(What a boring title. Seriously, I tried to think of something clever, but I'm fresh out of clever this morning, so you'll have to settle for "thorough")

In my post regarding gems for priests, I tried to make it clear what your best choices are for each color slot. Essentially, if you want a red gem, your only real choice is spellpower, whereas if you want a blue gem, you can get spirit or Mp5. These are simplifications - each color is connected to certain stats, and you choose which of the stats you want from that color in various combos.

I bring this up because I don't think people truly recognize that Blizzard has designed much of the gear in a similar way - stats compete with one another for the same slot. I see a lot of questions in forums over which stat to prioritize, when in reality, you rarely have a choice over the appearane of a stat. If you are trying to prioritize one stat over another, you will probably have to be more focused on the ratio of the stat distribution

There was a discussion over on the plusheal forums regarding stat choice that left me vaguely frustrated and inspired me to post an explanation on this topic. I see too many people Missing The Point, so I'm going to give a very basic rundown of how stats on gear are distributed:

• Item Level is an indicator of the summation of stat value. Each item is given a certain "budget". If you are comparing two iLvl 213 items, they will have the same budget, though their stat distribution may be different. One item may have more spellpower, while the other may have more intellect. In other words, the amount of the stat may vary, and therefore the proportion of the item's budget spent on that stat may vary between items of the same item level. The same stat is on both items, just in different amounts.

• In general, all relevant caster gear will have Stamina, Intellect, and Spellpower on it. What WILL vary is the budget allotted to each of those stats in proportion to one another - i.e. the budget ratio.

• In addition to these "ratio" comparisons, certain stats "compete" with one another for even appearing on an item.
  

• Examples include: Spirit vs. Mp5 and Haste vs. Crit. What this means is that if you see spirit on an item, it is unlikely the item will also have Mp5. If you see an item has Haste, it will probably not have Crit.
  

• This is the general pattern - here are the items that drop from ToC25 regular to give you an idea. Type in "cloth" in the "search within results" box to simplify it, and if you look through these items, you will see that the rules listed above apply.

• There ARE, however, some notable exceptions. I present for your pleasure Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers and Merlin's Robe.

So, let's talk about these two crafted items. The other two epic crafted tailoring items whose patterns come from ToC are Royal Moonshroud Bracers and Royal Moonshroud Robe. As a tailor myself, I can tell you right off the bat that on my server at least, the demand for Merlin's Robe and the Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers are much much higher than the Royal Moonshroud counterparts. Why? Because Merlin's Robe and the Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers break that stat distribution rule.

Merlin's Robe has both critical strike rating AND haste - two stats that normally compete with one another for a slot on gear, and therefore rarely appear together on the same item. To balance this out, it has neither spirit nor Mp5. The same thing for Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers.

Off the top of my head, I cannot list for you other items that have both haste and crit, but that does not mean I am suggesting they do not exist. On the contrary, there are a handful of items that break the stat distribution rule of thumb. And because of that, they have always been in pretty high demand. What makes Merlin's Robe and the Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers especially enticing is that from what I can see on the cloth drops from ToC, none of the other items available at this item level break that stat rule EXCEPT for these two crafted items. (if you know of any others, please point them out to me!)

So, two major points to take away from this long-winded post.

1. If you are trying to prioritize one stat over another, how you do this depends on the stat. For instance, if you want more haste, you will usually be choosing haste over crit. However, if you are trying to pick up more Intellect over spirit, it doesn't exactly work that way - Intellect will be on all items, whereas spirit competes with Mp5. This kind of fine tuning is better done through gems.
2. If you want to say "screw you mana regen! I'm disc! I'VE GOT BUBBLES, gimme more haste/crit", you need to specifically seek out items that have both haste and crit on them, because they are exceptions to the rule, and not incredibly common. At current max gear level, your best (and possibly only) options are the two crafted items, Merlin's Robe and the Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers.

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Under each slot, I have listed the item enhancements generally in order from the best enhancement to least best. For most slots, I have a couple of options and ranked them this way, so that if you do not want to spend all the mats on the best enchantment (i.e. on a non-epic item that you will hopefully replace soon, etc), you can find a cheaper alternative that is still good. If you're still in greens and don't want to spend money on expensive enchants, at least pick up some Heavy Borean Armor Kits for the applicable unenchanted slots.

Some points to consider about my rankings:

• In general, these suggestions apply for both Holy AND Discipline specced PvE healers. The only caveat to that is that Discipline priests are more likely to choose Spellpower enchantments over mana regen enchantments, particularly if the mana regen is Spirit (i.e. Chest, Feet, and Wrists)
• If you are not having any mana troubles, you may choose enchancements that give a bonus to crit or haste over mana regen (For instance, I use Arcanum of Burning Mysteries instead of Arcanum of Blissful Mending). This is perfectly fine.
  
• If you primarily heal in 5 mans or (to a lesser degree) 10 mans, you are more likely to encounter mana problems, and I highly recommend you opt for mana regen enchantments.
• You can also refer to Elitistjerks for their BiS enchants, as there are a few variations from my choices.
  

Standard Enchantments (Done by an Enchanter)

Chest:

• Greater Mana Restoration (420) (This is best for Holy Priests - if you are Holy, ignore the "Stats" to chest enchants. If you are Disc, do NOT get this enchant - you don't need it)
  
• Powerful Stats (440) (Best for Disc)
  
• Super Stats (370)
  

Feet:

• Greater Spirit (410) (Disc Priests everywhere weep)
  
• Greater Vitality (405)
  

Wrists:

• Superior Spellpower (440)
  
• Major Spirit (420)
  
• Greater Spellpower (395)
  

Hands:

• Exceptional Spellpower (360)
  

Cloak (Engineers and Tailors have other options, see below):

• Greater Speed (430)
  
• Speed (350)
  
• Wisdom (440)
  

2 Hand Weapon (Staff):

• Greater Spellpower (450)
  
• Spellpower (385)
  

1 Hand Weapon (Dagger or Mace):

• Mighty Spellpower (435)
  
• Exceptional Spellpower (395)
  
• Exceptional Spirit (410) (Disc priests stay awaaaay)
  

In addition, Enchanters may enchant their own rings with Greater Spellpower (you cannot have an enchanter do this for you, as it makes the item permanently soulbound).

