Hey guys,
well let me start off by saying that i've been a tank for years never once thought about healing or how healers heal or anything of the sort. well 4 of my buddies and I decided to start over from the beginning and lvl together. never being a healer i decided that was the role i wanted, to expand me WoW mind. i rolled a priest and started into my holy talents and realized i was in way over my head. read some stuff here on the forum, but figured you guys could help me out directly. if at all possible could you give me a good healing spec and throw some tips and tricks for healing at me. I'm very thankful for any help you can give.
Thanks, Azilmak
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http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=3;mid=1227066588113754939;num=86;page=1
Try that thread. Come again if there's still stuff unclear after reading it, at the moment it holds most of our priestly stuff.
And now I'm seriously going to make a healing priest thread.
Try that thread. Come again if there's still stuff unclear after reading it, at the moment it holds most of our priestly stuff.
And now I'm seriously going to make a healing priest thread.
Further to the info in that thread just some advice on early point placement.
Start with 3 points in Spirit Tap (in the shadow tree) then move to Disc and work towards Meditation picking up Twin Disciplines and Imp Inner Fire. After that you'll probably want to grab Inner focus since it's only a point and then move to Holy to head for Divine Fury (I would personally take Imp Renew and Healing Focus to get to this).
By level 40 I would be aiming for something like this. From here you are working down to something like Pilgrim's leveling build on the first page of the thread Moz linked.
Alternatively you can always level Shadow, you can still heal fine and will probably solo better but you sound like you are leveling with a group so the Holy/Disc hybrid is the way to go IMO.
Start with 3 points in Spirit Tap (in the shadow tree) then move to Disc and work towards Meditation picking up Twin Disciplines and Imp Inner Fire. After that you'll probably want to grab Inner focus since it's only a point and then move to Holy to head for Divine Fury (I would personally take Imp Renew and Healing Focus to get to this).
By level 40 I would be aiming for something like this. From here you are working down to something like Pilgrim's leveling build on the first page of the thread Moz linked.
Alternatively you can always level Shadow, you can still heal fine and will probably solo better but you sound like you are leveling with a group so the Holy/Disc hybrid is the way to go IMO.
Wow Moz ... who knew you were such an expert .. glad to see you have a sticky (and it even has an excellent rating, unlike the equivalent sticky in the rogue forums by you-know-who ;->), kudos mate ;-)
OK, enough of me being ****** now ...
I've finally decided to enter the big bad (or good) world of healing classes, and have decided to roll a priest to do so (she's 8 at the moment, so still a while to go).
Now, the response to the OP in this thread appears to focus around building a disc priest, specifically because he'd be leveling in a group, and being the priest in that group would lend itself very well to being a healer as well. Now, I've read (and it was even alluded to above), that Shadow is the leveling build of kings. The thing is, I have 4 other 70+ toons, all of whom are DPS focused (Rogue, Mage, DK and Warrior - warrior will go tanking at 80)... and I have no real desire to play (or even level from scratch) another damage dealer.
So, would the disc leveling build mentioned above and in the linked thread, do for solo leveling .. or should I suck it up and stick to shadow for leveling.
If so, I'm then assuming standard use of skills / spells would involve spamming things like smite and holy fire (when that comes). I ask this, because even though SW:P comes along very early, I find it very inneficient (mana and damage-wise) at the lower levels - smite-spam usually account for the mob just before he gets to me (or very soon after), but opening with a SW:P (which, being a dot, you would think makes sense) and then smite-spam practically ensures that he'll get to me and start wailing on me before he dies. So I've resorted to casting PW:S, renew, smite-spamming, and if he gets to me, my shield and heal accounts for any damage - seems to work well, but ....
The other thing is mana inefficiency ... is this just something I must live with, or am I doing something wrong where I start every fight with a full mana bar, but finish every fight with about 10% mana left ... ok, ok .. I know it's very early days, and it will most likely get better, I'm just hoping for some reassurance here .. I REALLY don't want to level a pally (which is my other option). Mana chewing was something I encountered when I started my mage, but for some reason, it didn't bug me (perhaps having an endless supply of water helped ;->)
Sincerest apologies if this is covered elsewhere in threads (or even in stickies), but I can't seem to find anything related to new priests soloing (lotsa info on 70+ instance healing and end-game, which is useful, certainly ... but we all have to start somewhere). The reason I posted in this thread is that it's pretty much relevant to me ("New to Priest") ... so I figured a new thread would just be a waste.
Thanks in advance.
OK, enough of me being ****** now ...
I've finally decided to enter the big bad (or good) world of healing classes, and have decided to roll a priest to do so (she's 8 at the moment, so still a while to go).
