This guide is intended to be a comprehensive break-down over the Grace Warrior Priest spec. As a result, it will be very in-depth and often very wordy. Feel free to jump around to the different sections that interest you, and if there is anything else you have questions about feel free to let me know here, on Discord, or in-game.
Additionally, while this guide is built specifically for the Grace Warrior Priest, much of the advice here will also be applicable to the Sacrifice Disciple of Khaine due to the large number of mirrored abilities.
Grace is a highly involved spec, with a lot of moving parts and buffs to keep track of, but I find it can often help carry battles more than Salvation could hope to. Grace is especially adept at small-scale fighting, such as scenarios or group vs group engagements when roaming, in that it has so much more to offer than a simple "heal bot". However, for Grace to be effective in its role it first requires a minimum level of survivability. You are no good to your team if you are dead, but when you are tanky enough to survive three damage dealers attacking you then you become the anvil on which your team can strike its hammers. To me, Grace is the most rewarding of the three Warrior Priest specs to play, and I hope that with my guide you can find enjoyment in it as I have.
Spec
There are two basic Grace builds that I would recognize as being effective in their own ways. In any build, I would recommend putting as many points in the Grace tree as possible (Renown Rank dependent) in order to maximize the levels of the Grace abilities.
The first is the Grace/Wrath build, which uses Wrath as the secondary tree in order to take Absence of Faith as a heal debuff. I consider this to be the "default Grace spec", and it is very good for soloing, scenarios, and ORvR small-scale.
An example RR40 build would be:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8291,8280
At RR70+, Divine Warding can be obtained from the Salvation tree to provide an increase in survivability:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8280,8288
The second is the Grace/Salvation build, which uses Salvation as the secondary tree in order to take Pious Restoration. When combined with the healing buff from Benediction, this provides a significant Heal Over Time on your entire party with nearly 100% uptime. This build would be better when the heal debuff from Absence of Faith is already being covered by another class, and is great in ORvR due to the increase in casted heal potency.
An example RR40 build would be:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 8,8280,592
There is an alternative build that also uses Salvation as the secondary tree, but specifically runs 8 points in the tree in order to take Cleansing Power. This is a very useful build for dungeons, or when facing multiple casters that like to stack DoTs on your party.
An example RR40 build would be:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 8,8292,592
At RR70+, both Grace/Salvation builds can be combined into one that is very good for dungeons and especially good for ORvR warband play. Combined with Word of Wisdom (which triggers on all of your melee heals that include a base heal component), this can output a lot of healing very quickly. Example build:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8280,8289
Alternatively, Cleansing Power may be dropped in exchange for any other tactic, such as Divine Warding or Leading the Prayer.
If Pious Restoration isn’t something you are interested in, then you can go even heavier in the Grace tree and obtain the very strong M4 - Divine Amazement:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8280,8289
Renown Points
Renown Rank points allow you to customize your character's stats as you level up in Renown Rank, maxing out at 80 points at RR 80. This will be one of the best ways for you to make your Grace Warrior Priest tanky, and thus more effective in combat.
The most powerful defensive Renown Rank skills, and the ones you will be focusing on, are Defender, Deft Defender, Reflexes, and Futile Strikes.
Defender, when maxed, provides 10% Block. You can think of this as "10% Parry, 10% Dodge, and 10% Disrupt", or effectively 30% worth of Avoidance stats. This is an incredibly efficient way to spend your Renown points, and mandatory to max as Grace.
Deft Defender, when maxed, provides 18% Dodge and Disrupt, which is very effective at avoiding ranged damage. This does not provide any avoidance towards melee attacks, though, which can be critical for your survival in large warband vs warband engagements.
Reflexes, when maxed, provides 18% Parry and will help your survival in the melee deathball greatly. If you are dying repeatedly to melee, consider maxing this over putting any points in Deft Defender.
Futile Strikes has the very important job of reducing your base Chance to be Crit. This value is added onto the Critical Hit Chance of anyone attacking you, and when left alone can result in you being critically hit constantly for big damage. MINIMALLY you want 2 ranks in Futile Strikes as soon as possible, with rank 3 being optimal. Rank 4 is tied with rank 1 in terms of efficiency per Renown point spent, but I don't recommend 4 ranks in Futile Strikes due to the high cost of buying 4 ranks in that tree.
