Do you routinely use renew and PoM on the tank? (disc)

[Deleted]

I have fun on my alt disc priest in LFR and keep wondering about the proper use of renew and Prayer of Mending.

I generally shield the tank and use penance when it falls off. In between, I atonement heal unless there is a period of heavy damage. If it is heavy tank damage, I'll use greater heal if there is time or flash heal in desperation. If it's heavy raid damage, I'll spam PoH, with SS if I can predict it in advance.

However, I've read some guides that recommend casting prayer of mending on cooldown and also keeping up renew on the tank. I can easily work this into my play style - is it a good idea or would I be better off just doing more atonement? I've noticed my shield often falls off the tank quickly and penance does not fill the whole gap. While it's not a serious gap (if it were, I'd switch to GH or FH), I can see PoM - especially if glyphed - and renew helping fill it.

I guess it does not matter so much in LFR, as with 5 other healers, going either way is unlikely to make much difference: they provide enough general healing to keep the tank up between my shield/penance. But I'd like to build up good habits in case I ever get to heal a normal 10 man raid, when more would be resting on me personally.

Sorry if this is a silly question - I'm still getting used to what seems to be a large toolbox of spells.

[Daniie]

I use PoM on CD on the tank. If you're a tank specific healer (if they ever really exist now) then you could always use the PoM glyph - if you can spare one - for 60% extra on the first "tick".

I personally don't use Renew much because it's more of a top-up heal which Atonement smart heals cover anyway.

[Vilbu]

I use PoM on CD on the tank. If you're a tank specific healer (if they ever really exist now) then you could always use the PoM glyph - if you can spare one - for 60% extra on the first "tick".

I personally don't use Renew much because it's more of a top-up heal which Atonement smart heals cover anyway.

I am pretty much doing the same what Daniie says here. Though I am using renew while moving, if there is not any other instant heal available and your mana can't take an extra PW:S.

Very situational spell but definitely good to have bound to your keyboard, at least in my experience.

[Arainie]

You should definitly be using PoM on the tank (or anyone else who takes damage). Almost every fight has some element where multiple player take damage regularly, so PoM will bounce a few times during it's CD regularly. Renew can be good in certain situations, but in a 25 man setting it'll most likely just overheal on the tank. Use it if you can't cast anything else, such as when you're on the move.

Regarding atonement, my general conception is that people rely on it far too much. I run in to disc priests claiming to be "atonement priests, not spirit shell" in LFR. There's no such thing anymore. Use atonement when there's little to no damage OR to build up 5 stacks evangelism before an AoE phase. Use Spirit Shell to pre shield as many as possible before any AoE hits, and use Archangel with PoH when Spirit Shell is off cooldown. Until the patch you really just want to shield to trigger rapture.

[Deleted]

PoM depending on the fight. If there's no real AoE dmg going out then no (spirit kings for example). I still use it, just not allways on cooldown and not necessarily on the tank either.

I never use renew except in some very rare cases when I have to move and PWS, Penance, PoM and Cascade are ALL not available.
Attonement deals with the spot heals and there are far more efficient heals to use on the tank.


@Arainie: Obviously you don't use attonement during heavy AoE (mostly, there are some exceptions like Elegon p3 or Garalon if you can nuke a leg). It's still probably the best filler heal available in the game though. Decent DPS, good HPS, smart and very mana efficient. Saying you shouldn't use it is kind of retarded tbh as it's your best option for a big chunk of almost every fight :P

[KidCanuck]

Prayer of Mending is a nice fire-and-forget heal, and if there's raid-wide damage it'll be well utilized. Starting it off on the tank helps to ensure that it'll proc and bounce at least once.

The short and simple answer is that you shouldn't really use renew as disc.

[lizon]

Renew has it's place on certain high mobility fights and phases (Blade Lord Phase 2 for example). Other than that you don't use it much. PoM though you should be using on cooldown.

[scandore8472]

All the time. I use PoM on CD, and renew whenever a gheal will over-heal. Renew actually heals for quite a bit on a target with 3 stacks of grace.

