Glimmerdin: Glimmer of Light Holy Paladin Guide

This guide has mostly been replaced by an 8.3 update. Click here. You can continue to use it as a playstyle guide. 

A new breed of Holy Paladin is sweeping through the land. Breaking Dawns and Judgments of Light are being thrown from windows to embrace our new Glimmer of Light gods. The Glimmer of Light Holy Paladin is an incredibly fun, incredibly powerful build where you focus your talents, traits and stats on Holy Shocking as much as humanly possible. The azerite trait leaves behind a buff on every target you Holy Shock and every subsequent Holy Shock you cast will beam free healing to everyone with the buff. It lasts 30 seconds and by building your talents around it you can keep an insane number of them out at a time. It’s somewhat similar to the way Disc Priests heal through Atonement. It isn’t miles ahead of the standard build but it does particularly well on the final bosses of the tier (Jaina especially) and that alone makes it worth learning. Special thanks to Iyob, Holypalaswe and Shockwater.

The Setup

Azerite Traits

You can’t be a Glimmer Paladin without any Glimmer of Light traits so aim to lock in three of those first. Your other traits don’t matter as much so you’ll aim for any Haste procs you can get, as well as kingpins like raid traits Bonded Souls and Treacherous Covenant. Picking up a Breaking Dawn isn’t essential with the build. Glimmer is your strongest trait. Take it over everything else.

Here are some of the better Azerite pieces with Glimmer:

Chest: Breastplate of Arterial Protection, Chestguard of the Deep Denizen, Breastplate of Divine Purification

Shoulders: Spaulders of the Gorilla King, Dyno-Sprocket Spaulders

Helm: Overseers Riot Helmet, Helm of Abyssal Malevolence, Helm of the Raptor King

QE Live has full support for Glimmer and will optimize your gear for you.

Talents

Core Build

Variations

• All glimmer healing transfers to your beacons so the level 100 row is somewhat flexible. Run Beacon of Faith on any boss with ultra high tank damage (Rastakhan, possibly Conclave). Divine Purpose is otherwise much stronger.
• Beacon of Virtue and Divine Purpose compete closely in Mythic+.

Stat Priorities

Haste >>> Mastery > Vers = Crit

The Glimmer build scales incredibly well with Haste as it reduces both your Holy Shock and Crusader Strike cooldowns. Mastery’s value jumps up and down depending on how spread out your raid is. It’s excellent on most of the fights that count. Holy Shock gets a default +30% crit chance which makes it slightly less valuable than usual. You’re also not using many of your Infusion of Light procs with the build which further devalues the stat. Item level is still a key metric and you should mostly be equipping your highest item level gear that has Haste on it.

The Glimmer of Light Playstyle

Here’s your priority list when playing Glimmerdin:

• Keep Holy Shock on cooldown. Aim to hit someone who doesn’t already have the Glimmer buff but it’s ok to overlap them if they’re the only ones injured. Don’t waste the Holy Shock healing if you don’t have to. 
• Don’t let Crusader Strike cap at two charges. You need to maximise the cooldown reduction offered.
• Plan out your Holy Avenger and Avenging Wrath casts prior to the fight. With Avenging Wrath cast it a little before you expect heavy damage so you can ramp up Glimmer to the raid.
• If CS and HS are both on cooldown then use your Infusion of Light proc if available and go back to Light of Dawn / Holy Light if not.

Frequently Asked Questions

I only have 1-2 Glimmer traits. Is it still worth running the build?

You can run it ok with two, but you should stick to a standard build if you only have one. Aim to pick up three as soon as possible.

What’s the spell ID for Glimmer of Light? I need to add it to my raid frames

The spell ID for the Glimmer buff is 287280. Make sure you’re tracking it.

Can I run it on every fight? Where does it excel?

The Glimmer of Light build is particularly potent whenever the damage is consistent. You want to be finding a viable Holy Shock target every time it’s off cooldown and if the damage is ultra bursty then this might not be possible. Fortunately the final three bosses of the tier have plenty of heavy, persistent damage and Glimmer gets a huge chance to shine. It is the dominant build for every fight, and then particularly good when damage is heaviest.

How is it in Mythic+?

It’s excellent at keeping everyone alive and the DPS is very decent.

Which Trinkets are good?

Aim to run double Haste trinkets if possible. Crest of Pa’ku and Ignition Mage’s Fuse are reasonably easy to get. The new Mechagon punchcard trinket is also excellent.

What enchants and gems do I use?

This answer won’t surprise you. Haste. Haste everywhere. It isn’t worth using a +120 intellect gem.

How much item level should I drop to pick up Glimmer of Light?

QE Live will tell you, but it’s worth dropping significant item level to acquire triple Glimmer.

Want more? See it in practice in the following videos

Jaina Mythic (40k HPS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-BvTjd4w8

Mekkatorque Mythic (40k HPS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ebVrrCCxLs