The Light and How to Swing It: I leveled a Holy Paladin
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 10th 2007 at 10:35PM
Why, you ask, would anyone choose to level up as a Holy-spec Paladin? Doesn't it gimp you beyond belief for soloing? I've asked myself these questions more than once, but I'll try to explain just why I've stuck with it through the levels.
So why level a Holy Paladin? For my part, I enjoy healing. It's the role I like to play in an instance, and a Holy spec means that when I do hit up instances with my Paladin, I can give them the best healing I've got to offer. However, as most of you probably realize, most leveling up in the game takes place out of instances. So what, you ask, is there to do the rest of the time?
Paladins are known as extremely survivable -- neigh impossible to kill. And while Protection Paladins focus on becoming more durable, better tanks and Retribution Paladins focus on improving their damage output, I'd argue that Holy Paladins focus on the core concept of being unkillable.
Sure... my killing speed isn't all that. But I can outlast nearly any attacker. I can easily heal myself in combat (Spiritual Focus' 70% chance not to be interrupted by taking damage makes a huge difference), my heals hit harder (with Healing Light), my mana pool lasts longer (Illumination, even nerfed, does wonders, especially combined with Divine Favor and Holy Power), and if I ever do run out of mana -- I've got 20 minutes' less cooldown for Lay on Hands. Want to kill me? Go ahead and try -- I'll continue to whittle you down when you're well out of mana. At the same time, my Holy damage is improved with Improved Seal of Righteousness (not an excellent talent, but a good choice for leveling up if you're putting the points in Holy anyway, at least until you get Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Blood at level 64) and I get a (squee!) ranged attack with Holy Shock (great for pulling and finishing off runners).
So, how does a Holy Paladin fight?
- Be sure you're buffed up with Blessing of Wisdom (killing things with this build counts more on your mana pool than your attack power) and the aura of your preference. (I like Retribution Aura, but you may also appreciate Devotion Aura's enhanced survivability.)
- Pull with Holy Shock.
- Judge Crusader, bring up Righteousness and Judge whenever the cooldown is up.
- Patience, young grasshopper! Until you get to higher levels to snag talents like Holy Guidance and manage to stack some nice spell damage gear, your damage isn't going to be stellar, which means this is going to be slow.
- If you find yourself low on mana, bring up Seal of Wisdom and Judge.
- Heal thyself with Holy Light whenever you get to about half health.
- If you somehow run yourself out of mana and health, Lay on Hands!
- If it runs, toss out another Holy Shock (the cooldown should be up by then, and it's usually enough to finish off runners).
Is this the most efficient Paladin leveling build? No way! But I certainly enjoy my ability to heal others and keep myself alive against impossible odds. So what do I have to say for myself, and my ridiculously inefficient build? I'm having fun -- and at some point perhaps the build will become level-appropriate.
And don't worry -- next week you'll be back with WoW Insider's paladin experts at large, Elizabeth Wachowski and Robin Torres!
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
eric Jul 11th 2007 1:06AM
I've used Judgement for ranged pulls when at low levels - am I insane?
xcb Jul 11th 2007 12:44AM
I, too, have used judgment for pulling. But I'm a n00b. My main and only is a lvl50 Pali who I just respec'd.
I was holy for the entirety of the trip, but after running ZF about 5 times, Maraudon about 5 times, Sunken Temple was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Healing in any capacity is mostly a thankless profession. It was extremely irritating to watch people - in the middle of the atop-the-pyramid battle thing in ZF - having CONVERSATIONS. And occasionally, in the middle of their conversation, to type rubbish like "Heal pet."
I began telling people - If you tell me to heal you, you're not getting healed. The only reason you haven't been healed is because I'm healing someone else.
Grr.
Prot is nice for soloing. Aggroing 3 zombies in Western Plaguelands and not having to worry about anything is pleasant.
Jeff Jul 11th 2007 1:10AM
I've leveled 2 pallies to ~40 pure holy. I used blacksmith armor so that i could melee well to solo and used jewelry and enchants for int.
