Holy Priest Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Holy Priest in World of Warcraft — The War Within Pre-Patch. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Holy Priest talents.
Best Dragonflight Talents for Holy Priest
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the Talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
Depending on the talents you end up choosing, your playstyle may be slightly altered. To properly understand the impact talents have on your rotation and to utilize them alongside the rest of your toolkit, have a look at the rotation page below.
Best Talents for Holy Priest
Best Raid Talents for Holy Priest
For Holy Priest, there is one primary raid healing build, focused on using
multiple short-cooldown spells for general-purpose healing. This is supported by
by Prayer of Healing in between to reduce the cooldown on
Holy Word: Sanctify.
You can easily import the talent tree below by clicking 'Copy Export String' and then importing it in-game.
The Holy Priest tree has several talent points or groups of talent points that can be moved around without affecting the core playstyle:
Enlightenment gains you a point if the added mana isn't required.
Epiphany can be swapped for
Light of the Naaru depending on personal preference.
Answered Prayers can be swapped for
Voice of Harmony if more consistent healing is desired.
To spend any of these recovered talent points, you should look at:
Prayerful Litany to increase the strength of your
Prayer of Healing.
Revitalizing Prayers for addition healing from
Prayer of Healing.
The Class Tree has a lot of flexibility, and there are multiple different talents you can change around depending on the encounter and your personal preference. The following are all great candidates to be situationally removed without altering your playstyle:
Mass Dispel, particularly in raid encounters, can have limited usage. If Mass Dispel does not fit well with the boss you will be fighting, swapping it out will save you one point.
Light's Inspiration is an option when you do not need the added survivability, you can Talent out of it to spend points elsewhere.
Holy Nova is very situational and is only worth pressing with
Rhapsody. It is a very small healing increase, even when used properly, and you can save 2 points by swapping out of these and using another healing spell in that situation instead.
Halo can be swapped for
Divine Star for fights where the raid is stacked or requires heavy movement.
Power Word: Life can be swapped for
Benevolence if you are struggling to use Power Word: Life reliably and prefer the passive healing increase.
To spend any of these recovered talent points, you should look at:
Dispel Magic and
Improved Purify if an offensive purge or disease dispel is required.
Phantasm if snare removal is beneficial on a particular encounter.
Shackle Undead,
Psychic Voice,
Mind Control and
Void Tendrils all have very niche usage, but you should still be aware they exist in case there is a specific need for them.
Best Dungeon Talents for Holy Priest
For dungeons, see our Mythic+ guide linked below for a starter build that you can work from and tailor to your requirements. Our Mythic+ guide also goes into more detail about potential talent changes to help you adapt to your group's requirements.
Talent Explanations for Holy Priests
Note that we do not explain EVERY Talent in the tree on this page. We only explain Talents that are part of our optimal builds for raiding and Mythic+. For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells page via the button below.
Class Talents
The class tree is somewhat split into 3 "columns" with the left-hand side of the tree providing additional healing, the center of the tree containing group utility and buffs to your allies, and the right-hand side primarily focused on damage-dealing abilities.
Upper Talent Rows (1-4)
The upper section of the tree introduces us to Renew and
Prayer of Mending, which are core mechanics to healing as a Holy Priest.
You also pick up some healing increases and have access to utility options.
Typically, most builds will include:
Focused Mending and
Improved Flash Heal for the increases to their respective spells.
Angelic Feather as a mandatory pick. It is our main source of increased movement.
Shadowfiend is worth taking for the mana return and some additional damage.
- Picking up
Improved Purify gives you a disease dispel, which is useful in all forms of content.
- Pathing through
Leap of Faith for some extra utility, and it also provides access to valuable middle-row talents.
Crowd control and their enhancements like Shackle Undead,
Psychic Voice,
Sheer Terror, and
Void Tendrils will
depend on the content you are doing and what makes the most sense there.
