Was browsing the WoW paladin class forums and saw this guide, very informative. Still relevant even if patch 3.1 hits although its written for 3.0.7 content.
Written by Absol of Skywall, this guide covers stuff like gylphs, blessings, stats and DPS rotation.
Ouch! So much for praying for more flexible, versatile (READ: AOE) heals. Instead the latest patch notes restricts our ability even more.
With Sacred Shield limited to only one target, a paladin healer’s capability is reduced. My method is usually to Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield the Main Tank and then cast Sacred Shield on another raid member, normally the target i’m assigned to heal or an offtank. This way damage mitigation is provided on both raid members and increased healing from the crit bonus of Sacred Shield. Heck if you’re adventurous you can cast it on several raid members. Sacred Shield was somewhat our answer to AoE healing, sure it didn’t heal but it provided protection which benefitted the raid.
Seasoned/geared paladin healers probably loathe this change. When you have the gear, critical chance isn’t an issue anymore. Geared holy paladins have nearly 40% or more critical chance, which is more than needed. The essential factor in raids is that your heals are reaching the tank in time. This is the reason Infusion of Light was so effective, it addressed one of the disadvantage of paladin healing, Casting.
Even if your Holy crits heal for 20000, it wouldn’t matter if the boss hits your tank 0.1 second before your heal reaches the tank.
Infusion of Light was a emergency button for us paladins. Divine Favor, Holy Shock and then a Holy Light to save a tank from being killed.
It’s hard to balance PvP and PvE, that’s understandable. But it sucks when such changes happened.