Besides being able to run a lot of instances, it's easy to find people to do group quests and occasionally partner to do most quests in a zone.
By 40 though, it just gets too slow without prot imo unless you really like instances.
Andrew Herron Jul 11th 2007 1:18AM
I also love healing - I leveled holy all the way from 1 to 70. It was painful getting to 60; I started at release and it took a verrry long time.
60 to 70 was much better, by TBC we had decent spell dmg stats / gear and I was pulling enough DPS to make it interesting.
Emily Jul 11th 2007 1:26AM
I have a lvl 70 Pally. I lvlled with ret and got increasingly frustrated with the kind of shitty DPS ret pallys do.
Don't get me wrong, anyone who've seen Akcope play will know rets do massive damage. Enough to top Gruul raid dps even. And enough to kill clothies in 2 blows and top BG dps as well. But one big problems with Pallys are they are VERY dependent on gear. More so than many other hybrid classes like druids etc.
So anyway, I finally got pissed and switched to holy. Wow and I started killing faster. I went for a fairly fast 1H with shield(to aid stacking Vengence), and gear with +spell dmg and int. I started killing MUCH faster than I did when I was ret. More importantly, the actual process itself was much more interesting. And yes, a bigger mana pool to do damage AND heal means I become more survivable. Honestly, to roll a Holy-Shockadin is not that bad. Can't count the amount of times in BGs when someone thinks "healadin! kill!" turns out to be their biggest mistake. And with my holy shock typically hitting for 900 now and critting for about 1.3k, it is a very nice way to finish players off.
The downside? Healing in instances. Although, lets face it. Most palas gotta heal ANYWAY. Ok prots might tank, but there're more holy and rets combined, so not healing is not really an option. In my opinion, healing is about the MOST stressful and thankless job in an instance, with only tanking perhaps being on par in terms of responsibility and stressfulness. Nobody thanks u for keeping them alive normally, the only time u get any mention is when u keep them alive thru an almost certain wipe. Its like, keeping people alive is the norm, which makes palas very taken for granted. Add to that things like what xcb mentioned... u can see how its kinda shitty for palas when it comes to choosing a tree. Do u want stress(healing,holy), stress(tanking,prot) or unwanted(dps,ret)?
The choice, my friend, is yours. And oh, don't ask me why I rolled a pala. I've always thought palas were cool, having played WC2 and WoW is my 1st MMORPG. Next time I will read up on all character classes in very fine detail b4 rolling anything.
DeanSpeedway Jul 11th 2007 2:55AM
Am currently at lvl 36 (alt) holy spec Paladin (Blood Elf). Haven't run any instances since SFK when I was the tank (gulp!). The lack of DPS/ killing power is offset by the almost total survivability. You just need to be patient in each fight and not be afraid of bubbling if it all goes wrong.
It does feel that you have to do every little thing exactly right in a given situation. One wrong move (like letting a runner reach adds) and splat- corpse run for me. It seems that you have much less margin for error than say a warrior or hunter (i have no experience of squishies). But I sometimes team up for PvE questing with a Balance Druid and while we ain't too dangerous it takes a lot to kill us then!
DontLetsStart Jul 11th 2007 3:12AM
"Its like, keeping people alive is the norm"
I know I certainly hope to stay alive during my instance runs. If dying is the norm, the group probably isn't going very well. ;)
Sylvina Jul 11th 2007 3:56AM
I went from 1-70 as Holy too, and I used whatever weapons I could. Currently I use a shield without a spike but for the armor since I like to AoE farm. As long as the mob doesn't have a shield slam/silence/whatever, you can put Concentration Aura on and just heal yourself while you pop Divine Illumination and all consecrate spam/spam all your other cooldowns. That +20% crit Exorcism and -10% cost on Consecration is awesome, especially in Outland where everything is a Demon or Undead 70% of the time. It makes life ridiculously easy, also, don't be afraid of 'Elemental Shaman' gear, if you're packing a good shield you'll still be at 10k+ armor and rocking out ridiculous healing/mana/etc. Just focus on piles of +crit with your spell damage and you'll be good to go.
