Tag Archives: paladin

Playstyle

The “Oh Shit” Button

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Having picked up the [Vial of the Sunwell], which doesn’t activate the global cooldown, I thought it might not be a bad idea to make up an emergency panicbutton for healing use, for those times when Lay on Hands is just overkill (or you’re going to need mana before your potion cooldown is up).

/use Vial of the Sunwell
/cast Divine Favor
/cast Holy Shock

All three items are on various cooldowns, so you may wish to add the following line to the end of the macro:

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

which will suppress “Spell is not ready yet.” error messages.

Provided nothing’s on cooldown, this will deliver a crit Holy Shock and trigger the Vial of the Sunwell heal, for a total of 4200-5600 healing in one instant cast (range dependent on +heal, and whether the Vial crits). Extremely useful for spike damage situations!

(If you’re beyond 20 yards, the Holy Shock won’t proc, but the Vial still works out to 40 yards.)

Game Info

Holy Paladins: Choosing Your Professions

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So, trying to work out what professions to level with your Holy paladin? Here’s a quick rundown of professions that are useful, focusing on endgame play. You’ll note that unlike some classes, healadins have no “obvious” choices – if you’re a clothie, you’re crazy not to take tailoring, for instance, but there’s no similar gimme for pallies. So let’s take a look:

(I’ll be focusing on crafting rewards that require a specific profession. Anything BoE or usable by anyone can be acquired elsewhere: from alts, guildmates or the Auction House.)

Herb Gathering, Mining and Skinning
These are “wasted” on a main. I believe you’re far better off taking two ‘production’ professions on your main, where you’re likely to have access to more BoP recipes and rep gains (for factional recipes). Keep the gathering professions on an alt or buy your mats from the AH. (Caveat: there is one advantage of gathering on a main – an epic mount.)

Alchemy
Alchemy offers two alchemist-only rewards:

  • [Mad Alchemist’s Potion] is a nice Alchemist-only variant of the [Super Rejuvenation Potion], with cheaper mats and free random buff effects to boot. However, it’s not essential – most healadins are going to be sucking back [Super Mana Potion]s, which offer a greater mana return. All the Mad Alchemist’s Potion really gives you is a discount on mats.
  • [Alchemist’s Stone] is a nice little trinket that’s worth using for fights where you’re chain-chugging mana pots. (Watch for an upcoming post talking about the Alchemist’s Stone in more depth.) Definitely worth using for some fights, but not all – probably not a reason to take the profession by itself, but a definite attraction. Upgradeable in 2.4 to a trinket with the same potion-boosting effect and +115 heal on it, which is very solid, but no details on the source of the pattern. (Update:according to MMO-Champion, the pattern for the trinket update is at Shattered Sun Exalted.)

Verdict: not a bad profession for supplying your own consumables, but not compelling.

Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is not worth it, in my opinion. There are a few Blacksmith-specific items, but not enough to be worth taking the whole profession:

  • The Khorium Ward is a decent blue BoE spelldamage plate set for the shockadin crowd; the items themselves don’t require Blacksmithing to equip, but the 3-piece set bonus (+55 Healing) does.
  • [Dawnsteel Shoulders] are BoP shoulders; the pattern drops in Black Temple. They’re a spellhaste alternative to Tier 6 shoulders – very tasty, but not really relevant to a healadin until you’re well into endgame content.
  • [Sunblessed Breastplate] is a BoP chest; the plans drop in Sunwell Plateau. Same situation as the shoulders – a great item, but you’re really not going to be picking a profession at or before 70 based on one or two items from Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.

Verdict: it might be worth levelling once you’re already in BT or Sunwell Plateau, but until then, don’t bother.

Enchanting
There’s only one enchanter-only type of enchant: rings.

Verdict: +40 healing is a pretty nice boost from a single profession. Enchanting has tradtionally been the realm of clothies, but it’s actually not a bad healadin choice simply for the ring enchants.

