The Enigma Order

Here we go, a list of tips and trick how to become a great holy paladin. Read it, have it in your heart and fingers!
Www.theholypaladin.com

Improvements:

I’ve been thinking lots lately about an old topic of improvements to Holy Paladin Healing and what has to happen to become a pro healer. To even have a chance to become an good Holy Paladin, you need to understand this topic.

It can be quite interesting, but something you need to first understand: Wow is an easy game to play. It is a game for entertainment. It also has a lot of leeway for mistakes so you can be an ordinary Holy Paladin and still be successful.

We’ve also heard the topic of skill is more important than gear. While this is true to a major extent, most people don’t truly understand how true it really is.

The face of healing it seems quite simple. You see damage, you heal it but as you gain experience you come to understand it’s not as simple as that at all. Your choices of Glyphs, Gear, Gems and consumables all contribute to your performance. Each time you make the wrong choice, your performance goes down.

What makes it even harder is that most of these factors have a multiplicative effect. This means, making the right choice over multiple areas of improvement will have a larger end effect than the sum of all the improvements.

Let me explain this quickly. Lets say that something helps you improve your healing by 1% and another thing helps you improve your healing by 1% the improvement isn’t 2%, it’s 1.01 * 1.01. The end result is slightly more than a 2% increase.

There are two complications to this.

Complication #1: Not every improvement is created equal.

There are big improvements like Glyph or Spec Choice. These are going to effect your performance more than most of the other choices. There are other improvements like “Knowing your spell options” that offer marginal benefits or only become benefits in certain situations.

Complication #2: It’s not clear what an improvement is.

How many of you have even considered your personal real world health and fitness to be a factor in how well you perform within wow? I’d hazard a guess that not many, and if you are right now you’d probably dismiss the idea as silly. Trust me, something as simple as your health and fitness has an effect on your performance within wow.

Doubt me? Try playing while sick. It’s not going to show the same difference in performance between a fit and unfit person but it can show that there is a difference. When you get someone who is unfit raiding for 4 straight hours, their concentration tends to be less than their fit counterpart.

There are many improvements that most people don’t even think about. On this site, we’ve covered so very few improvements. Virtually everything that we’ve covered so far has specifically only dealt with in game factors.

I’ve avoided the obvious pop psychology topics of self improvement that can make the world of difference.

Also environmental factors can also come into play. Not everyone can control the environment where they play. For example, who’s going to perform better? Someone who raids where his mother interrupts every 10 minutes to get daily chores done or someone who ensures that there are no interruptions while raiding? While this can be an extreme, I see the former example in pugs all the time. I even see it occasionally in some raiding guilds.

I want you to think outside the box. I want you to think about what areas of improvement you see there can be and send me this list. It can be improvements for general gaming, specifically to Holy Paladins and lots, lots more. It’s open and I don’t think there’s many things that should not be included. I’ll put together the list and we can look at discussing it more.

Background and "wanting to be best" versus "wanting to be good enough

Well recently I’ve been wiping...a lot. I started with me being new to a lot of fights and just making a fool of myself, which everyone would just insult and laugh at me for, or if it was really bad a slur of insults would come my way. I got used to it quickly. Now that I’ve got the first eleven bosses in heroic ICC down, only LK stood in my way. Then something amazing happened, I was told to DPS. I was horrified; not only had I never played in melee before but I had to play to a perfect level and not waste attempts. So after a week of getting the ret gear basically thrown at me I was ‘ready’ to DPS in heroic ICC for the first time, and I wouldn’t be starting on something like Gunship or Blood Queen, nope I’d be starting on the Lich King. To get to the point; I wouldn’t accept being carried, or nursed through it. I read every single bit of information I could, I practised the priority till I could do it blindfolded and I never once let anything anyone else said stop me. Now I’m still wiping, but I feel it’s no longer my fault (most of the time) and I’m contributing to the raid.

