Smite Priests

[Jakmax]

So I recently started leveling my priest, and I've really come to enjoy my smite spec. My main question is whether or not smite spec is viable at all end game. I realize it'll never be a main healer spec but if it does half the dps of full dpser and half the healing of a full healer would it be worth taking into a raid?

[Svenofnine]

It's really only semi viable on HM Halfus, and that's smite attonement spec. I hope you're not talking about smite dps holy spec?

[Deleted]

It's ok on some bosses (halfus, chimaeron) but don't expect to do half the dps of full dpser.

[Deleted]

I raid with my priest as 'smitemachine' and I never even go close to oom, and my heals are still great. I would say that it's absolutely viable, but holy really shines on other fights.

[Jakmax]

It's really only semi viable on HM Halfus, and that's smite attonement spec. I hope you're not talking about smite dps holy spec?

Yeah I meant disc smite spec going into holy for divine fury and surge of light. Anyone have any numbers showing what kind of damage the spec is capable of? Heals would mostly come from smites and bubbles and some spot healing when needed. Would make life easier for all the full time healers.

---------- Post added 2011-02-25 at 02:05 PM ----------

I raid with my priest as 'smitemachine' and I never even go close to oom, and my heals are still great. I would say that it's absolutely viable, but holy really shines on other fights.

Sorry for the double post, but could you post some numbers, I just want an idea of what I'm getting into before I commit to gearing out.

[Vook]

I use Atonement spec for all fights that I'm Disc for, AA is really nice when you need a healing boost. But yeah,you only do about 3-4k dps, and that's if you're smiting the whole time.

[sacrypheyes]

smiting can be nice in raids as a replacement for Heal spam as you'll usually heal for more with more or less the same amount of mana spent, but smiting certainly isn't enough when the whole raid is taking damage.

too bad they don't make holy fire proc a small aoe "atonement", like a bit less than CoH, that'd be nice (and less boring than smashing smite keybind).

[[-Spiritus-]]

Evan/AA + Aton has many strong uses in many fights, both heroic & normal. At its base, it is at least good for x5 Evan to pop AA for when AoE needs to go down.

On other fights where people are grouped up and prayer would result in significant overheal, Atonement will be better eHPM [think of cleaning up the healthbars after crackle in P1]. The best part about using atonement in this way is you set up your next AA. On nef, I even x5 Smite as he is taking flight, cast ProM on myself, switch to Inner Will, shield everyone going up on my pillar, switch back to inner fire while im in the lava, pop AA & PI when I surface and start dropping Prayers and Penance to get everyone ready for the first p2 crackle.

So, in short, Can you bust into raiding as a priest hoping to "dps to heal" from 100-0 effectively? No. However, you can expect to be able to use smite effectively in almost every encounter, which is pretty darn cool.

[Dorfie]

Smite is your filler spell in a Disc healing spec. You cast it when you don't need to pop big heals out and your other key spells (Bubble and Penance) are on CD. It's like how Holy spams heal when theres nothing better to do.

[Deleted]

I use smite in most every fight, but smite spec is a healing spec. Don't kid yourself otherwise. If you want to do damage full time and help the real healers out a bit go shadow.