https://wow.allakhazam.com/wiki/The_Ultimate_Healing_Priest_Guide
The Ultimate Healing Priest Guide
Since the normal priest FAQ hasn't been updated for quite some time, I finally got off my lazy backside and decided to make a healing priest guide myself. Sticky or not, I'm going to bookmark it so that new players can be pointed to a solid read about the class. As a small disclaimer: this is not solely my work. In fact, I have cited many of the probably more knowledgeable priest players from these boards on numerous occasions. Also, keep in mind that none of this is law. A healing priest has the advantage of being able to spec into whatever he wants, as long as his assigned target stays alive. The specs given in this thread are the ones that probably make your life easiest, but if you want to play a holy/discipline hybrid, be my guest; it might even work well enough for raids.
That said, welcome to the ultimate healing priest guide.
Table of contents
What should I expect as a healing priest?What race should I roll?Rundown of priestly abilitiesBasic healing tacticsTalent specs and glyphsPriestly MacrosHandy links
What should I expect as a healing priest?
A healing priest is a class fairly wanted in both PvE and PvP end-game. In PvE, healers are rare and therefore sought after. What you can expect as a PvE healer is to spend most of your time in the back of the raid next to the ranged DPS group. Some will say that playing a healer priest in end-game PvE means you spend most of the time watching green bars. While this is somewhat true, healing in PvE end-game is something you'll either like or dislike. Some simply prefer to be in the back and maintain a clear view of the situation, so to say. While the official Blizzard site states that , I find myself disagreeing. While a tank is the person to call the pulls, healers stand back and have a constant view on the hit points of the entire raid and what's going on, and can therefore direct everybody around as needed.
Aside from that, as a healing priest you will be expected to keep your raid alive, it's as simple as that. You will mostly be asked to focus either on a tank or on everybody else (raid healing), and can specialize in either through talents.
Skills to master as an end-game PvE healer:How to be mana efficient & when to use what healHow to deal with tough/emergency situationsHow to predict incoming damage and how to heal preemptivelyHow to dispel magic and diseases effectively
In PvP, DPS+healer teams have ruled the boards from the start and in fact still do so. Regardless of the class you play, end-game PvP usually has a higher phase than end-game raids. As a healer priest specifically, you will be generally running around a BG or arena, avoiding hits while keeping your teammates alive. You will be avoiding 'up close' situations, but will often be required to deal minor damage or mana burn the enemies healer.
Skills to master as an end-game PvP healer:How to survive by hiding/running until your teammate(s) need healsHow to time your mana burns and CC in an effective wayHow to dispel magic and diseases effectivelyWhat race should I roll?
Let's take a look at each race and their bonuses individually.
Gemcutting - skill increased by 5.Gemcutting is obviously a nice bonus if you intend to go jewelcrafting, but it's not a requirement or such for raids. - Heals the target (50 + 15/Level) over 15 secThe amount healed is increased based on the caster's Spell Power or Attack Power. This ability does not lose casting time from taking damage. 1.5 sec cast. No mana cost. 3 min cooldown. is an interesting spell; it gets the full 100% bonus from +healing, which basically means it scales great at end-game. It also costs no mana, which allows you to cast the spell while staying out of the 5 second rule. While the cooldown is long, it can definitely be a nifty trinket in PvE use. For PvP, it's fairly useless. The 1.5 second cast timer means your enemies have a chance to interrupt you and lock down your entire holy school; all because you tried to get off a minor HOT. - Increases chance to hit with all spells and attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.While more hit is quite nice for shadow priests, healing priests do not need hit at all; there is no chance that a heal will miss the target. Heroic Presence has some minor use in PvP, since you will cast the occasional spell at an enemy there, but it's nigh useless for healing priests. - Reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.Comparable to Heroic Presence. The buff is nice, but it probably won't really help you in PvE. It has minor use in PvP (mainly when you are facing shadow priests who only cast shadow spells) but for a healing priest the talent is pretty