Holy Priest Healing Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Niphyr 42 comments
General Information

In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Holy Priest in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.

1.

Holy Priest in Mythic+

Holy Priest is in the middle of the pack for Mythic+ content in Dragonflight. Holy Priest has several main draws that make it an attractive spec to play for M+ content in Dragonflight, with multiple strong cooldowns in Divine Hymn Icon Divine Hymn and Apotheosis Icon Apotheosis, reliable single-target damage, hefty group healing potential, and a straightforward, reactive playstyle. Power Infusion Icon Power Infusion can also be a strong boost to your group's damage if coordinated well with a DPS.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Dragonflight Mythic+ page below.

1.1.

Holy Priest Mythic+ Rotation

For more information about the Holy Priest healing rotation in Mythic+, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

As a healer, despite your role focus being to keep everyone alive through your healing and utility, any spare time you get should be spent on providing additional damage. Be mindful that only Smite Icon Smite costs very little Mana, the other spells can start to become taxing on your Mana, so particularly on some longer tyrannical bosses, you may need to reduce your damage output a little by sticking to the slightly weaker hitting Smite casts.

Damage spell priority for 4+ targets:

  1. Divine Star Icon Divine Star
  2. Holy Fire Icon Holy Fire
  3. Shadow Word: Pain Icon Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
  4. Holy Nova Icon Holy Nova

Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:

  1. Holy Fire Icon Holy Fire
  2. Shadow Word: Pain Icon Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
  3. Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
  4. Divine Star Icon Divine Star
  5. Smite Icon Smite

Shadow Word: Death Icon Shadow Word: Death can be cast as extra damage while on the move in place of Smite Icon Smite on the priority list; just be mindful that it does do damage back to you when cast. If the target is below 20% health, Shadow Word: Death Icon Shadow Word: Death has a similar priority to Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise.

1.2.

Holy Priest Utility

Holy Priest provides support for the party through healing, damage, and other additional effects, such as dispels and crowd control.

  • Purify Icon Purify removes all harmful Magic and Disease effects on an 8-second cooldown. Often referred to as dispel, Purify is used frequently in all dungeons and can often be vital to the success of a trash pull or boss.
  • Dispel Magic Icon Dispel Magic removes one beneficial Magic effect from an enemy target. Often referred to as purge, Dispel Magic is very useful in Mythic+, as there are a lot of enemies with very powerful Magic buffs that we can remove immediately.
  • Mind Soothe Icon Mind Soothe provides a unique buff reducing the distance at which an enemy will aggro onto you and your allies. This has fairly niche usage but can be used in some scenarios to avoid having to pull a pack of enemies and instead walk right past them.
  • Mass Dispel Icon Mass Dispel is cast at an area, removing all harmful effects from 5 allies inside it, and 1 beneficial effect from 5 enemies. While the 40-second cooldown is quite long; there is ample opportunity to make use of this spell to help reduce incoming damage.
  • Guardian Spirit Icon Guardian Spirit places a buff on an ally for 10 seconds, increasing their healing taken by 60%, and if they take fatal damage, it will instead heal them to 40% health. Together with the Guardian Angel Icon Guardian Angel talent, this becomes a powerful single-target external cooldown on a 60-second cooldown, presuming the life-saving effect does not trigger.
  • Angelic Feather Icon Angelic Feather can be used by yourself or to assist slower allies in avoiding damage and dangerous situations.
  • Body and Soul Icon Body and Soul is another ability that can be used to increase either your own or an ally's movement speed by casting Power Word: Shield Icon Power Word: Shield or Leap of Faith Icon Leap of Faith.
  • Censure Icon Censure is an ability that stuns the target of your Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise for 4 seconds. This can be used to help reduce incoming damage from dangerous enemies and, due to casting Smite Icon Smite frequently during low damage periods, will be available regularly.
  • Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream causes 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee for up to 8 seconds. This can be used to interrupt groups of enemies and, due to being broken on damage, it is very likely enemies will not flee too far if they are currently being attacked by your allies. Care should still be taken with nearby enemies that may be pulled into combat if a fleeing enemy gets too close to them. The cooldown can be reduced by 15 seconds with the Psychic Voice Icon Psychic Voice talent.
  • Shackle Undead Icon Shackle Undead can be used to disable a single Undead enemy for 50 seconds. Several dungeons have dangerous Undead enemies, which are good candidates for Shackle Undead. Damage taken will remove this effect.
  • Leap of Faith Icon Leap of Faith can help assist allies in avoiding damage or saving them if they are knocked off an edge or into something bad.
  • Power Word: Fortitude Icon Power Word: Fortitude provides a 5% Stamina buff to all allies for 60 minutes and should be kept up on everyone at all times.
  • Mind Control Icon Mind Control temporarily controls an enemy, which allows you to move, attack, and cast some of their abilities. This can be beneficial in some dungeons, as specific enemies have valuable spells that can buff your party or debuff enemies.
  • Void Tendrils Icon Void Tendrils can be placed to root a small number of enemies, useful in situations where melee enemies need to be kept at a distance.
2.

