I wanna heal in classic, but i got a problem

[Coldfrostzero]

I played a priest in vanilla. Downed MC/AQ20/ZG and 2 bosses into BWL. I made a warrior first and didn't really understand the game and played that for a long time so I started priest late. That said, I never once farmed consumables or anything. I sat at about ~90 fire resist for Ragnaros with the Onyxia Hide Cloak. Never had a problem really. I would have a few mana potions if I got a drop from a dungeon, but mainly just had items with Spirit. I found having the DMF trinket that basically gives you Innervate was amazing coupled with Disc priest talents and I rarely had to ask for an innervate. I was on of our top healers.

Talent build I used was: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#bxghsVVoofxxMc

Alternative build 1 (spell reach, more tank armor): https://classicdb.ch/?talent#bxghsVVoobxxcf

Alternate build 2 (Better renew, more tank armor): https://classicdb.ch/?talent#bxghsVVoorxxcc


Most people would probably argue against Improved Renew, but I used it in dungeons a lot so I didn't have to respec every other day. I argue that you don't need Inspiration because all the Holy priests have it and I don't recall it stacking so they would cover it anyway. You could also skip Improved Fortitude or discuss with the other priests so they can spend their points wisely. I was every caster's friend with Power Infusion and would provide it to either our Priest Class leader or my friend who was a Warlock so he could get that extra damage boost and get himself up on the meters.

Edit: As for leveling, I would do as others have suggested, DoT, Shield, and Wand. When I got to the 40s range, I was pulling 4-5 mobs (those damn Gnolls) on accident and would just keep Renew and Shield up while wanding all the things. Other than that, I was constantly doing dungeons as that is my preferential way of leveling in the game.

[Shiny212]

you can specc pure shadow and heal reliably well the entire way to max if you want.

[Heathy]

every healing priest should have inspiration though, you don't know which of you is going to crit and keeping that up on the tank in raids is 90% of your task. when the tank has inspiration they will die a lot slower the hits they take are massively reduced while inspiration is active. i'd even say it is the only important talent in holy. the only mandatory one, at least when it comes to raiding and doing useful things that go beyond just healing damage. you definitely want 25% armor on crit heals, its huge for raiding. and keeping it active makes healing the rest of the raid easier as the tanks health won't window wiper when they have that buff. with innerfocus you have one guaranteed way to apply it. I don't think its possible to get your crit rate to a point where you can guarantee a crit in 2 or 3 casts like you can today. maybe you could get 10-15% crit in good gear.

[Dundebuns]

I used a hunter alt.

[AcidicSyn]

Back in the day I played priest and I really enjoyed the group part of the game. We even went on to clear some bosses in Naxxramas.
BUT I also made a rogue farming alt because solo farming (there are no worldquests) was a true pain in the a**.

TL: DR: Priest gameplay is amazing, but get yourself a farming alt.

Basically this. Except for me it was a hunter. My priest was my main and I healed up to and into Naxx while the Hunter basically never left Tyrs Hand. I'll probably do rogue to farm this time though, buddy of mine didn't take too much longer to get the elites at Tyrs down than I did but had the added bonus of pick pocketing them all first and picking his own lockboxes.

[wholol]

@layfee

Wtf is this cesspool of misinformed comments? there's only a few comments that are right while everyone else sounds like they've got no clue wtf they're on about.

There are three things to consider when talking about classic and solo open world content, 1) efficiency 2) kill speed 3) sustainability

In such a context priests are great at 1) and 3), regardless of whether you're leveling or grinding mobs, so long as you have a wand and you can shield/heal then you can mitigate and sustain yourself on a mob to mob basis given that wands are great for entering the 5 sec rule of mana regen.

This means that regardless of your spec or whether you're lvl 20 or 60, your kill speed is moderate so long as you follow the path of efficiency but in that regard your efficiency is great when done properly and can last much longer than a lot of classes that would otherwise have to stop and eat/drink sooner.

People think that having low kill speed means you suck at farming but that isn't the case, take for example mages or rogues, they might kill mobs super fast but they either take too much damage face tanking (rogue) or go out of mana after 1-2 pulls and end up having to take a break, this downtime has to be considered as part of the grind as well, the timer doesn't stop on kills , it stops when you are done grinding.

In that sense if you factor in downtime then a lot of classes that you might think suck at farming are actually decent, most healers fall within that category and are probably rate higher than some classes when it comes to farming , rogues and warriors for example have a harder time grinding than a fully specced healer, surprisingly.

If you are the type of person that thinks spamming smite or any spell is going to help you in that regards then you're in for a surprise, wands are a priest's best friend , they help you weave in and out of the 5 sec rule and help you sustain for a long time, damage isn't what you worry about as a mana user in classic, mana is.

It all comes back to what kind of person you are, if you regard kill speed above all else then you might want to roll a dps instead.

[diarx]

There's always dual boxing with a melee character (preferably rogue), 2 monthly fees is expensive, but can come in very handy, especially with a full healer spec as a main.

You don't even have to go down the key cloning software rabbit hole if you don't want, some quick alt tabbing and assist swp/assist wand/target rogue heal/follow rogue macros on your priests second bar is about all you need.

[Greevir]

I was exclusively a holy priest in classic and tbc spec'd fully into heals and while yes, it does take longer, it is totally doable.

[Mukind]

Hey,

I really wanna heal in classic - priest probably.

