Healing stats priest

[minip]

Atm i'm still lvling to 80, almost 76, so not the rushing lvler..
i've been a spriest for 1,5 years now and was healing before that..
i wanne get back to the healing duty when i hit 80 and i was wondering
what the best stats are that i need to max out..

If i'm correct this is what i thought it would be for a healing priest:
- Spellpower/Spirit (both equal important?depends on spec i guess?)
- Spellcrit (see my spec below why i wanne have some crit)
- Mp5
- Int

This would be my spec i wanne use for healing:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVcbzhZcxxMfMqihVIkt

Can i get some comments on if i have the right stats i'm focussing on?

thnx,

minip

[dionadar]

I have no idea why you try to distinguish between "mp5" "int" and "spirit".... why do you not simply focus an mana regen? who cares if you regen 12 mana through mp5, spirit, int, or whatever?

[Kelesti]

If i'm correct this is what i thought it would be for a healing priest:
- Spellpower/Spirit (both equal important?depends on spec i guess?)
- Spellcrit (see my spec below why i wanne have some crit)
- Mp5
- Int

First off, Spirit is the top to stack, because not only does it give you meditation, but you also have Spirit of Redemption (that's still a 5% increase) on top of also having Spiritual Guidance which gives you inherent spellpower from said spirit.

Yes, you want crit, so does any holy priest now that IHC and Surge of Light proc from crits instead of flatline. I'd focus on Int more than mp5, though. Mp5 is generally expensive on a gear's item budget, whereas int gives you Oo5SR, as well as increasing your current mp5 through meditation, and a wee itty-bitty bit of crit. Mp5 is a nice stat, don't get me wrong, but like gemming for parry as a warrior. Too expensive when other stats can lead to better results.

Edit: With all the crit you'll be stacking, you might want to max out Inspiration for a 100% uptime, and Test of Faith is a godsend (not only do you get those crits more when you need them, but you're more likely to get Serendipity procs off them as well). Personally I'd go more with something like this. Also, I'm hearing a lot of flak about Desperate Prayer, because y'know, it's not the freebie or whatever, but I've still found it saving my ass a couple times, regardless of its mana cost.

[Fenixdown]

For a holy priest, these are your focuses on stats in order.

Spirit
Intellect
Spell crit
Spellpower
Spell haste

The reason I place spell haste last is because you will be assigned mostly to raid healing, which basically involves one button. Since Circle of Healing is instant cast, you don't need spell haste to do much except reduce your gcd.

Healing prayers is unnecessary. Circle of Healing will be your primary spell in terms of raid healing, and you can reduce more spells by placing those points elsewhere.

I'd move 3 points. Place only 4/5 into Holy Specialization, place none in Healing Prayers, and fill out both Inspiration and Test of Faith.

Unlike a discipline priest, you will not want much (if at all) gear with stam/int/mp5. Stam/int/spirit is much better for you as it also adds to your spellpower.

[lakimsa]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVI0zhZfxxcfMqi0Vhst

IMO, Holy Concentration just isn't worth 6 points. With Serendipity, ToF, Meditation... you really won't run out of mana if you time your heals to get just a couple of seconds oo5sr every 30 seconds or so. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit.

And actually, I'd do something more like a half disc/half holy spec myself (yes, for raiding), but if you just REALLY want Guardian, I'd do this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVI0zhhZfxxcczqi0Vhst

You won't use Prayer of Healing much if you're specced in CoH... at least until they give it a 6 second CD.... ><

[minip]

First off, Spirit is the top to stack, because not only does it give you meditation, but you also have Spirit of Redemption (that's still a 5% increase) on top of also having Spiritual Guidance which gives you inherent spellpower from said spirit.

Yes, you want crit, so does any holy priest now that IHC and Surge of Light proc from crits instead of flatline. I'd focus on Int more than mp5, though. Mp5 is generally expensive on a gear's item budget, whereas int gives you Oo5SR, as well as increasing your current mp5 through meditation, and a wee itty-bitty bit of crit. Mp5 is a nice stat, don't get me wrong, but like gemming for parry as a warrior. Too expensive when other stats can lead to better results.

