So I did play back in Vanilla but only to max level and did not raid as BC came out a couple of months after I hit 60. I played as a human mage and yes I had no idea what I was doing.
Over the years I’ve really enjoyed healing, and I was thinking about playing a holy paladin in Vanilla. But I’ve heard from people that playing a healer sucks, because you can’t kill anything in the world, and you will be switching specs which cost a lot of gold if you want to kill anything. I’m also not sure how I feel about looking at 40 raid frames on my screen to heal (lol). Any thoughts?
You don’t miss out on much by going 20/31/0. You really just need those 20 points to heal decently and you have 31 in Prot to be an AoE grinding machine, a guild dungeon tank, or even the raid AoE trash tank.
I think Holy would be a better leveling build than Ret. You’ll miss out on Two-hand weapon specialization, and Vengeance. But you’ll get Consecration, Holy Shock, uninterrupted heals, and stronger heals.
You could still put 15-20 points in Ret, getting most of the talents, or go into Protection, for shield and Blessing of Kings; you could get all the talents for improved buffs.
Plus, you’d be a welcome sight in groups, healing dungeons and pvp while leveling.
A lot of it is actually based on the gear you are wearing and not the talent point distribution. Keep 2 sets of gear(advisable for any pally). One for healing, one for running around the world in. The world set will mainly have str, agi, and stam. The healing set more int, spirit,and +healing. You will do fine then.
I’m with ya on this topic, its rough and its part of why hybrids end up having a lot of end game rerolls. It feels awful that you are asked by raids to talent in a way that neuters your ability to make money, defend yourself in 1v1s, etc.
My approach to this issue with Paladins specifically is actually to run a talent build that allows me to adequately heal AND solo AoE farm gold in the early phases of content/itemization.
I’m 90% confident that you don’t need any more healing talents than Illumination to heal well in dungeons and early raiding. With healing light, extra int, and Illumination you’ll be just fine. That leaves 31 points, I’m dumping them all into Prot so I can get Kings/Sanctuary for buffs, Concentration aura for groups, and holy thorns block talents to AoE farm money solo (esp low level dungeons)
Consider 20/31/0 once you get past level 50 or 40 or so.
This is my plan until I get enough +SP in later phases where I can just go deep holy to Consecrate farm, holy dmg duel, SoR farm, etc.
Paladin can hybrid spec into both prot or ret and still have the same healing capacity. If you go hybrid prot you also gain the benefit of bringing BoSanc for tanks.
I think I could skip 5/5 1 handed spec for Kings, so you are probably right. I’ve been trying to snag Guardian’s Favor and the points might have to come from there again.
Does it 1-handed scale with SoR? I’ve heard mixed reviews, depending on the private server.
PS–Remember that BoP is the “Paladin taunt” so a lower cooldown is nice.
According to the latest testing in beta, I don’t know; 1h spec does not affect all damage, but it doesn’t list on the sheet whether or not it affects SoR (which I have to assume someone tested and just never recorded).
On the Beta, it does not affect all damage, but the question of does it affect SoR has not been answered yet according to the testing spreadsheet I am following.
The cooldown reduction on BoP is nice, and you can still pick it up by dropping points in Toughness while still picking up Kings. For PvE, I wouldn’t bother. For PvP it is very strong mostly because of the effect on Freedom. For 40 man raids, having Kings makes you more versatile for buff assignments, since you will not have improved Wisdom or Might with a 20/31 spec. If you are in the type of guild that can pretty much guarantee attendance of other pallies, then you could maybe drop kings and just do Salvation or Light instead.
If you are tanking in 5 mans and people are pulling threat so often you need a reduced cooldown on BoP, that is their problem not yours. I suggest letting them die until they learn their lesson. Without another paladin they will likely have salvation already so they are just not paying attention to their threat meter.
Nah nah mate – remember 20/31/0 paladin builds tend to usually be healers in grouped content (till you drastically overgear it and can then also be an offtank)
Those points in toughness work out to be maybe a couple percent at most reduction to physical damage. The important talents for prot are Redoubt, Imp Righteous Fury, Shield Specialization, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Holy Shield. Precision, One-Hand Specialization, and Reckoning are nice to have to increased threat/damage. Toughness is flexible, and I personally max it out, but I also don’t care much for Guardian’s Favor or Improved Hammer of Justice.