Why is Smite OP on Halfus?

[Iannis]

Hey hey
So I've been hearing a lot of talk about the AA/smite build being OP on Halfus.
But nobody says why exactly. I 3 heal Halfus as disc, with my 10man raid. Currently do not run an AA/smite build.
Last time I healed Halfus (nether, slate, storm) I found that I wouldn't want to smite even if I had the build for it.

So how does this OP build come into play? What is the key strategy here for this spec?

[Mazi]

Because of the damage taken buff that Halfus gets - you can get 30k heals off on your ~1.7sec ish cast on whoever needs it the most (smart)

[Kezool]

Attonement heals for the damage smite does, with 3 drakes released he takes 150% more damage which means that smite is by far the most efficent way to heal the tanks.

However a smite spec can be problematic if the melee sucks at avoiding fireballs as that'll soak alot of smite healing.

[grandpab]

He has like a 250% damage debuff in heroic.

[Malefic]

With good amounts of Haste and giving yourself Power Infusion etc on CD you can get 20k+ HPS by spamming Smite on Halfus, with Holy Fire on CD.

As Mazi said, Halfus takes 50% bonus damage for all drake released, so by the time you've released your 4th (You should be releasing 4 on 10m) he's taking 200% more damage, so your Priests are smiting the mob for 25k~ every 1.5seconds~ non crit, which is also healing the lowest target in your raid for that amount.

[Vampyrr]

With good amounts of Haste and giving yourself Power Infusion etc on CD you can get 20k+ HPS by spamming Smite on Halfus, with Holy Fire on CD.

As Mazi said, Halfus takes 50% bonus damage for all drake released, so by the time you've released your 4th (You should be releasing 4 on 10m) he's taking 200% more damage, so your Priests are smiting the mob for 25k~ every 1.5seconds~ non crit, which is also healing the lowest target in your raid for that amount.

You cant release 4, it is only 3 a week for both 25 and 10.

[implicationmmo]

You cant release 4, it is only 3 a week for both 25 and 10.

You can release up to 5 in heroic

[Vampyrr]

You can release up to 5 in heroic

well that sir is a whole nother ball game. Imma assume the op is talking about norm

[[-Spiritus-]]

Though the atonement coefficient helps, one of the major reasons is chaining barrier for the stuns.

[cyqu]

what everyone else said pretty much. id dont see why any 10m guild would bother pulling H halfus without at least 1 smite spec disc priest

[Evrx]

If you look at world of logs rankings, the top 40 healing done on heroic 10 man halfus are all disc priests using smite spec.

[lkonig]

Could someone please link this Disc/smite spec please.

[[-Spiritus-]]

The only reqs. are Twin Disciplines, Evangelism, Archangel, Atonement, Pain Suppression, PW: Barrier, Divine Fury, and Glyph of Divine Accuracy. For H. Halfus, everything else is minutiae.

OFC, you'll pick up the other "must have" disc talents like PI & BT.

[Arachnan]

Could someone please link this Disc/smite spec please.

Not playing a priest myself, but I would assume something along the lines of:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGoMRsbfoMobhMZh

[Vook]

Not playing a priest myself, but I would assume something along the lines of:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGoMRsbfoMobhMZh

Very wrong, you don't spec into Imp.Renew and ToT/Improved Healing are required.

Here's what you should do:

http://wowtal.com/#k=BeUmbMr2.aei.priest.

[Madam]

I was told that Smite Healing was good for this fight so last week went ahead and tried, (first time ever raiding in spec) was a tad nerve-raking not knowing exactly where your heals would land, but so much fun!
Try to stack as much Int and Haste as you can. For the kill I removed my spirit trinket and used one with haste.

As for spec, you can drop PW:S talents and pick up Darkness while keeping Inspiration and EH.

Glyph for PW:B and PS while stunned.

[Chitzu]

http://wowtal.com/#k=_AL5cpRH.aei.priest.-XkEo2

There's the specc that you preferably should use, now you might ask why you should have the 2 extra points in Twisted Faith, well basically it's cause you'll use your healing gear for this obviously, Spirit = Hit with that talent, will result in you having a whole lot of hit to not miss your smites = Missing a heal.

The reasoning to why this specc should be used by atleast 1 person in a raid is cause of what's mentioned, Halfus is taking increased damage, while you're being this specc you also provide extra DPS which is nice for that encounter as the enrage timer is rather tight.

An example is when i went the specc for our first Halfus 25-man Heroic kill.

I had 25-27k~ DPS as this specc that i provided above, at the same time i had an HPS average of 24k~, now our melee weren't awesome at moving so it happend that sometimes a heal hit them, but it's nothing that made us wipe, but this was before Attonement were capped to a certain % of your HP, you can no longer crit for over a 100k heals as i did back then (this was after they fixed MS + Attonement, but before they fixed the Attonement heal cap.)

Yet i belive that it's a strong specc for that encounter, you can do it without one but it's still better with one imo, haven't tried it lately tho as i quit the game a while ago (about a month, barely that) but still i would advice you to try it out and use the specc/Glyphs that i provided in the link above.

[Arachnan]

Very wrong, you don't spec into Imp.Renew and ToT/Improved Healing are required.

Here's what you should do:

http://wowtal.com/#k=BeUmbMr2.aei.priest.

I said "something along the lines of" so 'very' wrong is a bit of an exaggeration
Also, he asked for the smite build for Halfus, not the general smite build. But I do agree that improved renew is a bit useless for disc.

[Chitzu]

Very wrong, you don't spec into Imp.Renew and ToT/Improved Healing are required.

Here's what you should do:

http://wowtal.com/#k=BeUmbMr2.aei.priest.

You sir is farther away from the correct specc then he is, please do not give the OP false advices when you don't know what you're talking about, the specc that i provided is the "correct" one, as both of you are missing out on the 7 talent points in Shadow that's very much needed for this specc to work proper. If you don't have the 2 points into Twisted Faith, guess what. You'll miss smites and you'll miss heals. also your specc doesn't contain the 3% haste which is very much needed for this specc as well.

Also why on earth would you specc into Empowered Healing, you're Attonement specced for a reason on this single encounter, you're not going to use Heal, Flash Heal or Greater heal at all, period. If you do, then you might as well go back to a normal healing specc as you're missing out on the whole point of the specc and making it more or less usefull and not utilizing the specc even remotely close to its potential.

Also Arachnan, your specc weren't correct, but it were closer to the correct specc then he were.

[Arachnan]

You sir is farther away from the correct specc then he is, please do not give the OP false advices when you don't know what you're talking about, the specc that i provided is the "correct" one, as both of you are missing out on the 7 talent points in Shadow that's very much needed for this specc to work proper. If you don't have the 2 points into Twisted Faith, guess what. You'll miss smites and you'll miss heals. also your specc doesn't contain the 3% haste which is very much needed for this specc as well.

Also why on earth would you specc into Empowered Healing, you're Attonement specced for a reason on this single encounter, you're not going to use Heal, Flash Heal or Greater heal at all, period. If you do, then you might as well go back to a normal healing specc as you're missing out on the whole point of the specc and making it more or less usefull and not utilizing the specc even remotely close to its potential.

Also Arachnan, your specc weren't correct, but it were closer to the correct specc then he were.

Durr? Don't you always glyph for http://www.wowhead.com/item=45758 ?