Holy Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (BfA 8.0.1)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 8.0.1 changes for Holy Priests
  • 3. Contents
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. The Basics of Holy Priests
  • 3. Talent Choice for Holy Priests
  • 4. Stat Choice for Holy Priests
  • 5. Basic Playstyle for Holy Priests
    • 5.1. Single Target Healing
    • 5.2. AoE/Raid Healing
  • 6. Cooldown Usage for Holy Priests
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource of Holy Priests
  • 3. Basic Abilities for Holy Priests
    • 3.1. Utility for Holy Priests
  • 4. Important Procs for Holy Priests
  • 5. Cooldowns for Holy Priests
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheet for Holy Priests
    • 2.1. Raids
    • 2.2. Dungeons
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Holy Priests
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Holy Priests
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Changes in 8.0
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation for Holy Priests
    • 1.1. Single Target Healing
    • 1.2. AoE/Raid Healing
    • 1.3. Binding Heal Playstyle
  • 2. Cooldown Usage for Holy Priests
  • 3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Priest
    • 3.1. Holy Word Cooldown Reduction
    • 3.2. Healing Cooldowns in Detail
      • 3.2.1. Divine Hymn
      • 3.2.2. Guardian Spirit
      • 3.2.3. Symbol of Hope
    • 3.3. Talents
      • 3.3.1. Tier 5 Talents
      • 3.3.2. Tier 6 Talents
      • 3.3.3. Tier 7 Talents
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Raids
    • 1.2. Dungeons
    • 1.3. Stat Gain Per Rating
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding of Holy Priests Stats
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Holy Priests
  • 2. Enchants for Holy Priests
  • 3. Consumables for Holy Priests
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Priests
      • 1.1.1. Leap of Faith Mouseover Macro
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Holy Priests
      • 1.2.1. Angelic Feather Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Priests
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Clique
      • 2.1.3. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.4. GTFO
      • 2.1.5. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.6. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.7. Recount / Skada / Details!
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Holy Priests
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List for Holy Priests
  • 2. Trinkets for Holy Priests
  • 3. Tier 21 Set Bonuses for Holy Priests
  • 4. Legendary Items for Holy Priests
  • 5. Loot Competition for Holy Priests

General Information

On this page, we list your Holy Priest core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft BfA 8.0.1. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Holy Priest.

The other pages of our Holy Priest guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Niphyr, a generally knowledgeable, long-time healing Priest and theorycrafter. You can follow him on Twitter.

1. Rotation for Holy Priests

Healing is in great part based on your ability to react to the damage that the raid takes, and as such, there is no set rotation. Rather, you must understand what spells are best suited to the different situations that can occur during a raid encounter.

Below, you will find the optimal use of your abilities, and it will be up to you to then combine them efficiently in combat.

1.1. Single Target Healing

If your target is taking low to medium amounts of damage, you should be able to heal them with Heal. Renew should be used only during periods of heavy movement and you are unable to stand still and cast other spells.

As damage increases, you should begin incorporating Flash Heal (as your Mana allows, and any time you have a Surge of Light proc, if you have taken this talent).

When the damage is high or very high, you should use Holy Word: Serenity, which will heal the target for a significant amount. If this is still not enough, you also have access to Guardian Spirit.

Regarding Prayer of Mending usage, things are a bit more complicated. As a single target healing spell, it may not look powerful enough to be worth using, but because nearly every encounter has period AoE/raid damage, you should essentially use it on cooldown. The only exception to this is when someone needs saving immediately.

1.2. AoE/Raid Healing

When the damage is low, you should use Heal on the players that require healing. You can supplement this healing with Holy Word: Serenity, Circle of Healing and Halo or Divine Star as needed (if you have taken these talents). You should also be using Prayer of Mending on cooldown during this time.

When there is high sustained damage, you will have to turn to Prayer of Healing and Holy Word: Sanctify. In addition to this, you should continue to use Holy Word: Serenity, Divine Star or Halo (if you have taken one of these talents), Prayer of Mending, and Circle of Healing, but Renew and Heal are too slow to be worth using. Be aware of your Mana, though, as while spells like Prayer of Healing and Holy Word: Sanctify do a lot of healing, they are also very expensive.

1.3. Binding Heal Playstyle

When talented into Binding Heal and raid healing, your priority should be as follows.

1. Use Prayer of Mending on cooldown.
2. Use Holy Words as much as possible, when they will not overheal.
3. Use Binding Heal as a filler.

When facing light to medium raid damage, you should use Binding Heal instead of Prayer of Healing.

