I am in a small but good casual guild. So far only about 5-7 of us are 80 and ready for heroics. Unfortunatly that did not include a healer. I really wanted to start hitting heroics so I made the swap back from Ret to Holy.
So far I am really impressed with Holy at 80. I've run Heroic UK (twice) and Heroic Hals of Lightning once.
Observations:
Beacon of Light is fantastic. Any time things go squirly or there is AOE damage it's so nice to throw down Beacon on the tank. You can then just switch to healing the DPS or yourself and the tank stays topped off. It's simple and it works great. I've also used the trick for Hand of Sacrifice + Beacon to help the tank absorb really big hits. Very handy trick there. I've been judging light on the mobs as well which is nice to keep the DPS topped off. With the Holy talents for judgements that give it a ton of range and give you a great haste boost after judging it's really easy to keep up judgements. Instant cast Holy shocks are hitting for 6k+ even in my level 75-80 blues. Having that ready every 6 seconds is nice on top of the insta cast FoL's I am getting. I have not been stacking haste specifically but what I do have seems a decent boost especially with the post judgement haste you can really snap off those big Heals when you need to.
Healing is busier now than it used to be in BC. But I find thats a good thing. It really seems new and exciting again. I am prefering using my F keys to swap between targets and keybinds for my spells rather than Healbot. I know once we start 25 mans I will have to give in and set something like grid or healbot back up but I think for heroics I am honestly faster with the keys than the clicks.
I also did a bunch of Solo quests in Icecrown as Holy this weekend.
I was pleasently surprised. It did not feel slow or painful at all. Between the new Sheild of R and Seal of R + Holy Shock I was able to burn mobs down with no problems. And I am really hard to kill. I even soloed some level 80 Elites for 3 man group quests with out a problem.
Anyway if your guild is finding itself shy on healers with all of the Hybrids going DPS you might want to give Holy another try. For me it was a very pleasent surprise.
How are the other Holy pallies out there faring?
Edited, Dec 8th 2008 11:35am by Shojindo
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Loving every minute of it. I agree with you that healing is so much more fun now. I actually loved it before. Now, WAHOO!!!! I love laying down JoL across all the mobs and watch tons of healing fly around when the DPS do AoE damage. It took me a little bit to get used to, but now, I love it. I just need to make sure to let the tank get a little aggro before I judge mobs. I've accidentally pull them sometimes :)
Bacon - Unbelievable. Can't say enough good things about it. I try to keep it up at all times. With our huge mana pools now, casting Bacon is just a blip.
Holy Shock - So much fun. Awesome for DPS, and awesome for mobile healing.
Lay on Hands - One of my all time favorites. The instant huge heal that gives me mana. Simply amazing.
As for soloing - no problems at all. Pulling with a judgment gives us a 40 yd pull. :) Divine Plea means I never run out of mana. I think I only died once while questing, and it was when 2 lvl 77 elites ganged up on me, and I was lvl 75. They kept turning me into a frog (I can't remember the names), and I'd die. Otherwise, no issues at all. I think I solo'd 95% of the group quests.
Bacon - Unbelievable. Can't say enough good things about it. I try to keep it up at all times. With our huge mana pools now, casting Bacon is just a blip.
Holy Shock - So much fun. Awesome for DPS, and awesome for mobile healing.
Lay on Hands - One of my all time favorites. The instant huge heal that gives me mana. Simply amazing.
As for soloing - no problems at all. Pulling with a judgment gives us a 40 yd pull. :) Divine Plea means I never run out of mana. I think I only died once while questing, and it was when 2 lvl 77 elites ganged up on me, and I was lvl 75. They kept turning me into a frog (I can't remember the names), and I'd die. Otherwise, no issues at all. I think I solo'd 95% of the group quests.
1 post
I am new to paladin and figured that ret was the easiest spec for leveling however my end goal is to be a healer. I am now level 34 and am wondering should I just make the switch to holy now. My questions are will I still be able to kill with a similar efficiency as ret or should I wait until a certain level? If so what level should I think about switching? I am assuming I will not get that great of plate healing gear until I reach outlands so as of now my plan is to stay ret until I get there and collect some decent healing gear. I would love to hear any feedback on this information! thanks!
Norco 34 Paladin Shadowsong
Norco 34 Paladin Shadowsong
I would say you can easily stay Ret until you hit outlands. If you like to do instances while you level and find that there is a shortage of healers, you can always get a 1-hander and shield and re-spec holy just for healing in instances and go back to Ret for questing.
Once you hit Outlands, there will be a ton of DK's looking for healers for instance runs, so that would be a great time to go holy more permanently.
It isn't impossible by any means to level as a holy at your current level, but unless you do a TON of instances and don't solo quest much, it doesn't make a lot of sense. When you get close to the level at which you think you will be re-speccing to holy permanently, keep your eye out for good holy type gear and start banking it for when you do respec.
Once you hit Outlands, there will be a ton of DK's looking for healers for instance runs, so that would be a great time to go holy more permanently.
