Holy Priest PvP Guide (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Holy Priests
  • 1.1. Strengths of Holy Priests
  • 1.2. Weaknesses of Holy Priests
• +2. Talent Choices for Holy Priests
  • 2.1. Regular Talents for Holy Priests
    • 2.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
    • 2.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
    • 2.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
    • 2.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
    • 2.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
    • 2.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
    • 2.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 2.2. Honor Talents for Holy Priests
    • 2.2.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 2.2.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 2.2.3. Tier 3 Talents
    • 2.2.4. Tier 4 Talents
    • 2.2.5. Tier 5 Talents
    • 2.2.6. Tier 6 Talents
• +3. Racial Bonuses for Holy Priests
  • 3.1. Horde
  • 3.2. Alliance
• +4. Playstyle for Holy Priests
  • 4.1. Before Gates Open
  • 4.2. The Opener
  • 4.3. Healing Techniques
    • 4.3.1. Burst Healing
    • 4.3.2. Sustained Damage Healing
  • 4.4. Serendipity
  • 4.5. Defensive Techniques
• +5. Useful Macros for Holy Priests
  • 5.1. Holy Word: Chastise 123 Macro
  • 5.2. Purify Party Macro
  • 5.3. Holy Ward Self Macro
• 6. Gear for Holy Priests
• +7. Artifact Traits for Holy Priests
  • 7.1. First Golden Trait
  • 7.2. Second Golden Trait
  • 7.3. Remaining Traits
• 8. Relics for Holy Priests
• 9. ChangeLog

Introduction

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play a Holy Priest in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, artifacts, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.

About The Author

This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Holy Priests

Holy Priests are the most underrated healer right now. Usually a specialization that struggles, Holy Priests excel at healing against spread pressure or single-target teams. Many teams will struggle with how much utility and immunities you have.

1.1. Strengths of Holy Priests

• Strong spread healing
• Multiple powerful healing cooldowns
• Very Mana efficient

1.2. Weaknesses of Holy Priests

• Struggle against teams with two melee on it
• Have to cast most spells to get value from cooldowns
• Subpar sustained single-target healing

2. Talent Choices for Holy Priests

Regular talents work in both PvP and PvE content (although they may sometimes work differently in the two environments, which is indicated by their tooltips). In other words, they are always active.

On the other hand, Honor talents are inactive outside of a PvP environment.

2.1. Regular Talents for Holy Priests

2.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

Trail of Light is the best choice in this tier. This talent helps with healing against teams with both single target and spread pressure.

2.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Angelic Feather is the best choice in this tier. This will help you run to or from enemy players. If you find yourself not using Angelic Feather often, Perseverance is a good talent if the enemy team will focus you.

2.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Censure is the best choice in this tier. This is a strong stun to use on a kill target or for setting up crowd control on the enemy team.

2.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Light of the Naaru is the best choice in this tier. Serendipity is a strong passive that will increase your healing output when used correctly.

2.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

In any other situation or if you prefer single-target healing, Surge of Light is the best choice in this tier. This gives you strong single-target healing that is instant. Against teams with strong spread pressure, Piety can be a good choice. Prayer of Mending is your strongest heal in every situation. Giving it the ability to reduce the cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify makes it easier for you to heal against teams with strong spread pressure.

2.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

Divinity is the best choice in this tier. This talent is strong because your Holy Word spells are crucial. The increased healing this grants makes it easier to keep teammates alive.

2.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Apotheosis is the best choice in this tier. This gives you access to your important spells faster from Serendipity.

2.2. Honor Talents for Holy Priests

2.2.1. Tier 1 Talents

Against teams with very little crowd control, Adaptation is the best choice in this tier. With abilities like Holy Ward and Greater Fade it will make it hard for teams to put you in crowd control. Against any other team, Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is the standard PvP trinket effect with a 2-minute cooldown.

2.2.2. Tier 2 Talents

Vim and Vigor is the best talent in this tier. Most teams will not focus a Holy Priest, and because of this, the 20% healing bonus greatly increases your healing output. If you do think the enemy team will focus you, Inner Focus is the best choice in this tier. The cooldown matches well with Ray of Hope to guarantee a large heal on you or a teammate.

2.2.3. Tier 3 Talents

Holy Ward is the best choice in this tier. This talent will make it very hard for enemy teams to put you in crowd control.

2.2.4. Tier 4 Talents

Greater Fade is the best choice in this tier. In combination with Holy Ward, you will rarely be sitting in crowd control. Use this when you do not have Holy Ward active. Alternatively, you can use it when teams are focusing you to reduce nearly all of the incoming damage.

