[Priest] Holy Raiding Guide (4.3)

[Fismara]

(2.0)
Haste % = ((2.5 / (2.0*1.03*1.05) - 1)*100 = 15.58% = 1994 haste rating

Are u sure? 1638 haste rating with 3/3 Darknesss and 5% raid buff for 2.0 sec cast time.

[Mazi]

Are u sure? 1638 haste rating with 3/3 Darknesss and 5% raid buff for 2.0 sec cast time.

How do you get 1638? I did not do the math section (as I stated multiple times)

[Themos]

Not everyone "likes" nor "wants" to play with 5% haste. In fact, I've had several people come to me directly about my recommendation of reaching about a 2.1 sec cast since it's easy rating wise and they noticed a considerable difference in their output and raid success. I have no intent whatsoever to modify the haste thresholds section, thank you for your input though.

Low haste is my subjective and personal preference, I'm in way asking you to agree with me on that point. While I don't agree with it, I'm not going to cross that line.

However, there is still nothing magical about 2.1 or 2.0. I'd ask you to please reconsider. A more proper entry on this topic would be to point out what the benefits of a 2.x for achieving more Gheals in a single Chakra: Serenity cycle.

To wit, Serenity has a 15 sec cd, and under no haste at all, you can cast 6 Greater Heals. To increase to 7 Greater Heals per Serenity cycle, you would need 15/7 = 2.143 cast time which is a total of ~14.28% which gives the following options:

3/3 Darkness + 5% haste buff = 1.1428 / (1.03 * 1.05) = 1.05668 --> 5.668% haste from gear, which is 726 haste rating.

Similar math for 8 and 9 Greater Heals, and optional buffs/talents.


Another approach would be to optimize Gheal/Fheal combos that land while the Serenity crit buff is on target, which is 6 seconds.

ex/ Fheal + Gheal + Gheal = 6.5 seconds without any haste at all (0.5 seconds overflow)

To get it down to 6.0 seconds, you'll need ~7.6923% which is 986 haste rating.

These are good examples of haste thresholds to recommend, and including an addition amount of haste rating as extra buffer against lag spikes is also a good idea. Rounded pretty values like 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 at the risk of offending only coddle to the OCD and those that can easily succumb to Jedi mind tricks

If you want a complete listing of values, I can do proper spreadsheet calculations and post the values for most reasonable situations.


-T

[[-Spiritus-]]

Your math, btw, is off because you're not factoring in the GCD from Serenity itself. The same goes for the "crit buff," you need to factor the GCD time.

However, if you're going to look at "squeeze time" inbetween CDs, I think, for holy, it would be far more prudent to see the amount of haste necessary to cast X 2.5sec casts within [8-GCD] seconds. This tells you how many PoH's you can squeeze within the CoH cooldown in Ch:Sanc.

With zero haste, PoH is a 2.5cast and the time you have to cast is 6.5sec. So, you can fit in two with 1.5sec to spare.
As you increase haste, PoH and the GCD will decrease in duration, expanding that 1.5 sec until it reaches the same number as the current PoH cast time at a particular threshold. At that point you will be able to cast CoH->PoHx3->CoH without any bleed. Whatever that threashold is, should be relatively obtainable. CoHx4, however, will most likely not be obtainable anytime soon [by quick head math].

[Themos]

Yea, I thought about that mistake on my way in to work this morning, I blame using Windows calculator on my gaming rig which doesn't have Excel on it :^/
I can sit down this afternoon and do everything properly on my work laptop, I have a lot of downtime today in the lab.

Serenity+direct heal cycles
CoH + PoH cycles

I should be able to math out a PoM/CoH/PoH cycle as well. Technically speaking, CoH > PoM right?



edit:

An example from my spreadsheet, let me know if there's any error:

Cycle: Serenity/Fhealx2/Ghealx2 = 8.5 seconds (unhasted)
8.5 --> 6.0 = 29.412% total haste required
3/3 Darkness & 5% Aura => 19.6595% or 2517.54 haste rating from gear

edit #2:

CoH/ PoHx3 => 11.11% total haste (350.616 rating from gear with 3/3 Darkness & 5% Aura)
CoH/ PoHx4 => 30.435% total haste (2638.674 rating from gear with 3/3 Darkness & 5% Aura)

[[-Spiritus-]]

CoH/ PoHx4 => 30.435% total haste (2638.674 rating from gear with 3/3 Darkness & 5% Aura)

Don't have the time right now to independently verify everything, but at least this seems off. ~30%ish percent haste makes a 2.5sec cast 1.92sec and drops the GCD down to 1.15sec, which means you have 6.85sec to cast 4 PoH, which works out to 1.71sec per PoH & 1.71<1.92.

By quick head math, I think the number rests somewhere between 43-45ish percent haste to squeeze a 4th PoH within two CoHs in Ch:Sanc.

[Themos]

Don't have the time right now to independently verify everything, but at least this seems off. ~30%ish percent haste makes a 2.5sec cast 1.92sec and drops the GCD down to 1.15sec, which means you have 6.85sec to cast 4 PoH, which works out to 1.71sec per PoH & 1.71<1.92.

By quick head math, I think the number rests somewhere between 43-45ish percent haste to squeeze a 4th PoH within two CoHs in Ch:Sanc.

Ahah, I see what I did wrong. Right right, 100% haste halves the cast time, it doesn't make it zero. Silly me!
I'll post the corrected values in a bit.

