Advice for a novice priest.

[NewNugget]

Hello fellow priests, I would appreciate it if you can offer some advice:

Basically I had a long break from WoW (last played in BC), and an even longer break from hardcore raiding (last raided in vanilla). Trying to pick it up again with friends and I realize the very fundamentals of priest healing have changed significantly. Back in vanilla I was primarily spot healing with shields/renews/flashes in 40 men, and it relied very much on reaction. Perhaps I was doing it wrong but it was enough to top meters with the least overhealing, so I thought it was the correct way to heal.

It is very different now. I tried to adept the new style by incorporating Chakra (typically Sanctuary for raids/Serenity for 5 men). In between PoM/CoH CDs I use a lot of renews/Heal/GH to preserve mana - days of Flash spamming is gone. Although I do enough to keep the group/raid from dying, I'm very low in meter, so I must be doing something wrong here. Any suggestion?

I noticed the goto spell for a lot of holy priests is PoH, but I really don't understand how it is viable when it has a slow cast time and heals for only 10k (roughly) per target. It is probably a good spell for topping off groups, but in critical times where 10k off PoH vs 30k off single target GH is the difference between the survivability of a member, why bother with PoH? Healers will have an easier time when groups are only taking gradual dmg, but I truly believe how a healer reacts to sudden dmg that renders member close to dying is what differentiates the good ones vs the bad ones.

I also understand the logic behind meter is flawed. But at the end of the day, it is the only stats available and players WILL be judged against it. It is not a good feeling to be a bottom feeder.

[Tripz]

PoH is nice because it automatically procs Divine Aegis which stacks, and aslong as the people you heal dont die you are doing fine, if you ask me.

[NewNugget]

Ah. So dare I say, the PoH playstyle is more PROactive whereas my old fashioned playstyle is REactive?

But that also means the priest will have to be disc. What about holy PoH priests?

[Xorz]

PoH is also reactive, Divine Aegis is only a small part of PoH as disc. When 3+ target are taking damage you use PoH, when 1 person takes more damage and is in danger of dying you single target heal him with Holy Word: Serenity or Flash Heal. If it's the tank you should have a Renew on him, so just Holy Word: Serenity and use a Greater or Flash heal.

[Slutty]

Ah. So dare I say, the PoH playstyle is more PROactive whereas my old fashioned playstyle is REactive?

Not quite. Just remember that at least for this tier, the damage is predictable and most of the time people don't need to be topped off immediately. Even when there's heavy aoe phases, the boss usually gives you a break to regen your mana (Halfus, Magmaw).

Main thing to remember since you come from Vanilla is that people can stay at 50% for 10 seconds and they'll usually be FINE... it's why we PoH as Holy: we cast it, let the glyph hot do it's job and refill the lowest members with other spells.

Do you have an armory page we can look at?

[NewNugget]

Thanks for the advise.

We had a 10m BWD and this time I was able to come out on top (barely). I tried to use as many PoH as possible, but it did felt like meter padding over actual practicality. I guess the bottom line is to apply whatever heal that is necessary based on the circumstances. Personally I find GH to be more applicable than PoH overall - maybe that's just me.

Can't post armory because of insufficient privilege, but I'm the only 'Márus' in US servers. Noob PvP and PvE hybrid without raiding gears.