WoW Forever Holy Paladin Guide

Holy Paladin is the tank healer of WoW Forever, and the spec plays very differently from Classic. Forever rebuilt the Holy tree in the last builds before launch. Illumination now refunds half of a heal's base cost instead of all of it, Holy Power makes critical heals bigger instead of more frequent, and Reverence keeps 30% of your regeneration going while you cast. Two new talents shape every fight: Oath of Light strengthens your heals on one ally, and the capstone Light's Vigil turns Holy Shock into a heal for a whole party. What has not changed is the core: Flash of Light and Holy Light still do most of the work.

This guide is written for level 60 and the live game as of the November 11 hotfixes. ConquestCapped compared the mana cost and healing of every Holy Paladin heal rank in the Forever spell data on November 13, so the spell advice below is based on the numbers of the live game. You will find where Holy stands among the healers, the best race, a raid build and a dungeon build in talent calculators you can edit, the Legacy talents worth taking, the stat priority, how to heal and manage mana at 60, Blessings and Auras in a raid, macros, common mistakes, enchants and consumables, gear and professions.

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Is Holy Paladin Good in WoW Forever?

Yes, for the job it is built for. Holy is the best pure tank healer in Forever: Holy Light lands the biggest single heal of any healer, Infusion of Light makes it a second faster after a critical heal, and Oath of Light adds more healing on the tank you protect. The class also brings raid tools no other healer has, such as Greater Blessing of Kings, Lay on Hands and Blessing of Protection.

The weak side is group healing. Holy has no fast heal for several players at once: its only group heal is Light's Vigil, which you have to cast before the damage arrives. Community estimates after the rework still rate its total healing below the Priest and the Shaman, and Blizzard has promised more class tuning on later Tuesdays. The table sums up what Holy does well and where it struggles at 60.

Holy Paladin vs Other Healers

In raids, the best setup puts one or two Holy Paladins on the tanks and lets Priests and Shamans cover the rest of the raid. A Holy Priest has Prayer of Healing and the widest toolkit, a Restoration Shaman has Chain Heal and totems, and a Restoration Druid has Innervate and Rebirth. None of them heals a single target as hard and as cheaply as the Paladin.

In dungeons, Holy works best with a tank who pulls carefully. On big pulls with damage spread across the group, a Priest or Shaman has an easier time. Every healer is ranked for dungeons and raids in our WoW Forever healer tier list.

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Best Race for Holy Paladin

Three races can be Paladins in Forever: Human and Dwarf on the Alliance and, for the first time, Undead on the Horde. Racials matter little for a healer, so pick your faction first. Here is what each race gives a Holy Paladin.

Human is the best Holy race. Both its passive racials feed your healing: more Spirit means more Mana back through Reverence, and every extra point of crit triggers Illumination more often. Dwarf is a safe pick for raids with heavy Physical damage, and Undead is the only choice on the Horde. Cannibalize is a strong mana tool between dungeon pulls, while Touch of the Grave does nothing for heals. Every Paladin race is compared for each spec in our best Paladin race in WoW Forever guide.

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Holy Paladin Talents at 60

Both builds below take the Holy tree all the way to Light's Vigil and pick up every healing talent on the way. The rest goes into Divine Intellect in Protection and into Retribution, where Benediction makes every instant spell cheaper and Conviction adds crit chance to your heals. Crit is worth more to a Holy Paladin than to anyone else, because each critical heal can refund Mana through Illumination and speed up Holy Light through Infusion of Light.

Best Holy Paladin Raid Build: 31/7/13

This is the build for raid healing. It takes every healing talent in Holy, 2/2 Purifying Power for cheaper dispels, Sacred Duty so Divine Shield comes back a minute sooner, and Sanctified Judgement, which returns most of the Mana you spend when you judge a Seal.

A few talents decide how the spec plays.

