found throughout the Patch 12.0.1 Holy Priest Changes
WORK IN PROGRESS
This page will be updated as info comes out and I get time, does not become a priority until post-launch, as things can change a lot.
Incomplete List
This is not a comprehensive list and may be missing some changes, for example, undocumented hotfixes, PvP changes or uninteresting bug fixes.
Patch 12.0.1 was released on Jan 20, 2026.
Spell Changes
With the directive of attempting to make the game more intuitive and approachable, there are many spell changes in Midnight.
| Priest | Holy | Hero | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active | Halo (now Archon only) Void Tendrils (now passive) | Archon Halo (now Archon only) Oracle | |
| Passive | Everlasting Light (new) | Ultimate Serenity (replaces Sanctify) Benediction 1 (Apex talent) Benediction 2 (Apex talent) Benediction 3 (Apex talent) | ArchonOracle Prompt Prognosis (TWW S4 2pc) |
Blizzard's Developers' notes for combat & class design in Midnight.
Developers' notes: With Midnight, we aim to make gameplay clearer and easier to understand, so the path to improvement is more apparent for players at every skill level, while maintaining the depth of mastery that WoW offers.
We are updating every class specialization with an eye towards approachability by reducing complexity and making gameplay more intuitive. We are beginning by focusing on what makes each specialization unique and designing gameplay that matches their theme, so your character’s personality and style are reflected in how you play. Our goal is for the most appealing, visible elements of your spec to be what matter most in gameplay. That often means managing resources, tracking a few key buffs and debuffs, using ability charges strategically, and responding to important triggered effects (also known as “procs”). Read more here.
Developers' notes: In Midnight, we are removing a few medium cooldown spells and tracking aura from Holy and increasing the power of existing spells to improve consistent healing.
- We're aiming for individual spell casts to feel powerful even outside of cooldowns.
- We are also removing some longstanding casted spells, Renew and Heal. Renew is now only triggered through talents like Benediction and Lasting Words. It hasn't been an ability that is a priority cast outside of talents like Empowered Renew, so we felt it was a good time to depart with the casted version. We are adding talents for mana management in cases where mana management is important like in raids and PvP. Outside of a couple talents, it was often more of a rotational decision to use Heal over Flash Heal so we feel this is a good consolidation for the specialization.
- We're redesigning the Oracle tree with the intent to provide a more approachable experience by removing Premonition and replacing it with a second charge of Prayer of Mending and other bonuses to the spell. We want Holy to continue to feel like one of the most approachable healers, so these changes are aimed at accomplishing that.
- We're excited to share a new talent that replaces Holy Word: Sanctify to cause Holy Word: Serenity to also heal nearby allies within 40 yards when cast and causes all Holy Word interactions with Sanctify to apply to Serenity instead. We feel this will be helpful for situations where allies are often spread out or wanting one less ability to manage.
Priest Spells
- New Focused Power – Increases the damage of your spells by 3%.
- New Everlasting Light – Surge of Light occurs up to 50% more often based on your remaining mana.
- New Twin Disciplines – Increases the damage and healing of your Holy and Shadow spells by 2%.
- New Painful Invocation – Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain and Holy Fire by 10%.
- New Mindpierce – Increases the damage of Mind Flay and Smite by 15%.
- New Strength of Soul – Increases your Stamina by 4%.
- New Spiritual Guidance – Increases your Intellect by 3%.
- New Dark Enlightenment – Increases your Haste by 3%.
- New False Autonomy – Increases the duration of Mind Control and Dominate Mind against enemy creatures by 15 seconds.
- New Lightburst – Increases the damage of Holy Nova by 200%, its healing by 300%, and its cooldown by 30 seconds.
- Changed Void Tendrils has been redesigned – Roots enemies for 4 seconds when Psychic Scream ends.
- Changed Mind Blast moved to the class tree (was learned at level 5). For Holy, this talent node is altered to Holy Fire.
- Changed Psychic Scream moved to the class tree (was learned at level 7).
- Changed Desperate Prayer moved to the class tree (was learned at level 8).
- Changed Fade moved to the talent tree (was learned at level 9).
- Changed Sheer Terror now increases the damage required to break Psychic Scream by 25% (was 75%).
- Changed Psychic Scream cooldown is now 40 seconds (was 45 seconds).
- Changed Psychic Voice now reduces the cooldown of Psychic Scream by 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
- Changed Light's Inspiration is now a 1-point talent that increases the maximum health granted by Desperate Prayer by 10%.
- Changed Binding Heals and Angel's Mercy are now on separate nodes.
