Your Friendly Guide to playing a Holy Priest in Cata

[LatexHealz]

Welcome! I have seen a lot of posts on the forums lately either TRYING to give out useful information, or asking a lot of questions on certain situations. So here I am, I have been healing since Molten Core, I started as a resto druid, In BC, I played a holy paladin and cleared sunwell, in WoTLK I played a priest and cleared all content. I only post this to state that what I say is legit.

I do not come here to throw theory crafting and numbers in your face. I come simply as someone who knows how to play the game, and help others in a simple play style.



SECTIONS:

-Spells
-Chakra States and Uses
-Talents
-Gear
-Gems/Enchants
-Glyphs
-Races/Racials
-UI/Mods

-Encounters/Mechanics




[Section 1] - Spells



As a holy priest you will find yourself with a massive amount of tools at your disposal for healing. It's not what spells you use, but the situations you use your spells in. I feel this is EXTREMLEY important and often times confused with which spell is "the best". Truth is, there is NO best spell, each spell has a use of it's own to increase efficiency in every encounter you come across.

-PoM [Prayer of Mending]

This spell should absolutely be used on cool down regardless of whether or not the fight is healing intense or not. The utility this spell has to offer is unlike any other, simple enough, it's the smartest heal in the game. It bounces to other targets the are low on health, and heals them the next time they take damage [Yes it CAN crit as well]. You never know when there might be an add that does a quick aoe [For example the mobs in stonecore with a AOE ticking ability, this causes prayer of mending to bounce back and forth until all of the charges are used up, healing anyone who takes damage with PoM on them].

-Heal/Chakra State: Heal

Ah yes, heal. Welcome back! There is a lot of frustration/confusion on how exactly this spell should be used. To be honest, it should absolutely be your #1 go to healing spell for most encounters. With ANY trash pull, UNLESS i know for a fact it's a heavy AOE pull [Which is rare in heroics] I always start with renew, chakra Heal.

Why you ask? Simple:
-Cheapest heal we have
-Heals enough to keep the group up
-With enough regen it costs no mana at all [Meaning if your spirit/in combat regen is high enough your regen will tick faster then heal will cost mana.]
-Heal Chakra increases ALL single target spells crit chance by 10%
-Heal Chakra Refreshes renew on anyone it hits [Best for tank healing, but can be used on aoe fights as well as very useful mechanic]
-Out of mana? No problem! Cast heal. [Again, if you have enough Regen this is absolutely possible to do while being almost completely oom]



Downsides? Maybe a few:
-Slower cast
-Not good for emergency situations [Which we will discuss later]


Heal has endless amounts of usage, blizzard bringing this spell into our arsenal was the best choice ever. Do not under estimate the useful ness of Heal, or Heal State: Chakra.


-Flash Heal/Surge of Light

Easy enough, it's our emergency heal and also comes from our SoL procs. Unfortunatly, there are plenty of situations you will probably be finding yourself using this spell. For example:

-Bad pugs
-CC going wild attacking everyone
-Someone made a mistake and everyone just took a huge AOE hit
-Someone didn't move out of the fire fast enough and almost died
-You get the picture hopefully.

Flash heal is a spell you will find yourself using when people make MISTAKES. I will say this, and live/die by it. If you know someone died by standing in something they shouldn't have, defend yourself as a healer. Let the group know it was not your healing error but simple a mechanic of a fight that has to be avoided by said person. On a quick sidenote, I feel that people base their play style on bad pugs, and I don't think this is how it should be. Holy priests have a VERY specific play style, and a unique one to boot and should not be swayed to think otherwise.

Back on topic, Flash heal is your 'AMG CRAP CRAP CRAP SOMEONES DYING" Go to, emergency spell. Try your best to not panic if people get low on health and think you HAVE to cast flash heal. It's pretty rare that is the case and again, only if someone messes up.

Now onto Surge of light. People whine, complain that it is only a 6% proc chance. With the amount you cast heal however, it procs quite often. Which is another reason you should be using heal more!

Surge of Light makes your next flash heal cast within 10 seconds instant cast, cost NO MANA, BUT not able to crit.

Benefits:
-Instant Free Heal [What could be better?]
-Flash of Light procs Serendipity
-ITS A FREE HEAL!!! Use it regardless if someone needs it, it procs serendipity, and why waste something thats free?!


-PoH [Prayer of Healing]/CoH[Circle of Healing]
By far, my personal favorite spells we have for so many reasons.

Prayer of Healing: Heals all members of your current party within range for X amount.

Benefits: PoH

-Aoe healing, obviously
-Glyphed with PoH glyph + mastery it puts an extremely nice hot on anyone it hits.
-Not a terribly high mana cost, yes it costs more then other spells... but think about it, it's healing 5 people all at the same time for the amount that your HEAL hits for. Not too shabby.

Benefits: CoH
-Instant Cast
-Used directly after a PoH, can increase the amount of aoe healing done in a short time span.
-Can be used in emergencies when someone is JUST barley alive and you have no other way to heal them.
-Not a terrible mana cost
-Procs our Mastery Hot


On the note of using CoH directly after PoH, upon discovery, I found that you should NOT actually cast CoH directly after a PoH, instead let the mastery from PoH tick once, THEN CoH. Which means waiting about an extra second, which isn't bad.

Reason: CoH appears to be clipping the mastery hot that is applied from PoH if it is cast before the mastery gets a chance to tick once.

So, here it is. Our aoe healing arsenal. PoH and CoH. Clearly our choice for aoe fights. Such as, Sindragosa! yes I know it is cata, but most people have seen this fight and can relate to the type of aoe damage it puts out.

