The Light and How to Swing It: Holy Power hands-on
by Chase Christian 
Aug 8th 2010 at 4:00PM
If we look at the resource systems of WoW over its lifetime, it's clear that Blizzard has been trying to diversify the mechanics. We've seen warriors' rage system constantly tweaked, rogue energy regeneration altered in every expansion, and hunters returning to their old focus resource from back in the original beta. The inception of death knights also introduced not one, but two resource systems to the game. Warlocks are even getting a new soul shard system in Cataclysm that will give them a brand new resource bar.
Paladins of all specs have been having problems with their ability usage. Retribution paladins could use a castrandom macro and do nearly full DPS, protection paladins have an incredibly static "969" rotation, and holy paladins have been stuck using nothing but Holy Light since Naxxramas. We needed something to help us break the cycle of repetitive ability usage. The dev team looked at ways to give our class a little more flavor, and came up with the concept of holy power.
How holy power actually works
Holy power works mechanically like a stacking buff. Right now, we're able to stack up to 3 holy power points (HPP). The HPP buff has a 30-second duration. Any new holy power generator (HPG) that we use will both add a point to the stack and refresh the duration of the stack to 30 seconds. This is nearly identical to how Serendipity works for holy priests, if you're familiar with that mechanic. You can right-click off your holy power stack if you like, though I can't think of a good reason to. While I'm not ruling out the possibility of Blizzard introducing a new bar to display holy power points, it's likely that a mod like Power Auras will be our best bet for monitoring our HPP.
Holy power is generated when we cast certain spells, or when we use Tower of Radiance. For holy paladins, we'll be seeing most of our holy power points coming from Holy Shock. Right now, Holy Shock is healing for nearly as much as a critical Holy Light, yet for a surprisingly low mana cost and an instant cast time. As I mentioned previously, Holy Shock is going to become our go-to heal, which we'll be using on cooldown. We'll be seeing a HPP ever few seconds from Holy Shock alone, though there are a few other ways for us to pick up HPP.
If we're in the mood to DPS, we can use Crusader Strike to smite our enemies and generate an extra HPP while we're at it. I tried healing a few 5-man dungeons while standing in melee range and using Crusader Strike, and it felt like I just didn't have enough spare time to use CS regularly enough. Our other option for generating HPP is to use a direct heal onto our Beacon of Light target, via Tower of Radiance. Any heal will do, and Holy Shock will actually generate two HPP when cast on the Beacon target.
Word of Glory: exploit or intended?
What's more interesting is that our holy power release (HPR), Word of Glory, will generate a HPP when used on the Beacon target. Because WoG can be used with just 1 HPP, you can actually cast as many WoGs as you want onto the Beacon target by just spamming WoG. It's an instant, mana-free heal that can be spammed while moving. Unfortunately, using WoG with just 1 HPP is pretty weak, though it's nice to know we can throw some heals onto a tank no matter how much we're moving. I would kill for something like this on Halion's twilight phase. I'm not sure if WoG generating a HPP via Tower of Radiance is intended, but we'll see if Blizzard nerfs it or not.
Speaking of Word of Glory, it's going to be holy's primary HPR. At one stack of holy power, it's pretty weak. At three stacks, it's actually quite potent, healing for around the same amount as my Holy Shock. I had a hard time remembering to use it as I was healing dungeons, though I suspect it'll be easier once I can get an addon to alert me when I have a 3-stack of HPP ready to unleash as a Word of Glory. It's a bit weird having so many new heals to use, especially when trying to break my mind out of the Holy Light spam mindset. Right now, I basically use Divine Light like Holy Light today, and Holy Light like Flash of Light today.
The only other holy power release available to holy paladins is Inquisition, which I tried out but wasn't really impressed with. I just wasn't doing enough damage, even while leveling by myself. I even picked up Denounce, which grants instant Exorcisms after a crit, but even then my damage was too weak. It looks like Word of Glory is really going to be the HPR of choice for holy paladins, though its current strength has me wondering exactly how useful it will be. I imagine that it will be our go-to button for situations where a target is low on life but Holy Shock is on cooldown, especially with the Last Word talent buffing its crit chance by 60 percent on targets with low life. While it may not become part of our normal healing rotation, it's nice to have a clutch instant cast to fall back on in times of need.
The Light and How to Swing It (Holy Edition) helps holy paladins become the powerful healers we're destined to be. Learn the ropes in Holy 101. We can help you keep a tank alive, heal a raid when necessary and beat the global cooldown. Tanking is a job, DPS is a craft -- but healing is truly an art. Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Avrador Aug 8th 2010 4:08PM
tsk tsk, Crusader Aura on in a dungeon. ;)
And I'm pretty sure they've said multiple times that a UI element to display it is coming, the buff display is just temorary.
Avrador Aug 8th 2010 4:16PM
Here's ghostcrawler saying so, though it's from almost a month ago:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26137154483&pageNo=1#12
I thought there was a more recent one, but I can't seem to find it. Hopefully they haven't changed their mind, it's not like it would be a huge deal to do.
Chase Christian Aug 8th 2010 4:32PM
You may think it's dumb to run Crusader Aura, but you can mount in these dungeons! :)
Avrador Aug 8th 2010 4:56PM
Oh really? I saw the videos of people being able to mount indoors, but it never occurred to me you could in dungeons. That's awesome, if kinda weird. :P
'Tsk tsk' cheerfully withdrawn!
omedon666 Aug 8th 2010 5:07PM
We call it the "kill faster aura" when we catch our rets leaving CA up hehe.
Jamie Aug 8th 2010 5:19PM
DPS INCREASE 1000%!!
