Holy Priest Healing Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.0.7)
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Holy Priest in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.7).
Holy Priest Mythic+ Guide for The War Within Season 1
In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Priest in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities most optimally.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.
To learn more about the Mythic+ Meta, check out our Mythic+ Tier List below.
Holy Priest in The War Within Mythic+
Holy Priest has several main draws that make it an
attractive spec to play for M+ content in The War Within, with multiple
strong cooldowns in Guardian Spirit and
Apotheosis, reliable
single-target damage, hefty group healing potential, and a straightforward,
reactive playstyle.
Power Infusion can also be a strong boost to your
group's damage if coordinated well with a DPS.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
For a more general overview of Talents for Holy Priest, please visit our dedicated Talents page.
Best Mythic+ Talent Builds for Holy Priest
Best Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
This build is my recommendation for High Mythic+ Pushing. High Mythic+ is defined as any level of Mythic+ that you are actually pushing, where the timer is a relevant concern, and the content is difficult. For one player, this may be Mythic+20, for another, it may be Mythic+12 — I recommend this build if you are doing serious Mythic+, whatever that means for you.
The reason for going Oracle is a combination of personal defense,
damage output and burst healing.
Flexible Talents
There are a few changes to the suggested talent build that you could make to suit your personal preferences. These decisions are around the utility you wish to provide to your group and can be dungeon dependent.
Desperate Measures can be taken over
Prophet's Will to survive larger damage spikes.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best
Archon Mythic+ Talents for Holy Priest in The War Within
Archon represents a more simple, and arguably more fun, playstyle
for Mythic+ than
Oracle. The different talent choices are primarily
to make use of
Halo for both damage and healing. The additional
Surge of Light procs are great for party triage and contributes to even
more
Holy Word: Serenity casts.
Overall, this build provides slightly reduced flexibility with burst damage
and healing, and instead has a more reliable output without the complication of
Oracle's
Premonition.
Flexible Talents
There are a few changes to the suggested talent build that you could make to suit your personal preferences. These decisions are around the utility you wish to provide to your group and can be dungeon dependent.
Shock Pulse can be taken over
Incessant Screams to help control large packs of melee enemies.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Mythic+ Utility for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
This section talks mostly about the uses of different spells. For in-depth explanations of all Holy Priest Abilities and Talents, including these; check out our Spells page.
Utility of Holy Priest in The War Within
Interrupts, Stuns and Stops
Holy Priest has no Interrupt. Instead, you are limited to Stuns and Stops.
Psychic Scream is your "AoE stop". When cast, it will immediately
cause all nearby enemies to be feared and unable to attack back. This fear is
often broken nearly immediately in Mythic+ due to the amount of damage the
enemies receive; however, it still functions to stop enemy casts. The cooldown
can be reduced by talenting into
Psychic Voice. When talented into
Archon's
Incessant Screams, it will be cast a second time
shortly after the first cast, acting as a second AoE stop. It should also be
noted that many enemies are immune to fear, particularly Undead and mini-boss
enemies.
Holy Word: Chastise is your single-target "stop". We recommend using
this in the same way as you would
Psychic Scream, except that it only
affects one enemy.
Shackle Undead can be used to disable a single Undead enemy for
50 seconds. Several dungeons have dangerous Undead enemies, which are good
candidates for Shackle Undead. Damage taken will remove this effect.
Mind Control and
Dominate Mind temporarily control an
enemy, which allows you to move, attack, and cast some of their abilities.
This can be beneficial in some dungeons, as specific enemies have valuable
spells that can buff your party or debuff enemies.
Other Utility
Purify will dispel all magic effects from one party member with
a short cooldown. It will also remove all diseases when talented into
Improved Purify. This ability is used frequently in Mythic+, and
there are multiple important spells throughout the dungeons that it should
be used on to make encounters easier and prevent deaths.
Dispel Magic is an offensive dispel, also known as a "purge".
