PvE Holy Priest Talents, Builds, & Glyphs

The Mists of Pandaria expansion overhauled the talent options for every class and removed Prime Glyphs, leaving a more streamlined system for building out your character. For Holy Priests, your choices will have a subtle, but still meaningful impact on your gameplay and performance.

Talents

Talents can now be changed out of combat as long as you have some Tome of the Clear Mind on hand. That means you can easily swap out talents on a fight-by-fight basis. This gives you greater flexibility to take advantage of niche talents when the situation calls for it instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all talent build.

Here is our recommended default talent build for the majority of content. Read on to find out about individual talents and what situations might call for different talent selections.

Level 15 Talents (Tier 1)

• Void Tendrils
  This is the most likely to be useful in endgame PvE content out of the three crowd control options in this tier. Its AoE root effect is on a short cooldown and can keep up to 5 mobs locked down for up to 20 seconds.
• Psyfiend
  This fear effect is a little less reliable than the root option. Best used with Glyph of Psychic Scream, but that requires taking up a Major Glyph slot with a glyph that doesn’t improve your healing.
• Dominate Mind
  Mind control is not useful in endgame group content since you will not be able to continue healing while using it.

Level 30 Talents (Tier 2)

• Body and Soul
  This speed boost piggybacks off of Power Word: Shield, which is not as useful for you as it is for a Discipline Priest, which makes this a lot less appealing. Using it will be particularly problematic if there is a Discipline Priest in your raid since they will not appreciate you putting Weakened Soul on their targets. All around, Angelic Feather is a better choice in most situations.
• Angelic Feather
  This option offers a more powerful movement speed buff than Body and Soul at no mana cost, and it does not run the risk of failing due to the Weakened Soul debuff. You can even chain 3 in a row to sprint for 18 seconds straight! On the other hand, you can only use 3 feathers before they must recharge, so you won’t be able to blanket the raid in speed buffs. Moreover, the feathers must be placed on the ground by default, which can be awkward – but luckily there are targeting macros to help with that. Feathers remain on the ground for 10 minutes or until 3 more have been placed, so you can set them up well in advance for your teammates to use at their discretion.
• Phantasm
  This talent isn’t worth taking in most PvE content, but if there are movement impairing mechanics you might spec into it for a specific fight.

Level 45 Talents (Tier 3)

• From Darkness Comes Light
  This option is the least reliable of the three since it is a random proc and it only procs from your single-target cast-time heals and Smite, which you may not be using a lot if you’re raid healing, especially in a 25-player raid. It does have good synergy with Serendipity, however. It’s a stronger option in dungeons and 10-player raid content where you will get more use out of your single-target heals.
• Mindbender
  Replaces your Shadowfiend with a buffed version that can be summoned every minute instead of every 3 minutes, which can amount to a lot of mana regeneration if used on cooldown. A great option if you won’t be able to find GCDs to use Solace and Insanity and you won’t be using a lot of cast-time spells that can trigger From Darkness Comes Light.
• Solace and Insanity
  Replaces your Holy Fire with Power Word: Solace, which works exactly the same but restores mana instead of spending it. This talent is stronger for Discipline Priests since they can use it with Atonement, but you can still gain Evangelism stacks from it. It’s a great talent to take if you expect to have some downtime to throw out a little damage, but it loses value on fights where you have to constantly heal and can’t spare frequent GCDs for this ability.

Level 60 Talents (Tier 4)

• Desperate Prayer
  This is a simple and straightforward personal cooldown. It’s instant, costs no mana, and can heal a good chunk of your health every 2 minutes. It benefits from your Mastery, making it an ever bigger heal for you than it is for other Priests. It will be the strongest option in most situations, but you have to actually remember to use it (and use it often) for it to have any actual value. This ability is off the global cooldown and is therefore good to use in defensive macros.
• Spectral Guise
  This stealth effect doesn’t let you avoid damage and you can’t cast any spells without breaking it. But it can still be extremely useful in certain situations even in PvE since it will force enemies to un-target you. That means it can be used to break abilities like Fixate when they are cast on you. Beyond that, there’s also a way to “cheese” this spell to drop combat, assuming Blizzard doesn’t fix it for MoP Classic. You just have to cancel the effect before it expires (by clicking it off or using a macro).
• Angelic Bulwark
  A bit weaker than Desperate Prayer, but a good alternative if you prefer a passive effect that triggers automatically instead of having to use a cooldown. You can also benefit from it more often than Desperate Prayer if you are dropping low more than once every 2 minutes, since it has no cooldown.