Strong "filler" Renown skills are Might for Strength, Vigor for Wounds, and Impetus for Initiative, which are useful for bolstering stats that are lacking in your gear. As a rule I usually won't recommend spending Renown points in offensive traits as Grace prior to reaching Sentinel gear though, since a dead Grace Warrior Priest outputs no healing and is a liability for the team.
My recommendation is to acquire rank 4 Defender, rank 3 Deft Defender, rank 3 Reflexes, and rank 3 Futile Strikes to optimize your survivability versus all forms of incoming attacks. I would then spend the remaining points on either Vigor or Impetus if you are struggling to stay alive, or Might to further increase your damage and healing output.
Note: An enemy attacker can only ever ignore or “strikethrough” half of your avoidance (Parry, Dodge, Disrupt, Block) value. This means that any amount of avoidance, no matter how large or small, will be worth obtaining on your character and will greatly increase your chances of survival.
Example RR 40 build:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/r ... ;0;3;0;0;0
Example RR 80 build:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/r ... ;3;3;0;0;0
Again though, I only recommend a more offensive Renown build once your gear has reached high levels of defense. Be sure to play around with different builds and find one that works best for you and the gear you are wearing.
Gear
Gear will be the most important part of what differentiates you as a Grace Warrior Priest from a Salvation Warrior Priest. Whereas Salvation wears Willpower gear (Annihilator/Conqueror/Vanquisher/Invader/Triumphant), Grace wants Strength gear (Mercenary/Dominator/Oppressor/Victorious). Salvation has earlier easier access to Willpower gear from PvE via the first dungeon, Gunbad (Redeye), while Grace has later access to Strength gear via the second dungeon, Crypts, and the third dungeon, Bastion Stair (Bloodlord, very useful for obtaining your “Invader Ward”). Keep in mind that in order to equip various gear sets you will require the prerequisite Wards.
Before you begin grinding any difficult scenarios or dungeons for gear, a great starter set is Ruin which is obtainable with War Tokens acquired via Public Quests in the PvE zones (avoid any of the PQs in Chapter 22 areas, as that requires a warband to complete and rewards Onslaught, which is Salvation gear). Beastlord is also an *AMAZING* set for new Grace players, obtained through the Beastlord quest lines (guides for which can be found here on the forums). HIGHLY recommended, especially for the 5-piece bonus which gives 5% block. You may find yourself using gear pieces from the Beastlord set in combination with other, higher-level sets for a very long time. Once you have the full Beastlord set, you can even wear the Vale-Walker gear found in the Hunter’s Vale dungeon. Unlike the previously mentioned dungeons, the only ward that Vale-Walker requires is Beastlord.
Don't disregard ORvR however, since it is the best way to obtain Genesis Crests (from loot bags) which can purchase the powerful Combat Hammer of the Subjugator and Buckler of the Subjugator in addition to the coveted Genesis items (particularly of the Warrior variety). Buckler of the Subjugator is particularly powerful in that it provides an 8% bonus to Strikethrough (applies to all Strikethrough, e.g. Parry, Dodge, Disrupt, and Block), and can even be traded in for the Fortress Targe (your best-in-slot shield). Strikethrough is incredibly strong for Grace, as it is necessary to break-through the strong avoidance rates that front-line classes will usually have. You can't heal at your max output if you can't hit your targets.
No matter what gear you end up wearing, remember first that you need to survive before you can produce any healing. That means if you end up wearing a set of gear that is highly built for damage (such as the scenario sets), you will want to slot talismans that are defensive (armor/wounds/initiative) and wear similarly defensive jewelry. One of the more powerful defensive jewelry sets for new players is The Winds Impervious, and a guide for obtaining it can be found here (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13566). I would also highly recommend the Rough Gunbad Diamond for its increase to block percentage, which can be obtained from Gunbad side-bosses or from the Auction House (beware of overpaying). Conversely, if you wear a gear set that is overly defensive and lacks Strength (such as the Sentinel set), you will want to slot Strength talismans and wear offensive jewelry (such as the Genesis Warrior jewelry set).
