Priest PvE guide

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Things Holy Priests want Non-Priests to know

In a party environment, especially in an instance, each person contributes to the welfare of the group, and its success. The Holy priest (or any priest that is given or taking the position of healing) or main healer is the most critical player to prevent the group from wiping. The priest is one of the weakest classes, wearing cloth and often with very low HP, so as such will die extremely quickly should they take aggro of a mob.

The Holy Priest, as with any healer, should be first priority for protecting, and healing does generate a lot of threat. When, or if the Priest draws aggro, all priority should be on saving them from taking damage, as generally for them to remain alive, they must continually heal themselves, generating more threat on themselves, and unable to heal the party. This quickly will spiral downwards and generally lead to a wipe. Examples of ways DPS classes can save the Priest are, warriors may Intervene, Intercept or Taunt, mages may Frost Nova or Polymorph, rogues can stun, hunters can trap, or put a pet onto it (in this case, a single manual growl of the pet is acceptable), Paladins can taunt. This isn't intended to tell other classes how to react to something going wrong, but think about it, and the moment something like that happens in a group, do what you need to. Remember, Fear is not an acceptable method of saving anyone under any circumstance, as that can easily aggro more mobs.

You may not always receive a heal and the healer may let you die. This is not the sign of a bad healer, but rather, a good healer (not always true, but please read the following for an understanding of why you may be intentionally left to die). The healer can not always keep everyone in the party alive given whats going on. The tank, and their own health is greatest priority. When there is a lot of damage going around, and they are unable to keep everyone alive, someone will have to be left without heals, as sacrificing one, is better than wiping. Additionally, if you peel threat off the tank, whether it be from generating too much threat, or targeting the correct mob, do not expect heals. You have done the wrong thing, and to expect to be healed in this situation is extremely unfair, and also extremely dangerous. Do whatever you can to drop aggro, first thing is, stop DPS, immediately, use any aggro drops you have, Feign Death, Vanish, Invisibility, Fade etc... The reason for a healer not healing you when you draw threat is due to the threat generated from healing. Heals are high threat, and not having the mitigation of the tank, you take considerably more damage. If you die regardless the healer trying to keep you up, or if the healing threat surpasses your threat on the target, the healer will peel, and the situation will then turn very bad for the entire group. A good healer with experience and the whole party's welfare in interest, will not heal you until you lose aggro of the mob, even if it means letting you die!

Always ensure the Priest has enough mana before the next fight, a healer without mana is the quickest way of having a group wipe. The healer should not have to mention in party or raid that they require to drink, the DPS and tank should be aware of the whole party's status, this includes all of the party's health and mana, and location, and should not progress until the whole party is ready. If Mana Potions drop, and you have no use for them, offer them to the healer, if they pass on them, and the tank is a Paladin, also offer it to them. They are the most important classes in any party environment to have Mana at all times during a fight, and having a Mana Potion can be the difference between a successful fight, or a wipe.

Try to always remain in Line of Sight (LoS). This should include remaining behind the tank until a pull is complete. If you are out of LoS, and the healing is heavy enough that they don't have time to move, do not expect a heal. It simply isn't possible, and this is as much your responsibility as it is the healers.

Not all priests are holy. Do not assume such. Most shadow priests are used to being mistaken for being holy, especially in the lower levels before Shadowform, but make sure beforehand to ask which spec they are, since much of the time, shadow priests are either ill-equipped, ill-trained, or just don't want to act as healers.

Your Pet's health is your responsibility. Do not expect any healer to heal it, unless it is tanking. You have your own forms of healing the pet if needed. If the healer does heal your pet, thank them for it.

If a Shackle pops up on an undead mob you just started fighting, leave it alone. Chances are the priest will try to shackle it again to make the fight easier for everyone, unless someone has put a DoT on it or some melee class/pet is determined to show it love. If that has happened, the DPS classes have also made severe errors, as they should not have done any damage until the tank was generating threat. Don't do it.

Healers and non-healers are of two minds on bandaging out of combat. Some priests hold themselves responsible for the health of the party and heal everyone after the battle, but some would rather conserve drink and mana. Some players prefer bandaging to waiting for the priest. It's unimportant, but settle it with your party before battles to prevent discord.

Buffs. Always give all your buffs to the healer. Paladins, the priest may want Wisdom or Kings, ask them.

Warlocks, Life Tap immediately after a fight and don't life tap to minimum health just to get a full mana pool. Ensure the priest is going to heal first, if they have no mana, don't be rude, sit down, drink and/or eat. Life tapping immediately prior to a fight is the worst thing you can do, don't expect a heal, and if you die, its your own fault.

Things DPS Priests (Discipline and Shadow) want Non-Priests to know

Mind Control may be a good Crowd Control(CC), but it generates a LOT of threat, please be ready to pick it up and kill it immediately when it breaks.

