Looking to improve my healing (Disc)

[The Funder]

I see myself as a pretty decent raider, but I am always looking to improve. Reviewing logs of the top disc priests hasn't helped too much of late. So I am looking for any and all advice on how to improve myself as a healer.


Warcraft Logs:

The links are funky because it won't let me post them.
(Note: My guild has been doing very poorly lately and my performance has suffered a bit with it due to low morale.)

warcraftlogs.co
m/guilds/46174

Armory:

us.battle.n
et/wow/en/character/thrall/Funder/advanced

[ceddya]

AA uptime is fine, but you need to use Penance (and HF) more often so that you have 5 stacks of Evangelism each time you use AA. T90 usage needs to be better - try Halo for fights like Gruul and Kromog.

[PosPosPos]

AA uptime is fine, but you need to use Penance (and HF) more often so that you have 5 stacks of Evangelism each time you use AA. T90 usage needs to be better - try Halo for fights like Gruul and Kromog.

Cascade is probably still better for Gruul if using the 3 group strat.

[PosPosPos]

Correct. Should use Cascade over Halo/Divine Star on all fights. Level 90 talents are still pretty crappy, but Cascade is by far the BEST option.

Halo, however, is a good contender if on a fight where you can conveniently position yourself in the middle of 2 groups. Like Gruul(2 group strat) and Kromog(run out to max range of melee and range stack clumps.

[ceddya]

Halo, however, is a good contender if on a fight where you can conveniently position yourself in the middle of 2 groups. Like Gruul(2 group strat) and Kromog(run out to max range of melee and range stack clumps.

This. Although, I've found Halo to be a good option for the 3 groups strat on Gruul if you're able to get into the middle positioned group. There's also no downside to Halo for Ka'graz since the fight has sufficient grouping and with mechanics that are spaced apart far enough to fully utilize Halo's bigger HPET.

[Deleted]

From what i can see you seem to be doing fine. Good uptimes for most part and spell usage. Just make sure u learn damage patterns and react to them by preventing damage. I think its more your others healers who could improve more then you.

Also about top disc logs, dont compare their numbers to yours. Top logs often underheal and make there guild help them rank. Has nothing to do with being a good healer. Dont focus on numbers, if you are using the right spells at the right times and people don´t die due to lack of healing and healers don´t have to pick up your slack, then you are doing what you are suppose to do.

[Mythrose]

Halo, however, is a good contender if on a fight where you can conveniently position yourself in the middle of 2 groups. Like Gruul(2 group strat) and Kromog(run out to max range of melee and range stack clumps.

I see this advice a lot and while it's TECHNICALLY true, even perfectly executed the difference will be minor. Add to that the extra positioning hassle/ danger of being out of position/ loosing gcd's to moving, and imo you have a pretty strong argument for cascade, which is much more forgiving. Previously the strength of halo was that it provided life-saving burst to a raid...think Garrosh empowered whirling for example. Although halo is still more bursty than cascade, our t90 talents have been gutted to the point that none of them are going to save lives by themselves. I personally think that at the moment cascade is the more forgiving, and usually correct, choice.

[Djriff]

Except for when cascade hits pets completely negating the benefit of casting it in the first place.

[PosPosPos]

I see this advice a lot and while it's TECHNICALLY true, even perfectly executed the difference will be minor. Add to that the extra positioning hassle/ danger of being out of position/ loosing gcd's to moving, and imo you have a pretty strong argument for cascade, which is much more forgiving.

What rubbish is this? The perfect times to cast Halo on those two fights I have raised won't require any extra movement to begin with. There is no danger and minimal hassle involved.

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Except for when cascade hits pets completely negating the benefit of casting it in the first place.

People don't really realize it only hits pets because Cascade only bounces up to two times on a single target, so when all the injured players get two ticks of it Cascade will start bouncing to pets instead.

[Djriff]

People don't really realize it only hits pets because Cascade only bounces up to two times on a single target, so when all the injured players get two ticks of it Cascade will start bouncing to pets instead.

Oh, I was under a different understanding. Thank god its not completely broken then.

[PosPosPos]

Oh, I was under a different understanding. Thank god its not completely broken then.