• Reverence 2/2. 30% of your Mana regeneration continues while you cast. It is the reason Spirit still has value for a Holy Paladin.
• Illumination 5/5. Every critical heal returns Mana equal to 50% of the spell's base cost. A critical Holy Light at rank 9 gives back 330 Mana.
• Holy Power 5/5. Changed in Forever: it now raises the size of your critical heals instead of your chance to crit. One of the strongest throughput talents in the tree.
• Infusion of Light 2/2. A critical Holy Shock or Flash of Light makes your next Holy Light within 15 sec cast 1 sec faster.
• Oath of Light 1/1. New in Forever: an oath on one ally for 5 minutes that increases the healing of your Holy Light, Flash of Light and Holy Shock on them. Put it on the tank you heal.
• Boundless Light 2/2. 30% more critical strike chance on Holy Shock, but only on allies without your Oath. That makes Holy Shock your tool for the rest of the group, not for the tank.
• Light's Vigil 1/1. The capstone, your only group heal. How to use it is explained in the rotation section below.
• Divine Intellect 5/5 and Conviction 3/3. 10% more Intellect for a bigger Mana pool, and crit on every heal, which feeds Illumination.

The last points are a matter of taste. A popular alternative moves one point from Purifying Power into a second rank of Divine Precision for less Silence duration, or takes Holy Conduit and Improved Judgement instead of Divine Precision and Sacred Duty. None of these swaps changes your healing much.

Holy Paladin Dungeon Build: 34/5/12

In a five-player group, a Holy Paladin often has spare Mana between big pulls. This build spends it on damage: Holy Conduit makes Consecration and Exorcism 40% cheaper, Consecrated Ground adds 10% Holy damage to the first four enemies in your Consecration, and Improved Judgement lets you judge more often. Everything that matters for healing stays the same as in the raid build.

Only cast damage spells when the tank and the group are topped off and your Mana is above half. If a dungeon has heavy damage, such as a long pull in Stratholme or Scholomance, heal first and keep the Consecration for the end of the pull.

Holy Talents to Skip

Some Holy talents look useful but do nothing for a healer at 60.

• Divine Strength. Strength does not add healing.
• Improved Seals. Increases Seal and Judgement damage, which a healer barely uses.
• Consecrated Ground in raids. You rarely stand in melee range to use Consecration on a raid boss.

Our WoW Forever Paladin talents guide compares every talent in all three trees with its Classic version.

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Legacy Talents for Holy Paladin

Legacy talents are account-wide perks that you unlock by playing, and at 60 the best of them save a Paladin time and gold. Three are worth more to a Paladin than to almost any other class. Reagent Economy removes the Symbol of Kings cost from Greater Blessing of Kings and every other Greater Blessing. Permanence doubles the duration of your Blessings from 1 hour to 2. The Quick and the Dead makes your helpful spells free for 2 minutes after you are resurrected, so rebuffing the raid after a wipe costs no Mana.

To reach those perks, the build also takes Gourmand, which makes food buffs like Sage's Tea last twice as long, and Reinforce for less durability loss on wipes. The last 3 points go into Diplomat for the reputations behind your healing gear and enchants. How every Legacy tree works is covered in our best WoW Forever Legacy talent builds guide.

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Holy Paladin Stat Priority

Holy healing in Forever is built on large single-target heals that crit often. Healing on gear makes every heal bigger, Intellect gives you a larger Mana pool and more spell crit, and crit returns Mana through Illumination. Spirit and Mana per 5 seconds keep you going in long fights. This is the order for level 60 before the raids:

1. Healing (shown on the tooltip as "Increases healing done by up to X")
2. Intellect
3. Critical Strike Chance
4. Mana per 5 seconds (mp5)
5. Spirit
6. Stamina

A Holy Paladin needs no Hit Chance, because heals cannot miss. Divine Precision only helps the damage of Holy Shock and Exorcism. If your raid runs long fights and you finish them out of Mana, move mp5 above crit. As a Human, Spirit is worth a little more than for the other races because of The Human Spirit.

How healing, crit and the other reworked stats are calculated is explained in our WoW Forever stats and itemization guide.

