1. #1

    Need some help with PvE

    Hi everyone.
    So i'm leveling a priest right now and just dinged 62, i am a big noob when it comes to healing in pve and have never played a priest on level 80.

    I would like to get some info about what spec to use when i have kinda crappy gear and also what stats i should focus on.
    I am going to heal in heroics and probably naxx until i get better gear so make the spec for that.

    Advice about rotations for tank or raid healing is very appreciated.

    (The info should be about level 80.)


  2. #2

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    First of all, do you want to heal or dps?

    If you want to dps, read Shadow dps 101.

    If you want to heal, well, then you have to decide whether you want to do it as disc or holy. Both have their ups and downs. Disc focuses on absorbing damage and buffing the raid more than holy, whereas a holy priest has more potent healing, and better aoe-healing.
    If I was a Blizz server technician, I'd hijack a server and use it to download porn 24/7. Guess why the instance servers always are full B]

  3. #3

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    I want to heal, is disc or holy best for heroics?


  4. #4

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    I'd say holy but you won't suffer as disc either.

  5. #5

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    A proper reply to this very open ended question would take a huge post... but I'll try to cover the basics:

    (1) ADDONS: Download either Grid+Clique (two separate addons) or Healbot. Yes, I know some folks get the job done w/ mouseover macros and whatnot, but I have yet to find anyone in-game who hasn't seen their healing efficiency greatly improve by using one of these. If you decide to go holy, I suggest downloading PowerAuras as well to better track your SoL procs.

    (2) DISCO:
    Some folks have a few points in other places, but in general, a good spec is: 57/14/0

    (a) SPELLS&ROLE: As with any healing, there is no "rotation." The spells you will use most frequently in Disco are: PW:S, Penance, Flash Heal, ProM, BH, & PS. As a Disco priest, your main function will be tank healing.

    PW:S: PW:S should always be cast on the tanks when the WS debuff wears off on them. Even though your primary duty is to keep the tank alive, you should take advantage of your ability to throw PW:S on the raid. If the tank is topped, feel free to put PW:S on a raid member who is taking damage, or on key persons in your raid. Not only will this help the raid healers, but it will increase your mana efficiency through Rapture.
    ProM: Should always be cast on the tank on CD.
    Penance: As of right now, Penance is usually casted on CD on the tank(s), however, with the upcoming CD nerf in 3.2, it would be wise to practice saving this spell for when the tank needs Burst Healing Now(tm).
    Binding Heal: BH should always be used when you need a heal. If the tank is topped off, cast this on a raid member who needs healing.
    Pain Suppression: PS is your DR CD. It is used for when the tank is taking a known massive hit that would else normally kill him. Think of it as an extra shield wall for your tank.
    Flash Heal: Flash Heal is your "filler" spell. This should be used on the tank/raid when the WS debuff is still active and ProM and Penance are on CD.


    (b) GLYPHS: Penance, FH, and PW:S are the most commonly used glyphs as Disco. Minors should be SF, Fade, and Levitate. There are other useful glyphs, but these are the standard.

    (c) GEAR&STATS: Priority for gear should be SP>INT>Mp5>SPI. For enchants use what makes sense. Gem for INT.
    Haste vs. Crit: These stats should be balanced for maximum effectiveness. Haste makes your FH & Penance faster, good for raw through put when the tank is taking massive damage. However, Crit has more synergy with Aegis, a spec defining ability. As a rule, Crit is desired over haste. Neither should be enchanted/gemmed.



    (3) HOLY: Holy is much more complicated to nail down a "best spec." See:

    Quote Originally Posted by [-Spiritus-
    ]
    A "Holy HPS 101" thread would be very controversial for several reasons:

    (1) Some people think Renew is the new pink, others still use FH as their filler spell.
    (2) Some people think stacking INT is the way to go, others think that SP is the most effective stat to stack.
    (3) Some people have completely abandoned GH, while others still feel like they get something out of a Serendipity hasted GH.
    (4) Some people have fallen in love with the utility of B&S, other think its dumb for holy to ever cast PW:S.
    (5) Some people think that holy priests are most effective holding on to as much mana as possible to blow during raid wide AoE (Tantrum, Frozen Blows, etc). Others think that holy priests are most effective using Renew, ProM, and CoH to help smooth out raid damage.

