Cataclysm Classic Holy Priest Leveling

Holy is not recommended for leveling as it falls behind the other specializations. If you want to level as Holy, we suggest playing almost entirely in dungeons as a healer. If you are interested in the fastest solo leveling experience, check out our Shadow Priest Leveling Guide.

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast time of Smite.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast time of Smite. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 3% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana. Desperate Prayer is a strong, personal defensive cooldown that heals you for 30% of your max health.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew boosts Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana. Desperate Prayer is a strong, personal defensive cooldown that heals you for 30% of your max health. Holy Concentration allows you to regenerate 30% of your Mana regeneration from Spirit in combat, preventing you from running out of Mana as quickly.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to your damage capabilities by reducing the cast times of Smite and Holy Fire. Improved Renew and Divine Touch boost Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana. Desperate Prayer is a strong, personal defensive cooldown that heals you for 30% of your max health. Holy Concentration allows you to regenerate 30% of your Mana regeneration from Spirit in combat, preventing you from running out of Mana as quickly.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal. Improved Renew and Divine Touch boost Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana. Desperate Prayer is a strong, personal defensive cooldown that heals you for 30% of your max health. Holy Concentration allows you to regenerate 30% of your Mana regeneration from Spirit in combat, preventing you from running out of Mana as quickly.

Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal. Improved Renew, Divine Touch and Rapid Renewal greatly boost Renews healing, which is one of your strongest healing spells as Holy. Surge of Light gives your casts a 6% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant cast and cost no Mana. Desperate Prayer is a strong, personal defensive cooldown that heals you for 30% of your max health. Holy Concentration allows you to regenerate 30% of your Mana regeneration from Spirit in combat, preventing you from running out of Mana as quickly.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal or Binding Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal or Binding Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack. Chakra causes your next spell cast to cause you to enter a specific Charka state depending on the spell you cast. If leveling solo cast Smite to enter Chakra: Chastise for increased damage done; if healing dungeons cast Prayer of Healing to enter Chakra: Sanctuary for increased healing done.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal or Binding Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack. Chakra causes your next spell cast to cause you to enter a specific Charka state depending on the spell you cast. If leveling solo cast Smite to enter Chakra: Chastise for increased damage done; if healing dungeons cast Prayer of Healing to enter Chakra: Sanctuary for increased healing done. Revelations upgrades your Holy Word: Chastise into Holy Word: Sanctuary when you are in Chakra: Sanctuary, giving you a powerful AoE healing spell.

Serendipity grants 1 stack, up to 2 stacks total, whenever you cast Flash Heal or Binding Heal. This makes your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cast 20% faster and cost 10% less Mana per stack. Chakra causes your next spell cast to cause you to enter a specific Charka state depending on the spell you cast. If leveling solo cast Smite to enter Chakra: Chastise for increased damage done; if healing dungeons cast Prayer of Mending to enter Chakra: Sanctuary for increased healing done. Revelations upgrades your Holy Word: Chastise into Holy Word: Sanctuary when you are in Chakra: Sanctuary, giving you a powerful AoE healing spell.

Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the buffed player by 60% for 4 seconds, great for moving around.

Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the buffed player by 60% for 4 seconds, great for moving around. Spirit of Redemption transforms you into a Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds upon death, allowing you to keep healing in dungeons if you happen to die.

Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the buffed player by 60% for 4 seconds, great for moving around. Spirit of Redemption transforms you into a Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds upon death, allowing you to keep healing in dungeons if you happen to die. Circle of Healing is a powerful AoE heal that you should use whenever you need to top up the group.

Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the buffed player by 60% for 4 seconds, great for moving around. Spirit of Redemption transforms you into a Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds upon death, allowing you to keep healing in dungeons if you happen to die. Circle of Healing is a powerful AoE heal that you should use whenever you need to top up the group. Guardian Spirit increases the targets healing received by 60%; if the target dies while this is active on them, this buff will be consumed instead, and the target will be restored to 50% health. Try to use this to save the tank if they are about to die or are taking very high damage.

Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the buffed player by 60% for 4 seconds, great for moving around. Spirit of Redemption transforms you into a Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds upon death, allowing you to keep healing in dungeons if you happen to die. Circle of Healing is a powerful AoE heal that you should use whenever you need to top up the group. Guardian Spirit increases the targets healing received by 60%; if the target dies while this is active on them, this buff will be consumed instead, and the target will be restored to 50% health. Try to use this to save the tank if they are about to die or are taking very high damage. Heavenly Voice increases the healing of Divine Hymn by 50% and reduces its cooldown by 2.5 minutes, making it a powerful healing cooldown in dungeons for group healing.

With the Holy tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Discipline and Shadow trees. Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt.

With the Holy tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Discipline and Shadow trees. Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite and Holy Fire by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%.

With the Holy tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Discipline and Shadow trees. Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite and Holy Fire by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15%.

With the Holy tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Discipline and Shadow trees. Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite and Holy Fire by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15%. Darkness gives you a 2% total Haste increase, further boosting both your healing and damage.

