Current as of Patch 4.2

This is what it takes to get up-and-running as a raiding holy priest, but not necessarily what you need to be hardcore.  No math. Also, Zel’s dumb opinions.  If you think something is wrong or should be added, please let us know.

Spells

What is this Chakra Thing and How Do I Use It? P.S. What’s a Holy Word?

Chakra is cool.  You should always be in a chakra state.  Which one you pick depends on what you’re healing.  There are various ways to trigger it.

If you get Revelations, and of course you should, your Holy Word spell magically transmogrifies when you enter a chakra state.

Wait, what?  Fear not, there’s a chart.

Chakra	How to Trigger Chakra State	What it Does	Holy Word (with Revelations)	Holy Word Does WUT?
Chakra: Serenity	Chakra + *Heal OR *Greater Heal OR *Flash Heal	Boosts your single-target healing, including: *Heal *Greater Heal *Flash Heal *Binding Heal And your direct heals refresh renew on your target	Holy Word: Serenity	an instant single target heal that boosts healing taken by that target
Chakra: Sanctuary	Chakra + *Prayer of Healing OR *Prayer of Mending	Boosts your raid healing, including *Prayer of Healing *Circle of Healing *Renew And lowers cooldown on Circle of Healing by 2 seconds!	Holy Word: Sanctuary	Healing Floor

Remember, Chakra is NOT on the GCD, so you can macro chakra in with another ability. (See Macro Page.)

Chakra has a 30 second cooldown and an indefinite duration (until you cancel it or change chakra states).

As for Holy Word, the stupid thing is terribly difficult to macro and track because it changes with a different cooldown and a different name and a different icon.  Ugh.

The best way to track is with a power aura (see Power Auras Page).

If you use clique or other click-casting, the macro to cast it is as follows:

/cast [@mouseover] Holy Word: Chastise

Further Reading:

• Oestrus’s Guide to the Chakra Sutra. Her more-complete guide even includes the icky Smite Chakra!

Healing Spells

Spell Name	What it Does	More Info
Heal	Basic Direct Heal	Medium, Slow, low mana cost
Flash Heal	Small Direct Heal	Small, quick, high mana cost
Greater Heal	Big Direct Heal	Large, slow, high mana cost.
Binding Heal	Direct Heal to target AND yourself	You no longer have to worry about whether to heal the target or yourself. Mana-efficient for 2 targets.
Holy Word: Serenity (Talented)	A single-target instant heal that also places a healing buff on the target	Only available in Chakra: Serenity
Prayer of Mending	A heal that procs on impact and bounces to the next target. 5 charges.	Incredibly mana-cheap. Should be cast on the tank at every cooldown.
Renew	Single-target Heal over Time	A bit mana hoggy for a HOT, but is good for the tank. This spell does not scale well because it does not benefit from holy mastery.
Lightwell (Talented)	Puts down a clickable lightwell that heals people who click it	Very mana cheap but you have to train people to use it.
Power Word: Shield	A bubble that absorbs damage on your target	Holy talents do not support this spell. It's generally used only in conjunction with the Body and Soul speed increase.
Prayer of Healing	AOE heal	Group based, with cast time. Can be cast on any group in your raid, not just your own group.
Circle of Healing (Talented)	Instant AOE heal	Smart heal, instant, with cooldown.
Holy Word: Sanctuary (Talented)	AOE Healing floor	Only available in Chakra: Sanctuary
Holy Nova	AOE heal centered around the priest. Damages hostile targets.	Situational. Mana hoggy and not that effective. Not often used.
Resurrection	Resurrects your target	Technically this is HEALING FAIL.

Why Lightwell Is Now Awesome

The days of Lightwell being called “Lolwell” are over.  Lightwell is now super-awesome.

• It costs very little mana
• It can be clicked despite certain boss mechanics when you can’t even cast an instant
• It can be clicked when you, the healer, are incapacitated
• It packs a wallop of healing

You should use it every cooldown, unless the raid leader is dictating its placement as part of strategy.  You should train your raiders to use it.