Now, the response to the OP in this thread appears to focus around building a disc priest, specifically because he'd be leveling in a group, and being the priest in that group would lend itself very well to being a healer as well. Now, I've read (and it was even alluded to above), that Shadow is the leveling build of kings. The thing is, I have 4 other 70+ toons, all of whom are DPS focused (Rogue, Mage, DK and Warrior - warrior will go tanking at 80)... and I have no real desire to play (or even level from scratch) another damage dealer.
So, would the disc leveling build mentioned above and in the linked thread, do for solo leveling .. or should I suck it up and stick to shadow for leveling.
If so, I'm then assuming standard use of skills / spells would involve spamming things like smite and holy fire (when that comes). I ask this, because even though SW:P comes along very early, I find it very inneficient (mana and damage-wise) at the lower levels - smite-spam usually account for the mob just before he gets to me (or very soon after), but opening with a SW:P (which, being a dot, you would think makes sense) and then smite-spam practically ensures that he'll get to me and start wailing on me before he dies. So I've resorted to casting PW:S, renew, smite-spamming, and if he gets to me, my shield and heal accounts for any damage - seems to work well, but ....
The other thing is mana inefficiency ... is this just something I must live with, or am I doing something wrong where I start every fight with a full mana bar, but finish every fight with about 10% mana left ... ok, ok .. I know it's very early days, and it will most likely get better, I'm just hoping for some reassurance here .. I REALLY don't want to level a pally (which is my other option). Mana chewing was something I encountered when I started my mage, but for some reason, it didn't bug me (perhaps having an endless supply of water helped ;->)
Sincerest apologies if this is covered elsewhere in threads (or even in stickies), but I can't seem to find anything related to new priests soloing (lotsa info on 70+ instance healing and end-game, which is useful, certainly ... but we all have to start somewhere). The reason I posted in this thread is that it's pretty much relevant to me ("New to Priest") ... so I figured a new thread would just be a waste.
Thanks in advance.
robertlofthouse wrote:
So, would the disc leveling build mentioned above and in the linked thread, do for solo leveling .. or should I suck it up and stick to shadow for leveling.
You can level in any of the three trees. No, seriously, you can. The changes to spellpower are fabulous for this. Shadow will absolutely be the most efficient, but you sound bored with efficiency. Just fill in your first 3 points into Spirit Tap and then level however you like. Stack Spirit, Int, and Stamina as you level, then Spellpower once it becomes available.
robertlofthouse wrote:
If so, I'm then assuming standard use of skills / spells would involve spamming things like smite and holy fire (when that comes). I ask this, because even though SW:P comes along very early, I find it very inneficient (mana and damage-wise) at the lower levels - smite-spam usually account for the mob just before he gets to me (or very soon after), but opening with a SW:P (which, being a dot, you would think makes sense) and then smite-spam practically ensures that he'll get to me and start wailing on me before he dies. So I've resorted to casting PW:S, renew, smite-spamming, and if he gets to me, my shield and heal accounts for any damage - seems to work well, but ....
The other thing is mana inefficiency ... is this just something I must live with, or am I doing something wrong where I start every fight with a full mana bar, but finish every fight with about 10% mana left
Your only crime there is you're level 8.
You have no mana efficiency yet. Once you get Spirit Tap filled in all that will change. Open with a Holy Fire and then SW:P, Renew or Shield yourself (you probably won't need both), then Smite up to about 25%, at which point you wand it to death. Have a good wand, and use it. That gets you out of the 5SR before the end of the fight, so you get the maximum benefit from Spirit Tap. Your mana will be full by the time you get to the next mob. That's if you're leveling Disc or Holy; a Shadow rotation would obviously be different. If you decide to level as Disc, once you get a decent amount of Spellpower and Reflective Shield, you can actually have some fun AOE'ing mobs down with Holy Nova.
teacake wrote:
You can level in any of the three trees. No, seriously, you can. The changes to spellpower are fabulous for this. Shadow will absolutely be the most efficient, but you sound bored with efficiency. Just fill in your first 3 points into Spirit Tap and then level however you like. Stack Spirit, Int, and Stamina as you level, then Spellpower once it becomes available.
Well, yeah .. I guess you're right - the one thing they've done in Wrath is to ensure that "Leveling Trees" are a thing of the past ... for ALL classes - it's just a matter of playstyle choice (funny, that's the kind of thing I try and drum into newcomers to the class forums I'm a little more experienced in ... now the shoe's on the other foot ;->)
Bored with efficiency, or bored with style .. the play styles I've adopted on all my previous characters, for leveling purposes, have been the ones that are generally accepted as being the most efficient, and they all involved blowing the target up or hacking it to hell and gone .. I guess I'm looking for a change.
As for the stats to focus on .. .thanks - didn't even think about it, I guess I gathered it would be the same as the mage.
teacake wrote:
Your only crime there is you're level 8.
