Holy light builds VS Flash light builds.

Inspired by Ophelie of The Bossy Pally i am going to post the long time due HOL VS FOL+SS builds.


I've been a FOL+SS fan from the start of this expansion, thats how i rolled in TBC, my first Heroic dungon, and thats how i started doing TOC 10.
Untill i got into the guild that i am currently in, Lets Go Burgling.

I've done a couple of TOC 25 man pugs before, i saw the need of HOL spam in some fights, but the first time i stepped into TOGC 10 or 25, i knew that FOL+SS spec won't work, thankfully, i had my stand by Holy build spec and gear, so i equiped them.

qouting from Ophelie, because she can spell better than me:

So, um, what are these Builds you speak of?

As the names imply, a Holy Light build revolves around using Holy Light (HL, big heal) as your primary spell and a Flash of Light revolves around using Flash of Light (FoL, little heal) as your primary spell. The Holy Light build is what you’ll see most often in PvE, with Int Gems in every socket save one to activate the meta gem. The key is to this build is to have enough mana to pump out a lot of strong, toe-curling, in yo’ face heals for the whole fight. You’ll still use the Flash of Light spell, but your gear is tuned towards using Holy Light as much as you need to. The Flash of Light build is one you’ll see occasionally, but not as often. Spell Power gems all over with some haste and mp5 gems to get every ounce of Spell Power socket bonuses. The point is to make Flash of Light a powerful, nearly instacast spell. It also gives Sacred Shield some extra oomph, although never having seen an FoL pally in action, I couldn’t tell you exactly how much oomph that is.

Are there talent builds that are connected to each type?

Not exactly. There are two common specs for PvE as a paladin, the “crit spec” (holy/ret to get Conviction and sometimes Sanctity of Battle) and the “bubble spec” (holy/prot to get Divine Sacrifice). The crit spec has advantages for both types of play, maximum mana return due to crit (always good) and extra output for a FoL spec. Bubble spec, however, gives you the glorious Divine Sacrifice and delightful reduction on the hand of protection CD. Utility is important as a paladin, if you’re not making yourself useful, you fall into the paladin cliché who does nothing but spam 1-2 spells the entire time. Whats the fun in that?

Many holy paladins actually have both specs and swap between them depending on the fight. If you don’t have an offspec you frequently use, this is a great option.

Glyphs, on the other hand, change depending on whether you want to go FoL or HL:

Holy Light Glyphs
1- Glyph of Holy Light
2- Glyph of Seal of Wisdom
3- Glyph of Divinity, Glyph of Flash of Light, Glyph of Beacon of Light or Glyph of Holy Shock (all depending on your style and raid environment)

Flash of Light Glyphs
1- Glyph of Flash of Light
2- Glyph of Seal of Light
3- Personal Choice

After reading all about ICC instance, and the ''Chill of the throne'' debuff that everyone will be having, i am advicing EVERY Paladin to go HOL spam, tanks will have less dodge, and thats less avoidance, not to mention that bosses hit harder, you'll have to consider your mana though, if you are below 31k unbuffed, you'll have some troubles with getting mana back, even with Divine Plea.
Gem int, and keep some haste and most importantly, crit.
forget about the MP5 that Blizz is fooling us with, its not worth it.
feel free to check my armory, Almaster of Arthas, i am usually using holy light build with crit from Ret tree.

Feel free to throw a comment, if you need more explination.

Shared Topic: Best Change to the Game

The new shared Topic i picked for my readers today, is this one from Bloz Azeroth

Many things have changed and improved within the game between Vanilla, BC & Wrath. Which change that Blizzard released, made a fundamental difference to your gaming experience?

A possible expansion to this topic would be what really irritates you that they still haven't gotten around to fixing?

Best Change to the game?
Dual spec, hands down.

nothing effected players in all aspects of the game like dual spec, all hybards were reqired to respec mostly every day, sometimes twice a day, it was a major loss in gold, and the reason people used to farm so much.

Is dual spec the only good change to the game? no way, is it perfect? hell no.
I have 3 holy specs (1 PVP, 1 holy bubble spec holy/prot, 1 holy crit spec holy/ret)
1 tanking spec, and when i need to farm rep or something, i have a ret spec.

a shout out for Blizz, Gimmme 5 dual specs. kkthnxbai.