Engineering
Engineering is full of engineer-specific and crafter-only stuff, and a lot of it is fun and useful; I’m not going to cover all of that here. Looking at healadin-relevant options:

  • [Justicebringer 2000 Specs] – better than Tier 5, worse than Tier 6, these are a huge item for a healadin pally pre-Black Temple. They require a reasonable amount of farming, but nothing particularly hard-to-get. Very hard to go past.
  • [Justicebringer 3000 Specs] – the upgraded version, coming with patch 2.4. Even better than the previous helm, but the pattern doesn’t drop until Sunwell Plateau, so it’s not really a justification for decision-making. (Though the pattern may be BoE; if so, hello AH!)

Verdict: A very strong single item, plus a whole bunch of useful fun stuff. Definitely a solid choice.

Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting has a few choices in the early-70 period, although its advantages drop off later:

  • [Kailee’s Rose] is a great healing gem, although you can only equip one at a time; it’s superior even to the BoE epic equivalent (Teardrop Crimson Spinel).
  • [Talasite Owl] is a good healer trinket for those who want mana regen. (Including the “use” effect, it’s roughly the equivalent of 29 mp5.)
  • The upgraded version, [Seaspray Albatross], has more costly mats but is significantly better – with a shorter cooldown, it’s 43 mp5 to the Owl’s 29. (I’ll definitely be making one as soon as I hit Revered with Shattered Sun, from whence cometh the pattern.)
  • [Amulet of Flowing Life] is a nice spell haste healing neckpiece, coming in Patch 2.4. The mats are reasonably accessible, but the pattern doesn’t drop until Sunwell Plateau. (However, it may be a BoE pattern; if so, you can AH it regardless of where you’re raiding.)

Verdict: No single big-ticket winner like Engineering or Enchanting, but a lot of moderate-sized advantages that add up.

Leatherworking
Leatherworking’s only really of interest if you’re prepared to downgrade to mail or leather armor in a number of key slots. Some paladins do, some don’t. I’ll only look at mail here, since if you’re going lower than mail you may as well roll a druid or priest.

  • There’s a lot of nice spell DPS mail that would suit a shockadin nicely; I’m not going to link it all here, but it’s definitely a good option for someone making a serious go of shockadin.
  • [Living Earth Shoulders], some very nice healing mail shoulders. The pattern is a BoE drop from trash in Black Temple. However, they’re not significantly better than the plate equivalents from Blacksmithing, so if you’re taking a profession solely for this, you may as well go the Blacksmithing route and not sacrifice survivability for it.

Verdict: not worth it, unless you’re more interested in being a shockadin (which is not particularly viable against bosses thanks to a lack of spell hit and a huge lack of mana return).

Tailoring
I’m not going to advocate this; there are some very good tailor-only healing pieces (such as the Primal Mooncloth set), but the loss of survivability is just too great for my liking. Those who want to do this know the items they’re aiming for anyway.

The Verdict

Winners:
Enchanting: one significant advantage and the utility value of self-enchanting and disenchanting. Definitely worth considering.
Engineering: one awesome item and a bunch of fun toys. A clear winner.
Jewelcrafting: one good trinket, one decent gem, and general crafting utility value. A viable option.

Maybes:
Alchemy: nice for the trinket, but it’s not compelling.
Blacksmithing: probably not worth it, given that the good BoP healadin items are deep into raiding territory, at which point you have other options.

Losers:
Leatherworking: No unique advantage compared with Blacksmithing.
Tailoring: it’s cloth. C’mon, roll a priest.

By the numbers, I would say the pure best choices for a healadin would be Engineering plus either Jewelcrafting or Enchanting. Enchanting maintains its value throughout the endgame, while Engineering and Jewelcrafting wax and wane in utility depending on the level of other gear you have access to.

Speaking personally, I have Jewelcrafting and Alchemy – the Alchemy is just a legacy of the pre-TBC era, when my guild was very short on alchemists. I’m unlikely to change things at this late date (although I rather wish I’d made this analysis six months ago), but come Wrath of the Lich King, I’ll be investigating all the professions for their suitability.