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Holy Paladin Healing Rotation, Spell Ranks and Mana

A healer has no fixed rotation. You react to damage, and your job is to pick the right heal for the size of the gap. A Holy Paladin has four heals to choose from, and each one does a different job.

Spell Ranks and Downranking

In Classic, Holy Paladins healed with low ranks of Holy Light to save Mana. In the Forever spell data, the highest ranks give the most healing per point of Mana. The table shows the base healing of the ranks you use at 60, before healing from gear:

So you do not need to downrank. Use the top rank of Holy Light for big damage and the top rank of Flash of Light for everything smaller. If a target needs less than a Flash of Light, it does not need a heal yet.

Holy Paladin Healing Priority

Before the pull, cast Oath of Light on the main tank, pick your Aura and put up Seal of Wisdom. In combat, choose your heal in this order:

1. Flash of Light is your main heal. It is cheap, fast and right for most damage.
2. Holy Light with an Infusion of Light proc when the tank takes a big hit. The proc cuts the cast to 1.5 sec, so you get the biggest heal at the speed of a Flash of Light.
3. Holy Shock while you move, in an emergency, or to trigger Light's Vigil. Cast it on players without your Oath, where Boundless Light gives it 30% more crit chance.
4. Holy Light without a proc only when you know a big hit is coming and have time for a 2.5 sec cast.

Cancel a long heal if the target is topped off before it lands: moving or pressing Escape near the end of the cast saves the whole Mana cost.

How to Use Oath of Light and Light's Vigil

Oath of Light lasts 5 minutes and only one ally can carry it, so it belongs on the player who takes the most damage, usually the main tank. Refresh it when it runs out, and move it if your raid lead swaps your healing assignment. The talent tooltip does not show the size of the bonus yet, so treat it as a steady boost on your main target, not a reason to heal only the tank.

Light's Vigil works in two steps. You cast it on one player, and the next Holy Shock on that player within 30 sec ignores its cooldown and heals their whole party. Only one Vigil per Paladin can be active in each party, but you can prepare players in different parties and Shock them one after another when the raid-wide damage hits. ConquestCapped ran the numbers from the spell data: at rank 2 the pair costs 1,665 Mana before talents and heals each party member for 700 to 740 before gear. That is very efficient when four or five players are hurt and wasteful when only one or two are. Use it before predictable group damage, not as a filler.

Cooldowns

Holy has few healing cooldowns, so time them well.

• Divine Favor (2 min). Makes your next Holy Light, Flash of Light or Holy Shock a guaranteed critical heal. On Holy Light, it returns 330 Mana through Illumination and lands a huge heal. On Flash of Light, it also triggers Infusion of Light for a fast Holy Light right after.
• Lay on Hands (20 min). Heals the target for your maximum Health and gives them 550 Mana at rank 3, but drains all of your remaining Mana. Use it when the tank is about to die, ideally when your own Mana is low anyway.
• Blessing of Protection (5 min). Makes a player immune to Physical attacks for a few seconds. It saves a healer or damage dealer who pulled aggro, but the target cannot attack while it lasts.
• Divine Shield (4 min with Sacred Duty). 10 seconds of immunity during which you keep healing at full strength. It is a healing cooldown for moments when you would otherwise die.
• Voice of Truth (3 min). No longer a talent in Forever: 6 seconds of immunity to Silence and interrupts, so your heals go through.
• Divine Intervention (1 hour). Removes a party member from the fight to save them from a wipe, so they can resurrect the raid afterwards.

Mana Management

Mana decides how long a Holy Paladin can heal. The aim is to end each fight with very little Mana left, but never to run out before the boss dies.

• Do not cast for 5 seconds when the group is healthy. Your full regeneration returns, and Reverence keeps 30% of it going even while you cast.
• Keep a Blessing of Wisdom or Greater Blessing of Wisdom on yourself, unless another Paladin already gives you Wisdom.
• With Sanctified Judgement, judge Seal of Wisdom on the boss when you have a free moment: the Judgement returns 60% of the Seal's cost. Since November 11, Judgement counts as a ranged attack, uses your ranged hit chance and still needs you within 10 yards, so do not chase it during heavy healing.
• Use Major Mana Potion and Dark Rune or Demonic Rune in long fights. Runes cost Health, so check that you are not the target of the boss first.
• Ask for a drink break before every big pull in dungeons. Sage's Tea restores 2,821 Mana in 30 sec and leaves you with 44 Healing Power for 15 minutes.
• As Undead, use Cannibalize next to a Humanoid or Undead corpse between pulls for a large share of your Mana back.

