Holy Paladin - Is there a stress free way to play PUGs?

Classes Paladin
1

I hit ~1200 IO as a healer but switched to Protection because it was tough. In a +7 City of Threads, the third boss’ Dark Pulse wiped us repeatedly, and I felt bad for the Holy Paladin, even with BoS from me. After several tries, we called it.

Tank is kinda boring, and I’m considering healing again, looking for an easier way to make it work. I have been watching AutomatikJak and Ellesmere.

2

Paladin is honestly not the healer you want to play for “stress free” healing. Our kit is basically built around panic healing and prayers.

Think you may want to look into say, Holy Priest. Which much more straight forward.

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3

At this moment, you should use Aura Mastery > Beacon of Virtue > Divine Toll > and try to spread as many Word of Glory and Holy Shocks (which will be buffed thanks to the ‘Rising Sunlight’ talent) as much as possible.

4

As a rank 34 (I think I fell since taking a lil break) hpal, I believe my suggestions hold value.

Specifics to third boss in city:

  1. Play herald. The targeted healing is more reliable for the shield absorbs.
  2. First set of orbs, natty heal ( don’t use divine toll or wings). Infusion+holy light can actually be useful here.
  3. Divine toll for second orbs.
  4. Second orbs lead into the pulse. Cast wings either slightly before if there are still players with heal absorbs, or right as the pulse is being.
  5. Use virtue + the rising sunlight holy shocks during pulse
  6. Third orb phase, natty heal again
  7. I don’t recall the order I think there is a slight downtime or something but the next orbs that lead into pulse, you will collect all of them and bubble right before the pulse starts. Also, place blessing of sacrifice on another player. If you have awakening or divine toll you can/should use. May e even use lay on hands.
  8. You shouldn’t get a third pulse, but if you do, you should have wings available again.
  9. Holy prism + infusion + holy light is very strong, use for absorbs. It’s too slow and too single target oriented to use during the AOE pulse.

When playing herald, you have high HPS potential, but only during wings. This means managing the timing of when you use wings, and specially awakening, matter far more than when playing light Smith.

The lightsmith playstyle is: use arnaments to leverage tempered in battle. Say, void blast on dawn, hold an armament specifically for a player that gets targeted by that dot. You still need to power heal them, but tempered in battle is just extra insurance.
Wings also applies to arnaments, you can use for similar reasons (although the application is random)

The protective part of hpal is:

  • planning your cooldown usage/rotation (far more restrictive as herald but still very important as lightsmith)
  • know when you are going to apply virtue
  • for maximum effort, ensure you reach 0 holy power before casting diving toll
  • when bubbling, ensure you also use sac on someone
    Hpal only has a strict preemptive rotation of maybe up to 3 gcds. Predominantly we are reactive healers but there is still value in having a plan going into the fight
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5

Can you pick the 1 minute wings with Herald?

6

No. Crusader with herald only applies two dawnlights. Those are far less valuable than two arnaments. You also lose hammer and anvil that pairs insanely well with crusader.
Herald helps boost wog, which is deprioritized when using crusader so that has put synergy as well

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8

Panic healing and prayers? I think you just don’t know how Holy Paladin actually works anymore… if you are standing back tossing out flash of light as your primary form of sustained healing, then you ate doing it wrong and of course you’re gonna feel like you have to do a lot of panic healing… Holy Paladin is NOT a distance healer, we do not play like Holy Priests. We are melee healers! Get up there beside the tank and start beating on the boss with them, drop Consecration under them, use Holy Prism religiously on the boss, and relax. Gone are the days when Holy Paladins stood in the back spamming Flash of Light, out entire toolkit now is built around getting up close and personal and standing so close to the tank that we make them feel uncomfortable.

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9

I just want to point out; at no point did I say “stand back and heal”.

I said, panic healing and prayers.

They way the kit is designed, it’s panic healing (Oh fak, preemetively cast Virtue for the DR, Cast Divine Toll oh fak it’s already on cooldown, HS, CS, Judge yes WoG) and prayers (I hope the splash healing during LS AC does what I want because it’s gonna be a hell of a time if I have to start using cooldowns right now).

Paladin, at least in my opinion, is currently in no way a “stress free” healer. Especially in PuGs where things like to go sideways in hilariously unpredictable ways. To succeed with Hpal at right now requires knowing when to use your abilities before they are actually needed so they will be ready exactly when you do. Which in my opinion is the opposite of “stress free”.

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10

Essentially like Disc Priests who are terrible at catching up once they are behind. A lot of the tool kit requires “set up”, meaning using your kit before the damage goes out.

  • Sacrifice
  • Aura Mastery
  • Spellwarding
  • Beacon

All require pre-damage set up. I can assume OP is using them reactively.

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11

Which again, is the opposite of “stress free”.

“Stress Free”, at least in my opinion, is being reactive because you know your abilities will fix a problem when they happen.

Which is just not how Paladin works right now lol

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12

Oh I agree with you, just adding to it. OP just doesn’t understand how to utilize the spec efficiently.

13

I know I was stressing the point more. It’s been a rough morning lol

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14

HolyPaladin does not have this ability.

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15

Oh you’re right my bad.

16

I pugged to ksh to yes

17

I hate holy pally healing. It feels clunky and straight up stupid compared to : r-sham, druid, priest (either spec).

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18

stress free and hpal in one sentence is diabolical, but invest in a lot of haste. Haste will be your friend in pugs

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