meditation or spirit tap?Follow

After finally playing a few games of AV, I realize that I am in need of a respec. I oomed early and often in there. I am level 55 and still want to grind out a few levels before gearing up heavily for 50-59 battlegrounds. However, I still would like to participate from time to time while I level.

That leads me to my question. Will I be seriously gimped (solo grinding/questing) if I drop spirit tap in favor of meditation? I am a holy (smiter) priest, so I am specced for surge of light at the moment. I'm considering backing off of surge of light until 58/59 and picking up divine spirit in it's place. I don' benefit a ton from surge of light, so I think I could get away with not having it for a few levels.

Also, when solo grinding I try to finish mobs with SW:P and wanding so I can start to regen mana for the next fight, and so I could get the full 200% mana regen when spirit tap kicked in.

Thanks all

As a disc/holy priest I'm specced for both and they help alot, in instances I rarely have to stop and drink...if ever.

If that's not an option, I would agree that spirit tap is more potent for mana recovery although you will still run out of mana frequently in BGs.

Surge of Light is significant mana efficiency as well. At 59, I'd suggest going something along the lines of this. I'd get the 5 in shadow and at least 14 in Disc, while the actual talents you put into Holy can probably be rearranged (more into healing talents if you feel the need, for example, just be sure to grab the main smiter stuff).

Meditation is a must for a smiter and... DS is a must if you have Meditation. On the other side at these level ImpDS won't benefit you that much. Mental Agility and Mental Strength certainly will. Spirit Tap is great for solo/grinding purposes but won't made a big difference in the BGs because you probably don't have the kiling blow very often.

At 10% crits Surge of light can save a maximum of 5% of your mana. (it procs on 50% of the crits). The more crit % you have the better it is.

Lets face it. Priest (at least Disc/Holy priests) go OOM fast in the BGs, especially if you mix offensive spells and healing, and it's even worse if you throw fortitude at everybody. Some talents will help but won't prevent you to go OOM at some point.

Imo if you're able to go OOM it's because you're good enough to survive at least all that time. =)