Are Priests Broken Atm Or Is It Just Me ?

[3Dthreat]

Lately since cata came out lvling my priest was my main intention, i did think that it was going to be "easy" healing reg. dungeons, for the most part i was right, their were some situations where i would go oom after a few pulls but nothing too major. When I got to lvl 85, i was happy that i could do heroics, i knew that they were going to be much more of a challenge than reg. dungeons, But I Didn't know that i would go oom around ~65-50% of the bosses health. i did all i could to regen mana pop Shadowfiend Hymm of Hope and it would get me to about 40% mana and while all of this is happening the raid is taking damage from my healing down time trying to regain as much mana as i could, I would throw a few Flash Heals on him renew PW:Shield and id be oom again.... so basically i am screwed and we have about 40% of the boss remaining and i cant do anything except wait until i have enough mana to cast either my Greater heal or Flash Heal. and by the time that happens we're usually all dead, And Evangelism+Archangel is severely broken. currently Archangel restores 5% of your mana after casting 5 smites implying that you don't miss any, at lvl 85 smite costs around 2.2k mana and after casting 5 smites implying that i dont miss any would bring me down from ~30% to 15% mana and after popping archangel would bring me up to 20%, So you are still losing 10% mana after all of that work. right now speccing into archangel imo is pointless but its a talent you kind of have to spec into in order to get to the third tier of talents. We just need a buff/talent that regens mana faster or our major emergecy spells not cost as much.

[ramennoodleking]

Well, first off, let me please beg you to use paragraphs when asking for help. That was really (honestly) a pain to read.

If you are missing with smite, it's because you aren't glyphing for it. If you are going to go with that build, then you need to get the glyph. I forgot what it's called as I don't play Disc, but I think it's divine Accuracy or something. It basically hit caps your smite.

Flash Heal is ONLY for emergencies. I'm talking if they Tank's HP drops to <25%, cast it maybe once.

Be sure to make use of all your CDs on boss encounters: Pain Suppression and Power Word: Barrier.

I can't tell you if it's simply a L2P issue since I have no logs or true basis to work from, but healing in Cataclysm is a symbiotic thing: The tank/dps HAS to work with the healer. Tanks/dps who are interrupting spells, avoiding fire, dpsing the right targets, kiting properly, etc, will significantly reduce your mana usage. On the other hand, YOU casting the proper spells at the proper moments will also be key to sustaining your mana.

In a guild run, I can end boss fights with +50% mana or more without using a single mana cooldown. In pugs, I find that I'm shadowfiending much more often. In your case, I think that it's a little of both--you havn't come to terms with the new healing, and groups you are in are still possibly in the wrath mentality.

[Deleted]

short answer just you

[stuperdude]

Apparently the search function is broken.

On Topic: They're just extremely difficult to play at the moment, given the change in playstyle from LoLspam to conservative. It'll get changed either through mana regen balancing or adaptation on our part.

[cruxxy]

Try Holy...

[Omgabear]

Indeed what ramenoodleking said.
I just finished a random heroic, last boss only.
I went Oom at 70%. Pop Shadowfiend and Hymn, get only 1 tick since people start taking huge damage.
Then, i went Oom again at 40%!
So i was in dire need of mana, using everything i could to prevent tank from dying, when he was almost dead.
The paladin Lay on handsed the tank, Bam, full health and we went on and killed him.

Have your group use cooldowns to help you spent less mana, Team work is almost everything now.

[Deviante]

Nothing wrong with Priests.

[stabetha]

When I was learning to heal in BC a good healer told me to learn to be proactive instead of reactive with my heals.Know when the damage is incoming and heal for that, don't wait till the tank is at 50% to start healing.If you can master this you'll find that the regular heal spell is good enough for most heals and you should regen mana as fast as you use it.

[FattyXP]

Funny to see how many people go oom before popping fiends and hymn. They should be used as soon as you have lost at least as much mana as it can gain you back, so that way the cooldown comes up again before you are completely oom.
Kind of the same way a dps blows dps cooldowns pretty much as soon as you can, so you get them 2-3 times during a fight

[Quill42]

It's not all you - Bashiok just posted earlier today "the priest issues are well known on the class design team. Mana regen probably needs a buff or mana regen in some way needs to be addressed."

With that said though, as noted above, part of it might be solved with a change to your playstyle. Also, the mana return from Evangelism+Archangel isn't meant to be a mana regen tool; it just brings it up to roughly where you'd be had you spammed heal instead. If you find yourself struggling, you may want to drop it for now and use the talent points to boost your direct heals.

[cruxxy]

Why is no one commenting on damage avoidance? Almost always, the reasons why healers go out of mana is because DPS are taking damage they could avoid. Do a run with CC, focused fire, and no fire standers and see how your mana is.

