Holy Priest Raid Guide
Holy Priest Raid Guide
Welcome to the Holy Priest Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.1.5! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Holy Priest
Holy PriestRaid
Hero Talents
Holy Priest
- Archon focuses on your constant healing output, while Oracle focuses on enhancing your big healing cooldowns and providing utility to the team.
- This Guide recommends playing Archon, and therefore only covers that Hero Talent option.
Archon
Oracle
- When casting Halo you also periodically create more Halos that return to you. They are enhanced by the following nodes and grant you certain benefits:
- Power Surge
- Creates multiple Halos.
- Resonant Energy
- Applies an increased healing taken buff to any ally hit by a Halo ring.
- Energy Compression
- Massively increases the effectiveness of each Halo.
- Divine Halo
- Halos return to you after reaching max distance.
- Power Surge
- Oracle grants you a new Ability that cycles through 4 different versions after each use:
- Premonition of Insight
- Decreases the cooldown of the next 3 spells you cast by 7 seconds.
- Premonition of Piety
- Increases your healing done by a large amount and causes 70% of your overhealing to be redistributed.
- Premonition of Solace
- Your next Flash Heal, Heal, Holy Word: Serenity or Renew apply a massive absorb and a dr to your target.
- Premonition of Clairvoyance
- Gain the effects of all the other Premonitions.
- Premonition of Insight
Talents
Holy Priest
General Raid Talents
When to use this Spec
This is the default loadout going into any boss unless specified otherwise. You have to adjust the class talent tree based on the utility needed for the encounter. To make your life easier, boss-specific talent loadouts are available in the Raids section.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Miracle Worker
- This Talent allows you to prepare effectively for critical moments by granting you an additional charge of your healing Holy Words. This increases the value of the Holy Priest's core cooldown reduction mechanic, as you can now retain one charge for emergencies without losing value.
- Restitution
- Cheat death effect.
- Divine Image
- Summons a Naaru after each Holy Word. The Naaru is empowered by each Holy Word you cast, but the empowerment only lasts for a short duration.
- Resonant Words
- Significantly increases your next single target heal after each Holy Word cast.
- Answered Prayers
- Puts you into Apotheosis upon reaching 50 stacks.
Class Tree
- Phantom Reach
- Increases the range of your spells to 46 yards, which is a very powerful tool if used correctly. This allows you to reach allies even when the Raid is spread out.
- Surge of Light
- This talent significantly helps with mana management and mobility, providing you with an additional recovery tool while on the move.
- Twins of the Sun Priestess
- You also gain the effects of Power Infusion when you cast it on an ally.
- Rhapsody
- Allows you to frequently access a strong group-wide heal if your raid is stacking.
- Protective Light
- In combination with Binding Heal and Surge of Light, this talent provides you with an easily accessible 10% damage reduction.
- Translucent Image
- Adds a new but weak defensive ability to the Priest class toolkit. However, when combined with Protective Light, it could save your life!
Rotation
Holy Priest
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Your healing spells have a chance to apply Insurance! to their targets that heals them for (1023.68% of Spell power) over 15 sec. Insurance! is consumed if an ally drops below 40% health to heal them for (614.25% of Spell power).
- 4-Set: Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify apply Insurance! for 10 sec to one target while Apotheosis is active. Your healing is increased by 1% for each Insurance! active on allies.
Priority List
For Healing
- Cast Prayer of Mending on Cooldown.
- Cast Holy Word: Serenity if at 2 charges.
- Cast Holy Word: Sanctify on Cooldown if there is AoE healing to be done, people are stacked.
- Cast Holy Word: Serenity if people require enough single target healing.
- Cast Holy Nova if you have 15 or more stacks of Rhapsody and there is AoE healing to be done and people are stacked.
- Cast Flash Heal to reduce the Cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity.
- Cast Renew on movement globals. (Skip this if you run into mana issues)
For Damage
- Cast Holy Fire on cooldown.
- Cast Holy Word: Chastise on cooldown.
- Cast Smite.
- Maintain Shadow Word: Pain on movement globals. (Skip this if you run into mana issues)
Cooldowns
Divine Hymn
- While this spell does not do the best numbers compared to other cooldowns, its real strength lies in its raid-wide increased healing taken buff that builds up during the channel. When combined with a powerful raid healing cooldown, Divine Hymn can be one of the strongest healing cooldowns there is.
Halo
- With how powerful Halo becomes when picking Archon, it needs to be considered a healing cooldown and needs to be planned accordingly. Check out the Liberation of Undermine section for this.
Apotheosis
- While this Cooldown is active all of your healing is increased by Perfected Form, therefore ideally you want to combine this with your Halo. This also greatly increases the amount of Holy Words you are able to use resulting in way better spot healing.
