Holy Priest Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic
Welcome to our Wrath of the Lich King Holy Priest leveling guide. Here we will help guide you through your Holy Priest's leveling journey toward Level 80. Make sure to use the sliders shown down below to have the guide update as you level up.
Holy Priest Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Holy Priest Leveling Talents in Wrath of the Lich King
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
- Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points in Spirit Tap.
- Levels 13 to 17 — 5 points in Holy Specialization.
- Levels 18 to 22 — 5 points in Divine Fury.
Spirit Tap is great for Mana generation between fights. Holy Specialization is some good added crit, and Divine Fury is needed for the reduced cast time on Smite and Holy Fire.
- Levels 23 — 1 point in Desperate Prayer.
- Levels 24 & 25 — 2 points in Healing Focus.
- Levels 26 & 27 — 2 points in Improved Renew.
- Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points in Searing Light.
Desperate Prayer is a good emergency heal. Healing Focus is useful for emergency heals when you are being attacked. Lastly, Searing Light is a great damage boost to Smite, Holy Fire, and Holy Nova.
- Levels 30 & 31 — 2 points in Holy Reach.
- Level 32 — 1 point in Improved Renew.
- Levels 33 to 37 — 5 points in Spiritual Guidance.
- Levels 38 & 39 — 2 points in Surge of Light.
Holy Reach is a nice range boost to Smite, Holy Fire, and Holy Nova. Surge of Light is a great proc, giving you free Smites from time to time.
- Level 40 — 1 point in Spirit of Redemption.
- Levels 41 to 45 — 5 points in Twin Disciplines.
- Levels 46 to 48 — 3 points in Improved Inner Fire.
- Levels 49 & 50 — 2 points in Improved Power Word: Fortitude.
Twin Disciplines is a nice healing and damage boost. Improved Inner Fire and Improved Power Word: Fortitude are great stat boosts.
- Levels 51 to 53 — 3 points in Meditation.
- Level 54 — 1 point in Inner Focus.
- Level 55 — 1 point in Improved Power Word: Shield.
- Levels 56 to 58 — 3 points in Mental Agility.
- Levels 59 & 60 — 2 points in Improved Power Word: Shield.
Meditation and Mental Agility are massive boosts to your Mana regeneration. Improved Power Word: Shield helps on big AoE pulls.
- Levels 61 to 65 — 5 points in Mental Strength.
- Levels 66 & 67 — 2 points in Focused Power.
- Levels 68 to 70 — 3 points in Enlightenment.
Mental Strength is a good boost to your intellect, helping with your Mana and spell crit. Focused Power and Enlightenment give you even more damage.
- Level 71 — 1 point in Power Infusion.
- Levels 72 to 74 — 3 points in Focused Will.
- Level 75 — 1 point in Soul Warding.
- Levels 76 to 78 — 3 points in Rapture.
- Levels 79 & 80 — 2 points in Renewed Hope.
Power Infusion is amazing for AoE pulls, reducing your Mana costs and increasing your Haste. Focused Will gives a nice spell crit boost, while Rapture and Soul Warding help reduce your Mana costs.
Holy Priest Leveling Glyphs in Wrath of the Lich King
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.
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
Holy Priest Leveling Rotation in Wrath of the Lich King
- Power Word: Fortitude keep this buff up before entering combat.
- Inner Fire keep this buff up before entering combat.
- Divine Spirit keep this buff up before entering combat.
- Smite your target until it is dead.
- Smite your target from max range.
- Shadow Word: Pain your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
- Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
- Holy Fire your target from max range.
- Devouring Plague your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
- Shadow Word: Pain your target. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
- Mind Blast on cooldown.
- Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
- Smite if the target is high health.
- Shadow Word: Death if a target did not die from DoTs and would take too long to wand down. Ideally this would kill the target to prevent you from taking the backlash damage.
- Shoot your target with your wand if they are low enough to die from DoTs and wand damage.
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.
Now your rotation starts taking a more solid form. Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a good damage-over-time component that increases your Smite damage through Glyph of Smite. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Smite the target until it is low enough to die to DoTs and Shooting. Be sure to use either Renew or Power Word: Shield whenever you are taking high damage.
Holy Fire is the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a good damage-over-time component that increases your Smite damage through Glyph of Smite. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Smite the target until it is low enough to die to DoTs and Shooting. Shadow Word: Death may be used if it will take too long to wand the mob down. Be sure to use either Renew or Power Word: Shield whenever you are taking high damage.
An alternative to single-target damaging is AoEing with Holy Nova. This can be an effective way to level, but requires decent gear to sustain the Mana cost of Holy Nova. If doing this, follow the AoE rotation below:
- Gather mobs with Shadow Word: Pain.
- Renew and Power Word: Shield yourself while gathering mobs to recover lost health.
- Shadowfiend to sustain your Mana if needed.
- Power Infusion whenever available to save Mana and increase damage done.
- Holy Nova as much as possible until everything is dead.
- Reapply Renew and Power Word: Shield if needed.
- Smite any remaining single enemies if Holy Nova is not worth using.
- Smite or Shadow Word: Death any remaining single enemies if Holy Nova is not worth using.
List of Holy Priest Trainer Skills to Buy
Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn every spell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top-priority spells that you will want to train so you know which ones you can avoid and save some money.
- Be sure to keep these spells at max rank — Power Word: Fortitude, Smite, Shadow Word: Pain, Power Word: Shield, Renew, Mind Blast, Inner Fire, Psychic Scream, Devouring Plague, Holy Fire, Flash Heal, Holy Nova, Divine Spirit, Shadow Word: Death.
- Psychic Scream — You can delay upgrading this if you are low on money, but eventually you will want to learn higher ranks.
- Dispel Magic — You only really need 1 rank of this spell; train the second rank when you have the money to spare.
- These spells only have 1 rank and should be trained as soon as possible — Cure Disease, Fear Ward, Abolish Disease, Levitate, Shadowfiend.
- Save your gold instead of training these spells — Lesser Heal, Fade, Shackle Undead, Resurrection, Heal, Mind Soothe, Mind Vision, Mana Burn, Mind Control, Prayer of Healing, Shadow Protection, Greater Heal, Prayer of Fortitude, Prayer of Shadow Protection, Prayer of Spirit, Binding Heal, Prayer of Mending, Mass Dispel, Mind Sear.
Continue Improving at Level 80
Congratulations on hitting Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-80 Holy Priest gameplay by reading our Holy Priest guide, which covers everything you need to know to properly play your Holy Priest.
Changelog
- 01 Jan. 2024: Updated for Phase 5.
- 05 Sep. 2022: Guide added.
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC and WotLK veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina Horde. You can find him in the Icy Veins Discord if you have any questions or concerns.
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