Pre-Raid Holy Paladin Gear Guide
(4 votes)
This guide is on how to gear your fresh faced level 80 Paladin, ready for healing Naxx and beyond (eventually)!
Contents
Talents and Glyphs
I would recommend going for this talent build. The reason for the choices in Protection and Retribution is that 3% more crit is worth more than 3% more healing, also this build allows you to take the greater blessings which are really useful. The talents in the upper end of the holy tree are not set in stone. Some people prefer to take Aura Mastery and Improved Concentration Aura instead of Improved Lay on Hands and Improved Blessing of Wisdom.
Judgements of the Pure is a key talent now because the majority of our heals are not instant cast. I cannot tell you how much fast Holy Lights help. I suggest that you make a Judgement Macro (thanks to fayne selph for this) and bind it to an easy to reach key (i.e. button 1):
#showtooltip Judgement of Light
/cast [target=mouseover,nomodifier,exists] Judgement of Light; [help] Judgement of Light
This will cast Judgement of Light on the target that your mouse is over (or party members target). I would also suggest making another macro (the same one) but for Judgement of Wisdom, this is useful for when people are starting to run low on mana.
Another option for a Judgement macro is this one which I have been using for quite a while now:
#showtooltip Judgement of Light
/cast [harm] [target=targettarget, harm] Judgement of Light
/stopmacro [target=focus,noexists]
/cast !Attack
/cast Attack
/target focus
A bit long winded I know, but it works. It will cast Judgment of Light on your target if it is hostile, if it is not then it will cast it on your targets target (generally the tanks target) and then select the tank again for you to continue healing. This works as long as the tank is set as your focus.
You have a choice when using Judgements of the Pure whether to judge often enough to keep the buff on you, or judge more often to keep the debuff on the monster. For 5 mans I generally just judge often enough to keep the 15% haste, and in 10 and 25 mans judge more often as there is generally small amounts of AOE flying around and this keeps people topped off. However do not judge during a damage spike, this will use up a Global Cooldown and mean you cannot cast a heal during this time.
The Glyphs are shown on the right hand side of the wowhead page, and they mostly come down to personal choice. Especially after the nerf to the Holy Light Glyph (it now cannot crit). However if you are unsure then the ones that I have selected are great 
.
Gear
So you have just decided you want to help heal the injured and play a vital role in raiding. But which stats to go for? Generally I use the following rule:
Intellect > Spell Power > Critical Strike Rating > Mana per 5 Seconds
Intellect is our best stat, it increases our Spell Power (because of Talents), Mana Pool and our Spell Critical Strike Chance.
Whether the armor is plate, leather, mail or cloth it does not really matter, however the items have been created such that plate is the best choice for you, to be honest who else is plate healing gear made for!
I have tried to give the best 4 options per slot. I have also put a dot by the piece of gear that I think is the best in slot before raiding.
In addition to these items it is also good to go on Vault of Archavon runs as they are not too hard and have a chance to drop really nice tier items.
Helm
Battlemap Hide Helm which drops from Prince Keleseth in Heroic Utgarde Keep.
Helmet of the Constructor which drops from Skarvald the Constructor in Heroic Utgarde Keep.
Brilliant Titansteel Helm which is made by blacksmiths.
Neck
Lattice Choker of Light which costs 25 Emblems of Heroism.
Amulet of the Spell Flinger which drops from Amanitar in Heroic Ahn'kahet.
Sky Sapphire Amulet which is made by Jewelcrafters.
Shoulders
Dark Runic Mantle which can be bought of the Auction House or is a random drop in Halls of Stone.
Mantle of Discarded Ways which drops from King Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
Ornate Saronite Pauldrons which are made by Blacksmiths
Chest
Revenant's Breastplate which is made by Leatherworkers.
Arcane Flame Altar-Garb which drops from Gal'darah in Heroic Gundrak
Scaled Amor of Drakos which drops from Drakos the Interrogator in Heroic Oculus.
Cloak
Deathchill Cloak which is also made by Tailors.
Shroud of Moorabi which drops from Moorabi in Heroic Gundrak.
Reanimator's Cloak which can be bought of the Auction House, or is a zone drop in Drak'Tharon Keep.
Bracers
Bone-Framed Bracers which can be bought off the Auction House (or they drop off Noth or Gluth in Naxxramas 10).
Bindings of Yearning which again can be bought off the Auction House.
Catalytic Bands which drop off of Mage-Lord Urom in Heroic Oculus.
Gloves
Gauntlets of Shattered Pride which cost 10 Champion's Seal from the Argent Tournament in Icecrown.
