此站点大量使用JavaScript。
请在您的浏览器中启用JavaScript。
正式服
PTR
11.0.2
PTR
11.0.5
Beta
Holy Paladin State on the Shadowlands Beta - Return to Holy Power, Glimmer of Light, Infusion of Light
暗影国度
由
Jaydaa
发表于
2020/08/22,04:44
In this ultimate episode of the state of healers series, we'll explore Shadowlands Holy Paladin, the most changed healer to date. These devout and stalwart followers of the Light, wield their faith as a weapon to revitalize their comrades and wage a righteous war against all forms of evil. If called upon, these dogmatic lightbound soldiers will make the ultimate sacrifice laying down their own lives in service of the greater good.
Previous Articles in the Series:
Restoration DruidMistweaver MonkDiscipline PriestHoly PriestRestoration Shaman
Introduction
Currently all classes with their updated toolkits are able to be tested, but so much has changed with each healer on a base level and the introduction of covenants adds a completely new twist and set of tools for each class. Fortunately, the full toolkits for healers is basically out now including soulbinds, conduits, and legendaries. Unfortunately, only a limited amount of content is available for testing. For healers, the types of encounters have just as much of an impact on healer balance as the toolkits of the healers themselves. This series will attempt to give a first look at each healer specialization in Shadowlands and hopefully provide early feedback on the current changes including baseline toolkits, covenants, conduits, legendaries, and even the hot topic of abilities that feel lackluster still on the GCD.
Previous articles (ie.
Ny'alotha
and
Eternal Palace
) ranked healers according to desirability in previous raid tiers. While those articles were helpful especially for new and returning healers to determine what healers would be in high demand, it's nearly impossible to determine any sort of ranking or demand this early in development of Shadowlands due to how much is still unknown or in flux regarding healing.
Remember, this is only my opinion on healers so far in Shadowlands and primarily comes from a PvE point of view. Everyone should provide as much constructive feedback as possible. As always, the information presented here is based on the 9.0 Beta cycle as of this article's release date and thus will almost certainly be inaccurate when the Shadowlands officially launches. Expect lots of changes to classes, covenants, soulbinds, conduits, legendaries, items, and encounters between now and launch. It should be noted that we're trying to hit the
major
changes to each class, yet for the sake of brevity we won't cover every single spell differential or mana cost reduction. If you're interested in the entirety of the spell differentials for each class please see the Class Change link listed at the top of the section for each class.
About the Author
This article is written by
Jaydaa
a veteran healer and contributing writer to both World of Warcraft content and other Blizzard games content here on Wowhead. I've been raiding in WoW for almost 15 years at various levels of progression. I've contributed to the theorycrafting of multiple healing classes, notably Mistweaver Monks and Restoration Druids. Find me on
Twitter
or on the
Wowhead Discord
.
Contributors
Pelinal
, Holy Paladin with over 10 years top end raiding experience, Wowhead Holy Paladin Guide Writer, and Templar/Holy Staff Member of
Hammer of Wrath Paladin Discord
.
Holy Paladin
Paladin Class Changes
We'll be primarily looking at how Holy Paladins have changed since Battle for Azeroth, especially in the stripped down world of healing sans Azerite, Essences, and Corruption. Holy Paladins were absolutely the biggest benefactors of the additional systems of Battle for Azeroth giving rise to the dominant
圣光闪烁
playstyle that had strong throughput, offered high mobility (as long as the paladin can
十字军打击
an enemy), and had no real mana restraints; a playstyle that remains quite strong currently on live even after multiple targeted nerfs to the playstyle.
Azerite provided the powerful
圣光闪烁
trait that scaled primarily based on item level of Azerite gear. The
完美愿景
essence combined with talent
圣洁怒火
and a Retribution Azerite trait
圣光赦令
gave greater access to
复仇之怒
and consequently more
神圣震击
s essentially supercharging the playstyle. High uptime on
复仇之怒
became one of the highest priorities for
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins, so it's no surprise that
腐蚀-不可言喻的真相1
became the go-to corruption especially after corruptions became available from a vendor later in patch 8.3.
For Shadowlands, there appears to be two emerging playstyles for Holy Paladins; the melee variant that is reminiscent of BFA Holy Paladin and the more traditional caster variant typical of previous expansions. The melee build focuses on the new talented spellpower scaling
圣光闪烁
and primarily generates Holy Power via
十字军打击
and
十字军之力
. Though the support systems that helped turn
圣光闪烁
into the premiere Holy Paladin healing playstyle are going away with Shadowlands, the spec is still alive and fairly strong in Shadowlands. This spec was dampened by the addition of a hefty mana cost to
十字军打击
, and as such generally ignores
圣光闪现
and
圣光术
even with
圣光灌注
active. The traditional caster variant has felt weak comparatively due to lower holy power generation and a stronger reliance on mana. We'll examine the changes for Holy Paladin and try to put them in context of how they affect both playstyles.
Baseline Toolkit Changes
Holy Power Resource System
: Similarly to Retribution in BFA and former incarnations of the spec in prior expansions, Holy Paladins have once again inherited the Holy Power resource system. Holy Paladins will generate Holy Power via a number of generators holding up to a max of 5 Holy Power. They'll then spend 3 Holy Power on one of a few mana-free spenders.
Generators:
神圣震击
,
十字军打击
,
愤怒之锤
, and
圣光闪现
/
圣光术
via
道标照耀
.
Spenders:
荣耀圣令
,
黎明之光
,
正义盾击
, and
(Talent).
