Holy Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.7)

Raid healing is primarily focused on group healing and priority triage on targets that may be in danger of death. The next section outlines the priority you should follow in raids. You should not cast a spell that will mostly overheal, so keep this in mind as you work through the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be significant overheal.

1. Lightwell near allies, usually between melee and ranged.
2. Divine Word followed by Holy Word: Sanctify (if available) on a cluster of injured allies.
3. Prayer of Mending when you have Premonition of Insight.
4. Halo immediately before, or more than 60 seconds before Apotheosis.
5. Apotheosis with 0 or 1 charge of each Holy Word.
6. Holy Word: Sanctify when a cluster of your raid is injured.
7. Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
8. Holy Word: Chastise to trigger Divine Image.
9. Flash Heal with 1 or more stacks of Surge of Light.
10. Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally near death.
11. Divine Star when most of your raid is injured.
12. Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on melee.
13. Renew on a tank or debuff target.
14. Holy Nova near 5 or more injured allies at 16+ of Rhapsody.
15. Flash Heal for healing one ally.
16. Prayer of Healing for general purpose healing.
17. Prayer of Healing with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for healing multiple allies.
18. Heal with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for healing one ally.
19. Heal with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for general purpose healing.
20. Flash Heal with 0 stacks of Lightweaver.
21. Smite an enemy when no healing is required.

When running Oracle, you should be aiming to use Divine Hymn and Apotheosis while Premonition of Piety is active. It is worth holding Premonition to line it up with one of your major cooldowns, so long as yo don't cap at 2 stacks of Premonition. Premonition of Solace is much less impactful and should just be used on a target that will make use of the absorb, such as a tank or debuff target.

When running Lightweaver with Prayer of Healing, the majority of your Lightweaver stacks should be spent on Prayer of Healing. Only use Heal in an emergency to save someone taking significant damage.

Your general goal while healing is casting as many short-cooldown spell as possible. Holy Word: Serenity, Holy Word: Sanctify, Renew and Prayer of Mending despite all having a cooldown, should be thought of as rotational spells and cast almost as soon as they are available.

Some tips for utilising your chosen talents:

• Lightwell should be cast near clumps of allies. Be mindful when an encounter requires the raid to reposition and use Lightwell accordingly to ensure it's still able to spend all charges.
• Divine Word followed by Holy Word: Sanctify (if available) on a cluster of injured allies that won't be moving is the optimal usage. It can be used with Holy Word: Serenity if a period of increased single-target burst healing is required, so long as it lasts the duration of Divine Word.
• Flash Heal is used to generate Lightweaver stacks. These stacks should then be spent on either Prayer of Healing for AoE-focused healing, or Heal for healing individual allies, before capping at maximum stacks. Casting Flash Heal while at maximum stacks wastes mana and does less healing.
• Symbol of Hope should be used often. Early on in an encounter it's great for returning personal defensive cooldowns to your group, and later on it's great at returning your healers some mana.
• With Archon, Halo should be paired with major cooldowns wherever possible, see the cooldowns section below for details on how to properly utilise them.

For more information on using your major cooldowns Apotheosis, Divine Hymn, Premonition and Symbol of Hope effectively, see the cooldowns section below.

Dungeon healing is primarily focused on casting your short-cooldown spells regularly, and using Flash Heal to heal multiple allies at once through the Trail of Light talent. A lot of your decision-making will be based on incoming damage and the cooldowns you have available. It is better to use your cooldowns early and often rather than save them for unknown future situations.

Below is the priority you should follow in dungeons. You should not cast a spell that will result in mostly overhealing; keep this in mind as you work through the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be significant overhealing.