lackluster. - While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increases by 10%. Lasts 8 sec.This one has been a nifty trinket from the start. While exceptionally useful in PvP (Gives you another way out against rogues, warriors, death knights and since lately also feral druids), Stoneform also has some minor PvE uses. For example, back at 70, it could be used to remove Moroes' garotte, making the Karazhan fight a little easier. It's situational, but a fairly nice racial.Gun Specialization - Your chance to critically hit with Guns is increased by 1%.Priests cannot wield guns, thus, this racial is 100% useless to a priest. - Reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%.Comparable to a Draenei's shadow resistance. Nice to have the buff, but it isn't going to help you in PvE. In PvP, it has minor use against frost mages. - Allows the dwarf to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap. Lasts until cancelled.While handy to know, find treasure does not have any use in end-game PvP. Its use in end-game PvE exists, but it's minimal; some instances have chests, but they will usually be so obviously located that this skill should not be needed. It can however be a nice buff to your gold pool while leveling. - Increases your Stealth detection.While nerfed with the release of , this racial is still pretty powerful for PvPing priests. A correctly specced and played should nearly always have the opener on you, but this does help a lot in BG's and against feral . â€" Spirit increased by 3%.Fairly useless for PvP; 3% spirit can be enough but it's not something that will win you matches. For PvE however, 3% spirit is a very nice bonus. Even with the focus from spirit to intellect with the release of , spirit is still very important to healing priests (and even more so to holy specced healing priests - more about that ahead). 3% spirit in PvE simply is a very nice buff. The spirit bonus is applied after gear but before buffs. - Reputation gains increased by 10%.Useful mainly for getting up your reputation with factions who sell item enchants, like . A bit more useful for PvE than PvP, since most PvP item enchants can be bought in and do not require reputation.Sword & Mace specialization - Expertise with Swords/Maces and Two-Handed Swords/Maces increased by 3.Both are nearly completely useless for a priest. Priests should never be meleeing a mob. Aside from that, priests cannot use swords. - Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.Basically, this racial does the same as a . It does share its cooldown with the PvP trinket, so it's not a free out. On the brighter side, what this racial allows you to do is equip two trinkets of your choice rather than the standard PvP trinket and just one of your choice. This has obvious use in PvP, but also some use in PvE; you'll have a PvP trinket 'equipped' alongside your two healing trinkets, and have the ability to escape a number of crowd controlling abilities so you can keep on healing. - Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect.Next to useless in PvE for one reason, . If you get aggro at one point (which should never happen in a raid) you're better off using fade, which has the same effect but a shorter cooldown. One could argue that Shadowmeld doesn't cost any mana, but all the same; you won't use Shadowmeld a lot as a PvE healing priest, and can do without it just fine. For PvP however, Shadowmeld definitely has a bunch of uses. Mostly, it's used when moving to an obvious spot or to pretend to jump of an object: If you are being chased, act like you jump off that mountain, but just before you jump, stop and use Shadowmeld. Odds are your enemy will blindly jump down. While not the most reliable and best racial there is, this definitely has use in PvP. - Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while Shadowmelded or Stealthed.Since priests can't stealth, this racial is useless for them. - Reduces the chance that melee and ranged attackers will hit you by 2%.Somewhat similar to Frost and Shadow resistance. Useless in PvE, however. If you get aggro you will die in one hit; the chance that this 2% miss chance is going to save your behind is negligible. Somewhat useful in PvP, especially against rogues. Regardless, nothing to go wild over.Wisp Spirit - Transform into a wisp upon death, increasing speed by 50%.Another one of those 'nice to have' racials. This will shorten corpse runs by quite a bit. On the other hand, if you have a talent that improves you in combat you will have less chance that you actually need to do a corpse run. - Reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%.Completely similar to Shadow and Frost resistance; has minor use in PvE, and some use in PvP (mainly against balance specced druids).Conclusion
