Holy Priest Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

For Holy Priest, there is one primary raid healing build, focused on usingmultiple short-cooldown spells for general-purpose healing. This is supported byby Prayer of Healing in between to reduce the cooldown on Holy Word: Sanctify.

You can easily import the talent tree below by clicking 'Copy Export String'and then importing it in-game.

The Holy Priest tree has several talent points or groups of talentpoints that can be moved around without affecting the core playstyle:

• Enlightenment gains you a point if the added mana isn't required.
• Epiphany can be swapped for Light of the Naaru depending on personal preference.
• Answered Prayers can be swapped for Voice of Harmony if moreconsistent healing is desired.

To spend any of these recovered talent points, you should look at:

• Prayerful Litany to increase the strength of your Prayer of Healing.
• Revitalizing Prayers for addition healing from Prayer of Healing.

The Class Tree has a lot of flexibility, and there are multipledifferent talents you can change around depending on the encounter and yourpersonal preference. The following are all great candidates to be situationallyremoved without altering your playstyle:

• Mass Dispel, particularly in raid encounters, can have limited usage.If Mass Dispel does not fit well with the boss you will be fighting, swapping itout will save you one point.
• Light's Inspiration is an option when you do not need the addedsurvivability, you can Talent out of it to spend points elsewhere.
• Holy Nova is very situational and is only worth pressing with Rhapsody. It is a very small healing increase, even when used properly,and you can save 2 points by swapping out of these and using another healingspell in that situation instead.
• Halo can be swapped for Divine Star for fights where theraid is stacked or requires heavy movement.
• Power Word: Life can be swapped for Benevolence if you arestruggling to use Power Word: Life reliably and prefer the passive healingincrease.

To spend any of these recovered talent points, you should look at:

• Dispel Magic and Improved Purify if an offensive purge ordisease dispel is required.
• Phantasm if snare removal is beneficial on a particular encounter.
• Shackle Undead, Psychic Voice, Mind Control and Void Tendrils all have very niche usage, but you should still be awarethey exist in case there is a specific need for them.

For dungeons, see our Mythic+ guide linked below for a starter buildthat you can work from and tailor to your requirements. Our Mythic+ guide alsogoes into more detail about potential talent changes to help you adapt to yourgroup's requirements.

Note that we do not explain EVERY Talent in the tree on this page. We onlyexplain Talents that are part of our optimal builds for raiding and Mythic+.For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells pagevia the button below.

The class tree is somewhat split into 3 "columns" with the left-hand side ofthe tree providing additional healing, the center of the tree containing grouputility and buffs to your allies, and the right-hand side primarily focused ondamage-dealing abilities.

The upper section of the tree introduces us to Renew and Prayer of Mending, which are core mechanics to healing as a Holy Priest.You also pick up some healing increases and have access to utility options.Typically, most builds will include:

• Focused Mending and Improved Flash Heal for the increases totheir respective spells.
• Angelic Feather as a mandatory pick. It is our main source ofincreased movement.
• Shadowfiend is worth taking for the mana return and some additionaldamage.
• Picking up Improved Purify gives you a disease dispel, which isuseful in all forms of content.
• Pathing through Leap of Faith for some extra utility, and it alsoprovides access to valuable middle-row talents.

Crowd control and their enhancements like Shackle Undead, Psychic Voice, Sheer Terror, and Void Tendrils willdepend on the content you are doing and what makes the most sense there.

There are some defensive options in Protective Light and Spell Warding, which should be considered. Their strength will depend onthe content you are healing in.

For additional damage, there is Shadow Word: Death, which hits quitehard. You should consider pathing on to Tithe Evasion in the middlesection to reduce the damage taken from regular Shadow Word: Death casts.

This section starts with more group utility abilities and leads into twostrong healing and damage throughput talents Unwavering Will and Twist of Fate. You will typically take the following in all forms ofcontent:

• Love it, or hate it, Power Infusion should be taken in all formsof content and used on an ally as you will also path through Twins of the Sun Priestess to access the tree below.
• Twist of Fate provides a nice healing and damage bonus in all formsof content.
• Unwavering Will is the other big throughput talent in this sectionof the tree and should be taken in all builds as well.

Some of the more situational utility includes Mass Dispel and itssupporting talent Mental Agility, which is great as a backupdispel,or for dealing with specific mechanics in Raid and Mythic+. This will be takenmore often than not as the method of pathing down towards Unwavering Will.

There is some good value in Inspiration, especially if you are usinga more single-target healing-focused build. Other more situational utilityoptions are Move with Grace and Body and Soul.

The lower talent area has a lot of good choices, with nearly every Talenthaving a situation that can be useful. The nodes you should consider using moreoften than not are:

• Choice node of Divine Star and Halo will be a mandatorypick, with your choice depending on the encounter. Divine Star is great whenyour whole group is stacked together, and for the added damage. Halo excelswhere the group is more spread out, and damage is not as much of apriority.
• Angel's Mercy and Binding Heals are both attractivedefensive options and will largely be personal preference. The value ofBinding Heals, in particular, is reduced if you are not running a heavy Heal or Flash Heal build.
• Surge of Light is a great addition to single target-focused healingbuilds, and even in builds centered around Prayer of Healing providessome free, instant healing.
• On-demand defensive capability provided by Translucent Image istoo good to pass up for just one talent point.

