PoH vs. HW:S

[iLive]

I've thought about something. When should you use Prayer of Healing, and when should you use Holy Word: Sanctuary? Currently, HW:S seems way too underpowered compared to Prayer of Healing, and I don't understand why someone would use HW:S and not Prayer of Healing? Clearly, the best thing about HW:S is the looks. Discuss, and tell me if I miscalculated anything.

Prayer of Healing (can benefit from mastery)
3,735 healing (average without glyph and holy mastery)
4,856 healing (average healing with glyph and holy mastery)
5 people hitted
26% base mana cost
2.5 sec cast time
no cooldown

Holy Word: Sanctuary
325 healing per tick, 2,925 healing total (average)
6 people hitted
44% base mana cost
0.5 sec cast time
28 sec cooldown (with talent)
hits 5

PoH and HW:S comparison
PoH does 66% more healing each target
PoH costs 69% less mana
PoH has 2.5 sec time and 30% of the total healing comes after 6 sec (8.5 sec for maximum healing), HW:S has 0.5 cast time and heals for 18 sec duration (18.5 sec for maximum healing)
PoH heals one less person, but HW:s has a smaller range
HW:S requires Chakra

[Ethris]

hitted

Wow.

You don't seem to understand what each spell does.

Holy Word: Sanctuary
44% of base mana 40 yd range
0.5 sec cast 40 sec cooldown
Blesses the ground with divine light, healing all within it for 299 to 355 every 2 sec for 18 sec. Only one Sanctuary can be active at a time. Healing effectiveness diminishes for each player beyond 6 within the area.

Looks to me like this heals more than 6 people as long as they're grouped up. It also casts much faster and lasts 18 seconds. This serves such a completely different purpose than Prayer of Healing that I don't see how you could possibly draw similarities between the two for purposes of comparison. They're both situational spells and are not interchangeable.

[iLive]

That's the thing I am questioning. Now, how different are these spells in the end? The situations where the one outshines the other are rare, and it will mostly always be the one that heals the most that will be used.

Also, I didn't misunderstand anything. The thing I meant is that it can maximum heal 6 targets each tick. HW:S doesn't heal more people when they are grouped up.

[Awesra]

Yes it does. It doesn't heal for more than it would if there were only six, but it will continue to hit more targets.

[iLive]

Sorry, I thought diminish means "disappear, remove, non-working etc.". :/

Then again, why not cast PoH x2 and get double healing for just 25% more mana cost?

[Kelesti]

There are times when I cast Chakra: Sanctuary without ever actually casting the corresponding Holy Word, just because I want/need the stronger Prayer/Mending/Renew output. Those times are quite frequent, lately. But...

You cast Sanctuary not to replace a Prayer, but to go along with it them in times of heavy area effect damage. On its own, it isn't enough. But Prayers are still slow and not as strong proportionally as they were in Wrath, so for times of that needed "oomph" a Prayer on someone in Sanctuary is much better off than waiting for a second Prayer.