Is Hpal a Good Melee Healer

Classes Paladin
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Honestly, is it?

I mained hpal from Firelands to Hellfire Citadel when it was not a melee healer.

What makes hpal a good melee healer anyway? All I see is one melee spell that generates holy power, and a bizarre mastery.

I find no enjoyment being in melee, where it is crowded and there are spread mechanics. I find no enjoyment in chasing bosses to remain in melee range. And, I find this more annoying because it is not how the class originally was.

I want to see the return of the Infusion of Light playstyle with holy light. Right now, hpal feels like a mad man trying to generate as much hp as fast as possible. That said, I don’t want holy power to go either, I think that was a mistake it was removed in Legion and I am glad it is back, but as long as the hpal has this identity crisis, it just doesn’t feel right.

Curious for opinions on this whole melee thing, since I have actively avoided this playstyle since its introduction in Legion.

I’d love to say ‘give us a choice between range and melee playstyles’ but we all know one or the other will be superior so…

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Hmm, it was, at least in BFA and SL season 1. Since then, we have steadily got nerfed to the point of absurdity; not just nerfs that affect numbers, but nerfs that effect the “feel” of the class. The main problems are:

  • They nerfed Glimmer of Light, Crusader’s Might, and Shock Barrier + put an absurdly large mana cost on Crusader Strike. This makes the glimmer playstyle non-viable (aside from a side feature of the Class).
  • Shield of the Righteous doesn’t proc Awakening, actively punishing you for doing damage.
  • Santified Wrath is way more fun than Awakening, but is not viable due to the nerf of the Glimmer playstyle + nerfs to Avenging Wrath.

Honestly, Holy is still the most fun healer IMO. But it is significantly less enjoyable than it once was.

3

Thanks for your insight :slight_smile:

I just think the melee area of a boss is problematic, but I know I have only done LFR since returning and it can be a disaster.

I feel your comment supports my issue with Blizz having an identity crisis with the hpal, and I really wish it would stop, it’s been 6 years…

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I think Holy Paladin feels great. It has a firm identity as a melee healer and the playstyle is fast-paced and enjoyable for me as a player who enjoys melee classes. There are 4 other options if you prefer ranged healing.

3 Likes
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I absolutely love melee Holy Paladin. I run crusader’s might, JoL, Blinding, Unbreakable or Rule of law depending, awakening, divine purpose, and glimmer. I run Kyrian, so I use divine toll and shock barrier.

I have zero mana issues and I have no problem with throughput. I was away from the game when the big switch to necrolord was going on but I like what I currently have anyway.

A plate wearing Paladin, in my opinion, belongs in the thick of the fight and I love how it’s high apm and how everything is instant cast. Combine that with the 4 piece set bonus and your wings up time makes the play style crazy fast and engaging.

I would absolutely hate to see Holy Paladin return to ranged long casts. There are plenty of ranged healers and that niche is taken by Holy priest. Glimmerdin was the best thing that ever happened to the spec in my opinion.

5 Likes
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Except I choose hpal years before it was forced into melee. Spamming crusader strike is not that amazing.

I’ll put it this way. The healing part is great. The running into melee and spamming crusader strike in order to do so is not.

That is how I feel about it all.

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Just play mistweaver they are really good in raids for melee healer

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This is specifically a change that I enjoyed about Holy. I actually really like that being in the melee pile can be beneficial. Going in and building HP to cast LoD/WoG, and dealing a decent grip of damage at the same time is an interesting playstyle to me.

I get to think about maximizing uptime as a melee because my throughput (healing wise) relies on being able to hit the boss with Crusader Strike. Which is an interesting extra bit of consideration to have while healing (for me). I can understand why this wouldn’t be too appealing, because chillin’ with the ranged group and slapping giant Holy Lights or Flash of Lights for millions of HP was fun in Legion and certainly had a much different flow to it.

I would find it surprising if they didn’t lean into a branch of the talent trees for Holy in Dragonflight being focused around Infusion of Light and hard casting Holy Light/Flash of Light. If they don’t I’d have to question why we even have Infusion at all, since we essentially don’t use it in PvE at the moment.

And also something to consider: Hpal being in melee is more than just spamming Crusader Strike.

  1. Consecrate does absurd DPS even on one target, for a button that’s essentially “set and forget”. And you don’t really need to move much to put it down, when you’re in the melee cluster. Maximizing uptime on this is a fun part of Hpal for me.
  2. Mastery works around being close to the healing target but obviously this can be changed at any point (kinda miss the barrier we used to get from mastery).
  3. The tier set bonuses are a lot of fun playing in melee. Picking Necrolord and vomiting out a metric ton of LoD’s while reducing the cooldown on Avenging Wrath and proccing Awakening constantly is actually a really fun playstyle.
  4. Spending excess HP trying to proc Awakening or hitting large groups of mobs with Shield of the Righteous is another little interesting part of the playstyle to me. If I had no way to actually generate value on my HP besides holding it for a heal that’s needed in 1 GCD I think I’d rather just not bother having the HP mechanic be tied to holy.
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If it werent for the time to gear up a new healer, I’d switch. I’m debating on whether or not I want to bring this guy into Dragonflight. There’s so many fights that I wish I was a different spec for, and while our wings uptimes is nice, there just nothing like tranquility, healing tide/spirit link totem, etc.

Plus we don’t want more than one range ina group which makes things like quaking, storming, volcanic, etc something we get to always deal with. Try healing last boss of Workshop with 2 ranged, it’s absolute hell. Having our set revolve around LoD sucks so much because that means we don’t get anything to benefit ranged healing at all. Honestly I hate current Hpally

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They promised, and failed to deliver, a healing build that was viable for hpal outside of melee. The bonus cstrike holypower is absolutely mandatory for the class, and alternative builds cannot deal with higher healing requirements just because of this.

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Its been better. In DF things are seeming to look up for us though.