One of the best aspects of PoH/CoH combo is the master proc, PoH glyphed puts a hot on the targets it heals healing 20% over 6 seconds, with 6500 Spell power, thats roughly 1000 Every two seconds for 6 seconds. On top of the mastery proc, with 18-20% Mastery, roughly the same as the glyphed hot. So we are looking at a TWO hots

1 Ticking every second for 18-20% (if you geared properly)
1 Ticking every two seconds for 20% (If glyphed)

Conditions of using these two spells are fairly simple:

-If you have 1-2 Stacks of serendipity up
-If the group is taking HEAVY consistent aoe damage [I bring back the trash mobs from stonecore that spam that nasty AOE]
-THe entire group is at 50% health and you know it's going to continue to go down, cast PoH.

Do not be afraid to cast PoH if it's needed. CoH helps, but often times just is not enough to get an entire party back up to where they need to be. The mana cost is higher then other spells YES. However, has multiple abilities that proc off it, increasing it's efficiency.


-BINDING HEAL

Wait, whats that spell do again? OH RIGHT! It costs the exact same as flash heal, however... heals TWO TARGETS! Your current target, and then YOURSELF. Also slightly healing for LESS, then a normal flash heal, but more then a regular heal.

Wait so, you are telling me this spell has actual USE? Well of course my friends it DOES! Believe it or not, blizzard actually made this a good spell in cata.

Benefits:
-Procs Serendipity x1
-Heals two targets, for the same mana as one spell that heals a SINGLE target
-Procs our Mastery

So, you ask "What situations would I cast this?" I answer this by saying "OMG THERES AN ADD ON ME AND MY OBLIVIOUS PUG TANK HAS NO IDEA AND OMG HES TAKING DAMAGE AND OMG SO AM I!!"

I think that speaks for itself, when you are taking damage as well as someone else you are healing [I find this most useful when I am tank healing]

I wouldn't say this is a spell i use TERRIBLY often, but often enough to post it in this guide as an important play style mechanic.


-Greater Heal

Welcome back to molten core raiding 101!!

Ill start with this:

Benefits:
-By far our most mana efficient/largest heal spell we have.
-Heals for more then Flash Heal, AND costs less mana.
-Procs our mastery
-Great for healing when people are low on health, but there is no incoming damage.
-With serendipity x1 or x2, it has the same cast as a flash heal and costs 40% less mana.

Downsides:
-Same cast time as heal [NOT A 100% DOWNSIDE]
-Unreliable as an emergency heal unless x2 serendipity is up

So, as I was saying. Our by FAR most EFFICIENT heal in the game for the above said statements. I find myself using this spell a lot honestly. It's a good replacement for regular heal when people are low on health, but just not taking damage. [Perhaps they stood on a bomb in TolVir and got blown up].

I strongly recommended use of this spell when you can. People seem to shy from it because of its slow cast, but half the time you will have at LEAST 1 serendipity up due to SoL procs from flash heal. And honestly, you just should be using this spell when heal is just not enough.


-Renew

Discussion time, I have had a lot of people trying to convince me that renew is still a good spell for multiple people. I cannot come to terms with believing this, to me I just think there are many other spells in our arsenal that can be used more effectives then renew can, I think it's a great spell for SITUATIONS, but I do NOT advise the use of relying on renew to save anyone.

They nerfed renew spam quite a bit in cata, it costs a lot more mana now, and does not heal quite as much as needed in current encounters for the high mana cost.

Id say it's more about a quickness thing, yes healing is less frantic, but renew also ticks fairly slow, every two seconds. With 7500 spell power it still only ticks for 3500/2s.

Not bad, but not amazing! For aoe encounters I still suggest a mix of PoH and CoH timing and SoL procs.

Currently with haste and renew: You need 12.5% raid buffed haste [meaning any class buffs you get, moonkin aura, lock buff, shaman totems ect] in order for your renew to grant an extra tick of healing.

Benefits:
Good for tank healing

Downsides:
-High mana cost
-slower healing then PoH/CoH
-Does not heal for enough to be useful with current health pools/raids as aoe healing


-Hymns


Divine Hymn, and Hymn of Hope.

Divine Hymn

Basically casting 3 regular heals on your party members every x amount for 12 seconds and increasing healing done to those targets by 10% for 8 seconds. Its usefulness comes in that it IS a smart heal. Meaning it targets low party members first to heal them up.

Benefits:
-OMG EVERYONES TAKING DAMAGE AND IDK WHAT ELSE TO DO
-Decent amount of healing, wont top off a group like it did in wrath, but can sustain health pools during aoe spikes.
-Not a terribly high mana cost, 7.7k
-Good for end of fights when mana is running thin
-Does proc mastery

Downsides:
-Does not heal for enough to top off a group
-Long Cooldown


This is absolutley a panic spell, for me at least. I find myself using it most when things unexpectedly happen and I can't react fast enough to said situations, mostly at the end of boss fights. A good example is the THIRD boss in Blackrock Caverns. The aoe damage at the end of that fight + adds can make it somewhat tricky to decide who is going to take the most damage at that time, PLUS, everyone at that point is taking massive damage and I pop it at 10+ stacks regardless just to be safe.

Hymn of Hope

Nerfed in wrath, meh. Still a good spell for multiple reasons.

Benefits:
-When used with shadow fiend + arcane torrent. Gives back MASSIVE amounts of mana
- Grants you 15% of your mana for 8 seconds [Great for those times when you are OOM, and just HAVE to get off a PoH or two, or a couple flash heals.]
-Grants 2% of your mana every 2 seconds [Less with haste] for 8 seconds]

Downsides
-Very VERY long cooldown
-Bosses seem to love casting a spell on you right after you use this cooldown, so be wise when you use it!


Lightwell

-THEY MADE IT GOOD!!! YAY!

All I can say about this spell, is GET PEOPLE TO USE IT. Before every boss fight, I place it to ensure people see it, and make note of how good it is simply because a lot of people do NOT understand how much it got buffed and how much of a group saver it CAN be.

