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[Guide] Making the Holy Tree Work For You
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Post by
donnymurph
Give a priest a spec and he will heal for one patch. Teach him to make a spec and he will heal for a lifetime.
Disclaimer: This is a beginner's guide, intended to help you get comfortable with how you're spending your talent points. It is NOT a definitive how-to on what is the "best" or "cookie cutter" spec, because for holy priests, a cookie cutter spec is something that exists at the end of the rainbow...
I. Introduction
II. Mandatory Talents and Glyphs
III. Spell-by-Spell Breakdown
IV. Talent-by-Talent Breakdown
V. Sample Specs
I. Introduction
The priest's holy tree is one of the most daunting talent trees in World of Warcraft. Many a fledgling priest has been overwhelmed by the percieved "bloat" in the tree (of the 79 available points here, only two are truly useless for a raid healer). Another problem is that, despite all these juicy PvE talents, there is not enough "mandatory" points to enable you to get to the bottom of the tree.
However, a closer look at the tree will reveal several talent "groups" that synergise nicely with each other. The key to constructing a viable build that does not become disjointed by too much "filler" is a little self evaluation: knowing what spells you like to cast, when you like to cast them, what sort of gear you have and what stats you like to focus on, and how spending your points is going to affect your playstyle. Once you have evaluated these aspects of your game, trimming the fat out of the holy tree becomes second nature to you.
Remember this guide isn't telling you what to spec, it's telling you how to create a spec. Healing is an art, not a science, and that is one reason why we all love our priests so dearly, and want you to do so as well.
Post by
donnymurph
II. Mandatory Talents and Glyphs
First off, despite being probably the least "cookie-cutter" talent tree in the game, there are still several talents which are defining to our class and spec. 39 of your 71 spendable points are "cookie-cutter" points, without which your spec will simply not be viable. Don't consider this as a limitation, consider this as a line drawing waiting to be embellished by your own unique style of brushwork.
These are described as follows:
Discipline (13 points)
Twin Disciplines 5/5
This buffs your Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending and Renew. It is also required to get further down discipline for the more important talents, and is a better option than Unbreakable Will
Improved Inner Fire 3/3
It gives you more spell power. 'Nuff said.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2
More health for you and your raid members means you can turn up on raid night with slow, drunken reactions and get away with it. On second thoughts, no, don't. But bigger health bars means a bigger buffer for the inevitable mistake, lag spike, droppped mouse, whatever.
Meditation 3/3
Spirit is our main regen stat (due to several holy talents), and 3 points are required here to ensure we can still get enough fuel while under that nasty five-second-rule.
Holy (26 points)
Holy Specialization 5/5
Crit is important for regen, due to deeper holy talents, as well as providing more throughput.
Spirit of Redemption
(requires 20 points in holy)
This is a fantastic single-point spend for 3 reasons:
5% bonus to your spirit;
Allows you to keep the raid up, even after you die. Good time to pop Divine Hymn if you haven't already and there's no druid to rez you;
Acts as a signal to the other raid members, letting druids know to prepare for a battle rez, other healers to go harder and pick up your slack, tanks to blow survival cooldowns, and reminding everyone how much you sucked at getting out of the fire..
Spiritual Guidance 5/5
(requires 20 points in holy)
This is why we love spirit. Don't make the mistake of misusing this talent though. It is designed to ensure that we use spirit above MP5 for regen, it does NOT entitle you to stack spirit purely for the spell power increase.
Spiritual Healing 5/5
(requires 25 points in holy)
Even the dumbest holy priest in the world will spec into this
Surge of Light 1/2
This is a fantastic talent for several reasons.
First, unlike our more
disciplined brothers
, or
pallies
or
shammies
, we don't have fancy abilities which supply us with endless mana, so a mana saved is a mana gained.
Second, with the levels of spell power we are reaching these days, it is a very viable spell for bringing raid members back from the brink due to its instant cast time. SoL to keep them up, then whatever heal you like to fill their health bar.
Third, it is an efficient way to pump up Serendipity, if you spec for it.
Fourth, it helps provide mobility, by adding another instant cast to your arsenal.
