atonement vs Non atonement

[scotty823j]

Was considering other specs and ive always been this build for disc priests, with my gear and depending on fight in FL my average is 14 HPS sometimes its higher, sometimes its lower depending on what other healers we have and what kinda damage we are taking. with that im usually in the top heals or right in the mix with he rest of the healers.

My question is, do you think i could do better as atonement? and can someone link me there armory to there build for atonement so i may take a look http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lryduff/simple also any other things you notice i should do please feel free. I know my helm is junk, but cant seem to get the helm in FL..


Thanks in advance

[Jinivus]

Attonement builds aren't actually for attonement sans H Domo.. They're for evangelism, the healing buff on demand(just using holy fire on CD keeps your stacks rolling efficiently) and the slightly less important mana return.
It's worth it if you'll use it correctly.

[Sakamae]

This is a pretty standard non-atonement build, other than the 2 points in darkness being put in veiled shadows, this is the spec that I run with if I'm disc healing. My MS is shadow, so the situation doesn't come up too often where I'm asked to heal.

The atonement vs. non-atonement argument with the current tier is really fight specific, 10M vs. 25M and normal vs. hard modes. There are situations where one is more beneficial than the other, but it's mostly play style preference that dictates which you run with over the raw output and viability, imo. I'm curious to see if anyone has gotten to play around on the PTR (unfortunately I haven't yet) with the changes to atonement for 4.3? Particularly the increased range of 100 yards now. I would think that is a huge buff to atonement healing, for 10M especially.

A common atonement spec can be seen here. I haven't tried atonement healing in a raid situation, but our main disc priest had about the same output numbers, plus 8k+ dps on Ragnaros 10 man normal mode last week (we're 6/7HM atm) messing around with atonement, compared to healing non-atonement the week before. He came up with a spec that still includes strength of soul and soul warding, which I like better than the above spec. You can see that spec here. Like I said earlier, it's mostly a play style preference to what you prefer.

[jifjosh]

It's up to your individual style, should try both. I personally detest archangel because I'm almost always babysitting the tanks, so SOS/TOT are worth far more to me, but I can see where that extra healing cooldown would be quite potent. Practice with what feels right and makes you happy (though get some macros for atonement so you don't have to retarget your mobs)

[scotty823j]

It's up to your individual style, should try both. I personally detest archangel because I'm almost always babysitting the tanks, so SOS/TOT are worth far more to me, but I can see where that extra healing cooldown would be quite potent. Practice with what feels right and makes you happy (though get some macros for atonement so you don't have to retarget your mobs)

That is why im hesitant ...i dont see the time to DPS

[Eyevory]

That is why im hesitant ...i dont see the time to DPS

I love atonement spec! Its fun! Even if I am tank healing I find it effective. Particularly if you are smiting the tank's target --it is a smart heal that will heal a nearby target, usually ends up being the tank or a melee if they are low. Also, don't feel like you are stuck smiting for 5 stacks. Just use it when you would use a "heal."

For example, for tank healing I might: PW:S/Prayer of Mending on tank >> Holy fire on Tank's Target >> Penance on tank, maybe a renew >> go get a couple smites in on tank's target>> PW:S/Prayer of Mending on tank again >> go get last smite in on tank's target. Then I am at 5 stacks and I can choose to continue to smite heal, benefiting from the 6% mana reduction and 4% more dmg/healing of those spells, or I can blow my {{pretty}} wings, get 1% of my mana back and get a 3% buff in time for my next penance on tank, or prayer of healing to help group.

I always get my wings ready before I plan to use hymn, or spamming prayer of healing.

If I am raid healing, I do a lot of smiting if we are stacked enough (Major Domo Scorpion!), then blow wings and spam prayer of healing for divine aegis deliciousness.

I encourage you to give it a try!

---------- Post added 2011-10-04 at 03:31 PM ----------

Also, I believe smite heals do proc cauterizing flame! That's a free 10,000 smart heal. Smite is really the only thing we can afford to spam, so I would guess we get more use out of our 4 piece.

[scotty823j]

I love atonement spec! Its fun! Even if I am tank healing I find it effective. Particularly if you are smiting the tank's target --it is a smart heal that will heal a nearby target, usually ends up being the tank or a melee if they are low. Also, don't feel like you are stuck smiting for 5 stacks. Just use it when you would use a "heal."

For example, for tank healing I might: PW:S/Prayer of Mending on tank >> Holy fire on Tank's Target >> Penance on tank, maybe a renew >> go get a couple smites in on tank's target>> PW:S/Prayer of Mending on tank again >> go get last smite in on tank's target. Then I am at 5 stacks and I can choose to continue to smite heal, benefiting from the 6% mana reduction and 4% more dmg/healing of those spells, or I can blow my {{pretty}} wings, get 1% of my mana back and get a 3% buff in time for my next penance on tank, or prayer of healing to help group.

I always get my wings ready before I plan to use hymn, or spamming prayer of healing.

If I am raid healing, I do a lot of smiting if we are stacked enough (Major Domo Scorpion!), then blow wings and spam prayer of healing for divine aegis deliciousness.

I encourage you to give it a try!

---------- Post added 2011-10-04 at 03:31 PM ----------

Also, I believe smite heals do proc cauterizing flame! That's a free 10,000 smart heal. Smite is really the only thing we can afford to spam, so I would guess we get more use out of our 4 piece.

Im going to try it out today when servers are back up, whats funny is i looked at your build and gear and comments in other posts and added your toon to my favorites to kinda have a guide, and when i cam back here you commented, just a coincidence... so should i be taking on more haste now and dumping some mastery

[jifjosh]

That is why im hesitant ...i dont see the time to DPS

You aren't dpsing so much as you are preparing your archangel cooldown, and the spells you use to prep that also happen to spot heal during phases of low damage.

To get used to it I'd just keep Holy Fire on cooldown with an assist macro (I'm rusty at macros if someone wants to supply one). I'd probably ignore smite off at the start, and when you feel the need for more oomph for your heals, then you will have AA up, provided you've been keeping HF on cooldown.