WotLK Priest Guide – Holy (Level 80)

This TBC Priest guide covers all of the Addons, Stats, Gear, Enchants and Talents you will need to be the very best priest you can be!

Preface

There are many things in WoW that entail being a proper Field Medic. There is much more to it than just gearing your character and setting a talent spec. These things include always having on hand the right potions and flasks, which heals are the right ones for the job, and even knowing when you shouldn’t heal someone. This guide will cover everything you need to know, and go into depth on everything you need to learn in order to become a properly trained Field Medic.

I give tons of credit to the pre-existing Warmane Priest guides by Boonsbane and Noella. These guides, while decent guides themselves, do not cover things that I’d like to, and their authors haven’t been active since 2015. In addition to the fact that I have been asked by multiple people to create a guide for Wrath, I have decided to take it upon myself to do so.

Very important note: This is a guide for Wrath of the Lich King. This guide is not to be confused with my TBC Field Manual. If you wish to refer to my TBC Field Manual, please check here: http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=353557

If you are looking for Ruby Sanctum and Icecrown-specific advice, please have a look at Iqui‘s guide here: http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=420152

About the Author

I have been playing a Holy Priest as a “pseudo main character” since the Burning Crusade was live on retail. I currently still do play one on retail to this very day. Just to be clear, I don’t claim to be the best player around. However, over the years of playing this class, I have collected a lot of information about it. I may not necessarily be good at the class (though many people may tell you so), but I do know that I can be very insightful and informative about how the Holy spec works, and how to improve gameplay.

Common Acronyms

mp5 – Mana per 5 seconds – This will read on an item as “Restores X mana per 5 sec.”
5SR – “Five second rule”
I5SR – Inside the 5 second mp5 penalty timer
Q: What is the “five second rule”?
A: The five second rule is a reference to the “mp5” mechanic. When you cast a spell, your mana regeneration is reduced for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, your mana begins regenerating at its full potential again. Keep in mind that the 5-second rule is not applied until you finish a cast. You can cast spells and cancel the cast before it finishes and you will not have the 5-second rule applied to you!

COH – Circle of Healing
POH – Prayer of Healing
POM – Prayer of Mending
PW:S – Power Word: Shield
MA – Mental Agility
SP – Spell power
HoT – Heal Over Time

Consumables

Flask of the Frostwyrm (+125 spellpower for 1 hour.) – Icethorn x5, Lichbloom x5, Frost Lotus x1, Enchanted Vial x1 (Materials for two)
Flask of Pure Mojo (+45 mp5 for 1 hour.) – Icethorn x7, Pygmy Oil x3, Frost Lotus x1, Enchanted Vial x1 (Materials for two)
>These flasks are your most powerful consumable buff options from Alchemy. Flask of Pure Mojo should only be used at low gear when you’re hurting for mana regen.
>You can have one Guardian Elixir and one Battle Elixir active at a time (one of each). Flasks count as both.

<Cheaper Options>
Note: I have found the most potent elixir combination for low gear to be Spirit + Guru’s.
Guardian Elixirs;
Elixir of Mighty Thoughts (+45 intellect) – Deadnettle x2, Talandra’s Rose x1, Imbued Vial x1
Elixir of Spirit (+50 spirit) – Talandra’s Rose x3, Imbued Vial x1

Battle Elixirs;
Spellpower Elixir (+58 spellpower) – Goldclover x1, Tiger Lily x1, Imbued Vial x1
Guru’s Elixir (+20 to all stats; spirit, int, stamina) – Pygmy Oil x3, Imbued Vial x1

Runic Mana Potion (4200-4400 mana restore) – Lichbloom x2, Goldclover x1, Imbued Vial x1
Crazy Alchemist’s Potion (3100-3500 health, 4200-4400 mana restore + random effect) – Goldclover x2, Imbued Vial x1
>Alchemist only, recommended to use this instead of regular mana potions. Cheaper to make too.
Endless Mana Potion (1800-3000 mana restore) – Runic Mana Potion x10, Enchanted Vial x1
>Alchemist only, provides less mana than other mana potions, but does not get used up.

>These potions share a cooldown (CD) with mana potions. Only use them if you will not need a mana potion.
Potion of Wild Magic (200 crit and spellpower for 15 sec) – Lichbloom x2, Pygmy Oil x1, Imbued Vial x1
Potion of Speed (500 haste for 15 sec) – Adder’s Tongue x2, Pygmy Oil x1, Imbued Vial x1

Mana Oils – These are not usable in level 80 gear.

Dalaran Clam Chowder (+35 spellpower and +30 stamina) – Succulent Clam Meat x2
>Best “cheap” food.
Cuttlesteak (+40 spirit and stamina) – Moonglow Cuttlefish x1, Northern Spices x1
>Best mana regen food. Slightly worse than the +20 mp5 food at low gear, but also provides spellpower via talents. Significantly better than the +20 mp5 at high gear.
Firecracker Salmon (+46 spellpower and +40 stamina) – Glacial Salmon x1, Northern Spices x1
>Best spellpower food.
Fish Feast (+46 spellpower and +40 stamina) – Musselback Sculpin x2, Glacial Salmon x2, Nettlefish x2, Northern Spices x1
>Gives you the same benefit that Firecracker Salmon does.

