Smite is a filler rotation with upkeep. You keep three things on the boss, cast 
Smite in every gap, and choose the rank of each Smite by how your mana compares with the time left.
Before the pull
- 1At -5 s: Cast Dark Sacrifice
- 2At -3 s: Cast
Holy Fire
Begin casting Holy Fire roughly 3 seconds ahead of the pull. Divine Fury cuts its cast to 3 seconds, so it lands as the fight starts and your first Smite already has Power in Light's bonus. Skipping it costs 7.0 % of your damage.
Priority
Whenever you're free to act, go down the list and cast the first line whose condition is true. It isn't a sequence: most of the time the answer is a Smite.
- 1Use the other cooldowns as they come up+70 DPS · 11.1 %
- 2Strict sequence: Cast
Inner Focus, then Cast Holy Fire if Holy Fire remaining < 3 s6.1/min+1.8 DPS · 0.3 % - 3Cast Holy Fire if Holy Fire remaining < 1 s5.1/min+13 DPS · 2.0 %
- 4Cast
Penance (Rank 4)5.0/min−7.5 DPS · −1.2 % - 5Cast
Shadow Word: Pain if Shadow Word: Pain not ticking3.5/min+50 DPS · 7.9 % - 6Cast
Devouring Plague if time remaining ≥ 121.0/min+17 DPS · 2.7 % - 7Cast Smite if mana % ≥ time remaining % × 0.915/min+39 DPS · 6.1 %
- 8Cast Smite–
What the widget doesn't say about each line:
- Your cooldowns, as they come up.
Talisman of Ascendance, the racials, the mana potion and the rune all sit on this line. The Cooldowns section says when each goes. - Inner Focus, then Holy Fire, when Holy Fire is about to run out. Once every three minutes the refresh costs no mana and gets 25 % more chance to crit. The line is worth 0.3 %.
- Holy Fire just before its dot runs out. Power in Light only raises Smites that land while your Holy Fire burns on the target, so a late refresh costs you that bonus on every Smite in between. The line is worth 2.0 %.
- Penance, in the Horde build. It is only there as the path to Power Infusion, and the line scores below zero (−1.2 %). Don't cast it.
- Shadow Word: Pain whenever it is not on the boss. It is instant and ticks for 18 seconds, 24 with Improved Shadow Word: Pain, worth 7.8 %.
- Devouring Plague on cooldown while 12 seconds or more remain. That is one a minute, and it heals you for what it deals. Worth 2.7 %.
- Smite at rank 8 while your mana is ahead of the fight. The condition compares your mana percentage with the share of the fight still to go, so the pool runs dry as the boss dies, not before. Worth 6.1 %.
- Smite at rank 4 otherwise. On a one-minute fight your mana lasts, so this line never fires.
More than one target
With three bosses in range, the list changes.
Put Shadow Word: Pain on all three and keep it there: on a three-minute fight against three bosses it does 41.2 % of your damage and the line is worth 25.9 %. Keep Holy Fire on one boss for Power in Light, and Smite that boss. The three-boss rotations drop to rank 7 Smite, not rank 4, once mana falls below a set share: on three minutes rank 7 is 22.1 % of your damage.
Against three bosses for two minutes the rotation spends Inner Focus on a Smite at the pull, and that line scores a little below zero (−0.6 %), so skipping it costs nothing.
For one minute against three bosses the builds take 
Holy Nova, which hits every enemy within 10 yards and heals your party. The rotation casts it while your mana is ahead of the fight, and on a one-minute fight against three bosses it does 42.7 % of your damage. Our simulator doesn't check the radius and places you 30 yards away, so that number assumes you can stand within 10 yards of all three bosses.
Cooldowns
Smite has no damage cooldown to save for an execute phase. What you press on cooldown is Talisman of Ascendance, at the pull and every minute after: each of the next five spells you cast in its 20 seconds adds 40 spell damage, up to 200. A Gnome's Eureka! and a Troll's Berserking go at the pull. On one boss, Inner Focus goes on a Holy Fire once every three minutes.
The Horde one-minute build adds 
Power Infusion, 20 % spell damage for 15 seconds, used at the pull with 
Berserking.
The mana items wait until their whole gain fits under your maximum mana, and the table below shows when that was. On one boss for three minutes 
Major Mana Potion is worth 3.7 % and 
Demonic Rune 2.4 %.
| Cooldown | Uses | At |
|---|---|---|
| Berserking | 1 | 0:00 |
| Talisman of Ascendance | 1 | 0:00 |
| Power Infusion | 1 | 0:00 |
| Devouring Plague | 1 | 0:03 |
| Demonic Rune | 1 | 0:05 |
| Inner Focus | 1 | 0:08 |
| Major Mana Potion | 1 | 0:24 |
What your log should show
Set a Warcraft Logs report of yours beside this table. If your Smites a minute fall short of it, you lost casts to movement or to waiting.
| Ability | Casts per minute | Of damage | Crit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smite | 15.5 | 45.7 % | 19.7 % |
| Holy Fire | 5.1 | 20.2 % | 21.5 % |
| Shadow Word: Pain | 3.5 | 15.2 % | 14.7 % |
| Penance (Rank 4) | 5.0 | 14.7 % | 19.7 % |
| Devouring Plague | 1.0 | 4.3 % | 14.7 % |
| Smite | – | 0.0 % | – |
| Power Infusion | 1.0 | – | – |
| Inner Focus | 1.0 | – | – |
| Berserking | 1.0 | – | – |
| Major Mana Potion | 1.0 | – | – |
| Talisman of Ascendance | 1.0 | – | – |
| Demonic Rune | 1.0 | – | – |
Look for about 15.5 Smites a minute across both ranks, Smite near 45.7 % of your damage, and Holy Fire near 20.2 %. The two Smite lines in the table are rank 8 and the cheap rank.
Uptimes
| Buff or debuff | Uptime | Times per fight |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow Word: Painon the boss | 86.7 % | 3.0 |
| Holy Fireon the boss | 83.1 % | 5.0 |
| Devouring Plagueon the boss | 34.7 % | 0.9 |
| Ascendance | 33.5 % | 1.0 |
| Ascendance | 33.3 % | 1.0 |
| Holy Purpose | 32.0 % | 2.5 |
| Power Infusion | 25.0 % | 1.0 |
| Berserking | 16.7 % | 1.0 |
| Penance (Rank 4)on the boss | 16.5 % | 5.0 |
| Inner Focus | 4.5 % | 1.0 |
Holy Fire on the boss should sit near 83.1 %: every second without it costs Power in Light's 10 % on your Smites. Holy Purpose is the free Holy Nova from Searing Light, which does nothing unless your build has Holy Nova.
Our simulated rotations never cast Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death or, for Night Elves, Starshards. Those lines were never tested on this build, so this guide can't say whether they belong.