Holy Power in Shadowlands marks a return of the builder-spender resource system for Holy Paladins instead of their more cooldown oriented system of Battle for Azeroth. For most of BFA, Holy Paladins have eschewed a large portion of their toolkit for the fast and high throughput playstyle of
圣光闪烁
often neglecting abilities like
黎明之光
except when filling empty GCDs while waiting for the cooldowns of
神圣震击
or
十字军打击
. With this new resource and the balancing of the
圣光闪烁
spells, Holy Paladins generate Holy Power with a similar rotation as in BFA but now mix in a fair amount of spenders to supplement their throughput. This gives paladins more control over when they spend those resources, instead of using all abilities as they are active.
Aura Revamp
: Auras have been extended baseline to all Paladin specializations rather than talents specific to Holy Paladins. Instead of only having access to a single aura throughout an encounter, Paladins now have access to 4 different auras at max level that can be swapped at will. Because these auras do not stack with those of other Paladins, if multiple Paladins are in a raid then there'll need to be some organization to take advantage of this extra utility. Holy Paladins retain the exclusive ability
光环掌握
to empower their chosen aura and should be considered when assigning auras for Paladins.
REMOVED:
Aura of Mercy
and
Aura of Sacrifice
REWORKED
虔诚光环
- No longer diminishes the damage reduction based on the number of allies in the aura radius instead just a flat 3% damage reduction. Nerf for any group smaller than 3, but exceptional buff for larger groups. The
光环掌握
empowerment increases the damage reduction to 15% for 8s, a 5% nerf compared to its BFA functionality.
NEW
十字军光环
- What was previously the Heart of the Crusader passive has now returned as an aura that affects all allies as well. The
光环掌握
empowerment increases the 20% mounted movement speed increase to 60% for 8s. It is worth noting paladins still had this passive baseline, and now must always switch auras to take advantage of this. This does impact
神圣马驹
. Personally love the return of this aura because of how impactful this can be for your group E.G getting out of the gate and to different objectives in battlegrounds could be.
NEW
惩戒光环
- The Retribution Paladin passive but in aura form granting 8s of
复仇之怒
when an ally within 40yds dies. The
光环掌握
empowerment grants an additional 4s of
复仇之怒
for a total of 16s with the Shadowlands leveling perk. For a Holy Paladin, this aura is interesting as it can be very powerful in the final phase of a fight as players tend to die off slowly as an encounter concludes. Think
乌纳特
's final phase if you need to consider how strong this could be. Ideally, as a healer you want to prevent any and all deaths wherever possible so this can be somewhat counter to your main goal; however, sometimes due to specific mechanics players are destined for death and this can be seen as an exceptional boon that Holy Paladins can take advantage. I think the base ability can be quite strong, but the
光环掌握
empowerment feels quite weak especially when you consider the precise timing required to achieve the benefit and generally how much more useful 15% raid wide damage reduction tends to be.
NEW
专注光环
- A favorite aura returns reducing interrupt and silence durations. The
光环掌握
empowerment grants full interrupt and silence immunity for 8s. Not since the days of
嗜血的索克
have players in PvE been frequently silenced or interrupted, this will almost certainly be invaluable in PvP.
While these are not exactly game breaking changes to Auras, the extra utility is a welcomed changed for a system that largely felt stale. Now there's a few choices and even some reward for capitalizing on different opportunities. Freeing up an entire talent row is the icing on top of the aura cake.
New Baseline Holy Paladin Abilities
:
NEW
- A more limited Holy Power generator that can only be used on enemies below 20% health or during
复仇之怒
with the level 58 perk. While the ability itself doesn't heal, as a Holy Power generator it does contribute to throughput and the cooldown can be reduced by haste. With the addition of Discipline's
暗言术:灭
and subsequent
死神之吻
legendary, there's a general trend toward giving healers execute abilities that significantly contribute to throughput which can be a fairly controversial move. Specifically, the final 20% of a bosses health tends to be high incoming damage burn phases where high healing and damage are required to secure the kill. Having two healers provide both execute damage and additional healing is a questionable call, especially when the two specializations given an execute have typically been heralded as the premiere healers in BFA due to their extra utility and rarely struggle to find placement in Mythic raids because of this utility.
NEW
- Single target healing Holy Power spender with very few limitations. With the rebalance of
圣光闪烁
and the sheer strength of
荣耀圣令
, you'll want to avoid eschewing your spenders and capping on Holy Power.
正义盾击
- A defensive and AoE damaging Holy Power spender. Requires you to be in melee and properly positioned to maximize your damage. Overall nice to have a way to deal AoE damage beyond
奉献
and
圣光闪烁
or even as a minor physical damage reduction. While it's rare for Holy Paladins to use 2-handed weapons it definitely pops up on occasion. Limiting itemization is never a good thing unless there's a meaningful trade off. Remains off the GCD even for Holy Paladins.
NEW
(Level 54)
A unique tracking ability that will probably have limited uses, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have the ability.
NEW
A thematic albeit limited crowd control ability for Paladins on a 15s cooldown for a single target and a range of 20yds. Might see some uses for Shadowlands with a fair amount of undead; however, because it instantly aggros the target and causes them to flee in random directions aggroing other nearby enemies, there tends to be way better more controlled crowd control abilities. Perhaps better in PvP for various pets, etc.
Shadowlands Leveling Perks
:
NEW
Rank 2 (Level 44)
Casting Flash of Light or Holy Light on your Beacon of Light grants 1 Holy Power.
