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  1. #21
    Brewmaster Outofmana's Avatar
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    You need to play a holypriest for at least ~2 weeks before you get your mana regen ( aka almost none). Before that you will spam youself oom. I took a long break from raiding and when I came back I found I was spamming myself oom in no time, took 2/3weeks to get in the game again. I always keep myself busy and I don't like to just stand around, if the damage is low I don't stand still, I spam heal. Proactive healing isn't that bad anyway with your mastery HoT ticking.

  2. #22
    Deleted
    I lvl'd Disc, been disc through out WotLK > Cata and first week MoP.
    Disc was always my prefered spec loved the playstyle of avoiding damage and than heal back up.

    Works well if u got a healing partner that reacts proper to it.

    My healing partners always reacted pretty good on my shields, so they can regen more and groups are healed faster back to full.
    I always preferred the Proactive style, thats till the point it got boring. Spamming PoH, using a CD and spam more PoH doesnt feel fun to me anymore. I just use more spells as Holy and i love the Chakra switching during fights (i might be one of the few that love chakra how it is now) and adjust your healing to the chakra u use.

    Disc was horrible at the first 2 weeks, so i gave Holy a try and now im Hooked to holy.
    I never had issues with Disc and mana, but if i go disc now i run in to mana issues with 9.3k spirit.

    Holy i feel good about, mana is non-issue (specially with a r.shaman which is nearly always my heal partner.).

    I still prefer Proactive healing as its just always been powerfull, just some healers couldnt react to it or understand it properly, seems like that with the druid u heal with. Making them waste mana instead of preserve it, but disc and r.druid i always liked as a combo.

    Dont worry about your overhealing, its how priests works but seeing you healed for 6 years no need to explain anything :P

  3. #23
    Fluffy Kitten Dyra's Avatar
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    While I am in agreement with... well everyone that proactive healing is most effective, but I find reactive healing vastly more fun and, I dare say, more rewarding.

    Knowing that your quick reactions just saved someone from death, having a moment of going into overdrive saving everyone and everything, while holding your breath as your mana bar rockets down to zero praying you have just enough juice to last until the damage stops. It's much more exhilarating than looking at your watch and going 'it's 2 minutes and 57 seconds into the fight, the boss is about to do X amount of damage so I better do this, this and this, hooray everyone lives, yawn, just another minute to go'.

    A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

  4. #24
    I've played Disc, Holy, and Resto Druid with regard to End Game Raiding. (Leveling a Pally to have that option, have low level healed)

    I like being able to do both, Reactive and Proactive, effective enough that I don't have to spend the whole fight watching Grid and DBM alerts. (I want to look at the pretty spell effects and environments.) Every healing class-spec should be able to be proactive and reactive. The good players will learn the fights, learn raid members, and use proactive abilities to negate these issues. Where as everyone can still fall back on reactive abilities. I think it should be a 30/70 mix. Basically most can carry a C rating and the better you are, the closer you get to that A+.

    Too much game design towards proactive and players will be punished greatly for even minor timing mistakes. Too much on reactive and ilvl rules the day. Too much on endless mana and it reduces to whoever has the fastest throughput (Pallys) or Druids win because HOTS snipe all.

    What I hate(!!!!!), is "smart" heals. They require no decision making and can make some classes/specs/abilities OP. Game Breaking starts with "smart" heals.

    I've always looked at healing as DPSing the raid. In general there is no "smart" DPS (Cleaves and AOE still require positioning), why should there be "smart" heals. Get rid of them for all classes I say.

    TL;DR : Proactive Makes me feel smart, Reactive is fun and Smart Heals are the spawn of the devil.

  5. #25
    Interesting, I'm definitely a proactive healer. That might have something to do with me being a meter whore however, I find constantly healing useful in Discipline priests case since Divine Aegis can stack up anyway, so even when a heal isn't a heal, it's always going to be an absorb. The druid probably doesn't understand the mechanics of Disc like you do and obviously druid is far different!