Cracked Epoch Grasps which drop from Chrono-Lord Epoch in Heroic Culling of Stratholme.
Fiery Obelisk Handguards which drop from Herald Volazj in Heroic Ahn'kahet.
Belt
Ghostflicker Waistband which is a reward from becoming Exalted with the Kirin Tor.
Girdle of the Warrior Magi which is a reward from becoming Revered with the Kirin Tor.
Girdle of Ice which drops from Ormorok the Tree-Shaper in Heroic Nexus.
Legs
Standard Issue Legguards which are a reward from becoming Honored with the Argent Crusade.
Legs of Physical Regeneration which drop from Trollgore in Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep.
Crenelation Leggings which drop from Skadi the Ruthless in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
Boots
Brilliant Titansteel Treads which are made by Blacksmiths.
Titan-forged Greaves of Salvation which are a reward from Wintergrasp, which cost 15 Wintergrasp Mark of Honor.
Mojo Frenzy Greaves which drops from Moorabi in Heroic Gundrak.
Rings
Annhylde's Ring which drops from Ingvar the Plunderer in Heroic Utgarde Keep.
Band of Guile which drops in the chest that appears after defeating Mal'ganis in Heroic Culling of Stratholme.
Trinkets
Darkmoon Card: Illusion which is made from the Darkmoon Prisms Deck which can be bought off the Auction House.
Forge Ember which drops off of Sjonnir The Ironshaper in Heroic Halls of Stone.
Weapon
Titansteel Guardian which is made by Blacksmiths.
Gavel of the Brewing Storm which is a reward from becoming Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Jeweled Coronation Sword which drops from King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Shield
Tor's Crest which drops from King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Facade Shield of Glyphs which drops from Krik'thir the Gatewatcher in Heroic Azjol-Nerub.
Tharon'ja's Aegis which drops from The Prophet Tharon'ja in Drak'Tharon Keep.
Libram
Venture Co. Libram of Mostly Holy Deeds from Dailys in Grizzly Hills.
Unfortunatly all of the other Librams either require PvPing or Raiding to obtain.
Gems
For all yellow slots, and all other in which the set bonus is not worth getting put Brilliant Autumn's Glow, this is because Intellect is the best stat for us as explained above.
If you have a red slot with a good set bonus, then put a Runed Scarlet Ruby in there.
Again, if you have a blue slot with a set bonus worth getting, or you need it to make your Meta Gem work, then put a Dazzling Forest Emerald in, as this is just about the best you can do with that slot.
If you need a Meta Gem then I would recommend that you go for Insightful Earthsiege Diamond, I am not sure of the maths, but some guys over at Elitist Jerks calculate that it is the best for us. A slightly cheaper alternative, and not that much worse is Ember Skyflare Diamond.
Enchants
These are in order; the best one if at the top, and the 'worst' at the bottom. I would advise enchanting all of your gear with at least the 'worst' enchant you can get, this works in two ways:
Makes it seem as though you put some effort into your gear.
Improves your performance (every little helps )
Generally the best enchant will cost the most, it's a case of you get what you pay for, however it is worth it.
The enchants that are from Enchanters can either be obtained by buying a scroll off the Auction House, or by getting the materials to an enchanter and having them enchant it directly. Generally it is cheaper if you get the materials to the enchanter because people pay a premium for the ease of buying a scroll. If this is not the case then I will mention where to get it from.
Of course if you are an enchanter/leatherworker/inscriber then you should be using your proffessions special armor modifiers: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower, Fur Lining - Spell Power or Master's Inscription of the Storm.
Head
Arcanum of Burning Mysteries from Revered with the Kirin Tor.
Arcanum of Blissful Mending from Revered with Wyrmrest Accord.
Arcanum of Dominance which costs 40 Stone Keeper's Shards from Wintergrasp.
Shoulder
Greater Inscription of the Storm from Exalted with the Sons of Hodir.
Lesser Inscription of the Storm from Honored with the Sons of Hodir.
Inscription of Dominance which costs 30 Stone Keeper's Shards from Wintergrasp.
Chest
Powerful Stats
Super Stats
Exceptional Mana
Cloak
Bracers
Superior Spellpower
Exceptional Intellect
Greater Spellpower
(although Exceptional Intellect and Greater Spellpower pretty much equivilent).
