[Priest] Discipline Healing Guide for New Raiders

[flarex9]

Thank you, just recently returned to the game, and it's been an interesting read. Tempted to try out the raid heal spec.

[CJack14dt]

So I'm just on the cusp of dinging 85 and as I sort of expected from reading guides and the posts (especially when Cata first came out) my healing style is starting to have to be modified. I've been living off Atonement and the occasional Penance. But I'm getting into those fights where people have to spread out and move so the dps that normally would just get healed from the "smart heal" of Atonement now have to get Greater Heal. So from here on out should I change my style to having Greater Heal be my main heal and only Smite and Holy Fire as a filler? From what I understand at higher gear levels I'll phase back into Atonement based healing. Is this correct?

[Madam]

When you hit 85 your world will change. Remember, all the DPS have trained for 85 levels on how to pull aggro from the tank, yeah, they get to show off how well they ....oh wait...let them die.

Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing will for the most part be your go to heals. (Along with many others)

AA/A spec is still worth keeping, just need to pay attention now.

If you have questions link your toon, many of us here are willing to help. GL

Merged w/ guide thread. [-Spiritus-]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...or-New-Raiders

[CJack14dt]

When you hit 85 your world will change. Remember, all the DPS have trained for 85 levels on how to pull aggro from the tank, yeah, they get to show off how well they ....oh wait...let them die.

Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing will for the most part be your go to heals. (Along with many others)

AA/A spec is still worth keeping, just need to pay attention now.

If you have questions link your toon, many of us here are willing to help. GL

Merged w/ guide thread. [-Spiritus-]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...or-New-Raiders

Just click on the priest in my sig.

[Madam]

Just click on the priest in my sig.

Gratz on hitting 85! You seem to be on track, not going to comment on gems and chants other than Int is king. Grab glyph of PoH for your last Prime slot.

Now that you are going to start Heroics pick up more spirit. (or reforge some crit)

Spec looks OK, but if you lean on PW:S (you have points in SW) you may want to trade points from SoS/ToT to MA until better geared.

Good luck and have fun

[Deleted]

Spell Selection:


Divine Aegis: Critical heals and all heals from Prayer of Healing create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 30% of the amount healed. Lasts 15 sec. Divine Aegis plays a large role for Discipline Priests, with the exception to Prayer of Healing, we don't "cast" this shield, Divine Aegis procs from all crit heals. Divine Aegis will absorb about the same as PW:S in an average raid. Divine Aegis shields can be "stacked" if you continue to heal the target(s) before damage breaks the shield. Divine Aegis absorption cap is equal to 20% of your maximum health.

Hi,

If I understood you well, then this is actually wrong. The cap is at 40% of your max health, not 20.

Still, thanks for this interesting guide !

[Madam]

Thank you for catching the typo, L Kebess.

[Deleted]

Anyone fancy looking me up on the armory (Equius - Darkspear EU) and let me know if there's anything I should be doing differently?

Generally I try to keep PW:S on at least one tank all the time (I have Healbot set up to turn their portrait yellow if they have WS so I know when I can reshield), keep PoM bouncing around at all times but only recast if there isn't one already up, Penance on cooldown on whoever needs the most healing, and Holy Fire/Smite heal until there's significant damage. If only one or two people are taking heavy damage I'll Greater Heal and possibly shield afterwards if they're still low, and if more than that are taking damage I'll PoH a few times then go back to single healing if people are topped-off enough.

I've been looking at Strength of Soul and wondering if it would be a more viable option for end-game raiding but I'm curious to know what you guys think given my gear and stats what would be the best option (I usually general raid heal, it's not often I'm assigned a specific tank. I think the only fight I really tank heal on is Baleroc)

[Deleted]

Good guide! Very helpful

[Deleted]

For someone (me) that plays a priest as my third alt atm and are to scared to try healing this guide made think "I can do this". Thx for that. Ofc i will screw up in the beginning but by that i dont mean wipes 24/7 more like loosing to much mana or cast wrong heals at the wrong time. I do beleive i will improve sooner or later. Now there is only one problem left..... How to get 4 members from guild to join HC with me, fully awared i am the healer :P

[Sunnydee]

hey all. since this thread is a sticky i felt no point making more usless topics so il post here instead

im having abit of issue wether what i should reforge into and what to decrease to get other stats

if anyone could have a lil look id be more then happy so i can feel abit more selfsecure to apply to a guild soon :=

[Chickat]

hey all. since this thread is a sticky i felt no point making more usless topics so il post here instead

im having abit of issue wether what i should reforge into and what to decrease to get other stats

if anyone could have a lil look id be more then happy so i can feel abit more selfsecure to apply to a guild soon :=

Same. Im not sure if a greater heal /shielding play style or a smiting play style would be better at my level. I will be doing LFR and heroic dungeons only until MoP at least. Armory http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ctadoom/simple My spec isnt done yet, and my gear is bad, but id like to know what playstyle would be best, and what to gem reforge for for that playstyle.