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Cookie View Post
    I've mostly been playing proactive healers (resto druid and disc priest being my most played specs) so I obviously prefer that. I simply feel like it adds more depth to healing if you have a heavier emphasis on proactivity, however since every healer has to be (somewhat) proactive now this isn't really related to specific classes/specs anymore. If you aren't being at least somewhat proactive (every single spec has spells that can and should be used before the damage goes out) you are doing it wrong.
    Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything. Obviously many disagree with me because most play disc, but I still think so. Shields should be used as a niche, not as avoiding all damage in a given fight with PW:S, SS, DA, and Barrier. It has reached a point where absorbs are so powerful, they became from disc's niche to their main heals. Its not only unfair to the other healers who have to settle for leftovers, its also unfair to disc priest who receive very boring, unchallenging gameplay (and their current OP mana state isn't helping either). Healing should be reactive, because that's the term. You heal someone after he got injured, and not before. I can't blame Blizzard for trying to create variety, thus making absorbs another way of healing, but in that they have ruined balance. If absorbs are a niche, you don't count on them for pre healing an entire boss fight. Instead, you use the absorbs on truly important things like tank damage/rapture.
    Avoiding overhealing and not having to ever get people up just kills the whole idea of being a healer, imo, which is why I've played disc for a short while in Cataclysm only to go back to holy, the real healer.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 08:47 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Trubo View Post
    No offense but you should be disc if you have the option. Even with the Spirit Shell nerf in 5.2 Disc will be one of the best healing specs because of Divine Aegis+Spirit Shell stacking.
    This has sadly become the state in WoW. Instead of players going with the spec they enjoy and feel comfortable with, they are forced, pretty much, to go with the strongest spec, the spec that will buy you a raid spot in the higher guilds. This concept is just wrong. Priests shouldn't have to "go disc if they have the option", they should be able to choose one of 3 specs and be viable for raiding no matter what they choose.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 08:56 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by simland View Post
    I've played Disc, Holy, and Resto Druid with regard to End Game Raiding. (Leveling a Pally to have that option, have low level healed)

    I like being able to do both, Reactive and Proactive, effective enough that I don't have to spend the whole fight watching Grid and DBM alerts. (I want to look at the pretty spell effects and environments.) Every healing class-spec should be able to be proactive and reactive. The good players will learn the fights, learn raid members, and use proactive abilities to negate these issues. Where as everyone can still fall back on reactive abilities. I think it should be a 30/70 mix. Basically most can carry a C rating and the better you are, the closer you get to that A+.

    Too much game design towards proactive and players will be punished greatly for even minor timing mistakes. Too much on reactive and ilvl rules the day. Too much on endless mana and it reduces to whoever has the fastest throughput (Pallys) or Druids win because HOTS snipe all.

    What I hate(!!!!!), is "smart" heals. They require no decision making and can make some classes/specs/abilities OP. Game Breaking starts with "smart" heals.

    I've always looked at healing as DPSing the raid. In general there is no "smart" DPS (Cleaves and AOE still require positioning), why should there be "smart" heals. Get rid of them for all classes I say.

    TL;DR : Proactive Makes me feel smart, Reactive is fun and Smart Heals are the spawn of the devil.
    Totally disagree. Proactive healing and smart healing is pretty much the same decision making. On both you only pretty much have to deal with timing - timing your shields before the incoming damage, or timing the smart heal a slight second after the damage. If anything, smart heals are more challenging because you have less room for error (if you aren't fast enough and the damage is big, you risk your fellow raiders, and if you are too fast -> overhealing). Proactive healing is just so OP, it makes everyone seem like really good healers, as there is basically no damage/mana issues for even a mediocre disc priest.

