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 four 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 currently three 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 Fanaticism as a tactic or Absence of Faith as a heal debuff, or both (depending on the number of Mastery points available to you). 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 ... 2,585,8277
An example RR70+ build would be:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 2,585,8290
The second is the Grace/Salvation build, which uses Salvation as the secondary tree in order to take Divine Light as an emergency group-wide shield. This build would be better when the heal debuff from Absence of Faith is already being covered by another class.
An example RR40 build would be
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 2,585,8277
The third is a Grace/Salvation 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.
An example RR40 build would be:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8277,8289
At RR70+, both Grace/Salvation builds can be combined into one that is very good for dungeons and especially good for ORvR warband play:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 0,585,8289
With the Sov +2 mastery bonus, a version of all three builds can be combined into one that is able to obtain both Fanaticism and Cleansing Power while still having a maxed Grace mastery tree (it can be run without the +2 bonus, but with only 13 ranks in Grace). Though it lacks both Divine Light and Absence of Faith, it is a very flexible build that never really feels out of place and is especially good in dungeons: https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 2,585,8289
You can also play a build similar to the old "hybrid Grace" build (where you'd wear Willpower gear with a 2hander), only this time you have a 1hander/shield and you wear Strength gear. You spec deep into the Salvation tree, grabbing abilities like Divine Light and Pious Restoration, and you swap out your Divine Fury for Exalted Defenses. You can even use Discipline in place of another tactic, getting a nice boost in Willpower without changing your gear. This spec is actually a lot of fun in ORvR, especially around keeps and forts, but lacks the focus of either a full Grace or full Salvation build (especially in regards to Strength or Willpower).
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 2,592,8280
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, or effectively 36% (!!) worth of Avoidance stats. 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 is thus a less efficient (but still an important) way to spend Renown points, 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 and Vigor for Wounds, 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 max Defender and rank 3 both Deft Defender and Reflexes to optimize your survivability versus all forms of incoming attacks. I would then spend the remaining points on either Vigor if you are struggling to stay alive, or Might for Strength 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 -or- 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, Grace wants Strength gear. Salvation also has the luxury of easier access to Willpower gear via ORvR sets (Annihilator/Conqueror/Vanquisher/Invader) and the first dungeon, Gunbad (Redeye). On the other hand, Grace has more difficult access to Strength gear via scenario sets (Mercenary/Dominator/Oppressor), the second dungeon(s), Crypts & Tunnels (Sentinel), 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. 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 if you can't hit.
No matter what gear you end up wearing, remember first that you need to survive before you can output 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 most powerful defensive jewelry sets, especially 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/cloaks (such as the Genesis Warrior jewelry set).
As a starting goal, I'd aim for around 750 Strength+Melee Power (including self-buffs), with more being better so long as you aren't sacrificing defensive stats. Defensively, I’d aim for around 3300 armor (when using a 660 armor potion, to "soft cap" your mitigation at 75%), 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 you can muster. Weapon Skill is also nice for increasing your damage output and the lifetap amount of Sigmar’s Radiance, 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 3300 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.
Sovereign Martyr gear pieces require the Invader Ward, which can be achieved by obtaining and equipping all of the Bloodlord armor pieces. Bloodlord also can be combined with Vale-Walker to make the strongest gear set prior to Sovereign Martyr:
- 5-piece Vale-Walker (shoulders, body, gloves, boots, jewel)/3-piece Bloodlord (helm, belt, cloak), Genesis Warrior Aspect+Remnant, Rough Gunbad Diamond/Ruby, Titan’s Battlehammer of Reverence, Bloodlord Buckler – 4 Strength, 1 Wounds, and 2 Armor talismans
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 Bloodlord Buckler (from Bastion Stairs influence rewards), or the Fortress Targe (Invader vendor). The Bloodlord Buckler is for being more offensive, while the Fortress Targe is for being more defensive.
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 Rough Gunbad Diamond for a Genesis Warrior Fragment to be more offensive). 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 (in addition to the jewel) to create the overall BiS build.
- 5-piece Sovereign (shoulders, chest, boots, cloak, jewel)/3-piece Bloodlord (helm, gloves, belt) - Surprisingly, the tankiest build you can create. 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.
- 7-piece Sovereign/2-piece Sentinel (helm, jewel) – 1 Wounds talisman - Mastery bonus build with a very juicy block proc.
