[Paladin] Advise for a Resto Shaman trying Pally healingFollow

So my paladin hit level 85 a few weeks ago, and I've tried healing a couple instances, with less than stellar results. Part of it is gear, obviously, but also I can't get used to the difference in playstyle.

Any general tips/tricks for going from shammy healing to pally healing?

I've dabbled a bit in Paladin healing, with my main healing class being the Shaman. Overall I'd say the two styles are very similar, with a few exceptions:

1. No passive healing or mana regen. If someone takes damage, you have to target that person and heal up. If you need mana, you have to judge your seal on an enemy. No Water Shield, no Healing Stream Totem, no Ancestral Awakening to spread out your healing.

2. Limited AOE healing. Dawn of Light is a frontal cone spell that requires Holy Power (generated through Holy Shock and crits or something) and Holy Radiance is a fire-and-forget AOE HoT that radiates out from you. Both spells require some positioning to be efficient, unlike Healing Rain and Chain Heal which just require you to cast them on the group that needs it.

3. Group focus vs tank focus. As a Shaman, I'm used to prioritizing the tank over everyone else, because Ancestral Awakening, Chain Heal and Healing Stream Totem can keep the DPS up most of the time. As a Paladin, due to Beacon of Light, you focus a lot more on the group. If the tank and a DPS needs healing, you heal the DPS and the healing gets copied to the tank. You have to decide if the BoL transfer is enough to keep the tank up, otherwise you have to switch to the tank and let the DPS drop.

The Holy Power mechanic annoys me a little, because I feel like it limits my use of abilities. I also feel like I'm using weaker spells just to activate stronger heals for later use. You have to think two steps ahead, whereas Shaman healing is almost purely reactive.

All in all, I prefer Shaman healing because of the strong AOE coupled with very good ST healing. The Paladin is to direct healing what the Druid is to AOE healing and vice versa. The Shaman is somewhere in between and it suits me better.

Oh, and you'll probably find yourself looking frantically for your Chain Heal at some point. I know I did when a group of people started taking damage and I didn't have enough Holy Power for Dawn of Light.

Still, it's a fun healing class if you enjoy Shaman healing. Much easier to be good at than Druid healing, at least in 5-mans. In my experience.

Edited, Nov 7th 2011 10:47am by Mazra

Yeah, the slow casts put me off to begin with as well, but the heals seem to be much more powerful than the Shaman equivalents, perhaps to compensate. I found that my Holy Light hit for around 8k at 4.7k spell power, which is almost the same as Healing Wave at 8k spell power.

Weaving Holy Shock into it is a bit of a challenge. It seems to be more powerful than Riptide on the initial hit, but lacks the HoT. Your regular heals also seem to give you an extra Holy Shock once in a while and your Holy Shock crits reduce the cast time of your regular heals.

It's all very... interwoven.

One additional thing about Paladin healing is that you've got a crap-load of cooldowns. Guardian of Ancient Kings, Divine Favor, Avenging Wrath, Aura Mastery, Hand of Sacrifice, Lay on Hands. Lots of stuff you can hit in emergencies. Unfortunately, I found that whenever emergencies arose, I was so busy casting Divine Light everywhere, I didn't have time to pop cooldowns.

I'm used to only handling Nature's Swiftness and Mana Tide Totem. The latter I've used maybe twice in the last month.

Thanks for this thread. My Pally just hit 85 and is going to be holy, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and sort through all the different spells, cooldowns & mechanics yet. EJ's has stat weightings, glyphs and much more but doesn't actually go through HOW to heal as a pally - they just kind of assume you know that stuff already.

This nice little intro to Pally healing has been very helpful.

If you notice, the first post in the EJ Holy Pally thread also hasn't been updated in almost 8 months. I was sorta hoping to attract Bhodi, since I know he plays a Holy Pally and a Resto Shaman, but in any event, I'm thinking of going Prot/Ret on my pally and making my priest (78 now) my second healer. I'm used to chain heal and healing rain, so I don't like not having an on-demand AoE heal.

I use it a lot in 5-mans. It has a 30-yard range, so it's not like you have to be piggybacking the tank for it to hit the melee group.

Hell, most ranged classes stand well within 30 yards of the melee group, so you could run to the melee DPS and aim the Flashlight at your ranged DPS and hit those as well.

I've no problem getting the most out of Chain Heal either. Maybe I'm just the only healer who moves during a fight.

I must be the only one, but the only healer I could never get into is pally healing. I can do shaman, druid and priest... but pally... It's SO boring to me =(

Maybe things have changed since the last time I tried it *shrug*

Not just you, I played around with Pally healing for about a week, and I really couldn't get into it. That's why I started this thread, but the advice here didn't really change my mind. I have a priest, shaman, and druid at 85, so I just heal with my shaman and priest now. My Druid is Feral/Feral, and my pally main-specs Prot.

Oh Maz...


(and it's been a while. At least as long a my break lol)

I don't stalk, I monitor.

You know... in case something might happen to people that would require my immediate... assistance.

Edit: 8 months? I have no idea what has happened since then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to update... something.

Edited, Nov 29th 2011 5:18pm by Mazra