Edit: With all the crit you'll be stacking, you might want to max out Inspiration for a 100% uptime, and Test of Faith is a godsend (not only do you get those crits more when you need them, but you're more likely to get Serendipity procs off them as well). Personally I'd go more with something like this. Also, I'm hearing a lot of flak about Desperate Prayer, because y'know, it's not the freebie or whatever, but I've still found it saving my ass a couple times, regardless of its mana cost.

Thnx for this good reply
I must say i like the build you linked -> this <-, and i'm planning on trying it out when i'm 80..
everyone has his own playing style and i'm using PoM alot atm..with some AE dmg it seems like there is an extra healer who helps you out.. but then again Test of Faith is imba to get and extra change of crits, so more change of proccing Holy Concentration And Serpendipity.. think i'm gonne try out your spec and see if that will work for me..

as for the Desperate Prayer, i'm not sure how naxx will be like and take it in the beginnen until i know what to expect.. if i rarely use it i can always change it later on..

for the gear i will focus on spirit for now, and when the better healing gear is rolling in and i dont have mana issues anymore i think i'll be looking for some crit stakking prolly.. first getting the healing/mp5 allright then go for the lol critters

i wanne thank you for the nice reply and effort you took in for it..

minip

[meowmeow]

First off, Spirit is the top to stack, because not only does it give you meditation, but you also have Spirit of Redemption (that's still a 5% increase) on top of also having Spiritual Guidance which gives you inherent spellpower from said spirit.

Yes, you want crit, so does any holy priest now that IHC and Surge of Light proc from crits instead of flatline. I'd focus on Int more than mp5, though. Mp5 is generally expensive on a gear's item budget, whereas int gives you Oo5SR, as well as increasing your current mp5 through meditation, and a wee itty-bitty bit of crit. Mp5 is a nice stat, don't get me wrong, but like gemming for parry as a warrior. Too expensive when other stats can lead to better results.

Edit: With all the crit you'll be stacking, you might want to max out Inspiration for a 100% uptime, and Test of Faith is a godsend (not only do you get those crits more when you need them, but you're more likely to get Serendipity procs off them as well). Personally I'd go more with something like this. Also, I'm hearing a lot of flak about Desperate Prayer, because y'know, it's not the freebie or whatever, but I've still found it saving my ass a couple times, regardless of its mana cost.

i dont recomend to stack spirit. i'm glad to see you believe in something that doesn't exsist, you need the amount of regen not to go oom, this is acording to game style. when you get to that regen having more is useless. spirit gives amazing benifit to a priest: for one it gives regen ability threw meditation, but it also gives you additional spell power, which makes it twice usefull. Yet stacking on one stat like spirit (that was nerfed, good morning), i find it as a incorrect move. simpley cause as a player, acording to your individual gamestyle, you need X amount of regen. you don't need to finish a encounter that lasts 5-10 mins with 100% mana, you should finish almost oom or oom (which means you used everything you had, including CD's). when you reach the amount of regen you need (which again is individual), why get more spirit? so you'll finish the encounter with 80% mana? that won't make your heals better by alot. not as much as other stats.

as i posted the in other posts explaining exaclty why:
lets count the benifits (i believe i already did this on another thread):
basing this on holy and not discipline. discipline is different. (if you want one on discipline i already published, but i can post it here as well)
spirit: Meditation, spiritual guidance, SoR. - you get regen 30%, increase spell power 25%, aditional 5% of total spirit,
crit talents: Surge of light, Holy concentration, improved holy concentration, holy specialization, test of faith - instant flash heals, free mana cost heals - allows fsr, under 50% hp - more crit.
spell power talents: spiritual healing, empowered healing, divine providance, test of faith, twins discipline - 10% to all heals, additional 10% to AE spells and abilities, 40% additional spell power to greater heal, 20% additional spell power to flash heal, under 50% HP increasing 6%., additional 5% to instant cast spells.
haste: imroved holy concentration.
mp5s - none.
intellect: no talents - int gives replenishment effect increased, crit, hymm of hope, mana tide, judgment etc.

