Holy Priest Guide for The War Within

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Holy Priest. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Holy Priest spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit the War Within Beta. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Holy Priest, but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Holy Priest has received only a few minor core changes to its baseline kit and Talents in The War Within thus far. Blizzard has alluded to there possibly being changes in the future, which could dramatically alter the contents of this page, so check back!

• Priest tree talent layout has been slightly altered.
• Divine Hymn healing increased by 400%.
• Divine Hymn now does reduced healing beyond 5 targets.
• Power Word: Life healing increased by 15%.
• Phantom Reach is a new talent increasing the range of most spells by 15%.
• Cauterizing Shadows heals a nearby ally for a small amount when Shadow Word: Pain expires.
• Mindgames is now a pvp talent and the Shattered Perceptions talent has been removed.

The Divine Hymn changes are aimed at increasing the potency of Divine Hymn in smaller groups, while aiming to be roughly the same strength as in Dragonflight for groups of around 20 players.

While there are only minor changes for Holy Priest's core features, The War Within still has major implications for all specs thanks to the Hero Talent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.

Holy Priest gets to choose between the Archon and Oracle Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk more deeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and some thoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.

The Archon Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on interactions of Halo and Surge of Light.

Gameplay-wise, expect a mostly passive kit that occasionally gives you additional Surge of Light procs, additional casts of Halo, and increased healing through interactions with Power Infusion, Holy Word: Salvation & Apotheosis.

Power-wise, expect a solid all-rounder that amplifies our existing kit more than applying new stuff on top of it. Casting Halo regularly is key to making the most of the tree, so knowing damage patterns will help ensure those extra Halo casts are providing as much benefit as possible.

Defensively, there isn't much added from Archon. There is some nice potential Mythic+ utility from Incessant Screams which provides another AoE stop.

The Oracle Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on its core ability, Premonition, and the buffs it grants which augment your abilities for a short time after being used.

Gameplay-wise, Premonition has a relatively short cooldown and when fully talented will grant 3 buffs:

• Premonition of Insight - Reducing the cooldown of your next 3 casts by a small amount.
• Premonition of Piety - For a short period of time increases healing done and distributes some of your overheal to nearby allies.
• Premonition of Solace - The next single target healing spell also places a large absorb on that ally, along with decreasing the damage they take by a small amount for a short time.

Power-wise, the Oracle tree encourages you to put more thought into the spells you cast after using Premonition. Ensuring you use the buffs effectively are a large part of the value from this Hero tree.

Defensively, however, Oracle is a strong choice with buffs to Desperate Prayer, Angelic Bulwark, Guardian Spirit and single target self-healing.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Holy Priest in The War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentary that is italicized.

• Priest Holy Season 1 2pc — Serendipity is 10% more effective. In other words, abilities which reduce the cooldown of Holy Words, reduce it by a little bit more.
• Priest Holy Season 1 4pc — Heal, Flash Heal, and Prayer of Healing have a 50% chance to cast again at 35% effectiveness. This behaves as it sounds, sometimes mirroring your cast but for a reduced amount.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have any significant gameplay impact.

The 2pc bonus behaves in a similar manner to the Light of the Naaru talent, passively providing more Holy Words throughout an encounter. The 4pc bonus provides fairly regular additional healing to the targets of your filler spells.

Strengths

• Excels at reactive burst and group healing.
• Unique cooldown-based healing style providing regular bursts of healing.
• Powerful group cooldowns with Divine Hymn and the talents Apotheosis and Holy Word: Salvation.
• Group utility with Dispel Magic, Mass Dispel, Mind Soothe, Power Infusion, and Leap of Faith.
• Good single target damage potential, when healing is not required.

Weaknesses

• Properly utilising the multitude of low-cooldown healing abilities regularly can be difficult to track for new players.
• Reliance on short cooldown abilities can hurt sustained throughput, especially single target.
• Mediocre group healing in situations that force a large spread.
• Poor passive damage compared to most other healers.
• No interrupt.