Transition from Disc to Holy

[Daulivanth]

I want to start healing raids on my priest, however I've leveled and done all of my end game stuff so far as disc and believe that the heals with holy are better for raids. I have a smaller guild and the other healer will usually be a shaman for 10 mans. I tried regular throne of the tides as holy and ran out of mana very quickly and had trouble keeping everyone healed. I know I need to enchant and upgrade some gear, but I was just wondering what else I should do to be able to heal raids. I believe my main problem will be running out of mana.

So I guess I'm asking what others do to heal for raids and conserve mana as holy. Also is Disc any good at raid healing? With the other healer being a Shaman idk which spec would be preferred. Any help would be much appreciated.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...riest/advanced

[Thenoose]

I've been Disc for all of Cata and have no intent on changing anytime soon. It has great utility imo, and good mana usage/returns. I pretty much always top the meters and that doesn't even count absorbs which is a pretty huge amount. In short, Disc is absolutely viable for raid healing.

[nighties]

Personally I found Holy a lot more fun than disc. Prayer of Mending into a Circle of Healing during some heavy-raid damage fights is very satisfying. You're constantly juggling to keep up renew, PoM, while spamming binding heal into a greater heal. It's a very busy spec.

[Daulivanth]

That is awesome. We had another Disc priest try to heal a bit, but his gear was way lower than it needed to be, and he hadnt played WoW in awhile so he probably wasnt playing well. I was dreading learning how to play Holy. Well then I'll try out Disc on Magmaw and see how it goes I think. Thanks for the help.

---------- Post added 2011-05-03 at 11:17 AM ----------

Personally I found Holy a lot more fun than disc. Prayer of Mending into a Circle of Healing during some heavy-raid damage fights is very satisfying. You're constantly juggling to keep up renew, PoM, while spamming binding heal into a greater heal. It's a very busy spec.

Well it might be more fun, but frankly I just want to do as well as possible. My guild is sadly pretty bad at raiding. The only think I ever really do is PUG BH on my prot pally... but no complaints I guess. Just trying to fill a role that the guild needs atm.

[Thenoose]

That is awesome. We had another Disc priest try to heal a bit, but his gear was way lower than it needed to be, and he hadnt played WoW in awhile so he probably wasnt playing well. I was dreading learning how to play Holy. Well then I'll try out Disc on Magmaw and see how it goes I think. Thanks for the help.

---------- Post added 2011-05-03 at 11:17 AM ----------



Well it might be more fun, but frankly I just want to do as well as possible. My guild is sadly pretty bad at raiding. The only think I ever really do is PUG BH on my prot pally... but no complaints I guess. Just trying to fill a role that the guild needs atm.

Well if your guild isn't too good I would think Disc might be a good bet. A big perk of Holy is the lightwell, assuming you can get your guildies to click it. :P

[Daulivanth]

Well if your guild isn't too good I would think Disc might be a good bet. A big perk of Holy is the lightwell, assuming you can get your guildies to click it. :P

Lol get my guildies to click something without breaking their rotation for 10 seconds? Yeah... thats not gonna happen sadly. Great guildies though, very good people. Mostly.

[Zodisius]

Hi Daulivanth! I've found some things that should help you out in your transition.

Gear: A lot of your gear has Crit on it. Holy priests get little benefit from having Crit. You will either want to replace them with pieces that have Haste or Mastery. Reforging can help you out a lot for now. I would recommend reforging your Crit to Haste if you do 10-mans or Mastery if you do 25-mans but you can do what you prefer too. If there are any pieces that don't have Spirit, reforge into it until you don't have mana problems.

Gems: Rarely will you want a pure Spirit/Haste/Mastery gem. Besides the gem in your helmet everything looks good. If you find yourself liking Haste more than Mastery I would recommend switching your Int/Mastery gems with Int/Haste.

Talents: There are a few talents that you do not want to take that you have right now. Improved PW:S isn't worth it as Holy. We shouldn't be using much of it except for Body & Soul and the occasional "ocrap getting low need to stop damage now". The other talent is Rapid Renewal. The days of renew rolling are over for Holy Priests and the reduction on Renews GCD when it should only be on a couple of people isn't really beneficial. I would recommend taking the points and putting them into Body & Soul because it stops you from taking damage and moving out of X quicker. Plus the faster you can get to the spot you're supposed to be, the faster you can start healing again. Then I would say take any other points and put them into Darkness because Haste is always sexy.

