SoS and atonement in same spec?

[zakaluka]

Just fiddling with this idea.

Does anyone have a reasonable way to fit SoS and AA/A into the same spec? I'm toying with the idea of running a hybrid AA spec.

I like predictable 12 second raptures. I like that in SoS spec penance is worth using during moderate AoE. I like how much Renewed Hope and Grace improve my PoH throughput. If there were some way to incorporate well-timed Archangels in there (a few times per fight) without losing too much utility, that'd rock.

Possible sacrificial talents:
- Inspiration. would probably be first to go. My inspiration uptime on tank is very low as it is, because mostly only penance/pw:s and filler heals go his way (from me, anyway).

But, there are still 3 more points to fill somewhere. My other weakest talents would probably be the following.

- I don't GHeal a whole hell of a lot, so Empowered Healing or ToT could possibly go. I really don't like that very much, though.
- Grace. I hateeeee the idea of dropping Grace, though, even though my main role is raid heals. Whatever targets RH and Grace apply to actually help PoH throughput substantially.
- Mental agility? cuts into how good rapture is by a fair bit. Not sure on this one, really like having 3/3 mental agility.
- Soul warding? I rarely need to spam shields, but dropping this would hurt me a fair bit on Ragnaros. During long runs, PW:S Mending Renew PW:S then what? renewspam? ugh.

I can't come up with a way to do this that I'm happy with. The cookie cutter SoS build has been working fine for me, maybe I'll just stick with it.

I see some people that drop inspiration and 1 point of either Mental Agility or SoS to just pick up evangelism/archangel (without atonement). This would mean smites only to fill idle time, and AA used as first cooldown (only once) during ramping-up AoE. Can anyone tell me whether this works?

[Ellumina]

I tend to drop Inspiration based on certain fights and based on talents I might need for a fight. This is the spec I like to run with a lot though (like on H Shannox and H Alysrazor), which has 1/2 SoS and is an AA spec:

http://wowtal.com/#k=veyEfv5.b0w.priest.

I don't use Atonement for the sake of healing anyone really (I prefer to have 1/2 Atonement at least if I choose to pick up AA, so that there is not too much healing downtime), but to build Evangelism stacks for AA. So I sacrifice a point and put it into SoS as need be. If there's a fight where I don't see myself needing SoS, I'll put the point back into Atonement. I generally find 1 point in SoS to be more than enough, and having 2 points in would just be dropping Weakened Soul more quickly than I really need it to be dropped.

[Deleted]

I tried to work with a similar spec in early cata but I found it was hard getting the best from both specs as I was either making best use of atonement or SoS they don't really overlap with each other that well except for AA.

If I was to go back and try it again today then I would only take the points needed to stack and use AA that way by not seeing heals popping off it would force remind me to only cast smites and holy fire for the stacks, atonement healing is decent but the fact that it tends to heal non player characters ( blood worms and pets ) more often then players makes it unreliable also cheap fast spamable heals are addicting.

Actually I'm going to start testing the spec starting today if done right its decent mana return + healing.

[Deleted]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGorRsbfoMochM

Ran with that spec for a while, now that we're progressing on rag (attonement doesn't work) I went for something else. Yes I don't have ToT, so sue me ~

[Deleted]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfroMRsbsRMoMuMZb

Try this. Sacrifices Soul Warding for Darkness and 1 point in SoS for better Rapture procs. I guess this is more geared towards 10 man where shielding isn't that viable and where you focus on haste on your gear to boost your other spells.

[G l o w y r m]

If you're talking 25m, Atonement is only ever worth it in raids for fights that have damage modifiers. This spec of yours will under-perform no matter what you do.

[zakaluka]

It's for 10 man, and I doubt atonement will ever come close to even 1% of my throughput. The main goal is to have AA available as my first throughput cooldown, and hopefully at the same time make the (very sparing) holy fires I cast useful activity time for healing. Every other aspect of my logs will look pretty identical to what you'd expect from a SoS disc priest.

As you say, atonement healing isn't good for this content. Even the logs I've seen with AA/A disc smiting domo didn't really impress me - the disc priest that's smite healing winds up with a reasonably high baseline throughput (15-19k depending on luck with the dmg buff), but that's all you ever get. Baseline. Can't spike for AoE, nothing. In fact, if I were RL I'd tell the priest to stack and do normal AoE for scorp / with atonement heals on cat phase only.

I'm gonna try out Ariadne's suggestion but probably drop inspiration and DP for soul warding and darkness.

[Deleted]

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...talent/primary

Can move the point in Desperate Prayer somewhere else if you want. I'm also running low Mental Agility, could drop that to zero.

[babylon]

if sos is only for raptures, as a mana regen, maybe veiled shadows would be better? you mention penance, but i assume you mean renewed hope talent, which ofc is great to have.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGorosbsRMochZh
heres example of sos+archangel build, id drop inspiration for darkness(output), physical damage on tanks didnt seem significant till ragnaros normal on 2 healers, and then stopped feeling significant again on first 4 heroics fights (dunno hows later). this is of course discussable, if your tanks are dying and/or tank healers run oom, then ofc take inspiration instead of darkness.

[Wuga]

I use http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfMorRsbsRMochMZb for everything except Rag (drop MA for 2 Darkness/1 SoS). You can certainly drop inspiration, tank damage feels very light in general on 10 man.

[Deleted]

I'm running with http://wowtal.com/#k=veyN01bsC.b0w.priest. you may want to skip Surge of Light to get SoS though
SoL proccs are nice to have and i dont miss the -2sec cd on my shields (they're way to expensive to throw them nonstop and if i want to cast two in a row I mix in a PoM or flash/binding/greater heal

I'm raiding 10m with ~1900mst, 1000crt, 200 hst, 2200 mana and having no problems regarding mana or healing so far

[Ultima]

It's easy to get both, but the reason no-one ever takes both is because you can't really appreciate both in the same encounter and you lose stuff that is nice.

At the end of the day, do what you want. I love Surge of Light and therefore have it in my Atonement spec. I don't take Inspiration because we have a Shaman. I also take Desperate Prayer and Focused Will so that I never die and can take the odd risk.

edit: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/tool/tal...Qg!d!UgTQkPlnK

I feel ashamed of that one point in Darkness.

[zakaluka]

holy fire is amazing, even in an aoe rotation. gheal is pretty lackluster until you're spot healing or tank healing. hf on cooldown = archangel whenever i need it! All I lose is insp and 1 point of empowered healing. Considering how little gheal shows up in my logs, worth it.

thanks for all the input.