I've played a tree since BC, and I still enjoy it. But I want to expand my healing horizons, so I've been leveling up a priest. She's 49 and dual specced Shadow and Holy. I'd like to start running instances with her so that by the time I get her to 80, the rhythms and reactions will be natural.
In the attempt to iron out my macros and addons, I've run a few battlegrounds. I do alright, but I've realized that I rely almost exclusively on Renew. I throw out a couple of Shields when I remember, but my instinct is still to throw as many hots as I can. Is this alright? Or should I force myself to get used to the wide variety of direct heal spells I have available?
On that note, I saw that my Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells all have the same cast time and mana cost in their tooltips. If that's the case, why would I ever cast anything but Greater Heal? I suppose it's the result of Divine Fury, but it seems strange to render two spells completely obsolete.
When healing with my tree, I use rejuvenation as my primary raid heal, with wild growth thrown in every cooldown. I toss up a regrowth to set another hot on the tank and/or to catch up if any raid member is taking more damage than the rejuv can cover. If they're really hurting, I'll use nourish, but that's pretty rare. Unless I'm tank healing (or hell is hovering around 25 degrees Fahrenheit) I never use healing touch. I always feel like the timing has to be too perfect when using direct heals - in the 2-3 seconds it takes to wind up a big spell, my tank gets awfully close to dead.
I had assumed I'd be able to do a nearly direct translation when switching to my priest. Renew by default, shield if incidental damage gets heavy, Circle of Healing (when I get it) for splash, and Greater Heal in emergencies.
This is kinda like trying to learn Russian. Enough of it looks similar to what I know that I just seem to get more confused :P
EDIT
And one more thing, my regular tanks are a warrior and a pally. The warrior strenuously objects to being bubbled, and if I remember right, pallies get mana regen from being healed. So, should I avoid shielding them whenever possible? How do discipline priests heal warriors without ******** with their rage?
Edited, Nov 16th 2009 1:39am by Laecy
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Ok, well I can totally understand the temptation to rely entirely on renew coming from a druid as you do. Its a spell that definitely has its time and place, although as you go deeper into the talent trees you're going to find yourself casting a lot of circle of healing and flash heal. The main reason you won't use a lot of greater heal later on is the mana cost (I'm not sure but at your level I have a feeling that the greater heal cast time is different also). Anyway, you'll also eventually get the fabulous prayer of mending which you'll wind up using I'm sure, and you already have a hasted prayer of healing which can be a really useful spell at times. At the end of the day, you really have to just learn as you go, running instances is the way forward because as they become more challenging you'll start working out what works best in what situations. Indeed, the dungeons in tbc and wrath have a great deal more group damage than the older ones so you'll find yourself using new spells as a matter of course.
Wrt. the disc priest shield thing, they changed the warrior mechanics so that they get rage from absorbed damage (I believe). Paladins have a number of ways to regen mana other than taking healing (bos is great). Also, disc priests have a great little talent called rapture that gets around this issue entirely.
Wrt. the disc priest shield thing, they changed the warrior mechanics so that they get rage from absorbed damage (I believe). Paladins have a number of ways to regen mana other than taking healing (bos is great). Also, disc priests have a great little talent called rapture that gets around this issue entirely.
I wish I could help but I was resto for like a week a year ago.
To be more tree similar go with a CoH and Renew based build, you get free Nourishes(FH) and hasted PoH which is like um, group Nourish.
You will only notice a difference when you try and cleanse poison or people yell at you for not clearing diseases.
Keep PoM on CD. PoM is sexy regardless of spec. Get PoM tracker. Its SWEEET.
To be more tree similar go with a CoH and Renew based build, you get free Nourishes(FH) and hasted PoH which is like um, group Nourish.
You will only notice a difference when you try and cleanse poison or people yell at you for not clearing diseases.
Keep PoM on CD. PoM is sexy regardless of spec. Get PoM tracker. Its SWEEET.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
Laecy wrote:
I had assumed I'd be able to do a nearly direct translation when switching to my priest. Renew by default, shield if incidental damage gets heavy, Circle of Healing (when I get it) for splash, and Greater Heal in emergencies.
Okay, from this I assume you're going Holy, which is more similar to druid healing than Disc anyway.
But a priest is never going to be as good at druid healing as a druid. I'd suggest that if you try to do a direct translation like this, it's possible, even probable, that you will end up feeling that your priest cannot measure up and scrap the whole project. The strength of a priest is that you have a lot of spells, and to get the most out of the class, you want to use them all.
For a Holy build:
Keep PoM rolling all the time. All. The. Time.
Renew rolling on whoever is taking damage.
Flash Heal on single targets.
CoH for splash. PoH for big splash.
You want to focus on talents that help those the most.
Greater Heal is your only bomb. Serendipity is your friend here.
Shield isn't as big a part of this build as it is with Disc, and it's a mana hog without talented improvements, but you should still remember to use it as needed.
