Paladin
Valor and Justice Quartermasters-Update(Beta Build)
Blizzard recently added Valor and Justice points gear items to the recent Beta build. These can be obtained through the Quartermasters found in Niuzao Temple in Townlong Steppes. I decided to post which ones we’ll be looking at as a Holy Paladin. This will just be an update to the post I did back in June 2012 found here.
VALOR– The August Celestials-Revered
489 Plate Spell Spirit Hands-Guantlets of Jade Sutras
489 Plate Spell Spirit Feet-Bramblestaff Boots
489 Plate Spell DPS Wrist-Fallen Centinel Bracers
VALOR– The Klaxxi-Revered
489 Plate Spell DPS Waist- Klaxxi Lash of the Doubter
489 Misc Spell Spirit Neck- Links of the Lucid
489 Plate Spell Spirit Legs- Ambersmith Legplates
VALOR– Golden Lotus-Revered
489 Plate Spell DPS Shoulders- Paleblade Shoulderguards
489 Misc Spell Spirit Finger- Leven’s Circle of Hope
VALOR– Shado Pan-Revered
489 Cloth Spell Spirit Back- Sagewhisper’s Wrap
489 Misc Spell DPS Trinket- Scroll of Revered Ancestors
489 Plate Spell Spirit Helm- Six Pool’s Open Helm
JUSTICE– Shadow Pan-Honored
450 Misc Spell Spirit Finger- Sorcerer-King’s Seal
450 Plate Spell Spirit Hands- Guantlets of Restraint
JUSTICE– Golden Lotus-Honored
450 Misc Spell Spirit Neck- Pendant of Endless Inquisition
450 Plate Spell DPS Wrists- Bracers of Inner Light
JUSTICE– The August Celestials-Honored
450 Plate Spell Spirit Legs- Valiant’s Shinguards
JUSTICE– The Klaxxi-Honored
450 Plate Spell Spirit Chest- Inner Serenity Chestplate
Hope this helps out 🙂
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Faction Quartermaster Gear for Holy Paladins
Recently on MMO-Champion a list of purchasable valor point loot from Faction Quartermasters came out. I thought I’d compile a list of what Holy Paladins might consider obtaining. With the exception of Mounts(Exalted) everything else is purchasable once your at Revered reputation with Valor Points.
The Shado-pan
Rushi the Fox can be found in Townlong Steppes, in the Shado-pan Garrison.
Sagewhisper’s Wrap(Back)- With Spirit and Haste
Scroll of Revered Ancestors(Trinket)- 1079 Intellect and on use increase of 2822 Spirit for 15 seconds
Blossom of Pure Snow(Trinket)- 1079 Intellect and on use increase of 2822 Critical Strike for 15 seconds
Suppose it all depends on your Spec but I’m going with the Spirit Trinket due to the changes of mana regen coming from Spirit
Yalia’s Cowl(Head)- Plate helm with Spirit and Crit
The Klaxxi
Ambersmith Zikk can be found in Dread Wastes, near the center of Klaxxi’vess.
Links of the Lucid(Neck)- Spirit and Haste
Klaxxi Lash of the Doubter(Waist)- Plate Waist with Spirit and Haste
Ambersmith Legplates(Legs)- Plate Legs with Spirit and Mastery
Restorative Amber– Use: Encase yourself in restorative amber, restoring 300,000 health and 300,000 mana over 10 sec. (1 sec cooldown) Obtain this at Honored reputation. Figure I’ll be stocking up on these for awhile.
The August Celestials
Sage Lotusbloom can be found outside of your faction’s capital in Vale of the Eternal Blossoms, in the lower outdoor tier.
Bramblestaff Boots(Feet)- Plate Feet with Spirit and Haste
Gauntlets of Jade Sutras(Hands)- Plate Hands with Spirit and Mastery
Fallen Sentinel Bracers(Wrists)- Plate Wrists with Crit and Mastery. Will keep these until I obtain Plate Wrist with Spirit on them
Golden Lotus
Jaluu the Generous can be found outside of Mogu’shan Palace.
Leven’s Circle of Hope(Finger)- Finger piece with Spirit and Crit
Paleblade Shoulderguards(Shoulders)- Plate Shoulders with Crit and Mastery. Keep these until I obtain a piece with Spirit
Hope this mini post helps in figuring out what you’ll be purchasing from the Factions for your Holy Paladin once Revered. Like many of you I’m chomping at the bit to get MoP up and Live. Until then I’ll do my best to keep you posted on changes big and small.
Just a heads up all, but I’m in the works of getting a mini podcast going so lately a lot of my time has been focused on that. Once we dive into MoP I know I’ll have a ton of stuff to talk and write about.
Please feel free to comment or reach me on Twitter or email. Thanks 🙂
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Holy Paladin Healing in Battlegrounds
When I’m not battling it out with Internet Dragons I like to spend time in Battlegrounds with guildies or Random pickup groups. As of a few months back, my Holy Paladin(Main) was Dual Holy Spec. One spec for PVE and the other for PVP. When my raid team started having problems with filling our 25 man raid roster with DPS, I decided to change my off-spec to Ret, so as to help fill those DPS spots. This in turn put an end to my PVP spec since there was no way I was gonna re-spec my talents every time I wanted to do a Battleground.
