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In order to be a good Holy Priest, you must first know that the best Priests are not completely [[Holy]], but have a few points in [[discipline]] -- particularly [[Inner Focus]], [[Meditation]], [[Silent Resolve]], and [[Improved Power Word: Fortitude]]. In the Holy tree, talents at high levels such as [[Spiritual Guidance]], [[Spiritual Healing]], and [[Spirit of Redemption]] are not to be missed. The full list of Priest Talents can be found [[Priest Talents|here]].
 
In order to be a good Holy Priest, you must first know that the best Priests are not completely [[Holy]], but have a few points in [[discipline]] -- particularly [[Inner Focus]], [[Meditation]], [[Silent Resolve]], and [[Improved Power Word: Fortitude]]. In the Holy tree, talents at high levels such as [[Spiritual Guidance]], [[Spiritual Healing]], and [[Spirit of Redemption]] are not to be missed. The full list of Priest Talents can be found [[Priest Talents|here]].
   
It is important to wear appropriate gear. Gear with +spellpower is very important to priests. As well as "+Spellpower", "+Spirit" gear is also very important to a Priest, because of the [[Spiritual Guidance]] talent in the Holy tree which increases your spell damage and healing by up to 25% of your Spirit as well as the [[Meditation]] talent in the Discipline tree, which allows 30% of your total mana regen to continue while casting.
+
It is important to wear appropriate gear. Gear with +spellpower is very important to priests. As well as "+Spellpower", "+Spirit" gear is also very important to a Priest, because of the [[Spiritual Guidance]] talent in the Holy tree which increases your spell damage and healing by up to 25% of your Spirit as well as the [[Meditation]] talent in the Discipline tree, which allows up to 50% of your total mana regen to continue while casting.
   
 
Even up to level 50, Holy Priests can generally be great healers in a dungeon, as well as do decent DPS. There is a common perception that a Holy Priest is only a healer, but practice shows that in some cases casting some Holy damage spells (for example, spamming [[Holy Light]] or [[Smite]]) can achieve a very decent DPS output, especially if the Priest takes the Holy Talents to increase the damage done by those spells.
 
Even up to level 50, Holy Priests can generally be great healers in a dungeon, as well as do decent DPS. There is a common perception that a Holy Priest is only a healer, but practice shows that in some cases casting some Holy damage spells (for example, spamming [[Holy Light]] or [[Smite]]) can achieve a very decent DPS output, especially if the Priest takes the Holy Talents to increase the damage done by those spells.

Revision as of 09:39, 10 February 2010

Vestments of Prophecy 2

A Holy Priest

The Holy Priest is the most versatile healer in the game.

Maximizing the Holy Priest's Utility

In order to be a good Holy Priest, you must first know that the best Priests are not completely Holy, but have a few points in discipline -- particularly Spell frost windwalkon [Inner Focus], Spell nature sleep [Meditation], Spell nature manaregentotem [Silent Resolve], and Spell holy wordfortitude [Improved Power Word: Fortitude]. In the Holy tree, talents at high levels such as Spell holy spiritualguidence [Spiritual Guidance], Spell nature healingwavegreater [Spiritual Healing], and Inv enchant essenceeternallarge [Spirit of Redemption] are not to be missed. The full list of Priest Talents can be found here.

It is important to wear appropriate gear. Gear with +spellpower is very important to priests. As well as "+Spellpower", "+Spirit" gear is also very important to a Priest, because of the Spell holy spiritualguidence [Spiritual Guidance] talent in the Holy tree which increases your spell damage and healing by up to 25% of your Spirit as well as the Spell nature sleep [Meditation] talent in the Discipline tree, which allows up to 50% of your total mana regen to continue while casting.

Even up to level 50, Holy Priests can generally be great healers in a dungeon, as well as do decent DPS. There is a common perception that a Holy Priest is only a healer, but practice shows that in some cases casting some Holy damage spells (for example, spamming Spell holy surgeoflight [Holy Light] or Spell holy holysmite [Smite]) can achieve a very decent DPS output, especially if the Priest takes the Holy Talents to increase the damage done by those spells.

PvP Holy Priests

There are basic ground rules you should always remember when PvPing/duelling:

  • Mana is to be preserved: a Holy Priest excels at restoring health, not at dealing damage. In solo PvP, it is often preferable to out-heal the enemy, while slowly killing them with mana- and time-efficient spells such as Spell shadow shadowwordpain [Shadow Word: Pain], in combination with the wand. Tactics for solo PvP can be found here.
  • Remember your aptitude: Just because you're not in a dungeon doesn't mean you can't heal your party members or yourself when needed.
  • Most importantly, THINK! If you're going to attack the enemy base, make sure you got the group, mana and buffs to do so.

