The Holy Priest

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innocentguy
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The Holy Priest

#1 » Post by innocentguy » 09 Mar 2014 04:35

Just wanted to say a few things regarding Holy Priests as it seems that there are very few of us around (over at the Horde at least). I'm talking PvE end-game of course.

Holy Priests are by far the most versatile healers in WotLK. They have strong AoE and single target heals, plus a HoT. This essentially makes them the jack-of-all-healers. Having a Holy Priest in a raid won't screw up your raid composition as he/she is realistically able to take up any of the roles traditionally performed by the 3 other healing classes.

It has been said that Holy does not produce the big numbers that other healing classes can pull off, but that simply isn't true. Furthermore, Holy has or should have the least over heals of all the healers. Another amazing thing to note about Holy Priests is their arsenal of instant cast heals, which when utilized well makes them shine in mobile encounters.
  • Talents
Here's a pretty standard spec for Holy that you can't really go wrong with. http://www.truewow.org/talent-calculato ... uAo:0dNzcV
However, there are a few talents or glyphs that you may wish to take or drop depending on your preference. These are...

I really enjoy the utility of this spell. Simply put, it is an instant cast lifesaver. Being instant cast means that you can be moving or running from AoE while popping this. It can save your life on many occasions. Some prefer the 1 point for other talents, but I personally love it.

10% physical damage reduction for the tank is certainly good to have. However, this talent requires a crit to proc, and the buff falls off after 15 seconds. You won't have very excellent crit as Holy; probably around 30-40% at most.
Unless you're the assigned tank healer in your guild, you may not be utilizing this talent at all. Also, Restoration Shamans apply the same buff (Ancestral Healing). With the amazing amount of those Chain Heal spammers around, you may not need this talent at all.

In my humble opinion, the beauty of this talent lies in how it improves Circle of Healing.
CoH is a very amazing spell. It shines particularly in the Professor Putricide encounter where you can cast it and do lots of healing while flying through the air (green ooze).

These would be your mana conservation talents. If you don't have much gear or you find yourself losing mana too quickly you can consider taking these.
One thing to note is that the mana cost reduction from these talents is only useful for Greater Heal, Prayer of Healing and to a lesser extent Prayer of Mending.

As much as this talent appears to be a PvP talent, the 3% increase to your heals can be quite decent. Worth considering if you don't like the other talents available.

Honestly? I love Lightwell. It is incredibly mana efficient. It gives a HoT. It looks funky. It's actually pretty amazing. But there are 2 problems with it.
Firstly, not many people are going to notice you dropping a Lightwell in the middle of an encounter. Most, if not all, of the raid will ignore it. I know of a Holy Priest who says he uses it for himself though, but then again you have Binding Heal for that.
Secondly, it will disappear if you take more than 30% of your hp in damage. This can happen often for encounters like Bloodqueen Lanathel.

I really enjoy the idea of this talent. Life-saving emergency heals. Some prefer the points elsewhere, and reason that the raid should have more than 50% hp most of the time.

Renew is a Priest's only heal-over-time (HoT) that doesn't rely on procs. I personally use it as sort of a filler while the raid is healthy (might as well be doing something).
These two talents can be said to be mutually inclusive in that you must have 3/3 of both. You'll be losing quite some benefit from either talent otherwise.

By adding a 30%/60% movement speed boost to your Power Word: Shield, this talent is situationally very useful (PP Orange Ooze, BQL Swarming Shadows, etc). Personally, I don't really like it since every good 25m raid should have a Discipline Priest, thus preventing you from making use of this talent. However, it's certainly a very decent talent to have.

Renew happens to be a Holy Priest's most mana-efficient single-target heal. Some like to improve it with this glyph, especially at lower gear levels.
It must be noted however, that this glyph does not increase the overall healing done by Renew. Rather, it increases the rate at which healing from Renew is received.

If you tend to spam Flash Heal a lot then this glyph is good for you. FH is quite costly in terms of healing done per mana point spent compared to other spells like Greater Heal.