You have no mana efficiency yet. Once you get Spirit Tap filled in all that will change. Open with a Holy Fire and then SW:P, Renew or Shield yourself (you probably won't need both), then Smite up to about 25%, at which point you wand it to death. Have a good wand, and use it. That gets you out of the 5SR before the end of the fight, so you get the maximum benefit from Spirit Tap. Your mana will be full by the time you get to the next mob. That's if you're leveling Disc or Holy; a Shadow rotation would obviously be different. If you decide to level as Disc, once you get a decent amount of Spellpower and Reflective Shield, you can actually have some fun AOE'ing mobs down with Holy Nova.
Ta, yes .. bad me for only being 8 ;-). Great, I guess I knew that (about the mana inefficiency) ... as it makes no sense that a full mana pool per mob was the way it worked.
As for the wand, every now and then I read a piece of advice like this where it sounds too stupid to be right(like when someone told me to drop the dagger on my rogue and pick up a sword ... wtf - that can't be right). But one thing I've learned is that when the entire community says the same "Stupid" (to me, at least) thing with a resounding gong .. it's generally far from stupid .. it's one of the most breakthrough and accurate pieces of advice around. I have access to an enchanter, so I will be organising a wand asap.
Thanks for the feedback ;-)
The lower the level the more effective wands are. They can be more powerful than any of your spells. The higher up you get the less impact a wand will have.
Don't start out with SW:P. The reason is because it's an instant attack and it's a DoT. What does this mean exactly? It means you trigger your GCD while the mob is incoming and your next spell has a decent cast time. Start off with a long cast hard hitting spell and then hit SW:P right after. Usually it's Holy Fire or Smite, or Mind Blast if your shadow.
You don't always have to use shield. If you're not taking a serious beating then just casting a renew is more mana efficient. I'm also an advocate of using fear in optimal conditions. But that's more with a shadow build with mindflay.
As far as playstyle for leveling then disc/holy/shadow are going to basically be the same, nuke, heal, nuke, heal, dot, dot, GOOSE! It'll be in groups that the playstyles will really start to be different. Unless you're going to be grouping a lot pre 50 I would go shadow. At 50 I would respec to disc or holy to start getting a better idea of your abilities.
Don't start out with SW:P. The reason is because it's an instant attack and it's a DoT. What does this mean exactly? It means you trigger your GCD while the mob is incoming and your next spell has a decent cast time. Start off with a long cast hard hitting spell and then hit SW:P right after. Usually it's Holy Fire or Smite, or Mind Blast if your shadow.
You don't always have to use shield. If you're not taking a serious beating then just casting a renew is more mana efficient. I'm also an advocate of using fear in optimal conditions. But that's more with a shadow build with mindflay.
As far as playstyle for leveling then disc/holy/shadow are going to basically be the same, nuke, heal, nuke, heal, dot, dot, GOOSE! It'll be in groups that the playstyles will really start to be different. Unless you're going to be grouping a lot pre 50 I would go shadow. At 50 I would respec to disc or holy to start getting a better idea of your abilities.
One thing I will mention is that shadow priest was one of my fastest and top levelers, little or no downtime, high dps and heals. I was very surprised when I leveled one. And I've leveled almost every class.
Just be prepared for a love-hate relation with the Holy Nova glyph. Having it works wonders for AOE healing in instances but will also completely kill it's use when soloing. I found myself rolling without it 'till level 80.
And thanks for the positive comments, again =)
And thanks for the positive comments, again =)
Mozared wrote:
And thanks for the positive comments, again =)
About time to make it your new sig Moz :P
Thanks folks, I have several levels to go before I really need to decide, as my first 3 points are going in the same place regardless ... but yeah, Mental, your comments regarding the minimal diffs in playstyle have a fair degree of merit, I must say ... Although I do have to mention that when I said "Starting with SW:P" .. I did indeed mean popping it at the end of the first cast, thereby making it land at the same time (I agree that the way I worded it makes it look like I cast SW:P to start with ... that's not the case)
Edited, Jan 21st 2009 7:30pm by robertlofthouse
Edited, Jan 21st 2009 7:30pm by robertlofthouse
Being a level 17 myself and leveling shadow. Havn't run VC yet or SFK even though I know the instances by heart. Is this a good build working towards level 40: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bZZG0frofkcVo
I have same mana problems. What I do is cast Smite,MB,SW:P,Smite then wand to death but mana is usually 70% gone. Is there an easier way to do a rotation with shadow. I bubble usually at the beginning that way if there at half health and shield drops I can just put it up again. Made a macro to bubble and renew myself to save time clicking. Most of my gear I'm changing to of the whale and some Stam, INT cause well my health while buffed now is only 300+ =( don't take long for me to go poof! Thanks
I have same mana problems. What I do is cast Smite,MB,SW:P,Smite then wand to death but mana is usually 70% gone. Is there an easier way to do a rotation with shadow. I bubble usually at the beginning that way if there at half health and shield drops I can just put it up again. Made a macro to bubble and renew myself to save time clicking. Most of my gear I'm changing to of the whale and some Stam, INT cause well my health while buffed now is only 300+ =( don't take long for me to go poof! Thanks
All spells burn your mana at low level so always shield OR renew. If you have the shield up from start of a fight this is taking pretty much all the damage thrown at you until it fades so renew is pointless as you have nothing really to heal. Only use both if you are dying and running away from many things (which to be fair may happen a lot at low levels) so you can heal yourself up as you run as well as preventing more damage coming onto you.