    The short of it is this:

    Healing is, and never will be, as cut and dry and DPS. There can be no "Perfect" spec for holy. There are certainly more "common" specs, but since healing revolves around reacting to events, theorycrafting becomes extremely subjective.
    That being said, here are a list of specs and their focus:

    RENEW HEAVY, GH&FH LIGHT + B&S: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...&version=10116
    FH HEAVY, RENEW&GH LIGHT + B&S: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...&version=10116
    FH&GH HEAVY, RENEW LIGHT + B&S: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...&version=10116

    Now, B&S can be removed out of any of those specs and be place in something like ToF, BR, RH, or EmpRenew if you don't feel like your getting use out of it or if you raid with a Disco priest consistently. I personally have put it to great use in Ulduar, others haven't. Its a matter of perspective and either isn't wrong. I personally like the first spec. It is the one I run with currently. I find having ToF & Emp Renew far superior to having bigger FH&GH or more efficient GH.

    (a) SPELLS&ROLE: At its core, Holy is a raid healing spec. The spells you will use most often in Holy are: PoH, CoH, ProM, Renew, FH, BH, PW:S (if B&S is taken), GS, and GH. What sets Holy apart from other raid healers is our ability to counter massive raid wide damage with massive raid wide burst healing. The draw back is the ridiculous amount of mana we burn through to do so.

    PoH: As a rule, PoH should be casted on a group that has 3 or more members down low enough to warrant a FH. It has great synergy with Serendipity.
    CoH: CoH should be used whenever 4 or more raid members who are positioned near eachother are down health.
    ProM: Should be bounced of the tank on CD. It can also be used on raid members being focused by damage or casted where it will get maximum effect during ticking raidwide damage.
    Renew: Renew should be kept up on the tanks at all times. Renew can also be used on single raid members who are down health, and aren't in great danger of dying within the next 1.5sec.
    Flash Heal: With sufficient +crit, SoL should be up quite frequently for an instant non-critting flash and is perfect for spot healing. FH can also be used to spam on a raid members who are continually taking damage.
    Binding Heal: See discription in Disco.
    PW:S: With B&S, the speed increase can be creatively used if your quick enough and do not have a Disco priest in the raid. I will not list all the ways it can be used, but I'm sure you can figure out when an on demand speed increase could be effective.
    Guardian Spirit: This is Holy's PS. Without the Glyph, it is best used as a last resort "OH SHIT" button on the tank. With the glyph, however, it can be used more liberally to help heal through known spikes on the tank. With Shield Wall, PS, etc., GS will nearly ensure that you tank will not die and almost always will reset the timer to 60sec to be used for the next spike.
    Greater Heal: Some priest are still finding use out of a Serendipity hasted GH. I personally never cast the spell anymore. Without Serendipity, GH is just too slow to use in most situations.

    As stated above, the greatest asset a priest has is countering massive raidwide damage. This is a good routine to use for this:

    UNSPECIFIED TIMER or RAID AoE that includes an INTERUPT:
    (1)Build up a x3stack of Serendipity
    (2)Raidwide damage occurs
    (3)Cast CoH
    (4)Cast Hasted PoH on most needed group
    (5)Cast PoH again on the now most needed group
    (6) Use SoL FH on lowest raid member
    (7) Cast CoH

    SPECIFIED TIMER
    (1)Precast PoH
    (2)Raidwide damage occurs
    (3)PoH lands
    (4)Cast CoH
    (5)Cast PoH on the most needed group
    (6)Cast PoH again on the now most needed group
    (7)Cast CoH

    If after (7) your raid isnt fully healed, your other raid healers are either slacking or need to consult their own "How To" guide.