1. Divine Hymn just before large amounts of group-wide damage.
2. Premonition when it is off cooldown.
3. Lightwell near allies, usually between melee and ranged.
4. Divine Word followed by Holy Word: Serenity.
5. Prayer of Mending when you have Premonition of Insight.
6. Apotheosis with 1 charge of each Holy Word.
7. Halo when available.
8. Holy Word: Sanctify when a cluster of your group is injured.
9. Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
10. Flash Heal with 1 or more stacks of Surge of Light.
11. Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally near death.
12. Divine Star when most of your raid is injured.
13. Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on melee.
14. Renew on someone without it, before damage comes out.
15. Holy Nova near 5 or more injured allies at 16 or more stacks of Rhapsody.
16. Flash Heal for healing one ally.
17. Prayer of Healing for general purpose healing.
18. Prayer of Healing with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for healing multiple allies.
19. Heal with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for healing one ally.
20. Heal with 1 or more stacks of Lightweaver for general purpose healing.
21. Flash Heal with 0 stacks of Lightweaver.
22. Holy Fire an enemy when no healing is required.
23. Shadow Word: Pain an enemy when no healing is required, and the enemy will not die in 16 seconds.
24. Smite an enemy when no healing is required.

When your focus is raid healing, your only damage spell should be Smite. Smite costs very little Mana, and it has a chance to generate Surge of Light procs which are not only a healing increase, but also assist with movement. If an encounter demands damage over healing, and you find Mana isn't a problem then you can go ahead and use the full damage rotation.

Dealing with damage while in dungeons is often overlooked by healers. While any additional damage is beneficial to your group; it should not come at the cost of keeping your group alive, which is your main priority. Smite is your main damage dealing ability costs very little Mana and can proc the Surge of Light talent.

Damage spell priority for 4+ targets:

1. Halo
2. Divine Word with Holy Word: Chastise
3. Divine Star
4. Holy Fire
5. Holy Nova with 16+ stacks of Rhapsody
6. Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
7. Holy Nova

Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:

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

Apotheosis is a major cooldown you want to be pressing as often as possible. There are several talents that improve Apotheosis:

• Eternal Sanctity with good gameplay can over double the duration of Apotheosis.
• Divinity improves the burst healing of Apotheosis making it more potent and increasing your mobility.
• Answered Prayers generates procs of Apotheosis, which will extend Apotheosis if it is already active. **
• Divine Image has no direct interactions, but more Holy Words make Divine Image a more effective talent.
• Archon's Perfected Form increases healing done while Apotheosis is active.
• Archon's Sustained Potency is great at granting an extra few seconds of Apotheosis uptime per minute.

Of particular note is Eternal Sanctity which causes Holy Words to extend the duration of Apotheosis. Because Apotheosis also increases the Holy Word cooldown reduction gained from casting abilities, it amplifies the priority of some spells during Apotheosis to help get Holy Words back off cooldown quickly:

• Prayer of Mending - When talented into Voice of Harmony, Epiphany and Answered Prayers, Prayer of Mending becomes a high priority cast. Due to the number of Holy Word casts during Apotheosis, resets on Prayer of Mending cooldowns are frequent. Prayer of Mending not only reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity, but also increases the uptime of Apotheosis through Answered Prayers.
• Flash Heal - When talented into Archon's Energy Cycle and with a Surge of Light proc, Flash Heal is a high priority due to the additional cooldown reduction.
• Halo - Due to Archon's Manifested Power, Halo either just before, or during Apotheosis is important for the additional Surge of Light procs. This is in addition to the extra healing from Archon's Resonant Energy.
• Renew - When talented into Empowered Renew, the additional cooldown reduction from Renew makes it a high priority.

While not always possible due to how things line up, an ideal usage of Apotheosis with Archon would look like:

1. Halo - to start generating Surge of Light procs and start stacking Resonant Energy.
2. Apotheosis - with 1 charge of each Holy Word available.
3. Power Infusion - if you don't need to use it at a specific time.
4. Holy Word: Chastise - to extend Apotheosis and spawn Divine Image.
5. Holy Word: Sanctify - to get it off cooldown to maximise casts
6. Holy Word: Serenity - to get it off cooldown to maximise casts
7. Resume normal rotation.

**Note: It should be noted that when Answered Prayers procs and grants you the Apotheosis buff, if you cast Apotheosis during this buff, the duration will not extend. Instead, when you press Apotheosis the duration is set to 20-seconds.

Divine Hymn is a major cooldown that heals all nearby allies, pulsating healing as it channels. It is best used when your group is taking a large amount of damage and you need to heal everyone quickly. Keep in mind that the spell is channelled, so you cannot perform other actions while casting it.

