New to Healing - Disc PvP Gear Advice Needed Please

[Deleted]

Hi

I just leveled my Priest to 90 . I leveled as Shadow and decided that I give healing a go ( I have 5 Level 90 DPS casters already !! ). So I specc'd as Disc.

At the moment I 'm gearing up via Random BG's with a view to healing in 2's and 3's

What stat priority should I be looking at? Int>Spirit>Mastery>Crit>Haste is the way I'm going.

A friend advised me to aim for 12K Combat Mana regen - is this a good ball park number?

Should I use an Int with Spirit on use PvE Trinket plus 1 PvP Trinket ?

Any must have addons? I'm using DBM / Healbot atm.

I am a complete novice at healing as I have always DPS'd and had Healing offspecs that I never used ( oops ) so any advice would be good.

[Deleted]

I could recommend using the stat priority you suggested. As far as mana regen goes, I'd say keep spirit in that priority list untill you are comfortable with your mana regen.

You could use a PvE trinket this patch, next patch you get bonus ressilience if you equip 2 PvP trinkets so the extra damage reduction, even though small, might be better than some PvE trinket benefits.

I can recommend you NOT using healbot as you'll need your mouse to move and you will sacrifice healing for movement or vice versa when you have to use your mouse to click a frame while being on the move. I personally do not play with any addons at all since I found that using less and less addons over time seriously increased my awareness in PvP.

Edit: In arenas I could really recommend using /target party1, /target party2 and /target player macros for healing. This way you can hit the macro to target the right player and then just hit the hotkey for the heal to heal them, this way you will be much more responsive and you'll still have your mouse free for complete control over your character.

[Deleted]

Thanks - I'll disable Healbot tonight and see how I fair.

Edit: My gear is no where near where I need / want it to be for any sort of Arenas (yet). I had planned on setting up my target Macros when ready to start 2's / 3's . Still got a Green Weapon LFR / Senarios wont drop me a temporary upgrade.

[Deleted]

Thanks - I'll disable Healbot tonight and see how I fair.

Edit: My gear is no where near where I need / want it to be for any sort of Arenas (yet). I had planned on setting up my target Macros when ready to start 2's / 3's . Still got a Green Weapon LFR / Senarios wont drop me a temporary upgrade.

You can always queue for Arena of Anihalation scenario which has a quest that at least grants you a weapon better than a green. Also if you can find a mate to play arenas with you, do it, even if it is at low rating. I always try to get my alts into arenas as soon as possible since winning at lower ratings can be done in quest greens/blues and it will help you a lot when gearing up

If you are really having trouble gearing up you could always chain queue for dungeons and trade the JP for HP, I find this much faster than doing battlegrounds since queue times for healers are really short anyway.

[Deleted]

DOH - Hadn't thought of queuing directly for Arena of Anih - was hoping it would come up as a Random

Had the Mace on both my Shammys until something better came along.

As for Arenas I dont feel ready to heal them yet, literally only been healing for 3 days ....

[Deleted]

DOH - Hadn't thought of queuing directly for Arena of Anih - was hoping it would come up as a Random

Had the Mace on both my Shammys until something better came along.

As for Arenas I dont feel ready to heal them yet, literally only been healing for 3 days ....

That's alright, if you don't feel ready for them you don't have to do them. If you have any friends that want to do battlegrounds with you that would be the way to go. That way you'll have tons of fun and learn a lot.

Good luck, and I hope you like playing as a disc priest

[Spectral]

Not to be "that guy", but Hunter/Disc is so wildly strong at the moment that if you grab a set of crafted blues and a decent BM buddy to play with, you'll be able to get up to a decent rating and get some experience in short order. I think your stat priority will be fine, although I wouldn't worry about specific numbers so much, just prioritize. I personally prefer Haste to Crit; it's a pretty marginal difference, but I'd rather have quicker globals for offensive dispels.

If you happen to have a scribe on any of your other characters, the BoA weapons are very nice starters, btw.

[Maleric]

For PvP stat priority you want int > spirit > haste > mastery > crit. Haste is good for PvP. There's no relevant spirit plateau or cap, other than whatever you feel comfortable with. There is a relevant haste plateau, to get a fifth tick of Renew at 12.50% haste, but you probably want to gear for haste even past that.