[Holygrail]

From experience Renew isn't really recommended to be used that much as Disc. As it is an instant it can me used whilst on the move but you should generally prioritise other instants over Renew. If the tank is taking continual heavy damage there is no reason against Renew though you should normally only use Renew with the Haste buff from casting a PW:S (which Renew will not consume IIRC).

As for PoM; there is no reason to use this if there is not players taking continual/steady damage (like DoT debuffs or waves of AoE damage etc.) but encounters like that are few and far between. I use it on almost all fights as I can gain a decent benefit from using it, and when I do, it's almost always cast on the Tank.

A tip about PoM as Disc: If you are in a burn phase, I.E end of Elegon, I tend to skip PoM and just spam PoH if I have the mana as I believe I can gain a higher HPS by skipping it, but this is only recommended if you have the mana to continually cast PoH throughout the entire burn phase.

[dmfg]

Using ProM on CD is likely to be a bad idea. Check your logs, if you're getting less than 3 heals per ProM cast it is likely to be a HPM and HPS loss, and you should either be delaying it to allow it to bounce fully or casting a different spell.

I don't cast ProM on the tank. Since I mostly use it on raid wide AoE, I don't want the tank's absorbs delaying the ProM bouncing. I don't use the glyph because it's a HPM loss and it's still not worth casting it for a single bounce, even with the glyph.

Renew is pretty catastrophically bad for disc. It's only useful when you're moving and you are not able to penance/holy fire/ProM/level 90 talent/PWS. With no overheal, it heals for about as much as a Heal, and there's pretty much no situation you'd ever want to cast Heal instead of either a better HPS spell, or Smite. Every cast of Renew will fill you with regret.

[DiscoGhost]

even though i think renew sucks, weak healing compared to its mana cost. it overall helps with mitigation and in the end justifies its cost i think. i also use pom on cd. then again all i do is LFR so i herp derp through alot of it

[Rorschachs]

I usually renew after I get the 3 stack grace on the tank and get the haste from borrowed time. Just a habit from pvp, I am pretty sure that I am wasting my mana doing this. I wouldn't unbind renew though because you can never know when you will need it.

Pom on raid is pretty important. Its a lot of healing for a very small mana cost. Pom on tank is good if the tank is topped when you pom.

[Dorfie]

Nope, I just atonement everything

[QmasterMKII]

Nope, I just atonement everything

For 5 mans that is fine but for raids be it lfr or 10 man you are being a hinderance to the group and other healer. I've had a disc priest in my 10 man group only use attonment and he was the reason we were behind in content.

As of OP I use renew when I know a big attack is coming and I prep for it with, renew/PoM/PW:S/GH. Besides that I use it attonment on trash and light healing phases.

[Holygrail]

even though i think renew sucks, weak healing compared to its mana cost. it overall helps with mitigation and in the end justifies its cost i think. i also use pom on cd.

It does help with mitigation, using it with 3x Grace and Borrowed Time makes it worth the mana cost just about, but in a 25 raid environment, it's rare for me to have 3 stacks of Grace and for Renew to actually do any damage as Tanks tend to get quite a lot of heals. I can see it being more useful in 10 or if the Tank needs any extra healing for whatever reason, but it is a very week spell and you should not prioritise keeping Renew up on the tank at all.

Also, as mentioned by dmfg you should only really be using PoM on CD when all the stacks are being used up within the 10 second CD. Otherwise, hold back a bit and use it a little less frequently.

I usually renew after I get the 3 stack grace on the tank and get the haste from borrowed time. Just a habit from pvp, I am pretty sure that I am wasting my mana doing this. I wouldn't unbind renew though because you can never know when you will need it.

As mentioned above, it's the best way to use Renew, but you should not aim for a high uptime at all on the Tank. It's only helpful if the Tank is or will be taking a colossal amount of damage, which doesn't seem happen that often in many raids.