So now, what you will want as holy is to support your talents the best. One of the most important things which i agree if first of all to get the amount of regen you need: so first make sure you have the amount of spirit you want. when you get that - don't stack on it cause it doesn't benifit you as much as other stats. stacking on spirit won't benifit you besides geting the amount of regen you need, and increasing by 25% your spell power.

if still not clear: most of your talents make you heals heal for more if you have more spell power, and not if you have more spirit. the biggest stat that benifits most a holy tree is spell power - without a doubt. You should always chose an item that have the Combination of stats that you feel you need or want. Yet a short inspection of the holy tree shows you that if you get more spell power you will heal for more, holy are known for they big warm heals, they are combined very well with a holy paladin or a resto druid on MT filling in the gap of the "spikey" damage, when the tank gets 18k hit and the holy lands his greater heal a sec after, only a holy priest can heal this huge amount with one heal, rest of the healers need to combine abilities to get to the amount of a holy - simpley cause of talents that support the heals threw the spell power mainly, then the spirit.

example: in tbc i was sad to see priests stack on spirit, i never understood why - why do you need so much regen? you don't you need the amount that allows you to play and finish the encounter/pack without going oom, the amount that will allow you to regen the amount you need in order not to go oom before the encounter is over. in TBC i had full sunwell gear on my priest, i stacked on healing, having only 900/355 regen in raids, i never played with a shadow priest in group and never went oom before the encounter was over, i had 2817 out of raids and 3,200 +/- with raid buffs/elixirs. i never understood why a priest will need to stack on spirit when you just need spirit for your regen. 14 spirit won't give you 14 spell power. 14 spell power will increase your healing by alot more then 14 spirit. while 14 spirit will also support your spellpower and regen. You can claim that spirit benifits two stats there for preferable, but one of these stats - you don't need that much.

when it comes to gear choise i always go acording to talents: first i want it to have alot of spell power, then i want it to have alot of spirit then i want it to have crit. intellect is something that became abit more important because of replenishment effect, yet i don't believe its worth prefering an item cause it has more intellect - that makes no sence. Haveing haste is nice. i really dislike seeing mp5s on a holy gear, although blizzard arranged plenty on healing priests gear with mp5s. in other words: i will chose an item with more spellpower on, that also has spirit and crit (spell power -> spirit -> crit). if the question was about geming the gear and not chosing it there are veraity of new gems that can easly satisfy any will of yours: if you really wanna go for the nerfed stat i mean spirit: there are spirit gems. for pve i am geming my holy spec gear with spell power gems, i get enough spirit from my gear already i don't need more. i will continue geming my gear with + spell power gems, i might be really willing to try some of the new green gems like: the green +crit/+spirit gem. but probably just for experimenting, or making a meta work.

about your talent spec: take 3 points in twisted faith, it looks really bad when you read only 6%, but when it comes to healing something: you deffinetly see the difference: my greater heal currently hit for almost 3k more, when it doesn't crit, when someone is under 50% hp, which assures me usualy a overheal and a serendipity proc (and the numbers you see with the talent when you crit add "fun" to the holy tree). 6% may look like a small amount, but adds up into very nice numbers.
about the spec: here is my original spec since the alpha version i have posted it here several times, i assume most holy priests are using it, after i inspected some weird specs of holys that just got 80, i got my priest to 80 and speced this way seeing most priests copying understanding that it is probably the preferable spec (after all when you see priest comunity copy your spec you know your doing something correct, especially when all server knows i rerolled):
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...h=010514060205

i also added the glyphs i use. i am not considering atm using SoR glyph simpley cause i haven't found myself dying alot of killing myself in order to heal (again matter of game style, i find myself prefering to cast poh over using multiple times CoH, if all my group is low i will poh, and the glyph is nice, since i don't die often i find SoR glyph pointless). I use the SoR glyph in my pvp spec though (arena pvp, no i'm not holy for pvp just take 21 points in holy for arena).

[Kelesti]

@Meow:
Something that doesn't exist? Breaking the 5 second rule and loving every second of glorious glorious spirit regen is what being a Holy Priest was all about, since vanilla. Getting our "free spells" from IHC, SoL, and Inner Focus, your point seems to be that that's enough, well if you think about it, it's not really. Just pushing the button instantly as the proc comes up? Less return than holding it through until it's needed, and stopcasting your next heal. Oh hey, look, it's been how long since I last spent mana? I have a bigger blue bar again!

