Saturday, May 23, 2009

Holy Priest Healing 101

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This is the second installment of our Healing 101 series! Today Fuyuko, fellow guildmate and healer, will discuss everything you ever wanted to know about healing the priest-y way. For more info, check out her blog!


Priests: Why we are sexy!

I've been reading various blogs and websites recently in an effort to better my raid healing ability, and I've noticed a lot of misconceptions about us from non-priests, as well as a lot of acronym spewing by the priest community themselves. So when Averna asked me if I'd write a "Whut r priests?" kind of post, I was excited to do so! But keep in mind, this is coming from a holy priest, not a disc priest or even a "healy" priest (Ya know, one of those people who dual-spec holy/disc??? Craziness!!)

What is a holy priest’s job and what are the main spells he/she uses?
Well, I start every encounter with a PoM on the MT, and some HoTs, and then CoH every CD with a PoH on AoE…..

BAH. As Lindsay Lohan called it in Mean Girls, “word vomit.” And yes, I totally quoted Lindsay Lohan. HAHAHAHA.


Anyway, here’s the real story.

Holy priests are raid healers, as well as your all-around healers. We do very well with AoE damage, while also fitting in to the roles of other healers to a lesser degree. Shaman are still the AoE healers, but priests are a good second. We can save a tank, single-target heal, or HoT up the raid, although to a lesser degree than our counterparts (if they know what they‘re doing). We should be assigned to raid healing most of the time, although there are always times that call for our abilities in other areas (such as OT healing and watching the raid). MT healing really isn’t our forte unless our Guardian Spirit is called for, especially in Ulduar, because our mana pool can’t sustain incredible hits for long, long fights, and a Disc priest’s bubble is far superior to any we cast.

To quote Elitist Jerks: "Tank Healing: Don't heal tanks unless you absolutely have to. Blizzard gutted holy priest tank healing in 3.1, and it's a lost cause. Without IHC and the old Serendipity, we can't even hope to keep up with shamans, no less paladins or druids. Just don't heal tanks. If you want to tank heal, go Disc."

Our big spells are below, and the numbers in the brackets are the [average hit/max critical hit] of my spells that I took from one of our WWS pages. These are gear-based, raid-buffed numbers, but I thought they might help show what these spells can do in 25-man raids.

Circle of Healing (CoH): Instant cast. 6 second cool down. [2,779 / 5,730]
This is the big spell that everyone remembers from Sunwell. It used to be an instant, no-cool down smart raid-heal, but a 6 second cool down was added to keep some priests from merely banging their heads on their keyboards for 3 hours and then begging for innervates. It targets up to 5 people in the raid with the lowest health, and heals them. It's kind of similar to Wild Growth, only with no heal over time component, and can affect players in a larger radius.

Prayer of Healing (PoH): 3 second cast. [5,569 / 9,846]
Many priests put this one away for a long time, only recently to realize when they pulled those shiny AoE-healing jeans out of the closet that they now fit juuuust right. Prayer of Healing heals each member of a targeted party and, if glyphed (which I personally think you should be), also adds a heal-over-time effect to each party member for 20% of the amount healed. PoH used to be the priest’s own party only, but Blizzard was kind and made it a target-party ability.

Prayer of Mending (PoM): Instant cast. [4,374 / 12,367]
Prayer of Mending sits on the target for 30 seconds, and when the target is damaged, gives them a quick instant heal before bouncing on to another target. It bounces up to 5 times, and is that fun little “piiiiiiiiiing” sound you may hear during raids. It's got a 10 second cool down.

Renew: Instant cast. [2,011 / 2,920]
Awww… poor Renew has no acronym. =( But Renew doesn’t care if its name is too short to… uh…. shorten. Because Renew is awesome sauce. It is the priest’s heal-over-time spell, and can gain many bonuses from talents and glyphs. It can be thrown onto a dpser, such as a shadow-priest who just cast Shadow Word: Death, for example, and will heal them over a period of 15 seconds. This should be on your MT at all times, as well as on any OTs.