Game Info

Holy Paladins: Choosing Your Faction Goals

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There are a number of very good rep rewards available for paladins, particularly Protection and Holy paladins. I thought I’d do a bit of a rundown for those who are levelling a pally and haven’t identified their faction goals yet. If you’re a holy paladin in pre-raid gear, you might want to aim for:

Honor Hold/Thrallmar – Revered.
For Ring of Convalescence/Ancestral Band and Glyph of Renewal at Revered. (Sage’s Band/Farseer’s Band at Honored is a nice addition to your DPS set, too.)

Cenarion Expedition
You can actually skip CE faction if you’re purely Holy, unless you want Windcaller’s Orb (at Exalted) until you get a good healing shield. I wouldn’t recommend it personally – but hey, some pallies wear cloth, too.

Sporeggar
Nothing for you here.

Aldor/Scryers – Exalted.
For Greater Inscription of Faith (for Aldor) or Greater Inscription of the Oracle (for Scryers) at Exalted. (You can use Inscription of Faith/Inscription of the Oracle (Honored) until you hit Exalted.) Aldor also offers Vindicator’s Hauberk (the best pre-raid tanking chest) at Revered, and Medallion of the Lightbearer at Exalted (although there are better-balanced pre-raid neckpieces out there, this one does have good base stats). Scryer-aligned paladins can get Seer’s Signet at Exalted, which is very good for a shockadin set.

Lower City – Revered.
For Lower City Prayerbook, an excellent trinket for paladins that many prefer over epic alternatives. Gavel of Unearthed Secrets at Exalted is a good shockadin mace, too, and if you’re building a tanking set it’s the best tankadin mace you’ll find until raid or arena gear.

Kurenai/Mag’har
You can pretty much skip Kurenai/Mag’har faction altogether, from a paladin point of view.

The Consortium
You can skip this one, too.

Keepers of Time
For a pure Holy pally, you can skip KoT faction too. If you’re going to be doing some tanking, I’d recommend aiming for Revered for Timewarden’s Leggings and Glyph of the Defender (and Continuum Blade until you get to Exalted with Lower City for the Gavel).

The Sha’tar – Exalted
For Gavel of Pure Light, an excellent healadin mace (I got a Hand of Eternity crafted before I got to Exalted Sha’tar, but the Gavel of Pure Light isn’t far behind it). You might also want Crest of the Sha’tar (Exalted) for a tanking set, and Xi’ri’s Gift (Revered) for a shockadin set.

Ogri’la – Revered
For Apexis Cloak. Ogri’la Aegis (Revered) is a good tanking shield before you hit Exalted Sha’tar, too.

Sha’tari Skyguard
You can skip this as a healadin. Airman’s Ribbon of Gallantry (Exalted) is a decent shockadin trinket, though, when you consider the fact that you’re likely to be playing as a shockadin for solo content only – grinding and questing.

Netherwing
You can skip this too. Commander’s Badge (Revered) is a nice tanking trinket, though.

Shattered Sun Offensive – Exalted (New in 2.4!)
For Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration, which is an amazingly good pre-raid healing neck. Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen (Exalted) is also good for a shockadin set, and Sunward Crest (Exalted) may suit tanking pallies for threat generation.

Game Info, Playstyle

Healadin Macros

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So! There are a few handy macros that will make life as a holy paladin a little easier. Here are a few of my favourites:

Heal-through Flash of Light Combo
#showtooltip Flash of Light
/stopcasting
/use Lower City Prayerbook
/use Pendant of the Violet Eye
/cast [button:2,target=player] Flash of Light; [target=target,help] Flash of Light; [target=targettarget,help] Flash of Light; [target=none] Flash of Light

Heal-through Holy Light Combo
#showtooltip Holy Light
/stopcasting
/cast Divine Illumination
/cast [button:2,target=player] Holy Light; [target=target,help] Holy Light; [target=targettarget,help] Holy Light; [target=none] Holy Light

Edit: Please see the comments for some revised syntax tips since patch 2.3. The above will still work, but the revised syntax is cleaner.

These two macros work in much the same way.

