Introduction
Why Holy?
Talent Tree
Rotation
Chakra
Glyphs
Stats
Raiding as a Holy Priest
Mana
Enchants
UI
Closing
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this Holy Priest guide for patch 4.0.6, which covers multiple aspects of playing a Holy Priest, primarily in a raiding environment. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback (positive or negative), please feel free to comment or PM me.
This guide is meant for new Priests. While experienced Priests may gain some insight from it, the target audience is those newer to the Priest class.
Why Holy?
The Holy healing spec offers a wide range of options to any dungeon or raid group. Holy excels at many aspects of both AoE and single target healing, with enough flexibility to do most any job in the raid. With Cataclysm, Holy got a much-needed revamp that helps make playing a Holy Priest more engaging for players.
Talent Tree
I believe that this is the best talent tree available on molten as of July 10, 2012. This is the best because as a Holy Priest you must have use your Heal as one of your best healing spells. This talent tree bases itself on using Heal A LOT, reducing cooldowns, AOE healing, increasing healing while reducing mana costs.
I finally took a look at Guardian Spirit because as a Priest you're not usually assigned the job of tank healing rather Group healing. And after much consideration and usage i found that guardian spirit had its well uses and should be in a holy priests toolbox. I don't take lightwell because many people don't know of its capabilities and thus would totally ignore it in raid fights. I take body and soul for the increased movement speed that can in those 3 seconds save the life of a raider. I do not take rapid renewal because Renew isn't a viable spell to use in 4.0.6 anymore. It costs way to much mana and should only be used in emergencies such as flash heal. I took desperate prayer because sometimes a holy priest needs and "oh S***" too push when they were about to die. It is a very useful spell to use. I take the 2 points in darkness in the shadow tree for the increased spell haste, which is useful when casting heal.
The 3 points in Twin Disciplines for the added 6% Healing bonus. 3/3 in Mental Agility because Circle of Healing is an instant cast and it reduces the mana cost of it by 10%.
Rotation
Healing in general does not have a set Rotation like dps and tanks. Rather using anything and everything to keep the group alive. But as a Healer you have your preferred spells to use. Holy Priests use a combination of keeping everyone up with Heal. Using circle of healing whenever off cooldown, casting Prayer of Mending on the tank, Greater Heal when a bigger heal is needed. And Flash Heal ONLY in Emergencies. Flash heal WAS a Holy Priests second best friend. Using Flash Heal is now very frowned upon because of the mana usage it now uses in Cataclysm much like the change renew took. Serendipity, which increases the cast speed and reduces the cost of the next Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal when you cast Flash Heal or Binding Heal. Combo this in interesting ways! If someone is in danger of dying, you can hit them with a Flash Heal/Binding Heal and have a stack of Serendipity ready for when you need to cast Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal.
Since we have points in Body and Soul it is only as valuable as you make it, use it when anyone needs to get somewhere fast. Life Grip is just like Body and Soul. Use this proactively to help your friends out and you will be loved. Common uses include Life Gripping a tank away from a boss when they need to get away. Life Gripping a melee DPS to a boss so they can DPS more. Life Gripping someone out of fire or even Life Gripping someone who has disconnected. The uses are limitless! Divine Hymn is the Holy Priest's raid cooldown. Make sure prior to using DH you enter Chakra: Sanctuary to further increase the potency of this heal. Divine Hymn is very mana efficient, increases the healing done to the affected targets by 10%.
Since Echo of Light is bugged on molten, it is unable to be used in a raid.
Chakra
Chakra is a Cooldown that Holy Priests have which allows them to specialize in AoE, single target, or damage. To activate a Chakra, the Priest must first learn the talent Chakra in the Holy tree.
Chakra: Serenity is a Holy Priest's single target healing increase. This is activated by casting Heal, Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Greater Heal on a target (after using the Chakra CD of course). This Chakra:
-Increases the Critical Strike chance of all direct heals by 10%.
-Refreshes the duration of Renew on the target when Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Holy Word: Serenity, or Binding Heal is cast on the renew-target.
-Holy Word: Serenity is an instant cast heal for 5198-6100 base and increases the Critical Strike chance by 25% for the next 6 seconds on any of your heals cast on target.
Chakra: Sanctuary: is a Holy Priest's AoE healing increase. This is activated by casting Prayer of Mending or Prayer of Healing on a target (after using the Chakra CD). This Chakra:
-Increases the healing done by AoE heals and Renew by 15%
-Decreases the CD of CoH by 2 seconds
-Holy Word: Sanctuary is a ground-based healing circle which heals for 299 to 355 every 2 sec for 18 sec.
For most of Cataclysm, this spell has been affected by diminishing returns after 6+ targets are in the circle.