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Cookie View Post
    I've mostly been playing proactive healers (resto druid and disc priest being my most played specs) so I obviously prefer that. I simply feel like it adds more depth to healing if you have a heavier emphasis on proactivity, however since every healer has to be (somewhat) proactive now this isn't really related to specific classes/specs anymore. If you aren't being at least somewhat proactive (every single spec has spells that can and should be used before the damage goes out) you are doing it wrong.
    Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything. Obviously many disagree with me because most play disc, but I still think so. Shields should be used as a niche, not as avoiding all damage in a given fight with PW:S, SS, DA, and Barrier. It has reached a point where absorbs are so powerful, they became from disc's niche to their main heals. Its not only unfair to the other healers who have to settle for leftovers, its also unfair to disc priest who receive very boring, unchallenging gameplay (and their current OP mana state isn't helping either). Healing should be reactive, because that's the term. You heal someone after he got injured, and not before. I can't blame Blizzard for trying to create variety, thus making absorbs another way of healing, but in that they have ruined balance. If absorbs are a niche, you don't count on them for pre healing an entire boss fight. Instead, you use the absorbs on truly important things like tank damage/rapture.
    Avoiding overhealing and not having to ever get people up just kills the whole idea of being a healer, imo, which is why I've played disc for a short while in Cataclysm only to go back to holy, the real healer.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 08:47 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Trubo View Post
    No offense but you should be disc if you have the option. Even with the Spirit Shell nerf in 5.2 Disc will be one of the best healing specs because of Divine Aegis+Spirit Shell stacking.
    This has sadly become the state in WoW. Instead of players going with the spec they enjoy and feel comfortable with, they are forced, pretty much, to go with the strongest spec, the spec that will buy you a raid spot in the higher guilds. This concept is just wrong. Priests shouldn't have to "go disc if they have the option", they should be able to choose one of 3 specs and be viable for raiding no matter what they choose.[COLOR="red"]

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Cookie View Post
    I've mostly been playing proactive healers (resto druid and disc priest being my most played specs) so I obviously prefer that. I simply feel like it adds more depth to healing if you have a heavier emphasis on proactivity, however since every healer has to be (somewhat) proactive now this isn't really related to specific classes/specs anymore. If you aren't being at least somewhat proactive (every single spec has spells that can and should be used before the damage goes out) you are doing it wrong.
    Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything. Obviously many disagree with me because most play disc, but I still think so. Shields should be used as a niche, not as avoiding all damage in a given fight with PW:S, SS, DA, and Barrier. It has reached a point where absorbs are so powerful, they became from disc's niche to their main heals. Its not only unfair to the other healers who have to settle for leftovers, its also unfair to disc priest who receive very boring, unchallenging gameplay (and their current OP mana state isn't helping either). Healing should be reactive, because that's the term. You heal someone after he got injured, and not before. I can't blame Blizzard for trying to create variety, thus making absorbs another way of healing, but in that they have ruined balance. If absorbs are a niche, you don't count on them for pre healing an entire boss fight. Instead, you use the absorbs on truly important things like tank damage/rapture.
    Avoiding overhealing and not having to ever get people up just kills the whole idea of being a healer, imo, which is why I've played disc for a short while in Cataclysm only to go back to holy, the real healer.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 08:47 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Trubo View Post
    No offense but you should be disc if you have the option. Even with the Spirit Shell nerf in 5.2 Disc will be one of the best healing specs because of Divine Aegis+Spirit Shell stacking.
    This has sadly become the state in WoW. Instead of players going with the spec they enjoy and feel comfortable with, they are forced, pretty much, to go with the strongest spec, the spec that will buy you a raid spot in the higher guilds. This concept is just wrong. Priests shouldn't have to "go disc if they have the option", they should be able to choose one of 3 specs and be viable for raiding no matter what they choose.[COLOR="red"]

  9. #29
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by simland View Post
    I've played Disc, Holy, and Resto Druid with regard to End Game Raiding. (Leveling a Pally to have that option, have low level healed)

    I like being able to do both, Reactive and Proactive, effective enough that I don't have to spend the whole fight watching Grid and DBM alerts. (I want to look at the pretty spell effects and environments.) Every healing class-spec should be able to be proactive and reactive. The good players will learn the fights, learn raid members, and use proactive abilities to negate these issues. Where as everyone can still fall back on reactive abilities. I think it should be a 30/70 mix. Basically most can carry a C rating and the better you are, the closer you get to that A+.

    Too much game design towards proactive and players will be punished greatly for even minor timing mistakes. Too much on reactive and ilvl rules the day. Too much on endless mana and it reduces to whoever has the fastest throughput (Pallys) or Druids win because HOTS snipe all.

    What I hate(!!!!!), is "smart" heals. They require no decision making and can make some classes/specs/abilities OP. Game Breaking starts with "smart" heals.

    I've always looked at healing as DPSing the raid. In general there is no "smart" DPS (Cleaves and AOE still require positioning), why should there be "smart" heals. Get rid of them for all classes I say.

