World of Warcraft: Forever Holy Priest Guide

If you're someone who enjoys seeing your friend's green HP bar go up, then Holy Priest provided a very enjoyable experience. Leveling was rough solo, but accelerated by finding a group to quest and run dungeons with.

The changes from Classic to Forever gave Holy Priests more talents that augment the way they play. The most interesting one by far is Litany of Light, which encourages the player to alternate the healing spells they use in exchange for some mana refunds.

Holy Priest is a very straightforward spec to play, allowing players to focus more on optimizing their mana management through the various mana management strategies. It's fully expected to be a welcome addition to any group, especially when strong group/AoE healing is desired.

There are many other ways to improve your mana efficiency. A big component of managing mana well is avoiding overhealing. Overhealing is an example of inefficient mana usage and can catch up to you fast. There are a few methods to avoid overhealing, such as using wands as filler rather than DPS spells, downranking, and awareness of the 5-second Rule.

The 5-second Rule is when your Mana regeneration is halted for 5 seconds after casting a spell that costs Mana. There are some talents you can choose that bypass this, such as the Meditation talent from the Discipline tree. This rule only applies when the cast completes, so if the cast is interrupted for any reason, it will not trigger the halt on Mana regeneration.

When you don't need to heal or take other actions, it is a good idea to weave in wand attacks. Wand attacks do not cost Mana, but while the damage dealt with wands may not seem significant, it adds up over time. Ultimately, the faster an enemy dies, the less you will need to heal.

Downranking is the use of lower-rank versions of a spell to conserve mana. This can be a harder skill to master, but it's a good idea to practice it when you can. Without utilizing downranking, your Mana reservoir will dwindle fast. Be patient with yourself if this is new to you, as this is a skill that develops over time and with experience.

Mind Control and Mind Vision are two spells with effects that are unique to priests. While Mind Vision is solely used for scouting purposes, Mind Control is a tool that can be used to take an enemy out of a fight. The only downside is that it is a channeled ability, meaning that we are unable to heal unless we cancel the channel.

This means that Mind Control is an ability that may not be used every fight, but can be a great way to conserve mana by mitigating the damage that would have been dealt. The key to knowing when to use this is mainly through gaining more knowledge on the enemies you encounter in the world. A good rule of thumb to know when to use Mind Control is asking yourself whether removing that enemy from the fight would mitigate more damage than you could heal during its channel.

If you are playing Hardcore and face a challenge that requires you to mitigate damage that would otherwise kill you, keep in mind that the ability can be resisted. They can resist the initial cast or possibly resist the channel during the Heartbeat Resist. Heartbeat Resist checks every 2s whether the target breaks free from the effect.

Some targets will be more risky to attempt Mind Control on. Factors that affect the resist chance include the level difference & the distance between you and the target, as well as the target's resistances. The higher the level difference, the further away from the target you are, and the higher the target's resistance is determine whether they succeed their Heartbeat Resist check.

Consumables are incredibly important to have and can make adventuring much smoother than attempting to go without supplies. Ideally, we should be bringing some food, a drink, and some health potions.

Water is incredibly important for Priests to have on hand while adventuring. It reduces the delay between pulls caused by a lack of mana. Food is another important consumable to have for regenerating health between pulls. Water and food cannot be consumed during combat and will be canceled upon attacking or being attacked.

Healing Potions and Mana Potions are useful for restoring a portion of your health or mana resource in a pinch. Keep in mind that these potions share a cooldown with each other, so be careful when choosing which to drink. Bandages are another consumable that can be used to restore health. While you can use them in combat, its effect are canceled on any tick of damage taken, including any damage taken while shielded. Bandages have a cooldown of 60s regardless of if it completed the full heal or not. They are mainly for recovering health in-between fights without using mana.