Demonic Rune / Dark Rune – Restores 900 – 1500 mana at the cost of 600 – 1000 life.
>Shares CD with healthstone.

Rumsey Rum Black Label (15 stamina for 15 min) – Can be bought from Barkeep Keel in the Old Hillsbrad Foothills dungeon.
>Useful for meeting health pool requirements for some boss encounters.

+Stat scrolls – Generally not worth using in Wrath. If you have easy access to them via Inscription, then naturally go for the Intellect and Spirit scrolls.

Light Feather – These are for Levitate. Yes, it is useful! Ex. Works as Water Walking. These are made obsolete by Glyph of Levitate.

Devout Candle – You need these for your group buffs. Make sure you have plenty of them.

Greater XElement Protection Potion – These are not necessary in Wrath.

Drums of Forgotten Kings (+8% to all stats for 30 min to all raid members) – Heavy Borean Leather x8, Icy Dragonscale x8
> Should only be used when your group does not have access to a Paladin’s Blessing of Kings.
Drums of the Wild (+750 armor, +37 all resistances, +54 all stats) – Heavy Borean Leather x8, Jormungar Scale x8
> Should only be used when your group does not have access to a Druid’s Blessing of the Wild.

Specializations

It is important to note that these provided specs are guidelines. They are by no means the only viable talent builds you can choose from. Feel free to experiment and see what works for you.

Beginner Spec
http://rpgworld.altervista.org/335/p…00000000000000
This build provides you with everything you need to get started healing 5-man content and very early raid content (Naxx, Ulduar). It includes mana efficiency talents, Empowered Renew and Serendipity. Making it very versatile and allows you with enough to work with so that you can learn and get a feel for the Holy Priest. This build is not recommended for higher tier raiding (ToC, ICC and RS).

Serendipity Spec
http://rpgworld.altervista.org/335/p…00000000000000
This build is all about hard-casting spells. It is a very versatile spec and can fill nearly every role. The roles it can fill are “Raid HoTs”, “Tank Heals” and “Raid/Group Bulk Healing”. The role it is best at is nuke heals on large numbers of people for short periods of time.

Mandatory talents: All displayed Discipline talents, Healing Focus, Holy Specialization, Divine Fury, Inspiration, Spirit of Redemption, Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual Healing, Holy Concentration, Empowered Healing, Serendipity, Circle of Healing, Divine Providence and Guardian Spirit

Optional talents: Spell Warding, Holy Reach, Improved Healing, Healing Prayers, Body and Soul and Empowered Renew

Empowered Renew Spec
https://rpgworld.altervista.org/335/…00000000000000
This build is all about instant-cast spells. It is a spec that fills only a single niche, and that is blanketing a raid with Renew and using a few other instant-cast spells.

Mandatory talents: Twin Disciplines, Improved Inner Fire, Improved Power Word: Fortitude, Meditation, Mental Agility, Improved Renew, Holy Specialization, Inspiration, Spirit of Redemption, Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual Healing, Holy Concentration, Empowered Renew, Circle of Healing, Divine Providence, Guardian Spirit

Optional talents: Inner Focus, Improved Power Word: Shield, Spell Warding, Desperate Prayer, Holy Reach, Surge of Light, Blessed Resilience, Body and Soul, Test of Faith

Improved Power Word: Fortitude – You want at least one Priest to be able to provide this for your raid. You can skip it if another Priest is providing it for you.

Silent Resolve and Martyrdom – These compete for the same filler point(s). Silent Resolve won’t be necessary if your tank(s) knows what they’re doing. Martyrdom can sometimes be useful, particularly on add fights where you get aggro for a moment. In an ideal world, neither of these talents will be necessary.

Healing Focus – This talent is very useful in the Serendipity build, but loses much of its potency in the Empowered Renew build. The reason for this is that Renew is instant cast, and is the bread&butter spell of that particular build. Additionally, CoH, PoM, Power Word: Shield and Flash Heal (with a Surge of Light proc) are all instant-cast as well. Also consider that if you need to cast through taking damage, shield yourself and you won’t get pushback.

Spell Warding – It is a good talent for obvious reasons, but it is exceptionally good if your tank(s) aren’t holding threat off you.

Blessed Recovery – This talent is about useless in PvE. It should only be used as filler talent, though there are better talents to use for filler.

Holy Reach – This talent is situationally useful only in scenarios where your group is spread out enough consistently to warrant the use of the talent. This shouldn’t happen too frequently. If it does, then you should consider getting this talent. Otherwise, skip it.

Surge of Light – This talent is exceptionally useful at all levels of gear. At low gear, it is useful purely for raw mana efficiency. At high levels of gear, it should proc fairly often, and free heals are free heals. It is acceptable to only have 1 point in this talent if you feel it procs often enough for you.

Lightwell – This spell is actually extremely powerful. However, nobody ever clicks the damn thing. Which makes it useless most of the time.

Searing Light – This talent is useless. You are not a DPS.

Blessed Resilience – This talent is generally treated as a filler talent. 1% healing increase per talent point. It can be useful if you have nothing to spend your points in.

