Holy Priest Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Level 30 Talents (8,13,0)

For Holy Priest you'll want to split up your talents early on to get the benefits of Improved Power Word: Shield as well as Divine Fury. Doing this is going to make your Renew and Power Word: Shield do a lot of the heavy lifting for you while you're still able to get off quick direc heals as needed.

1. Start off by getting 3 points into Improved Renew and 2 points into Holy Specialization
2. Follow this up with 5 points into Divine Fury
3. Switch to the Discipline Tree to grab Twin Disciplines and get the 3 points into Improved Power Word: Shield
4. Finally finish Holy Specialization

Level 60 Talents (18/33/0)

Here's a look at what we think the level 60 Holy Priest Talent Tree will look like. As mentioned above, this guide will be updated as we go through the beta and during launch to include any other Endgame Holy Priest Talent Trees, along with all the other information you need to excel in the endgame and Raids as a Priest.

Playable Races

Alliance - Human, Dwarf, Night Elf & Gnome

Horde - Troll & Undead

Recommended Races

Priest sometimes get unique abilities depending on what race they choose and we don't know what they are yet. Because of this it's hard to recommend the best race for each faction. Fear Ward is expected to be base line for all Priests now so we dont need to choose based around that anymore. Here's our suggestion based off just the base racial bonuses:

Gnome is quite possibly the best race in the game and the one you want to pick as Alliance. Eureka! reduces the cost of your next 3 abilities and gives them 10% increased Healing. Expansive Mind gives you 5% more maximum mana. Escape Artist grants you immunity to Roots and Snares.

Troll is great since their Berserking buff grants you 10% casting speed for 10 seconds (this has been changed from original WoW). They also have Rapid Regeneration which allows you to restore 50% of your health every 3 minutes and Regeneration which allows 10% of your health Regeneration to continue during combat.

See our full racial abilities guide for every other race's bonuses.

The primary Skills you’ll use are Renew, Power Word: Shield, Lesser Heal, Heal, Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing. You also have the ability to remove Magic effects from allies with Dispel Magic and Diseases with Cure Disease.

1. Tossing Renew on tanks or allies taking damage is a great place to start. If they're taking heavy damage or expect to get a Power Word: Shield on them as well. You can do this on multiple allies when needed.
2. Keep an eye on everyones health and be prepared to use direct heals to keep them topped off while leaving room for your Renew to still get it's healing in without wasting it.
3. Lesser Heal is a very low mana way to get people a little bit of healing and you can move your way up through the spell ranks when more healing is needed. Heal is going to cost a bit more but heal a larger amount. Flash Heal can be used when you need solid healing very quickly, but should be avoided when possible to conserve mana.
4. At level 30 you'll unlock Prayer of Healing and can use this to heal your entire party at once if everyone is taking damage. In the right situations this spell can be crucial to keeping everyone topped off at once.

Healing just takes practice after playing for a bit you'll get a feel for how to use as little mana as possible while still keeping everyone healthy. When you can get away wish spamming a very low mana cost spell to get the job done, do it. When the time calls for more mana intensive healing just be ready with some Mana Potions to help you get through the tougher fights.

Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, levels 10 & 20 specifically have some incredible new abilities and upgrades to your current ones.

Keep up your Power Word: Fortitude and Divine Spirit on you and your allies.

You need mana to heal, if a tank or party is chain pulling enemies and not staying aware of how much mana you have, say something if it's going to cause problems.

A Priests Favorite Stats are Intellect and Spirit. Intellect increases your maximum Mana and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. Stacking as much Spirit as possible is incredible for a Holy Priest since it increases your Health and Mana regeneration when you're out of combat. When you go deeper into the Holy Tree on your way to level 60 you unlock Spiritual Guidance which makes Spirit an even more important stat. Stamina is also great while leveling, just avoid Strength and Agility entirely.

Holy Priest really only belongs in a group setting and the gameplay will be the same as described above. Remember that your role is to keep everyone alive, obvious I know, but you need to be paying attention to the whole party not just the tank. Manage your mana by using lower rank heals when you can and make sure to ask a Mage for water every time you have one in your group so you can save money buying it yourself!

Remember Power Word: Shield is a great way to prevent someone from taking damage in a pinch and Renew can be used to slowly get an ally back up to full health if they take a little bit of damage here and there.

Wand

For all casters the #1 tip for leveling is to obtain wands early and upgrade them often. Tailors can make Lesser and Greater Magic wands that deal incredible DPS for their level range. Either get the Tailoring Profession and make your own, or head over to the auction house to buy one! Yes, even as a healer you should get a good wand. You can use it to help do some damage at the cost of no Mana! It brings your whole party much joy to see their healer helping do damage when they get the chance. Just make sure you're not letting people die or sit at low health while you're doing so.

Loot has changed in WoW forever and the location of great wands may be different from original Classic. Here's a quick rundown of wands that you can look out for to stay on top of it:

• Level 5 - Lesser Magic Wand, 11.3 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 13 - Greater Magic Wand, 17.5 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 18 - Gravestone Scepter, 29 DPS (Blackfathom Villainy Quest in Ashenvale)

While the Gravestone Scepter is technically available at level 18, the dungeon itself has enemies in the high level 20 range. You likely won't be able to obtain it this early unless you have a group of high level guildies or friends just carry you through the dungeon. Aside form new wands being available up to level 30 in WoW Forever this is likely the best wand you'll be able to obtain in the BETA.

Other

Don't forget to buff your teammates! Power Word: Fortitude is very helpful to you as well since people will have a greater health pool, don't forget to rebuff allies after they've been Resurrected.

Remember that Warrior and Druid Tanks need Rage to use their abilities and generate threat. A big portion of their Rage comes from taking damage so you need to avoid using Power Word: Shield on them unless it's absolutely necessary to buy you some time to get heals off. If you cast a shield on either of these tanks to start every pull you're just griefing their ability to gain Rage and actually play their character.

Auto Shoot Wand Macro

#showtooltip Shoot

/cast !Shoot

Mouse Over Renew

Mouse over macros allow you to hover your mouse over a player or their raid frame to cast on them without dropping your main target (the tank). This can be very useful to cast Renew or any other spell of your liking on allies without having to change targets from the main tank.

#showtooltip Renew

/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Renew

Mouse Over Flash Heal

Same as the macro above but to hit them with a quick heal. You could make one for Power Word: Shield as well.

#showtooltip Flash Heal

/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Flash Heal