Holy Priest Mythic+ Talents

You can easily import the talent tree below by clicking 'Copy Export String' and then importing it in-game.

2.1.

Talent Discussion

This build plays around the single-target burst healing strengths of Holy Word: Serenity Icon Holy Word: Serenity and Flash Heal Icon Flash Heal being bolstered by the various talents taken in both trees. In addition to this, damage talents are taken to improve your damage output; in particular, Empyreal Blaze Icon Empyreal Blaze and Burning Vehemence Icon Burning Vehemence pair together well for an increase in both Single Target and AoE damage.

The Class Tree has a lot of flexibility, and there are multiple different talents you can change around depending on the encounter and your personal preference. The following are all great candidates to be situationally removed without altering your playstyle:

  • Improved Fade Icon Improved Fade is a good candidate to swap for other talents as needed.
  • San'layn Icon San'layn is also a good talent to drop if you need another point for an affix-specific talent.
  • Rhapsody Icon Rhapsody and Holy Nova Icon Holy Nova can be dropped to save 2 points if you find you aren't getting a lot of uses out of them.
  • Improved Purify Icon Improved Purify if you do not need a disease dispel and do not have the Afflicted Icon Afflicted affix.

To spend any of these recovered talent points, you should look at:

  • Shackle Undead Icon Shackle Undead for the crowd-control on Undead enemies and the Incorporeal Icon Incorporeal affix.
  • Dominate Mind Icon Dominate Mind for another way to deal with the Incorporeal Icon Incorporeal affix
  • Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream, Mind Control Icon Mind Control and Void Tendrils Icon Void Tendrils all have very niche usage, but you should still be aware they exist in case there is a specific need for them.
3.

Holy Priest Mythic+ Affix Advice

3.1.

Tier One Affixes

Fortified Icon Fortified and Tyrannical Icon Tyrannical are the two affixes every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of Mythic+ from boss to trash, depending on the week.

3.1.1.

Tyrannical

Tyrannical Icon Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.

During Tyrannical weeks, we need to be more careful with Mana management on bosses. Also, heavy-hitting boss abilities might require some planning of Desperate Prayer Icon Desperate Prayer and Fade Icon Fade usage to reliably survive at higher key levels.

3.1.2.

Fortified

Fortified Icon Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.

Fortified increases the focus on your crowd control abilities, such as Censure Icon Censure. You should also be mindful of dangerous debuffs, which you must dispel quickly using Purify Icon Purify and Mass Dispel Icon Mass Dispel, and dangerous enemy buffs, which you can dispel with Dispel Magic Icon Dispel Magic.

3.2.

Tier Two Affixes

3.2.1.

Storming

Skittish Icon Storming creates a short-duration tornado near enemies. Standing in this tornado will deal damage to you and cause you to be knocked back.

The biggest impact this affix will have on you is the constant interrupts on your casting if a tornado spawns under you and you need to move out of it. Care must be taken when using Divine Hymn Icon Divine Hymn or Symbol of Hope Icon Symbol of Hope in case a tornado spawns near you.

3.2.2.

Volcanic

Volcanic Icon Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer damage and are knocked into the air. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more volcanic plumes will spawn.

Care must be taken when using Divine Hymn Icon Divine Hymn or Symbol of Hope Icon Symbol of Hope in case a plume spawns underneath you.

3.2.3.

Afflicted

The Afflicted Icon Afflicted affix will cause an Afflicted Soul to spawn with 3 debuffs on it, Cursed Spirit, Poisoned Spirit, and Diseased Spirit. The soul must be either healed to full or Dispelled within 10 seconds.

On Afflicted weeks, you should talent into Improved Purify Icon Improved Purify to assist in clearing these Afflicted Souls out. If your dispel is on cooldown, you can use Holy Word: Serenity Icon Holy Word: Serenity and Power Word: Life Icon Power Word: Life to quickly heal the Afflicted Souls.

3.2.4.

Entangling

The Entangling Icon Entangling debuff will slow you by 50% and force you to snap a vine in order to remove the debuff. Since it is a snare, it can also be removed using Fade Icon Fade with the Phantasm Icon Phantasm talent. Be wary about using it every time, though, as you may be losing out on a defensive you may need in the near future. Some Entangling debuffs may be better to walk out of.

3.2.5.

Incorporeal

Incorporeal Icon Incorporeal affix will summon an Incorporeal Being, which will chain-cast Destabilize, which reduces the party's damage and healing.

We can assist with crowd control using Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise, Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream, and most importantly, Shackle Undead Icon Shackle Undead.

3.3.

Tier Three Affixes

3.3.1.

Raging

Raging Icon Raging makes enemies immune to crowd control effects once they drop below 30% health.

This affix can be particularly dangerous to your group, especially during Fortified Icon Fortified weeks. Care should be taken when dangerous enemies drop below 30%, as abilities that may normally be stopped with crowd control can not be prevented.

3.3.2.

Bolstering

Bolstering Icon Bolstering causes dying enemies to increase the damage of other nearby enemies by 20% for a short period.

This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus on the highest health pool enemies first. You can also use Mind Control Icon Mind Control on a high-health enemy right before other enemies die to prevent it from getting Bolster Icon Bolster stacks.

3.3.3.

Bursting

Bursting Icon Bursting causes enemies to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer stacking damage over 4 seconds.

Bursting is dispellable. That means you can add Purify Icon Purify and Mass Dispel Icon Mass Dispel to your triage arsenal when dealing with Bursting Icon Bursting. Mass Dispel, in particular, should be coordinated with your group so you can quickly remove all stacks from your whole party when needed. You should aim to Mass Dispel in any situation where your group is going above 5 stacks.

If you are unable to dispel Bursting Icon Bursting, your goal is to keep your group as healthy as possible before the mobs even die and start generating Bursting stacks on your group. This means trying to monitor the health of the enemies you are in combat with. It takes a lot of stacks to outright kill a group, so you should focus on assisting allies that are taking damage from other sources, using Power Word: Life Icon Power Word: Life, Holy Word: Serenity Icon Holy Word: Serenity, and Guardian Spirit Icon Guardian Spirit to keep them alive. Otherwise, use Holy Word: Sanctify Icon Holy Word: Sanctify to boost the whole group a small amount, and triage with Flash Heal Icon Flash Heal / Heal Icon Heal, using Trail of Light Icon Trail of Light to cleave heal on your group. Focus on making sure your team survives the pull, and once it is over, you can top them up.

3.3.4.

Sanguine

Sanguine Icon Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when an enemy dies. This pool will heal enemies who stay inside the zone while damaging players.

Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream can sometimes be used to get stubborn enemies out of the Sanguine pools. Be mindful of casting Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise on enemies inside a Sanguine pool if talented into Censure Icon Censure, as they will heal for the duration of the stun.

3.3.5.

Spiteful

Skittish Icon Spiteful causes enemies to spawn a Spiteful Shade for a short period of time upon death.

This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. You can use Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream and Holy Word: Chastise Icon Holy Word: Chastise to stop Spiteful Shades if you or another player is in a poor position and cannot run away.

4.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 08 May 2023: Improved talent suggestions ready for Season 2.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 with new affixes and talent changes.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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