Level 75 Talents (Tier 5)

• Twist of Fate
  A passive effect that gives you 15% increased damage and healing for 10 seconds after you heal or deal damage to a target who has fallen below 35% health. This talent is powerful but also very situational. It requires either your teammates or enemies to drop below 35% health, or you won’t be able to trigger it at all. On the other hand, you can keep very high uptime on the buff in the right circumstances, maybe even 100%.
• Power Infusion
  Previously only available to Discipline Priests, this powerful personal cooldown can massively buff your spell casts for 20 seconds every 2 minutes. The buff increases your casting speed and the damage you deal as well as reducing the mana cost of your spells. This is a great choice for fights that have heavy damage periods, when you can pair this with some very fast and efficient Prayer of Healing spam. Note that unlike previous versions of this spell, this one can only be cast on yourself.
• Divine Insight
  This talent will be the most useful of the three in most situations. It has a high chance to proc often since you’re likely to be using either Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing pretty frequently. It causes your next Prayer of Mending to hit all of its targets instantly and not trigger its cooldown. This is even better with Glyph of Prayer of Mending since the two work together. PoM is one of your best spells as a relatively cheap AoE smart heal, so getting to use it more often (and instantly) is a huge benefit for a Holy Priest.

Level 90 Talents (Tier 6)

• Cascade
  Of the three AoEs in this tier, this one will be used when the group is the most spread out, since it does more healing when targets are further apart. It’s also the only option that will heal or deal damage, but not both, so you don’t run the risk of pulling extra mobs or breaking crowd control when you use this to heal. It’s important to note that this spell has 15 total bounces and can’t bounce to the same target twice, so some of its potential healing will be wasted if it’s used outside of a 25-player raid. However, its bounces can be used to reset the duration of your Renews if you’re in Chakra: Serenity, so this ability has decent value in 10-player raids.
• Divine Star
  The most broadly useful of these three AoE options and your default choice when you don’t have a reason to take one of the other two. It has the shortest cooldown and the lowest mana cost. It’s less useful if your group is not stacking or you can’t position yourself behind your teammates to line up the ability.
• Halo
  The most powerful of the three, but also the most expensive and on the longest cooldown. Be aware that it hits everything within 30 yards of your character, which can result in pulling extra mobs in dungeons or other tight areas. It will also be very hard on your mana if you try to use it every time it’s off cooldown. With that said, it offers the biggest bang for your buck if you need heavy burst healing. It’s also useful when the group is separated, but not spread out, such as if there’s a pile of players in melee and one at range.

Glyphs

Prime Glyphs are gone in Mists of Pandaria. You will still choose 3 Major Glyphs and 3 Minor Glyphs.

Major Glyphs

If you’re just looking to grab the 3 most straightforward glyphs for a Holy Priest, here are your picks depending on the type of content you’re tackling. Continue to the next section for alternatives that can be even more useful in the right circumstances.

• Glyph of Circle of Healing (25-player raids)
  This glyph allows you to heal another target with each Circle of Healing, but at a significant mana cost. It raises your HPS (healing per second) at a cost of reduced HPM (healing per mana), so you will want to avoid it at low gear levels when your Spirit can’t support the extra cost. It’s also not really worth using in dungeons or 10-player raids where you have fewer potential targets to heal. But in 25-player groups with strong enough mana regeneration, it amounts to a significant throughput boost.
• Glyph of Renew (dungeons and 10-player raids)
  This glyph speeds up your Renew, causing it to tick for significantly more while shortening its duration. You’ll get a lot more healing out of the spell overall with this, and even more so if you’re using Chakra: Serenity, which allows you to refresh their duration (and continue to benefit from the stronger ticks). You should consider swapping this out in 25-player raids where you’re less likely to use Chakra: Serenity.
• Glyph of Deep Wells
  Adding extra charges to your Lightwell lets you get some extra healing out of it before you have to wait for its long cooldown.
• Glyph of Inner Sanctum
  Provides additional movement speed when your Inner Will is active and additional defense when your Inner Fire is active, a very flexible and useful combination.