As a starting goal, I'd aim for around 700 Strength+Melee Power (including self-buffs), with more being better so long as you aren't sacrificing defensive stats. Defensively, I’d aim for over 3000 armor (when using a 396 armor potion), at least 700 Wounds (before buffs), 200 Initiative (which when combined with 3 ranks of Futile Strikes will give you a 0% chance to be crit), 30%+ Block (gear bonuses plus renown plus Sigmar’s Vision), and as much Parry/Dodge/Disrupt you can muster. Weapon Skill is also nice for increasing your damage output and the lifetap amounts, but I would not recommend prioritizing it. Similarly, melee critical hit chance is also very powerful at increasing your damage and healing output but I would not prioritize stacking it until late-game gearing.
A very good "mid tier" Grace gear set that I recommend to all new players is the following:
Helm: Dominator
Shoulders: Beastlord
Cloak: Beastlord
Chest: Beastlord
Gloves: Dominator
Belt: Dominator
Boots: Dominator
Pocket: Beastlord
Jewel: Genesis Warrior Aspect
Jewel: Genesis Warrior Remnant
Jewel: Rough Gunbad Diamond
Jewel: Beastlord
Main Hand: Titan's Battlehammer of Glory
Shield: Buckler of the Subjugator
5 Armor talismans
2 Initiative talismans
1 Strength talismans
Depending on the quality of the talismans used, this set provides roughly 3000 armor, 211 Initiative, 720 Wounds, 577 Strength, 84 Melee Power, and 327 Weapon Skill. It also provides 12% block chance, a -10% reduced chance to be blocked, a -15% reduced chance to be parried, 4% melee critical chance, and 4 AP per second. That is a serious amount of stats for a set that is relatively easy to acquire.
If/once you have access to Oppressor gear, simply swap all the Dominator gear for Oppressor gear, but wear the Beastlord helm instead of the Oppressor helm, and the Oppressor shoulders instead of the Beastlord shoulders.
If/once you have access to Sentinel gear, simply swap all of the Dominator gear for Sentinel gear. Once you’ve acquired the Sentinel ring through dungeon Influence, swap the Rough Gunbad Diamond for it and slot the +6% Block legendary talisman weekly.
If you want to skip the main dungeon grind, you can create an incredible gear set by mixing Beastlord (helm, body, cloak, jewel, pocket) with Vale-Walker (shoulders, gloves, belt, boots, jewel). Slot 4 Strength and 4 Armor talismans. When combined with the Buckler of the Subjugator, you will have a set with 15% block due to the double 5% block bonuses of the two sets in addition to plenty of other stats.
Eventually swap the Titan's Battlehammer of Glory for the Titan's Battlehammer of Reverence (purchased by trading in your Titan's Battlehammer of Glory and 600 War Crests), and the Buckler of the Subjugator for the Fortress Targe (Invader vendor). I do not recommend the Bloodlord Buckler from Bastion Stairs, as though it is great for being more offensive (such as when soloing), you will end up sacrificing too much survivability compared with the Fortress Targe.
Sovereign Martyr gear pieces require the Invader Ward, which can be achieved by obtaining and equipping all of the Bloodlord or Blissful Dark Promise armor pieces.
Bloodlord can be combined with Vale-Walker to make one of the strongest gear sets prior to Sovereign Martyr:
- 5-piece Vale-Walker (helm shoulders, body, gloves, jewel) / 3-piece Bloodlord (belt, boots, cloak), Genesis Warrior Fragment+Remnant, Rough Gunbad Diamond, Titan’s Battlehammer of Reverence, Fortress Targe – 4 Strength, 1 Wounds, and 2 Armor talismans
Both of these sets provide defensive stats nearly on par with Sovereign Martyr, and are relatively quick to farm due to them not requiring additional War Crests (the armors are entirely from dungeons).
You can now continue your way towards Sovereign Martyr gear pieces. I would prioritize buying the chest and shoulders first (for their block chance), which you will most likely use in every gear combination. From there you can decide what else you want to wear (such as swapping the Genesis jewelry to Annulus rings). Here are some of my combination recommendations depending on what gear you have available to you:
Recommended to use all Strength talismans unless otherwise noted
- 5-piece Sovereign (helm, shoulders, chest, cloak, jewel) / 3-piece Oppressor (gloves, belt, boots) – Very offensive, and the Oppressor pieces can be swapped with Victorious (cloak, belt, boots, jewel) to create the overall BiS build.