This gave me the idea of leveling a new Paladin specifically for PVP. Up to 85 I leveled as Ret Spec so that I could better learn that spec for my Main. Now that my PVP Paladin is 85 her main spec now is Holy. I crafted some PVP Healing Plate Gear for her and off to the Battlegrounds I went to heal.
This gave me an idea of writing a post on healing BG’s as a Holy Paladin. As we all know there are many ways to skin a cat so this write up will be on what has worked for me.
Stats
Intellect/Crit/Spirit/Haste/Always Reforge out of Mastery
Intellect is always our number one stat priority. As of 4.3 it increases our Spell Power, size of Mana Pool, and chance of Spell Critical Strike. Since all healing gear comes with Intel, we never have to worry about not having it.
Critical Strike(Crit Heal) Spell critical heals will only heal for 150% of their normal amount. As far as secondary stats are concerned, this is where I place most of my emphasis into. This is because of my play style. In Battlegrounds I find myself moving around a lot avoiding attacks or CC’s while healing at the same time so big instant heals are important to keeping my team alive.
Spirit is the primary attribute for mana regeneration of healers. I place this stat after Crit because the battle skirmishes(as I like to call them in here) tend to be pretty short so I don’t find myself running out of mana often. Divine Plea macro’d to a Volcanic Potion helps to keep my mana at a decent level if need be. Once the skirmish is over I can sit and recover mana by drinking a mana beverage.
Haste increases your spell casting speed. For me not much of a priority since most of the healing spells I choose to use are instant(Holy Shock, Word of Glory) or fast to begin with like Flash of Light or Divine Light(only with Infusion of Light proc). As a matter of fact I will reforge out of Haste into Crit>Spirit, whichever might be missing.
Resilience is an attribute that reduces all damage taken by players and their pets or minions. This is the bread and butter PVP stat. It is found on gear that is purchased from PVP vendors. Right now in Season 11, I’m finding 4000 Resilience to be my soft cap, making it much harder for others to damage me. Just keep in mind that come MoP, Resilience will no longer be a stat. PvP gear will have Defense on it, as well as a new stat, “Power (PvP).” Power increases the damage you do to other players as well as the healing you do to other players in PvP situations.
Mastery is not important in PVP so reforge out of it into Crit>Spirit>Haste.
Talents
I went with two Holy Specs. First one being more defensive with greater healing from taking talents in Rule of Law and Tower of Radiance:
Second Holy Spec for more offensive talents like Denounce and Improved Hammer of Justice. With this spec I’ll dish out some DPS using Exorcism:
Glyphs
Prime:
Glyph of Seal of Insight– While Seal of Insight is active, the effect of your healing spells is increased by 5%.
Glyph of Word of Glory– Increases the healing done by Word of Glory by 10%.
Glyph of Holy Shock– Increases the critical effect chance of Holy Shock by 5%.
Major:
Glyph of Hammer of Justice– Increases your Hammer of Justice range by 5 yards.
Glyph of Turn Evil– Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%, but increases the cooldown by 8 sec.
Glyph of Holy Wrath– Your Holy Wrath now also stuns Elementals and Dragonkin.
Glyph of Cleansing– Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse by 20%. May replace the GoHW but mostly used in Arenas.
Minor:
Glyph of Insight– Reduces the mana cost of Seal of Insight by 50%.
Glyph of Blessing of Kings– Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings by 50%.
Glyph of Blessing of Might– Reduces the mana cost of your Blessing of Might by 50%.
Enchants and Gemming
Head: Arcanum of Vicious Intellect.
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Vicious Intellect.
Cloak: Enchant Cloak- Greater Intellect.
Chest: Enchant Chest- Mighty Resilience.
Bracer: Enchant Bracer- Mighty Intellect.
Gloves: Enchant Gloves- Haste.
Waist: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle.
Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread.
Boots: Enchant Boots- Earthen Vitality.
Weapon: Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon- Heartsong.
Shield: Enchant Off Hand- Superior Intellect.
Depending on your profession(s) you may have special enchants for certain pieces of gear that would be considered BiS as compared to those listed above.
Meta Gem: Ember Shadowspirit Diamond.
Red Slot: Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby. Jewelcrafters can use Brilliant Chimera’s Eye.
Yellow Slot: Potent Lava Coral, Potent Ember Topaz, Willfull Lava Coral, and Willful Ember Topaz. I prefer to gem with Resilience until I get around 4k resilience then start replacing with Critical Strike.
Blue Slot: Purified Shadow Spine or Purified Demonseye.
Healing Cooldowns
Avenging Wrath– I like to use this at beginning of skirmish making sure I don’t fall behind in heals. Because I know attacking players will be trying to interrupt my heals, I proactively use an (Aura Mastery/Concentration Aura Combo) to prevent silence or interrupts, soon after I cast AW.
Divine Favor– Used when AW is on cooldown to increase chance of bigger heals while moving around. Also at times I will couple this with GoAK for extra big heals if were being over run and I’m being attacked from all over thanks to KillTheHealler add-on. I macro’d the Gladiators Badge of Dominance to DF for some extra Spell Power.