Arcanums (Headpiece Enhancements)

• Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Holy until you have no mana problems) or Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (Disc and advanced Holy)
• Arcanum of Renewal (requires Revered reputation with Thrallmar / Honor Hold from the Outlands)
  

Inscriptions (Shoulder Enhancements)

• Greater Inscription of the Crag (Holy until you have no mana problems)or Greater Inscription of the Storm (Disc and advanced Holy)
  
• Lesser Inscription of the Crag or Lesser Inscription of the Storm
• Inscription of Dominance - pick this up until you grind enough Sons of Hodir rep. Only costs 30 Stonekeepers Shards in WG.
  

Scribes do not need to grind reputation - they have the ability to Inscribe their own shoulders at level 400 with much better inscriptions: Master's Inscription of the Storm or Master's Inscription of the Crag.

Spellthreads (Leg Enhancements)

• Brilliant Spellthread
  
• Shining Spellthread
• Mystic Spellthread or Silver Spellthread

There is no enhancement for Neck, Trinkets, Off-Hand Items, or Wands, although Alchemists, Jewelcrafters, and Engineers can make their own trinkets, and obviously various professions can make different other items. Although this post is not intended to be a guide to which professions are best for the healing priest at end game, I would be remiss if I did not list some of the other item enhancements that different professions offer only for themselves. These profession specific item enhancements CANNOT be stacked with standard enchants, but are usually superior anyway.

Tailors have two Cloak embroidery options that are better than the Cloak Enchants:

• Lightweave Embroidery - This is a pretty substantial increase to healing throughput, but I do not use it because you cannot rely on the increase when you need it. I won't notice that it procs, and just continue my job as usual (/shrug).
  
• Darkglow Embroidery - I prefer this embroidery, as over the duration of a fight, it procs often enough (~35% proc, ~60s ICD) to give me a reliable "mana regen" boost. Good choice for priests, who use a lot of instant or short casts.
  

Engineers:

• Springy Arachnoweave - The basic stats on this enchantment alone are much better than the haste enchants offered by Enchanters, even if you never use the parachute because you have Levitate.
  
• Hyperspeed Accelerators - This is a fantastic haste increase, and really more like an extra trinket with a short cooldown. You can tie this to a macro and use it every ten seconds, or use it fairly regularly, and save the burst haste for when you are in a healing crisis and need to get a heal on someone ASAP. Does not activate GCD and stacks with other group/raid haste buffs (i.e. Heroism).
  
• Nitro Boosts - Unless you are really desperate for mana regen, this is far superior to the crappy boot enchants. Also, the run speed increase can get you out of bad spots in a jiffy (zomg eyebeam), or if someone is stupidly out of your healing range and dying, get you closer to them to save their butts (I'm looking at you, mages!)

Leatherworkers:

• Fur Lining - Spellpower - Vastly superior to the so-called Superior Spellpower.
  

Don't forget to pick up an Eternal Belt Buckle for your waist (made by blacksmiths) to add another gem socket. In addition, Blacksmiths can add a socket to their own bracers and their own gloves.



Edited October 6th: Clarified more between Disc and Holy differences.
Edited October 9th: Added super pro tip from Fido about inscription of Dominance!

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If you are looking for my leveling guide, you may find that it has moved - please update your bookmarks!

I consolidated all of the level ranges into one monstrous post, complete with bookmark links within the page so make it easier to navigate.

I have also finally added Level 40-50 to the guide.

This is just one more piece of my on-going attempt to better organize the various guides I have on this blog, in order to make them easier to access and read. I realize they are very long, and I do that intentionally in order to be as inclusive as possible. Hopefully the bookmarks and table of contents will make it easier for users to get past all the TLDR stuff and get to the details they seek.

In the future, for those of you using the leveling guide, I do intend to add sections on how to heal instances at various levels, since I realize many of you are interested in that. Whenever I make any large changes or updates to any of my guides, I will make a new post about it.

If you find that any links on any of these guides do not work properly, PLEASE leave a comment informing me so that I can fix it.

Happy weekend!

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I have long wanted to write this guide, and I've been working on it for a very long time. Why has it taken so long? The beauty of the Holy Priest is also what makes it difficult to learn to play WELL - Versatility. Therefore, I have spent the entire week leading up to this post trying to explain some of the versatility in talents, playstyles, and spells.

If you have come here specifically for this guide, I highly encourage you to check out several of the relevant posts I've made regarding Holy Priesting (which I have linked all over the place ad nauseam), because there is no simple cut and dry method of explaining how to play this spec well. Unlike Discipline priests, Holy Priests heal in a more reactive way, which means that the healing choices you make depend a lot more on the fight, and are less likely to fall under a set "rotation", despite Blizzard's development efforts to change this.

Here is a quickie table of contents of the subjects covered in this guide:

• Specs
• Talents
• Stats
• Glyphs
• Spells
• Rotations, Tips, and Strategies

• Discussion/Suggestions for Gems/Sockets is in a separate post.
• Discussion/Suggestions for Enchants/Enhancements is in a separate post as well.
  