Let's take a look at the set bonus for t6 (irrelevant, but just to make a point) Greater Heal increase of 5%. Now throwing out a number: 6k greater heal. With set bonus, that makes 6.3k, okay. Lower numbers than 80 of course, but this is my point: You're healing in a 25 man, you're not the only one doing said healing. Nor are you the only one spending mana. Unless you're the ONLY one able to land a heal on that target (or a solo healer on a multi-tank fight) you're not going to notice the difference:

Exception: Serendipity. But of course, given latency, healthstones, other healers, judgement of light, Prayer of Mending, etc (list goes on) you're likely to be already getting the procs anyways, so difference is small.

Since when has being a priest been all about "Spend as much mana as possible" I thought that was a paladin thing? We're conservative healers, doing what we need, and making it count. If healers start going down when you're oom, congrats you have nothing to fall back on. And saying "you were never in a shadow priest group" blah blah, oh well? Chain Chugging potions is what got nerfed. How many innervates did your guild have to stack on you? What if the druids were dead and couldn't support you? The point is to carry your own weight, to not NEED anyone else.

Edit: Two things, firstly it's called "Test of Faith" not Twisted Faith, unless you're playing Shadow thanks. Secondly, if there really only is one PvE holy tree, then you can't say it's "Copying" you. Get over yourself here, you're not the inventor of the spec.

[shadet]

about the spec: here is my original spec since the alpha version i have posted it here several times, i assume most holy priests are using it, after i inspected some weird specs of holys that just got 80, i got my priest to 80 and speced this way seeing most priests copying understanding that it is probably the preferable spec (after all when you see priest comunity copy your spec you know your doing something correct, especially when all server knows i rerolled):
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...h=010514060205

Long post to say "Spirit isn't what I like to stack imo" was long..

I just also wanted to add in the same area as the post above me, i'm a shadow priest, I respecced to heal naxx the other week as we were a healer short. This is exactly the spec I used, I can safely say I have never heard of you, never seen your post or your spec and clicked the buttons myself after seeing what the talents did. No forum browsing to "Copy" a talent tree. So yeah probably not as many people "Copying" you as you think. seriously you earned the achievement of "Big Head" and enjoy your new title of "Meow, has a big head"

[meowmeow]

@Meow:
Something that doesn't exist? Breaking the 5 second rule and loving every second of glorious glorious spirit regen is what being a Holy Priest was all about, since vanilla. Getting our "free spells" from IHC, SoL, and Inner Focus, your point seems to be that that's enough, well if you think about it, it's not really. Just pushing the button instantly as the proc comes up? Less return than holding it through until it's needed, and stopcasting your next heal. Oh hey, look, it's been how long since I last spent mana? I have a bigger blue bar again!

Let's take a look at the set bonus for t6 (irrelevant, but just to make a point) Greater Heal increase of 5%. Now throwing out a number: 6k greater heal. With set bonus, that makes 6.3k, okay. Lower numbers than 80 of course, but this is my point: You're healing in a 25 man, you're not the only one doing said healing. Nor are you the only one spending mana. Unless you're the ONLY one able to land a heal on that target (or a solo healer on a multi-tank fight) you're not going to notice the difference:

Exception: Serendipity. But of course, given latency, healthstones, other healers, judgement of light, Prayer of Mending, etc (list goes on) you're likely to be already getting the procs anyways, so difference is small.

Since when has being a priest been all about "Spend as much mana as possible" I thought that was a paladin thing? We're conservative healers, doing what we need, and making it count. If healers start going down when you're oom, congrats you have nothing to fall back on. And saying "you were never in a shadow priest group" blah blah, oh well? Chain Chugging potions is what got nerfed. How many innervates did your guild have to stack on you? What if the druids were dead and couldn't support you? The point is to carry your own weight, to not NEED anyone else.

