The Light and How to Swing It: An interview with the all-business Diamondtear
by Chase Christian 
Mar 20th 2011 at 8:00PM
Holy paladins are the pillars that support every raid's healing roster. As long as there are tanks to heal, there will be paladins dropping Light bombs on their unit frames. Unparalleled single-target throughput and powerful defensive cooldowns have solidified our position as the foundation of any healing paradigm. While our shockadin DPS may be laughable, our healing capability speaks for itself.
For the last few tiers of raiding, holy paladins have been ever-present guardians. We ensure that our group makes it through the shadow and flame unscathed. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the most successful holy paladins, Diamondtear of Paragon. He's survived the toughest encounters that WoW has to offer, helping his guild push towards world first after world first.
The Light and How to Swing It: How did you get started with your holy paladin? Do you play any other classes?
Diamondtear: First time I touched a paladin was in the European open beta in 2005, when I got to 51 or so before the beta was shut down. Obviously I was a total noob back then, so that doesn't mean much. I rolled this paladin before Ulduar after clearing the first tier of Wrath on my 'lock. My first main was a resto druid. I don't play off specs.
I chose a paladin because I liked the druid healing in vanilla and holy paladins were similar in Wrath – a simple, one-button wonder. Still, I have to add that the Cataclysm changes didn't ruin anything for me, though. As long as I have a raid spot, I will stay with the holy paladin. I would have no problems with switching, though, if it benefited the guild. This isn't something we need to think about before patch 4.1.
How'd you get started with Paragon? Life in a top guild is obviously different than anywhere else. What's your favorite part about playing with them? Do you have a leadership role in the guild? Does your healing team have any sort of competitions?
I started with Paragon in May of 2009. No other high-end experience, but I had vanilla and Burning Crusade experience from the then-best guilds on Draenor, Shinasu and Chimaera.
My favorite part would be getting world firsts. Coming up with wacky tactics and using them is also fun. A large part of the raid takes part in planning, but it's four to five guys that are doing most of the talking (I'm part of the first group).
I don't have any specific responsibilities, and we don't have class leaders. While I whine in the healer channel every time a non-paladin is at the top of the meters (and console myself by laughing at the shaman), there's no serious competition.
What's been the most challenging encounter for you so far? Is there any aspect of healing that you feel like the holy paladin is weak at?
The hardest fight so far would be Lich King on 25-man heroic difficulty. The positioning required was so precise while the tank took heavy damage; I had to stun a Val'kyr and be ready to move from Defile. I think the holy paladin's major weakness is spot healing a few people. If you can't trust Light of Dawn to hit all or even most of them, there's really little you can do. Priests have Circle of Healing and Power Word: Shield, shaman have Chain Heal, and druids have Rejuvenation and Wild Growth.
If you could steal one ability from another class, what would it be? Any specific mechanics that you think would work for the holy paladin?
Leap of Faith. It has so much (I could even say too much) utility in heroic raiding. Also, the shaman regen mechanic is cooler than paladins' (which is Judging), but I don't want to be offensive while healing, and I don't think it would be possible to balance that between classes (in PvE).
Did you have any difficulty moving from the old Wrath-style of healing to the new Cataclysm paradigm? Any tricks or tips you picked up as you worked on refining your healing strategy in this first tier of raiding?
I didn't have any trouble, because in heroic Wrath raids, you still had to look at your mana somewhat. The biggest difference was that spells were faster.
In Cataclysm, the healing is pretty much the same for paladins. This time, you just choose between your cheap heal and your big heal, and most of the time that decision is quite easy. The most important tip I could give would probably be judging as often as you can. The mana return really is significant.
I'm quite worried for holydins that hit 85 after patch 4.0.6 and want to heal heroics. Healing those as a paladin was by no means easy when I hit 85, and holydins have gotten a myriad of nerfs after that. I recently hit 85 with my priest, which I leveled from 1 to 85 in Cataclysm, and healing 5-man heroics was a breeze even when I was really undergeared.
As a final thought, what are your thoughts on the current holy paladin mastery bonus, Illuminated Healing?
It's terrible, and I avoid mastery like the plague. Making it stack instead of refreshing the shield wouldn't make it cool or especially useful, but it could save it from being totally terrible. I'd like to see a mastery that relates to holy power, maybe generating it.
