • 5. Loot Competition
  • 6. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Holy Paladin core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Holy Paladin.

The other pages of our Holy Paladin guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Rhyno, a Holy Paladin moderator from the Hammer of Wrath Discord channel and a member of the Convert to Raid superguild on Aerie Peak-US.

1. Rotation / Playstyle

Healing as a Holy Paladin is, for the most part, all about using the correct spells for the specific circumstances in which you find yourself, particularly with regard to how many raid members are taking damage, how much damage they are taking, where they are located, and what spells you have available.

1.1. Single Target / Tank Healing

Healing a single target is a matter of performing a few straightforward tasks.

• Always keep Beacon of Light on the target.
• Use Holy Shock on them on cooldown.
• Use Bestow Faith on them on cooldown.
• Use Holy Light for low damage, and add Flash of Light for higher damage as needed.

Naturally, if the target is not taking enough damage to justify using all of the above on them, you should instead use the spells to heal other raid members as needed.

In case you are forced to move and Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr to heal your target if they are at risk of dying (as long as it does not put you at risk to do so).

1.2. Raid Healing

To heal raid damage, make use of your spells as follows.

• Keep Beacon of Light on the tank or on another target who is taking constant damage.
• Use Holy Shock on cooldown.
• Make sure to use Judgment on the target on cooldown, to keep maximum uptime on the debuff it applies.
• Use Light of Dawn on cooldown, assuming the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it.
• Use Holy Prism on cooldown, assuming the raid is sufficiently damaged to justify it.
• Use Holy Light if the damage is low enough, or Flash of Light otherwise.

As in the case of single target healing, if you are forced to move and Holy Shock is on cooldown, you can also make use of Light of the Martyr to heal a target, but we do not recommend using this spell otherwise.

Moreover, in a raid healing situation, you will have to make correct use of the Beacon of the Lightbringer (assuming you choose this talent). The idea is that Beacon of the Lightbringer causes your Mastery ( Mastery: Lightbringer) to increase your healing based on the target's proximity either to you or to your Beacon of Light target. The result is that ideally, you should place the Beacon of Light on a tank (who is next to the melee group), and position yourself with the ranged group. This way, anyone you heal should benefit from a high healing increase from your Mastery.

1.3. 5-Man Healing

5-man healing is very similar to single target healing, with the exception that you will sometimes find uses for Light of Dawn, and that if you have the Beacon of Virtue talent, you should use it when multiple party members are taking damage.

1.4. A Word on Light of the Martyr

Light of the Martyr is an instant cast spell that heals your target and damages you for 50% of the healing amount. It cannot be cast on yourself and it does not trigger healing on your Beacon of Light target.

Outside of Holy Shock or Lay on Hands, Light of the Martyr is the largest heal you can cast on a single target. Due to the damage it causes to yourself, and the fact it does not transfer healing to beacons, its net total healing is quite poor. But because of the large up-front heal to the target, it is a potent life-saving tool.

Generally, this spell should be used when a player requires an emergency heal and Holy Shock is on cooldown and Flash of Light is too slow. But never use Light of the Martyr if your health or incoming mechanics may cause you to die from the additional damage the spell inflicts on you.

2. Cooldown Usage

As a Holy Paladin, you have several healing cooldowns. You should use them as we explain below:

• Avenging Wrath increases your healing done by 35% for 20 seconds, and also increases your critical strike chance by 20% for the same duration. It is very useful during periods of high sustained damage.
• Lay on Hands should be used to save dying raid members, especially tanks.
• Blessing of Sacrifice lasts 12 seconds, transferring 30% of the damage taken by your target to you. The effect is automatically canceled if the transferred damage would cause you to fall below 20% health. This cooldown is excellent for reducing the damage taken by the tank, or other raid members. Be cautious, however, because Blessing of Sacrifice can be dangerous to your own life if used without a damage reduction cooldown such as Divine Protection or Divine Shield, or when simultaneous raid damage independently threatens your life such that the additional damage taken from Blessing of Sacrifice can lead to your death.
• Aura Mastery empowers your chosen aura, increasing its range to 40 yards and also improving its efficiency. It is a raid cooldown, and it should be used at a time designated by your raid leader. Especially with the Protection of Tyr Artifact trait, Aura Mastery becomes a very powerful raid cooldown.
• Blessing of Protection can be used to clear harmful physical damage debuffs and bleeds from the target. Be mindful of the fact that bosses will not attack targets affected by Blessing of Protection, though, so only cast it on the current tank if the off-tank is prepared to take over.
• Blessing of Freedom removes movement-impairing effects from the targeted raid member, which can be very useful in certain situations.
• Tyr's Deliverance should be used during periods of moderate to high raid damage.

