Holy Paladins
TL;DR Version
Intellect > All - That includes gemming (any non-intellect bonus is disgusting, with few exceptions) and Trinkets (The exception is the trinket off of Sinestra).
Talents and Glyphs
Talents http://www.wowhead.com/talent
With the change to Holy Radiance, this spec is generally the strongest for healing. You can go 7 points in Retribution for either Guardian's Favor or Pursuit of Justice. If you choose this, go 31/3/7 for your spec instead.
It is worth mentioning that Beacon of Light will transfer half of the healing (including overhealing) to the beaconed target, but now has also been changed to give 100% of Holy Light healing to the beaconed target. It is also worth mentioning that Word of Glory is now stronger for healing a tank than Light of Dawn is (Word of Glory directly healing a tank vs. the beacon heals of Light of Dawn), so which one to use is at your discretion.
Glyphs
- Prime - Glyph of Seal of Insight and Glyph of Holy Shock are essential. Glyph of Word of Glory is useful for single target healing, while Glyph of Divine Favor could be useful if you don't find yourself using Word of Glory often.
- Major - Glyph of Divine Plea is a strong option due to recent changes, increasing mana gained by 6%. Glyph of Divinity gives 10% maximum mana when you use Lay on Hands and can be used as a decent (but long) mana cooldown. Glyph of Salvation may also have some merit if a dps pulls aggro off of a tank. Glyph of Cleansing is useful if you have to cast Cleanse. Glyph of Divine Protection is also a very strong glyph, 40% magic damage reduction on a 1 minute cooldown. Glyph of Light of Dawn can be useful if fewer targets need stronger healing, but is actually a HPS loss now with recent changes. Glyph of Beacon of Light makes it free, but it doesn't cost much mana to begin with, so it's not very efficient. Glyph of the Long Word and Glyph of Lay on Hands aren't recommended for usage.
- Minor - Glyph of Insight, Glyph of Blessing of Kings, and Glyph of Blessing of Might are the only viable glyphs for minors.
Stats
Primary Stats
Intellect is the king of primary stats. Intellect should be your primary concern when looking at gear. It increases mana, Spell Power, Spell Crit, and mana gained from Divine Plea (and Lay on Hands if you use Glyph of Divinity), and works with Spirit to increase Spirit-based regeneration.
Secondary Stats
Most secondary stats are useful for Paladin healing. They include Haste, Crit, Mastery, and Spirit.
Haste is the best secondary stat, increasing healing output by reducing the cast time of spells, GCD, and increasing the number of ticks from Holy Radiance.
Critical strike increases healing by 100%, and applies the Conviction buff, but suffers from poor conversion rating.
Mastery puts a shield on the target of direct healing abilities (such as Holy Light) and Light of Dawn. The stronger the heal, the stronger the shield will be (increased by more Mastery), and now stacks to a set amount (unsure what the criteria for the max absorb is).
Spirit increases in combat regeneration and increases hit with Enlightened Judgments talent. Keep in mind that with the Judgments of the Pure talent, Paladins receive an extra 30% mana regen from spirit (in turn for them removing the mana gained from judging on cooldown) so spirit has become vital for a Paladin on longer, more healing intensive fights.
General stat priorities are listed below.
Haste > Spirit > Mastery >= Crit
Prioritize mastery if you generally tank heal (for stronger absorbs), and crit rating if you generally raid heal (more crits with Holy Radiance). If you have no mana issues, you can swap spirit to other secondary stats as needed.
Gems
Intellect is the best stat to gem for. Even 10 intellect bonuses are inferior to pure intellect gems (exception is gear with +20 int bonus, with 1/2 gem slots red, or two yellow sockets gemmed +20 int/+20 haste/mastery to activate the meta). I would NOT recommend going for any secondary stat socket bonuses that aren't from only red sockets. It's just not worth the loss of Intellect.
- Meta: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond is your best option. It requires only red gems, which allows you to gem optimally in your gear (a.k.a. all intellect).
- Red: Brilliant Inferno Ruby (Brilliant Chimera Eye if you're a JC)
- Blue: Purified Demonseye if socket bonus is desirable, Brilliant Inferno Ruby otherwise.
- Yellow: Reckless Ember Topaz if the socket bonus is desirable, otherwise Brilliant Inferno Ruby.
Tips
- Since Intellect is your best stat, try to use trinkets that have intellect as a primary stat. You can always reforge gear for extra Spirit, but you can't reforge for Intellect!
- Try to use Holy Shock on cooldown. You want to build Holy Power as fast as you can. There should be few exceptions, especially since Holy Shock can now save lives.
- Use your Holy Power! Any additional Holy Power generated after 3 is wasted, and since Holy Power = free healing, don't let it go to waste. An exception to this is if you know a lot of AoE damage is shortly incoming ( roughly less than 6 seconds), and you want to save it to use Light of Dawn right after.
- Having mana issues? Use Divine Plea at 85% mana instead of when you're almost OOM. You'll get to ~100% mana casting, and you'll have Divine Plea up later again in the fight. You may also want to macro Avenging Wrath to Divine Plea to help offset some of the healing penalty. Keep up Judgments of the Pure to increase your mana regeneration (only try to use Judgment every minute to keep the buff up).
- Paladins are now amazing at AoE healing. For intensive AoE healing cast Holy Shock, Holy Radiance x2, then Light of Dawn and repeat! Just make sure that the targets you cast Holy Radiance on are near other people, try to use Holy Shock on people standing away from the group (damn hunters).
Questions?
- Contact Adana (Imholylol)
Updated for 4.3