Overview
Your game is mana longevity and clutch cooldowns, not throughput variety. You have essentially one big heal, a Flash for topping, and a toolkit of Freedom, Sacrifice, bubble and Hand of Protection that decides whether your partner lives through a swap.
Strengths
- +Huge single-target Holy Light throughput with Divine Favor
- +Bubble (Divine Shield) is the best panic button in the game
- +Freedom, Sacrifice and BoP counter slows, DoTs and swaps
Weaknesses
- −No group heal and no real offensive pressure
- −Vulnerable to mana burn, Spell Lock and long CC chains on the paladin
Stat priority & caps (arena)
Stat caps (arena)
| Stat | Cap | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience | 490 rating | No hard cap — ~350 is the 2v2 entry point, 490+ is competitive. Reduces crit chance, crit damage and DoT damage taken. |
- Resilience: No hard cap — ~350 is the 2v2 entry point, 490+ is competitive. Reduces crit chance, crit damage and DoT damage taken.
Full gear with usage %, gems and enchants is on the Holy Paladin PvP BiS list.
Recommended talent build
41/20/0 · RaidThe 41/20 Holy raid build: Divine Illumination and Holy Shock capstones, full Illumination crit-regen, with the Protection side taking Blessing of Kings and Improved Concentration Aura — the two talents every raid expects its holy paladin to bring.
Holy
41Increases your total Strength by 2%.
Increases your total Intellect by 2%.
Gives your Flash of Light and Holy Light spells a 14% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.
Increases the damage done by your Seal of Righteousness and Judgement of Righteousness by 3%.
Increases the amount healed by your Holy Light and Flash of Light spells by 4%.
Increases the radius of your Auras to 40 yards.
Gives the target of your Lay on Hands spell a 15% bonus to their armor value from items for 2 min. In addition, the cooldown for your Lay on Hands spell is reduced by 10 min.
Increases your chance to resist Fear and Disorient effects by an additional 5%.
After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell, gives you a 20% chance to gain mana equal to 60% of the base cost of the spell. (Proc chance: 20%)
Increases the effect of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 10%.
Increases your resistance to Curse and Disease effects by 5%.
When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Light spell by 2%.
Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse, Purify and Consecration spells by 5% and increases the critical strike chance of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 10%.
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1%.
Gives your Holy Light spell a 33% chance to reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5 sec. This effect lasts 15 sec. (Proc chance: 33%)
Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 277 to 299 Holy damage to an enemy, or 351 to 379 healing to an ally.
All attacks against you have a 4% chance to cause half damage. (Proc chance: 4%)
Increases your spell damage and healing by 7% of your total Intellect.
Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 sec.
Protection
20Increases the armor bonus of your Devotion Aura by 8%.
Damaging melee and ranged attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 6%. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks. (Proc chance: 10%)
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons and spells by 1%.
Reduces the cooldown of your Blessing of Protection by 60 sec and increases the duration of your Blessing of Freedom by 2 sec.
Increases your armor value from items by 2%.
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats by 10% for 10 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
While Righteous Fury is active, all damage taken is reduced by 2% and increases the amount of threat generated by your Righteous Fury spell by 16%.
Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 10%.
Increases your Defense skill by 4.
Increases your resistance to Stun effects by an additional 5% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by an additional 15%.
Decreases the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice spell by 5 sec.
Increases the effect of your Concentration Aura by an additional 5% and reduces the duration of any Silence or Interrupt effect used against an affected group member by 10%. The duration reduction does not stack with any other effects.
All spell damage taken is reduced by 2%.
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage dealt from all sources by up to 10 for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks a melee attack the attacker will take 14 Holy damage. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.
Gives you a 2% chance after being hit by any damaging attack that the next 4 weapon swings within 8 sec will generate an additional attack. (Proc chance: 2%)
Increases your total Stamina by 3%, reduces the cooldown of your Divine Shield spell by 30 sec and reduces the attack speed penalty by 50%.
Increases all damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 1%.
Increases damage caused by your Holy Shield by 10% and increases the number of charges of your Holy Shield by 2.
Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 59 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 35% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges.
When you have less than 35% health, all damage taken is reduced by 6%.