Symbol of Hope
- Use Symbol of Hope frequently when Desperate Prayer and your allies' major defensives are on cooldown. This helps your allies use their defensives more frequently, making your job easier. In Raids, you also use it frequently for its mana regeneration benefits.
Deep Dive
Holy Priest
Optimising Apotheosis
- To get the most out of your Apotheosis windows triggered by Answered Prayers, you need to know that there are two ways of playing them: Either by focusing on generating Holy Words, or by focusing on reducing your mana spend by casting as many Holy Words as possible during it. Which one you should decide on heavily varies depending on the encounter.
Min maxing Power Infusion
- While Power Infusion is your spell, the optimal usage is to prioritize your teammates' benefit over your own. To do this, monitor your party members' offensive cooldowns. Use Addons or WeakAuras, as discussed in the Addon section, or communicate with your teammates so they can request it exactly when they need it.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Liberation of Undermine
Holy Priest
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression finishes.
Vexie
Cauldron
Rik
Sprocketmonger
Stix
One-Armed Bandit
Mug'Zee
Gally
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Use Desperate Prayer when targeted by Incendiary Fire.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of Spatial Paradox.
- General
- Only go into bikes at the start of phases as Exhaust Fumes becomes stronger each time.
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Use Desperate Prayer during Colossal Clash to survive being hit by waves.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter.
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Use Desperate Prayer when targeted by Sound Cannon.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this boss encounter.
- General
- Cast Stampeding Roar in the intermission to help people reaching the overloaded amplifiers.
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Rotate your defensives when Sonic Ba-Boom overlaps with Foot-Blasters at the start and at the end of each phase.
- Externals
- Use Pain Suppression as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter.
- General
- Use Stampeding Roar during the intermission to help your team reach the boss quicker.
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Use Desperate Prayer when targeted with Incinerator.
- Externals
- Use your Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive on this encounter.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter.
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Rotate through your defensive arsenal when Foul Exhaust overlaps with another mechanic.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter..
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Always use Desperate Prayer when mines are being triggered.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter..
How To Use Your Healing Cooldowns
Boss Tips
- Defensives
- Rotate through your defensive arsenal when Tick-Tock Canisters expire.
- Externals
- Use Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive.
- Paradox
- Other healers make better use of it in this encounter..
Stat Priority
Holy Priest
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Holy Priest. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
The Conclusion here is that you want to equip the highest item level generally.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Reduces damage taken from AoE effects.
- Leech - Returns a portion of your damage and healing done as healing to you. (Excludes self healing)
- Speed - Increases movement speed. (Does stack with other movement speed abilities)
The only time you should think about picking a lower item level is if it has Leech or Avoidance. Speed is nice to have, but you shouldn't consider this stat when choosing between two items.
- Here is a showcase of how powerful Leech is for a Healer: Breakdown of Mythic Fyrakk
Gear
Holy Priest
Best in Slot
Farmable Alternatives
Due to the way stat weights work for Holy Priest, there isn't a strict best-in-slot list. Although it is theoretically possible to obtain items with all the correct Tertiaries, doing so requires extraordinary luck or several human lifespans because of the weekly reset system in World of Warcraft.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Cleanup Crew's Wastemask | Stix |
| Neck | Flickering Glowtorc | Darkflame Cleft |
| Shoulder | Confessor's Unshakable Radiance | Tier/Catalyst |
| Cloak | Test Pilot's Go-Pack | Sproketmonger |
| Chest | Confessor's Unshakable Vestment | Tier/Catalyst |
| Wrist | Consecrated Cuffs | Crafting |
| Gloves | Confessor's Unshakable Mitts | Tier/Catalyst |
| Belt | Honorbound Retainer's Sash | Rookery |
| Legs | Confessor's Unshakable Leggings | Tier/Catalyst |
| Boots | Hotstep Heel-Turners | Cauldron |
| Ring 1 | The Jastor Diamond | Gallywix |
| Ring 2 | Hoop of the Blighted | Rookery |
| Trinket 1 | Eye of Kezan | Gallywix |
| Trinket 2 | Mister Pick-Me-Up | Sproketmonger |
| Weapon | Big Earner's Bludgeon | Mug'Zee |
| Off-Hand | Vagabond's Torch | Crafting |
Authors Note:
This list shows the best items for healing in Raids from all sources. Keep in mind that getting different tier pieces with Leech / Avoidance changes which off-piece is best for you. Likewise, any other non-trinket item with Leech / Avoidance replaces the one suggested here.