How do healers cope with random world quests, farming for attunements, just basic farming for gold in the "endgame" or at least at max level?
To me it seems like a big pain in the ass and i dont think i wanna switch specs every time i wanna farm and then go back to heal in a dungeon etc.
Were healers just pure group specs, meaning that you gotta group up for everything basically out in the world, or could you solo some stuff or at least be effective if you wanna make some gold for yourself and farm some mobs?

I love the concept of healing the group and to be the guy who keeps people alive, but as soon as i look at the solo content i might have to do apart from dungeon runs and raids, i kinda get deterred from picking a healer for classic. As a dps i could just go out in my spare time and farm some mobs working towards an epic mount or something, but as a healer its not that simple right?

You don't level as heal so it's not a problem until you start raiding/fast dungeon clears

and once you are a healer you can still kill things...Just if you're going to do it for long enough it would be rational to respec

Obviously plenty of ways to make gold without killing things anyway.

There is very little solo content that needs doing once you're ready to raid. There is only one quest you have to do alone and it's related to a raid drop. You'll cross that bridge when you get to it. Beyond that nothing you have to do solo

[Fayenoor]

Just play a hybrid spec. Respeccing constantly is WAY too expensive to do unless you're unemployed. Or have a hunter or mage alt to farm gold on.

This is what I did in Vanilla on my priest. For the most part most lowbie dungeons can be healed just fine as a shadow priest with some healing hybrid spec.

Your tank and rest of dungeon team has to keep in mind that they are playing Vanilla and not go batshit crazy with pulls like in live with full BoA.

Remind your team that those green oozes in Mara is going to kill them if they melee them and no amount of healing can save them from killing themselves.

As a healer in Vanilla, be prepared to be abused, called crap as people die to stupid and blame you for everything else.

Also, priest is the right way to go. I belive you will have access to Benediction eventually in Vanilla as a Holy priest. So it will be the strongest of all the healers.

[EnclosedOne]

vanilla was an actual MMO which meant that in order to do stuff (or do it faster) you NEEDED to party up with people. you NEEDED to make friends that you could do things together with. If you have trouble doing something then group up with people doing the same stuff and get it done TOGETHER.

what anyone who wants to level a healer needs to do is find a good tank/dps and follow them around - they do the killing and you do the healing and TOGETHER you get whatever you need to get done, done.

this is going to be huge reason why retail babies will quit classic - in retail you can do everything solo but in classic you won't be able to do that. there is no instant gratification and epics handed out every other quest. you will actually need to interact with others and group up in order to do stuff, ya know, you need to be social!!

leveling healers is difficult but in the end you will be rewarded with a class that everyone needs for all content but no one else wants to level and this will make you invaluable

[kunah]

Yeah, I was thinking about spinning a priest as well. Toggling between shadow and healer depending on what I feeling like doing.
Then I remembered the respec cost and moved on,,,,,

[Linri]

I plan to also heal in classic, I know it will take longer to level, but it evens its self out while grouping, and making friends to help each other out

Best of luck in your healing adventures!

[crakerjack]

Holy fire has a CD, it can't be spammed.

- - - Updated - - -


Exactly this. Can confirm.

I think the biggest misconception rest on people either lacking experience or not remembering clearly enough the difference between today's spec and Vanilla spec : today it's basically a whole class/subclass, while in Vanilla it was exactly what it said on the label : SPECIALIZATION. It simply improved the efficiency of some aspect of the class.

Not in vanilla. They didn't change it until MoP or WoD I think. I vividly remember leveling my priest as holy and doing nothing but holy fire and shadow word pain. Now it has a LONG cast, but there is absolutely no CD on it like there is now.

[Akka]

Not in vanilla.

Yes, in Vanilla. 6 or 10 s CD.
I know, because I only played my priest in Vanilla/TBC/WotLK, and I had to alternate Mind Blast and Holy Fire precisely because of their CD.

From memory, it was : smite, DoT, holy fire, mind blast, wand.

[tikcol]

Yes, in Vanilla. 6 or 10 s CD.
I know, because I only played my priest in Vanilla/TBC/WotLK, and I had to alternate Mind Blast and Holy Fire precisely because of their CD.

From memory, it was : smite, DoT, holy fire, mind blast, wand.

I don't think it has a CD

https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=15...e-also-ability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KbRomI5z0c

It also didn't have a CD in TBC as far as I can tell.

Important to note, holy fire spam sucks. You want to be using smite.

You might be confusing it with holy shock (?) But that one had a 30s CD

[Akka]

I don't think it has a CD

https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=15...e-also-ability

It also didn't have a CD in TBC as far as I can tell.

I can guarantee 100 % it had a CD in WotLK.
But yeah, maybe my leveling in WotLK has tainted my memories from earlier and it didn't had a CD before.

[TigTone]

Can someone make one of these for Holy paladin?

[kiramon]

Wand spec only

[BananaHandsB]

Leveling: don't go full heal spec, respec at 60 for group content
Quests at Level Cap: Get a buddy/group
Solo Farming: Don't farm mobs. Roll a gathering profession or two and farm that, sell stuff on the AH, buy w/e else u need with the gold u make from gathering/crafting.

Other advise: (eventually) Roll an alt to farm with. It's fun to play an alt anyways and can help prevent the healing burnout classic can easily cause, while also helping you farm stuff for your main.