This is the other popular pre-Tier 1 Holy spec.  Typically this build flows down the entire holy tree (taking renew and not holy spec) and concentrates on casting ONLY Greater Heal, Renew and Prayer of Healing.  This spec provides the optimum mana efficiency both health/mana and health/second. In addition, this spec maximizes mana regeneration by casting the least number of spells.

The trick to using this build is to be constantly casting Great Heal on the main tank in lieu of wanding.  This is called ‘<a href="#chain">chaining</a>’. I have a section on Chaining greater heal later in this document.  Essentially, to be a good master healer spec priest, the player must be proactive in their healing, and not reactive.  By being proactive, the healer expects where damage will fall and act in expectation of the damage.

This build is an end game build that only becomes more powerful as the player becomes more experienced with it and gets better equipment. Essentially, this build is optimized for keeping the main tank alive, and does this job better than any build of any class in the game.  A priest with this build should almost always take Improved Fortitude, over Focused Caster, or get both and spend less points in Agility and Strength.  Experienced Master Healers may decide to take Wand Spec, since they spend a great deal of time not casting. There are disadvantages, though.

With all holy builds, the priest lacks the ability to solo effectively.  The other disadvantage is ability to react. Since the priest is putting all his eggs in the Greater Heal basket, he has difficulty reacting to a rapidly changing environment. For instance if his five man group picks up 3 adds, and he must now heal the MT (who is holding as much agro as he/she can) and the other party members, he will run out of mana quicker than a Holy/ Disc split build or a True Discipline priest due to his lack of meditation,. Also, many versions of this builds do not pick up Improved Flash heal (because they have Improved Healing) meaning that the priest cannot flash heal himself till help arrives should the agro chain break down.

Secondly, this build is not very effective in group Player versus Player.  Player versus Player combat tends to be very fast paced and the same problems described in the previous paragraph apply doubly so. With several Player versus Player classes damage loaded at the end of a life bar (rogues and their 5 point combos that can do well above 2000 damage for example, mortal strike warriors, and mages with Presence of Mind), Greater Heal is simply not applicable in many situations..

Example Build
Discipline Talents (21 points)

• Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
• Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
• Martyrdom - 2/2 points
• Focused Casting - 1/1 point
• Mental Agility - 5/5 points
• Mental Strength - 4/5 points
• Inner Focus - 1/1 point

Holy Talents (30 points)

• Improved Renew - 5/5 points
• Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
• Subtlety - 5/5 points
• Improved Healing - 5/5 points
• Improved Flash Heal - 2/2 points
• Improved Prayer of Healing - 2/2 points
• Spirit of Redemption - 1/1 point
• Master Healer - 5/5 points