Playstyle & Rotation
The Holy Priest is a relatively straightforward healer, with no ramp mechanic, and nearly only reactive healing, making the spec relatively easy to handle in the first place.
Even though proactivity is not that much needed, there are still things that can be said about the spec, and both of the types of builds we saw earlier (AoE raid-healing & Single Target healing in M+) will be discussed, on top of some additional M+ notes.
In terms of defensives, thanks to Translucent Image, your Fade will act as a very short-cooldown defensive. It won’t save you from insane damage inputs, but the fact that you can press it every 20 to 30 seconds, it has to be used and overused on nearly every raid-wide mechanic.
Protective Light is a very strong addition to the toolkit since it will give you the same reduction without any cooldown. Since it’s tied to Flash Heal, do note that Binding Heals will work, too, in this situation, allowing you to cast it on any target you want while still giving you the damage reduction buff.
On top of that, you obviously still have your Desperate Prayer available, increasing your maximum health.
Whatever the build you choose, even if it’s a heavy-healing build without talents such as Empyreal Blaze, try to keep casting Holy Fire on cooldown during any encounter, or as much as possible, on top of maintaining Shadow Word: Pain. The requirement is not super heavy, whether it’s in term of mana or GCD commitment, since you don’t have ramp windows, and the DPS gain will be noticeable.
Weave-in some Smites when you have downtimes after that if you can.
Playstyle
Playstyle In Raids (AoE Archon)
The AoE build with the Archon Hero Talent set-up will mostly revolve around your buffed Prayer of Healing (thanks to Prayer Circle) especially during Halo, your Apotheosis stacks granted by Answered Prayers (buffed by Perfected Form), and your Lightwell uses.
First, it is very important to keep using Prayer of Mending on cooldown. You have a lot of synergies available in this build, like Benediction (which gives you a chance to leave a Renew), Prayers of the Virtuous & Say Your Prayers (will increase the number of jumps), all of this allowing you to benefit of Answered Prayers, providing you with Apotheosis for 8 seconds after your Prayer of Mending heals 50 times (it is very important to track these stacks).
(Note that the Apotheosis granted via Answered Prayers currently does not refresh a charge of your Holy Words, so there is no need to plan for that before proc’ing it.)
Other than that, your main raid-healing tool during heavy damage windows on the raid will be a Prayer of Healing spam, after casting a Circle of Healing to buff your PoH for 8 seconds. These Prayers of Healing will buff your next Holy Word: Sanctify too, thanks to Pontifex, and you will rotate between these two spells during this window, while one of your big cooldown is being used at the same time.
Now, regarding those raid cooldowns, you’ll need to pair some of them; Halo, being a flexible 1 minute-cooldown, can easily be used in conjunction with other cds like Lightwell, Holy Word: Salvation, an Apotheosis proc, or during your Divine Hymn. The healing amp it provides will really snowball a lot (+10% healing from Resonant Energy, +10% healing from Perfected Form during Apo/Salva), while casting multiple Halos at the same time (healing quite a lot by themselves) during your Prayer of Healing spam, granting you additional Surge of Light procs to spot heal some targets at no mana cost afterwards.
Outside of your active healing set-up, let’s talk a bit about Divine Image too, and see how it works:
- When you cast a Holy Word spell, you’ll spawn a Naaru for 9 seconds.
- If a Naaru is already active, you’ll instead gain another stack, improving the Naaru’s effectiveness.
- Each stack has its own 9 seconds duration tied to it.
The Naaru will cast different spells, tied to yours, that will generally match the effects of your own casts, but with a reduced power:
- Prayer of Healing will trigger Dazzling Lights
- Flash Heal will trigger Healing Light
- Holy Nova will trigger Light Eruption
- Smite / Shadow Word: Pain will trigger Searing Light
- Renew will trigger Tranquil Light
- Holy Word: Sanctify will trigger Blessed Light
This talent doesn’t require a big shift in term of gameplay, and will provide a good overall increase to your throughput.
Playstyle in Mythic+ (Oracle)
Playing Holy Priest in M+ will mostly revolve around single target healing (you won’t even play with Prayer of Healing, nor Circle of Healing), to spot heal the correct players quickly, while keeping Prayer of Mending on CD (an important task, especially now that, thanks to Assured Safety in the Oracle Hero Talents set-up, it will grant the target an additional Power Word: Shield), and DPSing during any downtime.
Since you’ll be running Lightweaver, it is important to always weave-in Heals between your Flash Heals (one Flash Heal grants one stack of buffed Heal, up to 2 Flash Heals for 2 Heals) when spamming people in need. Apart from instant Holy Word: Sanctify, all your standard healing will consist of single target spells; each of them being quite strong, you’ll really only spot heal people at any given time, giving you a great control over your target priority.
During high-damage windows, you’ll want to have your Premonition of Piety/Clairvoyance available to help you with the healing throughput. Do note that, thanks to Prophet’s Will, you can abuse that extra healing on you during Piety/Clairvoyance to add some free overhealing, which will be redistributed.
Premonition of Solace is a bit more niche, but will greatly help any player targeted by a big ability, or your tank otherwise.
In terms of DPS, you want to make use of Divine Star or Halo as much as possible, on top of Empyreal Blaze, allowing you to unleash 2 instant Holy Fires after a Holy Word: Chastise. The duration will get extended so you can blast them even in Single Target without any loss. Do note that, after these 2 Holy Fires, it is the perfect time to use your Premonition of Insight/Clairvoyance to add 3 really quick Holy Fires. You then want to refresh your Shadow Word: Pain, or keep DoTing new targets during downtime and/or on the move.
As in raids, the Divine Image talent is quite good now, and can be used very easily to improve either your healing or DPS without any specific build-up.
Apotheosis can be used as a DPS tool in Single Target with Holy Word: Chastise if you don’t need a healing burst in the next 2 minutes. Don’t forget it, and never sit on this cooldown for too long! Its pairing with Empyreal Blaze is really strong, and should not be skipped.
If you’re running higher keys, don’t forget to use Power Word: Shield when Prayer of Mending is on cooldown, even though it’s not a staple of the spec as it is for Discipline. This is your only form of absorb on other people and can sometimes be the play on some big targeted mechanic if your Guardian Spirit is planned for something else or is on cooldown.
Symbol of Hope will be a strong tool to recover your teammates’ defensive cooldowns. Make sure to be vocal when you’re about to use it! As a healer, calling the whole defensive rotation for your group is important, and this spell is the best example of that.