Smite priest PvP spec
Once upon a time, one of the quickest ways to send me into a WoW frenzy was to put me in a PvP situation with my priest. I would sooner pick wiping on a raid boss 100 times then stepping foot into a battleground. But don’t get me wrong: Discipline priests are a very strong member in an arena team with Mana Burn, Pain Suppression, and other utility; and Shadow priests have melted my face more than once. The priest class is capable of being among the best PvPers and the flaw rested entirely with my play style.
The other two options left–both which did wonders for my patience–are Holy priest PvP and smite priest PvP. I’ll take a look at Holy priest PvP in a future post (as well as arena strategies), but for now, let’s focus on the smite priest PvP build!
Smite priest PvP spec (34/37/0)
This spec involves the following talents:
DISCIPLINE
- Unbreakable Will (5/5): This replaces the Twin Disciplines taken for PvE.
- Improved Inner Fire (3/3): Increase armor and spellpower.
- Improved Fortitude (2/2): Improved hit points for yourself and others is nom nom nom.
- Martyrdom (2/2): This isn’t required to get to the next tier of the tree and if you find that interrupts are mostly solved by Unbreakable Will, you could opt to invest into Mental Agility instead.
- Improved Mana Burn (2/2): This destroys.
- Improved Shields (3/3), Inner Focus (1/1), Meditation (3/3): All staples.
- Mental Strength (5/5): Good talent, but you’re mostly investing into it to get to Power Infusion.
- Focused Power (2/2): Say good-bye to ice blocks and pally bubbles.
- Enlightenment (3/3): Haste is great for PvP, not to mention the additional Spirit to counteract it. Consider investing in Reflective Shields and the remaining point of Mental Agility (if you opted out of Martyrdom) instead as an alternative.
- Power Infusion (1/1): Great with Surge of Light for a quick nuke.
- Focused Will (2/3): Excellent talent. If you’re going for Body and Soul, you will unfortunately have to stop at 2/3.
HOLY
- Holy Specialization (5/5): Bread and butter for Surge of Light procs.
- Healing Focus (2/2): Pushback resistance for when the Horde (or Alliance?) are pounding on you.
- Spell Warding (5/5): 10% reduction to spell damage in PvP? Yes, please!
- Divine Fury (5/5): For obvious reasons.
- Blessed Recovery (3/3): This is debatably swappable with Inspiration.
- Holy Reach (2/2): This will let you hide in the battleground bushes (or whatever) and do your damage/heals from a ninja position.
- Searing Light (2/2): If you’re going to be smiting things, this makes sense.
- Healing Prayers (2/2): I take this because I have Prayer of Mending going constantly, but if you are not one to use PoM whenever it’s off cooldown, it might not be necessary.
- Desperate Prayer (1/1): Will save your life.
- Spirit of Redemption (1/1): Will save someone else’s life.
- Surge of Light (2/2): What smite spec is all about!
- Blessed Resilience (3/3): This is the most important PvP talent to any priest that has points invested into the Holy tree. You will notice a drastic improvement in classes that thrive off of critical strikes to blow you up. Also note that Blessed Resilience can proc off of crits that never actually landed due to Resilience; the talent is taken into consideration before Resilience is.
- Holy Concentration (2/3): Great for the mana. You won’t be able to get 3/3 if you’re going after Body and Soul.
- Body and Soul (2/2): This talent is almost as important as Blessed Resilience. Whenever you need to get away from another player, this will give you a short sprint; it will also let you combat a rogue’s poisons. I love using Power Word: Shield on my allies and watching them flee from certain death–not to mention the boon this gives to flag and bomb carriers!
Here’s a visual of the tree:
When PvPing this way, some pointers to keep in mind:
- Surge of Light + Power Infusion = nuke.
- Use Power Word: Shield to get away.
- Don’t panic when you get crit; it won’t happen again for awhile. I err on the side of suicide against fast crit classes like rogues because I know once they crit me, the worst is over (but I could potentially nuke them if I focus more on getting them dead then healing myself.)
- Remember to use Desperate Prayer.
- Remember you get rid of poisons on yourself now in additional to diseases.
