Holy Priest help: Seeking some guidance..

[Dazarann]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ezerann/simple

Alright, there's my armory page. I do realize that I'm level 84, but that's the "seeking guidance" part to this thread. =)

I do realize that I've got some gear on with hit rating, just filling gaps with my shadow gear until I can find better replacements, I am reforging the hit rating I have off as haste or mastery though.

Anyways in regular dungeons I've got about 60k for a mana pool, and unbuffed 11.39% haste. I'm going oom quite a bit on regular pulls,
mainly because no one I run with CC's properly, or even at all, so a majority of my heals are focused on three dps.

Anyways, is there any way I can avoid this? Is there anything I can do better as a Holy Priest?

My vuhdu priority basically revolves around flash heal, renew and greater heal if needed. I'm finding Heal and Greater Heal to be far too slow, and not as rewarding as flash heal. although the mana cost per cast of flash is......almost 3 times as much as heal and greater heal.....

Anywho, any help would be much appreciated. =)

[Juber]

My vuhdu priority basically revolves around flash heal, renew and greater heal if needed. I'm finding Heal and Greater Heal to be far too slow, and not as rewarding as flash heal. although the mana cost per cast of flash is......almost 3 times as much as heal and greater heal.....

Anywho, any help would be much appreciated. =)

For starters, Flash heal is an emergency spell only. Yes GH & H are slow casts, but they're also very efficient. If you're healing as holy you just stay in Heal Chakra, keep renew up and use Serenity on CD if tank have lost more than 10% health. This is the most common feeling healers gets in Cataclysm, the neverending, unbaneful unforgiving slow casts & idiot DPS that stands in earthquakes.

More than 80%, Heal
Less than 80%, Greater Heal
Less than 25 %, 1x Flash, 1x Greater Heal.

If tank has more than 80% health, heal DPS.
If tank has less than 80% health, heal tank.
If DPS die, we call that justice.

The biggest issue you're going to have is not that you can't heal the tank, it's that you feel that you cant heal the tank because the DPS lose so much more health than the tank. In either way, in 9/10 times its due to bad DPS that healers have problem keeping a tank up. By instinct, you want to heal everyone but you can't. This will come automaticlly over time and takes time adjusting to.

General rules that makes you a decent priest:

* Dispel! Yes, this include diseases too
* Follow socket bonuses
* Get/Reforge so all items has spirit
* Mastery or Haste dosn't matter. Pepsi or Coke. (Please DO SEARCH THIS BEFORE ASKING, Haste vs Mastery).
* Get INT trinkets if possible, if not get SPI ones.
* Remove Flash Heal & Binding Heal from your action bars until you've adapted to Cataclysm healing, then implement them again when you know how to use them without going OOM.
* Follow a Cookie Cutter spec unless you need specifics (Archangel Holy, Archangel Disc AoE)

The worst players you're gonna find is probably raiding tanks, they're used to running heroics with their healers who have good gear, plays with good DPS and has a good tank. We call these Rusn N Crush groups that use too much DPS to compensate for zero CC's. Alltho, many crap pugs think they're on that level and they fail, miserably and repeatedly.



These are my newbie tips

[Deleted]

Use Holy word: serenity every time its off cd, unless its a heavy AoE healing fight. Use Circle of Healing and then Prayer of Healing if atleast 3 of your group needs it. Always have Prayer of Mending on.

The best tip I can give you is join a guild, I'd say a half decent one ( maybe 4/12 bosses downed) and start doing hcs dungeons with you. Even a social spot is fine for this, and when you feel you are ready for raiding either ask for a raiding spot or find a new one.

[Khallynos]

*snip*

Said all too well.

Basically, this isn't WotLK anymore, Flash Heal may be beautiful, but she's a whore. For use in emergencies only. A good thing to note for a new healer, or one who healed thru WotLK and is just starting in Cata is this: People will not be getting one-shotted if they aren't topped off anymore. You just need to make sure that you keep everyone in the upper percentages, but never sacrifice mana efficiency unless someone's going to die, especially at lower gear levels.

[Deleted]

As the others have mentioned, do not use Flash Heal unless it is nessecary. That is probably why you go oom so much.

First off, I know you are still in lvling gear, but gems and enchants do help and they actually make a big difference. Heartsong on your weapon for example gives 200 extra spirit more than 50% of the time (just a guess, it is probably a lot more).

And glyphs are quite important too Some of the glyphs give some 'free' healing.

I have not checked your spec, because I believe that it is personal. I have tried some varies of holy, and found the one I prefer: (good choice of glyphs aswell)

It is a great idea to read Elitisk Jerks holy priest guide aswell. And yes it is long and dry (just ignore some of the more complicated maths, no need for that), but it really helped me when I started playing holy at first! Link here

[Deleted]

First of all, get to 85. I know, it's right around the corner and you're already seeing potential issues but before you're 85, you don't know the extent. At 84, using flash heal is bad. At 85, using flash heal is downright stupid, and you will see why. The ratings are messed up until you hit 85, at 85 you'll see everyone having a lot more HP, you mana decreasing way faster and your casts being even slower. Try heal like you do right now at 85 or even better, in a heroic, and you won't need our advice that you shouldn't use flash heal, it will be completely impossible for you to use it.

