Your Friendly Guide to playing a Holy Priest in Cata

[Marraphy]

I am still looking in to this surge of light, I mean its good and has procced at some good times but doesn't really proc all that much, however as a healer you really shouldn't be getting hit that much right? but it does happen. That is indeed a hard call, Blessed resilience or surge of light... I think I will have to do some testing on that and see which gets a better proc rate.

Everyone gets hit a lot in heroics. I've been thinking hard about which talents I could pull in order to have room for Blessed Resilience in my build now that it's 30% healing, and I'm definately going to drop Rapid Renewal and Divine Touch and see how that goes.

[Decan]

Everyone gets hit a lot in heroics. I've been thinking hard about which talents I could pull in order to have room for Blessed Resilience in my build now that it's 30% healing, and I'm definately going to drop Rapid Renewal and Divine Touch and see how that goes.

30% was this changed recently? At 30% it would be worth taking it. Wait a sec its only all healing received... I guess thats why I didn't take it last time

Blessed Resilience Rank 2
Whenever you are victim of an attack equal to damage greater than 10% of your total health, you gain Blessed Resilience increasing all healing received by 10% lasting for 10 sec.

[Tavin]

I started doing heroics on tuesday (Same day as the release) in greens/333 blues before the regen hotfix. So yes, 1900 is more than enough.

And no haste does not make you lose mana faster. It simply increases your cast speed. If you lose mana faster then it's cause you can't top of the tank or you are overhealing = It's not cause of the haste.

I got a tons of whispers daily saying "how do you manage your mana in heroics". Rather get a green item with spirit, than a blue without. Sure you can reforge but it wont be the same in the end. I started of doing heroics at 2100ish regen or even less. Now i got 4100ish.

@Topic. Enchant, tailor ones are for back, not chest.
If you want this to be more of a beginner guide than "already know the basic of their class"-guide then I would like to see you adding some general numbers to e.g. spirit. "When doing heroics it's common to have around 2000" etc.

@Decan Get item with spirit and int = profit. Try to focus on mastery items after that.
Nonetheless, save your haste items. All of a sudden you might be at less than 2% haste like I am -.- (No I'm not blue geared, im more than half epic)

PS: There are some encounters that you currently (Aidscouncil in bastion) need to dispel except Algaloth Latexhealz as stated. Although it's single target dispels and the trash in bastion light+atramedes.

[Decan]

@Decan Get item with spirit and int = profit. Try to focus on mastery items after that.
Nonetheless, save your haste items. All of a sudden you might be at less than 2% haste like I am -.- (No I'm not blue geared, im more than half epic)

Thanks for that, yeah I did notice a big difference once I got 500 extra spirit in the runs last night. I was not going oom at all last night but it was still only normal, mind you people still didn't cc so i had to aoe heal a bit... dam ppl :P
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/558...=dropCreatures dropped and wow what a nice trinket.

So how much int should I aim for before doing heroics?

[Ynna]

Thanks for that, yeah I did notice a big difference once I got 500 extra spirit in the runs last night. I was not going oom at all last night but it was still only normal, mind you people still didn't cc so i had to aoe heal a bit... dam ppl :P
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/558...=dropCreatures dropped and wow what a nice trinket.

So how much int should I aim for before doing heroics?

It depends on the person, and how good a healer you are. I currently have around 5k spellpower; around 3k intellect and a bit more than 2k spirit and doing heroics without any problems. But I started heroics the day after I dinged 85 and had to cheat the ilevel and could heal heroics without any problems. There are, generally speaking, no caps when it comes to healing. You go for Spirit until you're comfortable with regen, and every piece of gear you get has Intellect on it anyhow, so there's hardly any point in gearing specifically towards Intellect (apart from gems).
About Body and Soul: It is pretty much a must have talent. The run speed increase is so much more useful than almost any talent that could increase healing.

[DomBomb1]

Why am I putting spirit of redemption in my builds?

Because it's the beginning of an expansion, wipes are going to happen and so will dying. Having extra healing if something goes haywire on a boss fight is never a bad thing, it's not like it's impossible to kill a boss with 1 healer down.

Saying you do NOT need it is an elitest comment and there is no reason to not get it.

Also, spirit of redemption is a mana regen talent. Go oom with 20 seconds left in the fight? kill yourself and go to town healing.

[muto]

Also, spirit of redemption is a mana regen talent. Go oom with 20 seconds left in the fight? kill yourself and go to town healing.

I have done this many times.

