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Pre-Naxx Holy Paladin Guide (WoW)  

After writing so many of these on a poster-by-poster basis, I decided to go ahead and write a generic guide so that the people wondering if their gear/spec was ready for kara could go look for the best stuff. I'm writing this under the idea that you're going to put forth the maximum effort you can into getting good gear before you set foot in the kara door.

Before I get into the actual good stuff let me just clarify that this guide is meant to get you ready for raiding. I have been asked several times "why not just get gladiator gear?" First off, PvP gear has Resilience on it (which does nothing for you in a raid) and it has very little or no MP5 on it. Some of the early fights in kara, and possibly even up to part of SSC you might be able to get by using PvP gear, but as you progress further and further into raiding your lack of mp5 begins to hurt you more and more. Besides, you really want to gem out your PvP gear with PvP gems (like extra stam) and have PvE gems in your PvE gear. You can't do that if all you have is PvP gear. On top of that, getting a full arena set can/will take you WEEKS, and you can farm instances and get a full raid-ready healing set in half the time. There are some fights in BT that you need higher HP for, but honestly by the time you get to that point you should have at, or near, the required HP anyway so really, don't bother with PvP gear in raids.

That being said, there are some PvP pieces listed below that are good alternates if you don't mind running BGs (in particular, the necklace and ring are good). Just please do NOT get full Gladiator gear, and think you will be the coolest person in Kara. PvP gear is oriented towards burst damage, and not longevity. Good for heroics, but not so good for long raid boss battles.

OK, now, the common question is "What stats do I need to go into Kara?". To answer this, you need to remember that Kara is intended to be a progression raid. This means that you can be less equipped, and take on the lower bosses (like Attumen, Moroes, etc...). Get gear from those bosses, and then start moving to the higher bosses (up to Prince).

To start Kara, you want the following un-buffed:

    • +1100 heals
    • 15% crit
    • 60 MP5 - while casting
    • 8k mana
    • 6k health

To do a full Kara run, you'll want the following un-buffed:

    • +1500 heals
    • 18% crit
    • 80 MP5 - while casting
    • 9k mana
    • 7k health

Now remember, these numbers are just guidelines. You can get by with a little less, but if you obtain these stats, then you will be more beneficial to your raid group.

Contents [hide]

Crit vs. MP5

Oh, this is a touchy subject...

Crit increases the heal by an additional 50%, and gives a Paladin back mana as 60% the base cost of the spell. The increase in heal is awesome, and you will always smile everytime you see a crit. The problem with Crit is that it is not relaible. Yes, if you cast 1 million heals, then you are probably going to be pretty close to the average. But in a fight, you may get 10-15 heals cast without a crit (even if you have 20%). So relying on crits for anything (i.e. increased healing or mana return), then you are relying on luck. The higher your crit, the less luck you need :)

MP5 is Mana returned every 5 seconds "WHILE CASTING". MP5 is good in that it is a reliable and continuous source of mana regen. No matter what is happening (i.e. you could be moving, casting, stunned, etc...), you are regenerating mana.

Your best bet is to balance the stats so that you are flexible is all aspects of Paladin healing. Isolating yourself one way or another will just gimp you in the long run. Think of Crit being your left leg, and MP5 being your right leg. You need both legs. If you have one leg shorter than the other, then you are gimping around.

Now, some people belive that crit is sufficent for mana return, and that they don't need MP5. Well, to be blunt, they are wrong. Here is some data to prove that:

The following calculations are only true if you are spamming a particular heal, and never have to move, are never silenced, never casting cleanse, never drinking pots, never getting hit, etc... In reality, your mana return from crit will be much lower.

    • Spamming Flash of Light: 1% Crit is approx 3.5 MP5
    • Spamming Holy Light: 1% Crit is approx 12.5 MP5

You don't just spam one spell in practice, so the MP5 value should fall somewhere between those figures. Also, you never get to just stand around casting. You have to move sometimes, get hit sometimes, stunned/feared sometimes, Cleanse sometimes, etc... This all reduces your mana return from Crits.

So in reality, your mana return from 1% crit will generally be 2-5 MP5, depending on the situation. As you can see, stacking MP5 is much better for mana return when compared to crit. However, crit is still VERY important for those bigger heals, so please make sure to stack both. Target the stats I listed above, and you willl be just fine. Once you hit those values, you can stack whatever you want. You will have enough Crit and MP5 to get you through Kara.

Haste

Haste is another stat that some like to stack, but it's effectiveness is really only apparent at the higher level raids. It helps you cast faster, and your GCD takes less time. Now that the new badge gear is available (and some drops), there are more options get get haste gear pre-kara. Haste gives a nice advantage on mobile fights, and when you need to get heals out really really fast. The thing about haste though is that it works well for shorter fights (this shines more in heroics and PvP). For the longer fights, you will just go OOM faster :) Again, Haste will come more into play at the higher level raids, so I would recommend holding off on Haste for now.

Professions

There are some different choices when you consider for your raiding paladin, and I'll list some of the better choices. These are just suggestions, so if you wish to do something else (to make money, for example) go ahead.

Alchemy The key item from Alchemy is the Redeemer's Alchemist Stone. This is one of the best healing trinkets in the game, and it is pretty easy to get. You will be using hundreds of mana potions throughout your raiding career, so this will get a lot of use. Plus, the +healing is awesome. You will go also through a ton of raid consumables during your raiding career. If you have Herbalism to feed this profession, it will save you a ton of money in the long run.

Engineering Aside from repair bots, mounts, and PvP stuff, you also get to craft Justicebringer 2000 and Justicebringer 3000 which are easily better than Tier 4 and you can get them before you set foot inside a raid.

Enchanting You will be re-enchanting your gear several times over throughout your raiding career and being able to get your own mats will save you a hefty bundle of cash. On top of that, you also get access to the +20 healing to ring enchant which adds a nice chunk to your healing.

Jewelcrafting This is my profession, but I'm not sure it's for everyone. I got into it to be the guild JC, but if you're looking for self benefit this only has a couple things. Two BoP gems, Blood of Amber and Kailee's Rose, and the Figurine - Seaspray Albatross. It does make decent money, and it does make getting gems ahead of time easier too.

Talents

I'm not going to go into the specifics of exactly what points to put where, because there are other stickies that already do a decent job of that. However there are a few talents that, if you're ready to be a raider you need to pick up or avoid. They are:

  • Aura Mastery: You're gonna be at max range for most fights so any talents that involve range are a good idea.
  • Improved Lay on Hands: Your big "Oh Cr@p!" button on a 40 min CD instad of 60 min CD. There aren't MANY fights this is handy for, but it certainly does really help when your guild is progressing on Gruul. I have also seen this used in effect when a boss is at 10-15% health, just to make sure nothing goes wrong. As I'm sure you know, you want to try and use LoH when you have no mana left. That way, it costs no mana.
  • Blessed Life: I see some people try to take this, but honestly for the most part if you're taking enough damage to where this would make a difference, you're probably going to die anyway, so there's no reason to waste points.
  • Guardian's Favor: This is a MUST HAVE if you're going to do Vashj and is also quite useful in kara and many other places. Just get it!
  • Improved Righteous Fury: Most of the people who take this are doing it for PvP, but its also a talent that makes Tidewalker easier because its easier to get murloc aggro.
  • Improved Concentration Aura: This is mostly useful for the silence duration reduction. It will only be used in certain fights, so it's really up to you.
  • Improved Blessing of Wisdom: Just get it. It's a bonus 8 MP5 for 2 talent points.
  • Blessing of Kings: Personally, I highly recommend at least someone in the raid has this. If another Paladin in your raid does, then you don't need it. However, just make sure someone has this. The benefits for all classes is phenomenal.

Gear

The gear below is listed in general order of best to worst. With the release of 2.4, there is a lot of badge gear that is far superior to Kara drops. Plus, there is also a lot of crafted gear that can be made if you have enough money (which is also easy to do since 2.4).

As for enchants, grab the Glyph of Renewal (Honor Hold & Thrallmar).

Use the Greater Inscription of Faith (Aldor) or Greater Inscription of the Oracle (Scryer) healing enchants. There are reduced versions for Honored rep levels.

  • Back: There are lots to choose from and the best options are (in order):

Get whichever one of those you can get your hands on and then start saving your badges for the Bishop's Cloak. As far as enchants, there really aren't that many good ones to choose from. Enchant Cloak - Subtlety is nice to help keep your healing threat down - for when things get crazy, and you're spamming Holy Lights. Though, it really should never be a problem since Paladins are the lowest threat healers in the game. Most PvPers go with shadow resist to resist fears and the like (also useful in Hyjal/BT) though you can slap armor on there too. It doesn't really matter what you enchant this slot with for kara, honestly.

Put a +6mp5 enchant on it.

As far as enchants, I would probably start off with +6 MP5, but once you think you have enough MP5 (which is subjective) you can go ahead and switch it to +30 healing.

As far as enchants, at this point in your gear I would really go +10 spell crit, but if you find yourself having enough crit, you could switch it to +35 healing.

Unfortunately, there are no belt enchants

If you take starcallers, however, you'll be passing up on an extremely good protadin trinket, so think hard on this one - in case you ever want to try tanking. As far as enchants, you want to get the Golden Spellthread from an Aldor tailor (or the AH). If you can't afford it, you can get the lesser Silver Spellthread

As far as enchant, the only enchant that is worthwhile for raiding is Vitality.