What I’m trying to say from this is when I say ‘Be the best you can be’, I don’t want anyone to get the idea that they can’t ever make a mistake. When learning a new fight (or role) I suggest the following.

-          Take a deep breath
-          Read as much as possible beforehand
-          True to understand the nuisances of that encounter/role
-          If you make a mistake, apologize and try your hardest to never repeat that mistake again.

Every now and then I’ll hear someone say ‘Bring them, they are better than me. I don’t mind waiting till we have the boss on farm’. WHY! Sure that person may be better than you at that moment in time, but never allow yourself to settle, always strive to be the absolute best you can be, if not for yourself; for your guild. Despite a few rare cases, I don’t see why any person, when they put in the effort and really want it, can’t be the best. Now when I say best I don’t mean you have a high GearScore, or you have more mana than any other healer on your server, but that own feeling you get when you know you are good, and the rewards will come naturally. You’ll get achievements before others. People will randomly whisper ‘Good Healing!’ a lot more often. To sum it up; never accept being replaced for someone ‘better’, do what it takes to be just a skilled as that player, and never, under any circumstances doubt your own ability. Cause if you do; why shouldn’t I.

Lastly I would like to actually thank Blizzard for making such a great game. We all spend so much time finding faults with it, criticizing decisions or just complaining because something is not to our liking. WoW is not a static entity, but an emergent one, how would you like it if you were all stuck with a single spec, or finding your own members for heroics. No one is perfect, there will be faults you can find with anything, so the next time you wish to complain or criticize a choice that will impact on you negatively, think of all the ones that positively benefit you. I guarantee you will find more things you like about the game than you don’t (after all you’re playing it)

If my article doesn’t suck, I might write another one more directly about healing, with some more tips to offer. Also I’ve had a few people come and make toons to ask me questions, while I don’t mind in the slightest. I’d like to remind you that I’m quite busy sometimes and might not get back to you instantly. Sending a e-mail is the best way and I’ll even answer them in detail if you require, simply email to normal place and say it’s for me, and I’m sure they’ll be forwarded to me soon enough.

Best Gems updated for 3.3

Not much has changed since 3.2 for Holy Paladin gemming. This is a list of the best Gems that are used in 3.3 for Holy Paladins.

Best Meta Gem:

Insightful Earthsiege Diamond

Everytime this meta gem proc's, it gives you 600 mana. As an added bonus, it also gives you +21 Intellect. If you're not using this meta gem as a Holy Paladin, you're doing something horribly wrong.

Best in Red, Blue and Yellow Slot:

Brilliant King's Amber

As much as I hate to hear the continual debates about stacking intellect and the fact that it's so damn boring and easy to simply stack one stat without having to think about it, you'd still be more than correct to gem solely for intellect.

There's not much exception for it anymore either. With the quality of gear on the rise, and the ease of getting good gear, there's very little use to explain where the cut off is before you stack intellect.

The more intellect you have, the more mana you have. The more mana you have, the more you can cast Holy Light and the more mana you will get from Replenishment and Divine plea.

It's that simple, ignore your socket bonuses and stack Intellect!

Brilliant Dragon's Eye

If you're a Jewelcrafter (which you should be even if you're only slightly caring about your Paladin) ensure that you put in 3 of these gems in your gear.

Something to Activate your Meta Gem:

Nightmare Tear

This great little beauty is great to activate the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond meta gem. It will satisfy both the need a blue gem and need a red gem without having to use up two gems slots. It'll also help activate your socket bonus.

If you have a metagem that gives intellect, it's a good idea to use the Nightmare tear to activate this bonus.

Note: All this assumes that you're using the Holy Light spam healing style.

The Flash of Light

Flash of Light itself hasn't changed much since the release of WotLK. It still remains a cornerstone of our healing in certain environments, but ultimately ends up being overshadowed by its big brother in raids. Now is the time when we have the chance to actually make use of this move that is severely under-used in most raids.