Thanks to Diamondtear
I'd like to extend my thanks to Diamondtear for doing this interview and sharing his perspective on the holy paladin. Best of luck to you as you continue to push the holy paladin spec further than it's ever been before!
The Light and How to Swing It: Holy helps holy paladins become the powerful healers we're destined to be. Learn the ropes in Cataclysm 101 for holy paladins, study the new balance between intellect and spirit and learn how to level your new Sunwalker. 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)
Astru Mar 20th 2011 8:07PM
Who?
Gindy Mar 20th 2011 9:11PM
Regardless of whether you read the article or not, in which you are told who they are, unnecessary comment
Necromann Mar 20th 2011 8:08PM
It's awesome to hear from one of the vest players in the world.
Necromann Mar 20th 2011 8:09PM
Best*
WTB edit button
Celeane Mar 20th 2011 9:20PM
Recently hit 85 on a holy pally-we're still fine starting heroics in quest and rep gear. As expected, it was easier than getting started on my holy priest (before the Holy Concentration buff.)
Pyromelter Mar 20th 2011 9:50PM
I bet your success as a holy pally just starting 85 heroics would have to do more with your team than you. Mana regen usually isn't an issue (it never was for me), rather the raw throughput can be the issue at that level where you're geared enough for heroics, but not overgearing them enough. DPS'ers that take too much unnecessary damage can make the life of a holy paladin a real hell, and in my opinion at the 333 itemlevel you just don't have the raw power to heal through it.
A good group that does some CC and doesn't take unnecessary blasts of damage, and I'm sure you can do pretty well without much of an issue.
Celeane Mar 20th 2011 10:15PM
I purposely rolled a holy pally for the challenge of doing more with such a small toolkit, and have found it fun. I'm experienced enough to know when people are playing badly and errors aren't my fault. If I kept 3-4 people alive during a mispull that should have been fatal-that's good, not a failure.
shadowhowl1900 Mar 20th 2011 10:10PM
well its not a bad interview although i was hoping more for a guide on rotation, and priorities and such. I mean there is info on EJ and such but getting it straight from a top-tiered pally himself would probably mean he knows what he is talking about
Stilhelm Mar 21st 2011 1:13PM
There isn't really a "rotation" for a healer. He mentioned judging as often as possible and choosing between your cheap and big heals. One could also assume holy shock is used pretty much on cooldown. The only other decision to make is word of glory or light of dawn when you want to consume holy power, and really, how hard a decision is that?
WorstRogueEVAR Mar 20th 2011 10:36PM
I Just love hearing what the most-known players have to say about the game. That and the advice they give, although we already knew that holy pally mastery is terrible...
Diatenium Mar 20th 2011 10:43PM
There's not a whole lot in way of interesting insight here, although it is nice to hear from the best of the best, if only to have them agree with how impotent our mastery is right now.
Eberron Mar 21st 2011 5:10AM
Aye. I was thinking they could, mechanically, keep Mastery at the same values while making it kind of.. unique.
I was thinking every time you healed someone, whatever would've been added as a shield gets saved up and then on your next heal (say within 15 secs) that heal benefits from a bonus equal to what our current Mastery would've shielded from.
It'd work out that if you're constantly burning mastery absorbs by, say, healing a tank eating regular hits you wouldn't see a change. If you're more varied, like in a 10 man environment, you'd see your Mastery benefitting by carrying over, it would transfer through Beacon and in general just feel more thoroughput-y. Which is our schtick.
It could still, like the absorbs, be wasted on account of overheals but.. eh. It's not like Mastery isn't terrible already.
marla Mar 21st 2011 7:22AM
"While I whine in the healer channel every time a non-paladin is at the top of the meters (and console myself by laughing at the shaman), there's no serious competition."
Lost pretty much all credibility (and likability) at this point. This may have been the case in the first two months of Cata, but shamans are in a good place right now and can easily compete with paladins, as can druids. Things are very different now than when Paragon was getting its kills. As usual, an "elite" player has a tunnel vision to just what his guild believes/is doing.
That being said, not much of note here that anyone with half a brain wouldn't know already.
