Holy priest too much spirit?

[iHEARTRogues]

So I can't seem to find an answer anywhere on here dealing with recent 4.2 changes so.... here's my question.

Is there such a thing as TOO MUCH spirit as a Holy priest? I've been told multiple times now that I need to get more regen, more regen, more regen, spirit = regen. So I have about 2600 spirit, which is 4000 regen out of combat and 3400 in combat. I feel like I'm gimping my mana pool by stacking that much spirit because I can still run out of mana as soon as I have to start healing more than two people. I've read guide after guide of stats and stat priority, and spell priority. I even switch chakra and self buffs during fights when need be, I still feel like I'm doing something wrong because my mana pool drains sooo much. Am I being inefficient with my mana? Or maybe gimping my my mana pool by having too much spirit? Is that even plausible? I'm beginning to get very frustrated with my priest and don't understand why I can't keep my mana up with the amount of regen I have.

HELP!!!

Armory link: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../swizzi/simple

PS.I know my boots are gemed, I just recently picked them up.

[Ynna]

There is a thing like too much Spirit, but it's different to each Priest. You have too much Spirit when you end a fight (that's relevant content for you) with mana left. This can be modified a bit, since not every fight goes equally smooth, but if you routinely end fights with more than 50% mana left, you have too much Spirit.
If your mana pool drains quickly it's unlikely that it's because of too much Spirit. Spirit is the prime regen stat for a Holy Priest.

If you want we could probably help you out and see what the problem is. How do you heal? Which heals do you use in what situation?

[Danner]

Is there such a thing as TOO MUCH spirit as a Holy priest?

As long as you do not carry the awesome T11-4set bonus or the T12-2set bonus, the answer is generally no. Before you get either you should absolutely make sure to have spirit on every item. Reforging into spirit will generally leave you mana starved as a holy priest, and dropping spirit alltogether on items will make you a liability both in heroics and raids.

When you get those tier bonuses, you have a little more freedom, and will have to decide on your playstyle. By keeping spirit on every item you can afford to waste mana a little - you can afford to actually start to use Sanctuary, you can throw a few extra renews around, and you can spam PoH a little harder.

Or you can hold back on the mana in favor of making your burst healing stronger when it matters, but generally be more mana starved. Which style is better is generally up to you. Personally I like being able to be a little wasteful and I feel that the holypriest is very good at being able to burn mana for extra throughput when needed, so for me, going down the "extra mana" path gives me more flexibility. But gearing options do not really allow for this path in firelands unless you are willing to work extremely hard for gear.

[Deleted]

Unless you're sacking int for spirit there is no such thing as to much spirit in my book as a holy priest.

[iHEARTRogues]

For the most part I'm spamming heal which refreshes my renew, and tossing out PoM when I notice one isn't up. I bubble and renew people that are taking damage but aren't priority. When the group starts taking heavy damage I sometimes switch chakra, if I feel I'm going to be AOE healing, and do a quick CoH to keep everyone up and then a PoH if need be. I rarely use flash heal, unless its a free cast, or the tank is dropping like a rock. I don't hesitate to blow CD's I typically give a GS on each boss fight, pop my spirit trinket, HoH and SF. One thing I don't do that much, that I know I should be doing is using Serenity. That's the one spell that doesn't get enough use, I do use it, just not every time it's up.

I think that kinda sums up my healing... I've read and reread your guide and I try and follow it as best I can... I just can't comprehend why I'm always out of mana... it's very irritating.

[Deleted]

Short answer: If you have no problems with your mana, you can decrease your spirit.

[Penric]

In Firelands I am a spirit whore and am still having mana issues at the end of the fight. I am sure in time when everyone is used to the boss fights and knows what not to do, then my healing wont be so intensive. But for now the healing is pretty chaotic.

