Holy Priest Healing Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.2
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Holy Priest in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
Foreword
In order to provide the most accurate Mythic+ dungeon-specific advice, we teamed up with Serainia, one of the highest ranked Holy Priest Mythic+ streamers over at Twitch.tv.
Holy Priest in Mythic+
Holy Priest sits in the middle of the pack for Mythic+ content in
Shadowlands. Holy Priest has several main draws that make it an
attractive spec to play for M+ content in Shadowlands, with multiple strong
cooldowns in Divine Hymn and
Apotheosis, reliable single-target
damage, hefty group healing potential and a straightforward, reactive playstyle.
Holy Priest still suffers from several of the same problems as in BfA, lacking
damage reduction and poor burst healing outside of Holy Words and major
cooldown windows.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 2 page below.
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 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 Star
Holy Fire
Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
Holy Nova
Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:
Holy Fire
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 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.
Holy Priest Utility
Holy Priest provides support for the party through healing, damage, and other additional effects, such as dispels and crowd control.
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 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 has returned in Shadowlands and provides a unique buff reducing the distance at which an enemy will aggro on to yourself 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 walking right past them.
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 places a buff on an ally for 10 seconds, increasing their healing taken by 60% and, in the event they take fatal damage, it will instead heal them to 40% health. Together with the
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 is a talent that can be used by yourself or to assist slower allies in avoiding damage and dangerous situations.
Censure is a talent which stuns the target of your
Holy Word: Chastise for 4 seconds. This can be used to help reduce incoming damage from dangerous enemies and, due to casting
Smite frequently during low damage periods, will be available regularly.
Shining Force is a talent that knocks away all nearby enemies from an ally, slowing them by 70% for 3 seconds. This can be used to both temporarily reduce the incoming damage on the tank, as well as interrupt a group of enemies. Be careful to coordinate this ability with your group, so you don't disrupt any planned crowd control.
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 30 seconds with the
Psychic Voice talent.
Shackle Undead can be used to disable a single Undead enemy for 50 seconds. A number of dungeons have dangerous Undead enemies which are good candidates for Shackle Undead. Damage taken will remove this effect.
Leap of Faith can be helpful for assisting allies in avoiding damage or saving them if they are knocked off an edge or into something bad.
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 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.
Holy Priest Mythic+ Talents
Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+.
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talent Discussion
- Level 15:
Trail of Light is the best talent in nearly all situations.
- Level 25:
Angelic Feather is the best talent in nearly all situations, due to the increased movement speed for both yourself and your allies, however, if there are particular abilities that require additional survivability, then
Angel's Mercy can be a good option.
- Level 30:
Guardian Angel is the strongest choice as it greatly enhances our external cooldown,
Guardian Spirit.
- Level 35:
Censure will usually be your default, however if your group has lots of stuns already taking
Shining Force can provide more utility, especially on
Sanguine and
Necrotic weeks.
- Level 40:
Surge of Light is the strongest option on this row.
- Level 45:
Divine Star is the preferred choice for dungeons due to the additional healing and damage and being instant-cast.
Halo can be unpredictable and unreliable, often pulling extra enemies you are not in combat with.
- Level 50:
Apotheosis is a strong cooldown that greatly increases your throughput for 20 seconds, on a 2-minute cooldown.
Light of the Naaru has less impact, but can still provide a reliable healing increase over the course of the dungeon.
Holy Priest Mythic+ Legendaries
Flash Concentration should be your default pick. It has great synergy
with the
Trail of Light and
Surge of Light talents, allowing for
the majority of the
Flash Heal casts required to keep the Legendary buff
up be instant-cast and cost no Mana. It also improves the throughput of the
buffed
Heal casts by cleaving it onto previously cast targets through
Trail of Light.
Other potential options include:
Twins of the Sun Priestess is great at both providing a damage increase to one of your party members, while also increasing your own damage and healing.
Harmonious Apparatus grants additional Holy Word cooldown reduction (4 seconds) when casting some of our normal rotational spells. In addition to the healing benefits it also helps contribute towards some extra damage and crowd control through
Holy Word: Chastise and pairs well with the
Censure talent.
Divine Image will replicate versions of spells you cast, both damage and healing, and prioritise injured allies where possible. You can use this to contribute both damage and healing, depending on the situation.
Holy Priest Mythic+ Affix Advice
Season 2 recap: There have been a few relevant affix changes from
Shadowlands Season 1. Storming now travels slower and in a
consistent clockwise direction, despawning when a player hits it.
Necrotic now applies every second melee swing rather than every melee swing. View the
full list of changes on the Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 2
page.
Seasonal Affix
Encrypted is the Season 3 seasonal affix. This spawns sets of 3
relics throughout the dungeon. When one of these relics is killed, it will spawn
a miniboss and despawn the other two relics. Once the miniboss is killed everyone
in your group is granted a buff depending on which miniboss was slain.