(CoH) Circle of Healing – This talent is an exceptionally useful group-heal spell. When sufficiently geared and doing raid content, you should try to use it as often as possible.

Glyphs

(Major Glyphs)
Glyph of Flash Heal – A very useful glyph for players that have trouble managing their mana early in the gearing process. Pretty good for maximizing mana efficiency in the Serendipity build as well.

Glyph of Prayer of Healing – Very powerful healing throughput increase for a Serendipity build.

Glyph of Circle of Healing – A must-have for raiding. Useless for 5-man content.

Glyph of Power Word: Shield – This glyph is pretty good for an Empowered Renew spec that utilizes Body and Soul talent. It is capable of critting and applying Inspiration as well.

Glyph of Guardian Spirit – A very good glyph if you regularly don’t consume the death-prevention part of the spell. It is a commonplace glyph for doing progress on Valithria Dreamwalker with a smaller number of healers.

Glyph of Renew – Avoid this glyph. It’s just not good. It doesn’t boost the healing per Renew. Instead, forces you to cast it more often.

Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain – This glyph is not useful to Holy at all. Don’t try to use it.

(Minor Glyphs)
Glyph of Shadowfiend – Guarantees that you get some mana back from your Shadowfiend if it dies (yes, it can die).

Glyph of Shadow Protection – Increases the length of your Shadow Protection buff. Useful for saving reagents.

Glyph of Levitate – Causes Levitate to no longer require reagents (Light Feather). Very convenient minor glyph.

Glyph of Fortitude – This can save you mana when rebuffing people, if necessary. Reduces preparation time before a boss pull (you don’t have to drink as much).

Some other glyphs can be situationally useful, like Glyph of Fear Ward. Try them out!

Spells

Along with the casting of spells comes the importance of the “5 second rule”. Stop casting spells for 5 seconds to allow your mana to begin regenerating at its full capacity. Use this knowledge to boost your mana efficiency.

Shadowfiend – Your main mana regen CD. You should use it when you reach 50-60% mana or lower. From that point on, use it when you reach the 50-60% mana threshold again, or just use it on CD if you are continuously below that threshold. Make sure you try to avoid dropping your Shadowfiend in fire.

Inner Focus – This CD is particularly good when you use it to get a free cast of Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal. Exceptionally good when used with Divine Hymn. Can also be used in OOM emergencies.

Abolish Disease – While it is obvious that this dispels disease debuffs, note that it continues to dispel diseases over the course of 20 seconds. Use this to curb your efficiency. Addtionally, you may also dispel posions, only on yourself, when you have the Body and Soul talent.

Mass Dispel – This ability is pretty straight-forward. It’s important to remember that you have it. None of the other healer classes have anything that can compare to this ability, and it is extremely useful.

Greater Heal – This is your single-target “nuke” heal. Ideally, you should only cast it when you have stacks of Serendipity. You can cast it without Serendipity in cases of emergency.

Lesser Heal & Heal – These two spells are not worth using at level 80.

Flash Heal – This is your bread & butter single-target heal. Use this spell to standardly heal people who have taken low-to-moderate amounts of damage and to generate stacks of Serendipity.

Prayer of Healing – Useful when you need to do some big group healing. It is OK to cast it without stacks of Serendipity if in an emergency, but aim to use it 90+% of the time with 2 or more stacks of Serendipity.

Renew – It’s really nice. Use it liberally. It’s wonderful at helping to keep people stable.

Prayer of Mending – This is a very nice spell when your group is consistently taking damage. Only use it when you expect your group to take damage, though. It’s not very efficient for single-target healing. Use this on CD at any time you won’t be healing just a single target.

Binding Heal – This is a good spell for obvious reasons; that it heals both you and your targets. However, it is worth noting that this spell also causes reduced threat and generates a stack of Serendipity! It is also more expensive than Flash Heal, so only use it if you need to heal the target and yourself.

Fade – This is one of the strongest healer defensive utilities in the PvE part of the game. It has a low CD. If you get threat, use it immediately.

Desperate Prayer – This spell is an extremely powerful personal defensive CD, especially at lower tiers of content. It is an instant cast spell, too. Try to use it when a boss mechanic particularly calls for it. When that isn’t necessary, then you may use it freely as needed. Just don’t forget it’s there!

Power Word: Shield – This spell is immensely useful. It has two roles. First, you should be using it on people that you know are going to take damage, especially if they are going to be taking a large hit. Second, you can put it on yourself to keep yourself from getting spell pushback. This can be incredibly powerful on some boss encounters. Be careful about putting this on a tank, since it will hinder their mana/rage generation. NEVER put this on a Warrior or Druid tank when they are pulling in a dungeon – they will need rage for threat! (This last pointer does not apply to raids, as it will only mitigate a partial hit from a boss anyway.)
Note: Try to avoid using this spell very much when you have a Discipline Priest in the group/raid. They cannot use their superior shields on allies who have recently been shielded.

Circle of Healing – When there is group-healing to be done of any sort, go ahead and use this. When groups are taking large amounts of damage, prioritize 2-3 stack Serendipity -> Prayer of Healing first. Then use this as a follow-up.

