Holy Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

Welcome to our Holy Priest Rotation section. Here you will learn everything you need to know about properly healing as a Holy Priest in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

Healing is primarily based on your ability to react to the damage that the group takes, and as such, there is no set rotation. Rather, you must understand what spells are best suited to the different situations that can occur during an encounter.

Below, you will find the optimal use of your abilities, and it will be up to you to combine them efficiently in combat.

Raid healing is primarily focused on group healing and priority triage on targets that may be in danger of death. A lot of your decision-making will be based on incoming damage and the cooldowns you have available. It is better to use your cooldowns early and often than it is to save them for unknown future situations.

The next section outlines the priority you should follow in raids. You should not cast a spell that will mostly overheal, so keep this in mind as you work through the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be significant overheal.

• Oracle hero talent.
• Oracle's Miraculous Recovery talent.
• Lightweaver talent.
• Divine Word talent.
• Holy Word: Salvation talent.
• Apotheosis talent.
• Lightwell talent.
• Power Word: Life talent.
• Halo talent.
• Divine Star talent.
• Rhapsody talent.

1. Premonition when it is off cooldown.
2. ** Holy Word: Salvation when the majority of the raid is heavily injured.
3. ** Divine Hymn when the majority of the raid is heavily injured.
4. Lightwell in a group of allies, usually near tanks and melee.
5. Divine Word followed by Holy Word: Sanctify (if available) on a cluster of injured allies.
6. Prayer of Mending when you have Premonition of Insight.
7. Holy Word: Sanctify when a cluster of your raid is injured.
8. Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
9. Apotheosis to counter heavy group damage. During Apotheosis, weave Flash Heal and Heal with Holy Word: Serenity as often as possible.
10. Circle of Healing on cooldown when at least 4 allies are injured.
11. Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally below 35% hitpoints 50% hitpoints .
12. Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on the active tank.
13. Holy Nova near 5 or more injured allies at 16 or more stacks of Rhapsody.
14. Halo when most of your raid is injured.
15. Divine Star when most of your raid is injured.
16. Flash Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death.
17. Alternate between Flash Heal and Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death, general-purpose raid, or single-target healing, utilizing the Lightweaver buff.
18. Prayer of Healing for general-purpose raid healing.
19. Shadow Word: Pain an enemy when no healing is required, and the enemy will not die in 16 seconds.
20. Smite an enemy when no healing is required.

**Note on raid cooldowns: While Divine Hymn and Holy Word: Salvation are listed in the rotation above; you will typically coordinate your raid cooldown usage with your raid leader, healing officer, or healing team to try and maximize their usage to counter dangerous parts of the encounter without overlapping or wasting them.

Be mindful when using Halo as this spell not only heals your allies but also damages enemies it hits. In some encounters you may have dangerous enemies that are being crowd-controlled, and the damage from Halo may break this crowd-control.

Premonition is the main ability for the Oracle tree. There are 3 buffs it can provide you, and each should be considered when deciding what to cast next.

• Premonition of Insight - Your priority for Insight should be to cast Prayer of Mending as much as possible.
• Premonition of Piety - Piety should be paired with Divine Hymn or Holy Word: Salvation where possible to maximise healing done. In the event neither of these are available, you can spam yourself with single-target overhealing utilising Guardian Spirit and Prophet's Will to heal nearby allies.
• Premonition of Solace - Typically used on a tank to get the most out of the absorb shield it leaves behind. This can also be used on debuff targets or allies near death in a similar fashion to Guardian Spirit.

When talented into Divine Image, your playstyle shouldn't really change whether or not you have a Naaru active. You still want to emphasize casting whatever suits your current situation, and the Naaru will mirror that appropriately. The only exception to this is Holy Word: Chastise, which can be used right before periods of intense healing to provide an added burst.

Divine Word will typically be used with Holy Word: Sanctify for the AoE healing. If playing Oracle the Holy Word: Serenity buff pairs really well alongside Premonition of Piety to increase the amount of overhealing that spills over to allies.

Miracle Worker provides you with an additional charge of both Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify. When playing with Miracle Worker, you still want to avoid capping at 2 charges to maximize the cooldown reduction provided by casting your other spells. Exceptions to this are when there is large amounts of damage upcoming in the very near future, in which case it can be beneficial to sit on 2 charges for a short period of time.

Lightweaver is fairly simple to use. The goal is to alternate between Flash Heal and Heal, utilizing the buff that Flash Heal generates to buff the Heal casts. Ideally, you shouldn't be casting Heal without having the Lightweaver buff active. Also, be mindful of the Trail of Light talent and try to spread your trail back and forth between targets that need ongoing healing with your Flash Heal and Heal casts.

Your first obvious aim when using Lightwell should be to use it as often as possible in order to get the most value out of it. When deciding if you should cast it, think ahead to where the raid may be moving and if the raid will be taking considerable damage. Ensure the raid is in range to utilise the healing bolts from Lightwell before it expires. Finally, Lightwell will despawn when you move further than 100 yards from it, so consider this too, before placing it down.

Most of the time, your primary role is to heal and keep your raid alive. That said, your raid does not always need healing, which leaves you time to cast some damage spells. Most of your damage will come from Smite, as it has the added benefit of being able to trigger Surge of Light. If you need to push out additional damage or have excess Mana, you can also cast Holy Fire on cooldown and keep Shadow Word: Pain up on any enemy that will live longer than 15 seconds.

The tier bonuses for Season 1 are entirely passive. Neither of the set bonuses change how we play. The only notable mention is the 2-set continues to emphasise using Holy Words before they are at the maximum number of charges so that the additional cooldown reduction is not wasted.

