In writing my FAQ and looking around a bit I noticed that I don't really know too much about the nuances of Paladin healing. I have never main-healed an instance as my Paladin, so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight into this, I will be posting the results in the FAQ and will credit anyone who I take advice from. Here are my questions:
1) What stats should be buffed and what stats are recommended for normal,kara,heroic, and raiding instances?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
If you think of any other questions that should be answered or want to add more information than what I asked for please feel free to do so. Thank you in advance.
- Forums
- World of Warcraft
- Class Discussion
- Paladin Healing guide help
Paladin Healing guide helpFollow
3. Let's assume I am able to top off the main tank currently with FOL, and everyone gets hit with an aoe. I flash heal 2 of them up (me first, then the "next most vital person"). Give the tank a Holy Light. then the other two a flash. Then the tank gets a holy light. then back to flash healing.
If all five people are getitng constantly hit, you are definintely going to have problems healing all of them for a considerable amount of time. But if you do, immediately pop your 41 point talent. I forget the name. Heal everyone with holy light. This will tend to bring all enemies to you, at which point the tank needs to quickly pull them off of you.
6. Plate vs. non-plate is definitely up for grabs. Personally I have found that if you keep a High armor shield and a high armor Chest on, the rest does not change your armor value by a noticable amount, but tends to allow you to get better healing stats.
To be clear, I am lvl 66 and not to Kara yet obv, but I can main heal Shadow labs at lvl 66 with a lvl 67 in party and 3 lvl 70's, which is a 70 instance.
If all five people are getitng constantly hit, you are definintely going to have problems healing all of them for a considerable amount of time. But if you do, immediately pop your 41 point talent. I forget the name. Heal everyone with holy light. This will tend to bring all enemies to you, at which point the tank needs to quickly pull them off of you.
6. Plate vs. non-plate is definitely up for grabs. Personally I have found that if you keep a High armor shield and a high armor Chest on, the rest does not change your armor value by a noticable amount, but tends to allow you to get better healing stats.
To be clear, I am lvl 66 and not to Kara yet obv, but I can main heal Shadow labs at lvl 66 with a lvl 67 in party and 3 lvl 70's, which is a 70 instance.
Alright cool, sounds good to me I'll probably add some of that to the FAQ. Still need more replies though.
idk how much this helps, but i can MH instances at 60 while specced full prot/ret. Obviously, i need a tank that holds aggro great, or we dont do so well, but i pop on some cloth with +heal (about 4 pieces total) and go. i also find that the basic pally outlands gear from hellfire quests is useful for healing too.
Basically, FoL and HL occasionally Mt
Basically, FoL and HL occasionally Mt
1) +heal, +spell crit, MP5 and Intelligence. A balance is best. +heal primary, +spell crit is still better than MP5 for mana regen but you want both. Int increases mana pool, spell crit and +heal for a a paladin.
2) Tank get BoL. Healer get BoW. Everyone else gets BoSalvation. A hunter might get BoM if he knows how to handle aggro, if not he gets Bosalv no matter how much he cries. Raid buffing everyone should have Pally Power and class leader should use it to assign buffage.
3) Holy Paladins are good single target healers, when we have to start healing a bunch of people and we are the only healer we lose mana fast. Tank takes priority, top him up fast and throw a FoL on the party member.
4) Healing 60-70 is pretty much the same. You have to know the strats and if your party is teh suck nothing you do will keep them alive. Each step, 5 man, kara, heroics is upping the difficulty and a gear check. Also a check in learning strats and such. The basics of healing don't change, you just have to have the gear and know when and who to cleanse, BoP etc.
5) Techniques. PvP, arena and bg are completely different beasts and should be treated as such. The ability to keep yourself alive is key, since in both people want to kill the healers first. Other than that stand back and heal from far away, watch for guys coming at you. Stay in range. Be ready to BoP. Arena people will got at you hard, each and every fight is different so it is a personal learning experience, no one can tell you what or what not to do.
