Need guidelines [Healing]

[Dimitrije]

I have been Holy Priest until dinged 80 when i changed to Shadow and stayed that way for a long, long time. My secondary spec is Discipline PVP but since i haven't played PVP in a while and i don't think i am planing to I've considered changing it to a holy or disci spec. My new guild doesn't have a healing priest which is another reason i should respec. I have 0 healing gear but i have 203 triumph and 123 conquest emblems.

Since i cannot remember and i couldn't find any reasonable source of what should i aim for when starting i am asking if someone can guide me through what stats should i aim for at the beginning and what will be most important later in 3.3. Also i would like to know what roll would be the most valuable for me to perform, and which spec. We have a shammy and a druid healers. I've basically experienced both but i would like to know what would be most valuable to the current situation.

Thanks in advance.

[G l o w y r m]

Well if you have shammy and druid healers you might want to consider Discipline healing. But really play whatever you like the most. If you had Paladin and Shammy healers I might say go Holy. Like I said, the most important thing is whichever spec you find the most fun. Starting out with Disc though with that makeup would be my choice.

If you're asking which stats you should focus on then...(There's really no super concrete rules but these are my personal choices based on the popular "guidelines")

Of course for either spec Spell Power is extremely important and usually more valuable than other stats until a certain point.

Discipline
After that, as Discipline, a huge mana pool is vital so lots of INT. The only time you take SPR as Discipline is if it gives more regen than the MP5 of an equal item (Personally even if MP5 is a little lower I'll take it over the SPR equivalent since MP5 ticks while casting and you rarely stop casting as Discipline). Next you want to balance Haste and Crit while favoring Crit a little until you reach about 25-30% unbuffed. Don't disregard when you get to that point but if there's a choice between 2+% Haste and 1.2% Crit take the Haste if you've reached that mark.

Personally I'm at 30% Crit and I try not to go any lower but I try to add Haste now whenever I can since more Crit isn't as valuable at this point.

Holy
For Holy, it's really similar except you take SPR whenever you can get it over MP5. This is because Holy gains Spell Power from SPR along with the regen. There is also a regen proc Holy gets from a talent that is based off SPR. Balance Crit and Haste as usual. You might want to put a little favor towards Haste so you can Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing quickly. Most everything else you do will be instant cast but those 2 spells are very slow as Holy so you want to prop them up. Still shoot for around 25% Crit unbuffed since Crit will help you save lots of mana with a free FHeal proc and the mana regen SPR proc, both of these proc off Crits.

As a quick overview, I would do something like below, personally. These are just goals based on gear up to ilvl 245. They are a little rough and just from memory so just look at the way the attributes are split and not too much at the actual values.

Discipline
30% Crit, ~15%+ Haste (not including the 6% from Enlightenment), ~1500 INT, ~800 SPR 2800+ SP.

Holy
25% Crit, ~22%+ Haste, ~1200 INT, ~1000 SPR, 3200+ SP (The higher SP is due to Holy gaining SP from SPR).

[Kelesti]

I really, really, don't understand the need to gear Spellpower first. Having all the thoroughput in the world means nothing if you can't sustain yourself through a fight. Discipline does it better, but finding that middle ground and learning when to gem for thoroughput is better than gearing for whatever gives you the most Spellpower, as both Holy and Discipline (and probably most other healers as well).

If you have that many triumph emblems, buy yourself 2pc tier 9 (232), probably the helm and the gloves first. That two piece bonus is godly. After that work towards getting the full set with the 245 offpiece shoulders, now that you can farm heroics for it. You'll want your gems, starting out, to be SP/Int for red, Intellect for yellow, and Intellect/mp5 for a good blue socket bonus (and for activating your meta to start). If it's not a good socket bonus, gem Intellect. When you find yourself having "too much" mana, as a healing priest (this level is different for every person and every group), you know, the point where you don't even need to use your Shadowfiend in a given 10 man boss fight when you don't have Kings etc... This I call the "Regen Plateau" where getting more does not necessarily equate to anything positive. After this point, you gem thoroughput, which will be in the form of raw Spellpower gems, and balancing crit and haste on your gear. Crit is a semi-decent thoroughput item, but haste lets you weave in a Greater Heal every once in awhile if you snag enough of it.

The reason I'm pushing so much on Discipline is because it is a very flexible healer. If you have one priest healer in a raid, it should be Discipline. If you have two, you shouldn't have more than one Discipline Priest. They are capable of so much in the hands of a skilled player, but they come up against diminishing returns so quickly due to the mechanics they play by that more than one detracts their value quite literally through the floor.

The current situation is whatever your raid needs. Progression is not "Be <Spec> or you won't kill bosses". Well, unless you're spec'ing Smite, but hey. That's something else. Both perform well, both perform differently. Discipline is just a little more capable at some things than Holy (and vice versa) but no raid should be without one.

[Dimitrije]

Thank you guys this really helped me a lot.

[Deleted]

If you need help playing your class, don't play it.

Believe me, you will have more fun if you do some thinking yourself and when you hit the moment that you figured out how to do it you will be happy you didnt ask for help.

This wasn't a flame post...just trying to make some players less lazy with their 100 guides from conjuring water to clearing a boss step by step.

[Oden]

If you need help playing your class, don't play it.

Believe me, you will have more fun if you do some thinking yourself and when you hit the moment that you figured out how to do it you will be happy you didnt ask for help.

This wasn't a flame post...just trying to make some players less lazy with their 100 guides from conjuring water to clearing a boss step by step.

I understand you weren't trying to flame, but this is ridiculous. I have gained more knowledge from forums and further research on my class and spec than I ever would just playing it. Now granted, I learned A LOT from playing my spec. But when I want some further info I don't hash it out in raids, I look to the forums I trust. Which is something it seems the OP has done.

To the op. As disc I am also full pvp spec'd, so although I could give you tons of information on what to do in that situation, as for pve disc, I would only be limited on valuable info. I play as pve holy. The general rule I've understood is 20% haste and 30% crit is the goal raid buffed. SP is a VERY valuable stat and I personally feel 2800+ is plenty if the other two stats meet the % I mentioned. Int has become more important than spirit, but not to say that the latter is useless. As a general rule I follow 12sp 10int in any yellow slot, 12sp 10spirit in any blue slot, and either 23sp or 12sp 10int in any red slot. I personally had oom issues with a full 23sp gem setup, so going with the gemming I mentioned and without any gear change, I completely resolved my oom problem. I can now heal balls to the wall, be top total heals, top hps, lowest overheal % and STILL not go oom. Have every other healing class including Holy Paladins bow to you, follow my advice.

[Dimitrije]

@ Sarac: I appreciate your concern and i understand your frustration, but i really don't have time experimenting now. I had my fun playing as shadow and by the time i read Worshaka's post and all the discussion about Shadow play on there forums i already new more than 80% of things, and of course i figured everything myself since there wasn't anyone on my realm i could learn it from. I need to be flexible and start healing if needed like "NOW" so that's the only reason i asked for a little "guide", and i pretty much got it. There is still much things i need to figure out that i didn't ask in this thread like talent build, spell priorities, different situations healing, if i did we would really make a guide with all the people's answers

@ Oden, Areohvee: Thanks for reply. Yep, these forums were just very helpful in every way and i really think that if you combine experiences from all the people and your own you will reach a higher level which will enable you to experiment and perhaps share something new and helpful with the others.