holy priest - a simple guide - heroics and beginning 10 man raids

[tum]

Hi there

I have not seen any guides so i decided to write one. Im pretty sure there are many ppl who could say more but
its for beginners and not only pro players. It can by quite handy just to be sure that somebody else has the same
feelings bout healing.

1. Priests are for sure powerful healers in cataclysm. Thats for sure. We have very good aoe heals so dont worry!

2. In cata mana is an issue, simply because cost of spells, (watch your healing spells and their costs)

3. Every healer has to think, end of spamming spells, you cant top every player every time. Deal with this.

4. If your party raid players dont know what are they doing (sources of dmg and way of avoiding it if possible) you CANT heal it up.
IF you have good players, you can end boss with like 40% of your mana easy, if dps will be casting their spells in aoe dmg
or get dmg in stupid ways u will lack mana. End of story. Tell them that, its your all job to work on your mana!

INT=SPI=MASTERY(echo of light) > crit > haste
now i feel like i have to tell more why i think is that way

1. INT - gives u more mana, and more spell power, very important, for many reasons, well people judge you very often only
by watching your mana pool, so more mana better healer u are in their eyes, it works that way! But u cant reforge items on int.
So gems on it, trinkets on it if u can, enchants if u want to.

2. SPI - my side is that spirit gives us more than int , spi = INSANE mana regen now. Trinket with 285 int gives u like what? 4k mana? Trinket with 285 spi gives you
with 4 minutes fight like 11k mana , but int gives u also spell power. Also ppl judge you by the mana pool. And we want to be "good healers" .
My choice is gem when u can, enchant when u can, if u lack mana put spi trinket. Reforge when u can.

3. MASTERY - pure healing, we have best mastery in game, its a hot , very strong one, if u dont belive me look into recount. It gives us opportunity
no to max up members, echo will do it for us, and in 6 secs ahead. Thats very very handy. For raids and heroics. So items with mastery
are definitly best ones for us now. Dont gem, if u want to put mastery trinket, reforge any time u can.

4. crit - its good but we dont have mana regen from it now ( i think) and we have quite enought to trigger our inspiration, so no worries. its not bad
to have more but mastery or spirit is in my opinion a bit better (at least on the beginning stage)

5. haste - bad ones, well for some super imba healer can be good but where in woltk you could spam heal, and your only problem was "how the hack can i cast more
in those 5 minutes while fighting boss" now its better to have mana for 1 more aoe heals then cast PoH 0,1 sec faster. Belive me. It even not bout faster u cast
faster u get out of mana. Its just that now you have to know when and why to press your buttons, not to spam they like hell.

Now people want to argue whats more important int or spi or mastery but its not that important cause we take best gear possible right? And the way we think is
good to visualise on reforging. You cant reforge into item that is already on it. So there are few simple rules.

0. You cant reforge into INT
1. Get items with spirit, if there are no spirit on it u can reforge (haste, crit or even mastery) into. So reforge max u can. And next time find an item with SPI.
2. IF u already have item with spirit. Change haste or crit into mastery. Because you cant reforge into int and spi so next important is mastery. So try to find items with spi and mastery so you dont have to reforge.
3. if u can chose , always reforge haste and leave crit, if u can chose to reforge into spi, take it, if not go for mastery if not, go for crit

Trinkets:
easy choice: INT, INT or INT SPI or INT MASTERY , thats your choice

Gems:
int and spi mostly, we have good hole bonuses so you can add some with mastery or crit or whatever

Enchants:
SPI > INT
heartsong on weapon is excelent

Proffesions:
almost everything is good which gives us int or spi, so dont worry, tailoring is very nice cause of dark enchant on back which gives insane amount of mana (belive me or watch recount)


Way of healing.
Well, i was tryin to use inner will and instants but it just didnt work well. Just because of many sources of aoe dmg. You cant heal up everyone with renew anymore.
So i decided to use inner fire all the times.

1. if there is not so huge dmg on your tank
- renew, Pom (spam this on every cd) and chakra and 2x Heal (slow, low healing cheap spell) and then instant serenity . this way your Heal will be refreshing
renew, u can use serenity to heal some dps (but not much) and use Heal on your tank. Healing this way your mana WILL NOT drop below , you can heal pretty
forever and i was able to heal up this way some bosses with like 90% of mana on the end. BUT there is one huge disadvantage, you will not be able to keep
tank alive when he will get heavy spanks . You can help yourself with guardian spirit but thats all.

