Holy doesn't look like a solo-friendly spec. My Holy gear is roughly one Tier higher than my Ret or Prot gear, but Holy seemed a lot slower than the other two.
Part of it is that there is a limited number of abilities to use while soloing.
Holy (2): Judgement, Holy Shock
Protection (3): Judgement, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield
Retribution (3): Judgement, Crusader Strike, Diving Storm
While the 6s cooldown on Holy Shock is a lot better than the current cooldown, combat as Holy is still pretty boring. Judge, Shock, wait 6s seconds, Shock again. I suppose I could have worked in Consecration, but it seemed like a waste.
At 75, paladins get a new ability, Shield of Righteousness (slams the target for 200% of Block Value as holy damage). I suppose that can help out Holy, though it will hit for much less as Holy has no Strength or Block Value.
In my opinion, I really like the way the paladin plays when she has 3 decent offensive abilities with 6-10s cooldowns, as with the current WotLK Retribution and Protection. It's not as frantic as a rogue or warrior. It's measured, but it's not boring. You're always planning your next move, but you're not waiting for long cooldowns.
It's sort of sad that you have to wait for level 40 (Holy, Prot) or 50 (Ret) before you get your second low-cooldown offensive ability, and level 60 (Prot,Ret) before you can get your third.
Again, though, this is just soloing. I haven't tried Holy in groups yet.
Diving Storm owns!
ReplyDelete:)
Combat may be less boring, but is the mana expenditure worth it? If I recall, your analysis was that a Pally in live today is better off whacking away with a damage seal of choice than judging crusader first. It would seem that casting a spell every 6 seconds would effectively cut the Pally off from all spirit-based mana regen (isn't this why strikes were changed into seals in the first place?)....
ReplyDeleteI've been leveling as Holy, much as I did in BC, and have found it to be quite easy so far.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently mid way through 73 and finishing up in Dragonblight. to date I've had no problems with fighting any mobs and in fact have solo'd several group quests (Suggested 3 players or less).
My combat rotation goes, SoR, Judge wisdom (this gives me an increase in crit chance due to a libram that I picked up while questing), Consecrate, Holy Shock then normally they're under 35% so I hit them with a Hammer and if needed, another shock.
Overall I've found this to be quite effective and quick and with the judgement of wisdom I've been able to keep my mana flowing fairly well. If I'm chewing through eight or ten mobs in a row with no break for running to the next mob, I'll need to use my Divine Plea, but mostly it's non-stop action.
I'd say if you have decent holy gear and your stats are there, Holy is an excellent way to level. I'm a mixture of T4, T5 and T6 and to date, haven't replaced one piece. I did pick up a very nice blue hast ring that I'll keep for a haste set.
Granted we do have one less offensive ability, but to me that simply comes down to play style.
Ret does seem interesting but since I'm going to again be raiding Holy, I prefer to remain so and level that way.
Green Armadillo, the mana is fine. I just use Judgement of Wisdom and run Blessing of Wisdom, and that keeps my mana up. I don't use Consecrate though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, paladins never cared about Spirit-based regen. We don't have any spirit on our gear.
The thing about the new Judgement system is that you get both the damage and the judgement debuff at the start of combat now. So you don't need to make that choice anymore, and you get the best of both worlds.
Holy still works at killing stuff. It's just slower and less fun than Protection and Retribution, in my opinion.
I don't think it's that surprising that Holy wouldn't be too combat centric. I see it as specializing in a support role and will appeal to paladins that like staying at range. With Enlightened Judgements, A holy paladin can Judge from range doing some damage. They can follow a judgment with Holy Shock, if they crit, they can instantly heal someone. Then spam Flash of Light if they choose, or run in for a few whacks with Seal of Wisdom to get some mana back.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I'm definitely going to make my Vengeance/Holy shock build. I used to like it before the 1st paladin review, when Vengeance used to be where Conviction is now. And SotC was useful for getting a Vengeance proc earlier. Oh well, times have changed
What's really amazing with WotLK, is the amount of Cross talent synergies. I can some see someone trying a tri-spec build using Sheath of Light, Imp Devotion aura and the rest in holy for healing. I can almost see this happening if a guild doesn't have many active paladins.
I have a question. Does Lay on Hands take 100% mana or is it a free max heal every 20-16 minutes?
I have a question. Does Lay on Hands take 100% mana or is it a free max heal every 20-16 minutes?
ReplyDeleteFree, max heal every 20-16 min.
if you get a string of crits while healing a target does the proc from Sheath of Light stack? Or does it refresh?
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case, I do not see why anyone would trade Sheath of Light for Bacon of Light (dog's don't know it's not bacon).
At the moment, the Sheath of Light proc does stack. It rolls sort of like the Mage talent Ignite.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the amount of the HoT is determined by the effective healing done by the crit spell, not the raw healing. So if your crit heal is like 75% overheal, then the HoT will be very small.
I think Blizzard is still tuning Sheath and Beacon, so the final version may end up different.