I'm not saying mana is not an issue. But a huge part of it is that healers can no longer afford to make up for bad players.

[Sapphire]

Ok first of all, I'm going to give you two answers, a longer one and a shorter one.

Shorter one: it's just you.

Longer one: You need to learn how to play your class. Admittedly I haven't tried healing with my priest very much (not at all in Cata content yet) however after reading several forum posts on the topic you are having the same problem as I've seen others having and then other people tell them how to fix it. I'll sum it up a bit here.

As someone mentioned before me, if your mana gets that low in the first place and you just then pop your mana regen CDs, you're using them wrong. Use them as early as possible while still gaining the full benefit so you aren't stuck in a hole with no mana and being forced to use them before you can heal at all.

You also seem to be using Flash far too often from what you're saying. That is the most inefficient heal your arsenal contains. It is intended to be casted maybe once, and that's only in an extreme emergency (when the tank is <25% health, really). Other than that, Heal is your best friend. It is definitely your most mana efficient spell and since you are able to spam it without going OOM, maintaining Renew on the tank and using Heal to keep him topped off helps keep your mana lasting longer. It also reduces the Weakened Soul debuff so you may cast PW:S ever 8 seconds instead of 15, further reducing the need to cast your heals. Penance is ideally used to either stack Grace on the tank (making your Heal even more efficient, and also tossing out a cheap efficient heal) or throw out a cheap heal on a dps who is running low.

If you still have problems with Disc, I'd try Holy. I haven't heard any complaints yet from people who realistically know how to use their spells properly and their mana never dips very low. Maintaining Renew on the tank is easily achieved by spamming Heal and maintaining Chakra on yourself, in addition to the health bonus that Renew gets when Chakra is active.

EDIT: It's also not necessary at all to take points in AA/Evangelism. Adding points into talents which increase the effectiveness of your current heals is perfectly viable.

[Xexer]

If you're running out of mana in regulars or heroics (there is ONE boss that gives me trouble with mana, but is still very doable):

It's you.

[cruxxy]

I don't even have FH hotkeyed any more.

[soupuhstah]

Funny to see how many people go oom before popping fiends and hymn. They should be used as soon as you have lost at least as much mana as it can gain you back, so that way the cooldown comes up again before you are completely oom.
Kind of the same way a dps blows dps cooldowns pretty much as soon as you can, so you get them 2-3 times during a fight

^ yup yup

no doubt priests aren't afk-able healers anymore, but no one is anymore (haha pallies) mana is an issue, but the content's doable. You just have to be smart, and work your way up. You can't just dive in head first anymore, you have to be strategic inside the dungeons, and build your gear the good old fashioned way. Regulars -> Heroics -> Raids (fit in some crafting if you can!) just stick with it, it'll get better

[Pasque]

I have absolutely no problems healing my heroic dungeons with my Holy spec. Once you learn the way its supposed to be done (conserve mana) and dust heal and greater heal off. You will have no problems other then the simple fact that its a challenge and whatever other issues the environment/players bring to the table. The one simple thing I did was reforge everything with spirit. Seemed to help quite a bit.

[Alexieel]

Well since a shadow priest can destroy any class in about 7 seconds top, I'd say it's just you.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3579/lolfrost.png

hope you dont play DK..

[Akhkharu23]

yes, i haven't really been having any issues as holy to be honest. after i changed tactics that is. going straight from running wrath heroics, it is a bit of a shock and will take some getting used to. but holy priests are awesome imo.

this is basically what i do.. start by bubbling the tank and hit chakra. soon as he goes in, cast renew on him and then cast heal. from then on, i basically just cast heal and/or greater heal if needed. with the heal chakra active, renew is refreshed when i cast heal on the target...so between renew ticking for basically forever, i can just spam heal and bubble/prayer of mending/circle of healing as needed. i have no mana issues at all. very very rarely do i have to bust out shadow fiend and almost never use hymn of hope. heal alone does not really heal for that much, but with renew ticking forever, it's more than enough to keep him up. the free, instant cast flash heal pops up fairly regularly and is just icing on the cake. i've been having a blast as a holy priest after i got away from my wrath habits. try holy and the above method imo.

---------- Post added 2010-12-15 at 06:10 PM ----------

also wanted to add about shadow fiend... be sure and case shadow word: pain on the boss before hitting it, or he will just stand there at your side doing jack shit. if you're not actively doing damage to a mob, he will not attack.

[Deleted]

also wanted to add about shadow fiend... be sure and case shadow word: pain on the boss before hitting it, or he will just stand there at your side doing jack shit. if you're not actively doing damage to a mob, he will not attack.

Mine always attacks without sw: pain or other damage. Make sure it's on aggressive though.

[Deleted]

my gf plays disc, she had to get used to it at first and went oom on bosses all the time, now she lols through it and ends up with >50% mana usually.