Priest - Holy
A Holy Priest is a priest that has placed most of their talent points in the Holy tree with an emphasis on improving the power and efficiency of their Holy spells, making a number of useful spells available to them that other healers do not have:
Lightwell∞,
Circle of Healing∞, and
Guardian Spirit ∞.
Purpose
The primary purpose of a Holy Priest is to heal other players. Priests are good at healing both single and multiple targets and have one of the most diverse selections of spells of all the healing classes.
Talents
A Holy Priest places most of their talent points in the Holy tree while dipping into the Discipline tree to take advantage of a few key mana-efficiency talents:
Inner Focus∞ and
Meditation∞. Do not even consider omitting Meditation.
With 3.1 there is no longer a cookie cutter Holy Spec. There are a number of variations depending on playstyle and healing role. Below are a couple of examples.
14/57/0 Balanced∞: This is the most popular Holy build providing a blend of the best single target and group healing talents.
14/57/0 Raid Healer∞: This build emphasizes group heals at the expense of some throughput and efficiency for single target heals.
18/53/0 Raid Healer needing mana∞: This build sacrifices throughput to achieve better mana efficiency for raid healing.
One of the key components in successful raiding for healers is proper mana management. Talent point distribution has a very big effect on how a priest regenerates their mana, as well as influences what kind of gear the priest should be searching for.
Ability Rotation
An "ability rotation" is commonly found amongst DPS-classes, referring to the order in which spells and abilities are used. Rotations vary based on talent choices, gear worn, and personal preference, but they are all designed to increase DPS as efficiently as possible.
Most of a priest's spells however are reactive. Establishing a rotation and focusing on HPS is futile, since a healing priest needs to anticipate incoming damage, watch the party/raid's health, as well as pay attention to the mechanics of the fight itself. There is no specific rotation for healing as a holy priest. Instead, one must learn all the tools available and use them accordingly.
Healing Spells and Abilities
Single Target Healing
- Flash Heal∞ is a healing spell with a short cast time but also a small output. It isn't recommended as a primary healing spell when healing a single target because of Greater Heal's better efficiency and output. It's ideal for emergency response healing or for topping off a target's health.
- Renew∞ is a priest's main heal over time (HoT) spell. Mana efficient, this spell keeps some amount of healing going even when you're incapacitated. This is also useful in combination with Power Word: Shield as the shield prevents further damage while the Renew heals the target.
- Greater Heal∞ is one of the most efficient single-target healing spells in a priest's arsenal (with the proper talents). This is the "bread and butter" spell when healing a single target.
- Power Word: Shield∞ is not technically a healing spell, but for all intents and purposes grants a target extra "health" in the form of a shield. Because it is instant cast, it can often be used in conjunction with a fast heal mitigate an incoming death blow to a target.
- Guardian Spirit∞ is also not technically a healing spell, but it will create a "spirit" that will sacrifice itself to save the target if the target dies, healing the protected player up to 50% of their health. Additionally, while under the effects of the spell, the target receives a bonus 40% to all healing from any source. It can be used to keep the main tank alive near the end of a long fight when a boss rages, but also to help mitigate damage spikes via the healing bonus effect.
Multiple Target Healing
- Prayer of Healing∞ is slow like Greater Heal, but heals everyone in the target's party. It's output is similar to a Flash Heal, but when multiplied across 5 players, Prayer of Healing is one of the most efficient spells a priest can use. With 3.1 this spell can now be targeted and is useful in many situations with the raid wide burst damage in Ulduar. It's especially powerful when used with Serendipity∞ haste buff.
- Binding Heal∞ spell is similar in speed and output to Flash Heal, but heals both the target and the caster simultaneously. Additionally, it produces less threat then other healing spells, allowing a priest to quickly self-heal while still healing someone else without worrying about drawing aggro.
- Circle of Healing∞ is a "smart" healing spell that will heal the 5 most damaged party/raid members who are within 15 yards of the target (not within 15 yards of the caster). It is a good response spell to area-of-effect damage on the group. Note: As of patch 3.0.8 it has a 6 second cooldown.
- Divine Hymn∞ is a raid saver. The tooltip is confusing but think of it like a 3 target Circle of Healing that picks new targets every 2 seconds for a total of 12 heals. Each heal is over twice that of Circle of Healing.
- Holy Nova∞ is rarely used in a raid environment because of it's limited range and scope. It can be used to top off the priest and any nearby party members, or to assist in AoE damage against large numbers of low-hp non-elite mobs.
