Holy Priest Healing Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.0.5)
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Holy Priest in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5).
Holy Priest Mythic+ Guide for The War Within Season 1
In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Priest in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities most optimally.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.
To learn more about the Mythic+ Meta, check out our Mythic+ Tier List below.
Holy Priest in The War Within Mythic+
Holy Priest has several main draws that make it an attractive spec to play for M+ content in The War Within, with multiple strong cooldowns in Guardian Spirit and Apotheosis, reliable single-target damage, hefty group healing potential, and a straightforward, reactive playstyle. Power Infusion can also be a strong boost to your group's damage if coordinated well with a DPS.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
For a more general overview of Talents for Holy Priest, please visit our dedicated Talents page.
Best Mythic+ Talent Builds for Holy Priest
Best Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
This build is my recommendation for High Mythic+ Pushing. High Mythic+ is defined as any level of Mythic+ that you are actually pushing, where the timer is a relevant concern, and the content is difficult. For one player, this may be Mythic+20, for another, it may be Mythic+12 — I recommend this build if you are doing serious Mythic+, whatever that means for you.
The reason for going Oracle is a combination of personal defense, damage output and burst healing.
Flexible Talents
There are a few changes to the suggested talent build that you could make to suit your personal preferences. These decisions are around the utility you wish to provide to your group and can be dungeon dependent.
- Desperate Measures can be taken over Prophet's Will to survive larger damage spikes.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Archon Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
Archon represents a more simple, and arguably more fun, playstyle for Mythic+ than Oracle. The different talent choices are primarily to make use of Halo for both damage and healing. The additional Surge of Light procs are great for party triage and contributes to even more Holy Word: Serenity casts.
Overall, this build provides slightly reduced flexibility with burst damage and healing, and instead has a more reliable output without the complication of Oracle's Premonition.
Flexible Talents
There are a few changes to the suggested talent build that you could make to suit your personal preferences. These decisions are around the utility you wish to provide to your group and can be dungeon dependent.
- Shock Pulse can be taken over Incessant Screams to help control large packs of melee enemies.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Mythic+ Utility for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
This section talks mostly about the uses of different spells. For in-depth explanations of all Holy Priest Abilities and Talents, including these; check out our Spells page.
Utility of Holy Priest in The War Within
Interrupts, Stuns and Stops
Holy Priest has no Interrupt. Instead, you are limited to Stuns and Stops.
Psychic Scream is your "AoE stop". When cast, it will immediately cause all nearby enemies to be feared and unable to attack back. This fear is often broken nearly immediately in Mythic+ due to the amount of damage the enemies receive; however, it still functions to stop enemy casts. The cooldown can be reduced by talenting into Psychic Voice. When talented into Archon's Incessant Screams, it will be cast a second time shortly after the first cast, acting as a second AoE stop. It should also be noted that many enemies are immune to fear, particularly Undead and mini-boss enemies.
Holy Word: Chastise is your single-target "stop". We recommend using this in the same way as you would Psychic Scream, except that it only affects one enemy.
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.
Mind Control and Dominate Mind temporarily control 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.
Other Utility
Purify will dispel all magic effects from one party member with a short cooldown. It will also remove all diseases when talented into Improved Purify. This ability is used frequently in Mythic+, and there are multiple important spells throughout the dungeons that it should be used on to make encounters easier and prevent deaths.
Dispel Magic is an offensive dispel, also known as a "purge". This removes one magical buff from an enemy.
Mass Dispel acts as both Purify and Dispel Magic, but is limited to magical effects on 5 friendly and 5 enemy targets. This is most often used to remove dangerous magical debuffs from multiple party members but also has some use in purging dangerous magical buffs from multiple enemies.
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.
Leap of Faith has a lot of uses, especially when coordinated with your group. In particular, it can be coordinated with your tank to remove them from danger and create distance between them and the enemies they're fighting.
Void Tendrils are an uncommon talent but can be great in some situations to keep a dangerous enemy in place until your group decide to engage with it.
Damage Output
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 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:
- Divine Word with Holy Word: Chastise
- Divine Star
- Holy Fire
- Holy Nova
Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:
- Holy Fire
- Holy Nova with high stacks of Rhapsody
- Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
- Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
- Divine Star
- Smite
Shadow Word: Death can be cast as extra damage while on the move in place of 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 has a similar priority to Holy Word: Chastise.
For more information about the Holy Priest healing rotation in Mythic+, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.
