WotLK Classic Holy Priest Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

If you have not already, please read the Spells Summary page. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

As a Holy Priest, you will constantly be changing between healing a single person taking high damage, typically a tank, and healing multiple people taking damage from a raid mechanic. Below you will find the different rotations and spell priorities depending on the healing situation you are in.

1. Renew — Remains a powerful heal-over-time. Be sure to keep this on targets you know will be taking constant damage.
2. Prayer of Mending — This spell remains extremely powerful, even getting buffed in WotLK. Be sure to use this as much as possible.
3. Greater Heal — A slow, but powerful heal. Use this when a big burst of damage is about to land on a target, or if the target will not die before the longer cast time ends and needs a large heal.
4. Flash Heal — This is your main filler spell, doing moderate healing to a target quickly.
5. Binding Heal — Essentially the same as Flash Heal, but heals you as well as the target. Use this instead if you are missing health.

While this is the normal single-target healing rotation, if someone is on the verge of dying you will want to use a more "emergency"-based priority until they are out of the danger zone.

1. Power Word: Shield — This is not that great for a Holy Priest, but it is instant-cast, giving you some time to cast a better spell. Use this first if the target does not have the Weakened Soul debuff.
2. Flash Heal — After that you will want to spam this on the target until they are healthy enough for you to return to a regular rotation.
3. Binding Heal — Use this instead of Flash Heal if you are also injured.

1. Prayer of Mending — This spell remains extremely powerful, even getting buffed in WotLK. Be sure to use this as much as possible.
2. Circle of Healing — Use this on cooldown to keep the raid healthy. Despite having a cooldown it remains a great heal.
3. Prayer of Healing — Be sure to use this with your Serendipity stacks to get the heal out quickly. If the raid is taking very high damage you may need to cast this without Serendipity stacks.
4. Renew — Remains a powerful heal-over-time. Be sure to keep this on targets you know will be taking constant damage.
5. Flash Heal — This is your main filler spell, doing moderate healing to a target quickly.
6. Binding Heal — Essentially the same as Flash Heal, but heals you as well as the target. Use this instead if you are missing health.
7. Divine Hymn — While this is at the bottom of the list, it is technically your strongest AoE heal, but it has an 8-minute cooldown. You will want to use this only in emergencies as you will only get one use in a fight; make it worth it and do not waste it.

Holy Priest gains a handful of powerful cooldowns in WotLK, giving them some much-needed utility. Unlike other classes however, your cooldowns are much more niche and have very limited, specific uses.

• Desperate Prayer — 2-minute cooldown. If you chose to take this talent, this is a personal emergency button. Instantly heals you for a very large amount, making this a powerful emergency button if you find yourself about to die.
• Guardian Spirit — 3-minute cooldown. If using Glyph of Guardian Spirit, cooldown is reduced to 1 minute if it does not proc when used. Increases the target's healing received by 40% and acts like a cheat death if the target dies while buffed with this, restoring them to 50% health and removing 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.
• Inner Focus — 3-minute cooldown. You will want to use this with your highest Mana spells such as Prayer of Healing or Divine Hymn, saving you a large amount of Mana. In addition to the 100% Mana reduction, it also increases the Crit Chance of the spell by 25%, which is great when you are using an AoE healing spell.
• 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 20% increase to maximum Mana since Shadowfiend now restores 5% of your maximum Mana per attack.
• Divine Hymn — 8-minute cooldown. One of the new spells you get in Wrath of the Lich King. This is a major AoE healing cooldown and should only be used when your normal AoE healing rotation cannot keep up. You will almost always want to pair this with Inner Focus to remove the high Mana cost and get an additional 25% Crit Chance on the Divine Hymn heals.
• Hymn of Hope — 6-minute cooldown. The other new spell you get in Wrath of the Lich King. This restores Mana to nearby allies with the lowest mana overall and increases their maximum Mana by 20% temporarily. The only downside of this spell is the randomness of the targeting; it is possible that you will not be targeted by any of the ticks. You will want to use this cooldown in conjunction with other Mana-restoring cooldowns, such as Mana Tide Totem or even other Hymn of Hopes, as the temporary 20% 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.