Holy Paladin guide for WoW Forever

The Holy Paladin in WoW Forever is the most straightforward healer in the game. You cast heals with a cast time, heal for big numbers and live off critical strikes, which give you mana back through Illumination. You have no healing over time and no shields: you heal what is hurt. This guide covers the level 30 build, Holy Shock and Light’s Vigil, the healing priority, mana, seals, stats and races.

Role	Healer, mostly single target
Build at level 30	21 points in Holy, Talented adds Healing Light, Purifying Power, Divine Precision and Holy Power
Key talents	Divine Intellect, Reverence, Illumination, Divine Favor, Holy Shock, Light’s Vigil
Strength	Big heals, group utility, very hard to kill
Weakness	Mostly reactive, only one area heal
Leveling	Paladin leveling guide, Paladin level build

Strengths and weaknesses

Group utility. Every group wants two Paladins. You bring blessings, an aura, Judgements and bubbles.

Hard to kill. Plate, Divine Shield and your own heals keep you alive in fights where others go down.

Mostly reactive. Without healing over time or shields, you respond to damage. You can still plan ahead: start a heal before the big hit lands and cancel it if it turns out not to be needed.

One area heal. Light’s Vigil is your only way to heal the whole party, and it is expensive.

The level 30 build

The beta stopped at level 30, so the build uses 21 points. Talented from the Legacy system adds 5 more. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Divine Intellect	5/5
Healing Light	2/3
Spiritual Focus	2/2
Reverence	3/3
Infusion of Light	2/2
Illumination	5/5
Divine Favor	1/1
Holy Shock	1/1

Open the Talented version with Healing Light 3/3, Purifying Power 2/2, Divine Precision 1/3 and Holy Power 1/5.

Holy Shock sits in the fifth row and needs 20 points above it. At 21 points that leaves room for exactly the eight talents above. The Talented version is the full build of 26 points.

What the key talents do

Talent	What it does in Forever
Divine Intellect	10% more Intellect
Healing Light	Holy Light, Flash of Light and Holy Shock heal 12% more
Spiritual Focus	70% chance not to lose cast time when you take damage, for Flash of Light, Holy Light and Light’s Vigil
Reverence	30% of your mana regeneration continues while you cast
Purifying Power	Cleanse and Purify cost 20% less, Exorcism and Holy Wrath come back 33% sooner
Infusion of Light	A critical Holy Shock or Flash of Light makes your next Holy Light 1 second faster
Illumination	A critical heal gives back mana equal to 50% of the base cost of the spell
Divine Favor	Your next Flash of Light, Holy Light or Holy Shock is a critical effect
Divine Precision	18% more chance to hit with Holy spells, so Judgement and Holy Shock land
Holy Shock	An instant blast of Holy damage on an enemy, or an instant heal on an ally
Holy Power	15% more critical strike chance for Holy Shock and Holy Strike, 5% for all other spells
Light’s Vigil	Your next Holy Shock on the target has no cooldown and heals their whole party

Light’s Vigil is in the seventh row, out of reach at level 30. Spiritual Focus works best together with Concentration Aura. Divine Favor and Illumination work together: a guaranteed critical heal also gives mana back.

Healing priority

Keep your seal up, most likely Seal of Wisdom, and keep its Judgement on the target.

1. Holy Shock when someone may die before a heal with a cast time lands, or when you must heal while moving.
2. Holy Light when a target is about to take a lot of damage. Start it ahead of time.
3. Holy Light right away after an Infusion of Light proc.
4. Flash of Light for light damage.
5. Light’s Vigil only when the group really needs area healing.

Seals and Judgements

Each Paladin can keep only one Judgement on a target.

• Seal of Wisdom and its Judgement give mana back to your group. Keep it on the boss.
• Seal of Light and its Judgement give a little healing back, useful against a lot of small area damage.
• Seal of the Crusader raises the Holy damage a target takes. That rarely helps a healer, and a Protection or Retribution Paladin in the group will usually bring it.

Cooldowns and utility

• Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Blessing of Protection are strong defensive cooldowns, and all three cause Forbearance.
• Lay on Hands heals a target to full instantly. It costs all your mana and gives a little back, so use it with care.
• Blessing of Sacrifice moves part of the damage on an ally to you, best against many small hits. Give the ally their normal blessing back afterwards.
• Divine Intervention protects one ally from everything for 3 minutes, but kills you. Use it as wipe protection on another healer far from the boss.

Before a fight, give everyone the right blessing, and everyone except the tank also Blessing of Salvation. During the fight: Blessing of Protection on someone who pulls threat, Blessing of Freedom on someone who is rooted.

Stats and gear

Stat priorities for level 60 follow after the launch. Until then:

• Healing power and spell power, for stronger heals and cheaper ones: with more healing power, a lower rank does the job.
• Intellect, for more mana and more critical strike chance.
• Critical strike chance, for bigger heals and more Illumination procs.
• Spirit and mana per 5 seconds. Thanks to Reverence, Spirit also regenerates mana in combat, which counts in long fights.

Armor. Look at the stats, not the armor type. Cloth and leather with healing power are often better than plate. At low levels, Blacksmithing helps, because plate and mail with spell power are rare.

Weapon. Paladins cannot use staves, so you will mostly carry a one-handed weapon with a shield or an off-hand. Your weapon is often your most important item even though you rarely swing it.

Librams. A libram in the ranged slot gives a small passive bonus. Pick one that fits your heals.

Races and professions

Faction	Race	Why
Alliance	Human	Extra critical strike chance, the best choice
Alliance	Dwarf	More critical strike damage and healing, and Stoneform as a defensive cooldown
Horde	Undead	A proc that deals damage and heals you a little; the only Horde Paladin

Blacksmithing makes some of the best plate and mail, much of it only available to blacksmiths. Engineering gives useful gadgets to every spec. More about healing in groups in our dungeon guides.