Cataclysm Classic Holy Priest Talent Builds
On this page, you will find out the best PvE talent choices and builds for your Holy Priest in Cataclysm Classic, as well as advised glyphs.
Talent Builds for Holy Priest
Holy Priest has one of
the most restrictive specs in all of Cataclysm, with 39 out of your 41 talent
points being required in mandatory talents. Below you'll find our recommended
talent build for all PvE content as a
Holy
Priest.
The only options you have for talents is swapping a point into
Spirit of Redemption, taking it out of either
Desperate Prayer
or 1 point out of
Test of Faith.
Notable Talents
In this section we will go over some of the key talents you will use when you
are playing a Holy Priest. Be
sure to understand your most important talents as they are vital to play the
build to its fullest strength.
Desperate Prayer — Instantly heals you for 30% of your maximum health. Use this in emergencies if you are about to die.
Surge of Light — Gives your spells a 6% chance to cause your next
Flash Heal to be instant cast and have no Mana cost.
Inspiration — Whenever you critically heal, the target will receive 10% reduced Physical damage taken for 15 seconds. Try to keep this buff active on tanks as much as possible.
Lightwell — Places a Lightwell at the target location. Group members can click on this Lightwell to receive a strong HoT. With
Glyph of Lightwell, this will have 15 charges instead of 10.
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. Gaining and spending these stacks often are an important part of your rotation.
Chakra — Causes you to enter a
Chakra state depending on what spell you cast next. Casting
Heal,
Flash Heal,
Greater Heal, or
Binding Heal will cause you to enter
Chakra: Serenity, increasing the crit chance of your direct single-target healing spells by 10%. Casting
Prayer of Healing or
Prayer of Mending causes you to enter
Chakra: Sanctuary, increasing your AoE and
Renew healing by 15%, and reduces the cooldown of
Circle of Healing by 2 seconds. As
Holy, you should be using
Chakra: Sanctuary majority of the time.
Revelations — While you are in
Chakra: Sanctuary, your
Holy Word: Chastise will be upgraded into
Holy Word: Sanctuary. This is a powerful AoE heal that you place on a targeted area, healing all targets in the area with reduced effectiveness when more than 6 players are in the AoE.
Heavenly Voice — Doubles the healing done by
Divine Hymn and reduces its cooldown by 5 minutes. This makes
Divine Hymn an extremely powerful AoE heal; try to use it at least twice in fights if possible with its reduced cooldown.
Circle of Healing — Heals your target and up to 4 other nearby allies instantly. With
Glyph of Circle of Healing this will heal 6 targets instead of 5. Use this to quickly heal up groups of low health allies.
Guardian Spirit — A "cheat death" on demand button, this spell is very unique with how it can be used. In addition to preventing someone from dying to fatal damage, while
Guardian Spirit is active on a target, they will receive 60% additional healing from all sources. Oftentimes, this 60% increased healing received is enough to prevent the target from dying, making
Glyph of Guardian Spirit a great "defensive" cooldown even when the cheat death is unlikely to be needed.
Prime Glyphs
Prime glyphs are new to Cataclysm, giving you a third "row" of glyphs you can use on your character. You don't really have many options when it comes to prime glyphs as there are very limited options, usually only three avaiable for each specialization.
Glyph of Renew —
Holy has three talent buffing
Renew, making this a mandatory glyph.
Glyph of Lightwell — Gives your
Lightwell 5 additional charges.
Glyph of Prayer of Healing —
Holy mostly focuses on AoE healing and
Prayer of Healing is one of your main AoE healing abilities. You can swap this out on fights with minimal AoE healing needed.
Glyph of Guardian Spirit — Reduces the cooldown of your
Guardian Spirit by 30 seconds. This can be useful on specific fights, making this is a decent option to swap in sometimes.
Major Glyphs
Unlike most other classes and specializations, Holy has two
major glyphs that improve your combat spells. Your third glyph will typically be
Glyph of Mass Dispel to reduce the cast time of
Mass Dispel, but
can be swapped with
Glyph of Dispel Magic on fights where
Mass Dispel isn't needed.
Glyph of Circle of Healing — Increases the number of targets that
Circle of Healing hits from 5 to 6, increasing its healing by 20%.
Glyph of Prayer of Mending — Increases the healing of the first charge of
Prayer of Mending by 100%. Try to use this first charge on the tank.
Glyph of Mass Dispel — Reduces the cast time of
Mass Dispel by 1 second. Use this one on trash or bosses where you need to AoE dispel your group or certain enemies.
Glyph of Dispel Magic — Heals the target for 3% of their max health if you
Dispel Magic a debuff off them. Swap this one in on fights where you need to
Dispel Magic a large amount of single target debuffs.
Minor Glyphs
Minor glyphs typically provide very minor benefits. Priest does not
really have many options when it comes to minor glyphs, limiting your choices
down to these three for almost all PvE content.
Glyph of Fortitude — Reduces the Mana cost of
Power Word: Fortitude by 50%. This is mostly useful when rebuffing a player in combat.
Glyph of Shadowfiend — Grants 5% max Mana if your
Shadowfiend dies early. Usually your
Shadowfiend won't die, but you don't have many other options.
Glyph of Levitate — Removes the reagent cost of
Levitate, allowing you to cast it for free.
Changelog
- 17 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 30 Jul. 2024: Page reviewed for phase two.
- 15 May 2024: Added page.
More Cataclysm Priest Guides
More Cataclysm Spec Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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