Benefits:
-6k+ hot [Depending on SP] every two seconds.
-No mana cost
-Usable by whoever needs it

Downsides
-People DONT use it
-People FORGET to use it
-People TUNNEL vision on their DPS and dont realise it's just as important for them to manage their OWN health pool when able to


I can't say enough how glad I am blizzard made this a useful spell, I can say I wish it worked more like the lightwell you see in ToC 5 man. However, I cannot complain because this spell is just TOO good to NOT use!!

I can't stress enough making a macro for this spell, stating its usefulness within. I have a macro that describes it and everytime I cast it I see someone say "Oh wow they buffed lightwell? It's actually good now!"



-Power Word: Shield/Body and Sould[Talent]

I am going to go more in depth with this talent, to show it's usage and clarity of when it should/should not be used.

IF YOU ARE SPECCED INTO BODY AND SOUL IN THE HOLY TREE. It makes PW:S one of your largest tools to survive in raids. Increases your movement speed by 60% for 5 seconds when you cast power word shield on the target.

This is absolutley something that I would spec into regardless of the fight, because you are ALWAYS having to move around on bosses at SOME point and avoiding mechanics.

"BUt there is a disc priest in the raid and i don't want to screw them over!!!"

Answer: Coordinate the fight with the said disc priest,, let them know you are specced into body and soul and tell them that you will be shielding people targeted by mechanics they need to escape from. This prevents the problem of worrying about weakened soul on the target, and any confusion in the raid.

"I got yelled at by a disc priest for shielding people, but I thought i was doing the right thing?"

Answer: Check why you were shielding people, were you doing it at the correct times? Do not shield people if you have a disc priest in the raid UNLESS you coordinated with them and told them you were shielding specific people or during specific times. If they don't understand after that, then they are just silly and should read up on their other talent trees more.

benefits:
Body and Soul [Easier positioning transitions, quicker movment out of void zones/fires/bad things/ect.]


Downsides:
Mana cost
Does not absorb as much as disc
Interupts disc priests bubbles on the raid


Leap of Faith

Our new cata healing tool!! yayyy. well, not REALLY healing, but in a sense yes.

Benefits:
Need I say more? Grip those baddies standing in fire tunnel visioning their weak dps!

Downsides:
I can't say I know of any! Maybe it's longish cooldown, but shouldn't be needed that often if the group is competent.

Every day I find myself using this more and more in different ways, not just in "OMG GET OUT OF THE FIRE" ways but, also in ways of "TANK WHY ARE YOU KITING THE BOSS TOWARDS OTHER TRASH PULLS? *Grips* kind of ways.

It has endless utility, and in my opinion IS a healing tool because it can reduce the amount of healing you may need to do in a group/raid setting.

Find your own ways to use this spell as much as possible, but dont be silly with it and start griping people for no reason...


-Shadowfiend

Need I say more? Sadly yes, because our shadow child simply forgets to take his ADD medication on a daily basis *sigh*

Make this macro.

#showtooltip Shadowfiend
/cast [nopet] Shadowfiend
/petaggressive
/petattack
/cast [harm, pet] Shadowcrawl; [target=pettarget, pet] Shadowcrawl
/cast [target=pet,exists]Dispel


Because unless we dot a boss, this wonderful tool will simply sit at our sides and purr at us quietly asking to be pet. Instead of shadowcrawling the boss and being useful.


Inner Will/Inner Fire

Not really a "Healing" tool, but more of a output/regen tool.

I personally have not used inner will yet in an encounter, I am sure I will eventually but if you manage your mana properly you shouldn't HAVE to use this spell. It's more of a playstyle choice then anything.

TO me, id say it's a better disc talent for shielding then anything because of the mana reduction

Innerfire is the spell I use, I just like having the spell power and glyphed, the extra armor to mitigate any melee damage I might take from adds/aoes.

Benefits: Inner Fire
-More spellpower/output
-Increased armor from glyph

Benefits: Inner Will
-Reduces mana cost of all INSTANT cast spell by 15%
-Increased movement speed by 10%

Downsides: Both
None



Guardian Spirit)

It's our "OH CRAP SOMEONES DYING" spell. Mostly used on tanks, but I have found plenty of times to use it on DPS.

For 10 seconds ALL healing done to the target is increased by 40%, and if the target takes a killing blow during the duration it saves them and heals them for 50% of their health instantly, removing the effect if triggered.

Great spell for holy priests to have, it's our saver for tanks and anyone who is about to die, not much else to say about it as use it wisely and make sure you don't waste it on someone standing in a fire and not moving, if they die to it. Thats their own fault.


Benefits:
-Life Saver! And increased healing for the duration if it isn't triggered.
-VERY low mana cost

Downsides:
-Long Cooldown



Spirit of Redemption[Talent]

I have gotten into some discussion on wether or not this is a raid viable talent. The answer?

YES, for god sakes think about it. It's a new expansion, new content new possibly never before seen mechanics. Wipes happen, deaths happen, mistakes happen. People are going to make mistakes, whether or not it's you, is beside the point.

Examples: Someone has a debuff on them and didnt move out of the raid fast enough, and you just happened to be on the outer edge of the group just close enough to said person, and were the only person in the raid to get hit be this "explosion" of sorts. you die, GUESS WHAT?

SPAM HEAL THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYTHING TILL IT'S USED UP! Then wait for a battle res, if it is available.

Example 2: "Oh my god an add spawned and the tank wasn't able to pick it up fast enough, i got healing aggro and got owned"

Guess what?

SPAM HEAL THE CRAP OUT OF THE RAID!!!!!

See what I am getting at? Situations happen, where this talent could be either a group saver or simply, just an announcment to the raid that you oopsed, one which is good, one which is obviously bad.