The Shadow Priest, especially in higher levels is not a viable healer. You cannot expect us to heal, we can help if needed, but cannot heal an instance, even with healing gear.

Shadow is a very viable DPS, it also brings a lot of healing and mana to the group, give us a chance, you won't be sorry!

Things Non-Priests want Priests to know

When you draw aggro of the mob, either do NOT move, or run to the tank. NEVER run away, or around in circles.

Remember to dispel, quite often it IS as important as healing!

Don't use offensive spells in instances, it makes everyone in the party uneasy, and expect to get yelled at for it.

Never stand in melee range, EVER, melee range is dangerous, and very ugly, whenever it is safe to do so, remain at maximum range.

Many Warlocks prefer Renew over a straight heal because of the dynamics of Life Tap. With Renew, a warlock has the chance to have near-full life and mana. It is also your most efficient spell, so is a logical choice.

Don't Mind Control mobs unless told to. They generally do less damage than you would, and its very annoying to be trying to build threat on a target that suddenly turns friendly. On top of this, you're putting yourself in unnecessary danger because of the threat involved with it.

Things Priests want new Priests to know

Holy

There is no possible way that you will be able to keep everyone alive all the time. Just remember that healing priority is: 1) Main Tank, 2) yourself (you are the healer, you keep the group from dying), 3) crowd controllers, 4) everyone else.

You need to know when to let someone die, this may sound cruel, mean, or unnecessary, but is an extremely important skill to have, especially starting into heroics where you can die from 1 or 2 hits. Generally speaking, the only person taking damage is the tank, of course, there is global damage other other damage that occurs to the party or raid that you have to heal for, but if someone peels from the tank, their first action should be stop DPS. Heal them a couple times, but if they continue DPS, there is a possibility that your threat will be the next they run to if the DPS die, or you may even peel off them. Don't heal them if they don't stop DPS. Secondly, and much more importantly is if they weren't attacking the correct target, they should not receive any heal until they have dropped threat. There is very little threat on the mob from the tank, and as like you, they probably aren't generating a lot of threat most of the time. They will be taking massive amounts of damage, meaning your healing must be very high to keep them up, and chances are you will peel the mob off of them, and you, or others will die because of it. Remember, it is the DPS's responsibility to remain under the threat of the tank, and target the correct mob. If they peel, regardless the reason, it is generally their fault, and you should not, nor should you be expected to keep them alive in that situation.

Do NOT use Psychic Scream in an Instance!: Fear is probably one of the most common causes of player-caused wipes in the game.

If you draw aggro of a mob, you don't have to fade straight away. If you have pulled the aggro of one mob, let the tank take care of it. If you use your fade too liberally, you can get caught by several mobs and with your cooldown still recharging. The exception to this is when you have pulled aggro of a boss; they will most likely kill you in less than three hits.

If you have something urgent to say, use raid warning (/rw). Party chat, emotes, and say are generally ignored during fights.

When in an instance, do not attempt to DPS, its not needed, it increases your threat, and wastes your mana. This includes using your wand, even though it may not use mana, every time it goes off it starts the global cooldown. This seriously gimps your chance to reactivity heal, especially if you have any lag. Additionally, it is unnecessarily increasing your threat on the target. Even when healing is very easy, and you feel it is safe to help DPS, be aware that you may get stuck waiting for a whole global cooldown (1.5 seconds), or even possibly 2 should you have a bit of lag. Make sure you take this delay into account if you wish to help DPS.

Shadow

If you are intending on speccing Shadow, get used to being asked to heal. It might even be good to keep a healing set with you just in case you're needed to heal. If you want to do a lot of instances (when leveling), spec the necessary points into Holy to reduce the cooldown of Greater Heal, it's not many talent points, and makes you a viable healer with a healing set. However, if you feel you can't or shouldn't be expected to heal, let your group know so they don't expect it.

If you are not going to be putting up Vampiric Embrace on some shorter fights, make sure including Shadow Word: Death in your rotation is okay with the healer first. Generally it is, but if the healer is having trouble, they may be unable to spare the heals in your direction.

Don't Mind Control mobs unless the tank is aware, nothing will annoy them, and slow the fight down more than having the mob they were trying to build threat on suddenly turn friendly in front of them.

Always remember to put up Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch on bosses (or long fights on single mobs), that is the main reason you are used as a DPS class, because of the added bonus you give to the party. The moment they expire, renew them, and learn to include it in your typical rotation.

Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch are not needed on short fights that only last a few seconds, the amount it will return, in comparison to mana you will spend, and possible DPS you lost by doing it does not make it worth it.

