The Light and How to Swing It: 4 holy talents I want to see in Mists
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like why paladins are so awesome.
When I look at our upcoming talent tree in Mists of Pandaria, I'm not blown away. Repentance and Divine Purpose are nearly identical to the versions in the retribution tree today. Pursuit of Justice and Speed of Light have been edited slightly but fulfill the same general roles. There are definitely some new talents in the mix as well, like Holy Avenger and the new Sanctified Wrath, but many of the choices are simply repeats of existing talents.
I have a few ideas on how to fix that. With equal parts of stealing talents from other classes and coming up with brand new ones, we could liven up our options quite a bit. I want to see more dynamic healing options available, rather than yet another cooldown like Clemency to manage. We spend most of our time in the trenches, pressing Holy Light and Holy Shock until our fingers are numb. Improving holy's style of healing will go a long way toward making the class more exciting to play.
Hand of Turbo
I've shared this idea with you in the past, and I think it would still work today. Priests have the ability to give their targets a speed boost via Body and Soul's effect on their Power Word: Shield ability. I have always wanted for our Hand of Freedom spell to have the same option. Rather than tying our new Speed of Light talent to another brand new ability, which requires another spot on our action bar, tie it to Hand of Freedom. It saves us a keybinding, but that's not the best part.
It gives us a choice to make. Do we want to give ourselves a speed boost, or should we toss it on someone else? Who's going to get the biggest benefit? Players love choices, and choices make for a more varied and interesting experience.
Red Bull gives them wings
Avenging Wrath is another ability that I think we should be able to share. Priests have Power Infusion, shaman have Bloodlust, so why can't paladins help boost their raid's DPS? I would love to be able to give my wings to a DPS class to help my guild meet an enrage timer or to burst down a target quickly. It gives us another choice to make, which is always a good thing.
It also gives holy paladins a bit of offensive utility, which is something we've always lacked. We can protect our friends with Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Protection, but we've never been able to buff their damage before. A talent to allow our wings to be cast on others would give us a bit of flavor and synergy with other classes.
We need a new combo
When I first heard about the Serendipity talent, I was so jealous. I love ability combos. We have two combo-like talents today, Infusion of Light and Daybreak. Daybreak is great, which is why I was sad to see that it was missing from our talent tree in Mists. I really like the concept of Infusion of Light, but I feel like it needs to be changed to a 100% chance instead of only on crits in order to be more reliable. I don't like its current implementation, as it's essentially just a random haste proc. I'd rather know that every time I cast Holy Shock, my next heal will be faster. With that knowledge, I can make interesting new choices, like holding onto my Holy Shock for an upcoming burst phase.
Priests are able to take advantage of talents like Chakra and Serendipity, while druids enjoy the Swiftmend/Efflorescence combo. Shaman are combo masters, with Riptide and Tidal Waves creating dynamic healing options that we can only dream about.
Druids are receiving a new talent in Mists called Soul of the Forest that boosts their haste after casting Swiftmend, and I'd love to see a holy version of this talent sent our way. I know I talked a lot of trash about the Lightsworn set bonus, but the truth is that it's not an awful idea in theory. Creating a new combo for holy paladins shouldn't be too hard, as we now have a wide variety of healing abilities to draw from. It might've been difficult to design a holy paladin combo when we only used Holy Light, but that should no longer be an issue.
Pillar of Light
Holy paladins have a much wider variety of heals now than we've ever had in the past. With our new arsenal in Mists, we've got a HoT, a couple of absorbs, AoE heals, instant heals, and everything in the middle. There's only one healing category that we're missing: floor-based healing. I'm talking about persistent area heals like Healing Rain, Efflorescence, and Holy Word: Sanctuary. I don't even think that we necessarily need a floor-based heal, but it would be a cool option to have.
I've always liked the concept of mixing Lightwell with a floor-based heal, creating almost a totemic effect. We could summon a pillar of light from the sky that heals all targets nearby. The new Holy Radiance and Light of Dawn definitely fulfill all of our AoE healing needs right now, but positional healing could be fun to have in our toolbox.
What new talents would you love to see in Mists? What do you think we're lacking?
The Light and How to Swing It: Holy helps holy paladins become the powerful healers we're destined to be. Find out just how masterful mastery healing can be, gear up with the latest gear, and learn how to PvP as a holy paladin.
