Updated for Patch 4.3

 
 
 
 
     

Tank Healing
Raid Healing

Note: Some aspects of this guide may not apply to your character until higher level. If are interested in getting your character to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide.

Glyphs come in three varieties, Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs enhance core aspects of your class and generally provide the greatest benefit of the three types.

Major Glyphs, while not quite as powerful as Prime Glyphs, are still useful and continue to provide a myriad of benefits.

Minor Glyphs often times provide small quality of life improvements or visual changes, such as the Glyph of Shadow Form for priests which makes the character more visible through Shadow Form. However, a few are known to provide more significant benefits such as the warrior glyph of Berserker Rage.

Prime Glyphs:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Major Glyphs:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

          

Healing is about situational priority as opposed to a rotation. Maximize your effectiveness by anticipating necessary healing and reacting quickly to situations with the proper healing spells to keep players alive while also considering mana efficiency so as to remain effective throughout the encounter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Power Word: Shield should be used to mitigate damage, often times in advance of any damage being taken. Flash Heal should only be used in an emergency as it is very mana inefficient. Penance is a very valuable and powerful heal for such situations as well.

Smite and Holy Fire can be used for general Group Healing if you’ve taken Atonement, but don’t expect it to handle heavy boss damage, and be prepared to instantly switch to more active healing/mitigation in these situations.

Power Word: Barrier can be used in single target situations to mitigate damage, especially if you’ve already used Pain Suppression.

3.1 – AoE Rotation

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When healing groups you’ll be utilizing Prayer of Healing combined with Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending to manage damage. Power Word: Barrier is also useful for periods of heavy AoE damage, and Divine Hymn is a valuable group healing power.

3.2 – Cooldowns

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As a healer your number one priority is keeping people alive throughout all phases of an encounter, and proper use of cooldowns goes a long way towards accomplishing this. Using your abilities when they’re going to be most effective will generally take some experience with the encounter, such as knowing when a damage spike is going to occur for example.

Another aspect of healing is coordination with other healers when in a raid situation. Boss fights, especially on heroic mode, can and will at times require the chaining of healing cooldowns back to back to survive a particularly damaging phase of an encounter.

Try to use your healing cooldowns only when they’re absolutely necessary, rather than using them at the first sign of a real threat and then lacking them later in a fight when you really need it. At the same time, don’t be afraid to blow your cooldowns if you’re fairly certain that the group won’t survive without them, it really all comes down to personal judgement and experience.

Intellect > Spirit > Haste = Mastery = Critical

Intellect:

Intellect enhances the effectiveness of your spells and increases your maximum mana, which improves mana regeneration.

Spirit:

Spirit increases mana regeneration.

Haste:

Haste lowers the cast time of spells and reduces the global Cooldown, as well as increasing the speed of HoT effects.

Mastery – Shield Discipline:

Discipline Priest Mastery increases the potency of all damage absorption spells.

Critical:

Critical Rating increases the chance for your spells to critically heal.

5.0 – Reforging

When reforging gear, it’s important that you look to reforge from your least effective stat into the most effective for whatever gear goal you are currently aiming for. See our stat priority list for more information.

Spirit > Mastery = Haste

Reforge into spirit only so long as you’re having mana issues. If you’re having no problems with mana regeneration, reforge instead into Mastery or Haste.

 

Gems

Unless a socket bonus offers a lot of intellect per slot, it’s more effective to gem for pure intellect and ignore the bonus.

• Meta – Ember Shadowspirit Diamond – This requires two yellow gems.
• Red –
  • Brilliant Chimera’s Eye – 67 int, self-only Jewelcrafting gem
  • Brilliant Queen’s Garnet +50 Int. Use this if you can afford it.
  • Brilliant Inferno Ruby – 40 Int. This should go into all slots unless some requirement has to be met or the slot bonus is really good.
• Yellow – Use these for your meta gem requirement.
  • Fractured Chimera’s Eye: +67 Mastery, self-ony Jewelcrafting gem
  • Fractured Lightstone: +50 Mastery
  • Fractured Amberjewel: +40 Mastery
  • Zen Dream Emerald
  • Potent Ember Topaz
  • Artful Ember Topaz
• Blue – Purified Demonseye

Enchantments:

• Main Hand: Heartsong – Power Torrent
• Off-Hand: Superior Intellect
• Helm: Arcanum of Hyjal
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Charged lodestone
• Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect
• Chest: Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers: Enchant Bracer – Speed – Enchant Bracer – Exceptional Spirit
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery – Enchant Gloves – Haste
• Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Leggings: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
• Boots: Enchant Boots – Mastery

 

Our class guides for whichever class you’re playing:

Death Knights – Druid – Hunter – Mage – Paladin
Priest – Rogue – Shaman – Warlock – Warrior

The GotWarcraft Gold Guide

Cataclysm Heroic Guides

 
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