[iHEARTRogues]

So I'm not raiding Fire Lands yet, I want to but for some reason I'm having difficulties healing ZA/ZG. I've done a lot of T11 raiding and could heal that just fine. I would always be out of mana, but that was at the end of the fight, not 1/3 or halfway through them. I can do regular heroics with my eyes closed for the most part, and don't even have to stop to drink if I'm in one for some reason. I feel like I'm geared well enough that ZA/ZG should be a breeze for me, I mean I'm almost ilvl 359... I mean I have ended fights with over 10k HPS, and only like 15% over heals, and thats typically from renew or EoL... I just don't get it. I'm going to run a WorldofLogs tonight and post that, that way you can fully understand what I'm doing.

[Deleted]

So I'm not raiding Fire Lands yet, I want to but for some reason I'm having difficulties healing ZA/ZG. I've done a lot of T11 raiding and could heal that just fine. I would always be out of mana, but that was at the end of the fight, not 1/3 or halfway through them. I can do regular heroics with my eyes closed for the most part, and don't even have to stop to drink if I'm in one for some reason. I feel like I'm geared well enough that ZA/ZG should be a breeze for me, I mean I'm almost ilvl 359... I mean I have ended fights with over 10k HPS, and only like 15% over heals, and thats typically from renew or EoL... I just don't get it. I'm going to run a WorldofLogs tonight and post that, that way you can fully understand what I'm doing.

That's the instance right there. I've had slight problems running it as Disc right before Firelands, being 359/372ish geared. There's quite alot of damage going on on some specific packs aswell as bosses.

Allthough right now I dont use anything but smite and holy fire when running that instance.

[iHEARTRogues]

I'm about ready to give Disc a try... I am not very familiar with the spec but, I just am getting more and more frustrated as holy. I've played holy since TBC. It's(was) my bread and butter but right now I just can't seem to make it work...

[JGWentworth]

I'm about ready to give Disc a try... I am not very familiar with the spec but, I just am getting more and more frustrated as holy. I've played holy since TBC. It's(was) my bread and butter but right now I just can't seem to make it work...

what issues are you having?

[iHEARTRogues]

Don't want to sound like an ass but, did you read the posts?

To sum it up, I don't have a very large mana pool (86k), I have 2600 spirit(4k regen O/C 3.4k I/C), and 80% of fights I'm running out of mana wayyyy too early. I'm being as efficient as I can with my heals, I use Binding heal when I'm low, switch chakra to account for group damage or mostly tank damage and yada yada...

And the reason I ask if I have too much spirit is because I went on the armory and looked at top guilds from my current server (Sargeras) and my last server (Ner'Zhul) and I seem to have almost double the amount of spirit as their Holy Priests... Why am I running out of mana soo fast??!

Also, I will run some stuff and post a WoL report later today if you all would care to see...

[Cellery]

Looking at your armory, I'd say you are indeed gimping your int. But not by stacking too much spirit. You're putting hybrid gems in EVERY SLOT. Red slot = Int gem. Period. Every single one seems to have a haste/int. You're gonna rape your mana pool with that.

I've found holy priests having issues in ZA/ZG when they're casting the wrong stuff. There's times to burst a lot of mana & output. And there's times where PoM, a renew here or there, and Heal will do the job. And my biggest petpeeve are holy priests putting down Holy Puddle in ZA/ZG on ONE TARGET. That'll oom you real fast.

You might also look at how you're managing your mana cooldowns. Are you using the Core on cooldown? Are you using it at an appropriate time?

Long story short--I figure in current gear even with t11 4pc or t12 2pc bonuses, as long as you're not gemming for spirit except for blue sockets for a worthwhile socket bonus, there's no such thing as too much spirit. Holy's REALLY good at just burning through your mana pool. The trick is knowing which cast is appropriate... and timing your cooldowns. It's crucial.

Edit: Also, you should consider running Glyph of Circle of Healing instead of Glyph of Inner Fire if you're doing anything bigger than a 5man.

[iHEARTRogues]

I do need to switch my gems... I had forgot about that, I used all the 20/20 gems because I was actually really low on spirit before I was fully geared. Could it really be that simple?!? I'm going to kick myself if it is...

Honestly, I'm very conscious of my CDs. I hold of on using them until I desperately need them. I'm not afraid to blow one before a boss fight just because I might not have it back in time but, i also do just throw out a SF when I'm sitting at 80% mana.

