Holy Priest Speccing ..

[Okais]

I know I just made a thread yesterday about my ability as a priest but ive got a few questions concerning speccing, now and for 4.0.6. Alot of priests are stelling me to spec into Body and Soul which I think is situational at best, and 2 points into veiled shadows ... which the only time ive ever ran into a point where I was able to use fiend twice was on cho'gal. If the other two healers are doing their job and not oom'ing faster than they should I usualy have no mana issues whatsoever (I never need to call out for an innervate where the other priest gets them all the time). I have also seen alot of higher geared priests speccing into Blessed Resilience but the tool tip on the talent dosnt specify if its effected by Direct attacks, AoE attacks, or all attacks.

Now witht he 4.0.6 changes the only one im curious about is if we even have to spec into state of mind anymore. In the patch notes they are boosting the duration of Chakra state to 1 min but are they keeping the 30 sec CD on it? or makin it on par with the 1 min duration?

I cannot post a link of my spec atm because I actually reset my talent points untill I can get these questions answered.

[Kelesti]

Veiled Shadows is a major no no.

Blessed Resilience is 30%, and it triggers on anything that's not a pulse, unfortunately most raid AoE effects are pulses (like a Dragon's breath, for example. It just hits you, and it hits you again, and again, and again), but a lot of single target or one-off stuff isn't (Blackout for example isn't a "pulse")

State of Mind is no longer going to be increasing the duration of Chakra (60 duration, 30 cooldown), but will instead have its trigger spells lower the cooldown of Chakra by 3/6 seconds. That's only Smite, Heal, and the Prayer spells, assuming they get it to work properly. At least one point of State of Mind will be worth it, because that means faster switches, and considering how often one can want to flow between tank healing and raid assist, it's not a bad thing. 2/2 might be/probably is overkill, but it's worth the one point.

[Nartalath]

Body and Soul is amazing. Yes it's situational, but there's tons of situations where you'll use it, such as helping people run out of stuff, helping tanks kite adds, just running around in general. ~_^ Not only that, it allows you to cleanse poison off of yourself which is awesome.

Now on to Veiled shadows. Are the other healers who are going oom above you in healing charts? If so then you should pick up veiled shadows and pick up your healing as well. If not, I prefer those points be spent in Darkness.

State of Mind is being altered in the patch to be more useful.

Edit: Kalesti beat me to the State of Mind change.

[Okais]

Veiled Shadows is a major no no.

Blessed Resilience is 30%, and it triggers on anything that's not a pulse, unfortunately most raid AoE effects are pulses (like a Dragon's breath, for example. It just hits you, and it hits you again, and again, and again), but a lot of single target or one-off stuff isn't (Blackout for example isn't a "pulse")

State of Mind is no longer going to be increasing the duration of Chakra (60 duration, 30 cooldown), but will instead have its trigger spells lower the cooldown of Chakra by 3/6 seconds. That's only Smite, Heal, and the Prayer spells, assuming they get it to work properly. At least one point of State of Mind will be worth it, because that means faster switches, and considering how often one can want to flow between tank healing and raid assist, it's not a bad thing. 2/2 might be/probably is overkill, but it's worth the one point.

Hmm stuff thats not a pulse ... what about these examples: Atra's sound AoE "Pulse" Magmatron's Fire AoE "Not Pulse"? So is that basically saying something that hits more than one time during its animation then? Cause honestly that would still be very useful. What about Static in the nef fight? or the chain lightning from Ele-tron? Sorry im just trying to weight this out.

On a side note my roommate (who's in the top 20 raiding guild) said that Mental Agi and Veiled shadows was weighed out somewhere and that Veiled shadows came up on top ... I dont theorycraft so I honestly dont have any clue.

@Nartalath - They are beating me in HPS meters by about 2-2.5k but they are at least %10-15 over me in the "Overhealing" meters. Im also being told by people in my other topic that its mainly because they outgear me.

[sp101]

Veiled Shadows is better when fights and between X and Y lenght.

~4min fight: You can use a regular shadowfiend ONCE. You can use a veiled shadows' shadowfiend ONCE.
~5min fight: You can use a regular shadowfiend ONCE. You can use a veiled shadows' shadowfiend TWICE.
~6-8min fight: You can use a regular shadowfiend TWICE. You can use a veiled shadows' shadowfiend TWICE.
~9-11min fight: You can use a regular shadowfiend TWICE. You can use a veiled shadows' shadowfiend THREE times.

*Disclaimer: This is just to get people to grasp the general idea, some of the above info may not be 100% correct, but the principle still holds: Veiled Shadows sometimes grants an extra shadowfiend, depending on fight length.

[Mousiest]

I know this seems a bit vague and unhelpful, but (if you have the gold) I would try speccing a few different ways and try them out and find out what gives you the most benefit.

Last week I respec'd 3 or 4 times, just to tweak a point or two to see what is was going to do. I personally don't use Blessed Resilience or Veiled Shadows, but I do use Body and Soul. I find it extremely useful in many different circumstances.