While not specifically a leveling perk received during Shadowlands content, This passive helps offset the cost of directly healing a beacon, similar to the mana return Holy Paladins had before. Due to the low ability to generate Holy Power currently, this may be a mana efficient way to heal, however is a significant throughput loss. Because you need to heal your
圣光道标
target, you lose out on the beacon transfer healing which at the buffed 50% can be fairly significant to your overall throughput. It can feel even worse if your
圣光道标
target doesn't need healing but you still are wanting to generate Holy Power in preparation for incoming damage.
NEW
Rank 2 (Level 56)
Duration of
复仇之怒
granted increased by 4 sec.
A small duration increase to the
复仇之怒
granted by
惩戒光环
taking it to 12s baseline or 16s with the
光环掌握
empowerment. Nice perk but definitely not game breaking.
NEW
Rank 2 (Level 58)
Hammer of Wrath may be used on any target during Avenging Wrath.
Turns this execute generator into one that can be used anytime
复仇之怒
is up. With a few additional ways to gain
复仇之怒
in Shadowlands,
愤怒之锤
becomes an even more significant generator for Holy Paladins.
Reworked Holy Paladin Abilities
:
圣光道标
Holy: Wrap a single ally in holy energy, causing your heals on other party or raid members to also heal that ally for 40%50% of the amount healed.
With
圣光道标
transfer increasing to 50% healing this is a large passive increase to Holy Paladin healing on tanks. How much of this will be effective healing remains to be seen especially with other healers receiving fairly significant tank healing abilities. Think the strong legendary
黑暗泰坦之训
from Restoration Druids with
光合作用
as an example. Here's hoping that tanks are going to get absolutely trucked throughout the entire expansion.
十字军打击
Strike the target for (76.5% of Attack power) Physical damage. Generates 1 Holy Power. Cost changed from None to 12.0% of base mana.
The bread and butter Holy Power generator for melee Holy Paladins. This change makes it so that even Melee Holy paladins can oom, however it also means there is no room to use spells such as,
圣光闪现
and
圣光术
even with
圣光灌注
active which are spells that saw larger mana increases. As a side effect of this change Holy Paladins lose the ability to deal damage without spending mana outside of
奉献
. While not huge other healers could spend open GCDs with damaging spells to still contribute while generating mana. This means generally as a paladin if you want to play conservatively, or are already oom your only option is to press no or fewer buttons and wait for passive mana regen.
神圣震击
Generates 1 Holy Power. Cost changed from 10.0% of base mana to 14.0% of base mana.
Holy Power generator for both caster and melee Holy Paladin. The mana cost helps offset the addition of the free Holy Power spenders. Did receive a small hit to throughput in Shadowlands. Last time Holy Paladins had Holy Power this spell had a shorter cooldown, as such Holy Power generation is significantly hampered comparatively to previous iterations of the spec where Holy Power was available.
圣光灌注
Your critical Holy Shocks reduce the cost of your next Flash of Light by 30% or increase the healing of your next Holy Light by 30%.
For
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins,
圣光灌注
procs were largely ignored except to fill empty GCDs. While this is a core passive for caster Holy Paladins, history seems to be repeating itself for
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins as they largely ignore these procs. The core issue here is that the benefits of casting
圣光闪现
and
圣光术
even under
圣光灌注
are generally outmatched by
神圣震击
or
十字军打击
as these are both cheaper Holy Power generators. In the case of
十字军打击
, it helps get
神圣震击
off cooldown via
十字军之力
. Unless you spend
圣光闪现
and
圣光术
on a
圣光道标
target, which severely reduces its throughput due to not beacon transferring, then you're just not generating Holy Power.
黎明之光
Cost changed from 14.0% of base mana to 3 Holy Power. Cooldown changed from 12 sec cooldown to None
Light of Dawn moves from a rotational cooldown to a free Holy Power spender limited only by your Holy Power generation. Still has all the positional requirements of BFA.
奉献
Cooldown changed from 4.5 sec cooldown to 9 sec cooldown
While not a huge change, you'll no longer be able to quickly reposition your
奉献
should the positioning of the encounter change.
From a base toolkit standpoint, Holy Paladins have been the most extensively changed in Shadowlands and arguably they needed to be in order to incorporate the dominant
圣光闪烁
playstyle into the baseline Holy Paladin. For the most part Blizzard accomplishes this goal giving rise to what appears to be two different ways to heal as a Holy Paladin; the melee Shockadin with a playstyle similar to BFA's
圣光闪烁
build, and the traditional caster Holy Paladin. However, while they've carved out spaces for each playstyles in a single specialization there's still a lot of rough spots and inequities between the two. If Shadowlands were to go live today, you'd likely see
圣光闪烁
or the melee build remain the dominant playstyle due to higher throughput not to mention the passive damage contributions.
For
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins, there's a lot of improvements even over the BFA version. The builder-spender resource system functions similarly to a cooldown oriented system, a rebalancing of the spec under this perspective has allowed the
圣光闪烁
playstyle to expand even further bringing more spells (
黎明之光
and
荣耀圣令
) under its purview as core parts of the healing rotation rather than empty GCD fillers. Unfortunately,
圣光闪现
and
圣光术
even under
圣光灌注
are still largely ignored as the benefits of hard casting abilities are either less enticing or limited to very specific
圣光道标
targets. Without engaging in this
圣光灌注
gameplay loop,
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins look for other ways to spend excess mana most notably
复仇十字军
.
For traditional caster Holy Paladins, the problems arise around Holy Power generation or lack thereof. Without being in melee to
十字军打击
, you have to rely on
神圣震击
and
道标照耀
to generate Holy Power.
道标照耀
Holy Power generation generally feels bad because of the limits on who can be healed but also because you're trading for
圣光道标
healing transfer for that Holy Power. If that
圣光道标
target doesn't need healing than you're just trading excessive mana for Holy Power. Now consider that you're more mana constrained than your
圣光闪烁
comrades and ultimately the choice becomes clear as to what playstyle will dominate. Holy Power spenders do a lot of healing, and being limited to only one generator in
神圣震击
every 9 seconds makes the build feel slow and sluggish.
So how do we fix the issues to make both playstyles viable giving players more agency over how they play Holy Paladin? While there's a lot of ideas out there from simple tuning changes for both throughput and mana, I personally would rather focus on
圣光灌注
. For a more in-depth look please see the
Infusion of Light and Holy Power
section below.
Talent Changes
For brevity, we'll only be covering new, reworked, and removed talents for Holy Paladin. There were a fair number of talent tier changes that we won't cover here but are overall important to talent balance. Please see our
Shadowlands Talent Calculator
for a more complete look at talent positioning.
REMOVED:
Aura of Mercy
,
Aura of Sacrifice, and
虔诚光环
.
虔诚光环
was reworked and made baseline.
Aura system was made baseline with new auras. Existing aura talents were replaced. See Aura Revamp above.
制裁之拳
Each Holy Power spent reduces the remaining cooldown on Hammer of Justice by 2 sec.
Reworked to work off Holy Power instead of
审判
. For Holy Paladins that were rarely using
审判
this is an overall buff to the talent. However, in PvP it can actually be more difficult to generate the Holy Power necessary to see a similar cooldown reduction.
美德道标
and
信仰道标
Had their healing transfer buffed to 50% and the passive
道标照耀
applied.
Changes meant to bring them inline with the new standard
圣光道标
.
十字军之力
Crusader Strike reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock and Light of Dawn by 1.5 sec.
黎明之光
removed since it no longer has a cooldown as a Holy Power spender.
神圣意志
Holy Power abilities have a 15% chance to make your next Holy Power ability free and deal 20% increased damage and healing.
Functional rework for Holy Power. No longer a must pick for
圣光闪烁
builds as it no longer works with
神圣震击
.
NEW
Holy Shock leaves a Glimmer of Light on the target for 30 sec. When you Holy Shock, all targets with Glimmer of Light are damaged for (16% of Spell power) or healed for (42% of Spell power). You may have Glimmer of Light on up to 8 targets.
Functionally the same as the Azerite Trait
圣光闪烁
. Currently tuned in the area of 3x Mythic traits worth of the live trait, it won't be contributing as much healing as BFA simply due to losing a lot of the support systems that propped it up. However, it is supplemented by the Holy Power spenders so the playstyle is still quite viable.
神圣复仇者
Your Holy Power generation is tripled for 20 sec. Cooldown changed from 1.5 min cooldown to 3 min cooldown
Functional change to focus more on Holy Power generation. Very potent but doubled cooldown. Choice on talent tier will be short duration consistent buff, strong cooldown, or sustained albeit more random throughput. Won't be able to always combine with
复仇之怒
.
NEW
圣光救赎
When an ally with your Beacon of Light is damaged below 30% health, they absorb the next damage. You cannot shield the same person this way twice within 1 min.
Overall other talents will do more healing, but the strength of this one is how the healing is delivered when your tank likely needs it most.
NEW
The Light magnifies your power for 15 sec, granting 308 Haste, Critical Striek, Mastery , and Versatility. 45s Cooldown. Costs 3 Holy Power.
With a third uptime, this could be a pretty good short duration buff depending on the damage patterns of a fight.
觉醒
Word of Glory and Light of Dawn hashave a 15% chance to grant you Avenging Wrath for 10 sec.
Functional change to make
觉醒
healing Holy Power spender agnostic. Ideally
and
正义盾击
will be added to make it truly Holy Power spender agnostic.
The Holy Paladin talent tree didn't receive a massive overhaul. Most of the changes were done to either adjust for the new Holy Power resource system, as additions after the removal of the aura tier in the Aura System revamp, or to make room for the new
圣光闪烁
. In an interesting twist for healers, as long as both melee and caster Holy Paladins are viable nearly all the talents have a real chance of being used where the talent choice will largely be dictated by damage patterns or the type of healing required. If
圣光闪烁
/melee Holy Paladin remains the dominant playstyle then choices tend to be more cookie cutter offering few options on many talent tiers. Hopefully a golden opportunity like this doesn't slip through the cracks.
Covenant Abilities
Kyrian:
圣洁鸣钟
&
明澈之音
(Potency Conduit)
- 5
神圣震击
s for the price of one. That's some good mana efficiency and a lot of Holy Power. Combined with
圣光闪烁
and you'll also get a lot of extra healing out of it as well. The conduit
明澈之音
takes that efficiency even further starting at base 30% scaling up to 58% at max rank. At a 1 minute cooldown there's not a lot of downsides to this one. Versatile based on your target allowing you to do some pretty serious AoE damage if you're targeting enemies.
召唤执事者
- The steward offers some quality of life options like free talent changes or a vendor to sell things, but it essentially boils down to
静谧之瓶
, a glorified healthstone for all intents and purposes. The healing will be nice and contribute albeit minimally to throughput, and the personal curse and bleed dispel for Holy Paladins could come in handy as you can't normally dispel those; when combined with Kleia's
晋升之瓶
soulbind you might even find a few opportunities to avoid entire mechanics though with
圣盾术
you already kind of have one of these abilities. Might not be the strongest all the time, but solid ability regardless.
Venthyr:
红烬圣土
&
圣灰洞察
(Potency Conduit)
- Essentially a large single target
百花齐放
that deals both damage and healing and allows you to use
愤怒之锤
regardless of the enemies health. Scales with haste to increase tick rate. Although maybe a bit underpowered, the problems with this covenant ability are largely related to the cooldown, the lack of mobility, and the way the healing is delivered. At a lengthy 4 minutes, the cooldown is just unwieldy. Greater access to a cooldown for a healer will always be better than a bigger one on a longer timer. Perhaps baseline reducing the cooldown or Holy Power consumption reducing the CD would go a long way to adjusting the cooldown. Because you can't move the
红烬圣土
during its 30s duration, if the encounter moves across the room you're absolutely screwed. While it's more rare in raid, in Mythic+ it's almost a certainty that you won't be standing in a single spot for too long. Perhaps reactivating the ability to reposition could solve this dilemma similar to Restoration Shaman's
暮钟图腾
. Damage in PvE typically comes in waves of burst and it's rare when you need sustained single target healing. If the healing was more upfront, it might be more viable. Finally, the
愤怒之锤
ability usage is a weird benefit. Good when you don't have
复仇之怒
up with this spell, but as it's a large amount of healing you'll likely want to have
复仇之怒
to buff the healing and you'll have
愤怒之锤
available in that situation already. In its current state it's okay but there are better options currently and the
圣灰洞察
potency conduit doesn't seem to scale as fast at 10% to 25% increase at min and max rank respectively.
暗影之门
- Quite possibly the star of the covenant signature abilities, it's hard to say no to a 35yd teleport with a minute cooldown even if it has a 1.5s cast time. This type of movement is almost universally valuable and it's hard to think of an occasion where it'd be useless. Full Venthyr dungeon groups can plan skips around this ability. As a fairly immobile Holy Paladin that needs to get back into melee as soon as possible, I will never say no to more mobility.
Necrolord:
征服者之锤
&
正义之力
(Potency Conduit)
- A more rotational fairly straightforward covenant ability. Essentially every 30s a
荣耀圣令
and
黎明之光
combo costs only 4 Holy Power instead of 6. The additional
黎明之光
can proc
神圣意志
and
觉醒
. From a throughput perspective this one is pretty okay and has a lot of synergy with
玛尔拉德的临终之息
legendary. There's some frustration if you can't take full advantage of the
黎明之光
either because you don't currently need AoE healing or you're not properly positioned. The other issue is it's just kind of boring. The other covenant abilities just tend to be more exciting with bolder visuals etc. It could definitely help if the upfront damage hammer were instead a
神圣震击
giving it more synergy with the spec rather than feeling detached in its current state. The ability does feel a bit better when it turns into a personal heal with
正义之力
potency conduit scaling from 100% to 240% increased damage at max rank.
血肉铸造
- This extra self survivability will be nice and as an absorb will contribute minimally to overall throughput, but where this one loses me is the 4s channel. Adding a long channel to our toolkit is not exactly something we want. Fortunately soulbinds allow this to be channeled on the move via
艾米妮的可行动躯体
or even avoid CC via
终极形态
though with
圣盾术
you already kind of have one of those abilities. Could be an excellent tool for surviving burst damage especially in high Mythic+, but it's a bit of a harder sell against the other movement oriented covenant signature abilities.
Night Fae:
四季祝福
&
漫漫长夏
(Potency Conduit)
via
阳春祝福
仲夏祝福
暮秋祝福
凛冬祝福
- A rotating cast of single target buffs for you or an ally. For a Holy Paladin this offers a fair amount of utility but also can be quite the personal throughput increase. You're likely to put
仲夏祝福
and
凛冬祝福
on DPS players when you can cuz they'll likely make better use of them. The majority of your personal throughput will be in
阳春祝福
and
暮秋祝福
. For
阳春祝福
, you'll bless either your tank, yourself, or a fellow healer. While 10% healing might not seem like much it can amount to a lot. The larger benefit can be the tank, especially tanks that heal themselves like Blood Death Knights. Other healers gain value from healing that tank as well. Strong buff for sure and for 30s too. For
暮秋祝福
, the cooldown reduction should not be underestimated. While this essentially amounts to an extra 15s of cooldown reduction which might not seem like a lot, this does include all cooldowns;
复仇之怒
,
十字军打击
,
神圣震击
,
and even
四季祝福
itself all count all at once. That's a fair amount of cooldown reduction when you count multiple abilities. Tons of flexibility and decision making. Downside of this one is the potency conduit
漫漫长夏
doesn't do a lot for Holy Paladins in regards to healing throughput as it now applies to
仲夏祝福
instead of the earlier version that modified
暮秋祝福
. With the most recent Beta build the cooldown of these blessings has moved from 30s to 45s causing this covenant to take quite a hit.
灵魂变形
- With the recent buffs to
灵魂变形
including the instant blink on activation and movement speed increase this one has definitely shot to the forefront of signature abilities. While the
Sylvari Mantle
soulbind has been removed, this still improves mobility a lot. You likely won't be coming up with skips for such a limited 15 yard blink, but you get 3-4 in the 12s duration so you may have some opportunities to blink over some particularly nasty mechanics. Comes with a cosmetic collecting minigame which is fantastic.
As of right now, after looking at the entire covenant package, signature and soulbinds included, I'd be picking between
Kyrian
and
Night Fae
for Holy Paladins. Both covenants offer very versatile healing tools to work with for all aspects of Shadowlands in PvE. Due to the most recent nerf to
Night Fae
, I'm pretty solidly
Kyrian
as of current tuning. The other two remaining covenants really aren't that far behind but seem more limited in their scope. A few changes here and there could really boost them to the forefront.
Lackluster GCDs
神圣复仇者
&
复仇之怒
- This combination of cooldowns plagued Holy Paladins throughout BFA especially towards the end of the expansion as the cooldown of each got shorter and shorter thanks to
不可言喻的真相
. Because you frequently lined these up, having 2 GCDs before you actually started to heal did not feel good and goes against the immediacy healers have when popping cooldowns. While the cooldowns are less likely to line up as often in Shadowlands thanks to the changes done to
神圣复仇者
, it would certainly go a long way in for add upfront effects to at least
神圣复仇者
. Instantly gaining Holy Power would alleviate a lot of those issues.
Legendaries
Legendaries return with Shadowlands with each specialization having 4 class-specific legendaries and 4 spec-specific legendaries to choose from some being more passive in nature and others being more build defining. Ultimately tuning will decide which of these will be the strongest, so we'll mostly be looking at these from a mechanical standpoint in terms of how they change the playstyle of the Holy Paladins.
General Paladin Legendaries
- A toned down version of the Anima Power in Torghast. While the damage reduction can be good the primary buff is granted when maxing out your Holy Power which isn't too difficult. The problem arises when needing to potentially delay a Holy Power spender to get the buff leading to some awkward decision making.
- Interesting way to get a fair amount of extra Holy Power by turning your
自律
spells into throughput abilities as well as offering some additional upfront power to
复仇之怒
. When you don't need those
自律
tools this is a decent way to gain some on-demand Holy Power albeit on fairly long cooldown abilities. To maximize this legendary you'll want to keep these spells on cooldown as often as possible specifically when fight lengths allow for an additional use. In these situations you'll be going into a fight down a lot of your extra utility which might not be the best situation to be in.
- A more sustained Holy Power generator that works for both caster Holy Paladin and
圣光闪烁
and nice if you're already using
审判
on cooldown for
圣光审判
. The downside for this is purely the RNG related. It doesn't work off of a deck system, so often times procs feel like feast or famine.
- Super niche legendary that helps get your utility back up faster for more frequent uses especially if your raid is low on other Paladins.
Holy Paladin Legendaries
太阳井之花
- The premiere caster Holy Paladin legendary while almost useless for
圣光闪烁
melee Holy Paladins due to their lack of hard casting. The wording on this can be a bit a confusing, so let me clarify. When you proc
圣光灌注
, you gain 2 charges of the buff. Fairly versatile in terms of either reducing mana usage for
圣光闪现
or increasing throughput for
圣光术
. Would almost certainly need to be retuned if consuming
圣光灌注
granted Holy Power, but would be a very strong interaction to further increase Holy Power generation for caster Holy Paladin.
玛尔拉德的临终之息
A legendary that increases throughput via
殉道者之光
, a spell that hasn't really had a clear spot in the Holy Paladin toolkit for awhile due to its many limitations and overall low throughput. This one does make it significantly better and has a lot of synergy with the
Necrolord
Paladin covenant ability
征服者之锤
that allows for more casts of
黎明之光
in addition to the
痴迷殉道
conduit which rewards more frequent rotational use of
殉道者之光
. Overall could be a strong pick depending on final tuning.
破影者,日之破晓
- Removes some of the positioning restrictions on
黎明之光
and offers a nice healing taken increase. Not super creative or exciting, but overall not bad. Has some synergy with
Necrolord
Paladin covenant ability
征服者之锤
.
震击屏障
Extremely strong legendary prior to the 3 target cap, especially for
圣光闪烁
Holy Paladins. This legendary seems to be remenisint of an older Holy Paladin ability however tuning will determine if this legendary is potent. In many scenarios you may end up overwriting your barriers wasting a lot of this legendaries effect.
Conduits
Potency Conduits improve the power of your spells and are spec or Covenant specific. We mentioned the covenant specific conduits earlier in the covenant section, so here we'll cover the Holy Paladin specific potency conduits. There's additional ranks largely believed to be based on ilvl, but it's still unconfirmed by Blizzard as to how the system works.
Holy Paladin Potency Soulbind Conduits
(Potency Conduit)
光环掌握
increases the healing of your next 3
黎明之光
s by
40.0%
.
Ranks:
40.0%-96.0%
Turns a traditionally damage reduction cooldown into a gain of healing throughput. If the incoming damage is high enough that you're wanting to use
光环掌握
then it's likely that the beefier
黎明之光
s will be helpful topping your group off after. At max rank it's almost equivalent to 3 extra free
黎明之光
s. Pretty solid for AoE healing however due to the 3min cooldown it may not be as impactful as other legendaries..
(Potency Conduit)
神圣震击
's chance to critically strike is increased by
15%
.
Ranks:
15-29%
Currently it is unclear how this conduit is *supposed* to work. If it acts as the tooltip suggest and adds an extra 15% chance to crit, it is a solid conduit for both melee and caster Holy Paladin. Melee Holy Paladin has an increased cast time of
神圣震击
thanks to the cooldown reduction provided by
十字军之力
so will gain a fair amount of extra throughput. Fantastic for caster Holy Paladin in terms of gaining extra procs of
圣光灌注
and will be key especially when maximizing the benefits of the
太阳井之花
legendary. However it is currently providing a lot less critical strike chance than the tooltip suggests. This is hopefully just a bug
(Potency Conduit)
圣光术
heals up to 5 targets within 5 yds for
5.0%
of its healing.
Ranks:
5-19%
For
圣光闪烁
melee Holy Paladins, this one just doesn't have a lot of value. Even in a scenario where consuming
圣光灌注
procs is a core part of their rotation, the likely scenario is they'll mostly be consumed with
圣光闪现
. For caster Holy Paladin this offers a small AoE component and extra throughput and efficiency to one of their most cast spells. At max rank you're nearly doubling the efficiency and throughput of this spell. Not bad for a conduit. But it all relies on you actually casting
圣光术
, which currently doesn't seem to be in the cards.
痴迷殉道
(Potency Conduit)
殉道者之光
's damage and healing is increased by
5%
each time it is cast. This effect can stack up to 5 times and lasts for 15 sec.
Ranks:
5-19%.
Because of the infrequency with which Holy Paladins of all types cast
殉道者之光
, this almost has to be playstyle-defining in order to make it worth the soulbind pathing and conduit slot.
殉道者之光
needs to a major part of your casts and healing breakdown to warrant it; dropping stacks and having to rebuild them will be crushing. That being said could be a very valuable asset in the
玛尔拉德的临终之息
/Necrolord
征服者之锤
build.
Infusion of Light and Holy Power
圣光灌注
is at the center of many of Holy Paladins gameplay problems currently. It has been for a while, in previous expansions, the balance was such that for nearly every
圣光灌注
proc you would spend it on a
圣光闪现
meaning the passive had little to no gameplay. Then in BFA when we saw the emergence of a new build it acted as a mechanic that was largely ignored. In Shadowlands this passive was redesigned such that it now increases
圣光术
s healing, and reducing the mana cost of
圣光闪现
. This seems aimed at getting paladins back into the territory of very slow beefy heals that existed as a core part of the class for a long time. However, this retained the problem of its previous iteration by having
圣光闪现
be neglected.
But what if it didn't have to be this way? The one suggestion that keeps coming up time and time again in discussions is what if
圣光灌注
also, or exclusively caused those spells to generate 1 additional Holy Power? This change is the crux of this next suggestion and takes a dive into what impact this change would have on the Holy Paladin class as a whole.
As mentioned above Holy Paladins seem primed for two completely and radically different playstyles. Both are exciting for different reasons. The melee "Shockadin" getting in there doing damage and healing, and the traditional "Caster" paladin triage healing with constant nuke heals. Each build also comes with distinct mechanical advantages and disadvantages inherently. the melee build is restricted to melee while also providing additional damage. Whereas the Caster build would have any advantages of range and would excel at priority healing and consistent tank healing. Tuning and encounter design may temporarily force a "Meta" one way or the other, but both builds have independent tuning points (
十字军打击
CD/Mana cost,
圣光术
Healing/Mana Cost) that could be tuned to ensure there is close enough parity between them.
So let's take an inventory of some core problem's Holy Paladins face currently on Shadowlands Beta.
圣光灌注
doesn't represent a meaningful choice
圣光术
and
圣光闪现
are ignored in the melee playstyle.
Casting
圣光术
and
圣光闪现
regularly as a caster runs you oom quickly.
You don't have an option to generate mana, or play conservatively outside of not pressing any buttons.
The Caster build struggles to generate Holy Power.
How would this change impact the Melee Playstyle?
This change would have a smaller impact on the Melee playstyle than the caster variant. The overall rotation flow of using
十字军打击
s
神圣震击
s and your chosen spender would continue, however, you now have the option and ability to weave in
圣光闪现
regularly to fill gaps in your rotation that previously would have been spent either waiting (depending on haste values), or on pure damage options. This also would allow Blizzard to claw back some of the hefty mana cost of
十字军打击
as it feels like the purpose of that spells mana cost is to curb this specific playstyle. Ultimately having
圣光灌注
generate one additional Holy Power adds depth to the rotation, while also ensuring that more of the Paladins kit is being used. As currently if Shadowlands were to ship today, you would be ignoring not just one, two, or even three core class mechanics but four of them. As
圣光灌注
,
圣光术
,
圣光闪现
and
殉道者之光
are not mechanics that you need concern yourself with as a Melee Paladin currently. This change gives the player the agency to weave those casts in, either to expend mana and generate Holy Power or if they need the large burst of healing they can still
圣光术
to provide a large nuke heal.
What are the benefits of the Caster play style?
This is the build that would benefit the most, the traditional cast based nuke healing Paladin is a classic going back from vanilla all the way to early BFA. It feels like Blizzard is genuinely trying to make this a viable play style and it is so so so close if
圣光灌注
generated 1 holy power the build would have excellent flow and player agency throughout its core rotation.
First to understand the problem lets look at how this "Caster" playstyle is on shadowlands currently.
The core rotation contains several sequences of constant
圣光术
s with very little to break up that "
圣光术
spam" In fact the time it takes to generate 3 Holy Power assuming you aren't
十字军打击
ing (It costs too much mana, and if you were to take
十字军之力
you would be opting into the Melee playstyle). While not directly healing your beacon (this is always a loss in throughput) you are going to be waiting for one of your Holy Power spenders for 22-25 seconds. Let alone if you want to pool to 5 holy power.
You simply do not have access to enough Holy Power.
With the proposed
圣光灌注
change however, your rotation would look something like this assuming you use the
太阳井之花
legendary. Your stat priority would shift heavily towards crit due to how
圣光灌注
is still an on-crit proc effect. Though if the conduit scales well, and works as the tooltip suggests you could easily end up with crit chances on
神圣震击
well above 80% even 100% with good gear.
神圣震击
- 1.2s GCD - 8S CD - 1 Holy Power
圣光术
- 2.2s Cast - 2 Holy Power
圣光术
- 2.2s Cast - 3 Holy Power
荣耀圣令
- 1.2s Cast - 0 Holy Power
Filler (
审判
,
神圣棱镜
,
赋予信仰
) - 0 Holy Power
神圣震击
- 1.2s GCD - 8S CD - 1 Holy Power
圣光术
- 2.2s Cast - 2 Holy Power
圣光术
- 2.2s Cast - 3 Holy Power
Filler (
审判
,
神圣棱镜
,
赋予信仰
) - 0 Holy Power
荣耀圣令
- 1.2s Cast - 0 Holy Power
Repeat
This creates a system that flows smoothly while also providing a large amount of agency with how you decide to press your buttons. Let's say you are moving and can't
圣光术
? You can use some of your filler spells such as
审判
,
神圣棱镜
,
赋予信仰
, Covenant Ability,
殉道者之光
. Then begin casting your
圣光术
s and
荣耀圣令
. Maybe you want to pool your Holy Power for an upcoming Damage event? You can then forego the
荣耀圣令
in favor of another filler spell. Maybe you want to use more fillers without wasting
圣光灌注
charges? Then you can replace your
圣光术
with
圣光闪现
s. You have complete agency within an 8s window of what to press in what sequence and on whom. While still giving you access to your holy power abilities on a regular basis.
You may be asking well why not just play
十字军之力
in this build? Well, that puts you firmly back into the Melee play-style, which as stated before takes advantage of this differently. But with the double
圣光灌注
legendary you would be wasting either
圣光灌注
charges, or
十字军打击
charges which allow talents that otherwise are not possible to be taken such as Light's Hammer or
赋予信仰
.
十字军之力
is essentially just the pre-cursor to the Melee play-style.
Alright now with that said let us take another look at the problems paladin faces mentioned above, and what impact
圣光灌注
generating Holy Power would have on those problems.
圣光灌注
doesn't represent a meaningful choice - Now, with this change
圣光灌注
creates a meaningful choice, due to the increased efficiency of
圣光术
, the Melee play style is forced to compromise in
圣光闪现
s or
圣光术
s depending on the state of their current haste values and cooldowns. With the caster build, you may need to increase the pace of your rotation else you will be wasting precious
圣光灌注
charges so you may
圣光闪现
to do so.
圣光术
and
圣光闪现
are ignored in the melee playstyle - Due to the high throughput of
圣光闪现
s generating a holy power now, this build will naturally want to take advantage of those charges, forcing it to worry about mana more. Some of the mana cost of
十字军打击
may need to be clawed back in this scenario, but that is healthier for the class overall due to problem #4 in this list. As mentioned above ideally this build would be casting
圣光术
s as well but has a much faster-paced rotation, as such may not have the time to do so making it a constant choice.
Casting
圣光术
and
圣光闪现
regularly as a caster runs you oom quickly. - This problem still persists at some level. However, it is alleviated as Holy Power spenders by nature of costing Holy Power do not cost mana, as a result, the mana efficiency of the "Caster" playstyle goes up significantly.
You don't have an option to generate mana, or play conservatively outside of not pressing any buttons - If
十字军打击
had some of its mana cost clawed back both builds could opt to let
圣光灌注
go to waste, in order to be a bit more efficient.
The Caster build struggles to generate Holy Power - The caster build has a respectable amount of Holy Power generation as
圣光灌注
, and
圣光术
is at the core of this build far more than the Melee Healer playstyle.
Ultimately if
圣光灌注
were to generate Holy Power it would address or touch on nearly every problem that the current iteration of Paladin faces setting paladin up to game-play wise in at least my opinion be one of the most interesting iterations of paladin ever that flows well and has complete player agency when it comes to spell selection. There are issues with tuning, perhaps the power of holy power spenders would need to come down, or other tuning issues may arise. But with Blizzard announcing that they are just now entering the tuning stage, this seems like the perfect time to make those tuning adjustments. It feels like Holy Paladin is at odds with itself, and is struggling to find its footing with conflicting mechanics and play styles. I'm afraid of missing the opportunity presented here to really bring the spec together because so many of the changes coming in Shadowlands are in the right direction.
Conclusion
Holy Paladins have a lot going for them in Shadowlands to be sure. With a bit of tuning and a few mechanical changes, there's a real possibility that Holy Paladins will have 2 viable and unique playstyles available to them including a talent tree with talents that are viable at least in certain scenarios. For healers in a new expansion, that's the dream and it doesn't get much better than that. That concludes our healer breakdown series on Wowhead. Stay tuned for final looks of healers as we move closer to Shadowlands release.
Previous Feedback Articles
These are all the spec feedback articles that we have done through the Shadowlands Alpha and Beta. Some of these are older than others, so please make sure to check the date. We'll be doing a second round of these articles once we're closer to the end of Beta.
Blood Death Knight
Arcane Mage
Assassination Rogue
Frost Death Knight
Fire Mage
Outlaw Rogue
Unholy Death Knight
Frost Mage
Subtlety Rogue
Havoc Demon Hunter
Brewmaster Monk
Elemental Shaman
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Mistweaver Monk
Enhancement Shaman
Balance Druid
Windwalker Monk
Restoration Shaman
Feral Druid
Holy Paladin
Affliction Warlock
Guardian Druid
Protection Paladin
Demonology Warlock
Restoration Druid
Retribution Paladin
Destruction Warlock
Beast Mastery Hunter
Discipline Priest
Arms Warrior
Marksmanship Hunter
Holy Priest
Fury Warrior
Survival Hunter
Shadow Priest
Protection Warrior
[Get Wowhead]
高级会员
[$2]
[A Month]
[Enjoy an ad-free experience, unlock premium features, & support the site!]
[Show 0 Comments]
[Hide 0 Comments]
[Sign In to Post a Comment]
英文评论(54)
发表评论
你没有登录。
请登录
或者
注册账号
来添加你的评论。
上一篇
下一篇