Cataclysm Holy Paladin Guide

[Chamenas]

I think it really comes down to Blizzard needing to make their tooltips more clear, these ambiguous tooltips are a nightmare. I'll do some personal testing with Blessed Life when I get a chance and report back.

[Bloodhonor]

Newcomer to registering here but a have been a big fan of Tankspot for awhile. A big thank you to Chamenas for all the work in making this thread an absolte game changer for me! I have increased my effectiveness from healing in vanilla, BC, and WTLK and am doing ok in the heroics. Thank you!!!

I apologize if this was answered before, but I was hoping to get a little more guidance on few things if the healing community would be so kind:

1. Add ons - For years I have played with the typical awsd movement keys, mouse, and then my heals mapped to the 1,2,3,4 etc. so I could easily select and use kiy bindings to heal. I'm finding this to be inefficient as I try to move and heal et al. There was a TankSpot video that talked about peripheral vision on the screen, and how the healers he knew (the guy with curly hair - probably heresy I don't know him) put their buttons near to the middle of the screen to maximize peripheral vision to interact with boss mechanics appropriatley. Do you guys do that? Do you do that with Grid? For those that you Healbot do you actually heal with Healbot? I find Healbot good to show me my buffs like Beacon etc and who its on and its countdown, but not for healing and using that with a mouse and then my keys...I use X-Perl frame and fine the look nice, but have been challenged by Chamenas' suggestion of Grid. So, to summarize my question, how do you move and select targets and spells most efficiently? Would you mind sharing screen shots?

2. I need a little more help understanding how mouse over macros work (not setting them up - but how they work into how you heal). And how does Clique help with this?

3. Is there a downside to spamming Hand of Sacrifice on your tank? Does he lose threat from it?

Thanks in advance.

[Soan]

1. Use whatever you feel comfortable with. I have my raid frames setup around the middle lower part of my screen, right above my action bars, so I can usually see what's going on fairly easily while still seeing raid health. Don't have any screenshots though.

2. Mouseover macros mean you don't actually need to click on someone to heal them. Just move your cursor over a box on your raid frames and use whatever heal you want to use on them. Only need to have the cursor over them to cast the spell, once you start casting you can move your cursor wherever.

3. uh, Divine Protection is the paladin version of shield wall and is selfcast only. It's not possible to spam it on anyone else, so I hope you're actually talking about a different spell. In wrath I had a paladin who thought you could cast it on others, he tried, and logs showed he was only gaining the buff himself.

[Bloodhonor]

Thanks Soan. I understand #1 that use what your comfortable with, but I'm searching to improve and am looking for "Best Practice" if you will or to gain from others experimentation. So for #2, if you hover your mouse over a unit frame to select your target without clicking, do you have to have a key bound heal to then exercise the spell instead of the mouse?

[Soan]

Yeah, you have to have a keybind, whether that be a on your keyboard or on your mouse if you've got extra buttons there. So use the mouse to move the cursor over your intended heal target, then push keybind for heal.

[lilsunshine]

hey

Blood i saw that you mentioned placing buttons at the middle of the screen to (...some fancy words). was wondering if ya meant something like
http://img404.imageshack.us/i/wowscr...011135843.jpg/ (just a screen of my pally ui)

second of all on the screen ya see i'm using grid. I'm very loyal to it cause tbh it's simple and to get more to the case it got it's own keybind function where ya just need to toggle that"mode" and hover your mouse above a spell and decide a keybind. Might thought it was worth mentioning cause i sometimes got problems with mouseover keybinds with normal blizz keybind system (like using middlemouse). I don't kno tho if that's me or so

what i also seen but is very rare is that ppl use instead of zqsd to move (azerty) they use esdf or so so they would have more keybinds. Gotta say myself tho i tried it and i found it just utterly annoying but i see the logic behind it.

Final word, i ain't saying that what i said here is the best. It are just small things that might help you find your most comfy way 2 heal like soan said. As like my ui wich i can see some ppl drawing some big question marks on but i find it the best for me personally so i use it. Altho that doesn't mean i'm not open for suggestions

thx for letting me waste 5 min of your life!

[Bloodhonor]

lilsunshine, thanks so much for that screenshot. Your ui looks very clean. The past few days I've been using healbot, with the hover click key binds, and like that functionality but do not like the interface in general. I really like the look of what you got and will give grid a shot.

Next time you're in raid mode I'd love to see how you have the raid frames stacked, although I think I can imagine where'd they be given the empty space. Having not used grid yet, I assume it would take the place of x-perl. Thanks again, this is a big help.

[yawn.3x]

Newcomer to registering here but a have been a big fan of Tankspot for awhile. A big thank you to Chamenas for all the work in making this thread an absolte game changer for me! I have increased my effectiveness from healing in vanilla, BC, and WTLK and am doing ok in the heroics. Thank you!!!