Guardian of Ancient Kings– I will use this cooldown during times of heavy damage to double the size of my heals. As mentioned above, works great when combined with DF.
Hands
Hand of Sacrifice– I like to throw this on the Tank or DPS flag carrier when were being attacked thus reducing damage to FC. In addition, it will break any stun affects on me by damage transfer through HoS.
Hand of Protection– I save this for ranged DPS or fellow healers taking physical damage. Occasionally I’ll use this for myself if my Divine Shield is on cooldown. Keep in mind this grants you Forbearance for one minute.
Hand of Freedom– Basically used on self or others to remove slows, snares and roots. Works great when combined with Divine Protection for Speed of Light when trying to get repositioned. Definitely used a lot while healing in PVP.
Defensive Spells
Every Man for Himself– Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control. This effect will share a cooldown with any Trinkets which perform the same task such as Ruthless Gladiators Medallion. This is a Human racial talent which goes hand in hand with PVP.
Divine Protection – I use this un-glyphed to protect against physical and magical damage. When used you also get a 60% speed buff from Speed of Light talent. Speed boost is great for when trying to get away from those attacking you. Stun(Hammer of Justice) then run(Speed of Light).
Divine Shield– Paladin protective bubble that protects from all damage and spells for 8 seconds. Nice to use when being targeted and you want to get some big heals out to teammates. Keep in mind this causes Forbearance for one minute.
Aura Mastery/Concentration Aura Combo- Provides immunity to silence and interrupt effects. While defending or attacking I like to use this with Avenging Wrath right off the bat. Allows me to get some good healing in with minimal interruptions, hopefully giving DPS some time to kill off some of the opposite faction.
Crowd Control
Turn Evil– Targeted undead or demon will be compelled to flee. Damage will break this effect. I like to have this glyphed making it an instant cast with a 16 second cooldown. If the targets flee gets broken, thats where Holy Wrath comes in for the stun.
Holy Wrath– Like mentioned above, can be used to stun Undead and Demons. If glyphed can be used also on Dragonkin and Elementals. Very handy for keeping the combat pets off of you while trying to heal the flag carrier or repositioning yourself.
Hammer of Justice– Being able to stun a target for 6 seconds definitely has its place in PVP. Defensively I use this to keep someone off of me so that I can do my job as heals. Offensively works great on mages, druids or hunters whom might be attempting to slow the progress of the flag carrier or DPS attacking. I like to HoJ a character then followup with an Exorcism to put Denounce on them.
Rebuke– Can’t say I use this a lot but it can be fun to piss off casters by interrupting their Crowd Control. Thing is you must be in melee range and most of the time I’m moving around while healing or moving to get to a safe distance to heal from.
Main Healing Spells
Holy Shock- 2629 to 2847 healing to an ally, and grants a charge of Holy Power. Nice instant heal that I use every time its off its 6 second cooldown.
Word of Glory- Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for ((1928 + 2148 / 2) + 0.198 * AP) per charge of Holy Power. Big quick 20-25k heal that Crits for around 40k. If talented into Last Word and Rule of Law, you almost have a 100% chance of getting that 40k heal.
Flash of Light- A quick, expensive cast heal that heals a friendly target for 6907 to 7749. One of your main heals to get off some quick healing to injured players. With an Infusion of Light proc it becomes an instant cast spell.
Divine Light- A large heal that heals a friendly target for 11100 to 12366. Good for player(s) taking heavy damage. Very large heal that I cast on most injured person or FC, only when Infusion of Light procs.
Beacon of Light- The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all targets within a 60 yard radius. Your Word of Glory, Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Divine Light and Light of Dawn will also heal the Beacon for 50% of the amount healed. Holy Light will heal for 100% of the amount. Only one target can be the Beacon of Light at a time. Lasts 5 min. When following FC I Beacon them to take advantage of Tower of Radiance to get more Word of Glory free heals. If in a skirmish fight with like 4 or 5 of us I’ll BoL myself so that I never really have to worry about healing myself up.
Protector of the Innocent- Casting a targeted heal on any target, except yourself, also heals you for 2605 to 2997. I put only two points into this talent. I fully understand that this goes against the norm, however coupled with BoL on myself, I almost never have to directly heal myself and just focus on keeping others alive while dodging attacks.
Talents for Mists of Pandaria
Haven’t even tested any of these talents out in a PVP situation but these are the ones I’d probably go with.
The talents that increase my movement speed, stun an opponent, and reduce the cooldowns on my Hands seem like no brainers. The healing talents that I went with were because of the healing spells they buffed like Holy Shock and Flash of Light which are two of my primary heals. At level 90 I went with Holy Prism since the other two were an AoE and HoT heal which I feel don’t benefit our style of healing in PVP.
Just Have Fun
So like I mentioned above, Crit is my favorite stat just after Intellect because I find myself moving around while healing teammates. Its almost guaranteed that I’ll have enemy faction players on me most of the time so with more Crit comes a greater chance of a big heal from HS or WoG. I try and use a few cooldowns upfront and/or early during fights and save a few for near the end.
However it’s not just all about the healing. Everyone must work together as a team and the better communication there is between cooldowns and CC’s the better chance of a win. Unfortunately you can’t win them all so I like to go into Battlegrounds with a great attitude, determination to heal my butt off and CC some casters, and if we loose then its off to the next one. But I still have fun.
