Why are we being forced to use Heal

[Deviante]

It's like going back to the days when we still used Gheal rank1, sooo awesome

[Zehlkatur]

I'm sorry to say this but if you have to spam flash heal to keep the tank up it becomes a gear question. Sure, if you're only using heal, but remeber the other spells like renew and PoM, I'm healing like I allways healed and having no problems with it, just having more fun than usual due to PW:Chastise

[Groovemaster]

I miss being able to just spam flash heal, I don't like heal.

[harky]

It always confuses me why people have issues spamming one button, but like spamming another. Is it really that much of a difference to you? It can't be the numbers, because the new Heal is about equal to the old Flash Heal. Do you just not like casting a spell that takes ~1.7-2 seconds? The times when you should be using Heal, Greater Heal is your primary spell anyway. Heal is for rolling Renew and managing low-stress situations. Same as Flash Heal was pre-4.0. So odd.

[angael]

Only thing I don't like about it is the speed it casts at. Wish it would be like a medium speed heal between greater and flash...

[harky]

That kind of defeats the purpose of the new model, which is the vanilla model. That is you have a fast and a slow heal, then a downranked slow heal. The slow heal was the workhorse, the fast heal for spot healing and the downranked slow heal was the bread and butter spell you cast sort of whenever you felt like it. Having Heal be say 2 seconds base would defeat the purpose unless it also had its healing reduce proportionally. However, since it would still be faster it would potentially be more useful than intended. If you don't like the speed get more haste.

[Deleted]

The problem for me is that I need a fast spell. It can heal little, but I need a fast one. When Penance is on cooldown and I can't use shield on the target but need an immediate heal... wtf do I do? Without losing most of my mana. I miss flash heal as a good, nice option. But then again, my disc priest is only 64 at the moment, maybe it gets better?

It's especially painful in PVP.

[Kelesti]

That's exactly the point, Zimz. If you need a "fast heal", you should be reaching for Flash Heal. If you need to have any sort of healing going out, Heal (or Smite, since you're Discipline), just so long as it's "there", will fill that gap most of the time. When you need to be fast, use Flash, but those times should be fewer than they were before.

[Deleted]

I know, it's just that it really does burn through my mana way too fast at the moment. I mean at Level 64 one flash heal costs 1/8 of my mana. That's imo a little bit too much. But like I said, I have hopes that that will change when I'm 80.

[Kelesti]

It'll change, if you can get to 80 and get yourself raid geared within a month. But after that, it goes back down to what you are experiencing now.

[angael]

GH and FH will need to cost 5 times what it's now to make me use Heal, it's way too freaking slow for the amount it heals. Attonement alone outheals that and does dps at the same time, all while charging up archangel which is like a mana pot out of thin air. Throw some shields, prayer of mending, renew.... it's way more efficient than heal in any way shape or form.

The only situation where I can see it being useful is if you need to pre cast a heal on someone who's gonna take a very very small amount of damage, and it has to be only 1 person or else prayer of healing becomes a better option, or even holy nova while at it, lol.

Also on the priest page I see this :
Heal *New* - Heal your target for 2339.95 to 2719.4. / 9% of base mana, 40 yd range, 3 sec cast

last time I tried, even with over 3k SP this Heal spell barely did 3.5k, did it change along with the dps hotfix that happened after patch?

IMO it should heal for as much as flash heal, with less mana at the cost of slower cast time.

Cuz right now if that number is right, 1 PW: S is like 3 Heal.... without any cast time and gives mana back afterward. Worse case scenario, wait for the guy to take a bit more dmg and penance him, each tick is much stronger than a Heal...

how can heal be doing barely 3.5k? my heal is doing 6.6k roughly with my flash heal doing 7-8k

[Solfire]

The problem for me is that I need a fast spell. It can heal little, but I need a fast one. When Penance is on cooldown and I can't use shield on the target but need an immediate heal... wtf do I do? Without losing most of my mana. I miss flash heal as a good, nice option. But then again, my disc priest is only 64 at the moment, maybe it gets better?

It's especially painful in PVP.

If you only need a little heal, then it shouldn't matter if it takes long to get there. If you need an immediate heal, then use the more expensive flash heal. Also don't forget heal reduces the shield debuff, I found that very fun to play with in dungeons. I also found myself using PI on myself in those "Oh crap" moments, it'll allow those slow cheap heals to feel a lot faster, throw in your inner focus if you're low on mana and could use a crit. (my experience is level 50-ish, with no haste so I had it as slow as it could go)

Just remember to use your toolbox; renew, PoM, shield, penance/CoH, Inner Focus, Power Infusion, Guardian Spirit/Pain Suppression. Don't be afraid of mana pots or using your CDs, it's what they're there for. You can even try pre-casting heal and jumping before it goes off if not needed. (Mana is spent at the end of a cast...right? I always just assumed >_>)

[davie]

(Mana is spent at the end of a cast...right? I always just assumed >_>)

correct, was always a tactic in vanilla to cast a heal but cancel it last second if you were regening some mana, if the tank needs a sudden heal your there ready, if not you cancel and carry on regening.

I think people who have played vanilla as a healer will have a lot easier time with cata

[Kelesti]

correct, was always a tactic in vanilla to cast a heal but cancel it last second if you were regening some mana, if the tank needs a sudden heal your there ready, if not you cancel and carry on regening.

I think people who have played vanilla as a healer will have a lot easier time with cata

Or those of us that were healing in the first half of BC, still using downranking and stopcasting.

[Ultima]

So logged onto my priest last night for the first time since the patch and tried heal which blizz wants us to use now and boy does it suck.

I don't see why we would use a Greater Heal cast time heal that heals for 1/3 of a Greater Heal or half a flash heal.

So is anyone actually using 'Heal'

Skimmed the first page and I saw no-one answered your question. I now see a debate has kicked off by the third page, so I will try to answer it now in-case they go off track.

Basically, we do not have t use Heal at the moment in Wrath. I do it sometimes as a Chakra state to get used to what we will be doing in Cata, but it's in no way required at this point in time.

However, in Cataclysm, we will need to use Heal. It is mana effecient, and we have a way to enhance it's power.

So, yes. Heal looks terribad at the moment, you don't run out of mana spamming Flash, so what's the point? The point is, we don't need to use it yet

[davie]

Or those of us that were healing in the first half of BC, still using downranking and stopcasting.

Definately.

Just have to think of Heal as the old Gheal rank 1.

[Kelesti]

Definately.

Just have to think of Heal as the old Gheal rank 1.

I didn't heal in Vanilla. I played a lollock.

[davie]

I didn't heal in Vanilla. I played a lollock.

Good job you saw the light and rolled your priest

[PraLiNeN]

The slow cheap heal is like bringing back down-ranking again, (almost).

[dekadron]

Just wanted to say that using smite in the place of heal, for now, in 25's, makes me very nervous. It seemed to me there's no guarantee that the atonement effect will go to the tank. This obviously depends on what fight you're doing and how much melee you're running. For example, LK during valks it would work since the tank is the only one on the LK, but not at other times. It may be more effective in 10's.

I'm going to experiment with using it mainly to get the archangel boost to healing for clutch points in the fight.