[Disc] Doing mediocre HPS in LFR

[Deleted]

I've start putting my disc priest through LFR for the legendary quest chain, but have noticed my performance measured by recount seems much worse than last time I played with her - way back in MSV LFR. Then, I would be vying for the top healing spot: often not getting it, but at least in contention. Now, I am stuck around the lower middle and sometimes at risk of being lowest. I also do really mediocre dps (20-30k) - when before I liked to try to embarass the weaker dps.

Maybe it's my gear? Not having played with her much since MSV LFR, I'm behind the curve: I got 496 Timeless gear when 5.4 came out but had no 522 stuff to speak of. My gear is getting better now (up to about 523 ilevel), so my performance is improving but I am still quite far from topping the meters. I still have a 483 weapon (albeit with a 500 int gem); I am not sure how limiting that is (for a dps class, a good weapon is big deal).

Maybe it's the rebalancing of disc? Around the time of MSV, the spec was seen as somewhat OP and I suspect has since been brought more into line.

Maybe it's my play style? I like to focus on tank healing, shielding a tank and making sure he was ok, because in LFR, if the tank dies, it's often a wipe. But in SoO, there seems lots of "splash" type raid damage. Now I'm gradually switching to focusing more on raid healing, as good tanks often can look after themselves (and the other 5 healers never completely neglect them) but bad tanks (the ungemmed and unenchanted 496 who probably don't grasp active mitigation for their class) can still really require a lot of attention. Looking at other disc priests in LFR that outperform me, they often seem to shield less and rely almost exclusively on atonement. I had thought that would be a really inefficient way of healing compared to a more varied use of spells, but apparently not (maybe they just press buttons faster that way, as it does not require much thought).

Has anyone got any advice or tips? I know it's "just LFR" but I would really like to acquire the experience to heal a proper raid, should I be required to (my main is a tank and up to now, that's all I do in guild normal runs, but lately we've really suffered from a lack of healers). I could just forget about meters, but have a feeling that doing better on them might help make me a better healer. Certainly the best normal mode healers in my guild have tended to dominate healing meters.

Thanks for any advice! The reason I play my priest rather than my other alts is I find disc healing a very interesting play style and so am always keen to learn.

[espoire]

Abuse the hell out of Divine Star, Cascade and Halo. In general, burn them on cooldown unless there's a specific fight mechanic coming up that you need to save it for (not usually the case.) Think ahead about which of those three will be most useful in the coming fight, and switch to it. That alone should bring you to the top of the healing meters. Yes, your gear is going to severely limit your output, but it's good plenty for topping meters in LFR.

Here, have a macro:

#showtooltip
/use Halo
/use [@focustarget, exists][help][@player] Cascade
/use Divine Star
/run local G=GetSpellInfo; SetMacroSpell("L90", G"Cascade" or G"Halo" or G"Divine Star")

This macro will use whichever level 90 talent you have specced, and if it is Cascade if will make sure to cast it on a player (either your focus's target - I focus the boss - or the player you target specifically, or yourself.) It also will have the correct icon after you use it once. (See the "L90" in the code above? Name your macro L90, or replace that with whatever you named it. So if you call it SuperMacro or something, then change the "L90" to "SuperMacro".)

Here's what I use for each boss:

Part 1
Immerseus - Halo, use as the adds land, should bring everything in its radius to half.
Fallen Protectors - Halo, use right as the Calamity cast completes. (On Normal and Heroic, I prefer Divine Star, but people don't stack up in LFR.)
Norushen - Cascade, burn it on cooldown. Overheal will make shields, so don't worry about the raid being full.
Sha of Pride - Divine Star, even on LFR people will stack up. Burn it on cooldown, except try to have one to use immediately after the Swelling Pride (he casts it at 100% energy.)

Part 2
I don't run this part on LFR, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Galakras - I don't run this on LFR. I use Divine Star for Heroic, but I'm guessing Cascade will work out better for you.
Iron Juggernaut - Divine Star, burn it on cooldown during the earthquake phase when everyone stacks up to avoid the knockback.
Dark Shamans - Cascade. Positioning is a mess on Normal/Heroic, I imagine it's even worse in LFR.
General Nazgrim - I use Cascade for Heroic. Halo counters War Song better though, so maybe Halo for LFR. In which case, Halo right as the Warsong cast completes.

