Holy Paladin Heroic Healing Tips

Despite my previous article on the healing plate in Northrend’s Heroics, and my in game enthusiasm for getting the best of that gear, I’m afraid my luck with finding most of the items on that list has not been brilliant. Although in other ways I lucked out, so it’s not that much of a problem really! Grim and I are now at the stage of being able to pretty much chain pull our way through most of the HCs, piling through from boss to boss. We might lose a DPS or two on the way, but it’s all in the name of progress. As we steamed through Utgarde Keep today on an easy badge run, it occured to me that its only fairly recently that I was able to heal through at such a pace without running out of mana or allowing the whole group to become dirt inspection officers time after time.

So, read on after the break for my tips on the minimum requirements for healing swift Heroics!

I’m going to occasionally reference my Armoury in this article, so heres the link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Nordrassil&n=Kirioth

As you can see, my professions are in a dire state. I thought we’d get that over and done with before we get to the helpful stuff. Long story short, I like healing and fighting, I don’t like cutting stuff off dead animals, and I can only powerlevel Enchanting for about 20 minutes every 3 days without feeling despondent and irritated. So! On with the good stuff.

First things first. Plate is best. One of the greatest things about being a Holy Paladin is that you’re covered in armour, and thus don’t take much damage, and you can still heal yourself for your entire health pool in 2.5 seconds. When I started running Heroics I made a pledge to myself that I would stick to plate, as plate is the best. That attitude disappeared when the Battlemap Hide Helm dropped. It’s leather, and yet its still awesome. I made an exception for this item. Then Dalronn’s Jerkin dropped, so I made an exception for that too. And, well, as you can see, I started making exceptions all over the place. The moral of the story is: If it’s an upgrade, TAKE IT! Don’t be put off by the casters, don’t be brought low by the “:(” of Warlocks and Mages, and Shadow Priests. Or the Shamans and Druids at that!

I’ve never claimed to be an expert on the Paladin class, I’m just an enthusiastic amateur. Still, I’ve been PUG’ing with Grim like an addict for about a week and a half now, so I can tell you from personal experience that to power through Heroics without having to let people drop all the time you need the follwing:

1) You need at least 200 mana per 5 seconds, with Blessing of Wisdom up. If you run out of mana, you run out of answers. The group dies, and you feel silly. Make sure you use Divine Plea all the time! Whenever it comes up, use it. It is your most valuable tool. If you have a trinket that grants spellpower, use it when you have Divine Plea going. Also, keep Sacred Shield up on the tank at all times, that extra 50% chance to crit with Flash of Light is invaluable. It provides a good amount of mitigation as well.

2) Crit chance. Make sure you have at least 20%. Crit chance for Holy Paladins is a very, very important stat. We get a 60% mana refund on all of our heals when they crit, which can, if you combine it with Divine Illumination, make us one of the longest lasting healers in the game. My crit chance isn’t great, it’s sitting at 25% for Holy Light and Holy Shock, and 19 for Flash of Light. My gemming is a mess, so that should be sorted soon.

3) Now this is a bit hard to judge… Intellect. You need lots of it. I’d suggest trying to have about 800 to 900 Intellect, closer to 900 preferably. It increases your mana pool, and your crit chance. A bigger mana pool is always, always something to be chased. No matter how lucky you are there will always be at least one occasion when you are low on mana. It’s unavoidable, but it happens. More is always good!

4) As much Bonus Healing as you can lay your hands on. There is no figure for this, the more you have the better, same as Intellect. When I started running Heroics I had about 1000 bonus healing, and as soon as those drops start coming it will skyrocket. As you can see, I’m looking at 1605 bonus healing at the moment, and once I’ve bought my new trinket, it’ll be over 1700.

Finally, and this is the stat that always gets me, we have Haste. There is a bit of debate raging at the moment as to whether Haste or Crit is the way to go, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s down to you. If you want to be able to lay down 4 Holy Lights in rapid succession, go for Haste. If you want to make your one Holy Light land for a staggering amount, go for Crit Chance. Personally, I wouldn’t chase Haste gear, if it comes on a piece of gear that’s an upgrade, go for it. If you’re dropping other stats for it, then it’s down to your own judgement. Speaking of which, Judgements of the Pure gives us a nice 15% increase in Haste rating anyway, which is just fine for me.

So there you go. You’ve had a chance to giggle at my lack of achievements and appalling professions, and seen how not to gem to your gear! And now, for the summary:

• 20% Crit chance
• 200 mp5
• 800 to 900 Intellect
• 1000 to 1250 bonus healing
• 15% Haste from Judgements of the Pure, and any more you happen to pick up!

Next time, I’ll go through a few builds, and some gemming guides. Don’t panic, I’ll follow them myself before I post them. “Find something that matches” is an attitude I don’t usually take, honest!