- If a class that can interrupt you (kick, shield bash, etc.) is on top of you, stick to your insta-casts. PoM can crit and proc Surge of Light, which will get you a Smite without having to risk interruption.
- Don’t be afraid to DoT things. Just because you’re not Shadow spec doesn’t mean you can’t put stress on your target’s healer (and they’re insta-casts!)
Any additional pointers, questions, or concerns? Feel free to comment! 
Check out other popular posts from Johannah:
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By Jessika, November 16, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
Oh nice. I may need to try this. I like the idea of being able to do some DPS in PvP as a priest while not needing to switch out of Shadowform to throw out a Prayer of Mending or Flash Heal. And Body and Soul and Blessed Resilience are so very yummy.
By Kourtnie McKenzie, November 16, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
I can’t PvP without Blessed Resilience; I tried Shadow the other day and had a head-banging-into-keyboard experience. It’s either this spec or a deep Holy spec for me!
By HolySmite, November 27, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
as a smite priest (mainly for 2s) should i get spirit, crit, or a good mix of both ?
By Kourtnie McKenzie, November 28, 2009 @ 12:32 am
If you’re primarily arenaing in a 2’s team, Crit might be a better choice because it will give you the burst you need. I always invest in Spirit gear myself because my 3’s team usually goes for the long-term–so the mana regen with my Holy talents is awesome!–not to mention the boost to spellpower from Spiritual Guidance. I also love my battlegrounds, so the Spirit helps in there. I like to gem my Crit in and buy my PvP gear with Spirit.
Hope this helps!
By Peruano, December 1, 2009 @ 4:43 am
Im Smite Priest too =D
Peruano – Gurubashi – US
This is my suggestion to help Smite Priests, take a look.
“PET FOR SMITE SPEC”
http://www.mmo-champion.com/class-priest/pet-for-smite-spec/
By nacho, December 1, 2009 @ 5:57 am
my friend, this is a type of holy priest i like to give it a try, i don’t like Raids but i do enjoy BG and Arenas, but in wich situation is good mana burn the enemy? since druids can innervete themselfs, is mana burn powerfull enough to let the target in a oom situation?
I know that mana burn palas is good ’cause their mana pool ir real low, but i like to see how you use that skill (for me one of the greatest skills, a caster killer, but you know… my priest is just a lv 21 xD)
By Kourtnie McKenzie, December 1, 2009 @ 10:42 am
That idea is so awesome. I want a pet angel!!!
By Kourtnie McKenzie, December 1, 2009 @ 10:49 am
Mana Burn is the most useful in small situations where you only have one healer to handle (2’s or 3’s); OR, and this is my favorite time to use it, when a caster is almost tapped. There’s nothing like yanking that last 10-20% of mana from someone when they’re trying to conserve it for survival purposes.
Mana Burn isn’t as effective on druids. I usually use it for priests and paladins (shamans, it’s easier to just blow up their health.) And it does attract attention, too; I can tell you the moment I hear that Mana Burn sound effect in my 3’s team, and it isn’t me, I tell my other two teammates to stop that evil priest.
By soronemus[twisting nether], February 23, 2010 @ 8:48 am
I am currently in shadow and able to solo any class other than a good ret pally… and i dueled a smite priest the other day that came damn close to beating me. I am thinking of trying it out.
By Kourtnie McKenzie, February 24, 2010 @ 11:39 am
It’s fun! I’m admittedly not the best at shadow PvP; there’s something about the mage-like burst mechanic of smite that appeals to me. Although I’ve had shadow priests show me a thing or two before.
By Pvchatley@gmail.com, March 15, 2010 @ 2:47 am
I’d say spellpower > Spirit > Crit – PvP’ing a lot, I find having the max SP I can have, outweights, largely my crit rating and spirit.. because I do a very fast consistant , and persistant damage.. critting is a bonus, and with all the SP I have, I basically can two-3 hit any other player my level or higher, especially with a crit.
By Kourtnie McKenzie, March 15, 2010 @ 5:35 pm
That’s interesting. That’s the way it works for shadow too. I’m a Surge of Light addict something bad, but I understand your concept of reliability.