For 5 mans that is fine but for raids be it lfr or 10 man you are being a hinderance to the group and other healer. I've had a disc priest in my 10 man group only use attonment and he was the reason we were behind in content.

What did I just read?
Please explain as this seems ridiculous.

I cannot see how Atonement is being counter-productive. Taking a fight like Elegon, all I do in LFR, Normal and Heroic modes is Atonement the entire fight. I had about 80% of healing from Atonement on a 25H kill when I did 101k HPS, I can't see how that's a bad thing really, considering if I had focused upon PoH/SS spam I'd have actually done less HPS.

Atonement is a smart heal, it will heal the lowest healthed player in the raid (within 40 yards etc.) - Unless you had issue with Tanks dying which can easily be solved by asking specific healers to focus upon a certain Tank(s), it is something which should be taken advantage off.

[QmasterMKII]

What did I just read?
Please explain as this seems ridiculous.

I cannot see how Atonement is being counter-productive. Taking a fight like Elegon, all I do in LFR, Normal and Heroic modes is Atonement the entire fight. I had about 80% of healing from Atonement on a 25H kill when I did 101k HPS, I can't see how that's a bad thing really, considering if I had focused upon PoH/SS spam I'd have actually done less HPS.

Atonement is a smart heal, it will heal the lowest healthed player in the raid (within 40 yards etc.) - Unless you had issue with Tanks dying which can easily be solved by asking specific healers to focus upon a certain Tank(s), it is something which should be taken advantage off.

Atonment is great for Elegon but it is a special fight because of the buff you receive and the debuff the boss recieves. I wasn't saying atonment in general is bad but if all he does is use atonment without the other tools in his kit, like many atonment only priest I have met, it hurts the other healer when especially in 10 man content where every heal counts. The issue I had wasnt much of the Tanks dieing but more of the group dying which could of been prevented by using PW:B/Spirit Shell/PoH. Atonement is great but only using it on all bosses while Disc has so many other tools available is sad to see.

[Holygrail]

Atonment is great

It can be, sometimes.

I wasn't saying atonment in general is bad but if all he does is use atonment without the other tools in his kit, like many atonment only priest I have met, it hurts the other healer when especially in 10 man content where every heal counts.

Sometimes Atonement-only is viable, if you could reduce healing for DPS but can't swap a Healer for a DPS, just make a Disc spam smite. As for 10-mans being less Atonement-friendly...I can't really see why. I did 10-mans for a long time as Disc and I never really felt like it was doing a bad thing, unless I misunderstand you.
Also, I assume you met most of those Atonement-only Priests in LFR.

[QmasterMKII]

It can be, sometimes.



Sometimes Atonement-only is viable, if you could reduce healing for DPS but can't swap a Healer for a DPS, just make a Disc spam smite. As for 10-mans being less Atonement-friendly...I can't really see why. I did 10-mans for a long time as Disc and I never really felt like it was doing a bad thing, unless I misunderstand you.
Also, I assume you met most of those Atonement-only Priests in LFR.

Using atonment in 10 man isn't bad at all, it's great for light healing and archangle. And you can indeed swap them for a dps if they dont have a shadow spec/gear. I was just trying to say using only Atonement without the other abilities of disc just makes it hard for others during big aoe or lots of damage. I met them in lfr/lfg and on server in pugs. They are usually new to disc and assume that since they or anyone doesnt die in 5 mans/lfr it's okay to just use only atonement in 10 mans as well.

Sorry OP if I derailed your topic, didn't mean to

[KidCanuck]

On Elegon atonement is amazing, but he's one of the few fights where you can get away with this. Use it as spot heals for low-damage periods, as a DPS boost for your raid, and to get archangel ready.

[Rorschachs]

On Elegon atonement is amazing, but he's one of the few fights where you can get away with this. Use it as spot heals for low-damage periods, as a DPS boost for your raid, and to get archangel ready.

Its actually quite good on high tank damage periods as well(considering the tank is the only one taking the damage though as you will not want atonement heal someone else and have your tank dead because of that.)