Further Reading:

• Making the Most of Your Lightwell
• Addons for Lightwell Tracking

Circle of Healing versus Prayer of Healing

Circle of Healing	Prayer of Healing
smart heal	group based (on any group in your raid, not just your own)
decent range	also decent range
instant	has a cast time
a long-ass cooldown	no cooldown
can glyph for an extra target	can be buffed with a glyph for a HOT
nice big fat spellpower coefficient	less favorable spellpower coefficient

Now that we have that out of the way, the question arises, when do you use each?

First, try to get your raid leader to stack your groups for prayer of healing.  The range is pretty good but it’s not limitless.  Try to keep the melee and tanks grouped together and the ranged DPS and healers grouped together.

Second, assess how much time you have to get the damage fixed.  If people aren’t going to immediately croak, you may just wait out the cooldown for a circle of healing rather than blasting prayer of healing.  Or use some single-target spells.  If both groups need to regain health in a hurry, then yeah, prayer of healing is the way to go.  (Remember, because of the glyph and mastery, don’t top off!  Let the residual hot do some of the work for you.)

Binding Heal

How many freakin heals do we need?  Binding heal is often forgotten, but it should be used.  You should almost NEVER heal yourself.  If you have taken damage, you should binding heal other people until you’re back topped off.  This will save mana.  It’s a tough habit to get into because you’re used to selecting the target you are intending to heal.

Prayer of Mending

Throw it every cooldown.  EVERY COOLDOWN.  I mean it.  Anybody want a peanut?

Cooldowns

Spell Name	What it Does	More Info
Guardian Spirit (Talented)	Increases healing done on the target and saves from death.	This is primarily a tank cooldown. Be careful because it doesn't stack with everything.
Divine Hymn	Extremely powerful channeled AOE heal	Use it every boss fight.
Leap of Faith	Yanks your friendly target to you.	Easier to use by prearrangement than to use on the fly.
Fade	Sheds Aggro temporarily	Good for when you're getting roflstomped
Desperate Prayer (Talented)	Instant self-heal	Did I mention getting roflstomped?

Guardian Spirit FTW

No denying that Guardian Spirit is Bad-ass.  But it doesn’t stack with some tank cooldowns.  Even if it DOES stack with a tank cooldown, popping both at once might be overkill.  Coordinate cooldowns with your tanks and healers! Whether by vent, announcer addons, watching raid frames, or prearrangement.

Does not stack with:

• Ardent Defender
• Other priest’s guardian spirit

Leap of Faith? How the Eff Does That Work?

It’s really hard, in a raid situation, to figure out who is in a bad position and would be better off in YOUR position.  Most times, if someone is running from something awful, you sure as hell don’t want to bring the person, and consequently, the awful, near YOU.

However, some people have been able to use it effectively as a tank cooldown to get the tank out of the bad or kite a mob, etc.  This would need to be done by prearrangement, or it is damn disconcerting.

TL;DR – it’s hard to use on the fly, but you can use it as a planned maneuver in a particular boss fight if the situation warrants.

(I still think it’s Leap of Fail, but I have been shown the error of my ways.  Other people seem to like it for things OTHER than griefing your group members…)

Further Reading:

• Tales of a Priest: Leap of Faith

Buffs

Spell Name	What it Does	Target	More Info
Power Word: Fortitude	More Stamina	AOE on group/raid	Does not stack with the evil warlock imp.
Shadow Protection	Shadow Resist	AOE on group/raid	Does not stack with pally shadow resist aura.
Fear Ward	Absorbs one fear effect	Single Target	Lasts 3 min, Cooldown of 3 min, useful in PvP or on the tank in certain encounters.
Levitate	Target levitates over ick and falls slower.	Single Target	You think this isn't a buff? I'll let you FALL next time.
Inner Fire	Self-buff for armor and spellpower	Self-only	Does not stack with Inner Will
Inner Will	Self-buff for movement speed and mana reduction on instant spells	Self-only	Does not stack with Inner Fire. Does not stack with movement-enchants (such as boots).

Inner Will versus Inner Fire

When do I use Inner Will and when do I use Inner Fire?  Generally speaking, the thoroughput of Inner Fire combined with the survivability of its armor boost make it a solid choice.  You won’t miss the speed boost too badly if you have a boot enchant that gives a minor run speed increase.  Most of our spells are not instants, so the mana reduction for Inner Will largely goes to waste.

However, if you find yourself in an encounter where you’re hopping around like a coked-out ferret throwing mostly instants, then Inner Will is probably better.