You can only enchant rings if you are a lvl 370 enchanter with Sha'tar Rep. Then, you can get the +20 heal to each ring.

  • Mace: there are so many options, it is silly.

PLEASE stay away from both the Hand of Eternity and The Ancient Scepter of Sue-Min, every time someone uses one of those, a kitten is killed! (not really, they're just pretty terrible and not worth your time/money) As far as enchants, I would recommend the +81 healing enchant, because your healing at this point in your gear is going to be your weakest stat.

get the +12 Int enchant.

  • Libram:
    • Blessed Book of Nagrand - Nagrand Quest Reward - This trinket is debated to be one of the best, if not the best, libram in the game. Even after you get the Libram of Souls Redeemed from opera, keep a hold of this one for situations where you don't have light. I tossed mine and I still regret it.

Gemming your gear

  • Gems: Remember that you do NOT have to match gems to the slots. That is only needed if you are looking to get the slot bonus.

Of course, all the rare (i.e. blue quality) gems have their epic upgrades. If you have enough money/badges for them, please feel free to get them.

Consumables

  • Flasks: Advantages of using this over elixirs, it doesn't go away when you die so its wonderful when you're working on new progressions and expect to wipe a few times.

  • Elixirs:
    • Elixir of Healing Power and Elixir of Major Mageblood are a really good pair, some people like it more than flasking. The down side is the fact that if you die, they go away and you have to use more. This can get expensive if you die often, but if you're an alchemist you probably can easily afford it.
    • Adept's Elixir is another option instead of Elixir of Healing Power. Gives you approx 1/2 the bonus healing, but approx 1% spell crit. If your crit is low, you may want to get this elixir instead.
    • Elixir of Draenic Wisdom is another option if you can't get your hands on the Mageblood elixir. However, this elixir is not as good as the Mageblood.

  • Food:
    • Blackened Sporefish is your best bet for food. Mp5 helps you in the long run much more than any other food buff would. The best part about this food is the fact that you only need 305 fishing and 310 cooking to make them, both easily achieved in a day or two of work.
    • Golden Fish Sticks are another favorite for heroics. The +healing is a nice boost. However, during long raid boss fights, you will get more benefit from the Sporefish. So some people get the fish sticks for trash mobs, and use sporefish for bosses.

  • Oils: This really depends how much gold you farm or which professions you have.
    • Brilliant Mana Oil is the best thing possible. Thats a little too expensive for my tastes though since recipe and mats are Azerothian.
    • Superior Mana Oil is what I usually go with. Much cheaper :)
    • Superior Wizard Oil is also nice. This also affects your healing (even though healing is not mentioned in the tooltip) Again, like the fish sticks, this is great is you need burst healing power (i.e. trash mobs or heroics). For long boss fights, you really want the Mana Oil.

Macros

Macros can be a phenomenal help in making you a better healer. They help combine multiple actions into once click. Here are a couple of the simler, but very useful, macros that I use:

1) Oh Crap! - This macro will stop whatever you are doing, and give you a self bubble. This is good if you are in the middle of casting a Holy Light, and, for whatever reason, a big bad mob is pounding on you. This will cancel your Holy Light, and immediately bubble you.

/stopcasting

/cast Divine Shield

2) Crit Shock - This macro will give you an instant auto-crit Holy Shock. It casts Divine Favor, and then Holy Shock. For those emergency situations when you need to get that party member an instant heal to keep them alive. Honestly, regular Holy Shock doesn't give too much health, so I like to have something with a little more kick.

/cast Divine Favor

/cast Holy Shock

3) Crit Light - This macro does the same thing, but with Holy Light. For when you need to guarantee the monster heal :)

/cast Divine Favor

/cast Holy Light

Notes/Tips

Hopefully this guide will help you get ready for starting Kara as a Holy Paladin. It's a fun time, and I'm sure you'll enjoy keeping the raid alive (or at least the main tank). Couple of things to remember:

    • Don't forget to pop your trinkets often. Otherwise, their "Use" ability is wasted.
    • Don't forget to that Blessing of Protection only offers protection from physical damage. It does nothing against magic damage
    • Read up on boss strategies before hand. It will help you prepare.
    • Mana Potions - if you know you are going to need to use one, then pop it as early as possible (i.e. when you have used 3,000 mana). This way, the CD may be up by the time you need to pop another one.
    • Get ready to be mobile. There are many fights where you will have to move around. You can't just stay planted in one spot. This includes mouse-turning, for those times you need to turn around and run. Here is a nice mouse-turning guide: Mouse Turning Guide.
    • Be courteous to everyone.
    • If Dilbrt ever plays his Paladin again, thank him for starting this guide.

Parts of this page were originally written by Dilbrt.

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This page last modified 2008-06-25 11:37:46.