Downranking Holy Light
by Chris Jahosky 
Aug 17th 2007 at 7:00PM
Ever since Blizzard changed the spell coefficient of downranked heals a few patches back, I've been wary of downranking. However, I've been going into fights lately that require more efficiency, and sometimes larger heals than Flash of Light can provide. As a responsible healer with respectable gear, it is my duty to find a solution to this problem.
The first thing that came to mind was how to achieve mana efficiency when using my larger heals. As a Paladin, for most of my healing life Flash of Light has been all that's required, with the occasional Holy Light thrown out in emergencies.
After doing some research, I found that downranking Holy Light is the answer. In most instances, a max rank Flash of Light will do, but now and then I throw in a Holy Light Rank 5, which has a slightly lower effective mana cost, and will allow me to keep the Light's Grace buff active in case I need to throw out a big heal quickly.
I've been experimenting with various ranks to see which ones work best for me, but it is definitely something to consider once you reach a certain amount of +healing.
Salud over at The Holy Light posted a great article on downranking a little while back that's well worth checking out if you're interested!
The first thing that came to mind was how to achieve mana efficiency when using my larger heals. As a Paladin, for most of my healing life Flash of Light has been all that's required, with the occasional Holy Light thrown out in emergencies.
After doing some research, I found that downranking Holy Light is the answer. In most instances, a max rank Flash of Light will do, but now and then I throw in a Holy Light Rank 5, which has a slightly lower effective mana cost, and will allow me to keep the Light's Grace buff active in case I need to throw out a big heal quickly.
I've been experimenting with various ranks to see which ones work best for me, but it is definitely something to consider once you reach a certain amount of +healing.
Salud over at The Holy Light posted a great article on downranking a little while back that's well worth checking out if you're interested!
Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dekulink Aug 17th 2007 8:25PM
Speaking of which, a Guildie and I were discussing the mana efficiency of Flash of Light and Holy Light. While many people say Flash of Light is better for mana, we were crunching some numbers and found that in almost every case (without overhealing) Holy Light is more mana efficient.
It'd be interesting to see you guys write an article on this. >_>
Mainstay Aug 17th 2007 8:35PM
@1 Mana to Heal is always more efficient on your big heals, unfortunately the mana cost is so high that I've found that generally you shouldn't need all that many of your biggest heals to keep the tank up (unless they have really crappy gear or the encounter is a little too tough for their current gear).
I actually rarely use my maximum Holy Light except as a last resort. I use Holy Light (rank 1) at the beginning of a fight to get the Light's Grace buff, then I use rank 5 or rank 6 to keep it active (unless I cast a big heal during the duration of the buff} Rank 6 usually heals for a bit more then Flash of Light for about the same amount of mana, if I remember correctly (it's been a little while since I've played my paladin).
Course, at 1600 Healing I could probably use rank 4 and it'd work just as well. I trained myself on one so it's a little hard to break the habit.
Serenatias Aug 17th 2007 10:16PM
As a shaman, I used to throw rank 1 lesser healing waves before a pull to get the healing way buff up (and maintain it). Even with small amount of mana regen, you regen more mana then it costs even while casting. Also, even a crit rank 1 will proc ancestral fortitude. Who can turn down 25% more armor for basically free?
Jethroe Aug 17th 2007 10:17PM
Holy light rank 4 costs only 10 more mana than flash of light, and due to some interesting effects of interaction with Blessing of light, will actually heal for more on a target with Light on them. (at 1500 healing it seems to be about 250 more.) Additionally you gain between 4-6% crit depending on whether or not you have on arena gloves. The real downside is HpS drops slightly. Ive found this really good on tanks for long drawn out fights where there is very little sustained aoe.
clerkenwell Aug 17th 2007 11:40PM
Ditto @ 4. Rank 4 can pretty much replace FoL. That said, it's usually not worth it to use anything but max rank HL's on the main tank. Better to wait for his health to drop enough for a full rank to not overheal, otherwise you are permaspamming heals on him and its hard to fit in a smaller heal for anyone else should they need it.
Dipstick Aug 18th 2007 7:35AM
I always used to keep a Rank 7 HL handy for topping up tanks that were hovering at around 40-60% - this was in the old days when I was playing a paladin in PvE and farming Karazhan.
FoL was just the bread and butter overall though, a max rank Holy Light would end up landing and over-healing by rather a lot, and the HL Rank 7 acted as half-way house.
Rihlsul Aug 18th 2007 10:56AM
Use Healbot. Does a bunch of downranking for you out of the box and you can configure it to do more specific tasks. Despite the name, it does NOT automate healing.
RizziNUp Aug 18th 2007 11:10AM
How did you get that picture to look so awesome! Fill me in please....
Chris Jahosky Aug 18th 2007 11:26AM
@ RizziNUp
Glad you like the picture! I've been trying to make sure all the ones I use are interesting.
The character models and spell effects are from WoW Model Viewer, and there's a couple neat Photoshop tricks going on to make the whole thing come together that I'm going to keep close to the vest. :)