You are not prepared! Holy paladins prepare for patch 4.2 and Firelands.

So, the next and greatest World of Warcraft patch 4.2 (also known as the firelands patch) is eminently upon us. It will hit within the next two weeks, my best guess (like others), is for the 21st of June. But, as with all patches, only time will really tell it could be the 28th.

Not all healers are faced with challenges and game-changers to their class, but yet again, we as holy paladins are plagued with them. Some nice mini-buffs, some massive nerfs with increased mana cost, and some which we’ll only really be sure about until they drop on live servers and we have final patch notes.

Here’s a basic guide (yay now with more lists!) of what you, oh grand holy paladin, need to know for patch day.*

* subject to changes when we get live patch notes

Holy Paladin Class Nerfs

• Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
• Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
• Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.

Ouch, this is very painful. Basically, an across the board neft of our mana with increasing the mana cost of 90% of our core heals. It makes Divine Light cost more than 1k more than it currently does on live. We have to see how it plays out, given the buffs below. But, it saddens me to see an overall class nerf change like this. <sad panda>

Holy Paladin Class Buffs

Ok now let’s look at some of the GOOD things and “happy dance” things coming for us in 4.2. We’ll heal for moarrrrrrrrr!

All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).

ALL healbots of the world rejoice in this change, it’s pretty fun seeing 60,000+ heal crits on the PTR at the moment. For some classes (oh hai disc priests), this will really change the value of crit in theorycrafting and I suspect it will be even more important due to Divine Aegis (nomnomnom bigger bubbles). For others, it’s just a general bonus to the healing we do as we do it.

Holy Shock mana cost has been decreased to 7% of base mana, down from 8%.

Anytime our mana is reduced, I have a sinking feeling it’s because they increased it somewhere else. You know, kind of like what is happening in 4.2  Right!

In practical terms what this means is that you should use HS on every single cooldown, and WoG with 3 charges every time it’s up. I use this handy-dandy Power Auras code to monitor my HS cooldown with a ticking timer, maybe it helps you too:

Version:4.20; b:0; g:0.8275; icon:Spell_Holy_SearingLight; buffname:Holy Shock; x:-5; bufftype:7; texture:118; alpha:1; PowerType:0; textaura:true; aurastextfont:4; size:1.27; y:33; inverse:true; timer.b:0.051; timer.g:0.0706; timer.h:3.23; timer.enabled:true; timer.y:44; timer.x:-29

And while I’m at it, to be sure that I use Judgement on every cooldown and maximize mana return, I use this power aura code which gives both an audible (Ilove the beep) and visual display. This will be even more important for me come 4.2 I’m affraid:

Version:4.20; icon:Spell_Holy_RighteousFury; buffname:Judgement; x:-294; bufftype:7; owntex:true; sound:23; combat:true; size:0.53; y:112

Oh hai der! We get a new mastery!

Illuminated Healing (Mastery) has been adjusted slightly so that if a paladin refreshes an existing copy of his or her own Illuminated Healing on a target, the new absorption amount will be added into the old absorption amount and the duration will be reset. The total absorption created can never exceed 1/3 of the casting paladin’s health.

First, stop the press, they pretty much fixed our mastery! It stacks now, and hell has frozen over. It still remains to be seen whether or not this really makes a huge difference in our gameplay but it is a step to making it less of a useless stat. Looking for some in-depth analysis of what it means? Check here for Kurn’s analysis and Divine Plea’s take on it here.

Bottom line? We won’t be stacking mastery per say but, I will probably precast for a fat shield on my furball tank for pulls. We’ll continue to operate business as usual, only passively benefit from the mastery change. We’ll likely see our absorption amounts going up in our logs and overall, I’m VERY pleased with that Blizzard listened to us and reacted with a Val’anyr like approach. /cheer!

Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30%, in addition to its current effects.

Looks like we’re getting a really nice 30% healing buff to our free mana cost heal, Word of Glory. This gives even more of a reason to use it in 10 man raiding over light of dawn. On the PTR this was hitting now for approx 25,000-30,000, as apposed to the current 20k on live realms. This will help us, given our mana nerfs above  ;-)

Holy Light will now also heal the target of your Beacon of Light for 100% of the healing done to your target (up from 50%).

This is much needed buff and right in the middle of how bacon changed in functionality in cataclysm vs. how it used to be in wrath, and boy am I happy to see it. Now I can keep 2 tanks up easier, especially given the fact that I’ll be trying to cast Divine Light even less since it’s mana cost increased so much. It also gives a bit more peach of mind when helping out on the raid (with my tank bacon’d of course) especially on solo tank fights like Atramedes.

Infusion of Light: Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Shock by 10%. In addition, your Holy Shock critical effects reduce the cast time of your next Flash of Light, Holy Light or Divine Light by 1.50 sec.

Mostly seen as a pvp talent, I do believe that this could provide some great utility on the move since so many of our fights require movement at the right times (omg collapse! omg spread! omg collapse before we blow up). It gives us an instant Flash of Light, yes it costs a ton of mana still but … INSTANT, I know right! I call it a buff in my book

Then we get something fun:

Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast.