There are some defensive options in Protective Light and
Spell Warding, which should be considered. Their strength will depend on
the content you are healing in.
For additional damage, there is Shadow Word: Death, which hits quite
hard. You should consider pathing on to
Tithe Evasion in the middle
section to reduce the damage taken from regular Shadow Word: Death casts.
Middle Talent Rows (5-7)
This section starts with more group utility abilities and leads into two
strong healing and damage throughput talents Unwavering Will and
Twist of Fate. You will typically take the following in all forms of
content:
- Love it, or hate it,
Power Infusion should be taken in all forms of content and used on an ally as you will also path through
Twins of the Sun Priestess to access the tree below.
Twist of Fate provides a nice healing and damage bonus in all forms of content.
Unwavering Will is the other big throughput talent in this section of the tree and should be taken in all builds as well.
Some of the more situational utility includes Mass Dispel and its
supporting talent
Mental Agility, which is great as a backup
dispel,
or for dealing with specific mechanics in Raid and Mythic+. This will be taken
more often than not as the method of pathing down towards
Unwavering Will.
There is some good value in Inspiration, especially if you are using
a more single-target healing-focused build. Other more situational utility
options are
Move with Grace and
Body and Soul.
Lower Talent Rows (8-10)
The lower talent area has a lot of good choices, with nearly every Talent having a situation that can be useful. The nodes you should consider using more often than not are:
- Choice node of
Divine Star and
Halo will be a mandatory pick, with your choice depending on the encounter. Divine Star is great when your whole group is stacked together, and for the added damage. Halo excels where the group is more spread out, and damage is not as much of a priority.
Angel's Mercy and
Binding Heals are both attractive defensive options and will largely be personal preference. The value of Binding Heals, in particular, is reduced if you are not running a heavy
Heal or
Flash Heal build.
Surge of Light is a great addition to single target-focused healing builds, and even in builds centered around
Prayer of Healing provides some free, instant healing.
- On-demand defensive capability provided by
Translucent Image is too good to pass up for just one talent point.
Power Word: Life is a strong ability when the situation allows for
regular usage of it. While this should be a default choice in dungeons, in a
raid, it can be much more difficult to use, and instead, choosing
Benevolence may be a better choice, depending on the encounter.
Multiple defensive options can be taken depending on your
personal preference. Light's Inspiration turns
Desperate Prayer
into a very potent personal defensive. This leads to a passive defensive
option,
Angelic Bulwark. Finally,
Improved Fade can be good to
increase the uptime of
Translucent Image.
There may be some specific usage for Void Shift that makes it
desirable for some encounters, but it is not a common talent to take
outside of niche situations where it helps bypass a difficult mechanic.
Essence Devourer doesn't do enough healing to warrant taking when
compared to other talent options available.
Lastly, Mindgames can be taken for some additional damage and
healing, but it requires pathing through some undesirable nodes. This is
particularly true for a raid build where you are not already pathing nearby and
will gain significantly less from the talents leading up to it.
Spec Talents
The spec tree starts in the upper half, introducing you to the remaining
core spells that will form your rotation. The left-hand side of the tree focuses
on augmenting Circle of Healing; the center-left portion is Single Target
focused, buffing
Heal and
Flash Heal. The center column of the
tree provides powerful cooldowns in
Divine Hymn,
Holy Word: Salvation,
Apotheosis and
Divine Word. The
right-hand portion of the tree focuses on synergies for
Renew and
Prayer of Mending along with some damage increases through
Holy Fire benefits.
Upper Talent Rows (1-4)
Several talents should be chosen in all situations, and then some decisions should be made about the direction you want your build to head. The default talents are:
Prayer of Healing
Holy Word: Sanctify
Guardian Spirit
After these, where your path depends on the goal of your build.
For Single Target focused healing, you will pick up Cosmic Ripple as
it opens
up the column of single target-focused talents.