    TL;DR : Proactive Makes me feel smart, Reactive is fun and Smart Heals are the spawn of the devil.


    I love healing, got almost 5 healers now (Priest (main), Paladin, Druid, @ lvl 87,7 shaman and a lvl 76 Monk) on one realm.

    Love the fact than not every healer can heal proactive (as in non other than disc), would be boring as hell to have all classes able to do anything the other healer can. 5 healing specs blanket the raid with proactive stuff and ur save, lets get rid of the +stamina on gear as we wont lose health anyways. Also why would one lvl more healers if they are all "the same".

    All the classes have smart heals and i dont mind smart heals at all, the good ones u still have to think about when to use it and on who to get the most out of it. There are some smart heals that doesnt require thinking, atonement, lightspring or glyphed surging mist (monks) for example but the good ones are on a CD cept for chain heal. But there is a DPS spell like chain heal -> chain lightning and any other cleave ability.

    Proactive healing is just very strong but knowing the fight as disc and use spirit shell doesnt make it feel smarter to me personally, its just me knowing the fight as well i should know the fight for holy spec. As holy i need to know when i can go to chakra sanc, serenity or chastise to heal the incoming damage or to deal damage when there is hardly any damage to heal (never stop casting). Considering the CD on chakra switching as u want to be back in a certain chakra after damage has happened.

    If disc didnt feel so boring i would be disc as my preference is Proactive > Reactive but i rather have more fun while healing.
    Last edited by mmoc3c8522fde4; 2013-01-08 at 10:09 AM.

  10. #30
    While I think the classes should all be similarly balanced, I don't think they should be the same. In terms of Proactive healing, Disc has bubbles, Druids have HOTS, Holy has Renew and "stopcast" (due to long cast spells rather than instant or channeled). If you wanted to give Holy more reliance on proactive healing, you buff a long cast spell, so that Holy has to time it to hit right after incoming damage. Communicating that play style to the player base is much harder (less obvious) than buffing Disc shields or making Druid HOTS cheaper.

    And I will continue to disagree on Smart Heals with a fiery passion. In a raid situation, while there is incoming damage, I can't think of a time where you don't use your smart heal on cool down. Atonement is situational (unless it's LFR, then smite away), but the rest are "spam" so long as someone doesn't need a quick heal. I believe this deep seeded hatred comes from an era where shammy healers had to do nothing but spam chain heal or where holy priests were brought to raids for COH spam or where the Bacon of Light made healing faceroll.

    I came to the realization the other day that I have no DPS toons. Everyone is a Tank or Healer. I have a sickness.

  11. #31
    Legendary! Rivellana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by simland View Post
    I believe this deep seeded hatred comes from an era where shammy healers had to do nothing but spam chain heal or where holy priests were brought to raids for COH spam or where the Bacon of Light made healing faceroll.

    I came to the realization the other day that I have no DPS toons. Everyone is a Tank or Healer. I have a sickness.
    Yeah, I could agree with that. I remember running ZA back in BC when shammy healers only chain healed all day, and when I personally was brought on my priest (then holy) just to spam CoH (before the cooldown was added, even).

    I'm in the same boat as you too. My first character in the game was my druid which was boomkin for all of maybe six months, as soon as I rolled my priest (my first healer) I was hooked and every single character I've played with any frequency from then on has been a healer...even my druid got changed to resto. I've got a priest, paladin, druid, monk, three shamans...and then there is the mage and hunter that sit on the side and rarely ever do anything except some random quests because I can't stand playing dps. :P

  12. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Blachshma View Post
    Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything. Obviously many disagree with me because most play disc, but I still think so. Shields should be used as a niche, not as avoiding all damage in a given fight with PW:S, SS, DA, and Barrier. It has reached a point where absorbs are so powerful, they became from disc's niche to their main heals. Its not only unfair to the other healers who have to settle for leftovers, its also unfair to disc priest who receive very boring, unchallenging gameplay (and their current OP mana state isn't helping either). Healing should be reactive, because that's the term. You heal someone after he got injured, and not before. I can't blame Blizzard for trying to create variety, thus making absorbs another way of healing, but in that they have ruined balance. If absorbs are a niche, you don't count on them for pre healing an entire boss fight. Instead, you use the absorbs on truly important things like tank damage/rapture.
    Avoiding overhealing and not having to ever get people up just kills the whole idea of being a healer, imo, which is why I've played disc for a short while in Cataclysm only to go back to holy, the real healer.[COLOR="red"]