During heavy AoE damage, you should spam Prayer of Healing. If you have the 4-piece Tier 21 Set Bonus, then you should weave Binding Heal in between Prayer of Healing casts, in order to benefit from the effect of the Set Bonus.

2. Cooldown Usage for Holy Priests

As a Holy Priest, you have three cooldowns. Here is how you should use them:

• Divine Hymn should be used during periods of very intense raid damage. Keep in mind, however, that your raid leader may instruct you to use it a very specific time.
• Guardian Spirit should be used depending on many factors, including on your raid leader's instructions. If you do not have to save Guardian Spirit for a specific event, then just use it as a "life-saver" on the tank or another raid member who needs it.
• Symbol of Hope should be used towards the end of a raid encounter to give the highest potential mana back to all healers in your group. A good guide is either when you are at 20% mana, or the boss is at 20% health remaining.

You can read more about how to best use these cooldowns, and about the cooldowns and abilities granted by your talents, in our detailed cooldown section.

3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Priest

The above information should allow you to perform at a high level as a Holy Priest. In the following sub-sections, we offer a few additional pieces of information and we expand on some concepts further.

3.1. Holy Word Cooldown Reduction

Heal and Flash Heal have a passive ability that reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity by 6 seconds, and Prayer of Healing reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify by 6 seconds.

While you do not need to actively manage this mechanic in any way, it is very important that you are aware of its existence and that you constantly monitor the remaining cooldowns of your Holy Words, so that you can use them as soon as they become available.

3.2. Healing Cooldowns in Detail

Your healing cooldowns require a bit more explanation in order to ensure that you can make the best of them.

3.2.1. Divine Hymn

Divine Hymn will heal all raid members within 40 yards over 8 seconds, and also increase the healing they receive during that time by 10%.

Keep in mind that the spell is channelled, so you cannot perform other actions while casting it.

Generally, your raid leader will assign you to use this spell at a certain time in the fight, in order to counter a heavy burst of damage. If this is the case, make sure your spell is available at that time.

Otherwise, you should simply try to find a moment when using this spell is beneficial. Most often, this will happen during a period of very intense raid damage.

3.2.2. Guardian Spirit

Guardian Spirit is one of the most useful tools you can bring to a raid. Using it places a buff on the target, which lasts for 10 seconds and increases all healing received by the target by 60%. If the target receives a killing blow during this time, they will not die and instead be healed for 40% of their maximum health, consuming the Guardian Spirit effect.

While you can use this on any raid member who is about to die and whom you have no other means of saving, it is by far better used on a tank who is about to take a large amount of damage. You should make sure to communicate with the tank and other healers, in order to ensure that you do not use multiple powerful cooldowns at the same time.

You can also use this spell to allow tanks (or other players) to survive an ability that should have otherwise been avoided, either as part of your raid's strategy or to recover from a mistake.

Keep in mind that your raid leader may assign you to use this spell for a specific event in the encounter.

3.2.3. Symbol of Hope

Symbol of Hope is a unique cooldown that provides all healers in your raid with mana when you channel it. The amount of mana gained by each target is dependant on how much mana they are missing so this ability is often best used towards the end of encounters

If you are unsure of when to use it, a general rule of thumb is to use it either when your remaining mana is below 20% or the bosses remaining hitpoints are below 20%

3.3. Talents

3.3.1. Tier 5 Talents

You should make sure to use Surge of Light procs quickly, so that new charges are not wasted.

3.3.2. Tier 6 Talents

When using Benediction, it is important you focus on casting Prayer of Mending as often as possible to maximise the benefit this talent provides.

3.3.3. Tier 7 Talents

Holy Word: Salvation is a potent raid cooldown that heals everyone within 40 yards of you, as well as applying both renew and 2 stacks of Prayer of Mending to each. While this ability does have a very long base cooldown of 12 minutes, each of your Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify casts reduce its remaining cooldown by 30 seconds. Due to this interaction, it is important you aim to efficiently use those holy words as often as practical to lower the cooldown of Holy Word: Salvation when the remaining length of the encounter allows for a second cast

Apotheosis is a powerful cooldown, which you should save for moments of heavy damage. Below, we list the spell sequences you should use to maximise your healing-per-second.

To maximise your single target HPS:

1. Cast Holy Word: Sanctify.
2. Cast Holy Word: Serenity.
3. Cast Flash Heal until Holy Word: Serenity comes off cooldown.
4. Cast Holy Word: Serenity and repeat step 3.

To maximise your AoE HPS:

1. Cast Holy Word: Serenity.
2. Cast Holy Word: Sanctify.
3. Cast Prayer of Healing until Holy Word: Sanctify comes off cooldown.
4. Cast Holy Word: Sanctify and repeat steps 2 and onward.