A lot of people have the idea of "WHY ARE YOU DYING YOU DONT NEED THIS TALENT!!"

I go back to my point on progression, enough said on that note.



A lot of discussion on this talent has also come up because of the fact that it does NOT give the 5% spirit buff anymore. Which is true, but because of above said statements I reccomend taking it.


Call it playstyle, if you don't see it suited for you. THen don't take it I am not forcing it upon you to say "YOU MUST HAVE THIS!" For me, it's my playstyle to be ready for ANY situations that arise in a raid setting where things can go wrong, very very quickly.



Chakra: Serenity/Sanctuary


-OK! here we go. CHAKRA! No not naruto chakra, well.. kind of, but not really

Lets start with the basics of ANY chakra state.


-Chakra is probably the biggest change to how holy priests work in raids, think of different chakra states as "stances" similar to how battle/defensive/Berserker work. or DK presense.

-The difference? Chakra is actually a spell you have to work to maintain for a period of time by casting certain spells to add time to the duration, and also to proc the chakra "state"

-Chakra: When activated your next Heal, Prayer of mending, Prayer of healing or smite will put you in a chakra state based on what you used to trigger it.

-Tome of Light: It's our wonderful talent that helps us keep chakra refreshed. Whenever you cast one of the trigger spells that trigger a specific chakra state, it increases the duration of said chakra state by 4 seconds. No cooldown. With this talent, you can keep a chakra state up infinitely and is highly suggested to take advantage of this.




Lets start here.

Chakra: Serenity


It's our single target healing chakra. What does it do? Increases the critical chance of all single target spells by 10%. So that list includes, flash heal, greater heal, heal, and our wonderful Holy Word: Serenity.

Which brings me to our holy word. Holy Word: Serenity. It's the spell we gain through Chakra State: Serenity. It's an instant cast that heals roughly between what heal and flash heal would hit for, capable of a critical hit. It also puts a buff on the target that increases the critical strike chance of YOUR heals on that target by 25% for 6 seconds.

-This holy word can be used in multiple situations, the best two I reccomend are:

-When you need to get an instant cast off on someone who is low on health.

-When you need to bomb heal the tank.


Overall it's a great spell for us, it's low in mana cost, and heals for a good amount. It also procs our mastery.


When should I be using chakra: serenity? Well, it's up to you really, but I can suggest a few situations that might occur that give you full benefit of this chakra.

-When bosses are not heavy in aoe damage, and there are bursts of spike damage on a single target.
When you are TANK healing
Heroic 5 mans, where random "oops" happens a lot, and there just isn't a lot of AOE damage that isn't healable by single target casts.

-Between phases in boss encounters, for example atramedes. In ground phase I am in our other chakra state, otherwise known as Sanctuary. And during the air phase, i switch to Chakra: Serenity.

Atramedes is a good example for the useage of switching chakras during boss encounters due to the very different types of damage that go out in the different phases of the fight. Ground phase he aoes a lot on the raid, where poh/coh/mending is needed. Air phase damage is mostly based on how people are positioning themselves and who gets targeted by certain single target abilities.


Moving on! Chakra: Sanctuary!

I mentioned this spell already, you can probably guess what it does!

When chakra is up, and you cast either PoM or PoH it procs. It increases the healing done by all aoe effects by 15% also including renew. Also reduces the cooldown on Circle of Healing by 2 seconds.

This is obviously, our AOE healing chakra. This is used when boss fights wield high amounts of aoe damage and a lot of PoH/CoH/PoM is needed. 15% on our aoe healing abilities is no joke, because on top of the extra 15% to our AOE healing, thats 15% to our mastery from those spells we cast.

Examples of when to use:

Sindragosa: Constant heavy aoe damage on the entire raid the entire fight

Atramedes [Grounded]: Bursts of heavy aoe damage on the raid

Chimaeron: Heavy aoe damage consistantly, although you don't have to get people TOPPED off, you have to get them to a certain health, quickly.


This chakra is refreshed by PoM and PoH.






Section 2 - Talents

You could say holy priests have several options in terms of specs, I am only going to list the three I personally see most effective.

1] http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfu...cdoh:aVozmV0mV

2] http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfurrRzbkcdoob

3 http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfurMRzrkcdoh [Body and Soul]

4] http://http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfubrRorkcdoh For those of you who love renew, and cannot let go of the talent.


The difference lies within either Darkness 3/3 or Veiled Shadows 2/2 and having Body of Soul 2/2. Body of soul after 3.1 became VERY useful for encounters where kiting is specifically important, in current content[Raids] there are plenty of fights this could become useful.

I personally play the third spec, it's more of a playstyle issue then anything. I have been a healer for a VERY long time, so I know how to manage my mana properly enough to not need the extra cooldown on shadowfeind. Not saying I wouldn't even use it, I may switch eventually, but for the time being I personally prefer the haste.


There are other specs out there, even one with archangel in it, but none of those specs are just as viable as these two. They both have your main arsenal in healing, and your regen talents as well.

Specs right now are fairly self explanitory so there isn't much explanation needed, feel free to ask questions on this part if needed though!



Glyphs

PRIME

-Glyph of Prayer of Healing: Need I say more? No reason to NOT get this glyph as a holy priest.

-Glyph of Renew: Could be switched out for Lightwell glyph, but until I feel comfortable with people ACTUALLY using lightwell I will keep renew for the tank.

-Glyph of Guardian Spirit: Reduces cooldown by 30 Seconds.

Major

-GLyph of Dispel: One of the best glyphs in my opinion. On a tank with 180k Health, this is actually an effective heal when dispeling. I wouldn't say spam it on the tank to actually heal them, but casting dispel takes time away from actually healing, and you should NOT ever NOT have this glyph

-Glyph of Circle of Healing - More of a raid glyph, but still an excellent one, increases the usage of CoH by 1 target. Think of it as a free heal.

