Holy Priest Talents & Specs
Welcome to the Holy Priest Talents & Specs page! There are no longer “cookie cutter” or straight forward talent builds, meaning each character can be individual and players are more free to choose. However, this also means it can be harder for those just starting out as a Holy Priest with less guidelines provided.
So we’re going to help you out by providing you with a starting point with regards to choosing talents. You’re free to choose others straight away or you can wait until you’re more comfortable with the Holy Priest class, and then re-jig your setup, but we’ll provide you with an “almost” fool-proof setup to get you started healing successfully.
First thing to do is of course, choose your specialization and because we want to focus on healing as Holy, your specialization will be Holy. Choosing Holy as your specialization will immediately give you access to all the Holy spells and passive abilities that your level allows to improve your ability to heal. To learn about the spells you will receive when choosing your specialization at maximum level, you can see all spells on the Holy Priest Spells page and get a grasp for what each does.
In terms of talents, here’s the setup we recommend choosing, what tier they appear in, what level you can gain it, the “category” we classify them as, what the spell does and the suggested key bind for that spell (if it is an active spell, rather than passive). Hover over the spell name to get the detailed tooltip of that spell.
Faster mana regeneration. Better for longer fights. i.e. Raids.
Better suited for shorter duration encounters such as in dungeons. Or if you're very comfortable with mana regeneration.
Not really a great option in any scenario due to the use of Renew which is currently a bit weak.
A good option for self preservation, but somewhat lacking for party/raid wide utility.
Due to the low use of Renew, particularly on yourself, this talent is worth skipping.
Probably the best option for most situations. Can be placed ahead of time for yourself or other players. However we favour the use of a self targeting instant macro.
Provides the most healing compared to the utility of the other talents here. Guaranteed to increase your healing due to the heavy use of your Holy Word spells.
Situational for times where you need heavy healing but don't anticipate a death. If the target dies, this talent choice is wasted.
Not as powerful as it was in Legion with the Legendary Cloak. Useful in rare situations, not recommended.
A viable option, however the lack of control over those affected leaves one paranoid about pulling additional mobs!
Good for single target control. Handy for an extra stun in the group.
A great option for multi-target control. Allows the tank to pick up the adds while you do what you do. Run!
We find this talent really fun in the Holy play style. By chance. gives an extra instant Flash heal, helps with mana conservation and also reduces your Holy Word: Serenity through Holy Words. Great for dungeons especially if you find yourself Smiting to help the dps.
Not as fun as the other two talents due to a cast time, however provides a fast efficient 2-target-plus-yourself heal. Great for topping up the raid. Also reduces the cooldown of your Holy Word: Serenity by way of Holy Words.
Whilst this spell is great fun to use, with a rare instant heal with no cast time, unfortunately due to the strength and unison the other talents have with Holy Words, this spell isn't ideal. But we still use it occasionally just for fun.
Passive and efficient, this heal relies on constant Prayer of Mending casts. A little boring but provides consistent healing output.
A “boomerang” spell that heals everyone in a straight line in front and returns to you and heals again. Positioning is crucial for this spell to be effective. Good for stacked situations. Or a conga-line.
A heal that grows out to 30 yards and heals allies and damages enemies. Useful in dungeons but not recommended for close-quarter dungeons as you may pull additional mobs.
A set and forget passive talent that reduces the cooldown for both Holy Words by an 33%, meaning you can effectively cast them both 33% extra. A flat heal increase but the strong cooldown based talents in this row tend to outweigh this.
A very strong cooldown which works wonders in small-party content such as dungeons. You'll want to spam your Flash Heal to access more Holy Word: Serenity's or spam your Prayer of Healing to access more Holy Word: Sanctify's. Additionally, if you went with Binding Heal, it has great synergy due to affecting both.
Another strong cooldown built for Raids. While 12 minutes seems like a long cooldown, this is reduced substantially due to heavy Holy Word spell use.
Again, we wish to stress that all talents are viable for a healer, depending on your play style, but these are what we recommend for those starting out. Now you have a grasp on your talents, head to the Holy Priest Glyphs page to further enhance your Holy Priest.
