Holy Priests + PW:S - rare?

[partizan]

There was a thread over on the WoW Priest forums talking about healing rotations/priorities as holy. I can't find the post now (of course), but a few people mentioned using PW:S on tanks prior to pulling. I initially tried doing this when I swapped from Disc to Holy, but it seemed like after the increased mana cost that I was just going OOM constantly trying to keep a shield up on the tank and then drop heals as well. Now I don't even pre-shield anymore, I just hit the tank with a POM, pop Chakra, and wait to drop Renew + Heals to get into HW:Serenity.

Am I right in thinking that pre-shielding as holy now is somewhat... pointless? Or should I look back into incorporating it into my rotations now that my gear's improved a bit?

[Mikayo]

As holy I will pre-shield, then as needed during the fight but it isn't something I use often because of the mana cost. I don't go oom because of it though; not sure what your gear is like but with proper mana cd management pre-shielding shouldn't cause you to go oom.

**use inner will for your pre-shields and fiend earlier if needed; who knows, you might get a 3rd fiend during your fight

[Syrril]

I can still see a use for it when there's adds at the beginning of a pull. It should buy you a bit more time before starting your healing so you won't get snap aggro.

[Deleted]

I can still see a use for it when there's adds at the beginning of a pull. It should buy you a bit more time before starting your healing so you won't get snap aggro.

Shields count as healing for aggro so it doesn't really help. If anything a pre-shield is more likely to get you snap aggro, but that's what fade is for.

[Aiurwyn]

Pre-shielding is zero aggro. You do it before the pull. If you shield as the tank is pulling that will get you aggro, but it isn't a pre-shielding either.

[dicertification]

Zero aggro from pre-shielding.

Edit: Way to late on my post lol, just noticed there is no option to delete post. Will have to be more careful in the future.

[Zodisius]

PW:S is rare as a Holy priest. I use it for the speed increase mainly, but I do use it to prevent damage and give me/other healers more time to get heals out. In your OP you say you pre-shield and then later you say that you try to keep shields up on the tanks. Which play-style are you? Pre-shield = OK; keeping shields up on the tanks = waste of time.

[BRKc50]

I pre-shield and I use it in emergencies especially if I cant get a heal off in time to save someone.

[Deleted]

Pre-shielding is zero aggro. You do it before the pull. If you shield as the tank is pulling that will get you aggro, but it isn't a pre-shielding either.

When the shield absorbs damage you get aggro as though you healed the amount absorbed. So yes the actual cast is zero aggro, but first hit on the tank and you can get snap aggro.

[Siri]

Unless you can give some kind of source on that I'm going to assume that "healing" with absorbs generates no aggro what so ever. Applying the shield does generate some aggro because buffing someone generates a small bit of aggro.
Tons of times have I had 10+ shields (320k+ worth of healing) break at the same time on Cho'gall just as an adherent spawns and it doesn't give me any aggro at all. I really think you're all just imagining things.

Regarding the original issue you shouldn't be shielding as holy unless you're running and all the other instant are on cooldown OR if you want the speed increase from Body and Soul.

[Kelesti]

There's a fair bit of misinformation here, let me try to clear it up.

First off: Casting a Power Word: Shield before combat causes zero threat. Threat is dealt out on the cast, a percentage of the shield's total value, not how much of that absorb is used. To direct back to the OP, yes, shields should be rare when you cast them, but they're still an alright spell to use as an instant "oh crap" to buy you time for another one. Just treat them like Flash Heal, using more than a couple hinders your mana pool so learn where you can get by without using them.

Secondly, this is more in response to Lohe, threat dealt out by heal/shield aggro is done not only on cast, but since I don't know the ratio of shield/threat since 2.X mechanics outdated them all to hell, I'll use Heal as an example.

You land a Heal, and its output is 8k. Great. That turns into 4k threat. My level 76 Prot Warrior has revenge crits higher than that, so it's not really an issue on single target stuff, or even snap aggro (unless you're already in melee range of a spawn?) Multi target is where it gets interesting, because unlike damage, healing aggro is split between applicable targets. You have eight little oozlings on the ground, they each get 500 threat, where a single death and decay can outweigh that.

