Light’s Vigil turns Holy Shock into a group heal you set up in advance

Holy Paladins have always been strongest on one target. Light’s Vigil is Blizzard’s answer to what they do when the whole raid takes damage, and it rewards planning more than reflexes.

The ability

According to Blizzard’s Paladin deep dive of 15 October, Light’s Vigil is Holy’s new 31-point gold medal talent. It requires Holy Shock. It has a 1.5-second cast, lasts 30 seconds and has a 6-second cooldown. It can go on an ally or an enemy, and in both cases the next Holy Shock on that target does not trigger Holy Shock’s cooldown.

What happens next depends on the target.

• On an ally, every member of that ally’s party is instantly healed for a moderate amount. Light’s Vigil can be active on only one friendly player per party.
• On an enemy, the enemy takes extra Holy damage and 75% of Light’s Vigil’s mana cost is refunded.

Only the damage version refunds mana, a point Blizzard also clarified in the tooltip during the beta. Blizzard publishes no heal amount, range or coefficients; “moderate” is its only word on the heal.

Setup, not panic

The friendly use is built for preparation. Blizzard’s example: a Holy Paladin sets up Light’s Vigil on several different parties in a raid, then, when a big raid-wide hit lands, casts Holy Shock on each marked target in turn to heal the raid quickly.

The deep dive is equally clear about the catch. Used reactively, it is harder, because of the setup involved. A 1.5-second cast per party, before the damage arrives, is a real commitment.

Holy Shock moved to make room

To fit this in, Holy Shock moved from the 31-point slot to the 21-point gold medal, and its cooldown dropped to 10 seconds from 30. That also opens it to hybrid builds.

Talents that touch it

Spiritual Focus now also applies to Light’s Vigil, and Illumination can be triggered by it. The 16 October development notes fixed a bug that sent focus-macro casts of Light’s Vigil to the wrong target, which matters for anyone planning to mark parties without changing target.