holy priest questions...

[Genooo]

I'm leveling a priest that just hit level 80. I've been alternating questing as shadow and healing as disc up until this point. I plan on going holy at 85, so I figured now would be a good time to respec holy and practice. I've looked in to it a bit so I understand chakra and all that, but what are some things I should know? How often do you guys use spells? (Renew, gheal, heal, binding heal, etc.) Which Chakra is best in 5-mans?

[Tvremote]

Chakra serenity is best in 5mans with the new patch it is helpful.
After receiving some help on this forum I can tell you.

For 5 mans you will do this rotation what I found works best. -Chakra Serenity/ -RENEW - Holy word serenity - Spam heal to keep proccing the renew too - You should be able to keep the tank up with doing this, if you cant the tank is undergeared. Obviously if theres 5 mobs on him that isn't always the case.

After you topped tank off stick a Prayer of mending on him always should be on CD.

[Grizzlokk]

I agree that Serenity is the best bet. The most sound advice I can give is to practice the Serenity Renew rolling mechanic (on the tank and other party members who are constantly getting hit in the face). This will take the HPM of your most efficient direct heals and make them even better. Heal should become mana neutral or mana positive in no time, and remember that Greater Heal is only efficient if you aren't overhealing.

Secondly, I would urge you to take a hard look at Serendipity and consider the possible uses. It allows Holy Priests a little cushion when you need to push your throughout really high, but you should try to avoid situations where you are Flashing or Binding. However, these situations will probably occur frequently as you work your way through the dungeon finder, and this on demand throughput is one of the strong points of Holy in my personal opinion.

Finally, remember that Priest party heals are extremely powerful and efficient. PoH and CoH are simply outstanding and have uses in five mans depending on the situation.

[Daedius]

A decent macro for Chakra:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help,mod:shift][@player,mod:shift] Chakra; [@mouseover,help][@player] Holy Word: Chastise

it's not perfect, but gets the job done - Hold shift to cast Chakra, and then put yourself into w/e state... then cast Serenity or Sanctuary on normal press.

[Kirsae]

For 5-mans, your heals should basically be:
-Prayer of Mending on cooldown.
-Chakra:Serenity on cooldown. Renew prior to serenity to keep hot rolling on heals. Chakra:Sanctuary is ok for large aoe damage when you know group will be standing in one location (say for instance, a melee heavy group on a boss with little movement).
-Heal is your staple spam.
-Gheal is your big heal (naturally). Should be using for big damage spikes.
-Flash Heal is your oh-shit spell. High mana cost, should only be emergency spell.
-CoH on cooldown when lots of aoe going on, or you have dumb dps that likes to stand in fire.

That should be enough to get you started.

[Genooo]

Is binding heal ever of any use or is it best to just heal yourself and then a target?

[Zodisius]

Is binding heal ever of any use or is it best to just heal yourself and then a target?

If you have the time to heal the person and heal yourself then do it, but if you need heals fast then BH is the best choice. It all matter about the amount of time before the next big hit.

[zakaluka]

If you have the time to heal the person and heal yourself then do it, but if you need heals fast then BH is the best choice. It all matter about the amount of time before the next big hit.

If you and another target ever need healing, use bind before anything else. Bind with no overhealing has higher throughput than Flash Heal (although it's split) and better mana efficiency than Heal. It's not regen-free though, because its throughput is so high, so you can't sustain it forever.

It also triggers Serendipity, so that Bind is also worth 10% of a faster-than-normal Gheal.

GHeal with 2 stacks of serenity also has better throughput than flash and better effic than Heal.