The advantages of the move are obvious.

Extremely mana 'efficient
Fast cast time
Low over healing
Makes a great 'raid' heal
Can hit for decent amounts (when geared correctly)

Unfortunately it still has its downsides, luckily as we reach the end of WotLK a few things allow this build to finally be worthy of a raid spot and not just an afterthought in the minds of healers. A few things will soon be possible that previously were not. Once all the wings of Icecrown are released we'll have basically all the gear (other than hard mode items) that will be available till Cataclysm. This will allow us to reach the high levels of gear that this build demands.

A few things are really required for a FoL build to go be competitive in the raiding environment.

The PvP healing libram (preferably the ilvl 251 one -http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42616)
Very high amounts of Spell Power (4k Raid buffed being easily achievable)
High amounts of Crit
676 Haste
Decent latency
Seal of Light
The ‘Ember Skylfare Diamond’ Meta
Lastly a build that has 5/5 Divinity and 5/5 Conviction

The way this works is quite simple. You beacon and SS your main target and after applying the FoL

HoT you spam FoL on whoever is taking damage. With such a high crit chance you can expect 10k FoL crits often and fast. This is basically your healing style for most encounters, while you can use HL, you must remember to use it sparingly. Whereas a paladin who has chosen to gem Int will have quite efficient Holy Light’s yours are going to be much more costly.

I am going to add that this build is quite gear intensive, so if you just hit 80; I would stay away from it. However if you feel that you geared enough, give it a shot, done correctly you should be able to still maintain your assignments and be a better raid healer.

Icecrown Citadel Scenarios (Lower Spire)

Lord Marrowgar – (P1) – Using the aforementioned build this fight is great place to get used to it, with not a whole lot of damage going around you can get the feel of the build under your belt. As long as your raid members are quite aware you don’t have to worry about healing ‘Coldflame’ damage too much. Just keep an eye out for Bone Spike, while maintaining the tanks, who will be taking damage from Saber Lash periodically.

(P2) During this phase I simple stand still and heal myself, the Bone Storm doesn’t do all that much damage, so take this opportunity to refresh your beacon and top up the raid member taking damage from the flames and the whirlwind.

Lady Deathwhisper – (P1) – There is quite a bit of damage going around on this fight, mostly in the form of Shadowbolts she will cast on random raid member are the various adds who will be doing damage on the tank. Just beacon your assignment and heal whoever takes damage. FoL is more than enough to keep the tanks up on this fight. Watch out for the curse, avoid using heals until it has been cleared.

(P2) – Watch out for tank swaps and quickly heal those who take damage from the ghost’s melee.

Gunship Battle – The damage on this fight comes mainly in the form of the axes and arrows that are hurled from the opposite ship. Should you be assigned to heal the tank that goes to tank Overlord Saurfang be warned that he will take quite large damage as the fight progress, at this point a few Holy Lights would be fine as you would easily regain the mana. Repeat till dead.

Deathbringer Saurfang – This fight isn’t overly hard on the healers if your DPS are decent, in fact the fewer healers you bring the easier it becomes. Beacon your assignment and then heal all those who get the ‘Boiling Blood’ Debuff. Should your raid receive a Mark of the Fallen Champion, immediately beacon the target and just go to healing the tanks. Keep in mind at 30% he will Frenzy, increasing his damage.

Holy Paladin Best In Slot List for Wrath of the Lich King

Here is the well awaited Best In Slot Gear Guide for Holy Paladins. Enjoy!

Ok, first it should be noted that I have a major preference for Haste/Crit gear instead of haste/mp5 gear. While you’re more than fine to go any other way that you prefer in this regard here is my best in slot list. This is the list of gear that I’ve either got or I’m chasing!

Head:

Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece (heroic) and Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece. These both drop from Icecrown Citadel 25 man raids from final bosses in each wing. The heroic drops from the hard mode version.

Lightsworn Headpiece is the easy to get version of all of these. You get these from the a vendor inside Icecrown Citadel for only Frost Badges. Since you can farm Random Heroic Dailies for frost badges, no one really has any excuse to have a head piece worse than this.

Neck:

Blood Queen's Crimson Choker (heroic) which drops from Blood-Queen in Icecrown Citadel 25 man hard mode. This is your best in slot.

Directly below that is a BOE version of the Blood Queen's Crimson Choker. It comes in the sack of Frosty Treasures from doing the weekly Icecrown Citadel quest. While it does have a very low drop rate, you can find it occasionally on the Auction House.

Your 10 man versions of this loot are Soulcleave Pendant (heroic) from 10 man Gunship Battle 10 man heroic and Soulcleave Pendant from the normal version of Gunship Battle 10 man.

Shoulders:

Shoulders are very similar to the head pieces where the Tier gear is just too good (and too easy to get compared to everything else) to even bother looking at other stuff.

This makes Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders (heroic) the best in slot which drops from the final bosses in 25 man Icecrown Citadel hard modes. The normal version Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders drops from normal versions of the same encounters.

Lightsworn Spaulders is the easy to get version of all of these. You get these from the a vendor inside Icecrown Citadel for only Frost Badges. Since you can farm Random Heroic Dailies for frost badges, no one really has any excuse to have a head piece worse than this. (Same as your head piece).

Back:

Cloaks are very tough to get usually. Luckily they don’t have a bunch of stats on them, but you still want to fight tooth and nail to get a cloak, especially since most casters also want the same cloak that you want.

Cloak of Burning Dusk (heroic) is the undisputed champion of the cloak best in slot list. This drops from the hard mode version of Ruby Sanctum 25 man. I’ll also mention that Frostbinder's Shredded Cape drops from the hard mode version of Dreamwalker 25 man.

I’ll mention that next on the list is Jaina's Radiance and Aethas' Intensity which are TOC Tribute to Insanity Tribute runs for 25 mans. Unfortunately if you don’t have them already you’re unlikely to see them but they’re still worth a mention.

Cloak of Burning Dusk becomes your normal mode 25 man best in slot cape. It also drops from Ruby Sanctum. Frostbinder's Shredded Cape also deserves a mention that drops from normal mode Dreamwalker.

Heartsick Mender's Cape is your best in slot for 10 mans. It drops from hard mode Blood Princes in Icecrown Citadel 10 man.

If you’re not going to be able to do the hard mode 10 mans then you should really only look at your vendor cloak (Drape of the Violet Tower). It’s not greatly itemized but it’s a good choice for those who don’t do 25 mans.

Chest:

Chest pieces are virtually identical to the Head piece. It’s all about your tier pieces. So it’s no surprise that Sanctified Lightsworn Tunic (heroic) is the best in slot. Followed by the normal version of Sanctified Lightsworn Tunic. These both drop from the final bosses in each wing in Icecrown Citadel 25 man. The heroic version drops from hard mode and the normal version drops from the easy mode version.

One extra thing needs to be mentioned about whether or not you're going for your 4 piece bonus or not. A chunk of the more difficult hard mode stuff has you running around a lot and on the face of it, the .3 sec reduction of cast time for your Holy Light looks very appealing. In the end, you're not going to get anywhere near that .3 of a sec time saving after casting your holy shock. It's going to be more like .12 to .14 of a sec of time saving with the way that haste is calculated. It's still nice, but something to consider if you're pushing towards the 4 piece bonus.

Also worth a mention in the 25 man category is Rot-Resistant Breastplate (heroic) and Rot-Resistant Breastplate. These are excellent pieces. The only problem is that the Tier piece is so nice, it’s hard to pass up. The decision on which way you go is up to you. I went for the tier piece. [I've also had feedback that noted that these also have an extra gem slot and I didn't point this out. This will slide some people over to this choice].