Flash Heal: 1.5 second cast. [5,656 / 11,661]
Man, this spell was fun on Patchwerk. Flash Heal is exactly what it says. It’s a quick heal that can crit, and lets us pretend we’re pallies, if only for a short time... Some priests use Greater Heal more than Flash Heal, but it has a longer cast time, costs more mana (32% base mana versus 18%), and will probably be overheal by the time you get it cast in a raid. It’s more useful for heroics, in my opinion.

In short, if things are going fairly well, a holy priest will put Prayer of Mending up every cooldown, use Circle of Healing every cooldown (unless everyone is topped off, then I see no point in wasting the mana when it’s an instant cast), and Prayer of Healing for heavy AoE encounters, such as Tantrum on XT. We keep Renews on the tanks, and throw them on to the naughty fire-bathing DPSers, and toss around a Flash Heal here and there.

**Note: We have another AoE heal spell called Holy Nova, whose role is currently being debated in the priest community. It used to be an extremely expensive, aggro-sucking spell because it both healed and dealt damage. Its mana cost has since been reduced, and through glyphs, it can be an awesome situational mobile AoE heal because it is an instant with no cool down. I’m currently considering picking up the glyph for a raid and giving it a try…


Oh no! I was alt-tabbed out on Facebook and didn’t see the tank drop!!!! Whut do I doooooooo???

(This is Fuyu's old forum sig. Note that if you want this achievement, you do NOT want to use Guardian Spirit. Also, you will most likely get gkicked and/or pugkicked if you actually earn this achievement. Achieve at your own risk.)

Never fear!!!! Guardian Spirit is here! Guardian Spirit is an instant cast buff (wings graphic) that stays on the target for 10 seconds. It increases healing on the target by 40%, and if the target’s health hits 0 before it expires, that target will be brought back up to 50% health instantly.

YEAH. It’s THAT good. And glyphed, if the spell expires without being used, the normally 3 minute cool down is reset to 1 minute. It’s the “oh shi----” button of holy priests, although some holy priests don’t take the talent. I personally find it necessary, because even though “doing it right” should mean the spell isn’t necessary, when something DOES go wrong, Guardian Spirit can save your butt.

Now, this shouldn't be confused with the big blue wings that appear when priests hit the floor. If you see this chick in a raid, you know that your priest has died (oops), and also has the Spirit of Redemption talent.

What talents should a holy priest take?

This is my build.

There is a loooooooot of discussion on this right now, and I am a very lazy person, so I am going to link my current build because it is the one I have found to be amazing in raids. The other holy priests in our guild all have different versions of their holy trees, with points moved here and there (say, from Empowered Healing to Blessed Resilience and such), and it really depends on your play style. I saw a Lightwell in our raid the other night (a mid-tree talent that not all priests take)! Body and Soul also gives a nice speed boost to targets with Power Word: Shield.

And, to quote EJ again (Wait, am I writing an English paper??): "As well, if you spec'd into Body and Soul, make sure you explore how to best use it to save people from their own stupidity. The speed boost really helps when avoiding things like Light Bomb explosions on XT, or Shadow Crash on General Vejax."

The disc tree of a holy priest should look almost exactly like what I have linked, with the exception of possibly speccing into Inner Focus, which gives a mana-free, +25% crit chance spell every 3 minutes. I didn’t put the point into it because I never use it anyway, but a lot of priests find it helpful. If you’re a priest and you’ll remember it’s there, then take it if you like. One might also argue for points in Improved Power Word: Shield, but for a holy priest, I find that to be more of a soloing talent/pvp/disc priest talent.

What stats do holy priests look for?