Edit: Two things, firstly it's called "Test of Faith" not Twisted Faith, unless you're playing Shadow thanks. Secondly, if there really only is one PvE holy tree, then you can't say it's "Copying" you. Get over yourself here, you're not the inventor of the spec.

no inervates, no pot chunking, simpley cast cancel. l2p is not my issuee.

yes i know its twisted faith i won't bother to edit, just mistaken the name.

big head, yes, though all still take this spec now so...

edit: usually ppl chunking on spirit for the regen are the spamers, not the ones who say they don't need that huge amount of mana regen. i mean really - how can i spam if i tend to use minimum mana regen and that my heal will hit for a higher amount? its very simpley: use some addons to track your healing, log a raid or afew raid or what ever you do, and check how much mana you use, the idea is not to finish a encounter with 100% mana, and also not go oom in the middle. your mana should last for the amount of time you need, and you can stay in the fsr for a while. as i mentioned its merely a matter of gamestylle. if you spam this much that you need to chunk yourself with spirit (since your the one who said: "spend as much mana as you can" i believe i said you shouldn't finish a encounter with full mana cause that just means you have too much regen, when you can get much bigger heals threw spell power, and finish on 20%-10% mana, this doesn't cause any mana problems if your mana goes down as long as you know how to keep it from not going down faster then your regen). and here comes big head cat: lets wait half a year, and see then (on wednesday my acount ends, i am probably not going to repay it, so you'll have to check it with yourself, this is me sharing my knowledge i gained from high end gaming priests that i talked to and copied from, from my raiding experiance threw out classic, alpha and beta testing of tbc, tbc, alpha and beta testing of wotlk, and now on wotlk). i believe most will go for the combination of spell power and spirit over the stacking spirit so you could spam more. just like i mentioned above.
kelesti, perhps go read my theory craft and spec i post on Jerks, i believe like most holy/disci/shadow priests you do sometimes taggle along there and use the advice. whats the difference? a different username on a different web page? yes i come to mmo to see more opinions i read the forums of the priests, druids, i read shamans, paladins and rogues. simpley to get more opinions and more veiws. unlike you i feel confident about my "vanilla' experiance played - so in your vanilla wow (i guess you didn't have much experiance or you would've remembered this): you enchanted your gear with the spirit enchants? rarely did u see a priest with the 22 healing on a staff, the usual was to enchant with spell healing. since there were no gems there, and not much options of gear stats - a priest had to go for spirit (i guess you only got DM spirit gear), yet the t3 placed the spell damage and healing as a powerfull stat, and most priests always compared how much spelldamage and healing you had, and not how much spirit, enchanted their gear with perferably every enchant that will add more spell damage and healing. hummm i wonder why? why did we enchant our gear with spell damage and healing enchants and not spirit ones? cause it is a better stat for us - WHEN WE GET ENOUGH SPIRIT (you also missed that). the fact that you have a different opinion is great. yet by your reaction its so hard for you to accept perhaps someone found a better thing then you. this is just like the talent thread made while i was playing on wotlk, and you guys just every time you saw "i play on beta" started dissing and ofc not accepting a advise. its your choise of gear. yet what will turn you into a good player is to accept advices from every direction that comes, experiment it and see how you like it. not like you saying "stack on spirit omg its the only important stat" i believe my advise was better: explaining the main 3 stats a holy priest should want on his gear and how to balance them: just for you to understand: i said: first of all make sure you have enough spirit for your regen, when you get that go for spell power. when it comes to chosing items: a item with 90 spirit and 80 spell power is not better then a item with 80 spirit and 100 spell power, and if you dissagree with this i strongly recomend you to just try it and see how you benifit. atm i gemed all my gear on my priest with spirit gems and only red sockets with spell power - simpley cause atm: i don't have enough spirit. but i can assure you, when i will have enough spirit i'm going back on stacking the spell power, and combining spirit/crit on my gear. your talking about stacking spirit for 5sr, with inner focus and free cast spells via talents, yet these are based on crit not spirit, thats why i mentioned one of the green gems which contains bothe these stats. i personally don't like crit as a gem slot, simpley cause it doesn't scale with kings. you can say the sme about spell power, yet the benifit from the talents provide the balance. there are many items that combine: high spirit, high spell power and low crit (when i mean low crit, if you notice some items have 40 +/- crit and some have 70 +/- crit). the items with higher spell power, higher spirit, and abit of crit on are and should be your preferable stats. i believeyou won't dissagree on this. and this is merely what i explained threw talent benifits on my previous post.

