Cataclysm Classic Holy Priest Spell Summary

Holy Priest has a wide arsenal of spells available to them. Knowing your important spells and when they are best suited to be used is a key part of performing well in any environment. The sections below aim to show you your most important spells by each category and give you a brief example of what each spell does.

As a Holy Priest, you will be focusing on raid healing. These are all of your main healing spells that all have a different purpose depending on the situation.

• Chakra — Is one of the new spells you gain in Cataclysm. You will usually only need to cast this once at the start of the encounter rather than it being apart of your regular rotation. Chakra will transform into 1 of 3 buffs depending on the next spell you cast, either Chakra: Serenity, Chakra: Sanctuary, or Chakra: Chastise. As a Holy Priest you will almost exclusively be using Chakra: Sanctuary.
• Holy Word: Chastise — This spell will upgrade into an improved version depending on which Chakra state you are in. Chakra: Serenity will upgrade Holy Word: Chastise into Holy Word: Serenity, being a powerful single target healing spell that increases your chance to crit with spells on the target. Chakra: Sanctuary will upgrade Holy Word: Chastise into Holy Word: Sanctuary, a strong AoE spell that is placed on the ground that heals all players in the area, with reduced effectiveness when more than 6 players are inside.
• Circle of Healing — Instantly heals the target and up to 5 nearby party or raid members for a moderate amount. This is great for AoE healing and generally keeping the raid health topped. Each heal from Circle of Healing has its own chance to crit, giving you more procs from talents and gear. Can increase the number of targets to 6 if you are using Glyph of Circle of Healing, but increase the Mana cost by 20%.
• Lightwell — Creates a Lightwell at the target location. Players can click this Lightwell to a moderate amount of health over time. The only downside of this spell is that it requires players to click the Lightwell to receive the heal over time buff, but it can be clicked from 40 yards away and even included in part of a macro.
• Prayer of Healing — Heals the target and their nearby party members for a moderate amount. This is your main way of AoE healing, but has a high Mana cost and cast time, meaning you should only use this when your raid group is taking high amounts of damage.
• Prayer of Mending — Whenever the person with this buff takes damage, Prayer of Mending will heal them for a moderate amount and then bounce to another nearby ally. This spell is great when there is constant damage happening to multiple allies.
• Greater Heal — A slow cast, single-target heal. The long cast time is made up by a very large heal, great for healing tanks and players missing high amounts of health.
• Flash Heal — A quick, single-target heal useful for healing individual targets that are not missing much health. This should be used often as a way to fill in spots of your rotation. Casting this will grant a stack of Serendipity, up to 2 stacks, reducing the cast time and Mana cost of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing.
• Binding Heal — Heals you and a friendly ally for a small amount after a quick cast. Useful if you and an ally are both low health and require a quick heal. Casting this will grant a stack of Serendipity, up to 2 stacks, reducing the cast time and Mana cost of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing.
• Renew — Place a heal-over-time on an ally, healing them every few seconds while the buff is active. Great to keep up on tanks as they will constantly be taking damage and anyone else that is frequently taking damage. Gets buffed a lot by Improved Renew, Divine Touch, and Rapid Renewal talents.
• Power Word: Shield — Buffs an ally with a shield which absorbs damage and prevents spell push-back while it lasts. Also places Weakened Soul on the target, preventing them from being shielded again for a short duration. This spell is very low priority as Holy as it will not be as strong as the Discipline version and you should not use it over them.

Holy Priest has long been known as a healer that brings multiple, powerful cooldowns, and this continues in Cataclysm as you have even more spells at your disposal. Knowing when and how to use these cooldowns will greatly improve your effectiveness as a healer and make you a great asset to any raid group.

• Guardian Spirit — 3-minute cooldown. Increases the target's healing received by 60% and acts like a cheat death. If the target dies while buffed by this spell, it instead restores them to 50% health and removes this buff. This is a great cooldown for tanks as you can easily predict tank deaths to mechanics and use this to keep them alive. If using Glyph of Guardian Spirit, the cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.
• Shadowfiend — 5-minute cooldown. This one is a very simple Mana-restoration cooldown; use this whenever you are running low on Mana. If possible, you will want to pair this together with Hymn of Hope for the temporary 15% increase to maximum Mana as Shadowfiend restores 3% of your maximum Mana every time it attacks. With the talent Veiled Shadows, the cooldown of Shadowfiend is reduced by 1 minute.
• Divine Hymn — 3-minute cooldown. This is a major AoE healing cooldown and should only be used when your normal AoE healing rotation is not enough to keep the raid alive. Targets the 5 lowest health raid members in range and heals them every 2 seconds over for 8 seconds total. As Holy this spell is only a 3 minute cooldown and heals for twice the normal amount thanks to the Heavenly Voice talent.
• Hymn of Hope — 6-minute cooldown. This restores 2% Mana to 3 nearby allies with the lowest Mana overall and increases their maximum Mana by 15% temporarily. Ideally you will want to use this cooldown in conjunction with other Mana-restoring cooldowns, such as Shadowfiend, as the temporary 15% increase to maximum Mana amplifies the effectiveness of abilities that restore a percentage of your Mana pool. Try to coordinate this with your other raid members.
• Desperate Prayer — 2-minute cooldown. If you chose to take this talent, this is a personal emergency button. It instantly heals you for a very large amount, making this a great spell to use if you find yourself about to die.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Leap of Faith — One of the new spells you gain in Cataclysm. Pull the target ally towards your location. A great cooldown to save a group member who is in a bad position or help someone catch up if they are falling behind.
• Dispel Magic — Can remove 1 magical buff from an enemy or 2 magic debuffs from yourself or an ally. Use this whenever someone in your group is afflicted with a dangerous magical debuff, or an enemy has a beneficial buff that will hamper your group.
• Mass Dispel — An AoE version of Dispel Magic that removes 1 magical debuff from up to 10 friendly targets, and 1 magical buff from up to 10 enemy targets. Can also remove stronger magical buffs that cannot be dispelled in other ways, such as Ice Block and Divine Shield.
• Cure Disease — Removes 1 Disease from an ally.
• Fear Ward — Makes a friendly target immune to the first fear used against them. Use this whenever you are facing enemies that will use a fear, ideally on the tank or yourself.
• Levitate — Allows your target to float above the ground, walk above water, and greatly reduce their falling speed. Glyph of Levitate removes the reagent cost of Levitate, making it only cost Mana.
• Shackle Undead — Shackles an Undead enemy in place, preventing them from moving, attacking, and casting; this crowd control will break if the target takes any damage. Use this if you ever need to crowd control an Undead enemy.
• Fade — Temporarily reduces your threat to 0. This is mostly useful when new adds have spawned as they might not have been picked up yet by the tank. Remember that this is temporary and you will regain the threat back after the effect ends.
• Mind Soothe — Reduces the aggro range of a Humanoid or Dragonkin mob, allowing you to more easily avoid aggroing them. This is mostly used for skipping certain trash groups in PvE content and preventing patrolling mobs from randomly walking into you and aggroing.

Buffs are an important part of any party or raid group as they greatly increase your abilities to tank, heal, and deal damage as a whole. Make sure you keep your buffs up at all times to ensure the highest chance of success in whatever content you are in.

• Inner Fire — Personal buff only, increasing your Armor and Spell Power as long as this buff remains active. In Cataclysm this spell no longer has charges and can not be dispelled. Can be improved by picking the Inner Sanctum talent, adding 6% reduced spell damage taken.
• Inner Will — One of the new spells you gain in Cataclysm, a personal buff only. Increasing your movement speed by 10% and reduces the Mana costs of instant cast spells by 15%. Can be improved by picking the Inner Sanctum talent, adding 6% additional movement speed.
• Power Word: Fortitude — Buffs all nearby party and raid members, increasing their Stamina for one hour. The Mana cost of this spell can be reduced by 50% if using Glyph of Fortitude, which is useful if rebuffing a raid member in combat after they have been ressed.
• Shadow Protection — Buffs all nearby party and raid members, increasing their Shadow Resistance for one hour. This buff can have its duration increased by 10 minutes if using Glyph of Shadow Protection.

In addition to all the previously mentioned spells, Priests have a few more spells with very niche uses that are worth mentioning to help you fully understand your entire spellbook.

• Mana Burn — Burns a portion of the target's Mana based on your maximum Mana. Mostly only useful in PvP, but may have some uses in specific PvE situations.
• Mind Control — Take control of the mind of your target, controlling their movement and actions; only works on human targets. Doesn't have many uses in PvE content but can be useful when soloing content like quests or in dungeons.
• Psychic Scream — Fears up to 5 nearby enemies for 8 seconds. Mostly just a panic button if you are being attacked in melee range. Typically you will not want to use this in dungeons and raids expect as a last resort as it will send mobs in all different directions, possibly pulling additional trash.
• Holy Nova — Deals damage to all nearby enemies and heals nearby party members without causing any threat. Has some uses in dungeons as you can both DPS and heal at the same time with this spell, but overall is not a very strong spell.
• Resurrection — Simple res spell; brings an ally back to life outside of combat. Cataclysm also brings the new spell Mass Resurrection, which can be used to res your whole group at once instead of 1 player at a time.
• Mind Vision — Allows you to see through the point of view of your target. Mostly just a fun ability to let you scout and see things from a different perspective.