Holy paladin PVP WOTLK new update

Table of Contents

Gear
Speccs
Glyphs
Macros
Spell usage
Positioning
Healing
Strats vs comps
Last words

Gearing



Above is a current screenshot showing my stats for 2s (Mainly Hpala warrior, but i reckon that gear setup should work well for Hpala / DK and any other melee class with no CC)

Main stats which should be achieved:
Around 1150 Resi and above
100-200 Haste, not necessary in 2s (Haste from judgement is sufficient)
Decent mp5 - Close to 400
Spellpower of around 3350 without kings

Note i do use weapon swap, I have a key bounded to swap out my shields, one has crit, the other has MP5, I normally use the crit shield but if it comes to a long game, or we face a comp which i know ill have mana issues against (Those comps will be outlined below) then ill equip the shield for the extra MP5



Above is a current screenshot showing my stats for 3s (Mainly using this gear as an MHC comp, but you could reduce your haste a little and up your MP5 if your playing with an ele shaman for example as LSP, as you get the haste buff)

Main stats which should be achieved:
ARound 1050 Resilience
300-400 Haste, very necessary in 3s
Decent mp5 Same as 2s - Close to 400 if possible, 350 +
Spellpower at around 3350 without kings

Note i do use weapon swap here aswell, using critshield alot but swapping to Mp5 when necssary.
Spec

Paladin speccs can vary alot, you can change your specc dramatically to stats and procs, but the specc that i use is the same for both 2s and 3s. You can change the specc if you know

100% which comp your facing, but this specc sort of covers everything, you can change it up a bit to get more spell power (but lose haste) or vice versa but this specc pretty much is balanced everywhere, specc alterations will be discussed below depending on what comp your facing



^ Link to my specc, just click the "click here" button if the page doesnt redirect, I use this specc for both 2s and 3s

Glyphs

Glyphs are pretty much standard for whatever specc you play against, again they can vary a tiny little bit but they are somewhat set in stone

Glyph of Seal of Light (Some people use wisdom but not exactly better, i find seal of light alot better)
Glyph of Holy Shock (100% Must)
Glyph of Turn Evil (Very necessary unless you know your facing a comp without a lock, therefore salvation may be useful .. I.E Hpala warr mirror / Hpala dk / Tcleave 3s

Macros

I dont use alot of macros compared to most people, holy paladins dont tend to need any macros as most of the abilities are versatile. But you can have macros, ill add macros which I

personally do NOT use but are completely fine

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/Cast [target=party1] Cleanse

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/Cast [target=party2] Cleanse

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/Cast [target=party1] Hand of Sacrifice

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/Cast [target=party2] Hand of Sacrifice

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast cleanse

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast divine shield

#showtooltip
/cast [target=YOURNAMEHERE] Hand of Salvation

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast divine sacrifice

#showtooltip
/cast divine favor
/cast holy shock

#showtooltip
/cast divine plea
/cancelaura divine plea
/cast divine plea
/cancelaura divine plea

There the majority of macros most holypaladins use. The hand of salvation macro is not used with the glyph, i mostly use it if i pop divine plea therefore it is used as a trash debuff to make it more difficult for the enemy to purge/dispell it off. The divine plea macro is used to cancel the plea incase you need to increase healing (Typed out twice incase you press it too fast so it doesnt insatntly cast and cancel) Stopcasting macros are always useful just incase your casting while that ability needs to be used, I.E your casting Flash of light and your being polymorphed, instead of canceling and casting, the macro helps out.

Spell Usage

Now that gear and specc is out of the way, lets get down to abilities in arena.

Holy Light

Alot of people are sceptical as to wether they should cast holy light in arenas. Well for one, i dont specc into holy light and even with that talent flash of light is more healing over time. Also it is a long cast time with or without that talent which is a waste of a talent in the first place, it is quite easy to get locked out on the heal and can cripple your healing alot HOWEVER Mostly when i bubble (Mainly in 2s) and i know that there is no chance of it coming off, i would put beacon on myself and cast holy light on my friendly target MAKING SURE that he does not go out of LOS, otherwise your cast will cancel and GG ur dead.

Hand of Protection

Now this ability is a bitch as it can be dispell with dispell magic, and not only MD. Therefore using this ability against certain comps is quite annoying. I.E Your warriors dieing vs SP rogue and you try to bop to negate most of the damage, 1- It doesnt take off the rogues healing reduction. 2- It doesnt negate really any of his damage if hes mutilate. 3- Its instantly dispelled. So when should you use it? Well against comps like Sp rogue / RPS in 3s, Hand of protection is mainly used to break CC, I mainly use it on 2nd kidney againt SP rogue, or you could use it to break a blind / scatter if your warrior doesnt have trinket. Or using it defensively in 3s against a warrior to break the MS - I.E against thundercleave (Ele / Arms / Hpala) Its quite useful as it will take off the Mortal strike allowing you to top your DPS / Healer faster.