Dungeon Tips and Tricks for Holy Priest for The War Within Season 1
This section has Holy Priest-specific tips and tricks that may not seem obvious for all dungeons' bosses and mobs.
Dungeon Tips for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
Hero Talents | |
---|---|
Oracle | Archon |
For a quick guide of which talents to use, check the dungeon and affixes in the table below and see the list of suggested utility talents you should make sure you work into your build.
Dungeons | Affixes |
---|---|
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes | Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant |
City of Threads | Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound |
The Dawnbreaker | Xal'atath's Bargain: Oblivion |
Grim Batol | Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour |
Mists of Tirna Scithe | |
The Necrotic Wake | |
Siege of Boralus | |
The Stonevault |
Based on the selections above, you should run the following class talents:
- Mass Dispel
Avanoxx
- Desperate Prayer and Fade can be used for Alerting Shrill.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used on Alerting Shrill.
- If talented into Divine Hymn, you should begin casting it just before Alerting Shrill to heal the group with the last tick or two, and stack Divine Hymn's healing buff.
- Killing the adds quickly is important; When the group's health is at a safe level you should use Holy Word: Chastise and multiple Holy Fire on them.
Anub'zekt
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used if you are targeted with Infestation.
- If the current target of Infestation doesn't have a defensive available, you should either cast Guardian Spirit on them, cast Apotheosis, or use your current charges of Premonition to help heal them up safely.
Ki'katal the Harvester
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Venom Volley or Cosmic Singularity.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be rotated for each Venom Volley.
- If talented into Divine Hymn, you should begin casting it just before Venom Volley or Cosmic Singularity to heal the group with the last tick or two, and stack Divine Hymn's healing buff.
- Psychic Scream will be up each time you need to break the root after Cosmic Singularity. If for some reason it is not, Holy Word: Chastise on your add will also work.
Trash
- No specific tips.
Orator Krix'vizk
- While you can Mass Dispel the Shadows of Doubt, which comes out two at a time, it can be tricky to dodge. Instead, it may be smarter to make sure one person is dispelled, and the other is healed until their debuff expires naturally.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used if you get Shadows of Doubt.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available each time Shadows of Doubt lines up with Vociferous Indoctrination.
Nx and Vx
- Mass Dispel can be used on Ice Sickles.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Ice Sickles.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available for Ice Sickles and the stack for Freezing Blood.
The Coaglamation
- Desperate Prayer and Fade can be used for the Dark Pulse knock-back. If talented, Divine Hymn can also be used right before the knock-back for a healing buff for a quick top-up of the group afterwards.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to help heal off the absorbs from people soaking orbs.
Izo, the Grand Splicer
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Splice.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to help heal through Splice.
Trash
- No specific tips.
Speaker Shadowcrown
- Fade should be used if you get Collapsing Night, try to also be on the move as it's being cast to reduce your damage taken.
- Once you dispel the Burning Shadows target, a healing absorb will appear on your entire group.
- Desperate Prayer should be used to help heal off the Shadow Shroud absorb shield on yourself.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal Shadow Shroud.
Anub'ikkaj
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Shadowy Decay.
- When you get an overlap where a Dark Orb is about to explode around the same time as Shadowy Decay, it is an ideal time to use Guardian Spirit on someone and use any remaining defensives you have.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Shadowy Decay.
Rasha'nan
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Erosive Spray.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Erosive Spray.
- If talented, you can use Leap of Faith in phase 2 to help allies dropping webs get back into position quickly.
Trash
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
General Umbriss
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Commanding Roar.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Commanding Roar, aiming to have your party healed before the next set of debuffs comes out.
- If talented, you can use Leap of Faith in to help allies get into position quickly.
Forgemaster Throngus
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used when targeted by Molten Spark.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade can also be used for the Forge Weapon abilities which deal group-wide damage.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Forge Weapon casts, or any allies getting low from Molten Spark.
Drahga Shadowburner
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for the Twilight Buffet knockback.
- Avoid using Holy Word: Chastise or Psychic Scream on the adds that spawn, as it can cause them to change targets and focus a closer ally.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the Twilight Buffet knockback.
Erudax
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for either Void Surge or Abyssal Corruption, depending on what other healing cooldowns your group is using.
- Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Void Surge or Abyssal Corruption.
- Divine Hymn can be used before the Void Surge to get the healing buff up, making it easier to keep everyone alive during the Surge.
