Guide Overview

In this guide you'll find everything you need to know to prepare you for playing Holy Paladin in Mythic+ dungeons. The first few sections cover the basics: BIS gear, azerite, essences, talent options, stat weights, consumables, etc. Once you know all that, we'll dive into more advanced information like dungeon specific mechanics, dangerous pulls, when you need to bring a ranged dps and why, which mechanics to use BoP for, and much more. If you already know the basics or want to skip a section, use the header navigation to go directly to the part of the guide you're interested in.

Just a bit about myself, I have pushed keys as a Holy Paladin in every season of BFA getting rank 1 US Healer in Season 3, top 5 world healer in season 2, and you can see my current io/rank here. I am also a healer for (US 5th) and we're looking forward to the next world first race in Shadowlands.

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Why Choose Holy Paladin?
As with any healer, obviously our core responsibility is to keep everyone alive, but what makes us different from the other healers, and why would you ever run a Holy Paladin over a Resto Druid in a dungeon? Let's dive into what sets us apart and makes us a strong choice for many mythic+ groups.
Strengths
Damage|
Burst Healing|
Mana Efficiency|
Damage Reduction|
Unique Utility
Our biggest strength is our ability to do large amounts of damage on command due to our strong and versatile cooldowns. This isn't just pad damage (obviously we bring that too with consecrate), our cooldowns also give us insanely high priority damage, to the point where you can keep up with most dps in your group if there isn't much healing needed. On average we should be ending keys ~10k dps overall higher then Resto Druids.
The healing we can do within our cooldown window is unparalleled in dungeons, and with the reduced cooldown from Vision and increased duration from Sanctified Wrath and Light's Decree, our uptime is increasing every season. During these cooldowns, groups can pull more aggressively then they could with any other healer. The key to success in Mythic+ is knowing how to survive through a tough pull when you don't have these cooldowns.
When played right, the Glimmer build makes us the most mana efficient healer by a mile. Mana isn't even a thing to us unless you're in combat for an eternity or smashing that flash of light button for no reason.
Our DR (Damage Reduction) cooldown Devotion Aura is another thing that makes us so strong in Mythic+. Not only do we grant passive DR to everyone, but the on use 20% DR is one of the most powerful cooldowns in the game. Don't underestimate how much damage this prevents when used correctly.
Paladins carry some of the strongest situational utility available in the game. Between Freedom, Blessing of Protection, Hammer of Justice and Blinding Light, we have a lot of special utility that can be game changing if you know when and how to use it. We are also the only healer in the game with a full immunity (Divine Shield), providing you with a safety button that other healers can only dream of.
Weaknesses
Cooldown Reliance|
No Battle Res|
Lacking Druid Utility|
Melee Healer
Our biggest downfall is often that we're TOO reliant on our cooldowns to carry us through difficult areas of dungeons. One of the largest learning curves in dungeon healing as a paladin is learning how to manage your cooldowns properly, and how to keep your group healthy outside of your cooldowns.
Not having a battle res puts us in a bit of a rough spot in mythic+, especially when Death Knights and non healer Druids aren't very popular in the meta. Fortunately, engineering has given everyone the ability to ressurect (and even gives us a knock or shield too!), but with the limited range and increased cast time on engineering res there can be times when having a real battle res would be much preferred.
One of the things that makes Resto Druid so strong is their ability to counter so many of the current affixes with their utility. For example, countering sanguine with an AoE Knock (Typhoon), necrotic by keeping mobs slowed/grouped with Ursol's Vortex which allows your tank to kite, raging with Soothe, and much more. Until affixes are overhauled in Shadowlands, Druid utility will remain in the meta.
Because we're considered a melee for many dungeon mechanics, if there's a ranged specific mechanic in a dungeon and you don't have a ranged dps, it will just pick a random target. So in a dungeon like Siege of Boralus when the first boss fixates a ranged player, if you're running without a ranged dps the boss will fixate on a random melee. This limits our group comp to requiring a ranged dps for certain dungeons.
The take away from this should be that Holy Paladin is still a very strong choice for Mythic+, but if you want to make the most of it you need to have the right comp around it (this generally means bringing a ranged dps).
Best Tanks to Play With
Prot Warrior
Best Mitigation
The more damage the tank can mitigate, the more you can focus on dps, and right now prot warriors mitigation is unrivaled.
Highest damage
Prot Warrior and Holy Paladin is the best healer / tank combo available for speed.
Rallying Cry
Devotion Aura + Rallying Cry allows you and your group to live through almost any mechanic in the game.
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Extreme Self Healing
Their self healing is so strong that most of the time you don't even have to worry about tank healing.
Sigil of Chains
Because they bring an AoE grip/slow, the need for druid utility like Typhoon and Ursols is significantly lessened when running with a DH.
Magic Damage Buff
The 5% damage buff Demon Hunters provide is typically a very large increase to the overall damage of your group.
Guardian Druid
Druid Utility
Guardian's bring almost everything that you lack: Ursol's, Typhoon, Battle Res, Soothe, CC, etc.
Groupwide Mobility
Don't underestimate Stampeding Roar. It's especially strong for Holy Paladins since we lack mobility.
Strong Mitigation & Healing
They don't mitigate as well as Warriors, and don't heal as well as DK's, but they're a solid in between.
Best Ranged to Play With
BM Hunter
Binding Shot
Binding shot makes up for your lack of Typhoon and Ursol's Vortex. It is one of the strongest utility spells for both tank kiting and mob grouping.
Soothe
Since you don't have soothe, running with a hunter is extremely helpful for the Raging affix and any dungeons that require a soothe.
Mechanics Slave
Hunters are the only non caster ranged, making them perfect to do all the ranged mechanics you can't, without losing any damage.
Fire Mage
Huge Cooldowns
Fire Mage revolves mainly around their cooldowns, which often means groups will pull huge packs for them to blow up. This is perfect for Holy Paladin, as we are also reliant on our cooldown and can sync up our wings with these large pulls.
Decurse
Mages bring a decurse, which is the one dispel you don't have. This is only important for certain dungeons.
Balance Druid
Extreme Utility
Boomkins bring all the utility you could possibly ever dream of. They bring Typhoon for knocks, Innervate for certain mana intensive fights or long instances of combat, Trees for tank survivability, off healing if needed and of course a battle res as well.
Downside
The biggest issue with running a boomkin is that their damage output is generally much lower then their dps counterparts.
Best Melee to Play With
Outlaw/Sin Rogue
Obvious Reasons
Every Mythic+ group that wants to push needs at least one rogue due to their mass stealth ability and a host of other reasons that make them a hugely important pick for mythic+ (immunity, tricks, vanish, parry, cheat death, high damage, etc).
Stealth
Every group should always have at least one player that can stealth. Since you don't have stealth, rogue is that much more important.
Havoc Demon Hunter
Magic Damage Buff
Since you often need to run with at least one ranged (typically a caster), and most of our kit is magic damage, the 5% damage buff Demon Hunters provide is a huge increase to overall damage for your group.
Utility & Survivability
Demon Hunter's bring a lot of unique, very important utility to M+ (Darkness, Blade Dance, Insane Mobility, etc). You will also never find a more survivable class then Demon Hunter. Because of how much they self heal, and how much they mitigate with Blur/Blade Dance, you'll rarely need to heal a Demon Hunter.
Unholy Death Knight
Huge Cooldowns
Like Fire Mage, Unholy also revolves mainly around their cooldowns, which again means we can sync up our cooldowns for large pulls.
Grip
Since we don't have Typhoon, having a grip is very useful for Sanguine weeks and just grouping mobs in general.
Battle Res
Having at least one person with a real (non engineering) battle res is extremely helpful, since you don't bring one.
Important Weakauras
There are a few weakauras that make a world of difference when it comes to performing well in Mythic+.
Targeted Spells