Daynthebold Mar 21st 2011 8:11AM
You know that he's joking, right? Sheesh, no sensahuma these kids.
marla Mar 21st 2011 8:29AM
Doesn't really sound like he's joking. The comment re: shaman is admittedly snarky and could be sarcastic (but sarcasm doesn't translate readily over the internet), but the overall attitude/tone of the statement I quoted is too similar to the rest of the interview to really be easily read as a joke.
And if it is a joke, it's not funny to me, at least. Not offended, just not someone I'd like to hang out with or talk healing with. I suspect that's probably the reason why I wouldn't be in a top guild, even if I had the skill/playtime/whatever.
Norrel Mar 21st 2011 9:33AM
You are taking this comment too seriously Marla. It is not really intended as a joke, but it is also not intended to be taken seriously. He is just indicating a good natured spirit of friendly competition. Not the kind where they post meters and threaten to kick the players who didn't get big enough numbers, but rather the kind where they kill the boss and then josh each other about how it went afterward. Judging from your comments, you might want to look up the definition of joshing. From the fact that they have been racking up world firsts for a while now, I would infer that they are a fairly cohesive team and that making digs at each other for not posting enough dps or healing throughput is not what they do.
One other thing you might have missed-- When he admits to whining about non-paladins topping the heal meter, he is actually making fun of himself a little bit. He is not actually expressing his true desire or belief that paladins should always top the healing meter.
Perhaps you should get some sleep, stay out of the trade channel for a few days. When you have fresh eyes, read the interview again and you will see that there is no snark, sarcasm or mean spirit in it anywhere.
Ice Mar 21st 2011 11:25AM
Its this again isn't it. Last time they didn't bring shamans to sinestra and said on blog comment that shamans are useless (pre-"buffs") because "all other classes that bring their buff do things better" it went to massive uproar against THEM. People are barking the wrong tree now. Its not their fault really. They just want to minmax and on minmax world, there was no room for shamans. It may have gotten slightly better over time but before, not really.
Shamans are not even remotely near what paladins, druids, all priest specs can pull out.
Shamans are producing the worst healing out of all healing specs they were doing same numbers as bloody disc priest did before they buffed shield by that 400% or w/e ridicilous number it was, after the disc buff the disc healing skyrocketed upwards to holy priests level merely saying to shamans "so long suckers, I'm taking this spec to mexico mwahaa".
Shamans dont bring "unique buffs" anymore so theres hardly point even bringing them if you are min maxing. Heck, why bring low dps ele/ench shaman when mage can bring bloodlust and perform all areas better in terms single target dps, aoe dps and with some utility. Bring player not the class, huh?
http://stateofdps.com/index.php?data=patch_dps&raid=10N&samples=200&spec=healer
Click on the "2 week" button to see the chart. Oh and those numbers are mostly produced by using chain heal and healing rain, 2 of the most situational and mana intensive spells imo. But since they use them on every "top meters" then eh..?
Now, I'm pretty sure its friendly laughing at shaman not mocking. Like
"hehe, I cant believe blizzard still refuses to buff shamans to the level of other specs poor you :s".
Stilhelm Mar 21st 2011 1:23PM
I didn't do any serious healing on my shaman pre-buffs, but post-buff I've done some healing in BoT and my numbers in mostly blues were just below those of a holy priest who had mostly epics. I also healed Conclave of Wind in 25-man and was toward the top of healing done. I've also hit 8500 hps in BH and didn't really have much to do most of the time, finishing with 80% mana, so obviously that could have been quite a bit higher.
Point being, it doesn't feel that shaman heals are lacking so much anymore. Pallies will push out more single-target heals with less mana problems, and shaman are pretty good at covering lots of smaller amounts. In the min-maxing world of Paragon, shaman may still not be up to par, but for the 99% of everyone else out there not doing world firsts, shaman are fine.
Pelleys Mar 21st 2011 8:46AM
All I gotta say.... ZOMG Diamondtear! Love hearing from players on the cutting edge of content, particularly those who play my class and spec :)
afordfalcon Mar 21st 2011 7:14PM
It was after doing the heroics at 85 that I benched my holydin and leveled the druid. I am in a small guild and we don't raid, we do heroics. The pally stopped being fun. I tanked in BC and healed all the way through Wrath. Cata came and I kept thinking that playing the pally would get to be fun at some point. That never happened. He will sit the bench for this xpac and hope that it gets better in the future.