Situational Options

These can offer strong alternatives to the glyphs above depending on the content and your approach.

• Glyph of Binding Heal
  The main problem with this glyph is that the third target will be whoever happens to be closest to the target you cast Binding Heal on. So you could be spending another 35% mana to heal a full-health pet. But if you have mana to burn, it’s still extra healing for each Binding Heal you cast.
• Glyph of Fade
  Turns your otherwise not-very-useful Fade spell into a short-cooldown defensive ability.
• Glyph of Holy Fire
  Extends the range of your most significant damaging spells. Useful for reducing the amount of moving around you need to do when you want to contribute some DPS, but not often worth using for Holy since your damaging spells are not as significant a part of your rotation as they are for Discipline.
• Glyph of Levitate
  Although your Levitate is likely to be quickly broken in a dungeon or raid environment, you will still get at least 10 seconds of speed out of it. It will also feel great when you have to run a long distance out of combat.
• Glyph of Lightwell
  You can use this glyph to revert your Lightwell to the old version that required players to click on it, which will also increase its potential healing output. This is a significant buff to the spell, but not having to click the Lightwell is a huge convenience for your entire group. It’s a choice between a very effective smart heal versus your teammates being responsible for their own healing.
• Glyph of Prayer of Mending
  Reduces your Prayer of Mending from 5 charges to 4, with the tradeoff being that its initial target gets a much bigger heal. You’ll probably want to forgo this in 25-player raids since it will cause your PoM to heal for less overall, but it can be useful in dungeons or on encounters where the bulk of the damage will be on the tank and you won’t benefit much from additional PoM bounces. It also works well with your Divine Insight talent.
• Glyph of Purify
  Causes your Purify spell to also heal the target for a small amount when it dispels an effect. This is a nice little bonus when you are going to be dispelling a lot anyway.
• Glyph of Smite
  Dealing extra damage is great if you’re able to squeeze in some DPS and don’t have a need for any of the more healing-oriented glyphs in this list.
• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption
  Extends the duration of your Spirit of Redemption, which is a huge buff to the ability. Can be used for some shenanigans where you heal a bunch in Spirit form for free and then get battle rezzed. Overall though, it’s better if you’re not dying enough to justify using this glyph.

Options to Avoid

These may seem like strong options for Holy Priests at first glance, but they’re generally not as good and will only have very limited or niche usefulness.

• Glyph of Holy Nova
  The only way to get the Holy Nova spell now. It’s very weak and not really worth the glyph slot, and it doesn’t work with Evangelism or Divine Fury. You already have Mind Sear for AoEing down large groups of weak adds.
• Glyph of Mass Dispel
  Allows you to dispel Magic effects with your Mass Dispel even if they are normally not dispellable, which can be extremely valuable if such an effect is present. There are very few examples of this in PvE content, however.
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield
  Converts some of the absorption of your Power Word: Shield into healing. The spell is not one you’ll be using much either way, so this glyph isn’t really worth a slot.
• Glyph of Weakened Soul
  May have some niche uses with Body and Soul, but you shouldn’t be using Power Word: Shield that often otherwise.

Minor Glyphs

All of your Minor Glyphs are cosmetic and do not affect your healing or damage in any way, but there are a couple that add visual effects that can actually be useful for endgame content.

• Glyph of Holy Resurrection
  Will highlight your Resurrection targets so that your group can see you are rezzing someone.
• Glyph of Inspired Hymns
  Adds a big glowy visual to your Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope so that your group knows you’re channeling them.