Healing Builds: Holy/Prot vs Holy/Ret
This build hereis the typical 51 points spent for Holy Paladins.
Where do you put the remaining 20 talent points?
Theres two common builds for Holy Paladins these days and both have trade offs. Which build would be better for you? Let’s take a look.
HOLY(51) / PROTECTION (20)
The first build is the Holy/Protection build, which puts all 20 talent points into the Protection tree.
The main feature of this build is Divine Sacrifice, which absorbs incoming raid damage up to 150% of your Paladin’s health. When combined with Divine Shield, you are absorbing raid damage at no cost. This makes it easier for healing massive raid damage such as XT Deconstructor’s Tantrum, Kologarn’s Shockwave.
But of course there are disadvantages, Divine Shield can only be used once every 5 minutes, so you probably can use it once per fight. Also you trade 5% spell critical chance in the Retribution Tree for this spell. This brings us to the Holy/Retribution build.
HOLY(51) / PROTECTION (5) / RETRIBUTION (15)
The Retribution Build offers more utility than the Holy/Prot build with talents such as Heart of the Crusader and Conviction. Conviction offers additional 5% spell critical chance, which is substantial in healing.
SO? WHICH SPEC DO I USE?
Well, both specs honestly are equally effective, but it’s down to your preference. A heroic geared paladin prepped for raids shld have about 20% spell critical at the very least, but 25% spell critical chance is recommended for beginners who are raiding. If your raid can handle AoE damages, it’s better to use the Holy/Ret build. Or if you want a high critical holy healing build it’s obviously Holy/Ret.
Whereas some people would choose Holy/Prot because of Divine Sacrifice/ Divine Shield Bubble, which can be a raidsaver at times. It is a good emergency combo that would prevent a wipe. But they would have lower healing due to 5% loss in spell critical chance. Also, if you are highly geared and can hit 25% spell critical chance just from gear, going Holy/Prot build is a good choice.
Ultimately it comes down to your opinion which build would benefit your raid more. Some people would think having more CRIT would help raid healing more than Divine Sacrifice, whereas some find Divine Sacrifice more useful since their raid might be more subjectible to raid damage.
Try both builds and find one that fits your style and your raid composition.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
The link to your Holy/Ret Build is the same as your Holy/Prot Build. You may wanna fix that ASAP to avoid confusion. I point this out because I’m curious to see how you fill in the Ret tree for the Holy/Ret build. As one of 2 holy paladins in my current guild, I personally go for 2 points in Improved Blessing of Might as I can provide the whole range of improved blessings this way to my raid. This way, the other holy pally need only worry about giving Kings to the raid. What bothers me is that she also uses a 51/5/15 build but instead puts 2 points into Improved Judgements, and I’ve yet to understand the reasoning behind this.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
There’s really no reasoning other than the fact u just need 2 more points to reach Conviction. In raids you also have Warriors’ Battleshout which conflicts with your Blessing of Might. So some paladins put points in Improved Judgement since the AP buff is taken care of.
September 10th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I personally prefer Holy/Ret because it is more consistent. Holy/Prot gives you one ability that you can use once during a fight. What happens the 2nd time the AoE damage comes in? Also, 150% of your health isn’t that much (unless its still bugged to do more than that).
I put my two points into Improved Might. You really should never have to judge 2 seconds earlier than the cooldown.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Yea that’s some speculation on that. Some say you can use Sacred Shield to absorb more damage, or use BoP after you used Divine Shield in the next CD.
I personally take Holy/Ret as well. But Holy/Prot seems to be more helpful when your raid is more clumsy. =X