So this weekend we transferred my paladin and Rev’s spare druid over to our new home on Winterhoof. I pulled the paladin out and started figuring things out. We were planning to do an alt raid that night and I needed to get either my tank set or my holy set back up.
I decided to start with the tank set. I grabbed a belt, added some new gems, and queued up for heroics. I’d gone ahead and re-specced her already so I thought I was ready. It had been a while but paladin tanking had always been fun, I’d pulled 3k+ dps while holding aggro like a pro. No problem. Right?
Ouch. After an instance run where I struggled to pull more than 900 dps, couldn’t keep anything on me to save my life and was absolutely lost as to what I was doing, I went and read more details. Ok… so either Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous, but not both. Excorcism Consecration (edit: brain fart. Thanks for the comments) maybe but it’s not as good as it was. And Holy Wrath is better than before. Let’s try again.
Three hours later I was still miserable. Tanking just wasn’t fun any more. With reluctance I switched spec and gear. I stared at my blank talents, going “uh….” and then went over to Blessing of Kings and grabbed a spec and plugged it in to my own talents. Then I replaced my 219 shield with a ilvl 270 pvp shield, queued as healer, and we’re off.
Ok… so. Beacon still works, just not as much. And Holy Shock gives me holy power. And Word of Glory is a nice heal when I’ve got enough HoPo. And heals-with-a-cast-time on my beacon target generate HoPo… hmm. I can do this. No Sacred Shield but that one was always dumb anyway. And Holy Crap I Can Shoot Lasers From My Hands.
Wait… this is FUN! Whoa!
See, I never really like paladin healing before. It felt like a one-note pony: beacon the tank, roll flash of light or holy light. Meh. And in 5 mans I just didn’t have the tools I really needed to keep people alive.
Now I have big heals, little heals, fast heals, slow heals, instant heals, auto-self-heals, auto-Beacon-heals, and an AOE. Seriously? It’s like being a druid! I have choices and have to change my priorities second by second.
One guess what spec I took to that raid! I had a blast there, healing in a team with another pally and a shaman. Way too much fun. I think I’ll keep this holy spec… but I may have to switch from prot to ret.
Or a dual-Holy-build. Some of those other talents look fun.
Yay! Not another ‘omg holy sux now’ post.
It is definitely a lot more fun than it was before. It’s also a little bit gimped (especially if comparing it to the numbers generated by the old Holy Light spam) and will only get better.
Don’t get too comfortable though. When the patch hits, Light of Dawn gets a rework and all of our talents get reset.
Yeah, LoD I wasn’t really that enthused about, even if shooting lasers from my hands is cool.
Droodz get talents reset too so happy joy time for me, I get to double-respec. And priests too I think? Triple-respec….
Happy happy joy joy! I didn’t (and still don’t) have the guts to try pally tanking, and i don’t think i’m smart enough or fast enough to try healing… So more power and props to you and Aly! But i hear holy pally’s are getting buffed pretty soundly. I can’t wait to see what you guys are capable of!
Exorcism is Bad while tanking. It has a 1.5 sec cast time, and you can’t dodge, parry, or block while casting.
A common tanking rotation these days is being called a 939 rotation. Essentially, every other GCD (the ‘3’) is either crusader strike or hammer, depending if you’re doing single or multi target. The ‘9’s are your other abilities: a 3x holy power shield of the righteous, avenger’s shield, judgement, holy wrath, and consecration.
Thanks. I actually meant consecration and not exorcism and the rest is helpful. I think a big part of my problem was I was running with people doing 3x as much damage as me, and just couldn’t hold it.