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 8k health (before buffs) should be an eventual priority because a dead Grace Warrior Priest outputs no healing, but do keep in mind your damage/healing output potential. Have fun experimenting with different gear combinations, and find what works best for you!
Frequently Used Abilities
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 heal", especially for friendlies that are not in your party. 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 costs 35 Righteous Fury, deals damage to your targeted enemy, and heals your defensive target and all friendlies within 20 feet of your defensive target for 150% of the damage dealt (lifetap). It deals Spirit damage, and as a result will not benefit from Weapon Skill.
Divine Strike is an interesting ability that has several key differences from Sigmar's Radiance. First, Divine Strike deals less damage than Sigmar's Radiance, but it deals Spirit damage instead of physical damage. Second, it costs Righteous Fury instead of Action Points. Third, Divine Strike can be used to heal friendlies outside of your party whereas Sigmar's Radiance cannot. In terms of healing only your party, Sigmar's Radiance usually beats Divine Strike because even if Divine Strike deals more damage to a heavily armored tank (from its Spirit damage), it usually cannot overcome the base healing of Sigmar's Radiance (though the Grace of Sigmar tactic can greatly improve this). Where Divine Strike comes into usefulness is healing groups of friendlies (especially if they are clumped up, such as in a melee ball) outside of your party.
My recommendation is to mainly use Divine Strike when healing out of party, or as a "Righteous Fury dump", allowing you to regenerate Action Points (for Sigmar's Radiance usage) while still providing healing.
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.
Purge
Purge is an instant-cast melee ability that deals damage and removes one Enchantment from your target. It requires your target to have an Enchantment first before you can use the ability. Purge is very useful in removing Absorb shields from enemies, which if left alone will greatly reduce your healing output because damage that is absorbed does not count towards your lifetap heals.
My recommendation is to weave Purges into your rotation often, especially just before you intend to use Divine Assault. Few things are worse than seeing your entire channeled ability get absorbed and provide zero healing.
Purify
Purify is an instant-cast ability with a 150 foot range that removes one Curse or Hex from your defensive target. It costs 25 Righteous Fury to cast, and has a 5 second cooldown.
Purify can be an incredibly powerful tool depending on the Curse or Hex that you manage to remove.
My recommendation is to use Purify whenever you get the "opportunity" to do so, such as when you have a spare global cooldown, are moving in between enemies, or when you don't need to immediately heal someone's health (the removal of the Curse/Hex would be more beneficial).
Repent
Repent is an instant-cast ability with a 100 foot range that "detaunts'' the targeted enemy, causing them to deal only 50% damage to you for 15 seconds. It has a 15 second cooldown, for an effective uptime of 100%. If you are wearing a shield or greatweapon, you will additionally detaunt all enemies within 30 feet around you for 5 seconds. With the 15 second cooldown, this AoE effect has an effective uptime of 33%. The detaunt effect is removed from an enemy if you attack them.
Repent, and all other detaunts, are incredibly powerful abilities that give you a massive boost to survival. It should be noted that detaunts do not stack with Guard from tanks, so you do not get double benefit.
My recommendation is to use Repent smartly, and try to detaunt the most dangerous enemy that is attacking you so they receive the full 15 second detaunt effect, while everyone else around you will receive the 5 second detaunt effect. Avoid attacking the enemy with the 15 second detaunt effect, and instead attack the other targets around you (preferably the squishiest one) with your lifetaps. This will maximize your survivability against your most dangerous foe while also maximizing the amount of healing you can output.
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is a channeled ability that costs 25 Righteous Fury and an amount of damage to you per second, but heals your group for 175% of the damage dealt (effectively a lifetap that targets you instead of your enemy). It has a maximum channel time of 10 seconds and a cooldown of 20 seconds. It cannot be used while on the move, and you can cancel it early by moving or jumping in place. Sacrifice requires a shield equipped to be used.
Sacrifice is an absolutely incredible heal, but you have to be smart with it due to its dangerous nature. It is best used when your whole group is low on life (less than 50%) and you are high on life (75% or more). Think of Sacrifice as a health pool equalizer, because it heals your group while it damages you. Due to its design it ignores healing debuffs. It also functions like all other group heals in that it works through walls/floors out of Line of Sight. Sacrifice can even be used just to heal a single group-mate semi-effectively because it heals for more than it damages you, but to best maximize its efficiency I would save it as a sort of "emergency heal" where your group is low on life but you are still sitting healthy. Another great use of Sacrifice is when you are away from the enemy but need to quickly heal a group-mate, such as after you get punted or simply don't have a nearby enemy to hit.
