Serendipity Talent discussion

[Amgyn]

Tried to search for one, but i couldnt find a thread that talks about this talent.

I've almost always been a holy priest and for me to have to never use Gheal breaks my heart... yes, using Gheal at this point in the game is situational

Serendipity Rank 3

When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 12%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.

When i first read the talent description i missed out the part about it affecting PoH as well... which is one of the spells i use often.... and thought it only affected GHeal. So i dissmissed it as a PVP talent (lots of FHs then a huge heal!)....

Anyway, now that i realized it affects PoH, it has roused my interest... after a big AOE type ability, i could FH FH FH low targets then cast a quick PoH on a troubled group.

Is it a talent worth speccing into for PVE purposes?
Was i right to assume thats a good PVP talent?

advise!

[Izenhart]

It's quite mandatory for PvE, no discussions.

[Hunterwep]

Aye mandatory for me aswel, just ashame the overheal mana regain is gone

[Zarlunce]

I'll agree its an awesome talent. I always try to keep it charged up when I know I'll need it, the quick PoH is amazing.

[Amgyn]

hmm so maybe i should look into this ... lol...

after thinking about it some more, im pretty sure serendipity will be up practically every time i need it since i use Flash heal a lot (especially with all the SoL procs!)

[syanid]

It's pretty much mandatory. It owns at Mimiron a lot, the power of priest at aoe healing is unparalleled. You won't make a mistake if you take it in your build.

[[-Spiritus-]]

For UNPREDICTABLE raidwide AoE damage, get to 3stacks of Serendipity *before* the damage hits...then:

(0) Damage Hits
(0) CoH
(1.5) PoH(Serendipity)
(3.5) PoH
(6.5) CoH

Thats 22 Targets healed in 6.5 seconds, or 3.38 targets per second (CoH Glyph & No haste).

However, If the raidwide AoE damage is PREDICTABLE then the following sequence is best:

(-2.9) Pre-cast PoH
(0) Damage Hits
(0) PoH Hits
(0) CoH
(1.5) PoH
(4.5) PoH
(7.5) CoH

This sequence allows you to front-load 11 Heals soon as the damage hits. So, you get 27 targets in 7.5 seconds, or 3.6 targets per second (CoH Glyph & no haste).


Of course, use your brain. If there are 2 people in each group of a 25man that are down on health (10people), and CoH is on CD, then FH to build up Serendipity for unpredictable AoE damage.

[Worshaka]

Its a little interpretational... if you read EJ's you will see a lot of people saying the talent promotes poor HPM behaviour and for that reason you shouldn't take it. However FH is a spell you cast a lot of and having a quick Gheal or PoH up your sleeve can be a powerful tool.

It's really a personal choice... I like to have it but I don't discount that it could infact promote poor mana usage.

[AetherMcLoud]

In my pve holy build I use it all the time. I skip divine fury for 10% less spelldamage taken then. Flashheal is the bread and butter spell, but if someone needs just more healing now, being able to cast a greater heal (or poh) in ~1,8 seconds when needed is awesome.

[dascia]

It's a must have talent for any holy priest that's put on raid healing, which is basicly almost every holy priest.

This talent is very nice in the following combo; PoM, FH, FH, (if you get lucky by now the PoM will have critted, giving a free instant flass heal, assuming you have the talent), PoH followed by CoH. I'm having spikes of 9k hp/s with that combo and it's fairly easy to keep the raid alive like that.

On the other hand, I rarily find myself using greater heal. I never used it much, but since the change from improved holy concentration to what it is now I basicly never use greater heal anymore.

Infact, I even kicked out divine fury from my talent build and picked up spellwarding instead for greater survivability in the hard modes. Once I got the hard modes on farm with my guild I'll go for divine fury again probably, but for now there isn't much point investing 5 talent points for a spell I hardly use.

[Jubite]

tbh that far into the tree i dont know what else you'd put points in, but yes imo its a very useful talent.
A lot of people are saying that the gheal is useless and the PoH is the good stuff, but i feel the other way around.
I hardly use PoH unless in dire situations due to how its a mana drain, while keeping 3 stacks up for a desperate gheal save on a tank or <20% dps is always a saving grace.
Im not saying i dont use PoH, by all means it is useful. Just imo the gheal is the nice feature~

[Kelesti]

With the exception of preparing for "unpredictable" raid damage, as seen in the awesome post by SpiritusVex up there, I don't even use Flash anymore.

Renew is a sexy sexy staple spell, procs both Holy Concentration and Surge of Light (which glyphed or not, it's still free), and generally lets you take a back seat and still ride the 5-second rule, as needed.

People here talk about taking Greater Heal off their bars, for the most part I think you should try without Flash Heal spamming too.

[Worshaka]

With the exception of preparing for "unpredictable" raid damage, as seen in the awesome post by SpiritusVex up there, I don't even use Flash anymore.

Renew is a sexy sexy staple spell, procs both Holy Concentration and Surge of Light (which glyphed or not, it's still free), and generally lets you take a back seat and still ride the 5-second rule, as needed.

People here talk about taking Greater Heal off their bars, for the most part I think you should try without Flash Heal spamming too.

This is very conditional... renew is great providing that you can afford those targets to not be at full health instantly. Flash Heal on the other hand heals that target (presumably) to full upon casting and may be more desirable depending on the circumstances.