    This has sadly become the state in WoW. Instead of players going with the spec they enjoy and feel comfortable with, they are forced, pretty much, to go with the strongest spec, the spec that will buy you a raid spot in the higher guilds. This concept is just wrong. Priests shouldn't have to "go disc if they have the option", they should be able to choose one of 3 specs and be viable for raiding no matter what they choose.
    I don't think disc isn't challenging, in fact I think it's made me a better healer even when I am not playing disc. But I think the mentality of "disc priest is ruining the game for me because now I have nothing left to heal because of absorbs" is what's making everyone mad. When you have a disc priest in your raid you shouldn't be thinking "wow I am only getting leftovers when I am healing", you should be thinking about how to adjust your healing appropriately so you maximize your own healing as absorbs are going to happen.

    And unless you want to raid in a top end guild who cares what spec you want play. I have a fun time raiding with my guild and I regularly go holy for a couple of fights instead of disc and we are just barely starting hardmodes in 10 mans. But if you have the option to play the strongest spec, why not?

  13. #33
    Deleted
    Not a priest but healed on a shaman, paladin and monk for quite a while, and to me it completely depends on the encounter and class.

  14. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by DerrHans View Post
    I love healing, got almost 5 healers now (Priest (main), Paladin, Druid, @ lvl 87,7 shaman and a lvl 76 Monk) on one realm.

    Love the fact than not every healer can heal proactive (as in non other than disc), would be boring as hell to have all classes able to do anything the other healer can. 5 healing specs blanket the raid with proactive stuff and ur save, lets get rid of the +stamina on gear as we wont lose health anyways. Also why would one lvl more healers if they are all "the same".
    "Proactive healing" =\= shields.

    Proactive healing = shields + Healing Rain before an AoE + Saving HP for a LoD + Rejuv blanketing + Riptide Blanketing + Casting PoH to land a tick after AoE damage (Disc and Holy, mind you) + ProMing on cooldown + all sorts of any other shit.

    Every healer can proactively heal; it's just that absorbs tend to be stronger.

  15. #35
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Spazzeh View Post
    "Proactive healing" =\= shields.

    Proactive healing = shields + Healing Rain before an AoE + Saving HP for a LoD + Rejuv blanketing + Riptide Blanketing + Casting PoH to land a tick after AoE damage (Disc and Holy, mind you) + ProMing on cooldown + all sorts of any other shit.

    Every healer can proactively heal; it's just that absorbs tend to be stronger.
    Correct..
    Clearly i wasnt awake :/

    Been a shitty day yesterday anyways

  16. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by Blachshma View Post
    Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything.
    If you were a mage, would you call all healing "cheating"? Because mages can't to that very well either, they die when they have no health left unlike a shaman who will heal himself.

    If there is no healing left to be done after absorbs, then you run too many healers.
    I agree that there is a problem with SS and PoH but that is because of the horribly outdated targeting mechanic of PoH because of which it must be too strong when you can bring its whole potential out as it has to be still competitive when it only effectively heals three targets. It has been a problem since the very first time Blizzard made a raidgroup. (But no problems make boring games.)

  17. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by Noradin View Post
    I agree that there is a problem with SS and PoH but that is because of the horribly outdated targeting mechanic of PoH because of which it must be too strong when you can bring its whole potential out as it has to be still competitive when it only effectively heals three targets. It has been a problem since the very first time Blizzard made a raidgroup. (But no problems make boring games.)
    Love this. Half of the skill in learning to use POH is getting the raid leader to group players appropriate to who will be taking damage at the same time. At least these days it can be used on more than JUST the group you are in.

  18. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by simland View Post
    Love this. Half of the skill in learning to use POH is getting the raid leader to group players appropriate to who will be taking damage at the same time. At least these days it can be used on more than JUST the group you are in.
    Or just organize the groups yourself!

  19. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Spazzeh View Post
    Or just organize the groups yourself!
    Haha, ya after "advising" and "correcting" for a few weeks in a row, the guild leader just gave assist and said "do it yourself". That guild never did get into heroics.

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