General Healing tips

Check the "Working With" pages for the different classes and look at the "What Xs want non-Xs to know". Always cast Power Word: Fortitude (or better) on your party members, it saves lives! Only cast Shadow Protection when its needed, it generally isn't. If unsure, ask.

Healing

Healing as a Holy Priest efficiently requires a bit more effort that other classes, but in turn, the Holy Priest is also one of the most flexible and powerful healing classes.

It is important, no matter whether used for DPS purposes or healing to include Meditation in the talent trees as it boosts the mana pool tremendously allowing up to 30% Mana to regenerate during casting, thus bending the 5-second rule. It is especially important in Boss fights as the Priest gets some mana even through burst heal cycles

A typical Discipline priest talent tree can be seen here http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgouh0zbZfLxcczqVhc and is most recommended for 5-mans and Karazhan. EDIT: A bit out of date since the removal of Divine Spirit.

Once you get into 25-man raids, the CoH priest is generally preferred. The talent tree of the CoH priest can be seen here http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxT0zhxZfhxcf0qVhVo

The main healing of a Priest is done via Greater Heal and Renew. A Renew should be kept up on the tank at all times, with greater heals used to do the majority of all other healing required.

Before a Tank pulls, a Prayer of Mending should be placed onto them. This is not only a Mana efficient heal, but all the threat generated from the heal goes to the one getting healed, rather than yourself. This helps the tanks initial threat, and keeps you off the aggro table for longer.

Greater Heal is the Priests largest and second most efficient heal (just after Renew). There should always be at least 2 ranks of it on your bars, and using which rank to keep everyone at full health, with the minimum overhealing possible will take a bit of practice and experience, but is your primary aim for healing. Since patch 3.0 the amount of mana on each rank remains the same, but the casting time on low-level spells is still shorter so it would be a good idea to take them into consideration

Binding Heal is the priests lowest threat heal, although not very Mana efficient, only causes about half the threat of other heals. As a priest, threat is rarely an issue, so this heal is not used very often. The best time to use it is if you peel off the tank from healing threat. Although a Fade should be your first reaction, and will save you, if for some reason it is on cooldown, spamming binding heal onto the tank is the best way to keep yourself alive. Being a 1.5 second cast like Flash Heal, tops you up quickly, keeps the tank alive, and generates the least extra threat on yourself as possible. A Shield is generally a worse option than Binding Heals and generates a great deal more threat.

Flash Heal should be your least used heal. The only times Flash Heal is considered acceptable is when healing is so heavy you don't have the time to get a Greater Heal off. For example, you can only just keep the Tank alive with almost constant Greater Heals, and a DPS Class needs a quick top up, 1 single flash heal on them then go back to healing the tank. The other is if the tank is extremely low on health, it should be part of your string of heals you use for emergency life saves, mentioned in more detail below. Additionally, it is acceptable (indeed desirable) to cast Flash Heal when Surge of Light procs, since this makes the spell cost zero mana. Since Patch 3.1 Flash heal is more viable in raids as a Disc priest because of Improved Flash Heal and with geared priests can easily crit for 7 to 8k.

Prayer of Mending is very efficient, and should be used whenever a pull is made, or if continual random raid/party damage is being taken.

Renew is the priests most efficient heal, and should be kept up on the main tank at all times. If a DPS class needs a top up, but is not in threat of dying, a Renew is also the best choice for this situation. If Warlocks need to life tap, mid fight, or even after a fight, again, Renew should be your first choice of heal to use.

Fade is your life saver. Learn to use it, and use it a lot. The instant you see a Mob come running at you from healing threat, hit the button. It will save your life.

Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing are the 2 of the best AoE heals in the game. Prayer of healing can heal your friendly target's party for large amounts, but is only efficient if everyone in the party has lost a large amount of health, equivalent to what the heal will deal out. Generally just putting Renews on, or using Greater Heal is a better option. Circle of Healing on the other hand is extremely powerful, able to heal any group in your raid, being an instant cast, and healing for a decent amount, if actually healing all 5 targets is your most efficient heal, although that rarely eventuates. If 3 or more members in a party are down by an amount equivalent or greater than the amount your Circle of Healing heals for, that is the best time to use it. Although you won't use it much until 25 mans, from there on, it will slowly come to being your main heal, many encounters in Black Temple a CoH Priest does over 90% of their healing with that single healing spell. (Since Patch 3.1 Circle of Healing has a 6 second cooldown so is now significantly less useful.)

Holy Nova has no practical use as a healing spell, don't use it. It is considered a Holy DPS talent, which is at this stage in the game is not considered viable.

