Hello there Paladins, as well as other classes that want to learn about Holy Paladins. Throughout this article, I will cover every spell a Holy Paladin would ever use in any sort of PvP situation. Since a lot of players are at the beginner level, I’ll explain what each ability does and how or when it should be used.

Healing Spells

Holy Light

[Holy Light] Is truly the “new” heal that paladins got with Cataclysm. If you think about it, [Divine Light] is what Holy Light used to be, therefor, Holy Light being a slow 2.5 base cast that heals for very little, is the new healing ability. Generally, you will not use this heal outside of 2v2 very much because it’s just too slow and doesn’t heal for enough to be worth the time spent trying to get a cast off. If you kill a Shadow Priest’s Shadowy Apparition, Holy Light will be worth using for one cast thanks to [Crusade].

Divine Light

[Divine Light] is the strongest and overall best heal Holy Paladins have in their arsenal. It’s just as slow as Holy Light, but it heals for almost 3 times as much. It’s capable of healing for twice as much as [Flash of Light], while only costing about a thousand more mana. Also, if you’re able to get this spell off and have it be a critical, you might not even have to cast another heal for a few seconds, allowing you to regenerate some mana or get some [Cleanse]ing off.

Flash of Light

[Flash of Light] is the fastest, without procs, heal for Holy Paladins though it is the most expensive if it’s being spammed. So you have the best healing per second vs. worst mana per second heal. If you’re unlucky with [Infusion of Light] procs, Flash of Light will usually save the day or at least keep you in the game until you can get a big Divine Light off.

Holy Radiance

[Holy Radiance] is a new Area of Effect heal that came with Cataclysm. You’ll probably never want to use it for its healing component, but combined with the [Speed of Light] talent, it is great for getting into a different positions on the map and getting away from your opponents with Hand of Freedom.

Word of Glory

[Word of Glory] is also new with Cataclysm. It’s a “free” heal manawise, but it uses Holy Power Charges, which are basically Combo Points gained from using Holy Shock or from using Divine Light or Flash of Light. It also heals for about the same as a Flash of Light while being an instant and has a small chance to not even cost any charges of Holy Power thanks to [Eternal Glory].

Holy Shock

Holy Shock is a very low cost instant heal, though it only heals for about 7500-8000 in decent gear. It took a hard nerf in the Cataclysm beta because [Infusion of Light] makes Divine Light so strong. Holy Shock should pretty much be used on cooldown because Infusion of Light lasts for 15 seconds allowing a window of opportunity to get a big heal off.

Utility Spells

Beacon of Light

[Beacon of Light] basically makes you heal for 50% more all the time. Whatever target you cast it on gets 50% of the healing you healed your current target for, unless that current target has the beacon on them. When combined with the [Tower of Radiance] it gives you charges of Holy Power when you cast Divine Light or Flash of Light on your beacon target which lets you get zero mana Word of Glory heals.

Aura Mastery

[Aura Mastery]  is a saving grace when you’ve fallen on bad times in a PvP fight. Combined with concentration aura, it prevents you from getting interrupted via silences and interrupts for 6 seconds. I very strongly recommend macroing this spell into a Flash of Light macro that will use both at the same time. You don’t want to waste a split second not casting since Aura Mastery is off the global cooldown and doesn’t cause one. Be aware that Aura Mastery does NOT make you immune to stuns or any other form of crowd control, so expect incoming CC if you use Aura Mastery.

Guardian of Ancient Kings

[Guardian of Ancient Kings] Doubles your healing output for 5 heals. It doesn’t work with Holy Radiance or your Beacon of Light healing. Keep in mind that if your heal is absorbed by a Necrotic Strike, it doubles the heal that wasn’t absorbed, which can be 0. Combined with a Infusion of Light procced Divine light, you can possibly do an 80,000 burst heal thanks to this spell. This spell is great for topping teammates off in a bad situation or when you know you will only be able to get one heal off and your partner is low on health.

