Healing seems so much different now than it did a few years ago. The strategy that I used to use (again, this is a few years ago) was to throw a renew on the tank right before he enters combat (agro-free heals), and constantly keep a Greater Heal charging, canceling it halfway if the tank is above 60% HP (because Flash Heal was a no-no back then It also eliminated overhealing).
I was very efficient, frequently being on the top of the healing charts during raids and always at the bottom of the overhealing charts. I kicked ass.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've started trying to level my now-69 priest. I admit that I am a little rusty on some of the old abilities and very unfamiliar with the new abilities (Prayer of Mending who?), but my old rotation was simple and effective enough to cover me until i could get my groove back, at least in theory. I tried healing a UK PuG, and boy did I suck. I would run out of mana halfway through each boss fight. The only way we managed to kill Ingvar was for one of the group to bring their 80 and just burn him as fast as possible.
After much thought, I have come to two conclusions (not counting gear) as to why I suck at healing:
1) My old rotation is obsolete. Mobs seem to cause large amounts of spike damage now, as opposed to a steady stream of moderate damage. This means that I no longer have time for a Greater Heal and I am forced to use, /shudder, Flash Heal.
2) The healing game has changed, and sacrificing raw healing for efficiency just does not work anymore. The game used to be as much about battling your mana bar as the boss 20 yards from you. Now mana conservation takes a back seat to throwing a constant stream of small heals, and that turns my world completely upside down. And when did crit rating become a good thing? You used to avoid crit like the plague because it was a guaranteed way to pull agro from the tank.
So, what should I do to start kicking ass again? Which spell is my new best friend, what is my "oh crap" button, and what stats should I be looking for? Here is my armory page: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarius&n=Hambroil. I know that it shows me as Shadow, but I am dual-specced Holy and I use the same gear set for both specs. I am also aware that a lot of my gear is low-level. I pretty much blasted through levels 60-68, so I didn't get many instance blues.
Thanks for reading and thanks for replying!
I wish I could collect child support on alts...
Wrob
Priest Lead
Wrob:
Mon 5/11/09 1:29 pm
Hey Ham,
Yes, Blizzard likes to completely rewrite the rules for holy priest healing every year or so. And when Wrob was doing UK, the rules were different from what they are now, so I'll have to speculate a little.
I recall, when levelling up to 80, that mana was more difficult to retain than it is now. Since then, Spirit regen has been reduced even more so I can imagine how tough it is for Hambroil. So to some degree I'd say to not sweat it - later on you'll get the Spirit, Int and MP5 that you need.
Also, 69 is definitely on the low end for Northrend content, unless you had some really kick ass BC gear, which you don't. I was swapping out my BC raid epics for quest reward blues almost as soon as I entered Northrend, so maybe you'll wanna do a few quests first.
As for healing rotation, Renew/Greater Heal is still about as mana efficient as you're gonna get. Personally I've not taken to spamming Flash Heal on a tank due to inefficiency and that raiding tanks have so damn much health that it barely moves their bar. That tactic works awesome for Pallies though. I still lean heavily on Renew, keeping it up on the MT at all times. I'm specced for it and stack SP so it's pretty effective.
Among the new spells, PoM is one that you should definitely get used to using - have it on the tank whenever you can. Having mods that allow you to see who PoM is currently on and the duration of Renew is critical - any unit frames will. PoM is less efficient when only the tank is taking damage, but even then it's worth it as a damage buffer.
Of course you can always shield, and PoM will buy you some time if the tank isn't within one shot of death, but our best "oh crap" ability is Guardian Spirit. TBH, I'm not as proficient with this as I should be - it's tough because the timing has to be just right. Fortunately there's a glyph that greatly reduces the cooldown of this ability. Ideally, if you see that the tank will go down in less time than you have to cast a Greater Heal (like right after Ingvar's Smash), you'll slap GS on him and then start the Greater Heal, and he'll be covered. It's instant cast and doesn't trigger the global cooldown so you can macro it.
Wth regard to mana, you have, in addition to Shadowfiend, Inner Focus, and your one mana pot, a channelled spell that restores mana to yourself and a few nearby friendlies. Of course, in the heat of battle you might not be able to get to it.
As far as I'm concerned, threat is a not an issue for holy priests, so crits are a good thing. Renews and PoM before a pull is still sometimes considered trouble, but I do it all the time and never get aggro.
Ham
Ham:
Tue 5/12/09 3:32 pm
Thanks a bunch!
So I just need to quest, level, and LRN2PLAY.
I wish I could collect child support on alts...
Thrair
Thrair:
Wed 5/13/09 2:43 pm
It also may have been the tank. Tank gear is fairly important in the first couple instances of WotlK. If they don't have wotlk greens or better (Using mid 60s blues/greens from outlands) they'll be eating a lot of damage and won't have much health to provide a margin for error.
