Inner Fire: Holy Moly!

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Inner Fire: Bringing you weekly doses of Spiritual Goodness. Mmm, Tasty.

Welcome, fellow Priests, to the 3^rd edition of Inner Fire – your Local WoW Priest Blog. With the confirmation of article release dates by the lovely Cybac, keep an eye out, as starting on the next working week, Inner Fire will be released every Thursday! Brightening up your mid-week woes with Priestly goodness, with the kind reminder that Friday is just around the corner.

Last week we discussed Shadow, and being my favourite Priest spec, and the spec I play most as, I had a lovely, warm (albeit tenebrous) feeling overcome me as I shared with fellow WoW players my love for Shadow and the glory it brings to all who choose that path. However, if you prefer to stay away from the vicious world of damaging your enemies to a lowly corpse, Healing may well be the way for you! This week, we’ll be brushing over one of the two Priest specs used to heal others – Holy! And as the picture shows, speccing Holy will give you the ability to spout Angel Wings and act as a Supreme Divine Being in the World of Warcraft. Oh, and the Halo? That’s the T7 Priest helm. If you’re bored and like the look of that little beauty, convince your friends to join you on a nostalgic Naxxramas run, and head straight for Kel'thuzad!

Recent studies show that friends appear more willing to help others, (in this case, running an out of date raid instance for pure cosmetic purposes) when certain harder achievements are available for the taking. Use this wisely.

So, first things first, Holy Priests are more of a group/raid healer than a tank healer. Although they are perfectly able to heal tanks, they are arguably not as effective as Discipline Priests for tank healing, although they are second to none for raid healing and preservation. The Priest already has access to a great range of healing spells,  such as Renew, Flash Heal, Prayer of Mending, Binding Heal, Prayer of Healing… the list goes on. And speccing Holy grants you even more access to cooler, more potent healing spells, which you’ll find yourself quickly becoming best friends with. Speccing for Holy can sometimes be a bit tricky, as there are some many situational specs about. I’ve put together this basic Holy build with a few points missing in talents which I think can be self chosen to fit playstyle. For example, the Lightwell talent isn’t usually included in most Holy specs, but I have it in mine, as I feel the access to an extra healing spell and the mechanics of it can be very useful in certain situations e.g. throwing a Lightwell down in the middle of the raid during Lord Marrowgar’s Bone Storm.

Here’s the spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbhZfxtcb0qiu0cuVo

You’ll notice there are 7 spare points left out of this tree. You can choose to put these points into whichever talents fit your playstyle best, although the most optimal choices would be Test of Faith, Blessed Resilience, Healing Prayers or maybe even Empowered Healing. Tailor these points until you’re happy with your spec and hey presto! Holy Priest is in town!

You’ll notice a few really nice abilities becoming available to you when speccing into Holy of which we’ll take a look at now.

Desperate Prayer - An Instant Self-heal on a 2 minute cooldown. More powerful than the average heal, this can be a lifesaver whenever you find your little green bar getting smaller.

Spirit of Redemption – If you should so happen to die, in some strange dire circumstances, rather than curling up in a ball and lying motionless on the floor, you will now transform into a very pretty, very awesome, Spirit Healer. This will grant you access to your healing spells for an extra 15 seconds after death, for no mana cost. After 15 seconds have passed, then you curl up into a ball and lie motionless on the floor. Also an extra 5% Spirit granted from this talent, increasing your mana regen and the effectiveness of your heals.

Lightwell – A choice of opinion on this one. Some people think the spell is great, others prefer to avoid it, but whatever your views on it, Lightwell provides 10 charges of Lightwell Renew, one charge being used every time a player clicks the Lightwell. The Lightwell can be positioned as desired by the Priest and lasts for 3 minutes, while on a 3 minute cooldown.

Circle of Healing – An awesome way to heal up multiple damaged group members in the blink of an eye, Circle of Healing instantly heals up to 6 group members within 15 yards of the target. Being on a 6 second cooldown, this spell is very versatile and can be extremely powerful when used in succession with Prayer of Healing.

Guardian Spirit – As mentioned above, apart from giving the target lovely angel wings, it also protects the target from death, as the Spirit will sacrifice itself rather than the player, and will also heal them for 50% of their maximum health for good measure. It grants an extra 40% healing on the target, for the duration (which can be incredibly powerful for fights like Valithria Dreamwalker) has an instant cast, with a 10 second duration and a 3 minute cooldown.