Blessings, Auras and Seals in a Raid

Every raid wants several Paladins for their Blessings, and you will usually be told which one to cast. Each player can have one Blessing from each Paladin. In Forever, Greater Blessings cover every player of one class in the raid and last 1 hour, and the regular Blessings last 1 hour as well.

• Greater Blessing of Kings raises all stats by 10% and is the safe choice for every class.
• Greater Blessing of Wisdom goes on healers and casters, Greater Blessing of Might on Warriors, Rogues and Hunters.
• Blessing of Salvation and Blessing of Light are no longer taught in Forever, so damage dealers have to watch their own threat.
• Each Greater Blessing uses one Symbol of Kings. Buy a full stack before raid night, or take Reagent Economy in your Legacy talents.

Only one Aura per Paladin works on each player. Devotion Aura is the default for your party, Concentration Aura helps when you are hit while casting, and Shadow Resistance Aura, Frost Resistance Aura and Fire Resistance Aura now reach the whole raid within 30 yards, so one Paladin can cover a resistance fight. Dispel poisons, diseases and Magic with Cleanse, which Purifying Power makes cheaper.

Useful Macros for Holy Paladin

Mouseover macros let you heal a player by pointing at their raid frame, without changing your target. This one heals the player under your mouse, then your friendly target, then yourself:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Flash of Light

Make the same macro for Holy Light and Holy Shock. Divine Favor and Holy Light work well on one button: the first press uses Divine Favor when it is ready, and the heal that follows is a guaranteed critical heal:

#showtooltip Holy Light
/cast Divine Favor
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Holy Light

Set the main tank as your focus, and this macro puts Oath of Light on them from anywhere, even while you target the boss:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][help,nodead] Oath of Light

A mouseover Blessing of Protection saves the player who pulled aggro without losing your target:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead] Blessing of Protection

Holy Paladin Mistakes to Avoid

These are the habits that cost a Holy Paladin the most healing or Mana in Forever.

• Using Holy Shock as a filler. At rank 4 it heals about 1 point per Mana, less than half of Flash of Light.
• Casting Holy Light without a proc on small damage. Most of it overheals, and a 660 Mana heal that overheals is the fastest way to run dry.
• Casting Light's Vigil when only one or two players are hurt. Flash of Light is far cheaper for that.
• Forgetting to refresh Oath of Light after 5 minutes, or leaving it on a player you no longer heal.
• Using Lay on Hands while you are still full of Mana. It drains everything you have left.
• Downranking out of Classic habit. In Forever, the top ranks are the most efficient.
• Spending Mana on damage in a dungeon before the pull is under control.

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Enchants and Consumables for Holy Paladin

Enchant the pieces you plan to keep through the raids. Several healing enchants are new in Forever, such as the necklace and off-hand ones, and the best of them need reputation with the Argent Dawn. These are the strongest options before the raids:

For raids, bring these consumables:

• Elixirs and flask: Greater Cleric's Elixir for 40 healing and Greater Mageblood Elixir for 20 mp5, both for 30 minutes, or Flask of Distilled Wisdom for 2,000 more Mana for 2 hours.
• Weapon oil: Brilliant Mana Oil for 30 healing and 15 mp5, or Brilliant Wizard Oil for 36 healing and 1% spell crit.
• Food and drink: Sunrise Omelette for 55 Healing Power, or Sage's Tea, which also refills your Mana.
• Potions and runes: Major Mana Potion for Mana, Major Mender's Potion for 88 more healing for 30 sec during a burn phase, and Dark Rune or Demonic Rune.

Where every formula drops is in our best enchants in WoW Forever guide.

