Holy Priest Healing Mythic+ Tips — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

1. Foreword

In order to provide the most accurate Mythic+ dungeon-specific advice, we teamed up with Putto, a Priest healing for the guild Honestly.

2. Holy Priest in Mythic+

Holy Priest sits in the middle of the pack for Mythic+ content in Battle for Azeroth. Due to changes in dungeon damage patterns since Legion, some nerfs to other previously dominant healers and some buffs to talents, all healer specs are very competitive with one another now. Holy Priest has several main draws that make it an attractive spec to play for M+ content in BfA, with multiple strong cooldowns in Divine Hymn and Apotheosis, strong single target damage, hefty group healing potential and a straightforward, beginner-friendly playstyle. Holy Priest still suffers from several of the same problems as in Legion, lacking mobility, healing on the move and poor burst healing outside of Holy Words and major cooldown windows.

2.1. Holy Priest Mythic+ Rotation

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

2.2. Holy Priest Utility

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

• Purify 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.
• 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 and should not be overlooked.
• Power Word: Fortitude provides a 10% 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.

3. Holy Priest Mythic+ Talents

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+.

Level	Choices
15	✗ Enlightenment	✓ Trail of Light	✗ Enduring Renewal
30	? Angel's Mercy	? Perseverance	✓ Angelic Feather
45	? Cosmic Ripple	✓ Guardian Angel	✗ Afterlife
60	? Psychic Voice	✓ Censure	? Shining Force
75	? Surge of Light	✗ Binding Heal	✓ Circle of Healing
90	✗ Benediction	✓ Divine Star	? Halo
100	? Light of the Naaru	✓ Apotheosis	✗ Holy Word: Salvation

3.1. Talent Discussion

• Level 15: Trail of Light is the best talent in nearly all situations.
• Level 30: 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 damage reduction, then Perseverance can be a good option.
• Level 45: Guardian Angel is the strongest choice as it greatly enhances our external cooldown, Guardian Spirit.
• Level 60: All 3 talents on this row have situational uses, however we suggest primarily using Censure, as it is a reliable option for controlling dangerous enemies.
• Level 75: Circle of Healing is the strongest talent in this row as it provides reliable group healing and can be cast while on the move. Surge of Light is an option for Tyrannical weeks if you find Mana is an issue, or you have the opportunity to Smite regularly to generate charges you can use while moving.
• Level 90: 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 100: 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 provide a reliable healing increase over the course of the dungeon.

4. Mythic+ Affixes

4.1. 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.

4.1.1. 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 Perseverance and require some planning of Desperate Prayer usage to reliably survive.

4.1.2. 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.

4.2. Tier Two Affixes

4.2.1. 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 are adequately applying crowd control to dangerous enemies that get low on health, to avoid unnecessary damage.

4.2.2. Teeming

Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs throughout each dungeon.

This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. It is something your entire group should be mindful of when crowd-controlling and dealing with the larger packs of enemies.

4.2.3. 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.

4.2.4. 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.

This affix typically has little impact on our role as healers. Be mindful of casting Holy Word: Chastise on enemies inside a Sanguine pool, as they will heal for the duration of the stun.

4.2.5. Bursting

Bursting causes enemies to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 14% of their maximum health in damage over four 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. Seven stacks of Bursting do a total of 98% of a players maximum HP, so presuming everyone is topped up, you should be able to handle 5-6 stacks comfortably, and even up to 10 or more with smart cooldown usage and good group gameplay.

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:

1. Apotheosis if many mobs are about to die soon, or multiple allies are dangerously low.
2. Guardian Spirit on an ally dangerously close to death.
3. Holy Word: Serenity on the lowest health ally.
4. Holy Word: Sanctify on as many group members as possible.
5. Circle of Healing on cooldown.
6. Divine Star on cooldown.
7. Flash Heal on multiple allies, utilising the Trail of Light bonus healing on low allies.
8. 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.

4.3. Tier Three Affixes

4.3.1. Volcanic

Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum health in damage. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more volcanic plumes will spawn.

This affix is a great one to use the instant cast talents Circle of Healing and Divine Star on to assist in healing your group while on the move. Care must be taken when using Divine Hymn in case a plume spawns underneath you.

4.3.2. Grievous

Grievous afflicts players with a stacking damage over time effect when they fall below 90%.

This is 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.

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.

4.3.3. 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 20% 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. Circle of Healing in particular is a great talent choice for assisting with healing with this affix.

4.3.4. 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 can assist during periods that require less healing by helping damage the orbs with Smite, Holy Fire and Holy Word: Chastise.

4.3.5. 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.

4.3.6. Skittish

Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks throughout the dungeon.

This affix results in a lot of spike damage throughout the dungeon, as the enemies will attack your DPS more often than normal. Your group should aim to control the enemies until the tank has picked up enough threat. You can help with Holy Word: Chastise.

4.4. Seasonal Affix

Reaping is the seasonal affix for Season 2 of Battle for Azeroth. Reaping causes Souls to rise from the dead and attack the party at intervals of 20% completion on the Enemy Forces count. There are three different enemy types to be aware of:

• Risen Soul: Will apply Reap Soul to their current target, dealing 2% maximum health in damage every 3 seconds, per stack. This can be dispelled.
• Tormented Soul: Will cast Grave Bolt, which deals 25% maximum health in damage to the cast target. This cast can be interrupted.
• Lost Soul: Will cast Shadow Smash at their current target, a frontal cone ability that can be sidestepped. If you are hit by this, your maximum health will be reduced by 20% for 1 minute. Additionally, when Lost Souls die they will cast Expel Soul, spawning swirls on the ground that must be dodged. If you are hit by this, your damage and healing done will be reduced by 10% for 30 seconds.

As healers, we mostly have to worry about dealing with Reap Soul, which we can use both Purify and Mass Dispel to remove.

5. Holy Priest Mythic+ Azerite Traits

While most of the traits found on the Azerite Traits page are ranked similarly for Mythic+, there are a few that are significantly better in dungeons than raids:

• Permeating Glow has more value as the majority of your Mythic+ healing is through Flash Heal.
• Promise of Deliverance provides great benefit with not only increasing your Heal and Flash Heal casts, but also allowing you to cast more Holy Word: Serenity. The second and third items with this trait have reduced value, as the cooldown-reduction portion does not stack.

6. Changelog