I hope this post on Holy Paladin healing in Battlegrounds was helpful and if you have any questions or feedback please leave a comment or get ahold of me on Twitter or email. Thanks 🙂
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Holy Pally Beta Part 2
I finally got to jump back into the Beta and take a look and see what’s going on with things like Glyphs, and the revamped Spellbook. Like before, I tested a few things out on characters and test dummies but haven’t yet experimented with healing in Beta Dungeons. While my guild continues to finish off Heroic Dragon Soul I won’t be able to really commit to healing any of the new and/or old dungeons introduced thus far in Beta.
So I opened the new Spellbook and took note of a few adjustments, additions, and changes to our spell repertoire.
BEACON of LIGHT: As mentioned before its pretty much the same spell however 15% transfer of Holy Radiance has been added and it now has a 3 sec cooldown, up from instant cast. There will be a glyph to make it instant cast but quite honestly, I didn’t notice that much of a change or concern with the cooldown.
BLESSING of KINGS: Same spell however Magical Resistance has been removed as well as the 1 hour timer.
BLESSING of MIGHT: Completely changed so that it places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing mastery by 3500. No longer has 1 hour timer.
DENOUNCE: Casts down the enemy with a bolt of Holy Light, causing 15,582 Holy damage and preventing the target from causing critical effects for the next 4 sec. Looks like this is a combination of Holy Wrath and Denounce Talent for MoP. Played around with it on target dummies. Cool looking affect.
Denounce
DEVOTION AURA: Inspire all party and raid members within 40 yards, granting them immunity to silence and interrupt effects and reducing all magic damage taken by 20%. 3 min cooldown and lasts 6 seconds. This is sort of a combination of current Blessing of Kings, Resistance Aura, and used to replace Aura Mastery.
DIVINE PROTECTION: Reduces magical damage taken by 40% for 10 sec. Changed it so that Magical damage is the priority and if you want physical damage protection then use Glyph of Divine Protection.
DIVINE SHIELD: Unchanged however used with Glyph of Righteous Retreat (During Divine Shield, you can invoke your Hearthstone 50% faster) can add a little spice to leveling on a pvp realm. 🙂
HAND SPELLS: These haven’t changed thus far in Beta. Hand of Sacrifice, Hand of Protection, Hand of Salvation, and Hand of Freedom.
GUARDIAN of ANCIENT KINGS: Will heal the target of your next 5 single-target heals, and nearby friendly targets for 10% of the amount healed. Every time the Guardian heals, it increases your haste by 10%. 5 min cooldown and lasts 30 seconds. No longer doubles the single target heal but gives a haste buff for 30 seconds.
SEAL of INSIGHT: Fills you with Holy Light, improving healing spells by 5% and giving melee attacks a chance to heal you for (0.15 * AP.15 * holy spell power) and restore 4% of base mana. Our healing Seal remains un-nerfed however they added that 5% increase to healing spells.
HOLY INSIGHT(Passive Ability): Increases the effectiveness of your healing by 25%(Replaces our current Holy “Walk in the Light“). Increases your mana pool by 400%(Since Intellect wont affect the size of our mana pool we need some way of increasing its size). Allows 50% of your mana regeneration from Spirit to continue while in combat(Replaces Judgements of the Pure, & Meditation). Increases your chance to hit with Holy Shock, Judgment, and Denounce by 15%(Replaces Enlightened Judgements).
INFUSION of LIGHT(Passive Ability): Your Holy Shock critical effects reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light, Divine Light, or Holy Radiance by 1.50 sec. Removed Flash of Light from heals affected.
MASTERY-ILLUMINATED HEALING: Got a bump up from 12% to 15%.
TOWER of RADIANCE: Same as 3 points into ToR but Holy Radiance was removed.
Unfortunately as of this Beta build our current Divine Favor healing cooldown has been removed from our toolbox.
I changed a few talent points around to try out some different abilities and two really struck me as ones I’m sure I’ll be switching out from time to time.
SELFLESS HEALER: Your successful Judgments reduce the cast time and mana cost of your next Flash of Light by 35% per stack and improves its effectiveness by 35% per stack when used to heal others. Stacks up to 3 times. I really liked this one. With 3 stacks my FoL went from 33k to a 70k heal and crit’d for 135k. Didn’t even hurt my mana. If spec’d into this talent while using the Flash of Light Glyph, put out some nice single target heals. With this talent you’ll more than likely want to cast your Judgments when off cooldown like we did pre 4.3.
ETERNAL FLAME: Consumes up to 3 Holy Power to place a protective Holy flame on a friendly target, which heals them for 1548 per charge of Holy Power every 3 sec for 30 sec. When tested on a subject it put out a HoT which healed from 10k-21k. I got about 12 tics over 30 seconds. At first I saw myself picking the Sacred Shield talent however after playing with EF, I may be using this healing spell from time to time. Basically gives us a third free Holy Power heal in addition to Word of Glory and Light of Dawn.
I looked at a few glyphs that were accessible in game and pertained to what I’d use as a Holy Paladin. Also incase you didn’t know, Prime glyphs were removed so now we just have Major Glyphs(Major changer to game play) and Minor Glyphs(Cosmetic/fun changes to game play).
