So.. Disc vs aoe healing

[Deleted]

Well ok. I have tried to read up on the stickys on this site aswell as doing quite some reading over at EJ. But as far as I can see I haven't gotten any really good answer to my questions regarding disc and aoe healing.

Now, I have around 370 equipped ilvl. So I am not actively raiding, but I am doing some LFR combined with regular hcs. And I always struggle during the aoe phases. So obviously I am doing something wrong.


Take the Zon'ozz encounter for example. During the ball phase I have no problems at all in keeping a somewhat steady healing throughput on the raid combined with a few shields and penance casts on the tank. Everything works fine.

But then, when we all stack up and the quite heavy raid-wide damage starts, I have no real idea on how to act. I mean, I start out with a shield for rapture and all that in advance, aswell as a PoM. So that is taken care of. I then start to cast a PoH so that it will land slightly before the aoe really starts, if I can. For shields etc. But then what??

I keep penance on cd, shield when someone really needs it and I keep bouncing PoM when it comes of CD. But what do I do inbetween my cd's?

Edit: I could add that I am speced as an AA priest. Should I just smite/holy fire through the damage? I doubt it though so no need for flaming there

[zakaluka]

Edit: I could add that I am speced as an AA priest. Should I just smite/holy fire through the damage? I doubt it though so no need for flaming there

No. It goes like this:
-Damage is moderate (raid health deficit is steady): PoH will be your main source of healing, but there are other things you have to do. You want to use HF and penance on cooldown as long as you can - because of evangelism those two are your highest efficiency heals before wings pop. Mending on CD, shields for rapture and also when someone needs triage. Other than all that, PoH spam.
-Damage gets too high for all that (raid's health deficit is getting too big): pop wings if you can, spam PoH, mending on CD, shields for triage and also timed for rapture. Penance should only be used at this point if the tank needs support.

Smite is similar to Heal in effic and throughput, i.e. pretty bad. it's only good for filling idle time when damage is low, with added benefit of building evangelism.

[FieryBull]

Uh, PoH, you only shield for rapture. Don't penance if not needed.

[scarryterry25]

I usually just spam PoH with some Shields. Works great for me.

[Taistee]

It all depends on what you need to get done. For example, if damage is insanely high and you need to keep up, power infuse yourself if its up, and spam PoH and PoM. If that's still not enough, start rotating PoH>bubble>PoH>bubble to maximize borrowed time uptime. Sometimes I lead into AoE phases by popping divine hymn to get the bonus %healing on people. In all reality, though, PoH alone is usually enough to keep up with the damage of normal mode bosses.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the fast replys everyone. And I more or less got answers to all of my quesions. My biggest concern was if PoH spamming actually was a viable alternative to steady-paced aoe damage. And from what I have read it seems like it is.

[Deleted]

If I know the fight, which in most cases Ido. Ill shield everyone just before the aoe hits.(5man) that gived me 30k shield, which is enough to let me spam POH and POM would already be on me and the tank.

As for LFR I designate my self the shielder, and shield both tanks and anyone who looks to be in imminent danger of dieing. As there are
Better aoe healers then me.

[Deleted]

If I know the fight, which in most cases Ido. Ill shield everyone just before the aoe hits.(5man) that gived me 30k shield, which is enough to let me spam POH and POM would already be on me and the tank.

As for LFR I designate my self the shielder, and shield both tanks and anyone who looks to be in imminent danger of dieing. As there are
Better aoe healers then me.

Yeah, there are better raid healers. But that doesn't add anything to the discussion. And since you will go oom if you only bubble spam that is not an option either.

[zakaluka]

If that's still not enough, start rotating PoH>bubble>PoH>bubble to maximize borrowed time uptime.

Abusing BT by alternating poh/pw:s doesn't actually improve your HPS significantly. It does by just a hair, but that hair is less than 1%.

Sadly that's a suggestion I've made to quite a few people in the past, but when I simmed it, it turned out to be a bad idea.

However, breaking a chain of PoH with a PW:S doesn't lower your throughput, and this makes PW:S a very strong spotheal for triage during AoE, something holy lacks.