Inner Will is also nice for learning an encounter.  The speed boost gives you a little more wiggle-room when you’re unfamiliar with when to start running out of the bad.  Sure, you’ll probably run out of mana.  But so what?  You’re probably going to wipe anyway.  Once you are more comfortable getting out of the bad without a speed boost, then you can swap over back to Inner Fire.  Remember, you can always bubble yourself with Body & Soul for a short speed burst, once you figure out the timing of the encounter.

Pro tip: Use Inner Will when running back from a wipe.

Mana Regeneration

Spell Name	What it Does	More Info
Shadowfiend	Bites the ankles of the boss for mana	A Macro helps.
Hymn of Hope	Mana for lowest-mana raid members. Channeled.	Hard to find time to channel it

Getting the Most out of Your Mana-Restoring Abilities

OK, you want to pop Shadowfiend early enough so that you can get 2 of them in a fight, but not too early so that your mana gains are wasted.

To get the most out of your Shadowfiend:

• First hit Shadowfiend and immediately swing into Hymn of Hope.  (Don’t do it the other way around or you’ll interrupt your Hymn of Hope channel by casting Shadowfiend and feel like a moron.)  See, Hymn of Hope raises your maximum mana by 15%.  Shadowfiend returns a set percentage of mana.  Soooo if your maximum mana is higher, you get more out of the fiend.  It’s hard to find a good time to channel something and not have people croak, so this may not be viable, or you might have to cut off Hymn of Hope early.
• Use a Shadowfiend Macro to make sure the stupid thing is attacking when it’s released.
• Release the Shadowfiend before Heroism, Bloodlust, or Time Warp is hit.  The fiend will hit faster and give you more mana!  But if you release the fiend after the buff has already been activated, it does not benefit.

Also, coordinate with your shaman friend.  Nothing is more of a /facepalm moment than letting loose the fiend and then 2 seconds later, Mana Tide is dropped, and you’re topped off and wasting all those mana ticks.

Cleansing

Now that hybrid classes can’t clean much more than the kitchen table, we healers are stuck with most of the cleansing duty.

Spell Name	What it Does	More Info
Cure Disease	Cures Disease	Depending on the disease, sometimes it's cheaper to just heal through it.
Dispel Magic	Cleanses friendly or hostile target's magic	You may be asked to use this on boss fights if there is no mage to spellsteal. You can cleanse 2 spells off a friendly, but only 1 off yourself.
Mass Dispel	AOE: Cleanses friendly or hostile targets.	It's pretty mana-expensive and the targeting circle is a pain.

Crowd Control

Though you probably won’t be doing much crowd controlling in raids, you may be doing a bit in heroics.

Spell Name	Works on...	What it Does	More Info
Shackle Undead	Undead	Immobilizes and prevents attacking (including casting) Breaks on damage.	Limited use, depends where you are.
Mind Control	Humanoids	Controls a hostile target. Channeled.	In a tight spot, you can crowd control a healer mob and fulfil your healing duties using their mana.
Mind Soothe	Humanoids	Reduces aggro radius.	... so you can get closer to mind control
Psychic Scream	Everyone	AOE fear	Useful in PvP but will get you in trouble in PvE
Holy Word: Chastise	Everyone	Disorients for 3 sec, and interrupts	To use this, you must cancel your current chakra state, unless you're in smite chakra. It can be done through a macro.

Talents and Spec

Talent Evaluations

This should hopefully explain why some talents are mandatory, some are usually avoided, and help you plan how to spend your “optional” points.

