Holy Paladin Battleground Blitz Guide — The War Within (Season 1)
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about playing Holy Paladin in Battleground Blitz, including specific playstyle tips, talent builds, and much more.
Holy Paladins in Battleground Blitz
Playstyle as Holy Paladin
The main role of a Holy Paladin in Battleground Blitz is very simple: keep your team alive long enough in team fights to land kills and capture bases. This can be achieved by rotating your utility spells ( Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Aura Mastery, etc.) efficiently.
In addition to healing, you also have a powerful stun, Hammer of Justice to help setup kills on the kill target your team decides on focusing. Because this is a dispellable stun, you want to make sure enemy healers are in crowd control before you use it.
Talent Choices for Holy Paladin
Here is the talent build you will be using to maximize your healing output:
Recommended PvP Talents for Holy Paladin
- Blessed Hands
- Searing Glare
- Divine Vision
- Ultimate Sacrifice
These are the 3 PvP talents you should be using in Battleground Blitz. Blessed Hands gives your Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Freedom an additional charge. This utility is important for team fights and moving from one base to the next. Searing Glare causes enemies to miss their spells and attacks for 4 seconds. A well timed Searing Glare can completely remove enemy players burst cooldowns and you can potentially cap flags with this spell. Divine Vision increases the range of your Aura by 30 yards and reduces the cooldown of Aura Mastery by 60 seconds. Similar to Bless Hands, this gives you more utility for your team. Ultimate Sacrifice is crucial, as this will transfer 100% of the damage your Blessing of Sacrifice target is taking to yourself. This is mandatory when healing flag carriers.
For a more in-depth breakdown of talents, read the talents section of this guide:
Crowd Control as Holy Paladin
In Battleground Blitz, without the Arena Dampening effect, healers, when left alone, are able to sustain against many players with relative ease. The way to counter the high throughput of healers in Battleground Blitz is with the effective use of crowd control.
Holy Paladin has a few tools to aid with this:
- Hammer of Justice
- Repentance/ Blinding Light
Note: Be careful with Blinding Light! This will dispel all DoTs on the target, and you could be removing quite a bit of damage if you have an Affliction Warlock or Shadow Priest on your team.
Holy Paladin Auras and Aura Mastery
Aura Mastery is a strong 3-minute cooldown with an effect that changes depending on which Aura you have active. It will not be uncommon to switch between these auras during an Arena match. Here are the two auras you will find yourself switching between and when you should use them:
- Concentration Aura makes interrupts and silences shorter on you and your teammates. When Aura Mastery is used, it will also make them immune to interrupts or silences for 8 full seconds. This should be used when you are playing with other casters or versus teams that have ranged kicks.
- Devotion Aura reduces the damage your teammates take by 3%. This is crucial when the enemy team is using their burst rotation. When Aura Mastery is used, it will you and your teammates take 15% less damage. This should absolutely be used when the enemy team is using their burst cooldowns.
Overall, you want to use Concentration Aura when you are playing with casters or if the enemy team has ranged interrupts available for you. If they do not, then use Devotion Aura.
Holy Paladin Defensives
Divine Shield is your primary defensive cooldown. Using this ability makes you immune to everything and should be used when you or a teammate is about to die. This will guarantee that you will stay alive if you are being focused; and guarantee that you will not be interrupted if your teammate is being focused.
Divine Protection can be used while stunned and can only be used on yourself. Use this if you are being focused and need to reduce any incoming damage.
Holy Paladin Stat Priority and Gear
- Intellect;
- Versatility;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike.
The stat priority for Holy Paladin is the same in Battleground Blitz and Arena. If you want an in-depth explanation and suggestions on gear, read the gearing section of this guide:
The Role of Holy Paladins in Battlegrounds
Capture the Flag (Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks)
Because Holy Paladins have great utility spells, your primary goal on capture the flag maps will be to heal your flag carrier when they pick up the flag. Ultimate Sacrifice is an amazing tool to utilize. It will not matter how many stacks your flag carrier has; you can transfer all of the damage they take to themselves. You can also give them Blessing of Freedom to prevent enemy players from slowing them.
Wait until your tank picks up the flag, and when they do, quickly leave the team fight to help support your flag carrier. Use Consecration to try to get stealthed players out of stealth. Use Blessing of Freedom if you or your flag carrier is being slowed. For an in-depth guide to Holy Paladin healing rotations, read here:
Resource Race (Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Deepwind Gorge)
On resource race maps, your primary goal is to keep your team alive at whichever base is decided to be fought over. There is not much room for you to make plays or defend bases by yourself. The best healers will be able to heal through the team fight and ensure it is won by their team. Trade Blessing of Sacrifice/ Blessing of Protection when your team gets low, use Lay on Hands on a teammate that drops low, and save Divine Shield for when you get low.
Hybrid (Eye of the Storm)
Similar to resource race maps, your goal is to keep your team alive in the big team fights. The goal on this map, unlike normal Rated Battlegrounds, is to team fight at one node and try to cap both bases. This results in long 7v7 team fights, and the winner will more than likely pull ahead quickly. Trade Blessing of Sacrifice/ Blessing of Protection when your team gets low, use Lay on Hands on a teammate that drops low, and save Divine Shield for when you get low. Use Hammer of Justice on the kill target your team decides to hit.
Note: Capping the flag will make the inactive bases active, and both teams will have to recap the nodes. Use this tactic if your team is falling behind on points or lost the team fight.
King of the Hill (Temple of Kotmogu)
Ranged DPS specializations will always be the best orb carriers on Temple of Kotmogu, so do not grab the flag unless it is a dire situation and you have to. The most important part about this map is to win the initial team fight and quickly gain momentum by grabbing 3 orbs and standing in the middle of the map. When the enemy team starts to resurrect, leave middle and kite around the center. Here are some tips for this map:
- Players take more damage the longer they hold the orb. This means that, eventually, the Orb carriers will die. Ideally, your team will only hold 2-3 orbs at a time so that you do not easily wipe when you have high stacks.
- Make sure you die on the correct side of the map! You and your team will resurrect depending on where you died. If you die on purple side, you will resurrect on blue side and vise versa. Ensuring you and your team resurrect together is crucial, this will allow you to regroup faster and quickly wipe the enemy team that will be weak.
Changelog
- 13 Nov. 2024: Updated Talents.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- 12 Sep. 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 28 Aug. 2024: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved 3000 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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