Holy Priest Healing Rotation

[Hankhill69]

What's the best healing rotation for a holy priest?

[NewfieDave]

Roll a Blood Elf and jump a lot while you throw Renews all over the place. You'll rotate so much that you'll feel like you're turning 360 degrees and walking away from an xbox.

Healers don't have "rotations." You have a toolbox of spells that work well at performing different jobs. Learn when and how to use them all. Your "rotation" will sometimes vary greatly from fight to fight.

[KnThrak]

NewfieDavy, that's probably the best explanation for healer rotations I read so far

[Maxmemi]

Only "real" rotation you can have, is your PoM and CoH going on and of cooldown.
Other than that, it is whatever fits in to the current situation

[Jalista]

My main is a holy priest, and I find that the best healing solution is to be reactive, with a few exceptions. If the tank(s) warn you ahead of time that they'll need big heals, start flash healing until Serindipity is at 3 stacks, and toss out a greater heal. If you're in a raid and DBM warns you of something (again depends on what it is) such as decimate, it's best the have a PoM already out, and a PoH half-way done casting as decimate goes off. Other then that, renew / PW:S people as they catch aggro, flash heal tanks, CoH raid... = win priest!

[Fetzie]

heavy, constant AoE: something along the lines of PoH, PoM, CoH, BH, PoH, PoH, CoH, BH (binding heal is a flash heal on yourself and the target). this drains mana like nothing else (but my god is is fun when you push the druids and shamans into overheal :P)
tank: something like PoM, PW:S, renew, flash flash flash, GH
any other scenario: I ad lib it.

basically you don't have a rotation, because the situation changes all the time. you also don't say "my PoM always goes on the tank" because, well, sometimes it is better off elsewhere, like on yourself or on another healer, or a dps. Do you CoH first or fire up the serendipitied PoH? do you use a renew to top someone up who just stood in the fire and got out or do you flash them up because there is a big AoE coming (think koralon burning breath)? Healing is the most responsive gameplay you can have, after a while you can pretty much run on autopilot, but you cannot simply "do your rotation" like a mage or a rogue does. your job changes as the fight progresses, as people make mistakes or if an other healer dies and you need to pick up their job while they get CR'd.

[NewfieDave]

My main is a holy priest, and I find that the best healing solution is to be reactive, with a few exceptions.

I see a lot of debate over whether it is best to have a reactive or proactive healing style. I think it's a combination of both that yields the best results. A large part of healing is being able to react to the current state of the raid - for example, identifying who is in the most danger and responding with the appropriate answer from your healing toolbox. Fast reflexes and being able to think quickly between global cooldowns can get you far as a healer.

Being reactive becomes a liability when your reflexes fail to act fast enough, or you misjudge the current situation because there are too many things happening at once to make a clear judgment on where healing is most needed. You can help alleviate both of those problems by being proactive. Always watch your boss mod timers with the corner of your eye to be constantly aware of upcoming damage, and plan ahead for when it happens. Use HoTs, Shields, and cooldowns to prepare for large amounts of incoming damage before it happens. Time your big heals to go off right after a high damage, timed event (for example, timing PoH to go off right after Decimate). Recognize when you can afford to agressively overheal without going OOM (and likewise recognize when you can slack off on heals to conserve mana without endangering the raid).

If you can pair good reflexes with a high level of awareness, you will make an excellent healer.

[TheScientist]

I used to be a disc priest (offspec, main is shadow) and those have quite the proactive style of healing with spamming Shields. On the other hand, they also have Penance, one of the faster big heals, so it's not all proactive. Their main power comes from shielding before their target will take damage.
I respecced to Holy just to try it out and while the style is more reactive it's not just only reactive. As others have said. If you know that big damage is coming, you should have already put Prayer of Mending on that target. Probably a Renew as well and if you're really worried about incoming damage, maybe a shield too. Starting to cast your raid heal spells so that they will go off right after the damage has been taken is also proactive style.
Healers that can predict damage and act on it will automatically be better healers.
Knowing the fight and looking at boss timers is crucial to doing this.

[KnThrak]

I see a lot of debate over whether it is best to have a reactive or proactive healing style. I think it's a combination of both that yields the best results. A large part of healing is being able to react to the current state of the raid - for example, identifying who is in the most danger and responding with the appropriate answer from your healing toolbox. Fast reflexes and being able to think quickly between global cooldowns can get you far as a healer.

I seem to be in the reactive camp of things, even on hard mode fights. :x

Or rather, I try to find the heal-output I need to keep my specific targets up, and then judge from there whether I can do that with my 1,1s casting 16k noncrit Healing Waves. If not, I will probably mix in some LHW-spam as pro-active healing, or just space HWs out to not run myself out of mana too fast. Most fights I can actual heal reactively, however.