-Glyph of Inner Fire: Increases armor from inner fire by 50%. Not a bad glyph, not the best. I use it just in case random adds go haywire in groups. Extra mitigation is never a bad thing.


Minor

No real major choices, I use Shadowfiend, Shadow protection, and levitate.


Optional Prime Glyphs:

-Spirit of Redemption (Ignore the people who say "WHY ARE YOU DYING YOU SHOULDN'T NEED THIS GLYPH ITS BAD) It is simply and elitest statement that should be ignored. The truth is, if you are progressing through raids, dying is GOING to happen... and battle res IS available in raids, so if something happened and something killed you, 6 seconds of extra healing wouldn't be a terrible thing if you could get battle resed right after.

Flash Heal: This would be my last option in terms of glyphs seeing how flash heal is not used nearly as much, and the situations where people are below 25% health are low. 10% crit is nice, but not as useful as other glyphs.

-Glyph of Mass Dispel: Useful for Algaloth 25 man in baradin hold, could be used on other encounters but is more of a situational glyph VS a permanent one due to mechanics of fights, its rare you will have a raid 100% grouped up needing a mass dispel.. unless you are fighting Felmyst... which you shouldn't be


Either guardian spirit OR renew can be switched out for lightwell and I highly recommended it if you are in a raid setting where people actually use lightwell, 5 more charges is 5 more heals being cast at NO mana cost, nothing could be better.


Section 3 - Gear/Stats


Ok GEAR/STATS! WOO! Favorite part!

I am not going to sit here and harp on "YOU HAVE TO USE THIS PIECE OF GEAR BECAUSE ITS WHAT IS BEST IN MY OPINION.

I am simply going to state what I play with, and what STATS are priority. Simply because everyone has a different play style and gear comes as it drops, theres no need to know exactly what piece of gear you need. As long as you can recognize when a piece has good stats for your class, thats all you need.


The basis: Int>Spr>Haste>Mastery>crit

Why you ask? Simple.

Intellect - is above all else, because it gives you the most of anything. Both Spellpower (Output) and Regen (replenishment + bonus to spirit regen), and increases your overall mana pool. More mana = More casting regardless of regen

Spirit - Your regeneration, and as a holy priest with the last hotfix increasing total in combat regen for a holy priest to 90% absolutley one of the most important stats you could have. Why?

-Spirit gives you BACK mana over time.
-Mana lets you cast, so regen in a way can be thought of as output because if you regen mana, you can cast more. If you don't regen mana, you can't cast!

A lot of people can say intel is still superior to spirit, which yes is true to an extent. However, your mana will eventually run out regardless of how much int you have, you NEED spirit in order to gain back what you lose from casting.

Haste - Output, currently in cata it is far harder to get haste to a higher% I do NOT reccomend STACKING haste gems. But if a piece of gear has haste on it that drops, and you are wearing a crit ring. HASTE SHOULD NOT BE STACKED IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ADEQUIT MANA/REGEN FOR ENCOUNTERS. Spirit/Int comes ABOVE any other stat. Do not start stacking haste until your regen is high enough to sustain the faster casting.

-Currently for haste 12.5% haste RAID BUFFED, gives you an extra tick on your renew, this does NOT enforce renew spam, simply makes renew a better spell for that case
-Haste reduces the casting of all spells, and now that you are using more slow spells to cast, it's important to have haste on your gear to increase casting times on heals.
-It's output, haste allows you to cast MORE spells in a shorter period of time.

Mastery - I fell in love with mastery once I got it higher, having a good 18-20% mastery as holy is what you should aim for currently, more isn't bad. However, do not sacrifice other stats to stack mastery.

-Increases output, and is healing at NO mana cost
-Refer back to glyph of PoH + mastery in earlier section

You just can't go wrong with mastery, it's free healing.

Crit - Not a very useful stat for healers, not absolutley terrible but not something I would say you should gear/gem for. SoL no longer procs off of crits, just off of heal casts which completely threw crit under the bus.

-Crit is better for disc then holy
-SoL does NOT proc off crits anymore



Section 4 - Gems

There are a lot of options for gems, Personally I play by what I need, not whats "best"

-For example, if I am low on spirit, and I have blue sockets, I would gem either Int+spirit, or just a spirit socket.
-Low on int/SP? Socket Int/mastery, Int/haste, or pure int.


On current gear, the socket bonuses are very useful, because sockets have changed to either pure stats, or sub stats.

-If a socket bonus has intellect, get it, if it has spirit, get it.



Things like haste/Mastery are optional for sockets, but make sure you are meeting your meta gem requirments and if you have a socket color that matches one of your priority stat gems, then get it for god sakes!!


Hybrid Gems

Orange
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52208
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52205

Purple
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52236


Pure Breed Gems

Red
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52257 [Jewelcrafting only]
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52207

Blue
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52244
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52262



Enchants:

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52761 [Heartsong] - Has a VERY high uptime of 200 Spirit, BEST healing enchant until you can get power torrent.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52774 - [Power Torrent] Best enchant once your guild gets the enchant/materials. Currently a very expensive enchant and only recommended using it on 359+ items you wont replace for a while, unless you have the gold to spare of course.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52760 [Hurricane] - 450 haste proc for 12 seconds, decent enchant for output, I wouldnt reccomend using for holy, good for shadow.


Leg Enchants
http://www.wowhead.com/item=54448 [ Epic ] - Also a tailoring version which is practically free but wields the same stats.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=54449 [Blue] - Very Cheap if you cannot afford the epic one, or do not have tailoring at 475.