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be a huge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power of your key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server to vastly improve your leveling experience.

1. Glyph of Renew — Renew is one of your best healing spells, making this a mandatory glyph.
2. Glyph of Prayer of Healing — You will want this one if you are focusing on leveling through dungeons.
3. Glyph of Power Word: Shield — You will use Power Word: Shield often in dungeons as you have the Body and Soul talent.
4. Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain — Grab this one if you want to boost your solo damage a bit.

1. Glyph of Divine Accuracy — This helps you deal damage when solo or when healing is not needed.
2. Glyph of Smite — Boosts Smite by 20% when the target has Holy Fire on it.
3. Glyph of Spirit Tap — Use this with Shadow Word: Death to get the killing blow on low health mobs and restore 12% of your Mana.
4. Glyph of Holy Nova — You can use this to increase your AoE damage when doing big pulls in dungeons.

1. Glyph of Fortitude — Saves a little bit of Mana each time you rebuff Power Word: Fortitude.
2. Glyph of Levitate — Removes the resource requirement from Levitate. This is useful when jumping from a tall location to avoid taking fall damage.
3. Glyph of Shadowfiend — Restores 5% of your maximum Mana if your Shadowfiend happens to die before its timer runs out.

1. Power Word: Fortitude keep this buff up before entering combat.
2. Inner Fire keep this buff up before entering combat.
3. Shadow Word: Death only when the mob is low health, as this is an execute spell. You want Shadow Word: Death to deal the killing blow, as that will proc your Glyph of Spirit Tap, giving you a high amount of Mana sustain between pulls.
4. Smite your target until it is dead.
5. Smite your target from max range.
6. Mind Blast your target from max range.
7. Archangel between pulls when you have 5 stacks of Evangelism to restore Mana.
8. Holy Fire your target from max range.
9. Shadow Word: Pain your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
10. Devouring Plague and run away from the target to keep your distance. Only do this on enemies with high health, like elites.
11. Mind Blast use on cooldown.
12. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
13. Smite if the target is high health.

You have very few spells early on. At the start of a pull you will want to be at max range. This helps you get off more damage before the mob reaches you. Running away from the mob while casting instant-cast spells like Shadow Word: Pain help keep that distance from the mob, reducing your damage taken. Overall, this helps reduce how often you need to drink as you will need to heal yourself less frequently.

You have very few spells early on. At the start of a pull you will want to be at max range. This helps you get off more damage before the mob reaches you. Running away from the mob while casting instant-cast spells like Shadow Word: Pain help keep that distance from the mob, reducing your damage taken. Overall, this helps reduce how often you need to drink as you will need to heal yourself less frequently. Try to get killing blows with Shadow Word: Death to proc your Glyph of Spirit Tap to help keep your Mana up.

Shadow Word: Pain shouldn't be needed for normal mobs and should ideally only be used on high health mobs like elites. Try to use it while running away from the target if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Heal up whenever needed between pulls.

Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague shouldn't be needed for normal mobs and should ideally only be used on high health mobs like elites. Try to use these while running away from the target if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Heal up whenever needed between pulls.

Hymn of Hope is a nice bit of Mana restoration you can use between pulls every 6 minutes.

Shadowfiend can be used in combat to restore Mana, or for the extra damage if figthing a strong enemy. Hymn of Hope is a nice bit of Mana restoration you can use between pulls every 6 minutes.

Holy is a very slow solo leveling spec, and it is likely that you will want to run dungeons through the dungeon finder tool while doing regular quests and grinding mobs when waiting for the queue to pop. Below is the recommended healing rotation for grouped content while leveling.

1. Prayer of Mending use this on the tank on cooldown.
2. Renew try to keep this up on the tank at all times.
3. Holy Fire use this whenever you don't need to heal right away.
4. Smite ideally you want to use this on targets debuffed with Holy Fire, or whenever the tank is not taking high damage.
5. Binding Heal use this if you and a target are both low health.
6. Flash Heal use whenever someone is low health and needs a quick heal.
7. Heal use this to preserve Mana and heal a moderate amount of damage after a long cast.
8. Greater Heal only if the target is taking very high damage.
9. Power Word: Shield use this on anyone at very low health. With the Body and Soul talent your target will get 60% movement speed, meaning you can use this to help the group speed through the dungeon.
10. Holy Word: Sanctuary use this if you are in Chakra: Sanctuary.
11. Circle of Healing whenever the whole group is taking high damage.
12. Prayer of Healing whenever the whole group is taking high damage.
13. Holy Nova you can use this if your whole group is taking damage and there are a lot of mobs nearby that you can AoE.
14. Divine Hymn use this if your normal rotation is not enough to keep the group alive.

While leveling, you will not need to use all of your spells. Many can be skipped to save gold and trained at a later date, when you have more gold available to you. We recommend to not train these spells below, and save your gold for gear, glyphs and mounts instead.

• Shackle Undead
• Mind Vision
• Mind Control
• Shadow Protection
• Mind Soothe
• Mana Burn
• Mind Spike
• Inner Will

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-85 Holy Priests gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.