You can still smite heal, but it won't be as effective. you basically smite for the Archangel proc, and heal with normal spells once you use it. then smite again until its off cd then archangel again and heal with your normal spells again. sometimes you won't have the choice but to keep healing because there will be too much raid damage, and smite won't be enough to keep everyone alive.
I am 85 now, with an ilvl of 336 and still Disc. I find heroics difficult as I run out of mana quickly. I mainly PoM, PW:S and Penance to do quick heals, else I use Holy Fire/Smite to get 5 Evangelism stacks. I do find myself using Flash Heal often as it heals pretty well when there's lots of AoE damage. I do also use Inner Focus + PoH almost everytime it's up/required.
I try to avoid using Flash Heal, but I find the tank/dps need faster, larger heals than Heal or Greater Heal can provide.
flash heal is your worst enemy for as long as you have mana problems. shields, try using them only for rapture procs.
try using more greater heals, also macro both gheal and poh with inner focus.
make sure that your talents are adjusted properly to your gear. you want to have ToT (gheal reduces inner focus timer) and Mental Agility, you also might want Veiled Shadows. anything that will help you with mana.
also dont use flash heal on aoe damage - use poh instead (i hope you have it glyphed?). remember, that you can precast poh and stack da on group.
if it is you and someone else taking the damage, use binding heal.
when there is no rush, you can slowly heal up your party with 'heal's
as for tank healing - dont be affraid of using pain suppression or barrier.
as for gear - make sure that you have a lot of spirit.
spirit becomes less important for a discipline priest only with some amount of intellect, but at low gear levels it is still very important stat.
Yeah, I use Flash Heal too much, but it's so fast and heals for quite a bit (for me, it crits around 45k). I usually throw shields on everyone I can that's taking damage, especially constant AoE damage (one boss in particular in the Lost City of Tol'vir with the bird).
I always use Inner Focus with PoH, and yes I have it glyphed, I just find it doesn't heal enough compared to Flash Heal. I will try to use it more during AoE, since it's roughly the same mana cost, just a little slower and heals less. I forgot about it's bonus of applying Divine Aegis, that's huge.
I don't have ToT, but I do have Mental Agility, and don't have Veiled Shadows.
I do use Binding Heal to heal myself and another when needed.
I need to use Pain Suppression more on the tank, I rarely use it now. Barrier I sometimes use on AoE damage fights such as the tornado boss in Vortex Pinnacle, but people just don't stand in it unless they know what they're doing, which is rare when using LFD.
I have started to get better gear (VP/JP items).
I use AskMrRobot to reforge/enchant/gem for Mana Regen instead of Throughput.
Check out my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...nkjones/simple
im taking a look at your armory and i have some comments:
1. talents
your talents look fine but i would recommend adjusting them a bit to your gear (to help with mana).
this is my suggestion: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGorRsbcRMochZ0b
- dropped 1 point in darkness to pick third point in divine fury (which i believe will shorten time of your heal/gheal and smites by more than 1% haste)
- dropped second point in darkness and divine fury to pick veiled shadows - will allow you to use shadowfiend more often which should be helping your mana
- dropped inspiration to pick train of thought, both for mana (inner focus cd and encouraging you to use more gheals) and more penances.
from what i remember most difficult damage in cata 5 mans was magical, so inspiration wasnt that much help there
build i linked is prepared for a person who has early cata gear and heals in 5 mans and struggles with mana and wants to play atonement.
i myself played sos those days, i think that both are viable.
2. gear
hard to make suggestions as i know that you are dependent on drops, but i see that you reforge haste->mastery.
haste is considered bit better for atonement spec while mastery is mostly sos-spec stat, where you use heal on tank so you can reapply shield faster (early 85!)
i also think that your spirit is still a bit low. 2,5k should be about safe lower level as for now. ofcourse once you get more int and your mana poll will increase to, say, 120k unbuffed, you will be perfectly fine to start dropping spirit.
keep in mind that for a discipline priest there are no exact numbers and it is all the matter of playstyle. you may find different level of spirit satisfying for you, you may get many advices here contradicting me. it is best to experiment a bit yourself and find the best balance for you - and once you do that, you will find whole new fun in playing your priest
Thanks for your advice. I took your advice and specced that way. I had no idea ToT "stacked" each time I healed with GH... I thought it just took 5 seconds off total, no matter how many times I used GH...
Now I can use GH more and get a free GH every 5-6 GHs (via a macro I guess). I should just replace Flash Heal with Greater Heal on my keybinds.
I also crafted myself the Vicious Embersilk Shoulders and belt (lots of spirit and intellect).
I should just replace Flash Heal with Greater Heal on my keybinds, any other suggestions for gear besides from a dungeon?
should swap Train of Thought for Strength of Soul
Just glyph PoH and make sure you have Divine Aegis. Use PoH plenty, shield the tank and use penance on him. Easy peasy.