Healing 5-mans

[Feanorgandalf]

So my priest has been sitting at 80 forever now and only used to get enchants done for my other characters but since my DK is getting pretty decked out i need a new alt to get gear.

I want to be a healer but I haven't healed a thing before in wow and would like to know which spells i should be using (i'll heal as disc or holy) and some general healing tips.

Thanks

[phyrix]

As holy, PoM, renew, flash heal once you have enough spellpower to make it heal for a significant amount. Avoid greater heal if you can, it's pretty mana intensive. CoH when the whole group is taking damage, PoH when the whole group is taking a LOT of damage.

[Feanorgandalf]

ok seems simple but is holy or disc better? I plan to only be doing 5-man/heroic healing maybe the odd raid once i get gear but right now all the raiding is on my warrior.

[phyrix]

I personally favor holy because I like the playstyle, but honestly both holy and disc work just fine for heroics.

[Pitchkart]

Both Disc and Holy are fine, IMO. Disc is better for single target heals, while Holy is a "burst AOE" heal tree, but it's capable of healing tanks just fine for 5-man heroics.

I also favor Holy.

Just a word of advice for Holy, though... While it's true that Greater Heal is both time and mana intensive, it's very usable for 5-mans if you use Serendipity, and have enough mana regeneration and int. I even use it in raids when I have three stacks of Serendipity up, as it makes Greater Heal cast just about as fast as Flash Heal. Also, if you decide to go Holy, don't neglect spirit. I see Holy priests litterally AVOIDING spirit for some insane reason, and it really hurts their spell power and mana regen. Balance Int and Spirit if you can, they're worth just about the same. I know you're asking for favored spells, but knowing how to gear your Holy Priest is just as important.

As far as spells go, yes; PoM when its cooldown is up, and renew once they start taking damage.. when you actually need to cast, prioritize Flash Heal and PoM, with Greater Heal when Serendipity is at 3 stacks (or even Prayer of Healing if the full party needs a heal, as it's also affected by serendipity).

[Feanorgandalf]

Thanks I'll have to grab some gear and i'll see how it goes

[Pepper]

If you choose to be holy, try to always have 3 stacks of Serendipity juste in case you need to put a fast GH or PoH. The Serendipity stacks stays about 20 sec, don't forget to refresh it before it falls by doing a flash heal even if it is not needed

It's always nice to have a quite fast GH ou PoH ready (just in case)

[Azyoulike]

If your healing gear isn't great, and particularly if it's sharing a lot of items with dps gear and hence has low regen, you'll do better with disc at first, simply because disc has fewer mana issues and scales more strongly with Int.

Holy can certainly heal 5 mans just fine, but if you get an undergeared tank, or aggro happy dps then disc gives a smoother ride thanks to the superior burst healing on single targets.

Unfortunately for both specs FH is the single worst filler heal in the game now, in raids thats a bigger problem for disc, in 5 man it's a bigger problem for holy.

[Krazzy]

IMO if you have problem with mana and regen, Disc is better. This was the determining factor for me. Disc hardly have issue with going OOM. Once I didn't have mana/regen issue other than occasional OOM, I switched to holy and have been pretty happy with it.

Disc and holy have it's own unique style of healing. Disc is preventive while holy is whack a mole style of healing.

[Feanorgandalf]

Ok so i've been searching and it seems like I need to go Disc given the gear i have right now. I assume the spells I should be using vary slightly with the disc spec. Any tips on Disc would be great as well

[gunner_recall]

Ok so i've been searching and it seems like I need to go Disc given the gear i have right now. I assume the spells I should be using vary slightly with the disc spec. Any tips on Disc would be great as well

Shield fucking everything.

But seriously, try and keep power word: shield up. It gives you a haste buff and 3% damage reduction to everyone which is just awesome. Pretty much flash heal is your friend and use penance if they drop too low.