I apologize if this was answered before, but I was hoping to get a little more guidance on few things if the healing community would be so kind:

1. Add ons - For years I have played with the typical awsd movement keys, mouse, and then my heals mapped to the 1,2,3,4 etc. so I could easily select and use kiy bindings to heal. I'm finding this to be inefficient as I try to move and heal et al. There was a TankSpot video that talked about peripheral vision on the screen, and how the healers he knew (the guy with curly hair - probably heresy I don't know him) put their buttons near to the middle of the screen to maximize peripheral vision to interact with boss mechanics appropriatley. Do you guys do that? Do you do that with Grid? For those that you Healbot do you actually heal with Healbot? I find Healbot good to show me my buffs like Beacon etc and who its on and its countdown, but not for healing and using that with a mouse and then my keys...I use X-Perl frame and fine the look nice, but have been challenged by Chamenas' suggestion of Grid. So, to summarize my question, how do you move and select targets and spells most efficiently? Would you mind sharing screen shots?

2. I need a little more help understanding how mouse over macros work (not setting them up - but how they work into how you heal). And how does Clique help with this?

3. Is there a downside to spamming Hand of Sacrifice on your tank? Does he lose threat from it?

Thanks in advance.

1. Use whatever you feel comfortable with. I have my raid frames setup around the middle lower part of my screen, right above my action bars, so I can usually see what's going on fairly easily while still seeing raid health. Don't have any screenshots though.

2. Mouseover macros mean you don't actually need to click on someone to heal them. Just move your cursor over a box on your raid frames and use whatever heal you want to use on them. Only need to have the cursor over them to cast the spell, once you start casting you can move your cursor wherever.

3. uh, Divine Protection is the paladin version of shield wall and is selfcast only. It's not possible to spam it on anyone else, so I hope you're actually talking about a different spell. In wrath I had a paladin who thought you could cast it on others, he tried, and logs showed he was only gaining the buff himself.

for #1 and #2 you have to do whatever feels comfortable to you tbh. I've had no problem pressing numbers and running around hehe. I don't like the mouseover healing. I never use healbot, I find it a cheap, easy, shortcut to healing. I remember when cata was released and there was no HealBot alot of healers were saying it was IMPOSSIBLE to heal without it. I never wanna get to that point :O.

for #3. No Hand of Sacrifice does not reduce the amount of threat your tank is generating. It's rather hard to spam tho with a 1min and 30 sec cooldown (talented). I dont know where you got Divine Protection from :S. If you don't know what Hand of Sacrifice is you really shouldn't be posting advice, but Hand of Sacrifce just transfers 30% of the damage the tank takes to yourself, it has no threat reducing ability hidden. Divine protection reduces the amount of damage you take by 20% lol.

You can combine Hand of sacrifice with Divine Shield. We used to do that in Ulduar days hehe. throw sacrifice on somebody, and bubble so you're immune to all the damage the tank is taking. Hope this helped =)

[Soan]

He originally said divine protection instead of hand of sacrifice. Check his edit message.

Didn't realise he'd edited his message otherwise I would have edited my response, I do know the difference between both.

[yawn.3x]

ahhhh that anwsers alot then hehe. I figured something was up. SO! I dont wanna scroll back 10 pages, how do you guys like the new Holy Paladin Healing? Done any raids yet?! So far I've done 9/12 in normal modes (alll the bosses except al'akir, cho'gall, and nef. Excluding Sinestra since shes HM: only.)

and So far doing those 9 bosses, I've loved healing. Some fights are stressful, but BoT (Bastion) seems to be by far the easiest of the 3. I've been going for mostly Haste, spirit, Crit. Reforgeing Mastery whenever possible. I have a few questions of my own to ask you fine Holy Paladins.

#1. tier pieces: I find them to be horrid. The stats are bad, Mastery is bad, and well, the stats are bad. 5% crit to Holy Shock is REALLY appealing. I might just go with Head and Shoulders, they seem to be the most beneficial unless blizzard changes them. The 4-Piece is nice, but not worth the stat losses imo. Your guys' thoughts please.

#2. Haste over Crit: I've been going for haste simply because crit is borderline useless. 1 Light of Dawn is guaranteed to crit at least ONCE, and then my 9% increased healing buff is up all fight.

#3. Mastery: Still useless for holy paladins? I find no use in this stat at all. For PvP it sounds appealing, but for PvE. ugh... terrible. Also, our warrior tank says while Illuminated healing is on him, he is unable to dodge, parry or block. Can somebody confirm if this is true?

#4. Gemming: So far I've been going for the socket bonuses. Red = Intel, Blue = Intel / Spr, Orange = Intel / Haste. I find Mp5 to hardly be an issue anymore. Then again my trinkets provide a passive 920 spirit.

Thoughts so far everyone?