Discussion/Suggestions for Gems can be found in a separate post until guide is updated. Enchant info at a later date, stay tuned.

Specs

• If you are looking for a good way to level as a Holy Priest, or solo, check out the LoLsmite guide and relevant specs.
• If you are focused on primarily healing 5 man instances, I suggest this spec, or something similar.
• If you are focused on primarily raiding 10 or 25 man raids, I suggest this spec, or something similar.

Your spec will vary depending on playstyle and the makeup of the group with which you currently run, so please read the full guide for more clarification.

Talents

While I have given some basic suggestions for specs depending on your chosen scenario, you should read about the individual talents to get a better feel for what talents are best for your playstyle. This section will explain why I've chosen what I have, and give you some information about what to switch around in your spec, with some consideration given to the debates surrounding different talents and spells. Note that not all talents are listed here - just the ones about which I have some comments.

We are versatile healers, this is true, but you should consider the other healers in your group in order to not waste your points on talents that you won't get much use out of due to other Pallies or Disc Priests or Trees. See my posts about the following talents/spells to get some background on a few of the talent debates.

• Body and Soul
• Renew
• Greater Heal
• Lightwell
  

Now, on to the individual talent discussions.

From the Disc Tree:

• Twin Disciplines: The alternative to this tier 1 talents is very fight specific in PvE - Unbreakable Will is more of a PvP talent. For the Holy Priest, Twin Disciplines affects primarily Renew, Power Word: Shield, Circle of Healing, and Prayer of Mending. Those last two instant casts are among our most commonly used spells.
• Improved Inner Fire: The added charges are not what make this a strong talent - it's the added 45% effect. Note that at level 71, Inner Fire rank 8 and all following ranks not only increase your armor, but also your spellpower.
  
• Improved Power Word: Fortitude: Stamina = extra health. Everyone wants that. Nearly all priests take this talent, so it is unlikely you will run into a PvE priest without it.
• Meditation: This is the primary reason you spec into Disc at all. Again, every priest, PvE or PvP usually specs into Meditation. This is particularly important for Holy Priests who are notorious for having mana problems. Also, note that you may find a lot of information on teh interwebs about the notorious 5 second rule. Please see elitistjerks for more information and history about why Meditation means that we are no longer nearly as concerned about 5SR.
• Inner Focus: You will note this is none of the specs I have linked. This is a very good spell if you train yourself to use it properly, but of all the Priest specs, Holy arguably gets the least benefit from it. This is mostly because we have so many strong talents deep in the Holy tree that this 1 talent point that no longer helps build us up tier wise to better talents is better spent elsewhere, IMO. It is not a bad idea to take this talent if you prefer however - coupled with Divine Hymn, it is incredibly powerful.

From the Holy Tree:

• Holy Specialization - Always put your first 5 points into this talent. Many good Holy procs are based on crit - some give us added throughput, some give us mana regen. Don't skip it.
• Inspiration - You might as well pick up Inspiration, though personally I find its use somewhat debatable. As the folks over at elitistjerks pointed out though, at some point you will get some heals on the tank, they can always use the boost in armor, and since there really aren’t any options that are much better, it’s "selfish" not to take this talent.
  
• Backtracking to - Improved Renew vs Divine Fury vs Spell Warding vs Improved Healing -
  The first third of the Holy Tree is full of a lot of crap relating to spells that after a certain level are no longer used or are Disc spells (Lesser Heal, Heal, Penance). This is where you will find several differences between my 5 man healing spec and my raiding spec. The
  biggest debate that pops up is whether or not talents that only really benefit Greater Heal at level 80 are worth it. See my discussion on the relevance of Greater Heal, in addition to the discussion about Renew before deciding which talents to choose.
• Spirit of Redemption - It's our failpriest! When you die, everyone will know, which is pretty annoying. However, when you die, you have unlimited mana for 15 seconds, allowing you to possibly spare the group a wipe. If you find yourself "enjoying" this somewhat bittersweet talent quite a bit, you should consider picking up the relevant glyph. Also note the added 5% spirit. Again, mana is a problem for Holy Priests, so that extra 5% is helpful - it also combines well with the next important talent...
• Spiritual Guidance - This is the talent that generally make spirit our preference for mana regen stats over Mp5 (and all blue sockets). Particularly as you are first gearing up, stacking spirit can be very helpful because in addition to increasing your mana regen, it also gives you a bit of a boost to spellpower. Before I found myself with near unlimited mana, I enchanted everything with spirit when it was a viable option - even preferring it over spellpower.
• Surge of Light - One of the talents that increase the value of crit for Holy Priests. A free, instant Flash Heal is pretty nice, even if that Flash Heal can't crit. Note that it also can be used for a free Smite - so if there's no one to heal, you can always smite something, right? Those free Flash Heals proc quite a bit from Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing, and they DO count towards Serendipity stacks (explained later).
• Holy Concentration - Important mana regen talent that increase the value of crit. Definitely pick this up.
• Lightwell - Take it or leave it, this is completely up to you and the group you heal. See my post about this talent/spell.
  
• Serendipity - Gotta have it. This is the closest thing we have to a "rotation". If you are healing five mans, it's great for a super fast big bomb Greater Heal. If you are raiding and focusing on raid heals, this makes Prayer of Healing pretty awesome. Note that as mentioned previously, those Surge of Light Flash Heals DO count towards building Serendipity stacks. One thing to consider - just because you have three stacks of Serendipity does not necessarily mean you should blow a Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing - both of these spells are expensive mana wise, and you will find yourself running through your mana very quickly if you are too liberal with Serendipity usage.
• Body and Soul - potentially a very good spell, but dependent on your raiding group - see my post about it for more information.
• Empowered Healing - This is a very debatable talent, due to most of its benefit going to Greater Heal (read about that debate here). Therefore, if you don't use Greater Heal much, it is probably better to spec into Blessed Resilience and/or Spiritual Healing. If you're healing 5 mans, you're more likely to use Greater Heal than in a raid, which is why you will see a different between my 5 man spec and my raiding spec. Read the Greater Heal debate here.
  