- 5-piece Sovereign (shoulders, chest, boots, cloak, jewel) / 3-piece Bloodlord (helm, gloves, belt) - Surprisingly, a very tank build. A little light on the offense though.
- 5-piece Sovereign (shoulders, chest, boots, cloak, jewel) / 4-piece Sentinel (helm, gloves, belt, jewel) – 1 Armor talisman - Very solid all-around build, especially with the flexibility of the jewel legendary talisman.
- 5-piece Sovereign (shoulders, chest, boots, cloak, jewel) / 4-piece Vale-Walker (helm, gloves, belt, jewel) - If you aren’t putting a legendary talisman in the above Sentinel build, then this build is better.
Whatever gear pieces you are able to obtain or decide to wear, just remember that being defensive (and staying alive!) is your first goal. Reaching at least 800 Wounds should be a priority because a dead Grace Warrior Priest outputs no healing, but do keep in mind your damage/healing output potential (aim for over 800 Strength+Melee Power). Have fun experimenting with different gear combinations, and find what works best for you!
Path of Grace Abilities
Below is a breakdown of the abilities that are found in the Path of Grace mastery tree. Keep in mind that, in addition to your core class abilities, you still have access to Path of Salvation and Path of Wrath abilities, and that you should be using your entire kit. This includes casting healing spells, such as frequently placing Healing Hand on friendlies!
It should also be first explained that Grace heals typically consist of a melee attack that then provides healing based on two components.
The first healing component is what is called a “base heal”. This base heal scales with offensive stats (Strength+Melee Power) and NOT Willpower like casted heals do. This base heal also critically hits based on melee critical hit chance and NOT healing critical hit chance, and critically hits independent of the melee attack. However, this base heal does include the same 10% base critical healing chance that casted heals have, so add 10% onto whatever your melee critical hit chance is to find the base heal critical hit chance. The base heal is affected by the same buffs and debuffs that affect casted heals, but also always triggers even if the melee attack was avoided by a block or parry. Additionally, any effect which may trigger when a heal is cast on a target may also trigger when a base heal affects a target.
The second healing component is what is called a “lifetap”. This lifetap is simply a percentage of the damage that the melee attack dealt to the target. For example, if a melee attack hits an enemy for 100 damage and the lifetap is for 75%, the lifetap heal will be for 75 hit points. The lifetap itself cannot critically hit, but rather it heals for more based on the increased damage when the melee attack critically hits. Since the base heal and melee attack may critically hit independent of each other, either one, none, or both of them may critically hit per attack.
Benediction
Benediction is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and places a large absorb shield on your defensive target. Additionally, you gain a buff for 15 seconds which causes the healing amount of your next casted heal to be increased by 35%.
Benediction is best used on cooldown on a target that is being heavily focused, or on yourself as a pre-emptive way to reduce incoming damage. Due to the relatively long duration of the casted heal buff, you can often wait on casting a heal and instead “save” the buff for moments when you cannot strike an enemy in melee with one of your melee heals, such as when you are punted or snared.
Divine Assault
Divine Assault is a channeled melee ability that costs 25 Righteous Fury a hit, and hits your targeted enemy 4 times over 3 seconds. It will heal your defensive target for 350% of the damage it deals (lifetap). It deals Spirit damage, and as a result will not benefit from Weapon Skill.
Divine Assault can be considered to be your "big single-target heal". It will heal your defensive target within 150 feet, and it will ignore all forms of Line of Sight. It will also ignore healing debuffs, and even heals for the damage that is transferred away from your targeted enemy due to Guard.
My recommendation is to cast Divine Assault as soon as it is off cooldown on whatever friendly is hurt the most.
Divine Strike
Divine Strike is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and heals your defensive for a base amount plus 75% of the damage you actually dealt (lifetap). Both the base heal and the lifetap heal scale with your offensive stats.
Divine Strike will be your spammable single-target heal, and is most effective at healing a focus-target while Divine Assault is on cooldown. Unlike Sigmar’s Radiance, it is also usable on friendlies outside of your party. The ability is highly reliable when it comes to healing due to its base heal amount, and it scales well from increases in offensive stats.
