Patch 3.1 Complete Paladin Talents Review Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Welcome
This is part 4 of my series on the Paladin Talents in Patch 3.1 covering aspects for the 6 types of play style. Today we will cover the Holy Tree. Lets get started.

Tier 1 Holy Talents

Spiritual Focus Ranks 1 to 5
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Flash of Light and Holy Light by 14% (28%, 42%, 56%, 70%).
Comments - This is a healing talent. More useful in pvp than pve, but still can be useful. Not handy at all for tanking or dps, unless you are doing an off heal thing, but with duel specks, why hurt yourself that way, just make a second speck that is healing.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Seals of the Pure
Ranks 1 to 5
Increases the damage done by your Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption and their Judgement effects by 3% (6%, 9%, 12%, 15%).
Comments - This is a damage increasing talent, so good for damage output and threat. Good for those that like to solo Holy as well. So if another tree is going to dip into Holy, this is the one to dip into.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 2 Holy Talents

Healing Light Ranks 1 to 3
Increases the amount healed by your Holy Light, Flash of Light and the effectiveness of Holy Shock spells by 4% (8%, 12%).
Comments - This is a CORE Healing talent as it increases the healing ability of your 3 healing spells. Not useful to tanking or dps.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Divine Intellect Ranks 1 to 5
Increases your total Intellect by 3% (6%, 9%, 12%, 15%).
Comments - This is core talent for Healing. It increases your mana pool, spell crit, and eventually the amount you heal for farther down the tree. For DPS and Tanking, this is a good choice if you are having issues with Mana or are trying to get farther in the healing tree.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Unyielding Faith
Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces the duration of all Fear and Disorient effects by 15% (30%).
Comments - While some mobs in pve fear or disorient, this talent is really aimed 100% at pvp. So this is core for healing pvp and recommended for pvp dps. Not worth it for tanking.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 3 Holy Talents

Aura Mastery Rank 1
Causes your Concentration Aura to make all affected targets immune to Silence and Interrupt effects and improve the effect of all other auras by 100%. Lasts 10 sec.
Comments - A Panic Button in the Holy Tree. Can be useful to all specks for certain situations. This is how I rank it (Remember 1 is good, 2 is recommend, 3 is core)

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Illumination Ranks 1 to 5
After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell you have a 20% (40%, 60%, 80%, 100%) chance to gain mana equal to 60% of the base cost of the spell.
Comments - This is core to the paladin healing speck. It provides mana return when you crit. Back in the day it was 100% but that was too powerful as the game evolved, so it is now 60% of mana. This is one reason Intellect is so important, giving mana and crit. However, this telant is not really useful for the other specks.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Improved Lay on Hands Ranks 1 to 2
Gives the target of your Lay on Hands spell a 25% (50%) bonus to their armor value from items for 15 sec. In addition, the cooldown for your Lay on Hands spell is reduced by 2 (4) min.
Comments - A nice talent that is another panic button reducer. Many tanks may look with favor on this talent to use on themselves to get their life to full and more armor, but with all the other abilities, it is just one more button to push. Lets rank it -

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 4 Holy Talents

Improved Concentration Aura Ranks 1 to 3
Increases the effect of your Concentration Aura by an additional 5% (10%, 15%) and while any Aura is active reduces the duration of any Silence or Interrupt effect used against an affected group member by 10% (20%, 30%). The duration reduction does not stack with any other effects.
Comments - Very nice talent for healing, pvp, even off tanking. But it is very deep in the talent tree, so we are getting close where other trees may not be able to get it. Rank it!

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Improved Blessing of Wisdom Ranks 1 to 2
Increases the effect of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 10%.
Comments - This is core to the healers. The other specks will probably giving out different blessings, but if they have a spare point or 2, they can pick it up if they are that invested in this tree.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Blessed Hands
Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces the mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation by 15% (30%), increases the effectiveness of Hand of Salvation by 50% (100%) and the effectiveness of Hand of Sacrifice by an additional 5% (10%).
Comments - I guess if you are a heavy hand user, this is a good talent for you. I see this kinda of a pvp thing along with maybe an off tank thing, possible a pve healing thing. Ranking -

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 5 Holy Talents
At this point, if you are this far down in the tree, you are really a healer, so while some of the talents may be useful for other specks, there is no way for them to get them. Lets look at the rest of these talents.