2.2.5. Tier 5 Talents

Rapid Mending is the best choice in this tier. The important part about this talent is that it makes Prayer of Mending instant. Because of this, you will be able to keep you and your teammates alive with very little casting. This is also a large healing increase.

2.2.6. Tier 6 Talents

Ray of Hope is the best choice in this tier. This ability is by far your strongest single-target heal. While active, it is important you use Prayer of Mending and Flash Heals to guarantee a large heal.

3. Racial Bonuses for Holy Priests

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

3.1. Horde

The racial gained from being an Undead ( Will of the Forsaken) is really strong. This gives you an additional way to get out of crowd control.

3.2. Alliance

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns.

4. Playstyle for Holy Priests

The main role for a Holy Priest, besides keeping your team alive, is to use your utility to prevent your teammates from using cooldowns and keep them offensive. You will be able to keep your team alive by using your powerful utility, such as Greater Fade and Holy Ward. By rotating these two cooldowns you should not be in crowd control often.

To keep your team offensive, you will often push in with your team to try to get a Holy Word: Chastise on the enemy team. You can use Angelic Feather to increase the uptime your teammates have.

4.1. Before Gates Open

If you are playing against a team without the ability to steal/dispel buffs on yourself, you will want to use Holy Ward before the gates open. However, if you are playing a team with the ability to steal/dispel buffs you will want to use it right before you enter crowd control.

Make sure your team has a strategy for crowd control, Holy Word: Chastise is a strong stun that should be used on a DPS when trying to get a kill or on a healer to setup crowd control.

4.2. The Opener

The other team is going to try to force your trinket in the opener so they have an advantage later in the game. If you are about to be put into crowd control try to use Greater Fade if you do not have Holy Ward active.

As soon as the gates open you will want to use Renew on all of your teammates, including yourself, and use Prayer of Mending.

4.3. Healing Techniques

4.3.1. Burst Healing

The great thing about Holy Priest is that they have the multiple ways to keep teammates alive and high on health.

1. The first method is best when the enemy team has multiple kicks available. It is also the fastest way to heal someone to high HP.
   1. Use Light of T'uure.
   2. Use Prayer of Mending if it is off cooldown.
   3. Use Holy Word: Serenity.
2. The second method is best used when you have both Ray of Hope and Inner Focus available:
   1. Use Ray of Hope
   2. Use Prayer of Mending if it is off cooldown.
   3. Use Inner Focus.
   4. Use Flash Heal.
   5. Use Flash Heal.
   6. Use Flash Heal.
3. Finally, the third method is best used when playing against teams with strong spread pressure.
   1. Use Light of T'uure.
   2. Use Prayer of Mending.
   3. Use Renew on all of your partners, including yourself.
   4. Use Holy Word: Sanctify.
   5. Use Divine Hymn.

It is important to note that if you are using Apotheosis, try to wait until you have at least one Surge of Light proc. This will guarantee a shorter cooldown on Holy Word: Serenity and it is all instant.

Holy Priest cooldowns are relatively short and you will not have to cast often. It is important to take advantage of this by using Prayer of Mending as soon as you can.

4.3.2. Sustained Damage Healing

Use this to heal sustained damage throughout the match (damage done when the other team does not have burst cooldowns available).

1. Use Prayer of Mending as soon as it is off cooldown. This will make up a large majority of your healing.
2. Maintain Renew on all of your teammates, including yourself.
3. If you are not in danger of being interrupted, cast Heal to save mana.
4. Use Flash Heal if one of your teammates is taking strong single target damage.
5. Use Holy Word: Sanctify on your teammates to deal with spread pressure.
6. Use Divine Hymn if your team is having trouble recovering from spread pressure.
7. In the downtime of an arena match try to use Smite to reduce the cooldown of Holy Word: Chastise.

4.4. Serendipity

A unique passive that Holy Priests have is Serendipity. This passive lets you use certain abilities to reduce the cooldown of your Holy Word spells.

• Holy Word: Serenity: every time you use Flash Heal or Heal it reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity by 6 seconds. Take advantage of this when you are playing with a team with strong single-target damage. The more times you use Flash Heal the faster you will have your strongest heal.
• Holy Word: Sanctify: Every time you use Prayer of Healing or Prayer of Mending it reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify by 6 seconds. This one should not be too hard as you should be using Prayer of Mending as soon as it is off cooldown.
• Holy Word: Chastise: Every time you use Smite the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Chastise is reduced by 6 seconds. This is a very strong passive to take advantage of. It is important to use Smite if there is any downtime in an arena match. Reducing the cooldown of your only crowd control can catch teams off guard.