Prayer of Healing is your most potent AoE heal. Adding a HoT to it is quite a nice bonus. It's not necessary however, as this HoT can end up as overhealing due to the strength of PoH itself.

Guardian Spirit is your life-saving spell. The glyph reduces its cooldown from 3 minutes to 1 minute 10 seconds. Pretty nice to have so that you can throw GS around more freely.

Note: All the talents and major glyphs used in this spec are mandatory to have except for the ones mentioned above.
Do drop a comment regarding clarification about this, if needed.

  • Holy Priest mechanics
The power and elegance that comes from Holy Priests lies in their versatility. This is achieved by making use of the variety of healing spells available to you. Holy Priests have close to 10 spells in their arsenal. Here are some of the mechanics you can make use of, should you choose to do so.

The talent Serendipity reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing, with a maximum of 3 stacks i.e. 36% cast time reduction. Flash Heal always gives 1 stack while Binding Heal always gives 2. In emergencies you can use Binding Heal to quickly gain 2 stacks for faster casts of either Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing.

There are always times during encounters where there isn't as much healing to be done. During these times you can either stop healing to make use of the 5-second rule and regain some mana, or you can do this.

Throw Renew on as many people as possible and let Surge of Light proc. Using the Flash Heals from these procs, stack up Serendipity. This leaves you with some stacks of Serendipity for quick use when more heals are needed. Doing this doesn't cost a lot of mana because Renew doesn't cost a lot of mana to begin with.

This talent, along with the aforementioned Surge of Light, is one of the major reasons why Crit cannot be ignored on Holy Priests. It should be noted that using Binding Heal will result in two chances to proc this talent.

  • 4. The 5-second rule.
This is basically mandatory knowledge for all healers, but it is especially important for Holy Priests and Restoration Druids because of the high amount of Spirit they have.


Most Mana regeneration is cut in half after casting a spell. Any spell, even instant cast spells. This reduction in mana regen lasts for 5 seconds, after which normal regeneration continues. As such, you must stop casting for longer than 5 seconds if you wish to properly regain mana without the use of cooldowns. It is important to find out when are the crucial times during encounters that you can do this, through experience or otherwise.
Note: Mp5 from gear, gems and enchants bypasses the 5-second rule and continues even while casting.
  • 5. Intellect as a Mana Regeneration stat.
There is a lot of confusion regarding this as Intellect merely increases your maximum mana pool. However, it is actually the most superior stat for Mana Regeneration due to various mechanics. This is true even for Holy Priests, with Int outshining Spirit by a small margin.

Replenishment is one of the reasons why Intellect actually provides mana regen. Replenishment is applied most famously by Retribution Paladins through the talent Judgements of the Wise. You should have 100% uptime of Replenishment throughout encounters. It can clearly be seen that a larger mana pool will result in more regeneration gained from this effect.

The other reasons are the mana regeneration cooldowns like Hymn of Hope, Shadowfiend. These are also based off of maximum mana and more Intellect would result in more mana regeneration from these spells.
Note: Using these two cooldowns together results in more mana gained from the Shadowfiend due to the increase in Maximum Mana from Hymn of Hope.
However, the only way to gain more intellect without the use of stronger gear is through gems and enchants. This would result in a loss of Spellpower, among other stats, so be wary in doing so.

This is something that Shaman and Paladins can do as well. The idea is to start off your Greater Heal cast on the tank when you've got nothing to do. Cancel it if ends up being unneeded, but let it happen if it is. Greater Heal is your most mana-cost effective single-target heal, despite its staggering mana cost.


  • Stat priorities
Finally, the hotly debated stat priorities. A very real problem is the need for Spirit, Haste and Crit. None of these stats can be ignored.

First of all, Spellpower will always be the most important stat. Spellpower usually results in the least over-healing compared to Haste and Crit (on a Holy Priest).

