Holy Priest Overview
The Holy Priest is a powerful spellcaster who harnesses the radiant energy of light to heal allies, deliver robust healing, and shield teammates effectively. Unlike the Discipline specialization, the Holy Priest in WoW is exclusively a healer with no option to serve as a DPS character. This makes it a perfect choice for players who find sustained DPS challenging. However, some seasoned players note that the Holy specialization can offer decent single-target damage potential through its talents when healing is not urgently required.
Holy Priest Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths | Weaknesses |
---|---|
✅ Strong continuous burst and group healing. | ⛔️ Mediocre group healing in situations where a large spread is needed. |
✅ Group CDs like Divine Hymn, Apotheosis, and Holy Word: Salvation. | ⛔️ Low damage and mobility. |
✅ Excellent group utility with Dispel Magic, Mass Dispel, Mind Soothe, Power Infusion, and Leap of Faith. | ⛔️ Zero interrupts. |
Holy Priest Hero Talents
Archon: This talent tree enhances the synergy between Halo
and
Surge of Light.
Primarily a passive tree, Archon significantly boosts your healing capabilities through powerful spells such as
Power Infusion,
Holy Word: Salvation,
and
Apotheosis,
enhancing gameplay with substantial healing benefits.
Oracle: This tree centers around the core spell
Premonition,
with a focus on active abilities that amplify healing power. Key talents such as
Premonition of Piety
and
Premonition of Solace
further enhance its effectiveness, particularly for single-target healing scenarios.
Changes to The Existing Abilities And Talents
New talents, including Phantom Reach—which extends most spells’ range by 15%—and Cauterizing Shadows, adding healing as Shadow Word: Pain expires, introduce exciting new gameplay options. Additionally, Mindgames has transitioned to a PvP-specific talent.
Holy Priest Rotation
However, don’t stress over players who consistently take avoidable damage, ending up with 20% HP where no emergency heal can save them; sometimes, that’s just how things go. Below, we provide a breakdown of each Holy Priest rotation in WoW to guide you on what spells to cast in different situations.
Raid Priority | Mythic+ Priority | |
---|---|---|
1 | Lightwell | Prayer of Mending on CD |
2 | Prayer of Mending | Holy Word: Sanctify on CD for AoE healing |
3 | Divine Word | Apotheosis |
4 | Holy Word: Sanctify on CD for AoE healing | Divine Star on CD |
5 | Circle of Healing on CD | Power Word: Life |
6 | Halo and/or Holy Nova | Symbol of Hope when Desperate Prayer on CD |
7 | Prayer of Healing | |
8 | Divine Hymn | |
9 | Symbol of Hope when Desperate Prayer on CD |
As mentioned, Holy Priests are not built for DPS, but their damage abilities can still contribute to faster boss kills and support the team. To help your party even more, consider following this DPS Priority:
- Holy Fire whenever available;
- Holy Word: Chastise to trigger Empyreal Blaze;
- Holy Fire x2;
- Divine Star (M+) or Halo (Raids) on cooldown;
- Holy Nova at max stacks or if there are more than five targets;
- Multi-DoT with Shadow Word: Pain if targeting fewer than five enemies.
Major Cooldowns
Spell | Cooldown | Description |
---|---|---|
Divine Hymn | 3 min | One of your primary cooldowns, which heals all party or raid members for a massive amount of your spell power over 8 sec. Each heal increases all targets’ healing taken by 4% for 15 sec. This effect stacks. |
Holy Word: Salvation | 12 min | This one heals all allies and applies Renew and 2 stacks of Prayer of Mending to each of the healed allies. |
Apotheosis | 2 min | Resets the CD of your Holy Words and allows you to enter a pure Holy form for 20 sec, which reduces your Holy Words’ cooldown even more. |
Guardian Spirit | 3 min | This spell summons a spirit to guard upon the friendly target, in case of the target’s death it revives it with 40% HP. You would often cast it on a tank. |
Desperate Prayer | 1.5 min | A defensive CD, which increases your max HP and heals for that amount. |
Fade | 30 sec | Fade out to remove the threat from yourself. |
Power Word: Shield | 7.5 sec | A shield can be applied to the ally for 15 sec. |
Holy Priest Build
Raid Archon
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Raid Oracle
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Mythic+
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Holy Priest Stats
While many players associate Critical Strike with doubling damage, it also enhances healing, making it a top priority among secondary stats for Holy Priests.
Haste is vital for reducing spell-casting time, allowing more rapid and effective healing during intense encounters.
Mastery mainly boosts our Mastery: Echo of Light HoT effect, which is beneficial, though usually not the primary focus. However, Mastery gains importance in Raid settings.
Versatility provides a modest boost to healing and damage, but it is generally not significant enough to prioritize.
Holy Priest Leveling
Leveling as a Holy Priest in The War Within can be one of the slower aspects of gameplay. However, there are three main methods for progressing efficiently:
Best Gear for Holy Priest
Slot | Item | Source |
---|---|---|
Head | Living Luster’s Semblance | Catalyst / Raid / Vault |
Neck | Trailspinner Pendant | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Shoulders | Living Luster’s Dominion | Catalyst / Raid / Vault |
Cloak | Royal Emblem of Nerub-ar | [DNT] Tug of War Stalker |
Chest | Bile-Soaked Harness | [DNT] Tug of War Stalker |
Wrist | Necropolis Lord’s Shackles | The Necrotic Wake |
Gloves | Living Luster’s Touch | Catalyst / Raid / Vault |
Belt | Acrid Ascendant’s Sash | Queen Ansurek |
Legs | Living Luster’s Trousers | Catalyst / Raid / Vault |
Boots | Membranous Slippers | The Dawnbreaker |
Ring | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
Ring | Band of the Roving Scalawag | Siege of Boralus |
Trinket | Gale of Shadows | Grim Batol |
Trinket | Gruesome Syringe | Broodtwister Ovi’nax |
Staff | Staff of Siphoned Essences | Grim Batol |
Main Hand | Scithewood Scepter | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Off Hand | Overflowing Umbral Pail | The Dawnbreaker |
Best Holy Priest Trinkets
While raid trinkets are limited in availability and raid groups often exceed 10 players, they don’t always represent the best-in-slot options. Instead, we recommend reaching out to our team to obtain the Dungeon Trinket you need. This approach is faster and far easier than solo farming.
Tier Set Bonuses for Holy Priest
Shards of Living Luster is the Holy Priest Tier Set for Season 1 in the War Within.
2-set | Serendipity is 10% more effective. |
---|---|
4-set | Heal, Flash Heal, and Prayer of Healing have a 50% chance to cast again at 35% effectiveness. |
Best Consumables for Holy Priest
Type | Best | Options |
---|---|---|
Flask | Flask of Alchemical Chaos | Flask of Tempered Aggression |
Combat Potion | Algari Mana Potion | Slumbering Soul Serum |
Health Potion | Algari Healing Potion | — |
Weapon Buff | Algari Mana Oil | — |
Augment Rune | Crystallized Augment Rune | — |
Food | zzOld Do Not Use (DNT) | zzOld Do Not Use (DNT) |
Diamond | Culminating Blasphemite | Insightful Blasphemite |
Other Gems | Masterful Ruby | Deadly Onyx |