Gloves
Exceptional Spellpower
Greater Blasting
Major Spellpower
Legs
Sapphire Spellthread
Azure Spellthread (it is only above the ones below because it it's materials are slightly more easy to come by these days)
Runic Spellthread/Golden Spellthread
Feet
Greater Vitality
Icewalker (for the Critical Strike Rating)
Weapon
Mighty Spellpower
Exceptional Spellpower
Shield
(I'm afraid there aren't any real alternatives to this)
Tips
- Start healing the easier heroics/normals first to get the hang of it (and more gear) before moving on to the harder ones.
- Make friends with good tanks, they are like diamonds; rare and worth keeping track of!
- If you are going to be raid healing download an addon such as Healbot or Grid (healbot is easier to set up and use intially but Grid has more functionality), these will make healing a lot easier. If you do not then use F1, F2, F3 etc. to target your party members and either click heals or keybind them, this will make your healing much faster and better.
- Download Pally Power, it will make your life a lot easier when buffing (it means you can rebuff a whole class with just one click in a little window).
- Do the daily heroics when you can, it is not only easier to find members, but you will gain more Emblems of Heroism.
- Think up some healing priorities on group members, i.e. tank is first priority, then you, then the dps (usually in order of DPS or Crowd Control abilities). If one of the dps dies it may not wipe you, however if the tank dies you almost certainly will!
- Use the Beacon of Light on the tank when there is damage flying around, hitting you or the dps. If there is a dps or offtank that is taking 'Cleave'-esque damage then put it on them so you do not have to worry about keeping them up.
- Have fun!
And that concludes my guide, good luck!
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review needed
Some of the text may be out of date with regard to the latest patches...
>> Do the daily heroics when you can, it is not only easier to find members, but you will gain more Emblems of Heroism. <<
That would now be "Emblems of Conquest" *and* "Emblems of Triumph" although these can be downgraded to Valor or Heroism, if needed. (I did and it hurts, but it works
Revered Member
Absence
Apologies, I've been busy in the real world for quite a while now, I should have time in the next couple of weeks to bring this up to date.
Need Help?
If you need help let me know. I have a (holy) paladin that just hit 80 and I need to do a lot of research on pre-heroic/raid gear, so I could let you know some of the items I dig up which is not in your guide already.
I love this guide.
So my next char will become a plate healer. Btw i read in wowwiki.com about the primary stats and saw that you had the same as they did. Namely (quote from wowwiki.com) "Holy paladin healers benefit most from gear with spellpower, intellect, critical strike rating and haste rating. mp5 is also valuable, but is not as important to paladins as other classes."
I'm not so sure about the mp5 though, since what if you don't crit and get the manaregen active? (the Illumination. effect)
Revered Member
MP5 for pallys
MP5 is a mediocre stat at the moment, crit will give you mana back and also give you nice boosts to healing. Since the regen is passive and the amount of crit that we carry, you never have to worry about keeping the regen 'active', when you're healing, you stand a good chance at getting some mana back.
However it looks like Bliz wants us to look at MP5 gear in the next patch, Illumination is being nerfed (/cry), this means that MP5 will be more desirable and means I will have to have another look at this guide. I would suggest starting to roll on items with more MP5 that lack the crit that you would have looked for before, after the patch it seems this will be more of our regen.
Haste rating
Love the guide, working on leveling a pally myself right now with plans to go Holy.
I noticed that in your ordering of stats at the top of the gear section, Haste rating was omitted. Was this intentional, or just a mistake? Where would you place haste rating in the order of importance for a Holy Pally?
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Revered Member
Haste
You never really look for haste in gear pre-raid (the other stats are more important at this stage). It is easy just to keep the judgement buff up, this grants more than gear can.
Once you're raiding then some haste is good, but again not a primary stat (as far as I know).
Gearing
Great guide. I've been gearing up my pally for Ret but see that I need to upgrade his Holy gear also. Thanks for the guide.
Honored Member
I don't know what the matter
I don't know what the matter with Unbreakable is, but in alot of guides those kind of comments have been posted I've noticed. Guides that look great as well. So ignore them.
I have to say this guide looks great also, I reffered it to my brother who just respecced to Holy on his Pally and he says its great and is using it to gear himself.
Keep it up!
- Skumball
What's up with the sucky
What's up with the sucky lay-out?
Exalted Member
CONSTRUCTIVE not DESTRUCTIVE
CONSTRUCTIVE not DESTRUCTIVE criticism, thanks.
Moderator
/agree. There are a lot of
/agree. There are a lot of kinder and more useful ways to say the same thing. Use them. Rude/destructive comments = negative karma!
Revered Member
Lay-out
If you could be a bit more specific I would be happy to improve the layout.