  • The “#showtooltip” line means that when you mouse over it you see the tooltip for the max rank of the named spell, not just an unhelpful tooltip with the macro’s name.
  • /stopcasting is no longer strictly necessary now that “client spell cast requests are now sent to the server even if your player is already casting another spell”, but it helps with timing anyway
  • The /use and /cast effects trigger my clicky trinkets (for Flash of Light) or use my mana-saver spell (for Holy Light) if their cooldowns are up. If they’re on cooldown, this will actually cause an error message saying the spell/item is not ready; if you prefer not to see that, you can insert “/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()” (without the “s) after these lines
  • The final line is the meat and drink of the macro. It resolves like thus: if I rightclick the macro, I heal myself. Otherwise: if my target is friendly, it heals them. If my target is hostile and has a friendly target, it heals that friendly. If my target is hostile and its target is also hostile, the spell won’t fire at all. If I have no-one targeted, it will trigger the spell and give me the glowy-outline-hand selection cursor.

The really important line of these macros is the part where it heals my hostile target’s target if friendly. This is what’s commonly known as a “heal-through” macro; it’s great for tank healing on a boss who requires multiple tanks – like Gruul or Void Reaver (or, say, BWL’s Broodlord Lashlayer, back in the old days). You just target the boss, and heal away; the spell will land on whoever was the mob’s current target at the time you started casting the heal. (That’s something that can catch you out, so be careful of it, if the mob changes targets a lot.)

Personally, I think that every single healer should have a heal-through macro for this kind of situation.

Note that you can apply this kind of principle to any spellcasting macro. I’ve got similar ones for Blessing of Protection and Lay on Hands.

Rez Macro
#showtooltip Redemption
/cast Redemption
/stopmacro [nohelp,nodead]
/say Resurrecting %t.

This one’s helpful because it means other rezzers don’t waste time rezzing your target instead of moving on to the next deadie. Breaking it down: the /stopmacro line means that it doesn’t announce itself if your target is hostile or dead. The %t is a placeholder that is replaced by the name of your target. And of course you can edit the /say text to say whatever you like – mine says “Upsadaisy, %t!”

Mouseover/Castthrough Cleanse
/stopcasting
/cast [button:2,target=player] Cleanse; [target=mouseover,help] Cleanse; [target=target,help] Cleanse; [target=targettarget,help] Cleanse; [target=none] Cleanse

I bet you can guess what this one does already. The trick with this one is that its first check is to see if I have my mouse over a friendly target (either their actual body in front of me, or their unitframe in my raid or party display), and if so it cleanses them (or tries to). Very handy for raids with mass decursing, or PvP situations; lets you cleanse without having to change targets.

Those are some of my favorite healadin-specific macros. You can find some useful tanking and DPS macros at the WoWwiki page for pally macros – and don’t forget to mine macros designed for other classes for good ideas about what can do with your own! If you’ve got any good healadin macros, please let me know in the comments – I’m always keen to see more.

Game Info, Playstyle

2.4: Turn Evil and How to Make the Most of It

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In all the hoo-ha about the big changes on the PTR, a few smaller changes have slipped through.

Here’s one I’m keen about.

Turn Evil
This is The Spell Formerly Known As Turn Undead (Rank 3). It’s effectively the same, except now it applies to demons as well as undead (and, as a result, is subject to diminishing returns and lasts 10 seconds in PvP).

This is an excellent change.

This quiet little change is mostly getting attention for its arena implications, but its effect on PvE is just as interesting. Previously, warlocks have been the only classes able to CC most demons (excluding hunter traps), and it’s made life hard for those guilds without many warlocks.

Now, well… don’t have enough warlocks for Magtheridon? Never fear! Your pallies can team up to keep a few infernals busy – enough to trim down the ranks of infernals beating on your squishies, at any rate. This change reduces guild reliance on a specific class for specific encounters, and that’s always a good thing in my opinion. (Encounters that require a specific class balance are made of fail; we’re not all hardcore guilds who can snap up recruits whenever they like, nor force guildies to play something other than what they want to.)

You can’t chain fear with Turn Evil/Turn Undead, because it’s got a 20 second duration and a 30 second cooldown. Two pallies teaming up can chain fear between them, of course, and you don’t need to be able to chain fear to keep a mob under control with it. You just have to use your environment and your other abilities to spend those ten seconds in between fears, to keep the mob under control.