Holy Priests in Dungeons

Holy Priests have numerous healing spells at their command making them one of the most versatile healing classes in the game. Priests are capable of delivering large heals to a single target, or of keeping multiple people up at the same time.

Summary of Healing Spells

  • Spell holy renew [Renew]: An instant-cast, heal-over-time spell.
  • Spell holy heal [Greater Heal]: A large heal with a long cast time.
  • Spell holy flashheal [Flash Heal]: A fast-cast, medium-size heal.
  • Spell holy blindingheal [Binding Heal]: A low-threat heal with a fast cast time that heals both the Priest and their target for a moderate amount.
  • Spell holy prayerofhealing02 [Prayer of Healing]: A long-cast-time heal that heals all party members within 30 yards for a moderate amount.
  • Spell holy prayerofmendingtga [Prayer of Mending]: An instant-cast pre-emptive heal, which heals the target for a moderate amount when they next take damage and gives the threat from the heal to the target, rather than to the Priest. When used, this buff then hops to a random raid member within 20 yards. Has 5 charges.
  • Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield]: Temporarily block a certain amount of incoming damage on the target.
  • Spell holy circleofrenewal [Circle of Healing]: An instant-cast, minor heal that heals all friendly party/raid members within its radius but has a six second cooldown. This spell is the 41-point Talent in the Holy tree.

Healing Tactics

Tank Healing

When you're healing a tank, whether it be in an instance where you also need to heal several DPS classes or in a raid where you need to focus on healing a tank, follow these steps.

  1. Once you have the spell, always pre-cast Spell holy prayerofmendingtga [Prayer of Mending] on the tank prior to the pull since it will help the tank establish aggro and heals them without giving you any healing threat. Re-cast the spell on the tank whenever the cooldown is up.
    • Note: Since it bounces to other nearby party members this spell can be especially powerful in groups where multiple people are getting hit since it will quickly bounce around between them, healing them all.
  2. Keep Spell holy renew [Renew] on the tank at all times. This will help mitigate any spike damage from critical hits, crushing blows, etc, and allow you more time to get off a larger healing spell.
  3. In heroic instances, raids, and anywhere where the tank might receive unexpected spike damage, one common healing method is to use stopcasting. What this means is to start a Spell holy heal [Greater Heal] on the tank. If the tank does not require the heal when you're halfway through the cast time, stop the cast and restart it. This keeps you ready to heal the tank without re-entering the Five Second Rule.
    • There are some macros you can use to make this easier.
  4. If the tank gets low on health, use Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield], Spell holy prayerofmendingtga [Prayer of Mending], and spam Spell holy flashheal [Flash Heal] until his or her life gets back up and you have enough time to cast Spell holy heal [Greater Heal].
  5. If you ever need healing, use Spell holy blindingheal [Binding Heal] to heal both yourself and the tank at the same time.

Party/Raid Healing

Non-tanks are a lot more squishy and likely to die than tanks; thus, you need to use slightly different tactics to keep them alive if they start taking damage. Namely, speed is of the essence.

This is not a comprehensive list of how to heal DPS classes but is meant to give some basic ideas about what to do.

  • If someone accidentally pulls aggro:
    1. Immediately cast Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield] which may give you enough time to heal them before they die.
    2. Spam cast Spell holy flashheal [Flash Heal] until the tank re-establishes aggro.
    3. Do not cast Spell holy prayerofmendingtga [Prayer of Mending] since this will only give the DPS class more threat, making it harder for the tank to re-establish aggro.
    4. If the tank manages to re-establish aggro fast enough, and there is no other incoming damage, then a Spell holy renew [Renew] might be all the person needs to stay alive, which will let you go back to healing the tank.
  • AoE fights...
    • ...where the group deals AoE damage on a group of non-elite mobs.
      1. Pre-cast Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield] on any classes that will be using AoE spells, since they will likely get aggro pretty quickly. Re-cast whenever possible, since it will help keep them alive and will help them avoid interruption while casting their spells. The reason for pre-casting Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield] is so that if the shield gets taken out faster than expected the Weakened Soul debuff is no longer on the target.
      2. Cast Renew as soon as possible into the fight, since the healing from Renew will give you more time to cast other spells, such as Spell holy flashheal [Flash Heal] or Spell holy heal [Greater Heal], depending upon how much damage the DPS classes are taking.
      3. If you have the Talent, no one requires heavy healing, and mana efficiency is not important, then spam Spell holy holynova [Holy Nova] for fun.
    • ...where the group is receiving regular AoE damage.
      1. Keep Spell holy renew [Renew] up on everyone, if possible.
      2. Keep Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield] up on yourself and any other cloth wearers, if possible.
      3. Cast Spell holy prayerofhealing02 [Prayer of Healing] or Spell holy circleofrenewal [Circle of Healing] to heal everyone at once, especially if everyone just took heavy damage or is about to take heavy damage. If the tank is also taking a lot of damage, make sure that the tank has enough life to survive while you cast Prayer of Healing. This may include casting at least Spell holy powerwordshield [Power Word: Shield] and Spell holy prayerofmendingtga [Prayer of Mending] on the tank prior to casting Prayer of Healing.
      4. Cast Spell holy blindingheal [Binding Heal] to heal both yourself and one other person at the same time.