Sigmar’s Will
Sigmar’s Will is an instant-cast melee ability that costs 80 Righteous Fury, deals damage to your targeted enemy, and heals your defensive target and all friendlies within 20 feet of your defensive target for a very large base heal amount plus 100% of the damage dealt (lifetap).
Sigmar’s Will is an interesting ability that has a couple key differences from your other melee heals. First, compared to Divine Strike and Divine Assault, Sigmar’s Will is capable of healing multiple targets at a time. Second, compared to Sigmar’s Radiance, Sigmar’s Will can heal outside of your party. It is this second difference which sets Sigmar’s Will apart, especially in large scale combat where multiple friendlies may be clumped together in a melee death ball. If you find yourself on the front-line of a push, or are stuck in with tanks holding a keep door choke, targeting yourself or another friendly character will cause your Sigmar’s Will to spread healing across all friendlies within its radius. Think of it as a melee version of Martyr’s Blessing. Without frequent use of this ability, your healing output will seriously suffer in large fights, so use it as a Righteous Fury-dump as much as you can.
Prayer of Devotion
Prayer of a Devotion is a passive aura ability that is activated once and stays active until it is deactivated or you switch to a different Prayer. While active, Prayer of Devotion provides you and your group-mates within 100 feet of you a 20% chance to regain 300 health upon attacking an enemy.
This can be considered the default Prayer for Grace Warrior Priests, because with 15 points in the Grace tree it heals for 300 health every time it procs. Thus, it is an excellent tool for helping keep both you and your group-mates alive.
My recommendation is to primarily use Prayer of Devotion when specced as Grace.
Sigmar's Fist
Sigmar's Fist is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and places a Blessing on your defensive target that buffs Strength for 20 seconds. With 15 points in the Grace tree, Sigmar's Fist will buff Strength by 150 points. Grace's lifetap heals (Sigmar’s Will, Sigmar's Radiance, Divine Strike, and Divine Assault) scale with the amount of damage they do, and as a result Sigmar's Fist becomes an important buff to keep up on yourself. Additionally, keeping your Strength self-buffed with Sigmar's Fist means you can potion instead for Toughness to increase your survivability.
My recommendation is to buff yourself with Sigmar's Fist as soon as possible when you enter combat, and refresh its duration when it has 5 or less seconds left.
Sigmar's Grace
Sigmar's Grace has a cast time of 2 seconds and a cooldown of 10 seconds, and places a Blessing on you and your group for 1 hour that buffs Wounds. With 15 points in the Grace tree, Sigmar's Grace buffs Wounds by 50 (500 hit points). It can even be used as a somewhat emergency group heal, because players will be healed for the amount that their Wounds are buffed by, though its long cast and cooldown will limit the availability of its usage. Sigmar's Grace has a range of 80 feet, and also ignores LoS and heal debuffs.
My recommendation is to use Sigmar's Grace at the start of Scenarios/groups or whenever it is purged off of you or your group-mates. It is also useful when you are out of Righteous Fury and need to cast a heal, but beware of its cast time.
Sigmar's Radiance
Sigmar's Radiance is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and heals your group for a base amount plus 75% of the damage you actually dealt (lifetap). Sigmar's Radiance requires an equipped shield (or tome) to be used. Both the base heal and the lifetap heal scale with your offensive stats.
Sigmar's Radiance will be your "bread and butter" group heal, and will be the ability you use the most during your time as Grace. The ability is highly reliable when it comes to healing due to its base heal amount, and it scales well from increases in offensive stats.
My recommendation is to use Sigmar's Radiance the vast majority of the time when you are in combat, but don't forget about the rest of your abilities and their specific uses.
Sigmar's Shield
Sigmar's Shield is an instant-cast 100 foot ranged ability that places a Blessing on your defensive target that lasts for 10 seconds, and heals the defensive target every time they are hit. It drains 10 Righteous Fury from you when this healing occurs.
This is a very powerful passive heal, which can put out big healing in a very short period of time depending on the number of incoming hits to your defensive target.
Keep Sigmar's Shield up on friendly targets that are taking a lot of incoming hits. Usually best placed on melee DPS, or yourself, when focused. It is especially good when being hit by many small hits (less average incoming damage than the healing amount of Sigmar's Shield), so the defensive target will actually heal up to full very quickly. Otherwise, you can think of Sigmar's Shield as subtracting the healing amount from any incoming damage hit.
The benefit of Sigmar's Shield being a passive healing effect is that you can continue using Sigmar's Radiance to heal your party (and also generating Righteous Fury at the same time to fuel Sigmar's Shield) while Sigmar's Shield continues to heal.
Be aware that Sigmar’s Shield can drain your Righteous Fury very quickly though. My recommendation is to cast Sigmar's Shield on whatever friendly is being focused on when you have a large Righteous Fury pool and are actively replenishing it (either via melee attacks or Supplication).
Sigmar's Vision
Sigmar's Vision is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and places a Blessing on your defensive target that buffs Parry by 10% for 15 seconds. It also places a Blessing on you which buffs Block by 10% for 15 seconds (this is obviously only useful if you are wearing a shield).
If you have yourself targeted, you will receive both Blessings. Sigmar's Vision will be your most damaging attack (tied with Sigmar's Shield), and one of the best ways of buffing the survival of you and friendlies engaged in melee combat. Sigmar’s Vision will often be the very first ability you use when you enter combat, and the ability you will want to use the most next to Sigmar's Radiance. This ability essentially makes shields worth using for the Grace Warrior Priest because of the power of Block. Block affects all forms of incoming attacks, be it melee, ranged, or magic. Think of 10% Block as giving you 10% Parry, 10% Dodge, and 10% Disrupt. One thing to keep in mind is that you can only Block attacks that originate in front of you, so you will want to pay attention to your facing and make sure you turn to face your enemies as much as possible. Lastly, Block Rating is mitigated by any offensive stat (Strength, Ballistic Skill, and Intelligence) similar to how Parry, Dodge, and Disrupt are, but Block percentage is only mitigated by the very rare Block Strikethrough.
My recommendation is to buff yourself or a friendly player with Sigmar's Vision as soon as possible when entering combat, and refresh the duration of the block Blessing when it has 5 or less seconds left on its duration, or when buffing a new friendly player with the parry Blessing. It provides an incredible amount of survival, and should be prioritized in your rotation over every other ability except for healing.
Vow of Silence
Vow of Silence is an instant-cast melee ability which deals damage to your targeted enemy and silences them for 4 seconds.
This ability has a long cooldown of 30 seconds. It additionally places a 30 second buff on your enemy called “Unstoppable” which will prevent other abilities that grant “Unstoppable” from being used on the enemy. As a result, be very careful when and how you use this ability. It is best used if you can catch an out-of-position healer with it, silencing them for 4 seconds which may lead to a kill by your party.
Frequently Used Tactics (with usefulness rating)
Charged Fury ** 1/2
This tactic is simple. Every time you strike an enemy with a melee ability, whoever you have selected as your defensive target receives a 150 hit point heal. As you will mainly be striking enemies with your melee healing abilities, this can be seen as a passive 150 increase to your lifetaps. Not flashy, but very effective nonetheless.
Cleansing Power **
Situational in its usage, Cleansing Power changes Purify from a single-target cleanse into a group cleanse. Requiring 8 points in the Salvation tree to use, Cleansing Power is uncommonly taken by Grace and usually best left for Salvation, but can be specced for if necessary for some PvE boss encounters or against multiple DoT-classes. You will not normally spec for this tactic as you will have to sacrifice a highly coveted tactic slot for it, but be aware of how powerful a group cleanse can be (especially in PvE and ORvR).
Discipline **
Willpower does not increase the healing of your Grace abilities, but Discipline is nonetheless useful for the rest of your healing kit if you find yourself using casted heals often (such as in a Fortress defense). Especially useful if you spec into Pious Restoration.
Divine Fury *
Divine Fury increases the damage you deal by 25% (which increases the amount your lifetap heals by 25%), but also reduces your healing output by 20% (which affects casted heals and the base heals from your melee healing abilities). Because your melee healing abilities heal more via their base heals than they do the lifetap portion, this tactic ends up being a net-negative on healing output and thus should ONLY be used when you are trying to maximize your damage output.