• Circle of Healing - Staple Holy Priest spell. You absolutely must have this, whether you heal 5 mans or raid. This is arguably the strongest Holy Priest spell, due to the fact that, to my knowledge, no other healing class has an AoE Instant Smart Heal, especially not on such a short cooldown. The key here is that this heal is SMART - it will heal the people who need the heals most.
  
• Empowered Renew - Awesome if you use Renew a lot. See my post regarding usage of our one Priest HoT to decide whether you should pick this up or not.
  
• Guardian Spirit - The best Oh Snap (In Ghostcrawler's words) in the Holy Priest arsenal. Coupled with the relevant Glyph, you do not need to reserve its use for Main Tanks only.
  

Stats

As your gear improves, you will find yourself stacking different stats. The two main exceptions are Spell Haste and Crit. You can choose to emphasize one over the other, dependent on your playstyle, or try to strike a balance between the two.

• Hit Rating - If you are entirely new to healing, please note that healers need absolutely no hit rating. Heals always hit, never miss.
  
• Stamina - Of course, added health is always a good thing for survivability. However, you should never waste your gems or enchants on stacking stamina. Stamina comes naturally with higher level gear, and with Improved Power Word: Fortitude, you get a little extra Stamina anyway.
  
• Spirit - Due to Spiritual Guidance, spirit is a better choice than Mp5 for mana regen stats. If you have a choice between Mp5 or Spirit for an enchant, pick spirit. Same goes for gems - If you absolutely must use a blue socket gem, pick Spirit over the alternatives.
  
• Mp5 - Good regen of course, but even with the recent buff, Spirit is still probably better.
  
• Intellect - This is actually my preferred mana stat. Note that the following spells/procs/abilities are based on the size of your mana pool, and therefore are directly affected by Intellect (which also increases your crit rating, don't forget!) - Replenishment, Shadowfiend, Hymn of Hope.

Mana Regeneration Formula at Level 80 (Check WoWWiki for more information):

 MP5 = 5 * (0.001 + sqrt(Int) * Spirit * 0.005575) * 0.60 <i>rounded u</i>p

If you are raiding, and therefore more likely to benefit from the procs and abilities of multiple other players, Intellect is the best "regen" stat to stack. For five mans, however, you won't get quite as much use out of Intellect (though it is still very important) so you can focus a bit more of your attention on Spirit, or Mp5 where Spirit is not an option.

When you first start gearing up, it is my opinion that Regen stats are the most important to stack, even over spellpower. Spellpower is useless if you have no mana. It won't take long, however, before you find that you are no longer running out of mana during fights, particularly if you excel at mana conservation. Once you find yourself at this point, you can focus more on replacing your enchants and gems with other stats that reflect more personal healing style.

• Spellpower - This is another stat that naturally builds with higher level gear. Almost all healing and caster gear will have Spellpower on it. That having been said, it is never a bad idea to gem or enchant for spellpower, and when in doubt, it is always a solid choice.
  
• Critical Strike Rating - There are several talents that benefit from higher crit rating, in particular Surge of Light and Holy Concentration. If you are trying to decide between Crit Rating and Haste Rating, there are plenty of discussions all over the internet (including my own) and loads of theory crafting to help you with your decision. Regardless, it usually comes down to personal choice, at least up to a certain amount. Always remember to consider what buffs will be provided by other group members as well, such as a Boomkin.
  
• Haste Rating - Always good. Nothing feels better to me than peeling off a save-your-ass heal just in the nick of time. If you find yourself at the end of a fight with plenty of mana but lots of dead folks, you may need to stack more haste or at least more spellpower.

If you are looking for the theorycrafting numbers and math relevant to those last two stats, I recommend WoWWiki: Spell Haste and WoWWiki: Spell Critical Strike , and of course, elitistjerks.

Glyphs

There are actually a plethora of really good Holy glyphs. I suspect this is partially due to the innate versatility of the spec – there are so many different ways you can heal as a Holy Priest, and therefore the glyphs reflect that. I have selected all the Major Glyphs that are good options for a PvE Holy Priest, and I’ll explain how to decide if it’s the right glyph for you. As a side note, the first three listed are the ones I usually use.

• Circle of Healing - This is absolutely useless if you do not raid, and only do 5 man dungeons – because you don’t have a 6th recipient. For a raiding priest, this is arguably the best glyph, and essentially required, because you should almost always be using Circle of Healing, since it’s awesome. This glyph increases its awesomeness by 20%.
  
• Guardian Spirit - I like this because it allows me to be more liberal with my Guardian Spirit usage. I’m one of those people who is very nervous about using spells with a long cooldown, so I end up not using them at all. With this glyph, I know that if my Guardian Spirit does NOT save the target’s life, I haven’t completely wasted the cooldown – I’ll have it back for my usage fairly soon.
  
• Flash Heal - If you use Flash Heal a lot and ever find yourself with mana problems, pick this up. However, if you no longer ever have any OOM moments, then you might pick up something else, since there are a lot of good options.
  
• Lightwell - See my post on the use of Lightwell and decide for yourself how much you think you will use it before you pick up this glyph. This is actually a very powerful glyph – but ONLY if you KNOW that everyone in your group will properly make use of your Lightwell.
  