Keep in mind that due to its non-crit nature, it is actually a throughput loss compared to a normal Flash Heal. Therefore it suffers diminishing returns at higher levels of crit. Just want to expand on this statement a little more. When I say "throughput loss" in this case, I am talking about what your Recount/Skada meter says at the end of the fight. Read over on the next page for a little info about instant throughput vs sustained throughput, and remember that both concepts are important.
Holy Concentration 3/3
(requires 30 points in holy)
This is why crit is a good regen stat for holy, but don't stack it at the expense of spirit
Empowered Renew 1/3
(requires 40 points in holy)
Depending on how highly you rate Renew as a raid healing spell will depend on whether you go 1/3 or 3/3. 1 point is required for the crit chance to proc Surge of Light and Holy Concentration
Circle of Healing
(requires 40 points in holy)
I once had a guy telling me this spell was a waste of mana. He is an idiot.
Divine Providence 5/5
(requires 45 points in holy)
Increases the healing on 6 spells, and reduces the cooldown on a spell that most priests will rate in their top 3.
Guardian Spirit
(requires 50 points in holy)
People will tell you that if you need this spell, then you aren't doing your job properly. If anyone ever says this to you, server transfer to get them out of your life (I did!). Must be taken with the
glyph
.
Mandatory Glyphs
Circle of Healing
Helps you cover the raid better
Guardian Spirit
Adds a lot of versatility to what is otherwise an "Oh Crap" button. Use it on the tank every cooldown to help out your tank healers, or use it to make better benefit of the 40% healing buff to heal someone from near-death back to full in 2 casts.
Post by
donnymurph
III. Spell-by-Spell Breakdown
A list of all the healing spells you can cast as a holy priest and the talents that buff them. Some talent builds accomodate all of these spells, as you can see by the amount of overlapping talents listed. Some builds focus on using only two or three. Be observant of which spells you are using the most, and how you are using them (particularly Flash Heal and Renew) and it will be easy to pick the talents that suit you and your style. If you really have no idea, get Recount/Skada or use World of Logs.
Flash Heal
Base Heal: 1887-2193
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7%
Cast time: GCD
Often used as a filler while your Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing are on CD, great for people who like to use Prayer of Healing, or it can just be used on Surge of Light procs to conserve mana. Works best when used to fill up a health bar. So big these days it's almost made Greater Heal obsolete. A little test I did (see further down the page) seems to indicate that
Twin Disciplines
does
not
affect Surge of Light heals
Talents:
Surge of Light
Holy Concentration
Serendipity
Empowered Healing
Inspiration
Glyph
- like Gatorade for your priest
Binding Heal
Base Heal: 1952-2508 to yourself and your target
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7%
Cast time: GCD
2 Flash Heals. Use it the same way you use Flash Heal but when your own health bar needs filling. I often go into spam mode with this spell, particularly on Saurfang if I get marked. Unfortunately, it doesn't benefit from Surge of Light.
Talents:
Serendipity
Holy Concentration
Divine Providence
Inspiration
Renew
Base Heal:
Base spell power co-efficient: 188%
Cast time: instant
This is used in a lot of different ways. Some players like to keep it at 100% uptime on anyone taking consistent damage (read: tanks), some use it to fill a health bar when a raid member has taken a random damage spike, some go 3/3 Empowered Renew and use it for the instant heal, some use it as their main raid healing spell (the "wannabe druid" spec).
Talents:
Twin Disciplines
(discipline)
Mental Agility
(discipline)
Improved Renew
Empowered Renew
Holy Concentration
(if you have Empowered Renew, which you DO have at least one point in, right?)
Glyph
- less HPS, less uptime, therefore more mana intensive if you planning on keeping it up, however having larger ticks means it can do more "crucial" healing if people are dipping.
Greater Heal
Base Heal: 3950-4590
Base spell power co-efficient: 161.11%
Cast time: GCDx2
Big heal, but unless you throw points at it, your wife will have divorced you and your kids grown up before it is finished casting.
