ToC hard mode = real deal...Follow

My guild's been working on the hard mode of ToC. I have to say, this is really the challenge I've been looking for, the challenge that ToC normal and Naxx and even Ulduar were not.

There've been some interesting things I've noticed...

1) Shield + Renew. We all know this maneuver from five-man instances; it's a common trick to heal up non-tanks. I've gotten to the point where it's my standard for tank healing, too. Because Weakened Soul and Renew have the same duration, always using Renew on your shield target immediately ensures maximum Renew uptime. Plus, that gives Renew the benefit from the four-piece Conqueror's set bonus.

2) Healing distribution. I thought this was very interesting. I tracked my effective healing over several attempts against the Northrend beasts, and this was my approximate breakdown:
26% Prayer of Mending
25% Flash Heal
18% Penance
14% Renew
11% Glyph of Power Word: Shield
And the rest was from minor sources-- Binding Heal, Forethought Talisman, Holy Nova, potions, maybe a Prayer or two, and not one Greater Heal.

This last was of particular interest to me, given the discussion that was going on recently about Divine Fury. I have Divine Fury in my build, at least partly because I had trouble imagining *not* having it in my build. Here's the thing. In the most high-end of encounters, I don't use the spell at all; the fact that I use it in lesser encounters is inconsequential because *anything* will work in lesser encounters (that's why they're "lesser").

I intend to do a bit of testing with my gearset later... if my talents and build have moved Flash Heal's HPM and HPS even close to GHeal, I may move away from GHeal altogether. That'll free up talent points for Improved Renew... which was a talent I'd avoided, by the same logic which is making me drop Divine Fury.

Prayer being so low on the list is too bad but, perhaps, unsurprising. Prayer of Healing was the signature priest spell at level 60, something no other class could touch. Those days are long gone.

The game has changed. Cancel-casting GHeal just doesn't work anymore because every GCD is being used. In the world of smart Chain Heals, Wild Growth, and CoH, Prayer of Healing is obsolete... at least for a Disc priest. A holy priest might still use it, what with Serendipity around to make it quick.

As a side note... is PoM awesome or what?!

3) Cooldown rotations. It's nice to have Pain Suppression available to supplement tank cooldown rotations, which you pretty much have to do when Gormak's Rising Anger starts stacking. Yet another reason to snag Aspiration.

4) Glyphs. The Discipline priest's PvE glyphs are Glyph of Penance, Glyph of Flash Heal, and Glyph of Shield. Period.

5) It's hard to find time in the Northrend Beasts fight where you can stop and cast Divine Hymn. I know that sounds wierd, it's hard to stop healing to cast a healing spell, but that's kind of how it works... I'm thinking right at the start of the Two Jormungars is probably the spot, when people are moving around, the tanks are still taking Impale damage, and then area damage starts kicking in.

I doubt I'll cast Hymn of Hope anywhere in the fight. Too much damage.

Any other thoughts about ToC hard mode? Fun times!

In a situation like that, I'm of more use Shielding people so they don't die and letting Rejuv/Chain Heal get them up. In a 10-man where there's only one other healer, sure; in a 25-man, I'm not sold.



Gormak is the first part of the Northrend Beasts encounter. He gets laughed off the field on normal difficulty; on heroic he skewers even well-geared tanks. Rising Anger makes him hit harder the longer the fight goes.

The damage can be extreme after even a short time-- if an Impale cast, and Impale tick, and a normal melee hit occur close together they can insta-gib a tank. What we ended up doing was having our first tank get a BoP to clear the DoT after the first swap; the second tank rolls his cooldowns to survive as long as possible; the first tank takes it back and rolls cooldowns until the second tank's Impales clear; the second tank takes it back, receives a Pain Suppression, burns anything he's got left, and hopefully we kill him before the tank gets crushed.



I could argue that you're propping up something that's situational vice something that's an absolute staple. Instead, I'll make the mathematical argument. In fights where you use Mass Dispel, what's your ratio of Flash Heal casts to Mass Dispel casts? If it's more than 8:1, your glyph choice is costing you mana-- and that's in fights where Mass Dispel is used!

Besides which, I think some of your examples are spurious. Take Yogg-Saron. Are you really using Mass Dispel to get rid of Apathy? A spell cast on random targets, usually only one or two at a time? And if it does hit multiple targets, are you really checking to make sure you're getting them all in your Mass Dispel cast? While on the run? It seems dubious that that's a better idea than me using Clique to knock it off people accurately, irrespective of their positions, while on the run.

Enough of that.



I'm not arguing about the usefulness of the spell. That's a given. It's terrific. We know that. What I'm trying to determine is that, for a fight that's very intense but pretty predictable, what's the best place to use a spell I can only cast once? The damage output is severe enough in this fight that you could justifiably use it almost anywhere. I'm trying to find the *best* time, because-- as I said-- it's a predictable fight.

Gah, curse you guys. I've, for the most part, stopped PvEing due to lack of interest and a pretty random schedule of my real-life events. Yet, darn it all, you folks make me wanna get back into it. Though, I doubt I'll see a whole lot of this type of raiding seeing as how my guild is still in 25 Uld. Though, perhaps they have poked their head into 10ToC. I'm not sure. /shrug.

Well, thanks for reigniting my PvE curiosity. heh.

(I guess that's what I get for creepin' on the Priest forum :P)




Edit: Added sidenote

Edited, Sep 10th 2009 9:42am by Serevixx