• Holy Nova - This is not very good for raiding, because you will undoubtedly prefer Circle of Healing, but if you focus on 5 man dungeons, a lot of times you might use Holy Nova (since it will heal everyone within range in your group anyway). This is a very good boost to the spell, and I highly recommend it for leveling priests and for those who focus on 5 mans.
  
• Hymn of Hope - another good glyph if you are still at that stage where you are having mana problems. Keep in mind that Hymn of Hope is more of a group/raid mana replenishment tool, not necessarily the best individual replenishment choice (a la Shadowfiend) so this is pretty pointless in 5 man groups if there aren’t multiple other mana users.
  
• Power Word: Shield - Great glyph for 5 man healing. Fairly nice for raiding. Nice for soloing too. Almost useless if you raid with a disc priest – you shouldn’t be wasting your time bubbling, when theirs are better.
• Prayer of Healing - This glyph provides us with one more HoT. Therefore, it's not really a great choice if you run with a Healing Druid. However, with the recent nerf to Prayer of Healing, I have found myself often needing to cast PoH twice to top people off after massive raid damage - with this glyph, it's no longer necessary.
  
• Renew - If you use Renew a lot, and don't run with any healing druids, this is potentially a nice choice, because it essentially takes your HoT and turns it into a HoLT - Heal over Less Time. Same amount of healing, just done in a shorter period of time. Usually though, you might as well just use a direct heal instead.
  
• Spirit of Redemption - Nice glyph for PvP. This is also a good glyph if you are progressing through content, and find yourself face down on the floor a lot. You can save a lot of wipes with Spirit of Redemption, particularly if there are no battle razzes available.
  

Our minor glyph options aren't so great. Glyph of Levitate is always the best choice, Glyph of Shadowfiend is one of the better choices as well. I have a preference for Glyph of Shadow Protection, but Glyph of Shackle Undead is probably a good option for 5 man healers.

Spells

Welcome to your arsenal of spells. There is no getting around it, this section is long - this is because we just have such a large and versatile selection of healing spells from which to choose. I'm skipping the main buffs, and focusing on spells you will most likely use whilst healing.

Discipline Spells:

• Fear Ward - V. nice in fights like Auriaya from Ulduar. Cooldown on it sucks, but there is a Glyph for that.
  
• Power Word: Shield - Bubble Bubble toil and trouble... unless there's a disc priest in your group. Please don't be that annoying Holy Priest all Disc Priests hate. When in doubt, ask the other priest in the raid if they are holy or disc. If they are Disc, ask if they would like you to refrain from bubbling certain folks, or anyone for that matter.
  
• Shackle Undead - Decent crowd control, but only when there are undeadies around.
  
• Mass Dispel - In most scenarios, don't bother. Let a Disc Priest handle it.
  

Holy Spells:

• Binding Heal - If you take damage, you might as well heal someone else who has taken damage along with yourself. This is low threat, and also builds Serendipity stacks. Hotkey it, use it, love it.
  
• Circle of Healing (talents) - Arguably the number 1 awesome Holy Priest spell.
  
• Divine Hymn - Incredibly powerful, very expensive, channeled AoE spell. Long cooldown means this will probably be the kind of spell you only use once per boss fight, so choose your timing carefully, and utilize it in a raid/group wide damage scenario, when you are potentially near a wipe. Best for raiding, not as useful for 5 mans.
  
• Flash Heal - Our default heal, really. When you can't find a good reason to use any of your other awesome healing spells, always default to this. It's your staple heal, it's your basic, procs anything, crits, etc etc.
  
• Greater Heal - Our default healbomb. Read about whether or not to use this spell.
  
• Guardian Spirit (Talents) - Oh Snap The Tank is Gonna Die spell. This will save someone's life if they aren't being stupid.
  
• Heal - Useless after level 40, when you get Greater Heal.
  
• Holy Nova - As a holy priest, this is vastly inferior to Circle of Healing for raiding, because this is NOT a smart heal. It will only heal members of your group who are in range. However, in a 5 man scenario, this is a good choice - it generates no threat, and does damage as well which is great for AoE scenarios. If you primarily heal 5 mans, pick up Glyph of Holy Nova to make this even better. Don't forget these heals can crit, and proc Surge of Light and Holy Concentration.
  
• Hymn of Hope - One of our Regen spells. Read the tooltip carefully - it is more for the benefit of your raid or group when people are running low on mana than for yourself - although, if you couple this with Shadowfiend, you will get more bang for your buck. Don't bother with it in a 5 man if you are the only one using mana, or other mana users have plenty of mana, unless you are desperate.
  
• Lesser Heal - Useless after level 20 when you pick up Flash Heal.
  
• Lightwell (talents) - Potentially very good if used properly. Again, see my post about this spell.
  
• Prayer of Healing - Powerful AoE heal. Long cast, but can be shortened by Serendipity. Unlike Circle of Healing, this is not a smart cast, but it has no cooldown aside from GCD, and it IS targettable - that means that it will heal all the people in the same group as the person you cast it on. Great for healing after massive raidwide damage. Couple it with Glyph of Prayer of Healing for an even better effect if you are lacking tree druids.
  
• Prayer of Mending - Fantastic spell for reactive healing - it's semi smart and does a lot of the job for you. Bounces around, healing people who need it, like your own little healing midget friend. It's powerful, it's smart, it's instant, it can crit (and proc Surge of Light). Note that the threat it generates goes back to you, so while it's a good idea to toss this on the tank before the pull, use with caution if your tank isn't very good at holding threat yet. Keep it bouncing at all times. Tip: If it settles on you and stops bouncing around, use Shadow Word: Death on a proper mob (focus off the tank please!) to get it bouncing around again.
  