Thorzon Aug 8th 2010 4:18PM
I really hope I get into the Beta soon. I've been dying to try out the Cataclysm Paladin changes. Holy Paladins don't look boring anymore. :)
Christopher Schmidt Aug 8th 2010 4:19PM
Holy Power (or Zeal as its being called on the forums) is a god awful, clunky, stupid idea. Currently for protection you get stuck in an even more rigid rotation to generate the required Zeal in order to utilize your Holy Shield to its full extent. On top of that there is the issue of GCD gaps where you can literally do nothing because your abilities are on CD. I have the feeling that this whole "combo point-esque" system gets scrapped before Cata goes live.
Enor Aug 8th 2010 4:36PM
It's been said and repeated an awful many times that the whole thing isn't exactly how it's supposed to for Prot pallies. Also, as it is now for retribution paladins, we have that same gaps problem on live that is really only fixed by the tier 10 2-pieces bonus, but then it becomes a Divine Storm spam-fest and you can go OOM easily. They said many times that this whole thing was primarily made for retribs and that giving it to prots and holys came later.
Christopher Schmidt Aug 8th 2010 6:29PM
Im gonna bet 90% of the people who voted me down aren't in the Beta like I am, and have not actually used the mechanic. Its very obvious that it was not well thought out and that its being shoe horned into the Prot and Holy specs. The stated goal of holy power was to add more variety, fun and take remove the boring rotations/fcfs of the class. Instead it creates an even more rigid rotation for Prot and makes it feel as if you are always fighting to keep up stacks of HP for an essential self-buff. For holy it forces you to use a near useless spell to keep up HP for a weak practically niche use and doesn't do any thing interesting. For Ret, its only slightly better, but again it feels more like a clunky ham fisted way to reign in Ret burst then to actually add anything fun and dynamic. The entire concept and its current application is horrible and makes the entire class more frustrating then i was previously and actually makes it less fun.
Noyou Aug 8th 2010 7:42PM
I'm going to bet that 90% of the people who voted you down did so for the way you expressed yourself. I'm pretty good at detecting these things.
Heilig Aug 8th 2010 8:12PM
As has been stated multiple times by GC and agreed with by MANY tankadins, 15% block is hardly "an essential self-buff." If you let it fall off, you're not gonna get raped. It's not a static damage reduction. It's RNG. Sometimes you will tke a harder hit, sometimes you won't. At any rate, taking 30% less damage 15% of the time is only 4.5% less damage, which equates to between 7-10% depending on your armor and the level of the mob you're fighting. Even 10% less damage is not going to kill you. If you NEVER put it up during an entire boss fight, your healer might go OOM, but missing a couple of GCD's without it up is nothing.
Worry more about whether you're going to be required to keep inquisition up for threat gen or be forced into using WoG as prot because your static damage reduction is too low with all the talents removed.
Supertanker Aug 8th 2010 5:26PM
The article seems like a pretty nice way to say, "Holy Power is basically useless for Holy Paladins right now." Inquisition has weak damage, there is no time to use Crusader Strike, and Word of Glory can equal Holy Shock, but there is nothing so remarkable about it that one even remembers to use it. Sounds like Blizzard has a long way to go on Holy Power design.
CDave Aug 10th 2010 1:49AM
I wouldn't say it's claiming it useless, just boring or a work in progress at the moment. To me Holy Power for Holy right now is just a mana saver; it's like those punch cards you can get at stores that say "Buy 5 x and get the next x for free!" Only it's cast 3 Holy Shocks and get the next one for free (and rename it Word of Glory).
As for the rapid fire WoG on a Beacon, I think it could work like described; it's like a manual HoT. You get to heal on the move and regenerate your mana as well, throw an HS in for a bigger heal and to buff up the next WoG. Some may find that dull, but I think it keeps it interesting enough for movement fights.
Moeru Aug 8th 2010 5:56PM
For Prot, Holy Power should increase shield bounce targets by the number...IE 6 instead of 3. Same with Hammer of the Righteous. For single target, I dunno. I know they're rethinking single target so I don't know how it could be added in there yet.
Shock Aug 8th 2010 6:12PM
" Right now, I basically use Divine Light like Holy Light today, and Holy Light like Flash of Light today."
Okay I'm thinking HL spam mode atm lol. But is Divine Light really that potent? I thought you had mentioned in a previous blog Chase that Divine Light wasn't really worth it? Maybe it's been tweaked. I haven't been in beta and can't read too much text on Cata before my eyes start to bleed lol
Secondly, HL is being used like FoL is today? What's the deal with FoL?
Heilig Aug 8th 2010 8:15PM
Flash of Light is supposed to be the expensive, super fast emergency heal when HS is on CD, but right now it's way TOO expensive, and HL's cast time isn't much more than FoL anyway, so no one uses it.
Jeff Aug 8th 2010 6:19PM
I think that it would be a good idea to have Word of Glory be a HoT rather than a straight up heal-this-amount-now spell; or a bubble, or something that isn't similar to the rest of our spells, because frankly, it would be dull and offer very little strategic importance.
Noyou Aug 8th 2010 7:54PM
Except for the heal on the move part. I have very limited experience as a holy Paladin but I know most times I would give my tail (Draenei) for another heal on the move.
Sean Aug 8th 2010 7:27PM
It definitely seems like Holy Power has a long way to go to be a solid, fun mechanic, but I'm glad they gave Paladins something unique. Just having a mana bar with plate armor wasn't unique enough. If they flesh out this Holy Power thing to its full potential I could see a Paladin being one of my new favorite characters in Cataclysm.