Spirit scales well on Holy Priests because of Holy Concentration, Spiritual Guidance and Spirit of Redemption, giving decent regen and Spellpower because of these. Haste increases the speed of your casts, in a fashion. What this means is that for good performance, you must have a a pretty high amount of haste. Too much Haste however, would result in mana problems and overhealing. As aforementioned, Crit increases the proc rates of Holy Concentration and Surge of Light.

Why do I seem to be beating around the bush rather than stating directly which stat to stack over the others? Simply put, the delicate balance of Spirit, Haste and Crit has to be decided by the player depending on his preference. You will have to sacrifice one stat for another depending on your style of healing.

Here's a general guideline though:
  • Get more haste if you find yourself under-performing, more spirit on gear (not gems/enchants) if you need mana regen, and maintain about 25-30% Crit.
With regards to gem-ing I strongly suggest using mainly Spellpower gems followed by either Haste, Crit or Int gems. Feel free to take or drop +5 Spellpower socket bonuses, but do pick up any bonus stronger than this.
If you wish to make use of a blue socket, do use Purified Dreadstone or perhaps either Intricate Eye of Zul, Misty Eye of Zul, or Seer's Eye of Zul; do not use Sparkling Majestic Zircon.
As for the meta-gem, the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond provides the greatest mana regen. Other options include the Ember Skyflare Diamond or perhaps the Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond, but the latter has more potential for overhealing & less potency on a Holy Priest.


To end off, let me just say that no healing class can ever replace another. Druids will always be best at HoTs while Paladins will always be best at Single-target heals. Enough has been said about the Shaman. However, Holy Priests are capable of performing all of these roles at once, switching to another spell for the required situation. This flexibility is what makes Holy Priests so good. If played well, a Holy Priest is very capable of outshining other healing classes.

Feel free to ask questions through either the comments or PMs. Of course, differing opinions are always welcome.
Last edited by innocentguy on 08 Jan 2015 11:35, edited 1 time in total.
No one is simply entitled to anything in this world.
Whatever you want, you have to earn, be it money, respect or love.
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My Innocents:

Innocentguy - Priest ( Shadow / Discipline )
Innocence - Shaman ( Elemental / Restoration )
InnocentIcon - Death Knight ( Blood {Tank} / Unholy {DPS} )
Innocentshot - Hunter ( Marksmanship / Survival )
Innocentone - Druid ( Restoration / Feral {DPS} )
Innocenthope - Paladin ( Retribution / Holy )
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Nyaneve
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Re: The Holy Priest

#2 » Post by Nyaneve » 09 Mar 2014 06:38

Thorough as usual. Although, specify in the post that Glyph of CoH is mandatory for 10/25 man raiding.

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innocentguy
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Re: The Holy Priest

#3 » Post by innocentguy » 09 Mar 2014 08:01

Nyaneve wrote:Thorough as usual. Although, specify in the post that Glyph of CoH is mandatory for 10/25 man raiding.
Thanks =D

I didn't want to sound like I was forcing a pre-designed spec onto anyone that's why I didn't explicitly mention that glyph, among other things. I like to think that Holy is a flexible spec that can be played in a few different ways, unlike many other DPS or Healing specs in WotLK that pretty much have to follow the cookie-cutter version.

It's quite true though that Glyph of CoH is pretty much mandatory for raiding. Maybe I'll add it in somewhere somehow...
No one is simply entitled to anything in this world.
Whatever you want, you have to earn, be it money, respect or love.
[/color]
My Innocents:

Innocentguy - Priest ( Shadow / Discipline )
Innocence - Shaman ( Elemental / Restoration )
InnocentIcon - Death Knight ( Blood {Tank} / Unholy {DPS} )
Innocentshot - Hunter ( Marksmanship / Survival )
Innocentone - Druid ( Restoration / Feral {DPS} )
Innocenthope - Paladin ( Retribution / Holy )
~ In the end, Innocence is Brilliant ~

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Lily
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Re: The Holy Priest

#4 » Post by Lily » 09 Mar 2014 11:31

Been a while i see somewhat legit post about Holy Priests and perhaps first one that doesn't leave out Guardian Spirit glyph. I love priest for being a ~7 spell healer not like other classes with their 1-3 spells. Certainly the most flexible and fun to play healer, you simply have no limits.