Man, I miss the days of healing power and spell power being separate stats. I really do…. I hate losing an item called “Blah Blah of Great Healing, Life-Saving, Save-y-ness” to a DPS because it has the same stats they use… plus, the pretty glow. T_T

The main stats holy priests look for nowadays are spell power, spirit, intellect, haste, and crit. The general rule is to gem and enchant for regen until you are comfortable with your mana, and then change to throughput. Surge of Light, another mid-tree talent that can proc a free Flash Heal on some spell crits, stops benefiting from crit around 30%, so if a priest is getting pretty close to that in raids, he/she will usually go for spell power or haste.

Spirit used to be the bomb-diggity for out-of-combat regen. I used (and still do use) Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon, and in Naxx 25s under the old out-of-combat spirit regen mechanics, I was gaining up to 1400mp5 while casting when this procced. Blizzard has since changed the way regen works, and many priests switched to stacking intellect instead of spirit. Both impact our regen in different ways.

And haste is... well.... haste. Yeah.

What other cool stuff do Holy Priests do?

Priests in general bring some pretty nice buffs to the raid:

Prayer of Fortitude (Fort): Increases all party/raid members’ stamina by 165 for an hour, and 214 when talented.
Prayer of Spirit: Increases all party/raid members’ spirit by 80 for an hour.
Prayer of Shadow Protection: Increases all party/raid members’ shadow resistance by 130 for 20 minutes, 30 if glyphed.

We also have Fear Ward, which blocks one fear on one target, and can be used in some raid encounters on ourselves or a tank, etc., as well as Inner Fire, a self-buff that increases our spell power by 120 and armor by 2440 for 30 minutes for 32 charges, talented.

We have two channeled hymns as well that we use:

Hymn of Hope: Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 sec. Maximum of 12 mana restores, 6 minute cool down.

Divine Hymn: Heals 3 nearby lowest health friendly party or raid targets for 3024 to 3342 every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases healing done to them by 10% for 8 sec. Maximum of 12 heals, 10 minute cool down.

And then there’s Shadowfiend, which got a shiny buff recently. We get 5% mana back when he attacks a target, and with glyphs, even more. We can use him every 5 minutes.

Priests can also abolish diseases, dispel magic, shackle undead mobs, AoE fear, and fade to drop aggro.

TL;DR Version

Holy priests are awesome raid healers and should generally be assigned to do such. We can do OT healing decently, and keep HoTs rolling, but should not be on MT healing unless it’s absolutely necessary. We have our own version of everything other healers can do, but as with many jack-of-all-trades, we don’t do it quite as well. We raid heal through AoE smart heals and targeted party heals. We can restore mana and health to raids through our channeled spells; we bring stamina, spirit, and shadow resistance buffs; and have an amazing “Oh shi--!” button with Guardian Spirit.

For more priesty goodness and information, head on over to Fuyuko's blog, The Unconventional Priest!

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19 remarks:

Corgii said...

Thanks for the informative post! I've been wanting to play my horde/alli priest for a while now, but going from a Druid to a Priest/Paladin has always been scary to me.

Playing on my boyfriend's paladin is such a huge change; I'm so used to putting up HoTs and just tapping my foot, waiting to refresh them.

This post made me feel a lot less daunted and afraid of the class; thanks!

Ps - I got that facebook achievement once... >_> I'm lucky I use two monitors; one for WoW and one for websurfing during down time XD

Unknown said...