- Symbol of Hope should be used midway through the encounter to allow allies to use their defensive abilities multiple times.
Trash
- Encouraging your group to line of sight the knockback from the Twilight Destroyer dragons dramatically reduces the damage your group takes from these pulls.
- The Twilight Lavabenders will Ascend after hitting 50% health and start doing pulsing AoE damage. Having the group either use their personal defensives along with your Desperate Prayer here is great, then you can Symbol of Hope shortly after they die.
Ingra Maloch
- Provided your group are interrupting the boss properly, there is not a lot of damage to heal unless you stay in Phase 1 for too long. Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used either if an interrupt on you is missed, or to help smooth out the damage in a long Phase 1.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Phase 1 lasting too long causing pulsing group-wide damage.
Mistcaller
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used during the Guessing Game phase.
- Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the Guessing Game phase.
- The Illusionary Vulpin can be controlled with either Holy Word: Chastise or Psychic Scream if needed.
Tred'ova
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used during Consumption.
- Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Consumption.
- You should run to the boss if you are fixated by the Larvae, so they can be controlled and killed by the group.
- Try to avoid being near the tank prior to Mind Link being cast to prevent additional damage from the link.
- Be mindful of how you drop your pools - the pattern of future Acid Expulsions will copy the way you moved the Acid Expulsion prior. Don't run far away when the puddles drop, keep it neat!
Trash
- The Drust Soulcleavers will cast Soul Split on the tank which is extremely deadly and should be dispelled immediately. In pulls with two Soul Cleavers you can either Mass Dispel the second debuff, or wait until the second Soul Split goes out before dispelling.
- You should Mass Dispel or Dispel Magic off the Dying Breath debuff from the Drust Spiteclaws at the beginning of the dungeon.
- You can Mind Soothe the Drust Harvesters right before the room with the Savory Statshrooms, to access the mushrooms without getting into combat with the Drust.
- When fighting both Drust Boughbreakers right before Ingra Maloch, your group should ideally push each one below 50% seperately, allowing you to safely heal the group up between their Furious Thrashing casts. This is the perfect time for any available group-healing cooldowns as the early phase of the upcoming boss does not deal a lot of damage. Symbol of Hope after this pack can also be used to ensure everyone has defensive abilities available for the boss.
- During the maze, Mistveil Stingers can put a debuff on players call Anima Injection which must be dispelled off before it expires.
- To assist you in guiding your group through the maze, this Weakaura may make your life a bit easier.
Blightbone
- Desperate Prayer and Fade together should be used when Heaving Retch is targeting you. Guardian Spirit can also be used on yourself or an ally if no defensive abilities are available. This ability really hurts.
- Premonition of Solace can also be used on Heaving Retch targets.
- After Heaving Retch hits a target, you should dispel it from them.
- The adds that spawn can be controlled with either Holy Word: Chastise or Psychic Scream if needed.
Amarth
- Shackle Undead is great on the Reanimated Mage, to both stop it from casting and making it be considered "dead" for the Final Harvest boss ability.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Final Harvest.
- Stay close to the boss to help dodge it's Necrotic Breath ability easily.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Final Harvest.
Surgeon Stitchflesh
- Power Infusion should be aligned with DPS cooldowns at the start of phase 2 when Stitchflesh is pulled from his perch and enters the fight.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used when an Abomination is alive for too long as their ticking damage ramps up.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the second or third Abomination as their ticking buff ramps up.
Nalthor the Rimebinder
- You should aim to dispel Frozen Binds as quickly as it is safe to do so. Be mindful that when dispelled, anyone that has not yet moved out of the Frozen Binds circle, will then be afflicted with Frozen Binds themselves, so it is important to wait until everyone is clear.
- Advanced: When timed correctly, you can use Leap of Faith on the target of Dark Exile to keep them on the platform to DPS the boss instead of doing the minigame. They will die at the end of the 50 second timer, but if it is towards the end of the boss it can be worth it to keep them on the platform. It is difficult to time, but that can be assisted by this Weakaura.
Trash
- Zolramus Gatekeeper in the first courtyard will cast Wrath of Zolramus, dealing intense party-wide damage for a short period. Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used here.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Wrath of Zolramus as well.
- The Zolramus Gatekeeper will also cast Clinging Darkness, which does ramping damage to the target for 30 seconds. Once dispelled it will move to another target until that 30 seconds is over. Feel free to dispel once the damage ramps up enough to be noticeable on a target.