Shoulder Enchants
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86403 - Inscription, best shoulder enchant possible.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=62343 - Therazane Exalted


Gloves
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52749 - 50 Haste

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52687 - 50 Mastery


Bracers
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52770 - 50 Spirit

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52785 +65 Haste

Chest
http://www.wowhead.com/item=52739 - 20 Stats

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52765 - 40 Spirit


Cloak

http://www.wowhead.com/item=52773 - 50 Intellect

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=75175 - Tailoring 800 mana proc

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=75172 - Tailoring 580 Spell Power Proc



Head
http://www.wowhead.com/item=62367 - Hyjal Exalted +60 Rep



UI/Mods

For healing, especially now that we are back to actually having to THINK about healing. Having a clean UI is important, I will post my current UI as an example. There are many MANY uis you can download from Wowinterface.com that would be suitable for healing as well, or you can always create your own.

Here is Mine.

[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]




Mods I personally wouldn't raid without.

Grid
Deadly Boss Mods


Those three are honestly as much as you will need for raiding, the other mods are used simply due to making UIs look nice and customizable. Others may argue but if you know your stuff well enough, you should only need .

Other useful mods:

Clique
Bartender [Easy keybindings and customization for raids]
Sexy map [Able to make your map smaller/fade it out to clear up screen space]



Useful macros:

I will start with mouseover macros. If you do not like to use clique [Which does take getting used to, but it's amazing when you do] mouseover macros are your next best option by far. I have been using mouseover macros for healing since molten core, and have never gone wrong with them!

What do mouseover macros do for us?


A: They simply make healing easier, how they work is easy. They allow us to cast a spell on a target, simply by pressing a key on our keyboard and hovering our mouse over the target. The nice part, is there is absolutley no clicking to target people required, just moving your mouse around on the screen over health bars.

It makes healing faster and more effective.

An example of this would be:

#showtooltip Circle of Healing
/cast [target=mouseover] Circle of Healing


You would then put this macro on your hotbar, and find which hotbar it is placed on. Then bind that macro to a specific key on your keyboard. For me for example, my CoH is bound to my number 3 button for easy access.

You can currently do this with ALL healing spells EXCEPT FOR HOLY WORD:X

Currently for holy word:X, the only workaround I found is THIS:

#showtooltip Holy Word: Chastise
/target [@mouseover]
/click ActionButton10
/targetlasttarget


What this macro does, is creates a way for your game to click ANOTHER hotbar key by pressing this macro.

How would I use this?

I would put this macro on my hotbar, and bind the key. Then for example, the macro says its going to click "ActionButton10" I would find where action button 10 is on my bars, and place "Holy word: Chastise" from my SPELLBOOK, onto ActionBar10. Then when I used this macro, it would use whatever chastise has morphed to.

NOTE: IN ORDER FOR THIS MACRO TO WORK, YOU MUST HAVE HOLY WORD CHASTISE ON YOUR HOTBAR. Do not forget like I did at first and wonder why it's not workin!!

A great mod for this, is bartender, easy access to keybinds and knowing which hotbar you are using!


Dispel Macro + Stopcasting.

I have ALWAYS had a stop casting command in my dispel macro, simply for fights where dispeling is a priority over healing. If you are the only dispeler this will be more useful for you then you think.

Example: I am in the middle of a greater heal, and the boss puts a dot on someone that needs to be dispelled instantly. This macro stops whatever you are currently casting and casts dispel on your target.

Macro:
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover] Dispel Magic



Power Auras

More now then ever as a holy priest, we have to maintain specific "states" and buffs.

Here is an example of my power auras, I will explain it's use after the pic



Intersting layout aye? Mine is more elaborate then most need to be, I do it because im a nerd and I like to keep everything cohesive with my class.

BREAKDOWN:

The yellow/orange streaks you see on the side I have setup when SoL procs.

The blue "Antlers" on the top show serendipity stacks, when there is only one stack only the lower layer of blue shows up, two stacks theres two layers.

The golden angel wings in the middle show my chakra state, you cannot see the one behind it, but I also have the same one that is green. Golden shows heal chakra, green shows aoe chakra.


More now then ever this mod is useful for priests, it's a simple way to keep track of procs and chakra, and makes your screen look nice.


On a side note, in my power auras setup, do you see a holy moose? i do.






Races/Racials


Goblin/Blood elf are best right now in terms of racials if you are looking to change or make a new character.

Blood elf being on top. Arcane torrent gives back 6% mana every 2 minutes, it's basically a free mana pot every 2 minutes. With 100k Mana, thats 6k Mana back, which is a flash heal or greater heal which can either save or wipe a tank on a boss.

Goblin gives a 1% static haste buff, not a bad racial, but not the greatest. Good for output however.

Trolls give a nice haste buff, works like a trinket use ability. Good for bursts of healing, id put it third on the list in terms of being useful.

Tauren don't give any real good racials to priests, warstomp maybe for pvp. The extra health is nice, but minimal at best.

Undead are good for pvp, fear break.




In all honesty, unless you absolutley BOUND to racials helping you, play the race you want to play! The game is completley doable regardless of class, it's simply just perks that help a little not game breaking.


Professions

Currently there is some kind of benefit from EACH profession regardless of class.


I currently use engineering and inscription.

Blacksmithing gives Bonus sockets.

Tailoring gives decent cloak enchants and free leg enchants

Inscription gives an AMAZING shoulder enchant

Engineering gives an epic helm, and great tinker enchants for PVE content [Warning on failures ]

Herb gives a haste buff for a short amount of time

Alchemy gives mixology and a boost to flasks.


My top picks are obviously engineering/inscription.

Reasons:

Engineering currently grants a tinker to your gloves. with 1 minute cooldown increasing intellect by 420 for 12 seconds. Which rounds out to around 90 static intellect Absolutley fantastic.