Other Tips

  • Binding Heal is a low-threat heal. If mana efficiency doesn't matter due to its being a short fight, you're having threat issues, and the tank doesn't require a big heal, then use this to heal the tank.
  • Spell magic lesserinvisibilty [Fade] will reduce your aggro, but after 10 seconds your aggro will return to its original value plus whatever aggro you generated during the Fade. Save Fade for when it's needed so that you have it, and make sure the tank knows that he or she needs to generate additional threat on that mob during those 10 seconds otherwise you will have the aggro again. Having a threat meter such as Omen can help you know when you are about to receive aggro, and thus know when you need to Fade.
    • Whenever you use Spell shadow psychicscream [Psychic Scream] in an instance, it often causes more trouble then it's worth. Make sure that any other mobs are far enough away that casting fear will not pull additional mobs.
  • Conserve your mana and you shouldn't have mana issues even in really long fights. Some ways to do that:
    • Spell holy flashheal [Flash Heal] is very mana inefficient, and should only be used in situations that require a very fast heal.
    • Mana regeneration is suppressed during the 5 seconds after the last spell cast that cost mana. Therefore, to conserve mana, do "block" healing: cast multiple spells around the same time so that you can go for awhile without casting. Notice the fine print in the last bit: cost mana. If you cast a spell that does not require any mana for whatever reason then you do not re-enter the five second rule. So you can use Spell frost windwalkon [Inner Focus] to increase the time you spend regenerating mana (effectively coupled with Spell nature sleep [Meditation] and Spell holy impholyconcentration [Holy Concentration]).
    • If you know the fight is going to last for quite awhile, use the Spell shadow shadowfiend [Shadowfiend] whenever possible.

Add-ons and Macros

It can be quite difficult to heal a group or a raid using only the standard Blizzard game interface and spells. Thus, you may want to modify your casts using macros that make thing such as stopcasting easier, or modify the UI so that it's easier to figure out how much people are hurt, or to see the health and status effects of an entire raid at one time.

Macros

To get you started with macros, here are some useful macros for Priests. This includes macros to automatically use a trinket or racial ability when you cast a spell, automatically stopcasting whenever you start a new cast, etc.

Add-ons

There are many add-ons that Holy Priests can find useful. Among these are:

  • Omen: Omen is a threat meter that can tell you how much threat people have on a mob, who has the highest threat, and can tell you when you are about to get the aggro. Healers generally need to keep healing despite how much aggro they have, but if you have the add-on then you will get a warning before someone attacks you, which can give you enough time to Spell magic lesserinvisibilty [Fade] or shield yourself. Additionally, if you have the add-on then anyone else in the group with the add-on, such as the tank, can tell whether you are about to get the aggro and do something about it.
  • X-Perl: An add-on that allows you to modify the unit frames. It can be configured to show you whether other healers have your target selected, how much life a player is down, etc. X-Perl is available from wow.curse.com.
  • Grid: An add-on that can give you an overview of the health and status ailments (such as disease or magic effects) for an entire raid or party. This is a highly-configurable add-on, and thus can take a while to set up the way you want, but once it's set up the benefits are extraordinary. Grid can also give you an indication when someone gets the aggro, which can frequently let you start healing them before they get hit. Grid is available from www.wowace.com or wow.curse.com.
  • Healbot: Similar to, and an alternative for, Grid. It's an add-on that can give you the overview of the health and status ailments for an entire raid or party.

External links