- Prayer of Mending∞ is the second "smart" heal available to a priest and has very unique mechanics. When the target takes damage, Prayer of Mending will heal them and then bounce to the nearest target with the most damage (up to 5 times, 6 if you have 2 parts of tier 7). This allows the priest to "fire-and-forget" the spell and continue to heal. In general, it should be used as often as the cooldown will allow if raid healing. The most common mistake of inexperienced Holy Priests is not using this spell often enough.
- Lightwell∞ has the potential to be the best healing spell available in the game, but is often overlooked because it can be difficult to use effectively. It has a very short cast time and a moderately short cooldown. If used to it's fullest, a Lightwell can heal for 10 times the amount of a single Greater Heal for almost half the mana. The trick to Lightwell is that it creates a usable object that party and raid members have to click on in order to get healed. Unless the group is coordinated and has trained to take advantage of Lightwell, most of the benefits are lost. Most priests skip this talent because of that reason.
Key Cooldowns
Circle of Healing - 6 seconds
Prayer of Mending - 10 seconds
Inner Focus - 3 minutes
Guardian Spirit - 3 minutes
Lightwell - 3 minutes
Divine Hymn - 10 minutes
Stats
For an in-depth, math-heavy look at priest stats, you can visit the
Elitist Jerks' forum∞ or
A Dwarf Priest's blog∞.
The two most important considerations for a priest is healing output and mana regeneration. A priest needs to be able to sling enough healing to keep targets alive while they're being damaged and still have enough mana to last through an entire fight.
Healing Output
- Spellpower is the primary means of increasing healing output. It directly increases the amount that spells heal their targets. One thing to note is that faster spells receive less benefit from spellpower than slower spells (these differences are referred to as "spell coefficients" and are affected by multiple variables).
- Crit increases healing output by increasing the percentage chance of getting a critical heal. Critical heals will often trigger extra benefits from talents as well as greatly increased healing to the target.
- Haste increases healing output by decreasing the casting time of spells. This translates roughly as "more spells = more healing," the drawback of which means too much haste and not enough mana regeneration equals a priest that is out of mana.
Mana Regeneration
Any class with a mana bar passively regenerates mana based on their gear, talents, and stats. The rate at which mana regenerates changes when in combat or after casting a spell. Also, there is the new Replenishment mechanic introduced in Wrath of the Lich King that has added a new Intellect-based mana regeneration effect.
One important concept to note is the "Five Second Rule" or FSR. For five seconds after a spell has finished being cast, mana regeneration from Spirit (and Intellect) is disabled. Note that Holypriests specc into
Meditation∞ to help with this. The practical result of this is that back-to-back spellcasting will quickly drain a priest's mana pool. A priest that does not have enough healing output for a given situation (healer is under-geared, tank is under-geared, not enough other healers for a big fight) will be forced to use more spells to heal the target(s), preventing the priest from taking short breaks and benefiting from Spirit-based mana regeneration.
- MP5 is "mana per five seconds" and for most classes is the primary measure of mana regeneration. MP5 regenerates mana whether you are casting or not and can be increased by items or buffs. Also Meditation∞ increases your MP5 regeneration by a percent of your spirit based regeneration.
- Spirit increases passive mana regeneration and provides a boost to spell power through the talent Spiritual Guidance∞, a key Holy Priest talent.
- Intellect increases passive mana regeneration slightly while increasing the total mana pool, as well as the benefit gained from the Replenishment∞ buff and Shadowfiend∞ and Hymn of Hope∞. It also increases Crit, which also helps contribute to healing output.
General Recommendation
When gearing your character, the basic recommendation is to try to keep things balanced. Don't focus too much on a single stat to the detriment of everything else. There are many posts about the math behind optimizing the ratio of Spirit to Intellect for priests (both Discipline and Holy), but the general rule is to keep them close to 1:1 and you'll do fine. When given a choice, you should favor Intellect slightly over Spirit.
Spirit is generally a better stat for Holy Priests than MP5. For example, when choosing gems a common choice is 8 Spirit vs. 3 MP5. The Spirit is a better choice because it provides almost as much MP5 while adding Spellpower and mana regeneration outside of the 5 second rule. Spirit also benefits from Blessing of Kings while MP5 doesn't.
Recommended Glyphs
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
All are optional; feel free to pick from this list, or any other available. The first two affect your healing experience directly, while the others just enhance your playing experience in general.
Recommended Item Enhancements
Recommended Gems
For the regular gems slots you want to balance your primary stats of Spellpower, Intellect, and Spirit. These 3 stats cover the 3 colors of Red, Yellow, and Blue so you have a lot of flexibility in mixing gems and preserving the socket bonuses.
Recommended Consumables
Additional Tips
Sources and Other Resources
Elitist Jerks' WotLK Healing Compendium∞
A Dwarf Priest's WotLK Priest Survival Guide∞
PlusHeal Forums∞
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