Edit because I ended up having to run to the bus stop before I finished. The day my kid is late for school because I was talking about priest spells is the day I need to reassess.
Anyway the thing with Shield in a Holy build is that Body and Soul is as much a use for it as the mitigation. The handiness of this talent in certain situations is huge.
I think that's it. Have fun with your priest!
Edited, Nov 16th 2009 8:36am by teacake
A couple of things regarding your build. SoL procs come from crits. Renew and PW:S will not crit (Empowered Renew and Glyph of PW:S will, but that comes later). If you are merely rolling Renews and shielding, you will not see any SoL procs.
The glyph of Renew does not add any more healing, it merely squeezes the same amount of healing into a shorter timeframe. If this is what you want, fine. Just thought I'd point it out as it is the source of much confusion.
Lesser Heal and Heal... You will never use them again. Flash Heal and Greater Heal are the only single target direct heals you will use.
With pallies, I will keep an eye on their mana bar and refrain from using shields when they are low, if possible. If you need to toss a shield to do your job effectively, by all means put it on them. If the choice is between a starved tank and a dead tank...
If a rage tank balks at shields, have them pull a mob without attacking while shielded. They should see their rage building before the shield breaks.
The glyph of Renew does not add any more healing, it merely squeezes the same amount of healing into a shorter timeframe. If this is what you want, fine. Just thought I'd point it out as it is the source of much confusion.
Lesser Heal and Heal... You will never use them again. Flash Heal and Greater Heal are the only single target direct heals you will use.
With pallies, I will keep an eye on their mana bar and refrain from using shields when they are low, if possible. If you need to toss a shield to do your job effectively, by all means put it on them. If the choice is between a starved tank and a dead tank...
If a rage tank balks at shields, have them pull a mob without attacking while shielded. They should see their rage building before the shield breaks.
Holy is a horrible tank healer in raids and while you're able to heal all heroic 5-mans with it you will really feel the lack of Penance.
In regards to Lesser Heal, Heal and Greater Heal - Lesser Heal and Heal are supposed to be 'lower rank' versions of Greater Heal. This is probably done because Blizzard felt it didn't make sense to give a level 5 priest a "Greater Heal" spell and wanted them to start off with "Lesser Heal" and slowly move up through "Heal". So long story short; no, you never use Lesser Heal or Heal anymore once you get Greater Heal.
In regards to the shielding issue, tell your tanks to shove it. Like Mothra mentioned, the mechanics were completely changed. I never saw spot on proof that showed the absorbs significantly impacted warrior rage generation, but it's a moot point now regardless. Aside from the fact that disc priests have Rapture (and holy priests don't use shield) and thus give the target rage/mana anyway, the absorbs apperantly no longer influence a warriors' rage gain at all. Shields do still influence a paladin's mana gain in that they need to be hit to regenerate mana through Spiritual Attunement but with all the new tools paladins have received to keep their mana up this really is a non-issue. The only situation where you might want to avoid shielding a paladin tank is if he's low on mana to begin with.
Edit: Didn't read well, had to remove stupdi questions.
Edited, Nov 16th 2009 8:53pm by Mozared
In regards to Lesser Heal, Heal and Greater Heal - Lesser Heal and Heal are supposed to be 'lower rank' versions of Greater Heal. This is probably done because Blizzard felt it didn't make sense to give a level 5 priest a "Greater Heal" spell and wanted them to start off with "Lesser Heal" and slowly move up through "Heal". So long story short; no, you never use Lesser Heal or Heal anymore once you get Greater Heal.
In regards to the shielding issue, tell your tanks to shove it. Like Mothra mentioned, the mechanics were completely changed. I never saw spot on proof that showed the absorbs significantly impacted warrior rage generation, but it's a moot point now regardless. Aside from the fact that disc priests have Rapture (and holy priests don't use shield) and thus give the target rage/mana anyway, the absorbs apperantly no longer influence a warriors' rage gain at all. Shields do still influence a paladin's mana gain in that they need to be hit to regenerate mana through Spiritual Attunement but with all the new tools paladins have received to keep their mana up this really is a non-issue. The only situation where you might want to avoid shielding a paladin tank is if he's low on mana to begin with.
Edit: Didn't read well, had to remove stupdi questions.
Edited, Nov 16th 2009 8:53pm by Mozared
Thanks much all.
There are a couple other changes I think I'm going to have to make. First of all, I've never had to be aware of overhealing. When I'm healing on my tree, I see a little bit of movement on someone's Grid square, and I pop a hot on them and move on. Without having any little heals, there really wasn't an option. Besides with idols, talents, and regen, my rejuvs were practically free.
The result of this was that I had an instant set-and-forget reaction to anyone taking any damage at all. Now, I wonder if I need to develop an awareness of how hard each spell can hit, and wait for someone to take that much damage before spending the time and mana on them. Or is Flash Heal intended for just this issue, and I need to figure out when it's appropriate?