• Renew - It's our sole HoT (unless you pick up Glyph of Prayer of Healing) - and it's surprisingly good. Great for topping folks off when you have other things to do, because it is instant cast. If there are no tree druids around, throw it on the tanks to help the main tank healers out a bit. As with any HoT, this is a great spell to use when someone has some DoT effect on them that cannot be abolished or dispelled. If someone gets bombed or some other wonky fight mechanic, toss a renew on them, and in many cases, that will be sufficient.
  
• Resurrection - our basic rezzing spell. Cannot be used while in combat. Duh.
  

Shadow Spells:

• Fade - This is a temporary threat dump spell. The cooldown on it is longer than I would like, but it is very handy. If mobs start running towards you, just Fade and continue to heal. If the tanks are decent, they will pick them up then. You don't have to run to the tank - just fade. This is also awesome when mobs spawn, and you start out at the top of their threat meter (I'm thinking of you, Archavon)
  
• Psychic Scream - Please don't use this. Like, ever. This is not a crowd control spell - this is more like a crowd uncontrolled spell. If you are wearing mobs, Fade. If Fade is on cooldown, just bubble, run towards the tank, scream and cry. If you use Psychic Scream in any situation aside from very rare exceptions, you will find that your tank will probably just start letting you die all the time. It's a PitA to try and pick up Feared mobs, and it generates a lot of threat.
  
• Shadowfiend - This is our mana regen tool. The cooldown is actually fairly low, but use it BEFORE you run out of mana so that you can use it again later. You don't really need to do anything to control this little beast - just pop it and ignore it, or couple it with Replenishment or Hymn of Hope, as it returns mana to you based on your mana pool.

Rotations, Tips, and Strategies

There are very few situations in which Holy Priesting lends itself to a "rotation" per se. Really, the only time you are going to see this much is in a 5 man scenario, if then. I will address a couple of different scenarios for the Holy Priest who wants to heal, as they encourage different playstyles.

Single-Target Healing:

This is not the strength of a Holy Priest. Really, if you want to single-target heal, switch to Disc, and check out how to do disc. However, you may find yourself in lots of situations in which you will be temporarily required to heal a single-target. In such cases as these, when you only have to worry about one person, and perhaps your self, you can do this relatively well, though other healing classes are better at it. The main reason why Holy Priests are not the optimal choice for MT healing is not because they can't do big bursty heals (they can) or use HoTs and shields for buffering/mitigating damage (they can), but mostly because they will often struggle with mana if forced to focus on spam healing one target for an entire fight. Therefore, if you find yourself as the MT healer for whatever reason, equip trinkets that will maximize your mana regen, and be particularly conscientious of your mana return cooldowns.

• Start your target with Power Word: Shield and a Prayer of Mending (if you are not concerned about their threat generation). Once they start taking damage, keep a Renew rolling on them at all times to buffer some in coming damage.
  
• Your rotation here focuses on maximizing Serendipity. Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, then Greater Heal. Refresh your bubble, Prayer of Mending, and another Renew as needed.
  
• If you start taking damage at any point, or if you are wearing mobs, Fade, and then go back to your Flash Heal x3 -> Greater Heal rotation, replacing Flash Heal with Binding Heal until you are at full health, since Binding Heal also builds your serendipity stacks.
• Guardian Spirit is your oh snap button. Glyph it, love it, cuddle it, and don't forget about it.
• As a tip, if you need to boost your bursty healing output on the tank, use Guardian Spirit every cooldown (if you are glyphed) to provide a very nice healing boost.
  

5 Man Healing:

Healing a 5 man instance is pretty fun because you are the only healer, and get to use a much bigger mix of all your tools. It's also harder to tell someone what to do when, and which spells to use, because it depends very much on the scenario and the fight. 5 manning involves a combination of single-target healing as mentioned above, and group healing as mentioned below, so you get to use everything.

• Before any pulls, bubble the tank and start a Prayer of Mending on them. Once the tank starts taking damage, throw a renew on him or her, and keep it rolling as needed to buffer some incoming damage.
  
• Ensure that Prayer of Mending is always on cooldown - keep it bouncing. When bored, it's not a bad idea to just throw renews around to make your job easier.
  
• Put a bubble on that damn mage. Srsly.
• If you get aggro and take damage, fade if necessary, then Binding Heal to someone else who has taken damage (preferably the tank).
  
• You have three real options for healing your entire group simultaneously - Holy Nova, Circle of Healing, and Prayer of Healing. Those are in order from cheapest mana wise and lowest amount of healing, to most expensive mana wise and most amount of healing (based on tooltip alone - this does not reflect talents, glyphs, or Spellpower coefficients). All three of these can proc Surge of Light. Holy Nova will only work well if everyone is within a very short range of one another - keep in mind it also does damage (so beware around CC'd mobs, etc). Circle of Healing is often your optimal choice. If it is on cooldown, Holy Nova will usually suffice, but use Prayer of Healing sparingly, probably only with 3 stacks of serendipity, only when Circle of Healing is on cooldown, and only when there has been a lot of group-wide damage.
• Holy Priests are very mobile healers. If it is necessary for you to move around a lot while healing, focus your efforts on Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Circle of Healing, and Holy Nova, as these are all instant cast spells, and all but the first can proc Surge of Light (bubble can proc this if glyphed, btw) if specced properly, which will potentially give you yet another instant heal.
• Read up on your full arsenal of spells - there are very few of them that are NOT useful in a 5 man environment.

Raid Healing

In a raid, you will most likely always be assigned to AoE Healing. Always take careful note of the other healers in your healing group, and adjust your style and the spells you use dependent on the other classes available. For instance, if there are Disc Priests in the raid, avoid bubbling. If there are Trees, Renew is likely unnecessary. If you have Pallies, don't even bother with Greater Heal.

