Atonement healing.

[Cypher0]

So I've been giving Atonement spec a try, and I really do enjoy it for our regular 10man runs, but I haven't actually gotten very far yet. I'm curious, is Atonement healing really going to be viable on later bosses and eventually heroic bosses?

Tips, tricks, and any advice would be helpful. I am competent as an Atonement disc healer, but I've not been doing it long. I'm not really having many issues, I'm just looking for advice, really.

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

[Skelly]

Mostly Atonement is used for 25 mans.
I raid 10 man and our priest does use it occasionally though.
Magmaw - during head down
Cho'gall - during fire phases
Halfus (heroic) - When there are 2 or less drakes left

Side note: Eww stop gemming so much haste

[Mugwump]

I have found that I have become much better at atonement healing once I started using a target of target macro. I also try not to worry too much about spamming smite either. I use it liberally to get the buff, do other spells as needed, then use the buff when I need extra heals, then start all over again. The buff refreshes quite fast so you can use it often in a boss fight.

[Cypher0]

Mostly Atonement is used for 25 mans.
I raid 10 man and our priest does use it occasionally though.
Magmaw - during head down
Cho'gall - during fire phases
Halfus (heroic) - When there are 2 or less drakes left

Side note: Eww stop gemming so much haste

What should I gem for, then? Mastery? I use my bubbles liberally, but as I'm mostly tank healing, they get used once every 15 seconds, so it's been fine where it's at. Crit? What healer actually focuses on crit? Spirit? I hardly even use mana as it is, Atonement requires such little mana, and Core of Ripeness is up enough to make up for the difference. Haste seemed like the best option. I get more Smites out, so that = more healing.

[Nyne]

gem all INT

and stats spirit > haste>mastery>crit

[Cypher0]

Outside of my yellow sockets, I am gemming for int, but the socket bonuses are still handy. The only reason I have so many Haste gems is due to my large amount of yellow sockets in comparison to the rest.

[Ichigooo]

gem haste+int in yellow sockets
gem int in red sockets
gem spirit+int in blue

[Skelly]

gem haste+int in yellow sockets
gem int in red sockets
gem spirit+int in blue

This. Never use yellow/blue gems. Always orange/purple

[Nyne]

Outside of my yellow sockets, I am gemming for int, but the socket bonuses are still handy. The only reason I have so many Haste gems is due to my large amount of yellow sockets in comparison to the rest.

+40 int is better unless the bonus is 20+ int.


use 2 orange 20 int 20 haste for meta gem

[Ineras]

Outside of my yellow sockets, I am gemming for int, but the socket bonuses are still handy. The only reason I have so many Haste gems is due to my large amount of yellow sockets in comparison to the rest.

You should have all +40 int gems in all the gear you have on now except your head (which you should leave the purple in there and switch out your meta for a Revitalizing Shadowspirit Diamond) and your shoulder (change the +40 haste to a +20 int/haste to keep the new meta active).

[nighties]

I love atone. Always something to do.

Don't always rely on smite+holy fire to heal people. If people actually need real heals, don't be hesitant to use your healing arsenal. PoM whenever its off CD, keep shields on tank, renew whenever people are taking raid damage combined with prayer of healing. Penance for spike damage.

I'm currently atone spec for our guilds heroic fights. I switch between disc and holy depending on the fight but I've found so far disc is really beneficial for Chim and Maloriak. Atone on chim makes that fight a joke lol

[Cypher0]

There. Gems fixed. Any other complaints?

I love atone. Always something to do.

Don't always rely on smite+holy fire to heal people. If people actually need real heals, don't be hesitant to use your healing arsenal. PoM whenever its off CD, keep shields on tank, renew whenever people are taking raid damage combined with prayer of healing. Penance for spike damage.

I'm currently atone spec for our guilds heroic fights. I switch between disc and holy depending on the fight but I've found so far disc is really beneficial for Chim and Maloriak. Atone on chim makes that fight a joke lol

I do just this. I smite/Holy Fire for tank heals and for when one or two melee are taking some damage, and as soon as a ranged or healer takes damage, they get a Penance, PoM, maybe a bubble if it's going to be heavy, PoH, what have you. I do not neglect everything else, but Atonement is my primary source of healing.

[Kelesti]

This. Never use yellow/blue gems. Always orange/purple

Never use purple gems. Only use two orange to fill a meta, the rest should be red.

I can't offer more help, because the OP logged out in RP gear. But if this is the case

I smite/Holy Fire for tank heals

...I would expect that you're 3-healing your 10 man normals? Because really, the answer to your original question:

is Atonement healing really going to be viable on later bosses and eventually heroic bosses?