Fear Ward – This is a very useful utility spell on bosses that use fear effects. Examples of this are Blood Queen Lana’thel and the mini-boss in Ruby Sanctum. Usually your raid leader will instruct you when/how to use this. For Blood Queen, you will want to use this on yourself and then Mass Dispel the fears off your raid. For the mini-boss in Ruby Sanctum, simply apply it to the tank.

Divine Hymn – Your big group-healing cooldown (CD). Try to plan out the use of this spell. An example of a good time to use this is Blood Queen air-phase. It can also be used reactively for emergencies, but try to avoid getting in those situations in the first place. Note: You must stand still to channel this.

Hymn of Hope – This is a “smart” mana restore cooldown (CD). You must stand still to channel this, just like Divine Hymn. It will seek out low-mana targets that are the closest to you and do two things for them. First, it will increase their max mana by 20%. This is an excellent time for them to use abilities like Divine Plea or their Blood Elf racial spell. Secondly, it will also restore 3% of their max mana per tick, and will tick 4 times. Each tick, it will seek new targets. If everyone is standing still, those targets will be the same. If someone with low mana gets closer to someone else it was buffing before, then it will change target.

Guardian Spirit – This is your big single-target cooldown (CD). It serves two purposes. It can be used to prevent death. It can also be used to increase healing on the target by 40% (this affects the healing of all healers). Because of the two facets this spell has, it has a variety of uses. You can save someone from death at the last moment, or you can plan ahead and provide a large increase of healing to the target so they don’t risk death. This spell is also commonly used to help heal up Valithria Dreamwalker in ICC – ask your raid leader when they want you to use this.

Spell Usage

> Low to moderate damage on a single target: Flash Heal
> Moderate to high damage on a single target: Greater Heal with Serendipity stacks. If no stacks, then generate some with Flash Heal.
> Binding Heal may be used in the above situations when you need to heal yourself as well.

> Constant low to moderate raid damage: Use PoM and CoH on cooldown. PoH may be used with Serendipity stacks on occasion.
> Constant moderate to high raid damage: Same as above, but with a higher priority on PoH. Consider using PoH even without Serendipity if raid damage is high enough. Try to fit in Flash Heals to generate stacks when you can, which Surge of Light can be nice for.

> Predictable low to moderate damage to a single target: Use Flash Heal.
> Predictable moderate to high damage on a single target: Use Power Word: Shield, then follow with Flash/Greater Heal.
> If a Disc Priest is present, then just Flash Heal or Greater Heal as necessary.

> When to Divine Hymn? When a few people are taking huge amounts of damage. Let your fellow healers know that you are using this ability, as it increases all healing to the targets healed by 10%.

> When to use Hymn of Hope? When your fellow healers are getting low on mana. Stand as close as you can to them when you cast this. Make sure you let your fellow healers know when you are using this, so they can use their own abilities that benefit significantly from it (example: Divine Plea).

> How do I use Glowing Twilight Scale? GTS pairs well with Divine Hymn. You can also easily spread its effects with CoH, PoM and PoH. Flash Heal, Empowered Renew, and other such single target spells also do the job at applying it to single targets.

> How do I cast when using Empowered Renew spec? CoH and PoM on cooldown. Use Flash Heal on people who are low health if you get a proc from Surge of Light, if you are talented into it. After all that, apply Renew to as many people as you can in the raid, prioritizing lower health people first.

> How or when do I use Holy Nova? Realistically? Never. It does too little for the mana cost. Its only real application is AoE DPS, which you shouldn’t be bothering with, except when doing solo content.

> When low on mana, stop casting in intervals of 5 seconds or more, to increase your mana regeneration. You want to use Shadowfiend at about 40-60% mana. Use mana potions when you reach 30% mana.

> Open to suggestions and questions here for this section!

Stats

Intellect, Spirit and Stamina are your primary stats.

Intellect – Increases your spell crit rating, allowing you to crit with spells more often. Intellect also gives you more maximum mana.
Spirit – Increases your mana regeneration per 5 seconds by an amount that is a percent of your maximum mana. This means that with more Intellect, your Spirit also becomes stronger.
Stamina – Stamina increases your maximum health. This is a stat you can sometimes afford to lose. Not all items have stamina on them. Stamina still is a very important stat, though.

Spell power, mp5, crit rating and haste rating are your secondary stats.

Spell power – This stat determines how much extra healing your spells do.
Mp5 – This stat reflects how much mana you regenerate every 5 seconds. For 5 seconds after you cast, your mana regeneration is reduced. This penalty can be reduced by a variety of items, set bonuses and talents. An example is the Meditation talent in your Discipline tree.
Crit Rating – Criticals cause your heals to heal for 50% more. Your Renew spell cannot crit, but the up-front heal from Empowered Renew can crit. Most of your healing criticals (except Prayer of Mending) work with the Inspiration talent, which gives the target 10% physical damage reduction. This makes crit an effective tank-healing stat. At about 14% spell crit, you can expect to have almost a full up-time of Inspiration on your target – most of the time, it will refresh before it wears off if you are constantly healing that target.
Haste Rating – This stat makes you cast your spells faster. Faster casts means you can save people more quickly, and you can put more heals on a target over time. But it also means you burn your mana faster. Double-edged sword stat.