when you see someone who knows more, usually just listen and take what you want. dissing him will let him know that you are useless and not worth sharing any advise (sent to the little jealous shadet, all i said was that ppl copy each other specs, and that i noticed that my spec was copied alot, i also said that the fact that my spec was copied aporves me that i'm doing something correct that other priests agree on). i believe you made yourself look like a idiot. dissing my cause i'm being copied? was i big headed about it? i believe the sentance was "when you see a priest community copying your spec you know you are doing something correct" and not "every one copies me i'm so pro". i find your comment stupid. so my stupid friend shadet, i believe you deserve a special tittle also. perhaps "i dont know how to read and i hate some one knows more then me so i diss him when he didn't do anything but say what he knows", humm to long... sorry i don't tittle ppl, i move on and forget about it. i don't take this personaly i just find it sad that this is how you treat someone. perhaps you should let go abit of wow to remember how to communicate properly and how to show respect to other ppls opinions. there is nothing wrong with justifying your spec choise by saying "i see others spec my specc, so i know i'm doing something correctly". i am doing things and choices out of a good "no life" experiance in wow. though lately i lost interest in the game - mainly cause of ppl like you. siting behind a computer makes ppl forget that sometimes, ppl say things cause they want others to know what they've seen and experianced and not cause they want you to know they are good. i already know what kind of player i am and i don't have the eurge of posting it all over forums. if i did i would've created a new thread with the topis "i am pro" and written there "i'm the best holy priest listen to me and learn", yet i believe all i did was post a wall of text explaining and showing exactly why and how a priest should see stats, this to reply on something that i see as a not so good advise, i am allowed to dissagree with players just as kelesti is allowed to stack on spirit, my post was purely for the main poster to see that there is a different way of looking at stats other then "stack one stat" since, combination is always better. i believe instead of dissing you can just read it and move on. or read it and write what you think, or maybe you have other conclusins, yet you read it and decided to diss me. i don't understand how "big head" adds to this topic, helps the player that asked for stat tips, or any veiwer that reads it. the only thing he gets is that someone took time to write something and ppl enjoy dissing him for knowing and sharing it. my post replied to kelesti since i dissagree with stacking on spirit as one stat, but was mainly ment for minip, which i felt got not an accurate advise or a good advice. my true goals, which i believe any person that can read a post without leting his ego turn over to diss a person, will see that it was advice and me explaining abit what stands behind the advice. since this is a priest that mentioned he lacks experianced i had the personal need to give more into it the simpley saying in one line "dont stack spirit". after all what good advise would be that? he wanted to know about his stats.

[greenmasheen]

First off, Spirit is the top to stack, because not only does it give you meditation, but you also have Spirit of Redemption (that's still a 5% increase) on top of also having Spiritual Guidance which gives you inherent spellpower from said spirit.

Yes, you want crit, so does any holy priest now that IHC and Surge of Light proc from crits instead of flatline. I'd focus on Int more than mp5, though. Mp5 is generally expensive on a gear's item budget, whereas int gives you Oo5SR, as well as increasing your current mp5 through meditation, and a wee itty-bitty bit of crit. Mp5 is a nice stat, don't get me wrong, but like gemming for parry as a warrior. Too expensive when other stats can lead to better results.

Edit: With all the crit you'll be stacking, you might want to max out Inspiration for a 100% uptime, and Test of Faith is a godsend (not only do you get those crits more when you need them, but you're more likely to get Serendipity procs off them as well). Personally I'd go more with something like this. Also, I'm hearing a lot of flak about Desperate Prayer, because y'know, it's not the freebie or whatever, but I've still found it saving my ass a couple times, regardless of its mana cost.

about the same healing as a greater heal, dunno about co efficients... and its instant... and cheaper than greater heal.


the balancing act really comes down to what stat is more important in regards to spell haste and spell crit.

i have been stacking spirit like crazy... enchants, gems etc... trinkets that give you extra spirit are always nice as well.

[Untitled]

i believe the sentance was "when you see a priest community copying your spec you know you are doing something correct"

You do realize that the act of copying involves taking a look at you and doing the same way? Choosing the same spec and copying are quiet different. Giving the fact that a lot of talents are more or less mandatory, "copying you" sounds indeed cocky. So don't be supprised to get negative reactions.