This removes one magical buff from an enemy.
Mass Dispel acts as both
Purify and
Dispel Magic, but is limited to magical effects on 5 friendly and 5
enemy targets. This is most often used to remove dangerous magical debuffs
from multiple party members but also has some use in purging dangerous
magical buffs from multiple enemies.
Mind Soothe provides a unique buff reducing the distance at which
an enemy will aggro onto you and your allies. This has fairly niche usage
but can be used in some scenarios to avoid having to pull a pack of enemies
and instead walk right past them.
Leap of Faith has a lot of uses, especially when coordinated with
your group. In particular, it can be coordinated with your tank to remove
them from danger and create distance between them and the enemies they're
fighting.
Void Tendrils are an uncommon talent but can be great in some
situations to keep a dangerous enemy in place until your group decide to
engage with it.
Damage Output
As a healer, despite your role focus being to keep everyone alive through
your healing and utility, any spare time you get should be spent on
providing additional damage. Be mindful that only Smite costs very
little Mana; the other spells can start to become taxing on your Mana, so
particularly on some longer tyrannical bosses, you may need to reduce your
damage output a little by sticking to the slightly weaker hitting Smite
casts.
Damage spell priority for 4+ targets:
Divine Word with
Holy Word: Chastise
Divine Star
Holy Fire
Holy Nova
Damage spell priority for 1-3 targets:
Holy Fire
Holy Nova with high stacks of
Rhapsody
Shadow Word: Pain (if the target will survive for the full duration)
Holy Word: Chastise (if you do not need the incapacitate/stun for cc)
Divine Star
Smite
Shadow Word: Death can be cast as extra damage while on the move in
place of
Smite on the priority list; just be mindful that it does
do damage back to you when cast. If the target is below 20% health,
Shadow Word: Death has a similar priority to
Holy Word: Chastise.
For more information about the Holy Priest healing rotation in Mythic+, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.
Dungeon Tips and Tricks for Holy Priest for The War Within Season 1
This section has Holy Priest-specific tips and tricks that may not seem obvious for all dungeons' bosses and mobs.
Dungeon Tips for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
Hero Talents | |
---|---|
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For a quick guide of which talents to use, check the dungeon and affixes in the table below and see the list of suggested utility talents you should make sure you work into your build.
Dungeons | Affixes |
---|---|
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes | ![]() |
City of Threads | ![]() |
The Dawnbreaker | ![]() |
Grim Batol | ![]() |
Mists of Tirna Scithe | |
The Necrotic Wake | |
Siege of Boralus | |
The Stonevault |
Based on the selections above, you should run the following class talents:










Mass Dispel
Avanoxx
Desperate Prayer and
Fade can be used for
Alerting Shrill.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used on
Alerting Shrill.
- If talented into
Divine Hymn, you should begin casting it just before
Alerting Shrill to heal the group with the last tick or two, and stack Divine Hymn's healing buff.
- Killing the adds quickly is important; When the group's health is at a safe level you should use
Holy Word: Chastise and multiple
Holy Fire on them.
Anub'zekt
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used if you are targeted with
Infestation.
- If the current target of
Infestation doesn't have a defensive available, you should either cast
Guardian Spirit on them, cast
Apotheosis, or use your current charges of
Premonition to help heal them up safely.
Ki'katal the Harvester
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Venom Volley or
Cosmic Singularity.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be rotated for each
Venom Volley.
- If talented into
Divine Hymn, you should begin casting it just before
Venom Volley or
Cosmic Singularity to heal the group with the last tick or two, and stack Divine Hymn's healing buff.
Psychic Scream will be up each time you need to break the root after Cosmic Singularity. If for some reason it is not,
Holy Word: Chastise on your add will also work.
Trash
- No specific tips.
