Specing

How you should spec

When patch 4.0 hit, there was a drastic change to specing for everyone.  You have to place so many points (31) into one tree, before it will allow you to put any talent in a separate tree.  Plus, there were new talents given and some taken away.  You can check out the 4.0 patch notes if you are curious as to what the exact changes are.  I will only give what information would be beneficial as far as paladin healing is concerned now.

32/5/4

Holy
  3 Protector of the Innocent
3 Judgements of the Pure
3 Clarity of Purpose
2 Last Word
1 Divine Favor
2 Infusion of Light
2 Daybreak
1 Enlightened Judgements
1 Beacon of Light
3 Speed of Light
1 Sacred Cleansing
3 Conviction
1 Aura Mastery
2 Paragon of Virtue
3 Tower of Radiance
1 Light of Dawn


Protection
3 Divinity
2 Eternal Glory


Retribution
3 Crusade
1 Improved Judgement




Why do you spec this way?

Protector of the Innocent is at the top of the holy tree.  You will notice this ability in your logs and on your meters.  It is a good ability so that you worry less about your own HP, and focus more on others.  Our haste buff from judging comes from Judgements of the Pure, which should be maxed out providing you with 9% haste for 1 min.  Judging also gives us back a % of mana.  Clarity of Purpose reduces the cast time of our two main direct heals, which a paladin depends on quite often.  Word of Glory is a nice, mana-free heal.  With Last Word being maxed out, you give yourself a chance to have a critical chance on a low HP raid member, especially if your mana is low.  Divine Favor is one of your important cooldowns for big damage phases.  This must be spec'd into.  Infusion of Light and Daybreak are your two proc's.  Infusion allows for a 1 second cast on a Divine Light or Holy Light.  Awesome when trying to get a low HP tank up.  Daybreak is great as far as giving you a extra Holy Shock.  I'm guessing this proc is suppose to replace the old Holy Shock glyph used by "flash of light" pallys prior to 4.0.  Basically, when it does proc, you can hit Holy Shock 2x's without waiting on a cooldown.  So, that is two instant casts for heavy damage, plus 2 Holy Power generated.  (Holy Shock guarantees 1 Holy Power per use)   Enlightened Judgements heals us, increases the range of our judgements, as well as gives us some hit.  This is to help make sure our judgements do not miss.  You do not get your haste buff from a judgement unless it actually hits your target.  Everything is pretty understood up to Tower of Radiance. This ability was hotfixed by blizzard a few days ago.  Casting Holy LIght on our Beacon of Light target, no longer gives us a charge of Holy Power.  The spec ability still says it does.  Flash of Light and Divine Light, will however,give a charge if it is casted on your Beacon of Light target.  Light of Dawn is our frontal cone raid heal.  This ability is now activated by Holy Power, and hits for ever how much Holy Power you have.  It is the paladin "smart-heal".  Divinity, Eternal Glory, and Crusade all buff our healing by a certain % and allow for Holy Power to not be consumed.  Very useful and mana efficient abilities.

*** You must spec into Sacred Cleansing in order to dispel certain debuffs that only certain classes of healers can now.  This change occurred in 4.0.  Unfortunately, this is not a optional talent if you are raiding.  It allows you to dispel a magic effect. ***


If you would like to add more range to your judgements, you can remove 1 talent from Protector of the Innocent, and add it to your ret tree into improved judgement.