Spirit vs. Mp5
Exact equation;
Mana Regen = 5 * (0.001 + sqrt(Intellect) * Spirit * 0.005575 ) * 0.60
Spirit will never lose to Mp5 on a comparatively similar item level. If you have to choose between the two, it is usually better to go for the spirit item. The exception to this rule is only when you gain a massive amount of spell power and the item comes with sockets that allow you to gem for some spirit.
TLDR; Spirit > Mp5

Crit vs. Haste
Both stats are good and are desired, but keep in mind that Crit increases mana efficiency (procs Holy Concentration), while haste decreases mana efficiency. Crit also causes Inspiration (10% physical damage reduction on the target) and Surge of Light (free and instant Flash Heal) procs. 20% crit and 800 haste are healthy amounts to aim for. BiS levels of gear will push you even further.

Haste cap for the GCD (Global Cooldown);
Hard cap: 1639.5
Raid buffs will reduce the amount of haste required to reach this cap. This cap is not one you can reach realistically, and is not necessary at all if you are playing with a Serendipity spec.

What should my stats look like?
You will want to try and balance spell power, spirit, haste and crit with each other. Spell power is something you will always want more of, and will eventually end up sacrificing other stats to get more of it. Spirit is a stat that you stack until you are comfortable with your mana efficiency. Crit and haste should always be balanced with each other. Haste is more important for an Empowered Renew spec because you don’t get the benefit of Serendipity, and you want to try and reduce your GCD as much as possible. My own current build for Serendipity uses a crit:haste ratio of about 2:3 (2 crit for every 3 haste).

Gear Choices

Good starting gear items;
Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon
Darkmoon Card: Greatness (spirit version)
Emblem of Triumph items are very good.

Point shop items;
Show of Faith (trinket)
Sif’s Remembrance (trinket)
Sunglimmer Cloak
Any item in the 232-239 item level range that has spirit+haste or spirit+crit on the item.

Please note that in the following item lists, you should adjust your gear depending on your spec, raid setup, experience with mana efficiency, and most importantly with your latency. Haste is devalued with higher latency, which means for it to be effective, you either need to get even more of it, or you can just drop some and get another stat instead.

Serendipity Spec “BiS”
Head: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Hood (T10)
Neck: Bone Sentinel’s Amulet
Shoulders: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Shoulderpads (T10)
Cloak: Cloak of Burning Dusk, OR Greatcloak of the Turned Champion
Chest: Sanguine Silk Robes
Bracers: Death Surgeon’s Sleeves
Hands: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Gloves (T10)
Belt: Lingering Illness
Legs: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Leggings (T10)
Boots: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Ring1: Memory of Malygos
Ring2: Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom, OR Ring of Phased Regeneration
Weapon: Royal Scepter of Terenas II
Off-hand: Sundial of Eternal Dusk
Wand: Nightmare Ender
Trinket1: Althor’s Abacus
Trinket2: Glowing Twilight Scale
————-
837 haste and 597 crit when using 12sp/10spirit gems in blue sockets, 23sp gems in red and prismatic sockets, and 12sp/10haste gems in yellow sockets.
Profession perks excluded. Does not include haste cloak enchant.

Empowered Renew Spec “BiS”
Head: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Hood (T10)
Neck: Bone Sentinel’s Amulet
Shoulders: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Shoulderpads (T10)
Cloak: Cloak of Burning Dusk, OR Greatcloak of the Turned Champion
Chest: Sanguine Silk Robes
Bracers: Bracers of Fiery Night, OR Death Surgeon’s Sleeves
Hands: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Gloves (T10)
Belt: Circle of Ossus (EoF vendor), OR Lingering Illness
Legs: Sanctified Crimson Acolyte Leggings (T10)
Boots: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Ring1: Memory of Malygos
Ring2: Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom, OR Ring of Phased Regeneration
Weapon: Royal Scepter of Terenas II
Off-hand: Sundial of Eternal Dusk
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike, OR Nightmare Ender
Trinket1: Althor’s Abacus
Trinket2: Glowing Twilight Scale
————–
1006 haste when using 12sp/10haste gems in yellow sockets, 23sp gems in red and prismatic sockets, 12sp/10spirit gems in blue sockets.
1066 haste when putting 12sp/10haste gems in red sockets and prismatic sockets.
Profession perks excluded. Does not include haste cloak enchant.

Is Valanyr good for Holy Priest?
Definitely. It is good for essentially any of the Holy Priest “builds”. It probably functions best with the Empowered Renew spec, though, but can realistically used by any of the builds. Is it BIS? Could be, but depends on how you feel about it, the situation you are in, and what the needs of your raid are.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting will be your best professions for helping you gear up and enchant your gear.
Alchemy is a very good long-term option if you’re interested in crafting your own consumables. Being able to make your own mana potions can be invaluable. Alchemy can also provide you with a starter trinket, if necessary.
Engineering can be useful for utility, but is not a must-have in all situations for a Holy Priest (thank you, Body and Soul talent).
Perks from other professions are relatively equal in stats, except for mining (gives stamina), skinning (gives crit) and herbalism (gives a mana-free heal over time).