	The Talent	What it does	Evaluation
Mandatory	Chakra	Chakra, baby chakra (see section on chakra, above)	This is the bread-and-butter of the holy spec and you will be severely gimped if you're dumb enough to skip this talent.
	Revelations	This gives you the transmogrifying Holy Word (Healing floor!) - see chart above	Likewise, this one is a holy signature ability and you will terribly gimp yourself by omitting it.
	Holy Concentration	Extra mana regen from spirit.	Nice in itself but a prereq for chakra, so you're taking it and liking it.
	Lightwell	It places a clickable lightwell (duh) that is low mana cost and can be clicked when interrupted by certain boss mechanics	You should spec into it and love it, teach your raiders how to use it, and probably glyph it.
	Guardian Spirit	Your main oh-crap cooldown for the tank	Totally yes.
Good	Desperate Prayer	Instant self heal	It heals you for a good amount and is a good panic button for when you're getting roflstomped.
	Serendipity	Flash heal to build stacks (up to 2). Then use stacks to get a haste boost and mana reduction for Gheal or POH	It's mana intensive, for sure, but it does get a player back to healthy fast.
Useful (solid boosts to healing)	Twin Disciplines (Disc)	Increases healing by 6%	Duh. Yes please.
	Mental Agility (Disc)	Reduces mana cost of instant spells	Stacks additively with Inner Will for a total of 25% mana reduction. Very nice.
	Empowered Healing	15% increase to direct heals.	Yes. Even if not tank healing, yes.
	Inspiration	Damage mitigation on the target after a crit	Nice for tank healing, but will also mitigate damage in raid healing. The downside is that we don't stack crit at all, so this won't happen as often as it might for a disc priest.
	Test of Faith	Boosts healing on targets under 50% health	Useful in some fights, but in many fights, DPS need to be "topped off" and this talent goes to waste.
	Improved Renew	Better renew	Even though you're not tossing renews like candy, this will help you particularly for tank healing, and a bit for raid healing.
YMMV (Depends on your role, gear, and regular raid makeup)	Darkness (Shadow)	Haste (3% for 3 points)	12.5% isn't that hard to hit with gear alone, even without raid buffs
	Body and Soul	Speed Boost after bubbling	Incredibly useful for getting out of the bad, but may be wasted if you usually run with a disc priest.
	Spirit of Redemption	You get 15 seconds after death to heal the jerks who let you die.	A lot of people like this for learning encounters and squeaking out a win
	Blessed Resilience	Increases healing received after you get roflstomped or critted	This is in theory a PvP talent, but some like it for hardmodes when the damage is insane.
	Veiled Shadows (Shadow)	1 minute shaved off the Shadowfiend Cooldown	Very nice for extra mana. Skip it if you're comfortable with mana
	Tome of Light	Reduced Cooldown on Holy Word	Depends if you hit it every cooldown. You are likely to hit it every cooldown in Chakra: Serenity and less often in Chakra: Sanctuary.
	Divine Fury	Cast time reduction of Heal and Gheal	Not particularly useful if you're mostly raid healing. Very nice if you are tank healing.
	Divine Touch	an instant heal on the front end of renew	In theory you won't be hitting that many people with renew (especially since it does not benefit from mastery). If you tank heal, the renew will refresh with direct heals in Holy Word: Serenity. This is better for raid healing.
	Surge of Light	Procs an instant flash heal off your single target direct heals.	The proc rate is ok. But a free heal is a free heal.
Not Recommended	State of Mind	6 sec cooldown reduction on chakra (for 2 points)	If chakra lasts indefinitely, and the cooldown is 30 seconds, what does a six second cooldown reduction do for you? Nothing.
	Inner Sanctum (Disc)	Boost to speed of Inner will and armor of Inner Fire	Not worth it. Especially that deep into the disc tree.
	Rapid Renewal	GCD reduction on renew	Renew is too mana hoggy to be spamming it on (reduced) GCD like candy. Renew does not benefit from mastery.
	Soul Warding and Improved Power Word: Shield (Disc)	Shield stuff	Leave the shielding to Disc. Even if you have Body and Soul, you shouldn't be doing THAT much shielding
	Evangelism & Archangel (Disc)	Smite 5x and then consume it for a mana/healing boost.	Smiting without atonement is not worth the boost that Archangel provides after the smites are stacked.

Further Reading:

• Oestrus at Stories of O gives a thorough talent analysis from the perspective of a priest who does hardmodes: L2Holy: Talents – Version 4.1
• Oestrus also explains Serendipity

Sample Specs

These sample specs give you some options, but are not exhaustive.

• My bare-bones all-purpose spec, with 10 points left over.  Bare minimum of 31 points in the holy tree and your choice of supporting talents in disc and shadow.
• My favorite all-points-spent all-purpose spec.  I have mana issues, which is why I took shadowfiend.  I also run with a shaman, so haste isn’t a big deal for me.
• EJ’s recommended Heroic Healing Spec.
• EJ’s core raiding spec with optional points.
• Ensidia’s standard holy spec
• Ensidia’s alternative holy spec

I solicited specs from readers, and there is a wide variety of options, all of them totally reasonable for the person’s situation.

