Holy Priest Healing Guide — Dragonflight 10.2
Welcome to our Holy Priest guide for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. Here, you will learn how to heal as a Holy Priest in both raids and Mythic+ dungeons. We cover everything from the basics all the way to min-maxing techniques to optimize your output.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Holy Priest guide.
Holy Priest Overview
Holy Priest is a fantastic reactive healer, especially suited for healing large groups and raids. With a response to almost all damage types, there is always a tool on hand to deal with the situation and keep you thinking while you play.
Raid healing as a Holy Priest revolves around the chosen talents and the two
Holy Words, Holy Word: Sanctify, and
Holy Word: Serenity. Outside of
these, the bulk of the healing comes from the Mana-efficient
Prayer of Mending and
Circle of Healing, alongside the variety of
"filler" spells used to reduce the cooldown of our burst-healing holy words.
Talenting into
Holy Word: Salvation gives Holy Priest a second raid
cooldown, which can be invaluable to your healing team.
To properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our healing guide.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Excels at reactive burst and group healing.
Unique cooldown-based healing style providing regular bursts of healing.
Powerful group cooldowns with
Divine Hymn and the talents
Apotheosis and
Holy Word: Salvation.
Group utility with
Dispel Magic,
Mass Dispel,
Mind Soothe,
Power Infusion, and
Leap of Faith.
Good single target damage potential, when healing is not required.
Properly utilising the multitude of low-cooldown healing abilities regularly can be difficult to track for new players.
Reliance on short cooldown abilities can hurt sustained throughput, especially single target.
Mediocre group healing in situations that force a large spread.
Poor damage compared to most other healers.
No interrupt.
Holy Priest and Guide Changes for Patch 10.2
Holy Priest received quite a lot of changes in Patch 10.1.7. These changes were focused on Blizzard's goal of reducing the power of raid cooldowns and aoe healing, and increasing the potency of single-target healing spells for all healers.
- AOE spells including
Divine Star and
Halo had their healing decreased.
Holy Word: Sanctify had its number of targets reduced from 6 to 5.
Holy Word: Salvation had its cooldown reduction from Holy Word casts reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds.
Symbol of Hope had its mana return and cooldown reduction reduced.
- Single Target spells including
Heal,
Flash Heal,
Holy Word: Serenity and
Power Word: Life had their healing increased.
Power Word: Life has had its healing increased, cooldown slightly increased and is no longer usable on targets above 35% health
Mastery: Echo of Light healing was reduced and was modified to tick faster, and for a shorter duration.
Power Infusion has had its haste increase and duration reduced.
Mass Dispel cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
These changes are quite similar to the changes other healers have also
received. They do not change your playstyle and have very little impact on your
talent choices. The change to Power Infusion has no major impact on how
desirable it is or who is best to use it on.
Leveling a Holy Priest
While levelling a Priest, you will often want to heal your allies through dungeons and other group content. Our levelling guide has you covered for the basics, as well as some tips and tricks to help when healing.
Hitting max level and then trying to dive straight into end-game content as a healer can be quite daunting. To ease this transition, you should try to implement relevant macros and addons as you are levelling. While not all are necessary throughout the levelling process, getting started in modifying your UI and how it impacts your performance as a healer early on will make it much easier to dive head-on into the end-game content when you reach max level.
Basics of Holy Priest Gameplay
Holy Priest is classed as a reactive healer, meaning you will primarily be reacting to damage your allies take and then cast the appropriate spells from your toolkit to respond to that damage. While this healing style does make Holy Priest is one of the easier healers to pick up; getting your head around the number of healing spells available can take some time.
To learn about the fundamentals and make sure you are doing the basics right, familiarize yourself with the Spell Summary page, then move on to the Easy Mode page.
If you have experience playing Holy Priest, you can dive into a bit more depth by learning about the current talents, builds, and rotation. The rotation page, in particular, provides a lot of value in helping you properly decide when to use each of the spells and ensure you get the maximum return from your Mana spent.
How to Gear Up a Holy Priest
Gearing as a healer can be a bit daunting at first. There is a lot of variability in your healing from fight to fight, dungeon to dungeon. For most gear slots, you will be prioritizing item level, but this can be further complicated by gear with special bonuses like trinkets or tertiary stats like Leech and gear containing sockets.
To help you wade through it all, the stats page discusses what and why you should prioritize while gearing, and there is a best-in-slot list for the current raid tier to use as a foundation for gearing.
Once you obtain new gear, be sure to squeeze out that extra bit of performance by improving your gear with gems and enchants. You should also look to be buffing your character with the appropriate consumables.
Holy Priest End-Game
How you gear, play, and support your allies depends heavily on the type of content you are participating in. Whether it be large groups in a raid, smaller dungeon groups or PvP skirmishes, understanding the best way to prepare, and then apply each of your abilities to specific situations is crucial to becoming a solid Holy Priest healer.
