'Caster' Hpal viable?

Classes Paladin
1

Hi Paladins! I quit the game in Legion when they turned Holy Paladin into a “melee healer” spec of sorts. I really hate the playstyle and theme of a melee healer. I tried again in SL, but it felt like the quasi “melee healer” theme was still our thing, so i quit again.

Fast forward to now… I’d like the give DF a shot and dust off my old hpala main. Did they give us back our caster healer spec, or are we still forced to play a melee healer to be viable? Just want to see if it’s worth picking up DF and playing again.

Thanks!

2

Depends what kind of viability you mean.

Can you play normal/heroic content as caster and perform fine? Yeah.

Can you play caster in mythic while trying to push yourself/maximize your spec? Then no. Melee is far better in almost every way.

To expand: Melee does more damage, has instant generators and does more healing. Caster is hampered by having even worse damage than melee, especially if you try to play at ranged, it is hindered by mobility because holy light is a long cast and in mythic content it is very annoying to get off consistently, and it just does less healing than melee due to pressing holy light very often (does very little healing, only used as a generator and usually cast on beacons) and having casts interrupted often in mythic.

3

I am mostly interested in Normals/Heroics and PvP. Though I’d consider trying Mythics (never done them), but only if i could skate by playing the old caster style…

I greatly detest the melee healing theme.

4

In pvp caster is pretty much dead entirely right now. Melee wings is what people play 99% of the time because it is the only way we can keep up with damage output. HL/FoL are way too weak so trying to get them off in pvp is not worth it outside of Divine favor. Casting is already risky with how many interrupts and CC/micro cc is in the game, but for us getting off a cast isn’t even worth it.

In pve you can play whatever you want in normal/heroic. Fee free to play caster you’d be fine.

5

Thanks a bunch for your insight and info! Im disappointed to hear about the pvp playstyle, as thats likely where ill spend most of my time.

Honest question… are there any other healers that still effectively use the “caster healer” playstyle in a pvp setting? Something that plays like healers used to play in WOTLK, Cata, etc? Exclude Disc Priest because, much like melee healing, i simply dislike dealing dmg for healing.

Maybe MW Monk is more my thing nowadays?

6

I doubt it. You can definitely do way more healing as just caster mw but you will go oom in like 20 seconds. Neither mw or hpal are a good choice for caster builds.

7

Do NOT play HPal in PvP.

8

Major bummer. Yet another spec plagued by this new “melee healer” concept.

1 Like
9

For PvP only: the caster build is more than viable. I just pushed 2.3 over the last few days, queueing into Crusader who was also playing it. It depends entirely on what comp you are running. Melee is probably superior but caster is viable. Borngood also plays it from time to time.

10

Most of the time it is played into caster cleaves so you don’t have to chase them around to melee with CS. It’s not very good overall though and since you mentioned borngood his opinion on it is that it is extremely bad and the casted heals do very little outside of divine favor. “You use flash of light and their health goes down” to use his own words.

11

Uh unfortunately a lot of the ‘caster’ healers aren’t exactly in a great spot mostly because there’s so much control in this meta and they did a 40% health/damage increase before launch which made healing/topping people very difficult. Most healers you see doing well all have a large kit of instant heals (disc, rdruid, evoker).

Now let’s be honest you can play with any healer and do fine if you have the pvp experience. If you want to climb as a caster paladin go for it, I am just warning you not to expect to have an easy time

It isn’t new to be honest. Avenging Crusader has been in the game since legion (7 years ago) and was actually a pvp talent first. Fistweaving is even older, it’s been a playstyle since monks were introduced. They’ve just worked on it more in recent years to make it better

12

yes OP, mastery will be your lowest attribute, crit and vers will be your highest.

30% crit mandatory(unpot/unbuff). utilize 2 infusion and spams flash heal, (holy light can be use well to sometimes regen 2-3 holypower in one go, rarely use it in mythic eranog).

Light of Dawn - Veneration (Caster build) / no crusaderstrike* (but optional)
BEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQEAAAAAAAlIgUikoUQKJJJSgSiENRkkSSSSSUShE0QE

No light of dawn - Veneration (Caster build) / no crusaderstrike* (but optional / i dont use it lol) - power of the silver hand can be exchange for anything u like, i just love critting with shock up to 200k but if u want extra +20% crit wings proc then exchange it.

BEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQEAAAAAAAlkASLtkoUQKJJIhokIRTEJpkkkkElUIBNEB

^^^^^^ this is pre-10.0.7 ^^^^^^

the 10.0.7 build uses fading light b/c holy light bubbles and flash of light bubles you when it regen holy power, holy shock and hammer of wrath too + crusader lol, but sht really forces you to go full melee, and with low haste, u rather take “seal of order,” but again it is very tempting to get fading light.

I do have melee healing build that utilize maximum potential of current holy paladin, that uses crusader strike but that is just too boring, u are basically a caster in melee that only dps when there’s window. you must constantly heal and not watch anyone drop below 95% hp, everyone must be full or overheal.

this is the logs that my guild master took on council, [Warcraft Logs - Combat Analysis for Warcraft](www dot warcraftlogs dot com/reports/ATGDB37aYk1qtyFz/#fight=6) it represent 2 paladins, 1 is melee and me as caster, both well works just fine but the other pal obviously does more damage, the purpose is to keep your team alive.

this one is with light of dawn caster build [Warcraft Logs - Combat Analysis for Warcraft](www dot warcraftlogs dot com/reports/t7mgrqdJaYGv3jWB/#fight=24)

1 Like
13

wrong, 1.2sec flash of light is good enough, but you haven’t explore everything >:D

14

It actually isn’t, it doesn’t even generate reliably. Why would you use a spell that barely heals and also doesn’t generate unless you heal someone below 50% hp?

You hit flash of light 70 times and it did 10k hps lol. That’s good? You didn’t press light of dawn (our strongest healing spell) a single time. I want you to understand if other healers are not healing well, your healing will be higher regardless of what build you play. You can play entirely wrong and still heal if other healers do not. That does not make caster good, and in your log with other healers barely healing you still didn’t do that much more

If you want you can check my logs to see the difference in comparison to yours. Like I said to the OP he/she can play it in normal and heroic and do fine, but assuming the players are equal skill, melee will out perform in every way. You don’t really need to tell me I didn’t explore everything while linking a log that backs up what I am saying, check my logs or really any logs I guess, go to primal council and see what people are doing.

I’m not saying don’t play it, I’m saying if you do don’t expect to outperform/do as well as other paladins unless your other healers are worse than you.

15

^ lol you can add 10% in it + addition 10% increase, + 15% + 10% more if u have the dawn, and it regens 1 holy power, if u know how to use it. lol figure it out.

1 Like
16

total of 45% increase healing unbuff, just pure talent, and u can add 25% increase more from verse, and what if u can crit it, u are blowing up to 90-120k healing from just 1 flash crit.

17

First the 15% is if your healing beacons, so unless you plan on doing that often not sure why you’d take that.

Second, you can have 10% from divine rev and 10% from illumination, but 20% of nothing is still nothing. Sorry, but the facts are there already. Telling me to figure it out is kind of wild, literally have the data in front of you.

Third, I don’t even care how much it heals because it doesn’t generate holy power unless you get it off on someone below 50% hp. Maybe you don’t realize how strong holy power spenders are?

18

somewhere in a jade temple that 15% beacon will looks real good, also u can juggler 2 beacons. even with 50% total increase from all selfbuff source, it is pretty strong. i did a vid on it, haft baked and not even trying, and u can still heal w/ it.

“Third, I don’t even care how much it heals because it doesn’t generate holy power unless you get it off on someone below 50% hp. Maybe you don’t realize how strong holy power spenders are?”

ooh i wont be telling u this if flash doesn’t heal as much as word of glory. figure it out. while throw 2 heals when u can just throw 1 heal that heals big. there are good numbers but entire party is dead.

19

Of course I never said you can’t heal with it. It isn’t a dead playstyle, you can make it work, but it will be worse than the melee build. That is objective at this point, but you can definitely play it.

20

^ figure it out how, but u’ll never anyway b/c ur crit is very low. too much hint already.