As with the head pieces, the other chest piece for 10 man is Lightsworn Tunic which you can get for Frost Badges.

Wrist:

Crypt Keeper's Bracers (heroic) and Crypt Keeper's Bracers are your best in slot plate items. They drop from the Blood Princes in Icecrown Citadel. Heroic from hard mode of course. The really cool thing is that the 264 version is BOE and they’re not too expensive on the Auction House, which also means it’s going to be the BIS for 10 man too.

Now to complicate matters somewhat. Bracers of Fiery Night (heroic) and Phaseshifter's Bracers (heroic) are higher level items that drop from Ruby Sanctum with the Fiery night’s stats being slightly better. They’re not haste/crit items but they are essentially the best in slot for you. So what’s the issue? They’re Cloth and Leather, so you’re going to have to fight others to get them.

Bracers of Fiery Night and Phaseshifter's Bracers are your normal mode versions of the above.

Weapon:

Weapons have always been my bugbear to get. They always seem to be the one item that I personally have the most trouble getting. (They only seem to drop when I’m subbed out).

Anyway, the best in slot weapon is fairly obvious. Royal Scepter of Terenas II (heroic) and Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony (heroic) are your two best weapons you’ll get. They both drop from the Lich King 25 man hard mode.

The Royal Scepter of Terenas II and Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony are the normal mode versions of the above. They also drop from The Lich King in Icecrown Citadel.

Your 10 man best in slot is Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer which drops from The Lich King hard mode and Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer drops from the normal mode of the Lich King 10 man. Personally if you’re thinking of the normal version I’d go for Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind instead. It has better stats and it’s also easier to get. It’s a quest drop that you can easily pick up in the Auction house. The quest chain should take you about 40 minutes to complete.

Shield:

The undisputed winner in the shield category is Bulwark of Smouldering Steel (heroic) which drops from 25 man Lord Marrowgar in Icrcrown Citadel. It’s a really easy encounter so even half decent pugs should be able to do this one. Bulwark of Smouldering Steel is going to be your best for normal mode 25 mans.

Your 10 man best in slots are Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight (heroic) and Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight. They both drop from Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel with the first one from hard mode. On a side note, who names this items? I have to submit this to have one of the worst names of BIS gear in a long while.

While I hate to go down as low as heroic modes, some people are just going to have a hard time getting Sindy 10 man down in pugs. Protector of Frigid Souls can be your option that drops from Scourgelord Tyrannus in Pit of Saron.

Relics:

Now we come to relics. This is well…. Horrible, horrible, horrible. First of all, there’s so many people so concerned about their gear score they put on a relic with the highest item level. It’s just so wrong! Stop doing it. Every time I see some holy paladin applying to our guild without the best in slot relic, it just makes me want to cry.

Libram of Renewal is your best in slot. Hands down, no exception. It’s sad though that this level 200 item is still our best in slot. You get this relic from the heroism badge vendor for 15 badges. If you don’t have it, you should be shot, it’s that simple! Can I be any blunter than that?

Libram of Veracity is a pretty bad option. It rocks for the Dreamwalker encounter so you’re going to want to have one, but it’s not going to be an item that you use most of the time. You also get this from the badge vendor for 25 badges.

For you Flash of Light players out there. If you continue to maintain that Flash of Light is the way to go then you must have Wrathful Gladiator’s Libram of Justice. For that you’re going to have to do some serious PVP’ing. I suppose you could go the poor mans version of the Relentless Gladiator’s Libram of Justice but that’s just accepting defeat. In all seriousness even the Holy Light spammers should consider getting this trinket since you can change relics during combat. It can be helpful in phases where you’re pretty much only going to cast Flash of Light and then switch to Holy Light on a later phase.

Trinkets:

The problem with trinkets is that they are so difficult to compare unlike other pieces of equipment. I suppose that’s what makes them so interesting to play around with.