Improving as a Holy Priest
A huge part of being a successful Holy Priest in any content is the ability to analyze your shortcomings and adapt. Most of the common mistakes for Holy Priests are around incorrect spell usage, resulting in poor Mana usage and low HPS. While the Rotation advice is quite clear on how to perform optimally, actually putting it into practice can be challenging. We have compiled a list of common mistakes, frequently asked questions, and some useful tools to assist you in improving.
Changelog
- 16 Nov. 2023 (Amirdrassil page): Added some more tips.
- 13 Nov. 2023 (gear page): Updated BiS list.
- 13 Nov. 2023 (rotation page): Season 3 Tier set clarifications.
- 11 Nov. 2023 (Amirdrassil page): Page added.
- 08 Nov. 2023 (gear page): More 10.2 updates including Sporecloak recommendation change.
- 08 Nov. 2023 (enchants page): Added more consumable advice.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 06 Nov. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 06 Nov. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 06 Nov. 2023 (gear page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 06 Nov. 2023 (enchants page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (rotation page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (talents page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (spells page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 06 Nov. 2023 (this page): Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 06 Sep. 2023 (this page): Removed some duplicate information.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7 including new Best in Slot lists.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (talents page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 04 Sep. 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (talents page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (spells page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 10 Jul. 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 16 May 2023 (gear page): Minor updates including Sporecloak bug.
- 09 May 2023 (Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible page): Page added.
- 08 May 2023 (mythic+ page): Improved talent suggestions ready for Season 2.
- 08 May 2023 (talents page): Updated talent trees and explanations for Season 2.
- 08 May 2023 (easy mode page): Improved talent suggestions to include more passives.
- 07 May 2023 (enchants page): Updated with latest hotfix changes.
- 07 May 2023 (talents page): Fixed a talent tree missing a talent.
- 01 May 2023 (FAQ page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (how to improve page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (gear page): Updated with initial Patch 10.1 information.
- 01 May 2023 (enchants page): Updated for Patch 10.1 including Onyx Annulet section.
- 01 May 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated for Patch 10.1 with new affixes and talent changes.
- 01 May 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (talents page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (spells page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 01 May 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 29 Apr. 2023 (addons page): Added some additional macros.
- 31 Mar. 2023 (gear page): Further Patch 10.0.7 updates.
- 31 Mar. 2023 (enchants page): Further Patch 10.0.7 updates.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (Legendaries): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (enchants page): Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (talents page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (spells page): Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 20 Mar. 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (addons page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (talents page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (this page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 21 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Added some missing trinkets.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (simulations page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (addons page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (enchants page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (stats page): Updated Stat Gain per Rating and Stat DR Thresholds.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Page added.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (spells page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (this page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (simulations page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (addons page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (stats page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Legendaries): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Torghast): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Covenants and Soulbinds): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (FAQ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (how to improve page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (simulations page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (addons page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Castle Nathria page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sanctum of Domination page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sepulcher of the First Ones page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 22 Feb. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Page updated for Patch 9.2.
- 24 Jan. 2022 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Updated for patch 10.0.5 talent changes.
- 24 Jan. 2022 (talents page): Updated for patch 10.0.5 talent changes.
- 24 Jan. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for patch 10.0.5 talent changes.
- 15 Jan. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Page added with initial thoughts and information.
- 01 Nov. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 19 May 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Page created.
- 12 Oct. 2020 (Ny'alotha page): Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
- 14 Jan. 2020 (Uldir page): This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
- 14 Jan. 2020 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
- 14 Jan. 2020 (Crucible of Storms page): This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
- 14 Jan. 2020 (The Eternal Palace page): This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
- 21 Sep. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Added more boss tips and updated talent suggestions.
- 28 Jul. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Updated various recommendations after the first Mythic week.
- 09 Jul. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Page added.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Uldir page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 23 May 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Added more tips for both bosses.
- 15 Apr. 2019 (Uldir page): This page has been reviewed and no changes are necessary for the release of the Crucible of Storms raid.
- 15 Apr. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): This page has been reviewed and no changes are necessary for the release of the Crucible of Storms raid.
- 15 Apr. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Guide added.
- 08 Mar. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Minor changes to boss advice.
- 21 Jan. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Added Battle of Dazar'alor tips for Holy Priest.
- 10 Dec. 2018 (Uldir page): Updated for Patch 8.1.
- 25 Sep. 2018 (Uldir page): Updated some talent suggestions.
- 31 Aug. 2018 (Uldir page): Page added.
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This guide has been written by Niphyr, a generally knowledgeable, long-time healing Priest and theorycrafter. You can follow him on Twitter.
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