- Nar'zudah casts a buff on himself called Dark Shroud, which should be purged from him using Dispel Magic.
- Once your team has pulled the Skeletal Monstrosity right before the boss Amarth, you can run up the stairs to the boss platform to start the dialogue that has to happen before the boss can be targetable, to save time.
Chopper Redhook
- Use Angelic Feather and Body and Soul to keep yourself a healthy distance from Chopper Redhook during his fixate, while kiting him towards bombs.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Iron Hook.
- Fade can also be great to avoid pulling threat on newly spawned adds, giving the tank more time to pick them up.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Iron Hook.
Dread Captain Lockwood
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Fiery Ricochet.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Fiery Ricochet.
Hadal Darkfathom
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Break Water.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Break Water.
Hadal Darkfathom
-
This boss puts out two debuffs Putrid Waters at a time on separate party members. They cause significant damage to their target, and
when dispelled, will deal extra damage and knock back any other allies inside their circle. You have multiple options to dispel this off
people:
- Use Mass Dispel if both targets are close enough together.
- Use Premonition of Insight to cast Purify twice in a row.
- Immediately dispel the weakest party member first with Purify, then heal the other one until Purify is back off cooldown.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the Demolisher Tentacle Slam.
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Putrid Waters spawns on you and overlaps with a Slam cast.
Trash
- You can line of sight the Crushing Slam from the Bilge Rat Demolishers, eliminating a lot of outgoing damage.
E.D.N.A
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used for Refracting Beam and Earth Shatterer. Earth Shatterer does more damage depending on how many spikes are out, and may warrant a Guardian Spirit as an extra defensive.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Earth Shatterer.
Skarmorak
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should be used if the DPS accidentally kill two adds at once giving the group multiple stacks. Otherwise, using them during the shield phase to ease the pressure if the group is taking a lot of damage can be very useful.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the shield phase.
Master Machinists Speaker Dorlita and Speaker Brokk
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should for Exhaust Vents and Blazing Crescendo.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Exhaust Vents and Blazing Crescendo.
- If you can make it to the safe vent quickly, this is a good time to use Divine Hymn so you can have the healing buff for the Blazing Crescendo that is coming up quickly.
Void Speaker Eirich
- Desperate Prayer and Fade should for mitigating some of the damage from Void Corruption if you are unable to quickly clear it.
- Apotheosis and your current charges of Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Void Corruption if you get behind on group healing.
- You can pre-position yourself near a portal before Void Corruption goes out to immediately clear your own.
- Be mindful of where the portals are, as DPS can easily outrange you when trying to clear their own Void Corruption. Staying near the boss also helps avoid the Frontal as an added bonus.
Trash
- You can line of sight the Crushing Slam from the Bilge Rat Demolishers, eliminating a lot of outgoing damage.
Affix Tips, Tricks and Management for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
This section has Holy Priest-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.
Affix Guide for Holy Priest in The War Within
Ascendant Affix Management for Holy Priest
Periodically, orbs of cosmic energy will spawn near your group. As a Holy Priest, you can use the following spells to get rid of these orbs:
- Psychic Scream - Your best option where possible.
- Mass Dispel - Capped at 5 targets.
- Holy Word: Chastise - Usually best to save this for something else.
- Dispel Magic - As a last resort.
Voidbound Affix Management for Holy Priest
When the Voidbound affix spawns, you can assist be changing this to your primary DPS target in-between healing your group.
Oblivion Affix Management for Holy Priest
Be sure to pay attention to these orbs and intercept them before they reach mobs. Everyone in the group can soak the orbs, so leave the ones closer to other players for them to soak, rather than exhaust our rather limited movement enhancing abilities. It is completely reasonable during periods of high healing to ask your group to soak them without you, as a lot of your healing spells require you to stand still.
Devour Affix Management for Holy Priest
When Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour is present that week, you should always be prepared to use Mass Dispel or Purify to dispel Void Rift as often as you can on your party. You can also remove this with racials such as Stoneform. If you are running Oracle, you can also use Premonition of Insight then Purify multiple targets in a row. If any debuffs aren't dispelled by your or your party members, focus first on clearing the squishiest targets first, and the tank last. You can also use Desperate Prayer to help clear your own debuff if needed.
Changelog
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5 and added more tips.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 29 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6.
- 17 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 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.
More Priest Guides
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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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