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Need input for Holy Priest
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Post by
Ralk
So, I've just started playing as a holy priest (have been healing HCs with no problem at all, aswell as Onyxia 10, ToC 10, ICC 10 (last boss downed: Deathbringer)) and I feel uneasy about some stuff, and I'd be glad to have some input from you guys. (Gear is about 5.2k GS, and am using PoM, CoH, FH and renew mostly. Also Prayer of Healing at raid damage spikes.)
First of all, I am healing along with a restoration druid. This is great, since we are keeping everything alive just fine, and nothing is really a problem. Altho, I feel sometimes that my presence as a holy priest makes less of a difference, than if the resto druid would be missing. One fight, (Deathbringer) I off-specced shadow for the extra dps we needed, and the healers didnt have a problem without me. The restoration druid (5,5k gs) and holy paladin (>4.5k gs) did just fine without me. I guess I just want to know that I make a difference as a healer for the team.
Most fights, we have about the same amount healed, me and the druid, and sometimes I'm toping of with 5-10% above him, and sometimes, its the other way around. No problem. I also as good as always have a less amount of overhealing.
Guess I just want to ask: Am I really making any difference? If so, am I just having a hard time understand my role in the raid, since I hardly feel that any of me heals can outheal a druid? (they are rather just making it easier for him to heal, I guess) Gear or skill problem?
Secondly, what should I be gemming and enchanting? All the people I've been asking around are saying different stuff. One says: Go spirit! the other: Go crit and int! So which is it? Is it just according to my playstyle or gear-dependent, etc etc?
Many of my gems and enchants are kinda placeholders at the moment. Waiting until I really know what to use, until I get it. (as the stone keepers shards enchant on shoulders, for example)
Third, how deep should I be goíng into the holy tree as of now? I am the only priest healer and the resto druid and me are doing just fine alone when we just need 2 healers. At times of 3, the holy paladin or resto shaman kicks in, and we arent really having any problems.
General tips and advice are also welcome. My goal is to be the best healer I can be, and really make my guild mates feel safe when I am around. Point me in the right direction, or post a comment below. Help is as always appreciated.
Feel free to check my armory for input:
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Daggerspine&cn=Nomnomnomnom
Character:
Nomnomnomnom
(Guild:
DMP
) (Holy Priest, Horde, Bloodelf)
Realm:
Daggerspine
The current gems and enchants I have are placeholders / things I see fit at the moment.
Feel free to give input of how I should change my gear!
Thanks for the help!
Post by
167046
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
422346
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
turkey
You have a weekly 10 man ICC group (guild group I assume?), you are a priest, and there is no disc priest or constant pally healer?
Go disc.
Post by
Vindeta
First of all, i'd like to agree with Sjak with the GS bit... its crap and and totally useless. Any good raid leader will look more than just what gs you have but if your gemming and chanting correctly. Really hate that dam mod... ok, on to the more revelant topic at hand.
Guess I just want to ask: Am I really making any difference? If so, am I just having a hard time understand my role in the raid, since I hardly feel that any of me heals can outheal a druid? (they are rather just making it easier for him to heal, I guess) Gear or skill problem?
Short answer, yes you are making a difference. Your role is raid heals. Unless told otherwise, always think raid heals. its what the holy tree is designed for.
Secondly, what should I be gemming and enchanting? All the people I've been asking around are saying different stuff. One says: Go spirit! the other: Go crit and int! So which is it? Is it just according to my playstyle or gear-dependent, etc etc?
Many of my gems and enchants are kinda placeholders at the moment. Waiting until I really know what to use, until I get it. (as the stone keepers shards enchant on shoulders, for example)
Gemming:
I can see why your calling them place holders because honestly... there all over the dam place.
You gem what you want to compensate for. As far as myself, if the socket bonus is less than +7sp, i will gem pure sp. for the others, I normally go with the following
Red: sp
Yellow: sp+haste
Blue: sp+spirit
Never gem for crit. Never gem for MP5. There is enough on the gear to compensate. if you feel that you don't have enough crit, then try switching to the sp+intellect but you would be loosing out on the much needed haste. If your lacking the MP5 your looking to acheve, them add more sp+spirit.
Enchanting:
Sjak already hit up on those
Third, how deep should I be goíng into the holy tree as of now? I am the only priest healer and the resto druid and me are doing just fine alone when we just need 2 healers. At times of 3, the holy paladin or resto shaman kicks in, and we arent really having any problems.
It seems that i cant open up your talent tree at the moment. Showing no talents selected. So without being able to see what you have selected is kinda hard to judge but since Sjak can see it, should be covered.
The first peice of gear i would think about upgrading is those boots.
Prelate's Snowshoes
from heroic pit would probably be the easiest upgrade for those.
Post by
Ralk
Great answers thank you, I will consider them all in the future!
Concerning disc before holy: I probably wont go disc atm. The holy thing is wokring right now, and I feel alot more secure healing as holy. In the near future maybe.
Gems and enchants will be replaced asap! The snowflake is really an upgrade since I had "The Spark of Life" from Halls of Stone HC before, but I will definitely exchange it as soon as I can.
Spirit on gear, not on gems. WIll farm Sons of Hodir reputation as soon as I can aswell.
So last question for now: Stats wise? Spellpower + Haste most important? or Spellpower Intellect? or Spellpower spirit?
Thanks alot for the help. Will surely help me out!
Post by
skribs
Don't listen to these people about GS, GS isn't irrelevant. It is by far not the only factor - but gear matters (if it didn't Paragon would raid in blues). Actually one of the best applications I've seen for it is a mod for recount which displays HPS/GS, so you can see how people compare once the ilvl of their gear is less of a factor.
