Holy Priest Mana Management

[Snorlaxi]

Hey guys. I'm a fresh 85 holy priest, and I'm having some serious mana problems at normal 5-man. I'm not new to healing, I've been a healer for a long time now, and for some reason in 5-man like Lost City of the Tol'vir or Halls of Origination my mana is going down very fast.

Ok, so here is what I do... I wonder if you can help me and see if there is something wrong.
I usually use serenty as Chakra state, and try to keep renew up in the tank with heals or holy word, so I can save the mana instead of having to cast another renew. I only do this on the tank tho.
When the tank is pulling, I wait for his life to go down a little then I start with prayer of mending, then I work on keeping renew up with heals. In emergency situations I use flash heal x2 and Greater Heal. The problem is... these "emergency situations" are starting to happen all the time, and with flash heal x2 and a greater heal, I tend to loose almost 20% of my mana!

My stats priority in the moment are Intellect/Spirit>Haste>Mastery>Crit. If you guys can take a look at my armory I'd really appreciate it, I need some help here... Btw, my Ilvl atm is 325.

us. battle. net/wow/en/character/gurubashi/Vud%C3%BAu/advanced

Thanks in advance.

[Powell]

Your gear is JUST about heroic level, so it will get difficult if you are planning to do randoms with pugs.

A healer generally has to pick up the slack of others, you're the one fixing their mistakes, their lack of dps increases your worries for mana, lack of knowledge about rotating defensive CDs or moving out of the fire, etc.
You get the point. These variables only get bigger when you play with random people. Guildies or friends will also generally have more patience with your situation and actually try to help out in that regard.

There isn't a "trick" about healing, its an art. You learn it by practice, trial and error.
Unfortunatly, fixing the issues of others will have a much larger impact on you because of your lack of gear, so going with people you know and know what to do will make your life much easier

[Nosonia]

Using flash heal x2 then Greater Heal at your gear level is not right.

Do not ask what tier 12 raiders are doing... the mana pools and regeneration along with buffs is much higher then yours, and flash heal is more viable for them.. but it is not for you.

Spam 'Heal' while using POM on CD.
Make sure renew is always up. Use holy word on CD to refresh it.
Greater heal when more damage is coming, but its not an oh shit moment.
Flash heal in emergency... but emergency only.

Stay away from Flash Heal as much as possible until you get more gear. That shit will rape your mana faster then you can imagine.

[[-Spiritus-]]

The best advice I can give you is to stop using Serendipity's FHx2->GH combo so often, and instead try to predict damage IOT be able to use GH as your go-to for "big damage." Serendipity is a bit of a trap talent for the novice. It sounds like "Oh, so what I should do is FHx2->GH when I get in trouble," which is true, but the situations where your put into needing FHx2->GH in normal 5mans should be few and far between.

Serendipity isn't there [mostly] for you to cast FHx2->GH, but rather to give you a bonus for when you do feel the need to cast a FH or BH, which shouldn't be super often because they'll both burn through your mana faster than a king snake swerving through a sugar cane field.

Recap: Try using more GH, and predict damage IOT reduce the number of times you need to cast FH. Only cast FH if you need to, Serendipity is there to make the cost of casting FH less of a burden, but it, in most cases, shouldn't change your usage of the spell.

[Denae]

Exactly right — the key is to predict when damage will come and time your slow cast heals well. You want to avoid those "omg low hp flash heal now" moments as much as possible.

[Vook]

Get Powerauras and set it to remind you when Serenity is off CD, that helped save me a lot of mana back at release when mana regen was horrible

Also, don't use PoM for single target healing on the tank, just spam Heal all the time, like a Paladin back in wotlk. Unless the tank is horribly geared, you should do fine, instances have been really nerfed since release.

....Looking at your armory, now...9 unenchanted pieces? No wonder you're having issues! 66k mana is really low for 85. Try doing some level 85 quest chains and such to see if you can snag some 333 blues, or check the AH, 333/346 blues are really cheap nowadays.

[Deleted]

Also, don't use PoM for single target healing on the tank, just spam Heal all the time, like a Paladin back in wotlk. Unless the tank is horribly geared, you should do fine, instances have been really nerfed since release.

I would argue the exact opposite. Especially with the Glyph.

[Deleted]

PoM on cd and predicting damage like the others said would help. Otherwise you are doing quite well it seems mana management is the hardest for holy priests atm. The only things I can advice you which haven't been said already is use your shadowfiend and the mana regain hymn(dunno the name), glyph your shadowfiend and stack spirit as much as possible untill you get full epic gear. Enchants help, but its not worth enchanting an item with a lower item level than 333 unless its really cheap. If you can't reach your 12.5% breakpoint of haste, mastery is prolly a better stat since it increases your healing output without extra mana cost. Last thing, not very big but still, you have some points in state of mind and body and soul which aren't very good talents.

[hikamiro]

I would argue the exact opposite. Especially with the Glyph.

depends. If 2 people are taking damage pom is extremely efficient. if not it's a huge mana waste :/

[Vook]

depends. If 2 people are taking damage pom is extremely efficient. if not it's a huge mana waste :/

This is what I meant, it's not very mana-efficient to use it on just one person, even with how big the glyphed heal is. For straight tank healing you're better off with single target heals.

[Powell]

This is what I meant, it's not very mana-efficient to use it on just one person, even with how big the glyphed heal is. For straight tank healing you're better off with single target heals.