MAJOR GLYPHS
GLYPH of ASCETIC CRUSADER: Reduces the mana cost of your Crusader Strike and Judgment by 100%. I could see using this with Glyph of Battle Healer and/or Glyph of Flash of Light.
GLYPH of BATTLE HEALER: Using melee attacks while using Seal of Insight heals a nearby injured friendly target, excluding the Paladin, within 30 yards for 10 percent of damage dealt. I really can’t wait to experiment with this glyph however it isn’t accessible yet. Being able to become a Shockadin and dps and heal like Priests, count me in 🙂
GLYPH of FLASH of LIGHT: When you Flash of Light a target, it increases your next heal done to that target within 7 sec by 10%. Used with Selfless Healer talent, I would follow up with a 50k-100k Divine Light Heal.
GLYPH of BLESSED LIFE: While Seal of Insight is active, you have a 50% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power whenever you take direct damage or are affected by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect. Like the Cataclysm talent I see using this glyph based on the type of damage we’ll be taking and mechanics of fight.
GLYPH of DIVINE PLEA: Divine Plea now has a 5 sec cast time, but you receive 12% of your total mana instantly and your healing is not reduced. The 5 sec cast time wasn’t all that bad and to receive your mana instantly with no reduction to healing seems like a must have until we get better geared.
GLYPH of DIVINE PROTECTION:Reduces the magical damage reduction of your Divine Protection to 20% but adds 20% physical damage reduction. Fight specific.
GLYPH of DIVINITY: Increases the cooldown of your Lay on Hands by 2 min(10-12 min) but causes it to give you 10% of your maximum mana. While learning new fights and getting better gear for mana regen I’ll plan to have this one glyphed.
GLYPH of ILLUMINATION: Your Holy Shock criticals grant 1% mana return, but Holy Insight returns 10% less mana. I’ll let the theorycrafters figure this one out.
GLYPH of LIGHT OF DAWN: Light of Dawn affects 2 fewer targets, but heals each target for 25% more. Best used for Dungeons and 10 man Raids.
GLYPH OF PROTECTOR of the INNOCENT: When you use Word of Glory to heal another target, it also heals you for 20% of the amount. Could see this beneficial for fights with mechanics like Heroic Yor’sahjs Deep Corruption and healing in arenas and battlegrounds.
MINOR GLYPHS
FIRE from the HEAVENS: Your Judgment and Hammer of Wrath criticals call down fire from the sky. Found it to be nothing really special.
WINGED VENGEANCE: Your Avenging Wrath depicts 4 wings. I like and plan to glyph this one.
Glyph of Winged Vengeance
Glyph of Winged Vengeance
GLYPH of CONTEMPLATION: Allows you a moment of peace as you kneel in quiet contemplation to ponder the nature of the Light. AFK, RP fun glyph I’ll more than likely save this glyph for those “First Kill” screenshots.
Glyph of Contemplation
So as you can see that while not much was taken from our toolbox, we’ve gained some new talents, abilities, and glyphs that are just gonna expand our ability to heal successfully regardless of what role or job is thrown at us. I really like what I’ve seen so far from our healing toolbox. Because of the way the new talent system is allowing us to switch our talents around at a moments notice, its gonna make this game that much more interesting. I can mix and match my talents and glyphs around depending on the fight to help benefit the team, going from an AoE raider healer(talent-Holy Avenger,glyph-LoD for 10mans, and Daybreak) to a hardened tank healer(talents-Sacred Shield & Selfless Healer, glyph-Flash of Light). I’m also really curious to try out the (dps and heal) style of healing using the glyph of Battle Healer. Blizzards intention was to end the must have cookie cutter talent build and so far it feels like they’ve succeeded.
I really enjoyed playing around and looking at all the new stuff so far in Beta. Keep in mind that this is Beta, so some of these talents and glyphs won’t make it into MoP Live. As we move closer to the launch date I’ll continue to experiment in Beta and write about it. Also at some point I’ll get in and heal a few Dungeons. I hope this post came in handy and like always, please leave feedback or send me an email. Thanks 🙂
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Holy Pally Beta Pt #1
So I finally got the time to go into the Beta Realm and boy was it a Lagfest. Did it on my 13″ MacBook with 1-2 fps at certain times but I’m committed to getting something out to you. So I got some downtime at work and decided to go in and check a few things out. I am planning on going in and breaking up my posts into parts. I only plan on finding out what there is in regard to what’s new or changed as a Holy Paladin and playing around with it and sharing what I’ve learned with you. As far as checking out the Panda class/Monk spec, that will have to wait until the expansion goes live. Like the Worgen, I really want to get the full enjoyment for the first time as I level him/her 1-90 without any issues or bugs and knowing they’re mine to keep 🙂
Now the first thing I did was check out the Healing Spells we currently use. As of right now there are no major changes to them with the exception that they produce bigger heals. I went over to the test dummy section in Stormwind and practiced on the dummies and a few actual characters. Keep in mind I did this non buffed and in current Dragon Soul raid gear so results will vary, especially when it goes live and we start replacing Cataclysm gear with MoP upgrades so the heals will then get bigger.
