Holy Paladin Healer Pre-Raid Best in Slot Gear - Wrath of the Lich King Classic

By Wowhead Updated: 2022/10/04

Pre-Raid Best in Slot Gear for Holy Paladin Healer Pre-RaidHealer gearing always heavily depends on playstyle, situation and raid environment so treat the BiS list below as a guideline rather than a gospel.Emblem of Valor

Intellect - This is your best mana stat and a fairly good throughput stat, making it so essentially ilvl upgrades are almost always a good idea.

Haste Rating - This is your best throughput stat, but it's very mana negative. Despite this, Holy Paladin has long, slow casts and haste provides an immense level of benefit here.

MP5 - A fairly average mana stat, nothing special.

Spell Power - An ok throughput stat that comes for free on most of your gear. Won't ever go out of your way for it.

Crit Rating - With Illumination only being 30%, crit is a lot worse for mana regen than in the past. It's an okay throughput stat through, and overall just an optional mana stat if you really want to eschew haste.

Emblems of Heroism for Holy Paladin Healer Pre-Raid

Emblem of Heroism are the WotLK version of Badge of Justice, which means that they can be obtained by killing bosses in Heroic Dungeons, completing daily Heroic quests and finishing certain regular quests in Northrend zones. The main vendors you can exchange these at to obtain gear are Magistrix Lambriesse for the Horde and Arcanist Ivrenne for the Alliance.

The largest upgrade by far is Libram of Renewal. It's extremely cheap and you will use it for the whole expansion, due to its insane 200+ MP5 value.

After that, your 4pc bonus of Holy Light Cost Reduction means you should rush tier items ASAP as well. Generally, healers will have low tier priority in raids, so settling for the ilvl 200 tier is an okay concession as you can complete the 4pc with just Emblems.

A major standout purchase is Magroth's Meditative Cincture, which is so well itemized that it's almost competitive with your best raid BiS item.

Protective Barricade of the Light is a decent shield that will tide you over until raids.

Lastly, Lattice Choker of Light is a "free", slightly worse alternative to Titanium Spellshock Necklace.

Unfortunately, due to Holy Paladin's mana constraints, The Egg of Mortal Essence is not worth using. Considering the ease of which you can obtain Soul Preserver and Figurine - Sapphire Owl as well, it's just not worth the Emblems.

Rank	Item	Price
1	Libram of Renewal	15 Emblem of Heroism
2	Chestguard of the Lost Conqueror	80 Emblem of Heroism
3	Gloves of the Lost Conqueror	60 Emblem of Heroism
4	Magroth's Meditative Cincture	40 Emblem of Heroism
5	Protective Barricade of the Light	35 Emblem of Heroism
5	Lattice Choker of Light	25 Emblem of Heroism

Body Armor for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Head for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Unbreakable Healing Amplifiers is quite good here but requires Engineering. The other options are a bit lower.

Recommended BiS Helm Enchant: Arcanum of Blissful Mending or Arcanum of Burning Mysteries, requiring Revered reputation with The Wyrmrest Accord and Kirin Tor, respectively.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - Engineer	S	Unbreakable Healing Amplifiers		Unbreakable Healing Amplifiers - Engineering (440)
BiS - Non-Engineer	A	Helm of Purified Thoughts		Exalted - Argent Crusade
Alternative	B	Battlemap Hide Helm		Prince Keleseth - Utgarde Keep
Alternative - TBC	B	Cowl of Gul'dan		Kil'jaeden - Sunwell Plateau

Shoulders for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Despite Dark Runic Mantle being best here, it's quickly replaced by tier shoulders purchased via Emblem of Valor so it's highly discouraged to spend gold on it unless it's dirt-cheap. The dungeon alternative of Mantle of the Tribunal is also very close in value.

Recommended BiS Shoulder Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Crag or Greater Inscription of the Storm, requiring Exalted reputation with The Sons of Hodir.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - Expensive	S	Dark Runic Mantle		Zone Drop (BoE) - Halls of Stone
Alternative	S	Mantle of the Tribunal		Tribunal Chest - Halls of Stone
Alternative	S	Spaulders of the Violet Hold		Cyanigosa - The Violet Hold
Alternative - TBC	B	Erupting Epaulets		Lady Sacrolash - Sunwell Plateau

Back for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

There is a very cheap, good cloak off of Emblem of Valor here so again it's highly discouraged to purchase Wispcloak.