- Removed The following have been removed:
- Apathy
- Blessed Recovery
- Cauterizing Shadows
- Crystalline Reflection
- Death and Madness
- Divine Star
- Essence Devourer
- Focused Mending
- From Darkness Comes Light
- Halo (moved to Archon)
- Manipulation
- Power Word: Life
- Power Word: Shield
- Renew
- Rhapsody
- San'layn
- Shadowfiend
- Throes of Pain
- Vampiric Embrace
- Void Shield
- Void Shift
- Words of the Pious
Holy Spells
- Changed Improved Flash Heal - is now a base talent for Holy in the Priest class tree.
- Changed Holy Fire - is now a base talent for Holy in the Priest class tree. Holy Fire replaces Shadow Word: Pain.
- Changed Holy Nova - is now a base talent for Holy in the Priest class tree.
- Changed Prayer of Mending - is now a baseline ability for Holy Priest.
- New Apex Talents: Benediction 1
- New Benediction 1 - Prayer of Mending healing has a chance to upgrade your next Flash Heal to Benediction, healing the target for 30% more and causing a Cosmic Ripple.
- New Benediction 2 - Cosmic Ripple healing increased by 25%/50%. All healing done increased by 5/10%.
- New Benediction 3 - Each pulse of Divine Hymn emits a Cosmic Ripple at 75% effectiveness. During Apotheosis, Flash Heal is upgraded to Benediction.
- New Efficient Prayers – Reduces the mana cost of Prayer of Healing by 15%.
- New Healing Focus – Reduces the mana cost of Flash Heal by 15%.
- New Cosmic Wave – Increases Cosmic Ripple healing by 60%.
- New Uplifting Words – Increases the critical strike chance of Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify by 10%.
- New Angelic Touch – Your healing spells critically strike for 220% of healing done instead of the usual 200%.
- New Radiant Plea – Increases Prayer of Mending healing by 15%.
- New Ultimate Serenity – Increases the healing done by Holy Word: Serenity by 10% and causes it to heal 4 nearby injured allies within 40 yards for 15% of its healing done. Replaces Holy Word: Sanctify. Talents that affect Holy Word: Sanctify instead affect Holy Word: Serenity.
- Changed Eternal Sanctity has been redesigned – Increases the duration of Apotheosis by 12 seconds.
- Changed Mastery: Echo of Light now additionally affects Renew. Mastery value reduced by 5%.
- Changed Prayer of Mending now replaces Power Word: Shield when learned.
- Changed Holy Fire now replaces Shadow Word: Pain when learned and is now learned through the class tree (was learned at level 12).
- Changed Crisis Management now also affects Prayer of Healing.
- Changed Light in the Darkness now increases the healing of Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify by 13%/25% (was 20%/40%).
- Changed Prayer of Healing mana cost increased by 10%.
- Changed Prayer of Healing’s healing increased by 40%.
- Changed Flash Heal mana cost increased by 10%.
- Changed Flash Heal’s healing increased by 10%.
- Changed Voice of Harmony has been updated to clarify its interaction with Halo.
- Changed Light's Resurgence and Lasting Words now reference Renew in their descriptions.
- Removed The following have been removed:
- Answered Prayers
- Divine Word
- Empowered Renew
- Everlasting Light
- Heal
- Holy Mending
- Lightwell
- Prayer Circle
- Resonant Words
- Symbol of Hope
Hero Spells
Archon
- New-ish Halo now has a 40 yard range and moved to the keystone node of the tree.
- New Energy Conservation – Power Surge lasts an additional 5 seconds.
- New Realized Potential – healing from Flash Heal increased by 10%. Healing spells and Smite have an additional 2% chance to grant Surge of Light.
- New Focused Outburst – Prayer of Healing mana cost reduced by 10% and its cast time is reduced by 15%.
- Changed Empowered Surges now increases the healing of Flash Heal affected by Surge of Light by 15% (was 30%).
- Changed Power Surge no longer increases the radius of Halo.
- Removed Concentrated Infusion has been removed.
- New Spiritwell: Surge of Light can now be consumed by Prayer of Healing in addition to Flash Heal.
Oracle
- New Piety – 20% of overhealing done is redistributed to up to 4 nearby injured allies.
- New Guiding Light – Prayer of Mending gains an additional charge.
- New Prompt Prognosis – Casting Prayer of Mending heals your target immediately.
- New Words of the Wise – Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify healing increased by 10%.
- New Prophet's Insight – Reduces the cooldown of your Holy Words by 5 seconds.
- New Unfolding Vision – When Prayer of Mending expires without healing, it jumps to a nearby injured ally and loses 2 stacks instead.
- Changed Preventive Measures increases the healing of Prayer of Mending by 15% (was 40%).
- Changed Waste No Time has been redesigned – Now reduces the cooldown of Prayer of Mending by 1.5 seconds.
- Removed The following talents have been removed:
- Clairvoyance
- Fatebender
- Miraculous Recovery
- Perfect Vision
- Premonition
Midnight Systems
Season 1 Tier
Season 1 brings a relatively passive tier set based on the new apex talent and Divine Image.
(2) Set Bonus: Casting Benediction has a high chance to summon a Divine Image.