Flash of Light: Still our very fast heal that uses a lot of mana. It was putting out 30k heals when I tested it.
Holy Light: Slower heal that put out around 22k of healing. (No update on Wowhead)
Divine Light: Slower heal that put out around 42k heals
Holy Shock: Instant cast heal with a 6 sec cooldown. It healed for 32K so like I said, bigger heals.
Holy Radiance: This had a change to the 10 yard splash heal. It now disperses 50% of the initial heal to players within 10 yards and no longer has a 3 sec “HoT”. I used this on some grouped players. Initial HR heal was for 10k on targeted player. It splashed onto six other players hitting five with 5k and one with a 10k crit.
Beacon of Light: Pretty much the same spell but with a few minor changes. It now transfers 15% of Holy Radiance and says all other healing spells (except Holy Light 100%) transfer 50%. I wonder if that will include our Level 90 healing spell Lights Hammer ?
Word of Glory: Instant heal that consumes Holy Power. With 3 Holy Power I healed for 33k.
Light of Dawn: Instant cast spell which consumes Holy Power. Now instead of healing as a cone in front of you, it emanates a wave around you (much like a priests Circle of Healing) healing up to six injured members. I was healing for around 14k. The new visual affect is pretty cool.
Light of Dawn Beta
So thats it for the Healing Spells I played around with. Next I went ahead and looked at the new talents system. I will briefly mention the ones I liked. This is subjective to my liking and style of healing so don’t take it as the have to have talent. The new talent system is set up so that all grouped talents have similarities but its up to you which one suits your fancy for the particular fight.
Speed of Light: Increases your movement speed by 70% for 8 sec. I like having this option at my disposal when its off the 1 min cooldown. Ready to use when a bump in speed might save my hide. This came in handy for Ragnaros and Morchok. I’m also happy to see it separated from our Divine Protection and now won’t feel like it’s a waste of one buff over another buff. However we will lose 3% spell haste but I’m sure it all gets worked out.
Speed of Light Beta
Fist of Justice: Stuns the target for 6 seconds. 30 sec cooldown. (Replaces Hammer of Justice). What can I say, I actually used HofJ. Came in real handy on those fire elementals on the Ragnaros fight and on the Val’kyr in Lich King fight.
Fist of Justice Beta
Sacred Shield:Protects the target with a shield of Holy Light for 30 sec, which increases the critical chance of your Flash of Light on the target by 30%. The shield also absorbs 5879+0.52*holy spell power damage when the target takes damage, but no more than once every 6 sec. I am really glad to see this coming back in a modified way. In WotLK we had SS which was used on tanks to help mitigate damage but was removed from our arsenal in Cataclysm. I anticipate throwing this onto a tank whom I know is going to be getting hit with heavy damage soon. As of this Beta build, no cooldown 🙂 Can’t see that going live.
Sacred Shield Beta
Hand of Purity: Places a hand on the friendly target reducing the damage of harmful periodic effects by 70% for 6 seconds. 1 minute cooldown. If you’ve read my prior posts then you know that I’m a big user of Paladin Hands. Damage mitigation is a big part of our arsenal and to have another one added makes me really happy.
Hand of Purity
Ok, picture this. Raid boss is about to hit the tank with Big Damage. Throw a Sacred Shield and Hand of Purity on the tank. Serious damage mitigation there. If need be follow it up with another Sacred Shield and Hand of Sacrifice (since HofP is on a 1 min cooldown). Feels almost overpowered too me. I’m sure SS will be getting its own cooldown.
Holy Avenger: Abilities that generate Holy Power will generate 3 charges of Holy Power for the next 15 sec. 2 minute cooldown. I tested this out on some players and it put out some nice “AoE” heals. I was able to spam Holy Radiance, 3HP Light of Dawn, HR, LofD, HR, LofD. Thats right, three of each which was over a 15 second period. Thats a ton of raid healing if you ask me. Looks to me like Blizzard isn’t putting our Raid healing capabilities on the old chopping block 🙂 If your tank healing, pop Holy Avenger and with Tower of Radiance use a Divine Light, 3HP Word of Glory, DL, WoG, DL, WoG…..for 15 seconds during times of heavy tank damage.
Holy Avenger
Lights Hammer: Hurl a Light-infused hammer into the ground where it will blast a 10 yard area with Arcing Light for 16 seconds. “Arcing Light” deals 5,125 Holy damage to enemies within the area and 5,125 healing to allies within the area every 2 seconds. Because I’m not level 90, I wasn’t able to play around with this talent, however, I think it will be a spell that I will get to know very intimately 🙂 This spell would have been very useful for certain fights in Dragon Soul where we are grouped up and taking damage from adds (Heroic Yor’sahj).
Lights Hammer
Before I end this post I wanted to mention two Holy Paladin specific abilities that we get in MoP.
Boundless Conviction: You may store an additional 2 Holy Power beyond the maximum of 3. No ability ever consumes more than 3 Holy Power. This is a passive ability we always have. I tested this out and it’s definitely a nice ability to have. Our bar still shows 3 holy power max but you can accumulate 2 more beyond it. If you end up using a Word of Glory or Light of Dawn you still have 2 holy power left. Means we’ll be getting more use out of our WoG/LoD healing spells.
