Do you have a level 80 Wrath of the Lich King priest that you want to roll smite spec with? This Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide is designed to help you understand the spec, glyphs, gear, and rotation necessary to play this hybrid spec in a 10-man raid environment. I’ve been smiting since the days of Burning Crusade (Gruul to Hyjal!), so consider yourself in good hands.

First, let’s look at your talent point build. This is the 43/28/0 spec I suggest for raid viability, with Power Word: Shield as part of your rotation:

This will grant 3% damage reduction to your party or raid and give you the necessities to off-heal in a pinch if a healer goes down (or can’t keep up.)

Next is your gear. You will want to hit cap first (the soft hit cap of 13% is fine if you are normally with a Dranei and a boomkin or shadow priest), followed by a crit of 30-40% and then haste and spellpower. Consult the following posts to help itemize your gear in accordance with your goals:

• How to hit cap a WotLK smite priest (without a single emblem or raid!)
• How to hit 3000 spellpower (with only 10-man raids and a handful of emblems!)

And pick up these major glyphs:

1. Glyph of Smite
2. Glyph of Holy Nova
3. Glyph of Power Word: Shield

Lastly, figure out your rotation. You will use Holy Nova almost exclusively during AoE pulls, with Surge of Light procs being expended on larger targets; on longer fights, however, Holy Nova should be practiced with care because it is a mana pit.

This is the priority in your rotation you will want to keep in mind:

1. Power Word: Shield once every 20 seconds to keep Renewed Hope active. Use this on yourself if there’s any kind of splash/raid damage so that you get mana back from Rapture; otherwise, use on tank.
2. Power Infusion yourself whenever the cooldown is up for the increased DPS. Aspiration should allow you to do this several times per boss fight.
3. Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague. It has proved most effective for me thus far to include this in my rotation at a 30% crit rating, 16% haste and 2500 spellpower; with higher crit and haste, however, it might be more prolific to remove this from your rotation given the lack of shadow talents. Experiment on a target dummy if you are higher geared.
4. Holy Fire whenever it is off of cooldown.
5. Get as many Smites in as possible during your Holy Fire’s ticks; your Glyph of Smite makes your Holy Fire ticks critical to when you are casting Smite. Your haste rating and Surge of Light procs will determine how many Smites you can squeeze into this window.
6. Do your Power Word: Shield for Renewed Hope/Rapture and your Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague whenever Holy Fire is not ticking. You can do Power Infusion whenever because it will not harm your GCD.
7. When low on mana, use Shadowfiend and Hymn of Hope preferably when Holy Fire is not ticking.

Alternatively, if you raid with a discipline priest on a regular basis that is already granting Renewed Hope to the raid, consider the following 37/27/7 spec designed by the Holy Fire Spec blog:

The rotation for this spec will look more like this:

1. Power Infusion yourself whenever the cooldown is up for the increased DPS. Aspiration should allow you to do this several times per boss fight.
2. Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague.
3. Holy Fire whenever it is off of cooldown.
4. Get as many Smites in as possible during your Holy Fire’s ticks; your Glyph of Smite makes your Holy Fire ticks critical to when you are casting Smite. Your haste rating and Surge of Light procs will determine how many Smites you can squeeze into this window.
5. Do Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague whenever Holy Fire is not ticking. You can do Power Infusion whenever because it will not harm your GCD.
6. When low on mana, use Shadowfiend and Hymn of Hope preferably when Holy Fire is not ticking.

Thanks for taking the time to review the Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide! Please feel free to leave your questions, comments, and concerns.

2 Comments

• 

  By Fates, December 18, 2009 @ 12:40 pm

  This is a fantastic break down, thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. I have been searching high and low for some comprehensive info on raiding as a smite priest.
  The most interesting part about being a smite priest is the ability to heal and do significant damage without popping/switching. My question is when you raid what role do you play? Fully utility? DPS? Heal? Or do you adjust based on the fight?
  Thanks again!
• 

  By Kourtnie McKenzie, December 18, 2009 @ 12:50 pm

  Fates,

  It depends on the damage the raid is taking during the fight. Most raids notoriously start off with requiring 3 healers, and as the fights get easier to manage, taper down to 2; but then, there’s always that one fight where 3 healers is a thumbs-up regardless of gear upgrades. One good example of this is how ToC-10 demanded 3 healers when it first was released (I think some of the nerfs it took also helped for it widdling down to a 2 healer raid), yet the Twins is always an easier fight with 3 healers… at least, if you have a raid that clumsily throws themselves into orbs like I do. Not like gear is going to fix that, so healing in my smite priest spec is a must for that fight!

  I generally look at it like this:

  Fight requires three healers? I can smite and heal 50% of the time. Now we’re not losing a DPS spot entirely for that third healer!
  Fight requires two healers, not a lot damage going on? I can pew most of the time in smite, but I really should throw Renew on the tank and PoM for the extra Surge of Light procs. NEVER pew 100% of the time, otherwise you might as well be Shadow.
  Does the fight have a lot of moving around and strategy, entailing “WTF avoid this damage”? Smite priests REALLY shine here. If you move a lot, not like you’re going to be pewing much in Shadow anyway. In this case, you take up a strong Utility role where you save the butts of people that aren’t doing as hot with Pain Suppression and you try to proc Surge of Light for insta-Smite casts while running around. There are all kinds of ways to sneak in a Surge of Light, including if you went deep enough for Empowered Renew (which most don’t) and through PoM. Good example of this is that whacky Bladestorm the first boss does in ICC.

  And bubble for the 3% damage reduction is a must in all three aforementioned situations.

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