Raiding Guide Overview

In this guide you'll find everything you need to know to prepare you for raiding as a Holy Paladin in Dragonflight. The first few sections cover the basics: talents, stat weights, gear, etc. Once you get a hang of all that, we'll dive into more advanced information like playstyle, spell priorities, and much more. If you already know the basics or want to skip to a specific section, use the header navigation to go directly to the part of the guide you're interested in.

Just a bit about myself, my gamer name is Ellesmere and I'm known for pushing world first keys as a Holy Paladin. I've played in many of Blizzard's most competitive tournaments including multiple MDI Global Finals and Great Pushes, as well as competing in the Race to World First as a healer for BDGG. If you're curious about my current ranks on live you can view my Raider IO page.

Watch the Stream
Join the Discord
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 what makes Holy Paladin a strong pick for raiding? Let's dive into what sets us apart and keeps us consistently in the meta for progression raiding guilds.
Strengths
Damage Reduction|
Free Damage|
Tank Healing|
Mana Efficiency|
Utility
Our raid wide DR (Damage Reduction) cooldown Devotion Aura is one of the biggest reasons having at least one Holy Paladin on your raid team is important. Not only do we grant a passive 3% DR to everyone, but the on use 15% DR is one of the most powerful healer cooldowns in the game. Don't underestimate how much damage this prevents when used at the right time.
Another one of our core strengths in raid is our ability to do free damage. We're one of the few healers that use dps abilities to heal (crusader strike, hammer of wrath, judgment when talented and high melee damage when not casting). Bringing some extra damage makes a world of difference on many progression fights when you're trying to beat phases or certain mechanics.
Never underestimate how valuable Beacon of Light is in raid. Having a healer that passively replicates half their healing into the tank allows the other healers to hard focus them less and focus on raid healing more. We may not be considered true tank healers, but Beacon allows us to provide huge amounts of tank healing without ever even casting a heal on them.
Mana efficiency was a big staple for us in BFA and it has held over going into Shadowlands despite the increased mana cost to Crusader Strike. With 9.1's further mana increases to Crusader Strike, we may not be quite as carefree as we have been in the past with our mana, but we're still far more efficient then most healers.
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 unique way to handle raid mechanics that other healers can't.
Weaknesses
Cooldown Reliance|
Melee Healer|
Low Mobility
Our biggest downfall is often that we're TOO reliant on our cooldowns to do meaningful throughput in raid. One of the largest learning curves of raid healing as a paladin is figuring out how and when to use your cooldown windows and how to maximize throughput outside of wings.
Holy Paladin is the only true melee healer and because of that it can sometimes force your raid comp to run less melee to accomodate you. This can especially be an issue on fights that are very melee unfriendly (Il’gynoth, for example).
Mobility has historically always been an issue for Holy Paladins and Shadowlands is no different. Fortunately there is a finesse conduit that will help a lot with this issue by increasing the duration of Divine Steed, so definitely check that out!
Best Race for Holy Paladin in Raid

In general, the throughput difference between races is very minimal sotypically speaking just choose whichever one you like this best! Alliance seems to have some of the stronger racials for raiding at the moment, but obviously has a much smaller playerbase.

Blood Elf
Remove a beneficial effect from enemies and generate Holy Power
Blood Elf has been the best horde race for Holy Paladins for a very long time, and that won't change any time soon as Arcane Torrent now generates Holy Power. Top that off with a passive 1% crit buff and, most importantly, the best transmogs in WoW.. what's not to love?
Tauren
Briefly stun all nearby enemies
Although non Blood Elf races are much less common for Paladins, Tauren is still a great pick if for any reason you don't want to play a Blood Elf. You won't find much use out of the active racial in raid, but the passive crit bonus is nice.
Zandalari Troll
Concentrate to heal quickly over a short time
As a last option if you dislike both Blood Elves and Taurens, Zandalari Troll does bring something fairly unique although definitely not as strong. The self heal they have is very powerful but has to be channeled and breaks if taking damage.
Human
Instantly clear all stun effects on yourself
The active racial for Humans is typically not very useful in raid, but their passive is so strong that they continue to be the most meta race for Holy Paladins. The reputation bonus is also really nice to have early on in an expansion!
Lightforged Draenei
Deal mighty holy damage to an area
Lightforged Draenei's active is definitely more useful then humans, providing a large burst of AoE that can be very helpful in certain raid encounters. That being said, their main passive is significantly weaker since it only occurs if you die... which hopefully isn't happening too much!
Dwarf
Removes all harmful effects and reduces damage taken
Dwarf definitely has the strongest active racial, but if you're Kyrian covenant for raid (which you should be), you'll already have access to something very similar with the Phial you get from your covenant ability Summon Steward.
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.