Unfortunately Meteorite Crystal is still your best in slot. The down side to this is the difficulty of getting this trinket. Groups aren’t going back to Ulduar to farm Algalon in 10 mans. If you get the opportunity to go and get this, it’s well worth your time.

The next best two trinkets you can get drop from Toc 25. Solace of the Defeated (heroic) and Solace of the Defeated. They drop from Lord Jaraxxus in hard mode and normal modes. Solace of the Fallen is the horde version of these trinkets with the same stats.

Outside these, you’ve pretty much have to choose your trinket based on your mana requirements. If you’re spamming Holy Light without any issues of mana you can look at switching away from your intellect trinkets. If you’re having mana issues, try working out a balance of just putting in 2 intellect trinkets.

Here is a list of trinkets that you can consider for use:
Purified Lunar Dust (badge vendor item)

Glowing Twilight Scale (heroic) and Glowing Twilight Scale from Ruby Sanctum. I'm unsure whether you can use both of these at the same time but my best guess is that you cannot. I understand that only the Toc trinkets you can wear both versions.

Talisman of Resurgence (Badge vendor item)

Pandora's Plea (from Miniron in Ulduar 25 man)

Tears of the Vanquished (TOC 5 man)

Darkmoon Card: Greatness (Comes from the nobles deck which is made through inscription. Look at the auction house for this if you have the spare gold. Should cost about 3k-4k these days)

Rings:

Ring of Phased Regeneration (heroic) would have to be the best in slot for Rings. It drops from hard mode Ruby Sanctum. The normal version is a different configuration of stats which is really odd, so the normal version is in my opinion a fairly bad ring to get. [Correction - Ring of Phased Regeneration has the same configuration of specs, which puts it in the best in slot for normal mode 25 man rings. Either the stats I saw were wrong or I totally looked at the wrong item when writing this]

Ring of Rapid Ascent (heroic) is your second best in slot for rings in hard modes. It drops from Gunship Battles in Icecrown Citadel 25 man hard mode.

This item is so easy to get. Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom is pretty much a must have and a really easy to get item. Just run Icecrown Citadel heaps, run up your reputation and you’ll get this ring from the quest guy just inside the door in Icecrown Citadel. It easily becomes the best in slot for 25 normal modes and 10 mans too.

Normal mode 25 mans it’s Ring of Rapid Ascent is your must get item. The encounter is so easy to do, every man and his dog can do the Gunship battles normal mode in Icecrown Citadel with their eyes closed… I’m sure some people in pugs actually do it with their eyes closed with the way that some play.

For everyone else, Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor is something you should pick up. With gold so easy to get there is no reason to skimp on shelling out for this item if you have rings worse. To get to the end, it should cost you in the area of 10k.

Boots:

Foreshadow Steps (heroic) are your best in slot. They drop from hard mode Ruby Sanctum 25 man. Foreshadow Steps also become your best in slot for normal mode 25 man loot.

Outside these two best in slots, the next best item is Protectors of Life. It’s item level 264 and they’re a crafted item. Just grab yourself 5 Primordial Saronite’s, 8 Titansteel bars and 12 Eternal Earths, find yourself a Blacksmith and get them made. These quickly become the entry level item for boots and make it not worth your time farming for anything else. If I see a Holy Paladin with any less it's hard to take them seriously.

Legs:

Unfortunately legs is a really lackluster slot for Holy Paladins and I’m torn between two items which is actually the best. It’s between Sanctified Lightsworn Greaves (heroic) and Puresteel Legplates. They are really the only two choices for this slot.

I’d have to say that the Sanctified Lightsworn Greaves (heroic) probably win out in the end due to the higher intellect count, but most people aren’t going to get these in quick time. Their heroic tokens are going to be used on their Chest, Helm and shoulders and then the legs. The next issue is that you need the normal T10 piece before you can get these so you’re going to have a useless piece of gear in your bags for the mean time. Another reason the legs win out is for the 4 piece bonus. The hands have a better option than the T10 gloves but legs don’t.

