Smite spec is great and all, but when it’s time to put on your serious face, it can be a detriment to the DPS of your raid. That’s why I recommend all smite priests have dual spec: Shadow spec or, better yet, a healing spec.

In this guide, I will be reviewing how I handle my other spec: Holy heals. How I handle it is different from other Holy priests, so I’ve included a list to other guides at the end.

How do you spec?

This is the current spec I roll with:

HOLY TALENTS

• Healing Focus 2/2. There aren’t as many fights with push back as there used to be, but I find that when there is push back, this talent is crucial.
• Improved Renew 3/3. Some guides say Renew is optional; from my experiences as a Restoration shaman, I find that Renew is the bread-and-butter of the priest class.
• Holy Specialization 5/5. Crit, crit, and crit some more.
• Divine Fury 5/5. Reduces Greater Heal’s casting time.
• Desperate Prayer 1/1. It’s debatable whether you need this one point or not. I use it in sticky situations like the Champs in ToC-10, but I could see people placing this point elsewhere.
• Holy Reach 2/2. Some guides say you only need 1 point; I personally love the extra range from 2.
• Improved Healing 3/3. This is debatable since it only aids in the mana cost of Greater Heal and Divine Hymn for the Holy priest, and I normally Inner Focus my Divine Hymn; so I’m essentially saving Greater Heal mana.
• Spirit of Redemption 1/1. Quintessential.
• Healing Prayers 2/2. Given how often I use PoM and PoH, this is quintessential.
• Spiritual Guidance 4/5. In an ideal world, I would have 5 points; I continuously debate over Desperate Prayer.
• Surge of Light 2/2. This is why you love critical strike rating.
• Spiritual Healing 5/5. Quintessential.
• Holy Concentration 3/3. I’ve heard this is debatable, but I’ve never played without it.
• Lightwell 1/1. I have enough fellow raiders that actually use my Lightwell that I don’t have the gall to remove it from my talents. Lightwell is a waste of a point that could go elsewhere if you do not raid with Lightwell lovers. It’s been buffed since BC!
• Blessed Resilience 3/3. I honestly enjoy Holy PvP, so it’s hard for me to roll without this; but the non-PvP benefit is also well worth it.
• Serendipity 3/3. This is a win with Surge of Light and is my only justification for having Improved Healing.
• Body and Soul 2/2. Lots of people I’ve personally spoken to seem to disapprove of this one; yet Elitist Jerk’s guide praises this talent. I am addicted to the speedy bubble! You’ll see that below.
• Empowered Renew 3/3. See Improved Renew.
• Circle of Healing 1/1. No brainer.
• Divine Providence 5/5. Faster PoM and harder heals? Sign me up!
• Guardian Spirit 1/1. Awesome spell. It’s why you’re specing Holy, right?

DISCIPLINE

• Twin Disciplines 5/5. Yes, Surge of Light procs count.
• Improved Inner Fire 3/3. More spellpower is good.
• Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2. Your raid will love you.
• Meditation 3/3. I tried playing without this once. That was a terrible experiment.
• Inner Focus 1/1. This is your best friend for Divine Hymn and PoH.

Here’s a visual:

What glyphs do you use?

I change my glyphs often; the ones you see above were lingering from a Faction Champions fight in ToC-10.

I only have one staple glyph: Glyph of Guardian Spirit. The strength of this doesn’t lie in the fact that you have Guardian Spirit ready more often, but that you have 40% increased healing on a tank every 70 seconds.

Beyond that, I use the following glyphs depending on the situation:

• Circle of Healing. This is useless in heroics and only marginally useful in 10-mans, but it really shines in a 25-man setting.
• Dispel Magic. I love this one in damage-intensive and magic-intensive fights, such as Faction Champions.
• Renew. You’ll do the same amount of healing, but slightly faster (the ticks will hit harder and expire sooner.)  This is especially beneficial for fights where tanks take random, exorbitant amounts of damage and your reliable HoT needs a little extra kick.
• Lightwell. If your raid uses Lightwell lots, this is actually a very useful glyph.
• Power Word: Shield. If you don’t have a better glyph, this is the way to go, especially with Body and Soul. PW:S can become a mana sink for Holy priests real fast though–I learned that one from personal experience when a Holy priest was helping me!–so watch out.
• Flash Heal. My issue with this glyph is that Surge of Light gives free Flash Heals, and I like critical strike, which means I get lots of Surge of Lights–so I’m not investing much mana into my Flash Heal to begin with. But lots of priests love this glyph!
• Prayer of Healing. This glyph shines in fights where the raid is going to take a lot of continuous damage.

What spells do you use?

Healing is always reactive; there really is no rotation I can go over. However, here’s some pointers on which spells I use often and what situations I use them in. They’re listed in my personal priority.

