Holy Priests: the first raid/questions./help

[KaijuLizard]

Let me just start by say since I am newer here, hopefully this post isn’t viewed as trolling but more as trying to get a grasp of whats going on. Just looking for guidance.. Sorry if its rambling a bit. Pretty much every xpac, people are extremely happy with Holy. You can check out archive.net or search posts from the last few years on here and the same stuff is usually said: Holy has a great toolkit, very competive, etc. But as the xpac wears on or mythic unlocks, Holy always falls off the bandwagon, overshadowed by other healing classes.

Its nice to see a scant few Holy priests actually making the rankings on logs in Heroic though shaman/paladin/druids seem to be dominating. Looking at the Holy priests who are showing up on these logs, versus their raid size, versus what I see people picking for talents in threads on here (See the Holy thread about talent choices for the first raid) and versus what Wowhead and other sites are suggesting for priest talent picks/artifacts, I am lost..

Most of the priests showing up on logs are using single target heals (Flash for example), very little Prayer of Healing, and going with Apotheosis. Ive been swapping talents on fights more then I change underwear. Mostly between the level 100 talents. Can someone shed some light on using Apotheosis to its full potential? With fights lasting around lets say 7 mins, you can use this talent 2x and each time Ive used it, I feel like Im wasting it/just not understanding it correctly or getting nowhere. In the end, I was putting out heals but getting outhealed by the other heals on our team (Pal, Shm, Dru) and further, my mana was absolute garbage (Running at 853 ilvl).

Also see a heavy use of Sanctify in logs. I try using it but I absolutely hate the fact that I have to place it down somewhere. The ranged is too spread to make much use of it and half the time I try to place it on melee, the boss is in the way/it can be hard to see to “lay down” the green circle where Sanc will hit. It would be easier if it worked like Prayer or had some better type of marker/spell effect then what it currently is.

So I guess my questions are:

How can Apotheosis be used to its full potential for max HPS? Would Benediction or CoH be a better choice and why? Again looking at logs, it almost feels working artifacts on the left side that influence single target healing, would be better spent then worrying about PoH etc?

[lifebinderx]

Personally I would not recommend Apotheosis for raids. As u stated it is a very long CD and u will mostly feel u wasted it since there is no 30sec constant damage in raids. For me Apotheosis is a 5 men content talent where u have little option to keep tank alive. 3 flash heal and one serenity bam "tank never dies".

[Hodag]

I would absolutely recommend Apotheosis for raids. When used properly, it's effectively a mini divine hymn and can take care of raid damage when other healing CD's are all on CD throughout your healing team.

[yzzie]

I would absolutely recommend Apotheosis for raids. When used properly, it's effectively a mini divine hymn and can take care of raid damage when other healing CD's are all on CD throughout your healing team.

But could someone explain exactly how to use it properly? OP asked this, and I would like to know too since I am also a new holy priest and pretty much have the same issues OP outlines.

[frbls]

But could someone explain exactly how to use it properly? OP asked this, and I would like to know too since I am also a new holy priest and pretty much have the same issues OP outlines.

Just one example; depending on which spawn you pick to cleanse during Cenarius, and how well your raid stays together, pop Apotheses, PW: Sanctify, PoH until PW:Sanctify is off CD, rinse/repeat as needed or drop a PW: Serenity on the tanks as needed followed by 3 FH. The raid can take more than enough damage during this whole fight to make using this worthwhile. You will burn some mana, but in this particular example you can get it back in the encounter.

Anecdotally, Elerethe (at least in Heroic) is also a good place to do this as the whole raid takes tons of damage at predictable points in the encounter.

Just take advantage of the increased healing after using a PW heal, AND the 15% increased healing from PoH after PW: Sanctify.

Edit: Also during the eyeball boss, inside while attacking the heart. Depending on where you're standing LoS will be an issue trying to heal anyone on the other side of the heart. You've got about 20-30 seconds to beat on it before the raid has to get out, and it's a good time to use PW:Sanctify and PoH. Neither are affected by LoS, as long as you can see your initial target. Perfect Apothesis moment.

[royals]

I just dipped my toe in the raid for the first time yesterday. But found that Apotheosis was great on Ursoc as well. Consistent raid damage. Not to mention that if CoH is on my bar I use it a lot, and it is quite expensive.

[yzzie]

Just one example; depending on which spawn you pick to cleanse during Cenarius, and how well your raid stays together, pop Apotheses, PW: Sanctify, PoH until PW:Sanctify is off CD, rinse/repeat as needed or drop a PW: Serenity on the tanks as needed followed by 3 FH. The raid can take more than enough damage during this whole fight to make using this worthwhile. You will burn some mana, but in this particular example you can get it back in the encounter.

Anecdotally, Elerethe (at least in Heroic) is also a good place to do this as the whole raid takes tons of damage at predictable points in the encounter.

Just take advantage of the increased healing after using a PW heal, AND the 15% increased healing from PoH after PW: Sanctify.

Edit: Also during the eyeball boss, inside while attacking the heart. Depending on where you're standing LoS will be an issue trying to heal anyone on the other side of the heart. You've got about 20-30 seconds to beat on it before the raid has to get out, and it's a good time to use PW:Sanctify and PoH. Neither are affected by LoS, as long as you can see your initial target. Perfect Apothesis moment.

that is a really helpful response, thank you!!

[Talleh]

Apo is probably the best go to spell, it is an extremely good raid CD and if you're fortunate enough to get an innervate when you pop this it can save your raid.

For instance, Ursoc. I use Apo as one of our charge CD's with an innervate. This allows me to spam PoH and Sanc and then let echo heal the raid up. On my logs for this fight Sanc is my top heal and it's fantastic and creates a very good niche for our class, which is the burst healer.

There are some fights where you *will* prefer a FH/ToL preferred play style, but keep an open mind and have a look at the fights, I've found Nyth, Ursoc, Cenarius promote a heavy PoH play style, where fights like Xavius prefer a combination of both.

Check logs, keep practicing, you'll get there!