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Holy Priest Healing Starter Guide - Shadowlands 9.0.2
By AutomaticJak
Last updated
2021/03/09 at 12:46 AM
View Changelog
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Table of Contents
Guide Navigation
Welcome to our Holy Priest starter guide, which covers everything you need to start playing a new character in Shadowlands. While our other guide pages go into more individual detail, this simple starter guide covers all the basics in one place, whether you're a new Holy Priest, a returning player to Shadowlands, hardcore, or casual alike, it's the best place to get a beginners overview on the class. Included are basic talent builds, simplified rotations, stats, legendary recommendations, and more to get you started as quickly as possible.
Please keep in mind that this page is meant to get players started quickly as an introduction, and does not contain much in the way of detailed explanations, mechanics, competitive options, gearing, simulation comparisons, or nuance. For more in-depth information, including all those optimizations and more, check out the complete Holy Priest Guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page, and if you're leveling up in Shadowlands, you can take a look at our
leveling tips
.
Overview
NEW
NEW Best Covenant
Gear
Talent Builds
NEW Legendaries
NEW Twisting Corridors
NEW Conduits
NEW Kyrian
NEW Necrolord
NEW Night Fae
NEW Venthyr
Pre-Patch
Starter Guide
Rotation, Priority, and Abilities
Advanced Concepts
Stats
Consumables
Macros & Addons
WeakAuras
Common Terms
NEW Castle Nathria Tips
NEW Mythic+
Common Questions
NEW Simulations
About the Author
This guide is written and maintained by
Jak
, Healer for
Lazarus Imperative
on US-Illidan, author of the
Holy
and
Discipline
Priest Guides.
He is also the Host of the official World of Warcraft
Mythic Dungeon International
events. You can catch Jak on
Twitter
,
Youtube
and streaming on
Twitch
if you want to check out more of his content!
Watch live video from automaticjak on www.twitch.tv
Best Covenants for Holy Priest
Holy Priest is generally not hyper-sensitive to their covenant selection, meaning you have some solid competition between your options. Each offers its own special abilities, soulbinds, conduits, transmoggable armor sets, and other perks, so check out our Covenant pages for more information to help you decide which covenant to pledge to. Keep in mind, the choice also is not final and can be periodically changed.
Best Raid Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Good
Pelagos
Necrolord
Great
Emeni
Night Fae
Great
Niya
Venthyr
Good
Draven
Best Mythic+ Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Low Keys
: Good
High Keys
: Decent
Pelagos
Pelagos
Necrolord
Low Keys
: Good
High Keys
: Good
Emeni
Emeni
Night Fae
Incredible
Dreamweaver
Venthyr
Low Keys
: Good
High Keys
: Good
Draven
Draven
Best Holy Priest Legendaries
Flash Concentration
shines in Mythic+ and Raiding with providing heavy tank support and single target support to allies. This call also be leveraged in a raid environment where increased single target can be helpful for supporting tanks or allies with lengthy bleed debuffs or on the Sun King Salvation boss fight which requires intense single target healing.
Harmonious Apparatus
is a good general craft for Raiding or Mythic+ for a lower-maintenance playstyle.
X'anshi, Return of Archbishop Benedictus
can have some situational value when learning new encounters but is not as powerful when it comes to raw output as the other options.
Holy Priest Legendary Guide
Detailed Holy Priest Builds
Note:
There are currently no talent variations depending on your covenant selection but there
is
variation depending on your Legendary selection. For a deeper look at each talent and more specialized builds for specific activities, see the
Holy Priest Talent Guide
.
This Holy Priest build is focused primarily on raiding in Shadowlands. Either
Benediction
or
Halo
depending on if there is bursty enough damage and players are close enough to make solid value from
Halo
.
Surge of Light
is very competitive, especially while progressing where mobility and mana efficiency are key.
Prayer Circle
is excellent if you have sufficient mana to spend on extra
Prayer of Healing
.
This Holy Priest build is focused for Mythic+ with the
Flash Concentration
legendary. At low-mid level Mythic+ your tanks are much less likely to kite and will require substantially more single target healing support to survive. Generally this build works very well before
Prideful
enemies get too large and your AoE healing is less of a focus. Also especially helpful for dungeons like Spires of Ascension or De Other Side which require very heavy single target throughput through enemy forces and bosses.
This Holy Priest build is focused for Mythic+ with the
Harmonious Apparatus
legendary.