Enchants;
Helm: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries +30sp +20crit (Kirin Tor)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm +24sp +15crit (Sons of Hodir)
Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Wisdom +10 spirit and threat reduction, OR Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed +23 haste
Chest: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats +10stats, OR Enchant Chest – Major Spirit +15 spirit
Bracer: Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower +30sp
Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower +28sp
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread +50sp +20 spirit (Tailoring)
Boots: Enchant Boots – Greater Spirit +18 spirit, OR Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality +15 stamina and move speed
Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower +63sp
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle +1 prismatic socket

Gems;
Meta: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (+21 intellect and chance to restore 600 mana)
Red sockets: Runed Cardinal Ruby or Purified Dreadstone
Yellow sockets: Reckless Ametrine (recommended), Luminous Ametrine, Potent Ametrine, Intricate Eye of Zul or Misty Eye of Zul
Blue sockets: Purified Dreadstone (recommended) or Sparkling Majestic Zircon
It is OK to get socket bonuses if you want them!

XII. Races & Racial Abilities/Passives
Only racial abilities relevant to specifically to the Priest class’ game-play are mentioned.
– Alliance –
Human
The Human Spirit – Spirit increased by 3%.
Diplomacy – Reputation gains increased by 10%.
Every Man for Himself – CC removal on a 2min cooldown.
Perception – Passive increase to stealth detection.

Draenei
Gift of the Naaru – 3 min CD – Heals the target for a minor amout over 15 sec.
Inspiring Presence – Increases chance to hit with spells by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
Shadow Resistance – Reduces the chance to be hit by shadow spells by 2%.

Dwarf
Stoneform – 3 min CD – Grants immunity to Bleed, Poison and Disease effects. Increases armor by 10%. Lasts 8 sec.
Frost Resistance – Reduces the chance to be hit by frost spells by 2%.

Night Elf
Shadowmeld – 2 min CD – Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Can be used in combat.
Nature Resistance – Reduces the chance to be hit by nature spells by 2%.
Quickness – Reduces the chance of ranged and melee attacks hitting you by 2%.

– Horde –
Blood Elf
Arcane Torrent – 2 min CD – Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. Restores 6% of max mana.
Magic Resistance – Reduces the chance you will be hit by spells by 2%.

Undead
Will of the Forsaken – 2 min CD – Provides immunity to Charm, Fear and Sleep while active. May also be used while already afflicted by Charm, Fear or Sleep. Lasts 5 sec. Shares a 45sec CD with other similar effects.
Shadow Resistance – Reduces the chance to be hit by shadow spells by 2%.
Underwater Breathing – Underwater breath lasts 233% longer than normal.

Troll
Berserking – 3 min CD – Icreases your casting speed by 20% for 10 sec.
Regeneration – Health regeneration rate increased by 10%. 10% of total health regeneration may continue during combat.
Beast Slaying – Damage dealt to Beasts increased by 5%.
Da Voodoo Shuffle – Reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%.

Addons

http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=369755
This is a wonderful webpage for Wrath addons.

Unit Frames: Grid > XPerl > ag_UnitFrames > Pitbull
Shadowed Unit Frames > All

BigWigs or DBM

OmniCC (cooldown timers)

AtlasLoot

How to use healbot addon

I joke.
Being serious though, the difficulty is all in managing your mana and learning damage patterns of bosses and which of your raid members likes to stand in the fire.

Other tips

How to cheat the 5-second-rule!
– There are two very important parts to this. First, is that your mana will regenerate at full capacity if you do not cast for 5 seconds or more. This means if you are able to put out heals and healing over time effects (Renew for example) that can keep your friends alive for a few seconds, you can use that time to get your mana to regenerate at full capacity.

– Second, and most definitely not least, is that any effect that would cause your heals not to cost any mana will cause the healing spell to not trigger the 5-second-rule penalty. This means, talents such as Inner Focus can allow you to cast a very strong heal at no mana cost, and thus allowing you to continue to regenerate your mana at full capacity. When casting with either of these buffs active, it is important that you use the strongest heal you have that benefits from the buff, this way you get the most healing you can for FREE!
When using these, it is advisable to wait a few seconds after your previous cast before you start casting again with either of these buffs. You can generally expect to get about as much mana back from this as you would from a Super Mana Potion, or more.

– Keep in mind that the 5-second rule is not applied until you finish a cast. You can cast spells and cancel the cast before it finishes and you will not have the 5-second rule applied to you!

– It is also important to note that there are some items and talents that further help you deal with the 5-second-rule penalty. The talent “Meditation” is one of these. Others include things like the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon trinket.

Fade
The threat you lose when you use Fade, you will get all of that threat back when Fade ends. Also be aware that you continue to build threat while Fade is active. Lastly, be aware that Fade only drops your threat by a flat value. This flat value can be overcome if you are not careful about your healing output and your tank’s threat generation. This flat reduction also means you can be put at a negative threat value, which can allow you to get very close to mobs and cast things like Shackle Undead without having to worry about them turning and smacking you, so long as they are chasing after someone else.