My recommendation for usage is to mainly use Sacrifice in short bursts of 3-5 seconds, as the longer it channels the lower your health will be, making you a juicy target for quick-switches by the enemy. If you are surrounded by enemies consider using Repent for extra protection before you cast Sacrifice.
Shielding Grace
Shielding Grace is a channeled ability that breaks roots/snares on you, buffs the Parry, Dodge, and Disrupt of you and your group-mates (within 100 feet) by 10%, and casts/refreshes a 250-health ranged-damage absorb shield on you and your group-mates (within 100 feet) every second during its duration. It has a maximum channel time of 10 seconds and a cooldown of 60 seconds, and costs 25 Righteous Fury per second while channeled. It can be used while on the move, and you can "jump" to cancel its channel prematurely. Shielding Grace requires a shield equipped to be used.
Shielding Grace’s best use is as a snare/root breaker, but is also amazing when pushing towards casters or holding a location because of its avoidance/absorb buffs. You can even use it when trying to disengage from combat!
My recommendation is to use Shielding Grace sparingly and smartly. It is powerful, but has a long cooldown and high Righteous Fury cost, and you don't want to get caught with it on cooldown or without any Righteous Fury if you find yourself in a situation where you really need it.
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 120 points. Grace's lifetap heals (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 80 (800 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 for a base amount equal to 100% of its damage value before mitigations (“target dummy damage”), plus 80% of the damage you actually dealt (lifetap). Sigmar's Radiance requires an equipped shield to be used.
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 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 melee ability that deals damage to your targeted enemy and places a Blessing on your defensive target that lasts for 10 second 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. Sigmar's Shield also deals a large amount of damage.
Keep Sigmar's Shield up on friendly targets that are taking a lot of incoming hits. Usually best placed on melee DPS, or yourself if 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.
My recommendation is to cast Sigmar's Shield as soon as it is off cooldown on whatever friendly is being focused on.
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.
Smite
Smite is an instant-cast ability that deals damage across an arc in front of your character to all enemies within 50 feet, building 15 Righteous Fury per enemy hit, with a 5 second cooldown.
Smite is a fantastic way to regenerate your spent Righteous Fury, such as when fueling Sigmar's Shield. It is also useful for dismounting multiple enemies or disrupting Battle Objective flag captures, and is the only Area of Effect attack that Grace Warrior Priests possess.
My recommendation is to use Smite when it is most effective, such as when trying to generate Righteous Fury quickly or when assisting in AoE bombing, and save your global cooldowns for your more impactful abilities.
Supplication
Supplication is a channeled ability that will convert 30 Action Points to 30 Righteous Fury every second for 5 seconds, for a maximum of 180 AP converted to 180 RF, with a 10 second cooldown. It requires you to be stationary to keep channeling, but does not require you to be stationary to cast. This allows you to cast the ability on the move, and you will get 1 instant tick upon cast before it ends the channel, for a total of 30 AP converted into 30 RF.
My recommendation is to use Supplication often, depending on your need to refill your Righteous Fury pool, but keep in mind it is much more effective if you have time to stand still and channel it for its full duration.
Frequently Used Tactics (with usefulness rating)
Charged Fury ** 1/2
Useful if you find yourself constantly out of Righteous Fury, and thus unable to power your Divine Strike, Divine Assault, Sigmar's Shield, Sacrifice, or Shielding Grace. Can change your rotation to be more Righteous Fury-heavy due to the increased generation.
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 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).
Discipline/Divine Warding/Exalted Defenses/Refreshing Radiance/Restorative Burst *
I mention these tactics here only for helping players avoid them when playing Grace. These tactics work for casted heals and DO NOT WORK WITH GRACE LIFETAPS, since lifetaps are not considered casted heals. The only time you would consider any of these tactics is with a hybrid build, which forgoes Divine Fury/Fanaticism for full-strength casted heals.
Divine Fury *****
A must-use tactic, Divine Fury increases the damage you deal by 25% which increases the amount your lifetap ability heals by 25%. Because lifetap healing abilities are not positively affected by healing buffs (Focused Mending) nor negatively affected by healing debuffs, the -20% healing debuff on Divine Fury can be ignored for all Grace heals. Keep in mind the -20% healing debuff WILL affect any casted Salvation heals you may want to use.