It's just an inefficiency in the priority list. It should be:

Injured players -> Non-injured players -> Pets

rather than

Injured players -> Injured pets -> everything else

Although even then, in the former example the overhealing wouldn't really go down anyway due to the 2 hit limit, which I will briefly explain later. At least Cascade only bouncing to players as the top priority might net you some Divine Aegis shields

__________________________________________

As a side-note, since Cascade has a total of 31 bounces, and can only bounce to a target twice, you would require at least 16 unique injured players in the raid for it to never bounce to pets. Obviously, this is pretty difficult to achieve.

The best solution is for Cascade to not have a 2 hit limit, perhaps 3-4 minimum would be ideal.

[Djriff]

That would be wonderful, outside of mythic raids at least. When you're 4 healing, cascade can be a god send if timed right, tantrum on beastlord for example. I do think that cascade is a bit OP for shadow as on 2-3 target fights its usually my 2nd or 3rd highest dmg depending on the encounter and movement.

[Mythrose]

What rubbish is this? The perfect times to cast Halo on those two fights I have raised won't require any extra movement to begin with. There is no danger and minimal hassle involved.

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People don't really realize it only hits pets because Cascade only bounces up to two times on a single target, so when all the injured players get two ticks of it Cascade will start bouncing to pets instead.

In your kromog example you specifically said "run out to max of melee and ranged stacked clumps", so yes, some extra movement there. My only point is positioning is much more unforgiving with halo than cascade. Even a loose stack can make it difficult to be effective on many targets. If you add in extra travel time, even if it is minor, in many cases halo just isn't worth the extra effort.

[PosPosPos]

In your kromog example you specifically said "run out to max of melee and ranged stacked clumps", so yes, some extra movement there.

Hi, you are a disc priest. A class dominated by a majority of instant casts. Act like one.

My only point is positioning is much more unforgiving with halo than cascade. Even a loose stack can make it difficult to be effective on many targets. If you add in extra travel time, even if it is minor, in many cases halo just isn't worth the extra effort.

So you are saying you don't know how to use Halo on largely stationary fights like Kromog and Gruul. Okay. This is a personal skill problem rather than a problem with the spell, I might add.

[Deleted]

I prefer Halo personally. Cascade feels super weak to me and a well-positioned Halo with my trinket proc up covers the raid in PW:S sized DA which is awesome and far easier to do than you may think. But ultimately your T90 talent will be a difference of a few thousand hps at most. If you're that concerned about your numbers focus more on each fights mechanics and how you can be better prepared for them. Preparation is everything.

[Mythrose]

Hi, you are a disc priest. A class dominated by a majority of instant casts. Act like one.




So you are saying you don't know how to use Halo on largely stationary fights like Kromog and Gruul. Okay. This is a personal skill problem rather than a problem with the spell, I might add.

Not at all. I do quite well for myself thank you! There is a difference between theoretical and actual performance, and halo many times does not deliver enough added benefit for the extra hassle to be worth it.

For comparison, let's take the top 10 logs on kromog, because it’s one of the few fights where we can actually achieve close to our full throughput potential. 6 people used cascade, 4 used halo. Besides what that tells you there, let’s look at the highest numbers cascade and halo did.

Halo:
warcraftlogs.com/reports/tgw82NpCqBFvTcLb#fight=18&type=healing&source=19

2.5m healing done

Cascade:
warcraftlogs.com/reports/13AtdfrbKPmGT9C7#fight=16&type=healing&source=64

1.5m healing done, apologies I've yet to hit the magic post link threshold.

Halo out-healed cascade by ~1m on two very similar length fights. 2 points:
a. Overall throughput is practically identical. The extra halo healing is offset by lower PoH usage. Possibly more PoH could have been achieved through slightly less movement?
b. This is pretty much in the noise. The top kromog parse used cascade, and it healed for less, than either the above parses. And he still did more throughput! T90's just don't matter very much. Hell you can ignore them completely and still play disc effectively (which is a shame btw).

When we add positional requirements, either to ourselves or to the raid, there generally should be a good reason. Right now if you can squeeze a bit extra out of halo, great. Personally between the positioning requirements, and it not lining up with archangel nearly as well as cascade, I usually find it's not worth it. Being dogmatic about Cascade vs Halo to the point of insults is just being lost in the details.

[ceddya]

With regards to Halo, keep in mind that it also has higher raw healing than Cascade, which will translate to more DA.

Like you said though, the difference isn't game changing, but if you're looking to etch out every bit of HPS that you can, then there are situations where Halo is better than Cascade.