  • Use Hammer of Justice to buy six seconds, and reposition further away – then taunt the demon to you when the stun breaks, and re-fear while it’s running over.
  • Delay a demon by taunting it back and forth between two healer pallies a reasonable distance apart; it’ll spend a lot of its time running back and forth, using up those dead seconds until your Turn comes off cooldown again. (The second pally could also fear it if necessary, but RD is an instant whereas TE has a 1.5 second cast time, so it’s less of an interruption to your other tasks.)
  • Pretend you’re a hunter and kite. Slap on Righteous Fury for extra agro gen, pump a couple of Exorcisms into the demon (and Holy Shocks if you’re a healadin), then fear it. You should be top of its agro list by now, so it’ll definitely come back to you when fear breaks, so just make sure you’re standing a good long way away so it’ll take a while to get back to you. Use environmental obstacles so it has to path around to get to you, if possible.
  • If you have a hunter with a spare pet, get them to put it on the demon as a backup tank. The demon will only be beating on the pet for ten seconds at a time, so the pet won’t die, and it’ll keep the demon busy til your fear comes up again.

If you’ve got any other good ideas about how to make the most of Turn Evil, please leave a comment! I’m looking forward to playing with the spell.

Game Info

Gems for Healadins

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I’ve made myself something of an expert on Jewelcrafting, ever since I wrote a levelling guide for jewelcrafting during the TBC beta (which is now somewhat error-prone thanks to Blizzard changing recipes and skill levels around; I’ll redo it someday).

There are a number of gem options that are suitable for healadin pallies, but you should make your choices carefully. Let’s look at a few of them:

Choices

The A Team:
[Teardrop Living Ruby]: red. +18 healing.
[Luminous Noble Topaz]: red, yellow. +9 healing, +4 int.
[Royal Nightseye]: red, blue. +9 healing, +2 mp5.

The three cuts above are all popular with paladin healers, and with good reason. Choosing between them is mostly a matter of personal taste, personal playstyle, and sometimes restrictions on gem color to activate a meta-gem or socket bonus.

[Dazzling Talasite]: yellow, blue. +4 int, +2 mp5.
[Gleaming Dawnstone]: yellow, +8 spell crit.

Both of these are decent second-string contenders, the talasite more so than the dawnstone. You wouldn’t want to focus on using either of these to the exclusion of the better gems, as your +heal would just fall too far; however, they can be useful to boost a problem stat (particularly the talasite) or to meet gem color limitations for socket bonuses or meta gems.

Do not, on the other hand, use [Lustrous Star of Elune]s. Compare them with [Royal Nightseye]s or [Dazzling Talasite]s; you loseWeight Exercise 9 +healing or 4 +int, for what? One measly mp5. Don’t do it. (Also, do not even think of using a [Sparkling Star of Elune]. You will be fired from the paladin club. Seriously.)

Picking Your Gems

Unfortunately, for most holy paladins, there’s no One True Rule for picking gems to put in your healing gear. (The exception is for paladins in a decent amount of T6-level gear, who are advised to stack pure +healing gems, as they don’t generally have mana issues.) Instead, you should consider how fights generally tend to work out for you. Are you desperately throwing mid-rank Flash of Lights while desperately counting the seconds til your potion cooldown refreshes? You might want to add some +mp5 or +spell crit gems to extend your mana longevity. Are you having to use inefficient Holy Light spam just to keep a tank up? Throw in some pure +healing gems to increase your healing output, allowing you to use a more efficient spell rotation. None of the good pally healing gems is a bad choice; it’s just a matter of knowing your personal healing style and how it meshes with the rest of the raid team.

Now, if you look at this Elitist Jerks thread (which is some excellent healadin theorycrafting, if unfortunately aimed at players who have access to the best of the best gear), the poster sets up a system allowing you to numerically compare the value of different gems.