• Circle of Healing, Circle of Healing, Circle of Healing. Don't bother with Holy Nova.
• Flash Heal when Circle of Healing is on cooldown, Binding Heal to someone else when you take damage, and use Prayer of Healing with three stacks of Serendipity when there is massive raid wide damage.
  
• If there are Pallies healing the MT, but no druids, throw a shield + renew combo on the MT, as well as Prayer of Mending.
• If there are no Disc Priests, Shield those who get bombed, fisted, slagged, tanked, overdue the aggro, or just in general are idiots or squishy.
• Sometimes locks like to drive us mad. If you see their health dip drastically while their mana simultaneously increase, just throw a renew on them and a glare.
  
• Always keep a Prayer of Mending bouncing.
• Use your mana regen spells BEFORE you run out of mana. In boss fights that you know are long and will strain your mana reserves, use them early so that you can potentially use them again (i.e. Shadowfiend) during the same fight.
  

*pant*pant*... And there you go - hopefully a fairly inclusive guide to help you get started. If you feel there is something I should add here to make it even MORE tldr, please comment and let me know.

ETA: 10/06/09 - Added link to gems post and to enchants post.
ETA: 1/27/10 - Updated the title, since this guide will also work for patch 3.3. Added a little more info for single target healing and in various other spots because it simply wasn't TLDR enough.

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This is a continuation of my analysis of certain talents - all the different debates I want to get out there before I release my PvE Holy Priest Guide. More to come in the following days, btw.

I've often mused that the debate regarding whether or not to use Greater Heal has a lot in common with a similar debate for Holy Pallies, Flash of Light vs Holy Light. Greater Heal is this big powerful heal with a long cast time, and at least in a raiding environment, you rarely get a chance to peel off that Greater Heal before another healer as thrown in a stopgap. It usually ends up being a total waste when you're raid healing.

For Disc Priests, if you're on MT duty, or anyone who takes a large amount of steady damage, I suppose it could be more useful, but truth be told, I think it would still be better just to use Flash Heal. However, I would be really interested in hearing from the Disc Priests that read this - do you find yourself using Greater Heal much at all?

For Holy Priests, you can get more use out of it due to Serendipity. With three stacks of Serendipity up, the cast time for Greater Heal is only slightly longer than Flash Heal (but don't forget, for mana conservation purposes - it's STILL the same mana cost!). But even then, there are rarely situations in which Greater Heal won't be a waste, and generally if you're on raid heals it makes more sense to cast a hasted Prayer of Healing - or just ignore the stack completely.

There are a couple of fights where I use Greater Heal a lot - Patchwerk, obviously. Predictable damage, and all healers are focusing on the tanks. Then there's the pull on Auriaya. Generally all three of our tanks are taking massive amounts of damage and no one else is, so all the healers are unloading on them with everything they've got (for the record, I reeeally hate that pull). I build up my stacks of serendipity and unload a Gheal, and it's one of the few situations in which it's not often wasted.

All that having been said, it's up to individual choice. I know I focus a lot on raiding here, but if you prefer sticking to five mans where you are the only healer, I think Greater Heal can get a lot more use. Use of Greater Heal is one of those significant indicators of individual healing style - some people use it quite a bit, others not at all. If you can control the healing coming in on your target, i.e. in a 5 man where you are the only healer or when you are solo-healing a target, it is a lot more useful. Therefore, even if you are in raids, if you are assigned strictly enough to the point where no one else is ever healing your targets, again it makes more sense.

The Greater Heal centered Talents

Where am I going with this? Well let's take a look at some Holy talents that name Greater Heal specifically.

• Divine Fury - You don't use Heal after a certain level, when you get Greater Heal. Since you are on healing duty, there is almost never a reason to be using Smite or Holy Fire in a raid, and to a lesser degree, in a 5 man. Therefore, the only healing spell that you will use affected by this talent is Greater Heal. So, if you don't use Greater Heal, should you even bother with this talent?
• Improved Healing - Again, you won't be using Heal or Lesser Heal at 80. If you are holy, you don't have Penance (weep). Therefore, only Greater Heal and Divine Hymn are benefitted by this talent. Divine Hymn, with its 10 minute cooldown, will likely be used only once a boss fight (if that), so again, Greater Heal is the biggest target of this talent's benefit.
• Empowered Healing - This talent is a bit different because it also gives a bonus to Flash Heal and Binding Heal, both of which are highly used spell (if you aren't in the habit of using Binding Heal - get with it!). Fully specced, this gives you an extra 40% of your bonus healing for Greater Heal, and 20% for Flash Heal and Binding Heal. That sounds pretty awesome but there is a really good argument for saying that Greater Heal doesn't NEED to be any bigger - it doesn't get used enough as it is because it's too powerful and gets wasted. The bonuses to Flash Heal and Binding Heal are awesome, but you can pick similar bonuses up from other talents if you choose.

So, with these talents (and for the record, I'm currently specced into some of them, which I'm beginning to reconsider), is it worth investing the points when the greatest beneficiary is a spell that you may or may not ever really use? For some of the talents, there may be no better alternative - but for others, there just might - and I will get into that in days to come.

ETA: Forgot to add this, but in case you've forgotten about the Class Q&A with Ghostcrawler, here are some of the comments he had regarding Greater Heal:

"Flash Heal is big, so Greater Heal is just overkill. Combine this with the fact that there are other spells that are doing a lot of the healing that Greater Heal used to do -- Penance for example. I don’t think many players look at Greater Heal as being too expensive from a mana-per-healing standpoint. They often aren’t in danger of running out of mana. It’s also worth pointing out that max rank Greater Heal has always healed too much. The difference is that priests used to be able to cast down-ranked Greater Heals. We have considered offering say Lesser Heal as a literal 50% mana, 50% healing version of Greater Heal [...] In a raid in which healers don’t coordinate well it’s easy for other healers to stomp on your big, slow heals. While you are casting, someone heals your target for you."

