Holy Nova Build (Leveling)

[Daez]

Holy Nova build is just an alternative to shadow and smite leveling. It is the aoe build. Its quite easy (with high level spirit gear) to grind through 4-5 mobs and still come out with almost full mana.

Talents:

Your first 3 points should be spent in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=15336.

After that your build should look something like:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuhhiRG0cZZh:aV (Level 50)

At level 50 you split away from the discipline tree and start putting points into holy to further buff Holy Nova:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuhhiRG0cZfxx0bbZh:aV (level 69)

At level 69 you can start filling in some other dps spells (try to buff your Shadow Word: Pain because you will use it a lot anyways for mana regeneration thanks to the glyph and the buff to damage on multiple mobs). You can also buff your hit chance and pick up mind flay to help with runners:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuh...x0bbZhxf0o:aVh (level 80)

As for gear, you are going to want to focus on mana regeneration for easy and quick leveling. Spell power is nice but not as nice as having mana to cast spells. Your items should reflect this. Stacking spirit and intellect as much as possible is a must. Items with intellect, spirit and spell power are awesome for this build.

So far I'm level 40 with this build and its going really well. I'm able to heal instances as the main healer and still decent dps. Its not uncommon to be above one or two of the dps when I'm healing. When I'm actually dpsing I'm coming out on top and you can easily do both with this build. The single target dps isn't horrible (especially if you are stacking haste), but this is an aoe build hence why I made decisions like not taking Power Infusion since all of the casts will be instant for the most part.

[harky]

Uh, no offense, but this is just a weaker version of Smite builds, which is going Discipline before Holy. There's no reason to go into Mind Flay and you'd be 100% better off by going deeper Holy instead of taking those points in Shadow. The only difference is that you'll be relying on Mind Flay single target instead of Smite, which is a mistake because when specced this way Smite actually hits harder than Mind Flay on a shorter cast time.

My problem is this:
1. It's meant to be an AOE build, but doesn't AOE as well as Smite builds.
2. You're starting in the Disc tree instead of the Holy tree, which results in a long delay in picking up good talents that allow Smite to be competitive.
3. It's a pure Smite build right up until level 69, at which point you inexplicably go Shadow purely to make it seem unique, rather than to increase efficiency by going deeper Holy.

Stick with a Smite build, but glyph Holy Nova. Go Holy first to get higher damage and efficiency sooner. This is a bad idea.

[Xelaeno]

You need Power Infusion.

First, 20% haste is beast. Eventhough Holy Nova is an instant spell, the haste will decrease your global cooldown significantly.

Secondly, 20% mana reduction is awesome. With 3/3 Spirit Tap, the earliest level you can get PI is lvl 45. Base mana at lvl 45 is approximately 2086. Mana cost of PI is 16% of your mana pool, which is 334 mana or 300 mana with 5/5 Mental Agility. Holy Nova is 20% of your mana pool, which is 376 mana with MA. With descent gear, at lvl 45 you should have a mana pool of 3500 +, this should enable you to cast 10 HN in one pull. 20% mana reduction means you save 750 mana, or 450 net after taking out the cost of PI. That's much better than the...52 mana you gained from spec 3/3 Rapture.

Speaking of Rapture, 1/3 point in that talent is enough, giving you 1.5% of your base mana back. The 2nd and 3rd point doesn't give you as much return value. You are better off with 2/2 Aspiration to reduce your PI cooldown to 1 minute and 36 seconds.

As for the shadow tree, there is no need to spec back into it to improve SW: Pain at higher level. Spec deeper into the holy tree to get 5/5 Spiritual Guidance and 2/2 Surge of Light to help with your single target dps. Your Holy Nova will be strong enough to kill packs of mobs without you casting SW: Pain on any of them. The pain glyph also gives mana back on base value only, so it isn't as affective as it seems.

You should also max Focus Will due to crit bonus and melee damage reduction.

[Xelaeno]

Uh, no offense, but this is just a weaker version of Smite builds, which is going Discipline before Holy. There's no reason to go into Mind Flay and you'd be 100% better off by going deeper Holy instead of taking those points in Shadow. The only difference is that you'll be relying on Mind Flay single target instead of Smite, which is a mistake because when specced this way Smite actually hits harder than Mind Flay on a shorter cast time.

