Paladin Crest

Holy Paladin Leveling Guide from 1 to 90 — 12.0.5

Last Updated: May 19, 2026 - 3:00 PM (today)
Mytholxgy
Mytholxgy

On this page, you will find our Level by Level Holy Paladin leveling guide for Midnight. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Paladin leveling guide.

1.

Holy Paladin Leveling Guide for Midnight

Paladin is one of the best leveling classes in the game. You have extreme versatility in the fact that you can either tank or heal dungeons while also swapping to DPS for solo questing.

At lower levels, you will often have the easiest time leveling up by playing Holy or Prot and queueing for dungeons due to the nearly instant queue time. Even if you find yourself uncomfortable healing or tanking, early leveling dungeons aren't too difficult, so they are a good opportunity to learn! At higher levels where questing becomes faster and, in some cases, mandatory (expansion campaign), you will want to spec into either Ret or Prot as they offer much higher damage than Holy.

Icy Veins - If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!
Leveling Information
Beginner Leveling Guides
If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!
1.1.

Leveling Gear Options

When leveling up, always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

When using Heirloom items to help increase leveling speed, you will generally want to use as many Haste pieces as possible, to help combat the very low secondary stats you are likely to have. This will increase the speed of your rotation and help to prevent things from feeling slow and clunky.

Icy Veins - Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!
Itemization
Leveling Heirlooms
Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!
1.2.

Useful Leveling Consumables for Midnight

When leveling in Midnight, many of the consumables you used throughout the War Within will continue to be valuable. Make sure that you always have a flash active: Flask of Tempered Swiftness Icon Flask of Tempered Swiftness. As well as plenty of potions that can be helpful: Tempered Potion Icon Tempered Potion. At the end of the expansion many players will try to sell off their remaining stash of consumables so you can often find cheap ones to help you speed up your leveling!

2.

Leveling Talents

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

Holy Paladin Level 80 Midnight Leveling
CEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYBAMAAglxMzYGzMzGjxYWGbzMLmpJmlZMzMMMbZAYAYDsZWmxMLz2MzsEAAAgFAYjxAmBAAGwYMA
2.1.

War Mode Talents for Leveling

Here, you will find information on the best PvP talents for both leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content.

  1. Avenging Light Icon Avenging Light is excellent in group content, as it provides free damage to your party. Holy Light Icon Holy Light is an ability you will likely use a lot, and Avenging Light will cause it to damage enemies whenever you choose to heal an ally with Holy Light.
  2. Light's Grace Icon Light's Grace makes one of your main abilities (Holy Light Icon Holy Light), significantly stronger. This talent will not have much use in solo play, but it is excellent when healing allies.
  3. Darkest before the Dawn Icon Darkest before the Dawn allows you to stack up your Light of Dawn Icon Light of Dawn to do quite a bit more healing. As you will not be casting this ability very frequently, it makes it even stronger when you do choose to use it to keep your group healthy.

Holy Paladin unfortunately does not have any strong solo leveling PvP talents. Most of their benefits will only be seen while playing in group content. PvP talents not listed above are not worth considering as they do not provide use outside of very niche situations.

3.

Leveling Rotation

To help with understanding what changes for your spec as you level up and progress through the talent tree, use the slider below to select your current level. Each time you level up, move it along, and the section will level up with you!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 80

When you first create your Paladin, you will only have one ability available to you: Crusader Strike Icon Crusader Strike. At level 2, you will unlock Shield of the Righteous Icon Shield of the Righteous, and at level 3, you gain Judgment Icon Judgment. At level 10, you can officially spec into Holy.

Once you reach level 10, you will be able to queue for dungeons. If you plan on leveling as Holy, you will want to make use of the dungeon finder tool. It will be by far the most efficient way to level up when playing Holy. If you are interested in an in-depth rotation breakdown, you can check out our rotation page. Otherwise, we have a summary of how to use some of the healing spells available to Holy Paladin.

3.1.

Healing Rotation

  • Cast Holy Shock Icon Holy Shock as much as possible.
  • Cast Judgment Icon Judgment as much as possible.
  • Cast Word of Glory Icon Word of Glory if you have 3 Holy Power and your target is in need of healing.
  • Cast Light of Dawn Icon Light of Dawn if you have 3 Holy Power and you have 3 or more allies in need of healing.
  • Cast Flash of Light Icon Flash of Light if you cannot do any of the above.
  • Use your DPS rotation (detailed below) if no healing is required.
3.2.

DPS Rotation

The DPS rotation is fairly simple and should be used when no healing is needed, or you are questing.

  • Use Holy Shock Icon Holy Shock on cooldown.
  • Use Judgment Icon Judgment on cooldown.
  • If you are fighting multiple targets, you can choose to drop Consecration Icon Consecration. (Once you gain access to Righteous Judgment Icon Righteous Judgment, simply pressing Judgment Icon Judgment will drop Consecration).
  • Consume Holy Power with Shield of the Righteous Icon Shield of the Righteous when no healing is necessary.
Icy Veins - Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!
Class Guides
Paladin Class Guides
Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!
Mytholxgy
Mytholxgy
Guide Author
Follow Mytholxgy

This guide has been written by Mytholxgy, a former RWF progression raider and analyst for Pieces and Liquid. He is also a Templar in the Paladin Class Discord, as well as one of the class experts in the Evoker Discord. You can reach him on Twitter and watch him stream occasionally on Twitch.

4.

Changelog

  • 20 Apr. 2026: Reviewed for Patch 12.0.5.
  • 16 Mar. 2026: Updated for Midnight Season 1.
  • 26 Feb. 2026: Updated for Midnight 12.0.1.
  • 10 Feb. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
  • 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
  • 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
  • 04 Aug. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.
  • 15 Jun. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.7.
  • 21 Apr. 2025: Page Updated for Patch 11.1.5.
  • 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
  • 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
  • 21 Oct. 2024: Page updated for Patch 11.0.5.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Reviewd and Updated for The War Within.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Page Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
  • 01 Apr. 2024: Fixed leveling string.
  • 26 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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