Talents:
Divine Fury
Improved Healing
Holy Concentration
Empowered Healing
Serendipity
Inspiration
Circle of Healing
Base heal: 958-1058 to up to 5 targets
Base spell power co-efficient: 40.29%
Cast time: instant
Totally imba. This is the spell that makes holy priests famous for burst AoE healing. Use it to top people off, use it to put a few HP into the health bars of 6 people who are nearly dead before you throw bigger heals their way, just use it every cooldown. Either way, you'll love it. Works even better with the
4-piece T10
Talents:
Twin Disciplines
(discipline)
Mental Agility
(discipline)
Holy Reach
Divine Providence
Inspiration
Glyph
(mandatory)
Prayer of Healing
Base heal: 2091-2209 to up to 5 targets
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7 %
Cast time: GCDx2
5 Flash Heals basically. See Greater Heal.
Talents:
Healing Prayers
Holy Reach
Serendipity
Divine Providence
Inspiration
Glyph
- most of the time, this is like the girl you picked up at the pub that just hung around too long. If you can get it to work and not be massive overheal, cookies to you.
Prayer of Mending
Base heal: 1043 to up to 5 targets
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7%
Cast time: instant
Use it poorly and it'll never bounce, overheal to oblivion, or just generally eat your mana for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Use it well and it'll make your job a ton easier, filling up health bars quicker than you can see it go - sometimes less than 1 GCD.
Talents:
Twin Disciplines
(discipline)
Mental Agility
(discipline)
Healing Prayers
Divine Providence
Inspiration
Desperate Prayer
Base heal: 3716-4384 to yourself
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7 %
Cast time: instant
Some priests don't bother picking this up, but for 1 point, it is well worth it for the survivability it gives.
Talents:
Twin Disciplines
(discipline)
Mental Agility
(discipline)
Power Word:Shield
Base absorption: 2230
Base spell power co-efficient: 80.7%
Cast time: instant
This is a discipline priest's bread and butter. In holy, it should only be used if there is no discipline priests in the raid, or you need an instant cast to stop someone from dying.
Talents:
Improved Power Word: Shield
(discipline)
Mental Agility
(discipline)
Body and Soul
Glyph
- if there's no discipline priests in your raid, this might be your 5th choice glyph (read: it is a waste of time for a deep holy spec).
Divine Hymn
Base heal: 3024-3342 to 3 targets, ticking 4 times (12 heals altogether)
Base spell power co-efficient: ? (at ~3500 spell power raid-buffed, mine puts out around 95k healing, including crits, so I assume that it has the same co-efficient as most of our other spells - 80.7%)
Channel time: GCDx5.33
Essentially an "oh Crap" button, I walk into every boss fight with the attitude that I will cast it once, and if there is more than 1 priest, I always discuss when we will both use ours. It is the smartest of smart heals, healing the 3 lowest-health raid members on the first tick, and then on each consecutive tick it refreshes and re-evaluates who has the lowest health.
Talents:
Improved Healing
Post by
donnymurph
IV. Talent-by-Talent Breakdown
Tier 1
- most priests will fill this tier up, all of these talents are very good bread and butter healing talents, and Holy Specialization 5/5 is mandatory.
Healing Focus
Some players don't take this, most do. You take damage in most fights, so it makes sense to take this. Combined with a holy pally's
Concentration Aura
, you'll be immune to pushback.
Improved Renew
Whether Renew is going to be one of your major raid healing spells or not, most priests will take this.
Holy Specialization.
Rank 5 of this is mandatory.
Tier 2
- this is a stumbling block for many players. If you spec into all talents in tiers 1 and 3, with the exception of
Blessed Recovery
, which is a marginal talent, you still need at least 1 point in tier 2 to be able to get down to tier 4. If you do not want to spec into
Improved Healing
, you'll need to spend at least 4 points in this tier to get down to tier 5. As a rule, if you don't plan on casting
Greater Heal
, put the points in
Spell Warding
. Decide whether to max it out after you've picked up all the other talents that you want.
Spell Warding.
Survivability in a lot of raid fights. You can't heal when you're dead.
Divine Fury
Without
Serendipity
, it's a waste of points.
Tier 3
Desperate Prayer
As mentioned above, some do, some don't. Totally up to you. Crits for ~14k at my level of gear (see profile link in signature), is good for mobility, and can usually be used twice per boss fight.
