Further analysis of Priest skills aside from elites would be a welcome addition.
Personally, I only put ranks in the following:
Urgent Heal - Alternatively could put ranks in Heal, if you don't need Urgent for 2nd or 3rd class
Regenerate - Ticking heal, always good to have
Grace of Life - HP buff
Amplified Attack - Patt buff
Faith - Helps Self Heals
Healing Salve - Helps Self Heals
I also put ranks in Wave Armor, but I don't think I can really recommend it. Even under lvl 50, it's pretty useless.
Also, from the warrior side I maxed everything except Brute Strength.
Slash is great for the bleed in prolonged fights, provided that you're using an axe. I try to keep it ticking away when fighting bosses, because over the course of it's whole duration, it does more damage than any of your other abilities, and for less rage.
Hammers are only good for the increased heals. Axes have higher dps, and tend to have crit bonuses, not to mention they allow Slash to proc bleed damage.