I agree SoR is a bad talent, but it's better than PI for what he's doing!

Why don't you have holy nova? Rank 1 is good to reveal rogues and the highest ranks have their uses here and there (finishing people off, being annoying when you're about to die, fighting mages). Lose a point from blessed recovery -- I'd probably go further and totally lose blessing recovery period (imp renew or spell warding would be a better choice)

Drop four points from mental agility and put 3 in imp inner fire and I think 1 point for DS is worth it, even if its not the best of PvP skills.

Remember that smite isn't all that great until you get the gear for it. You need somewhere around ~300 dmg for it to surpass shadow IIRC though the gap widens greatly from there.

It's actually a very nice build as it's okay healing, good survivability, and the potential for very heavy burst and sustained DPS. It works great for what you're suggesting -- heal first with the potential to drop DPS as necessary. It's not a black and white thing like people occasionally suggest. Your partners don't always need healing and often that trinketed smite could be finishing off the flag carrier or something along those lines. Arenas will change things a bit. For instance, I'm losing the damage and range on smite for more the new defensive Disc talents.

PI is great for powering up mages/locks or yourself if you can't find a DPS caster. SoR is just straight-up terrible.

You're basing everything off the 3man arena team, but using the pre-expansion talents?

Am i missing something?

edit: and in 3man arena's you wouldn't need so much stam / armor gear.

that's only needed when 3+ people are nuking u, 2 of which are a warrior and rogue..


If you want to 3man pvp in arena's now though:
In a 3man team, it would be very very hard to overlook silence. I would think about a build more like http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMGR0bZbxtZVMGdcd , unless of course your mage isn't going an AP build, but i doubt that would be the case in a 3man team.

Silence, Imp Mana burn, Holy Nova > * for a 3man team.


Obviously, i've more looked at the fact that you're in a 3man team, rather than your whole "Holy Nuke build". Cos holy nuking in a non-controlled environment is fairly rubbish (as already stated)

edit: also
* Improved PW:S to help keep the warrior alive, despite the slight reduction in rage generation it causes.
(especially in 3man, best to keep this off the warrior and on the mage :) )
* Force of Will and Holy Specialization to get 10% more crits on my heals, Smites and Holy Fires.
(FoW doesn't effect your Healing spells)
* Force of Will and Searing Light to get more damage output on my Smites and Holy Fires. (How do these stack, btw?)
(Yes the stack)
* Holy Reach to be able to heal and DPS from further away.
(So you can... Prayer of Healing from further away? :P )

I went from a tripsec PvP build (Usual Disc, silence, rest in Holy) to a PI spec when I got a ZHC and three pieces of ZG for the +6 yard bonus. Having 42 yard nukes that could hit hard SOUNDED great, but it really isn't. As PvP support, not having Silence really hurts. When that enemy mage pops his trinket and AP, Silence is invaluable. When that warrior is up close and personal, you will never get a Smite off.

The advantage of a PI spec isn't that you have a 2 second spammable nuke that can crit for 1.5k with trinkets and PI. It's that you can go from being a great healer/support to DPS when it's needed. I almost never use PI on myself. Throw it on a Mage with a PW:S and a renew and watch him kill half the opposing team. Then when the enemy's DPS is lowered, you can safely add damage to aid assisting down low health targets without the risk of your mage getting flattened.

I think this would be a better PvP spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMrsAizobAtc Take Spell Warding and Holy Nova. That mage combo hits you for 90% of your health instead of 100% of your health. Spam rank 1 holy nova to find that rogue or to stop a flag cap. Etcetc. Basically, forget about boosting your damage, you'll most likely only use it to hasten a victory, rather than turn the tide. (Inspiration or Blessed Recovery is debatable).

Edit: I remember that you're concerned with arena teams. I was under the impression that arena teams were 70 only. In any case, the 3 of you defending a node in AB is pretty similar, except without a flag.

Using Smite/Holy Fire sets you up for a counterspell/spelllock in any pvp situation. Using the holy tree at more than 1.5 seconds (flash heal) is really risky, considering a "smite" priest has only one real tree (and fear lolz)

Smite spec is great in AV. With the 3-piece confessor's bonus and holy reach, you have the longest range attacks in the game (42 yards), so you can basically pretend you're a hunter in greens with no aimed shot cooldown. Other than that, the current disc/holy damage talents are pretty much worthless for everything but PvE soloing.

Basically. While on paper PI/FoW/Searing Light passes shadow builds and Searing Light/SG/DS builds in straight DPS around +300 damage, in practice shadow is still a better PvP damage build since it has superior utility in addition to the damage, and a more healing-focused build is the most effective PvP support by far. The practical reason is that you're not going to be able to chain 2 second casts, and if you eat a single counterspell you're dead.

That said, I plan on respeccing to something similar to that when TBC hits, since I have (or will have) the damage gear to sustain it. For leveling 1-60, shadow is still the way to go, since a shadow build has pretty ridiculous single-target damage for someone with little to no +damage.