Holy Power Builders
Holy Shock (HS)
Heals an ally or damages an enemy
Generates 1 Holy Power
This is our core ability and should always be your highest priority to use on cooldown. Holy Shock is insant cast, costs low mana, generates Holy Power, procs our Infusion of Light passive and can be used for either healing or damage. With the Glimmer of Light talent, it's even more important as it applies a buff that damages enemies or heals allies every time you cast another Holy Shock.
Crusader Strike (CS)
Damages an enemy in melee range
Generates 1 Holy Power
Regardless of which talent setup you run, Crusader Strike is our most consistent way of generating Holy Power as it has a very low cooldown. The only downside is that it does no healing and it requires you to be in melee. With the Crusader's Might talent, Crusader Strike becomes even more important, as it is used to reset the cooldown on Holy Shock.
Hammer of Wrath (HoW)
Damages an enemy below 20% health
Generates 1 Holy Power
This ability is only usable when you have Avenging Wrath (Wings) active, or when an enemy is below 20% health. When it is available, you should always prioritize this for Holy Power generation as it will do massive damage and costs no mana.
Beacon of Light (Beacon)
Heals on allies also heal your beacon target
Generates 1 Holy Power**
Beacon of Light is completely free to cast and provides huge passive healing to whichever target you keep it on. Typically you should always have this on the tank taking the most amount of damage. **Casting Holy Light or Flash of Light on your Beacon of Light target will generate 1 Holy Power.
Holy Power Spenders
Word of Glory (WoG)
Heals an ally for a large amount
Costs 3 Holy Power
As your strongest single target heal, this is going to be what you spend your Holy Power on to spot heal heavily injured targets. If lots of players are damaged and no one is in immediate threat of dying, use your Holy Power on Light of Dawn instead.
Light of Dawn (LoD)
Heals 5 allies in front of you
Costs 3 Holy Power
This is our directional AoE smart heal. As mentioned in the Word of Glory description, if you can get full benefit out of LoD on at least 4 targets, it will always be the more efficient way to spend your Holy Power.
Shield of the Righteous (SotR)
Deals damage to all nearby enemies
Costs 3 Holy Power
This is our Holy Power "Dump" ability which does AoE damage and increases your armor. It's important to note that this ability is OFF the Global Cooldown (GCD) meaning you can use it in between your other abilities. Only use this in raid if you know there is no damage coming out soon and you have full Holy Power.
Other Core Abilities
Judgment
Deals damage and debuffs an enemy
Judgment is our main single target damaging ability and should be used on cooldown if you're running the Judgment of Light talent. If you run Holy Prism instead, this ability will not help your healing at all but still provides a lot of single target damage so it remains a good use of a GCD.
Light of the Martyr (LotM)
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 the mana cost is very low, making it a strong choice for emergency spot healing outside of wings or during heavy movement.
Holy Light (HL)
Heals an ally (slow cast)
Holy Light is a slow, hard cast single target heal and should also be what we use most of our Infusion of Light procs on. Use this mainly for tank healing when you have an Infusion proc and only the tank is taking damage. Casting this on your Beacon target will generate 1 Holy Power.
Flash of Light (FoL)
Heals an ally (fast cast)
Flash of Light should only ever be used in emergency situations where you need immediate healing, have no Holy Power, Holy Shock is on CD and you're too low health to Light of the Martyr. Just like Holy Light, casting this on your Beacon target will generate 1 Holy Power.
Consecration
Deals damage to all enemies within the effect
Keeping consecration down will provide a fairly substantial dps increase, but offers no boost to your healing so it is definitely lower on the priority list for raiding. Still, any time you can spare the GCD this will help your overall damage a fair amount, even on single target.
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.
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 raid healing will come from increasing your uptime and learning how to manage this cooldown properly.
Divine Toll (Kyrian)
Instantly cast Holy Shocks on 5 allies or enemies.
*Only available with the Kyrian covenant* Divine Toll is equally strong in raid as it is in Mythic+, providing you with a very low cooldown massive AoE heal that synergizes incredibly well with our Glimmer of Light talent.
Aura Mastery (Devo)
Provides damage reduction to nearby allies.
This raid wide 15% damage reduction is often stronger then any other healers throughput cooldowns. Timing your Aura Mastery correctly in a fight is one of the most important things to do as a Holy Paladin in raid.
Holy Avenger (HA)
Triples your Holy Power generation for 20 seconds.
Because of its 3 minute cooldown, its strength in raid has been lowered by a fair amount. It's still extremely strong when paired with wings, but should only be taken if your raid needs extremely high burst healing/damage for a specific boss strategy.
Divine Shield (Bubble)
Makes you immune to all attacks and spells for 8 seconds.
Having an immunity is one of the best parts of being a Holy Paladin in raid. There are many strategies you can use to trivialize mechanics with immunities, so having a healer that can do it is really strong.
Blessing of Sacrifice (Sac)
Reduces an allies damage taken by 30%, you take 75% of the damage prevented.
This is a great way to mitigate incoming damage on a tank or an ally and should be used frequently to prevent deaths to large single target damage intakes.
Now that we've gone over the basics, let's jump into the best covenant and soulbind choice for raid.