A few other talents are open for suggestion. I don't think that Spirit of Redemption is worth it because you shouldn't be dying and you also have Desperate Prayer. I also don't like having Desperate Prayer because of our instant Chakra heal but there is nothing wrong with DP just my personal play-style. When mana becomes less of an issue you can also take point out of Veiled Shadows.

I hope this information is helpful and don't be afraid to reply if you want anymore help.

---------- Post added 2011-05-03 at 11:40 AM ----------

Lol get my guildies to click something without breaking their rotation for 10 seconds? Yeah... thats not gonna happen sadly. Great guildies though, very good people. Mostly.

Lightwell doesn't interrupt or switch targets so anyone withing the 20yd range should have no problem keeping their leet dps going and getting an amazing heal!

[Kirsae]

I had shelved my priest at the beginning of Wrath to shift to another class, but came back specifically because of discipline. Early on in wrath it was fun, but as that expansion progressed Disc just became a bubble-fest which I found to be a big snoozer. I tried playing it some in Cata early on, but still found it a pretty boring spec, so went back to holy full time.

A few habits I had to break myself of when I swapped from disc back to holy:
- I rarely use shields as holy, make sure that isn't in your priority cycle.
- Flash is only your emergency spell, you shouldn't be using it much.
- I found when healing heroics I was weaving the following spells - heal>holy word sanc>gheal.
- Use holy word chastise to interrupt when you know you have lazy dps.

Looking at your gear (assuming you're using the same set for disc and holy) and spec, you should have plenty of spirit to handle heroics at this point. Some things to think about:
- focus more on haste and mastery rather than crit. Drop Improved PWS talent in favor of darkness.
- use corrupted eggshell on yourself when you know you won't be taking damage, you get more return that way. (personally, I'd replace it with Tear of Blood when you get a chance)
- personal preference, but try out Body and Soul, it's a blast in pve and pvp.

As far as mana conservation in raids, I'd just say get used to playing holy more and you'll get the hang of when to time shadowfiend, divine hymn, and your other tricks you can play.

(yeah, what Zod said^, heh)

[Daulivanth]

Hi Daulivanth! I've found some things that should help you out in your transition.

Gear: A lot of your gear has Crit on it. Holy priests get little benefit from having Crit. You will either want to replace them with pieces that have Haste or Mastery. Reforging can help you out a lot for now. I would recommend reforging your Crit to Haste if you do 10-mans or Mastery if you do 25-mans but you can do what you prefer too. If there are any pieces that don't have Spirit, reforge into it until you don't have mana problems.

Gems: Rarely will you want a pure Spirit/Haste/Mastery gem. Besides the gem in your helmet everything looks good. If you find yourself liking Haste more than Mastery I would recommend switching your Int/Mastery gems with Int/Haste.

Talents: There are a few talents that you do not want to take that you have right now. Improved PW:S isn't worth it as Holy. We shouldn't be using much of it except for Body & Soul and the occasional "ocrap getting low need to stop damage now". The other talent is Rapid Renewal. The days of renew rolling are over for Holy Priests and the reduction on Renews GCD when it should only be on a couple of people isn't really beneficial. I would recommend taking the points and putting them into Body & Soul because it stops you from taking damage and moving out of X quicker. Plus the faster you can get to the spot you're supposed to be, the faster you can start healing again. Then I would say take any other points and put them into Darkness because Haste is always sexy.

A few other talents are open for suggestion. I don't think that Spirit of Redemption is worth it because you shouldn't be dying and you also have Desperate Prayer. I also don't like having Desperate Prayer because of our instant Chakra heal but there is nothing wrong with DP just my personal play-style. When mana becomes less of an issue you can also take point out of Veiled Shadows.

I hope this information is helpful and don't be afraid to reply if you want anymore help.

---------- Post added 2011-05-03 at 11:40 AM ----------

Lightwell doesn't interrupt or switch targets so anyone withing the 20yd range should have no problem keeping their leet dps going and getting an amazing heal!

haha thanks! If I do try out holy I'll be sure to follow this advice to the letter.

[zakaluka]

You are doing 10 mans?