Recommended BiS Cloak Enchant: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - TBC	S	Tattered Cape of Antonidas		Kil'jaeden - Sunwell Plateau
BiS - Expensive	S	Wispcloak		Wispcloak - Tailoring
Alternative	S	Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape		Cache of Eregos - The Oculus
Alternative - Easy to obtain	A	Shroud of Dedicated Research		Honored - Kirin Tor

Chest for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

This is a tier slot, pretty much locked down. You will not be replacing this with anything other than the 25m tier version, as the 4pc set bonus is just too powerful.

Recommended BiS Chest Enchant: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Heroes' Redemption Tunic		80 Emblem of Heroism
Alternative - Expensive	A	Revenant's Breastplate		Revenant's Breastplate - Leatherworking
Alternative	A	Drakewing Raiments		Drakos the Interrogator - The Oculus
Alternative - Reputation	B	Robes of Crackling Flame		Exalted - Kirin Tor
Alternative - TBC	C	Noble Judicator's Chestguard		Entropius - Sunwell Plateau

Wrist for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

This is a slot where the differences here are very minor.

Recommended BiS Bracer Enchant: Enchant Bracers - Exceptional Intellect

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Limb Regeneration Bracers		The Prophet Tharon'ja - Drak'Tharon Keep
Alternative - Expensive	A	Bands of Fading Light		Zone Drop - Utgarde Pinnacle
Alternative	A	Cuffs of Winged Levitation		Ley-Guardian Eregos - The Oculus
Alternative	A	Azure Cloth Bindings		Cyanigosa - The Violet Hold

Hands for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

This is one of your tier slots. As with the other tier slots, the 4pc is so impactful that you will only upgrade this with the 25m tier.

Recommended BiS Glove Enchant: Hyperspeed Accelerators

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Heroes' Redemption Gloves		60 Emblem of Heroism
Alternative	A	Traditionally Dyed Handguards		General Bjarngrim - Halls of Lightning
Alternative - Expensive	A	Spellweave Gloves		Spellweave Gloves - Tailoring (435)
Alternative - TBC	A	Gauntlets of the Soothed Soul		Entropius - Sunwell Plateau

Waist for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Magroth's Meditative Cincture is super strong here and completely eclipses the other options, including most raid belts.

It's worth noting Beadwork Belt of Shamanic Vision exists, but the EP on this item is basically the same as the plate belt. Due to the low amount of damage in P1, it's generally better to have the crit.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Magroth's Meditative Cincture		40 Emblem of Heroism
Alternative	B	Sash of Blood Removal		Gal'darah - Gundrak
Alternative - Reputation	D	Ghostflicker Waistband		Exalted - Kirin Tor
Alternative - Reputation	D	Belt of Dark Mending		Exalted - Knights of the Ebon Blade

Legs for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

These are a future tier slot, so what you use here doesn't really matter much as you will look to replace it ASAP. It's worth noting these items have the largest discrepancies in stat EPs.

Recommended BiS Leg Armor: Sapphire Spellthread

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Leggings of Protective Auras		Cache of Eregos - The Oculus
Alternative	B	Leggings of the Winged Serpent		The Prophet Tharon'ja - Drak'Tharon Keep
Alternative - TBC	C	Leggings of Calamity		Brutallus - Sunwell Plateau

Feet for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

The reputation boots here are surprisingly good, almost close to the boots sold by the Emblem of Valor vendor.

Recommended BiS Feet Enchant: Nitro Boosts

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - Reputation	S	Sandals of Crimson Fury		Exalted - The Wyrmrest Accord
Alternative - Expensive	A	Revenant's Treads		Revenant's Treads - Leatherworking
Alternative	B	Sabatons of Erekem		Erekem - The Violet Hold

Jewelry for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Neck for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

While the Titanium Spellshock Necklace has a hefty amount of Int, it's likely to be very expensive while Lattice Choker of Light is very close in stat value and much easier to obtain. The differences are quite minor here, especially if you have a TBC neck.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - Expensive	S	Titanium Spellshock Necklace		Titanium Spellshock Necklace - Jewelcrafting (440)
Alternative - Emblems	A	Lattice Choker of Light		25 Emblem of Heroism
Alternative - TBC Jewelcrafting	A	Pendant of Sunfire / Amulet of Flowing Life		Pendant of Sunfire / Amulet of Flowing Life - Jewelcrafting (365)

Rings for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Signet of Hopeful Light is a pretty good ring that will likely get used for a long time in raid, as rings are a very contested slot for all casters.