Don't know if that helped any, but here's hoping!

[Sokaris84]

Personally I rate mental agility way out in front of veiled shadows, simply because 4.x has turnt our clever assisting little fiend into a brain dead mouth breather.

[Crunkosaurus]

Body and Soul is amazing. Yes it's situational, but there's tons of situations where you'll use it, such as helping people run out of stuff, helping tanks kite adds, just running around in general. ~_^ Not only that, it allows you to cleanse poison off of yourself which is awesome.

thank you.

[Okais]

I misread what Blessed Resilience does so scratch that.

[Mazi]

http://ptr.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfurMRzrkfzoh

That is looking like a pretty hot spec imo. If you don't have any mana problems you can even swap 3/3 Mental Agility for Divine Touch & Rapid Renewal (assuming it's worth it with the new Renew change)

[Kelesti]

Hmm stuff thats not a pulse ... what about these examples: Atra's sound AoE "Pulse" Magmatron's Fire AoE "Not Pulse"? So is that basically saying something that hits more than one time during its animation then? Cause honestly that would still be very useful. What about Static in the nef fight? or the chain lightning from Ele-tron? Sorry im just trying to weight this out.

Another example: The chain lightning will trigger it, the Lightning Rod and the Flame Blast won't.

[Memoryz]

http://ptr.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfurMRzrkfzoh

That is looking like a pretty hot spec imo. If you don't have any mana problems you can even swap 3/3 Mental Agility for Divine Touch & Rapid Renewal (assuming it's worth it with the new Renew change)

If anything blessed resilience has kind of lost it's value. Id just put the points into Divine Touch. And Surge of light still feels meh to me.
6% proc rate is awful, and I cast greater heal and flash heal like 3-4 times maximum in a fight.

[Mazi]

If anything blessed resilience has kind of lost it's value. Id just put the points into Divine Touch. And Surge of light still feels meh to me.
6% proc rate is awful, and I cast greater heal and flash heal like 3-4 times maximum in a fight.

Utility is always great. And how is BR bad? A hit 10% of your health grants +30% healing? Yeah it won't proc off pulses, but still.

The proc rate isn't that bad and I use Gheal a fair bit - at least in 10m, maybe not as much in 25s, but IMO your spec in a 10m fight is more important than 25s (in terms of little talents) as you can have a much larger impact (and that's the fun of 10ms).

[Kaysha]

Regarding Body and Soul, originally I dismissed the talent as well. A short while ago, I incorporated it into my spec and ever since I've had so much use out of it, it's almost silly that I always disregarded it. It helps amazing when you realise you're in an area getting bathed with (AoE) damage; it's almost become a reflex by now to start running and immediately cast PW: S on myself for a quick getaway. Or, if I am sharp enough, to use it on someone else for the same idea.

Try it; if you end up not liking it anyway, you can always spec away from it again.

[Memoryz]

Utility is always great. And how is BR bad? A hit 10% of your health grants +30% healing? Yeah it won't proc off pulses, but still.

The proc rate isn't that bad and I use Gheal a fair bit - at least in 10m, maybe not as much in 25s, but IMO your spec in a 10m fight is more important than 25s (in terms of little talents) as you can have a much larger impact (and that's the fun of 10ms).

Well yea, your healing role isn't as defined as it is in 25 mans when you do 10 mans.

I'm saying it's bad because it only gets benefit from certain damaging encounters. And if renew is looking good to make use of again, you might want to just take the points out of there (Or Surge of Light)

[Mazi]

Well yea, your healing role isn't as defined as it is in 25 mans when you do 10 mans.

I'm saying it's bad because it only gets benefit from certain damaging encounters. And if renew is looking good to make use of again, you might want to just take the points out of there (Or Surge of Light)

Yeah it's going to be a lot of trial & error for a while, imo. I think I'll run with BR for a while and see what the uptime is like on WoL / see if I desire DT/RR with the Renew buff/PoH nerf

[Pythagoreant]

Blessed Resilience

This increases healing RECEIVED by 30%, not healing done. Those 2 points could be better spent in Body & Soul.

[Zoldor]

Body and Soul, I think, is a must have over various other talents (Martyrdom comes to mind along with desperate prayer). Once you spec to body and soul you won't take points out of it again. Any fight where you have to move out of something on the ground or go from point A to point B Body and Soul is fantastic for that straggler who is just about to die. The added removal of a debuff is fantastic as well. I can't think of reasons not to take body and soul. I can't think of how many times I've been thanked for having Body and Soul after saving someone with it.

[Mazi]

Blessed Resilience

This increases healing RECEIVED by 30%, not healing done. Those 2 points could be better spent in Body & Soul.

It's always been received. With the power of Binding Heal & BR combined ..... WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE! By uptime I just meant how often am I receiving benefit form it, etc.

But really it's personal preference I guess, I prefer to bring as much self utility to the table as possible - particularly in 10m's where everything is much tighter.