Holy Paladin 8.3 FAQ

Corrupted gear, Glimmer nerfs, new Mythic+ dungeons, new Essences. Phew, 8.3 has a lot to take in. We’re going to break down each one by one so we can get a better handle on how to prepare for and navigate the new patch. There was a previous article on the site that went into detail on how significant the nerfs were and we won’t cover that ground again here. The Glimmer variant of the spec is in a great place going into 8.3 and will remain the undisputed king of raids. All information based off the current PTR. It will be iterated on when the patch goes live. All information is targeted toward raids unless otherwise noted.

 

Essences

For raid we’ll stick with Vision of Perfection as our major and combine it with the Conflict & Strife, Well of Existence and Unwavering Ward minors. There isn’t much wiggle room here since the alternatives are all quite significantly worse. You’ll get Unwavering Ward from completing your Visions every week. For fights that are very spread you might consider swapping in Crucible of Flame for DPS, or Formless Void for a small stat buff.

For Mythic+ we’ll start with Vision of Perfection major combined with Crucible of Flame, Conflict & Strife and Spirit of Preservation minors. We also have a damage-focused option in using Formless Void to copy Essence of the Focusing Iris (if one is available in your party). This is a substantial damage increase at the cost of the healing brought by Vision of Perfection procs. Use your judgement to decide what best suits the needs of your group. You’ll get Spirit of Preservation rank 3 when your Rajani reputation reaches exalted. Formless Void is created by combining raid drops.

There will be a full Essences breakdown going up shortly.

Corruption

Corruption is a new 8.3 system that replaces Titanforging with a chance for each item to roll one of eighteen different affixes. Such a large spread means that targeting a specific corruption is unlikely and early in the patch you will mostly just be picking the best out of the set that drops for you. Instead of putting together an imaginary set that is tough to build I’ll instead highlight some particularly good and bad corruption effects. The Corruption tables below have been replaced with a full Corruption article which is kept up to date here.

 

Stats

8.2.5 saw us stack Haste to ungodly levels while trying not to drop too much item level to do so. In 8.3 we’ll focus more on just getting more stats overall by picking our highest ilvl choices. Haste loses some value due to the 8.3 Glimmer cap but remains a powerful stat. There are no set percentages to aim for.

Easy version:

Stack item level and strong corruption effects. When equal item level: Haste > Versatility = Mastery >> Crit.

More detail:

There is a concept in Stat Weights whereby the more you collect of a stat the less each additional point is worth compared to an additional point of a different secondary stat. In 8.3 we are looking at ~460 free Versatility from Conflict & Strife and almost 800 free Mastery from the double Avengers Might we’re likely to run. Crit sees a value reduction too in our high wings uptime and the prominence of Holy Shock in our rotation. There are a few decent sources of bonus Haste (Overwhelming Power, Vision of Perfection, notably not Bloodlust) but nothing quite as extreme.

Haste boosts the majority of our healing for a cheap price (68 per 1%), double dips when you have fewer than 8 Glimmers active (about half the time), and still scales as well or better than any other stat during your wings window.

Crit remains at the bottom because you’re already getting a lot of it from wings and the Holy Shock bonus crit chance. You also spend very few of your Infusion of Light procs in raid. It isn’t an awful stat, just the others are stronger. You will still take the higher item level crit piece most of the time.

Wowanalyzer.com remains our best way of creating custom stat weights that match your playstyle and stat  line. It’ll be ready to go when the patch goes live.

 

Azerite, Trinkets & Special Gear

Azerite

Our current picks for best in slot Azerite are:

You’ll no doubt collect plenty of intermediate pieces before settling on these. Questionably Epic Live will be updated to 8.3 a week before the raid opens to help you plan your sets.

There are a few notes on this one. The set above does contain a helm from N’zoth Mythic. Including the last mythic boss in a best in slot list can be tricky because some consider the game “won” by the time it’s lootable. You would usually run the Mythic Second Sight Helm over the heroic Greathelm of Phantasmic Reality and a large percentage of your progression will likely be in that set. Also note that the above is designed as a “general” set. Specific bosses might have more in-depth requirements and that applies particularly to the world first race where there can be a large premium on damage and survivability.