Aside from that tinker, there is also Nitro Boost, which most of you have hopefully seen it grants a huge movement speed boost for 5 seconds [AMazing for escaping things] the downside? it can fail and actually cause effects that are able to kill you, for example.. instead of making you run fast, it blows you up in the air and can kill you from falling damage.

Inscription gives you the best shoulder enchant in the game, 80 more intellect then the epic one from reputation. Thats a lot of intellect.

[Decan]

Looking good so far, nice work man.

[Deleted]

Indeed. Much appreciated.

[Decan]

I will try that spec tonight.
Thanks again for the guide

[Syrrah]

Imo, 2/3 Twin Disciples and 1/2 State of Mind for 2/2 Body and Soul. The speed increase is just amazing when you really need it, and the poison removal is handy. Ozruk, Slabhide, second boss in HoO, Tol'vir (last boss) are some fights that Body and Soul is quite nice for.

Overall, this guide is pretty nice

edit:: it might be worth noting that Leap of Faith can be used to pull people back up ledges that they may have fallen/jumped down from. First boss of HoO anyone?

[muto]

I don't know why you said Blizzard made binding heal useful again. Binding heal has always been useful. Not quite sure I like the guardian spirit glyph over glyph of lightwell either, and for the major glyphs, as of now I am using glyph of fade, dispel, and spirit of redemption, but if I was raiding I would switch fade out for circle of healing, and spirit of redemption for mass dispel or something.

[Tableplz]

Looking good! Thanks for the guide.

[Kelesti]

Blessed Resilience isn't even mentioned (which on a point per point basis is better than Surge of Light, but that's preference on the person, worth noting).

Body and Soul (even more important) is ignored in both builds, and is left out of the "why should I ever cast Power Word: Shield ever".

Your guide was showing promise, until you ignored Body and Soul, one of the reasons to spec Holy since 3.1

[Aliahna]

Yeah body and soul is very helpful in Cata due to kiting having a role again. Atramedes isnt a fight we have tried yet but the person being "tracked" by the laser beam of fire (think Felmyst or Kologarn) is going to find this useful. Add kiting on Maloriak is another. Slime Fixate on Omnitron Defense System. Too many uses in Cata to discount it imo.

[Maxpowr]

Blessed Resilience isn't even mentioned (which on a point per point basis is better than Surge of Light, but that's preference on the person, worth noting).

Body and Soul (even more important) is ignored in both builds, and is left out of the "why should I ever cast Power Word: Shield ever".

Your guide was showing promise, until you ignored Body and Soul, one of the reasons to spec Holy since 3.1

I'm with Kelesti on this one.

Spec is about personal style and catering to your needs. However, B&S is a holy priest staple. I would dump the points out of SoL and into B&S. Especially if you are assigned raid healing (which as holy is very probable), you will hardly ever be casting heal to get decent mileage out of SoL.

Your glyph choices are pretty off also. Glyph of Mass Dispel is a REQUIRED raiding priest glyph and you don't even mention it. While Glyph of Dispel may be nice in 5-mans, in a raid scenario, multiple people will end up needing to be dispelled (and hardly just the tank) making MD the better choice over normal dispel. As for the minor glyphs, yes again, there are REQUIRED ones. Levitate and fade (for the reduced mana cost). The last one you can play around with but many choose fort.

[Aliahna]

Glyph of Mass Dispel is a must on Argaloth (the PVP boss).

[LatexHealz]

The guide also isn't done whatsoever, I quickly put together what I could think of off the top of my head. I am still adding tons of things, paitence please.

Try not to flame the post before it is even finished.


EDit: I actually forgot about the body and soul build, I added it to the guide. Thank you for reminding me on that.

[slyy]

Next time finish then publish it.

[pimpeddakota]

Meh, I use

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bcbZfu...dZhb:Vo0Rqzz0M

I found out that there is never a time I need GS. Generally it would be wasted on a dps because he is doing something he shouldn't but thats why I have LoF.

BTW, LoF is also a very good spell in the cases while your tank is kiting and he somehow messed up and doesn't have a clear path to avoid aoe dmg you can help him get over it. Other great option here is your lower his incoming dmg to allow you to catchup on a heal on either him or any dps.

One heroic I ran with the SP and myself were having too much fun with each other with it.

Lastly, might be worth mentioning that haste should be avoided at all cost if your having mana issues currently. You need around 1900 spirit if you pug generally

[Deleted]

I have to say I think you are downplaying renew a lot.
Personally about ~40% of my healing comes from renew on some fights. It's real easy to keep it rolling. Refreshing it is pretty much free (if your spirit is high enough for your mana to be regained by the end of a heal cast).
I can easily keep renews going on the entire party. For example Heroic HoO, Anraphet's Omega Stance. I usually end that fight with 100% mana. Also since the mana cost is so low why not keep it going. If you need to pop off any kind of emergency heal (ie: flash) it'll renew as well. It's free healing. There's no reason you should use this as tank only, imho. If a random DPS takes some damage: renew. He should not be getting hit with more damage instantly anyway, so you only waste 1 GCD. This means you can keep regular heals going on the tank instead of having to spend more mana on greater heal/flash heal because you "wasted" 2-2.5s not tank healing.

This is just what works for me though. I've had no problem with this, in heroics, but can't speak for raids. I know I finish a lot of fights with 100% mana this way, and generally I do not have to sit down & regen in a heroic at this point. (Unless people stand in fire a lot)

Edit:
Why are you putting Spirit of Redemption in all your builds? You should not be dying!
This seems like a fairly solid build imho, and it also favors the use of renew a bit more by lowering the GCD.
Sacrifices Desperate Prayer because it's pretty useless imho. If you find yourself in a situation that you have to use it, you or your group are probably doing something wrong.

