I’m leveling a pally in classic. I know what spec to use, how to play it, and so on if I want to level as quickly as possible (that’s not necessarily the case). My concern is the fact that I plan on leveling as ret, but when I reach the high 50s I’m rerolling holy so I can heal full-time and start farming pre-raid BiS.
I have two questions.
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If I want to heal, is there a ret/holy hybrid spec that allows me to quest efficiently on my own or in a duo, while also being able to heal in dungeons? I’m rolling on a PvP server of course, if that makes a difference.
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When I reroll holy, how do I prep gear for full time healing? I’m assuming I’ll be in full strength gear from leveling as ret. Would I just start picking up intellect gear while I’m in my low 50’s and progressively replace the DPS gear I had on?
I’ve never fully leveled a hybrid spec, whether on retail or pservers, so this is something relatively new to me. Thanks in advance.
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I’m doing this exact thing. My plan:
Ret down to SoC and PoJ, then over to holy for spiritual guidance (dunno yet if I’m tanking intellect or strength on the top line). Back to ret down to 2-handed spec and imp ret aura, back to holy for the increase to flash and holy light as well as imp LoH, then on to Illumination. Back to ret to coast into 60.
That said, I have a 5-man team ready to roll with and we’re gonna be doing a LOT of dungeon running because it’s fun and we like to hang out.
Edit: due to my group I’ll be grabbing every piece of intellect plate we find. Probably no need to worry too much at 60, just respec and use whatever intellect gear you have. Run whatever dungeons you need to in order to get enough to run BRD, UBRS, LBRS, Scholo and Strat. Most of the BiS comes from there.
Looks like you’re set as far as gear goes, then, since you won’t be on your own. I think my biggest concern is the gear swap that comes later. I’d hate to be in level 40 int greens at 60 because I didn’t have anything else.
These all work fine:
- 31/0/20: most damage with 2H as a healadin
- 31/7/13: “utility” leveling PvP server (i.e., Guardian’s Favor + Pursuit of Justice)
- 33/11/7: my personal recommendation for un-geared carry-healing
7 in Retribution (Benediction + Improved Judgment) is really all you need to make leveling not horrible. There is of course Shockadin, but I am really not sure how effective that can be without the gear to support it. (Then again, all paladin specs are very gear-dependent so here: 31/10/10.)
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Well if your going to holy and have all strength gear then before you do if no one wants a bop int item ask permission to roll for off spect or if your a tailor or know one get some tailor pieces.
The transition is a speed bump you’ll probably regret not prepping before hand.
I’m definitely gonna save this and look into each of those specs. Thanks a ton.
Any spec can heal just fine, especially while leveling. Just keep gear with int on it. I would say around lv50, just start taking int rewards when offered from quests. AP ret isn’t all that gear dependant anyways.
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Well, there is actually a lot of variation possible in talents, so to get you started:
31/0/20: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#sExu0xotZVf0tr
31/7/13: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#sExu0xotVMZVf0zb
33/11/7: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#sVxubgstVGzZVb
31/10/10: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#sVEu0xotVGZVf
4 Likes
Specific are always good. Thanks again 
Without looking up quest rewards to see what will ultimately be available I’d say you should start selecting and saving Int gear as soon as you hit the change over from mail to plate at level 40 because you can start running BRD at level 48
Edit: forum keeps breaking my link, it’s a 21/0/30 build.
5/5 Divine Intellect
5/5 Spiritual Focus
3/3 Healing Light
1/1 Consecration
1/2 Improved Lay on Hands
5/5 Illumination
1/1 Divine Favor
0 in Prot
5/5 Benediction
2/2 Improved Judgment
5/5 Deflection
5/5 Conviction
1/1 Seal of Command
2/2 Pursuit of Justice
1/2 Eye for an Eye
3/3 Two Handed Weapon Spec
1/1 Sanctity Aura
5/5 Vengeance
This build will give you a ret/holy combination that allows you to be ~99% effective as a cookie cutter ret paladin build, and with a simple gear switch you’ll be almost as good of a healer (in terms of pure healing output) as a cookie cutter holy build. I ran something similar to this for a very long time back in Vanilla, and it was highly effective for PvP as well as PvE. You do miss out on some improved group utility by skipping out entirely on the protection tree, but the ability to throw out a guaranteed holy light critical cast every 2 minutes on demand (while being in full dps mode) is more than worth it.
A good way to go with this build (when in a dps role) is to blend int/stam/str on gear rather than going 100% strength or 100% int. Your higher mana pool will allow you to judge and/or heal more aggressively, meaning that you make a capable backup healer if your main healer becomes overwhelmed by a bad pull. When acting as a primary healer, though, you will want to be decked out in pure int/stam/+healing gear. So it’s good to save any that you find while leveling.