Divine Justice ***
Got another Grace Warrior Priest in your party running Prayer of Devotion, or you just want to bring more damage to your party? Spec into Divine Justice and pump up the damage output of your Prayer of Righteousness by 66%! Very useful in ranked Scenarios where kills are hard to get, and often all it takes is one kill to start a snowball.
Divine Warding *** 1/2
All of the base heals from your melee healing abilities can critically heal, and when they do you automatically gain a decent shield. More reliable when you are healing multiple friendlies at once (such as with Sigmar’s Radiance and Sigmar’s Will); this is a nice passive shield that has a very high uptime.
Emperor's Ward **
Potentially useful, especially when dueling in a 1v1 or other small-scale battles. Backed by the mitigation and avoidance levels that Grace can obtain this isn't a bad choice, but you will usually be hard pressed to choose this over another more impactful tactic later on.
Endless Guilt ***
A very strong crowd control option, Endless Guilt turns your Weight of Guilt into an AoE effect in exchange for a minor reduction in snare potency. Very useful in “blob versus blob” combat.
Exalted Defenses ****
With the base heals from your melee abilities being affected by healing buffs (and debuffs), combined with the fact that as Grace you will be blocking/parrying frequently, Exalted Defenses basically ends up being a passive 20% increase to your base heals. Virtually a must-have tactic.
Fanaticism *
Similar to Divine Fury, this tactic includes a 20% healing output debuff that will drastically affect your healing. Though the 10% critical hit chance will increase your damage and thus your lifetap healing, unless you really need the 10% parry bonus it is best to avoid this tactic as Grace.
Fueled Fury **
This tactic is useful if you find yourself constantly out of Righteous Fury. Surprisingly effective when slotted with a cast-heavy build too. It can provide Righteous Fury from a distance by simply being hit. Can additionally build Righteous Fury while you are using Divine Assault or any other Righteous Fury spender.
Grace of Sigmar *****
A must-have tactic, Grace of Sigmar boosts the effectiveness of your melee base healing by 50%! It additionally provides Divine Assault with a base heal component that scales based on your offensive stats, which makes the ability more reliable.
Greave of Sigmar ***
A decent offensive and defensive tactic, Greave of Sigmar makes Sigmar's Fist much more effective in that it causes the ability to not only buff your Toughness by the same amount it buffs your Strength, but also debuff your enemy target's Strength and Toughness by the same amount. This tactic can actually be very useful for turning Sigmar's Fist into a defensive ability that can be used to buff yourself or allies, while also reducing the offense and defense of the enemy. Especially powerful for lowbie Grace Warrior Priests due to its position in the Grace tree. Keep in mind that lowering a target’s Strength also now lowers its strikethrough against your parry and block! However, be aware that the stat buffs/debuffs will not stack with other similar buffs/debuffs, so if this effect is being covered by someone else in your party choose another tactic.
Leading the Prayer ***
Surprisingly powerful, but very often overlooked. How Leading the Prayer works is whenever someone from your party procs Prayer of Devotion, Prayer of Devotion will also immediately proc for you. That means that when the two DPS and the two tanks in your party each proc Prayer of Devotion, Prayer of Devotion will also immediately proc for you. This can lead to a constant stream of Prayer of Devotion procs for your Warrior Priest, and is one of the most effective ways of staying alive in a giant brawl. The downside to Leading the Prayer is if no one in your party is receiving any Prayer of Devotion procs, either due to RNG or an inability to hit an enemy, then you will have a wasted tactic. That said, I recommend this tactic as a strong defensive option. As a final note, this tactic cannot proc for yourself when solo. Pick a different tactic when solo (such as Greave of Sigmar).
Shield of Faith *****
Similar to Fanaticism’s Parry bonus, but providing a Disrupt bonus, a Dodge bonus, AND a Block bonus all without reducing your healing output, Shield of Faith is incredible for increasing your survival. Oftentimes the most dangerous enemies to a Grace Warrior Priest are casters that can't be reached, and thus can't be struck with your melee healing abilities, and this massively helps in survival against that. I would highly recommend using this tactic at all times.