Pure of Heart Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces the duration of Curse, Disease and Poison effects by 15% (30%).
Comments - THIS IS A PVP TALENT... REPEAT... A PVP TALENT!!!!
Many of the boss encounters have special mechanics with disease, poisons, curses with penalties if they are removed too soon. One is Grobbulus, where if a paladin has this talent, it increases the difficulty of the encounter.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Divine Favor Ranks 1
When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.
Comments - I remember as a young holy paladin getting this spell. Back when Illumination gave back 100% mana, it was the free crit heal spell. Still very useful now, a core talent especially since it is a pre-req for some more talents.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Sanctified Light Ranks 1 to 3
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Light and Holy Shock spells by 2%(4%, 6%).
Comments - Do I need to even comment? More crit to your healing spells, so it means more mana back and bigger heals!!! CORE BABY!

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 6 Holy Talents

Purifying Power
Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces the mana cost of your Cleanse, Purify and Consecration spells by 5% (10%) and reduces the cooldown of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 17% (33%).
Comments - More handy in PVP, but still very usefule in PVE. Paladins are cleanse bots, so it helps with that, but in pvp, you need to still do some damage and this helps with that.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Holy Power Ranks 1 to 5
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1% (2%, 3%, 4%, 5%).
Comments - Again, this talent screams core. Crit = big heals and mana back! My only wish is that it was lower in the tree for the other specks :-p

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 7 Holy Talents

Light's Grace Ranks 1 to 3
Gives your Holy Light spell a 33% (66%, 100%) chance to reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5 sec. This effect lasts 15 sec.
Comments - This is core for PVE Healing. PVP Healing not as much, but can still be useful.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Holy Shock Ranks 1
Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 1296 to 1402 Holy damage to an enemy, or 2401 to 2599 healing to an ally.
Comments - Another spell I wish they gave to all paladins. It is a healing and damaging spell. CORE for both PVP and PVE as it provides an instant heal or another burst of damage at the last minute.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Blessed Life Ranks 1 to 3
All attacks against you have a 4% (7%, 10%) chance to cause half damage.
Comments - So since tanks cannot get this talent, this is then the choice for pvp healers and pve healers that solo... oh wait, you shouldn't be soloing as a pve healer.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 8 Holy Talents

Sacred Cleansing Ranks 1 to 3
Your Cleanse spell has a 10% chance to increase the target's resistance to Disease, Magic and Poison by 30% for 10 sec.
Comments - A good talent, paladins are cleanse monsters and it does help prevent future debuffs, but not a CORE, more of a recommend for PVE, and CORE for PVP.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Holy Guidance Ranks 1 to 5
Increases your spell power by 4%(8%, 12%, 16%, 20%) of your total Intellect.
Comments - This is a yummy talent. Again, a tie to why Intellect is the most important stat for a Healing Paladin. It now increases Mana, Crit and Spell Power!
Core talent for those wondering.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 9 Holy Talents

Divine Illumination Ranks 1
Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 sec. (3 Min Cooldown)
Comments - Not much a pvp talent as those fights are short and about burst, but a core for pve healing for those long boss fights.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Judgements of the Pure Ranks 1 to 5
Increases the damage done by your Seal and Judgement spells by 5% (10%, 15%, 20%, 25%), and your Judgement spells increase your casting and melee haste by 3% (6%, 9%, 12%, 15%) for 1 min.
Comments - This talent goes towards the thinking that paladins are in plate and should stand on the frontline, judging, doing damage and then get a haste buff to cast their heals faster. I tend to agree, and therefore, I recommend this talent for both specks.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 10 Holy Talents

Infusion of Light Ranks 1 to 2
Your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Flash of Light by 0.75 (1.5) sec or increase the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10% (20%).
Comments - So this is a very nice talent, making Flash of Light instant for pvp or even those ahhh situation in pve, or adding crit to Holy Light, over all , this is a CORE Healing Talent for both specks.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Enlightened Judgements Ranks 1 to 2
Increases the range of your Judgement of Light and Judgement of Wisdom spells by 15 (30) yards and increases your chance to hit by 2% (4%).
Comments - It used to be all judgements, making this a must for pvp and pve, but since it was nerfed, it is still a high Recommend for pve and ok for pvp. This takes you from being a front line judger, to being able to stand in the back and judge.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

Tier 11 Holy Talents
Finally the top talent, we made it!

Beacon of Light Rank 1
The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all targets within a 40 yard radius. Any heals you cast on those targets will also heal the Beacon for 100% of the amount healed. Only one target can be the Beacon of Light at a time. Lasts 1 min.
Comments - This is Core. It allows a paladin to multi heal, either themselves and a tank, two tanks, a tank and dps, two follow pvp, etc. CORE!

PVE Healing	PVP Healing

So that is the post for today. Ret tree is all that is left. In that we find damage, crit and threat. Good things again for all the specks. As always, if you think I under represented or mis represented a talent, please comment and if I agree I will update it.

On to Part 5 - The End