When raiding, your raid leader will generally assign you to use this spell at a certain time in the fight 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.

When playing as Archon and talented into Gales of Song and Answered Prayers, you should aim to press Halo immediately after your Divine Hymn if Apotheosis triggers. This is to maximise the effect of various talents that increase healing done around Halo, Apotheosis and Surge of Light.

While doing Mythic+ dungeons, Divine Hymn is a commonly used just before damage hits your group, as the healing it does isn't strong enough to completely counter the highest AoE damage abilities. This is typically timed so the last second or two of Divine Hymn is while your group is taking damage. That way you fully stack up the Divine Hymn buff on all of your allies, but are still able to triage heal anyone near death.

Symbol of Hope is a unique cooldown that provides all healers in your raid with Mana when you channel it. It also reduces the remaining cooldown on a defensive ability for all targets. You can view a full list of all of the defensive spells that Symbol of Hope reduces here.

The amount of Mana gained by each target is dependent on how much Mana they are missing, so this ability is often best used toward the end of encounters. Exceptions to this are when you are asked to use it earlier to help members of your group have their cooldowns available again much sooner.

If you are unsure of when to use it, a general rule of thumb is to use it once early when your mana drops below 80%, then again either when your remaining Mana is below 20% or the boss' remaining hitpoints are below 20%. Alternatively, you may be asked by your raid to press it at a specific time so your group can use their personal defensives shortly afterwards.

Below is a list of which ability Symbol of Hope will reduce for your allies:

Spec	Ability	Spec	Ability
Death Knight (all)	Icebound Fortitude	Protection Paladin	Ardent Defender
Blood Death Knight	Vampiric Blood	Retribution Paladin	Divine Protection
Havoc Demon Hunter	Blur	Priest (all)	Desperate Prayer
Vengeance Demon Hunter	Fiery Brand	Rogue (all)	Crimson Vial
Druid (all)	Barkskin	Shaman (all)	Astral Shift
Hunter (all)	Exhilaration	Warlock (all)	Unending Resolve
Evoker (all)	Obsidian Scales	Arms Warrior	Die by the Sword
Mage (all)	Mirror Image	Fury Warrior	Enraged Regeneration
Monk (all)	Fortifying Brew	Protection Warrior	Shield Wall
Holy Paladin	Divine Protection

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 that is about to take a large amount of damage. You should make sure to communicate with the tank and other healers 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 have 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.

Premonition is the main ability for the Oracle tree. There are 3 buffs it can provide you, and each should be considered when deciding what to cast next. Making the most of Premonition of Insight and casting Premonition of Piety with cooldowns is important to maximising your output as Oracle.

• Premonition of Insight - Your priority for Insight should be to cast Prayer of Mending as much as possible.
• Premonition of Piety - Piety should be paired with Divine Hymn or Apotheosis where possible to maximise healing done. An alternative this, though less healing, is to spam yourself with single-target overhealing utilising Guardian Spirit on yourself and Prophet's Will to heal nearby allies.
• Premonition of Solace - Typically used on a tank to get the most out of the absorb shield it leaves behind. This can also be used on debuff targets or allies near death in a similar fashion to Guardian Spirit.

Shadowfiend is primarily used for the mana return. You should look to use Shadowfiend when you are around 80% mana and then on cooldown from there. The only time it makes sense to hold Shadowfiend for 5-10 seconds is if you are talented into Essence Devourer and your group is all at full health.

Casting your Holy Words as often as possible is an important part of playing Holy Priest. Each Holy Word gains cooldown reduction when an associated spell is cast, allowing you cast them even more frequently:

• Holy Word: Serenity - 6 seconds each from Flash Heal and Heal.
• Holy Word: Sanctify - 6 seconds from Prayer of Healing and 2 seconds from Renew.
• Holy Word: Chastise - 4 seconds each from Smite and Holy Nova.

When talented into Voice of Harmony you also gain cooldown reduction from additional spells:

• Holy Word: Serenity - 4 seconds each from Prayer of Mending and Power Word: Life.
• Holy Word: Sanctify - 4 seconds each from Halo and Divine Star.
• Holy Word: Chastise - 4 seconds each from Holy Fire.