So, all in all, in addition to your usual healing spells, add all the Holy talent spells to your arsenal, and you’re all set to become a wondrous, divine, healing soul. As a Holy Priest, make good use of Renew, Prayer of Mending and Flash/Greater Heal (to name a few) while doing your best to keep your fellow comrades in tiptop shape. For fights like Festergut for example, Holy Priests can really excel as the Pungent Blight ability deals a lot of damage at once, to all raid members, and if you time your heals correctly, chain casting a Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing can pretty much instantly heal up your entire raid to full health, straight after being choked by a smelly Festergut bottom burp.

Moving on to an important aspect of any WoW class; Glyphs! The Holy glyphs seem quite straight forward, although there are a few which you can substitute for your own playstyle and situations. The main Holy glyphs used are:

Major

Glyph of Renew – Speeding up your Renew duration, thus, increasing your healing, if you like to spam Renew, this is a great glyph for you. Otherwise, leave this one out.

Glyph of Flash Heal – Reducing the mana cost of your Flash Heal, if your find yourself using Flash Heal a lot, this glyph is a must have.

Glyph of Guardian Spirit – A very, very strong Holy glyph, following the “better safe than sorry” mindset, this allows you to use your Guardian Spirit ability much more often and can be a great glyph choice if you find yourself often reaching for Guardian Spirit, only to find it on cooldown.

Glyph of Circle of Healing – If you are a frequent raider, this glyph is a must have as it increases the amount of people healed by your Circle of Healing spell. IF you tend to stick to 5 mans, you can afford to leave this one out.

Glyph of Lightwell – A ridiculously overpowered glyph for those who use Lightwell often, otherwise leave this glyph out.

Glyph of Prayer of Healing – A really, really good glyph if you stick to raid healing as it adds an HoT element to your Prayer of Healing spell. A must have for those AoE healers.

From your playstyle, choose which glyphs you think will suit you best, and experiment with them. Remember, you can always rechoose your glyphs if you think certain ones aren’t working out for you!

Minor

Glyph of Levitate – A very fun spell, and twined with this glyph, you’ll never be without a little laughter from that hovering Hunter wondering “wtf I cant attack omg wtf” (But, please, only do this to your friends ;)).

Glyph of Shadowfiend – A nice way to gain a bit of mana, if your Shadowfiend happens to die, mana for you.

Glyph of Fading – If you happen to be getting healing aggro, from a god awful tank, this glyph can be invaluable.

Since Holy Priests can benefit from almost every caster stat, gems aren’t really a problem, just gem yourself suitably and to your own playstyle. If you feel your heals are lacking in power, go for some Spell Power gems. If you find your heals being that bit too slow, it’s haste gems for you. All down to personal preference, although I hope that personal preference isn’t Armor Penetration.

No matter what anyone tells you, there isn’t really a correct way to heal, however there are a few things to remember when dealing with healing situations.

• Always use Prayer of Mending when it is not on cooldown. Throw it on the tank if you don't know who is going to take damage next.
• In a raid, if more than 1 player is not at full, use Circle of Healing. The exception to this is if your targets are clearly in two very different places on the map. Typically, raid damage is area based, so your Circle of Healing should be effective if you center it on someone not at full. If damage is raid wide, try to heal in sections (for example, melee, ranged, soakers, etc). Holy by default produces a lot of wasted healing, but your job as holy is to be the first healer on the scene. Circle of Healing will allow you to do this, even if you overheal 3 people in the process.
• Use your Surge of Light Flash Heal on whoever needs it. If you have an extra one, throw it on the tank.
• Spot heal all small raid damage with Renew. Larger damage can be healed with a Flash Heal.
• If you're a Renew spam style of raid healer, Renew whenever you have nothing else to do. As long as you have 1 point in Empowered Renew, your Renew will have a chance to crit on the initial heal. That crit can proc any of your on crit abilities.
• Try to only use Prayer of Healing with your Serendipity buff stacked. Prayer of Healing is extremely costly as a spell, and not as effective in 25-man raids since various druid HoTs will tick on a target by the time you finish casting Prayer of Healing. Prayer of Healing is great in a 10-man or 5-man however.

And finally, before I leave you, check out this awesome video put together by Nyhm. If you’re not familiar with the works of Nyhm, you must familiarize yourself within the next few minutes! Go, go, GO!

Feel free to leave your comments and views, or contact me via the Kuurg contact page. You can also e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

That brings this week of Inner Fire to a close. Next week, we’ll continue with the healing mindset, as we explore the Shields and Penance of Discipline! Until next Thursday…

Last Updated on Monday, 30 August 2010 15:32 Written by Thaesha Friday, 27 August 2010 02:45