Post by HecticNemesis
As a Holy Paladin currently raiding 8/8 Dragon Soul Heroic, Healing output really is needed at a high level. The aim of this topic is to share my own knowledge I have collected over the expansion and for the contribution of others to help anyone interested. I am aware there will be changes in the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion but as far as I am aware this is all still relevant.
I seen topics on Holy Paladins for leveling and dungeons this aims to tackle raiding situations and advanced healing if a more expansive topic already exsists feel free to link it below.
Lets start with the basic's - Generic Healing Tips
This is the bread and butter for healing classes and could be adapted to them. Simple things which prevent healing loss and unnecessary deaths.
- Position! - Your position in relation to the raid around you is vital. You want to be in a position where you minimize danger to yourself and others yet can reach as anyone who will need healing. It also needs to be a place you will not have to move from. Moving will reduce your healing output so plant those feet firmly on the ground. For example if damage is being dealt which the raid needs to stack up for you want to make sure that you are not so far out that you risk taking extra damage and not too close that your Light of Dawn will not be wasted get to the position and stay don't backpeddle or walk out just for 1 heal. When the raid needs to be spread and say there is a tactic such as a link like on Baleroc HC give people room to move aswell.
- UI - An effective healing UI is one that is simple, clean, informative and preferentially uses little memory. A few addons that I personally prefer is VuhDu (A click to heal raid frame) and Elv UI (An easy to set up low memory clean UI). Deadly Boss Mod's is so lifesavingly necessary that I will link it here Link
Deadly Boss mods lets you focus on health bars while offering audio cues for phases and boss tactics. A quick glance at the timers and the raids heath lets you know if you need to change position pre-emptively, pre-heal or even change to a weapon such as Maw of the Dragonlord for the AoE healing proc. - Cooldowns - Cooldowns are all well and good but using one that has say a 10 second duration and you stop healing 7 seconds after using it is a waste. Using DBM to know when events are due and knowing how long certain tactics and cooldowns last then you can use it to it's best potential. A simple yet often ignored aspect of healing. Macro's can help with cooldowns of similar or the same cooldown, for example I pair Divine Plea with Arcane Torrent and Avenging Wrath with Divine Favour.
- Coordination - Assigning specific phases or transitions to a healer for boss fights is a good way to counter healers using too many cooldowns on a certain part of the fight and having none for later. However things can and often do go wrong. As an example I will use spine heroic cooldowns are often rotated during explosions and rolls, Aura mastery is usually used with a Spirit Link or Tranquillity to 1) minimise damage and 2) clear searing plasma debuffs. If say a hideous amalgamation starts randomly hitting raid members and a tranquillity is used to prevent a wipe the roll can easily be managed with proper use of Divine favour and Holy Radiance spam. Less mana efficient but prevents a wipe.
- Mana - After mentioning mana above a good thing to point out is you do not wait until you are low on mana to use mana cooldowns Divine Plea when glyphed restores 18% mana and with mana regen in combat should be used around 75% and when healing is not intensive. Use Judgement whenever possible losing the buff from judgement is not worth a spot heal so whenever you get the chance to use judgement. Healers with addons that do not require them to target who they are healing can target an enemy and whenever they need judgement can do so with ease also when not casting melee swing regenerate mana aswell.
The above points cover really what I see personally as the playstyle necessary for healing at the best of your ability. A healer aware of his position and how to stay stay still healing as much as possible, to anticipate events and use the best ability to counter it is what will really benefit your raid. It takes pressure off the dps and tanks to worry about their health and focus on their job more.
Now Healing as a general topic is covered lets be more specific to Paladin healing. Paladins are a very good Healing class at direct heals with a variety of ability to do just what we need to do, unlike Wrath when paladins where a 1 button class, we now have at our disposal the tools to be great healers.
For Holy Paladin Spec, Glyph, Gems, and Reforge I recommend
noxxic available to every class and spec is a wealth of information to get you started in any role. There is sections for macros and spell rotations also. However healing is not a set rotation, it is a situational priority list. In my own current gear and with a lot of mana regen I find Divine Light the most used heal. With beacon and illuminated healing the extra 50% given by Holy Light just isn't enough.
Our AoE healing is very good but the mana cost to do so is a big deterrent, it doesn't come close to Tranquillity or Spirit Link as they are just too different. If you look at the description of the Paladin class on the character creation screen the line where is says they are a class focused on the
prevention of death which very much describes the arsenal of abilities we can call upon in tricky situations. From
to
Lay on Hands we can pretty much prevent the need for a combat res in almost any situation. Knowing the effects of each spell, when to use them and the effects that might have on the rest of the fight are important. I am in no way condoning Paladin AoE healing but rather being more realistic on its effectiveness. On Ultraxion We benefit way more from the entire stacked raid and the generated holy power just adds more reason to use it. Another tip is have Maw of the Dragonlord and Vagaries of Time keybound to easily swap on fights like Madness, Spine and Blackhorn with phases when people stack. A Holy Radiance can tick many times and up the chance of Maw proc'ing on these phases
*Will add to this soon, time allowing*
