Primary Stats:
Intellect – Provides 1 spell power and increases your maximum mana by 15 per point. Also increases mana regeneration rate.
(See Mana Regeneration section)
Spirit – Increases mana regeneration rate. (See mana regeneration section)
Stamina – Increases health pool by 10 per point.
In a raiding situation, intellect is your primary regeneration and throughput stat. Some holy priests prefer to for spirit due to the more passive nature of the regeneration gained, however.
Secondary Stats:
Mastery – Increases Echo of Light by 1.25% per point. Approximately 179.28 mastery rating needed per point of mastery. Initially, you may want this over haste , to help you save mana.
Haste – Increases your casting speed, allowing for faster casts. Reduces the Global Cooldown of your spells. Can add ticks to HoTs and DoTs. Approximately 128.06 rating needed per percent of haste.
Crit – Increases the chance for your heals to hit for 150% of their normal value. Approximately 179.28 Critical Strike rating needed per percent to crit increase.
Spirit is technically a secondary stat. It is a very important one, however, so it is listed with primary stats for this guide.
Mana Regeneration:
Mana is regenerated in combat a number of different ways. The primary method is through passive spirit regeneration. Mana regeneration is usually annoted by Mana Per 5 Seconds (MP5) for historical and normalization purposes. Here is the spirit regeneration formula for level 85:
1029 + Coefficient(0.001 + (SPIRIT*SQRT(INTELLECT)*0.003345))*5
Spirit regeneration is increased by both spirit and the square root of your intellect. Out of combat, the coefficient in the formula is 100% (1.00). In combat, the coefficient adjusts. In general, healers have a coefficient of 50% (0.50). A holy priest has a talent (Holy Concentration) to increase this to 80% (.80). Restoration Shaman can also drop a Mana Tide Totem to increase your spirit (and everyone in the raid) by 400% of the shaman’s spirit for 12 seconds.
Mana is also regenerated through Replenishment, Shadowfiend, Hymn of Hope, and Innervate. Replenishment, Shadowfiend, and Hymn of Hope restore mana based on your maximum mana pool. Innervate restores mana based on the maximum mana of the casting druid. Replenishment restores .5% of your maximum mana per 5 seconds. Shadow fiend restores 3% of your maximum mana each time it attacks. Hymn of Hope restores 2% of maximum mana and increases your maximum mana by 15% when it ticks on you. Innervate restores 20% of the druids maximum mana to the target.
The last source of mana regeneration is Blessing of Might, Fel Intelligence, and Arcane (or Dalaran) Brilliance. Blessing of Might and Fel Intelligence will both grant 326 MP5, but they do not stack. Arcane Brilliance will increase your maximum mana, which will increase other regeneration abilities.
Mana regeneration tips:
-Try to use any trinkets or item affects which increase your maximum mana when you use shadowfiend. You can also use Hymn of Hope at this time to increase the amount of mana you regenerate from the shadowfiend.
-Have spirit on as many pieces of gear as possible. This simple step will make healing a lot easier for you.
-Concentration Potions provide much more mana then Mythical Mana Potions. The downside is that you cannot move, heal, or take any other action for the 10 seconds they are in effect, or else you will break the potions mana regeneration. Try to use these when you can.
(more to come)
Talent Builds:
Every class has optional and required talents. Here is a quick summary of the holy tree.
Divine Fury and Empowered Healing are mandatory. They increase your healing and reduce cast times on spells you will use quite often. Improved Renew is normally used as a filler. For renew builds, this will be picked up as well.
Desperate Prayer, Surge of Light, and Inspiration are all optional, but Inspiration less so than the others, especially when starting out or during progression. Reducing the damage your tank takes is much better than healing the damage afterwards. Surge of Light can save you some mana. Desperate Prayer can help you survive.
Holy Concentration is a mandatory talent: Lots of mana regeneration. Lightwell is optional, but good if your group will use it. Tome of Light is optional. It’s good if you are using your Holy Word spells often. Divine Touch is a renew boost, so if you don’t use renew, you won’t need it.
Serendipity and Spirit of Redemption are both optional, but very good talents. Pick them up. Rapid Renewal is another renew talent.
Chakra is mandatory. It gives significant boosts to healing and, with T11, mana regeneration. Revelations gives Chakra even more impact. Pick them both up. Body and Soul is optional, but extremely nice. You can help yourself and others out of tight situations with it. Blessed Resilience is an optional survivability talent.
