Leveling up a holy priest from scratch in World of Warcraft 8.1. I have one up around level 100, but I don’t remember how it all fits together enough to play at that level.

One of the hard bits about leveling up is figuring out where all your spells will be at maximimum level. That’s important so that your muscle-memory is in place when dungeons/raids make it hard.

Table of Contents

Key-bindings

I like to use some sort of raid-frame add-on that lets you apply spells to people by putting the mouse pointer over their frame and using various chords/clicks. This means your mouse and attention spends most of the time in a small area below the middle of the screen.

Mappings (no mod) Shift+key Ctrl+key Ctrl+Shift+key
Left Click Heal Flash Heal Prayer of Healing (target)
Right Click Prayer of Mending Renew   (VuhDo menu)
Middle Click Purify   Mass Dispel (set focus)
Mouse 4        
Mouse 5        
Q        
E Holy Fire Smite    
Z Fade      
X        
C        
F Holy Word: Chastise (second interrupt)   (set focus)
G Holy Word: Sanctify      
1        
2        
3 Holy Word: Serenity      
4 Guardian Spirit      
5        
6        

Notes:

  • I find it difficult to hit “mouse 4” versus “mouse 5” reliably (while not moving the mouse), therefore all spells are duplicated across both keys in VuhDo. And I only put spells there which are not time-critical.
  • Most of the regular keys that also have a “shift” variant are done via macros. This helps save on bar slots. See the Holy Fire / Smite macro for an example.
  • The “G” key is good for instant-cast spells with long cool-downs where you place a target marker on the floor. It’s far enough away from WASD not to be hit by accident, but close enough to hit while running with the W-key held down.
  • Spells like “Holy Word: Serenity” get mouse-over macros so that they can be used with raid/party frame UI elements.

WeakAuras2

Auras are ways to put key-information closer to the middle of the screen, or closer to your raid/party player grid.

Mana Block

  • Vertical bar to show mana amount (medium blue / dark blue)
  • Highlight (light blue) to show mana consumed on the next cast
  • short: Prayer of Mending / Holy Fire cooldowns
  • medium: Holy Word: Serenity / Holy Word: Sanctify cooldowns
  • long: Divine Hymn, Symbol of Hope, Guardian Spirit, Leap of Faith

Macros

Note that you should put /cast or /use lines that use modifiers before those that do not use modifiers.

Holy Fire / Smite

Casts “Holy Fire” (DoT) or “Smite” if the “shift” key is held down. I put this on the “E” key because it gets spammed all the time. Putting it on the “F” key would also work without torturing your fingers.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift,@targettarget,harm][mod:shift,harm] Smite;
/cast [@targettarget,harm][harm] Holy Fire

Levitate

Good example of a macro that applies the buff to whatever you point at (even works with various raid frames). If the mouse pointer is not over a friendly (in the world / party frames), it will apply it to your target (if friendly). Lastly, it will just apply it to yourself (useful when falling).

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help][help][@player] Levitate

Interrupts

Casts first interrupt, or a secondary interrupt spell if the “shift” key is held down.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift,@targettarget,harm][mod:shift,harm] Quaking Palm;
/cast [@targettarget,harm][harm] Holy Word: Chastise

Holy Word: Serenity

#showtooltip Holy Word: Serenity
/cast [@focus,help][@mouseover,help][help] Holy Word: Serenity

Guardian Spirit

#showtooltip Guardian Spirit
/cast [@focus,help][@mouseover,help][help] Guardian Spirit