As to advice, I'd say Glyph of Flash Heal is awesome, but Wrob's probably the better priest to be looking to for advice. My playstyle and talents are sort of....... shall we say "unorthodox".
You're making me Lazy. You won't like me when I'm Lazy!
Ham
Ham:
Fri 5/15/09 11:14 am
I healed pretty well in AN today. Had a very crappy PuG, but we were able to kill the first boss before they all had to bail for various reasons.
EDIT: And I kicked Nexus' arse.
I wish I could collect child support on alts...
Semantic
Semantic:
Thu 5/21/09 4:14 am
I may be a little late to this thread, but I thought I'd say something about flash heal...
A couple of months ago I started playing Semantic again, and when this dual spec thing came out I made a "healing disc" offspec. I have to say, flash heal is absolutely amazing in this spec. In fact, I've completely removed greater heal from my bar. Flash regularly crits for 5-7k, cost practically no mana (thanks to talents and glyphs), and when it crits you get this neat shield on the tank similar to power word: shield (which is also amazing in this spec). For anything you need greater heal for there's penance.
I will say that I did try the holy healing spec first, and was sorely disappointed. I tried the same thing, with the greater heals and cancelling. I just couldn't get it to work. Either the tank would always die or I'd be way out of mana super quick. I just haven't had any mana problems since switching to the disc healing build.
This is the particular spec I'm using when I need to heal, if you're interested. It's definitely worth checking out, and really fun/easy. The only drawback is you don't get most of the fun toys in holy. You're mostly just using FH/PWS/POM/renew, and penance when you really need to.
PS - hai guys!
Last edited by Semantic on Thu 5/21/09 1:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
Vrrooooomscreech
Ham
Ham:
Thu 5/21/09 9:54 am
I was actually looking at the disc tree today thinking how awesome flash heal would be.
But I love Circle of Healing too much to go Disc right now.
I wish I could collect child support on alts...
Sloan
Steward
Sloan:
Thu 5/21/09 10:45 am
Slaine's healing (2nd spec) is disc as well. Took a little getting used to, but loving it so far.
Yeah, I went with Holy and Shadow but as soon as triple specs come out, I'll be all over Discipline.
To be honest, the Discipline way (FH and PW:S) is probably just all around better than the Holy way (GH) when it comes to strict tank healing, but Holy priests can't be beat for raid healing. For just tank healing I prefer the pally, whose FH equivalent he can cast until the cows come home.
Semantic
Semantic:
Fri 5/22/09 5:27 am
Also a good point. I never really got used to circle of healing (and the new targettable prayer of healing), since I've been shadow for so long. I guess since I've only been shadow in a raid setting I can't say from personal experience. But, everyone I've talked to and read about is saying holy -> raid, disc -> tank as you said.
From my experience doing little 5 man groups though, it seems to be just do what you're comfortable with. I was honestly a terrible healer in holy, but after switching to disc i was an average healer, which is enough to get through most 5 man instances these days.
Also, pally healers are hax.
Vrrooooomscreech
Ham
Ham:
Mon 9/21/09 3:01 pm
I switched to Disc and now I don't suck anymore! Seriously, my wipe rate on proper pulls has been a very spiffy 0% since I respecced.
As it has been pointed out, Discipline is great for tank healing, but pretty awful if the rest of the group is taking damage. If you want to heal someone else, you are going to have to take your eyes off of the tank, or cast PoH, which is pretty harsh on the mana pool. I just throw a Shield on whoever is taking damage and get right back to my tank, but sometimes they get hit a little harder and I need to spend a couple of GCDs on them. I usually shield the tank before taking care of someone who will need more than one GCD of my time. Penance is my new Greater Heal, and I use it when I fall a little behind on healing the tank. Discipline is also very kind to my mana pool.
Stats I am prioritizing:
Spell Power- Bigger Flash Heals, Stronger Shields, and Better Divine Aegis. Disc Priests are one of the few classes that get better damage mitigation from an offensive stat.
Intellect- More mana = more heals
Stamina- I try to level in AV. Disregard this stat if you have a different leveling spot that doesn't involve as much ganking, or you are already at the level cap. Speaking of level cap, I'm sure that Haste, MP5, and Spirit are great, but right now I need to make the most of my iLevel 150-ish quest rewards.
Spells that I use most frequently:
Power Word: Shield
Flash Heal
Penance
Prayer of Mending- my best tool for group healing. Throw a Shield on the tank before a pull, and a PoM on your most reckless melee loldps.
Spells that I do not use anymore (not coulting Holy tree spells):
Greater Heal- Penance does it better, and with all of the mitigation from Shield and Aegis, I don't need it more often than its Cooldown.