[Deleted]

For PvP stat priority you want int > spirit > haste > mastery > crit. Haste is good for PvP. There's no relevant spirit plateau or cap, other than whatever you feel comfortable with. There is a relevant haste plateau, to get a fifth tick of Renew at 12.50% haste, but you probably want to gear for haste even past that.

I don't entirely agree on the haste issue. You don't want to give up too much mastery for either haste or crit simply because it's a direct increase for all your heals and shields. Which outweighs getting a ton of extra haste by a lot.

Although most secondary stats are pretty close for disc, I personally don't think getting an extra tick on Renew is that important in PvP. I'd rather just have bigger heals and shields.

Edit: The BM hunter advice is good, you have a lot of room for error if you play with a decent BM hunter which should allow you to learn a lot in a safe environment.

[Deleted]

Thank you for the advice - I'll be seeing if I can find A BM Hunter Guildie who's willing to die a lot in Arenas

[potatoe]

I personally don't think getting an extra tick on Renew is that important in PvP. I'd rather just have bigger heals and shields.

This makes a lot of sense.

Holy priests use renew because they have a specialization-specific ability called Rapid Renewal that buffs Renew.

Discipline priests don't have that ability and so Renew is much less potent for them. Some would argue it's not even worth using as Disc.

- - - Updated - - -

Any must have addons? I'm using DBM / Healbot atm.

DBM is nice for BGs.

Make sure you check the box to auto-release spirit.

I personally do not play with any addons at all since I found that using less and less addons over time seriously increased my awareness in PvP.

My philosophy is opposite because I don't do many Arenas (where you can keybind all your targets), because I am not pro enough to do it without addons, and because I love addons.

I use the same healing addons for PVP that I use for PVE: Vuhdo and Clique (although you don't need clique if you are using vuhdo, I choose to use it because it is familiar).

Here's a repost of a healing addon post I made on reddit:

Most people [especially in PVE] use addons or mouseover macros, or both.

Some healing addons:

Pick only one line since these addons do the same thing.

• Grid + Clique (I used this in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.)
  
• Vuhdo (note: it's possible to combine vuhdo+clique if you already have bindings set up in clique. I do.)
  
• Healbot

If you want to bind a click to a spell, then you need an addon to do it (all the above addons will).

Alternately, you can use the built-in raid frames provided by blizzard and use clique or bind your spells/mouseover-macros to your keys if you prefer keybinding.

...

Mouseover Macros

Also, mouseover macros are not mutually exclusive from addons.

You can use something like clique to launch the macro based on a click+key combination.

You can use any unit frames addon like grid/vuhdo (and probably healbot, elvui, etc.) and I think it will count as a mouseover.

Here's a post on mouseover macros from a prominent healing priest in the wow blogger community, Matticus.

• http://www.worldofmatticus.com/a-gui...seover-macros/

see also:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments...ling_question/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments...seover_macros/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments...l_do_you_heal/

Here is a list of pvp addons I put together for reddit:

PVP Addons

General

• Healers have to die
  
  Shows a red cross above healer nameplates. Make sure you have nameplates turned on. The shortcut for that is v for enemies, and shift+v for friendlies.
• Reflex - Arena/Battleground Historian
  
  Keeps tracks of your win/loss ratio for each arena/BG.
• protip: You can view your wins and totals (from which you can extrapolate losses) per BG/Arena for a character on the WoW Armory as well. From your character page:
  
  • Click "Achievements" link on the left
  • Click "Statistics" tab top right
  • Click "Player vs. Player" link on the left
  • Click "Battlegrounds" or "Arenas" link on the left

BGs

• BattlegroundTargets
  
  It will show a display of the opposing team's classes and roles, and you can view their health pools even before the match starts.
  Apparently, it can also be used to communicate kill targets and weak nodes to attack/defend, but I haven't used it enough to be familiar with those parts.
• BG Spy
  
  Can output the composition of the BG. I find it useful to communicate and coordinate with PUGs to try to tell them to kill the enemy healers.
  > /bgspy rh

Arenas/RBGs

• Gladius
  
  Shows enemy health, trinket usage, etc.
• GladiatorlosSA
  
  Audibly announces the spells used by enemies, including trinket usage.

World PVP

• Vanas KoS
  
  Shows you whether same-faction or opposite-faction players are near you. You can also add names to a list to get a sound notification when they are near. Keeps track of prior world pvp kill/death sites as well.