United in Prayer ** 1/2
A very strong buff to healing, United in Prayer provides your party members with a chance to give themselves a buff for 5 seconds that increases incoming healing by 25%. The only caveat is it requires them to hit an enemy in order to trigger the buff, and the buff does not last for long. This makes the buff very reactionary, and unlikely to be triggered by a caster healer or someone who is running away from the enemy. In a protracted fight though, it will have decent uptime for your DPS. That being said, I generally recommend leaving this tactic to a Salvation-specced Warrior Priest who has the tactic slots to bring it, and instead focus on more survivability.
Playstyle
A typical Scenario for me begins with chugging an Armor potion and a Toughness potion if they are not already applied to me. I would then cast Sigmar's Grace in order to buff my and my party's Wounds. When charging towards the enemy, just before making contact, I will often cast Sigmar’s Shield on myself (or another melee DPS) to effectively mitigate incoming damage. I will also often cast Repent when faced against a ranged caster, which will reduce incoming damage and allow me a chance to close the distance before dying.
Once in combat, the very first ability I will use is Sigmar’s Vision in order to buff my Block chance and either mine or an ally’s Parry chance, followed immediately by Sigmar's Fist (to buff my Strength). I will then start spam-casting Sigmar's Radiance on the nearest non-shield-carrying enemy (e.g. not sword-and-board tanks) to heal my party. If I see myself continue to get focused, or if the enemy switches to a friendly, I will cast Sigmar's Shield on that person and use Divine Strike to heal them. If I need to heal outside of my party I will use Divine Strike instead of Sigmar's Radiance, and I will use Divine Assault for big single-target healing or Sigmar’s Will for big multiple-target healing. Don't forget to resurrect dead friendlies and cleanse hurtful debuffs/DoTs!
TLDR: Sigmar’s Shield > Sigmar's Vision > Sigmar's Fist > Sigmar’s Will/Divine Assault > Sigmar's Radiance/Divine Strike
ORvR is another matter, and this is where I would certainly give the nod to Salvation as being the more effective/safe spec. That is not to say that Grace is incapable of participating in ORvR, but you will have to be even more careful with your positioning and need to play more timidly when faced with warband vs warband sizes. You will often find yourself leaning harder on your casted heals during ORvR than you normally would during Scenarios, and depending on other healers to keep you afloat.
Positioning is incredibly important when playing Grace in ORvR, and the best I can describe it is "front-line and a half", in that you are best positioned when you are at the front line, next to your tanks, but a half-step behind them. This allows you more flexibility in movement, such as target changing or disengaging, than if you were directly at the front of the pack. However, I will oftentimes find myself immediately at the front, either due to the change in battle flow or by my own choice, and that is when you need to lean on all of your defensive abilities to stay alive.
Focus on the outskirts of the battle, rather than right in the middle of the murderball, and assist in killing flankers (such as Witch Elves) while using their bodies to lifetap heal your friendlies with. If you find your warband is pushing hard then feel free to join in the charge with your Sigmar’s Will healing. Just be aware that oftentimes the tide of battle can surge back against you, so be prepared to retreat when necessary. Otherwise, your ability rotation will be the same as during Scenarios. Worry first about your own survival, and then worry about buffing and healing friendlies (can’t heal when dead, which makes you a liability).
Also, if you find yourself having difficulty managing the selection of both your offensive target and defensive target at the same time, the add-on WarTriage (viewtopic.php?t=46836) can make that a little easier by managing the selection of your defensive target for you. The mod requires a little bit of setup to its targeting priorities to get it how you like it, but it can certainly make juggling targets much easier by requiring only a single button click to select a new defensive target.
Conclusion
Grace has a very high skill floor and a very high skill ceiling. That means it is brutal to players who don't understand it, but amazing for those that do. Many players will tell you that you are wasting your time when playing Grace, and that you would be better off playing a Salvation heal bot. I disagree vehemently with these other players, but I understand their concerns intimately. Grace is not for the faint of heart, but there is a certain satisfaction to be earned when you lead a Scenario in healing but also have contributory damage and several killing blows. Just remember, when built properly you will be closer to that of a tank than that of a DPS class, and you will ALWAYS be a healer first before you are anything else. Your job is to carry your team to victory, even if it means Sacrificing your own life to do so.
Thank you for reading my Grace guide, and I hope to inspire more Warrior Priests to try Grace!
