Holy Priest Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

Pure healing: stronger and cheaper heals and group healing.

A cloth-wearing healer who also deals Shadow damage. Priests heal single targets and groups, shield allies with Power Word: Shield and fight with Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast. More about the priest

Class: Priest
Roles: Healer
Used for: Raids and dungeons
Top talent: Guardian Spirit
Popular builds: 1
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Holy in Wrath is the raid healer: Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending and Prayer of Healing heal groups, Empowered Renew and Serendipity speed up your heals, and Guardian Spirit keeps a target alive through a killing blow and boosts healing on them.

Keep Renew and Prayer of Mending rolling, Circle of Healing on hurt groups, Prayer of Healing (faster after Serendipity) when a whole group is down, and Flash Heal or Greater Heal on single targets. Divine Hymn heals the raid in emergencies.

Holy priests are less sturdy in arenas than Discipline.

At a glance

Single-target healing
Group healing
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Prayer of Mending whenever it is ready.
2Circle of Healing whenever it is ready, on a hurt group.
3Renew on targets taking steady damage.
4Flash Heal or Binding Heal, then a faster Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal with Serendipity.
5Guardian Spirit on a tank about to die.
6Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope when the raid needs them.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The best raid-wide healing among priests.
Guardian Spirit saves tanks.
Heals on the move with Renew, Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending.

Weaknesses

Fragile.
Less suited to tank healing than Discipline.
Low solo damage.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Spell power
2
Haste
3
Intellect
4
Spirit
5
Critical strike
6
Mana per 5 sec

What to look for

Spell power and haste first.
Spirit is worth more to Holy than to Discipline.
A healing staff, or a mace with an off-hand.

Items worth chasing

Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient KingsThe legendary healing mace.
Purified Lunar DustA healing trinket with mana regeneration.
Althor's AbacusA healing trinket with a haste proc.
Soul PreserverA healing trinket that sometimes makes a spell cost less.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Discipline
Holy
Shadow

Holy Raid Healer
HealerPvE
1853
18/53/0
Raid healing with 53 points in Holy, down to Guardian Spirit, and 18 in Discipline.
- Empowered Healing 4/5
- Empowered Renew 1/3
- Circle of Healing 1/1
- Divine Providence 5/5
- Guardian Spirit 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Prayer of Healing (major), Glyph of Renew (major), Glyph of Circle of Healing (major), Glyph of Fortitude (minor), Glyph of Shadowfiend (minor), Glyph of Fading (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting

Key talents

Guardian Spirit · top talent, up to 1
Calls upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target. The spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40%, and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 50% of their maximum health. Lasts 10 sec.
Spirit of Redemption · tier 5, up to 1
Increases total Spirit by 5% and upon death, the priest becomes the Spirit of Redemption for 15 sec. The Spirit of Redemption cannot move, attack, be attacked or targeted by any spells or effects. While in this form the priest can cast any healing spell free of cost. When the effect ends, the priest dies.
Surge of Light · tier 6, up to 2
Your spell criticals have a 50% chance to cause your next Smite or Flash Heal spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.
Spiritual Healing · tier 6, up to 5
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.
Holy Concentration · tier 7, up to 3
Your mana regeneration from spirit is increased by 50% for 8 sec after you critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Empowered Renew.
Empowered Healing · tier 8, up to 5
Your Greater Heal spell gains an additional 40% and your Flash Heal and Binding Heal gain an additional 20% of your bonus healing effects.
Serendipity · tier 8, up to 3
When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 12%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
Empowered Renew · tier 9, up to 3
Your Renew spell gains an additional 15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 15% of the total periodic effect.
Circle of Healing · tier 9, up to 1
Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 347 to 383.
Divine Providence · tier 10, up to 5
Increases the amount healed by Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Holy Nova, Prayer of Healing, Divine Hymn and Prayer of Mending by 10%, and reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending by 30%.

Holy abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.