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Elysian Flame Crown | Priory |
| Neck | Flickering Glowtorc | Darkflame Cleft |
| Shoulder | Moneymaking Businessmantle | Cinderbrew Meadery |
| Cloak | Chef Chewie's Towel | Cinderbrew Meadery |
| Chest | Soulsewn Vestments | Theater of Pain |
| Wrist | Charged Rookfeather Wraps | Rookery |
| Gloves | Operator's Mitts | Mechagon |
| Belt | Honorbound Retainer's Sash | Rookery |
| Legs | Razorchoke Slacks | Floodgate |
| Boots | Cloudstrider Soles | Rookery |
| Ring 1 | Ring of Perpetual Conflict | Theater of Pain |
| Ring 2 | Hoop of the Blighted | Rookery |
| Trinket 1 | Carved Blazikon Wax | Darkflame Cleft |
| Trinket 2 | Signet of the Priory | Priory |
| Two-Hand Weapon | Neural Synapse Enhancer | Mechagon |
| One-Hand Weapon | Scalding Queenmaker's Shiv | Cinderbrew Meadery |
| Off-Hand | Arcane Scuttle | Darkflame Cleft |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the scenario.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Mug's Moxie Jug
- Strong crit stat stick.
- Carved Blazikon Wax
- Strong vers stat stick.
Embellishments
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Very strong stat stick that gives you a high amount of a random secondary stat that changes every 8 seconds.
- Writhing Armor Banding
- Doubles the effect of your Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 675 item level and regular items are 678 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Consumables
Holy Priest
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Aggression
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Water
- Rocky Road
- Combat Potion
- Algari Mana Potion -- Recommended
- Potion Bomb of Power
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Masterful Ruby
- Elusive Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem colour to enhance your Blasphemite.
- Deadly Onyx
- Deadly Emerald
- Deadly Sapphire
Enchantments
| Helm | S.A.D. |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Leeching Fangs |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Whisper of Armored Leech S.A.D. |
| Belt | S.A.D. |
| Legs | Daybreak Spellthread |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of Fiery Resolve |
You buy S.A.D. from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists and Belt.
Races
Holy Priest
For min-maxing a Holy Priest in Mythic Raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Jump forward, can be cast while falling or being knocked.
- Spatial Rift -- Void elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate again to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
It is highly recommended to play a Goblin! Priests can be pretty slow-moving, and the Goblin's extra mobility really helps in those sticky situations.
Macros
Holy Priest
Discover recommended macros for Holy Priest during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
All spells in this Holy Priest Raid Guide are available as mouseover macros for your convenience!
Prayer of Mending
/cast [@mouseover, help] Prayer of Mending; Prayer of MendingCircle of Healing
/cast [@mouseover, help] Circle of Healing; Circle of HealingHoly Word: Serenity
/cast [@mouseover, help] Holy Word: Serenity; Holy Word: SerenityPrayer of Healing
/cast [@mouseover, help] Prayer of Healing; Prayer of HealingRenew
/cast [@mouseover, help] Renew; RenewFlash Heal
/cast [@mouseover, help] Flash Heal; Flash HealPower Infusion
/cast [@mouseover,exists] Power Infusion; Power InfusionLeap of Faith
/cast [@mouseover, help] Leap of Faith; Leap of FaithGuardian Spirit
/cast [@mouseover, help] Guardian Spirit; Guardian SpiritIf you press shift while using this macro you get the Angelic Feather automatically placed under you, skipping the control click.
/cast [mod:shift, @player] Angelic Feather; Angelic FeatherReplace your Purify macro if you wish. This macro makes it so that if you target an enemy you purge and if you target an ally you dispel, saving you a keybind.
#showtooltip Purify
/use [@mouseover, help] Purify; [harm] Dispel Magic; [noharm] PurifyYour Mass Dispel instantly goes off when you press the button without having to confirm click, use with caution.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Mass DispelA nice little Priest only macro, if you know you know.
/cast [nomod] Levitate
/cancelaura [mod:shift] LevitateAddons
Holy Priest
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Holy Priest, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
- OmniCD -- Party CD Tracker
- Addon to track your party members' Cooldowns, mandatory for M+
- ElvUI / BetterBlizzFrames -- Party/Raidframe Addon
- WeakAuras -- Jack of all trades
- WeakAura allows players to create and customize graphical displays of game information. These displays, known as "auras" can show various aspects such as buffs, debuffs, cooldowns, health, and other important events.
- Plater -- Nameplate Addon
- Plater is a nameplate addon with an extraordinary amount of settings, out of the box debuff tracking, threat coloring, and support for scripting similar to WeakAuras + the WeakAuras-Companion for Mod/Script/Profile updates.
- BigWigs -- BossMods Addon
- BigWigs is a boss encounter add-on. It consists of many individual encounter scripts, or boss modules; mini add-ons that are designed to trigger alert messages, timer bars, sounds, and so forth, for one specific raid encounter.