[Deleted]

Hello there

I was wondering if your raid healing spec benefitting from Archangel do contribute enough hps?
As you gotta stack up the Evangelism, which ishy would take around 5 secs depending on haste rating.

Further more I am searching for a Grid2StatusPriestAoe addon. As I was useing the old one for classic Grid, and admire it..
Do you know if I simply have to get the usual Grid addon or, is it possible to get the same tool for Grid2 ?


Cheers for the guide, have been some time since I've speculated after reading a guide

/Brain

[Danner]

AA have two problems as a holypriest.

1: You don't have atonement. With it vanishes the biggest reason to ever cast a holy attack spell. As everyone knows, holypriests should never cast holy attack spells. Makes perfect sense, I guess? If you want to do DPS, mind spike is superior in any way possible. And as a holy priest, you never ever have enough mana to "help out on dpsing" anyway.

2: Evangelism is no longer helping your Penance manacost, since you don't have penance. It's effectively two wasted talent points, that does nothing to help you out as Holy. And that is a tough pill to swallow. While you could go for AA as an extremely costly Tree-of-life-light alternative - and some high end priests have experimented with this - in general, just stacking 3/3 Darkness talents is going to offer superior throughput, for free.

And that's at least my take on why AA isn't worth it as Holy.

[Deleted]

Mazi, is there a reason for why you are now using Heartsong instead of Power Torrent which I asked about some time ago?

[Mellonz]

I know a priest that needs some help. I will send her here to read this guide.

[Mazi]

Archangel is worth it on some fights, if you can manage the debuff. Almost every fight has lull's in which you can cast a smite here and there. The goal is to build it up, not just spam cast the smite. Personally, I don't play with it. I don't enjoy micromanaging and the gain can be negligible in some instances, I prefer an all around spec.

I haven't used Grid2 and don't know if that addon works with it, go ahead and try?

I use Heartsong & PT together on Heroic Rag. The fight is excessively long (14min) and with only 3-4 healers you need as much regen as you can get, as apposed to most other 5 min fights with 6-7 healers. I pop on my staff with PT after traps explode, during seeds, etc for extra throughput as well as whenever I use Fiend for extra mana.

[papajohn4]

Hello!Very nice guide m8, easy to read and well explained :P Although there is little information for 5-man dungeons.I know for you people that raiding as healers 5-mans are like a walk in the park but I have some questions regarding and I would appreciate any help :P Last time I healed in a dungeon/raid was in TBC and that was only Karazhan plus some 5-man normal dungeons :P

I am going to start with normal 5-mans just to get used my keybinds.I ll use mouseover macros to my spell + Grid.Once I am comfort enough that I quickly push the spell I want I ll step to heroic Dungeons.So there I am supposed to do Tank healing and Group Healing (I know dps should not get aggro, but in the real world things are exactly opposite :P).

My gear will be some boe epics (justice feet, valor bracers, 365 mace, 346 inscription off-hand, 359 belt-legs tailoring, alchemy trinket) but the rest will be quest items or some pvp 358. So my gear is good and bad for the heroics (not the zandalari ones, the first ones)

Here is my questions/concerns

-Rapid Renewal : should I go for it?Is a good way to spread Renew to my group to fill them up?Or I should use PoH -> CoH -> PoH combo?In the second case, is it worth to change charka everytime I have to heal up my group or the spells alone (PoH and CoH) should be enough without the 15% bonus?Or maybe I should use the Triagle method to feel them one by one?

-Inspiration : Does it worth for 5-man Heroics?Or maybe skip the 2 points for better talents that suit more in 5-mans?(and which are these talents)

-Veiled Shadows : Boss fights in heroic are in a small time and I will not be able to use Shadowfiend second time in a fight even with this talent right?So isn’t waste of talents for the 5-man dungeons?

-Spirit of Redemption : I understand that if a healer dies in a raid then 15 sec 9/10 times will not save the wipe and that’s why you don’t have it in any of your builds. But for 5-mans?

-what do you think about this build? http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfubrRzrkfzoh
What would you change to it to be more viable to 5-man heroics.

-Assuming that I cannot depend on others buffs in 5-man dungeons (not sure what classes I will be with), is it worth to stack haste to reach the first breakpoint unbuffed?or it would be more beneficial to favor spirit and mastery until I get better gear and step into raids(if ever go raids with my priest :P ) ?

thanks in advance

[Mazi]

This guide might be better for you, it is linked at the start of my guide: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...(for-Beginners!)

I really don't feel equipped to judge 5man healing right now, but spec stuff is pretty straightforward: RR won't be necessary, Inspiration is great, SoR is up to you (do you die???), Haste is up to you, they aren't really breakpoints so much as just "guidelines", in your spec drop BR for Insp and I think you're good.

Hope that helps

[papajohn4]

thanks m8, I ll check it out

[Deleted]

"Ok, so I have all of this Intellect, and all of my gear has Intellect on it, now what?!" - Priest

Shouldn't it be "Ok, so I have all of this Intellect, and all of my gear has Spirit on it, now what?!" - Priest?

[Mazi]

Shouldn't it be "Ok, so I have all of this Intellect, and all of my gear has Spirit on it, now what?!" - Priest?

Pffft..... Touche :P

[Bl4zingD45h]

whole lotta useful information. thanks this will totaly help when my priest gets to end game

[Nox165]

With the fix to holy word serenity and the buff to its cooldown do you guys think it will change how priest will play?

[Mazi]

I think it gives Holy the option to tank heal, but other classes are going to be better for it. However, it was a huge buff for 10m Holy healing as far as I know most time in 10m is spent in Serenity.