The price tag of Signet of the Kirin Tor is extremely exorbitant. If you can afford it, be aware that it is quickly outpaced by any ring purchased by Emblem of Valor or in raids. It's also not really that much better than the rest.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS - Reputation	S	Signet of Hopeful Light		Exalted - Argent Crusade
Alternative - Expensive	A	Signet of the Kirin Tor		8500 Gold - Harold Winston
Alternative	A	Band of Guile		Dark Runed Chest - The Culling of Stratholme
Alternative	A	Annhylde's Ring		Ingvar the Plunderer - Utgarde Keep

Trinkets for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Darkmoon Card: Greatness is probably the most infamous trinket for Holy Paladins in WotLK, and its reputation is well deserved as it's BiS potentially into Phase 3 of WotLK. One trap to be wary of while using it is, while it's tempting to think about saving Divine Plea for procs, it's generally better to play normally and not try to line up the cooldown. Essentially, the trinket is good because of the massive amount of static Int, not the proc. If you have this, you should consider it permanently equipped for all of Phase 1. That being said, the price tag is the biggest problem here.

Soul Preserver is the upgraded version of Eye of Gruul. For Holy Paladins, each heal of Glyph of Holy Light and Beacon of Light counts as a separate proc chance, meaning these trinkets potentially regenerate a ridiculous amount of mana if you are healing stacked targets. The actual amount of mana this provides varies immensely on target count, from roughly 100 mp5 with only two targets, up to almost 400 mp5 with all 7. Essentially, this means that on most fights with a little bit of smart positioning/target selection, this is a primary go-to trinket for Phase 1. On spread fights where you're only hitting 2 targets though, you'll want to try to replace this with Figurine - Sapphire Owl if you have it.

Figurine - Sapphire Owl is just a strong static Int trinket. The use effect is very powerful, but unlike player cooldowns does not reset after boss encounters.

Despite having a similar effect to Soul Preserver, the mana discount of Eye of Gruul is much weaker and it's essentially only an option if you have neither Darkmoon Card: Greatness nor Figurine - Sapphire Owl, in which case it's generally your 4th best trinket. It can be difficult to farm this during WotLK though, so don't worry too much if you don't have it; it's just a possible alternative to the previous trinkets if you don't have Jewelcrafting or Darkmoon Card: Greatness.

In the case you're missing Darkmoon Card: Greatness, Jewelcrafting, AND Eye of Gruul, it's important to note that every other trinket alternative listed is 100+ EP worse - so you can see why Jewelcrafting is so good for Holy Paladins in Phase 1.

Because Holy Paladin is such a mana-constrained spec, the above trinkets are the only realistically viable ones for both sustain and throughput. More mana effectively means more throughput.

Use Case	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
General Purpose - Static Int	S	Darkmoon Card: Greatness		Darkmoon Nobles Deck - Nobles Deck
General Purpose - Strongest when stacked	S	Soul Preserver		Mal'Ganis - The Culling of Stratholme
General Purpose - Static Int Jewelcrafter only	A	Figurine - Sapphire Owl		Sapphire Owl - Jewelcrafting (400)
Niche - No JC and no DMC:G	B	Eye of Gruul		Gruul the Dragonkiller - Gruul's Lair
Niche - No JC and no DMC:G	D	Spark of Life		Sjonnir The Ironshaper - Halls of Stone
Niche - No JC and no DMC:G Alchemist only	D	Mercurial Alchemist Stone		Mercurial Alchemist Stone - Alchemy (400)

Weapons and Offhands/Shields for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Main-hand Weapons for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

Raid weapons are highly contested, so it can be a good idea to farm War Mace of Unrequited Love.