You also gain various abilities from your talents. We cover these in a later section.

3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Paladin

The above information should be sufficient to allow you to play a Holy Paladin at a very high level. There are only a few more details that you need to understand to further improve your performance.

3.1. Mastery: Lightbringer

Mastery: Lightbringer increases your healing to targets the closer they are to your position. Specifically, your healing is maximised on targets that are within 10 yards of you, and it decreases the farther away they are from then on.

3.2. Infusion of Light

Infusion of Light causes your Holy Shock critical strikes to reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light by 1.5 seconds or to increase the healing of your next Flash of Light by 50%.

Typically, it is best to use Infusion of Light procs on Flash of Light, assuming that your Mana can handle it and that the healing will not be wasted as overhealing.

3.3. Artifact Ability

Tyr's Deliverance heals a random injured ally who is within 15 yards of you, every second for 15 seconds. Each time a player is healed by Tyr's Deliverance, they also receive a 10-second buff that increases the healing they receive from your Holy Light and Flash of Light spells by 20%.

Essentially, you should use this whenever there is raid damage, provided that you are within 15 yards of your raid.

3.4. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents

3.4.1. Tier 1 Talents

Bestow Faith should be used on cooldown, ideally on the tank. You can also use it on another player, provided you can be sure that they will need healing when Bestow Faith expires (for example, if they are affected by some debuff that is damaging them).

You need to make sure to cast Bestow Faith before the player actually needs the healing, since it operates on a delay. This will also help to minimise overhealing done by the ability, since it will be harder for other healers to top off the target before Bestow Faith finishes.

Light's Hammer should be used during AoE raid damage.

3.4.2. Tier 2 Talents

Divine Steed should simply be used whenever you need the movement speed boost.

Rule of Law works mainly to boost your healing on targets that are farther away from you than 10 yards, so you should use it when you need to heal such targets. It can also be helpful when you want to heal someone who is out of your maximum range. Note that it also increases the range of Light of Dawn, so using it before a Light of Dawn cast can be a good practice.

3.4.3. Tier 5 Talents

Holy Avenger should be treated as a healing cooldown. Simply use it during a time of intense damage.

Divine Purpose procs will simply be used passively. You should only make sure to use them up before they expire, so that they are not wasted.

Holy Prism should be cast on the boss, or another enemy target that is near to raid members. This can be especially useful when the boss or an add has an aura that damages nearby players.

3.4.4. Tier 6 Talents

Sanctified Wrath increases the duration of your Avenging Wrath, an effect that occurs passively and does not concern you except that your cooldown will last longer. You should also make sure to use Holy Shock on cooldown while Avenging Wrath is active.

If you have taken Judgment of Light, simply make sure to use your Judgment on the boss on cooldown, to keep maximum uptime on the debuff it applies.

3.4.5. Tier 7 Talents

Beacon of Faith should be used on another target (other than the Beacon of Light target) that is taking a lot of damage, such as on the other tank. When using Beacon of Faith, you should position yourself in the melee group.

Beacon of the Lightbringer and Beacon of Virtue usage has been amply described at the start of this guide.

4. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 15 Oct. 2017: Updated two mentions related to usage of Judgment of Light.
• 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated various areas of the page with information from new reviewer.
• 28 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 06 Nov. 2016: Revamped the Light of the Martyr section and updated a few other parts of the page (Blessing of Sacrifice and Aura Mastery usage, Infusion of Light usage).
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Expanded on the mentions about Light of the Martyr, and fixed a small mistake that claimed that Divine Purpose procs could be overwritten.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Added mentions of Light of the Martyr.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.