My problem is this:
1. It's meant to be an AOE build, but doesn't AOE as well as Smite builds.
2. You're starting in the Disc tree instead of the Holy tree, which results in a long delay in picking up good talents that allow Smite to be competitive.
3. It's a pure Smite build right up until level 69, at which point you inexplicably go Shadow purely to make it seem unique, rather than to increase efficiency by going deeper Holy.

Stick with a Smite build, but glyph Holy Nova. Go Holy first to get higher damage and efficiency sooner. This is a bad idea.

I think his build is used exclusively for AoE leveling, which means if possible, he will always cast Holy Nova and pull mobs in packs. If that is the goal, the spec requires a different focus to function well - survivability, sustainability, and high damage. Starting from either Holy or Discipline tree will achieve this. I will explain.

Option I: Starting from Holy Tree:

Survivability - moderate for AoE:

- Desperate Prayer, 2 min instant heal
- Healing Focus, less interruption during emergency heal
- Improved Renew, instant HoT - no cast time heal
- Surge of Light proc-ed instant Flash Heal
- 0.5 sec less cast time on Heal
- You need Glyph of Inner Fire for AoE grinding

Sustainability - lacking for AoE:

- Surge of Light proc-ed free Flash Heal or Smite
- Powerful Holy Nova means less cast required, which is equivalent to less mana consumption
- Slightly lacking for AoE grinding, but in general, you should be doing Holy Fire X Smite rotation until you have full mana and then switch to AoE grinding.

Damage - Pro AoE:

- 5% Holy Crit
- 10% increased holy damage
- 25% spirit converted to spellpower = win
- Spirit Tap will increase your spell power temporarily.

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Option II: Starting from Discipline Tree:

Survivability - excellent for AoE:

- Improved Inner Fire -> extra armor, damage reduction
- Improved PW: Fort -> big health pool for better survival
- Extremely cheap PW: Shield
- Extremely strong PW: Shield, high absorption
- Focused Will, extra healing, extra damage reduction
- Note most survival talents in Disc are passive, and doesn't require active casting of healing spells ie. mana consumption unlike the Holy Tree. (Excluding PW: Shield)

Sustainability - excellent for AoE:

- Meditation, 50% mana reg while casting
- Mental Agility, 10% mana reduction on all instant spells. This is simply insane.
- Mental Strength, 15% more intel = huge mana pool
- Enlightenment, 6% Spirit, 6% Haste
- Soul Warding, cheap shield
- Rapture, mana return
- Power Infusion, 20% mana reduction
- Inner Focus, 1 free cast every 3 minutes, works nice with anything expensive

Damage - Moderate AoE:

- 3% Spell Crit
- 5% damage increase on instant spell -cough- Holy Nova
- 4% damage increase on all damage spells
- Note not including Spiritual Guidance and crit value, Disc spec's Holy Nova is only 1% less powerful than the one from the Holy Tree ;D

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So to conclude, if you are solemnly focusing on AoE leveling, both trees are viable starters. Although personally I would start in the Holy Tree simply because I enjoy a combination of single target and AoE grinding, it's more flexible. Also, because Holy Tree requires less talent points (27), I can get those nice regen/shield talents in the Disc tree earlier as compare with the 40 points I need in Disc before I can spec into Holy for + damage. But there's nothing wrong with starting in the discipline tree at all.

[harky]

I don't buy it. The issue is you're prioritizing the survivability factor, which is a complete non-issue when spamming an AOE that happens to be a heal. Normal mobs won't be able to kill you 4-5 on 1 unless you run out of mana. The point is the start, which is the difficult portion. You're also including things so far down Disc that by the time you get that, the Holy-first setup would already have the first 3 tiers of Disc filled out. By the time you can fill out Rapture, Holy-first is filling out the third-tier of Disc talents.

Here's his build at 69: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuhhiRG0cZfxx0bbZh:aV
Here's the normal Holy-first build at 69: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuhhrRhZbxthbbVbZhV

Which has more survivability? The Holy Spec. Which will do more damage? The Holy spec. Which will have more longevity? The Holy spec.

You can go down the line looking at each important step of the progression, but at every point Holy will be ahead. The only time Disc is technically ahead is levels 20-25. Before 20 (no Holy Nova) and after 25 (Searing Light), Holy is ahead.