Best Gear & Stats for Holy Paladins – Cataclysm PvP Guide - Skill Capped (2024)

Welcome to Skill Capped’s Guide on the Best Gear & Stats for Holy Paladins in Cataclysm

All sections for Holy Paladin PvP have been divided into corresponding sections for the most optimal race, talents, glyphs, gear, professions and macros. This will help you have a good understanding on Holy Paladin in PvP for Cataclysm and the strengths and weaknesses associated with this specialization. This section will go into more depth on the best PvP gear and stats that are available for Holy Paladin in Cataclysm Season 9.

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Table of Contents

Most of the gear that is BiS for Cataclysm Season 9 will come from PvP. This section will cover all specific pieces from PvP that will put you in a competitive playing-field against other players in arena.

BiS Holy Paladin PvP Gear

Main Pieces

• Head: Vicious Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover
• Shoulders: Vicious Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders
• Chest: Vicious Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard
• Gloves: Vicious Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves
• Legs: Vicious Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates

Off-Pieces

• Back: Vicious Gladiator’s Drape of Meditation
• Belt: Vicious Gladiator’s Clasp of Meditation
• Bracers: Vicious Gladiator’s Bracers of Meditation
• Boots: Vicious Gladiator’s Greaves of Meditation

Jewelry

• Neck: Vicious Gladiator’s Pendant of Meditation
• Ring 1: Vicious Gladiator’s Band of Cruelty
• Ring 2: Vicious Gladiator’s Band of Accuracy

Weapons

• Main Hand: Vicious Gladiator’s Gavel
• Shield: Vicious Gladiator’s Barrier
• Relic: Vicious Gladiator’s Relic of Dominance

Trinkets

• Trinket 1: Tear of Blood or Vicious Gladiator’s Medallion of Tenacity if not human.
• Trinket 2: Fall of Mortality

For our gear, there are some unique items that will be equipped to receive the highest amount of stats due to our Holy Paladin rotation. One of our trinkets, Tear of Blood, will provide Spirit from our Critical Strike spells, and since Holy Paladins prioritize Critical Strike as their secondary stat, this will consistently have high uptime.

Holy Paladin Stat Priority

Intellect > Spirit (1500) > Resilience (3000) > Critical Strike > Mastery > Haste

Prioritize your Intellect first. The more Intellect your character has, the more Spell Power is applied to your character, strengthening all casted abilities and spells. While focusing on your primary stat, you want to have at least 1500 Spirit. Due to Spirit being tied to our mana regeneration, this will allow Holy Paladins to conserve as much mana as possible. From our BiS gear provided above, we will have trinkets that provide additional Spirit to assist us in mana regeneration. Cataclysm arena matches are typically longer and drawn-out without the Dampening effect added in later expansions, meaning that games can go for extend periods of time. This makes Spirit important to consider when gearing your character.

After reaching your Spirit requirement, prioritize reaching at least 3000 Resilience. Having this amount will make Holy Paladins more durable when being targeted or from a tactical swap coordinated by the enemy team. Since Holy Paladins are typically more aggressive with Hammer of Justice on Healers, and assist their teammates to play more offensive, there is a high probability teams may look at opportunities to use their burst windows on you.

For additional secondary stats, your strongest secondary stat will be Critical Strike, as this stat synergizes with a couple talents chosen to optimize the amount of healing you can do to your selected targets. First, we have Infusion of Light, as this will be used to reduce cast time of Flash of Light or to make your Holy Light crit more often. This also procs from Holy Shock crits, and when paired with Glyph of Holy Shock, you will be critting this spell more often than any spell. Also, your non-periodic Holy spells will apply Conviction when critting, making your sustained healing a bit stronger for 15 seconds.

Due to Mastery being a new addition to Cataclysm, this adds some variance that can be included for your secondary stats. Illuminated Healing places an absorb on the target healed, which can assist with survivability for yourself and allies. Critical Strike is more valuable of a stat than Mastery from how well Critical Strike synergizes with our talents chosen, but having some Mastery can assist with consistent healing throughput. Haste is our worst secondary stat out of the three options, and does not provide any specific benefit to Holy Paladin besides reduced spell globals and faster casted spells.

You will not have to worry about Spell Penetration and Hit Rating due to Enlightened Judgements putting you over the Hit Rating requirement, and that there is no Holy Resistance in the game. This means that your spells will not resist regardless of your Spell Penetration.

For reforging, focus on reaching your Spirit requirement, followed by maximizing your Critical Strike secondary stat. Make sure to reforge your Mastery or Haste into Spirit or Resilience, depending on your current character’s stats.