This weakaura will display an icon on your party frames whenever a dangerous spell is being cast on someone. This is essential for any healer who wants to push keys regardless of class, as it keeps you aware of exactly who is being targered by what so you can take preemptive action. This will also draw a red line between you and any mob that is targeting you with a dangerous ability so you can see where you're being targeted from.

ZenTracker Cooldown Tracker and Nnoggie's Party CD Front End

These are the weakauras that will display your group's cooldowns/defensives next to your party frames. The Zentracker weakaura is not used to display anything but is required to make Nnoggie's Party CD's (the weakaura that displays everything) work. You will also need the addon LibGroupInspect as both weakauras use that to track your group's cooldowns.

Mythic+ Interrupt Tracker

If you want to get better at mythic+ you absolutely have to track interrupts for your entire team. Make sure you grab this weakaura so you can help call out interrupts, or know if any dangerous cast will be going through so you can prep devo/sac/bubble.

Holy Paladin CD Ability Tracking

These are my own custom weakauras for tracking things like Wings, HA, Judgement, Holy Shock, etc. Not required but it's definitely helpful!

Mythic+ Buffs

This is another weakaura I made that checks whether you have the 3 major buffs (scrolls or real), food and flask.

New Player Section
if you know the basics of Holy Paladin

The rest of this guide requires a basic level of understanding of how to play Holy Paladin, so I'll use this section to go over some of the things you'll need to know. Holy Paladin is a very versatile healer that heavily relies on its core cooldown Avenging Wrath. Our core abilities in this build can be used for either healing or damage, so you get to choose whether you want to play more offensive or defensive.

