Alternative Medicine pt. 3 – Holy Priests

Today I continue my series on healing classes other than Druids by taking a look at Holy Priests, the most versatile healers in the game.

Armor type:  Just cloth for priests.  /comfort!  They can equip one-handed maces, daggers, wands, and staves.

Stats:  Priests stack stats in the following declining order:  Intellect, Spellpower, Crit, Spirit, Haste, Mp5.  Int is high because it benefits their crit rating, as well as creating a larger mana pool, off of which mana regen mechanics are based.  They will want to stack Crit as high as they can get it because so many of their spells can crit.  Haste can be stacked meaningfully up to 10%.

Utility:  Priest buffs include Prayer of Fortitude, which increases the stamina of all raid members for an hour.  They can cure diseases,   dispell magic, and  stave off fear effects.     They offer a couple of forms of crowd control:  Psychic Scream makes enemies flee, while Shackle  pins undead down for a while.   Priests can reduce a mob’s mana with Mana Burn.  Mind Control, which takes over the target’s mind and allows the priest to control it, is a very useful talent, and comes up twice on Naxx boss fights.  As with every other healing class, Priests can resurrect dead players out of combat.

Healing Style: Power Word:  Shield provides Priests with damage mitigation, absorbing a set amount of damage on their shielded target, as well as preventing that target’s spell casting from interruption.  Priests have an instant cast, fairly low healing, 15 second HoT at their disposal in Renew .  For direct heals, Priests turn to Greater Heal, a long cast, high mana, big heal.  Flash Heal, in contrast, is a faster, smaller, less efficient direct heal.  Prayer of Healing is a nice AOE heal on a 3 second cast timer that heals party members within 30 yards.  A unique to priests that heals both the target and the caster is Binding Heal.  Prayer of Mending is a type of group heal with a very interesting mechanic.  When cast on a target, it will heal that target for a set amount the next time they take damage within 30 seconds.  It will then “jump” to another target within 20 yards, again healing the new target when they next take damage.  It can “jump” up to five times, lasting up to 30 seconds after each jump.  Divine Hymn incapacitates the closest 10 enemies within 15 yards for 20 seconds, while casting an AOE HoT on the nearest 10 party members for 6 seconds.  Holy Nova is an instant cast spell that causes damage to all enemies within 10 yards while providing a small direct heal to all party members within the same range.  Another group heal of sorts is Lightwell, which creates a lightwell that raid members can click on up to 10 times over a 3 minute period to channel healing on themselves over a 6 second period.  The spell can be useful when the priest needs to focus healing attention on a tank, but other party members are receiving damage.  Yet another group heal is Circle of Healing, an instant cast, “smart healing” spell on a 6 second cooldown which heals a target and raid members within 15 yards of that target.  Another ability which is very unique to the Holy Priest is a sort of priest panic button called Guardian Spirit, which when cast creates a guardian for the target.  The guardian increases the healing received by the target by 40% over 10 seconds, and will sacrifice itself rather than letting the target die, healing the target by 50% of their full health.   Spirit of Redemption is something of a hallmark of the Holy Priest, turning them into a spirit form (that big white angel-looking form that looks like a spirit healer at a graveyard) for 15 seconds upon their death.  In this form the priest cannot move, attack, or be targeted, but can cast any of their healing spells free of mana cost. 

Geez, that’s a lot of spells!  Perhaps that’s why Holy Priests are often considered the most versatile healers in the game, equally proficient at tank healing and raid healing.  When healing a tank, a Priest might rely on a rotation including Renew, Greater Heal, Prayer of Mending, and Power Word:  Shield.  For raid healing, Priests can rely on Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing, using Flash Heals as needed (source:  Elitist Jerks).  Priests have HoT functioning spells like Druids, Direct Heals like Paladins, and powerful AOE/Group Heals like Shaman.  They have instant cast spells that allow them to heal on the fly, and extraordinarily unique spells available to no other healing class.  From now on I, personally, will be thinking of them as the Jack of all Trades.
 

Other Posts in this series:

Alternative Medicine pt. 1 – Shamans
Alternative Medicine pt. 2 – Paladins
Alternative Medicine pt. 4 – Discipline Priests

Next in the series:  Discipline Priest Healing!

Similar Posts:

• Alternative Medicine pt. 4 – Discipline Priests
• Alternative Medicine pt. 2 – Paladins
• Alternative Medicine pt. 1 – Shamans (Shamen?)
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