A lot of things about this post are shaky and the information is mediocre at best. I am not sure if you just really suck or are not familiar with a lot of the ulduar 25 fights but holy priests being second best raid healer and.. being all around healers wtf r u talking about. Holy priests on most fights are the top of the healing meter they have the most powerful aoe healing spells and with the speed of circle of healing and prayer of mending going around they should always be at top on most fights. I am not sure how familiar you are with mimiron 25 man, but many guilds have problems with this fight because of the second phase dealing massive amounts of damage to the raid. Raids with 2 ore more holy priests can heal this damage quite easily. In my guild on the second phase me and another holy priest in my guild double the healing of all the other healers in that phase. Holy priests use more mana then resto shamans but when it comes to healing per second for the raid holy priests are in first by far. Now another thing u said was that holy is versatile this is so far from true its ridicluos. the worst tank healers in the game are holy priests we are about as veratile as a prot war. We are raid healers. end of story. Thats why its best when you dual spec disc so in fights when u have to tank heal you are prepared too.
Okay now second criticisms lol your spec. your spec is bizarre and not very good at all in fact its awful. Holy priest specs are hard but heres something not tod o do not waste points in things like improved healing that dont really help or desperate prayer and not take an extra point in surge of light or holy reach. improved healnig doesnt help because greater heal is a rare cast. and desperate prayer is 100 percent useless.... heres why and it leads
to another thing. when u have taken damage as a holy priest u need to binding heal in fact it is a main spell it heals more then a flash on 2 targets in the same amount of time its very powerful it is one of are main spells imo.
Additionally in the gemming you didnt say to do this but, gemming int or spirit isnt the best idea as a holy priest the smartest ones will go for spellpower. In conclusion because im kinda rambling on theres a lot of stuff you really seem to undersell holy priests we arent the jack of all trades at fucking all. we are just incredibly powerful raid healers that are extremely useful. we are way more powerful then shamans if u cant keep up with resto shammies in major aoe fights you are not doing soemthing right i assure you. holy priest healing is hard and takes a lot of practice but it is no short of the best aoe healing in the game at the moment. In fact my guild who has downed yogg-saron on 25 man ALWAYS asigns a holy priest to the raid healing THEY NEVER EVER EVEr assign a holy priest to an off tank resto shamans are so much beetter at that. So finally if you want to argue my points thats fine just show me a webstats of a resto shaman getting like 7k hps on ignis and beating a holy priest who knowsw what there doing on 25 man mimiron and ill believe u maybe are resto shamans who have been playing for over 2 years dont know how to chain heal spam.
This just pisses me off blogs like these are why some fucktards think holy priests are bad and secondary to shamans. I mean why the fuck do u think resto shamans are getting buffed majorly in 3.2 because there vastly superior to holy priests umm.. no.

-Ben, character name= spïrit

Averna said...

@Ben: This post wasn't meant to be a "How to heal Mimiron25 as a priest." It was meant to be a very generalized informative post about what types of spells priests use, etc - basic info for people who don't play the class. Fuyuko is a fantastic player, and I'll talk to her to see what we can do about answering some of your questions.

Also, easy on the language, cowboy. No one here is a fucktard.

Fuyuko said...

@Ben

I wasn't going to reply because you obviously did not take the time to READ my post, let alone write out an intelligent disagreement, and it kinda comes off as nothing more than a rage-filled Youtube comment, but I'll let that one slide because I just had my coffee this morning.

- I am raiding Ulduaur at the moment, so I'm not ignorant about the fights.

- I'm glad your guild is so far in progression. Congrats.

- If you know anything about priests at all, you'll know that resto druids almost always top us in meters, which don't really matter anyway, HAHA. Meter-topping does not the best healer make. An informed raider knows this.

- The shamans in my guild are REALLY GOOD. If I spammed my AoE heals when everyone is at 100% just for funsies I'm sure I could top the meters with no problem, but I don't waste mana. Being the top on the meter won't help when the shit hits the fan and I have no mana.

- If you'd actually read my post you would have seen the part that said we are raid healers, and sucky tank healers, BUT capable of doing other roles on a much lesser scale than our counterparts. You seem to have missed that part.

- My spec isn't awful. Learn to do your research. It's generally agreed about that you don't need the extra point in Holy Reach or Surge of Light. Go look at the math on EJ sometime. As for DP, I like it, it's saved my butt. I'll spec into it. <3

- Gemming: Number one rule of regen: gem it until you're comfortable with your regen, then switch to spell power. You should never be dependent on an innervate. Also, EJ it sometime. There's a lot of math about that too.

- I'm glad you always have a shaman available to heal OTs. Not everyone does, and my entry was not catered to people who had the perfect guild set up. I'd be remiss to say that we CAN'T OT heal, because that's a blatant lie. I've done it numerous times.