4.5. Defensive Techniques

Greater Fade will be your primary defensive if teams focus you. When active, you will take little to not damage, but will still be vulnerable to interrupts. It is best to get interrupted and then use Greater Fade to greatly reduce incoming damage.

Guardian Spirit should be used when you or a teammate is very low on health and you have do not have a way to get out of a stun. Instead of dying you will instantly heal for 40% of your maximum health.

Desperate Prayer is a decent heal that can only be used on yourself. Depending on the damage you are taking, it has a chance to reset its cooldown from the artifact trait Times and Measures.

Although not a defensive for yourself, Leap of Faith is great for helping teammates who are stuck in a stun or overextended. This ability can also be used to get your teammate behind a pillar to heal them.

5. Useful Macros for Holy Priests

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Holy Priests can benefit from.

5.1. Holy Word: Chastise 123 Macro

• #showtooltip Holy Word: Chastise
• /cast [target=arena1] Holy Word: Chastise

Using this macro will use Holy Word: Chastise on arena enemy 1. This makes it easier to crowd control an enemy while healing your team. If you want macros for the second and third enemies, simply change the arena1 to arena2 or arena3.

5.2. Purify Party Macro

• #showtooltip Purify
• /cast [target=party1] Purify

Using this macro will cast Purify on party player 1. This makes it easier to dispel a teammate while healing the rest of your team. If you want a macro to dispel the second party member, change the party1 to party2.

5.3. Holy Ward Self Macro

• #showtooltip
• /cast [target=YOURNAMEHERE] Holy Ward

Using this macro will use Holy Ward on yourself. This makes it quicker to use if crowd control is being cast on you.

6. Gear for Holy Priests

With regards to gear, the biggest change in Legion is that there is no more PvP gear. Your strength in PvP will be determined based on the average item level of your gear (as displayed on your character sheet). For example, the base item level at level 110 is 800, so your stats in PvP will be adjusted accordingly. For every 10 item levels you gain, your stats are increased by 1%.

The implication is that it does not matter where your gear comes from, and all that matters is its item level. Gear from quests or PvE content is just as good as gear you get as a reward from PvP (which, in fact, will be very similar to PvE gear; there are no more PvP stats on gear).

Practically, you will simply look to collect gear with the highest item levels possible, and the stat distribution on the gear will not matter.

7. Artifact Traits for Holy Priests

Below, we will explain what the recommended order for artifact traits is, if you wish to maximise your PvP potential. It is quite possible that your artifact path (at the time of reading this guide) differs from our suggestions. If this is the case, do not worry, and use the information below to help you understand your traits and guide your future choices.

If you recently decided to make a Holy Priest and are behind on your Artifact weapon, or you have decided to venture into PvP with your Holy Priest, try to first get the closest Golden trait. Picking up some of the more crucial traits ( Focus in the Light, Holy Mending and Power of the Naaru) is highly recommended to begin PvP.

7.1. First Golden Trait

The first Golden trait you want to reach is Light of T'uure.

1. Take Follower of the Light.
2. Take Holy Guidance.
3. Take Trust in the Light.
4. Take Focus in the Light.
5. Take Serenity Now.
6. Take Light of T'uure.

7.2. Second Golden Trait

The second Golden trait to go for is Blessing of T'uure.

1. Take Say Your Prayers.
2. Take Power of the Naaru.
3. Take Blessing of T'uure.

7.3. Remaining Traits

After this, you should try to pick up the last Golden trait, Renew the Faith, picking up the remaining traits after that. There is no specific order for the rest, but a recommended trait to get is Guardians of the Light.

8. Relics for Holy Priests

Relics are disabled in PvP, so they are not a concern to you.

9. ChangeLog

• 12 Apr. 2018: Made several updates to the guide and its structure.
  • Added sections for Macros, Strengths, and Weaknesses.
  • Moved Gear, Artifact Traits, and Relics sections to the end, since they are not that important.
  • Changed recommended Tier 5 and 7 regular talents and Tier 2 honor talent.
  • Updated "Burst Healing" and "Sustained Healing" rotations.
• 15 Nov. 2017: Fixed a small error in the Serendipity description.
• 09 Sep. 2017: Not many updates needed for 7.3
  • Removed Artifact Trait descriptions.
  • Changed recommended Tier 1 regular talents.
• 04 Aug. 2017: Changed a spell error under the "Burst Healing" rotation.
• 06 Jul. 2017: Guide added.

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