Shadowfiend
It is usually best to send your Shadowfiend after a boss target. Boss movements are usually predictable or they are just static. This should allow you to get the most regeneration out of your Shadowfiend, and you not have to worry about it chasing some poor mob and not getting any hits in. If it doesn’t land hits, you don’t get mana. It’s also possible to macro in a command into your Shadowfiend to make it attack your current target, or any target of preference, so that you can guarantee it hits something. Remember that your Shadowfiend is very fragile. Try to avoid placing it in fire.

Down-ranking spells
Q: What is down-ranking spells?
A: This refers to using a lower rank of a spell than the maximum rank you have access to.

Q: Why would I down-rank a spell?
A: In Wrath, you wouldn’t. There isn’t a point to it in this expansion and beyond.

Playing Holy Priest in a raid environment
It is very important to note that a Holy Priest is capable of filling any of the healer niches to some degree. Those niches are “tank healer”, “group healer” and “damage prevention”. Tank healing is usually assigned to a Holy Paladin, and Group healing will be assigned to a Restoration Druid. A Restoration Shaman is versatile in the way that they are capable of covering multiple of these niches as necessary too, but not quite to the degree that a Holy Priest is versatile. Because of this, your role may change depending on your raid’s composition, or even in the middle of a boss encounter depending on the needs of the group.
So which niche does the Priest excel at the most? Honestly, all of them. Group healing more than anything, and HoTs duty less than a Druid, but the Priest can do well in most situations.

Tank healing: Keep Renew active on your tanks is absolutely necessary. You will be mostly healing with Flash Heal, then using Serendipity stacks to use Greater Heal. You can ping the tank with Prayer of Mending to help them generate more threat, and you can use Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending to help heal the tank while you are moving – these instant heals are part of what makes us really good, make sure you take advantage of them.

Raid healing: Prayer of Healing and Circle of healing are your strongest tools here, and are best effectively used when you are able to predict incoming damage. Keep in mind that even though Circle of Healing can be very efficient, it is beaten in raw throughput by Prayer of Healing. Circle of Healing also at times may not be potent enough to keep up with the group’s damage intake. In which case, Prayer of Healing will be your go-to nuke heal. Place Renew on people you expect to be taking constant damage, as it can help keep them stable. When your group/raid can be expected to be taking some sort of constant damage, be sure to use Prayer of Mending as often as possible – keep it bouncing around.

Damage prevention: This particular role only appears in niche situations where this role’s duty is to mitigate large hits on the group as much as possible, and to make sure certain members of the raid reach the “minimum health” threshold. This role can only be done by a Priest, and is done through the use of Power Word: shield. This role is best performed by a Discipline Priest, so give them priority on putting shields on people.

Cross Healing: Cross healing is the term used to refer when a healer needs to fill more than one role at once, or needs to change the role that they fill in the middle of a boss encounter. It is very important in this situation that you handle two problems. The first problem is that you do your best to have the right heal ready for the type of damage the group is having to handle. If the tank is getting rekt, then have a Greater Heal ready for them. If the group is getting merked, then use your Prayer of Healing. The second problem that you have to deal with is that you don’t lose control – it is important that you do not frantically try to top everyone off. It is very important you know what types of damage are incoming, how much, and who it is going to get hit. This way you know who you need to heal, and for how much. Having this information allows you to keep your raid alive while also not destroying your mana pool.

Flash Heal & Binding Heal
Flash Heal is a cheap heal, and you should use it frequently to build your Serendipity stacks. Binding Heal is different from Flash Heal in the way that it causes reduced threat and it also heals yourself in addition to your target. This means that Binding Heal applies to situations where you need to be extra careful with your healing threat, and when you’re taking a ton of damage also, in addition to the situations where Flash Heal is useful.

Power Word: Shield
In addition to preventing damage, this ability also prevents spell push-back when taking damage. You can use this on others to help prevent spell push-back, but most importantly, you can use it on yourself to prevent it as well. If you are taking damage, or expect to be taking damage, and you absolutely need to get a heal out – shield yourself!

Inspiration
This talent provides a very powerful buff to tanks, or anyone else who will be taking physical damage. It is a 10% reduction to physical damage for anyone you get a crit heal on for 15 seconds. Try to optimize the up-time of this talent on your tanks! You’ll make their lives much less stressful!

Stopcasting macro
Using a stopcasting macro (simply apply /stopcasting to the beginning of any spell cast macro you want, or make a new macro just for it) is useful for “spam” casting on a tank or someone else that you expect other healers are casting on. The macro cancels your cast and starts a new one, if it is macroed with a spell, so that you do not waste mana on a spell cast if your target is at full health. This being particularly useful on targets that you expect can be healed by another healer, and thus save you mana by not casting a wasted heal. This sort of macro is not recommended for someone who has more than 400ms latency.

Mouse-over macro
Use this macro format.
#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover,nomodifier,exists] Renew; [help] Renew

Playing at high latency
When playing with more than 400ms latency (lag, or whatever you prefer to call it), you should be putting forth extra effort to know when and how someone is going to take damage before they take the damage. This way, you can improve upon your reaction time, as you will have significantly less time to react than other players. The key is to always be prepared, or to do whatever you can to be prepared before everyone else is. It is very much possible to be a decent or good healer even with as much as 800ms, but it requires a lot of practice on reacting quickly, and a lot of knowledge on how boss encounters work. If at first you don’t succeed, practice some more.