    (b) GLYPHS: The standard glyphs for holy are PoH, CoH, and GS. Others include Renew & FH. Minors are the same as Disco.

    (c) GEAR&STATS: Priority for gear should be SP>INT>SPI>Mp5. For enchants use what makes sense. Gem for INT.
    Haste vs. Crit: As a rule, Crit is desired over haste, but haste isn't bad if other stats on an item are superior. Neither should be enchanted/gemmed.




    (4)SPELLS OF EQUAL USE TO BOTH SPECS:

    Shadowfiend&Hymn of Hope: Your main abilities for mana regen. The mechanics are a bit clunky, but if used properly will return a huge chunk of mana:

    (1)Cast Shadowfiend
    (2)Cast HoH until you receive the 20% mana increase buff.

    Using these in concert will bring most priest from near OOM to near full.

    Divine Hymn: Used as your raid wide "OH SHIT" button. Macro this to Inner Focus to both negate the massive mana cost and increase each heals' crit by 25%.



    Short of going into theorycraft and minutiae, this is the best I can do on short notice. It is also the most comprehensive post you will read on priest healing on this forum.

  6. #6

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Spiritus, you should just start a new post with like 90% of this info you do and get it stickied. Seriously.
    ~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
    Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
    Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
    Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
    ~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~

  7. #7

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Spiritus, that was an awesome post. O.o
    Non-discipline 2006-2019, not supporting the company any longer. Also: fails.
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  8. #8

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Spiritus, you're seriously going to have hand problems if you write such big walls everytime someone ask something, I'm worried for your health.

  9. #9

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Yeah, but now I get to /quote everytime this question gets asked. =)

    @Kelesti: If I were to write a Sticky worthy post on priest healing... it would be at least 5x longer. Without numbers. No way am I bustin' out that much typing for it to possibly go to waste. Hell... at that point I might as well start my own healing priest website.

  10. #10

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Thank you so much Spiritus for taking your time writing that
    Its realy worth a sticky.


  11. #11

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    "Hell... at that point I might as well start my own healing priest website."

    Do it, it would be great! Some people here, with their experience and their opinion, might help

  12. #12

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Quote Originally Posted by Nocta
    "Hell... at that point I might as well start my own healing priest website."

    Do it, it would be great! Some people here, with their experience and their opinion, might help
    Hrm... well I did a cursory search of healing priest sites... and by and large a vast majority are straight-up blogs about the issue of the week/month. Most information on playstyle/spec/gear etc, if they have any, is just a link to EJ... which can be daunting to sift though if your just starting with the class or new to wow.

    It would certainly be interesting to try. I would def. need to crash course myself on current webdesign & website maintenance. The last time I developed a website was 10years ago when everything was coded on wordpad. =P

  13. #13

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Hehe well, no need to craft some awesome and smooth designed website, its the quality of informations that would make it good EJ is very nice, but there's way too much math in my opinion for the average new-to-the-class player. What i got in mind is a site where you can find basics, of course, but also where you can compare your thoughts and choices to other veteran players' ones and look at the results.

  14. #14

    Re: Need some help with PvE

    Quote Originally Posted by [-Spiritus-
    ]
    Hrm... well I did a cursory search of healing priest sites... and by and large a vast majority are straight-up blogs about the issue of the week/month. Most information on playstyle/spec/gear etc, if they have any, is just a link to EJ... which can be daunting to sift though if your just starting with the class or new to wow.

    It would certainly be interesting to try. I would def. need to crash course myself on current webdesign & website maintenance. The last time I developed a website was 10years ago when everything was coded on wordpad. =P
    *remembers those days*
    Also, someone needs to school me in how the hell RSS actually works so I can sign up for Spiritus' site whenever he DOES make it.
    ~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
    Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
    Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
    Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
    ~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~

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