• Krikket’s spec | Explanation
• Shintar’s PVE Spec | PVP Spec | Explanation
• Sephrenia’s Spec | Explanation
• Nys’s Spec | Explanation

As you can see, there is a lot of wiggle-room depending on what your role is, what encounters you are doing, and what spells you usually use.  It will probably take a lot of gold to get it perfect.  And after you do, a patch will muck it up again. (If you have a favorite spec you want to share, please let me know!)

Glyphs

The ones with stars are more awesome than the others.  Just FYI.  The ones in parentheses I consider pretty fail.  The ones not on the chart at all I consider EPIC FAIL for Holy.

Type	Glyph	What it Does	Evaluation
Prime	Prayer of Healing*	Extra hot on the end of POH	Hells yeah, unless you're always the tank healer
	Lightwell*	Extra charges on lightwell	Train your raiders to use it, and those extra charges are free healing
	Renew	Better renew	Good for tank healing
	Flash Heal	Extra crits on people below 25%	Ok for tank healing, but hopefully the tank isn't below 25%.
	(Guardian Spirit)	30 sec cooldown reduction	Lame
	(Power Word: Shield)	Heal for 20% of shield value	That's a disc glyph, k?
Major	Circle of Healing*	Extra Circle of Healing Target	Free heals. YES PLEASE.
	Prayer of Mending*	Increased first bounce heal	An extra heal on your first target who is usually the tank. YES.
	Mass Dispel	Lowered cast time	Can't hurt to get the ick off people faster. It takes a while to place the targeting circle.
	Fade	Reduced cooldown for fade	Situational. Good if there is healing aggro from a lot of adds.
	Dispel Magic	A small heal on your dispel target	Chances are the target of your dispel is getting eaten by a dot, so this is reasonable, but weak.
	Inner Fire	Buffs your inner fire armor bonus	Situational. You might want it for the increased damage of hardmodes.
	(Holy Nova)	reduces GCD by 1/2 sec	Do not SPAM holy nova. /facepalm
	(Fear Ward)	Reduced cooldown by 30 sec	Lousy and near-useless in PVE
	(Smite and Divine Accuracy)	Smiting crap	Leave that for disc priests, k?
	(Desperation)	Cast Guardian Spirit (and Pain Suppression) while stunned.	Mostly PvP, but possibly useful in hardmodes.
Minor	Fading*	Lowered fade cost	This is one of the rare minor glyphs that helps you IN COMBAT
	Levitate*	No reagent	Running out of reagents is embarrassing.
	Shadowfiend	5% max mana if dies from damage	It's not likely to die from damage anymore.
	(Shadow Protection)	Increase duration by 10 mins	The duration is 1 hour already. Fail.
	(Fortitude)	Reduce mana cost	It's been reduced in a recent patch, so it's not significant.

Further Reading

• Oestrus at Stories of O analyzes glyphs in L2Holy: Glyphs.

Your Stats

The priorities are different depending on whether you’re first starting out raiding or deep into Tier 12.

The priorities for a starting raider are:

Intellect » Spirit » Haste (until 12.5% raid buffed) » Mastery » Crit (is not a good stat for us)

However, once you get into T12, haste and mastery are closer in priority, and haste may overtake mastery at some point…

Intellect » Spirit » Haste = Mastery » Crit (still sucks)

Spirit and Mana Management

EJ advises stacking spirit until you feel comfortable with your mana.  WTF does “until you feel comfortable with your mana” mean?  Well, uh, it means just that.  It’s a pretty stark tipping point where one day you’re really struggling and you get a few upgrades and suddenly you can breathe again.  Sorry for the touchy-feely non-numbers.

Haste And Mastery: Finding A Balance

Technically, in a pure-math world, and before you are rocking the T12, you’re supposed to get to 12.5% haste (raid buffed) to get that extra renew tick, and then hop on the mastery bandwagon.  And our mastery is awesome for thoroughput.

