In this article, we present you the viable talent and glyph choices for your
Holy Priest (WoW MoP 5.4.8). We detail what each of the talents and
glyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other articles of our Holy Priest guide can be accessed
from the table of contents on the right.
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- Performance-enhancing
- Survival
- Crowd Control
- Movement
- Utility
- Situational
There is no longer such a thing as a default build. Most of the talents are
now viable. They can easily be changed, thanks to 
Dust of Disappearance
(and 
Tomes of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90).
You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs between
encounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics.
Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does and
how they affect your play style.
2. Tier 1 Talents↑top
Tier 1 talents offer you a choice between 3 crowd-control abilities.
Void Tendrils roots up to 5 enemies in place for up to 20 seconds.
Killing the tendrils cancels the effects. The targets must be in the 8-yard
proximity of the main target of the spell.
Psyfiend spawns a friendly NPC that casts fears on nearby
enemies.
Dominate Mind takes control of an enemy player or NPC.
These talents have, at best, situational uses. They may be useful in
some encounters, but most likely will only be used during trash and
questing. Your choice will be largely irrelevant.
These talents do not influence your performance in any way, their uses
being entirely situational. We advise that you choose the talent you prefer
the most, or that one which applies best to the conditions of the
encounter.
3. Tier 2 Talents↑top
We strongly believe that 
Angelic Feather will be the most desirable
choice in a vast majority of situations, because it allows players to decide
exactly when to use their movement-speed boosts. At the same time, it lacks
the precision of 
Body and Soul since it is practically impossible to target
a specific player with the feather if the raid is stacked together.
Body and Soul is also a nice choice, but its usability is more
restricted than that of Angelic Feather (the target you want to give a boost
to might already have 
Weakened Soul, or 
Leap of Faith might be
on cooldown). Moreover, since Discipline Priests have better
Power Word: Shields than you, it is not advised that you limit their shielding
potential with your Weakened Souls.
Phantasm is more of a PvP talent, with situational uses at
best.
4. Tier 3 Talents↑top
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancing
abilities.
From Darkness, Comes Light passively grants you a 15% chance, whenever
you use 
Smite, 
Heal, 
Flash Heal,
Binding Heal, or 
Greater Heal to cause your next Flash Heals
to be instant cast and have no mana cost. You can have a maximum of 2
charges of this buff at one time.
Mindbender is an improved version of 
Shadowfiend,
which it replaces. The Mindbender has a lower cooldown, and provides you with
more damage and mana regeneration.
Power Word: Solace is a spell that replaces your 
Holy Fire.
The differences are that Power Word: Solace does not cost mana, and instead
regenerates 1% of maximum mana when cast. Power Word: Solace also heals a
nearby injured raid member for the same amount of damage that it dealt to its
target.
Each of these talents has its own situational uses, and they are all
great. Making your choice will depend on several factors, most importantly
the mechanics of the encounter and your own playstyle.
Mindbender is easy to use and provides a stable and reliable means of
increasing your mana regeneration.
From Darkness, Comes Light can provide excellent burst and mana
conservation, but it suffers from two disadvantages. First of all, it procs
randomly, and, thus, uncontrollably. This makes it rather unreliable. Second
of all, it does not proc from 
Prayer of Healing, 
Circle of Healing, and
Renew, three spells that Holy Priests find themselves casting
extensively in certain situations. On the other hand, however, the free
Flash Heals that you gain from this talent interact positively with
Serendipity.
Note that From Darkness, Comes Light is very useful in 10-man raiding,
due to the increased usage of single target spells in this raid size.
Power Word: Solace provides mana, as well as allowing you to keep up
some amount of healing, and deal some DPS in the process. It also provides a
decent amount of mana regeneration.
5. Tier 4 Talents↑top
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that improve your
survivability.
Desperate Prayer is an instant-cast self-heal that heals you for
30% of your maximum health, with a 2-minute cooldown.
Spectral Guise allows you to enter a pseudo-stealth state (you
remain in combat), leaving behind an illusion of yourself. The effect lasts for
6 seconds, or until you receive 3 attacks.
Angelic Bulwark is a passive ability that grants you a damage
absorption shield, for 20% of your maximum health, each time you drop below
30% health. The effect has an internal cooldown of 90 seconds.
