[Priest] PvE Holy Guide (for Beginners!)

[Phenetix]

Sir, actually . Not that I care, I've been mistaken for a woman for too often to let it bother me.

It used to be like that, Discipline for PvP and Holy for PvE, but nowadays the specs are pretty close together (except for Holy in Arena), so it's a playstyle preference.

Awesome It's not like you came off as a woman, I can rarely tell so I usually covers my bases with both!

[Deleted]

I think you can safely say that it is completely useless. If you want to do aoe damage as Holy, Mind Sear is the way to go (since it was buffed in 4.1 at least). If you want to heal 5 targets for miniscule healing, Sanctuary is outperforming this one badly. Which is saying quite a lot considering how little sanctuary actually heals for.

Actually, why you don't use those spells both at the same time?

[redneckmedic]

Divine Accuracy is mostly used by Discipline Priests, with Atonement. If it is used by Holy Priests it is for raiding builds with Archangel, and this guide is far from focused on raiding (I do plan to add that some time).
Personally, when I need/want to put out some damage in raids, I just use 3 Mind Spikes and a Mind Blast, and just take any misses. It's not like it matters much.

The bonus 15% healing makes this viable, if not at all popular popular in holy, the cooldown on shadowfiend / fade is not really neccissary and 2% haste is more than enough to get to the extra tick of renew. I'm actually very haste heavy. Holy fire on cd smite in low damage periods.

[ramennoodleking]

I'd have to disagree on the "mandatory" Divine Fury and Tome of Light. Both are situational to your present needs. If you are strictly raid healing as a holy priest (which is generally the case in 25 man), the two points in Tome of Light are useless since the majority of your time will be spent in Sanctuary, and that spell for the most part doesn't need a lowered CD. Divine Fury also may not be useful to a 25 man raid healing priest, since the majority of the time you will be casting only PoH, PoM, CoH, Renew, the occasional Sanctuary, and flash/binding heals will serendipity a GH if necessary, though that will generally be more the exception to the rule.

I agree they are great talents for the 10 man priest, but for a strictly 25 man raid healing holy priest, they can very easily be skipped with justification.

[Ynna]

I'd have to disagree on the "mandatory" Divine Fury and Tome of Light. Both are situational to your present needs. If you are strictly raid healing as a holy priest (which is generally the case in 25 man), the two points in Tome of Light are useless since the majority of your time will be spent in Sanctuary, and that spell for the most part doesn't need a lowered CD. Divine Fury also may not be useful to a 25 man raid healing priest, since the majority of the time you will be casting only PoH, PoM, CoH, Renew, the occasional Sanctuary, and flash/binding heals will serendipity a GH if necessary, though that will generally be more the exception to the rule.

I agree they are great talents for the 10 man priest, but for a strictly 25 man raid healing holy priest, they can very easily be skipped with justification.

This guide was intended for a beginning Holy Priest, healing heroic dungeons. In that content your main focus is keeping the tank alive. I intent to update this guide (hopefully this month, but I've been very busy lately) so it can also help you in introductory raid content. I must admit I have no real experience in 25 man Cataclysm content, so I'm slightly reluctant to expand into that.

[ramennoodleking]

I could write up a 25 man raid healing guide with talents and whatnot for you

[Mazi]

I have written one already and in the process of getting it up here: http://plusheal.com/forum/m/1833799/...iding-guide-42

[Ultima]

Unpinned and linked to http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ng-Guide-(4.2) for reference.

Ynna and ramennoodleking, feel free to talk to me and Mazi if you want to contribute/ add more to the current stick(ies)y.

[Deleted]

Thanks man, I started hating Priest healing, in particular Holy.
I'll try it again, using your tips
Keep up the good work.

[Deleted]

Question: When tankhealing and there is a need for higher output than just heals. What is the most efficient method considering serendipity? Also what is the most hps method?

1. Flash, flash, greater, ...
2. Flash, greater, flash greater, ...
3. Greater, greater, greater, ...
4. Flash, flash, flash, ... (yea prob not just adding to complete the list)

Priest healer is the only healer class that I haven't got at max lvl but both my sister and my gf play this class. The use of serendipity confuses them somewhat and I myself cannot provide a good answer to this.

[[-Spiritus-]]

If I'm not mistaken, and assuming no overheal, max output directly on the tank is HW:Se->FH->FH->GH. While not better HPS, HW:Se->GHx? is the most efficient for the greatest output [again, assuming no overheal].