(4) Set Bonus: Divine Image lasts for an additional 3 seconds and its healing and damage is increased by 30%.
The items that are a part of the bonus:
The following items can also be obtained using the Matrix Catalyst.
- NYI
Notable hotfixes
Feb 04, 2026: Changed the Holy Priest Spec Aura to increase all healing done by 8% (~7.4% as some spells aren't in the aura).Jan 29, 2026: Reduced Piety, it now redistributes 15% of overhealing (was 20%). Labelled as a Disc Priest hotfix but affects Holy as well.Jan 29, 2026: Fixed an issue where Benediction 1 was healing for less than intended (Didn't buff it when Flash Heal was buffed Dec 12).Jan 17, 2026: Fixed Renew, Holy Fire, and Shadow Word: Pain once again extend their duration when they are refreshed.Jan 15, 2026: Changed the Holy Priest Spec Aura to increase all healing done by 10% (~10.5% as some spells aren't in the aura).Dec 12, 2025: Changes: Developers’ notes: Holy Priest has fallen behind other healers in output. We are increasing some controlled sources of healing with this change and including some reductions in power to Cosmic Ripple as well as reductions to the power of a couple Archon talents to better maintain Hero Talent balance and keep the healing experience consistent with more healing from directly casted spells.- Flash Heal healing increased by 12%.
- Prayer of Healing healing increased by 12%.
- Holy Word: Serenity healing increased by 12%.
- Holy Word: Sanctify healing increased by 12%.
- Renew healing increased by 12%.
- The second and third rank of Benediction 2 now increases Cosmic Ripple healing by 15%/30% (was 25%/50) and increases all healing done by 6%/12% (was 5%/10%).
- Archon: Empowered Surges increases the healing of spells affected by Surge of Light by 5% (was 15%).
- Archon: Halo healing reduced by 20%.
Dec 11, 2025: Changed Prompt Prognosis healing reduced from 1400% spellpower to 940% spellpower.Dec 11, 2025: Changed Smite damage reduced from 140% spellpower to 98.7% spellpower.Nov 07, 2025: Changed Archon: Empowered Surges has been updated to also increase the healing of Prayer of Healing casts affected by Surge of Light while the effect is active and Spiritwell is talented.Nov 07, 2025: Changed Oracle: Preventive Measures increases the healing of Prayer of Mending by 15% (was 40%).Nov 07, 2025: Changed Apex: Benediction 2 has been updated – Rank 2 and 3 now increase the healing of Cosmic Ripple by 25%/50% and increase all healing done by 5%/10%.Oct 29, 2025: New Archon: Energy Conservation – Power Surge lasts an additional 5 seconds.Oct 29, 2025: New Archon: Realized Potential – healing from Flash Heal increased by 10%. Healing spells and Smite have an additional 2% chance to grant Surge of Light.Oct 29, 2025: New Archon: Focused Outburst – Prayer of Healing mana cost reduced by 10% and its cast time is reduced by 15%.Oct 29, 2025: New Oracle: Words of the Wise – Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify healing increased by 10%.Oct 29, 2025: New Oracle: Prophet's Insight – Reduces the cooldown of your Holy Words by 5 seconds.Oct 29, 2025: New Oracle: Unfolding Vision – When Prayer of Mending expires without healing, it jumps to a nearby injured ally and loses 2 stacks instead.Oct 09, 2025: Changed Archon: Ascendant Prayers has been renamed to Spiritwell.
Bugs
Below is a list of things that are suspected to be bugs or unintended behaviour.
Important bugs
- Prayer of Healing casts consuming Surge of Light when talented into Spiritwell and Ultimate Serenity reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity by 12 seconds, not 10.
- Divine Hymn sometimes ticks for 5-10x more than it should.
- Divine Image can be bugged so it only despawns if you cast an empowered Naaru, or move 100 yards away.
- Dazzling Lights will sometimes not proc correctly when casting Holy Word: Sanctify.
- Casting Flash Heal or Prayer of Healing and then mid-cast if you gain Surge of Light from Halo, when the cast completes you do not consume Surge of Light, but do get a mana discount.
- Halo will miss targets that are too close to you on the return from Divine Halos. See this github issue.
Likely a bug
- Preemptive Care only increases the duration of Renew from Lasting Words by 25%, not 40%.
Hopefully a bug
- Ultimate Serenity can't be talented into while any charges of Holy Word: Sanctify are on cooldown.
Inconsistencies
- Binding Heals also triggers Protective Light on yourself regardless of your Flash Heal target.
- Evoker's Blessing of the Bronze which affects a movement enhancing ability for all classes, affects Leap of Faith for Priest.
- Evoker's Time Spiral which affects a movement enhancing ability for all classes, affects Leap of Faith for Priest.
- Light of the Naaru CDR increase is not reflected in any ability tooltips.