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Finwe pointed out that if you are leveling a new Priest as an alt, and you have a level 80 main, you should pick up some Heirloom items if you have the Emblems to spare. If you are not familiar with the relatively new Heirloom Item system, here's the skinny. These items bind on account, meaning you can mail them from your main to your alt, as long as both toons are on the same server. The stats for the item change depending on the level of the toon carrying the item, and are usually approximately the same as a Rare item of the toon's level. You can enchant these items, but the enchant cannot have any level restrictions, or you will not gain any benefit from them.

Here is a listing of all the available BoA/Heirloom items via WoWhead. There are lots of good PvP items as well - these must be purchased from Knight Dameron (Alliance only) or Stone Guard Mukar (Horde only) when your faction controls Wintergrasp, and are purchased with Stone Keeper's Shards. Here are my selections of good items for a leveling priest - or any cloth-wearing, non-PvP caster.

• Tattered Dreadmist Robe - (Chest) Cost: 40 Emblems of Heroism (remember you can change Emblems of Conquest to Valor, and then to Heroism) or 60 Champion's Seal. These robes give a 10% bonus to XP gained from killing mobs. Enchant with Greater Stats or Major Mana.
  
• Tattered Dreadmist Mantle - (Shoulders) Cost: 40 Emblems of Heroism or 60 Champion's Seal. This shoulder piece gives a 10% bonus to XP gained from killing mobs. This does stack with the robes, for a 20% bonus.
• Devout Aurastone Hammer - (1-hand Mace) Cost: 50 Emblems of Heroism or 75 Champion's Seal. One handed mace, you can change the off hand item to match by picking nice items up in the AH as you level. Enchant with: Spellpower, Healing Power (both of these recipes are difficult to find because they drop in Molten Core) or Mighty Intellect or Mighty Spirit (still tricky to find, but slightly more common, requires rep with Thorium Brotherhood and a trip to Blackrock Depths for the Enchanter to purchase the recipe).
  
• Dignified Headmaster's Charge - (Staff) Cost: 65 Emblems of Heroism or 95 Champion's Seal. Good choice if you don't feel like bothering with off-hand items, and want to just stick with a staff. Enchant with Major Spirit or Major Intellect, and if you can't find these, Lesser Spirit or Lesser Intellect.
  
• Discerning Eye of the Beast - (Trinket) Cost: 50 Emblems of Heroism or 75 Champion's Seal. Awesome trinket - especially since you usually don'e get your first trinket until somewhere in the level 30-40 range.
• Swift Hand of Justice - (Trinket) Cost: 50 Emblems of Heroism or 75 Champion's Seal. Another good trinket. After all, you get to have two. If you have to make a choice between them for your priest though, I recommend the previous one.

Items purchased with Emblems of Heroism can be purchased from a couple of places:

• Brammold Deepmine in Dalaran.
• Enchanter Erodin in Dalaran (HORDE ONLY)
• Enchanter Isian in Dalaran (ALLIANCE ONLY)

Please note that if you need to convert your Emblems of Conquest to Valor and then to Heroism in order to purchase these items, I do not think you can do this at Brammold Deepmine - you will need to go to your factions' seller, and convert them via the other vendors nearby - it's a pain in the butt process too.

If you are purchasing Heirloom items with Champion's Seals, you can purchase them from Dame Evniki Kapsalis at the Argent Tournament, located at 69,23 inside the Argent Crusade's tent. Please note: You cannot purchase these items from the Dame until you are an Argent Crusader, meaning you have earned either the Exalted Argent Champion of the Alliance or Exalted Argent Champion of the Horde achievements.

I have updated the my lolsmite guide to include a list of available Priest-friendly items with hit rating for each level range. Since neither of the Priest healing specs, Discipline or Holy, have any talents for hit rating, it is important that you pick up some hit items while you level, or you will soon find it very annoying how often you miss mobs and waste your mana. Luckily, Blizz added quite a few low level items in recent patches that include hit rating. Most guides or references for hit rating will focus on how much you need at level 80 for raiding or doing instances. The hit rating NUMBER you need changes every level, while the percentage stays the same - don't get confused :). But since you won't be fighting boss mobs at low levels, you don't need to worry about "hit cap" until you get to 80.

The exact amount of rating you need will increase every time you level, but if you hover over the "Hit Rating" listing on your character sheet, it will show you the percentage. This chart from wowwiki shows the percentage of hit rating you need in order to ensure that you never miss when you are casting a damaging spell on a target. Remember that heals always land, you do not need any hit rating for healing spells.

Level Difference	PvE	PvP
- 4	100%	100%
- 3	99%	99%
- 2	98%	98%
- 1	97%	97%
0	96%	96%
+ 1	95%	95%
+ 2	94%	94%
+ 3	83%	87%
+ 4	72%	80%
+ 5	61%	73%

For leveling, subtract the percentage under the PvE column from 100% to figure out how much hit percentage you need to never miss a mob of that level.

For instance, at level 30, I need 4% hit rating to ensure I never miss when attacking any mob level 32 or lower - however, i will still have an 11% chance to miss a level 33 mob. In order to never miss a mob of your same level, the hit rating percent you will always need is 4%.

Remember that if you are a Draenei, or you are grouped with a Draenei, you receive an extra 1% spell hit.

(ETA: This is why I don't theorycraft. Fixed my failmath. Thanks Anonymous mathchecker!)