 

Trinkets

There is a detailed write-up on each of the new raid trinkets here, complete with rankings. In particular we’re looking at Humming Black Dragonscale and Vita-Charged Titanshard. Alchemist Stone is also excellent and will hold you over until Mythic raid trinkets at the very least. Trinkets can not corrupt (at least, currently). There isn’t a humdinger of a damage trinket this time around like we had in Eternal Palace with Aquipotent Nautilus.

Other Stuff

In 8.3 Mechagon becomes a Mythic+ dungeon. That means we can get very high item level versions of the Mechagon set rings. These scale ridiculously and picking up a “damage an enemy from behind” and “heal 5 allies” set will obliterate all competition. Consider it a priority going into the patch.

 

Quickfire Questions

Which professions are best going into 8.3? Blacksmithing, Engineering and Alchemy are all solid. Skip Jewelcrafting.
Will our talents change? This is going to need some post-release testing but I don’t foresee any changes. If there are any brutal tank damage or multi-debuff fights then Beacon of Faith might sneak in but the default build should stay the same.
Is the Avenging Crusader build closer now? Technically yes, but the gap is still substantial and you are doing your raid a disservice by playing the weaker build.
What do we do with Residuum in season 4? You’ll be rolling the Shoulder slot again in search of either Lockjaw Shoulderplates or Tank Buster Pauldrons as both have Glimmer and Lights Decree. Whether you should roll or save up is your decision. You have 2 in 7 odds.
Can gear still roll regular sockets and Leech? They can on the PTR so it’s very likely.
When does Residuum reset? With the patch, not with the start of Season 4.
What is the neck level cap? There isn’t one anymore. The last big upgrade is at level 80 (your last +3% stamina node) but it continues to level past that (Essences included).

 

14 responses to “Holy Paladin 8.3 FAQ”

  1. Rekya says:

    Which Loa for ztroll is worth using? Pa’ku I assume?

  2. Steven says:

    Hi there,
    Just got my first Ineffable Truth on the pala and for it is not even showing as a corruption option in the list? Imported simc several times and the corruption is nowhere to be found. Anyone else has this?
    Cheers
    Jopdin

    • Voulk says:

      Hey mate. Sorry about the slow reply. Ineffable Truth isn’t worth wearing until you collect at least 80% worth (two pieces, or three if you’re using only rank ones). QE Live is much less likely to recommend a single IT.

  3. Bensiano says:

    Is the bis mechagon ring 460 better than a 470 ring?
    or is the 470 ring just better ?
    and same fpr the Raden Trinket, is the 445 better than a 470 intelect trinket or alchemy trink?

  4. GlimmerPal says:

    Wondering if Im using too much haste. Im playing Glimmer build(prob obvious) and Im sitting around 28% haste. I have Mecha Trinket and last night got Black Dragonscale. I feel like I should move some of that Haste into Vers/Mast. I was thinking Vers since I also do a lot of M+ and dont feel like changing Enchants/Gems every week.

  5. Jimmi says:

    I primarily do m+, will the stat weight be the same for m+ or is Crit more valuable in m+ vs others?

    • Voulk says:

      In Mythic+ you will continue to prioritize item level with a strong lean toward crit instead of haste. If you’re doing high keys you might also choose to chop out as much Mastery as possible in order to increase your damage.

  6. K1ta says:

    I think that they just buffed Glimpse of Clarity on the PTR a few days ago, could that making this corruption a valuable choice for Holy Paladin?

    • Voulk says:

      Nice of them to double its proc rate. Yeah it could very well be a winner. I just want to wait until the patch goes live to see if we can weave it into our rotation.

  7. Awoo says:

    Not looking forward to the ever prevalent glimmer meta, standard hpal just feels so much smoother

    • Voulk says:

      It’s definitely been divisive. I imagine they’ll kill it in Shadowlands so this will be the builds last tier.

  8. WIll says:

    Always look forward to your posts that come out before a new patch. Thanks for your hard work!

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