1. Introduction
2. Gear

• 2.1. Items and Stats
  
  • 2.1.1. Pre-raid
  • 2.1.2. T4/T5
  • 2.1.3. T6
• 2.2. Enchants
  
• 2.3. Gems
  
• 2.4. Consumables
  

3. Professions

4. UI

• 4.1. Macros
• 4.2. Addons
  

5. Talents

6. Blessings

7. Raid performance

• 7.1. Flash of Light and Holy Light
  
• 7.2. Healing assignment
  
• 7.3. Awareness
  
• 7.4. Blessing of Protection
  
• 7.5. Holy Shock
  
• 7.6. Cleanse and Blessing of Freedom
  

8. Tips

9. Final words
 

 

1. Introduction

This is a PvE guide for holy paladins. It is written by me with important contributions by Gaap who did the gear section, as well as input from Johnnyr and our former paladin class leader Nessaj. The guide aims to give insight into how the Nihilum paladins raid, give general guidelines and tips, give advice about gear on all levels as well as consumables, enchants, gems and other topics of interest!

I've tried to compile the most interesting information and facts in here. However I don't claim this to be a PvE holy paladin bible or Wikipedia in terms of completion and listing absolutely everything that a holy paladin needs to know. I hope you readers will enjoy the guide and find it informative and interesting.

2. Gear
2.1. Items and Stats
2.1.1. Pre-raid

Your gear setup at this point will be mostly made up of 5-man blues and quest rewards. I personally always went for +healing over any stat and it worked out well. Critical strike on healing spells is basically just another "lucky strike" (even though you should always try to keep it around 25% unbuffed, talented of course). You should be sitting at around 1.3-1.4k +healing, 25% holy crit and some pretty low mp5. Mana will most likely be a small problem in longer fights, unless you've got a shadow priest in your group. Super Mana Potions are your friends from now on, enjoy the company!

Off to the gearing up part and getting ready for Karazhan. I will list the gear I was using on the way up, including where they drop and if it is in heroic, normal or both modes.

Click here to see the gear (The few items not listed at ctprofiles are left out.)

Head: [Mask of Penance] (Mekgineer Steamrigger - The Steamvault - N/H)
Neck: [Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation] (Honor - Takes some time to farm, but it's worth it, awesome neck)
Shoulders: [Justice Bearer's Pauldrons] (Omor the Unscarred - Hellfire Ramparts - H only)
Back: [Cloak of Whispering Shells] (Hydromancer Thespia - The Steamvault – N/H)
Chest: [Breastplate of Many Graces] (Grandmaster Vorpil - Shadow Labyrinth - N/H)
Wrists: [Vindicator's Ornamented Bracers] (Honor - same as neck, fabulous item, almost on par with Hyjal ones)
Hands: [Gladiator's Ornamented Gloves] (Honor - They are very cheap and pretty good - Should be the first thing bought from honor)
Waist: [Girdle of Many Blessings] (Rokmar the Crackler - The Slave Pens - H only)
Legs: [Starcaller's Plated Legguards] (Quest reward - "Dimensius the All-Devouring")
Feet: [Wavefury Boots] (Rokmar the Crackler - The Slave Pens - H only)
Ring 1: [Cosmic Lifeband] (Nethermancer Sepethrea - The Mechanar - N/H) or [Vindicator's Band of Salvation] (Honor)
Ring 2: [Ancestral Band] (Thrallmar or Honor Hold - Revered - faction item) or [Veteran's Band of Salvation] (Honor)
Trinket 1: [Essence of the Martyr] (G'eras - Cost: 41 Badge of Justice)
Trinket 2: [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] (The Black Morass - Aeonus - N/H)
Main Hand: [Lightsworn Hammer] (Warchief Kargath Bladefist - The Shattered Halls - N/H) or [Gavel of Pure Light] (Sha'tar - Exalted)
Shield: [Stormshield of Renewal] (The Black Stalker - The Underbog - H only) or [Crystal Pulse Shield] (Random world drop - Always some on AH)
Libram: [Blessed Book of Nagrand] (Quest Reward - "The Ultimate Bloodsport") or [Libram of the Lightbringer] (Commander Sarannis - The Botanica - N/H)



2.1.2. Tier 4/Tier 5

From now on you will start gaining more and more healing power, while your crit and mp5 will stay about the same. With this gear setup you should be looking at around 1.8-2k +healing with average critical strike chance of 25% and ~100ish mp5 (if gemmed for +healing, which is what I would advise you to do). You will gain a lot more mana with your new epic gear, so healing will be a bit easier and less tense for you. Depending on the guild you are in, you may or may not get a shadow priest to make your life even easier and your healing output higher, so prepare lots of Super Mana Potions again! In both cases your mana should be the last problem on your mind (if you don't spam Holy Light, which I assure you isn't neccessery yet). Time to list some juicy loot!   There is one exception I will make for T4/5 and T6 parts in gear list. I won't be listing the basic five parts which you should be getting (head, shoulders, chest, hands, legs) since they are pretty straightforward (for T4/5 - you should be wearing T4/5, and for T6 - you should be wearing T6 obviously).