2. if there is heavy (huge) dmg on your tank / also if ur dps get much dmg
- u begin with previous and then when u realise your tank is getting low change to: 2 x flasHeal 1xgHeal (with PoM ofc) , after this if dmg stops a bit u change to .1 if not continue with f heal and g heal. DISADVANTAGE - your mana sink like hell, 1 minute with spamming and you re out of mana, so use FLASH HEAL and GREATER HEAL only on emergency
if not u will be without mana in no time

3. if aoe dmg u can either switch from serenity into sanctuary which takes time cause of chakra state, or just simply spam Prayer of healing (with glyph v. important)
and CoH, and Pom, PoH costs like f. heal its silly but thats the way it is now. remember about Divine hymn, its extremly powerfull and it helps to keep many party members
alive (dont use it if tank is very very low on health) use it when all are 50% hp or less and u cant heal all any other way

Mana savers:
- shadowfiend, use it when u are sure ur pet wont be killed or stunned or wont be kitted
- hymn of hope , good but channeling, dont let tank die during this
- mana potions , tailoring dark glow on back, heartsong on weapon, more more more spirit!
- lightwell , best on aoe but it helps just with mana issues every time u use it , great thing

Glyphs: (we dont have many good glyphs but many of them are handy)
- prayer of healing glyph, 20% after using in hot (very important)
- coh
- guardian of spirit
- renew
- fade

to sum up:
- Dont touch f heal or g heal if u dont have to
- Use as much PoM (prayef of mending) as u can this is your best friend in every situation!
- Use lightwell, remember to tell yout party members that they dont have to be near, they can click in it from distance (like 20 yards or sth) even during their combos
- Use shield on urself (with body and soul) if u need to speed up (helps being alive a lot)
- Keep yourself alive, dead healer = no heal

Remember to talk with your party or raid members so they know that its everyones jobs to keep your mana. If they got into some aoe traps or wont be quick enough
u cant simply heal them , no matter how good you will be. Its so simple. If they will be focused and you will have knowledge bout boss skils everything will be ok.

And be kind and patient, healing is a mastery now! be proud and have fun!

Tum

p.s. and remember its only my way of healing, u can have your own, im not the best i dont calculate everything, i may be wrong on some details but it more or less works like i said, i heal every heroic easy with good team , we started to do some 10 man raids , its only begining, this can and will change if u get better gear so

p.s. 2. and hope it will help some ppl

[juddas]

when servers come back, i'll try your "way to healing", thank you very much.. rly ty.-

[Downstroke]

Let me know if I am wrong on this:

Serenity = 25% crit buff on your target for direct healing and refresh renew. Not sure if it is 35% with talent but spell says 25%. With my gear I have 10% crit sofar with my gear so add serenity for the target you are healing that is 35% crit for direct healing aleast.

So combo is needed to make sure you get the most out of your costly heals.

Tank taking alot of damage 60% are lower on life. Serenity cast on tank would give you either 2 slow heals are 3 fast heals with 9% haste.

Combo 1 ( Flash-->Flash--> Serenity--> GHeal-->Gheal or Heal) the Gheal or heal is depanding on mana you have and overhealing if take is already 90% health by the time you do this combo.
Combo 2 (Serenity-->Heal-->Heal) with 9% haste I can only get 2 heals of mybe 3 depanding on fight and lag.
Combo 3 (Serenity-->Flash-->Flash-->Gheal)
Combo 4 (Flash-->Serenity-->Flash-->Gheal) I use this when my mana is getting low are early in fight if tank takes alot of damage.

These combos are basic and depanding on your haste and lag you can get off more heals in a serenity buff round on your target, but do not overheal , mana is your friend and you do not want to waste it, stay below 5% overhealing, most times I just do 1-2% overhealing pre fight.

There are acouple more combos but these are off the top of my head. If you are going to heal, flash are Gheal you need to have it in your head to try you best wait for Serenity everytime so when that 25% more chance to crit means tank gets healed alot more and you spend less mana doing these combo ounce are twice instead of 3-6 times just to get tank to full life. My mana is always fine, and I can keep grp up even if they take stupid damage and when they do not use there damage reduction CD's.

Say serenity is not up and tank is low on health, I would Flash heal ounce are twice till serenity is up then you got a fast Gheal ounce your serenity tank. Judgement for these take pratice but easy to figure out, my tank stay above 50% health 24/7 and gives me time to heal grp if needed.

Lightwell during boss fight is a must, and do not just tell your grp to use it, tell them that is the only heal they will get besides mybe a renew are heal if that. That scares the dps to click it when needed. You can use while stuned and 20yrd away, and cant not overide the Lightwell hot, so make sure your grp knows this , most ppl do not, macro this info so you can just click it before each boss fight.
PS: Try to put lightwell down when you first get to boss, then buff and drink if needed that why it can be up middle of fight with 3min cd it helps.

[Alaska]

Healing in Cata is amazing and I love it! It is a great challenge now which is awesome! I use my HoTs every CD I can and my heal a lot. I am never not busy. I advise other priests to try to use heal over F and G. You will save mana. In emergencies I will use guardian because of the short CD, but that is a no brainer.

Also, when I know the tank is going to take hard damage I make sure to use the heal chakra. I stack the crit buff and use heal. Heal will crit pretty good...but when the take gets to like 30% health I'll shoot him a flash or great heal depending on how quickly the damage is coming. Just remember it is ok that your tank isn't at full health. I think people need to get use to that.

Also, I have not use Lightwell yet. I don't even have it. Should I be using it? O.o; I wouldn't think would use it... maybe i'll try it!