Orator Krix'vizk
- While you can
Mass Dispel the
Shadows of Doubt, which comes out two at a time, it can be tricky to dodge. Instead, it may be smarter to make sure one person is dispelled, and the other is healed until their debuff expires naturally.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used if you get
Shadows of Doubt.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available each time
Shadows of Doubt lines up with
Vociferous Indoctrination.
Nx and Vx
Mass Dispel can be used on
Ice Sickles.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Ice Sickles.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available for
Ice Sickles and the stack for
Freezing Blood.
The Coaglamation
Desperate Prayer and
Fade can be used for the
Dark Pulse knock-back. If talented,
Divine Hymn can also be used right before the knock-back for a healing buff for a quick top-up of the group afterwards.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to help heal off the absorbs from people soaking orbs.
Izo, the Grand Splicer
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Splice.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to help heal through
Splice.
Trash
- No specific tips.
Speaker Shadowcrown
Fade should be used if you get
Collapsing Night, try to also be on the move as it's being cast to reduce your damage taken.
- Once you dispel the
Burning Shadows target, a healing absorb will appear on your entire group.
Desperate Prayer should be used to help heal off the
Shadow Shroud absorb shield on yourself.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal
Shadow Shroud.
Anub'ikkaj
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Shadowy Decay.
- When you get an overlap where a
Dark Orb is about to explode around the same time as
Shadowy Decay, it is an ideal time to use
Guardian Spirit on someone and use any remaining defensives you have.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Shadowy Decay.
Rasha'nan
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Erosive Spray.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Erosive Spray.
- If talented, you can use
Leap of Faith in phase 2 to help allies dropping webs get back into position quickly.
Trash
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
General Umbriss
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Commanding Roar.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Commanding Roar, aiming to have your party healed before the next set of debuffs comes out.
- If talented, you can use
Leap of Faith in to help allies get into position quickly.
Forgemaster Throngus
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used when targeted by
Molten Spark.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade can also be used for the Forge Weapon abilities which deal group-wide damage.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Forge Weapon casts, or any allies getting low from
Molten Spark.
Drahga Shadowburner
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for the
Twilight Buffet knockback.
- Avoid using
Holy Word: Chastise or
Psychic Scream on the adds that spawn, as it can cause them to change targets and focus a closer ally.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the
Twilight Buffet knockback.
Erudax
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for either
Void Surge or
Abyssal Corruption, depending on what other healing cooldowns your group is using.
Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Void Surge or
Abyssal Corruption.
Divine Hymn can be used before the
Void Surge to get the healing buff up, making it easier to keep everyone alive during the Surge.
Symbol of Hope should be used midway through the encounter to allow allies to use their defensive abilities multiple times.
Trash
- Encouraging your group to line of sight the knockback from the Twilight Destroyer dragons dramatically reduces the damage your group takes from these pulls.
- The Twilight Lavabenders will Ascend after hitting 50% health and start doing pulsing AoE damage. Having the group either use their
personal defensives along with your
Desperate Prayer here is great, then you can
Symbol of Hope shortly after they die.
Ingra Maloch
- Provided your group are interrupting the boss properly, there is not a lot of damage to heal unless you stay in Phase 1 for too long.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used either if an interrupt on you is missed, or to help smooth out the damage in a long Phase 1.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Phase 1 lasting too long causing pulsing group-wide damage.
Mistcaller
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used during the Guessing Game phase.
Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the Guessing Game phase.
- The Illusionary Vulpin can be controlled with either
Holy Word: Chastise or
Psychic Scream if needed.
Tred'ova
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used during
Consumption.
Fade is also great at stopping the adds from hitting you prior to the tank picking them up.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Consumption.
- You should run to the boss if you are fixated by the Larvae, so they can be controlled and killed by the group.
- Try to avoid being near the tank prior to
Mind Link being cast to prevent additional damage from the link.
- Be mindful of how you drop your pools - the pattern of future
Acid Expulsions will copy the way you moved the Acid Expulsion prior. Don't run far away when the puddles drop, keep it neat!