Divine Justice *** 1/2
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.
Emperor's Ward ** 1/2
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.
Fanaticism ****
A tactic that boosts your offenses (and thus healing) while simultaneously boosting your defenses is a powerful thing to use. Depending on your gear and renown point build, Fanaticism gives roughly a 5% boost to your effective healing output due to its critical chance increase. The 10% Parry that Fanaticism also gives, when combined with all of your other avoidance buffs, can make you incredibly hard to hit in melee combat. Similar to Divine Fury, the -20% healing debuff can largely be ignored due to the nature of lifetaps, but be aware of its existence if you need to rely on a casted heal to stay alive or save a friendly.
Fueled Fury **
Similar to Charged Fury, this tactic is useful if you find yourself constantly out of Righteous Fury. Surprisingly effective when slotted with a hybrid build too. Doesn’t normally build as much Righteous Fury as Charged Fury when engaged in heavy combat, but can provide Righteous Fury from a distance when Charged Fury can’t by simply being hit. Can additionally build Righteous Fury while you are using Divine Strike/Divine Assault or any other Righteous Fury spender.
Grace of Sigmar *****
Another must-have tactic, Grace of Sigmar boosts the effectiveness of your lifetaps by 25%. It should be noted that Divine Strike's lifetap becomes 187.5%, Divine Assault's lifetap becomes 437.5%, and Sigmar's Radiance's lifetap becomes 100%. This is the tactic that makes Grace lifetaps have the edge they need to compete with other healers’ casted heals. Additionally, when equipped with a shield your Divine Strike will gain the ability to cleave up to 2 additional enemies within 25 feet of your target. While this does provide a little extra AoE-esque damage, the primary function of this is effectively boosting your Divine Strike’s lifetap amount to 562.5% (3 targets at 187.5% lifetap each). Very useful in a melee deathball, just be careful with its usage if you’ve recently detaunted nearby enemies. Offensive-target a clump of enemies, defensive-target a friendly (especially one amongst a clump of other friendlies), and watch the healing numbers fly across your screen.
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.
Hastened Divinity * 1/2
Normally a must-have tactic for Wrath Warrior Priests, this tactic is vastly forgettable on Grace Warrior Priests due to it providing only a very small benefit to DPS output. Considering a Grace Warrior Priest's job is to survive first, heal second, and output damage third, there are much better choices than this.
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 used to be functional when solo (you could self-proc it) but that is no longer the case after the ability code rewrite. Pick a different tactic when solo (such as Greave of Sigmar).
Shield of Faith **
Similar to Fanaticism, but providing a Disrupt bonus instead of a Parry bonus, Shield of Faith isn't that bad of a tactic. Oftentimes the most dangerous enemies to a Grace Warrior Priest are casters that can't be reached, and thus can't be lifetapped off of, and this helps in survival against that. If fighting a caster-heavy enemy team, this may prove more useful than Fanaticism.
Subtlety ** 1/2
This reduces all the threat you generate in PvE encounters by 25%. Against many dungeon bosses this can be absolutely critical, and the difference between pulling aggro off your tanks thus wiping the group, or staying safely behind with your threat. This tactic is especially important since Grace generates threat from two sources, both damage dealt and healing provided, whereas Salvation only generates threat from healing provided.
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 cast Repent on the incoming melee train. I will also often cast Shielding Grace when faced against multiple ranged casters, which will allow me to avoid many opening attacks due to my increased avoidance rates, and ignore any snares/roots as well.
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). 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 continue using Sigmar's Radiance. As mentioned above, if I need to heal out of my party I will use Divine Strike instead of Sigmar's Radiance, and I will use Divine Assault on cooldown for big healing. Don't forget to resurrect dead friendlies!
If I am not the focused target and my team around me starts dropping low in life due to AoE damage, I will use Sacrifice to heal up my group quickly, canceling the channel prematurely if I find myself in danger or my group fully healed.
Positioning is incredibly important when playing Grace, 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.
TLDR: Sigmar’s Vision > Sigmar's Shield > Sigmar's Fist > 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 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 Sacrifice during ORvR than you normally would during Scenarios, and depending on other healers to keep you afloat.
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 Shielding Grace. 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).
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!