I will regem, I know that it IS needed, and I'm not raiding currently so I will hold off on the CoH glyph for now but, thanks for the reminder on that.

Thank you all for the help!

[Deleted]

I bubble and renew people that are taking damage but aren't priority.

About some part of your gameplay, maybe you're using too much bubbles as holy?
Looking at numbers I find flash heal better to use, taking advantage of talents : serendipity, surge of light, mastery, crit. Or simply POM with its glyph instead of bubble which is even more efficient.

[Cellery]

Your gear's really not bad and definitely should hold up through ZA/ZG. The hardest pulls, I find, are the ones in ZA with the Flame Casters. You'll want to be sure to dispel the haste buff they get when there's not a shaman or mage to do it. That will help your mana considerably :P

It seems like there's some minor changes you can make that'll make a good difference but the biggest thing you can do is probably address your spell choices. Binding heal's awesome in a pinch. But if it's an emergency, would it be more effective to GS the tank, hit Desperate Prayer on yourself, Holy Word HEALMOARBETTER the tank, hit a FH/GH combo, and be done? Rather than casting 5 Binding Heals? Bubbles are NOT an efficient use of mana for a holy priest. Sure you can use them sparingly--they're not a disc-only spell! But they probably shouldn't be in your standard routine especially if you don't have Body & Soul.

Remember to PoM off the tank (I usually do it on cooldown even in 5s, with glyph it's highly efficient)
Maintain renew on the tank, use it to top off people that aren't taking a lot of dmg
CoH is a generally nice and efficient choice as well.

Other than that, fill with Heal, FH/GH in a pinch. Hit FH when SoL procs. And don't be afraid to use your cooldowns

Edit: You could also consider taking the 1 point you have in Rapid Renewal and moving it over to fill out Mental Agility. You won't really be renew blanketing in a 5man

Edit#2: Crap, you can't move Rapid Renewal over because you haven't specced into B&S so don't have enough points in Holy. If you're not using your Shadowfiend often anyway, you can take the 2 points from Veiled Shadows and move that to Body & Soul and the 1 point in Rapid Renewal swapped to Mental Agility.

Edit#413: A trinket that's more about regen than throughput might also help you out. Tear of Blood from Stonecore would probably help you more than Gale of Shadows.

[Tween]

Pffft to much spirit? NEVER!

Once I get the tier shoulders off of Cho'gal my alt hpriest will have nearly 4k spirit during fights... (2 spirit trinkets) it allows the raid to start 2 healing more fights because i can stretch my mana that much further. casting the heals around the raid and not simply on my group.
it's also great for ZA/ZG's and heroic runs in general because i often find that the speed of the run is often determined by the healers mana, and if i'm sitting at 60% before a boss i know it okay for the tank to pull because my regen supports it.

Overall i think spirit is similar to into in that it lengthens the life of your mana pool, just like a larger one would.

[Zubacz]

With the current game mechanics, there really isn't such a thing for a priest as having too much spirit. There might be some circumstances when it is viable to take a much higher iLev item (hence more intelect) with no spirit, but it's rare. If there are fights where you consistently end up with mana at the end, just use more mana inefficient heals. Like Flash Heal. It is much easier to control this as a discipline priest though I guess, since you just adjust the amount of Shields you can uphold.

[Deleted]

Cellery gave you some good advice

New gems might help, but won't solve your problems entirely. Tear of Blood is really worth to get (http://www.wowhead.com/item=56351) as it helps regen and throughput, or DMC tsunami if you have some gold to spare ;-)

You could also get 3/3 Mental Agility (instead of one point in Darkness or Veiled Shadows).

Other than that it must be your choice of spells.

Or if you are just having trouble in ZA/ZG and not in raids it might be your party members: If they don't use things like focus fire, CC, tanking CDs or do really low damage those dungeons can be really hard to heal.

[iHEARTRogues]

I guess now I didn't realize the mana cost of bubble... I think for my play style I should move points around and get talent that I can make use of. My spec was tailored to me being under geared before, I didn't look at or even think that could of been the problem.

Thanks again for all the help! Definately wouldn't have looked that much into it without a little nudge.