- And finally, if you want anyone to take your comments seriously, please refrain from using words like "stupid" and "f*cktards". You look like a forum troll.

I know how to play priest. If you disagree, that's your right. But please do me the courtesy of actually reading my post before going off the handle because of, what I assume, is an over-reaction to my shaman comment.

Phaust said...

@ Ben, I don't know much about Holy priests, but as Fuyu's sister, I know she knows her class. As for you, I don't think you really thought out your argument very well, just by looking at your terribad grammar, punctuation, and over-all word choice. If you want someone to even give you the time of day, let alone actually LISTEN to you, please be respectful and don't type like a 13 year old 4chan troll. Kudos, Fuyu, I think you're a fabulous healer =)

Unknown said...

While I don't agree with the tone of Ben he does have a few good points

As a full time Holy priest with few exceptions I dominate the HPS and overall charts AND come in 4th or 5th on overheals. The AOE heals now that POH is can target groups outside of your own (a dream come true). Properly glyphed and geared you would have to fall asleep to not place 1-2 in the charts. I do agree that the charts dont truley reflect your contributions to the raid, but its a good marker none the less.

As for OT or MT heals .. no, not really. If your working the back of the room in iron counsel then sure, but that's a waste of a holy priest. In a pinch of course, its doable. Not Mana efficient or best use of a holy priest by any means but doable and with the new guardian spirit glyph its actually more doable then ever.

My final note is to say that holy/disc as dual spec is the best combo you can do as a raid healer. Discipline Priests are one of he best MT healers in the game and with the raid wide damage mitigation, also referred to as the second shield wall, you are an asset to the entire raid. This gives you the ability to truly, efficiently and successfully fill in as MT or OT heals. Being dual speced holy/shadow is entirely useless in a raid. DPS is the easiest slot to fill and heals is the most difficult

Unlike Ben I do appreciate your article and the ability to respond with my opinion even if it differs from yours. I feel that you are giving very sane advise to those starting out or considering Holy Priest healing. Just dont sell short the power of the Holy Priest, from the second I stepped foot in Alduar I felt as though they designed these fights to make Holy Priests look like Gods. ;-)

Fuyuko said...

@thesledman

Thanks for posting! I have no problems with people posting their differing opinions, and I welcome it when it's not just poop-throwing =)

A good chunk of my post comes from my own experience in my own guild. I rarely PuG anymore since I am a little burnt out on non-raid type things. The other healers in my guild are excellent, and so while I often come in 2nd under our druid when the setup is right, I have a rough time topping our amazing shaman on the overall meters. HPS-wise, if I recall, I do extremely well.

I think it also may have to do with my playstyle, as well as moderate lag on my end. I play on a laptop on a university connection. Or maybe I'm just not the best holy priest in the world, hehe. I do tend to drink a lot. XD

In regard to OT/MT healing, I agree that we can't MT heal. And while putting a holy priest on OT heals is a huge waste, sometimes it just happens, and my point was less that we should be there and more that we are capable of it if really necessary. I have OT healed fights other than Iron Council, so again, maybe it's my odd playstyle, but I know I can do it.

I agree about Ulduar, though. I love the power we have in there. Hopefully my numbers will go up as I am more confident in the fight mechanics.

I hope I am not selling the holy priest short, because Fuyuko is my second priest and I love the class to death. It's just very difficult to condense all that information into a tiny blog post.

And I am greatly considering your "2nd spec as disc" idea <3<3<3

Khaelie said...

I knew this guide was here... and as i am now trying to level my priest and i have found that i have had to take on a healing spec to really get into any dungeons in a timely manner - i thought i would come read it in more detail (can we say run-on??). I chose holy because i knew that it would work for 5 mans and i am somewhat used to having AoE heals from being a reato shaman.