6) Plate vs Non Plate. Get plate for PvP, feel free to use cloth and up for PvE.
Healing Pallies should definitely get Healbot, Pallie Power. Great tools for raiding and BG even.
Edited, Aug 26th 2007 3:40:37pm by bodhisattva
2) Tank get BoL. Healer get BoW. Everyone else gets BoSalvation. A hunter might get BoM if he knows how to handle aggro, if not he gets Bosalv no matter how much he cries. Raid buffing everyone should have Pally Power and class leader should use it to assign buffage.
3) Holy Paladins are good single target healers, when we have to start healing a bunch of people and we are the only healer we lose mana fast. Tank takes priority, top him up fast and throw a FoL on the party member.
4) Healing 60-70 is pretty much the same. You have to know the strats and if your party is teh suck nothing you do will keep them alive. Each step, 5 man, kara, heroics is upping the difficulty and a gear check. Also a check in learning strats and such. The basics of healing don't change, you just have to have the gear and know when and who to cleanse, BoP etc.
5) Techniques. PvP, arena and bg are completely different beasts and should be treated as such. The ability to keep yourself alive is key, since in both people want to kill the healers first. Other than that stand back and heal from far away, watch for guys coming at you. Stay in range. Be ready to BoP. Arena people will got at you hard, each and every fight is different so it is a personal learning experience, no one can tell you what or what not to do.
6) Plate vs Non Plate. Get plate for PvP, feel free to use cloth and up for PvE.
Healing Pallies should definitely get Healbot, Pallie Power. Great tools for raiding and BG even.
Edited, Aug 26th 2007 3:40:37pm by bodhisattva
Bode - 100 Holy Paladin - Lightbringer
1) The order of importance is argued a lot, but definitely int, +spell crit, +healing, and mp/5. I like Intelligence and here's why:
Intelligence gives you more mana. In addition, with the talent right before Divine Illumination (The 41 point talent), at 5/5 it transforms 35% of your int into +healing. Spell crit returns mana, which is why you want mp/5, to have more mana. So +spell crit and Intelligence are probably my top two priorities, with +healing a very, very close second.
2) Greatly depends on the situation. If there's a shadow priest in my group, I give myself kings, if not, it's Wisdom. In 5-mans I'll give the tank Blessing of Light, white damage DPSers Might, and spell caster DPSers wisdom. If I see a problem with someone pulling aggro, then I'll give them Salvation
3) The biggest difference for me is between raiding and 5-mans. In raids I find myself spamming FoL a lot, with an occasional Holy Light when necessary. 5-mans is when I find myself using HL the most.
4) Depends on the tank. If I have a good tank in an instances with 13k HP or more, I have a little breathing room in keeping other party members topped off. Whereas, if I'm healing a tank with just barely 10k HP or so, I'll have to focus on him a lot more, and may not keep party members topped off as regularly as I can.
5) Can't speak too much for this topic. When I did honor grinds in AV, I just stuck with the front group a lot. Make sure target of target is on and keep on clicking on enemy targets and clicking their target. If that target's HP isn't dropping, click on the enemy target again and find out who is getting hurt and heal them, etc. For arena, well, my team isn't very good, so I won't comment. =P
6) I find that in upper level instances I don't really have a choice all that often. My pally has some mail gear, but nothing less. This is because in raids, there's often other classes who predominantly use the other armor proficiencies and take that item. If you can get your hands on better healing gear that isn't plate, I say go for it.
Intelligence gives you more mana. In addition, with the talent right before Divine Illumination (The 41 point talent), at 5/5 it transforms 35% of your int into +healing. Spell crit returns mana, which is why you want mp/5, to have more mana. So +spell crit and Intelligence are probably my top two priorities, with +healing a very, very close second.