Chakra: is a Holy Priest's damage increase. This is activated by casting Smite or Mind Spike on an enemy target (after using the Chakra CD): This Chakra:
-Increases Shadow and Holy damage by 15%
-Holy Word: Chastise is a disorient that affects a target for 3 seconds. But as a Holy Priest steer clear of this Chakra.
Glyphs
Prime Glyphs:
Renew, Prayer of Healing and Guardian Spirit or if your guild knows and used Lightwell i suggest you take Lightwell instead of Renew glyph.
Major Glyphs:
Prayer of Mending, Circle of Healing and your choice of a 3rd major glyph i recommend Glyph of Dispel Magic
Minor Glyphs:
Fortitude, Shadow Protection and i recommend Glyph of Shadowfiend for raids or Levitation for fun!
Stats
INTELLECT>SPIRIT>HASTE>>MASTER>CRIT
Intellect is the main stat that Healers AND Dps Must use because of the increased mana pool. Intellect also affects many of the spells that a holy priest may cast.
Sprit is a Holy Priests second main stat because of the mana regen and many of your spells boost off of Spirit.
Haste so you can get out flash heals and prayer of healings out faster.
Mastery for mana-free heals (ONCE ITS BEEN FIXED ON MOLTEN)
And finally Crit for bigger instant healing spells.
Raiding as a Holy Priest
Holy Priests excel at raid healing and generally stay in Chakra: Sanctuary. Paladins, Shamans, Druids, and Disc Priests have a better toolkit for tank healing. This should not deter you from helping tank heals when required, but it will likely not be your main job. This also does not serve as a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" for when your raid leader tells you to heal the tank! You are capable of tank healing, other healers are just a more optimal choice.
Spells to cast on CD, or close to it: Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending. The main reason behind casting these spells more frequently is that they are low cost heals that are 'smart', i.e. they will heal the lowest targets in the raid first. With AoE healing such as Circle, it all comes down to whether you know AoE is coming or now. If you know it is coming, queue a Prayer of Healing and jump into a Circle of Healing right after that finishes. If you do not know it is coming or are surprised by it, Circle will have to be used in a reactive manner. Prayer of Mending is a tricky spell because it often 'dies' on a raider. It will jump through a few targets and then sit on the next one for its duration because that target never takes damage. Many Priests like cast Mending on a tank when it comes off cooldown. This invokes the glyph more often which increases the first heal by 60%. Other Priests like to cast Mending and use an addon to track when all of the charges have been used. Using PoM on cooldown will likely increase your healing output, however it will also increase your mana consumption rate.
PoH is one of our best spells. If it is a heavy aoe damage phase, PoH is indispensable for AoE healing. Never forget that there are other healers in the raid though. If there is only a small amount of damage to aoe heal, you may be better off not using PoH and conserving your mana for later phases of the fight. If all the players in a group do not require healing, you may want to consider using Heal, Renew, or even waiting for CoH to come off cooldown.
Mana and Regen
As Holy Priests, there are 3 main abilities we have which can replenish our mana:
Improved Holy Concentration talent: Increases mana regeneration from Spirit by an additional 15%/30% while casting (base 30%). Basically, this is our passive mana gain through Spirit. You absolutely have to talent this fully.
Hymn of Hope: Restores 2% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 15% for 8 sec. Maximum of 12 mana restores. Cooldown is 6 minutes. This is our longer-CD raid-wide mana return. This does not provide a huge amount of mana back itself, but it does increase your mana pool by 15% for 8 seconds. Hymn of Hope DOES stack. If you can get multiple Priests to cast this at the same time, you will receive a much greater benefit. Be warned though, if you have multiple healing Priests channeling HoH at the same time, it can hurt the raid if the other healers get behind on healing. Sometimes to allieviate this, we like to ask our Shadow Priests to HoH with us and the healing Priests stagger their HoH.
Shadowfiend: Creates a shadowy fiend to attack the target. Caster receives 3% mana when the Shadowfiend attacks. Damage taken by area of effect attacks is reduced. Lasts 15 sec. Cooldown is 5 minutes, reduced to 4 minutes if talented. This is our friendly, albeit mentally challenged little buddy.
There are also optional ways to restore mana: Trinkets, Potions, Arcane Torrent for Blood Elves
Enchanting
For enchanting try to get Intellect, Spirit and haste on everything! Maybe crit but MAINLY INT SPIRIT OR HASTE
UI
For my healing ui i use bartender, healbot, recount and omen threat meter. I only use bars 1,5,7 and i place them under the space below the chat box. The bag and micro menu to the left and above the chat box. I place healbot directly below my character so i'm able to keep an eye on my character as well as the health of the raid. Recount and omen to the right of healbot in the bottom right corner allowing it to be viewed while not being intrusive. (SCREENSHOT COMING SOON)
Closing
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