Here, we feel that the choice will come down to either
Desperate Prayer or Angelic Bulwark. We prefer Desperate Prayer,
because it can be used on-demand. Angelic Bulwark can be great when it
procs, so it is useful for fights where you often drop below 30% health
(progression content, most likely).
Spectral Guise is not able to compete with the other two talents in
PvE.
6. Tier 5 Talents↑top
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancing
abilities.
Twist of Fate passively increases your damage and healing by 15% for
10 seconds, each time you damage or heal a target that is below 20%
health.
Power Infusion is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your spell
casting speed by 20%, and reduces the mana cost of all your spells by 20%, for
20 seconds.
Divine Insight grants you a 40% chance, whenever you cast
Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing, that your next
Prayer of Mending will not trigger a cooldown, and that it will
automatically jump to all of its targets.
Currently, Divine Insight is the best choice in nearly all
conceivable situations. The spells that trigger it are used often enough to
guarantee a high uptime, and its usefulness is truly fantastic, especially
when coupled with 
Glyph of Prayer of Mending.
If the encounter you are progressing on is one where raid members are
frequently on low health (intense raid damage, progression content, etc.),
then Twist of Fate will shine, but we still feel that it is not as good as
Divine Insight.
Finally, Power Infusion is also a very solid choice, providing you with
a powerful, on-demand healing cooldown.
Note that Power Infusion is the best choice in 10-man raiding.
7. Tier 6 Talents↑top
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that deal damage to
and heal multiple targets.
Cascade is a sort of "chain heal" or "chain lightning", depending
on how you wish to use the spell. The initial bolt heals or deals damage to
its first target, after which it splits in two, each bolt jumping to
targets that are far away, until it eventually stops.
Divine Star resembles a yo-yo, in the sense that the
ball of energy travels in a path away from you (in front of you), and after
reaching a certain point (24 yards away), it returns. Both on the first, as
well as on the second trip, it heals allies in its path, and damages
enemies.
Halo causes an effect around you, which expands up to a 30-yard
radius. Allies who are inside it are healed, while enemies are damaged. The
highest amounts of healing/damage are received by the targets who are around
the 25-yard mark.
Quite simply, you should choose the tier 6 talent based on the positioning
of your raid during the encounter, and the type of damage that you will have
to heal.
If your raid will be mostly spread out, then you will want
Cascade.
If your raid is stacked loosely (ideally in a line, although we cannot quite
see this happening very often), then Divine Star can shine.
Finally, Halo will work well if the raid is stacked tightly.
Note that Cascade will be the default choice in 10-man raiding. This
is due to the fact that, while in 
Chakra: Serenity (which is used in 10-man
raiding), Cascade refreshes the duration of Renew on all targets it
hits.
8. Major Glyphs↑top
Even though there are no Major Glyphs that improve your performance
in a straightforward way, there are several glyphs we feel you should be
made aware of.
- Glyph of Circle of Healing causes Circle of Healing to heal 1
additional target, at the expense of increasing its mana cost by 35%. This
glyph will probably gain usefulness especially at higher gear levels, when
Spirit is in abundance.
- Glyph of Lightspring causes your
Lightwell to automatically
heal players around it, when their health drops below 50%. This glyph is
practically mandatory.
- Glyph of Renew increases the healing of Renew, but reduces its
duration. The glyph is normally disadvantageous, but it is very useful in
10-man raiding, because here, while using Chakra: Serenity, Renew will
often get refreshed.
- Glyph of Lightwell increases the number of charges of your
Lightwell by 2.
- Glyph of Renew increases the healing from Renew's ticks
by 33%, but reduces its duration by 3 seconds.
- Glyph of Prayer of Mending increases the first heal of
Prayer of Mending by 60%, but causes it to have one fewer charge.
- Glyph of Spirit of Redemption increases the duration of
Spirit of Redemption by 10 seconds.
- Glyph of Binding Heal causes your Binding Heal to heal a third
target, but it increases its mana cost by 35%.
- Glyph of Fade reduces your damage taken by 10% while
Fade
is active, turning the spell into a minor defensive cooldown.
9. Minor Glyphs↑top
All Minor Glyphs are of purely cosmetic value, and they do not influence
your gameplay at all.
10. Changelog↑top
- 19 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
- 28 Mar. 2013: Improved the wording of some talent descriptions.
Updated the values of Tier 2 and 5 talents, as well as expanding the
explanations for Tier 3 talents. Removed a mention of Atonement healing which
did not belong in this guide.
- 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