I would like to mention all the changes that i liked in this game, changes from Vanilla to TBC to WOTLK.

First change everyone noticed in this game, going from 40 man raids to 25 man raids, this was so sweet, that when i heared about it i started doing my victory dance and shouting Fuck yeah!
carrying many bads, starting the fights with 40 man and ending with only 20 that knows how to play, and just the thought of 40 people talking in vent. bad.
waiting for 40 people to log online for a raid. bad.

2nd change that i really liked, professions being actually helpful for people, on my warrior in vanilla wow, i had enchanting and blacksmithing, enchanting for d/eing items only, with a skill of 25 (back then, at skill of 25, you can disenchant everything from greens to epics) and blacksmithing, just because of my thoughts of the warrior being able to craft plate items.
in TBC, i changed enchanting to mining, since they fixed enchanting to actually increase your skill to be able to disenchant items, blacksmithing was really helpful.
the 2h and 1h weapons you could craft was awesome, and you can upgrade then while you progress, that was a really cool idea from blizz.

3rd change i liked? BOA items, with the 20% xp from killing monsters and completing quests, its awesome, the reason i didn't have many alts back in TBC and vanilla was because i hate doing 1 million quests in 1 area, i like to change areas every now and then.

4th change, Haste, for both melee and casters, the haste stat is wonderfull, and i am pretty sure everyone loved it.

the things that should have changed, chinese farmers, wait, i am not racist, i just dont like to see a lvl 80 BE going underground or flying and getting my mining nod, i just hate it.
and when you make a ticket or e-mail Blizz about it, they'll tell you that they are invistegating about it, and ofcourse, the next day you will find the same BE getting your nods! damn them farmers!


Now, the best changes that i liked for a paladin, from Vanilla to TBC to WoTlK.

1- Sacred shield, plus the effect of SS with FOL, the hot, its really HOT!
2- Beacon of light we really needed it, especially in WOTLK where you will need 2 tanks for a boss, or 2 tanks for 2 bosses, heal one to heal the other = win!
3- Blessing of kings not being in talent, i loved it!

I'd really love to see MP5 really working for Holy paladins, and would love to see Ret paladins with skills other than Jong.

that would be the end of my post today, i know i've been slacking with the posts recently, but as Gnomergaddon said in his post, Palading blogs are boring, they only have 2 healing spells!

The Not So Useless Little Spell, After All!

In the past few weeks, i remembered a spell that most of the paladins have forgotten, i didn't actually think much to remember it, i was in an arena game with my best RL friend Headstab and there was a team of a ret paladin and a DK, they were both is PVE gear, but once they see my rogue friend, they pop everything on him and kill him before i can cast a spell, BOP him, or even say what the f...

I remembered back in the days when we were in Kara, on my troll warrior, just started that place, and we were stuck at Maiden of Virtue when we had our first Paladin to hit 70, he was asked by the GM to put Hand of Sacrifice on me before she do her Repentance.
so the next game we faced those 2 guys, i used it on Headstab before he jumps in, and WOW, alot of changes, while Headstab kills the ret Paladin, i was able to keep him up, of course with a big help of my Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light, healing him and i'm getting healed so i wont die from the Hand of Sacrifice.

After that, i started using it much more, on bosses who hits like a truck, either using it and using beacon of light, or using it and bubble, and it worked perfetly, so my advice to all those Holy Paladins out there, don't be a nub and forget all about it, i swear i didn't even have it on my UI, i had to search for it for 1 min to find it :(.

Maexxna's enrage at 30% is a good example for it, throw Hand of Sacrifice on the tank before the web spray and bubble = insta win!
Also it works perfectly with Mr. Patchwerk at 10%, but you need to be fast with the bubble becasue those hatefuls hit for a shit ton of damage.

the spell in Protection tree, Divine Sacrifice, is also usable as a way to mitigate raid damage, and can be put in a castsequence macro as well. While I think that it's a great way to mitigate dmg in 5 and 10 mans, it diminishes in a 25 man aoe raid situation due to the number of players taking damage. It does, however, beat Hand of Sacrifice if the tank is the only one taking damage at the time.