A number of packs, and every boss, throughout the dungeon have three extra mobs that provide the following benefits to that pack:
- Wo Relic – Reduces damage taken of nearby enemies by 15%.
- Vy Relic – Buffs the haste of nearby enemies by 15%.
- Urh Relic – Periodically deals damage to your entire group.
Each of these mobs are relatively easy to kill, and whenever all three are killed a specific mob spawns. Which one spawns is determined by which relic you kill first:
- Wo Relic died first – Spawns the Wo Drifter – The Wo mob is the easiest to deal with, as you just need to continue interrupting the mobs cast.
- Vy Relic died first – Spawns the Vy Interceptor – This mob teleports periodically around the room while also shooting at and towards random party members.
- Urh Relic died first – Spawns the Urh Dismantler – This is the tankbuster mob that will deal massive damage to your tank. It also spawns an AoE stun circle around itself.
Finally, immediately after you defeat the above Automa you get the corresponding buff:
- Wo Drifter – grants
Decrypted Wo Cypher. This cypher grants your group a massive 150% movement speed buff, 15% damage reduction, and an out of combat stealth for an entire minute. This will likely be used specifically to skip packs throughout a dungeon and gives an opportunity for more unique routes.
- Vy Interceptor – grants
Decrypted Vy Cypher. This buff gives you group a mini-lust type effect that lasts for 45 seconds. This does stack with effects like
Power Infusion and also grants the parties abilities a chance to do extra damage or healing.
- Urh Dismantler – grants
Decrypted Urh Cypher. This effectively gives you 20s of cooldown reduction on your abilities, which is mostly useful for longer cooldown abilities like
Boon of the Ascended,
Guardian Spirit, and
Power Infusion. On top of this it also grants your party a full restoration of health and Mana over 10s.
Since this affix is rather involved here is a quick table for reference:
Killed First? | Mob | Additional Mechanics | Buff | Purpose |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wo Relic | Wo Drifter |
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Used to skip packs throughout the dungeon. |
Urh Relic | Urh Dismantler |
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Cooldown reduction to your group, lets you use your cooldowns more often. Mana and Health regen for your group |
Vy Relic | Vy Interceptor |
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Mini-bloodlust and extra damage and healing. |
Infernal Affix
The Legion Timewalking Mythic+ event brings with it a new affix,
Infernal. This affix spawns pillars throughout the dungeon which
can be activated to start mini-invasion encounters. There is nothing healer
specific to deal with on these encounters.
Tier One Affixes
Fortified and
Tyrannical are the two affixes
every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of Mythic+ from boss to
trash depending on the week.
Tyrannical
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 the use of
Angel's Mercy and require some planning of
Desperate Prayer
usage to reliably survive at higher key levels.
Fortified
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
Shining Force and
Censure. You should also be mindful of
dangerous debuffs, which you must dispel quickly using
Purify and
Mass Dispel, and dangerous enemy buffs, which you can dispel with
Dispel Magic.
Tier Two Affixes
Raging
Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by 100%
until they die.
This affix can be particularly dangerous to your group, especially during
Fortified weeks. Care should be taken to ensure that your group
is adequately applying crowd control to dangerous enemies that get low on health,
to avoid unnecessary damage.
Bolstering
Bolstering causes dying enemies to increase the maximum health
and damage of other nearby enemies by 20%.
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 on a high health enemy
right before other enemies die, to prevent it from getting
Bolster stacks.
Bursting
Bursting causes enemies to detonate when slain, afflicting the
group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer stacking damage over 4 seconds.
Like most affixes, this one is a group effort. Try to have your tank avoid
pulling dangerous mobs while Bursting is active. DPS have the responsibility of
not refreshing the Bursting stacks unnecessarily. The whole group
should aim to stay in range of you during Bursting, as most of your high
throughput spells require standing still to cast.
As of Shadowlands, Bursting is now dispellable. That means you can
add Purify and
Mass Dispel to your triage arsenal when dealing
with
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.
The best way to handle Bursting is to diligently 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, and using this information to help decide when to
use your cooldowns, such as
Apotheosis and
Divine Hymn, to quickly
top up the group.
Below is a rough priority to help top up a group, prior to the mobs dying and
beginning to apply Bursting:
Apotheosis if many mobs are about to die soon, or multiple allies are dangerously low.
Guardian Spirit on an ally dangerously close to death.
Holy Word: Serenity on the lowest health ally.
Holy Word: Sanctify on as many group members as possible.
Circle of Healing on cooldown.
Divine Star on cooldown.
Flash Heal on multiple allies, utilising the
Trail of Light bonus healing on low allies.
Divine Hymn if your whole group is at a similar health percentage.
