Smiter priest in raid?

[olicon]

Is there any possibility that this will be end-game viable? What kind of number can they put out? What buff/debuff can they offer? 25 man? Heroic?

Also, assume that the raid does not care too much about progress, and people are just out for some fun.

[Pinky]

smitepriests are pretty worthless regarding dps, concerning sustainability as well as pure damageoutput. he requires an shadowpriest for mana and the only "buff" from a smiter to his group is the improved spirit buff.

feel free to try it out, but it it´s going to be disapointing for you as well as for your raidgroup.

[olicon]

That sucks..
So Smite priests is mainly a leveling build then? Or do they work OK for BG like shockadins?

[Vanak]

That sucks..
So Smite priests is mainly a leveling build then? Or do they work OK for BG like shockadins?

Shadow is a leveling build. Holy priests who raid as healers keep Smite sets so that they can farm Dailies without having to respec.

[fevis]

We also need our smite against inner demons (Leotheras the Blind). As pure DPS against a boss smiting are pretty useless. Against Inner Demons we often take it down before any melee class plus warlocks, due to them being vulnerable to nature/holy damage.

[Deleted]

No. Just no.

[Amgyn]

smite priest are useless.. run OOM too fast, and not enough DPS.

dont waste any talents that improve those skills alone. healing gear now gives decent DPS-boost for boss fights where you will need to kill something (also you dont even need special holy gear for dailies)

i guess if you pair up with a pally they can buff your dps a bit... thats about all i can think of, you dont bring anything to a fight :P

[olicon]

I see. Thanks for the answers, guys.
Shadow it is! (I've always wanted to do the whole vampire routine anyway, hehe.)

[Deleted]

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=43135

I fail to see how pvp crits have anything to do with current 25mans.

[Utal]

Because Thats obviously raid worthy DPS!

[Lazyjoe]

One of our shadowpriest tried holynuker just or fun. It has quite a good dps, but uses insane amounts of mana, after 2 minutes he goes completely oom (including mana pot, shadowfiend, etc....). So it doesn't last enough for raid bosses, and doesn't bring the advantages of a shadowpriest.

[infernalx]

Might as well go shadow

[bas]

You are always free to try.

You might not have as much dps as shadow priests and not as much healing as holy priests; but you can heal and dps. Imagine assist the healers on a heal intenstive fight like Bloodboil and go dps on a dps race like Reliquary of Souls.

That's the reason why shockadins are better then retnoobs

[svettleif]

That's the reason why shockadins are better then retnoobs

Im sorry but you fail, and you do it VERY VELL. shockadins are even worse than smite priests, less dps and oom even faster.
Atleast Retri is raid viable, none of those other 2 specs are. (shockadin and smite priest)

[sweep71]

I see. Thanks for the answers, guys.
Shadow it is! (I've always wanted to do the whole vampire routine anyway, hehe.)

Good you went this way. There is more to life then just your output, there is also the output and mana regeneration of others. Smite is one of those things where it CAN be done, but it is not the best use of that raid slot for many many reasons. But if your guild is just out to have a good time and does not get into super min/maxing then it does not really matter anyway.

[Klino]

smiter is actually quite fun to play in 5 man instances and heroics. as a shadowpriest you need the mobs to survive for at least 15 seconds so your dots can deal their damage. i had a smite spec for quite some time before i went back to raiding. you out-dps most shadowpriests in 5 man instances but you're oom after like 2 minutes. i think there's no way of raiding 25 man instances without chainpotting / shadowpriest / innervate (i've been to kara with that spec and it sucks) plus you add nothing to the raid that makes you valuable.

so: if you're a casual and you only run 5 man instances then smite > shadow imho

[Drachiron]

I've played close to any kind of spec there is to a priest, except maybe a holy/shadow build :P

As far as dps, a holy nuke priest is able to outdps a shadowpriest for the time he's got mana, but when he's oom he's of no use. And for longevity it's way better to go with Surge of Light than Power infusion. The biggest problem as a smite priest is mana. Since bossfights tends to last for 5-10, even 20 minuts, a holy nuke priest is long gone.

And for gear a holy nuke priest should go for Haste > crit due to only having 50% crit modifier. This will increase your mana use, so again you will go oom faster. It's viability for end game raiding is poor, except if you're looking for a hybrid to help healing at times. He will have better healing than a shadowpriest in healing gear, higher dps in dps gear, but far more mana abusive.

The only aspect I find holy nuke to be overall better than shadow is for farming. And this is due to the fact that most mobs have less than 10k hp and thus they die before you can use the full effect of a shadowpriests dots. As said it can also be a bit more fun for Karazhan and 5mans, but due to the way shadowpriests scales a holy nuke priest isn't really better before they can get their hands on ssc/tk loot at least.

I highly recommend trying out holy nuke, it's fun and it's a change from the normal shove up all your dots and wait for your target to die.

If you're going to do 5mans/karazhan I can recommend this spec:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxxMzhxtrboZ0Et0bbVb

For farming it's a must to have spirit tap, and I use this spec:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxxMzhxkbLZ0Et0bbVbZx
(When I farm with this spec, in Kirin'Var village especially, I _NEVER_ run out of mana. Having around 1200dmg, 25crit with talents, 350spirit)


As of gear you should value things somewhat likethis:
Damage > Haste > Spirit >= Crit


Since you gain more damage through spirit as well as more mana regen it's a good stat for holy nuke and as mentioned we only have 50% crit modifier so haste is a way better stat than crit. Also remember that crit is a diminishing damage addon. The more crit you have the less does another point of crit add.

[Nørf]

SmiteRpriests and shockadins, what will the next be? Furylocks?

[Sholtar]

As soon as Blizzard adds a 2 minute endgame bossfight, smite priests will be pretty damn good. Until then, they're unrealistic due to mana requirements and lack of raid buffs of any sort. But hey, once we get Holy Form as our 51pt holy talent maybe they'll be legit! ;-)