Renew
is much more worth the cast in dungeons now that group wide damage is consistent throughout both trash mobs and the
Prideful
affix enemies. This makes
Renewed Faith
a solid talent to take in dungeons to support your throughput. Really helpful on prideful to blanket
Renew
on your party, followed by rapid
Prayer of Healing
casts thanks to
Prayer Circle
.
Holy Priest Talents Guide
Stat Priority for Holy Priests in Shadowlands
Holy Priests primarily favor higher Item Level gains, along with Mastery, although secondary stats are generally close in value. Find out more about how stats work in the
Stats Guide
, or get an overview of gear to look for from dungeons and raids in the
Holy Priest Gear Guide
.
Item level
Mastery
Critical Strike
Versatility
Haste
Gear in Battle for Azeroth heavily focused on pursuing item level upgrades and Shadowlands continues this trend as well. While mastery will be a primary focus to prepare for raids, if you find a non-mastery item that is 10 item levels higher than the Mastery piece, it is quite likely that the higher ilvl piece will be better. Some exceptions to item level can be rings and some trinkets. For further detail, check the gear guide.
Holy Priest Stats Guide
Best Enchants for Holy Priests
Many gear slots can be enchanted in Shadowlands power enhancing enchants: weapons, rings, bracers, chest, gloves and boots. Some of these will be utility based for gathering or reducing fall damage.
Recommended Holy Priest enchants:
Ring:
Enchant Ring - Tenet of Mastery
Weapon:
Enchant Weapon - Celestial Guidance
Cloak:
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Leech
Chest:
Enchant Chest - Eternal Bounds
or
Enchant Chest - Eternal Stats
Bracers:
Enchant Bracers - Eternal Intellect
The next two are utility based.
Gloves:
Enchant Gloves - Shadowlands Gathering
Boots:
Enchant Boots - Soul Treads
Potions and Flasks for Holy Priests
Flask:
Eternal Cauldron
or
Spectral Flask of Power
Potions:
Spiritual Healing Potion
,
Spiritual Mana Potion
or
Potion of Sacrificial Anima
. The
Potion of Sacrificial Anima
can be spent on
Prayer of Healing
and
Holy Word: Sanctify
to receive the greatest value.
In dungeons
Potion of Soul Purity
can be very useful for removing debuffs that you cannot dispel.
Weapon Oils for Holy Priests
Healing:
Embalmer's Oil
: This does very little healing at all. Opt for the damage oil instead.
Damage:
Shadowcore Oil
: While this does not give you any extra healing it actually does something unlike
Embalmer's Oil
.
Best Food for Holy Priests
The optimal individual food is
Iridescent Ravioli with Apple Sauce
with
Meaty Apple Dumplings
being cheaper but weaker.
Feast of Gluttonous Hedonism
is the highest quality feast in Shadowlands and should be prioritized over individual food.
Best Gems for Holy Priests
Recommended Holy Priest gems is
Masterful Jewel Cluster
with
Masterful Jewel Doublet
being the cheaper version.
Holy Priest Enchant/Consumables Guide
Rotation for Holy Priests in Shadowlands
Healing and dealing damage differ greatly, as healing does not follow a rotation, but instead prioritizes spells depending on the situation. This section gives a general overview. Optimizations, talent variations, and advanced tips can be found in the
Holy Priest Rotation Guide
.
Cast
Holy Word: Serenity
on cooldown (if target is around 50% HP)
Cast
Holy Word: Sanctify
on cooldown (if hitting full 6 players and sufficient damage is going out).
Cast
Prayer of Mending
on cooldown.
Cast
Circle of Healing
on cooldown
Flash Heal
as needed and to deal with spot damage
Cast
Prayer of Healing
As raid damage occurs and if mana is permitting.
Heal
as filler when not moving.
Renew
rarely, often while moving on targets taking sustained damage.
Cast
Holy Word: Chastise
on cooldown
Cast
Holy Fire
on cooldown
Maintain
Shadow Word: Pain
.
Cast
Smite
.
Cast
Holy Nova
over
Smite
at over 3 targets
Holy Priest Rotation Guide
Back to Top
Our Holy Priest guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs; make sure to check our changelog to this page, by clicking on
View Changelog
at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Holy Priest guides for , make sure to browse the
Navigation Bar
below, and our list of
Related Guides
just beneath the
Table of Contents
.
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