Here's what I've gathered from priest sources (this forum, ElitistJerks, and the top priest on my realm):
1) Spells - Your top 3 heals in raids will usually be ProM > CoH > Renew. FH here and there with SoL procs will keep up Serendipity for when you have an opportunity for ProH to not be mostly overhealing. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not using ProM every CD.
2) Stats - SP seems to be the top stat. You get enough crit and spirit/mp5 on your gear, and haste has the problem with Holy in that you don't get any more CoH or ProM casts by using it.
This post on EJ
has some nice points on how haste goes up or down in value depending on whether you have a power CD (e.g. CoH is a higher HPCT ability than your filler) or a buff CD (e.g. how Paladins will judge to keep up Judgments of the Pure, so they get more of the power filler in by getting haste). The top priest on my realm pretty much gems pure SP.
So last question for now: Stats wise? Spellpower + Haste most important? or Spellpower Intellect? or Spellpower spirit?
On gear, you will get SP+Int+Stam+2. Those 2 can be spirit, haste, crit, or MP/5 (likely only on rings). I would go for haste and spirit as much as possible, as renew can't crit (empowered can, but that's only a small portion). You will still end up with enough crit. For gems, just get the 25 SP+2% Int meta and all 23 SP gems (the meta requires 3 red gems).
Post by
Ralk
Thanks Skribs!
I'll take your advice into consideration and will change my current gear accordingly.
I supposed time will tell how important some stats are for me, and others not.
Thanks for the great help. Things seems a little clearer now! Thank you
Post by
167046
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
donnymurph
The top priest on my realm pretty much gems pure SP.
A little irrelevant. The top
holy
priest on my old server gems SP/Crit in everything... He has good justification for doing so, in that he plays with ~20ms latency which considerably negates the need for a faster cast time. He enjoys a mobile playstyle, and his high crit gives him more SoL procs than he can poke a staff at. Furthermore, he has around 700 haste just from gear (plenty).
Zhinn from Paragon on the other hand, gems SP/Spirit everywhere, and has the SP/MP5 hodir shoulder enchants, plus the SP/MP5 head enchant (Wyrmrest?). He is a regen machine. I assume this is because he likes to spam heal a lot(?)
Jhazrun, also from Paragon, stacks SP out his wazoo (he has over 4100 unbuffed!). The guy obviously likes big numbers...
I have SP/Haste in every socket, and quite low regen. This suits me - if I OOM i have a racial and a non-consumable mana potion which combined restore over 20% of my mana bar, plus I have Shadowfiend which I use on pretty much every pull. And I simply love the idea of being able to chain-cast my filler spells quicker. I will probably never stop stacking up my haste.
My point: as healers
should not be running at their maximum capacity all the time like DPS do
, there is a lot of room for movement in stat balances to accommodate playstyle.
Third, how deep should I be goíng into the holy tree as of now? I am the only priest healer and the resto druid and me are doing just fine alone when we just need 2 healers. At times of 3, the holy paladin or resto shaman kicks in, and we arent really having any problems.
This should answer that question
. But basically... You need to go deep enough to pick up Guardian Spirit, and you need 13 points in disco. You are already doing both those things, so all is good. Your spec is mostly good, except that Divine Fury is still not great without Serendipity. Personally I would pick up Inner Focus as well, for the nice cooldown to macro with your Divine Hymn, but that's a preference thing.
Post by
turkey
Concerning disc before holy: I probably wont go disc atm. The holy thing is wokring right now, and I feel alot more secure healing as holy. In the near future maybe.
If you're comfortable as holy, you'll be probably be even more so as disc. It's a much more forgiving playstyle, and perfectly suited to almost every encounter in ICC.
I'm sure your resto druid partner would also find things much easier if you went disc, and that pally might get to stay ret for a few additional fights until you start getting into hard modes and heroics.
And you can always go holy on the few fights where it may be better than disc (can't think of any atm....).
Post by
skribs
My point: as healers should not be running at their maximum capacity all the time like DPS do, there is a lot of room for movement in stat balances to accommodate playstyle.
With how spammy things are in WotLK, people tend to be.
I meant the top holy priest on my server. It also seemed to me you were trying to justify not gemming for haste, when I never said to gem for haste. As to SP+Crit vs. Pure SP, from what I read over at ElitistJerks they're saying you're going to get enough crit on your gear anyway so it doesn't matter too much. SoL is nice for efficiency, but an uncrittable FH is a lot less healing than a renew.
Gemming for Spirit is basically like gemming for less SP, unless you need the regen. Obviously if you can gem for SP+Haste and be fine, then gemming for SP+Spirit is extra regen. Considering the points I've made on the other options, that's why I think SP is better.
Jhazrun, also from Paragon, stacks SP out his wazoo (he has over 4100 unbuffed!). The guy obviously likes big numbers...
Isn't it always his logs people are linking when they're talking about the most effective healing a priest can do in an encounter? I think there's a reason...
Post by
donnymurph
I wasn't trying to justify anything, just providing examples of different approaches that all work fine. I expanded on the top priest from my old server,
Zenyu
, as I have have seen his explanation of the route he chose. I also expanded upon my own decision, as obviously I know why I chose the haste route.
As for crit from gear, well that depends on if you choose to take gear/trinkets with crit on it. All cloth purples have SP, Intel and 2 others out of a list of Spirit, Haste, Crit, MP5 and
Hit
. Zenyu has taken a fair bit of haste gear - with no haste gems he has 613 haste. At the moment I have a mix of Spirit/Crit and Spirit/Haste gear, with a few pieces of Haste/Crit gear. If I am ever lucky enough to get Solace, I would most likely look at dropping some Spirit gear for Haste/Crit gear. EJ is a great resource, but don't forget that just like us, they are fallible players.
As for things being spammy in WotLK, if you wanna spam, you overheal heaps, which reinforces my "room for movement" statement.
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