Holy Paladin Hero Talent Showdown in The War Within - Herald of the Sun vs. Lightsmith

The War Within Geposted 13.08.2024 um 14:37 von HolyClarius

Not sure what Hero Talents to play for your spec in The War Within? Check out all the released articles in the 'Hero Talent Showdown' series:
Hero Talent Showdowns in The War Within
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For more information on Hero Talents coming in the War Within, check out our Hero Talents Overview.

The War Within Hero Talents Overview

Holy Paladin in the War WithinHero Talent Showdown: Herald of the Sun vs. Lightsmith Herald of the Sun

Strengths

Weaknesses

Lightsmith

Strengths

Weaknesses

What's Changed?Herald of the Sunfirst previewsatisfactory

Firstly, I am very happy to see that the addition of the many HoT effects (, , and ) does not come with a reduction in our direct spot healing. Most importantly, s upfront healing, is equal to the healing of , and the HoT effect is just a nice little bonus.

Secondly, the functionality of is now clear and sensible. To prevent imbalance between and , casting only applies two instead of the normal four you get with .
Another important clarification regards what happens when you have a active on yourself during , since you obviously cant connect a beam to yourself. This has been sorted by simply making s on yourself radiate healing and damage in a 5 yard radius around you. I think this is a very reasonable compromise and solution to this problem.

We also had some concerns that would be too strong with , so to tone this down a bit, only applies a single to a random target. This still keeps strong and impactful but it relies more on applied by your own Holy Power spenders after casting .

Lightsmitha preview

The first change is to how and are applied to players. At first they were spells you would put down on the ground for people to run over and pick up, but they have been changed to simply be spells you cast on specific players, which is much better, more intuitive, and puts the agency of who gets them, in the hands of the Paladin.

The second important change is to . Initially, this would increase the duration of all active and when consuming , but this has been changed to instead reduce the cooldown. This is much better as it also eliminates the concern we had in regard to the possibility of indefinitely extending Armaments on people.

And the Winner Is...

Class Fantasy & Visuals: Herald of the Sun (Winner)
Herald of the Sun wins this category hands down. Calling upon the powers of the sun and creating visually impactful beams with , is significantly more interesting than anything Lightsmith brings to the table.

I think the initial design of Lightsmith, where and were spells you placed on the ground, would have looked significantly cooler, but that was obviously changed due to gameplay concerns.

Fun & Rewarding Gameplay: Herald of the Sun (Winner)

Herald of the Sun is more rewarding to play as you need to correctly optimize your spread for your windows. To do this you need to make sure you use your with every single one of your casts and your procs, which feels great when you learn to get it right.

Lightsmith is, in my opinion, quite boring to play and using your and simply feels unrewarding and unimpactful, and I really think they should at least give a Holy Power when cast.

Difficulty (Easiest): Lightsmith (Winner)
As alluded to above, Herald of the Sun has a higher skill ceiling than Lightsmith. Maximizing your s, and making sure you can get an proc for every significant damage event is a little difficult at first.

Lightsmith is significantly more straight forward to play. Who you apply and to, has little impact on your overall performance, especially as is a standardized proc chance and a flat damage proc. While that might sound boring, I still think it is better than the alternative. will of course absorb more when using it on higher max health targets, but other than choosing to use it on tanks or not, it is an insignificant difference who you cast it on.

Defensiveness & Utility: Herald of the Sun & Lightsmith (Tie)

For personal defensiveness, both Hero Talents provide a lot of self healing. for Lightsmith adds up to a ton of absorb shield on yourself, while the self healing from Herald of the Sun's will help immensely with clearing the healing absorb from and staying alive during heavy raid damage.
For group defensiveness, and for Lightsmith provides more upfront survivability than Herald of the Sun does, but Herald makes up for that by providing extremely strong on demand burst healing that Lightsmith simply cannot compete with.

Utility wise, neither Hero Talent have a lot to write home about. Herald of the Sun can give some movement speed increase with , but it is in no way something that would impact who you put on. Lightsmith doesn't bring any utility worth talking about as and are practically worthless.

Leveling: Herald of the Sun & Lightsmith (Tie)
Questing as a Holy Paladin, will never be as fast as questing as Retribution, but if you choose to quest as Holy regardless, then either Hero Talent will perform just fine. Lightsmith might feel better until you can get your hands on .

For leveling via dungeons you can also choose to use either Hero Talent, and it could be a good idea to swap back and forth to get a good feel for both of them over the course of your leveling session. Just as for questing, I expect Lightsmith to feel better in dungeons until you can get .

Mythic+: Herald of the Sun (Winner)

This might be a little controversial, but I believe that Herald of the Sun will be the better all-round Hero Talent for most players in Mythic+. With it provides a strong and simple way to carry AoE healing, which Lightsmith sorely lacks. Lightsmith might see more play in high keys where the extra damage output and better up front defensiveness can make the difference, but for the majority of players the extra on demand healing provided by Herald of the Sun is just going to be more impactful, especially since dungeons in The War Within generally feel like they require more healing throughput.

If tank survivability ends up being a major concern in Mythic+, then from Lightsmith will add a lot of extra tank healing and could also potentially be a reason people choose to play Lightsmith in high keys.

Raid: Herald of the Sun (Winner)

For raiding, Herald of the Sun is the winner in my book, largely for the same reasons that make it the winner in Mythic+. Herald of the Sun provides extremely strong raid wide burst healing, especially when the raid can be stacked up. Herald is also just more fun to min-max in raid, and it will have a higher impact on whether your raid can live a certain mechanic or not.

Lightsmith is absolutely still viable though, especially if we end up playing . Lightsmith scales a little better with than Herald due to . Herald of the Sun also falls off quite heavily on fights where your raid can't be stacked for the big damage events, which also is a mark in favour of Lightsmith on such fights.

Best Overall: Herald of the Sun (Winner)
Herald of the Sun is the overall winner. It feels more complete and well rounded, and it complements our base toolkit very well. It grants us strong raid wide burst healing capabilities without taking anything away from our strong spot healing. It has better visuals, and it is more fun to optimize.

Where your target selection with Lightsmith's and is largely irrelevant for your overall performance, who you apply to and how you position yourself for the beams, actually matters a lot, and will be a major skill differentiator. Lightsmith will likely be stronger when your group is spread out and you can't get good value out of .

In overall throughput, the Hero Talents are both close enough that you can play either.

Hero Talent Feedback Herald of the SunTier Setverythe recent nerfs LightsmithBase Holy Paladin Feedbackinterestingheavy handed nerfsseveral bugsentirely alwaysShould You Play Holy Paladin in the War Within?SabotagePaladin DiscordHero Talent Guides for the War Within Launch

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhance ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemo WarlockDestro Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

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