However, mastery is also awesome for overheal.  In a fight where people are kept at 50-75% health, our mastery is lovely for dribbling out a steady stream of residual hots to boost health.  In a fight where people need to be topped off, Hot ticks from mastery are often wasted.

As for haste, it’s true that we rely less on spamming on every GCD in Cataclysm, or our mana will give out.  However, sometimes you just feel slow and sluggish.  I’m getting touchy-feely again here, I know.  If you feel like your heals are always landing too late, a little bit more haste may do wonders for your confidence.  And remember, most of your heals have cast times.  I wouldn’t go nuts and start trying for the second extra tick on Renew, but 15% won’t completely destroy your early raiding thoroughput.

Further Reading:

• Oestrus at Stories of O gives an analysis of Understanding Echo of Light (with numbers).

Gearing

Because you can reforge to tweak your stats, the item with the highest item level is usually the correct choice, with the following caveats:

• If it has hit on it, it is just a waste of your stat budget, even if some of it gets reforged off.  Unless it’s a HUGE level boost compared to what you have, let the mage have it.
• An item with spirit is usually better than an item without spirit if they are of equal level. Unless you’re rolling in spirit.  Dream on.
• Crit is so lousy for holy that if you have two items of equal level, and one has crit and the other does not, you should choose the one without the crit. With items of unequal level, you are probably better off with the higher level item, regardless of how much crit.

Reputation, Justice Points, Crafting, Heroics, and Other Gear Choices

To get a solid gear foundation:

• Do all the quests in Twilight Highlands and you will get a few key ilvl 333 pieces without setting foot in a dungeon.
• Do Hyjal (revered) and Therazane (at least honored) for the appropriate enchants.

Afterward, take a look-see at the loot lists and go from there.

I’m not going to tell you what to do first, because it completely depends on what your most needed gear slot is, and after a few lucky drops, your priorities will suddenly shift.  I will say that before grinding up rep, spending your Justice Points, or having something crafted, LOOK at all that is available, and make a tentative outline of where to get your stuff.

Further Reading

• Saga at Spellbound has a complete list of Cataclysm Reputation Gear
• 4.2 Shopping List for Priests- Clothing Edition (WTS Heals)
• 4.2 priest loot! (Disc flavored) guess should work for holy as well  (Slice 213)
• 4.2.0 Loot Priorities for Holy Priests (Stories of O)
• Gearing Strategies for All Play Schedules

The Sad Truth About T-12/Firelands Gear

How do I say this so that it doesn’t totally suck?  Cloth gear in Firelands does not have spirit.  In previous tiers, you could totally get away with ignoring VP gear.  Now, you’re going to have to grind the VP for the tier gear for spirit.  Don’t freak out.  It will be OK.

Reforging

Intellect can’t be reforged.  Boo. Otherwise:

• Anything that does not have spirit should GET spirit. Do not reforge spirit OFF anything. Until you’re just rolling in spirit, that is.
• Reforge your crit OFF your gear into haste or mastery.
• Get your haste up to 12.5% (raid buffed) first, then
• Dump the rest into mastery

Further Reading

• Brunpal wrote a two part guest post at Jaded Alt on  Reforging In Depth (Part 1, Part 2)

Enchants

Pick enchants based on the stat priority above (seems reasonable enough).  You need Hyjal rep (Revered) for the hat enchant, and Therazane (Honored or Exalted) for shoulders.

For raiders, I recommend a speed boost on the boots to help get out of the bad.  It’s worth the stats that you might give up.  Sure, you can get something similar with Inner Will, but you may not want to use Inner Will for that particular encounter.

The list below has all the best enchants for the class/spec, but also cheaper options if you can’t spend the maelstrom crystals.