If you put a point value to the gems comparing blue vs epic, say 18 pts for a blue to equate it to healing, you get the following level calculations:

1 healing = 1 pt
1 mp5 = 4.5 pt
1 int = 2.25 pt
1 spell crit rating = 2.25 pt

Because mp5 can only be applied in whole values however, the actual worths of mp5 on epic gems is greatly diminished because of the other stats you are loosing.

This is a really interesting system that’s good for comparing gems at a glance, but one of the big problems with it is that it gives +Int more Lose Weight Exerciseing than it deserves (because Int is magnified 10% by the Divine Intellect talent, and also contributes spell crit (from basic game mechanics), and damage and healing (from the Holy Guidance talent)).

Systems like this are tempting, because it gives you one easy answer: Gem A is categorically better than Gem B, because the formula says so, so there. If you pick your gems based on this system you’ll wind up with a huge mana pool because of the way it favours +Int, and that will contribute to your spell crit and +heal — but, in my opinion, not by enough to warrant the loss of mp5 or +heal directly. Instead, you really need to examine your playstyle and the effects of that playstyle, and decide on gems for yourself. (Which is not to say you shouldn’t socket gems with +int on them; I’ve used quite a few. Just don’t use them to the exclusion of everything else.)

Why Purple Isn’t Always Better (But Sometimes Is)

There’s a strong temptation to make use of the epic gems that you get in Heroic instances. However, most of them aren’t that great, and are definitely inferior to using more appropriate rare gems.

Let’s look at a couple:

[Blessed Tanzanite]: red, blue. +11 heal, +6 sta.
[Durable Fire Opal]: red, yellow. +11 heal, +4 resil.
[Soothing Amethyst]: red, blue. +11 heal, +6 sta. (This one’s actually from a Karazhan quest to kill Nightbane, not a Heroic drop.)

Don’t they look great? Look at that awesome +11 heal! And they’re epic!

…Yeah. And look at the other stats. +6 sta? +4 resilience? Useless to a PvE healer. (Unless you’re specifically gearing up a stamina set, of course, but as a general rule you shouldn’t be consciously sacrificing healing power for stamina unless your survival is more of a progression stopper than your tank’s is.) Leave the stamina and resilience for PvP healers, and stick with PvE healer stats.

On the other hand, there are some really really nice epic gems that are very suitable:

[Iridescent Fire Opal]: red, yellow. +11 heal, +4 spell crit. From Heroic Hellfire Ramparts.
[Rune Covered Chrysoprase]: yellow, blue. +5 spell crit, +2 mp5. From Heroic Shadow Labs.

These are both very tasty, because you don’t find spell crit on healer gems when you’re looking at the BoE gems from jewelcrafter cuts. (Don’t believe me? Check the chart!)

(There’s also [Luminous Fire Opal], [Royal Tanzanite] and [Dazzling Chrysoprase] from Shattered Halls, Slave Pens, and Old Hillsbrad heroics respectively. You should recognise all three as being epic ‘upgrades’ of the cuts recommended above in the ‘Choices’ section.)

Meta Gems

There are two reasonable options in the meta gem selection (although many helms these days don’t actually have meta sockets).

[Bracing Earthstorm Diamond] – this gem is a lot easier to get now that the prerequisites have been relaxed (now it only requires more red gems than blue; it used to require more yellow gems than blue as well, which was very hard to juggle). However, it still requires some jiggery-pokery to get it working, and the reduced-threat bonus isn’t nearly as appealing for paladins as it is for other healing classes.

The most popular choice is [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond]. The Int bonus is nice, the proc goes off a lot, and the activation is easy to manage. It’s an all-around winner.

Socket Bonuses

Socket Bonuses tend to act like a homing beacon. You see your shiny new shoulders with two yellow sockets, and you think “omg, must socket yellow gems!” and before you know it, you’ve put in two [Luminous Noble Topaz]es without actually checking to see if you need more int – or would mp5 suit you better?

There are some socket bonuses you just don’t need. For instance, I just picked up [Crystalforge Pauldrons] – two yellow sockets and a +4 stam socket bonus. I really don’t care about that 40 health, so I’m under no obligation to socket yellow-compatible gems in there. On the other hand, you better believe I stuck to the socket colors for my Mask of Introspection – the socket bonus is +9 healing; that’s half a rare gem right there!