Of course, you'd expect to be in Ch:Se with a rolling renew, mixing in ProM, & using Binding Heal when FH would be appropriate [while BH is less HPS on a single target than FH, if BH does not overheal on both targets, the difference in output on the tank isn't usually great enough to skip the "free" healing on yourself, assuming FH was an appropriate cast].

Many priests view Serendipity as a "make-up" for having to use FH or BH. It shouldn't change how you use either spell, rather it makes the casting of those spells less cumbersome. Many priests also view HW:Se->FH->FH->GH as a combo to use in a crisis, but not as a core sequence.

EDIT: Also, SoL can be used for the free FH to build a stack of Serendipity. In this case HW:Se->FH[SoL]->FH/BH->GH is both more efficient and greater HPS than HW:Se->GHx?.

[papajohn4]

Is it efficient to use Prayer of Mending on the tank on Cooldown?Assuming I have the Major Glyph..even if Prayer of Mending didn't used all of the charges to the rest group?I am doing this now, but currently I am running in normal modes with good gear so to get used of my spells, e.t.c. Currently don't have mana problems but once I step on Heroics I don't know..

Also what you suggest for a starting healer?Inner Will or Inner fire?I currently run with Inner Will for the mana cost reduced, but I don't know if I lose too much of output..also in heroics can the armor from inner fire save you from 1-2 hits?

[Ynna]

Is it efficient to use Prayer of Mending on the tank on Cooldown?Assuming I have the Major Glyph..even if Prayer of Mending didn't used all of the charges to the rest group?I am doing this now, but currently I am running in normal modes with good gear so to get used of my spells, e.t.c. Currently don't have mana problems but once I step on Heroics I don't know..

Also what you suggest for a starting healer?Inner Will or Inner fire?I currently run with Inner Will for the mana cost reduced, but I don't know if I lose too much of output..also in heroics can the armor from inner fire save you from 1-2 hits?

I've always used Prayer of Mending on cooldown. If you experience mana issues you could restrict its usage to encounters where it will jump at least a couple of times. I'm sure someone will have done the math, but speaking from experience it generally isn't an issue.

As for Inners I would suggest Inner Fire. The Spellpower bonus is very significant and is generally better than the mana reduction. Barring extreme mana issues there's no real reason to use Inner Will, since instants aren't cast that often in a 5 man setting.

[papajohn4]

thank you m8 :P

[Deleted]

Thanks for the guide

[Vraizan]

I've just recently started playing my priest and have been disc because I'd been hearing I'd need a lot of spirit as holy to not go oom. Well now I've got decent gear with spirit and I'd like to try out holy, however, I was wondering if there's some sort of macro I should be using for my holy word:whatever. I typically heal with mouseover macros and would like the holy word macro to include all versions of the spell in one whole deal so I'm not using multiple keybinds. Is this possible, and if so can someone give me a hint as to what it is? I'd simply rather not have to target someone to use my heals since I have mouseclicks bound to other spells and such.

(I know that my gear needs gems and chants if you happen to look at my armory, I was holding off till I got upgrades since I've been gearing up rather quickly and didn't want to waste a bunch of gold, and last night my bf was impatient and wouldn't let me finish my stuffs >.<)

[Ynna]

I've just recently started playing my priest and have been disc because I'd been hearing I'd need a lot of spirit as holy to not go oom. Well now I've got decent gear with spirit and I'd like to try out holy, however, I was wondering if there's some sort of macro I should be using for my holy word:whatever. I typically heal with mouseover macros and would like the holy word macro to include all versions of the spell in one whole deal so I'm not using multiple keybinds. Is this possible, and if so can someone give me a hint as to what it is? I'd simply rather not have to target someone to use my heals since I have mouseclicks bound to other spells and such.

(I know that my gear needs gems and chants if you happen to look at my armory, I was holding off till I got upgrades since I've been gearing up rather quickly and didn't want to waste a bunch of gold, and last night my bf was impatient and wouldn't let me finish my stuffs >.<)

I'm not sure, since I was using a clunky workaround from back in 4.0 until I stopped playing, but I think that "/cast [@mouseover] Holy Word: Chastise" should work for each Holy Word.

[Deleted]

Really nice guide! Thanks a lot.