Renew- When someone other than the tank takes damage, my olf Holy strat was to sheield and renew, and get right back into tank healing. Now I have Glyph of Power Word: Shield. Yeah, it's that good.
I wish I could collect child support on alts...
Wrob
Priest Lead
Wrob:
Tue 9/22/09 1:01 pm
Thanks for the update Ham.
I feel bad for discipline priests when people look to raw stats for gauging healing effectiveness. Damage mitigation still isn't accounted for in Recount, as far as I know. Still, I should Discipline some time...
With Wrob, my gearing strategy isn't too different than what you describe:
Spellpower is the number one priority, so I gem/enchant/trinket for it whenever I can. Raid buffed, Wrob goes well over 3k, which means his Renews tick for about 2500.
Crit over Haste. I'm trying to eliminate Haste from my gear because I do so much with instant cast spells. PoM crits, and with Improved Renew, even the first tick of Renew can as well. I keep a "haste set" just in case, but haven't needed it.
For Spirit versus MP5, I'll favor Spirit because of the small amount of Spellpower it grants, and I still enjoy massive OO5SR mana regen. But still, I don't mind having MP5 so I won't go out of my way to go one over the other.
Int is also great (mana pool and Crit), but every piece has Int so there's no point worrying about it. Same for Stamina; decent gear will get you the health you need.
Basically, higher ilevel means an upgrade for me. The exception is with Haste gear, which I may pass on if the ilevel benefit is under about 10. For example, I'll stick with my ilevel 219 piece with Crit rather than upgrading to the 226 one with Haste.
I'm usually relegated to "raid healer" which is appropriate. My general strategy is to try to keep Renew up on everyone taking damage, keep PoM up at all times, cast initially on someone currently taking damage (the tank works well, or myself when the damage is raid-wide), and cast CoH whenever it's up and can hit 2+ people. I've modified a mod to ping me when CoH is available again so I can cast it as much as possible.
In dire situations when I'm responsible for a tank, or trying to keep up a DPS with aggro, I will favor them with a PoM bounce and CoH (if it's up, regardless of whether it hits others), and of course Renew. These 3 instant casts might be enough to do the job, but if need be I'll revert to Flash Heal, which with decent Spellpower and Crit will usually bring a non-tank to full health.
PW:S serves as only a desperate "saving throw" when it looks likely that someone will die. In fact, I've macro'd my Guardian Spirit ability to it. Arguably, separating the two would make for better utilization, but I already have so many different spells on hand, the simplicity of a single "oh crap" combo makes most sense. With the Guardian Spirit Glyph, I get to do it again in only 60 seconds anyhow.
I will use Greater Heal when tank healing, but with low Haste, I won't start one on a tank who was under about half health, unless they have a Guardian Spirit active. For solo tank healing, I do an adequate job, but generally not as good as other healing classes/specs.
I still don't sweat mana effeciency because:
1) I have 3 good options for restoring my own mana if needed
2) Decent mana regen in and outside the 5SR is unavoidable with good gear
3) There are few "standard" encounters, requiring long uninterrupted periods of spellcasting
Basically I try to time my mana to run out when the fight is over, which might require being more conservative with CoH or looking for periods to go OO5SR. I may swap out a Spellpower trinket or two for one with Spirit or Int if I think it will be necessary, or I'll try to deploy Shadowfiend early on if the fight is likely to last long enough for a second one.
PresterJohn
PresterJohn:
Mon 2/15/10 11:18 am
Great posts. I've been a disc spec since forever and love it.. It makes surviving PUGs possible. Yes, renew+flash is the way to go with that spec, I hardly ever use greater heal/heal. Lately I'v been PvPing more, and I'm making some adjustments, will have to post my observations when I have some worth sharing.
I've been thinking of getting dual spec shadow. Any tips on specing and playing a shadow priest?
Elethia
Elethia:
Mon 2/15/10 1:45 pm
Love shadow spec, and although I'm not the greatest spriest, I'd love to help out while you're in game.
Just hit me up when I'm on or throw me a mail or something, but the best and quickest way to start speccing shadow would be going to shadowpriest.com and in particular this topic:
They've got all the basics in cookie cutter specs and there is some leniency with the last 3 or so talent points, I believe, so you can mess around with that too.
They also mention how to gem and what to look for on itemized gear (haste haste haste! just as important as our main stat of spellpower).
Like I said, I could go on and on, but if you've got any and all questions, I'm sure the shadows online would love to help you, and I'd love to help as well (however helpful I can be lol)
Playing shadow is fun if you like using DoTs like an aff lock And who doesn't love melting brains? :p
I love disc as well, tbh. It's a great way to heal Haven't tried holy yet, but I'm wary about doing that, hehe.
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And who doesn't love melting brains? :p