Only get items with spirit on. Reforge crit to haste and if you feel it's needed, reforge mastery to haste as well (mastery doesn't REALLY shine until raids). Here's the rotation:

Before pull, put chakra on yourself, cast heal on tank, cast renew on tank. If it's a big pull, put a shield on him as well before he pulls.
During pull, make sure you're always in chakra: serenity. Spam heal on tank to keep the same renew ticking. Use Holy word: serenity on cooldown (unless tank is topped).

Most pulls, nothing else should be needed, and you'll be at 100% mana after the fight since heal spam is so effective that you're actually gaining more mana than you lose.

If dps take damage, there's various things you can do. If there's 1-2 dps who take damage constantly during the pull, because of cleaves etc, put a renew on each and then cycle your heals through all of them. This keeps renew ticking on everyone taking damage and you're still at 100% mp. Your tank will get way less heals and might need to be focused from time to time, but this is a great way to stabilize dps who don't know how to stand behind a mob.
If it's an aoe attack, use circle of healing. If it isn't enough, use a prayer of healing. If you can expect a decent amount of aoe during a pull, use prayer of mending.

Basically, the whole trick to holy healing in dungeons is to get by with nothing but using heal and serenity, everything else should be considered very situational.

[Zeernial]

blah blah blah

while this is mostly correct, you should never tell someone to unbind Binding Heal

if he wants to get used to cataclysm healing he SHOULD be using it

[Ynna]

Most important points:
* If the the DPS don't CC, you don't heal. Take the wipe, they will learn
*Avoid Flash Heal. Heal is your "go-to" heal. Flash Heal should only be used if someone needs healing RIGHT NOW and Serenity is on cooldown.

Check the guide in my signature for a more detailed explanation.

[JustTed]

Everyone else has really answered this really well. Adding just a couple things:

On boss fights, make sure you are putting down the Lightwell, and make sure the dps are using it. For the most part, I don't have to heal dps on boss fights because the lightwell does such an amazing job.

On trash pulls, at least when I was first starting out, if I saw a dps taking too much damage, and I was having a hard time healing the tank, I would LoF that dps to me. It gave me some extra time, and if the dps was smart, he/she would normally stay out and handle their own health in one way or another.

Anyway, good luck!

[Kelesti]

General rules that makes you a decent priest:
* Follow socket bonuses

While I agree with pretty much everything you wrote, and hell I wanted to stand and clap there, this little bit really confuses me.

Intellect still is your best stat, period. It increases your output (all of it), it increases your regen, it makes your mana cooldowns more effective too... but you can't reforge it, you can't gear differently to get more, the only way to push that number up (outside of higher item level gear) is gemming. Following socket bonuses is giving up Intellect for some secondary stat that's not as desirable as Intellect. If you need more spirit/haste/mastery, you can reforge. But just because something is a blue socket doesn't mean you should change your gem from the Brilliant cut.

[y02mustang]

While I agree with pretty much everything you wrote, and hell I wanted to stand and clap there, this little bit really confuses me.

Intellect still is your best stat, period. It increases your output (all of it), it increases your regen, it makes your mana cooldowns more effective too... but you can't reforge it, you can't gear differently to get more, the only way to push that number up (outside of higher item level gear) is gemming. Following socket bonuses is giving up Intellect for some secondary stat that's not as desirable as Intellect. If you need more spirit/haste/mastery, you can reforge. But just because something is a blue socket doesn't mean you should change your gem from the Brilliant cut.

The socket bonuses are a case by case basis, to some extent. If it's +10 something, ignore it and go ful l+40 intel. If it's +20 intel or more, drop a mixed 20 intel/20 <haste/spirit> gem in there. That way you gain 40 intel (with socket bonus) + 20 of another stat. If the bonus is +20 haste/spir/something else you badly need and just can't reach it by reforging, then drop a mixed 20 intel/20-whatever-socket-bonus-is that way you get 40 of a stat you crave but still get 20 intel. But as soon as you reach your mark from other means, drop a full 40 int gem in there.

Just my .02 on socket bonuses.

Edit: Of course, you always want to be sure you have the sockets colors needed to activate your meta, so you may be able to sneak a socket bonus or two in and keep them.

[Kelesti]

But there are few places where you can actually work out a +20 Intellect socket bonus.

If the bonus is +20 haste/spir/something else you badly need and just can't reach it by reforging, then drop a mixed 20 intel/20-whatever-socket-bonus-is that way you get 40 of a stat you crave but still get 20 intel. But as soon as you reach your mark from other means, drop a full 40 int gem in there.

And that people don't seem to follow this idea of getting back very well.

[Dazarann]

Just want to say thank you for everyones help. I drew points from pretty much every post in here.

Cracked 9k HPS at 84.5 today in vortex pinnacle for about 20 seconds. So I must be doing something right.
Mana is also not an issue anymore. Unless I get 3 retarded dps who seem to think they're tanks (actually happened today).

Just ding'd 85 tonight around midnight, now the gearing begins.