Dungeon healing is primarily focused on casting your short-cooldown spells regularly, and using Flash Heal to heal multiple allies at once through the Trail of Light talent. A lot of your decision-making will be based on incoming damage and the cooldowns you have available. It is better to use your cooldowns early and often rather than save them for unknown future situations.

Below is the priority you should follow in dungeons. You should not cast a spell that will result in mostly overhealing; keep this in mind as you work through the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be significant overhealing.

• Archon hero talent.
• Lightweaver talent.
• Divine Wordtalent.
• Apotheosistalent.
• Lightwell talent.
• Power Word: Lifetalent.
• Halotalent.
• Divine Startalent.
• Holy Novatalent.

1. ** Divine Hymn just before large amounts of group-wide damage.
2. Lightwell in a group of allies, usually near tanks and melee.
3. Divine Word followed by Holy Word: Serenity (if available) on an injured ally.
4. Halo when available.
5. Holy Word: Sanctify when most of your group is injured.
6. Holy Word: Serenity on an injured ally.
7. Apotheosis to help counter heavy group damage then continue your regular rotation.
8. Circle of Healing on cooldown when at least 4 allies are injured.
9. Prayer of Mending on cooldown, usually on the tank.
10. Power Word: Life for emergency triage on an ally below 35% hitpoints.
11. Flash Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death.
12. Holy Nova near 5 or more injured allies at 16 or more stacks of Rhapsody.
13. Divine Star when multiple allies are injured.
14. Alternate between Flash Heal and Heal for emergency triage on an ally near death, general-purpose raid, or single-target healing, utilizing the Lightweaver buff.
15. Holy Fire an enemy when no healing is required.
16. Shadow Word: Pain an enemy when no healing is required, and the enemy will not die in 16 seconds.
17. Smite an enemy when no healing is required.

Dealing with damage while in dungeons is often overlooked by healers. While any additional damage is beneficial to your group; it should not come at the cost of keeping your group alive, which is your main priority. Smite is your main damage dealing ability costs very little Mana and can proc the Surge of Light talent.

Damage spell priority for 4+ targets:

1. Halo
2. Divine Word with Holy Word: Chastise (if talented)
3. Divine Star
4. Holy Fire
5. Holy Nova with 16+ stacks of Rhapsody
6. Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
7. Holy Nova

Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:

1. Halo
2. Divine Word with Holy Word: Chastise (if talented)
3. Holy Fire
4. Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
5. Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
6. Divine Star
7. Smite

If the rotations below seem overwhelming at first, you might benefit from checking out our Easy Mode page, where the simpler rotation will get you started until you are comfortable learning to heal as Holy Priest in more depth.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation tips, please visit our PvP page below.

As a Holy Priest, you have three main cooldowns. We've listed how each one should be used below.

Divine Hymn will heal all raid members within 40 yards over 8 seconds, and also increase the healing they receive during that time. Keep in mind that the spell is channeled, so you cannot perform other actions while casting it.

Generally, your raid leader will assign you to use this spell at a certain time in the fight to counter a heavy burst of damage. If this is the case, make sure your spell is available at that time.

Otherwise, you should simply try to find a moment when using this spell is beneficial. Most often, this will happen during a period of very intense raid damage.

Holy Word: Salvation is a strong raid cooldown that will heal all allies in range and place a Renew and 2 stacks of Prayer of Mending on them.

Generally, your raid leader will assign you to use this spell at a certain time in the fight to counter a heavy burst of damage. If this is the case, make sure your spell is available at that time.

Otherwise, you should simply try to find a moment when using this spell is beneficial. Most often, this will happen during a period of very intense raid damage.

Guardian Spirit is one of the most useful tools you can bring to a raid. Using it places a buff on the target, which lasts for 10 seconds and increases all healing received by the target by 60%. If the target receives a killing blow during this time, they will not die and instead be healed for 40% of their maximum health, consuming the Guardian Spirit effect.

While you can use this on any raid member who is about to die and whom you have no other means of saving, it is by far better used on a tank that is about to take a large amount of damage. You should make sure to communicate with the tank and other healers to ensure that you do not use multiple powerful cooldowns at the same time.

You can also use this spell to allow tanks (or other players) to survive an ability that should have otherwise have been avoided, either as part of your raid's strategy or to recover from a mistake.

Keep in mind that your raid leader may assign you to use this spell for a specific event in the encounter.

Symbol of Hope is a unique cooldown that provides all healers in your raid with Mana when you channel it. It also reduces the remaining cooldown on a defensive ability for all targets.

The amount of Mana gained by each target is dependent on how much Mana they are missing, so this ability is often best used toward the end of encounters. Exceptions to this are when you are asked to use it earlier to help members of your group have their cooldowns available again much sooner.

If you are unsure of when to use it, a general rule of thumb is to use it either when your remaining Mana is below 20% or the boss' remaining hitpoints are below 20%

The above information should allow you to perform at a high level as a Holy Priest. In the following sub-sections, we offer a few additional pieces of information, and we expand on some concepts further.

Heal and Flash Heal have a passive ability that reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity by 6 seconds. Prayer of Healing reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify by 6 seconds, and Renew reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify by 2 seconds. Smite reduces the remaining cooldown of Holy Word: Chastise by 4 seconds.

When talented into Voice of Harmony, more abilities grant cooldown reduction to Holy Words, the amount depends on the number of talent points invested.

• Circle of Healing - Holy Word: Sanctify
• Prayer of Mending - Holy Word: Serenity
• Holy Fire and Holy Nova - Holy Word: Chastise

While you do not need to actively manage this mechanic in any way, it is very important that you are aware of its existence and that you constantly monitor the remaining cooldowns of your Holy Words so that you can use them as soon as they become available.

For more information on the synergy between various talents, as well as deciding which talents you can change around and why, check out the Holy Priest Talents page.