[Searsha]

I would say the accepted stat priority is int > spirit > mastery > haste > crit. I would go for the spirit trinket and then a PvE one. You could get a battlemaster though if you wanted, it would be nice macro'ed with a healthstone!

Edit: Also I support Vuhdo! It is my favorite healing addon!

[Maleric]

This makes a lot of sense.

Holy priests use renew because they have a specialization-specific ability called Rapid Renewal that buffs Renew.

Discipline priests don't have that ability and so Renew is much less potent for them. Some would argue it's not even worth using as Disc.

Renew is definitely worth casting as disc in PvP, as it's an instant. Not sure who these "some" arguing otherwise are, maybe they're referring to PvE?

[Deleted]

you will never get 12k combat mana regen in pvp, unless you gem spirit and you will lose out on alot of int.

Stat wise for reforging, Spirit>mastery>haste>crit

trinket wise, relic of chi-ji is the best one you can get. If you are human get relic and battlemasters, if you are any other race youd best get relic + trink

Addons is all personal, if you have barely done any arena i suggest you get sArena and interruptbar for sure.

[potatoe]

Renew is definitely worth casting as disc in PvP, as it's an instant. Not sure who these "some" arguing otherwise are, maybe they're referring to PvE?

In RBGs, I don't see myself casting renew unless I have nothing else to do.

That GCD can usually be better used elsewhere.

It also doesn't heal for much, so if someone is getting targeted I am not going to be casting renew on them. I am going to be spamming power word: shield, penance, and flash heal. Maybe I'll throw in a fear bomb or void tendrils/psychic fiend if I can get it off in between.

[Deleted]

In RBGs, I don't see myself casting renew unless I have nothing else to do.

I don't know about RBGs but I find it useful in 2s when I'm being tunneled and I need all the healing I can get on the move.

[Maleric]

In RBGs, I don't see myself casting renew unless I have nothing else to do.

That GCD can usually be better used elsewhere.

It also doesn't heal for much, so if someone is getting targeted I am not going to be casting renew on them. I am going to be spamming power word: shield, penance, and flash heal. Maybe I'll throw in a fear bomb or void tendrils/psychic fiend if I can get it off in between.

You can't spam Penance and PW:S on a single target. And you can't spam Flash Heal either against decent opponents; you'll get interrupted. Anyway, a five tick Renew hits for only a little less than Flash Heal and costs about half as much mana. Plus, obviously, it doesn't open you up to getting interrupted.

[Hand Banana]

For PvP stat priority you want int > spirit > haste > mastery > crit. Haste is good for PvP. There's no relevant spirit plateau or cap, other than whatever you feel comfortable with. There is a relevant haste plateau, to get a fifth tick of Renew at 12.50% haste, but you probably want to gear for haste even past that.

Haste is godawful for disc as is renew. There are so many better ways to spend you gcds, like holy fire if you really dont have anything else. Please please don't gear for haste in pvp. I would go Int > Spirit > Resil > mastery = crit > pvp power > haste.

Go straight spirit tbh. The only time anything ever dies against my disc priest is when I get chain cc'd or go oom. There is no damage I can't heal through so extra mastery or crit just makes things easier but the regen is alot better.

If there's one piece of advice about disc healing I can give you, its glyph Prayer of Mending and use it on cd. It is the best healing ability you have by a mile (more so since its still bugged).

[Spectral]

I don't know about RBGs but I find it useful in 2s when I'm being tunneled and I need all the healing I can get on the move.

Do you find yourself to be the kill target regularly? I do not. I certainly use Renew, but I find it to be a pretty trivial part of my toolkit.

- - - Updated - - -

You can't spam Penance and PW:S on a single target. And you can't spam Flash Heal either against decent opponents; you'll get interrupted. Anyway, a five tick Renew hits for only a little less than Flash Heal and costs about half as much mana. Plus, obviously, it doesn't open you up to getting interrupted.

Between Penance, PW:S, Inner Focus, Divine Star, PoM, and standing out of LoS to cast an occasional Flash Heal, there's quite a lot to do without casting Renew. Provided there's sufficient time, Renewing is a solid plan, obviously, but it's pretty rarely a lifesaver, IMO. I certainly wouldn't be gearing around it very much, even though it's worth mentioning the extra tick if it's within easy reach.