Raid Encounter Tips

Icecrown Citadel
Lord Marrowgar
Obviously, avoid standing in fire and in front of the boss. During Bonestorm, try to put distance between yourself and the boss so you take reduced damage, but be careful not to out-of-range your friends! When people get spiked, put a Renew on them. Flash Heal as needed. Bouncing a Prayer of Mending and a Circle of Healing off them is fine too! Keep Renew up on the tanks. Make sure you are keeping Inspiration active on your tanks as much as possible.

Lady Deathwhisper
Fade is an excellent tool you can use to make sure adds that spawn do not attack you. If one of your friends get Mind Controlled near you, you can try to fear them away from you with Psychic Scream. Make sure that you are paying attention to any apparitions that spawn. They won’t be very easy to see, and when they come in contact with someone, they blow up for huge damage!

Death and Decay doesn’t do too much damage, and should be easily healed through if people are running out of it. During Phase2, make sure you are keeping Renew active on your tank(s). Watch the boss’ casts. Frostbolt will be big damage on the tank, so be ready with a heal. Frostbolt Volley will be moderate damage to the whole raid, which you can follow-up with a PoH or CoH. Mass Dispel is amazing for dispelling the slows on the raid applied by Frostbolt Volley as well.

Icecrown Gunship Battle
You will be doing a fair amount of group healing here, but the main thing you need to pay attention to are your tanks. Make sure you’re keeping Renew active on them and trying to keep Inspiration active on them as well. When one of your tanks prepares to jump to the other ship, get some heals ready – they will need it.

Deathbringer Saurfang
This fight is mostly about tank damage. However, you need to treat anyone with marks on them as tanks. It is imperative that they do not die! Keep Renew on all “tank” targets, and try to maintain Inspiration on the tank that is currently tanking the boss. If any of the adds start to come after you, use Fade!

Festergut
The whole raid takes constant ticking damage for the majority of this fight. It’s a wet dream for Prayer of Mending! People who get Vile Gas on them, you can bounce a PoM off of them. CoH also does well to heal this too. The tanks will take increasingly large melee hits from the boss as the fight progresses, so make sure you are keeping Renew on the active tank and maintaining the up-time of Inspiration on them as much as possible.

Rotface
If you invest in the Body and Soul talent, it is extremely useful to the tank who kites the large oozes. If you don’t have a Discipline Priest in the group with you, put a shield on anyone who gets the disease debuff (the one that which spawns the small oozes when it expires). Then you should follow up with a Renew on these people to help keep them stable, even if a Discipline Priest is not in the group. Try to keep a renew up on both tanks, but prioritize the tank that is tanking the boss. Use CoH and PoM to immediately put heals out on people who get caught in Slime Spray. You can follow-up with a PoH if any of them take a large amount of damage.

Professor Putricide
Keep a Renew active on the tank(s). PoM and CoH are really good on this fight due to the constant raid damage. Have your group heals ready for when the green oozes come in contact with their target – they will do a lot of group damage. If you have Body and Soul, use PW:S on the person targeted by the red ooze. In the final phase, make sure you are keeping Inspiration active on the person tanking the boss as much as you can.

Blood Prince Council
There are mechanics on this fight that will knock you around the room. Do your best to not get hit by these so that you don’t get bounced out of range of your tanks. That aside, the bulk of your healing here will be tank healing. Prioritize their (and your own) safety above everyone else. A tank death here will most likely be a wipe. For shadow debuff stacks, don’t be afraid to move. Just try not to move a whole bunch at once. If you get high stacks (6+), move a little bit, heal yourself, then move a little more. If you have time to cast other spells, you can help with Kinetic Orbs in your range with Shadow Word: Pain.

Blood-Queen Lana’thel
Most of the damage here will be on the tanks. Both of them. Keep Renew active on both tanks, and try to keep Inspiration active as much as possible. Regularly throughout the fight, people will be hit with a blood bolt. A Flash Heal should be enough to heal them. Apply Fear Ward to yourself before the fight starts, or very early into it. When the boss runs to the center of the room, have your Mass Dispel ready to clear off as many fears as possible from other people. If someone gets the fire debuff, and you are talented into Body and Soul, you can put a shield on them. It is immensely useful for helping them gtfo with the fire. Divine Hymn (+ Glowing Twilight Scale, if you have it) is immensely useful during the damage the boss puts out in the air phase.

Valithria Dreamwalker
Keep a Renew on the boss and on your tank(s). Use Abolish Disease to clear off any disease applied by the Abomination add’s frontal to the tank(s) or anyone else standing in front of the mob. You can use Shackle Undead to interrupt casts from any of the mobs, including the Blazing Skeletons. You definitely should interrupt the Blazing Skeletons whenever you have the opportunity. Make sure you know when to use Guardian Spirit on the boss. Your raid leader will usually tell you when to do this.

Sindragos
Thank you for reading! Come back in one piece! And remember! Heroes never die!
Kind regards,
Mercy