Hand of Freedom

[Hand of Freedom] is a spell that is usable while stunned, and cycloned, that makes the target immune to slows and roots for 6-10 seconds, based on if you have the Guardian’s Favor talent or not. If you’re getting focused, it’s smart to use this spell 1.5 seconds before a stun is going to end so you can use Holy Radiance to run away as soon as the stun breaks.

Hand of Sacrifice

[Hand Of Sacrifice] transfers damage from the target it’s cast on to the paladin. You should use this while spells like Polymorph are being cast on you or while a partner is taking obscene amounts of damage. Since it is spell steal able and dispelable, I recommend using it while the Polymorph is being cast rather than 3+ seconds beforehand.

Divine Plea

[Divine Plea] is a 2 minute cooldown mana restore ability all paladins have that also reduces healing output by 50% I recommend using this spell when you know you don’t have to heal for a little bit, or if you know you’re going to be crowd controled for an extended period of time.

Avenging Wrath

[Avenging Wrath], commonly called “Wings”, lets you do 20% more damage and healing for 20 seconds with a 3 or 2 minute cooldown based on if you have the Paragon of Virtue talent or not. It’s off the global cooldown and I also recommend binding it into another spell because of its off GCD status. I bind mine into Hammer of Wrath.

Seal of Justice

[Seal Of Justice] lets you keep a target at 100% movement speed after you melee them and they have no spell shield up. It’s a bit backwards in logic, but it’s decent to slow down druids and shamans so your partners can stick on them better.

Divine Favor

[Divine Favor] Is great for helping you get more Infusion of Light procs because it ups your crit rate by 20% and lowers your GCD by a little bit. It’s best used when there’s a lot of pressure incoming and you need to keep up with it while not wanting to spend too much time casting.

Divine Protection

[Divine Protection] is basically a small shield wall, only 20%, that’s off global cooldown. I recommend binding this into things like Battlemaster’s trinket/Health Stone macros. It only has a 40 second cooldown when you have the Paragon of Virtue talent.

Hand of Protection

[Hand of Protection] lets you save a partner from taking any physical damage or being affected by any physical ability. It’s great to take off a Rogue’s Blind on a partner or when you want your partner to be able to get a lot of spell casts off.

Cleanse

[Cleanse] lets you remove debuffs from partners, including Magic debuffs if you’re a Holy Paladin. Since it’s usable while there are no debuffs up and costs a lot of mana, you might waste some mana dispeling if you’re just mashing it, so avoid that.

Divine Shield

[Divine Shield] makes you immune to everything, except mass dispel and shattering throw, for 8 seconds. Best used defensively, Divine shield can save you from looking like a total noob, while it can also be used offensively to help keep your partners free to do damage.

Offensive Spells

Hammer of Justice

[Hammer of Justice] stuns the target for 6 seconds. It’s best used on healers to allow your partners to follow the 6 second stun with their own CC such as a fear or polymorph. I do not recommend wasting it on people who have a trinket up unless you know they will trinket and your stun will still be followed by another CC right away.

Judgement

[Judgement] does very little damage to the target, but if you have Seal of Insight on, it restores 15% of your base mana, which is around 3000. This should be used as often as possible to keep your mana decent.

Exorcism

[Exorcism] is a spammable spell that does between 3-6k damage. If you’re holy and have [Denounce], you can chain an Exorcism>Holy Shock>Exorcism>Holy Wrath for maximum damage.

Holy Wrath

[Holy Wrath] is an AOE damage spell that also stuns undead or demon targets. It’s great to use on warlock or death knight pets so you can get a Flash of Light off without being interrupted by a stun or silence.

Consecration

[Consecration] is an AOE damage of time spell that is really only used to not let a rogue get his full vanish off. In Cataclysm it costs too much mana to be used killing snakes, so you should be using Holy Wrath to kill those snakes or to get a rogue out.

Example Videos

Offensive Spell Usage:

Defensive Spell Use: