On this page, we list your Holy Priest coreabilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of WarcraftMoP 5.4. We also explain whento use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtletiesthat you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a HolyPriest.

The other pages of our Holy Priest guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.

1. Rotation↑top

Healing is in great part based on your ability to react to the damage thatthe raid takes, and as such there is no set rotation. Rather, you mustunderstand what spells are best suited to the different situations that canoccur during a raid encounter.

Below, we provide you with the best actions to take in each situation.

There is a difference in healing style between 10-man and 25-man. We willbegin by discussing 25-man healing (and within this category, we will beginwith raid healing, which is your most likely role in 25-man), and we will thendedicate a separate section to 10-man peculiarities.

1.1. 25-man

1.1.1. Raid Healing

Whenever you are raid healing, you should be in Chakra: Sanctuary, asthis increases your AoE healing and also lowers the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 seconds. Additionally, it grants you the Holy Word: Sanctuary ability.

Depending on what types of damage you are facing, you should use thefollowing guidelines. Note that within a category of damage, the spells arenot necessarily listed in order of importance.

• Low damage or no damage
  • Cast Circle of Healing on cooldown, as long as it will heal at least3 players.
  • Cast Heal on players who need topping off.
  • Place Renew on players who have sustained some damage or maysustain damage in the near future.
  • Cast Prayer of Healing, assuming that it heals at least 3 players inthe group you are casting it on (with minimal or no overhealing).
• Low to moderate damage
  • Cast Circle of Healing on cooldown, as long as it will heal at least3 players.
  • Keep up Prayer of Mending, if the damage is at all sustained.
  • Keep Renew up on several targets, pre-casting it shortly beforethey take damage, if possible.
  • Cast Prayer of Healing, assuming that it heals at least 3 players inthe group you are casting it on (with minimal or no overhealing).
  • Place Holy Word: Sanctuary on the ground, in an area where there are alot of raid members. Ideally, cast this a few seconds before the damagebegins.
• Moderate to high damage
  • Place Holy Word: Sanctuary on the ground, in an area where there are alot of raid members. Ideally cast this a few seconds before the damagebegins.
  • Pre-HoT some players with Renew.
  • Cast Circle of Healing on cooldown.
  • Keep up Prayer of Mending.
  • Cast Prayer of Healing (if the previous actions are not enough tocover the damage).
• High sustained damage
  • Place Holy Word: Sanctuary on the ground before the damage begins.
  • Pre-HoT players with Renew before the damage begins.
  • Cast Circle of Healing on cooldown.
  • Keep up Prayer of Mending.
  • Spam Prayer of Healing.
• Emergency situations
  • Cast Flash Heal on a player that is really low on health and inimminent danger of dying.
  • Cast Binding Heal on a player that is really low on health and inimminent danger of dying, if you yourself are also in need of healing.
  • If you have stacks of Serendipity (from having cast Flash Heal orBinding Heal), then you can use the hastened Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing for emergencies as well.

1.1.2. Tank and Single-Target Healing

Whenever you are tank or single-target healing, you should be in Chakra: Serenity. This increases the healing done by all your single-targetspells by 25%, and causes them to refresh the duration of Renew onthe target. Additionally, it offers you the Holy Word: Serenity ability.

Depending on the types of damage you are facing, you should use thefollowing guidelines. Note that within a category of damage, the spells are notnecessarily listed in order of importance. Note also that when we refer to thetank, we always also mean "or the other single target you arehealing".

• Low damage or no damage
  • Keep Renew up on the tank, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
  • Cast Heal if additional healing is needed.
• Low to moderate damage
  • Keep Renew up on the tank, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
  • Cast Prayer of Mending on the tank.
  • Cast Heal if additional healing is needed.
• Moderate to high damage
  • Keep Renew up on the tank, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity (which you should now cast on cooldown).
  • Cast Prayer of Mending on the tank on cooldown.
  • Cast Heal or Greater Heal if additional healing isneeded.
• High sustained damage
  • Keep Renew up on the tank, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity (which you should now cast on cooldown).
  • Cast Prayer of Mending on the tank on cooldown.
  • Greater Heal.
• Emergency situations
  • Cast Flash Heal on the tank if they are in danger of dying.
  • Cast Binding Heal on the tank if they are in danger of dying andyou can also benefit from the healing.
  • Cast Guardian Spirit on the tank if they are in imminent danger of dying.Note that you should not do this if you are assigned to use Guardian Spirit atanother, specific time of the fight.

1.2. 10-man

In 10-man, you will spend the majority of the time in Chakra: Serenity,since you are required to be much more versatile and you cannot simply settleinto a raid-healing role.

You should use Holy Word: Serenity on cooldown, and you should make surethat Prayer of Mending is always active.

• Low damage or no damage
  • Keep Renew up on one or two raid members, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
  • Cast Heal if additional healing is needed.
• Low to moderate damage
  • Keep Renew up on 3-4 raid members, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
  • Cast Heal (or Greater Heal) if additional healing isneeded.
  • Cast Cascade if needed.
• Moderate to high damage
  • If the raid is spread out
    • Keep Renew up on 5-6 raid members, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
    • Cast Heal, Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Greater Heal as needed.
    • Cast Cascade (which will also refresh Renew).
  • If the raid is stacked
    • Switch to Chakra: Sanctuary and spam Prayer of Healing.
• High sustained damage
  • If the raid is spread out
    • Keep Renew up on 7-8 raid members, and refresh it through Holy Word: Serenity.
    • Cast Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Greater Heal asneeded.
    • Cast Cascade (which will also refresh Renew) oncooldown.
    • Use Power Infusion if available.
  • If the raid is stacked
    • Switch to Chakra: Sanctuary, place a Holy Word: Sanctuary, andspam Prayer of Healing.

2. Cooldown Usage↑top

As a Holy Priest, you have several cooldowns. Here is how you should usethem:

• Divine Hymn should be used during periods of very intense raiddamage. Keep in mind, however, that your raid leader may instruct you to use ita very specific time.
• Lightwell should be active whenever a period of high andsustained occurs. Excluding such situations, you should try to cast it as oftenas possible.
• Guardian Spirit should be used depending on many factors,including on your raid leader's instructions. If you do not have to saveGuardian Spirit for a specific event, then just use it as a "life-saver" onthe tank or another raid member who needs it.
• Void Shift should be used to save the life of a raid member bytrading health percentages with them. When doing this, be prepared toimmediately use Desperate Prayer (if you have taken this talent) and/or aHealthstone to ensure you do not die. Alternatively, it can be used to saveyour own life. Always be wary who you cast this spell on, especially if yourown health is low.

You can read more about how to best use these cooldowns, and about thecooldowns and abilities granted by your talents, in ourdetailed cooldown section.

3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Priest↑top

Playing a Holy Priest, and, indeed, any healer, cannot be easily boileddown into a "rotation" or "priority". There exists a multitude of factors thatwill affect how you use your spells. You can use the guidelines we listed aboveto great success, but in order to truly feel comfortable, there are otheraspects you need to fully understand.

3.1. Spell Usage in Detail

In order to allow you to make the best possible choices with some of thespells you use, you need to better understand their advantages anddrawbacks.

3.1.1. Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing

Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing are your only reliable meansof AoE healing, and they are both fantastic for that purpose. There are a fewthings to keep in mind regarding their continued usage:

• They heal players who are within 30 yards or less of the player you havetargeted (and, in the case of Prayer of Healing, only in the same party as thatplayer). This means you need to make sure that you do not cast them on playerswho are separated from the rest of the raid.
• They should only be used when 3 or more players will benefit from theirhealing in order to be a mana efficient means of healing.

During periods of low damage, you will generally not need to resort to them,although you can (keep in mind their rather high mana cost). During periods of higherdamage, these spells are absolutely essential and you will often find yourselfspamming them. Indeed, just to reiterate, during heavy, sustained raid-damage,spamming these two spells is what you should be doing.

3.1.2. Holy Word: Sanctuary

Holy Word: Sanctuary places a healing zone on the ground, which healsthe 6 most injured players inside it for 30 seconds.

This spell is extremely expensive, so, sadly, you cannot make free use ofit. It should only be used when there is relatively high and sustained raiddamage.

Ideally, you should cast the spell a few seconds before the actual damagebegins (if the encounter allows it), so that you can cast other heals while itis active.

3.1.3. Renew

Even though Renew is an overall good spell for Holy Priests, youwill not often find many uses for it in encounters where there is a lot of heavyraid damage. In these cases, you will only use Renew when the opportunityexists to apply it to several players before the actual damage begins, as thiswill essentially be "free healing" for you during the damage, while you castother spells.

Renew is mostly useful in the following situations:

• for using while moving (note that in addition to the HoT, it also heals fora small amount when it is applied);
• for using on mildly damaged raid members whom you wish to heal up withoutgreat urgency;
• for keeping active on one or both tanks (since refreshing it on one ortwo targets should not be too difficult) while you are raid healing andassisting on tanks, thus adding to the healing they receive and helping theother healers.

If you are tank or single-target healing, then keeping Renew up is both easyand important.

In 10-man, Renew should be kept up on as many raid members as possible,within reason with regard to the current situation (in other words, don't tryto keep it up on 6 raid members if the damage taken by the raid does not callfor it).

3.1.4. Power Word: Shield

Power Word: Shield is a problematic spell to use as a Holy Priest. Ingeneral, your specialisation is not at all tailored to the use of this spell,so it is certainly not part of your main arsenal.

Discipline Priests will always have better and more potent shields than you.Because casting Power Word: Shield on a player applies the Weakened Souldebuff on them, preventing another shield from being applied for a short while,you should not use this spell if you have a Discipline Priest in your raid,since it will interfere negatively with their own healing.

That said, if the Discipline Priest will not or can not cast Power Word:Shield on a player (or if there is no Discipline Priest in your raid), thereare a few situations where you can use it:

• if the target (generally a tank) requires "extra health" to survivean incoming large attack (since the shield essentially increases their maximumhealth for a short time);
• if someone is in imminent danger of dying and only an instant cast spellcan save them;
• if you are moving and someone is in danger of dying.

Note that Power Word: Shield has a large mana cost and you really cannotafford to use it frequently.

3.1.5. Greater Heal

You should only use Greater Heal when trying to top up a damaged raidmember quickly, or when the tank needs a lot of focus and healing.

3.1.6. Holy Word: Serenity

Holy Word: Serenity is primarily used in 10-man healing or single-target(tank) healing in 25-man. It is a cheap, powerful, and fast heal. Additionally,the fact that the target has a 25% increased chance to be critically healed byyou for 6 seconds makes this spell ideal for burst healing.

For example, the following combination performs a huge amount of bursthealing.

1. Holy Word: Serenity.
2. Flash Heal.
3. Flash Heal.
4. Greater Heal.

3.2. Mana Regeneration

As for all healers, mana regeneration is a very important factor and it willoften prove to be the determining factor in how much healing you can put outduring an encounter.

As a Holy Priest, you have two abilities that you can use for manaregeneration: Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend.

3.2.1. Hymn of Hope

Hymn of Hope is a channeled spell that restores mana in a "smart"way to several low-mana raid members and increases their maximum mana by 15%for 8 seconds. Hymn of Hope prefers to restore mana to healers over casterDPS players, and as long as there are healers who can benefit from it, theywill do so ahead of casters (even if the casters are much lower on mana thanthe healers). It has a 6-minute cooldown.

Hymn of Hope will, most likely, be only used once or possiblytwice during the encounter. The best time to use this ability is hard todetermine ahead of time, as it depends on a great number of factors. Followthese guidelines:

• Try to use Hymn of Hope as many times during an encounter aspossible.
• Only use Hymn of Hope when you are not at maximum mana.
• Do not use Hymn of Hope if you will need to interrupt the castbefore it finishes (8 second cast), because of having to move or heal.
• Do not use Hymn of Hope when there is a lot of raid damage. Yourinability to heal while channeling Hymn of Hope will force other healers tocompensate by using mana inefficient spells.
• Remember that Hymn of Hope benefits not only you, but also otherlow-mana healers. This means that you should use it when more healers can getthe benefit from it, i.e. when their mana is low and they can useclass-specific mana regeneration cooldowns, such as Divine Plea for HolyPaladins. This is because the mana-pool increasing effect of Hymn of Hopeincreases the potency of mana regeneration cooldowns which are based onmaximum mana.

Alternatively, if you are in a very healing-intensive moment in thefight and you are out of mana, you can channel Hymn of Hope for only onetick, and then cancel it. The mana pool-increasing effect will last for 8seconds, during which time you can benefit from this extra mana to cast a fewmuch-needed heals. This is not an efficient way to regenerate your mana, but itcan allow you to cast a few more heals in an emergency when you are low onmana.

3.2.2. Shadowfiend

Shadowfiend will summon a pet that attacks the target, restoringsome of your maximum mana to you each time it makes an attack. Shadowfiend has alower cooldown than Hymn of Hope (3 minutes). It should be used as many timesduring an encounter as possible. Ideally, it should be used while Hymn of Hopeis active, as this temporarily increases your maximum mana, and Shadowfiendgrants you a percentage of your maximum mana with each attack it makes.

Lastly, it does not matter when your Shadowfiend is cast relative to Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp, since its stats updatedynamically, so it is perfectly fine to cast Shadowfiend afterHeroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp is already up.

3.3. Healing Cooldowns In Detail

Your healing cooldowns require a bit more explanation in order to ensurethat you can make the best of them.

3.3.1. Divine Hymn

Divine Hymn will essentially put out a huge amount of "smart"healing on several raid members, while also increasing the healing that theyreceive for a short time.

Keep in mind that the spell is channeled, so you cannot perform otheractions while casting it.

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

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

3.3.2. Lightwell

You should think of the Lightwell as "free healing" during periods ofheavy raid damage (in much the same way as when you have pre-cast Renew or Holy Word: Sanctuary). You should try to have the Lightwell up shortlybefore the raid damage begins, so that you can use your global cooldowns onother spells during that time.

3.3.3. Guardian Spirit

Guardian Spirit is one of the most useful tools you can bring to araid. Using it places a buff on the target, which lasts for 10 seconds andincreases all healing received by the target by 60%. If the target receivesa killing blow during this time, they will not die and instead be healed for50% 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 youhave no other means of saving, it is by far better used on a tank who is aboutto take a large amount of damage. You should make sure to communicate with thetank and other healers, in order to ensure that you do not use multiplepowerful cooldowns at the same time.

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

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

3.3.4. Void Shift

Void Shift has a straightforward usage. It is an emergency cooldown(although you can also use it to handle some pre-determined encountermechanics). If you are at or near full health, you can cast this on a raidmember who has low health and is likely to be damaged again. Conversely, youcan use this on a full health raid member if you yourself are low health andyou are about to take damage again shortly.

You should always be mindful of the surroundings of the person who willhave their health lowered, so as to make sure that you are notendangering them.

3.3.5. Tier 3 Talents

If you have chosen From Darkness, Comes Light, then simply be preparedto use your procs, so that they do not overwrite each other.

Mindbender should be used on cooldown, to make use of its muchlower cooldown. Trying to stack it with various cooldowns, as we mentionedregarding Shadowfiend, is still ideal.

Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It is essentially the sameas Holy Fire, with a few key differences.

• 100% of the damage that Power Word: Solace does is also done as healing toa nearby ally.
• Power Word: Solace does not cost any mana.
• Power Word: Solace restores 1% of maximum mana when cast.

It should be used whenever you have spare time to use it (that is to say,when you do not have to heal more intensely), and when you can use the manareturn it provides.

3.3.6. Tier 5 Talents

Power Infusion should be used whenever a period of intense healingis coming up, or simply when you want to conserve your mana. Exceptionally,you can use it to deal more damage, if the encounter calls for it.

Procs from Divine Insight should be used as soon as possible.It is ideal to use them during times of raid damage (so that they do notoverheal), but this is not always under your control.

3.3.7. Tier 6 Talents

Which ever of these talents you chose ( Cascade, Divine Star, or Halo), you should use it whenever it willnot overheal. Obviously, all of these talents are suited for AoE healing.

4. Changelog↑top

• 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
  • Updated the description of Hymn of Hope to specify that this spellnow prefers restoring mana to healers over casters.
  • Updated the Shadowfiend section to accurately mention that it doesnot matter when Shadowfiend is cast relative to Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp, since its stats updatedynamically.
  • Updated the Lightwell section to account for the fact thatLightwell now heals players automatically (in the way that the spellpreviously worked when using Glyph of Lightspring, which has since beenremoved.
  • Updated the description of Holy Word: Sanctuary to account for thefact that it now no longer heals all players inside it, instead only healingthe 6 most injured ones.
• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
• 19 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Added a section explaining the healing rotation in 10-man.
  • Added mention of being quick to top yourself off after using Void Shift to save a raid member.
  • Added a tip for the usage of Hymn of Hope (at the very end of therespective section).
  • Improved the Lightwell section to emphasise the importance of usingGlyph of Lightspring.
• 28 Mar. 2013: Added tank and single-target healing "rotation".Tweaked and improved raid healing "rotation". Removed the Chakra: Serenitysection, since it had become redundant with the guide now going into detailabout tank and single-target healing.
• 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Updated explanation of the way in which Power Word: Solace works.