Now ofc, Priest-healing is different. But I think there's a lot of spells who shine more if you got time to see their targets first, before targetting them (PoM, Binding Heal, Greater Heal). Also don't forget one of the strongest uses of Holy Priest "Healing": Body&Soul Power Word: Sprint. If you can manage to 'see' the right moment to use it, it becomes nearly fightbreaking in many encounters.

As a simple example I had last week, you can do more good giving someone who ran away too late from Marrowgar's Bone Storm (heroic) Power Word: Sprint, than to heal them through the extra damage they're taking.

[Oddly]

I agree largely with NewfieDave.

There isn't really a classic action-bar/spell rotation for healing Priests like there is for many of the other caster classes, and perhaps melee classes as well. Nonetheless, in certain circumstances a loosely-scripted rotation or set of priorities may be appropriate. And, like many other things in the game, the way you heal will change not only as you level from 1 to 80, but then as you progress as a level 80 through higher level content with higher level gear.

For instance, in Part 1 of her guide for the pre-226 (average gear item level) level 80 Holy Priest, Poptisse (of Ensidia, one of the handful of consistently best guilds in the world) cited this as a pretty good Holy Priest quick raid-healing rotation:

CoH --> PoM --> Flash Heal preferably on Surge of Light proc (at least 1 stack of Serendipity is nice) --> PoH

And for the post-226 (post-245) level 80 Holy Priest, most of what I have read suggests this as the predominant underlying raid-healing theme:

• PoM on every cooldown (or at least always up)
• CoH on every cooldown
• Fill with some combination of FH/BH or Renew (lots of divergent opinions on this point!)
• PoH when necessary, GH rarely if at all

At the Top of Your Game

[Abloodpriest]

*Strictly PvP*- lvl 85s (in Big PvP Groups)

Instant Cast Wonder!
I mainly focus on instant cast spells! Why? Because it allows room for the healer to RUN! Not run from the battle, but to keep moving! I run throughout a crowd (of Teammates) so that its harder to target me (the Healer) and if I’m being attacked by a Melee it becomes Extremely Difficult as their Target keeps fleeing!

Buffs:
[Chakra: Serenity] Helps with Direct heals and gives you [Holy Word: Serenity]
[Power Word: Fortitude]- +Stamina
[Fear Ward]- keep up on EVERY cool down (3 mins)
[Shadow Protection]- +Shadow Damage Resistance
[Inner Will]- Reduces Instant Cast’s Mana consumption

Strategy and What to Cast when:
[Holy Word: Serenity]- This spell is easy for it has a low Mana Consumption, Heals well, and Increases healing received on the Target by 25% for 6 secs!
[Circle of Healing]- Instantly Heals 5 teammates near you prioritizing the ones most hurt!
[Renew]- Heals over time, but is slow and heals Very small amounts.
[Prayer of Mending]- When the target takes Damage they will be instantly be healed and the Spell will then bounce to another player for the same awesome affect!

Now even though you’re moving its OKAY to STOP and Cast a spell that needs you to stand still.
Choose whatever spell you have at your disposal for the appropriate situation.
Remember because you are in [Chakra: Serenity] that the buff makes all your Direct Healing Spells have a +10% chance to critical heal and if that Target already has [Renew] you Direct Healing Spell will automatically Refresh that [Renew] Spell!
Remember to get up and Move after you cast so that you’re hard to kill! ;D

What to do when attacked:
There are MANY different ways to get back on your feet.
If your still running around and a Melee has found you-
[Power Word: Shield] Yourself and RUN. [Body and Soul] Increases your Movement speed for you to get away and heals you for a little bit.
[Lightwell] Yes, cast it and use yourself. Running within distance so that you can click it when needed.
---Over the years I’ve learned that no one uses [Lightwell] for the RIGHT Reason besides the Healer. So don’t waste it on them, but heal yourself so you can heal your teammates!!
[Psychic Scream] That Melee away!!
[Desperate Prayer] just to heal yourself…
BUT REMEMBER NO MATTER WHAT NEVER STAY WHERE YOU ARE TAKING DAMAGE! You need to heal others so get away so that the enemy gives up and selects another Target… (That you will heal!!)

Stop and Cast [Divine Hymn] on Cool Downs!!
When Out of mana Cast your [Shadowfiend] on an enemy to help kill them and sap mana from even a Target without Mana! Also cast [Hymn of Hope] For mana and for Teammates around you!