09-03-2009, 07:01 PM
After doing some reading, I'm also thinking about respeccing my holy spec. There is some thought that with the higher levels of Spellpower, Int, Haste, and Natural Crit we are finding on gear, that the Ret spec is now just overkill.
There is a lot of talk about a 51/17/0 +3 build. as the way to go now.
It was put to me this way by a notable holy poster on MT-adin
I then asked if that would hold true for 10 man holy paladins, as we are generally not sporting the same levels of things as our 25 man counterparts. The response was
I sat and thought about it, and unless things are going REALLY poorly (most notably, our learning of the Beasts) I never had mana problems. If I found myself getting low, I could plea, and always had cooldowns to make up for the redux in healing.
I've never been huge on theorycrafting for holy. From the time I was leveling as prot to get to 70, everyone just always said, "keep healing gear around it's always good to have it in a pinch"". So I did. It served me well, as I was on the healing crew for the guild first kill of Vashj. But, I never "really" worked hard at learning the ins and outs of healing. I just always got the:
"This is how you gear"
"This is what you pay attention too"
"These are the spells you cast"
I'm wanting to be a better holy paladin and feel less gimped in my off spec.
So, after doing some research, I'm thinking about trying out a spec like this:
51/20/0
Some of the highlights of the spec.
1.) It would allow me to use Lay on Hands as a Proactive ability, similar to pain suppression for
XT during tantrum.
Ignis with several adds up.
Steelbreaker last.
Thorim's Unbalancing Strike as the soft enrage builds.
Vezax during his 1-minute dark rage thingy.
Full HP Immortal Guardians vs. Yogg.
Algalon just about anytime.
Gormok's Impale attack.
Anub'arak with adds up
2.) Improved Hand of Salvation. I haven't had to salv a target in a long time, but it could come in handy on fights with increased damage components.
3.) 5% more Hand of Sacrifice. I have used Hand of Sacrifice a couple of times, and with the 3.2 changes to Beacon this could be a more viable way to deal with some tank damage.
4.) 11% more throughput. Going with Divinity and Imp. Devo Aura would give me 11% more throughput all the time, and would give a Second Tree of life type healing improvement for the times when there isn't a tree around.
5.) Divine Sacrifice. The bubble + DS, while I despise it, is easier for a Holy Paladin to manage than a Ret Paladin.
6.) Divine Guardian. double duration on Sacred Shield, and 20% more absortion. This would really add nice bonuses to the ability.
7.) Reduced cooldown on Hand of Protection, and increased duration of Hand of Freedom. Again, not REAL useful, but more utility
8.) Through the use of a cast / cancel macro, 6% damage reduction through the use of Righteous Fury. This is probably very gimmicky at best, but could be used to help mitigate more damage during something like Tantrum on XT, Hodir, etc... where threat wouldn't be an issue.
There is a lot of talk about a 51/17/0 +3 build. as the way to go now.
It was put to me this way by a notable holy poster on MT-adin
Quote:With the spell power levels we are currently reaching, going into prot for Divine Guardian to increase Sacred Shield outweighs the crit build completely. Our longevity is to a point where that crit provides almost nothing significant anyway, and there is no throughput arguement to be made about a few % spell crit compared to a flat increase of a powerful absorbtion shield.
If you need burst throughput as a holy paladin you use wings or a trinket or divine favor, you dont pray for crits, particularly when our crit from gear is already so good anyway all by itsself.
A lot of holys are actually gearing for spell power and haste over endurance stats like crit and even int now, even after the regen hit this patch. There is no reason for any holy paladin who isnt massively undergeared to still be running the crit spec. You lose too much.
I then asked if that would hold true for 10 man holy paladins, as we are generally not sporting the same levels of things as our 25 man counterparts. The response was
Quote:that depends. how frequently do you find yourself running oom? If the answer is alot, are you making use of plea effectively already? (using it during all obligitory movement periods, using it preemptively early and not waiting until you have an empty tank, popping Divine Illum/wing/trinkets at once to allow heavier ssustained spamming when using it during normal healing periods)
There is a place for crit stacking, but that place is when you simply dont have the gear to maintain your output for the length of time your guild takes to kill things, for whatever reason that may be.
As far as tank survivability is concerned though, the prot spec sub-spec is clearly better. Some crit chance would never in a million years compete with a beefed and lengthened absorbtion shield and access to Dsac.
I sat and thought about it, and unless things are going REALLY poorly (most notably, our learning of the Beasts) I never had mana problems. If I found myself getting low, I could plea, and always had cooldowns to make up for the redux in healing.
I've never been huge on theorycrafting for holy. From the time I was leveling as prot to get to 70, everyone just always said, "keep healing gear around it's always good to have it in a pinch"". So I did. It served me well, as I was on the healing crew for the guild first kill of Vashj. But, I never "really" worked hard at learning the ins and outs of healing. I just always got the:
"This is how you gear"
"This is what you pay attention too"
"These are the spells you cast"
I'm wanting to be a better holy paladin and feel less gimped in my off spec.
So, after doing some research, I'm thinking about trying out a spec like this:
51/20/0
Some of the highlights of the spec.
1.) It would allow me to use Lay on Hands as a Proactive ability, similar to pain suppression for
XT during tantrum.
Ignis with several adds up.
Steelbreaker last.
Thorim's Unbalancing Strike as the soft enrage builds.
Vezax during his 1-minute dark rage thingy.
Full HP Immortal Guardians vs. Yogg.
Algalon just about anytime.
Gormok's Impale attack.
Anub'arak with adds up
2.) Improved Hand of Salvation. I haven't had to salv a target in a long time, but it could come in handy on fights with increased damage components.
3.) 5% more Hand of Sacrifice. I have used Hand of Sacrifice a couple of times, and with the 3.2 changes to Beacon this could be a more viable way to deal with some tank damage.
4.) 11% more throughput. Going with Divinity and Imp. Devo Aura would give me 11% more throughput all the time, and would give a Second Tree of life type healing improvement for the times when there isn't a tree around.
5.) Divine Sacrifice. The bubble + DS, while I despise it, is easier for a Holy Paladin to manage than a Ret Paladin.
6.) Divine Guardian. double duration on Sacred Shield, and 20% more absortion. This would really add nice bonuses to the ability.
7.) Reduced cooldown on Hand of Protection, and increased duration of Hand of Freedom. Again, not REAL useful, but more utility
8.) Through the use of a cast / cancel macro, 6% damage reduction through the use of Righteous Fury. This is probably very gimmicky at best, but could be used to help mitigate more damage during something like Tantrum on XT, Hodir, etc... where threat wouldn't be an issue.
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