I think this gives me a lot of info up front on what heals to use and i have never had a good HoT to keep up so that is definately new to me. I found it to be very informative in this manner. i will now be redoing my action bars so that the heals i need to use are where i need them.

you did manage to take some of the pain of the "what heal do i use when" dilemma that i have been struggling with... after all a shaman really only has 4 to work with so this has been a bit overwhelming! thanks!

holyspanker said...

hey ,now i think im going to lvl my priest lvl 34 to 80 already got a holyladin ,heal druid and now i want a priest holy wtf i am crazy !? well thanks for priest tips il keep it in mind for further use .

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your post. I'm just getting to work on a priest so appreciate some of the insight. Ben may be a "know it all" in the priest world... but he doesn't know anything about communication. Perhaps when he gets out of elementary school, he will learn to change his tone and do something a little more towards helping educate folks.

Farmer Cat said...

Thank you so much for the guide. I'm a MT 90% of the time, but in a guild heavy on tanks, and light on heals, and not liking pally-healing, I am leveling my priest. After healing Nexus last night, I find that priest healing is more enjoyable to me. Like someone said....there are so many heal spells to keep track of, and separating the wheat from the chaff was becoming more than annoying. Your post helped me work my way through that mire.

Anonymous said...

I am leveling a priest at the moment. I have always done Discipline. (well i tried shadow but found them to be too frail and mana inefficient pre level 40) Anyway, I read the guide on the Holy Priest and found it incredibly useful. As soon as I hit that 80, my offspec will be Holy.
As far as Holy being good at 5 mans, I'm sure it is true. Ive effectively healed through 5 mans even as (shamefully looks down) shadow. I am extremely grateful for this website. I just wanted to add that I was duped into going Healadin at level 34. 20 levels later, and I have not looked back. I got the courage to continue leveling my pally as holy thanks to the awesome Healadin guide. I think I will be a healer all around. I already got the 80 Resto shaman that I'm still getting the hang of (leveled enhancement defected from Elemental to Resto). I'm going to try druid, but I'm kind of afraid of the whole leveling a druid and the whole hot healing is rather daunting to me.
Long story short, Uber Props to all of the healer guides in Nerf this Druid. Say Hello to me if you are ever in Steamwheedle. My priest is called Saturnino. Nead a healer, I will help you.

Anonymous said...

As a Holy/Disc 25 man Ulduar/TOC hardmode player, Priests can do just about anything.

Holy. Hell yeah holy priests can heal a tank, sure its not efficient, but if you're good with mana, and timely spell casting, you can fairly easily heal a MT/OT. Obviously, for the highest level content, you would want to be disc healing a tank, but it can be done in Holy. A good holy priest will always top the meters, the only people who come even close to me are resto shamans. If a druid is topping your meters, and you're holy, you're doing something wrong.

Gemming: Like someone said before, gem into regen until you feel comfortable, I COMPLETELY AGREE. Also, I prefer Intellect over SP any day of the week.

Disc: Amazing tank healers, yes they are. I just wish the meters would reflect damage absorbed so we could be on the top. :)

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Overall, great blog, you hit on some main points.

1. Holy priests can heal tanks, not always efficient.

2. Gem for regen until youre comfortable, then into intellect

3. Go disc if you really want to heal a tank

4. We rox the meters

sacrosanct -- us/nordrassil said...

I myself find your spec very similar to my own spec. Agreed that Desperate prayer has saved my arse many a many times :) As far as the versitility of a holy priest, IE being able to main tank heal, and balancing mana consumption vs over healing, I believe any healing class should be able to fill the roll given to them, general servivabilty is not class relative, granted it differs from each class, it does not nessecarily make one superior over another. Balance for a geared player seems to be the best method, sp vs haste vs crit, or raw stats. persoanlly, i gem for int, spirit and sp. having a large mana pool helps immencly for longer fights, and the CDs available keeps us just shy of oom, and a breath away from leaving someone drop from aoes. Int also gives spell crit, so stacking crit to me seems pointless, where as most gear has enough haste that you aren;t stuck midway between casts as you watch your MT, OT or dps'ers die. Any person, wether dps, tank, or healer, if they know thier class, a general spec doesn;t really do much good if it isn;t suited to that persons play style. A general rule i use for healers; If no one dies, then they did well, no matter how the charts look, it's the general outcome that makes the difference. Any raid that has people that know thier classes, and know how to move from avoidable damage make our lives as healers all the more easier. Spam healing has it's benefits and it's downfalls, being able to adapt yourself to the fight style is what makes the healer.