Trash
- The Drust Soulcleavers will cast
Soul Split on the tank which is extremely deadly and should be dispelled immediately. In pulls with two Soul Cleavers you can either
Mass Dispel the second debuff, or wait until the second Soul Split goes out before dispelling.
- You should
Mass Dispel or
Dispel Magic off the Dying Breath debuff from the Drust Spiteclaws at the beginning of the dungeon.
- You can
Mind Soothe the Drust Harvesters right before the room with the Savory Statshrooms, to access the mushrooms without getting into combat with the Drust.
- When fighting both Drust Boughbreakers right before Ingra Maloch, your group should ideally push each one below 50% seperately, allowing you
to safely heal the group up between their
Furious Thrashing casts. This is the perfect time for any available group-healing cooldowns as the early phase of the upcoming boss does not deal a lot of damage.
Symbol of Hope after this pack can also be used to ensure everyone has defensive abilities available for the boss.
- During the maze, Mistveil Stingers can put a debuff on players call
Anima Injection which must be dispelled off before it expires.
- To assist you in guiding your group through the maze, this Weakaura may make your life a bit easier.
Blightbone
Desperate Prayer and
Fade together should be used when
Heaving Retch is targeting you.
Guardian Spirit can also be used on yourself or an ally if no defensive abilities are available. This ability really hurts.
Premonition of Solace can also be used on
Heaving Retch targets.
- After
Heaving Retch hits a target, you should dispel it from them.
- The adds that spawn can be controlled with either
Holy Word: Chastise or
Psychic Scream if needed.
Amarth
Shackle Undead is great on the Reanimated Mage, to both stop it from casting and making it be considered "dead" for the
Final Harvest boss ability.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Final Harvest.
- Stay close to the boss to help dodge it's Necrotic Breath ability easily.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Final Harvest.
Surgeon Stitchflesh
Power Infusion should be aligned with DPS cooldowns at the start of phase 2 when Stitchflesh is pulled from his perch and enters the fight.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used when an Abomination is alive for too long as their ticking damage ramps up.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the second or third Abomination as their ticking buff ramps up.
Nalthor the Rimebinder
- You should aim to dispel
Frozen Binds as quickly as it is safe to do so. Be mindful that when dispelled, anyone that has not yet moved out of the Frozen Binds circle, will then be afflicted with Frozen Binds themselves, so it is important to wait until everyone is clear.
- Advanced: When timed correctly, you can use
Leap of Faith on the target of
Dark Exile to keep them on the platform to DPS the boss instead of doing the minigame. They will die at the end of the 50 second timer, but if it is towards the end of the boss it can be worth it to keep them on the platform. It is difficult to time, but that can be assisted by this Weakaura.
Trash
- Zolramus Gatekeeper in the first courtyard will cast Wrath of Zolramus, dealing intense party-wide damage for a short period.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used here.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from Wrath of Zolramus as well.
- The Zolramus Gatekeeper will also cast
Clinging Darkness, which does ramping damage to the target for 30 seconds. Once dispelled it will move to another target until that 30 seconds is over. Feel free to dispel once the damage ramps up enough to be noticeable on a target.
- Nar'zudah casts a buff on himself called
Dark Shroud, which should be purged from him using
Dispel Magic.
- Once your team has pulled the Skeletal Monstrosity right before the boss Amarth, you can run up the stairs to the boss platform to start the dialogue that has to happen before the boss can be targetable, to save time.
Chopper Redhook
- Use
Angelic Feather and
Body and Soul to keep yourself a healthy distance from Chopper Redhook during his fixate, while kiting him towards bombs.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Iron Hook.
Fade can also be great to avoid pulling threat on newly spawned adds, giving the tank more time to pick them up.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Iron Hook.
Dread Captain Lockwood
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Fiery Ricochet.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Fiery Ricochet.
Hadal Darkfathom
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Break Water.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Break Water.