[Olindo]

Healing disc is different than holy. Mainly because of how you are supposed to heal and what you also have available. PoM and regen are typical for beginning of fights but your two main weapons are now PW: sheild and Penance. Penance is your "big heal" it his the target 3 times each for a fair amount in the end being your most effective heal. PW: Shield is a godsend because the talents lower the cooldown to just the global cooldown. for 5mans, I like to keep PW: S on the tank at all times. PoM and regen up as well. If he takes a lot of dmg use penance to catch up. Flash heal for the in between dmg. If you have your dps getting agro shield them immediately and then heal accordingly. If the dps keep agro you can use the above mentioned heals or use Binding heal, because then you will not lose your Grace on the MT.

One thing i would recommend as my Priest is an alt of mine as well. When I first started I focused on the group and their health. I can honestly say I would keep everyone up easily, but you really need to remember to include yourself. With stuff like Grid or Healbot or whatever its less of an issue, but sometimes it takes practice and just habitual memorization.

[Mizuumi]

Holy is absolutly my favourite priest spec, but for 5-man heroics I always change to my disc offspec.
The reason is that as disc you have no worries about mana and you can pretty much just shield the group + throw out a Prayer of Mending on the tank and then sit back and relax (obviously a little more work is required on boss fights )

[Feanorgandalf]

I finally decided to go in and get some healing experience in and it didn't go well. Did some 5-mans on regular and in Drak'theron Keep and Violet hold it was easy but utgarde keep and Pinnacle were disasters from the word go. It seems that if I have a tank that knows how to hold threat then it's easy but once all the DPS is pulling aggro I can't keep up. there is just too much going on all at once and my brain goes dead.

Basically I ahve done what has been said here. Shield + PoM the tank, use PoM when it's off cooldown, renews as i see fit and penance as a big heal. I am also trying to learn to use clique and grid which might be part of the problem. Any tips on this would be great even though I have the feeling this is just learn by experience.

[vesseblah]

Before overgearing the instances seriously you will have mana problems and have to drink after every 2-3 groups as a holy. That is a fact of life both you and the tank need to understand while you're doing heroics.

Priest has certainly a disadvantage in a situation where whole group is taking random aggro like you mentioned above, all spells you have to use in that situation are slow and eating a lot of mana. All three other healing classes can deal with that kind of situation moderately well compared to priest even at low gear. I recommend just spamming FH/PoM if everybody is taking damage at once (or Binding Heal if you too are taking damage) but you need to learn to prioritize tank and healer first in those cases, and just let the overaggroing DPS die. Also remember Fade and remember to push it on the instant you get aggro from anything.

[Zka]

use Binding heal, because then you will not lose your Grace on the MT.

In 5mans, you should never ever care where your Grace is, seriously.

[Zka]

Shield fucking everything.

True. As disc, your healing pattern optimally should look like this: PWS, some other spell, PWS, some other spell, ... or just PWS, PWS, PWS, PWS

[Deleted]

No offense or disrespect to the hundreds of good DeathKnights out there
-AND-
I commend you for trying to heal heroics
-BUT-

Healing is not just smashing random buttons and do well. You actually have to select the right healing spell for the right target at the right moment in the right situation.

Surely, it's not rocket science. You press a button, healing happens, you do your job.
But don't expect to do well, just because you have gear and experience on other characters

[Rakydei]

No offense or disrespect to the hundreds of good DeathKnights out there
-AND-
I commend you for trying to heal heroics
-BUT-

Healing is not just smashing random buttons and do well. You actually have to select the right healing spell for the right target at the right moment in the right situation.

Surely, it's not rocket science. You press a button, healing happens, you do your job.
But don't expect to do well, just because you have gear and experience on other characters

Does experience on healing toons count?

[Feanorgandalf]

No offense or disrespect to the hundreds of good DeathKnights out there
-AND-
I commend you for trying to heal heroics
-BUT-

Healing is not just smashing random buttons and do well. You actually have to select the right healing spell for the right target at the right moment in the right situation.

Surely, it's not rocket science. You press a button, healing happens, you do your job.
But don't expect to do well, just because you have gear and experience on other characters

This is the reason I want to have a healer as well. On my DK i can fall asleep and keep the rotation going, on my prot warrior same thing but have to switch targets a lot to build aoe threat.

The main theme I appear to be seeing here is to get practice