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Holy Priest Guide for WoW Forever

Heal as a Holy Priest in WoW Forever: Prayer of Mending, Binding Heal and Litany of Light, with a level 30 dungeon build and a level 60 raid build.

PriestHolyHealerPvEDungeonsRaids

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Holy is the Priest's throughput healer. Where Discipline prevents damage, Holy puts out raw healing: faster Heals and Greater Heals from Divine Fury, a stronger Renew from Improved Renew, and +10% healing from Spiritual Healing. Forever adds three tools that change how the spec plays. Prayer of Mending bounces a heal through your raid on a 10-second cooldown, Binding Heal heals your target and you in one 1.5-second cast, and Litany of Light refunds mana every time you switch heals.

Spirit is Holy's stat. Spiritual Guidance turns 25% of your Spirit into healing power, and Meditation from Discipline turns it into mana while you cast. At level 30 you run a pure Holy build with Holy Nova and Binding Heal for dungeons. At 60 you go 32 points deep for Prayer of Mending and spend 19 in Discipline for Meditation and Inner Focus.

You level as Shadow and switch to Holy for dungeons, or run the level 30 build if you heal groups from the start.

Strengths

  • High healing output: Divine Fury, Spiritual Healing and Spiritual Guidance all raise every heal.
  • Prayer of Mending heals up to five times across the raid from one instant cast.
  • Area healing: Prayer of Healing from 30, Holy Nova while leveling, and Lightwell from 40.
  • Binding Heal keeps you alive while you heal someone else.
  • Litany of Light rewards you for mixing heals instead of spamming one.
  • Spirit of Redemption gives you 15 seconds of free healing after you die.

Weaknesses

  • Fewer mana talents than Discipline. You live on Spirit, Meditation and Litany of Light.
  • Your big heals are slow casts. Pushback hurts until you learn to shield yourself.
  • No Penance, Divine Aegis or Soul Warding. Your shield keeps its 4-second cooldown.
  • Holy Nova damages every enemy within 10 yards, and damage breaks crowd control.
  • Low damage. Your talents are all healing, so soloing in Holy is slow: level as Shadow.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Prayer of Mending (tier 7): places a heal on the target that triggers the next time they take damage or receive a non-periodic heal, then jumps to a party or raid member within 20 yards. It jumps up to 5 times, lasts 30 seconds after each jump, and has a 10-second cooldown. Trainers teach new ranks at 50 and 60.
  • Binding Heal (tier 4): heals a friendly target and you, with low threat, in a 1.5-second cast. Trainers teach new ranks from 32 to 56.
  • Litany of Light (new, 2 ranks): each heal refunds 10% of its base mana cost if your previous heal was a different spell.
  • Spirit of Redemption lasts 15 seconds, up from 10, and every heal is free while it lasts.
  • Spiritual Guidance adds up to 25% of your Spirit as healing and 8% as spell damage.
  • Spiritual Healing is +10% healing at 3/3, Divine Fury cuts 0.5 seconds off Heal and Greater Heal, and Improved Healing also discounts Penance and Prayer of Mending.
  • Twilight Focus gives a 70% chance to avoid interruption from damage on any spell.
  • Blessed Recovery also triggers when one hit takes more than 30% of your health, and heals 25% of it.
  • Inspiration raises armor by 25% after a non-periodic critical heal.
  • Renew can crit. Lightwell is a trained spell at 40, and Divine Spirit and Fear Ward are baseline for every Priest.
  • Prayer of Healing heals the target and that target's party, so you can heal any group in the raid.

Talents

The dungeon healing build for the levels 20–30 dungeons. All 21 points go into Holy: faster heals, more crits, Binding Heal at 25 and Holy Nova for the pulls where the whole party takes damage.