Before you get your top of the line T10 legs, you’re going to use your Puresteel Legplates. They’re a crafted item made by Blacksmiths. If you’re only playing 10 mans or easy modes get these. They’ll last you for ages. They will cost you 8 Primordial Saronite’s, 12 Titansteel bars and 20 Eternal Air’s but they’re well worth it.

Belt:

Split Shape Belt (heroic) is your best in slot item, unfortunately it’s Mail so you’re going to have to share it with the non-plate casters. This drops from Ruby Sanctum 25 man hard mode. There is a normal mode version of Split Shape Belt and it is nice too.

Surrogate Belt (heroic) is your best in slot for 10 mans. It drops from hard mode Ruby Sanctum 10 man.

After that Belt of the Lonely Noble is your go to belt. It’s a BOE that drops from trash. In fact it drops so often and there’s so few people who use it it’s probably the second cheapest 264 BOE on the auction house. There’s no reason to look any lower than this item.

Gloves:

Fallen Lord's Handguards (heroic) is your best in slot for gloves. It drops from Lady Deathwhisper in 25 man Icecrown Citadel hard mode.

Sanctified Lightsworn Gloves seem to be a really bad option for gloves. With the fact that there are better options available the gloves just don’t really make the cut.

After that you really only have two choices depending on which way you’re going to get them.

You could go the route of Fallen Lord's Handguards which drop from normal Lady Deathwhisper normal 25 man in Icrcrown Citadel

…or you can go the badge gear route. Gauntlets of Overexposure which will cost you 60 Frost badges to get will last you until you get your best in slot item. I personally went the badge option a long time ago. I’ve been running Icecrown Citadel from the week it came out and I haven’t seen the plate gloves drop from Lady Deathwhisper. She must be one stingy girl.

From Cèlèstial:
"Hey mate, your guide looks great. It would have been different from mine (where Haste/Mp5 would be preferred). If you think it's worth it you could maybe mention the Mp5 alternatives or something along those lines. Many players will think that the BiS list will limit them and they may pass on gear that has the potential to be much better. It's up to you though, and we can discuss it further if you believe it's a good idea."

While I didn't include the haste/mp5 gear, Celestial's a great player and well worth listening to his wise words.

You’ll notice that if there’s a vendor badge option or a crafted option I don’t go any lower. If you want to be cheap (or too poor) on the gold or don’t want to put in the time to farm badges then you’re on your own to find out where you get your upgrades!

Well that’s it for the best in slot guide. I hope you can now make an informed decision on to which upgrades you’re going to spend your hard earned DKP on and which items you’re going to pass on.

Best of luck in raiding, I wish you the best!

Healing in 3.3: Healing Meters

How are we going on the healing meters in 3.3?

We're going fine on the meters at the moment. If you're running holy/ret, you're doing better than your holy/prot counterparts.

Obviously, Holy Light spamming is thrashing Flash of Light healers considerably on the meters.

You'll often find good, skilled Holy Paladins who are willing to push their edge out healing the other healing classes quite easily. As per usual, the good Holy Paladin's that are putting in a lot of effort are being rewarded.

It does feel like we're losing our edge a little as the class that can top the meters even when under geared.

The Paladin's that are coming out well are those who play holy/ret, keep Beacon of Light active on the main tank, also keep their Judgements of the Wise active, stack their gear heavily with Intellect and casting a lot of Holy Light's on the melee or other groups that are bunched up. A lot of pro-active stuff and continual casting. If you're doing it right, you'll get RSI soon enough

Those who are sitting around waiting for damage and then casting their spells, they're getting left behind in the dust.

If you're not consistantly in the top 2 on the healing meters (especially in pugs) then you're seriously doing something wrong and it's time you thought on how to pick up your game.

Last edited by Dejavu (2010-08-26 13:06:20)