One thing of note is that your other healer is a Shaman, who now happen to be extremely good raid healers. Holy shines most in a raidhealing setting when lots of AOE damage is going out. When you're forced into direct-healing, your performance will be lackluster. Sure, there are some mechanics you can exploit to make this better.

What I'm getting at: if you're 2healing 10 man content and your other healer is a rsham, disc might be better?

What healing role do you expect to fill?

I heal 10 mans next to a rdruid (who takes tanks) and an ele/rsham who is dual role. This combination works pretty well. Just an example of the thought process i'm getting at.

[holydoc]

you have a lot of work ahead of you.

1st leveling your profession... the alchemy int trinket would help a lot.

2nd gem reforge and enchant your gear. i see alot missing for some reason... are you being lazy? also reforge all the crit into mastery and this is a must. personally i dont hit 12.5% haste raid buffed since extra tick on renew doesnt help much so i just stack mastery.

3rd your spec is heavily outdated. wowtal.com/#k=tYnZGzm.aei.priest.qy5p64 that is what i recommend for holy. i use it personally and it works out great.

4th ^after youve done all that get on that heroic farming. get guildies or w.e just get it done.

the way i play is i start on single tar chakra then i spam heal and use holy word, mending, CoH on cooldown. make sure the renew is on the tank at all times. refresh it with your heal, FH, holy word, GH, whatever. just keep it up. thats only for heroic. raid healing is completely different IMO

try to refrain from using bubble too much. i only use bubble when you or someone else needs that speed boost other than that, i never use it.

best way to use shadowfiend during a boss is to use it as fast as possible. i.e. when you are at 75% mana pop SF and cast like crazy. because you might be able to pop it again at the same fight if it drags on too long.

hope this helps you.

[Daulivanth]

You are doing 10 mans?

One thing of note is that your other healer is a Shaman, who now happen to be extremely good raid healers. Holy shines most in a raidhealing setting when lots of AOE damage is going out. When you're forced into direct-healing, your performance will be lackluster. Sure, there are some mechanics you can exploit to make this better.

What I'm getting at: if you're 2healing 10 man content and your other healer is a rsham, disc might be better?

What healing role do you expect to fill?

I heal 10 mans next to a rdruid (who takes tanks) and an ele/rsham who is dual role. This combination works pretty well. Just an example of the thought process i'm getting at.

Well we're not "doing" 10 mans... yet. guildies have very little time to raid, and we're small so we're lucky if we've got 10 ppl on at one time. Once I gear up a bit I'll probably heal better than the shaman due to skill (if you couldnt tell my guildies arent very skilled at the game). Being disc I'd probably be tank healing, but anything works of course. Whatever it takes to get the boss down. Our third healer is even lower geared than me, and doesnt enjoy healing very much so idk how thats gonna work out. I think the next time we raid I'll just try out different things in Disc and see how it goes. If its not enough I'll switch my spec to holy and take a week or so to learn it.

you have a lot of work ahead of you.

1st leveling your profession... the alchemy int trinket would help a lot.

2nd gem reforge and enchant your gear. i see alot missing for some reason... are you being lazy? also reforge all the crit into mastery and this is a must. personally i dont hit 12.5% haste raid buffed since extra tick on renew doesnt help much so i just stack mastery.

3rd your spec is heavily outdated. wowtal.com/#k=tYnZGzm.aei.priest.qy5p64 that is what i recommend for holy. i use it personally and it works out great.

4th ^after youve done all that get on that heroic farming. get guildies or w.e just get it done.

the way i play is i start on single tar chakra then i spam heal and use holy word, mending, CoH on cooldown. make sure the renew is on the tank at all times. refresh it with your heal, FH, holy word, GH, whatever. just keep it up. thats only for heroic. raid healing is completely different IMO

try to refrain from using bubble too much. i only use bubble when you or someone else needs that speed boost other than that, i never use it.

best way to use shadowfiend during a boss is to use it as fast as possible. i.e. when you are at 75% mana pop SF and cast like crazy. because you might be able to pop it again at the same fight if it drags on too long.

hope this helps you.

Don't have a load of time to lvl professions atm, but when i get a free chance I will. As for my gear I'm still in disc, and just got a lot of new gear recently, so I'm in the process of chanting/gemming. Yeah thanks tons for the link there! I'll check it out when I try holy next, in addition to a couple other things probably. Thnkas for the advice ^-^