Blessed Recovery
More PvP focused, it adds survivability, but I've never seen anyone take it for PvE.
Inspiration
Many players consider this as filler, but don't underestimate it's usefulness if one of your AoEs crit on a melee/tank. In many situations it will also be useful for ranged players and healers.
Tier 4
Holy Reach
I've seen players not take it, but most do, even if they don't use Prayer of Healing much, it maximizes the potential of Circle of Healing. 1/2 or 2/2 is entirely up to you.
Improved Healing
Before taking this, 2 things need to be considered. Do you cast Greater Heal? And do you have
Inner Focus
? If you have Inner Focus, the Divine Hymn component of this talent is useless, as you should never cast Divine Hymn without Inner Focus.
Searing Light
Take it if you like being called a noob and kicked from raids.
Tier 5
- smooth sailing from here on, just make sure you don't end up with a random mish-mash of throughput talents that results in a disjointed spec.
Healing Prayers
Depends on how much you cast these spells. Most players will frequently be using at least 1 of the 2. Also depends on your mana situation. At lower gear levels, it is vital; at high gear levels, it may not be so inportant.
Spirit of Redemption
Mandatory
Spiritual Guidance
Mandatory at rank 5
Tier 6
Surge of Light
Already been described above. At least 1 point is mandatory, most players will take 2 for more efficiency, more mobility, more versatility, but remember it is a throughput loss
Spiritual Healing
Rank 5 is mandatory
Tier 7
Holy Concentration
Rank 3 is mandatory
Lightwell
Most players find it difficult to utilise this well. It has the best heal-per-mana of any priest spell, as long as raid members remember to click it. Consult your guildies first. Useless for PuGs.
Blessed Resilience.
Some players will only read the PvP part and say this is a waste of points. Don't listen to them. Remember you already spent 5 mandatory points to gain
5% healing on your instant casts
- 3 points for 3% healing on ALL spells is even better. Players usually take either this or
Test of Faith
, based on playstyle.
Post by
donnymurph
Tier 8
Body and Soul
The movement speed is fun to play around with, and could be situationally helpful, but not having it is probably not going to affect your raid's performance much. Most players seem to forget about the self-poison-removing effect, which is also situationally useful for survivability.
Empowered Healing
If Flash Heal is in your top 3 spells, max it out, especially if you cast Greater Heal as well. If not, it can still sometimes be worth putting a couple of points in just to pump up your Surge of Light heals if you have nothing better to spend the points on.
Serendipity.
Don't cast Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal without it. Suffers diminishing returns with higher levels of haste, but also become decidedly more imba. 5 points in Divine Fury + 3 stacks of Serendipity + haste soft cap = 1 second Greater Heals /drool
Take 3 points or zero points.
Tier 9
Empowered Renew
1 point is mandatory. Whether you max it depends on how highly you rate Renew, while some max it just for the instant heal.
Circle of Healing
Don't leave home without it
Test of Faith
Another part of the reason holy priests are famous for burst AoE healing. If you like living on the edge, this is a good talent. If you don't like to spam heal, this is a good talent. If you prefer to keep people topped off and play it safe, go
Blessed Resilience
instead.
Tier 10
Divine Providence
Rank 5 is mandatory.
Tier 11
Guardian Spirit
Mandatory with the
glyph
.
Post by
donnymurph
V. Sample Specs
14/57/0
Cast Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing every cooldown, in between times fill people up with Flash Heals, with or without Surge of Light procs. When you have 2 or 3 stacks of Serendipity, use a Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing as required. Renew if someone takes a damage spike.
This is a thrilling spec to play, provides great burst healing, but isn't too useful in ICC.
17/54/0
Renew spec with Serendipity. Basically it's a rotation-based spec: PoM, Renew x3, CoH, Renew x3. Of couse that only applies to fights like BQL, Fester, or Marrowgar during Bonestorm. 2 points in Mental Agility for mana conservation.
The following builds are taken from Karl's fantastic
sticky
.
Typical All Round
Bare-bones build with 7 points left to spend as you please.