[fullflavor]

frankly, first time ever I'm having major difficulties as a holy priest. normally before wotlk i was the safe choice for anyone doing a heroic, now I just cant cope with damage spikes. i used to focus mostly on renew and PoM and occasional flash heal to top off. now it seems i have to use greater heal a lot, whilst casting that i take and party members take too much aoe dmg so i have to use aoe spells. then back to tank and repeat and by the time boss is half health I'm oom. looking to pot or use shadowfiend at any chance possible. I like the fact that it got harder for me to master it. but on the evidence of everyone saying Wotlk is piss easy, I just cant stop to wonder maybe I'm expired as a healer after 4 years.

[Neeklus]

That's how it used to be prior to CoH spam. In heroics you keep the renew up on the tank, along with PoM. Gheal to top him off. If he and you are geared enough (especially the tank), the PoM/Renew generally keeps him up for about 10-15 seconds with no healing - more than enough time to benefit from Os5rule. It's a lot harder now thanks to the downranking removal (as all I'd do was gheal 2 the tank to death).

I always renew on party members who get hit by mobs/adds IF the tank instantly retakes aggro and I know they won't be taking more damage. This is part of being a good healer - knowing what spell to use and when. Renew is a godsend in Heroics.

Remember only use Flash/CoH if you're in an emergency.

As for the gearing debate...Spirit isn't so imba anymore. Int is much more powerful due to replenishment. This doesn't mean you shouldn't stack spirit. You should, but not as single-mindedly as you might have done in TBC.

[Charla]

Well, I'm still into spirit, but also focus on intellect and crit and try to have a profitable mixture, but disregard spellpower.
I used to stack spellpower/healing to rank down in the past. I never stacked spellpower/healing to get large healing amounts as it has always been just a lucky moment to land one without tons of overheal.

Even if you concentrate on everything apart from spellpower you will stack it, as each healing items does increase spellpower as well with high rates. At least I didn't find an item that offers spirit, int, crit without offering a suitable amount of spellpower aswell.
Apart from that - spirit is spellpower stacking by talent, so spellpower -for me - is at the close end of the priority list.

Haste is a stat I never got into. I alway felt I would lose too much for that and as long as I won't reach a mana regen that is satisfying I won't ever pay any attention to it.

You're right meowmeow, when saying that it doesn't make sense to end up a fight with 80% mana, but the better manareg you get, the more flexible you'll be.
I won't ever prefer on relying that I get 99% of my mana used - I feel a lot better knowing I'm still up healing, even if something unexpected happens and I have to hold on 2 or 3 mins longer than expected.
That's why I think as a priest you'll never can have enough manareggen.

So for me it works fine atm stacking spirit, int and crit as i'm still high enough on spellpower as it comes along. And as long as there are loads of items providing a good balance of all I wouldn't see a reason, to bite on a single stat.

short version of prefered stats:
spirit/int/crit
spellpower
haste

[Hawlin]

Ignore everything meow posted, it is pretty much worthless.(except the talent build, which is a basic holy spec build)

How I play:
Spirit
Haste
Spellpower
Crit

Anything with spirit on it will have intellect with it, so int comes naturally.

Spirit: Best stat ever for priests. Spellpower and tons of mp5(which is needed).

Haste: You cast more times so you have more chances to crit, therefore trying to get alot of crit isn't that important. With talents and Moonkin thats 9-10% spell crit alone in raids, with int and your random spell crit items you get that would suffice the amount of spell crit needed.

Spellpower: ... meh... all gear you are wearing should have spellpower on it anyway, thats enough.

Crit: You have enough in raids.

I do not use Surge of Light though, It's an enormous waste to use a GCD on a crappy flash heal that cannot crit. Not needed in 25 mans. (Other people heal as well in 25 mans, not just you).

Tip: Use prayer of mending alot.

Also as a priest you should never end a fight without going close to oom ever. Once you know how raid damage works during certain bosses, knowing when, how much, how many people will be taking damage is when you can throw out damage on the bosses. Sometimes and alot of times, there is simply nothing to heal that priests need to heal.

10 mans does not matter what you do, if you are wearing blues or purples that's good enough.
25 mans is what you want to base your stats on.