Paladin • Holy • PVE
Holy Paladin (PVE)
An elite single-target healer that keeps tanks alive through efficient, high-throughput healing and invaluable raid blessings.
Overview
Holy Paladins are the strongest single-target healers in The Burning Crusade and are a cornerstone of every successful raid. They specialize in keeping tanks alive through extremely efficient, high-throughput healing and are unmatched when it comes to sustained single-target output. With powerful cooldowns, exceptional Mana efficiency, and invaluable raid-wide buffs, Holy Paladins are essential in both raids and heroics and are almost always assigned to main-tank healing.
Strengths
Best Single-Target Healer in TBC
Holy Paladins excel at tank healing, offering unmatched single-target throughput with minimal setup time and extremely reliable casted heals.
Exceptional Mana Efficiency
Thanks to Illumination and powerful spell coefficients, Holy Paladins can downrank spells and sustain healing output longer than any other healer.
Strong Scaling with Gear
Holy Guidance allows Holy Paladins to scale extremely well with Intellect, turning gear upgrades directly into increased healing power.
Powerful Utility & Cooldowns
Blessings, Auras, Lay on Hands, Divine Shield, and Divine Intervention provide unmatched raid utility and wipe recovery options.
High Survivability
Plate armor, defensive cooldowns, and immunity effects make Holy Paladins among the hardest healers to kill in PvE.
Weaknesses
No True AoE Healing
Holy Paladins lack raid-wide healing tools, making them poorly suited for heavy AoE damage situations.
Limited Instant Casts
Outside of Holy Shock and Lay on Hands, Holy Paladins rely almost entirely on casted heals.
Restricted Mobility
Movement-heavy encounters can be challenging due to reliance on hard-casted spells.
Narrow Healing Toolkit
Healing gameplay often revolves around a small number of spells, resulting in a less varied rotation than other healers.
Races
Alliance
Draenei
BiSHeroic Presence provides valuable hit to your party, improving group reliability while offering a free healing cooldown.
Horde
Blood Elf
Arcane Torrent offers Mana restoration and an AoE silence, making it the strongest Horde option by default.
Draenei — Best Alliance Utility
Heroic Presence provides 1% hit to your party, allowing DPS to optimize gear more easily. Gift of the Naaru adds a situational heal-over-time. Best for: Party utility, coordinated raid groups
Human
The Human Spirit provides additional Spirit, offering minor mana regeneration benefits. Perception is useful in PvP and niche PvE scenarios. Best for: PvP flexibility, minor regen gains
Dwarf
Stoneform provides armor and removes bleeds, poisons, and diseases. While situational in PvE, it shines in PvP encounters. Best for: Survivability, PvP
Blood Elf — Only Horde Option
Arcane Torrent provides a Mana restore and AoE silence, helping mitigate mana issues and prevent incoming damage from casters. Best for: Mana control, caster interruption