Yes, my healbot friends, this means we have our very own mana-free sprint! whee and zip-zoom away! I am sure this will come in handy for me, there are several fights that I use Holy Radiance JUST for the speed buff for myself and boy that gets super expensive for mana.

Examples? Blackout on V&T, every breath on Atramedes, death beam on Omnotrom, navigating around fire patches on Nef, quick movement out of the raid if I have lightening rod on Ala’kir and BoT council, move out of flame jets on Magmaw….. I could really just keep going on and on and on and on.

All in all, we get some pretty significant nerfs to the mana of our healing spells, but balanced by a nice list of buffs. How does it make you feel? How will we fare in Firelands like this? It makes me think that Blizzard went too far or just has no clue sometimes how to manage our new holy power resource and balance healing.

Rep Rewards and Get Working on Dailies Straight Away

We get tons of dailies, lots of rep rewards, and plenty of fun things too straight away when the patch drops. First day the patch comes, yeah start unlocking and working on these because there are rewards my friend!

Avengers of Hyjal is the new faction we will straight away love or hate. Afterall, check out these rewards:

• At Friendly, we get a cloak! Flowing Flamewrath Cape – I’ll reforge that mastery to nonomnomhaste
• At Honored, we can get a belt! Belt of the Seven Seals – no spirit but that’s ok, I’d gem it.
• At Revered, we can get a spirit trinket, though I’m not feeling this at all for a holidan  Fiery Quintessence
• At Exalted, we can get a spirit + mastery ring, Quicksilver Signet of the Avengers

Speaking of dailies, we get a brand new quest hub much like Champion’s Seals from the Argent Tournament. These new Mark of the World Tree will be earned through Molten Front dailies. As in the Tournament, the marks will be used to progress through the various phases of daily quests, and as you gain access to later phases you will unlock additional vendors. However, Mark of the World Tree are not used to purchase the items from these vendors, as all items can be purchased (once they are accessible) with gold.

But let’s look at what’s interesting to us:

• Belt (no spirit) - Belt of Living Obsidium
• Relic (no spirit) - Relic of Elune’s Light
• Gloves (with spirit and haste!) - Gauntlets of Living Obsidium nomnomnom! Get this!
• Trinket (no spirit, with mastery proc) - Moonwell Chalice useless proc
• Blacksmithing Mace pattern (nice!) - Plans: Lightforged Elementium Hammer Get this!

New Valor Point Gear

Here’s a list of our relevant valor point ilevel 378 gear:

• Bracer - Bracers of Imperious Truths – crit/spirit for 1,250 points
• Neck - Firemind Pendant – mastery/spirit for 1,250 points
• Ring - Soothing Brimstone Circle – crit/spirit for 1,250 points
• Relic - Singed Plume of Aviana – nomnomnom haste/spirit for 700 points. Get this one!

Dungeon Journal

Subject to debate (I’m not getting into this discussion again But it’s here!

A host of dungeon information is now built into the user interface via the all-new Dungeon Journal. This feature can be accessed via a new button in the Navigation tray from anywhere in the world. Boss background story, encounter details, abilities, and loot can be viewed with the Dungeon Journal for all bosses which have been integrated into the new system (this includes bosses for all Cataclysm dungeons and raids). Additional dungeons are planned to be incorporated in future updates.

We Can Haz Firelands!

Yep, it’s here!

Located within the Elemental Plane, the Firelands is an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties! Battle-hardened veterans of the Horde and Alliance now have an opportunity to strike at Ragnaros the Firelord and his loyal servants by venturing into their domain via Sulfuron Spire in Mount Hyjal.

Woohoooo! thanks to the dungeon journal, you can already prep for all of the boss abilities by reading them on wowhead’s site here. You can thank their copywriters and editors later

Full list of strategies, coming soon!

Firelands, There’s Loot Dropping From Them There Bosses!

Speaking of loot, holidans rejoice, here’s your drops list from the current data-mined PTR loot tables:

Bracer:

• Bracers of the Dread Hunter from Shannox

Shoulders:

• Spaulders of Manifold Eyes from Beth’tilac

Shield:

• Ward of the Red Widow from Beth’tilac

Neck:

• Heartstone of Rhyolith from Lord Rhyolith

Gloves:

• Grips of the Raging Giant from Lord Rhyolith
• Flickering Handguards from Baleroc

Chest:

• Clutch of the Firemother from Alysrazor

Leggs:

• Legplates of Absolute Control from Shannox

Head:

• Casque of Flame from Baleroc

Trinket:

• Eye of Blazing Power from AlysrazorYES PLS!
• Jaws of Defeat from Majordomo Staghelm YES PLS!
  

Shoes:

• Treads of the Penitent Man from Majordomo Staghelm

Weapon:

• Ko’gun, Hammer of the Firelord from Ragnaros

Hmmm hope the loot tables aren’t finished yet, no belt or rings in Firelands. Happy Healing Healbots!