Healing Abilities
Holy Shock (HS)
Instant - Heal an ally or damage an enemy
Holy Shock is the most important ability Holy Paladins have. It's very versatile in that it can be used for healing or for damage and is our top priority for either hps or dps. With the Glimmer of Light build, this becomes even more important as it applies a 30 second Glimmer buff that does damage to enemies and heals allies every time you use Holy Shock. It also has a 30% increased chance to crit, and when it does crit it grants you Infusion of Light which buffs your next Flash of Light by 40% (or decreases your next Holy Light cast time to 1.5 sec but you rarely use Holy Light in mythic+).
Flash of Light (FoL)
1.5 Sec Cast - Heal an ally
In Mythic+ this is your go to single target heal whenever you have an Infusion of Light proc (Infusion procs buff Flash of Light by 40%). Keep in mind this ability costs a lot of mana so it should rarely be spammed, only use it when you have an Infusion proc and don't have Avenging Wrath (Wings) active.
Light of Dawn (LoD)
Instant - Heal 5 allies in front of you
This is our go to aoe heal outside of Avenging Wrath (Wings). Prioritize this whenever 2 or more allies are injured and Holy Shock is on cooldown.
Light of the Martyr (LotM)
Instant - Heals an ally but damages you
People are often scared to use this heal since it does damage to you, but the damage dealt is fairly small and we have plenty of ways to keep ourselves alive through defensives, health pots, azerite traits like resounding protection, etc. Only use this for single target healing when you don't have Avenging Wrath (Wings) active and don't have an Infusion proc for Flash of Light.
Holy Light (HL)
2.5 Sec Cast - Heal an ally
The only time you want to use this ability in PVE content is when you have an Infusion of Light proc and you're low on mana or want to get a super quick but small heal. As we rarely have mana issues this isn't a spell you should worry about casting very often.
Damaging Abilities
Consecration
12 sec ground effect that deals damage to enemies in it
Keeping consecration down is your highest priority for dealing damage. It only costs 1 GCD and it lasts 12 seconds so it will do a huge amount of damage for a very little amount of effort. This will be where the majority of your damage in M+ comes from.
Holy Shock (HS)
Instant - Heal an ally or damage an enemy
As strong as Holy Shock is for healing, it's just as strong when used for damage. With the Glimmer build especially, holy shock becomes even stronger when used for damage as you can apply Glimmer to multiple enemies.
Judgment
Instant single target damaging ability
Judgment is our main single target damaging ability and should be used on cooldown when your group is healthy. After using Judgment on an enemy, it leaves a debuff on them that increases the damage your next Holy Shock or Crusader Strike do to that enemy by 30% so make good use of that when you can.
Crusader Strike (CS)
Instant single target damaging ability
With the talent Crusader's Might, Crusader Strike becomes so much more then just a simple damaging ability. We use Crusader Strike to reset the cooldown on Holy Shock, make sure you only use Crusader Strike if you'll get the full 1.5 second Holy Shock cooldown reduction out of it.
Major Cooldowns
Avenging Wrath (Wings)
Increases your damage, healing, and critical strike chance by 30% for 20 sec.
Wings has always been the cornerstone of Holy Paladin, it is by far our strongest cooldown and the most drastic difference in your Mythic+ play will come from learning how manage this cooldown properly.
Holy Avenger (HA)
Increases your haste by 30% and Holy Shock healing by 30% for 20 seconds.
Holy Avenger fits into the Mythic+ playstyle like a glove. If you pair it with wings, it provides the strongest burst healing and burst damage of any any healer. If you use it without wings, it still provides a very significant healing and damage boost.
Aura Mastery (Devo)
Provides damage reduction to nearby allies.
The 20% damage reduction from the active often amounts to more hps then any other healing cooldown could compare with, making this your strongest tool for handling large incoming aoe damage.
Personal Defensives
Divine Protection
Reduces all damage you take by 20% for 8 sec
This is your main defensive, which is free to cast and off the GCD. With the Unbreakable Spirit talent, it's on an extremely low 42 second cooldown so you should be using it very frequently. Any time you know any type of significant damage is incoming don't hesitate to use it.
Divine Shield (Bubble)
Makes you immune to all attacks and spells for 8 seconds.
People often think of bubble as an emergency only ability due to its 5 minute cooldown. However, because we run Unbreakable Spirit (reduces the cooldown to 3.5 minutes), bubble becomes our best ways to handle AoE healing without Wings/HA.
Now that I've gone over the basics, let's jump into the build for Mythic+