Hadal Darkfathom
-
This boss puts out two debuffs
Putrid Waters at a time on separate party members. They cause significant damage to their target, and when dispelled, will deal extra damage and knock back any other allies inside their circle. You have multiple options to dispel this off people:
- Use
Mass Dispel if both targets are close enough together.
- Use
Premonition of Insight to cast
Purify twice in a row.
- Immediately dispel the weakest party member first with
Purify, then heal the other one until
Purify is back off cooldown.
- Use
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the Demolisher Tentacle Slam.
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Putrid Waters spawns on you and overlaps with a Slam cast.
Trash
- You can line of sight the Crushing Slam from the Bilge Rat Demolishers, eliminating a lot of outgoing damage.
E.D.N.A
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used for
Refracting Beam and
Earth Shatterer. Earth Shatterer does more damage depending on how many spikes are out, and may warrant a
Guardian Spirit as an extra defensive.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Earth Shatterer.
Skarmorak
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should be used if the DPS accidentally kill two adds at once giving the group multiple stacks. Otherwise, using them during the shield phase to ease the pressure if the group is taking a lot of damage can be very useful.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from the shield phase.
Master Machinists Speaker Dorlita and Speaker Brokk
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should for
Exhaust Vents and
Blazing Crescendo.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Exhaust Vents and
Blazing Crescendo.
- If you can make it to the safe vent quickly, this is a good time to use
Divine Hymn so you can have the healing buff for the
Blazing Crescendo that is coming up quickly.
Void Speaker Eirich
Desperate Prayer and
Fade should for mitigating some of the damage from
Void Corruption if you are unable to quickly clear it.
Apotheosis and your current charges of
Premonition should be used as available to heal the damage from
Void Corruption if you get behind on group healing.
- You can pre-position yourself near a portal before
Void Corruption goes out to immediately clear your own.
- Be mindful of where the portals are, as DPS can easily outrange you when trying to clear their own
Void Corruption. Staying near the boss also helps avoid the Frontal as an added bonus.
Trash
- You can line of sight the Crushing Slam from the Bilge Rat Demolishers, eliminating a lot of outgoing damage.
Affix Tips, Tricks and Management for Holy Priest in The War Within Season 1
This section has Holy Priest-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.
Affix Guide for Holy Priest in The War Within
Ascendant Affix Management for Holy Priest
Periodically, orbs of cosmic energy will spawn near your group. As a Holy Priest, you can use the following spells to get rid of these orbs:
Psychic Scream - Your best option where possible.
Mass Dispel - Capped at 5 targets.
Holy Word: Chastise - Usually best to save this for something else.
Dispel Magic - As a last resort.
Voidbound Affix Management for Holy Priest
When the Voidbound affix spawns, you can assist be changing this to your primary DPS target in-between healing your group.
Oblivion Affix Management for Holy Priest
Be sure to pay attention to these orbs and intercept them before they reach mobs. Everyone in the group can soak the orbs, so leave the ones closer to other players for them to soak, rather than exhaust our rather limited movement enhancing abilities. It is completely reasonable during periods of high healing to ask your group to soak them without you, as a lot of your healing spells require you to stand still.
Devour Affix Management for Holy Priest
When Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour is present that week, you should always be prepared to use
Mass Dispel or
Purify to
dispel
Void Rift as often as you can on your party. You can also remove this with racials such as
Stoneform. If you are running
Oracle, you can also use
Premonition of Insight then
Purify multiple targets in a row. If any debuffs aren't dispelled
by your or your party members, focus first on clearing the squishiest targets first, and the tank last. You can also use
Desperate Prayer
to help clear your own debuff if needed.
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5 and added more tips.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 29 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6.
- 17 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 08 May 2023: Improved talent suggestions ready for Season 2.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 with new affixes and talent changes.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
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This guide has been written by Niphyr, a generally knowledgeable, long-time healing Priest and theorycrafter. You can follow him on Twitter.
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