1. Prayer of Mending is always active. If it’s not, it’s an unintentional/blonde mistake on my part. I’m always conscious of other priests in my raid and try to make sure my Prayer of Mending is on a different mission then theirs. (In “Smite priest trick #1: Prayer of Mending,” I go over how this spell syncs well with Surge of Light.)
2. Keep Renew up on the tanks at all times. In phases where everyone takes consistent damage, Renew is a great way to mitigate.
3. Circle of Healing is used whenever I see 3 or more raid members that could use healing. Raids typically take damage in clumps (melee gets hit by a blast wave, ranged get nailed by a bile), so when several people show damage, Circle of Healing can smart heal the ones most injured and hovered together. Circle of Healing is also an instant cast that is almost guaranteed to proc Surge of Light, so not only is it a safe move during critical times like flame jets or kobold kicks, but it gives a safe insta-Flash Heal as well. 
4. On Serendipity. When a single member (hopefully a tank!) is spiking damage, I Flash Heal just enough to get Serendipity to 3, then I Greater Heal. The more crit and well-timed Circle of Healings (see #2), the faster this happens. If it so happens that I get Serendipity to 3 and a big heal is unnecessary, I pick the most wounded group and drop a Prayer of Healing instead. If there are no wounded groups, I hold my breath and wait until the tank needs that Greater Heal. Under no circumstances should a Holy priest have to cast PoH or GH at full cast time; that’s part of the flow of Holy talents.
5. On Guardian Spirit. I use Guardian Spirit liberally; if a DPS drops to 20%, they get it; otherwise, I use it on whatever tank is under the most duress to give that extra 40% heals to myself and the other healer(s). Since I ritualistically glyph for Guardian Spirit, it’s silly not to use it often.
6. On Divine Hymn. This is arguably my favorite spell. I try to proc it with Inner Focus whenever possible. Use it when half or more of the raid is injured. (Smite and Discipline priests can make a killer Divine Hymn glyph: “Smite priest trick #2: Divine Hymn.”)
7. On Body and Soul. Speedy bubbles are infinitely useful! Use them to help people make flame walls; get out of deep breath; catch up to tanks dragging bosses; and get bile off of people faster! I only PW:S to grant speed. The shielding part is extra.

How do you gear?

I stack Spirit to the moon, thanks to advice from my Shadow priest and Holy priest friends. I always aim for ludicrous numbers out of reach on this stat. I otherwise try to keep my critical strike and haste at a happy medium; I love my critical strike, and as they say on the forums, “haste saves lives!” I’ve heard Intelligence is a great mana stat, but Int is yellow (with crit and haste) and Spirit is blue. Spirit also gives spellpower.

Why do you suggest critical strike rating when the other guides say to gear Int, Spirit, Haste, and Spellpower?

I gear to optimize smite. This means all my non-hit gear that ends up in my heals set ends up having gems in it that most Holy priests don’t roll with–like critical strike rating. The Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide goes over this in more detail and how Surge of Light is a staple.

Does this guide not work for you? Here’s some other Holy priest healing guides (v3.2) that might be a benefit:

• Elitist Jerks
• Tank Spot
• Secrets of Ulduar Class Advice from Priest Forums

Please feel free to leave comments/questions/concerns!

6 Comments

• 

  By Carey, November 16, 2009 @ 8:58 am

  Hi, I’m a fairly new level 80 disc priest that just dual-specced holy. I LOVE healing, but I’m still trying to figure out all the ins and outs of playing a priest. I’m so glad I stumbled on your site! Your info was very helpful! Specifically your talent builds and what spells to use in fights. I was wondering if you had any helpful hints on healing ToTC? Thanks again!
• 

  By Kourtnie McKenzie, November 16, 2009 @ 10:03 am

  Carey,

  Thanks so much for the kind comment! My guild has just started ToGC (heroic 10-man), so I admittedly don’t have too much to offer on that front. But I can tell you about the first boss, which we have had success with!

  If you’re playing a Holy priest in there, you’re going to want the other healer to be a strong class for tank healing, like a paladin (or a Discipline priest :p). On Gormok, you’ll want to use your Guardian Spirit aggressively on the tanks that are spiking from impale; Gormok’s the hardest part of the ToGC Beasts fight. It’s really important to keep the Renews going on both tanks, and I actually glyph for Renew for that fight because it helps me keep up with Impale’s tick. I save Divine Hymn for if worms spits all over too many people’s faces at once.

  We planned on going into ToGC this weekend with two other healers and myself in smite spec, since our raid/guild lead has read so much about hybrid healer/the 2.5 healer method being effective in there. It’s one of those situations where 3 healers is great–but then you need DPS to keep up with the timer!–and 2 healers is stressful. I’m a tad intimidated about the prospect since elemental shamans (and pretty much every other hybrid) hit harder DPS than a smite priest, but then, smite priests have the best hybrid heals in pinchy situations.

