How It Feels
Holy is the healer who likes the front line. While cloth wearers hang back, you stand in plate close to the tank and the enemies, hand out lightning-fast heals and attack in between. It feels less like a field hospital and more like a battlefield.
The Holy Paladin is all about direct heals. Instead of spreading effects over time, you react to damage as it happens. That is easy to read: a bar drops, you press, the bar fills. For a first healer that is a big advantage.
How Holy Works
The Holy Paladin uses two resources: mana for most heals and Holy Power for its strongest effects.
- Place Beacon of Light: at the start you mark the tank. From now on every direct heal on other players also heals them.
- Build Holy Power: Holy Shock and Judgment generate Holy Power, and depending on talents some heals do too.
- Spend Holy Power: Word of Glory heals one target strongly, Light of Dawn heals up to five injured allies around you.
- Emergencies: Lay on Hands fully heals a target instantly, Avenging Wrath makes you much stronger for a while.
The skill lies in never leaving Holy Shock unused for long and stretching your mana over a long fight.
Key Abilities
- Holy Shock: the core ability, an instant heal or attack depending on who you target. Generates Holy Power.
- Beacon of Light: makes your heals also land on a marked target.
- Light of Dawn: heals up to five injured allies around you and spends Holy Power.
- Flash of Light: a fast heal for moments when you need to hurry.
- Holy Light: a slower, very powerful but expensive heal for when you have time to cast.
- Lay on Hands: instantly heals a target for their full health, on a long cooldown.
Lore: Uther and the Origin of Paladins
The first Paladins were healers and warriors at once. Archbishop Alonsus Faol founded the Order of the Silver Hand to combine priestly knowledge with knightly strength. His first Paladin, Uther the Lightbringer, became a role model for generations: a knight who heals his comrades in the middle of battle rather than waiting behind the lines.
That is exactly the fantasy of the Holy Paladin. Today Paladins of many races follow him, from the Dwarven Paladins of Ironforge to the Blood Knights of Quel'Thalas and the Tauren Sunwalkers, who revere the Light as the power of the sun An'she.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- direct, easy-to-read heals, ideal for learning,
- very sturdy for a healer, so you survive mistakes more easily,
- strong support for tanks thanks to Beacon of Light,
- strong emergency buttons for you and the group.
Weaknesses
- less area healing than a Priest or Shaman, Light of Dawn only reaches a few targets,
- much slower solo than Retribution or Protection,
- mana runs short in long fights if you lean on expensive heals too often.
Who Is the Holy Paladin For?
A good fit if you …
- want to heal without just standing at the back,
- are looking for a sturdy, forgiving first healer,
- love the fantasy of the holy knight who protects their friends.
Probably not if you …
- prefer healing with proactive effects over time, in which case a Restoration Druid fits better,
- want to play exclusively from long range.
Holy, Protection or Retribution?
The Paladin gives you all three roles on one character. Retribution deals melee damage with a two-hander, Protection tanks with a shield. Many Holy Paladins level as one of those and switch to Holy for dungeons.
For an overview of all healers, see the guide best healer classes in WoW Midnight. Everything about the class is on the Paladin in WoW Midnight page.
Images: © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Source: worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