Increases your expertise by 1 and your total Stamina by 2%.
Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing 270 to 330 Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 6 sec.
Retribution
0Increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 4%.
Reduces the mana cost of your Judgement and Seal spells by 3%.
Decreases the cooldown of your Judgement spell by 1 sec.
In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement of the Crusader spell will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1%.
Increases your Parry chance by 1%.
Gives the Paladin's damaging melee attacks a chance to reduce the target's attributes by 5% for 15 sec.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with melee weapons by 1%.
Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 sec. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing 68 to 73 Holy damage, 137 to 146 if the target is stunned or incapacitated. (1s cooldown)
Reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by 1% and increases movement and mounted movement speed by 5%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
All spell criticals against you cause 15% of the damage taken to the caster as well. The damage caused by Eye for an Eye will not exceed 50% of the Paladin's total health.
Increases the damage done by your Retribution Aura by 25%.
Increases all damage caused against Humanoids, Demons, Undead and Elementals by 1%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 2%.
Increases Holy damage done by party members within 30 yards by 10%. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.
The amount of damage caused by targets affected by Sanctity Aura is increased by 1%.
Gives you a 1% bonus to Physical and Holy damage you deal for 30 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Gives your Judgement spell a 33% chance to return 80% of the mana cost of the judged seal.
Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee attacks by 1% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33%.
Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 6 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works against Humanoids.
Melee and ranged critical strikes against you cause 4% less damage.
Increases the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 3% and reduces threat caused by all actions by 6% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury.
An instant strike that causes 110% weapon damage and refreshes all Judgements on the target.
Points are filled on each tree above — hover a talent for its tooltip; highlighted talents are the build's key picks.
Healing & cooldown priority
- 1Keep Blessing of Freedom on whoever is being trained; refresh before it drops.
- 2Cast Holy Light as your main heal; weave Flash of Light only for cheap top-offs.
- 3Divine Favor for a guaranteed-crit Holy Light when your partner is dropping fast.
- 4Hand of Protection / Sacrifice to break a swap or clear a Kidney/Cheap Shot's damage.
- 5Bubble to reset a losing position, then drink or re-position; trinket to break a stun before you die.
You win by not dying and not running dry. Pre-Freedom your kill target against melee, LoS casters to bait interrupts, and hold Divine Shield until it genuinely saves the game. Bait the enemy's interrupt with a Flash, then land the real Holy Light. Against caster cleaves, juke Spell Lock/Counterspell before every big cast.
Paladin macros
Focus macros
Focus Blessing of Freedom
Freedom your focus (your melee partner) to keep them un-kited during a burst window.
#showtooltip Blessing of Freedom /cast [target=focus] Blessing of Freedom
Focus Blessing of Protection
Bubble a focus ally to reset a melee train onto them.
#showtooltip Blessing of Protection /cast [target=focus] Blessing of Protection
Utility
Focus Cleanse
Dispel poison/magic/disease off a focus ally without target-swapping.
#showtooltip Cleanse /cast [target=focus] Cleanse
PvP addons
Full list on the Paladin addons page.
Best race (PvP)
Blood Elf is the only Horde paladin. Arcane Torrent is a free AoE silence — excellent against casters and interrupt setups.
The Human Spirit and Perception plus weapon skill make Human the best Ret/Holy PvP paladin.
More on the best race for Paladin page.
Best professions (PvP)
Common mistakes
- ✕Bubbling too late (after your partner is already dead).
- ✕Facetanking casters instead of using pillars to LoS their interrupts.
- ✕Spamming Flash of Light and going out of mana in a long game.
Best arena comps
FAQ
Is Holy the best Paladin arena spec?
Yes — Holy is the go-to arena Paladin. Retribution is playable in specific melee comps, but Holy's healing and utility make it far more common.
What comps does Holy Paladin fit?
Any melee cleave — Ret/Holy, Warrior/Holy, Rogue/Holy — where Freedom and a huge single-target heal keep the pressure partner alive. See the arena comps below.
How do I not get mana-burned out?
LoS Priests, spread from the Warlock's Felhunter, and don't panic-Flash. Bank Divine Shield to break a burn/CC chain.