[Kristya]

INT=SPI=MASTERY(echo of light) > crit > haste

5. haste - bad ones, well for some super imba healer can be good but where in woltk you could spam heal, and your only problem was "how the hack can i cast more
in those 5 minutes while fighting boss" now its better to have mana for 1 more aoe heals then cast PoH 0,1 sec faster. Belive me. It even not bout faster u cast
faster u get out of mana. Its just that now you have to know when and why to press your buttons, not to spam they like hell.

I got to the part where you ranked Crit above Haste and let out a giant *sigh*. You really shouldn't make a "guide" that contains bad information. Healing is rough enough as it is right now and we don't need new healers reading this and gearing wrong as a result.

Crit is an unreliable stat. I won't go so far as to say that it is a *bad* stat by any means. Crit is still useful. However, it is just so far below Haste and Mastery for a Holy Priest that you are making a serious mistake if you intentionally gear for it. Now, your reason for disliking Haste is complete nonsense. Your comment about just spamming heals WotLK style without thinking about which heal is best is a very correct comment, however that has nothing to do with Haste. Haste is incredibly useful for Holy Priests. Just because you can cast faster doesn't mean you have to spam, it just means you get the required heals off quicker. Haste doesn't means you HAVE to cast more heals over the course of a fight, it means you CAN - and that can be the difference between life in death in this game. Sure, it doesn't seem like much to the unexperienced healer, but any remotely skilled healer will tell you that even .2 seconds can be the difference between casting that Prayer of Healing and having to abort the cast to move out of the fire.

Int is the obvious top stat. Spirit is the second. If you're wearing a piece of gear without Spirit, then it's not really itemized for a Holy Priest. Haste and Mastery come after Spirit, with Crit falling way behind in 5th place. There's quite a bit of discussion out there on Haste vs Mastery, and the fact remains that they are both great stats and you'd do well to have a nice mix of the two. Personal preference has me leaning a little more towards Mastery, but if your lean more towards Haste then you're certainly not doing anything wrong. Just find a good balance between the two. Ideally, you'd want half of your armor pieces to be Int/Spi/Haste and the other half to be Int/Spi/Mastery with zero Crit rating from gear. Now, you will read elsewhere that people say you need to hit 516 haste as a minimum before you start the Mastery vs Haste discussion (as that gives you the 5th tick of renew with 3/3 Darkness and 5% group/raid buff), but even in non-heroic level blues you'd have to go out of your way to not have that much haste. So, don't sweat it too much - you'll hit that number on accident.

Overall your "guide" has many useful points, but your stat priority is just wrong and I wanted to give fair warning to any gullible new healers out there that might be reading this.

[Deleted]

I got to the part where you ranked Crit above Haste and let out a giant *sigh*. You really shouldn't make a "guide" that contains bad information. Healing is rough enough as it is right now and we don't need new healers reading this and gearing wrong as a result.

This exactly. Sorry but I stopped reading when I saw you thought crit was higher priorotised on gear than haste.

[Azelric]

Also, I have not use Lightwell yet. I don't even have it. Should I be using it? O.o; I wouldn't think would use it... maybe i'll try it!

Lightwell is one of the best heals in game.... *IF people will use it.

Last night, for example, we struggled with a boss, and I noticed that no one had used the Lightwell I'd dropped on the two wipes. I asked people to use it a bit more forcefully, and lo-and-behold, we had ZERO issues. DPS healed themselves, I could focus on tank more, it was awesome.

That being said, I do get some flack for it (I had a tank tell me "Don't use lightwell as a crutch for your bad healing." I simply replied that lightwell WAS my healing, and DPS taking avoidable damage or who thought I wasn't healing them enough needed to use it. Other than that though I'd sad about 75-80% of my DPS will use lightwell if I remind them of it with a macro or add-on.

[Malic]

Please inform yourself before you start misleading people with a so called "guide" full of wrong and bad information.
Int = Mastery? Crit > haste? This was proven wrong dozens of times in this forum and everywhere else.

[Azelric]

Combo 1 ( Flash-->Flash--> Serenity--> GHeal-->Gheal or Heal) the Gheal or heal is depanding on mana you have and overhealing if take is already 90% health by the time you do this combo.
Combo 2 (Serenity-->Heal-->Heal) with 9% haste I can only get 2 heals of mybe 3 depanding on fight and lag.
Combo 3 (Serenity-->Flash-->Flash-->Gheal)
Combo 4 (Flash-->Serenity-->Flash-->Gheal) I use this when my mana is getting low are early in fight if tank takes alot of damage.
...

PS: Try to put lightwell down when you first get to boss, then buff and drink if needed that why it can be up middle of fight with 3min cd it helps.

Personally if the tank is low I hit Serenity, Flash Heal, & Greater Heal. That will, 9 times out of 10, get the tank back up, and if not I just hit flash heal and greater heal again, OR use greater if I feel like I can spare the time (aka I want to top him off that last bit, and am not worried about damage coming in to fast).

Also, I've been using the lightwell thing. There have been times where both lightwells get used (I have it glyphed and talented to the max, I should mention) on a tough boss fight, and this is definitely a great way to maximize the use of lightwell if you've got DPS who are using it.