Circle of Healing is mandatory. Never skip it. Test of Faith is optional, but very nice. State of Mind is largely a waste of points. Avoid State of Mind unless you find yourself switching Chakra States a lot.
Guardian Spirit is a single target cooldown. I consider it mandatory, but not everyone does. Highly advisable to pick this up.
Discipline talents: Twin disciplines is mandatory. A static increase to your healing will never go awry. Mental Agility is nice, especially for renew builds. Evangelism, Archangel, and Inner Sanctum can also be used, the first two for a burst healing increase, the second for survivability. Inner Sanctum will likely be the better option of the two, if you forgo some of the shadow tree talents.
Shadow talents: Darkness should have at least a couple of points. Haste is fantastic for a holy priest for raid healing. Veiled Shadows decreases the cooldown on your shadow fiend, granting greater mana return during the course of a fight. Some fights are still not long enough to use two shadow fiends, however.
Here are a few sample talent builds:
(Please suggest additional builds. I will begin with my preferred talent builds)
Raiding: (6/31/4)
Raiding, no renew: (5/31/5)
Dungeons: (6/31/4)
Glyphs
Holy has many glyphs to choose from, and a lot of them are situational. I advise using Guardian Spirit, Prayer of Healing, and either Lightwell or Renew for your prime glyphs, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and either Dispel Magic or Desperation for your major glyphs, and Fortitude, Shadowfiend, and either Levitate or Fading for your minor glyphs.
Here is a breakdown and explanation of some of your available glyphs.
Prime
Guardian Spirit – Reduces the cooldown of your Guardian Spirit spell by 30 seconds.
This can be a great glyph. There are many times the tank (or someone else) will be in danger of dying, and you just don’t think you can keep everyone up. Throw Guardian Spirit on them, and let it save them for you. This will allow you to do this more often.
Prayer of Healing – Your Prayer of Healing spell also heals an additional 20% of its initial heal over 6 sec.
Great glyph for AoE healing. I highly suggest this as one of your glyphs. It’s great for both raiding on 5 mans to get more healing out of a single Prayer of Healing.
Lightwell – Increases the total amount of charges of your Lightwell by 5.
This can be a good glyph if your group is good about using the lightwell. It’s totally wasted if they are not.
Renew – Increases the amount healed by your Renew by an additional 10%
If you cast renew, this glyph is a decent option. It currently falls behind the other three, overall, because of the limited use of renew.
Major
Circle of Healing – Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target.
One of the best glyphs available to Holy. I advise this for both 5 mans and raids.
Prayer of Mending – The first charge of your Prayer of Mending heals for an additional 60%.
Fantastic glyph, especially if you use PoM on the tank.
Desperation – Allows Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned.
On some fights, this glyph can be absolutely essential. The majority of the time, however, it won’t really be needed.
Dispel Magic – Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 3% of maximum health when you successfully dispel a magical effect.
Useful for when you have to dispel debuffs, especially on higher damage fights.
Other situational glyphs: Fade, Mass Dispel, Psychic Scream, Scourge Imprisonment, Spirit Tap (Leveling)
Minor
Fortitude – Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 50%
Useful for rebuffing in the middle of a fight.
Shadowfiend – Receive 5% of your maximum mana if your Shadow fiend dies from damage.
This glyph is to help you out when your shadowfiend does something dumb and gets itself killed before returning much mana.
Fading – Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%
Good for pugging and add fights.
Levitate – Your levitate spell no longer requires a reagent.
Always good. You never know when you’ll need levitate but just don’t have those feathers handy!
Shackle Undead – Increases the range of your Shackle Undead spell by 5 yards.
This could have uses on some fights, but it’s not really needed.
Shadow Protection – Increases the duration of your Shadow Protection spell by 10 minutes.
Not needed.
Chakra:
This talent is one of the defining talents of the holy tree. When activated, your next spell will activate a one of three Chakra States, each having unique benefits. The Chakra State will last until you activate Chakra again.
Serenity – Increases the critical effect chance of your direct healing spells by 10%, and causes your direct heals to refresh the duration of your Renew on the target.
This is more of a single target healing Chakra State. It is activated by the spells Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Binding Heal. When renew is active on your target, these same spells will refresh its duration. In addition, Holy Word: Chastise becomes Holy Word: Serenity, which is a decent instant cast heal which will increase your critical effect chance on the target by 25% for the next 6 seconds.