Divine Sacrifice / Hand of Sacrifice

These abilities are crucial in holy paladin mobility and in uptime, these are very important when facing mages / rogues / shamans. First of all you can cast divine sacrifice in a blanket or even when your locked out of holy, So if a mage blanket novas you (which will happen alot) Then just use that to avoid the polymorph. These abilities should be used by your initiative in the game, if you predict rogue blinds / hunter scatters perfectly, these abilties can win you the game, you just have to read the game properly. I.E Your facing disc hunter as a Hpala Warr, your warrior drops to 70% with double priest dot, serpent sting, slow and aimed shot and he goes around the pillar to chase the priest, the hunter has scatter
ready, saccing now would be perfect as it would relieve ALL pressure.

Aura mastery

This should be used to stop interrupts, remember to have concentration aura on when using this ability. It can be used to avoid silencing shots if you again, read the game and predict, which i have done plenty of times vs comps like Hunt / Ret, Hunt / Disc which have no real interrupt but that one, yoloing an aura mastery to stop the silencing shot is #worth.

Hand of freedom

Make sure to cover your hand of freedom with alot of trash buffs like Greater blessing of kings (Which as a 20yd range more than standard kings) and sacred shield.

Sacred shield

If you can ALWAYS keep this ability on your target, using flash of light ontop of it will give another debuff which does help with healing as the HOT does tick for like 500. Using divine illumination at the start against dispell comps who will spam dispell your target is a good idea, just keep spamming sacred shield with illumination and you won't lose alot of mana and you'll make them lose alot, but beware as it is mana costly without so watch your mana.

Divine plea

Always use this when you know your safe from offensive dispells are around 80% mana. Keeping your mana up is VITAL, if you fall behind on mana regen then you can go oom in no time or have to plea at 10% mana which will put alot of pressure onto your team.

Avenging Wrath / Wings

This spell is very useful for relieving pressure and should definately be used to assist in healing. However using it at a bad time may result in you being switch too / cced and not being able to bubble = dead. So when should you use it ? If you really have to use it to top someone, then do it, but otherwise be sure to have trinket ready for when you do use it, just incase you get cced / switched too in a stun. If u have no trinket then i dont advice using it unless necessary. Using it without bubble / trinket is a must if you have too.

Positioning

That should be all the abilities that are quite sceptical for most people when it comes to arena, ONTO POSITIONING!



As a wise man once said, SCHH AROUND THE CORNER, yes even though thats one of the stupidesnt and funniest things ever, its completely true. Paladins rely highly on pillars as their only CC to avoid CC is Hammer of justice, so I advice staying at a pillar 24/7 and just keep your team spam dispelled to make sure they cant get any cross CC up. If they do push in on you, you can try switch pillars with freedom, but getting cced half way across is very dangerous, especially against comps like RMP - I.E Mage sheeps you as you try to cross pillars, you are now vunerable, spam dispelled and pretty much dead from there or forced to use alot of cds. However if its the other way around and your team is pushing on theirs, and you have no pillar on I.E Nagrand arena, then using max range is also viable, however you need to monitor and estimate your distance, as many cc spells are 40yards. Max range can be used on ruins of lordearon to avoid priest fears or druid clones, and on Blades edge on the bridge by simply max ranging and kiting the priest.

Healing

Keeping everyone topped off is a must as a holypaladin. Youve got no shields without sacred proc and pretty much no spell which can prevent damage like a shield. Therefore "dieing in a blanket" is pretty much for holy paladins as their is no bauble. Without a holyshock crit, alot of pressure can be forced and so aura mastery has to be used quite well along with positioning out of LOS of the CS but in LOS of your target. Beware of mages if they try to blink CS you, and keep track of pets as to where theyre running, wether they're feared or not and make sure that avoiding interrupts is done, as once your interrupted on cast, you've got 0 outs and it could be a kill for their team.

Strats when facing comps (2s / 3s)

Hpala Warr Mirror

Ow mirrors, how i love you. You can play this 2 ways, like a faggot who sits there, does nothing but hoj's and keeps your warrior alive, or you can end the game quickly with your warrior and push for a kill. Do this by casting seal of corruption/vengeance, putting 5 stack dots on your target and hojing the pala without sacred every time you switch to him, to force trinket, bubble, then for the kill. Make sure you have their warrior on focus so you can see whos hes switching to, by having Target of Target enabled in interfaced and keep switching the sacred to his current target. You could change your glyph here to salvation instead of turn evil if you know its a mirror, or take blessed life talent, but standard gear / specc is fine.

Disc / Mage

Ow god, the most annoying comp for holy paladin warrior. Good old burn tactic. The only way to beat a very good disc mage is playing perfectly. You have to spam dispell literally everything, HoJ the priest to avoid burns, kite the priest to avoid fear, keep your warrior in uptime to keep pressure out and LoS the mage. It sounds impossible but make sure you plea with trash debuffs (Hand of salvation) and make sure you stay behind pillar, if they come from both sides (mage and priest) always run in the mages direction while spamming dispell on yourself as he has 1 magical buff dispell instead of 2 + avoids fear. Keep rebuffing blessing of wisdom onyourself aswell as righteous fury (costs no mana) And be sure to switch to Mp5 shield. You could change your gear to full mp5 and take improved Blessing of wisdom and purifying power to up mp5 and reduce cleanse mana cost if you know your facing this comp. This comp hard counters, dont expect to win, we beat mehh and raiku once (When i played with serenity) out of 4 times, 4-1, and we were the best hpala warrior, so dont expect to beat that comp.

