Holy Priest Battleground Blitz Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about playing Holy Priest in Battleground Blitz, including specific playstyle tips, talent builds, and much more.
Holy Priests in Battleground Blitz
Playstyle as Holy Priest
In Battleground Blitz, the primary role of Holy Priest is to support your team with strong healing and deal damage when there is time for it. Keep their team alive with instant healing spells like Holy Word: Serenity and deal damage with Holy Fire.
Talent Choices for Holy Priest
Here is the talent build you will be using to maximize your damage output:
Recommended PvP Talents for Holy Priest
- Spirit of the Redeemer
- Seraphic Crescendo
- Phase Shift
These are the 3 PvP talents you should be using in battleground blitz. Spirit of the Redeemer allows you to use Spirit of Redemption for 9 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown. Because enemies will not be able to hit you and spells do not cost mana, this is a very important cooldown to utilize in team fights. Seraphic Crescendo reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn and it channels 50% faster. Divine Hymn is another important cooldown that should be used when your team is falling behind in the team fight. Phase Shift will help you move around the map easier. Holy Priest have very little mobility when they are slowed and this helps with that issue.
For an in-depth guide to Holy Priest talents, read here:
Crowd Control as Holy Priest
In Battleground Blitz, without the Arena Dampening effect, healers, when left alone, are able to sustain against many players with relative ease. The way to counter the high throughput of healers in Battleground Blitz is with the effective use of crowd control.
Holy Priest has many tools in its kit to aid with this:
- Psychic Scream
- Void Tendrils
- Mind Control
- Holy Word: Chastise
- Leap of Faith - Not a defensive, but can be used to help teammates move around the map a bit easier. This pairs well with the Save the Day.
Holy Priest Defensives
You have several defensive abilities you can use to help keep you and your team alive.
- Power Infusion is by far one of the strongest healing and damage cooldowns you have. Due to Twins of the Sun Priestess, you can use Power Infusion on your teammate, so both of you gain the effect. You will use Power Infusion whenever your team has damage cooldowns available, and if the enemy healer is in Crowd Control. This is especially powerful when the enemy has no way to Purge Power Infusion.
- Void Shift is a powerful cooldown that allows you to instantly save an ally, or yourself, from very low health by exchanging your health percentage with an ally. This can be used as an answer to overwhelming damage you cannot mitigate or heal through.
- Symbol of Hope is an incredible defensive cooldown for your teammates. A full channel of this spell reduces the cooldown of any major defensives by 60 seconds. In addition to this, they will also regain a large amount of Mana back. Use this when you need Mana and when your teammates need to get their defensives back. This can be used while out of line of the enemy team. If you do this, you will not be able to get interrupted and get full value out of the spell.
- Shadow Word: Death should be used on enemies below 20% health. You can use this ability at any time, but if the target does not die, it will deal damage to yourself. This is extremely important because, if there is an enemy Mage on the other team, you can use Shadow Word: Death at the end of the cast and deal damage to yourself, breaking the crowd control on you.
- Guardian Spirit should be used when you or a teammate is very low on health and you have do not have a way to get out of a stun. Instead of dying, you will instantly heal for 40% of your maximum health.
- Desperate Prayer increases your health by 25% for 10 seconds, and instantly heals you for that amount. This is great for when you get are being targeted.
- Although not a defensive for yourself, Leap of Faith is great for helping teammates who are stuck in a stun or overextended. This ability can also be used to get your teammate away from the team fight to heal them.
Holy Priest Stat Priority and Gear
- Intellect;
- Versatility;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike.
The stat priority for Holy Priest is the same in Battleground Blitz and Arena. If you want an in-depth explanation and suggestions on gear, read our gearing section here:
The Role of Holy Priests in Battlegrounds
Capture the Flag (Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks)
If you get either Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks as a map, you will likely be playing offense. This means that when an enemy player picks up your flag your goal is to kill that flag carrier. Your main focus will be to keep your offensive team alive by any means necessary. Rotate Guardian Spirit, Void Shift, and Spirit of Redemption to stay alive as long as possible. Psychic Scream is a valuable crowd control spell because it can be used on multiple players. Use this when several enemies are stacked.
Resource Race (Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Deepwind Gorge)
On resource race maps, your primary goal is to keep your team alive at whichever base is decided to be fought over. There is not much room for you to make plays or defend bases by yourself. The best healers will be able to heal through the team fight and ensure the team fight is won by their team. Trade Guardian Spirit/ Spirit of Redemption/ Divine Hymn when your team gets low and focus on maximizing damage with Holy Fire.
Hybrid (Eye of the Storm)
Similar to resource race maps, your goal is to keep your team alive in the big team fights. The goal on this map, unlike normal Rated Battlegrounds, is to team fight at one node and try to cap both bases. This results in long 7v7 team fights, and the winner will more than likely pull ahead quickly. Trade Guardian Spirit/ Spirit of Redemption/ Divine Hymn when your team gets low, use Void Shift on a teammate that drops low, and dispel crowd control with Purify. Use Psychic Scream when multiple enemies are stacked.
Note: Capping the flag will make the inactive bases active, and both teams will have to recap the nodes. Use this tactic if your team is falling behind on points or lost the team fight.
King of the Hill (Temple of Kotmogu)
Ranged DPS specializations will always be the best orb carriers on Temple of Kotmogu, so do not grab the flag unless it is a dire situation and you have to. The most important part about this map is to win the initial team fight and quickly gain momentum by grabbing 3 orbs and standing in the middle of the map. When the enemy team starts to resurrect, leave middle and kite around the center. Here are some tips for this map:
- Players take more damage the longer they hold the orb. This means that, eventually, the Orb carriers will die. Ideally, your team will only hold 2-3 orbs at a time so that you do not easily wipe when you have high stacks.
- Make sure you die on the correct side of the map! You and your team will resurrect depending on where you died. If you die on purple side, you will resurrect on blue side and vise versa. Ensuring you and your team resurrect together is crucial, this will allow you to regroup faster and quickly wipe the enemy team that will be weak.
- There are leaves at every orb; if you are low on Mana, make sure you grab one!
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- 15 Sep. 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 29 Aug. 2024: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved 3000 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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