Renew is also susceptible to people sniping the heal... ie you renew them, know they will be back to full health in 6 seconds time but someone else in the raid heals them to full... you might as well not even bothered with the renew in the first place. It's completely true that this is probably more a symptom of bad organisation but it's something that can occur in any case.

They both have their pros and cons... I think it's a bad idea to remove any spell from your bars, they all have their uses depending on the circumstances.

[Kelesti]

This is very conditional... renew is great providing that you can afford those targets to not be at full health instantly. Flash Heal on the other hand heals that target (presumably) to full upon casting and may be more desirable depending on the circumstances.

Renew is also susceptible to people sniping the heal... ie you renew them, know they will be back to full health in 6 seconds time but someone else in the raid heals them to full... you might as well not even bothered with the renew in the first place. It's completely true that this is probably more a symptom of bad organisation but it's something that can occur in any case.

They both have their pros and cons... I think it's a bad idea to remove any spell from your bars, they all have their uses depending on the circumstances.

Yush!
I tend to agree, once again. What I had intended, (but of course, knowing me it came out wrong) was to see that Renew can replace Flash Heal as the "Bread and Butter" spell that we have, not to take Flash off of our bars.

We're priests, ffs. We have 20 fricken' healing spells for a reason, and unlike other classes, there's a use for each of them!

[Amgyn]

Thanks for the input so far guys.

I still haven't tried the serendipity talent into my build, but, i've been talking to a couple of ingame holy priests, and they all share your views.

I've practically removed GH from my bar (its on a condition-macro with FH, and ill usually only use it on mims phase 1 plasma blast :P )

i like having 4+ healing spells to use (FH, PoM, PoH, renew, CoH and shield) makes for a little bit more interesting play

[Nikodemos]

Serendipity is an incredible talent. It's almost able to be as OP as CoH was pre-nerf. Get 3 Stacks of Serendipity and then throw a PoH out. Wow, you just did a lot of healing.

The one downside to Serendipity is that throwing so many PoHs out is a huge mana drain, so I would definitely pickup the trinket of Kologarn-10, as well as Glyph of Flash Heal and Glyph of Prayer of Healing.

[Nikodemos]

Its a little interpretational... if you read EJ's you will see a lot of people saying the talent promotes poor HPM behaviour and for that reason you shouldn't take it.

It's really a personal choice... I like to have it but I don't discount that it could infact promote poor mana usage.

I think it does promote poor mana usage, and I did almost reconsider using it as my main healing ability, but it just does SO much it's hard to say no. But right now, I seem to go OOM (after using all regen CDs) around the same time as the enrage timers on most fights. So I came to the conclusion that, while the use of PoH as a main heal is unsustainable in the long run, if you're itemized right and time your CDs correctly, you can make it last through most boss fights (granted, I've only been up to Thorim and Freya in Uld-25).

In the end, "promoting poor mana usage" is kind of a short sighted view point. It get's the job done and with gusto. If I hit a regen wall, and need to last longer for a certain encounter, I'll play conservatively. Right now though, it's SPAM SPAM SPAM.


I use 21/50/0 for raid healing. I picked it to get the most out of PoH spam.

[Worshaka]

I tend to agree with you however I think I should elaborate on what 'promotes poor mana usage' actually infers. Serendipity could have the effect to make Flash Heal a more desirable spell to heal, so desirable that you use it when you should be choosing something else. So it goes a bit beyond poor HPM spells, it helps corrupt smart spell selection.

There are times Renew, PoM, Gheal and even PW:S is a better option than Flash Heal but the Serendipity talent could have the effect of influencing the player to always use Flash Heal. I tend to come from the school of thought that the player needs to be aware of this and not to bench all other spells just because he/she can stack serendipity. In addition just because you have a 3 stack of serendipity doesn't mean your next spell must be a Gheal or PoH. There are times than CoH, Renew, Flash Heal are better options.

So in summary if the priest can resist the bad behavior I believe Serendipity can be a very powerful talent. From a gear point of view it can allow you to focus on other stats other than haste, not that you should ignore haste but at the end of the day you have to make decisions on how you are going to gear that usually involve compromises. If done correctly you could devalue haste a little and get more Spirit/Int/SP/Crit as a result and see very little effect for a lack of haste.

[Swedishcow123]

I love the talent, it works wonders when aoe healing the big bursts of Ulduar, Kolo, ignis, XT and Hodir, where you have to top the raid off fast or people will start dying.

As people have started discussing cutting out spells, I can add that I cut out Renew and even if I think it's one of our staple spells, I don't miss it except when I run around alot.

Always having serendipity ready from flash heal spam is worth more imo.

Only time I can see renew being superior is fights with constant aoe, like council or P2 mimiron, as you'll know the renew just won't sit on a target, ticking for nothing.

But it's a playstyle thing, I like whack'a'mole

[Myzrael]

Serendipity is a must for raiding Ulduar as holy. Keep 3 stacks always up, there are many boss fights where you can predict huge raid dmg. (Ignis, Auriaya, Freya (Hard), Hodir, Thorim (Hard)...), also when your Surge of Light is running out, feel free to overheal, just to keep Serendipity up, it's amazing combo.