Heavy AoE
Heavy Flash Heal
Post by
Rouen
I'm surprised no one else has posted here. I won't say "FIRST!", but I do give this thread my thumbs up.
Reported for sticky :)
Post by
rainkeltoia
yeah I reported for sticky :) definitely a great little guide, ty for taking the time and effort to add to the community!
Post by
marklartank
very helpful guide. i leveled as disc and just added a holy offspec, but it's like speaking a foreign language. this sorted out a bunch of things for me :)
one question though, how does holy reach affect PoM? i think you meant to put that under PoH...
Post by
donnymurph
very helpful guide. i leveled as disc and just added a holy offspec, but it's like speaking a foreign language. this sorted out a bunch of things for me :)
one question though, how does holy reach affect PoM? i think you meant to put that under PoH...
I think you're right. By the time I wrote this and then got the many, many links sorted out, it had eaten up 5 hours of my day, so I'm sure to have missed a few little mistakes here and there. I'll fix that now.
Glad it helped by the way :)
Post by
wildx22
What is the real difference between your
14/57/0
and
Heavy AoE
builds that make the first one not too useful in ICC?
Post by
donnymurph
My 14/57 build is heavily focused around Flash Heal, Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing to fill the void between Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing cooldowns. It focuses around three core talents that affect playstyle: Empowered Healing, Serendipity and Test of Faith. It only has 1 point in Empowered Renew, simply to provide the crit chance for Holy Concentration and Surge of Light procs.
The problem with this build is that the Flash Healing style isn't quite as strong in ICC as it was in pre-ICC content, and Greater Heal has become pretty much useless in ICC.
The Heavy AoE build as first put forth in Karl's older guide has 3/3 in Empowered Renew, and also has Blessed Resilience. This helps provide a very consistent level of healing, rather than the huge peaks and troughs of my spec. He still has Serendipity, thereby still having Prayer of Healing on standby should he need it (Festergut springs to mind), but the fact that the spec doesn't contain Empowered Healing suggests a style where Flash Heal would only be used on Surge of Light procs, when it is free and instant.
Post by
wildx22
The first main difference I see between the two build is the choice between Divine Fury vs Spell Warding. What roles do they play in the AoE vs non-AoE? I personally prefer the Heavy AoE build but instead of Spell Warding I have 5/5 in Divine Fury. Is this 'fatal' to my AoE healing potential in any way?
Also, apparently Renew-healing isn't very popular these days anymore (correct me if I'm wrong) and instead Flash Heal seems to be the norm. Because it seems like if you're going to HoT-heal in raids, druids do it better. Is having 3/3 Empowered Renew really better for raids than say... 2/3 Empowered Renew and 1/3 Empowered Healing? I haven't raid-healed yet so I'm pretty much clueless on this.
Thank you!
Post by
donnymurph
Spell Warding
is merely a survivability talent, which is useful because Blizzard has introduced a lot of raid mechanics in WotLK that can easily kill a raid member within one or two GCDs.
The second talent-tier is rather lacklustre, unless you prioritize Greater Heal (which you shouldn't), so it is a simple question of... do I cast Greater Heal a lot or not? If you don't, then spending points on it is a waste of time, and you're better off taking the survivability talent.
As for renewing, it is actually becoming MORE popular, despite the fact that we don't do it as well as druids, it is actually providing us with bigger numbers than any other style at the moment.
Link to an interesting thread about this.
Post by
Pachuca
You should add
Twin Disciplines
to all of the instant spells under your Spell-by-Spell Breakdown section. Also, does a SoL-procced instant Flash Heal get the 5% increased healing from this talent?
Post by
donnymurph
Good question, which I don't know the answer to at the moment, but it should be pretty easy to test out.
Post by
skribs
Pachuca, I can't confirm, but I've heard numerous times that it does.
I actually am coming here because it seems like a good place to start: I've heard of one holy priest in our realm's top guild that keeps pace with the druids (and, being the top guild, I'm assuming the druids are competent and geared) on fights. I'm just wondering how this is possible, considering that the renew approach seems to be best, but that it both ticks for less and gets less ticks than Rejuvenation. (I'm going to talk to her as soon as I can, but she's never on).