A far as dual spec goes, personally I use disc, and holy.. holy for pve , and Disc for pvp/clinch battles. If a raid composition is ideal, then one holy priest, and one disc priest should have it all covered. in heavy aoe battle holy is greater then disc, but in battles that aren't as aoe intensive, disc can be a very fun healing spec.
Shadow/holy specs, for me, show a persons willingness to fill the rolls needed for his or hers guild to be able to complete content, and still have fun together. Sheer mathimatics don;t apply since thier is no constant in PCs, stacking all SP, for instance seems very idealistic, and also kinda makes us reliant on other ppl, ie druids, or totems, or replenish to be a crutch for those interested in just numbers. The human element is the unknown veriable that make Priests have no "right way" for our class to be played. Outcome is the measure of success in raiding, not the means in which it is attainded.

Tellistra said...

First of all I would like to thank you for this article, because I found it very helpful and...(all other things that have been said ^^).

Secondly, I have one question. If I drink a lot do I have better chances of beeing a better healer than other priest who don't drink?

Thirdly, you don't have to answer the second point =)

To sum it all up, I really enjoyed reading this article, IRL I drink a lot and I can't say I'm 100sober atm =)

Take care guys and let the Priest force be with you =)

Annabellinne - Sunstrider, EU said...

I really appreciate this post - being a big fan of the disc-priest myself and playing one as main - I figured I should try the holy side with another priest. Your post made me realise why holy priests seem to have probs with mana in long fights and it also made me understand which rotation that will benefit me the most aswell as which stats I want - this differs quite a bit from discipline.
You've gained yourself another fan for your blog. :-D

Angachan (EU) said...

My very first character on WoW was a Holy priest. I still have her and recently began to level her further.
I've always been a healer in any game, but this was quite a change.
Your guide has been very helpful, and I hope to become a great healer like you!
Thanks for sharing you valuable information!

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of solid information about priests here, i approve of many of the things you say Fuyuko, but I also have a couple disagreements that i would like to, mind you civilly, share with you.

I have played a Holy Priest for 2 years, and over time, became the best holy priest on my server. that is, until i quit for 7 months, then made a new account, but as of late i have still had my touch. Perhaps the differences are all about play style, but we shall see :)

I personally avoid RNG (Random Number Generator for those readers who aren't sure what it is) as much as i can. As far as gemming and gearing a holy priest, i always tried to maintain approximately 25% unbuffed crit with holy spells, with the theory that (if the RNG were perfect) i would have a 100% up time on Holy Concentration for the mana regen in 25m raid buffs. at that point, i gemmed all blue sockets with Purified Dreadstones (12SP 10 Spirit) for the SP and the Mp5, and all Red AND Yellow sockets with Reckless Ametrine (12 SP 10 Haste) if i had the crit i wanted, or, until i had said crit, Potent Ametrine (12 SP 10 Crit). That may just be a personal thing, considering i like the idea of guaranteed speed increases to all my spells AND my global cooldown rather than a chance to have a bigger heal, that can sometimes screw you in the manner of, they are nonexistent for a random period of time.

As far as your spec, your spec is very solid. i haven't looked too much on EJ about specing 1 into holy reach and 1 into surge of light, but that's particularly because 1) i like to figure things out on my own, and 2) i've done perfectly fine without it. :) i specd 2 points into Surge of Light, because the mana efficiency is solidified by the increased proc rate, at least that's how i see it. For someone who talks about mana efficiency i was surprised you didn't spec into Inner Focus. I spec into it, and i use it up to 3 times during a fight, on particularly costly spells (i.e. PoH or Divine Hymn).