2) Greatly depends on the situation. If there's a shadow priest in my group, I give myself kings, if not, it's Wisdom. In 5-mans I'll give the tank Blessing of Light, white damage DPSers Might, and spell caster DPSers wisdom. If I see a problem with someone pulling aggro, then I'll give them Salvation
3) The biggest difference for me is between raiding and 5-mans. In raids I find myself spamming FoL a lot, with an occasional Holy Light when necessary. 5-mans is when I find myself using HL the most.
4) Depends on the tank. If I have a good tank in an instances with 13k HP or more, I have a little breathing room in keeping other party members topped off. Whereas, if I'm healing a tank with just barely 10k HP or so, I'll have to focus on him a lot more, and may not keep party members topped off as regularly as I can.
5) Can't speak too much for this topic. When I did honor grinds in AV, I just stuck with the front group a lot. Make sure target of target is on and keep on clicking on enemy targets and clicking their target. If that target's HP isn't dropping, click on the enemy target again and find out who is getting hurt and heal them, etc. For arena, well, my team isn't very good, so I won't comment. =P
6) I find that in upper level instances I don't really have a choice all that often. My pally has some mail gear, but nothing less. This is because in raids, there's often other classes who predominantly use the other armor proficiencies and take that item. If you can get your hands on better healing gear that isn't plate, I say go for it.
CapJack wrote:
1) What stats should be buffed and what stats are recommended for normal,kara,heroic, and raiding instances?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
1.) I go for an even mix of healing, holy crit, and mp5 while casting. I know our requirements are 1500, 20, 90 to get in to our guild. Kara would be lower... I'd probably say 1300, 17, and 70ish. Its been a while since I was kara level gear though. If you can main heal kara, you can main heal heroics. I was doing heroics well before I set foot in kara once. As for 25 mans, I'd shoot for as close to our guild requirements as you can. I've seen our req's met by pvp and a couple kara epics alone.
2.) It depends on how many paladins there are and who has what talents. My persona build includes imp might, so I try to be the one casting might on people when might is cast. Tanks need Kings > Light > Might. Rogues need Might > Salv > Kings. Priests need Wisdom > Salv > Kings. Druids are like priest/tank depending on their spec. Paladins don't generate hardly any theat so Wisdom > Kings > Salv. Shamans need priest buffs if they're healers, Salv > Wisdom/Might > Kings if they're dps. Mages need Salv > Wisdom > kings, same with warlocks (unless they're dark pact where you switch wis/king). Hunters need Wisdom/Might > Kings > Salv since they can fein.
3.) In all honesty I don't 90% of the time. Paladins are the best single-target healers and one of the worst raid healers. If there are no other healing classes then it tends to get rough. Almost all the time I'm in a raid I'm healing the tanks. If I have to heal other people I use grid to target them quickly and throw a flash of light, then throw one on a tank, then throw another on a raid member, another on the tank, etc. I just alternate between making sure my tank is up and healing the other classes. Worse comes to worse, tell them to break off and bandage.
4.) There was for me, but I'm not sure there should be for everyone. Before I had as much healing as I do now I freqently used a ranked-down version of holy light as my primary healing spell, now I only use flash of light since I've had it crit upwards of 3.3k for 180 mana.
5.) I never pvp, I'm not a good person to ask.
6.) Stats > armor. When I went into kara I had a mix of cloth, leather, mail, and plate. If you stick to plate only healing gear early on you will be severely lacking in stats. Even once I was in kara I would occasionally pick up leather/mail when my plate wouldn't drop. Now I'm all plate but I've been raiding on my paladin for a while.
6)My only complaint with Cloth and Leather healing armor is that it tends to waste a lot of itemization on Spirit. But if you can find something cloth/leather/mail that's better than what you're wearing, go for it. Though the mix/match can make for terrible fashion and I'm all about making my character look good.
