Holy Priests in 5s (Part 1)

Our 5v5 team currently has a pool of 6 people that we rotate between, those are:

Warrior (Vishak)
Paladin (Brewkz)
Holy Priest (Eks, myself)
MM Hunter (Hamchook)
Frost Mage (McFugie)
Resto Shaman (Allard)

Since we have no shadowpriest or warlock, I'm the squishiest target and as a result I usually find myself to be the focus of the opposition more often than not. This isn't to say that our warrior and hunter don't see their fair share of attention from the 4dps lineups, but we really haven't ran into too many 4dps teams lately. So anyway, I'll go over how to handle being on the defensive first. Note: This is just my point of view on the 5v5 bracket coming from the games I've played. Pretty much all of those views come from playing pretty balanced matrices (either 2healer hunter mage warrior or 3healer x Warrior), not that a holy priest really fits into a 4dps matrix very well anyway.

The great thing about being focused is that you can still function at decent capacity. You can still load up your instant heals on yourself, dispel (even mass dispel, chances of that getting pummeled are really slim) and you also have 2 very viable trees so if one gets interrupted you can swap to another.

First, the early game:

The most important aspect of a priest's game when playing defensively is positioning. We're one of the most mobile healing classes and it allows us to use LoS to our advantage in almost every situation. When you start the match, try to keep yourself near a nook or a pole that you can easily walk behind. Wait near the back and let the game unfold a little bit. If they're gonna get on you, it'll usually involve the warrior either charging or intercepting to you, do your best to keep a shield on yourself as it'll prevent the warrior from getting any rage from their initial swing and they won't be able to intercept -> hamstring -> MS right away. Also, if you see a frost mage and you have a feeling you're gonna be their first target, spam dispel on yourself at the start. If you're not stunned from the charge or intercept, you'll take the pet's frost nova off instantly and you should have no trouble avoiding any shatter damage, which can be pretty painful. After that, feel free to drag him out of LoS as you wipe him clean of any buffs he may have and have either your pally stun him or mage poly him. Taking off all the filler buffs will go a long way in helping you take off the important stuff later on (heroism & freedom).

Staying behind that pole for a little bit will also make it really hard for any casters/range dps they have to put damage on or purge you. At the same time though, when you're out of LoS of them, you're also out of LoS of a good portion of your team, namely your warrior, who's gonna need a lot of cleanses. Between poly/detect and any winters chill debuffs they may have, its a waste of time for your pally to be spending GCDs cleansing 3-4 times to get a poly off if you're able to take it off in half the time. A priest should always be the primary dispeller on the team, so keep an eye out on your team's debuffs.

So between avoiding damage, you have to be able to anticipate when you're gonna have to pop out and dispel. The start of the match is always a good bet for incoming CC to your warrior, so get ready for it. What I've noticed is that when you drag their warrior at the start, a lot of their caster dps and probably a dispeller (priest/pally) will come up to get in LoS of both of you, so they'll be in perfect position for an AE fear, bunched up just around the corner. Feel free to use that as early as you want, you'll burn some fearwards/pvp trinkets as well as avoid a decent amount of damage.

Don't stay out for too long at the start, dispel your warrior and fire off one or two offensive dispels on your focus as you start running again. The first minute or so is when everyone's got all their cooldowns and a lot of mana so they can really put out some serious burst coupled with a CS on your pally. If they have an offensive dispeller, thats one thing you have to watch for and avoid. Unlike a lot of other classes, we need all our buffs and they help a lot. Inner fire, renew, shield, fort, shadow, kings, etc... are all pretty vital to our survival. So if they have a good priest or shaman, they will punish you for showing yourself for too long unless you're beating them sensless at the time (they always make good targets imo, but thats a whole different story).

After the initial trade of CCs and dispels, the mid-game gets underway. That's coming soon...