I may have overlooked it because i was glancing at the explanation of the spells, but if it's not there, you might also add some information about shadowfiends that guides tend to leave out, including the fact that it lasts 15 seconds, attacks every 1.5 seconds, and regenerates 5% of your maximum mana every time it hits. The math comes out to 50% of your mana pool in 15 seconds, and is insanely good if timed properly. I personally use Shadowfiend when i hit 60% mana, because i almost never stop casting, unless there is no damage done, and even then i am looking for damage to preempt, or throwing PoM on the tank. If you continually cast, after the 15 sec u should be anywhere from 95-100% mana. Along the same lines, you might also point out that since Hymn of Hope increases your mana by a substantial amount, that using Shadowfiend the 2nd time around during a fight is best used in conjunction with Hymn of Hope. I personally use Hymn of Hope as a healer's Oh Shi-- button, in the way of how it restores multiple people's mana. I use it when other healers need it, since i don't usually need it for solely myself :) this strategy usually makes me use it towards the end of the fight, when bosses have their soft enrages, and healers start running low on mana.

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of solid information about priests here, i approve of many of the things you say Fuyuko, but I also have a couple disagreements that i would like to, mind you civilly, share with you.

I have played a Holy Priest for 2 years, and over time, became the best holy priest on my server. that is, until i quit for 7 months, then made a new account, but as of late i have still had my touch. Perhaps the differences are all about play style, but we shall see :)

I personally avoid RNG (Random Number Generator for those readers who aren't sure what it is) as much as i can. As far as gemming and gearing a holy priest, i always tried to maintain approximately 25% unbuffed crit with holy spells, with the theory that (if the RNG were perfect) i would have a 100% up time on Holy Concentration for the mana regen in 25m raid buffs. at that point, i gemmed all blue sockets with Purified Dreadstones (12SP 10 Spirit) for the SP and the Mp5, and all Red AND Yellow sockets with Reckless Ametrine (12 SP 10 Haste) if i had the crit i wanted, or, until i had said crit, Potent Ametrine (12 SP 10 Crit). That may just be a personal thing, considering i like the idea of guaranteed speed increases to all my spells AND my global cooldown rather than a chance to have a bigger heal, that can sometimes screw you in the manner of, they are nonexistent for a random period of time.

As far as your spec, your spec is very solid. i haven't looked too much on EJ about specing 1 into holy reach and 1 into surge of light, but that's particularly because 1) i like to figure things out on my own, and 2) i've done perfectly fine without it. :) i specd 2 points into Surge of Light, because the mana efficiency is solidified by the increased proc rate, at least that's how i see it. For someone who talks about mana efficiency i was surprised you didn't spec into Inner Focus. I spec into it, and i use it up to 3 times during a fight, on particularly costly spells (i.e. PoH or Divine Hymn).

I may have overlooked it because i was glancing at the explanation of the spells, but if it's not there, you might also add some information about shadowfiends that guides tend to leave out, including the fact that it lasts 15 seconds, attacks every 1.5 seconds, and regenerates 5% of your maximum mana every time it hits. The math comes out to 50% of your mana pool in 15 seconds, and is insanely good if timed properly. I personally use Shadowfiend when i hit 60% mana, because i almost never stop casting, unless there is no damage done, and even then i am looking for damage to preempt, or throwing PoM on the tank. If you continually cast, after the 15 sec u should be anywhere from 95-100% mana. Along the same lines, you might also point out that since Hymn of Hope increases your mana by a substantial amount, that using Shadowfiend the 2nd time around during a fight is best used in conjunction with Hymn of Hope. I personally use Hymn of Hope as a healer's Oh Shi-- button, in the way of how it restores multiple people's mana. I use it when other healers need it, since i don't usually need it for solely myself :) this strategy usually makes me use it towards the end of the fight, when bosses have their soft enrages, and healers start running low on mana.