[Decan]

I guess once I hit 85 and start to get gear and enchants it will be a lot easier. I did heal all of warth until the end were I went back to tanking and when I started reading on the forums how people kept saying healing is broken I thought I better find out everything before I start heroics again.

Thanks for all the help and info guys everything helps.

[LatexHealz]

I started doing heroics on tuesday (Same day as the release) in greens/333 blues before the regen hotfix. So yes, 1900 is more than enough.

And no haste does not make you lose mana faster. It simply increases your cast speed. If you lose mana faster then it's cause you can't top of the tank or you are overhealing = It's not cause of the haste.

I got a tons of whispers daily saying "how do you manage your mana in heroics". Rather get a green item with spirit, than a blue without. Sure you can reforge but it wont be the same in the end. I started of doing heroics at 2100ish regen or even less. Now i got 4100ish.

@Topic. Enchant, tailor ones are for back, not chest.
If you want this to be more of a beginner guide than "already know the basic of their class"-guide then I would like to see you adding some general numbers to e.g. spirit. "When doing heroics it's common to have around 2000" etc.

@Decan Get item with spirit and int = profit. Try to focus on mastery items after that.
Nonetheless, save your haste items. All of a sudden you might be at less than 2% haste like I am -.- (No I'm not blue geared, im more than half epic)

PS: There are some encounters that you currently (Aidscouncil in bastion) need to dispel except Algaloth Latexhealz as stated. Although it's single target dispels and the trash in bastion light+atramedes.

HAHA, I can't believe I missed this.

Fixing the enchants section and moving the cloak enchants where they belong. I knew they were cloak enchants, just oopsed on the section :P

[Ultima]

So 1900 spirit is enough to do heroics?

Surely more than enough, I only have 2k Spirit atm.

Really??? I had it in my build before and now that I don't have it I find the new build way better because I have room for other talents. After really reading it I though yeah that talent is a bit of a waste. But I guess everyone is different.

It's a nice talent for wipe recovery. Not to mention that it's a hell of a boon on Atramedes.

One little thing though - Glyph of Psychic Scream. I think every Priest that's going to PvE should have that glyph.

Good for heroics. Good for not resetting Maloriak when he's nearly dead (fucking lol).

[Marraphy]

30% was this changed recently? At 30% it would be worth taking it. Wait a sec its only all healing received... I guess thats why I didn't take it last time

Blessed Resilience Rank 2
Whenever you are victim of an attack equal to damage greater than 10% of your total health, you gain Blessed Resilience increasing all healing received by 10% lasting for 10 sec.

10%? It's 30%. You would take the talent for the same reason you'd take Focused Will, to increase survivability, only imo 30% healing seems better than 20% less damage. You can't heal if you're dead, which is why survival talents are worth taking.

[iLLFluenT]

I agree with most of the guide except for the crap you talk about renew. Renew is incredible. If a fight has just ended, i throw a renew on anyone missing a bit of health. Also, if a DPS pulls an add, ill throw a renew on them, cuz chances are the tank is going to pull it back or they will fade/soul shatter/feign.... so yeah. Renew is probably my favorite heal we have. Also, Heal is garbage I don't care what anyone says... I don't use it.

[LatexHealz]

I agree with most of the guide except for the crap you talk about renew. Renew is incredible. If a fight has just ended, i throw a renew on anyone missing a bit of health. Also, if a DPS pulls an add, ill throw a renew on them, cuz chances are the tank is going to pull it back or they will fade/soul shatter/feign.... so yeah. Renew is probably my favorite heal we have. Also, Heal is garbage I don't care what anyone says... I don't use it.

Renew does not heal enough per point of mana spent on it.

You are far better off casting other spells, if it was lifebloom.. it would be different. Renew is not enough to save someones life.

Also, saying "Casting renew on someone after a fight JUST ENDED to get their health back up"

Honestly, how does that make renew viable on a raid boss encounter?

Renew on a fight such as, atramedes which I killed with my guild last night, would not come even close to what PoH/heal/gheal/coh can do on that fight.


If you cast renew on someone that just got hit by the aoe, it would do nothing. CoH/PoH/heal would, at a better heal per mana point spent.

[Deleted]

Used directly after a PoH, can increase the amount of aoe healing done in a short time span.

This is actually a bad idea, since after you cast PoH you proc Echo of light (the mastery thingy), if you use CoH immediatly after; you clipping the Echo of light proc from your PoH. And PoH is higher heal than CoH.

You should try not to clip echo of light procs to have the huge benifit from it.

Secondly when renew is renewed by Heal in chakra state serenity it increases the time with 14 sec (i think normal renew is 10 sec). So you can cast renew on 5 members and rotate Heal on the members always keeping renew up without any cost than the Heal cost.

