Circle of Healing (CoH) is a priest ability learned at level 50 for those with the Holy specialization. It is an instant-cast spell that heals nearby party or raid members within a small radius around a target.
Circle of Healing comes with a 10 second cooldown, implemented in attempts to minimize priests from simply spamming the spell, making some forms of incoming raid damage trivial, for example the Vortex spell encountered in the Malygos encounter. Despite this, the spell remains useful in many places. The spell now works as a "smart heal", a recently implemented mechanic in which the spell seeks out raid members with the lowest health and heals them; this is instead of its old mechanic of healing a specific targeted group.
In more detail, if the spell is cast with no specific target it will use the priest caster as a "base" of the spell and will heal five targets within its 15 yard radius who are currently at the lowest health. Should the priest target someone specifically and cast the spell, it will use that targeted player as a "base" and will heal five players (not necessarily including the "base") for a 15 yard radius of that player.
This new mechanic is useful for healing groups of players at once while avoiding the need for them to be actually grouped together. Healing all melee at once, for example.
Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph. Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target, but its mana cost is increased by 35%.
Sell Price: 1
Patch changes
Patch 4.0.6 (8-Feb-2011): Circle of Healing effectiveness has been increased by 30%.
Patch 3.1.0 (14-Apr-2009): Healing increased by approximately 40%.
Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.
/Patch 3.0.2 (14-Oct-2008): Circle of Healing (Holy): Now works on any targets in the caster’s raid, and is now a "smart" heal and chooses the lowest health targets to heal first within its range. Also now has a 6 second cooldown. Also no longer will heal summoned Snakes from Hunter’s Snake Trap.
Patch 2.3.0 (13-Nov-2007): Circle of Healing: The base amount of healing from this spell has been reduced along with increasing the bonus it receives from bonus healing effects. Characters with more than 1338 healing will see their Circle of Healing heal for more than previous patches. Characters with less than 1338 healing will see their Circle of Healing heal for less.
Patch 2.1.0 (22-May-2007): Circle of Healing effect increase.
Patch 2.0.10 (2007-03-06): Circle of Healing mana cost reduced by 25%.