Gaming
 

Flash of Light

From WoWWiki

"A Paladin's healing power need not be relegated solely to great restoration. Sometimes a swift, judicious mending can make all the difference."

Flash of Light
  • Flash of Light
  • 1.5 sec cast
  • 40 yards range
  • Mana
  • Heals a friendly target for X.
Usable by
ClassPaladin
Properties
TypeDefensive
SchoolHoly
CooldownGlobal
Talents
Improvement
talents
Spiritual Focus, Healing Light, Illumination, Divine Favor, Holy Power, Holy Guidance
Other information
Ranks7

Quickly heals a friendly target for a small amount. When combined with Illumination and Sacred Shield, this is a very mana efficient spell, although it will not provide nearly the heals per second that Holy Light spam provides, at least in Patch 3.1.0. Thus in PvE it generally considered an inferior spell. See patch changes below for more details about upcoming changes to paladin healing.

Contents

Rank table

Rank Level Base mana cost Heal Amt Cost to learn
1 20 8% 81 - 93 40s
2 26 8% 124 - 144 60s
3 34 8% 189 - 211 1g 17s
4 42 8% 256 - 288 1g 89s
5 50 8% 346 - 390 2g 52s
6 58 8% 445 - 499 3g 96s
7 66 7% 588 - 658 7g 47s
8 74 7% 682 - 764 20g
9 79 7% 785 - 879 20g

Tips & Tricks

During the Burning Crusade expansion, "Flash of Light spam" was a popular style of healing for holy paladins in PvE, but since Wrath of the Lich King was released, this style has fallen largely out of fashion and for good reason. The specialty niche for paladins as healers has always been single-target healing (heal the main tank), and Flash of Light is just not powerful enough to do the job. A geared paladin who can skillfully time cooldowns can effectively spam Holy Shock and Holy Light without too much of a mana problem, reducing the need to hardly ever use the more mana efficient Flash of Light spell. It remains to be seen, however, whether this will continue with the release of patch 3.2, and the 50% reduction in mana return from healing spell criticals due to Illumination

However, this spell is popular in PvP, for both holy and retribution specs. The Art of War (deep in the retribution tree) or 2/2 Infusion of Light (deep in the holy tree) give procs that make Flash of Light an instant cast spell. Especially for players who have a high enough rating to purchase the  [Furious Gladiator's Libram of Justice], this is a very powerful spell.

100% of your spell power is added to your Flash of Light spell.

Improvements

Talents and spells

  •   The Art of War — Increases the damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 5-10% and when these abilities critically hit the cast time of your next Flash of Light [is reduced by 0.75 sec]/[spell becomes instant cast].
  •   Beacon of Light — The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all targets within a 40 yard radius. Any heals you cast on those targets will also heal the Beacon for 100% of the amount healed. Only one target can be the Beacon of Light at a time. Lasts 1 min.
  •   Conviction — Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 1-5%.
  •   Divine Favor — When activated, gives your next Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spell a 100% critical effect chance.
  •   Divine Illumination — Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 sec.
  •   Divinity — Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects on you by 1-5%.
  •   Healing Light — Increases the amount healed by your Holy Light and Flash of Light by 4-12%.
  •   Holy Guidance — Increases your spell damage and healing by 4-20% of your total Intellect.
  •   Holy Power — Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1-5%.
  •   Illumination — After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell, gives a 20%-100% chance to gain Mana equal to 30% of the base cost of your spell.
  •   Infusion of Light — Your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Flash of Light by 0.75-1.5 sec or increase the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10-20%.
  •   Judgements of the Pure — Increases the damage done by your Seal and Judgement spells by 5-25%, and your Judgement spells increase your casting and melee haste by 3-15% for 1 min.
  •   Sheath of Light — Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10-30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20-60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds.
  •   Spiritual Focus — Gives your Holy Light and Flash of Light spells a 14%-70% chance not to lose casting time when you take damage.

Items

Spell power
Resilience
Sets

Glyphs

2020
2020
  • Glyph of Seal of Light
  • Major Glyph
  • Classes: Paladin
  • Requires Level 30
  • Item Level 35Disenchants into:
    Not disenchantable
  • Use: While Seal of Light is active, the effect of your healing spells is increased by 5%.
2020
  • Glyph of Seal of Wisdom
  • Major Glyph
  • Classes: Paladin
  • Requires Level 38
  • Item Level 43Disenchants into:
    Not disenchantable
  • Use: While Seal of Wisdom is active, the cost of your healing spells is reduced by 5%.




Patch changes

  • Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04):
    • Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
    • The Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
"Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players again. ...we are changing The Art of War to make not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Choose healing or damage." (source)

Patch 3.2.0 notes

In Patch 3.2.0, you really have to see the full picture of healing changes in order to really understand how dramatically Flash of Light is changing, in terms of its effectiveness and usefullness.

The cons
  • Illumination is taking a 50% nerf, from 60% mana returned to 30%
  • All sources of Replenishment are also taking a 20% hit plus its tick was converted to mp5, so it will no longer tick every second
The pros
  • Most mp5 items are getting 25% boost to their mp5 stat
  • Beacon of Light is getting a huge buff. Overheals will now heal the beaconed target, the radius will be increased 50% (to 60 yards), and a single target can be affected by multiple beacons.

To summarize, each Holy Light cast by a skilled player may actually be more effective than before the patch, but at a higher cost when you look at the whole mana picture. This will make paladins who continue to spam Holy Light oom, so Flash of Light will have to be used more often and effectively to keep from running out of mana.

External links