- Details -- Damage Meter
- Shows you Damage/Healing throughout the dungeon
These WeakAuras are recommended for optimal performance in raids as a Holy Priest.
Power Word: Life Glow
Glows your frame when Power Word: Life is useable
Stamina Tracker
Shows an icon when you need to buff stamina
Power Infusion Handler
Notifies you when someone requests PI of you
Changes this Patch
Holy Priest
- Holy
- Developers' notes: We're aiming to provide a better experience when using Divine Hymn while pulling back on the number of raid cooldowns available to the specialization. We're also doing some consolidation in the tree by removing Circle of Healing and adding more interactions with Prayer of Healing. Finally, we're looking to provide options for a gameplay style centered around Renew uptime in addition to existing playstyles.
- Several talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
- New Talent: Lasting Words – Holy Word: Serenity applies 12 seconds of Renew to its target and Holy Word: Sanctify applies 4 seconds of Renew to allies it heals.
- New Talent: Light in the Darkness – Increases the healing done by Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify by 20%/40%. Increases the radius of Holy Word: Sanctify by 15%/30%.
- New Talent: Dispersing Light – 5% of healing done with Heal, Flash Heal, and Power Word: Life is replicated to 4 injured allies within 40 yards.
- New Talent: Divinity – Your healing is increased by 10% while Apotheosis is active. When you activate Apotheosis, your next 3 Heal or Prayer of Healing casts are instant and heal for 25% more.
- New Talent: Eternal Sanctity – Your Holy Words extend the duration of Apotheosis by 1 second.
- New Talent: Holy Celerity – Reduces the cooldown of your Holy Words by 15 seconds.
- New Talent: Empowered Renew – Renew reduces the cooldown of Sanctify by an additional 6 seconds and heals for 60% more when cast, but has a 12 second cooldown.
- Voice of Harmony has been updated – Power Word: Life now also reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity. Divine Star and Halo now reduce the cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify.
- Seraphic Crescendo has been redesigned and moved from PvP talents to the Holy tree – Now reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 60 seconds.
- Gales of Song has been redesigned – While channeling Divine Hymn, place 2 stacks of Prayer of Mending on up to 3 allies within its range every 1 second.
- Prayerful Litany has been redesigned – Now causes the primary target of Prayer of Healing to be healed for 75% more.
- All healing reduced by 8%.
- Holy Mending healing increased by 30%.
- Prayer of Healing healing increased by 69%.
- Prayer of Healing mana cost increased by 25%.
- Prayer of Healing cast time is now 2.5 seconds (was 2 seconds).
- Prayer of Healing now prioritizes nearby injured targets instead of the closest targets.
- Prayer of Healing now has an impact visual on allies it heals.
- Prayer Circle now triggers from Holy Word: Sanctify.
- Cosmic Ripple healing increased by 150%.
- Lightwell’s health threshold is now 75% (was 50%).
- Resonant Words now also affects Power Word: Life.
- Lightweaver now increases the healing of Heal and Prayer of Healing by 18% (was 25%).
- Lightweaver can now also be consumed by Prayer of Healing in addition to Heal.
- Lightweaver now accumulates up to 4 charges (was 2).
- Divine Hymn channel duration is now 5 seconds (was 8 seconds). Total healing unchanged.
- Afterlife no longer grants a resurrection cast during Spirit of Redemption.
- Holy Nova now reduces the cooldown of Chastise by 4 seconds baseline and no longer interacts with Voice of Harmony.
- Crisis Management now also increases the critical strike chance of Power Word: Life.
- Apotheosis now reduces the cooldown of Holy Words by 200% (was 300%).
- Prismatic Echoes now also increases the healing of Renew by 15%/30%.
- Prismatic Echoes increases the healing of Mastery: Echo of Light by 5%/10% (was 6%/12%).
- Resonant Words is now on the Personal Resource Display.
- The following talents are now 1-point:
- Crisis Management
- Epiphany
- Prayers of the Virtuous
- Prismatic Echoes
- Resonant Words
- Voice of Harmony
- The following talents have been removed:
- Circle of Healing
- Guardians of the Light
- Healing Chorus
- Holy Word: Salvation
- Orison
- Pontifex
- Revitalizing Prayers
- Sanctified Prayers
- Say Your Prayers
- Oracle
- New Talent: Twin Sight – An additional 2 stacks of Prayer of Mending is placed on a second ally within 40 yards when casting Prayer of Mending.
- Preemptive Care now increases the duration of Renew by 25% (was 6 seconds).
- Premonition now has 2 charges baseline.
- Divine Providence has been removed.
FAQ
Holy Priest
A: Start using Guardian Spirit as a personal defensive cooldown.
Credits
Written By: Rycn
Reviewed By: Sol