PvE Holy Priest

PvE Holy Priest

Holy Priests in Mists of Pandaria continue to be strong raid healers, with a few tweaks to their toolkit to improve their single-target healing. Holy is a more straightforward healing build than Discipline, and while Disc tends to take the spotlight in this expansion, the Holy Priest still has a place at the table. This guide will cover all of the important aspects of building, gearing, and playing your Holy Priest so you can progress through all the PvE content that MoP Classic has to offer.

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

Class specializations have become more streamlined in Mists of Pandaria, with trimmed-down talent trees and the removal of Prime Glyphs. Some abilities have been made baseline and others have been removed or reworked. Most of these changes are “under the hood,” however. The way the Holy Priest actually plays is very similar to how it played in Cataclsym, with few changes to your rotation. You’ll still need to utilize Chakra states to optimize your abilities for the task at hand. But now you’ll be able to activate each of your Chakras with a single button press instead of having to awkwardly cast another spell to do so.

Divine Hymn is now exclusively yours and no longer available to Discipline Priests. It has also been changed to heal additional targets in a 25-player raid. Priests also gain access to their choice of three new AoE heals in the talent tree: Cascade, Divine Star, or Halo.

Holy Priests struggled somewhat in smaller group content in Cataclysm. They are still at their strongest in 25-player raids, but Chakra: Serenity now allows you to refresh Renew on your targets, which gives you a new way to approach dungeons and 10-player raids.

It’s worth remembering that WoW Classic expansions launch with class tuning that reflects the final patch of the original expansion. So even in Phase 1 of MoP Classic, the Holy Priest’s talents and abilities will be in the same state they were in for Patch 5.4.8. One example of this is Lightwell, which was changed late in the expansion to heal on its own without needing to be clicked.

holy priest specialization window

Strengths & Weaknesses

round check mark symbol with transparent background free png Strengths

  • Strong Raid Healing
    Holy Priests have always excelled at healing in large groups, and that trend continues in Mists of Pandaria. Chakra: Sanctuary is your strongest Chakra and allows you to pump out quite a lot of healing onto your targets. With your Mastery: Echo of Light effect, Renew, and Holy Word: Sanctuary, you have a lot of HoTs that will keep ticking on your targets beyond your initial heals, allowing you to ramp up and build a cushion for incoming damage.
  • Powerful Cooldowns
    Guardian Spirit is the only external cooldown that can allow its target to literally cheat death. Divine Hymn is incredibly powerful as well, and even more so now that it heals additional targets in a 25-player raid. You also have Spirit of Redemption by default now, which can allow for some clutch healing in messy situations.

round cross mark symbol with transparent background free png Weaknesses

  • Lack of Absorbs
    Even the strongest heals just don’t compete with absorption effects, which leaves the Holy Priest feeling weaker than its Discipline brethren. You do still have Power Word: Shield, but it’s too weak to be worth using much beyond the occasional emergency.
  • Lack of Unique Utility
    While you have a couple of strong cooldowns, the Holy build feels a bit basic compared to other healing specializations. You don’t bring much to the raid that can’t be obtained from other healers, such as the ability to heal while also dealing damage or important raid buffs/debuffs.
  • Chakras Can Feel Restrictive
    The 30-second cooldown on Chakra prevents you from truly being able to “stance dance” and take full advantage of all of your Chakras. Switching Chakra states requires knowledge of the fight and planning ahead and isn’t something to be done lightly. This is particularly problematic in Challenge Mode dungeons, where Discipline will be much more able to switch things up on the fly to help their team make good time by dealing extra damage. Holy will almost never want to be in Chakra: Chastise in group content as it will lock them out of a healing stance for a significant chunk of time.

Best Races

In Mists of Pandaria, any race except Orc can be a Priest. Racial traits are less impactful in this expansion than they were in earlier versions of WoW, but they can still affect your gameplay as a Holy Priest.

Wow Alliance Crest Alliance

The best Alliance race for Holy Priests is the race icon male pandarenrace icon male pandaren Pandaren thanks to their Epicurean trait, which amounts to a significant Intellect or Spirit buff. icon - human maleicon - human male Human offers The Human Spirit, which buffs your Spirit, and achievement character gnome maleachievement character gnome male Gnome offers a larger mana pool through Expansive Mind.

Horde

The best Horde race for Holy Priests is the race icon male pandarenrace icon male pandaren Pandaren thanks to their Epicurean trait, which amounts to a significant Intellect or Spirit buff. race icon male goblinrace icon male goblin Goblin gets a Haste buff in their Time is Money trait. achievement character troll maleachievement character troll male Troll gets Berserking, which gives you an extra throughput cooldown. race bloodelf femalerace bloodelf female Blood Elf is also a strong choice thanks to their mana restoration ability, Arcane Torrent.

 

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.
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