Daybreak: After casting Holy Radiance, your next Holy Shock will also heal other allies within 10 yards of the target for an amount equal to the original healing done, divided evenly among all targets. This has been completely revamped from its current state and I feel its been upgraded. I tested this out as well and I liked the results. I healed someone with HR(healed for 10k, transferring 5k to 6 allies) which proc’d Daybreak. I then followed up with a 21k HS which then splashed heals to the allies around the person I was healing. It was around 2.1k to each of the 6 characters I believe. Daybreak proc’s after every HR so unless there’s big raid damage going out, HR/HS seems like a good rotation for raid healing.
This will complete part 1 of my Beta Testing of the Holy Paladin Spec. Next I plan to look at our Major Cooldowns, Hand Spells, and changes to our Auras. Hope this gives you some idea of what changes are ahead for the Holy Paladins. If you have any questions or input please leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks as always,
Megacode
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Holy Paladin Power Auras
I’ve had several people ask for my Power Auras that I make use of on my Holy Paladin so here they are. Great thing with Power Auras is that you can import them(copy/paste) and customize them so they work for you.
AURA MASTERY: Version:4.23; b:0.1686; g:0.1255; icon:Spell_Holy_AuraMastery; buffname:aura mastery; x:-26; bufftype:15; texture:92; mine:true; size:0.64; y:34; texmode:2
DIVINE PLEA: Version:4.23; b:0.1059; g:0.5373; icon:Spell_Holy_Aspiration; buffname:divine plea; r:0.098; x:2; bufftype:15; texture:25; mine:true; size:0.23; y:55; texmode:2
DIVINE PROTECTION: Version:4.23; b:0.1059; g:0.9569; icon:spell_holy_divineprotection; buffname:Divine Protection; x:26; bufftype:15; texture:89; mine:true; size:0.64; y:34; texmode:2
AVENGING WRATH: Version:4.23; InvertAuraBelow:2; icon:Spell_Holy_AvengineWrath; buffname:Avenging Wrath; x:-125; bufftype:15; texture:188; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.15; y:-3; texmode:2
DIVINE SHIELD: Version:4.23; b:0.9882; g:0.9569; icon:spell_holy_divineshield; buffname:Divine Shield; bufftype:15; texture:54; alpha:0.32; mine:true; size:1.17; y:-55; texmode:2
DIVINE FAVOR: Version:4.23; icon:Spell_Holy_DivineIllumination; buffname:divine favor; x:125; bufftype:15; texture:14; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.15; y:-3; texmode:2
LAY on HANDS: Version:4.23; icon:Spell_Holy_LayOnHands; buffname:lay on hands; x:-125; bufftype:15; texture:14; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.15; y:-153; texmode:2
HAND of SACRIFICE: Version:4.23; b:0.1412; g:0.1412; icon:Spell_Holy_SealOfSacrifice; buffname:hand of sacrifice; bufftype:15; texture:66; mine:true; size:1.53; y:-66; texmode:2
GUARDIAN of ANCIENT KINGS: Version:4.23; icon:Spell_Holy_Heroism; buffname:guardian of ancient kings; x:125; bufftype:15; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.15; y:-153; texmode:2
HOLY POWER 3: Version:4.23; thresholdinvert:true; icon:spell_holy_lightsgrace; bufftype:10; texture:113; alpha:0.51; PowerType:9; threshold:3; size:0.48; y:-86
JUDGEMENTS of the PURE PROC: Version:4.23; icon:Ability_Paladin_JudgementofthePure; buffname:Judgements of the Pure; x:230; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.17; y:35; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.y:64; timer.x:233
FORBEARANCE DEBUFF: Version:4.23; icon:Spell_Holy_RemoveCurse; buffname:Forbearance; x:277; bufftype:2; owntex:true; mine:true; size:0.17; y:33; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.y:64; timer.x:278
POWER TORRENT: Version:4.23; icon:Ability_Paladin_SacredCleansing; buffname:Power Torrent; texture:6; alpha:0.31; sound:10; soundend:25; size:0.75; texmode:2
If your in need of some other styles and choices go over to My Pally Heals or Joe Ego for other Holy Paladin Power Aura choices. Hope this helps and if you know of other sites to import good Holy Paladin Power Auras, please leave some feedback. Thanks as always,
Megacode
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Peripherals & Add-ons a Healers Best Friend
Over the years I’ve learned to make my gameplay much easier by using game add-on mods like VuhDo, Power Auras, and Big Wigs. However I can’t forget to mention what computer peripherals have done for my style of game play, especially when it comes to what I enjoy best, healing in Raids. Can we do the job without add ons or peripherals? Well of course we can but using them sure makes our job easier and loads of fun.
I download all my add ons from Curse.com. They have thousands of them for World of Warcraft. I personally use about 10 since I’ve never been one to completely change my screen by cluttering it all up with mods. However I would like to mention 4 that I find very useful for raiding and dungeons.
VuhDo: I just recently wrote a post on using the VuhDo healing UI mod. It’s a must have for me when healing raids. Find that post here.