In other words: yet again, there are no hard-and-fast rules. Look at the socket bonus and decide if it’s worth getting, then look at the gems you’d put in to achieve it, then decide if you’re sacrificing too much for the socket bonus to be worth it overall.

Game Info

Holy Shock Again

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I just noticed on the PTR that the new Holy Shock:

a) costs 650 mana (up from 435, a ~33% increase), so that’s a big cost increase and makes Holy Shock much more of an “emergency stopgap” heal than a viable part of a healing rotation. This is also going to make life more mana-intensive for shockadins, unfortunately. Blizzard giveth and Blizzard taketh away.

b) is currently bugged and doesn’t consume Divine Favor when DF’s activated – you get a constant string of crit Holy Shocks until you cast FoL or HL to use up the DF charge. I assume that will be fixed before it goes live, though.

Game Info

Buff: Holy Shock

4 Comments

And another great healadin change from the 2.4 PTR! WoWInsider is reporting that Holy Shock has had a buff to its effects

Holy Shock
Old version: Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 530 to 574 Holy damage to an enemy, or 530 to 574 healing to an ally.
New version: Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 721 to 779 Holy damage to an enemy, or 931 to 987 healing to an ally.

In my current healing set (with 1930 +heal) my Holy Shock currently heals for ~1370; after the patch it’s going to be around 1770 healing, which is better than my Flash of Light. Flash of Light takes 1.5 seconds; Holy Shock is instant but triggers the GCD. Flash of Light has no cooldown, Holy Shock has a 15 second cooldown. Flash of Light costs 180 mana, Holy Shock costs 435 mana.

Looking at the two spells, the obvious conclusion is that Flash of Light is still better overall; it’s a far better heal per mana output, and not far behind on pure healing output (and has no cooldown). However, Holy Shock is going to be decently viable as an instant “save someone from dying now” spell, which paladins have so far lacked, and the buff is going to make it a valuable – but not overpowered – part of the healadin arsenal. I won’t be weaving HSes in whenever the cooldown is up, but I will be using it to save lives.

Thumbs up.

Game Info

Sneaky Gear Buffs in 2.4

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With thanks to Big Bear Butt for pointing this out: WoWhead has a nice list of items that have been changed in patch 2.4. There’s been so much attention on all the new content in 2.4 that this hasn’t got much mention yet.

Well, check this out, happy healadins:

[Libram of Mending]
Old version: Your Holy Light spell grants 22 mana per 5 sec. for 10 sec.
New version: Your Holy Light spell grants 22 mana per 5 sec. for 30 sec.

For 20 Badges of Justice, you can permanently up your mp5 by 22, just by casting a Holy Light – downranked or otherwise – every 30 seconds. I found my Libram of Mending useful enough before this change; after 2.4 it’s just going to be magic. I heartily endorse this event or product.

(A note on how to use it: you can switch relics in combat, so I start casting my Holy Light spell and then equip this libram while the HL is casting – equipping an item will trigger the GCD, but your Holy Light cast time is longer than 1.5 seconds so it ‘absorbs’ the GCD. Then I cast the next spell and flip back to my previous libram while that next spell is casting.

I do this with a fairly clunky macro, but you can do it just by putting the librams into actionbar slots if you prefer. I recommend swapping between this and a [Libram of Souls Redeemed] if you’re healing a target buffed with Blessing of Light, or a libram that boosts Flash of Light or Holy Light if not.)

And wow, all of a sudden the Libram from Lurker Below becomes awesome:

[Libram of Absolute Truth]
Old version: Reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 27.
New version: Reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 84.

I need to check some WWS parses to confirm, but my rough estimation tells me I probably cast about 8 Holy Lights per minute. This would be a mana saving of 672 mana per minute, or an equivalent of 56 mp5 that I wouldn’t need to have.

Wow. This thing’s going up to the top of my wishlist, that’s fer shure. Switch between that and the [Libram of Mending], and that’s a really nice boost to mp5 come 2.4.

Now all I need is the Libram. C’mooooon Lurker…