Holy - Gemming pure haste or not

[Tiberria]

It won't let me post an armory link, but here is my character name - Squishyness - Suramar (US).

Right now, I am sitting at 820 haste, and am gemmed to socket bonuses, with Reckless Ametrine in both orange and red sockets and Purified Dreadstone in blue sockets. However, it seems that the larger the ICC buff gets, the higher my overhealing gets. It was 30-35% range without a buff, but is now up to 60%ish, which clearly seems to say the entire ICC buff goes to overheal.

I have tried going to all 20 haste gems (using 1 Haste/SPI and 1 Reckless Ametrine to activate the meta) in the past and found it didn't really improve output, and it caused mana problems. If I switch to that gemming method again, I would be sitting at 1120 haste according to Rawr but would drop SP to around 3450 unbuffed. What I am thinking of doing is going to the 18/53/0 spec, dropping Serendipity since I use PoH so seldomly (except on Sindragosa, and even then it's because its a slow spell that stacks unchained slower, so I don't necessarily want Serendipity procs). I am thinking that going to that spec would also let me use Althor's Abacus instead of Purified Lunar Dust/the 245 Solace as my second trinket and increase output a bit more? For what it's worth the typical healing makeup for 25 man heroic ICC is 5-6 healers with 2 holy paladins, 1 disc priest, 1 holy priest, 1 shaman, 1 druid.

Any comments? Is it better to go for the shaman style of gemming or stick with a more balanced approach?

[Calendra12345]

It kinda depends, gemming full spellpower for LK25HC is what is commonly seen. It is all about what you prefer, nothing is right. Just jam it around a little, keep it balanced, but I do see a more and more usefullness in the amounts of haste as the icc buff goes up (The higher the buff, the less spellpower you need to get to the point of a what you consider a perfect amount of healing per spell).

[fabian]

It kinda depends, gemming full spellpower for LK25HC is what is commonly seen. It is all about what you prefer, nothing is right. Just jam it around a little, keep it balanced, but I do see a more and more usefullness in the amounts of haste as the icc buff goes up (The higher the buff, the less spellpower you need to get to the point of a what you consider a perfect amount of healing per spell).

What? Haste in ICC is way more useful than SP, and is actually what is gemmed in ICC HM. Now, I suggest a bit of both since you'll probably be raiding Halion too, which does not have the ICC buff.

[Kelesti]

Well, even without the buff, haste and SP are roughly equal when it comes to output (sweet spots allowing, of course). Keeping your haste cap is still beneficial for Halion.

[Samurai]

It kinda depends, gemming full spellpower for LK25HC is what is commonly seen. It is all about what you prefer, nothing is right. Just jam it around a little, keep it balanced, but I do see a more and more usefullness in the amounts of haste as the icc buff goes up (The higher the buff, the less spellpower you need to get to the point of a what you consider a perfect amount of healing per spell).

If you are talking about the Ensidia priest that was linked on here a while ago. My guess is he is Holy for 11/12 fights, and then changes to disc for LKHM. Running double disc makes LK so much easier.

As for gemming haste, it depends what your OS is. If you run holy / disc like lots of high end healing priests then you have to have a balance for both, as their gemming is different. If you have shadow or a pvp spec as your OS then smash those Haste gems imo.
I would be gemming full haste if i could, but i run holy and disc. And often use disc for 10mans and on nights when the other disc priest (who is lesser geared, go figure) decides to not show.

[Tiberria]

I am holy normally 11/12 fights, with Disc offspec, but am Disc in 10 mans maybe 40% of the time.

I don't know how common this is, but I actually swap out over half my gear when switching to Disc. Part of it is I don't use 4pc T10 for holy; I think the CoH buff almost entirely goes to overheal and would rather use better itemized (and obtainable with less competition) offset pieces. This lets me gem alot of the gear entirely for Disc.

Gear switches from Holy > Disc:

Head: Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown (277) > T10 264
Neck: Bone Sentinels Amulet (277) > Holiday's Grace 264
Cloak: Greatcloak of the Turned Champion (264)> Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky
Chest: Sanguine Silk Robes (277) > T10 264
Gloves: SanAlyn Ritualist Gloves (277) > T10 264
Pants: T10 277 > Leggings of Woven Death
Ring 2: Signet of Putrefaction 264 > Incardinate Ring of Mending 277
Weapon: Archus, Greatstaff of Antonidas 271 > Trauma 277/Shadow Silk Spindle 264
Trinkets: Solace 258/Abacus 264 > Solace 258/Solace 245

Is it viable to just keep a second set gemmed for Disc even though you would be using some ilevel items like this?

[Calendra12345]

If you are talking about the Ensidia priest that was linked on here a while ago. My guess is he is Holy for 11/12 fights, and then changes to disc for LKHM. Running double disc makes LK so much easier.

As for gemming haste, it depends what your OS is. If you run holy / disc like lots of high end healing priests then you have to have a balance for both, as their gemming is different. If you have shadow or a pvp spec as your OS then smash those Haste gems imo.
I would be gemming full haste if i could, but i run holy and disc. And often use disc for 10mans and on nights when the other disc priest (who is lesser geared, go figure) decides to not show.

It depends, if your disc priest is shit, and he skips a few shields, your extra burst with spellpower could be a good thing. But yea, with Halion out there now just keep it balanced.

[joeykd]

If you are talking about the Ensidia priest that was linked on here a while ago. My guess is he is Holy for 11/12 fights, and then changes to disc for LKHM. Running double disc makes LK so much easier.

As for gemming haste, it depends what your OS is. If you run holy / disc like lots of high end healing priests then you have to have a balance for both, as their gemming is different. If you have shadow or a pvp spec as your OS then smash those Haste gems imo.
I would be gemming full haste if i could, but i run holy and disc. And often use disc for 10mans and on nights when the other disc priest (who is lesser geared, go figure) decides to not show.

Completely off topic... what kind of helmet is that in your avatar? I need a new one.. and that looks sick.. never seen that kind of low profile shield style

[Optional]

God... no. Holy priests need no more than 800 haste. Socket haste in yellows, stay over 800 haste and that's it.

[Kelesti]

God... no. Holy priests need no more than 800 haste. Socket haste in yellows, stay over 800 haste and that's it.

And yet, if you listen to this guy, you're in for a world of terribad.

Thanks for contributing false info, glad that we were able to 1UP your post count

[Dianthe]

And yet, if you listen to this guy, you're in for a world of terribad.

Thanks for contributing false info, glad that we were able to 1UP your post count

I wrote a long post involving a long rant but it bugged and disappeared. No worries. Holy priest players are overall bad ( in my oppinion) was the main idea.

@ OP - I gem sp+ haste and spi+haste in pretty much all my slots. I have nowhere near BiS gear and I am sitting at over 1k haste atm with crit only on shoulders, wrists and boots - I think it's safe to say that gemming mixed is a good option for holy priests because of the multitude of stats we use.