Disc / Rogue

A bad disc rogue will do literally nothing whole game unless envenom, then they will just tunnelvision warrior with dispells and spam cc you when they can, but a simple freedom intervene relieves all pressure. Dance disc rogue can only kill you the paladin. 2 ways the game can go for you (badly) 1- They burn you oom 2- They just full on kill you. You have to push in for hojs to kill while avoiding fear otherwise they will never die. They will pillar hump until they have forced warrior berserker rage on gauge, then they will fear him and dance on you with step and spam dispells. We faced mir and despodnency and went 5-2 against then (5 in to them, 2 to us). This comp should win if they're really good however we found that sitting on the top of the bridge on blades edge and dispelling warrior fear was the only way to win, so any other map and ggwp. On ruins you can max range but they will burn and gg, nagrand is the just pillarhump heaven. Gear setups and glyphs can be changed vs this comp but nothing will really change alot, more mp5 = less resi so you die faster and less resi = more mp5 so you go oom faster, balancing is the best way to go.

Disc / Hunter

Warr pala should beat this comp, just tunnel vision the priest. This match up is all down to your warrior, he needs to prevent the hunter from being able to cc you to infinity and beyond. As soon as that trap lands, a fear will follow, a silencing shot, a second scatter perhaps and maybe even an MC. Ways to win - Tunnel the priest and keep refreshing sacred shield, mana can be an issue vs this comp but be sure to HoJ the priest on cooldown but avoid scatter / fear where possible. The only way they can kill is with the initial trap, the 2 ways he can get the trap are with scatter, which your warrior should either intercept the hunter on, intervene you, or trinket the roots and intervene you to take the trap (Or you could sac it where possible) Or 2, he will concussive shot / Silence root you to get the trap (if hes really good) Therefore you should divine sacrifice if its up when silence rooted, or keep switching directions / freedom urself when cocussive shotted, to avoid the trap (dodge it). Gear setup can be changed here, 1k resi / 950 is viable as you cant really die without the priest helping whos being tunneeld so more PVE gear with haste / mp5 like Bracers of Pale illumination and Tightnening Wasteband, other items may be viable, havent tested many as the only REALLLYYY GOOD disc hunt is mirana + azk / vertex.

Rshaman / Lock

I laugh when i face this comp, they cant do anything literally. Just put your warrior on the lock , max range / pillar and ggwp

Hpala / Lock

Never ending game, just max range and pillar and only your warrior can win this game, fear pet and hoj pala where possible but pushing out to get it maybe be risky and can result in a
fear / dead.

Shadowpriest / Rogue

Probably the 2nd biggest counter to Warr pala / dk after disc mage. You cant really avoid the sap, rushing in with divine sacrifice is not recommended becuase the priest can just spam pillar hump until its off, and yay you got no sap but when your silenced your warriors dead. Once sapped, priest will fear you out, i recommend to trinket the fear, aura mastery and pop wings (wings becuase they have no follow up CC without dring it, and aura mastery incase of silence) Once done, top your warrior in the 5seconds of aura mastery and keep him spam dispelled. HoJ the priest after your trinket on fear to force his and then you could full fear him / full hoj him next hoj. Spam dispell your warrior to get sacred cleansing up and freedom him when there is no kidney. Recommend to BoP the 2nd/3rd kidney depending on pressure as your warrior should trinket the first. Refresh sacred and kings if you have the globals and beware of step kick. You can change your gear setup to alot more PVE gear, 1k / 950 resi for most haste, focus on haste. However switching on you is viable if they can full fear warrior without trinket / serker rage.

Eleshamn / Disc

Same as disc mage, same tactic, but less CC, tunnel priest and hoj on CD. If theyre good they will sit ontop of you and spam purge / burn, just kite as much as possible and your warrior should do the rest aslong as he has uptime from dispells.

Ret / Hunter

Pretty easy, just hand of sacrifice at the start to get imba pressure and repentace is quite easy to read. Stay max range so you can see the CC coming and make sure sacred shield doesnt get tranqed off, Normal CC chain is Rep > Trap > Hoj, trinketing rep if you do get rep is best idea to avoid the chain, using wings early is useful. Gear change to a bit more PVE can be done if you know your facing them as the only kill target is warrior unless your randomly at 50% health in the middle of the map #swag.

Addons

I only really use one addon, my interrupt bar, link to the download is here http://www.prestige-gaming.ru/download/file.php?mode=view&id=6012 . I also use a different interface called Santa UI, doesnt change anything , just makes things darker and looks cool.