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Back in the day, the benchmark that people shot for with this kind of build was 4k hp / 4k mana / ~20% critical hit (while wearing your dps set, unbuffed). Enough health and mana to outlast opponents in 1v1 combat, enough critical hit to maintain 100% uptime on vengeance, and enough healing power to keep people alive in a dungeon.
And again, I ran this and primary healed all the endgame dungeons without any issues. All you’re really losing is 5% spell crit (which is more of a mana efficiency thing for raiding) and a bit of extra mp/5. While you’re farming your pre-raid BiS, this is not an issue. It’s only once you start into actual raids that you’ll want to maximize your holy talents.
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I’m mostly good with a spec. Like I said, I’m not worried about that part too much. My main concern is an efficient gear transition from high str to high int. So far, the options I’ve been given and my earlier guess at a solution seem to be my best bets.
At this point I’m thinking about speccing for heals with stat passives for damage and healing, and holding on to weps for both. That way I can level at a decent rate and still heal dungeons/groups as needed.
I disagree with a number of talent choices in this build. If I was going for primary dps with a bit of off-healing, it would look like this:
https://classicdb.ch/?talent#sE0uoxoZZEf0t0cq
Differences:
- -5/5 Spiritual Focus => +5/5 Divine Strength
- -5/5 Deflection => +5/5 Improved Blessing of Might
- -2/2 PoJ, -1/2 E4E => +3/3 Improved Seal of the Crusader
70% spell pushback immunity and 5% extra parry are not to be ignored so easily, especially on a pvp server.
Without spiritual focus, you might as well wish your healing aspirations goodbye the moment you get more than 1 mob attacking you at a time. A single warrior or rogue will shut you down completely and you will be absolutely useless in any kind of PvP environment, and I speak from years of experience in vanilla AV, AB, and WSG. If and when you get healing aggro in a dungeon, you will also be completely unable to keep yourself alive. Spiritual focus is 100% mandatory for healing specs. You would know this if you mained paladin back in the day.
The reason why you invest into deflection instead of improved BoM is twofold:
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In PvP, you can NOT rely on keeping blessings up because there is always a shaman or priest there to dispel/purge you. Blessings cost a lot of mana to repeatedly cast, and when fighting any kind of composition that has a priest or shaman, your only self buff will be rank 1 SoC and your aura, because it costs less mana for you to buff SoC than it does for the opponent to dispel you.
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When in PvP or when soloing elite mobs or multiple regular mobs, you will never out-dps your opponents. Period. Your strength as a paladin lies in your ability to outlast them through superior self sustain, part of which is avoiding physical attacks through parry, and part of which is being able to refresh your HP to full quickly by having 5/5 spiritual focus. As part of the build OP was asking for involves the ability to complete content while solo out in the world, parry becomes more important than improved BoM.
Bonus 3rd point: Rank 7 Blessing of Might gives 185 melee attack power, which translates to 13.2 extra DPS. Improved blessing of Might 5/5 gives 222 melee attack power, which translates to 15.8 extra DPS. If you’re in a melee heavy raid comp, that’s the only time that extra 2.6 DPS matters because it’s multiplied by the number of people that benefit from it. When you’re soloing out in the world, 2.6 extra DPS is NOTHING compared to 5% bonus parry, because parry resets your swing timer which (a) increases your DPS, and (b) increases your survivability.
Edit: With regard to the other talent choices for PoJ and E4E, you take PoJ because outside of your 1 minute cooldown stun, paladins have 0 methods of catching runners in PvP. If someone wants to run away from you and you’re 0/2 PoJ, you will never be able to finish them off without someone else there to root/slow them. Taking PoJ also allows you to put a stronger enchant on your boots that increases your stats, rather than relying on a run speed enchant.
As far as the 1 point in E4E goes, it is the best remaining option because 1/3 improved SoCr is a waste, and the paladin’s biggest disadvantage is against casters.
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We are clearly building for different use cases.
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I quote the OP, “My concern is the fact that I plan on leveling as ret, but when I reach the high 50s I’m rerolling holy so I can heal full-time and start farming pre-raid BiS.”
“If I want to heal, is there a ret/holy hybrid spec that allows me to quest efficiently on my own or in a duo, while also being able to heal in dungeons?”
He wants to primary heal while still being able to handle solo content. I don’t know what thread you think you’re in, but he’s not wanting to primary dps and heal off spec. I simply gave him a talent build that will allow him to do what he wants, that is more effective than putting the majority of points into holy unnecessarily.
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This is really more what I was initially responding to.
I already responded to the OP’s question with several builds.
I’m not going to get into whether 31 points in Holy is necessary. It really depends on how much pain one is willing to endure while shepherding trash PUGs through T0 content without already having a solid healing set.