Holy Paladin 101 Stats (Lesson 4)

Alright, we have made it to the final stat that I consider to be the four pillars for a strong and successful holy Paladin. What is that stat you may ask yourself? That is a good question. The answer would be critical strike. I hope you were not thinking it was going to be spirit or stamina. So, let's focus in on critical strike rating and why it is important to us.

When thinking of it in terms of PVE, we have to look at how we will be healing. For solo play, which is usually for quests or reputation, it will help you with your offensive punch. Such a strange phrase for a holy Paladin, but we have to keep our offense in mind for leveling and questing purposes. Now if we are looking at its application in group and instance level of play, then the benefit becomes even better. As a healer (which I am assuming we have figured out that this is our role by now) you will not be fighting, so critical strike rating is a direct effect to your healing abilities. The higher the critical rating the better chance you have of popping off the heal that will keep your tank up for a few more minutes. Again, we are looking at that from a group/instance standpoint. As you level into the Wrath content, it is even more important as you will leave your ways of spamming Flash of Light and begin to explore using Beacon of Light, Holy Shock, Holy Light, and Sacred Shield (eventually) more often, and your Flash of Light days will be but a distant memory. The importance for critical strike rating becomes more important with the use of your healing spells at this point as the higher the heal, the less heals you will need, thus lowering your mana consumption. In light of this process, by the time you hit the raid level for PVE you will have a good grasp of what works and understand the importance of the critical strike rating.

So, we can definitely discern the importance of the critical strike rating for PVE, but what about PVP? I think we just answered that question by stating PVP. Regardless of healing or being on the offensive, the more spell power that is upped from a critical hit, will be a good thing for you.

In tomorrow's post I will review the four pillars and break down when they become important to us and what changes occur as we progress through these. It will be a good way to tie up this particular discussion and then in the following posts I will review the reasons why I do not favor stamina, spirit, or anything else you may think should have been in there.