[Sunnydee]

hey all. since this thread is a sticky i felt no point making more usless topics so il post here instead

im having abit of issue wether what i should reforge into and what to decrease to get other stats

if anyone could have a lil look id be more then happy so i can feel abit more selfsecure to apply to a guild soon :=

bumping my issue.. been a while

[Deleted]

bumping my issue.. been a while

Short answer: Reforge in or out of spirit to your mana requirements. Then go Haste, unless you are mostly just shield spamming (which I doubt) in which case, go mastery.

[kaneseNP]

bumping my issue.. been a while

I found that in normal 10 man DS i was fine with reforging pretty much all my spirit off and going haste/crit. Now that my gear is better and starting on heroics I find that mastery and high spirit feels pretty powerful in mitigating raid damage, which is plentiful. You should just try out different reforging options and see what you like though

[Welezar]

really nice guide! thanks alot!

[Deleted]

Nice Guide. Thanks

[smokeajay]

Deleted a bunch that totally got negated when I found the proper post on EJ.

Post #235 by jhneoh at http://elitistjerks.com/f77/t110244-...ompendium/p10/ (near the bottom)


Very cool, something I never knew about. =D And yay for EJ not being total BS about something.

So, to summarize the post:
-DH and HoH each last for 8 seconds, and with enough haste, you get an extra set of 3 tics.
-If you have the exact amount of haste for a tic, it's 8 seconds, but it'll be slightly shorter if you're between the bumps.
-The tooltip is utterly wrong about the mechanics of the spells.

Looking back at my comment on my hymn being fast, it's just because I was right below the second extra set of tics (I raid with 30.5% haste, 33.5% with DI), so the hymn was cut much shorter.

---------- Post added 2011-06-10 at 01:50 AM ----------

And as much as I hate to point it out to Spiritus, the first new tic is at 12.5%....

That isn't correct. Haste is multiplicative, not additive.

For example, say I have 10% haste on my character from gear:

1.10 (Base + 10% from gear) * 1.14 (Base + Borrowed Time) = 1.25
1.25 * 1.20 (Berzerking) = 1.50
1.50 * 1.20 (Power Infusion) = 1.80

So, with 10% haste from gear + BT + Zerking + PI = 80% haste.


If you have 30.5% haste from gear and raid with DI:

1.305 * 1.03 = 1.34415 or 34.415% haste with Dark Intent.

[Deleted]

That isn't correct. Haste is multiplicative, not additive.

For example, say I have 10% haste on my character from gear:

1.10 (Base + 10% from gear) * 1.14 (Base + Borrowed Time) = 1.25
1.25 * 1.20 (Berzerking) = 1.50
1.50 * 1.20 (Power Infusion) = 1.80

So, with 10% haste from gear + BT + Zerking + PI = 80% haste.


If you have 30.5% haste from gear and raid with DI:

1.305 * 1.03 = 1.34415 or 34.415% haste with Dark Intent.

This is good to know. I actually thought when you had 100% haste, it meant your spells were instant, though, intuitively I always knew that couldn't be the case. With what you just said, it makes more sens. At 100% haste for example, you in fact decrease your casting by 50%, not 100%, and at 200% haste you decrease it by 66,6%, etc.
This means you can never have a casting time of ''0 sec'', it will be always, > 0. A bit confusing, but that's how it works, I just tested it in game with Borrowed Time and Power Infusion.

[smokeajay]

This is good to know. I actually thought when you had 100% haste, it meant your spells were instant, though, intuitively I always knew that couldn't be the case. With what you just said, it makes more sens. At 100% haste for example, you in fact decrease your casting by 50%, not 100%, and at 200% haste you decrease it by 66,6%, etc.
This means you can never have a casting time of ''0 sec'', it will be always, > 0. A bit confusing, but that's how it works, I just tested it in game with Borrowed Time and Power Infusion.

Yeah, just like the way the blues explain it. Say you have a cast time of 3 seconds on Heal. With 100% you are effectively doubling the amount of times you can cast a spell within a given amount of time (or reducing the cast time by half). So, now you have a cast time of 1.5 seconds. If you were to graph the benefits of haste according to your cast time, you would receive a curve that infinitely approaches 0, but never touches it. In math, this is called an asymptote.