some questions about atonement disc in 5man settings.

[Don Vito Corleone]

i play a disc priest, mostly in 5mans. that leads me directly into my first question:

1) the reason i switched to disc, rather than play holy like i died during leveling, was because even though i played holy, i noticed i was having a rather unholy playstyle, with not using renew because i dislike HoT effects (they are too slow for me and i feel like i need extra addons to monitor them) and using a rather large amount of PW:S, especially on the tank. i also had some mana issues when the fight got too long. what are your thoughts on this?

after i played disc for a few dungeons, i decided to switch to Atonement spec. the reason for this was mainly because i read the merits on the "new raiders" sticky. i ended up enjoying it due to the substantially higher throughput with a marginally higher mana usage (especially at 5 stacks evangelism) combined with feeling like i actually contribute in more than one way (4K DPS is actually pretty much in PuG groups, since that can often make up for 1 mediocre DPS). it also meant i could use my rather limited button space more easily.

2) atonement basically seems pretty viable during most of the content, including ZA and ZG. however, i'm having issues with Jin'Do in ZG. the biggest problem seems to be that there's nothing i can reliably use smite on to heal the other players. there is also a lot of raid damage going out, especially if you have people that fail to move away from ghosts or meteors (which both hit for 25-50K). and since without exceptional players, you need everyone alive to really make it. if the tank dies before the shields are broken, you're boned. if a DPS dies, you might not be able to handle all the ghosts. in these cases, i start to make errors and people die. Jin'do actually is the only boss i've done so far that i cannot heal. can anyone give me hints on this?

finally, i want to share a few things about my playstyle for critical analysis, along with some questions.

3) preshielding for damage spikes: with 5 shields being cast pretty fast (but really costly), is this something that should be done frequently? how about preshielding in general? and in a similar vein, are there any opportune times to using PW:B?

4) my general prepull preparation: shield and mending on the tank, boss targeted for smite spam, mouseover heals for GH, penance, PW:S, PoH, PoM, dispel, heal. bar setup: 1-4: PoM, shield, GH, penance; F1-F4: heal, dispel, PW:B, PoH. A is smite, E is pain S., mass dispell is bound to one of my thumb buttons, LoF to the other. any other heals i should be thinking about binding?

5) i'm thinking about respeccing due to a lack of usage for some talents, most notably IF (yeah, i don't use IF). is this more of a L2P issue, or could i benefit from moving a point from IF to another place? i'm healing perfectly without using IF, and maybe i should just be macroing IF to PoH and GH. thoughts on this?

6) finally, about stat weights. i'm using PW:S a reasonable amount, but only the ones on the tank are absorbed fully. the rest is basically wasted mastery. i'm also a bit indecisive concerning the other stat weights. mastery as atonement requires a reasonable amount of crit to make sure Smite procs DA enough. currently, i'm simply more or less stacking Haste. however, i've been wondering if i could benefit more from a more balanced setup.

[Apostolic]

1) Normal heal until a chain it broke. Make sure everyone is within 15 yards of the broken chain. HF/Smite the chain. You can hit the Chains for about 60-80K. That huge heals at a 1.5 cast speed.
2) No one should be taking any damage but the tank on that phase. If they are, they are not killing the adds fast enough, missing jumps on the chains, or just flat not even trying to dodge them. Leave the chain to the melee and tank (and your smites).
3) If you are not using IF yourself, toss it on the caster DPS. It is well worth it. If not, use it to save you some mana.

EDIT:
Also, use a mouse over macro for your smite/HF.

#Showtooltip Smite
/cast [@mouseovertargettarget] Smite

Same for holy fire. This will allow you to cast Smite or HF with out leaving your healing target.

[HDPriest]

1) 3) If you are not using IF yourself, toss it on the caster DPS. It is well worth it. If not, use it to save you some mana.

I think he means Inner Focus, not Power Infusion. If you're not using PI, def throw it to a caster DPS, but do try macro'ing IF to Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing so you use it more often without having to think about it.

[Apostolic]

I think he means Inner Focus, not Power Infusion. If you're not using PI, def throw it to a caster DPS, but do try macro'ing IF to Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing so you use it more often without having to think about it.

Yeah, your right. Mis-read that. Inner Focus should be macro'd to the abilities that use it. GHeal, FHeal, BHeal and PoH.

#Showtooltip Greater Heal
/cast Inner Focus
/cast [@mouseovertarget] Greater Heal

[Don Vito Corleone]

you guys seem to recommend using HF. i'm currently not using it at all. would i benefit much from it?

also, Apostolic, i'm smiting by just targeting the boss. my heals are mouseover macros.

i noticed i forgot to share an armory. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lebel/advanced. my gear is exactly the same for both specs, not even changed reforges. it's just easier that way, and cheaper.

[Jordaen]

About your spec...

Why no borrowed time? the two points in veiled shadows, in shadow, should be moved to borrowed time over in disc. Also, your glyph of spirit tap should be glyph of smite, which I believe increases the damage of smite by 2% if there is the holy fire dot on the target. Since your heals from smite/holy fire are based on the damage you deal, you should definitely keep holy fire up. It's just free extra healing.

Atonement healing is supposed to be a supplement to your normal healing style. On fights like Jin'do, and many raid bosses, you simply cannot heal all the time with smite. You have to use your other spells more, specifically penance, which should always be used on cooldown. I prefer the glyph of Prayer of Healing to PW:B, since this lets me use prayer of healing better, and PW:B is hard to use in 5 mans. If I were raiding, though, definitely PW:B.

I don't think you should preshield spike damage on everyone. Perhaps the tank and the one dps who has the lowest life points. Shielding them all is a huge waste of mana because most 5 man bosses don't do enough aoe damage to pop a pw:s. Pw:B is somewhat hard to use in 5 mans, since, well, there's only 5 of you and the odds of pugs staying inside the nice shiny bubble for the whole duration is pretty low, but you can drop it on the last chain on Jin'do, where everyone will be dpsing their heart out, probably ignoring the ghosts. On the cat boss in ZG, you should drop it at the start of p2, as people are usually low, but all grouped up. Other fights vary based on group comp.

Stat priorities are based heavily on your gear. Since you're healing 5 mans, I'd say haste is best. Once you get into raids, that will change, however. I believe the disc priest guide tells you this.

[HDPriest]

Definitely use Holy Fire. It's like a Flash Heal on the lowest target in range, builds Evangelism stacks, makes your Smites hit harder (when glyphed), and is really cheap. If you're in a fight where you can't utilize Atonement all the time, keeping up your Evan stacks with quick Holy Fires so you have the healing CD for heavy damage is really nice.