Holy Paladin (Lightsmith) received zero PvP tuning this upcoming Tuesday

PVP Arenas
1

With this Tuesday’s tuning pass (announced Friday 9/18) going live, I went back through the patch notes and confirmed Holy Paladin got nothing, not a single line, in either the Class Changes or PvP sections. Protection and Retribution/Templar both saw direct adjustments. Priest’s Archon got a 30% Halo buff and a Prayer of Healing cast-time reduction. Mistweaver got blanket healing increases. Holy Paladin, both hero talent trees, wasn’t touched at all.

Holy Paladin is not in a good spot, and the numbers below back that up. Here’s a real breakdown from a recent match and my holy paladin’s stats: 337 PvP ilvl, 1,105,000 health, 33% versatility, 63% mastery, Lightsmith.

Judgment: 24,446 to 36,870 healing depending on the Infusion of Light proc (2.21% to 3.34%).
Flash of Light: 17,072 to 61,608 healing depending on the Infusion of Light proc (1.54% to 5.58%).
Holy Light: 117,203 healing, not meaningfully affected by the Infusion of Light proc (10.61%).
Word of Glory: 70,625 healing, no Infusion proc component (6.39%).
Holy Shock: 49,432 healing, no Infusion proc component (4.47%).

The real issue isn’t any one ability underperforming relative to another, it’s that overall throughput across the board is far too low relative to where health pools currently sit. Even our procced, best-case numbers on Judgment and Flash of Light aren’t doing meaningful work against current burst damage and health totals, and Holy Shock, our high-priority instant, and Word of Glory, our big Holy Power spender, are combining for under 11% of total healing. At 63% mastery, this is a well-itemized Lightsmith, so this isn’t a gearing problem. It’s a scaling problem.

I get that the philosophy behind this pass was “target low performers,” and I understand Holy Paladin wasn’t flagged as one this cycle. But when our overall healing throughput is this far behind current health pools, something in the baseline math is off, and it’s been off for a while without a pass to address it.

Would love to hear from a dev on whether Holy Paladin is being looked at for a follow-up sprint, or whether the numbers above just don’t match what’s showing up on the back end.

10 Likes
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ret paladin being meta + lack of control and the multitude of bugs is more of a problem for the spec than raw tuning

you can’t simply drop healing numbers and compare it to the other healers, especially without mentioning armaments and all the raw mitigation n have a solid point. it feels bad in shuffle sometimes for sure, but if you buff hpal by even 10% it’s gonna be the best healer

i’d much rather have the lack of utility fixed. like no way to avoid CC without committing major defensives. no trash buffs to protect my cooldowns from being purged. control in the form of 20 yard hoj / instant cast searing glare

we can sit here and go back and forth each patch with “we don’t heal enough” but the real problems are mechanical and all I ever see anyone complain about is numbers

10 Likes
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MW didn’t get a healing buff in PvP. That was PvE only, where MW is behind by like 30-50% other healers.

4

Mage for the past 6 expansions.

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I’ll add that herald isn’t any better, probably worse. I think this is the worst feeling iteration of holy paladin blizzard ever conceived (e.g., butchered toolkit from pruning + feeling weak af overall).

It’s not really an issue for me now since I’m not maining it, but yeah disc and holy priest feel infinitely more fun to play imo.

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Bumping this thread for the hope that the numbers get reviewed.

7

Paladin heals do absolutely nothing.

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Yeah, but like, at least you get the same externals as ret.

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The Holy Herald healing values are lower than Ret’s

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Funny enough I think WoG heals for more on ret now than holy as well

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I’m tired boss

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12

Ya this character is a forum avatar now until healthbars start moving when I push healing buttons

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13

flash of light even with the set bonus is still complete garbage, meanwhile watching big fat chunks of health for every instant and hard cast from other healers

14

Im still stubbornly maining hpal but will dust off my disc so i can be a healer again

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15

Paladin redesign seems so bad in hindsight, resulted in ret being disliked by players, and holy being lackluster.

Pretty sadge

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We got a fun playstyle for an entire week this expansion, before they took Empyrean Legacy out back to the wood shed. I dont mind the redesign, I just think its really hard to tune/balance with how much damage mitigation hpals have. Move healthbars too much and everything becomes unkillable due to all the passive damage reduction, but at the same time it feels really horrendous not being able to top people outside of cds, especially considering we lost a lot of the filler cds like divine toll, holy prism and blessing of the seasons

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Hpal dev needs to step into the arena himself and see that our heals do absolutely nothing because of the blanket -44% healing aura nerf. Forced to use CDs way early into the game because even 3 Holy Power Word of Glory barely moves a health bar.

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I actually like the playstyle of hpal in m+ atm, it genuinely feels like an actual paladin archetype, you are in melee with your team, smacking bad guys with your shield and using heals.

I do miss EL, even though it’s original iteration was genuinely OP, they definitely over nerfed it considerably.

I don’t even mind the playstyle of it in arena, i just think it needs some way to better play the healer v healer cc mini game, and more throughput. At present any halfway decent healer can abuse an hpal if they know hoj is on CD, and hoj is generally used for the DPS go window, so you can’t save it to defend yourself from CC. TLDR Hpal has to rely on teammates more than any other healer by a long shot.

My experience is through the lens of 2s, not rss if that matters.

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19

Legit doesnt move health bars.

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ya for sure, it feels completely different in pve, which is probably why it wont get addressed in pvp.

And its basically the same as you described but worse in 3s/solo shuffle lol