In this article, we explain what the best statistics are for Holy Priests (WoW 4.3), how the class benefits from each of them, and what your reforging strategy should be. We also detail what the various caps are and why they should be attained. The statistics priority is important as it influences reforging strategies as well as itemisation choices (gear, enchants, and gems).

Make sure to check our Gear Optimisation Guide, which serves as a support guide for this article. The other articles of our Holy Priest guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

1. Basics↑top

The stat priority for a Holy Priest is:

1. Intellect;
2. Spirit;
3. Haste Rating (until the soft cap of 12.51%);
4. Haste Rating OR Mastery Rating;
5. Mastery Rating OR Haste Rating (the one you did not choose before);
6. Critical Strike Rating.

If you are unsure what the optimal reforging strategy is for this priority, please refer to the reforging section of our Gear Optimisation Guide.

2. Getting a Better Understanding↑top

2.1. Statistics Explanations

Intellect is your most important stat, which provides the most benefit; you should look for this stat in all of your upgrades, as point for point it surpasses any other stat. It provides you with Spell Power and a higher mana pool, which improves your mana regeneration from Shadowfiend.

Spirit is a very important statistic for all healers and Holy Priests are no exception. As a Holy Priest, you do not lack the abilities to do enormous amounts of healing, and your only limiting factor will often be your mana. You should aim to get innate Spirit on all of your items.

Haste Rating lowers the cast time of your heals (especially useful for Prayer of Healing), lowers your global cooldown (which benefits all of your instant cast spells) and adds extra ticks to your Renew, Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope.

At 12.51% haste, you gain the first extra tick for all three of the spells mentioned above, making it a very desirable amount of haste to have. Check the section below for more details about this soft haste cap.

Mastery Rating is a strong stat for Holy Priests. It causes each one of your heals to place a HoT on the target, healing for a percentage of the initial heal over 6 seconds. Successive applications of this HoT stack.

Critical Strike Rating is your worst statistic.

2.2. Soft Haste Cap

Here, you can see the different amounts of Haste Rating that you must obtain in order to reach 12.51% haste, in every possible situation.

+5% Haste Buff?	Darkness	Goblin?	Haste Rating
No	0/3	No	1603
No	0/3	Yes	1461
No	1/3	No	1461
No	2/3	No	1321
No	1/3	Yes	1320
No	3/3	No	1184
No	2/3	Yes	1181
No	3/3	Yes	1045
Yes	0/3	No	917
Yes	0/3	Yes	781
Yes	1/3	No	781
Yes	2/3	No	648
Yes	1/3	Yes	647
Yes	3/3	No	518
Yes	2/3	Yes	515
Yes	3/3	Yes	386

2.3. Haste Rating Versus Mastery Rating

After reaching the 12.51% soft haste cap, you must choose between getting even more Haste Rating or getting Mastery Rating.

Both Haste Rating and Mastery Rating provide benefits to you, and choosing to prioritise one over the other is, ultimately, a matter of personal preference (although the conditions of the encounter you are progressing on also play a part in the decision).

Additional haste will provide you with higher healing throughput, especially in heavy raid-damage situations, decreasing the cast time of Prayer of Healing as well as your global cooldown.

Mastery Rating, on the other hand, will increase the potency of the automatically applied HoT. This essentially translates to free healing, since there is no mana cost associated with it. The drawback is that these HoTs can and often will overheal players, and you have no control over them.