Dispel Magic and Abolish Disease, Using these spells goes along with being a healer, remember to watch for Debuffs, and be quick on getting rid of them (if required). For example, if a Rogue has been Silenced, there is no need to Dispel it. But if someone gets Polymorphed, you should be very quick on it, this also applies to Debuffs causing damage, better to get rid of them than heal through them. Usually just before a boss or mob does an offensive defuff they will quickly target the player about to receive it, then go back to the tank. Having a AddOn that shows you who has Aggro of a mob, and colours the player frames to suit Debuffs you can Dispel can increase your efficiency in this area a great deal!

Power Word: Shield will absorb a significant amount of damage and, if the priest has Glyph of Power Word: Shield it will also instantly heal for 20% of the amount absorbed. It should be included in your list of instant-cast heals.

Emergency Life saving rotation. There is a simple rotation of spells used that is best at saving the life of the tank should they have gotten too low in HP. It should not happen, but mistakes do unfortunately happen, you may have been healing a DPS class, or lost LoS (Line of Sight) of the tank, and they got to a critically low amount of health. First: Guardian Spirit Second: Power Word: Shield Third: Prayer of Mending Fourth: Flash Heal(possibly a few of them) Fifth: Greater Heal (Highest Rank) Power Word: Shield even though inefficient, high threat, and very small, does absorb enough to help in this situation, immediately follow it by Prayer of Mending, This will heal them for a small amount as well the next time they take damage. Now, start spamming Flash Heal until they are over critical amount of HP, and will survive long enough for you to get a Greater Heal off.

There are very few class-specific tips that apply as a priest, and can easily be generalized into their primary roles.

Tanks

Tanks are generally Feral Druids, Protection Warriors, or Protection Paladins.

Healing the tank is your main priority, and as with all your healing, as much of it as possible should be done with Greater Heal.

Renew is just as efficient, if not more so, keep it on the tank at all times, it smoothens out the damage they take, and gives you more time to focus heals on other party members if needed.

Healers

Healers are generally Holy Priests, Restoration Shamans, Restoration Druids, or Holy Paladins.

It is rare you should be grouped with another healer except in a raid environment, and be aware, they are a healer as well, and just because you can't do good DPS, the fact is, they can't either, regardless of their class. In 5 mans, any of these classes is an acceptable healer, so decide who will be healer and who will DPS prior to starting. Remember, just because your primary role may become DPS for that run, doesn't mean if things get out of control you can't help heal.

Damage Dealing Classes

DPS classes are generally any of those not mentioned above.

The role of a DPS class is to deal damage. they are not specced, or geared, to take damage, and generally have little mitigation, and low HP. This means they will take big damage, and die quick. You must be quick to react to save DPS classes from death, but this doesn't always mean you should.

There is several reasons a DPS class will take damage.

Unavoidable Raid/Party Damage: for example, an instant AoE, or random targeted party member, always be ready for this, and to heal through it.

Avoidable Raid/Party Damage: for example, an AoE that has a 2 second cast, plenty of time to get out of. Be ready to heal through this, but be sure to let them know if they didn't move. If they die, its their fault, don't feel bad. Do NOT heal them through it if it means your going to run low on mana for the remainder of the fight.

Early Attack: First to receive damage, do not heal them, they are not the tank, and no-one should deal any offensive attacks or spells at mobs until the tank has sufficient threat. Healing them will likely cause you to peel from them, and it will turn out extremely ugly. Get onto them about it, it is not an acceptable way of playing, and you definitely do not have to keep them alive if they do it.

Peeled Threat, Main Target: This generally refers to if they have gained Aggro of the main DPS target from the tank, either by incorrectly using their skills, starting attack a little too early, or doing more DPS than the tank can hold. Again, this is their error, but it does happen, and not always intentionally. Quickly try to heal them, but only a couple heals is ever necessary. The first thing they should do is stop DPS, if they don't, this is one of those times you let them die, but give them the benefit of the doubt initially. Some classes, such as Warlocks will keep generating threat from DoT's even if they do stop all attacking after peeling. Try to keep them up through it. If they peel again, get onto them about it.

Peeled Threat, Off Target: This refers to when the DPS was attacking the wrong mob. Tell them, make sure they don't do it again. Heal them, but not more than twice, if this is in a Heroic, or a place where a mob can kill you in only a few hits, do not heal them at all. This is a very dangerous situation caused purely by them. Any healing you do, generates a lot of threat, and that mob will likely run at you. If they die regardless of your best efforts, you will be the next the mob runs to, so not only have you wasted your mana, you've put yourself in a life threatening situation, and most likely contributed to the inevitable wipe, which could have been avoided if you just let them die.

Crowd Control gone bad: Help them, it happens, give them a Shield only if you think its safe, heal them up again after it is CC'd. if its a Hunter, be very wary of healing them, they can, and probably will Feign Death, the mob would then run at you if you had healed them. Remember that its probably not their fault, but its not always the best thing to heal them immediately. Only experience of the mob and instance will help you know what is best to do.

General DPS Tips