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Holy Paladin Gear Overview

A Holy Paladin can wear cloth, leather, mail and plate with no penalty, and Forever adds no armor specialization bonus. Your best pre-raid set is therefore a mix of all four armor types: you take the piece with the most healing, not the most armor. Forever also gave healing to caster weapons, so a one-handed mace with an off-hand item beats every two-hander a Paladin can use.

The core pieces to chase first are Masterwork Crimson Hammer from Stratholme with Penelope's Rose in the off hand, Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas from the Paladin quest in Dire Maul, and Burst of Knowledge from Blackrock Depths. If the Crimson Hammersmith does not drop the mace, The Hammer of Grace is almost as good. In the raids that open on December 9, the Holy tier set Justice Armor takes 1 second off the cooldown of Holy Shock at five pieces.

Every slot with its alternatives is listed in our WoW Forever Holy Paladin BiS guide, and the set bonuses of all three Paladin specs are in our WoW Forever Paladin tier set guide.

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Best Professions for Holy Paladin

Blacksmithing with Mining is the strongest pair for a Holy Paladin. Blacksmiths craft several pre-raid healing pieces, such as Whitesoul Helm and Martyr's Legplates, healing plate that only they can wear, and four of the six pieces of the raid tier set. Read our WoW Forever Blacksmithing guide for the route to 300.

Alchemy with Herbalism is the best choice if you would rather save gold on consumables, since you make your own elixirs and Mana potions. Engineering is the safe utility pick for any class. As secondary professions, Cooking gives you the food buffs, and First Aid saves Mana between pulls while leveling.

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More Guides for Your Holy Paladin

These guides cover the rest of the Paladin in Forever: the class overview with all three specs, the best healing gear for every slot, every talent change, the best race for each spec and how Holy compares with the other healers.

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WoW Forever Holy Paladin FAQ

These are the questions players ask most often about Holy Paladin in WoW Forever.

Is Holy Paladin good in WoW Forever?

Yes, as a tank healer. Holy has the biggest single-target heal in the game and brings Blessings, Lay on Hands and Blessing of Protection to the raid. Its weak point is group healing, so raids pair it with Priests or Shamans.

What is the best Holy Paladin build in WoW Forever?

For raids, 31/7/13: the full Holy tree to Light's Vigil, Divine Intellect and Sacred Duty in Protection, and Benediction, Conviction and Sanctified Judgement in Retribution. For dungeons, the 34/5/12 version adds Holy Conduit and Consecrated Ground for damage between pulls.

Does a Holy Paladin need to downrank in WoW Forever?

No. ConquestCapped's comparison of the Forever spell data shows that the top ranks of Holy Light and Flash of Light give the most healing per Mana. Use Flash of Light for small damage instead of a low rank of Holy Light.

What does Oath of Light do?

Oath of Light marks one ally for 5 minutes and increases the healing of your Holy Light, Flash of Light and Holy Shock on them. Only one ally can carry it, so put it on the tank. Holy Shock gets extra crit chance from Boundless Light only on players without your Oath.

Is Light's Vigil worth the Mana?

Only when most of a party is hurt. At rank 2, Light's Vigil and the Holy Shock that triggers it cost 1,665 Mana together before talents and heal every member of the party for 700 to 740 before gear. For one or two hurt players, Flash of Light is far cheaper.

What is the best race for Holy Paladin?

Human on the Alliance, for 10% more Spirit and 1% more crit. On the Horde, Undead is the only Paladin race, and Cannibalize gives a lot of Mana back between dungeon pulls.

Does Holy Paladin need Hit Chance?

No. Heals cannot miss, and Divine Precision only affects the damage of Holy spells. Our WoW Forever hit cap guide explains which roles need hit.

Should I level as Holy Paladin?

It is slow. Holy gets Flash of Light only at level 20 and Light's Vigil at 40, so most players level as Retribution or Protection and heal dungeons with a set of healing gear. Dual Specialization opens at level 40. The route to 60 is in our WoW Forever Paladin leveling guide.