Healer Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Holy Priest abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.1.7).

Single Target

Focus on healing priority and avoid overhealing.

• Holy Word SerenityView detailsUse on an injured ally.
• Flash HealView detailsWith 1+ stacks of Surge Of Light.
• Power Word LifeView detailsFor emergency triage on an ally near death.
• RenewView detailsOn a tank or debuff target.
• HealView detailsWith 1+ stacks of Lightweaver for single-target healing.

Prioritize Holy Word Serenity for injured allies, followed by Flash Heal with Surge Of Light stacks. Use Power Word Life for emergencies and maintain Renew on key targets.

AoE

Focus on group healing and avoid overhealing.

• Holy Word SanctifyView detailsOn a cluster of injured allies.
• Prayer Of HealingView detailsFor general group healing.
• Divine StarView detailsWhen most of your group is injured.
• HaloView detailsWhen available and group is injured.
• Holy NovaView detailsNear 5+ injured allies with 16+ stacks of Rhapsody.

Use Holy Word Sanctify for clusters, Prayer Of Healing for general healing, and Divine Star or Halo for widespread injuries. Holy Nova is effective for close groups with high Rhapsody stacks.

Cooldowns

• ApotheosisView detailsUse to reset Holy Word cooldowns and amplify healing.
• Divine HymnView detailsUse during heavy group-wide damage.
• Symbol Of HopeView detailsUse to restore mana and reduce defensive cooldowns.
• Guardian SpiritView detailsUse on a tank or ally about to take fatal damage.
• ShadowfiendView detailsUse for mana return, ideally at 80% mana.

Activate Apotheosis for burst healing, Divine Hymn for intense group damage, and Symbol Of Hope for mana recovery. Use Guardian Spirit to save lives and Shadowfiend for mana efficiency.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.