Renew is still so good, since you only have to cast it once on the tank and cast heal once every 14 sec to keep renew rolling. I only cast 1 renew on the tank and keep a heal up every 1-14 sec. Still renew is always in my top 3 of most healing done, since it barely overheal.

I meen 1 renew cost and having it always up and be one of the top heals in meters, thats WOW.

Also a sidenote the whole int>spirit>haste>mastery>crit thingy is pure personally. I use int>spirit>mastery (untill 20%)>haste>crit. I have not much haste, i dont need haste, cuss im not spamming anyway. Further, people who say they never use heal: I bet those are the same people who QQ-ed about being oom within 3 sec L2P.

[LatexHealz]

This is actually a bad idea, since after you cast PoH you proc Echo of light (the mastery thingy), if you use CoH immediatly after; you clipping the Echo of light proc from your PoH. And PoH is higher heal than CoH.

You should try not to clip echo of light procs to have the huge benifit from it.

Secondly when renew is renewed by Heal in chakra state serenity it increases the time with 14 sec (i think normal renew is 10 sec). So you can cast renew on 5 members and rotate Heal on the members always keeping renew up without any cost than the Heal cost.

Renew is still so good, since you only have to cast it once on the tank and cast heal once every 14 sec to keep renew rolling. I only cast 1 renew on the tank and keep a heal up every 1-14 sec. Still renew is always in my top 3 of most healing done, since it barely overheal.

I meen 1 renew cost and having it always up and be one of the top heals in meters, thats WOW.

Also a sidenote the whole int>spirit>haste>mastery>crit thingy is pure personally. I use int>spirit>mastery (untill 20%)>haste>crit. I have not much haste, i dont need haste, cuss im not spamming anyway. Further, people who say they never use heal: I bet those are the same people who QQ-ed about being oom within 3 sec L2P.

I still will never agree with the renew thing with current mechanics :P I mean, if it works for you hey, go for it. I still wouldn't reccomend it, just because in current raids you have to move around so much it's almost impossible to keep renew rolling.. if its rolling, its effective, if its not, it's inneffective.

Playstyle, which is what my guide is about.


The int>blah>blah thing is also more personal choice, just what I use worked for me, and is what I reccomended, I would agree mastery and haste could be switched around like you said though, I will add that thought into the guide.

Thank you all for the feedback!

[Deleted]

I still will never agree with the renew thing with current mechanics :P I mean, if it works for you hey, go for it. I still wouldn't reccomend it, just because in current raids you have to move around so much it's almost impossible to keep renew rolling.. if its rolling, its effective, if its not, it's inneffective.

Renew is still very very good, Renew is bad idd if you cast it and look away. It isnt spammable, its just to mana expensive to spam it. For raiding its still very good. You never move for more then 14 sec...

[Zeernial]

Renew does not heal enough per point of mana spent on it.

You are far better off casting other spells, if it was lifebloom.. it would be different. Renew is not enough to save someones life.

Also, saying "Casting renew on someone after a fight JUST ENDED to get their health back up"

Honestly, how does that make renew viable on a raid boss encounter?

Renew on a fight such as, atramedes which I killed with my guild last night, would not come even close to what PoH/heal/gheal/coh can do on that fight.


If you cast renew on someone that just got hit by the aoe, it would do nothing. CoH/PoH/heal would, at a better heal per mana point spent.

please don`t spread false information

renew does heal enough per point of mana if you have enough haste (12.5%)

at that point it becomes about the same health per mana as heal.

[Kelesti]

please don`t spread false information

renew does heal enough per point of mana if you have enough haste (12.5%)

at that point it becomes about the same health per mana as heal.

Same health per mana, but lower HPS, and higher mana cost.

HPM isn't everything. Otherwise Blizz would give us a 125k heal for 28k mana and call it awesome.

[Dalgan]

This is just what I was looking for, thank you for putting this together.

[LatexHealz]

You are welcome.


My comments on renew aren't necessarily based on Heal / mana cost. I probably shouldn't have said that because it's not really what i was aiming at.

My comments come towards it's just simply more effective to cast a PoH if you need to heal a group of people. The whole renew/heal on 5 people thing works but simply is not viable in current content with the amount of running around you have to do.

Add mastery + PoH glyph and it's like casting renew on 5 people all at the same time, as well as a direct heal.

Again it isn't a matter of theory crafting, but a matter of what is simply more effective in a raid setting when heals need to go off quickly on a lot of different people.