Additionally, you may want to consider the Dwarf bonus of Mace Specialization if you have a choice of weapons to prioritize. It is not major, but since meleeing is a large part of Holy Paladin gameplay, gives a slight edge to maces if you are Dwarf. If you are Human, you have both Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization and so both weapon types are equal.

Recommended BiS Weapon Enchants: Enchant Weapon - Major Intellect

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	War Mace of Unrequited Love		Keristrasza - The Nexus
Alternative - Expensive	A	Titansteel Guardian		Titansteel Guardian - Blacksmithing (440)
Alternative - Reputation	A	Gavel of the Brewing Storm		Revered - The Wyrmrest Accord
Alternative	B	Gavel of the Fleshcrafter		Salramm the Fleshcrafter - The Culling of Stratholme
Alternative - Reputation	B	Totemic Purification Rod		Revered - The Kalu'ak
Alternative - TBC	C	Hammer of Sanctification		Kil'jaeden - Sunwell Plateau

Shields and Off-Hands for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

The Emblems shield is just really good here and it's very discouraged to bother getting anything else.

Recommended BiS Shield Enchants: Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S	Protective Barricade of the Light		35 Emblem of Heroism
Alternative - Expensive	A	Faces of Doom		Faces of Doom - Inscription (400)
Alternative	B	Temple Crystal Fragment		Novos the Summoner - Drak'Tharon Keep

Librams for Holy Paladin Healer Phase 1

There is only one libram that's even remotely worth considering, and it's Libram of Renewal. This libram is so powerful it is effectively BiS for the whole expansion. With an extremely anemic 25 CPM, it's already at 236 MP5; at 40 CPM, it goes up to 377 MP5. Get it ASAP and enjoy a BiS item forever.

Priority	Rank	Item	Sockets	Source
BiS	S+	Libram of Renewal		15 Emblem of Heroism

Comments

Comment by Krust

"Soul Preserver is the upgraded version of Eye of Gruul. For Holy Paladins, each heal of Glyph of Holy Light and Beacon of Light counts as a separate proc chance."

Can you show evidence on this? Very curious.

Thanks, great guide!

Comment by xCoyote

Why not Beadwork Belt of Shamanic Vision instead of Magroth's Meditative Cincture ?

Comment by demotivation

what about Scarab Brooch or Mercurial Alchemist Stone? no honorable mentions?

Comment by HecksAU

Atlas Loot import string:
"i:40753,i:40752,i:29434,i:40705,i:40691,i:40700,i:40681,i:42647,i:40685,i:37111,i:42413,i:40610,i:40613,i:44949,i:50370,i:50368,i:41401,i:40012,i:44296,i:40094,i:37180,i:34332,i:37673,i:37655,i:50336,i:50338,i:37875,i:34390,i:41609,i:34242,i:37291,i:44167,i:39629,i:43461,i:37258,i:44180,i:34395,i:37788,i:37590,i:37361,i:37884,i:39632,i:37825,i:42113,i:34240,i:40693,i:37643,i:44181,i:44302,i:41604,i:37362,i:37791,i:34181,i:41118,i:44202,i:43469,i:43405,i:34359,i:34360,i:44283,i:40585,i:37694,i:37192,i:44255,i:28823,i:41106,i:44326,i:37657,i:44322,i:37169,i:41384,i:44199,i:37681,i:44052,i:34335,i:44210,i:37718,i:21625"

Comment by Moosar

Don’t be stupid like me and grind CoS HC for the trinket, just to realize 15 runs later that it only drops from normal. Might be a good idea to super highlight that fact here…

Comment by KnightTime

Assuming this math is correct, that BoK and Divine Intellect are multiplicative, the 300 INT bonus from Greatness is 363 more INT when it procs. The reason I love Greatness is that if I use Divine Plea when it procs I will gain an additional 25% of that bonus INT's mana (DP is 25% of your mana pool when activated), which would be (363*15)*0.25 = 1361.25 every minute, which outpaces the JC trinket mana return (2340 over 12 seconds) greatly with its one use per five minutes.

Honestly, I don't understand why the JC trinket was chosen over DCG in the P1 BiS section.

Holy Paladin Healer Pre-Raid Best in Slot Gear - Wrath of the Lich King Classic

Contribute