There are multiple ways to further increase the cooldown reduction you gain from casting spells:

• Apotheosis - While this buff is active, you gain 3 times as much cooldown reduction to all Holy Words.
• Light of the Naaru - When talented, you gain 10% increased cooldown reduction to all Holy Words per point.

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.

Mastery: Echo of Light is a passive ability that causes your direct healing spells to leave a heal over time effect on the target. This effect lasts for 4 seconds and heals for a percentage of the original heal. The amount healed is increased by your Mastery stat. Successive applications of this HoT stack and will extend the duration of the HoT for a short period. Mastery healing is never lost be successive casts on the same target, the additional casts just make the Echo of Light healing ticks stronger.

There is no benefit in tracking this buff, as there are no interactions with it worth cluttering your UI with the buff.

The talent Prismatic Echoes slightly increases the healing Mastery does, while also increasing the healing done by Renew.

When talented into Divine Image, your playstyle shouldn't really change whether or not you have a Naaru active. You still want to emphasize casting whatever suits your current situation, and the Naaru will mirror that appropriately. The only exception to this is Holy Word: Chastise, which can be used right before periods of intense healing to provide an added burst.

The only worthwhile minor playstyle adjustment that can be made to better utilise Divine Image, is to ensure you try to cast Prayer of Mending on a tightly grouped clump of allies, as the bounce radius of Blessed Light is quite small. This is most often the melee DPS in your raid, and is not a significant enough gain to worry about if doing so will delay your Prayer of Mending casts.

Below shows you most of the common spells that will trigger Divine Image to try and cast a similar spell.

Your Spell	Divine Image	Your Spell	Divine Image
Flash Heal Heal Holy Word: Serenity Power Word: Life Desperate Prayer	Healing Light	Prayer of Healing Holy Word: Sanctify Halo Divine Star Divine Hymn	Dazzling Lights
Prayer of Mending	Blessed Light	Smite Holy Fire Holy Word: Chastise Shadow Word: Pain Shadow Word: Death	Searing Light
Renew	Tranquil Light
Holy Nova	Light Eruption

Divine Word will typically be used with Holy Word: Sanctify for the AoE healing. If playing Oracle the Holy Word: Serenity buff pairs really well alongside Premonition of Piety to increase the amount of overhealing that spills over to allies.

Lightweaver is fairly simple to use. The goal is to alternate between Flash Heal and Heal or Prayer of Healing, utilizing the buff that Flash Heal generates to buff the Heal or Prayer of Healing casts. Ideally, you shouldn't be casting Heal or Prayer of Healing without having the Lightweaver buff active. Also, be mindful of the Trail of Light talent when using Heal to try and spread your trail back and forth between targets that need ongoing healing with your Flash Heal and Heal casts.

Miracle Worker provides you with an additional charge of both Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify. When playing with Miracle Worker, you still want to avoid capping at 2 charges to maximize the cooldown reduction provided by casting your other spells. Exceptions to this are when there is large amounts of damage upcoming in the very near future, in which case it can be beneficial to sit on 2 charges for a very short period of time.

Your first obvious aim when using Lightwell should be to use it as often as possible in order to get the most value out of it. When deciding if you should cast it, think ahead to where the raid may be moving and if the raid will be taking considerable damage. Ensure the raid is in range to utilise the healing from Lightwell before it expires. Finally, Lightwell will despawn when you move further than 100 yards from it, so consider this too, before placing it down.

Epiphany has a lot of potential that is often missed by many Holy Priests. Ensuring you have a good way to track when Prayer of Mending is ready is essential to maximising the value of the talent. Having a good Weakaura that tracks Prayer of Mending is a fantastic way to minimise missed procs.

You can further maximise the value of Epiphany by trying to avoid casting two holy words ( Holy Word: Serenity or Holy Word: Sanctify) back-to-back when you get an Epiphany proc, and casting Prayer of Mending instead of a Holy Word won't put someone in danger of death.

For more information on the synergy between various talents, as well as deciding which talents you can change around and why, check out the Holy Priest Talents page.