Split 0/21/0 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Discipline

0 points

Holy

21 points

Shadow

0 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–12: 3/3 Improved Renew. Renew heals 15% more. Renew is your first heal over time and your best mana-per-heal spell.
  2. Levels 13–14: 2/5 Holy Specialization. +2% crit chance for Holy spells, and every heal is Holy.
  3. Levels 15–19: 5/5 Divine Fury. Heal and Greater Heal cast 0.5 seconds faster. Heal arrives at 16, and Divine Fury is 5/5 by 19.
  4. Levels 20–22: 5/5 Holy Specialization. +5% crit chance for Holy spells.
  5. Levels 23–24: 2/3 Inspiration. Non-periodic critical heals raise the target's armor by 17% for 15 seconds. Every tank crit you land makes the next hits smaller.
  6. Level 25: 1/1 Binding Heal. Heals your target and you in one 1.5-second cast. When the tank and you both take damage, it's two heals for one.
  7. Levels 26–28: 3/3 Improved Healing. 15% cheaper Lesser Heal, Heal and Greater Heal.
  8. Level 29: 1/1 Holy Nova. Heals every party member within 10 yards and damages every enemy within 10 yards, with no threat. Your answer to a pull where everyone gets hit.
  9. Level 30: 1/2 Litany of Light. Switching heals refunds 5% of the new heal's base cost.

Flexible points

  • Your group lets you drink after every pull? Take 1/5 Spiritual Guidance at 30 instead of Litany of Light.
  • Your group crowd-controls every pull with Sap, Polymorph or Shackle? Holy Nova's damage breaks all of them, so take 1/5 Spell Warding for 2% less spell damage instead of Holy Nova.

Races

Best races

Holy turns cast time into healing, and it runs out of mana on long fights. The Holy picks are the races that make big heals bigger, faster or cheaper, which is why they differ from Shadow's damage races and Discipline's Weakened Soul and mana picks.

Alliance: Gnome. Gnome Priests are new in Forever. Eureka! makes your next three heals cost 10% less and heal 10% more every 2 minutes: put it on three Prayers of Healing when the raid takes a big hit. Expansive Mind adds 5% maximum mana, and Contingency Plan wards an ally for 30 seconds so that dropping below 35% health gives them a shield and a heal over 15 seconds.

Alliance, runner-up: Human. The Human Spirit gives you 5% more Spirit, and Spiritual Guidance and Meditation turn that Spirit into healing and mana. Divine Grace instantly heals a friendly target under 50% health, on a 10-minute cooldown.

Horde: Troll. Berserking gives 10% casting speed for 10 seconds every 3 minutes, so you cast more Prayers of Healing in the window that matters. Rapid Regeneration restores half your health over 6 seconds if nothing interrupts it.

Horde, runner-up: Undead. Will of the Forsaken removes Fear, Charm and Sleep, and Dark Sacrifice trades health for mana every 10 minutes.

All playable races

Rotation

Before the pull

During the pull

  1. Keep Renew on the tank.
  2. Heal for steady tank damage from 22, Heal before that. Divine Fury makes it a 2.5-second cast.
  3. Flash Heal when the tank drops fast.
  4. Binding Heal when you and the tank both need healing.
  5. Holy Nova when three or more party members within 10 yards are hurt. It hits every enemy around you too, so don't use it next to a crowd-controlled mob.
  6. Power Word: Shield on whoever pulls threat, and on yourself when a mob reaches you.

Mana

  • Mix your heals. Litany of Light refunds mana every time you switch spells: Heal, Renew, Heal, Flash Heal earns a refund on the last three casts, and four Heals in a row earn none.
  • Save Prayer of Healing from 30 for real party-wide damage. It costs a lot of mana.
  • Drink between pulls and tell the tank when you do.

Dungeons for this build

The Deadmines (17–26), Wailing Caverns (17–24) and Shadowfang Keep (22–30) still need a healer in your early 20s. Holy Nova arrives at 29 in this build, so learn those runs on Renew, Heal and Flash Heal first.

Stat priority

Dungeon healing

  1. Intellect
  2. Spirit
  3. Healing Power
  4. Stamina

At level 30 your mana pool decides how many pulls you heal before drinking. Intellect grows it and adds crit. Spirit refills it between pulls. Healing Power adds to every heal, and healing gear also grants spell damage at one third of its healing value, so it helps while you quest.