Brdley Jul 11th 2007 4:12AM
I levelled my pally to 60, as Retribution. Of course, this was pre-TBC, when Ret was less of a complete joke than it is now.
At 61, out of sheer frustration, I respecced Holy, and it was an epiphany. After stacking a bit of +spell damage (easy enough to do with the nice quest reward itemization in Outland), my damage actually increased over what it was as Ret. Plus, I can walk into an instance and heal as well as any healing class in the game.
So now, at 70, I can easily get into any instance I want (healers are always in demand), and can still do enough damage (and stay alive) well enough to quest and farm with no issue. OK, I'd rather kill than heal in an instance (my main is a warlock), but it is nice to be needed. And healing is a kinda a nice change of pace from killing. Now and then, anyway. :)
Apollon Jul 11th 2007 5:39AM
I'm use to playing glass cannon clothies so when I rolled a Pally it was incredibly hard to get use to. I found leveling to be painfully slow (currently 65 right now). But I noticed a big difference when I respeced from Prot to Holy and began to kill things faster, I guess because the Shockadin build suits my playstyle better.
My only complaint is that dealing damage as a Holy Pally drains your mana really quickly. I'd often have to sit and drink after one or two mobs. Anyone have advice on mana conservation or is this just something Holy Pallys have to deal with?
Celf Jul 11th 2007 6:21AM
Out of the 8 Pallies in my guild when TBC came out, I was the only one who didn't respec to Retri, and I was the first to 70. It didn't matter that I sucked on my own, I was the only pure healer in the guild and EVERYONE wanted to run instances with me. I didn't have time to solo.
Holy is also a pretty good spell damage spec, but the trick is not to rush things when soloing. Take your time, put on some calming music, and maybe bring a book. You'll be at it for a while.
Adese Jul 11th 2007 7:46AM
@10
The best thing I can suggest is to keep JoW up on whatever you're targeting all the time - that gives you quite a bit of mana over time, and really helps your longevity. Also, if you are getting low on mana, on the next mob put up JoW and use SoW - it will take longer to kill it, but your mana will be full before it's dead, and you don't have to worry about wasting time to drink.
Starfury Jul 11th 2007 8:24AM
I find it's best to just judge crusader so the mob dies faster. I'm not sure what I was specced from 1-60 as that was so long ago, but I've found 60-68 so far to be just fine as Holy, as the necessary gear to make the spec really work is there.
As far as mana conservation, if you're running OOM alot maybe try using holy shock less. You'll kill slower and lose more health per mob killed but when you get low you can just cast a divine favor and holy light and go right back to it.
Station Jul 11th 2007 8:48AM
I specced shockadin and I found it was great for DPS as well as decent healing. First get 10 in ret to get Seal of Command with a huge, slow 2h. Then spec down in holy until you get holy shock, you are now instant pvp/damage/huge2h. Its a great spec, plus you can sort of solo with some healing power.
Angael Jul 11th 2007 8:55AM
Its amazing how with 70% spell interuption avoidance and improved concentration aura (another 20%), I manage to only get a heal off 5% of the time against rogues...
Faromere Jul 11th 2007 10:33AM
70 holy shockadin here, i found that going for any plate gear at the AH with the 'of the elder' would give additional mana regen. from 62-70 anytime I saw any of that gear i would swipe it up even if it was several levels above me. It really helped on the mana pool.
Starfury Jul 11th 2007 9:53AM
@15 Thats because the talent is only reducing the chance for spell pushback from damage, not for actual interrupts like kick and counterspell.
FireStar Jul 11th 2007 9:54AM
why does it say elizabeth picked protection, but "i picked holy" and the article says it's from elizabeth?
Palani Jul 17th 2007 1:22PM
Do not fret you are not alone, I levelled my Paladin 1-70 as holy. When you get to outland things become easier. It's not the fastest but I chose to heal so I'll heal.
Quills Jul 11th 2007 10:27AM
The other Elizabeth, I imagine. They have two of them at this site.