The wand trick is god. The number one thing for priests, get wand, use wand, love wand. From about 25% just wand, this will help your uptime and will not effect your killing time too much either as damage is often equal or close to spell damage at low level in terms of dps.
I levelled in all the specs as I changed a few times every 20 levels or so but now I'm fully disc and I love it. I did level mainly shadow at low level (up to about 45) and then Holy up to 65 with a Holy/Disc hybrid being my Outlands/Northrend spec. I levelled holy both before and after the spellpower changed and holy spec became very very levelling friendly with the advent of spellpower as your holy tree boosts spellpower now on all holy spells which includes smite and holy fire. A disc holy hybrid is very levelling friendly as well as you can throw round high powered heals in groups and also pick up some talents to improve your mana regen and mana pool as well as your sheild and buffs.
The wand trick is god. The number one thing for priests, get wand, use wand, love wand. From about 25% just wand, this will help your uptime and will not effect your killing time too much either as damage is often equal or close to spell damage at low level in terms of dps.
I levelled in all the specs as I changed a few times every 20 levels or so but now I'm fully disc and I love it. I did level mainly shadow at low level (up to about 45) and then Holy up to 65 with a Holy/Disc hybrid being my Outlands/Northrend spec. I levelled holy both before and after the spellpower changed and holy spec became very very levelling friendly with the advent of spellpower as your holy tree boosts spellpower now on all holy spells which includes smite and holy fire. A disc holy hybrid is very levelling friendly as well as you can throw round high powered heals in groups and also pick up some talents to improve your mana regen and mana pool as well as your sheild and buffs.
Quote:
All spells burn your mana at low level so always shield OR renew. If you have the shield up from start of a fight this is taking pretty much all the damage thrown at you until it fades so renew is pointless as you have nothing really to heal. Only use both if you are dying and running away from many things (which to be fair may happen a lot at low levels) so you can heal yourself up as you run as well as preventing more damage coming onto you.
And before the discussion comes up again, also experiment with fear while you can. Sometimes it's preferable over shield and learning it's precise effect can be of use lateron.
I've pretty much got the hang of when to use Psychic Scream. Used it a couple of times without inspecting my surroundings. Yeah I ended up bringing the whole family back. I've use it usually in groups of 3. Use mind blast on one and it pulls 3. I use PS and immediately use SW:P on one mob while the other to continue looking for there jelly beans. Kill him quickly, drop a mana potion and follow up on the other 2.
Don't know if that tactic is wise but works every once in awhile for me. What I see alot of priests not doing now is using there wand. I was watching a level 24 priest in Duskwood, starting off with SW:P and then using mind blast and waiting for it to proc. I was like >< what! I'm not in the least the most experienced priest out there but I'm learning just like other classes. I made a suggestion to make a macro for herself to start with her longest casting spell first which should be...yeah you guessed it HF, then mind flay, mind blast and wand to finish.
She replied "I know what I'm doing, be gone with you vile demon". I was like ooooook. I even offered to call dr. phil for her. She laughed. I just know at way low levels keep some mana pots and waters with you until your mana regains faster. I'm not there yet but with extensive reading and my can do attitude I'll get there slowly.
Edited, Jan 21st 2009 9:09pm by Souliken
Don't know if that tactic is wise but works every once in awhile for me. What I see alot of priests not doing now is using there wand. I was watching a level 24 priest in Duskwood, starting off with SW:P and then using mind blast and waiting for it to proc. I was like >< what! I'm not in the least the most experienced priest out there but I'm learning just like other classes. I made a suggestion to make a macro for herself to start with her longest casting spell first which should be...yeah you guessed it HF, then mind flay, mind blast and wand to finish.
She replied "I know what I'm doing, be gone with you vile demon". I was like ooooook. I even offered to call dr. phil for her. She laughed. I just know at way low levels keep some mana pots and waters with you until your mana regains faster. I'm not there yet but with extensive reading and my can do attitude I'll get there slowly.
Edited, Jan 21st 2009 9:09pm by Souliken
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