So I’m writing a Holy Priest guide, which means I’m obviously nuts. But I need your help. I want to see what Holy specs you are using and why. Not everyone is running with my particular raid makeup. Some of you are running hardmodes. Some of you are doing 25′s. Some of you have favorite specs for running heroics.
I looked on those sites that tell you what the most popular specs are. The so-called most popular holy spec did NOT include Lightwell. To me, this is horrific. But maybe a lot of people skip it. I just don’t know.
Help me help you by posting your Holy Spec(s) and maybe a brief explanation of why you chose what you did.
Armory is currently down, and of course, WoW is down for maintenance, but I’m 99% sure this is the most recent spec I was using on my holy priest:
7/32/2
Some of the reasons for my choices:
- The changes to Desperate Prayer made it kind of amazing, so I wanted that.
- I skip Spirit of Redemption because – for me – not being dead is important. I’d rather take talents that help me (and others) stay alive than one that only helps if I die.
- Now that Chakra has a 1m duration, there’s no need to take State of Mind – I’m not changing chakras that often in a raid environment.
- Blessed Resilience, while great for PvP, is meh at best for PvE.
- I took Body & Soul at the request of my raid leader, and DEAR GOD DID I LOVE IT.
- I only have two points in Darkness because I have enough haste on my gear that I’m over the 12.5% softcap from gear with only 2 points.
- I took a point out of Mental Agility because I run almost always with Inner Will on, and I wasn’t having any real mana issues on the content we were working on.
- I used those two points to get Improved PW:S because I was the speedy-bubble provider for my raid group, and on fights like Maloriak (where I was bubbling the offtank pretty much as soon as Weakened Soul fell off to help with the add kiting) the extra absorption was nice to have, and it seemed like it make it more mana-efficient as well.
Typically, I was either the second tank healer (on fights with heavy tank damage) or the secondary raid healer, so I needed a spec that would work for both. I was also the tank healer for Chimeron, and having Prayer of Mending glyphed made that fight SO MUCH EASIER (since it’s no longer necessary to keep the double attack tank at full – you just need to make sure that person always has a fresh PoM on).
Wow, I never would have taken Imp PW:S but your reasoning makes total sense.
That’s actually the typical reaction when people see my spec “Really? I:PWS?”
It’s certainly not something I would recommend to MOST holy priests – but I do point out the possibility when someone says “My raid leader asked me to go holy for Body & Soul HALP!” because if you’re playing a spec SPECIFICALLY for the speed boost from B&S, you’re going to be using your bubbles. If you’re going to be using your bubbles, why not get the most out of them?
Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to tweak my PvE spec. I now use this:
4/32/5
I don’t use Desperate Prayer because even though it’s been improved a lot… holy priests already have so many spells, there is always another way to save myself anyway. And I like my shadowfiend. Let me know if anything else makes you scratch your head.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I heal ten-mans on normal mode, without having a specific position.
I also have a holy PvP spec:
8/33/0
In PvP I do use Desperate Prayer because I often get focused and every instant helps to keep me alive that little bit longer. Rapid Renewal is kind of pointless as I don’t spam it in PvP. Improved PW:S is again another thing to help me live longer as I always shield myself whenever I can.
Glyph-wise I’m thinking about swapping one medium out for the ProM one but haven’t decided which one. I use Mass Dispel in battlegrounds, for arena I switch to Glyph of Desperation.
The only thing that makes me pause is the choice of state of mind. Do you change chakra states a lot? Or just nothing strikes you as better?
Actually… that was just me having a herp-derp moment. When I said that I wanted to tweak my PvE spec I specifically meant to spec out of that but I think I must have clicked it out of habit, lol. I originally got it back when Chakra had a longer cooldown and meant to get rid of it because generally I don’t change Chakra states that often and the current cooldown is alright. Move those two points to Test of Faith and Mental Agility and that’s my current spec.
Like this?
That’s it, yeah.
My spec is … 4/32/5
I didn’t take Desperate Prayer because I forget to use it. I didn’t take PW:S because I run with a Disc priest and he gets coss if I use my shield anywhere other than on Atramedes.
I only need 2 points in Darkness because I have enough haste and in raids we usually have someone who gives the 3% extra buff. Also, as far as I can see all that meeting the haste cap really helps with is getting an extra tick of renew and these days I don’t get much chance to get lots of ticks off on a renew – someone else has always topped the person off or they have taken even more damage and need a bigger heal. I need to go back and see how much time you gain on GH or Heal when you have more haste, but it doesn’t feel worth it to stack as far as I can see (this is more of gut feel than knowledge
).
I recently respecced to take back Spirit of Redemption because we’re working on hard modes and being able to heal when dead if we’re pushing the last few percent might be a life saver. I agree it may be useless if you don’t really (or shouldn’t really) die, but I misssed it a lot when I didn’t have it.
I dropped State of Mind for the same reason as Krikket. I took all the points in Veiled Shadows becuase I love my fiend and use him as often as I can.
Have fun making your decisions
I am in a 10 man raiding guild working on Heroic modes (Halfus done and hating Chimaeron with a vengance). Most often we run with me as Holy, a Disc priest and a resto Druid. I’ve not been in the guild that long and haven’t fully cleared everywhere else, but it’s going well so far.
Interesting. I’m a huge fan of Desp Prayer, but you do have to remember to use it. I even have it on my disc spec because it’s such a knee-jerk reaction.
The point of this exercise really is so that I can present a guide that gives people reasonable options for specs, not to create one end-all-be-all spec, because I don’t think that EXISTS.
I love Holy because there are so many choices and few could be considered “wrong” and I love seeing what other priests are doing.
6/31/4 is what I use. I’m a casual 10 man raider, not yet to hard modes.
Desperate Prayer – I honestly can’t find a practical use for it. If I’ve taken damage, someone else probably has too, and there’s just too many spells that will help me AND someone else. Binding Heal, in particular, seems to be the forgotten step-child for many priests, especially newer ones. The one point I would have put here is put into Veiled Shadows for more fiend. DP is good for an on-the-go-oh-crap-dying button, though.
Spirit of Redemption – In the times I can think of where having it would have meant a kill, other factors would have made a bigger difference.
Lightwell – It is an awesome raid cooldown. I’ll pop it down somewhere before combat, and then tell people to click it when it’s really need. For example, Feud on Chimaeron. Glyphed, everyone gets one click, plus a few more get some extra love, and then it’ll be usable again before Mortality goes out. Blackout is another awesome example, or during Halfus’ aoe stun thing. Giving people specific times to use it, it seems, means they won’t forget about it.
Renew Talents and 3/3 Mental Agility – I Renew a lot. Particularly if other instant-can-use-while-moving spells are on cooldown when I have to move, I’ll toss renews until I can stop to heal again. I also frequently switch between Inner Fire and Inner Will to help with those mana savings.
No State of Mind – I switch states all the time and still the 6 seconds doesn’t make a difference.
Darkness – I can’t always guarantee that I’ll have a haste buff in the raid, so I keep it around. Though, I don’t know if I’d get rid of it even then, as there just isn’t a lot of other choices. I’ve considered dropping one point from there and putting it into VS, but that would be something to test after our roster quits changing night-by-night.
Interesting. I found Renew was getting me OOM so fast that I dropped rapid renewal, but kept the rest of the renew talents.