So it doesn't matter that your shields break as the adherant spawns, they'd need to be cast as he spawns. Which would generate threat split between both him and Cho'gall. And given the limitations of the Global Cooldown, Paladins with Beacon and Righteous Fury have a hard time pushing out enough threat to "grab" something like that.

[Vook]

I only use PW:S in a pinch, as Holy. High mana cost, but instant 19k "heal" is good in a pinch.

[Kacie]

I use it mainly for the speed buff, i don't really shield tanks that much, because we have a disc priest in our raid, and he says i distrupt his healing when i use shields so i mainly use it to save someone like running on Atramedes or Valiona flames, and sometimes to save my own life

[Deleted]

I use it only for speedbuff and when someone gets so low that I'm afraid they might die before they get heals. Since I'm a holy priest, I'm the raid healer and can't spend several seconds casting direct heals on the tanks for example. If they go below 20%, a shield has a good chance of saving them for the massive direct heal our holy pala is probably casting.

I tend to use a lot of shields on our offtank on maloriak since he kites the adds.

[Deleted]

I shield tank mostly during trash pulls..(in normal Heroic randoms) when they are geared bad...this helps them with staying easier alive...Raids i don't know yet...am only active in that world for 2 weeks now

[Siri]

You land a Heal, and its output is 8k. Great. That turns into 4k threat. My level 76 Prot Warrior has revenge crits higher than that, so it's not really an issue on single target stuff, or even snap aggro (unless you're already in melee range of a spawn?) Multi target is where it gets interesting, because unlike damage, healing aggro is split between applicable targets. You have eight little oozlings on the ground, they each get 500 threat, where a single death and decay can outweigh that.

Thanks for the information which is completely irrelevant. As far as game mechanics go an absorb is not a heal. The glyph of PW:S generates aggro if it actually heals the target, the absorb itself does not. You'll have to excuse my somewhat hostile tone but I'm slightly tired of people talking out of their asses.

I went to Elwynn Forest, proximity pulled a mob. I shield myself (without the PW:S glyph) and I generate a startling 11 threat from a shield that absorbs 19000 points of damage. The mob keeps hitting me and I generate no further aggro.

I now did the same with a Sand Pygmy in Uldum. Proximity pull, shield up. 11 threat. Let shield break... still 11 threat.

Get into a spec with rapture, let shield break, generates threat from the gained mana, has nothing to do with the absorb.

As thus, if people say I am wrong, can they at least try things out first?

[ramennoodleking]

Thanks for the information which is completely irrelevant. As far as game mechanics go an absorb is not a heal. The glyph of PW:S generates aggro if it actually heals the target, the absorb itself does not. You'll have to excuse my somewhat hostile tone but I'm slightly tired of people talking out of their asses.

I went to Elwynn Forest, proximity pulled a mob. I shield myself (without the PW:S glyph) and I generate a startling 11 threat from a shield that absorbs 19000 points of damage. The mob keeps hitting me and I generate no further aggro.

I now did the same with a Sand Pygmy in Uldum. Proximity pull, shield up. 11 threat. Let shield break... still 11 threat.

Get into a spec with rapture, let shield break, generates threat from the gained mana, has nothing to do with the absorb.

As thus, if people say I am wrong, can they at least try things out first?

I think you have reading comprehension problems. Kel stated that the shields generate threat upon cast, just like you proved with your mini-experiment. You must be having a bad day or something.

---------- Post added 2011-03-17 at 06:18 PM ----------

So it doesn't matter that your shields break as the adherant spawns, they'd need to be cast as he spawns. Which would generate threat split between both him and Cho'gall. And given the limitations of the Global Cooldown, Paladins with Beacon and Righteous Fury have a hard time pushing out enough threat to "grab" something like that.

There, I bolded the part you seemed to have missed

[Skarrd]

I generally use PW:S as a "flash heal" on my priest if damage is still coming out quickly, since it "heals" instantly vs FH which will take a full global before it works. I also like to shield flash freeze targets on maloriak so they can be broken instantly without having to wait for a bunch of big ol heals to come out. It has its place, but it is rather rare and I probably use it for B&S more than the actual absorb.