Holy Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Holy Priest, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Holy Priest rotation.
Foreword
Welcome to our Holy Priest Rotation section. Here you will learn everything you need to know about properly healing as a Holy Priest in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Easy Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming at first, you might benefit from checking out our Easy Mode page, where the simpler rotation will get you started until you are comfortable learning to heal as Holy Priest in more depth.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Rotation / Playstyle for Holy Priests
Healing is primarily based on your ability to react to the damage that the group 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 an encounter.
Below, you will find the optimal use of your abilities, and it will be up to you to combine them efficiently in combat.
Raid Healing
Raid healing is primarily focused on group healing and priority triage on targets that may be in danger of death. 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 than it is to save them for unknown future situations.
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.
-
Lightweaver talent.
-
Divine Word talent.
-
Holy Word: Salvation talent.
-
Apotheosis talent.
-
Lightwell talent.
-
Power Word: Life talent.
-
Halo talent.
-
Divine Star talent.
-
Rhapsody talent.
-
**
Holy Word: Salvation when the majority of the raid is heavily injured.
- **
Divine Hymn when the majority of the raid is heavily injured.
Holy Word: Sanctify when a cluster of your raid is injured.
Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
Circle of Healing on cooldown when at least 4 allies are injured.
-
Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally below 35% hitpoints.
Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on the active tank.
-
Holy Nova near 5 or more injured allies at 16 or more stacks of
Rhapsody.
-
Halo when most of your raid is injured.
-
Flash Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death.
-
Prayer of Healing for general-purpose raid healing.
Shadow Word: Pain an enemy when no healing is required, and the enemy will not die in 16 seconds.
Smite an enemy when no healing is required.
**Note on raid cooldowns: While Divine Hymn and
Holy Word: Salvation are listed on the rotation above; you will typically
coordinate your raid cooldown usage with your raid leader, healing officer, or
healing team to try and maximize their usage to counter dangerous parts of the
encounter without overlapping or wasting them.
Be mindful when using
Halo as this spell not only heals your allies but also damages enemies
it hits. In some encounters, you may have dangerous enemies that are being
crowd-controlled, and the damage from Halo may break this crowd-control.
Optimising Prayer of Healing
When taking either Prayer Circle or
Sanctified Prayers, you
should aim to cast
Holy Word: Sanctify then
Circle of Healing to
have both buffs available for the following
Prayer of Healing casts.
While you shouldn't hold either Holy Word: Sanctify or
Circle of Healing too long to line up this combination; it is worth
waiting a few seconds if there is upcoming damage.
Optimising Divine Image
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. Be
mindful this adds an additional mana cost to your healing rotation and, as such,
should be prioritized only when you know there is healing required in the near
future.
Optimising Miracle Worker
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 short period of time.
Optimising Lightweaver
Lightweaver is fairly simple to use. The goal is to alternate
between
Flash Heal and
Heal, utilizing the buff that
Flash Heal generates to buff the
Heal casts. Ideally, you
shouldn't be casting
Heal without having the
Lightweaver buff
active. Also, be mindful of the
Trail of Light talent and try to spread
your trail back and forth between targets that need ongoing healing with
your
Flash Heal and
Heal casts.
Optimising Damage
Most of the time, your primary role is to heal and keep your raid alive. That
said, your raid does not always need healing, which leaves you time to cast some
damage spells. Most of your damage will come from Smite, as it has the
added benefit of being able to also trigger
Surge of Light. If you need
to push out additional damage or have excess Mana, you can also cast
Holy Fire on cooldown and keep
Shadow Word: Pain up on any enemy
that will live longer than 15 seconds
Optimising Tier Set Bonuses
The tier bonus for Amirdrassil is focused around
casting both Holy Word: Serenity and
Holy Word: Sanctify more often.
Neither of the set bonuses changes how we play. The 4-set bonus will trigger
enough from both the 2-set and Benediction and does not require you to
be hard-casting
Renew. It continues to emphasize using
Holy Word: Serenity and
Holy Word: Sanctify regularly so you do not
lose out on potential casts of those spells.
One small optimization that can be made is to try and emphasise using 4-set
procs on Holy Word: Sanctify wherever possible. With
Miracle Worker talented, you should be aiming to never be at 2 charges
of either Holy Word. You should also try to keep one charge of
Holy Word: Sanctify available to consume on tier when it procs, rather
than using your 4-set procs on
Holy Word: Serenity.
Dungeon Healing
Dungeon healing is primarily focused around Lightweaver and using
Heal and
Flash Heal to heal multiple allies at once through the
Trail of Light talent. You continue with regular use of your
cooldown-based abilities. 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 than it is to save them for unknown future
situations.
Below is the priority you should follow in dungeons. 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 overhealing.
-
Lightweaver talent.
-
Divine Word talent.
-
Holy Word: Salvation talent.
-
Apotheosis talent.
-
Lightwell talent.
-
Power Word: Life talent.
-
Divine Star talent.
-
Holy Nova talent.
- **
Divine Hymn when the majority of the group is heavily injured.
Holy Word: Sanctify when most of your group is injured.
Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
Apotheosis to counter heavy group damage. During Apotheosis, weave
Flash Heal and
Heal with
Holy Word: Serenity as often as possible.
Circle of Healing on cooldown when at least 4 allies are injured.
Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on the active tank.
-
Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally below 35% hitpoints.
-
Divine Star when multiple allies are injured.
-
Alternate between
Flash Heal and
Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death, general-purpose raid, or single-target healing, utilizing the
Lightweaver buff.
Holy Fire an enemy when no healing is required.
Shadow Word: Pain an enemy when no healing is required and the enemy will not die in 16 seconds.
Smite an enemy when no healing is required.
Holy Priest Mythic+ DPS
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 3+ targets:
Divine Star
Holy Fire
Mindgames (if talented)
Holy Nova with 16+ stacks of
Rhapsody
Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
Holy Nova
Damage spell priority for 1-2 targets:
Holy Fire
Mindgames (if talented)
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.
Cooldown Usage for Holy Priests
As a Holy Priest, you have three main cooldowns. Here is how you should use them:
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.
Keep in mind that the spell is channeled, 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 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.
Holy Word: Salvation
Holy Word: Salvation is a strong raid cooldown that will heal all
allies in range and place a
Renew and 2 stacks of
Prayer of Mending on them.
Generally, your raid leader will 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.
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 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 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.
Symbol of Hope
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.
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 either when your remaining Mana is below 20% or the boss' remaining hitpoints are below 20%
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.
Holy Word Cooldown Reduction
Heal and
Flash Heal have a passive ability that reduces the
remaining cooldown of
Holy Word: Serenity by 6 seconds.
Prayer of Healing reduces the remaining cooldown of
Holy Word: Sanctify by 6 seconds, and
Renew reduces the remaining
cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify by 2 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.
Talents
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.
Changelog
- 13 Nov. 2023: Season 3 Tier set clarifications.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Niphyr, a generally knowledgeable, long-time healing Priest and theorycrafter. You can follow him on Twitter.
- Liquid World 2nd Fyrakk Mythic Kill and Amirdrassil 9/9
- Fyr'alath Legendary Axe Revealed After Mythic Fyrakk Kill
- Echo Claim the Fyrakk Mythic World First and Win the Amirdrassil RWF!
- Liquid Grab Their Own 1% Wipe, 0.09% Better Than Echo's!
- Insane 1% Wipe From Echo on Fyrakk
- The Most Popular Specializations for Mythic+ in Dragonflight Season 3 Week 2
- Mythic+ Affix Rotation for Dragonflight Season 3
- New Explorer's Cosmetic Weapons Coming in Patch 10.2.5