There is a big difference between pre-emptive healing and active healing. PoM is usable to negate an attack while also being able to active heal with it.

You can't really compare 2 spells with different purposes.

[Snorlaxi]

....Looking at your armory, now...9 unenchanted pieces? No wonder you're having issues! 66k mana is really low for 85. Try doing some level 85 quest chains and such to see if you can snag some 333 blues, or check the AH, 333/346 blues are really cheap nowadays.

Yeah... I now. I don't want to enchant anything yet cuz I dont now if I'm going to keep this gear long enough. And about the 333Ilv, I do have some atm, and I was planning to get the rest with VP. But I spent almost all my VP with the T11 chest. I think it can be a good idea to buy some 333 with gold, thanks.

This is what I meant, it's not very mana-efficient to use it on just one person, even with how big the glyphed heal is. For straight tank healing you're better off with single target heals.

But I'm doing random 5-man with pugs... Even if the tank should be the only one taking damage, some dps is always doing something wrong. So Prayer of Mending is actually really efficient. Thats a part of my healing style that I would not change. At least not until I run some serious stuff with a guild.

__

Ok, so in general what I should be doing is stop using the serendipity combo so often and start using greater heals predicting the damage. That I can do, or try at least, but the lack of gear is something that will change only in time, so right now I'll probably have to get used to the fact that I'm going to sit and drink. A lot.

Thanks guys, you really helped me here. I was kinda lost.

[Durlockozk]

Twin Diciplines and Mental Agility are staple talents as they increase your healing by a flat % base and reduce mana cost of instants by a flat %. My suggestion would be to keep Veiled shadows for now because it will help your mana efficiency. Things worth noting in 5 mans. Binding heal is often overlooked and if you have taken any sort of dmg and you are needing a faster heal on the tank, binding heal will apply a stack of serendipity for you as well. I would seriously consider dropping state of mind, at least until the changes in patch 4.3 where the talent will be reworked to something entirely different, but for right now, nobody bothers with it because you can keep chakra up at all times. The only time you need to be concerned with chakra cooldown is if you need to change chakra states. In a 5 man the odds of you needing to change chakra states that rapidly are slim to none. You can also prep the chakra before entering combat and drop lightwell where you know the tank will be before combat. Lightwell is one of if not the most efficient healing per mana spell in the game, but only if you can get people to click it. The reality of your situation is that need to upgrade your gear in any sensible ways that you can. 1. replace any and all crap greens as quickly as possible with the AH or JP gear. 2. make sure you cap your valor points. 3. weight towards a more spirit heavier set of enchants and gems. When you hit about ilvl 359 you should have the regen from int, spirit, and set bonuses to use more appropriate enchants and gems that maximize throughput. Its worth replacing something that gets replaced sooner, because its making it easier to obtain said upgrades. Never be afraid to toss cost effective enchants on gear you intend to replace, Its better than no enchants. Overall raw stat increases are worth it.

[Nosonia]

............so right now I'll probably have to get used to the fact that I'm going to sit and drink. A lot.....

You'll notice with good groups, you won't drink as much, and with weaker groups, you may have to drink after every pull.

And ignore what people say about POM.. use it on CD... trust me... lol

[Themos]

Starter priest advise:

1) Inner Will
2) Don't Fheal, rely on Heal and Gheal
3) Watch your overheal

If tanks are AoE faceroll tanking, tell them to cc and that they are too squishy to AoE tank.


Consider also that you can bypass crappy gear healing by simply pugging some BGs and converting Honor Points -> Justice Points.
You can gear up to Zandalar level heroics within a day.

Non-Zandalar heroics are a haven for lots of bad players that constantly get booted out of the Zandalars. Skip them if you can :/

[Denae]

PoM is almost always worth it, especially in heroics where people often take random stupid damage. I would not recommend Inner Will though — majority of your spells are not instant so you're often losing mana efficiency because all your heals are weaker without that extra SP from Inner Fire.

[Themos]

PoM is almost always worth it, especially in heroics where people often take random stupid damage. I would not recommend Inner Will though — majority of your spells are not instant so you're often losing mana efficiency because all your heals are weaker without that extra SP from Inner Fire.

You'd be very wrong, the mana savings from Serenity, random renews, CoH, PoM and cleansing have a very noticeable impact on mana in bad gear.
Hell, I used IW on some fights in BWD/BoT until I replaced half my 5 man gear back in early Cataclysm. Inner Will has a huge impact when your combat regen blows. In Zandalar level gear and beyond, it most certainly becomes sidelined.

In poor gear, being able to keep casting stuff trumps 10% spell power. It's about keeping the group alive, not some magic HPS value.
You can see it if you do a 5 minute simulation in poor gear. Spirit worth is >>> Int in crap gear.

[Denae]

And you have to cast less if your spells heal for more. Fire is better than Will except in a very small amount of cases.

[Themos]

And you have to cast less if your spells heal for more. Fire is better than Will except in a very small amount of cases.

You mean like when you are running oom? Which is a problem in bad gear

[[-Spiritus-]]

You mean like when you are running oom? Which is a problem in bad gear

No, like when you are leaning heavily on high mana cost instant cast spells [like heavy PW:S or Renew usage].

In essence, under "normal" spell usage, IW works out to less HPM than running IF. If you're using proper spell selection, you'll generally be more efficient under IF [again, assuming you're not heavily leaning on PW:S or Renew].