Part 3
I don't run this part on LFR, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Malkorok - Either Halo or Cascade, burn them on cooldown. All heals convert to shields here, so burn early and often. Remember to move so Halo actually hits people if you use Halo.
Spoils of Pandaria - I like Divine Star for the DPS it does. Halo can work too.
Thok - Divine Star. The raid will stack in phase 1, burn it immediately after each Deafening Screech. As the Deafening Screeches get more-and-more frequent, you might not be able to cast much else. Keep PoM on cooldown, use PW:S as mana permits, and remember that Inner Focus gives interrupt immunity for 4sec (enough time for 2 PoH casts.) It's actually possible to heal clear through the fight without leaving phase 1 if your heals are good enough, and Divine Star is a key part of that.

Part 4
I don't run this part on LFR, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Blackfuse - Cascade, burn on cooldown.
Paragons - Halo or Cascade, burn on cooldown.
Garrosh - Divine Star or Cascade. If Divine star, burn on cooldown. If Cascade, burn on cooldown until last phase 2 and phase 3, then you'll want to use it while moving for the Empowered Whirling Corruption channel.

[Deleted]

That's good advice, thanks. I make very little use of my L90 talents and realise that's a fault. I've downloaded the Halo pro add on to help with it and also have made a note of which talent is best for each fight along the lines you recommend; I'll print out your version now, cheers!

[Kalmah]

Lvl90 talents are really strong this tier and in my opinion downright broken in 25 man raids. Using them properly (choosing the right one, timing, positioning) will make or break your hps.

The rest is just gear really. There's a massive difference between 520ish and 560ish ilvl.

[Deleted]

Lvl90 talents are really strong this tier and in my opinion downright broken in 25 man raids. Using them properly (choosing the right one, timing, positioning) will make or break your hps.

Yeah, after a weekend of playing with the L90s, I am finding this. I averaged 100k hps on Malkorok with halo. Typically, I am doing half this on other fights, but still making more use of the L90s has made my HPS much more respectable, thanks.

[espoire]

Glad to hear it! Go forth and prosper, young padawan.

[Deleted]

Perhaps to make our jobs easier here, you could describe what you do and what spells you do it with for say, Fallen Protectors? This might give us some insight into whether or not you are doing anything wrong unless you could provide a log.

[Deleted]

Perhaps to make our jobs easier here, you could describe what you do and what spells you do it with for say, Fallen Protectors?

What I used to do (when I made this thread) was:
(1) Baby sit one tank - i.e. keep a shield on them; cast penance on them on CD; if the shield expired quickly, I'd use PoM and renew to keep him topped up; flash heal and greater heal in extremis - that tank would never die! If possible do this with both tanks, but usually it was not.
(2) Use holy fire (solace?) on CD and smite when I had nothing better to do;
(3) Use archangel + prayer of healing when the raid was getting hammered (e.g. Sun's after periodic attack and her intermission phase); in MSV, I'd try to anticipate such things with SS but haven't got a feel for that in SoO so much yet - and it seems less powerful (I seem to get off fewer PoH during SS than in MSV).
(4) Almost never use my L90 (cascade)

Since starting this thread, I now:
(1) use the L90 almost on CD: for protectors, it would be halo after Sun's raid wide attack; trying to position myself well for it and using archangel for it.
(2) as a result, I find I've degenerated into otherwise just doing atonement - HF, offensive penance and smiting; outside of the intermissions, I tend to focus Sun as then it's more obvious when her AOE is about to be cast;
(3) putting a holy shield on the tank for rapture and trusting to atonement (or other healers) to keep them up;
(4) I now have the LMG and a weakaura for it and any mana issues with smiting seem to have gone away;
(5) Dispell ofc

The second play style seems to work well except one bad run at Immerseus, where the tanks kept messing up the taunts and dying. They could have used baby sitting, I guess, but I wasn't in the mood - especially when they insisted on tanking at opposite sides of the room (so I could only attend to one).

[Deleted]

535ilvl Disc Priest here. Normals are different, but I'm always too lazy in LFR's to do any creative: Penance, PW: Solace and smiting the boss and throwing cascade before big hits. Simplest way to heal and still popping 90-120k HPS in bosses, depending how wisely people stand (Spreading when should stack etcetc. which increases the HPS).

And for the ooming, gear fixes it.

[jason1975]

Unless you're saying that you feel your Recount HPS is indicative of poor play, I'd say turn it off.

Healers are far too focused on HPS as it is. If there's tons of raid damage and you see lots of people constantly dropping to 50% or below and then your HPS is poor, then yes check your play. Otherwise in most of LFRs I run on my healing alts there's always at least 1-2 healers who so far outgear everything that they just gobble up the available damage to be healed.

Remember, HPS =/= DPS. Total Raid HPS is limited to actual damage taken and that pool is then divided up amongst all the healers.