Well done!
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innocentguy
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Joined: 02 Apr 2011 15:02

Re: The Holy Priest

#5 » Post by innocentguy » 09 Mar 2014 12:45

Lily wrote:Been a while i see somewhat legit post about Holy Priests and perhaps first one that doesn't leave out Guardian Spirit glyph. I love priest for being a ~7 spell healer not like other classes with their 1-3 spells. Certainly the most flexible and fun to play healer, you simply have no limits.

Well done!
Thanks =D

I made this with the intention to convey the flexibility of Holy Priests. That is why you don't see me going into detail regarding why I took the talents or glyphs that are arguably mandatory. I preferred to discuss instead some of the various ways that Holy Priest can be played =D
No one is simply entitled to anything in this world.
Whatever you want, you have to earn, be it money, respect or love.
[/color]
My Innocents:

Innocentguy - Priest ( Shadow / Discipline )
Innocence - Shaman ( Elemental / Restoration )
InnocentIcon - Death Knight ( Blood {Tank} / Unholy {DPS} )
Innocentshot - Hunter ( Marksmanship / Survival )
Innocentone - Druid ( Restoration / Feral {DPS} )
Innocenthope - Paladin ( Retribution / Holy )
~ In the end, Innocence is Brilliant ~

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Deathswalker
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Re: The Holy Priest

#6 » Post by Deathswalker » 13 Mar 2014 21:06

It's always nice to see a guide for specs that aren't used that often. I really like some of your tips and I will certainly try them out. Great work, and especially for the new priests a nice base to start their raiding with.
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blagovest_tonev
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Re: The Holy Priest

#7 » Post by blagovest_tonev » 02 Jan 2015 12:01

Hello. I learned holy as my second spec this morning and it looks really fun to play. I have a question about the gemming - will I do wrong if my gemming is like this: +23 spell power (red), 12 spell power + 10 haste (orange & yellow), 12 spell power + 10 spirit (blue & green) ?

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d0chaser
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Re: The Holy Priest

#8 » Post by d0chaser » 02 Jan 2015 20:05

Great job!

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alexburger14
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Re: The Holy Priest

#9 » Post by alexburger14 » 03 Jan 2015 13:22

Very Helpful! Thank you!
Rogrire - Frost/Blood
Rogness - Resto/Ele
Rograge - Fury/prot
Parrex - Fire/Frost

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innocentguy
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Re: The Holy Priest

#10 » Post by innocentguy » 08 Jan 2015 11:14

blagovest_tonev wrote:Hello. I learned holy as my second spec this morning and it looks really fun to play. I have a question about the gemming - will I do wrong if my gemming is like this: +23 spell power (red), 12 spell power + 10 haste (orange & yellow), 12 spell power + 10 spirit (blue & green) ?
Those gems sound fine, but in theory. In practice, it does depend on whether you find yourself running out of mana often. If you don't, those are fantastic :D I'm assuming you're taking all of the socket bonuses, which is fine as well.

Also, thanks for all the nice comments.
No one is simply entitled to anything in this world.
Whatever you want, you have to earn, be it money, respect or love.
[/color]
My Innocents:

Innocentguy - Priest ( Shadow / Discipline )
Innocence - Shaman ( Elemental / Restoration )
InnocentIcon - Death Knight ( Blood {Tank} / Unholy {DPS} )
Innocentshot - Hunter ( Marksmanship / Survival )
Innocentone - Druid ( Restoration / Feral {DPS} )
Innocenthope - Paladin ( Retribution / Holy )
~ In the end, Innocence is Brilliant ~

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