Sanctuary – Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells and Renew by 15% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 seconds.
This is an AoE/Raid healing Chakra State. It is activated by the spells Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending. Holy Word: Chastise becomes Holy Word: Sanctuary, an AoE heal that you place on the ground, healing anyone who stands in the circle. This is usually the primary Chakra State of raiding priests.
Chastise – Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%.
This is a Chakra State for those times when you need to do some damage. It is activated by Smite and Mind Spike. Holy Word: Chastise stays it is. Used primarily for soloing, with some use in raiding.
Note: Make sure you are always in a Chakra State, especially if you have 4pc tier 11. There is no real downside to being in one, but there are definite upsides. With the 4pc bonus of tier 11, being in any Chakra State will grant you 540 spirit.
Spells
There is no “healing rotation.” We aren’t DPSers. There is a finite amount of healing to be done at any given point in time. Further, healers have a large limiting factor: their mana bar. The object is to keep the members of your group alive through the entire fight. To do this, you will need to create strategies for healing the damage received by the group while managing your mana. Choose the right spells at the right time and you will do your job effectively. Choosing a spell that is too weak can lead to a death, while a spell that is too strong can lead to a wipe due to running oom. Here are the spells at your disposal.
Single Target:
Heal – This is your primary heal starting out. It is a slow spell with little mana cost. It doesn’t heal for much, but you can cast it a lot.
Greater Heal – For when Heal isn’t quite cutting it. It has the same cast time as Heal, but hits much harder, and costs more mana.
Flash Heal – This is your emergency heal. Repeatedly casting Flash Heal will result in much higher Healing Per Second, but will be a significant drain on your mana.
Binding Heal – Heals yourself and the target. Extremely useful when you and someone else are both taking damage.
Holy Word: Serenity – Instant cast single target heal that also increases your crit chance on the target. Low mana cost. Use this often if you are in the appropriate Chakra State.
Renew – a Heal over Time spell to supplement your direct heals.
Prayer of Mending – Cast this on a target and the next time they take damage, it will heal them. It will then bounce to the lowest health target nearby.
Power Word: Shield – Prevents the target from taking set amount of damage, depending on your spellpower. Useful for saving a low health target. If talented, it will also apply Body and Soul, causing the target to run 60% faster for a few seconds.
Summary of Single Target healing: Put renew on your target if damage allows or if you have prep time. Use Heal, Greater Heal, and Flash Heal to heal your target as needed. If the group is taking a bit of damage as well, use Prayer of Mending on the tank, and Circle of Healing as needed. You may wish to use the Serenity Chakra state.
Aoe/Raid Heals
Prayer of Healing – Heals the target’s group. This is your primary raid heal. Use it on groups where three or more people need to be healed.
Circle of Healing – Heals five (six, if glyphed) people within range of your target, regardless of group. Use this on cooldown in a raid healing situation.
Holy Word: Sanctuary – Places a heal on the ground, healing those who stand in it. Very mana expensive. Use when you know you will need lots of
raid healing very soon, and grouping in the effect is possible.
Holy Nova – Does damage to enemies around you and heals up to 5 nearby targets. The healing done is split between the targets. Use this when moving with the group and Circle of Healing is on cooldown.
Lightwell – Places a lightwell on the ground. When clicked, the person will receive a strong HoT effect. Keep this down and near the group when possible. You may have to remind people to use it, however.
Prayer of Mending is also a strong raid healing spell. Renew can be an excellent filler, but can be a heavy drain on your mana pool.
Summary of AoE Healing: Use Prayer of Healing liberally, and Circle of Healing on cooldown. If the damage is periodic, keep Prayer of Mending active. Put a lightwell down where your group can easily click it for some extra healing. Holy Word: Sanctuary is likely a bit too mana expensive for you at this point. It’s normally used in raids for when damage is just about to go out, some group members are clustered, and you have extra mana to support casting it.
Useful Macros:
Mouse-over Healing
Code: Select All
/cast [@mouseover] SpellName
Just replace “SpellName” with the name of any spell. Bind this to a key. Now, when you press the hotkey, you’ll cast the spell at whatever your mouse is hovering over (unit frame or in the game world)!
Lightwell
Code: Select All
/cast !Lightwell
/s Lightwell is down!
Holy Words – This one takes a little explaining.