Slot	Enchant	What it Does	Notes
Head	Arcanum of Hyjal	+60 intellect +35 crit	Revered with Hyjal
Shoulder	Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone	+50 intellect +25 haste	Exalted with Therazane
	Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone	+30 intellect +20 haste	Honored with Therazane (Get Exalted)
	FelfireInscription	+130 intellect +25 haste	Inscriptionist Only
Cloak	Greater Intellect	+50 intellect
	Lightweave Embroidery	+580 intellect for 15 sec proc	Tailor Only
	Darkglow Embroidery	+580 spirit for 15 sec proc
Chest	Peerless Stats	+20 all stats	Requires Maelstrom Crystals (3)
	Exceptional Spirit	+40 spirit
	Mighty Stats	+15 all stats
Bracers	Mighty Intellect	+50 intellect	Requires Maelstrom Crystals (2)
	Exceptional Spirit	+50 spirit
	Draconic Embossment - Intellect	+130 intellect	Leatherworker only. (And what priest is a leatherworker?)
Hands	Greater Mastery	+65 mastery	Requires Maelstrom Crystals (2)
	Mastery	+50 mastery
	Haste	+50 haste
Belt	Ebonsteel Belt Buckle	+socket	Crafted by blacksmiths, usable by everyone.
Legs	Powerful Ghostly Spellthread	+95 intellect +55 spirit	Crafted by tailors (usable by everyone)
	Sanctified Spellthread	+95 intellect +55 spirit	Tailor only. Same effect as spellthread usable by everyone, but materials are cheaper.
Feet	Lavawalker	+35 mastery run speed boost	Requires Maelstrom Crystal (1)
	Mastery	+50 mastery
	Haste	+50 haste
	Earthen Vitality	+30 stamina run speed boost	Cheap and good for the speed boost.
Ring	Intellect	+40 intellect	Enchanter Only
Off-hand	Superior Intellect	+40 intellect
Weapon	Power Torrent	Proc 500 intellect for 12 seconds	Requires Maelstrom Crystals (4)
	Heartsong	Proc 200 spirit for 15 seconds

Further Reading

• Oestrus at Stories of O has compiled and analyzed a list of Cataclysm Enchants for Holy Priests.

Gems

Intellect is our top stat.  You could gem straight intellect OR gem with hybrid gems containing intellect to get socket bonuses.  Per EJ, there’s no hard evidence at this point whether it is best to match the socket bonus or to not.

Color	Gem	Stats
Meta	Ember Shadowsprit Diamond	+54 intellect +2% maximum mana
Red (red slot)	Brilliant Inferno Ruby	+40 intellect
Orange (yellow slot)	Artful Ember Topaz	+20 intellect +20 mastery
	Reckless Ember Topaz	+20 intellect +20 haste
Purple (blue slot)	Purified Demonseye	+20 intellect +20 spirit

When choosing your gems and considering whether to match a socket bonus, remember that you cannot reforge more Intellect on gear. If you are low in a specific stat, you may wish to use reforging to get you there rather than using your gem slots on it.

Professions

Elitist Jerks has a nice breakdown, but in the TL;DR version:

• Crafting professions give us +80 intellect, give or take, from profession bonuses.
• The bonuses from the gathering professions of Skinning and Mining are pretty dang useless
• Herbalism does have a nice haste buff from Lifeblood.  Lifeblood is NOT on the GCD and can be easily added to a macro and paired with any of your heals.

Consumables

Use a Flask of Flowing Water until you gear up enough to be comfortable with your mana regen.  Then switch to Flask of the Draconic Mind.

If your raid places down a feast, just use it.  If there’s no feast, whatever you can get your hands on to increase a useful stat, in order of preference listed above for gear (isn’t this easy?).  You may pick spirit over intellect until you’re comfortable with your regen.

Although every little bit of stat counts, you’ll be eating after every freakin wipe.  There will be a lot of wipes.  You may go through a stack 0f 20 in one night.  Unless you’re in a hard core raiding program, don’t break the bank on food.

Further Reading

• Upyursh has a list of Cataclysm Food Buffs and Flasks (though the ingredients for the flasks are out of date)

Addons

Raid Frames

Most healers use Vuhdo or Grid, with a few using Healbot and others using more generic frame replacement, such as Xperl, Pitbull, or Shadowed Unit Frames.  I strongly recommend Vuhdo or Grid because I think they are the most configurable to see what healers generally need to see.  P.S. Grid is better.

What to Track On Your Raid Frames

You should be able to show:

• Who has aggro
• Who has a bad thing that you can cleanse
• Who has a bad thing that you CAN’T cleanse (optional but useful for knowing what to heal through)
• Raid debuffs, preferably with stacks and a timer (for knowing what to heal through, whom to avoid, etc)
• Hots (yours) so you don’t overwrite
• A vague indicator of others’ hots.
• Your shields.
• Other people’s shields.
• Tanking cooldowns (from the tank or from a healer) that have been popped
• Who are the main tanks.