It isn't impossible by any means to level as a holy at your current level, but unless you do a TON of instances and don't solo quest much, it doesn't make a lot of sense. When you get close to the level at which you think you will be re-speccing to holy permanently, keep your eye out for good holy type gear and start banking it for when you do respec.
My guild is also out of healers, and so rather than switching my feral-specced druid (my main) to resto, I am thinking of levelling my 48 pally the rest of the way up to 70 as ret and then going holy...
Anyways before I do, I have 2 quick questions...
Is there sufficient plate for holy pallys or do we need to start wearing mail?
I always hear how pally healers are good for keeping tanks up, but how are they for healing 5mans when the whole group is getting damage? Shojindo mentioned beacon of light but are there any other tools available to us?
EDIT: ALso, are priests better healers for 5mans than holy pallys?
Edited, Jan 8th 2009 7:09pm by apothik
Anyways before I do, I have 2 quick questions...
Is there sufficient plate for holy pallys or do we need to start wearing mail?
I always hear how pally healers are good for keeping tanks up, but how are they for healing 5mans when the whole group is getting damage? Shojindo mentioned beacon of light but are there any other tools available to us?
EDIT: ALso, are priests better healers for 5mans than holy pallys?
Edited, Jan 8th 2009 7:09pm by apothik
I'm pretty much Dual specced now. Except I pay for the switches.I play both Ret and Holy and enjoy both.
So far I have completed all the heroics (Northrend dungeon hero woot)and am getting into Naxx and other 10 mans.
I have healed even the so called no no Heroics likes HoL, AN, GD, UP as a pally. It takes a bit more quick thinking at times and more clease spamming of poisons but its completely doable.
All healers are capable. Pallies take more skill in some ways in 5 mans imo but I may just be bias. Some healers may have some things easier in certain situations. Shaman poison totem or AoE heal spam. But they run out of mana faster than us and we have more efficient giant heals. With Beacon you can heal the party while keepign the tank up in most situations. And if you can't it's often becuase the DPS screwed up. ;)
And there is plenty of spellpower plate in Northrend.
So far I have completed all the heroics (Northrend dungeon hero woot)and am getting into Naxx and other 10 mans.
I have healed even the so called no no Heroics likes HoL, AN, GD, UP as a pally. It takes a bit more quick thinking at times and more clease spamming of poisons but its completely doable.
All healers are capable. Pallies take more skill in some ways in 5 mans imo but I may just be bias. Some healers may have some things easier in certain situations. Shaman poison totem or AoE heal spam. But they run out of mana faster than us and we have more efficient giant heals. With Beacon you can heal the party while keepign the tank up in most situations. And if you can't it's often becuase the DPS screwed up. ;)
And there is plenty of spellpower plate in Northrend.
Quote:
I have healed even the so called no no Heroics likes HoL, AN, GD, UP as a pally.
Sorry what do you mean by this? (I haven't seen those dungeons yet).
Do those instances have a lot of AoE damage, and so do not play to a holy pally's strengths? Why are they no-no?
Holy Paladins are the new Resto Druid for S5, which was a pleasant surprise. Sacred Shield is so powerful in PvP it almost makes my face melt just thinking about it.
PvE healing, we are a new class. Sacred Shield, Hand of Sac (as you mentioned) Beacon of Light, a shift away from FoL spam, etc we are much more flexible and there is more room for a good pally to get more out of the class than there was before. As you gear up HL becomes very manageable, 4 piece bonus, Glyph of Wisdom, 118 mana off libram etc really allows you to heal. When you get to multi tank fights like Sartharion 2 drakes and above HL spam and Beacon means you can heal 2 tanks, or raid heal and Overheal the bejeezus out of your tank. I am in 4 piece 7.5 with and I have to try in order to go oom now.
Soloing goes really smoothly as mentioned.
PvE healing, we are a new class. Sacred Shield, Hand of Sac (as you mentioned) Beacon of Light, a shift away from FoL spam, etc we are much more flexible and there is more room for a good pally to get more out of the class than there was before. As you gear up HL becomes very manageable, 4 piece bonus, Glyph of Wisdom, 118 mana off libram etc really allows you to heal. When you get to multi tank fights like Sartharion 2 drakes and above HL spam and Beacon means you can heal 2 tanks, or raid heal and Overheal the bejeezus out of your tank. I am in 4 piece 7.5 with and I have to try in order to go oom now.
Soloing goes really smoothly as mentioned.
Bode - 100 Holy Paladin - Lightbringer
Thanks Bodhis and Shojindo...
You're definitely convincing me.
One last question, are there currently any areas where holy pallys are struggling as compared to say, resto druids or holy/disc priests? Because otherwise, it looks like pally's have everything covered. :)
You're definitely convincing me.
One last question, are there currently any areas where holy pallys are struggling as compared to say, resto druids or holy/disc priests? Because otherwise, it looks like pally's have everything covered. :)
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