I don't personally have an 80 priest, but I'm the healer officer in my guild, and I have no idea what to do with the priests we have. There's so much information out there (whether it's a priority list of heals to use in X situation, or one of many rotations based on serendipity or renew) that it's hard for them to find the best method for using in ICC. So I'm not sure if their problem is general healing skill, sub-optimal playstyle, or simply that priests aren't on par with other healers.
In answering that, is it still true that (except on maybe LK and Valithria) the renew-based approach tends to reign supreme?
Post by
donnymurph
I went from a heavy Flash Heal approach (the first talent build I mention, 14/57/0) to a heavy Renew approach (the second build, the first of the 17/54/0 builds) and went from fourth or fifth on 25m heal meters to usually third, sometimes second (remember that at this point in time I am a pure PuG player).
Now I use the third build (the second 17/54/0), and while still focusing on Renew, I do have a bit more input from my Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing, and usually find myself topping meters in PuGs. This build has seen me do 8.5-10.5k HPS on some of the more heal-intensive trash pulls (the big spider things before Deathwhisper, Stinky are a couple of examples)
Interestingly, the first build (14/57/0) had me topping meters in ToC with miniscule overhealing... In ICC my overhealing is, comparatively speaking, huge, but I don't really care as mana isn't a problem, and it creates a nice safety buffer for me.
Remember, some fights' mechanics simply don't accomodate certain classes, for example Saurfang, if the Blood Beasts are managed correctly, there is just no AoE damage, plus the fact that everyone is spread out limits the usability of my Circle of Healing, meaning that, meter-wise, I can get quite embarrassed. Of course, the meter doesn't necessarily show how many times I saved the life of a Mark with my Guardian Spirit, or bubbling them if there's no disco priests around.
On the other hand, on Festergut, a priest could absolutely monster the meters with a well timed Serendipity-fuelled Prayer of Healing, followed by a Circle of Healing as soon as their Quartz bar hits the red zone. Instant HPS in that case (HPS over the course of 1 GCD, which is as close to instant as you can measure in WoW) could be around 45k on a player with my level of spell power and haste.
Meters only show part of the story, and while priests shouldn't necessarily be on the top of them, don't forget that priests have the best "Oh crap he's dead... Oh wait a minute he's still alive" capabilities of all healing classes (before a Chain Heal laps it up and pads the Shaman's meter a bit more, something that wouldn't happen if the player had died).
Anyway, here is a
couple
of
logs
... The numbers we are pulling aren't huge, because in both raids we are 6-healing, whereas I imagine most decent guilds could 4-heal 25N with a 15% buff (and also because WoL seems to show lower numbers than Skada), but that isn't the point. Check out the spell breakdowns there - particularly the first one, as there are 3 priests, and I was the least geared of all healers in the raid. In the second raid, I was Marked on Saurfang, so mostly spammed Binding Heal on one of the other marks. Spell priority does change slightly from fight-to-fight, as it should do if your healers are doing their job.
And for comparison's sake, here is a
log
from a top ranking holy priest in 25H.
Post by
donnymurph
Pachucha, I did a little tooling around today, I had Inner Fire up (174SP), Divine Spirit (20SP) and a
Flask of the North
, buffing my base spell power to 3152.
Spiritual Healing maxed out gave me a 10% healing increase, and Blessed Resilience gave me a further 3%. I was not specced into Empowered Healing, so the spell power co-efficient was the standard 80.7%
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this should mean:
Minimum Flash Heal: (1887 + ) x 1.1 x 1.03 = 5019
Maximum Flash Heal: (2193 + ) x 1.1 x 1.03 = 5366
Interestingly my results (without SoL) ranged from 5025 - 5342
With SoL, the results were very similar: 5033 - 5337
If that minimum heal was buffed by 5%, the minimum SoL heal would be 5269... So it seems to me that Twin Disciplines does NOT affect SoL procs.
EDIT: Fail mathematics.
Post by
Pachuca
I just looked up the talent, and
this commenter
says that it does in fact affect Flash Heals under SoL. Not sure where they got their proof though?
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