1) What stats should be buffed and what stats are recommended for normal,kara,heroic, and raiding instances?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
1) +heal, spell crit, mp5 and int. When I started out in Kara I had 1k +healing, 15% crit (so 20% to holy) and 70 mp5 and that did me fine.
2) Tank gets light, self gets kings (I'm rather heavy on mp5 atm), dps get wisdom/kings/might/salv depending on class and players in the group (warlocks, dps shaman/warriors and anyone who overagroes alot tend to get salvation, if the tank is a bit crap everyone gets salvation), generally I'll ask which buff people prefer in a 5 man as some people differ depending on spec/stats (e.g. a survival hunter might prefer kings over might to get the extra agility).
3) If the tank is taking a lot of damage I tend to HL on the tank and then FoL on a dps or two before going back to HL on the tank. If everyone is taking a lot of damage use the talent that reduces mana cost (can't remember the name either) and HL everyone and hope the evil aoe thing is dead before I'm oom.
4)Depending on gear levels normal mode tends to be easy and there's quite a lot of FoL use, with HL mainly for bosses. Heroics I'm fairly crappy at healing (but I have gone with poorly geared tanks, so I'll blame that :P), tanks will take a lot of damage so you will be mainly focusing on the tank (probably using a lot more HL than on normal mode) if anyone has a good guide for healing heroics I'm all ears (preferably not from someone with +600 heal who did it as ret spec without going oom).
Raids it depends if you are main healing or off-healing. Main healing I tend to keep up a lot of FoL spamming with HL if the tanks hp drops too low. When I was starting out in kara I found it useful to take a stack or two of major (or unstable) mana potions with me. They are much cheaper than super mana pots so I'd chug one down when I reached half mana, rather than saving it until I was really low on mana, then the cooldown should be ready by the time you need another mana boost.
Off-healing I tend to just FoL anyone that needs it, keeping an eye on the tank and the tanks healers in case I need to back up someone there. I really should be using downranked HL sometimes, but I forget.
I read something about using rank 4 HL instead of flash heals on the MT (as this should heal for about the same as FoL and keeps the reduced casting speed debuff up). I've not tried this myself as I'm still in Kara, but could be useful for 25mans (I might give this a try on Prince as we've not downed him yet and apart from the bloody infernals one of our problems is spike damage on the tank in phase 2).
For me the summary goes normal and raiding = fine, heroics = verging on oom.
5) not a pvp girl so I'll pass
6) I prefer to use plate gear where possible a) it looks better and b) it can help for survivability against melee mobs, that extra attack needed to kill you may be enough time to pop a shield.
That being said I will downgrade if the item is an upgrade and the stats are good. As someone mentioned earlier many cloth and leather items will have spirit on, fairly useless for paladins (I saw a pala in the masquerade gown /shudder), mail is better as it has a lot of mp5 generally, plate for the spell crit at the lower gear end and then it tends to get crit and/or mp5 later down the line.
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
1) +heal, spell crit, mp5 and int. When I started out in Kara I had 1k +healing, 15% crit (so 20% to holy) and 70 mp5 and that did me fine.
2) Tank gets light, self gets kings (I'm rather heavy on mp5 atm), dps get wisdom/kings/might/salv depending on class and players in the group (warlocks, dps shaman/warriors and anyone who overagroes alot tend to get salvation, if the tank is a bit crap everyone gets salvation), generally I'll ask which buff people prefer in a 5 man as some people differ depending on spec/stats (e.g. a survival hunter might prefer kings over might to get the extra agility).
3) If the tank is taking a lot of damage I tend to HL on the tank and then FoL on a dps or two before going back to HL on the tank. If everyone is taking a lot of damage use the talent that reduces mana cost (can't remember the name either) and HL everyone and hope the evil aoe thing is dead before I'm oom.
4)Depending on gear levels normal mode tends to be easy and there's quite a lot of FoL use, with HL mainly for bosses. Heroics I'm fairly crappy at healing (but I have gone with poorly geared tanks, so I'll blame that :P), tanks will take a lot of damage so you will be mainly focusing on the tank (probably using a lot more HL than on normal mode) if anyone has a good guide for healing heroics I'm all ears (preferably not from someone with +600 heal who did it as ret spec without going oom).
Raids it depends if you are main healing or off-healing. Main healing I tend to keep up a lot of FoL spamming with HL if the tanks hp drops too low. When I was starting out in kara I found it useful to take a stack or two of major (or unstable) mana potions with me. They are much cheaper than super mana pots so I'd chug one down when I reached half mana, rather than saving it until I was really low on mana, then the cooldown should be ready by the time you need another mana boost.
Off-healing I tend to just FoL anyone that needs it, keeping an eye on the tank and the tanks healers in case I need to back up someone there. I really should be using downranked HL sometimes, but I forget.
I read something about using rank 4 HL instead of flash heals on the MT (as this should heal for about the same as FoL and keeps the reduced casting speed debuff up). I've not tried this myself as I'm still in Kara, but could be useful for 25mans (I might give this a try on Prince as we've not downed him yet and apart from the bloody infernals one of our problems is spike damage on the tank in phase 2).
For me the summary goes normal and raiding = fine, heroics = verging on oom.
5) not a pvp girl so I'll pass
6) I prefer to use plate gear where possible a) it looks better and b) it can help for survivability against melee mobs, that extra attack needed to kill you may be enough time to pop a shield.
That being said I will downgrade if the item is an upgrade and the stats are good. As someone mentioned earlier many cloth and leather items will have spirit on, fairly useless for paladins (I saw a pala in the masquerade gown /shudder), mail is better as it has a lot of mp5 generally, plate for the spell crit at the lower gear end and then it tends to get crit and/or mp5 later down the line.
There are also some tricks not directly connected to healing.
- I try to stand between the casters and the tank. If a caster gets agro (e.g. broken sheep) the mob has to run near me. So I simply stun it. Generally the 6 seconds of the stun is enough for the other party members to decide if the mob has to be resheeped or the tank takes care of it.
- My heals generate little threat so I get agro only a few times. Nevertheless it happens. In this case: I stun the mob, or DS, or BoP self.
- When I am agroed by a caster mob and DS is on CD then I charge the mob. I stun the mob if can. If not ... caster mobs are weaker in melee (ordinally).
- I fight the mobs whenever its safe. SoW restores me 150 mana every 2nd-3rd hit (I do not remember the right amount). With a fast weapon it works as +150 MP5. JoW restore 75 mana i.e. its +75 MP5.
- when I have to heal the oftank: often I attack the mob also and keep JoL on it. JoL gives to the offtank (and me) about 100 hp each 5 seconds.
- LoH is the last resort heal. Try to use it when you can drink a mana pot after.
- When I have spare 2 talent points I spend them on Imp LoH. +30% armor bonus helps the tank to survive until I can drink a potion again.
Its a rule of thumb that tank gets BoL, all other gets BoSalva. But ...
- if you have lot of +heal then the tank profit more from BoK
- if the tank is good and the DPS knows how to handle agro then you can BoK/BoM/BoW them too.
Holy Light is slow. When we fight a hard hitting mob (boss) I often start casting when the tank is at full HP... If the heal is not needed then I interupt the cast.
Thats all for now.
Bye
Edited, Aug 30th 2007 5:01pm by Hartzos
- I try to stand between the casters and the tank. If a caster gets agro (e.g. broken sheep) the mob has to run near me. So I simply stun it. Generally the 6 seconds of the stun is enough for the other party members to decide if the mob has to be resheeped or the tank takes care of it.
- My heals generate little threat so I get agro only a few times. Nevertheless it happens. In this case: I stun the mob, or DS, or BoP self.
- When I am agroed by a caster mob and DS is on CD then I charge the mob. I stun the mob if can. If not ... caster mobs are weaker in melee (ordinally).