And again, remember the deal, everything you see on the list is the best of the best you can get for your item range, so keep in mind that items which are not listed that you can get before these will work fine as well.

Click here to see the gear

Neck: Stick to your [Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation] until you get [Lord Sanguinar's Claim] (Quest Reward from Verdant Sphere, quest item dropped by Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep - The Eye)
Back: [Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] (Prince Malchezaar - Karazhan)
Wrists: [Vindicator's Ornamented Bracers] Still the best bracers you can get, up to T6 level
Waist: [Girdle of Stromgarde's Hope] (Hex Lord Malacrass - Zul\'Aman)
Feet: [Boots of Courage Unending] (Thrash mob drop - Serpentshrine Cavern)
Ring 1: [Coral Band of the Revived] (Lady Vashj - Serpentshrine Cavern)
Ring 2: [Naaru Lightwarden's Band] (Quest Reward - "The Fall of Magtheridon")
Trinket 1: [Essence of the Martyr] (G'eras - Cost: 41 Badge of Justice)
Trinket 2: [Ribbon of Sacrifice] (Opera Event - Karazhan)
Main Hand: [Dark Blessing] (Zul'jin - Zul'Aman) or [Lightfathom Scepter] (Lady Vashj - Serpentshrine Cavern)
Shield: [Enamelled Disc of Mojo] (Jan'alai - Zul'Aman)
Libram: [Libram of Souls Redeemed] (Opera Event - Karazhan)


2.1.3. Tier 6

Congratulations, you have reached the top level of your class. This is the "free world" of healing so to speak. Your stats will get a crazy boost, your heals will heal for wicked amounts and you will love it. Time to forget about mana problems from now on, since there won't be any (considering you still throw your Mana Potion friends down your throat)!

Now you have two choices. You can choose to max out healing (talking about values of 2.4k and above) and keep critical strike and mp5 on average like before (works best in my personal opinion), or you can keep your +healing at around 2.2k and boost your crit by about 5-6%.

Both choices have their advantages and disadvantages. The first one will obviously give you more raw healing power and more mana dependency with it, since you won't be relying on crits that much (*hint* [Flask of Distilled Wisdom] *hint*) where the second one will give you more HPS (healing per second) and more headaches when you don't get your "lucky strikes" in, but then again, you might feel more happy with your mana this way. When you've decided which style suits you best, try to play it for some time and get used to it, everybody got his own preference.

Let's move on to the list of goodies that Black Temple and Hyjal Summit offer.

Tip 1: Either +healing style or +crit style, you will decide that with your gems, not your gear.
Tip 2: Don't hate shamans, it's not their fault Chain Heal is overpowered!

(Remember, I'm not listing the T6 basic parts as I mentioned in T4/5 part of the guide)

Click here to see the gear

Neck: [Nadina's Pendant of Purity] (Mother Shahraz - Black Temple)
Back: [Shroud of the Final Stand] (Thrash mob drop - Black Temple and Hyjal Summit) or [Shroud of the Highborne] (Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple)
Wrists: [Blessed Adamantite Bracers] (Rage Winterchill - Hyjal Summit)
Waist: [Girdle of Hope] (Azgalor - Hyjal Summit)
Feet: [Pearl Inlaid Boots] (High Warlord Naj'entus - Black Temple)
Ring 1: [Ring of Calming Waves] (High Warlord Naj'entus - Black Temple) or [Band of the Eternal Restorer] (Exalted - Scale of the Sands (Hyjal Summit) )
Ring 2: [Blessed Band of Karabor] (Thrash mob drop - Black Temple)
Trinket 1: [Essence of the Martyr] (G'eras - Cost: 41 Badge of Justice)
Trinket 2: [Memento of Tyrande] (Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple) or if you got no luck with drops, get [Battlemaster's Perseverance] (G'eras - Cost: 75 Badges, or PvP vendor (Doris Volanthius: Hall of Legends) - 30k honor + 40 AV marks) - Can save your life sometimes!
Main Hand: [Hammer of Atonement] (Kaz'rogal - Hyjal Summit) or [Crystal Spire of Karabor] (Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple)
Shield: [Felstone Bulwark] (Supremus - Black Temple) or [Bastion of Light] (Anetheron - Hyjal Summit)
Libram: [Libram of Souls Redeemed] (Opera Event - Karazhan)

 

2.2. Enchants

Head: [Glyph of Renewal]
Back: [Enchant Cloak - Greater Shadow Resistance] / [Enchant Cloak - Major Resistance]
Chest: [Enchant Chest - Restore Mana Prime]
Wrist: [Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing]

Hands: