Holy Paladin HC WoW Class Guide — Hardcore Azeroth (2024)

Beginner Friendly

Single Target Damage

AOE Damage

Survivability

Speed

Dungeon Utility

The Early Leveling Journey as a Holy Paladin

Starting your journey as a Holy Paladin can feel somewhat challenging, primarily due to the slow damage output. Between levels 20 and 40, you will primarily rely on your Seal of Righteousness and Judgment abilities for damage, supplemented with occasional Holy Shock when it becomes available at level 40. During the low levels it is better to start off as Retribution.

However, your primary role as a Holy Paladin isn't dealing damage but providing healing and support. Your powerful heals and buffs like Blessings and Auras make you an invaluable asset to any group. In solo play, your healing capabilities and survivability allow you to persistently chip away at enemies and outlast them.

Best Races for Holy Paladins

In WoW Classic, the Paladin class is exclusive to the Alliance, and you have two racial choices: Humans and Dwarves.

Human Paladins are excellent due to the Spiritual Focus racial trait, which increases your Spirit, benefiting your mana regeneration. The Perception ability can also be handy against stealthed enemies.

Dwarves also make strong Holy Paladins. Their Stoneform ability can remove poison, disease, and bleed effects, which can prove essential for survival in Hardcore mode.

Stat Analysis and Weights for Holy Paladins

Intellect > Spirit > Stamina > Strength = Agility

Intellect is the most crucial stat for a Holy Paladin as it increases your mana pool and improves your chance for critical strikes with spells. Spirit is important for increased mana regeneration, and Stamina enhances your health pool, contributing to your overall survivability. Strength and Agility have lesser importance but contribute to your melee damage and armor rating, respectively.

Intellect: As a Holy Paladin, Intellect is your primary stat. Intellect directly affects the size of your mana pool, which in turn dictates how many spells you can cast before needing to recharge. Additionally, Intellect improves your chance to critically hit with spells, making it an invaluable stat for enhancing your healing output. For every point in Intellect, you gain 15 mana and a slight increase to your chance to critically hit with spells.

Spirit: Spirit is the secondary stat for Holy Paladins, and it influences mana regeneration. After not casting a spell for 5 seconds, the "Five Second Rule" kicks in, and your Spirit begins to regenerate your mana. The higher your Spirit, the faster your mana regenerates during this period. Given the slower pace of WoW Classic Hardcore Mode and the importance of sustain, Spirit becomes a valuable stat for maintaining your mana pool over long fights or multiple engagements.

Stamina: Stamina determines your health pool. While it's not your primary role as a Holy Paladin to soak up damage, having a larger health pool increases your survivability in dangerous situations, particularly in Hardcore mode where death is permanent. Every point of Stamina provides 10 health, making it an essential stat for overall endurance.

Strength and Agility: While Strength and Agility are more beneficial for Retribution or Protection Paladins, as a Holy Paladin, they do contribute to your overall performance but at a lower priority. Strength increases your melee attack power, allowing you to deal more damage when you're not casting spells. It also slightly increases your block value if you're using a shield. Agility, on the other hand, increases your chance to critically hit with melee attacks and enhances your armor rating, thereby reducing the physical damage you take.

It's worth noting that as a Holy Paladin, you will also be looking for gear with bonuses to healing ("+Healing") and spell critical chance ("Spell Crit"). These stats can significantly enhance your healing output, making you even more effective in your primary role.

In summary, a Holy Paladin's stat priority can look like this:

Intellect > Spirit > Stamina > +Healing > Spell Crit > Strength = Agility

Remember, though, that WoW Classic does require some adaptability, and there may be times where you need to prioritize certain stats over others based on the situation or your group's needs.

Holy Paladin Build:

The Holy Paladin is primarily a healing class, focusing on keeping allies alive and well in battle. For leveling, the early stages may be slower due to lack of damage output, but you become an excellent party member in dungeons and later PvP encounters due to your healing and supporting capabilities.

Recommended Talent Allocation for Leveling:

1. Divine Strength (5/5) - This will provide you with some much-needed early-game damage.

2. Divine Intellect (5/5) - Increases your maximum mana, allowing for more spell casting.

3. Spiritual Focus (5/5) - Reduces spell pushback, useful when healing in combat.

4. Improved Seal of Righteousness (5/5) - Better Seal damage will help with leveling.

5. Consecration (1/1) - Your only AoE damage spell, very useful in a variety of situations.

Healing and Support Tactics for Holy Paladins

Your primary task as a Holy Paladin is to keep your party's health up. Use Flash of Light for quick, efficient heals and Holy Light for more significant health restorations. You'll also frequently use Cleanse to remove harmful debuffs from yourself and your allies.

In addition to healing, Holy Paladins are renowned for their buffing capabilities. Ensure that you maintain appropriate Blessings on each party member, use Aura that best suits the situation, and provide additional support through your Hand spells.

Survival Tactics for Holy Paladins

As a Holy Paladin, you have an impressive array of survival tools at your disposal. Divine Shield and Lay on Hands are your "panic buttons," allowing you to become invulnerable or restore your health instantly, respectively. Use Blessing of Protection to shield yourself or a party member from physical attacks, and use Hammer of Justice to stun dangerous enemies.

Group Leveling as a Holy Paladin

In a group, your role is to heal, support, and occasionally tank damage. In addition to your healing duties, keep Blessings and Auras up, use Hand spells wisely, and contribute to damage when possible. Your plate armor and high health allow you to off-tank or even main tank in some situations.

Professions for Holy Paladins

Alchemy and Herbalism are fantastic choices for a Holy Paladin. Alchemy allows you to create a range of useful potions, elixirs, and flasks, providing healing, mana restoration, and stat boosts. Herbalism supplies the ingredients needed for Alchemy.

Tailoring can also be beneficial, primarily for the ability to craft the Truefaith Vestments, a powerful endgame chest piece for Holy Paladins.

Lastly, don't forget the First Aid secondary profession. Even though you're a potent healer, bandages are a useful tool when your mana is low, or you're in a situation where casting a spell is not viable.

Weapon Progression for Holy Paladins

In the early game, weapon choice isn't crucial for Holy Paladins as you're not focusing on dealing melee damage. However, a one-handed weapon coupled with a shield can provide additional armor and survivability.

As you progress, seek out weapons that offer bonuses to Intellect, Spirit, or +Healing. At the higher levels, a good weapon can significantly boost your healing capabilities.

In the challenging world of Hardcore mode, a Holy Paladin's strength lies in their durability, healing, and support abilities. Embrace the light, and you'll be a cornerstone of survival and success in any group.

Leveling Gear:

While leveling, you want gear with stats like Intellect, Spirit, and Stamina. Some Strength can also help, as you'll likely be doing a bit of melee. Plate gear becomes available at level 40, but until then, you'll want to equip the best Mail, Leather, or even Cloth gear that you can find.

Pre-Raid Gear:

Once you hit level 60, you'll want to start preparing for raiding. The focus here is on acquiring gear with lots of +healing power, Intellect, and Stamina. Gear with mana regeneration (usually from Spirit) is also beneficial. Some good options are:

• Helm: Whitesoul Helm (crafted by Blacksmithing) or Cassandra's Grace (BoE world drop)

• Neck: Animated Chain Necklace (Ramstein the Gorger in Stratholme)

• Shoulders: Burial Shawl (Quest reward from Scholomance)

• Chest: Robes of the Exalted (Baron Rivendare in Stratholme)

• Wrists: Loomguard Armbraces (Kirtonos the Herald in Scholomance)

• Hands: Hands of the Exalted Herald (Princess Moira Bronzebeard in Blackrock Depths)

• Waist: Thuzadin Sash (Nerub'enkan in Stratholme)

• Legs: Senior Designer's Pantaloons (Fineous Darkvire in Blackrock Depths)

• Feet: Verdant Footpads (Mor Grayhoof in Lower Blackrock Spire)

• Rings: Fordring's Seal (Quest reward) and Rosewine Circle (Urok Doomhowl in Lower Blackrock Spire)

• Trinkets: Briarwood Reed (Jed Runewatcher in Upper Blackrock Spire) and Second Wind (Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths)

• Weapon: Hammer of Grace (Random drop in Upper Blackrock Spire)

• Off-hand: Thaurissan's Royal Scepter (Emperor Dagran Thaurissan in Blackrock Depths)

Raid Gear:

Once you start raiding, you'll be able to get even better gear. The first two raids in WoW Classic are Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair.

The items listed are examples of good pieces you can aim for. Always keep in mind your role in the group and adjust your gear choices to fit the situation. The best gear for you also depends on your current gear, the composition of your raid group, and what bosses you're fighting.