Holy Priest Guide for The War Within - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on Jun 19, 2024 at 21:10by Niphyr45 comments

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Holy Priest.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theHoly Priest spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the stateof the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regularchanges expected as updates hit the War Within Beta. This is not meant to bea launch guide for Holy Priest, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Holy Priest has received only a few minor core changes toits baseline kit and Talents in The War Within thus far. Blizzard has alluded tothere possibly being changes in the future, which could dramatically alter thecontents of this page, so check back!

• Priest tree talent layout has been slightly altered.
• Divine Hymn healing increased by 400%.
• Divine Hymn now does reduced healing beyond 5 targets.
• Power Word: Life healing increased by 15%.
• Phantom Reach is a new talent increasing the range of most spells by 15%.
• Cauterizing Shadows heals a nearby ally for a small amount when Shadow Word: Pain expires.
• Mindgames is now a pvp talent and the Shattered Perceptions talent has been removed.

The Divine Hymn changes are aimed at increasing the potency of DivineHymn in smaller groups, while aiming to be roughly the same strength as inDragonflight for groups of around 20 players.

While there are only minor changes for Holy Priest's core features,The War Within still has major implications for all specs thanks to the HeroTalent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondarystats when entering a new expansion.

Holy Priest gets to choose between the Archonand Oracle Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk moredeeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and somethoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.

The Archon Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on interactions of Halo and Surge of Light.

Gameplay-wise, expect a mostly passive kit that occasionally gives youadditional Surge of Light procs, additional casts of Halo, andincreased healing through interactions with Power Infusion, Holy Word: Salvation & Apotheosis.

Power-wise, expect a solid all-rounder that amplifies our existing kit morethan applying new stuff on top of it. Casting Halo regularly is key tomaking the most of the tree, so knowing damage patterns will help ensure thoseextra Halo casts are providing as much benefit as possible.

Defensively, there isn't much added from Archon. There is some nice potentialMythic+ utility from Incessant Screams which provides another AoEstop.

The Oracle Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on its core ability, Premonition, and the buffs it grants which augment your abilities for ashort time after being used.

Gameplay-wise, Premonition has a relatively short cooldown and when fully talented will grant 3 buffs:

• Premonition of Insight - Reducing the cooldown of your next 3 castsby a small amount.
• Premonition of Piety - For a short period of time increases healingdone and distributes some of your overheal to nearby allies.
• Premonition of Solace - The next single target healing spell alsoplaces a large absorb on that ally, along with decreasing the damage they takeby a small amount for a short time.

Power-wise, the Oracle tree encourages you to put more thought into thespells you cast after using Premonition. Ensuring you use the buffseffectively are a large part of the value from this Hero tree.

Defensively, however, Oracle is a strong choice with buffs to Desperate Prayer, Angelic Bulwark, Guardian Spirit andsingle target self-healing.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Holy Priest in The WarWithin. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentarythat is italicized.

• Priest Holy 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Serendipity is 10% moreeffective. In other words, abilities which reduce the cooldown of Holy Words,reduce it by a little bit more.
• Priest Holy 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Heal, Flash Heal, and Prayer of Healing have a 50% chance to cast again at 35% effectiveness.This behaves as it sounds, sometimes mirroring your cast but for a reduced amount.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have anysignificant gameplay impact.

The 2pc bonus behaves in a similar manner to the Light of the Naarutalent, passively providing more Holy Words throughout an encounter. The 4pcbonus provides fairly regular additional healing to the targets of your fillerspells.