First, make this macro, bind it to a key, mouse over an empty bar position, and press the hot key.
Code: Select All
/run local f = GetMouseFocus(); if f then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(f:GetName()) end
This will return the name for the bar position you are moused over into your chat log. Put Holy Word: Chastise into this bar position.
Next, create the macro:
Code: Select All
/target [@mouseover,help]
/click ButtonName
/targetlasttarget
Replacing “ButtonName” with the bar position returned from the first macro. Bind this macro to a keybind of your choosing. Now, when you change chakra’s, the same button will activate the appropriate Holy Word spell!
Gearing
The goal here is to maximize your Intellect and Spirit, while gaining haste and mastery as secondary stats. Starting out, there are a number of ways to get gear before heading into heroics: Justice Points, crafted items, reputation vendors, and gear from normal dungeons. Here is a list of the gear of interest from normal, higher level dungeons:
Cloak
Solar Wind Cloak - Rajh - Halls of Origination
Azureborne Cloak - Drahga Shodowburner - Grim Batol
Chest
Anraphet’s Regalia - Anraphet - Halls of Origination
Bracers
Crimsonborne Bracers - Drahga Shadowburner - Grim Batol
Belt
Evelyn’s Belt - Siamat - Lost City of Tol’vir
Boots
Hekatic Slippers - Rajh - Halls of Origination
Rings
Band of Life Energy - Ammunae - Halls of Origination
Veneficial Band - Lockmaw - Lost City of Tol’vir
Trinkets
Corrupted Egg Shell - Erudax - Grim Batol
Blood of Isiset - Isiset - Halls of Origination
There are pieces from some of the lower level dungeons which are perfectly fine for holy healing. The pieces listed above, however, are higher in item level (and thus, intellect and spirit). Combine these items with Justice Point items, crafted items, and reputation vendor items and you will quickly be geared to begin healing heroics.
Heroic gear list: Coming soon.
Gems
You want to maximize your intellect and spirit, especially when you’ve just hit 85. For red sockets, use Brilliant Inferno Rubies (Brilliant Carnellians, if you can’t afford them) or Purified Demonseyes. Use the Purified Demonseyes in blue sockets, as well. For yellow sockets, use either Artful or Reckless Ember Topaz, for mastery or haste, respectively.
Enchants
Ignoring profession specific enchants, these are the best enchants you can get. There may be slightly weaker, but much cheaper, options that you can use.
Head: Arcanum of Hyjal – Guardians of Hyjal reputation vendor, requires Revered.
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone – Therazane reputation vendor, requires Exalted
Cloak: Greater Intellect (50 Intellect)
Chest: Peerless Stats (20 to all stats)
Bracers: Mighty Intellect (50 Intellect)
Gloves: Greater Mastery (65 Mastery) or Haste (50 haste)
Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
Boots: Lavawalker (35 mastery and run speed), Earthen Vitality (30 stam and run speed), Haste (50 haste) or Mastery (50 mastery). Lavawalker is ideal, as you should have a run speed increase.
Weapon: Heartsong (Spirit increase) or Power Torrent (Intellect Increase). Heartsong gives more mana regeneration and is suggested over Power Torrent.
Off-hand: Superior Intellect (40 Intellect)
Reforging
Critical Strike Rating is our weakest stat. Reforge it off your gear as you can. If a piece doesn’t have spirit, reforge spirit onto it. On pieces that don’t have spirit, choose haste or mastery and reforge to it. See the stats section to help you decide which you would like to reforge to.
Flasks
You have your choice of Spirit or Intellect here. Intellect tends to be better in raids.
Flask of the Draconic Mind (300 Intellect)
Flask of Flowing Water (300 Spirit)
A Flask of Battle from a cauldron will give you 300 Intellect.
Food
There are foods that give haste and mastery, but Intellect will give you a larger increase overall. Spirit is a good option if you are new to being 85, or are just having mana troubles.
Severed Sagefish Head (90 Intellect)
Pickled Guppy (60 Intellect)
Delicious Sagefish Tail (90 Spirit)
Whitecrest Gumbo (60 Spirit)
These are good options for personal food. Seafood Magnifique Feast and Broiled Dragon Feast will give you 90 Intellect and 60 Intellect, respectively.
(This is a beginning to the guide. I will expand on this in the future, including level 85 heroic dungeon gearing guides, and answering specific questions if possible).