For AoE healing, Circle of Healing is an obvious choice and
Sanctified Prayers is a great boost to your
Prayer of Healing
which you will be casting regularly.
Renewed Faith leads later on into
Benediction, which is great for passive group healing.
For increased damage, pathing through Holy Word: Chastise and
Empyreal Blaze to
Burning Vehemence, which, when combined, greatly
increase your damage potential.
Middle Talent Rows (5-7)
The middle section contains most of the talents that buff the spells your
build centers around. It also has the desirable cooldowns Divine Hymn
and
Symbol of Hope. These two talents are the only real mandatory talents
in the middle section, with the rest changing depending on your playstyle.
Single target builds utilize Trail of Light,
Everlasting Light
and
Crisis Management to buff
Flash Heal and
Heal to
provide more healing and be more mana efficient. It also enables you to path
into the better single-target talents in the lower part of the tree later
on.
AoE builds take Healing Chorus and
Orison from the left side
of the tree to buff
Circle of Healing.
Gales of Song provides a
valuable boost to
Divine Hymn healing and
Prismatic Echoes is a
flat increase to all your healing done through increased
Mastery: Echo of Light.
The right-hand side is centered around buffing Prayer of Mending
through
Divine Service and
Prayers of the Virtuous. The extra
bounces from Prayers of the Virtuous, which also lead into the lower section
talent
Say Your Prayers, synergize well with
Benediction,
applying additional renews to your allies and increasing your overall healing
for no additional time or mana spent. Taking these talents emphasizes the
importance of casting the Prayer of Mending as often as possible.
Enlightenment is a bit more situational and can be taken for the
extra regen if there are encounters you find yourself running out of mana.
Before leaning on this Talent, though, be sure you are using your mana well.
Lower Talent Rows (8-10)
The lower section of the tree contains the more powerful capstone
talents on the bottom row of the tree. The only mandatory node in all forms of
content is the Apotheosis (dungeons) and
Holy Word: Salvation
(raid) choice node. For your remaining points, it will depend on the playstyle
you have chosen.
For nearly all builds, the powerful Holy Word improvement
Miracle Worker provides your
Holy Word: Serenity and
Holy Word: Sanctify with an additional charge. This change helps you make
the most of your cooldown reduction from a variety of sources.
Divine Image is a staple for all builds with strong passive healing due
to the large amount of Holy Words you will be casting.
Enhancing single-target builds are Pontifex,
Resonant Words
and
Lightweaver, which are all strong increases to both
Flash Heal and
Heal, and also other spells. These talents
synergize well with other single target talents taken further up the Holy tree
and in the Class tree. Coupled with
Apotheosis and either
Divine Word or
Miracle Worker, you have many tools for triage
healing in both dungeons and raids.
For builds emphasizing the Prayer of Mending talents, both
Epiphany and
Say Your Prayers provide good additional
value.
Answered Prayers has the potential to provide healing and damage
value, but the randomness of the
Apotheosis buff triggering means the
bonus can often be wasted.
Builds focusing on additional damage will want to pick up
Divine Word and
Divine Image.
Desperate Times is not a bad talent, but depending on the difficulty
of your content, it may not provide enough benefit to warrant being taken.
Restitution has situational use in all forms of content and is more
of a personal preference. While planning to get more healing benefits from
talent can be extremely difficult; having the safety of a cheat death can be
desirable, especially in extremely difficult content where you are likely to
accidentally die.
Lightwell is a solid choice in capstone, providing excellent healing
presuming all charges are used, and you are casting Lightwell as often as
practical.
Rotation for Holy Priest Talents
Some talents will require you to play in a particular way to get the most out of them. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 29 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6.
- 17 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated with Patch 10.2 changes.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 08 May 2023: Updated talent trees and explanations for Season 2.
- 07 May 2023: Fixed a talent tree missing a talent.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2022: Updated for patch 10.0.5 talent changes.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
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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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