If you use Grid, check out the grid page for how to show these statuses in your frames.  For other addons, there are guides linked to the healer addons page.

Notifications and Timers

Several Choices

Look, there is no RIGHT answer for how to track your stuff.  Some people do fine with the default UI.  Some people like a lot of auditory noises.  Some people like bars, some like icons, and some like battle text.  Check out the Addons for All Classes Page and figure out what will work for you.

What to Track with Your Notifications and Timers

You need to know:

• when you have certain auras (like Chakra)
• when stuff comes off cooldown (like Holy Word)
• when stuff procs (like Surge of Light).

How you track this all is your business.  If you decide to go with Power Auras, I have some strings posted that you can start with.

Healing Strategies

Raid Healing

Holy priests really shine at raid healing.

Raid Healing Spells

You should be in Chakra: Sanctuary. Your main spells will probably be:

• Lightwell
• Circle of Healing
• Prayer of Mending
• Prayer of Healing
• Healing Floor (Holy Word) if positioning permits
• Renew
• Divine Hymn when the crap hits the fan
• Help out the tank healer by letting the tank healer call for a Guardian Spirit on the tank.

I say “Renew” but DO NOT sprinkle it around like candy or you’ll be SO out of mana.  Healing floor is very expensive, but it is worth it if you are grouped up and are likely to stay there for a while.  In the beginning, you will probably foul up Healing Floor placement until you learn the fights very well.

I put Lightwell first for a reason.  That sucker needs to be placed every cooldown, unless the raid leader has other intentions for it.  Place it where nobody is going to step on it (that makes it harder to click), close enough to most people so they CAN click on it, and then annoy the crap out of them until they DO click on it.

Raid Healing Talents

Besides the obvious must-haves of the spec, I recommend:

• Body and Soul – because you’ll be helping raiders get out of the bad, and your target won’t already be shielded with a discipline priest’s bubble (the disc priest will likely be on the tank)
• Mental Agility – to keep up with the mana requirements of Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and Renew
• Divine Touch – you can use renew as a band-aid for wayward DPS, and the front-loaded heal will be useful.

Raid Healing Glyphs

Prayer of Healing, Lightwell, and Circle of Healing are must-haves.

Tank Healing

People who say that holy priests cannot tank heal are dead wrong.  It’s true that some classes are slightly better at it, but we’re pretty dang good.  It depends a little on whom you are tanking.  Holy priests do not do as well with tanks that take spiky damage (for example Death Knights) and do much better with a steady damage stream (for example Paladins).

Tank Healing Spells

You should be in Chakra: Serenity.  Your main spells:

• Pop (glyphed) prayer of mending on the tank every cooldown
• Keep renew on the tank (glyphed, if possible)
• Renew will auto-refresh with direct heals
• Use Holy Word on every cooldown on the tank.  It is a great instant heal and it boosts future healing on the tank.
• Use direct heals on the tank.  Try to conserve mana by using Heal
• If you get in trouble, use two flash heals and one greater heal with Serendipity to get the tank back up
• Use Guardian Spirit or even Divine Hymn if you get in a real mess
• Don’t forget the Lightwell on every cooldown, even if the tank isn’t going to use it.

Tank Healing Talents

Besides the obvious…

• Inspiration – damage mitigation on crit on the tank.  Yes please.
• Serendipity – a must-have for single-target healing
• Empowered Healing – boosts single target heals
• Divine Fury – gets the big heals to land faster.
• Tome of Light – reduces the cooldown on your holy word.  That Holy Word is awesome.
• Improved Renew – You should have renew up on the tank at all times

Tank Healing Glyphs

Renew, Flash Heal(?), and Prayer of Mending.

Holy Priest Resources

• Elitist Jerks Holy Compendium
• Ensidia’s Holy Priest Guide
• Holy Priest Guide for 4.2 at Plusheal.com
• Holy Priest 4.2 at How2Priest.com
• Holy Priest Beginner’s Guide at Plusheal.com
• Healer Addon Page for suggested addons and guides to those addons
• Grid Page because Grid is the awesomest
• Power Aura Page for sample power auras
• Macro Page for some useful macros
• Posts Tagged “Holy Priest“