I guess what I'm trying to get adjusted to is the idea of timing. With hots, you have to set them ticking as soon as damage starts so they can balance it out. With direct heals, it seems you have to wait for a given amount of deficit to accumulate before hitting the target with a lot of health.
Or is that balanced by having cast times? Do you start winding up a heal as soon as someone gets hit so that by the time your spell lands, they need it?
There are a couple other changes I think I'm going to have to make. First of all, I've never had to be aware of overhealing. When I'm healing on my tree, I see a little bit of movement on someone's Grid square, and I pop a hot on them and move on. Without having any little heals, there really wasn't an option. Besides with idols, talents, and regen, my rejuvs were practically free.
The result of this was that I had an instant set-and-forget reaction to anyone taking any damage at all. Now, I wonder if I need to develop an awareness of how hard each spell can hit, and wait for someone to take that much damage before spending the time and mana on them. Or is Flash Heal intended for just this issue, and I need to figure out when it's appropriate?
I guess what I'm trying to get adjusted to is the idea of timing. With hots, you have to set them ticking as soon as damage starts so they can balance it out. With direct heals, it seems you have to wait for a given amount of deficit to accumulate before hitting the target with a lot of health.
Or is that balanced by having cast times? Do you start winding up a heal as soon as someone gets hit so that by the time your spell lands, they need it?
Quote:
The result of this was that I had an instant set-and-forget reaction to anyone taking any damage at all. Now, I wonder if I need to develop an awareness of how hard each spell can hit, and wait for someone to take that much damage before spending the time and mana on them. Or is Flash Heal intended for just this issue, and I need to figure out when it's appropriate?
This significantly depends on spec and situation. If you're holy and the damage is slight and another small amount of damage will be dealt to the target shortly and the chance that other healers will get that target, you use Renew. If you're discipline and the damage is slight and another small amount of damage will be dealt to the target shortly, you use Power Word: Shield. Etc. The challenge of healing as a priest is mostly to find out which spell to use when, and because the situations where you have to choose are so numerous I can't type them all out for you. Generally though, as holy, you use Flash Heal for moderate damage on a single target and Renew for slight and perhaps slight incoming damage on a single target. CoH is a free hp5 buff you push every 6 seconds during heavy AOE and Prayer of Healing is used when you build up 3 Serendipity with Flash Heals.
Quote:
I guess what I'm trying to get adjusted to is the idea of timing. With hots, you have to set them ticking as soon as damage starts so they can balance it out. With direct heals, it seems you have to wait for a given amount of deficit to accumulate before hitting the target with a lot of health.
In current raid content, yes, shamefully. There used to be a technique called cancelcasting where you'd start the cast before the target even got hit and cancelled it at the last moment if needed. As it is now, you're generally spamming heals on your target either constantly or every X seconds. Pre-emptive healing really only still exists in the form of Discipline's shields.
Quote:
Or is that balanced by having cast times? Do you start winding up a heal as soon as someone gets hit so that by the time your spell lands, they need it?
That's virtually impossible. I suppose this could be done with group heals as holy but there isn't currently an encounter in the game that has AOE damage at such random intervals that you need to cancelcast group heals. If you're talking about disc tank healing, you'll generally be spamming Penance whilst keeping PW:S, possibly Renew, Prayer of Mending and Flash Heals going. The only time you still cancelcast is when you're tank healing as holy. Even then, if you're holy you're not likely to have the Greater Heal improving talents which is one of the reasons why tank healing as holy is such a horrible thing to do. The best thing to do should you be required to tank heal as holy is generally to spam Flash Heal and hope you keep the tank alive long enough for a real tank healer (read: Paladin) to take over.
Mozared wrote:
CoH is a free hp5 buff you push every 6 seconds during heavy AOE
I don't even wait for heavy AOE. If there are more than a couple people without full bars and CoH is up, I hit it. Even just to top off people who aren't going to be taking damage again anytime soon. I love Surge of Light that much. I'm sure there is some math that will tell you that the cost of casting CoH that often if it's not healing 5/6 people is not worth the reward of the Flash Heal or Smite. But I don't care. I love Surge of Light that much. It's not even the mana return so much as the instant cast. Laecy, you mention battlegrounds in the OP. In raids these days I suspect you can't mess with efficiency much (although I shamelessly spammed not-quite-necessary CoH's all the time in Naxx
). But if you're doing PVP, that instant Flash has saved someone's butt (often my own) for me many, many times. Quote:
I don't even wait for heavy AOE.
Well yeah, that's true - I wouldn't either but my colleagues in raids are overzealous button mashers who stack haste and heal everything up faster than I can get CoHs off.
Regarding tanks, their rage will be fine if you stay disc and make heavy use of shields. Rage basically comes from doing damage now, not so much taking it. And pallies are fine with divine plea + bosanc.
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