2.1.
New Content
The Midnight Season 1 launch has finally arrived, and with it we get access to a wealth of new content. With a
new Tier-Set, three new raids, as well as the start of the Mythic+ and PvP Season 1, there is a lot of new content
to enjoy. To help familiarise yourself with all the new content, make sure to check out the dedicated sections
below.
2.2.
Class Tuning
Since Midnight launch, Holy Priest has received no tuning changes. Blizzard previously mentioned, that there will
be little to no tuning until March 17th, so you can expect many things to change in the first few weeks of the
Season. We will ensure to update this guide as soon as new changes occur, or new theorycrafting findings have been
made.
When it comes to tuning adjustments, our next planned pass is expected to arrive with the Midnight Season 1
launch on March 17th. Our next pass will follow immediately afterwards utilizing data gathered during the week
Heroic difficulties are available; these changes will go live with the launch of Mythic raid difficulty and
Mythic+ on March 24th.
Beyond these dates, we will look to perform more tuning passes based on data gathered during the starting
weeks of Mythic difficulty for Season 1 and the March on Quel'Danas available the week of March 31st. For these two
passes we err on the side of caution with the amount of tuning we do until their respective Mythic end-bosses
die to avoid being overly disruptive to progression. After these key dates we will have several check-in passes
planned roughly a month apart. Once players obtain higher item level and better optimized gear sets, the
throughput of several specs will shift up or down relative to others and we feel it's important to be diligent
in looking at the current state of class balance as time goes on.
Compared to many specs, the changes to Holy Priest in Midnight are not as dramatic. Some of our baseline
defensive abilities have been moved to the class tree, and with the removal of multiple active abilities from the
class tree, there are ample points to pick up all of the throughput talents. Your remaining points can be spent to
enhance your defensive abilities or to choose some utility talents. The Holy tree has seen less change overall, and
is very similar to The War Within, with the notable exception of 
Ultimate Serenity. Additionally, as you
level up there are new hero talents for 
Archon and 
Oracle, and the new Benediction
Apex Talents.
2.3.
Benediction Apex Talent
Leveling up grants you additional talent points you can use to unlock the Benediction Apex Talent, which
provides the following benefits as you put points into it:
- First Point: Benediction causes
Prayer of Mending bounces to periodically transform
your next cast of 
Flash Heal into Benediction, increasing the healing done and triggering a
Cosmic Ripple.
- Second and Third Points: Benediction increases all healing done, and further increases the healing of
Cosmic Ripple.
- Fourth Point: Benediction causes each pulse of
Divine Hymn to trigger Cosmic Ripple.
During 
Apotheosis, Flash Heal is upgraded to Benediction.
How it works: The periodic Benediction procs are triggered by regularly casting
Prayer of Mending. When triggered, Flash Heal is replaced with Benediction for your next
cast, doing increased healing and triggering a Cosmic Ripple. Due to the added healing,
Benediction is a high-value spell to use and should be prioritised as part of your rotation whenever it
triggers.
2.4.
Hero Talent Changes
With 
Halo being removed from the Priest class tree, Archon has seen a bit of a shuffle in its
talent placements, with the first talent in the tree now Halo. Much of the Archon tree remains
the same, with the continued focus on empowering Halo and providing regular buffs to Flash Heal and
Prayer of Healing. Archon continues to play much the same as The War Within, with the exception of
Spiritwell which enables usage of Prayer of Healing to consume 
Surge of Light.
Oracle has seen the most change with the primary focus of the tree in The War Within
Premonition being removed. Replacing this are numerous talents that focus on enhancing
Prayer of Mending. This includes the new Guiding Light for an additional charge of Prayer of Mending
which is a fantastic quality of life improvement to the spec, especially when paired with the other new talent
Prompt Prognosis.
Prompt Prognosis was the Season 3 set bonus from The War Within, granting a sizeable heal
on the target you cast Prayer of Mending on. This talent helps reduce one of the weaknesses of the
Oracle tree, which is its reduced spot-healing.
The other talent of note is 
Piety which carries
over the Piety effect from the old Premonition system. Due to how Holy Priest Mastery 
Mastery: Echo of Light
works, this is a solid improvement to our healing which naturally results in a considerable amount of overhealing.
2.5.
Playstyle Changes
The playstyle of Holy Priest remains very similar in Midnight. There is still a heavy focus on using your Holy
Words 
Holy Word: Serenity and 
Holy Word: Sanctify as much as you can, along with your short cooldown
spells like Prayer of Mending, and for Archon, Halo. Between your short cooldown spells,
you heal your group with Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing, and sometimes 
Holy Nova depending on
the talents you have taken and the style of damage coming in. Our powerful cooldowns Divine Hymn and
Apotheosis have not seen any major changes.
Notable talents that have been removed include Renew, Heal, Lightwell, Shadowfiend, and Symbol of Hope. Some other more
situational spells have also been removed: Power Word: Shield, Power Word: Life, Divine Star, and Divine
Word.
The healing amount and mana costs of most spells have also been rebalanced in an attempt to try and put more focus
on active healing spells and reducing the amount of healing that passive talents contribute to your overall throughput.
This does not have an impact on your playstyle beyond making it feel better when you use direct healing spells like
Prayer of Healing as it comparatively does more healing than passive spells like 
Renew procs.
Ultimate Serenity is a notable new talent, which grants additional power to Holy Word: Serenity and
causes it to heal nearby allies for a portion of the amount it heals your primary target. It also causes
Holy Word: Serenity to gain some benefit from talents that would normally affect Holy Word: Sanctify
such as Prayer of Healing reducing the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity.
The trade-off is that while
talented into Ultimate Serenity you are unable to cast Holy Word: Sanctify. This talent aims to land
somewhere between the functionality of the two Holy Words offering a simpler, single button that performs similar
amounts of healing.
2.6.
Survivability and Utility Changes
There are no major changes to survivability or utility in this patch besides some defensive abilities like
Desperate Prayer and 
Fade being added as talents in the class tree. Some minor changes have been
made to various talents including 
Body and Soul which can also trigger from Prayer of Mending, and
Shackle Horror which now works on Aberrations alongside Undead.
Archon
Oracle