  For regular-10man ToC–the strat I went over in this guide was built around that. I try to be responsive to damage I know is inevitable in that raid, i.e. I keep my Circle of Healing ready for Worms spitting on things, Icehowl throwing the raid out; Guardian Spirit ready for when someone forgets to click the portal right before Twins explodes; and on Anub, I like to use Body and Soul’s Power Word: Shield effect to make sure people can run to the snow and avoid the spikes. (Which is about the only time a Holy priest should be PW:S, versus a Discipline priest using PW:S all the time; it’s a mana sink for a Holy priest to bubble too much! >.<)

  Hope this helps!
• 

  By Carey, November 16, 2009 @ 11:44 am

  Ah, good to know about the PW:S for Holy priests. I was realizing that mana can be an issue with Holy, so good to know! I didn’t know how good I had it with Disc in that respect. Which leads me to another question: I’ve been putting first priority to spell power when I gear, but now with the new holy spec i’ve been mana deprived. Should spirit or mp5 take precedence now? It seems silly to have two sets of gear for a healing priest, but maybe I should readjust the priority of my stats? Pondering this…

  Anyway, thank you for the response and again with all the help! My guild and I are not quite yet to 10-mans (although my friend is probably there with her gear and experience, she just hasn’t done it yet). For the most part, we’ve got our heroics down – with the exception of TotC for me (the healer) and our tank. Our tank is struggling to hold aggro, which makes heals hard for me. But I’m also a little weak with emergency situations, and I’m realizing I need to read up on all the fights and figure out what’s best to do when. It’s not all cookie-cutter, is what I’m finding out!

  Good to know about ToGC, though, and I’ll be sure to keep this info for when we do get started on 10-mans, which really may not be too long for some of us. I got the glyph for renew, and I use body and soul for PW:S. Keep forgetting about Guardian spirit, but i’ll try to practice with it more in our 5-mans, so I’ll be ready in the future.

  So, hybrid healers are like a 3rd person that can “off-heal?” That’s really good to know for when we start forming our raid groups. Can’t decide if I’ll mostly holy heal or stick with disc. I’m more comfortable with disc, probably because I’m used to having to keep our tank alive! And I love bubbles, especially since I have the glyph that gives a little bit of a heal. But sometimes my group suffers, so I wanted to look into holy. It’s a toss up now, but as I get more comfortable (and my other guildies improve), I’ll probably learn what works best for us.

  Lots to think about and continue to research! Thanks again!
• 

  By Kourtnie McKenzie, November 16, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

  JUST figured out my blonde move there–ToTC, you meant “Trial of the Crusader,” not “Trial of the Grand Crusader.” Whoops! For regular ToC-10, you should be good with the strategy I listed here, hehe.

  Gear is actually a bit different from Discipline and Holy from what I understand, although I’m still learning Discipline. I can tell you with the way I play Holy priest, I aim for 1200 Spirit before anything else; then spellpower, critical strike, and haste. Most Holy priests on the forums say Intellect > critical strike, but I am a big fan of Surge of Light procs. Above all else though, Spirit is your friend! It’ll give spellpower thanks to Spiritual Guidance, not to mention the extra oomph from Spirit of Redemption and Holy Concentration, so it is a wildly better stat for Holy than Discipline. Avoid mp5 whenever possible because it doesn’t have the chemistry Spirit does with Holy talents.

  I’m personally building a Darkmoon Card: Greatness for Spirit for my smite set because hit gear commonly lacks Spirit and it’s just that amazing for the Holy tree. In REALLY mana intensive places like ToGC, I’ll be using that card for healing as well. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a quick fix! The comments on WoWhead in the link go into a lot of detail about how the Spirit version benefits Holy priests and Restoration druids.

  Guardian Spirit is your single best spell IMO (other than maybe Circle of Healing); it’s not just a crutch to save a tank like Pain Suppression is, but a means to boost healing overall on the tank temporarily. I always walk around with the Guardian Spirit glyph so that I get the spell back real fast when the tank doesn’t die during it’s duration, and I swap out my other two glyphs based on the situation. It’s great for times when you know the tank might take spike damage, like Ony landing!

  Hybrid healers are people that can off-heal in a pinch and are mostly filled these days by Elemental shamans. The problem with Shadow priests and Balance druids is they have to dance forms, and Retribution paladins don’t really have the mana pool for it. Smite priests are a great alternative but it’s a very rare spec in WotLK; back in BC, the GCD wasn’t as gimpy and smite was more feasible. It takes an excruciating amount of hit, Spirit, and crit to pull off effectively (over 2.5-3k); I’ve only recently been able to do it in raids without problems and it took a ton of i226+ gear! They’re almost worthless in 25-mans but situational-awesome in 10-mans.

  Let me know if you have any other questions; glad to help!
• 

  By Justin, May 11, 2010 @ 10:19 pm

  Just wanted to let you know I was using your little guide here. I decided to try leveling with holy and so far I am doing fine thanks to DF. I love the guide and I hope to see more stuff to come.
• 

  By Kourtnie McKenzie, June 2, 2010 @ 1:17 pm

  Thanks, Justin!

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