I'd link to a build that I find fairly good but the board doesn't allow me to post links yet
Therefor I shall cheat the system:
www[dot]wowhead.com[forward slash]talent#bchZfhrrRorkcdo0b: oVZ0

[pimpeddakota]

I have to say I think you are downplaying renew a lot.
Personally about ~40% of my healing comes from renew on some fights. It's real easy to keep it rolling. Refreshing it is pretty much free (if your spirit is high enough for your mana to be regained by the end of a heal cast).
I can easily keep renews going on the entire party. For example Heroic HoO, Anraphet's Omega Stance. I usually end that fight with 100% mana. Also since the mana cost is so low why not keep it going. If you need to pop off any kind of emergency heal (ie: flash) it'll renew as well. It's free healing. There's no reason you should use this as tank only, imho. If a random DPS takes some damage: renew. He should not be getting hit with more damage instantly anyway, so you only waste 1 GCD. This means you can keep regular heals going on the tank instead of having to spend more mana on greater heal/flash heal because you "wasted" 2-2.5s not tank healing.

This is just what works for me though. I've had no problem with this, in heroics, but can't speak for raids. I know I finish a lot of fights with 100% mana this way, and generally I do not have to sit down & regen in a heroic at this point. (Unless people stand in fire a lot)

but why not just hit him with a "heal". You give him same effect for less mana and with our mastery being greater than 20% it heals for more

[LatexHealz]

Renew on party and heal chakra on them IS viable as I stated.

However, PoH puts double the hots on the people it heals and costs less mana then keeping renew on, plus in 25 mans you wont always just be chakra healing 5 people, you have to move around and do other things as well, not just tunnel vision healing.

It is VERY rare you will fight a boss that does not require you to move around and focus you attention on something other then healing. Hence why I don't see it as viable.

---------- Post added 2010-12-23 at 09:27 AM ----------

About your view on mass dispel.

It is VERY rare you will have a group of raid members grouped up close enough to make mass dispel useful, its farr cheaper mana cost and more effective to use glyph of dispel for any dispelling macro.


Other then algaloth, I do not know of ANY encounter in current content that mass dispel is required.

---------- Post added 2010-12-23 at 02:25 PM ----------

I have to say I think you are downplaying renew a lot.
Personally about ~40% of my healing comes from renew on some fights. It's real easy to keep it rolling. Refreshing it is pretty much free (if your spirit is high enough for your mana to be regained by the end of a heal cast).
I can easily keep renews going on the entire party. For example Heroic HoO, Anraphet's Omega Stance. I usually end that fight with 100% mana. Also since the mana cost is so low why not keep it going. If you need to pop off any kind of emergency heal (ie: flash) it'll renew as well. It's free healing. There's no reason you should use this as tank only, imho. If a random DPS takes some damage: renew. He should not be getting hit with more damage instantly anyway, so you only waste 1 GCD. This means you can keep regular heals going on the tank instead of having to spend more mana on greater heal/flash heal because you "wasted" 2-2.5s not tank healing.

This is just what works for me though. I've had no problem with this, in heroics, but can't speak for raids. I know I finish a lot of fights with 100% mana this way, and generally I do not have to sit down & regen in a heroic at this point. (Unless people stand in fire a lot)

Edit:
Why are you putting Spirit of Redemption in all your builds? You should not be dying!
This seems like a fairly solid build imho, and it also favors the use of renew a bit more by lowering the GCD.
Sacrifices Desperate Prayer because it's pretty useless imho. If you find yourself in a situation that you have to use it, you or your group are probably doing something wrong.

I'd link to a build that I find fairly good but the board doesn't allow me to post links yet
Therefor I shall cheat the system:
www[dot]wowhead.com[forward slash]talent#bchZfhrrRorkcdo0b: oVZ0

Why am I putting spirit of redemption in my builds?

Because it's the beginning of an expansion, wipes are going to happen and so will dying. Having extra healing if something goes haywire on a boss fight is never a bad thing, it's not like it's impossible to kill a boss with 1 healer down.

Saying you do NOT need it is an elitest comment and there is no reason to not get it.

[Decan]

LatexHealz thanks again for the guide, I tried your spec last night and did indeed like it very much. I found healing a lot better last night. I did get some new items bringing my spirit up from 1200ish to about 1700 now so mana regen is a lot better. I hear after 2.5k man regen is not really a problem.

The heal chakra renew&heal combo is fantastic!!! I must have missed that before but putting renew on the Tank/melee seems to work awesomely. I am only lvl84 and only doing normals but i noticed the difference last night after reading the guide.

Just going to read over your new section now regarding gear and enchants.

Thanks again

---------- Post added 2010-12-24 at 10:15 AM ----------

In order to start heroics what is a good starting point for stats needed?

Spirit
Intellect
Mastery
Haste

[Marraphy]

Really nice and thorough guide :] You have convinced me to drop some of those Renew talents.

One little thing though - Glyph of Psychic Scream. I think every Priest that's going to PvE should have that glyph.

[Decan]

Lastly, might be worth mentioning that haste should be avoided at all cost if your having mana issues currently. You need around 1900 spirit if you pug generally

So 1900 spirit is enough to do heroics?

---------- Post added 2010-12-24 at 10:25 AM ----------

Your guide was showing promise, until you ignored Body and Soul, one of the reasons to spec Holy since 3.1

Really??? I had it in my build before and now that I don't have it I find the new build way better because I have room for other talents. After really reading it I though yeah that talent is a bit of a waste. But I guess everyone is different.

Blessed Resilience isn't even mentioned (which on a point per point basis is better than Surge of Light, but that's preference on the person, worth noting).

I am still looking in to this surge of light, I mean its good and has procced at some good times but doesn't really proc all that much, however as a healer you really shouldn't be getting hit that much right? but it does happen. That is indeed a hard call, Blessed resilience or surge of light... I think I will have to do some testing on that and see which gets a better proc rate.