Power Auras: This add-on allows for visual cues of buffs, debuffs, cooldowns, etc. I absolutely love this add-on for setting up visual cues of all my cooldowns around my character. Lets admit it, at times we can get a little tunnel visioned and having auras close to my character indicating when certain buffs or proc’s are off cooldown really comes in handy. Most of the auras that I have set up are for my healing buffs, damage mitigation spells and a few talent proc’s. However, you can just about make an aura for anything(trinkets,debuffs) that has a cooldown. If you would like a list of my own personal auras for my Holy Paladin just send me an email and I will send them to you.
Power Auras
OmniCC: OmniCC is an addon that adds text to items, spells and abilities that are on cooldown to indicate when they will be ready to use. In other words, it turns all the standard analogue cooldowns into digital ones. I love this as a digital cue timer for when my potions and buffs(in addition to Power Auras) are off cooldown.
OmniCC
Big Wigs: This is a boss encounter add-on that is designed to trigger alert messages, timer bars, sounds, and so forth, for one specific raid encounter. Any serious and not so serious player should have a boss encounter add-on before participating in a raid. Will make yours and your teammates experience in the raid much more pleasurable 🙂 If you’re looking for a boss encounter add-on for 5 mans, you might want to check out Little Wigs.
BigWigs in Action
BigWigs Encounter Screen
I’ve always been a gadget guy so when I was first introduced to the Razer products website, I knew I was in big trouble. I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a difference their products have been to my game play. The two I use are the Razer Naga and the Razer Nostromo.
Razer Nostromo: This is a gaming keypad that has 16 fully programmable Hyperesponse keys, 8 keymaps that you can switch between on the fly, and an 8-way directional thumb pad all integrated into one dedicated gaming keypad. For the longest time I was controlling my movement and certain abilities/spells with my left hand using my keyboard. While that worked just fine, because there were so many keys around my hand, I found myself looking down at the keyboard to make sure I hit the correct button. Now with the Nostromo, I can control all movement and spell/abilities on the fly without delay all in the palm of my left hand and never have to look down. With 8 keymaps at my disposal, I have full control of all 4 of my healers. Like all things new, you have to give yourself time to get comfortable with it to build that muscle memory.
Razer Nostromo Keypad
Razer Naga: This is a 17 button gaming mouse. It replicates all my in game buttons onto the mouse for some serious streamlined game play. At first I have to admit, it felt kind of bulky and trying to press the buttons on the side felt awkward. I knew that this mouse in addition to mouseover macro’s would really improve my gameplay as a healer so I really worked hard in getting used to the feel of the mouse so that I’d build back that muscle memory. Two years later I have absolutely no regrets and can’t imagine playing without one. I sort of guaranteed that by buying two 🙂
Razer Naga Gaming Mouse
So if you’re feeling like your not playing to your full potential try using one of these add ons or even better, add a new gadget to your gaming family and check out some cool peripherals from Razer or any other online gamer gear website. If you have any questions or suggestions on good add ons or peripherals you want to share, please feel free to leave a comment, email me or send me a Tweet on Twitter. Have fun and good luck out there.
Megacode 🙂
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 6 so far )Helping Hands
Holy Paladins, like I’ve said before are considered utility healers. We have so much within our repertoire, that we can almost do it all from single target heals to small hots. What also really differentiates us are our Hands spells. Previous to 3.0.2 patch, they were called Blessings. Today the only blessing spells that remain are Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings. The rest have pretty much become Hand (Spell). Unlike Blessings which are considered raid buffs, Hands are used more for damage mitigation. The available hands in use today by Holy Paladins are:
Hand of Freedom: Grants immunity to movement impairing effects for 6 seconds. This came in handy when used on self while healing on the Nezir platform while inflicted with Ice Patch in Throne of the Four Winds Raid.
Hand of Freedom
Hand of Protection: A party or raid member is protected from physical attacks for 10 seconds. I really try and save this for ranged dps who are close to death from physical attacks. Ranged dps can still continue to attack while melee dps won’t be able to attack for 10 seconds while Hand is on them. In rare occasions you might find a need to use on tank but make sure you and the tank have communicated this to prevent ugly consequences. If need be, throw a Hand of Freedom on them to remove the spell. Also, keep in mind that using HoP places Forbearance on you(Paladin).
Hand of Protection
Hand of Sacrifice: Whoever you cast this on, 30% of the damage they take gets transferred to you. Most of the time I save this for tanks who have exhausted their cool downs and are expecting some big damage soon. Just be prepared to use a Divine Protection or Divine Shield incase you bit off more than you can chew.
Hand of Sacrifice
End Cast Image of Hand of Sacrifice
Hand of Salvation: Reduces total threat by 2% every 1 second for 10 seconds to whomever you put this on. I use this most often when learning a new dungeon, for those dps who pull threat from tank. While learning the Heroic Hagara fight, I found myself using this on one or two dps.
Hand of Salvation
Just keep in mind these spells do have cool downs so keep an eye on their timers just incase you find yourself using them multiple times.
While I’m not in Beta I plan to continue posting short posts on Holy Paladin abilities/healing since its been awhile since anyone has. Just keep in mind some of these may not make it into live Mists of Pandaria. Hope this helps and thanks for reading and leaving any feedback.
Megacode
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