No, no it's not. You can use it as cheap efficient healing, and you can use it as combo points to build up your Archangel (which is 100% badass), but Atonement should not be the majority of your healing done.

[Zuziza]

I do just this. I smite/Holy Fire for tank heals and for when one or two melee are taking some damage, and as soon as a ranged or healer takes damage, they get a Penance, PoM, maybe a bubble if it's going to be heavy, PoH, what have you. I do not neglect everything else, but Atonement is my primary source of healing.

When you say primary, do you mean that you're casting it more than anything else, or does Recount/Skada show that as the largest percentage of your healing? I'm primarily shadow, so I'm asking out of curiosity more than anything.

[Deleted]

No, no it's not. You can use it as cheap efficient healing, and you can use it as combo points to build up your Archangel (which is 100% badass), but Atonement should not be the majority of your healing done.

It doesn't have to be a majority of healing done to be viable, and the question was about viability. It's a good filler for when only mild healing is needed and/or getting everyone back up fast is not needed. Before I stopped playing I used to heal with it on various heroic fights when an additional healer was needed and it yielded good results - usually it accounted for 10 to 20% of my total healing, depending on circumstances.

[Kelesti]

It doesn't have to be a majority of healing done to be viable, and the question was about viability. It's a good filler for when only mild healing is needed and/or getting everyone back up fast is not needed. Before I stopped playing I used to heal with it on various heroic fights when an additional healer was needed and it yielded good results - usually it accounted for 10 to 20% of my total healing, depending on circumstances.

Absolutely...until:

but Atonement is my primary source of healing.

As a low spirit Holy Priest, I was using a lot of Heal, and Smite/Holy Fire fills that gap nicely as mana-neutral low output healing going out. It's good filler as you said, but that's not what's happening with our OP.

[Deleted]

I missed that part. It works well as almost the only heal to use in a 5man heroic if you've got gear for it, but making lolsmite primary healing tool instead of a filler is not going to work well any further than that.

[babylon]

i do 10man raids and i run 2 discipline specs, one with atonement and one with sos.
i use atonement on following heroic modes: chim, halfus, magmaw, valiona. i tried using it on hc omnitron but since i am tank healing there, and often round my tank and his mob theres noone else, it did seem like a bit of waste (and lol aint gonna chase mob without shield just to do 1-2 smites there, not on this kind of fight). im torned on hc council, can be efficiently done both ways imo (when going with 1 tank)

my general rule were my assignements, raid healing - atonement, tank hgealing - sos. but i dont follow it blindly, on chim i use smites still when im on double tank duty (they keep up dps tank nicely), on neff i use sos build even if im on raid (i do 4ppl-pillar, and just shield and 'heal' to take down debuff there, gives me enough mana stability to blanket crackles in p3 - well why not )
atonement (maybe since halfus changes) has never been my top heal. its only a filler.

what i find to often become a problem when i read posts here, is that ppl start to just blindly smite, even if its not the best tool for the very moment, and forget about other amazing healing tools we have as discipline. best solution for that, imo, is - drop atonement spec for 2 weeks and (re)learn to heal without smites

edit: just checked your atonement build on armory, you may want to consider trying out the glyph of smite instead of mass dispel, its quite fun after last holy fire/atonement changes

[Deleted]

As others have said you use it when dmg is low.

To give you a few examples i use it on heroic fights:
Magmaw head phase
Start of ODS when there is only 1 boss up.
Maloriak before black phase, and sometimes in blue.
Nef on the pillars since it smart heals, though u still have to heal for real.
Conclave when I heal the frost tank and the dmg is pretty much nothing.
Halfus when 2 drakes are dead.
V&T at the start till the boss lifts up.
Cho'gall at the start till the 1st add spawns.
Sinestra (we 3 heal) spam hf/smite all of p1 to boost dmg while the others heal.

[Madam]

Tips, tricks, and any advice would be helpful.

OP, you seem high on Spirit for your gear level, and still have some Crit you can reforge.

Pants~ Crit into Mastery.

Neck~Crit into either Mastery or Haste.

Belt~ Crit into Mastery or Haste.

Mastery is still very powerful for an Atonement spec, if you change both neck and belt to Haste, remove the Haste from your Staff, that staff is very sexy without changing it a bit!


Once you get more gear you will also be able to judge what fights like more Mastery and what fights like more Haste, I find myself switching gear around depending on fight and my mood.