[lilsunshine]

for nr1 i wud rather go for tier 11 hands and shoulders
i checked nr 3. part of not being able to dodge parry or block by letting some low lvl mobs hit me while i got the ill. healing on me: I was able to dodge block and parry so i say nay to your tanks statement.
I wud also not push mastery so quick away (no idea of it's value in cata raids tho as my pally is an alt), it seems more reliable as crit and if used enuf (checkable with an addon to track absorbs, been to lazy to down that myself tho) it also seems more usefull as crit (where i leave pondering about the added effects of infusion of light to another day tho)
as for gems dito

if this info is usefull i consider myself on a spree or no-lifing 2 hard during exams finding myself nothing better 2 do than learning the wayz of holy pallyness and using the small amount of gained knowledge (that prolly will never be put 2 gud use by myself) for posting it on a forum somewhere. (also adding that any info i give is purely based on own experience so i don't have hard facts or so 2 back me up)

[Chamenas]

Sorry that I haven't been keeping up with this. My work schedule has made any attempts at raiding untenable. However, I might be getting a car soon, so maybe a new job? In any case, since there don't seem to be any glaring errors, I will be working on a new video soon.

[Chamenas]

#1. tier pieces: I find them to be horrid. The stats are bad, Mastery is bad, and well, the stats are bad. 5% crit to Holy Shock is REALLY appealing. I might just go with Head and Shoulders, they seem to be the most beneficial unless blizzard changes them. The 4-Piece is nice, but not worth the stat losses imo. Your guys' thoughts please.

Remember that re-forging is an option. Blizzard has seemed to really enjoy putting Crit and Mastery on a lot of plate pieces. I don't know why, I don't know if they WANT those stats to be good and just don't get it, or if they're counting people reforging, but it does seem sort of silly.

#2. Haste over Crit: I've been going for haste simply because crit is borderline useless. 1 Light of Dawn is guaranteed to crit at least ONCE, and then my 9% increased healing buff is up all fight.

Crit is useful for keeping up Conviction and you'll want enough Crit to generally assume 100% Conviction uptime, as per the guide. Haste is generally considered more useful for a number of reasons. Though, unlike Crit, its throughput efficiency doesn't save you mana except through Daybreak. Whereas, when you crit, you save mana on another heal that you would need to make the difference.

#3. Mastery: Still useless for holy paladins? I find no use in this stat at all. For PvP it sounds appealing, but for PvE. ugh... terrible. Also, our warrior tank says while Illuminated healing is on him, he is unable to dodge, parry or block. Can somebody confirm if this is true?

Not useless. I'd say: disappointing. It's a really cool Mastery with a lot of potential, but it doesn't seem to be highly valued. I wish I had better numbers myself, but at the moment I don't.

#4. Gemming: So far I've been going for the socket bonuses. Red = Intel, Blue = Intel / Spr, Orange = Intel / Haste. I find Mp5 to hardly be an issue anymore. Then again my trinkets provide a passive 920 spirit.

I see little reason to socket match except for when you're meeting meta requirements.

I figured something was up. SO! I dont wanna scroll back 10 pages

First page, I give credit to those who correct mistakes in the guide or offer reasonable suggestions/critiques.

[yawn.3x]

I think matching sockets is great. the bonuses are actually more useful. Althought when Epic Gems arrive, I can see us going back to stacking a single stat. I have a VERY good question for you. Was raiding Chimaeron inside BwD, and my Warrior tank said that my Mastery is negating his ability to block. Meaning, everytime Illuminated Healing is on the target, it goes for the absorb first, and negates the block.

Is this true? Anybody have some evidence to prove otherwise?

[Billinater]

Very nice post,thanks.

[Chamenas]

Was raiding Chimaeron inside BwD, and my Warrior tank said that my Mastery is negating his ability to block. Meaning, everytime Illuminated Healing is on the target, it goes for the absorb first, and negates the block.

Is this true? Anybody have some evidence to prove otherwise?

No idea, but I will see if I can test this and get back to you.

[Dedic]

Yawn, lilsunshine said above that they were dodging/parrying/blocking with ill up. Maybe there is a difference between fighting lower-level mobs and bosses tho...?

[myhealzrule]

hi there,
well let me start by saying you guild has help me out a bunch. both here and on your website. now let me start by showing you my toon

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...alzrule/simple

the problem i am having is i just tried to do Hold in tol barad and i was second in heals but the difference between me and first was over 2k in hps i stayed focused on the tank and healed my group as need plus dispelling as much as i could. the first healer was a shammy about evenly geared as me. so my question to you would be how can i get my hps up as i have been told i'm doing fine i just need to heal more. please explain how i can? here is my starting rotation for heal divine light, flash of light , holy shock and spam holy light until more damage is need. most of this is going to my beacon which is the tank. i also throw in judgement and divine plea for my mana regen as need. in 5 man heroic i drop over 7 k hps but in hold i'm only doing 5 to 6 k and i needhelp as we are starting to raid as a guild soon.

[Soan]

If the boss was dead and your raid was alive, I wouldn't even worry about metres. For baradin hold, I think our shamans were always top as well, healing rain is totally op.

The only time HPS and meters really becomes a concern is if your raids healing can't keep up with the incoming damage, then they can be used to see if anyone isn't doing as much HPS as they could be etc.

[myhealzrule]

okay thats fine by me but i'm i doing my job as far as i know/knew holy pally were mt healers correct me if i'm wrong should i be on the tank or help the other healer out with dispell and other heals like the group had told me i sure be doing?