Holy Priest Quick Start Guide
Looking to start playing a Holy Priest in World of Warcraft and just want simple advice? Look no further! In this guide, we will cover everything you need to start easily playing a Disc Priest in Shadowlands, without all the fuss of detailed guides.
Whether you're new to the spec, a casual achievement hunter, or a returning player looking to refamiliarize yourself with Holy in Shadowlands, these easy guidelines, covering simple and effective talents, rotation, and gear setup, will get you into the action as easily as possible.
Please keep in mind that this page is meant to get beginner players started quickly, and does not contain much in the way of detailed explanations, mechanics, competitive options, gearing, simulation comparisons, or nuance. For more in-depth information, including all those optimizations and more, check out the complete Holy Priest Guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page.
Best Covenants for Holy Priest
Holy Priest is generally not hyper-sensitive to their covenant selection, meaning you have some solid competition between your options. Each offers its own special abilities, soulbinds, conduits, transmoggable armor sets, and other perks, so check out our Covenant pages for more information to help you decide which covenant to pledge to. Keep in mind, the choice also is not final and can be periodically changed.
| Best Raid Covenants | ||
| Covenants | Rating | Best Soulbind |
| Kyrian | Good | Pelagos |
| Necrolord | Great | Emeni |
| Night Fae | Great | Niya |
| Venthyr | Good | Draven |
| Best Mythic+ Covenants | ||
| Covenants | Rating | Best Soulbind |
| Kyrian | Low Keys: Good High Keys: Decent | Pelagos Pelagos |
| Necrolord | Low Keys: Good High Keys: Good | Emeni Emeni |
| Night Fae | Incredible | Dreamweaver |
| Venthyr | Low Keys: Good High Keys: Good | Draven Draven |
Best Holy Priest Legendaries
Flash Concentration shines in Mythic+ and Raiding with providing heavy tank support and single target support to allies. This call also be leveraged in a raid environment where increased single target can be helpful for supporting tanks or allies with lengthy bleed debuffs or on the Sun King Salvation boss fight which requires intense single target healing.
Harmonious Apparatus is a good general craft for Raiding or Mythic+ for a lower-maintenance playstyle. X'anshi, Return of Archbishop Benedictus can have some situational value when learning new encounters but is not as powerful when it comes to raw output as the other options.
Detailed Holy Priest Builds
Note: There are currently no talent variations depending on your covenant selection but there is variation depending on your Legendary selection. For a deeper look at each talent and more specialized builds for specific activities, see the Holy Priest Talent Guide.
This Holy Priest build is focused primarily on raiding in Shadowlands. Either Benediction or Halo depending on if there is bursty enough damage and players are close enough to make solid value from Halo. Surge of Light is very competitive, especially while progressing where mobility and mana efficiency are key. Prayer Circle is excellent if you have sufficient mana to spend on extra Prayer of Healing.
This Holy Priest build is focused for Mythic+ with the Flash Concentration legendary. At low-mid level Mythic+ your tanks are much less likely to kite and will require substantially more single target healing support to survive. Generally this build works very well before Prideful enemies get too large and your AoE healing is less of a focus. Also especially helpful for dungeons like Spires of Ascension or De Other Side which require very heavy single target throughput through enemy forces and bosses.
This Holy Priest build is focused for Mythic+ with the Harmonious Apparatus legendary. Renew is much more worth the cast in dungeons now that group wide damage is consistent throughout both trash mobs and the Prideful affix enemies. This makes Renewed Faith a solid talent to take in dungeons to support your throughput. Really helpful on prideful to blanket Renew on your party, followed by rapid Prayer of Healing casts thanks to Prayer Circle.
Stat Priority for Holy Priests in Shadowlands
Holy Priests primarily favor higher Item Level gains, along with Mastery, although secondary stats are generally close in value. Find out more about how stats work in the Stats Guide, or get an overview of gear to look for from dungeons and raids in the Holy Priest Gear Guide.
- Item level
- Mastery
- Critical Strike
- Versatility
- Haste
Gear in Battle for Azeroth heavily focused on pursuing item level upgrades and Shadowlands continues this trend as well. While mastery will be a primary focus to prepare for raids, if you find a non-mastery item that is 10 item levels higher than the Mastery piece, it is quite likely that the higher ilvl piece will be better. Some exceptions to item level can be rings and some trinkets. For further detail, check the gear guide.
Best Enchants for Holy PriestsMany gear slots can be enchanted in Shadowlands power enhancing enchants: weapons, rings, bracers, chest, gloves and boots. Some of these will be utility based for gathering or reducing fall damage.
Recommended Holy Priest enchants:
- Ring: Enchant Ring - Tenet of Mastery
- Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Celestial Guidance
- Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Fortified Leech
- Chest: Enchant Chest - Eternal Bounds or Enchant Chest - Eternal Stats
- Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Eternal Intellect
The next two are utility based.
Potions and Flasks for Holy Priests
- Flask:Eternal Cauldron or Spectral Flask of Power
- Potions:Spiritual Healing Potion, Spiritual Mana Potion or Potion of Sacrificial Anima. The Potion of Sacrificial Anima can be spent on Prayer of Healing and Holy Word: Sanctify to receive the greatest value.
- In dungeons Potion of Soul Purity can be very useful for removing debuffs that you cannot dispel.
Weapon Oils for Holy Priests
- Healing:Embalmer's Oil: This does very little healing at all. Opt for the damage oil instead.
- Damage:Shadowcore Oil: While this does not give you any extra healing it actually does something unlike Embalmer's Oil.
The optimal individual food is Iridescent Ravioli with Apple Sauce with Meaty Apple Dumplings being cheaper but weaker.
Feast of Gluttonous Hedonism is the highest quality feast in Shadowlands and should be prioritized over individual food.
Best Gems for Holy PriestsRecommended Holy Priest gems is Masterful Jewel Cluster with Masterful Jewel Doublet being the cheaper version.
Rotation for Holy Priests in Shadowlands
Healing and dealing damage differ greatly, as healing does not follow a rotation, but instead prioritizes spells depending on the situation. This section gives a general overview. Optimizations, talent variations, and advanced tips can be found in the Holy Priest Rotation Guide.
- Cast Holy Word: Serenity on cooldown (if target is around 50% HP)
- Cast Holy Word: Sanctify on cooldown (if hitting full 6 players and sufficient damage is going out).
- Cast Prayer of Mending on cooldown.
- Cast Circle of Healing on cooldown
- Flash Heal as needed and to deal with spot damage
- Cast Prayer of Healing As raid damage occurs and if mana is permitting.
- Heal as filler when not moving.
- Renew rarely, often while moving on targets taking sustained damage.
- Cast Holy Word: Chastise on cooldown
- Cast Holy Fire on cooldown
- Maintain Shadow Word: Pain.
- Cast Smite.
- Cast Holy Nova over Smite at over 3 targets