Those random pics, dots that
Those random pics, dots that dont make sense etc.
Revered Member
The layout is fine, the
The layout is fine, the pictures are of the upcoming item, and the dots are for the best item outside of raids (you would know this if you read the first paragraph.)
Everything in this guide makes sense and the layout is great.
I tell it like it is. Work on constructive commenting please.
(Nice guide Night_Hawk)
Revered Member
The dots are there to
The dots are there to designate the piece of gear that I think is the best you can get pre-raid, it states this in the paragraph before the list.
I put the pictures in to the guide to break up the wall of text up a bit.
Moderator
Layout looks fine to me!
Layout looks fine to me!
Revered Member
Thanks
Thanks
Shield
At the shield section, it should be 'shield' and not 'sheild'. Just mentioning it ^^
It also says 'sheild' at the
It also says 'sheild' at the top.
Revered Member
Spelling
Cheers for pointing it out,
Sorry it's now been corrected.
Administrator
Very nicely presented and it
Very nicely presented and it seems thorough as well
Thumbs up!
Revered Member
Bone-Framed Bracers drop in
Bone-Framed Bracers drop in 10 man naxx, not 25 man like stated above.
Revered Member
Ok, I'll fix that
Ok, I'll fix that asap,
Cheers
In the chest section, you
In the chest section, you have a [b] showing.
Nice guide. I totally agree with you on the gear, but I just did a quick scan over. Excellent formatting, and icon choice is brilliant.
I have some critism though, but some is good.
Nice talent build, it is the one I use myself, when I have to heal...
I do have some tips to add, and I will try to keep these pre-raid. Light's Beacon is a great spell, and not just during AoE fights. If you see someone is taking damage and you can't get a heal on them fast enough and they are fighting at 30% hp 80-100% put it on them. Also make sure a person getting recoil damage is getting healed (Ret Pally using SoB/SotM). If you have a golden group then I wouldn't worry about casting it. If you have a golden group, except the tank, see what you have. If you have a Blood DK, a pally using JoL, or someone else that is healing them self for a good amount, cast LB on the tank. This gives him/her more heals, and less things for you to worry about. Nothing is nicer then a DPS that can mitigate some damage for you, without hurting their own dps of course (Blood DK Bloodworms, Death Strike | Ret Paladin Divine Storm, Art of War, JoL, Divine Sac. and Divine Shield combo)
JotP... You didn't really explain this, or mention it really. This talent gives you +15% haste for one minute after you cast a judgement. This is key to paladin healing, especially since 2/3 heals are not instant casts. Personally I just make a macro for easy, once a minute hit.
#showtooltip Judgement of X
/cast [target=mouseover,nomodifier,exists] Judgement of X; [help] Judgement of X
That allows you just to scroll over a mob's body, or character panel/portait, and cast your spell, without losingf focus on the tank. Other spells can be worked into that macro, like cleanse, HoP, HoF...
Nothing more to say now other then great job.
Revered Member
Great feedback, thanks for
Great feedback, thanks for that.
I have no idea why the tag is visible in the Chest section :S, I have tried redoing the tag and it still does that. If a moderator could take a look at that it would be appreciated.
I'll add a little bit to explain judgements of the pure, to be honest I had just forgotten to put it in.
I also use a macro to cast Judgements, however I have a slightly different one that casts it on my Focus' target, just because I find that easier, but I'll give yours a go. I also usually judge light, for the reason that it helps with healing (but then switch to wisdom if people need mana).
Thanks
What is that macro? That
What is that macro? That would be so much nicer then my own.
Revered Member
Macro
This is the macro I use, I found it on the wow forums quite a while ago,
#showtooltip Judgement of Light
/cast [harm] [target=targettarget, harm] Judgement of Light
/stopmacro [target=focus,noexists]
/cast !Attack
/cast Attack
/target focus
Seems to work fine with me as long as my focus target is the tank.
I'll add this to the guide as well to give a bit of choice
Exalted Member
Reason to your [ b ] Tag
Reason to your [ b ] Tag can't I really explain. I've got the same problem many times, all the things you can try do is switching the tags to HTML tags.
It will be like this then
< b > Text name < / b > , shows up like Text name.
If that doesn't work you can change all your [ b ] tags to another pixel size. It's almost the same with a big size (if you're using the tags for titles).
Revered Member
Good idea, I'll give that a
Good idea, I'll give that a go.
Cheers
Edit: Cheers for the idea, however checking the code more carefullly I discovered that I had not put the [ / b ] code at the end ... I'm a fool!
Thanks for the help anyway.