Gear

What to wear

Cloth with Intellect, Spirit and Healing Power. Dungeon drops and quest rewards beat vendor gear at every level. A staff or a one-hand mace with an off-hand both work: take the one with more healing.

  • Intellect first. At 30 your mana pool decides how many pulls you heal. Intellect also adds crit, and crits feed Inspiration on the tank.
  • Spirit second. It refills your mana between pulls, and in the level 60 build, Spiritual Guidance turns it into healing too.
  • Healing Power third. Every point adds to every heal. Healing gear also adds spell damage at a third of its healing value, so it helps when you quest as Shadow.
  • Keep two sets if you quest as Shadow and heal as Holy. Spirit and Intellect pieces serve both.

Keep Inner Fire on yourself. Its armor soaks the hits you take when a mob gets past the tank.

Wands

You still quest between dungeons, so keep a good wand. Enchanters craft Greater Magic Wand at 13, Lesser Mystic Wand at 26 and Greater Mystic Wand at 30.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting is the Priest pair. Tailoring makes your cloth and bags from 1 to 60 and the Truefaith Vestments at the end. Enchanting disenchants what you outgrow, makes your leveling wands and enchants your own healing gear.

Raid healers spend gold on mana consumables every week. Herbalism and Alchemy pays for them: you pick the herbs and brew your own potions and flasks.

Group play and dungeons

Your job is to keep the tank alive, top up the rest of the group, and never be the reason a pull wipes.

  • Heal the tank first, then whoever took splash damage. Renew on the tank buys you time for every other decision.
  • Holy Nova causes no threat, but it damages every enemy within 10 yards. Damage breaks Sap, Polymorph, Shackle and Fear, so never Nova next to a crowd-controlled mob.
  • Crowd control of your own: Shackle Undead holds an Undead mob for up to 50 seconds, and Psychic Scream scatters up to five mobs when a pull goes wrong.
  • Fear Ward is baseline now. Put it on the tank before every boss that fears.
  • Dispel. Use Dispel Magic for Magic effects and Abolish Disease for diseases. Call out which debuffs you cover.
  • Buffs: Fortitude and Divine Spirit last 1 hour. Shadow Protection lasts 10 minutes and Prayer of Shadow Protection 20, so cast them before Shadow damage fights.

Forever's first raids, Barrow Deeps (10 players) and Hyjal Summit (20 players), open on December 9, 2026. Prayer of Mending gets better the more players take damage near each other, so it shines in both.

Tips

Prayer of Mending first

Cast Prayer of Mending on cooldown, before your other heals. Its heal triggers on the next hit or direct heal the target takes, so a Mending on the tank never sits idle: if nothing hits them first, your next Greater Heal sets it off and sends it on to the next player.

Holy Nova breaks crowd control

Holy Nova damages every enemy within 10 yards. Keep it away from sheeped, sapped and shackled mobs.

Alternate heals for Litany of Light. Two different heals in a row refund mana; the same heal twice doesn't.

Renew crits now. Improved Renew and Twin Disciplines both apply, so Renew on the tank is always worth the global.

Binding Heal is your self-heal. It heals you and your target in one cast, so you rarely spend a global on yourself alone.

Lightwell is baseline. Every Priest trains it at 40. Drop it before a long fight and tell your raid where it is.

Macros

Mouseover Prayer of Mending, for healing from raid frames.

Mouseover Mending
#showtooltip Prayer of Mending
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Prayer of Mending

Mouseover Renew.

Mouseover Renew
#showtooltip Renew
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Renew

Inner Focus into Prayer of Healing in one press, on the mouseover's group.

Inner Focus Prayer
#showtooltip Prayer of Healing
/cast Inner Focus
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Prayer of Healing

Binding Heal on your mouseover target.

Mouseover Binding Heal
#showtooltip Binding Heal
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Binding Heal

Fear Ward on your focus target, usually the tank.

Focus Fear Ward
#showtooltip Fear Ward
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][] Fear Ward

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30 Dungeon Healing and Level 60 Raid Healing builds.

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