Who do we mana burn?

[CJack14dt]

So I'm new to priest and I've done very little PvP since WotLK and back then in BGs mana burning seemed kind of pointless because it seemed like everyone and their mother could restore mana easily. In Cata is this still true? If its not could someone please give a bit of a priority system to what classes I should focus on burning and which I shouldn't? Thank you for any help.

[Strakha]

I mana burn everyone. Sometimes in a BG all I will do is mana burn people.
Power Infusion + Troll Berserking + Mana burn = Fuck yo mana!

[DrasticSapTactics]

Short answer: Other priests.

Long answer: it depends on your comp. Are you shadow or healey? Are you on a drain comp (ua/shadow/rest, etc)? The mana burn the hell out of the healer(s). Are you talking battlegrounds? Basically, mana is more precious now, but most specs have options for regen. I would focus on offensive dispels before mana burning.

[Vook]

Mana Burn other healers. (when you and them are both with groups)

But 1v1, mana burn is useless pretty much because it takes forever to drain someone's mana, even longer seeing as nobody with a brain is going to let you sit there and get off 2.5 sec casts.

[Strakha]

Mana Burn other healers. (when you and them are both with groups)

But 1v1, mana burn is useless pretty much because it takes forever to drain someone's mana, even longer seeing as nobody with a brain is going to let you sit there and get off 2.5 sec casts.

You'd be surprised how many you can get off against a healer with troll berserking and power infusion up. I think it is a 1.7 or 1.9 cast at that point.

[shiryo]

Burning experienced players on rangom bgs is awesome beacuse their reflexes will work agains them.
They will intinsticly try to los/get away and as such leave dps exposed to your teams zerging.

Other than that I never burned in bgs. Waste of time since you are 10/15/40 players and killing someone is often faster than getting him/her oom

[Envi]

the way i see it, is if the enemy healer has no mana, he can't heal his dps which let's my dps partner(s) kill'em. also means i can focus more on helping dps since i don't have to heal as much so we win faster.

[announced]

mana burn random healers , thats bout it.

[Jubite]

Im assuming this is regarding BGs, in which case its usually a bad option unless your side isnt making any progress. Mana burn kills your mana pool as well, and if the DPS are progressing on their own, it is better to conserve. Burning other healers is good if it seems to be at a stalemate. In the chaos of BGs and especially RBGs, a sneaky burn or to can change the tide.

Also note that mages are very vulnerable to burns, as it mops up their greasy nature (Think EnemyFC)

[Krimson]

I burn other healers quite a bit, just don't tunnel into this mindset and forget to keep your team alive. When nobody needs heals, Mana Burn is by far the biggest asset to provide to a BG group. The open-nature of BG's means most healers have no way to avoid getting burned and will either eat burns until they are OOM, or they overreact and run away and leave their teammates vulnerable.

My general priority system for what I'm casting is:
Heal Self & Heal FC -> Heal Teammates -> SW/Penance/MS/MB to help burst low hp targets -> Mana Burn healers -> Mana Burn other casters

[Epox]

I always burn pallies and other priests in BG's sometimes even druids and mages if I see them getting low on mana. Decent Shamans it's just impossible to burn because of shear/grounding unless they are trained by 2+ melee.

this of course depends on how many casts I can get of in between heals.

[Deleted]

I like to burn healers who are already at low mana down to nothing. If you are shadow it can be better to just burst them though. I actually found it more useful in wrath, when without being burned healers just had infinite mana. A few hot dispels and some mana burns and the healer may as well not be there. Druids tend to cat up and run away at this point.

If you are only doing random bgs, mind control them off things. It's just more fun. I've successfully defended a tower in eots by mind controlling the attacking group's single healer off a cliff before. Quicker than bursting and any priest can do it. Paladins think they can bubble against priests too, which is even more fun.