You can cancel Divine Hymn to cast
Holy Word: Sanctify if your
group need the quick health boost. Having
Divine Hymn cast prior to
Bursting not only helps you stabilise your group, but also gives you the
increased healing buff for the duration of Bursting. Using
Guardian Spirit or
Holy Word: Serenity on an ally gives you an
opportunity to focus on other allies, helping you triage the whole group
effectively.
Once Bursting has been applied and your group are all topped up,
or at least at similar levels of health, you can focus on
Holy Word: Sanctify,
Circle of Healing, and
Prayer of Healing
to keep the group stable until Bursting wears off. If you still have low group
members, continue triaging with
Guardian Spirit,
Holy Word: Serenity, and
Flash Heal
Prayer of Mending can also be very useful during the Bursting
damage. To maximise your usage of Prayer of Mending, try to cast it during the
pull on a target that will not be taking damage, such as yourself, then again just
before Bursting begins. You will then have multiple Prayer of Mending buffs
bouncing around at once.
Inspiring
Inspiring causes enemies with this buff to increase the
strength of other nearby enemies, making them immune to crowd control effects.
This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. The only thing to be mindful of is the holding on to your crowd control abilities until the enemy with Inspiring is dead.
Sanguine
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.
Talenting into Shining Force can be really helpful to push stubborn
enemies out of the Sanguine pools. Be mindful of casting
Holy Word: Chastise on enemies inside a Sanguine pool if talented into
Censure, as they will heal for the duration of the stun.
Spiteful
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. Ideally your party control the Spiteful Shades with stuns, slows and snares and avoid getting melee hit by them. Be sure to move away if you're fixated by one.
Tier Three Affixes
Explosive
Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that
need to be targeted and burned down within a short period of time or they will
deal significant damage to the party. Explosive Orbs are not cleaveable and the
amount of orbs that spawn scales with the amount of enemies pulled.
This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. That said, we
should assist during periods that require less healing by helping damage the orbs
with our DPS spells such as Smite,
Shadow Word: Pain, and
Shadow Word: Death.
Grievous
Grievous afflicts players with a stacking damage over time
effect when they fall below 90%.
This can be one of the most dangerous affixes if not dealt with properly, and as such,
you may find yourself focused on keeping your entire group topped up, therefore doing
much less damage than you would on a week without Grievous.
This affix has also been altered in Shadowlands granting single-target healing spells the ability to remove stacks. The following spells when cast will also remove a stack of Grievous on their target:
Flash Heal
Heal
Holy Word: Serenity
Prayer of Mending (on initial cast, not each bounce)
Renew (on initial cast, not each tick)
Power Word: Shield
Holy Word: Salvation (one stack on cast)
Make sure to quickly remove the debuff with Flash Heal and
Holy Word: Serenity, focusing on one ally at a time so you do not fall too
far behind. If you fall behind, use
Apotheosis and
Guardian Spirit regularly to try and catch back up, or it is likely you
will fall further behind and deaths will occur. Regular use of
Holy Word: Sanctify,
Circle of Healing, and
Divine Star as
they come off cooldown can help keep your group above the threshold.
Finally, encourage your group members to help out once all enemies have died
by casting some healing of their own, or eating some food to heal up, such as
Conjure Refreshment from a Mage or
Healthstone from a
Warlock. A slightly more expensive option that helps your group members heal up
quickly is to use
Sugar-Crusted Fish Feast after combat to quickly restore
their health.
Necrotic
Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with stacking
healing reduction and a minor damage over time effect.
This affix challenges your group's control of enemies as you work towards
managing the number of stacks your tank obtains. There is not a lot we can do to
help out when an ally has high stacks. Instead, your group should aim to try and
reduce the number of stacks gained by stunning, slowing and knocking back
enemies. Shining Force in particular is extremely helpful at giving your
tank additional time to let the stacks expire and should be used regularly.
Quaking
Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by
creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone
forms, it will deal 40% maximum health in damage to each player caught in the
zone and interrupt any casts being finished during the shockwave.
The biggest impact this affix will have on you is the constant interrupts on your casting. Take special care to avoid being in the middle of casting if you are going to be hit by one of the damage zones, as it will interrupt your spell casting and can lead to ally deaths.
Storming
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 in case a tornado spawns near
you.
Volcanic
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 in case a plume spawns
underneath you.
Changelog
- 23 Mar. 2022: Season 3 updates.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Page updated for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Updated recommendations for Patch 9.1.5.
- 06 Jul. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands Season 2 release.
- 29 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Added relevant tips for Patch 9.0.5 changes.
- 12 Dec. 2020: Updated legendary recommendations.
- 07 Dec. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands Season 1 release.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Temporarily removed the Affix advice until closer to Mythic+ release.
- 22 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands release.
- 16 Nov. 2020: Fixed a typo with Power Word: Fortitude.
- 15 Oct. 2020: Added single and multi target damage priority.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
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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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