- I fight the mobs whenever its safe. SoW restores me 150 mana every 2nd-3rd hit (I do not remember the right amount). With a fast weapon it works as +150 MP5. JoW restore 75 mana i.e. its +75 MP5.
- when I have to heal the oftank: often I attack the mob also and keep JoL on it. JoL gives to the offtank (and me) about 100 hp each 5 seconds.
- LoH is the last resort heal. Try to use it when you can drink a mana pot after.
- When I have spare 2 talent points I spend them on Imp LoH. +30% armor bonus helps the tank to survive until I can drink a potion again.
Its a rule of thumb that tank gets BoL, all other gets BoSalva. But ...
- if you have lot of +heal then the tank profit more from BoK
- if the tank is good and the DPS knows how to handle agro then you can BoK/BoM/BoW them too.
Holy Light is slow. When we fight a hard hitting mob (boss) I often start casting when the tank is at full HP... If the heal is not needed then I interupt the cast.
Thats all for now.
Bye
Edited, Aug 30th 2007 5:01pm by Hartzos
CapJack wrote:
In writing my FAQ and looking around a bit I noticed that I don't really know too much about the nuances of Paladin healing. I have never main-healed an instance as my Paladin, so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight into this, I will be posting the results in the FAQ and will credit anyone who I take advice from. Here are my questions:
1) What stats should be buffed and what stats are recommended for normal,kara,heroic, and raiding instances?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
If you think of any other questions that should be answered or want to add more information than what I asked for please feel free to do so. Thank you in advance.
1) What stats should be buffed and what stats are recommended for normal,kara,heroic, and raiding instances?
2) What blessing do you buff other party members with?
3) How do you top off other party members while also healing the main tank?
4) Is there a big difference in healing techniques between normal pre-kara instances and heroic/raiding instances? If so, what?
5) What techniques are good for arena/pvp? Who do you focus on healing in 3v3, 5v5 or BGs?
6) Plate vs. non-plate gear, who wins out?
If you think of any other questions that should be answered or want to add more information than what I asked for please feel free to do so. Thank you in advance.
1. Same as Bod.
2. Same as Bod.
3. It becomes instinctive, from practice. It helps to keep in mind that Divine Favor talent, not so much for the free but for the crit.
4. Well, I think it's easier in raids since it's just FoLspams mostly. In 5-mans you have to maneuver more. More BoP, BoF, some stuns, some bubbles, you might ocassionally even want to still throw some JoJ's at specific moments even if you're the healer.
5. I'm not a PvPer.
6. For 5-mans I favor plate, WITH shield, definately. For bracers, belt and gaunts you can still pick mail items with minimal loss of armor if they're really that superior from the plate counterparts.
For raids you're not going to get aggro anyway, so armor won't matter, but I hate having to maintain many sets of armor so I try to keep the healing plate well updated so that I don't have to maintain 2 sets of healing gear. You end up maintaining 2 sets of healing gear but at least not "2 FULL sets".
Edited, Aug 30th 2007 2:39pm by xorq
Sort of a follow-up question, I wanted to include 3 healing talent specs for 3 situations that I think would be most prominent and have seen mentioned in threads, tell me if I'm a bit off base.
Arena/PvP Healing (Grabbing more survivability talents)
Instance/Raid Healing (More raid utility talents, less survivability)
Raid Buffing/Healing (Even more raid utility with imp. blessings)
Edited, Sep 4th 2007 11:21am by CapJack
Arena/PvP Healing (Grabbing more survivability talents)
Instance/Raid Healing (More raid utility talents, less survivability)
Raid Buffing/Healing (Even more raid utility with imp. blessings)
Edited, Sep 4th 2007 11:21am by CapJack
Recent Visitors: 102
All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (102)
- Forums
- World of Warcraft
- Class Discussion
- Paladin Healing guide help
© 2024 Fanbyte LLC