Rules of Raiding

Rule #1 – Make sure you know what your healing targets are. We paladins can’t AoE heal like the rest of the classes can. But we sure are able to keep two people up at the same time. And with the HL Glyph we help a little bit with healing melee dps. (Although it’s roughly 80% overhealing). Personally, I tend to make the Tank my number one priority. Myself as the second priority. Why? Because if I die, he dies. And then the rest will follow. I also keep in mind who the top 3-5 dpsers are. And I keep an eye out for them, using OMEN and RECOUNT I can see who’s punching the boss and where they stand threat wise. As I quote another Paladin. I vouch by this standing. “Sometimes letting someone die to heal someone else is the correct move.”

Rule #2 – Know your Paladin. You should know that Holy Light is your BIG HEAL, but expensive. While Flash of Light is the small heal, but then again, the mana usage is that low that you barely notice it. Know that Divine Favor is something you should use everyone minute (free mana back) and know that Divine Favor can burst heal someone in dire need. DIVINE FAVOR -> HOLY SHOCK -> (making FoL instand) -> FoL. This will not top your tank, or you dps, but it will give you enough time to heal him back to full. Until the new patch launches you could use HL instead of FoL in the abovementioned rotation, but since we can’t use it after 3.0.1 I suggest not getting used to it. We have one more healing spell, which is Lay on Hands a (if not talented) 20minut cooldown instant heal for the amount of your HP. (which is similar to HL nowadays.) Although it can crit up to a 32k heal. You can only use it every 20min. But that makes it your fail safe.

Rule #3 – Mana efficiency. If you know(or are completely oblivious) about an encounter, you should start saving mana form the first moment into the fight. I personally, burn mana the first few seconds into a fight and immediately pop Divine Illumination. Then I start spamming my heals again, even FoL just for the small damage that has been taken. I do it just for the regen, if I check recount after a boss fight I see that 40% (if not more) of my mana regen is done by Divine Illumination. I also like the Divine Favor + Divine Illumination + Holylight combo. With a 4T7 + EoH Libram + Glyph of Wisdom the amount of mana you get back from critting with HL is amazing. And if HL only costs half his price the MPS (Mana per spell) is simply crazy. And last but not least is Divine Plea, the spell that is not made for Holy, but we all keep using it. What I did, I made a macro that when I use DP I whisper in our [Paladin channel.] “DP used. Healing decreased 50% for 15seconds.” - This way they know that I am regening so I can’t heal as burst. But if I don’t have Forbearance on, I’ll pop my wings as well. Just to cover my HPS (Health per second)loss.

Rule #4 – Hands of a Paladin. Use your hands. We have different types of hands, which can benefit the raid in any way. Freedom when your tank is stuck, or some dps are stuck. Protection to save a poor AoE-ing mage from death, or just Sacrifice to make sure the tank won’t die. I’d like to give you a good tip, as a holy paladin, you can Hand of Sacrifice your tank and BoP yourself, so you won’t get any damage while your reduce the damage on the tank by 30%. And Hand of Salvation on your highest threat-gainer. Keep a close mind to your dps meter / threat meter. Very powerful in fights where the boss resets the agro. I even use it on myself sometimes. When doing 5man heroics, just to make sure that the mob won’t attack me. J

Rule #5 – Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield; are two very powerful spells, SS is even to powerful so they nerf it in the next patch, it will be only castable on one target. I assume that will be the tank, but I’d vouch that only the paladin with the most + healing would cast it on the tank. It doesn’t stack anyways. Plus there is a shared cooldown, so even if the tank has 5 SS buffs, there will be only one at the time. So, it is pointless. Beacon on the other hands, can be a very effective healing, if used correctly. If you notice that two people are going down at the same time, you can beacon one and heal the other. (pref. the one with the lowest HP gets healed.) This way you spend 2300 mana to heal two targets AT THE SAME TIME. Instead of 2200 mana (if not crit) to heal two targets right after the other. One other thing I like to do is beaconing myself. As a tank healer I can simply not die.

Rule #6 – Blessings. Install Pallypower or ZOMG. It speeds up the process of buffing your raid. It’s an easy tool, you can assign single buffs for hybrid classes. (Elemental Shaman with BoW and the Enhancement Shamans with BoM). What I like to do if people summon pets, like DK’s and such give them a quick single buff. Just for the extra little AP or stat increase, it will result in more dps, easier boss fight.

And last but not least, a tip. DIVINE INTERVENTION. It’s like a Paladin’s version of a Soulstone. You can save someone or something by using this skill. You can even use it in combat If you are running low on mana (nearing oom, all cooldown used) and you have a soulstone. Use DI and res, and get about 40-50% mana back. It works, because Shamans do the same with Reincarnate.