Power Word: Life is a strong ability when the situation allows forregular usage of it. While this should be a default choice in dungeons, in araid, it can be much more difficult to use, and instead, choosing Benevolence may be a better choice, depending on the encounter.

Multiple defensive options can be taken depending on yourpersonal preference. Light's Inspiration turns Desperate Prayerinto a very potent personal defensive. This leads to a passive defensiveoption, Angelic Bulwark. Finally, Improved Fade can be good toincrease the uptime of Translucent Image.

There may be some specific usage for Void Shift that makes itdesirable for some encounters, but it is not a common talent to takeoutside of niche situations where it helps bypass a difficult mechanic. Essence Devourer doesn't do enough healing to warrant taking whencompared to other talent options available.

Lastly, Mindgames can be taken for some additional damage andhealing, but it requires pathing through some undesirable nodes. This isparticularly true for a raid build where you are not already pathing nearby andwill gain significantly less from the talents leading up to it.

The spec tree starts in the upper half, introducing you to the remainingcore spells that will form your rotation. The left-hand side of the tree focuseson augmenting Circle of Healing; the center-left portion is Single Targetfocused, buffing Heal and Flash Heal. The center column of thetree provides powerful cooldowns in Divine Hymn, Holy Word: Salvation, Apotheosis and Divine Word. Theright-hand portion of the tree focuses on synergies for Renew and Prayer of Mending along with some damage increases through Holy Fire benefits.

Several talents should be chosen in all situations, and thensome decisions should be made about the direction you want your build to head. Thedefault talents are:

• Prayer of Healing
• Holy Word: Sanctify
• Guardian Spirit

After these, where your path depends on the goal of your build.

For Single Target focused healing, you will pick up Cosmic Ripple asit opensup the column of single target-focused talents.

For AoE healing, Circle of Healing is an obvious choice and Sanctified Prayers is a great boost to your Prayer of Healingwhich you will be casting regularly. Renewed Faith leads later on into Benediction, which is great for passive group healing.

For increased damage, pathing through Holy Word: Chastise and Empyreal Blaze to Burning Vehemence, which, when combined, greatlyincrease your damage potential.

The middle section contains most of the talents that buff the spells yourbuild centers around. It also has the desirable cooldowns Divine Hymnand Symbol of Hope. These two talents are the only real mandatory talentsin the middle section, with the rest changing depending on your playstyle.

Single target builds utilize Trail of Light, Everlasting Lightand Crisis Management to buff Flash Heal and Heal toprovide more healing and be more mana efficient. It also enables you to pathinto the better single-target talents in the lower part of the tree lateron.

AoE builds take Healing Chorus and Orison from the left sideof the tree to buff Circle of Healing. Gales of Song provides avaluable boost to Divine Hymn healing and Prismatic Echoes is aflat increase to all your healing done through increased Mastery: Echo of Light.

The right-hand side is centered around buffing Prayer of Mendingthrough Divine Service and Prayers of the Virtuous. The extrabounces from Prayers of the Virtuous, which also lead into the lower sectiontalent Say Your Prayers, synergize well with Benediction,applying additional renews to your allies and increasing your overall healingfor no additional time or mana spent. Taking these talents emphasizes theimportance of casting the Prayer of Mending as often as possible.

Enlightenment is a bit more situational and can be taken for theextra regen if there are encounters you find yourself running out of mana.Before leaning on this Talent, though, be sure you are using your mana well.

The lower section of the tree contains the more powerful capstonetalents on the bottom row of the tree. The only mandatory node in all forms ofcontent is the Apotheosis (dungeons) and Holy Word: Salvation(raid) choice node. For your remaining points, it will depend on the playstyleyou have chosen.

For nearly all builds, the powerful Holy Word improvement Miracle Worker provides your Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify with an additional charge. This change helps you makethe most of your cooldown reduction from a variety of sources. Divine Image is a staple for all builds with strong passive healing dueto the large amount of Holy Words you will be casting.

Enhancing single-target builds are Pontifex, Resonant Wordsand Lightweaver, which are all strong increases to both Flash Heal and Heal, and also other spells. These talentssynergize well with other single target talents taken further up the Holy treeand in the Class tree. Coupled with Apotheosis and either Divine Word or Miracle Worker, you have many tools for triagehealing in both dungeons and raids.

For builds emphasizing the Prayer of Mending talents, both Epiphany and Say Your Prayers provide good additionalvalue. Answered Prayers has the potential to provide healing and damagevalue, but the randomness of the Apotheosis buff triggering means thebonus can often be wasted.

Builds focusing on additional damage will want to pick up Divine Word and Divine Image.

Desperate Times is not a bad talent, but depending on the difficultyof your content, it may not provide enough benefit to warrant being taken.

Restitution has situational use in all forms of content and is moreof a personal preference. While planning to get more healing benefits fromtalent can be extremely difficult; having the safety of a cheat death can bedesirable, especially in extremely difficult content where you are likely toaccidentally die.

Lightwell is a solid choice in capstone, providing excellent healingpresuming all charges are used, and you are casting Lightwell as often aspractical.