Holy Paladin Guide
Some of our class writers have written up their first impressions of the 12.1 class changes and tier set reviews. We've listed all of them below.
Some of these articles were released earlier than others, and may be out of date now.
Blood DKUnholy DK
Devourer DHVengeance DH
Balance Druid
Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker
BM HunterSurvival Hunter
Fire Mage
Mistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk
Holy PaladinRetribution Paladin
Shadow Priest
Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue
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Frost DKHavoc DHFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration DruidMM Hunter
Arcane MageFrost MageBrewmaster MonkProtection Paladin
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Arms WarriorFury Warrior
Protection Warrior
Holy Paladin Tier Set
The Season 2 Tier Set enables a build and playstyle where we do not use Holy Shock. If nothing changes before the patch goes live, it will be the best build by a large margin once you get the 4-Set. In this article, I will explain what exactly about the Tier Set enables this, how it plays, and what makes it stronger than a "normal" playstyle.
Holy
2-Set Bonus: Infusion of Light increases the healing of Flash of Light by an additional 100% and the absorb from Greater Judgment by an additional 100%.
4-Set Bonus: Judgment now has a 20% chance to grant Infusion of Light. Holy Light now has a 100% chance to grant Infusion of Light.
What Enables it and Why is it Strong?
The sole thing that makes this "no-Holy Shock" build possible is the Holy Light part of the 4-set. It makes Holy Light supplant Holy Shock as the best spell to generate Infusion of Light with, and without that, we simply have no reason to use Holy Shock. In fact, in order to save mana, it is better to not use it at all.
This idea is not actually new. We were playing around with a similar idea during the Midnight beta for Lightsmith, but Laying Down Arms alone did not grant enough Infusion of Light procs to make it work properly, and you had to hardcast Flash of Light too much for it to be worth it.
With this new 4-Set, that "problem" is entirely solved. In this build, you no longer need to cast any weak filler Holy Shocks or Flash of Lights, because you will always have Holy Power, or Infusion of Light and Divine Purpose procs to spend, and when you don't, you can always guarantee an Infusion proc with a Holy Light. This means you only ever use powerful spells and that none of your casts will feel weak.
Sample cast breakdown. Every single Flash of Light and Judgment here is with Infusion of Light, so there are no filler spells.
It might be hard to believe that we can afford to cast Holy Light enough to make such a playstyle possible, but reality is that with a 100% proc chance, you do not actually need to cast Holy Light that frequently. Normally you would have to have to cast more than 5 Holy Shocks, or 10 as Lightsmith, on average to get a single Infusion of Light proc, and because of that Holy Light is 50-100% more mana efficient at generating Infusion of Light procs.
Combine that with the fact that Holy Light and Infusion of Light consuming spells heal more than Holy Shock, it should be clear why this build is better. Not only are you generating a lot more Infusion procs, you are also generating them more efficiently.
This playstyle also reduces the gap between Lightsmith and Herald of the Sun, and especially as Lightsmith it makes Beacon of Virtue a viable option because it uses less mana than a normal build. It is still too early to say which Hero Talent tree we would end up playing, but both are looking quite good.
How Can Blizzard "Fix" It?
Even though this build removes the need to use weak spells, it is important to emphasise that it is not overpowered, it simply makes us heal a little more, so you should not expect that Holy Paladin will suddenly be "meta" in any content just because of this build.
With that being said, there is only one realistic way to stop this playstyle. Blizzard would have to drop the idea of the 4-Set making Holy Light proc Infusion of Light, and make it do something else instead.
With a hotfix to the PTR earlier today, Blizzard actually buffed Holy Shock by 50% and reduced the mana cost by ~10%, but this is not enough to make a normal playstyle better. Holy Shock still does less healing than any of the spells you cast in its place with the no-Holy Shock build. Simply buffing Holy Shock (within reason) cannot prevent this build from being better, without breaking the spec in some other way. With this 50% buff, it almost heals more than Infused Flash of Light and Holy Power spenders. If you buff Holy Shock to be better than those, it would simply make us ignore those things instead, in order to get as many Holy Shocks out as possible.
I think this point is indicative of a more fundamental issue with the spec. The need to keep Holy Power, Infusions, and Holy Shock balanced so we care about all three, seriously limits the ability to come up with new interesting talents or tier sets that do not upset that balance. This is not at all a new problem for the spec. Going into Dragonflight Season 3, we knew we would not be spending most of our Holy Power, and I wrote an article recognising that it was caused by the same failure to keep Holy Power, Infusions, and Holy Shock balanced. History might not repeat, but it certainly rhymes.
While I personally think Holy Paladin is quite fun to play as it is, I also think the spec is long overdue a fundamental and complete redesign. I often hear opinions from players that think the spec and our toolkit and interactions feel totally outdated compared to other healers, and that they think that this is largely what is holding the spec back. Holy Power especially has never succeeded in making the spec more fun or interesting than it was without it.
Other Spec Changes
While the Tier Set is by far the most important and impactful thing for Holy Paladin in Season 2, we have of course also received other changes. These are mostly tuning changes that are simply intended to increase our overall healing and damage output, and make our single target Holy Power spenders more useful.
Holy
Developers’ notes: We’re making a few updates to Holy Paladin with the intent of shrinking the performance gap between Light of Dawn and their other spenders, increasing their overall damage output, and increasing the viability of Beacon of Virtue within dungeon content.
All healing increased by 8%
Eternal Flame healing increased by 20.75%.
Word of Glory healing increased by 20.75%.
Holy Shock healing increased by 10%
All damage increased by 20%.
Judgment damage increased by 25%.
Hammer of Wrath damage increased by 25%.
Avenging Crusader now transfers 55% of healing done (was 80%).
Pillar of Light’s Beacon of Virtue healing increased by 50%.
Shield of the Righteous mana return increased by 25%.
Ringing of the Heavens now casts Divine Toll at 200% effectiveness (was 100%).
Truth Prevails healing increased by 30%.
Saved by the Light absorb increased by 50%.
Glistening Radiance now absorbs 2% of max health, up to 6% (was 1%, up to 5%).
Overflowing Light now transfers 50% of Holy Shock’s healing (was 30%).
Call of the Righteous now decreases the duration of Avenging Wrath by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds) and decreases the duration of Avenging Crusader by 2 seconds per point (was 2.5 seconds). (This change is still missing on the PTR)
Even though the list is long, there is honestly not that much to say about these changes. The most important thing that they accomplish is that they make Eternal Flame and Word of Glory our best healing spenders in raid. Light of Dawn will now only be used if there is no good target to use Eternal Flame or Word of Glory on. With the buff to Pillars of Light, it is also possible we will play Beacon of Virtue in Mythic+, and maybe even in raid as Lightsmith, if the no-Holy Shock build goes live.
Overall, if we ignore the no-Holy Shock build for a moment, the changes we are getting in Season 2 are mostly just flat buffs, which is obviously always a good thing to get. Regardless of whatever else happens with the spec before the Patch goes live, Holy Paladin in Season 2 will almost certainly be a better and more fun spec to play than it has been in Season 1.
