well 20 spirit is 5 healing ( about 7-8 with SoR/Kings/ImpDs) so you could reduce the difference to like 74 healing or some such.
Anyway the only real way to see the value of spirit for you is to track your oofsr time for given encounters. You clearly said you do not do this but its just as plain you don't know what you're giving up until you know what you've got.

The Difference 23 spirit makes @ 90% oofsr, VS 75% + and innervate when wearing 3 pc PMC w/ Blue Dragon card and Bangle of endless blessings equiped.is literally night and day. I personally think 20 spirirt is not really comparable to more than 30-40 healing, but I don't spend a lot of time able to take advantage of spirit regen. If I did think 20 spirit was > say 50-60 healing I would replace all my 22 healing gems with 10 spirit.

I'd also recommend vengeful because 200 extra Hp is nothing to scoff at if for example you're wearing low staminia pieces likw PMC, or just entering Black Temple.

Furthermore, I could easily make a case for vengeful + spell surge enchant being equilavent healing to Light's justice w +81, and the regen for you being roughly the same in a wide variety of circumstances but the regen gain for your group being an added perk.

All in all Veng. Salvavtion is a much higher ilvl piece and even with resil you can take advantage of this fact and make up for its shortcomings in regen with more royal nightseyes, socket for some regen socket bonuses, or regen enchants instead of healing, or simply favoring regen friendly pieces that are equal to more throughput friendly options.

[Bracing Earthstorm Diamond] has new requirements in 2.3.2. The "more yellow than blue" part is gone, so you can put a teardrop in every slot or a royal in every slot bar one and a teardrop in the remaining slot.

Definitely a big improvement in style
Just looking quickly at that VR kill, your melee alone recieved over 100k healing from your PoM (and it's all yours as the only other alive priest only cast 1 single PoM).
If you add that PoM contribution to your healing, that puts you at #2.

In a 9 minute fight I'd expect you to cast a lot more than 14 PoMs though. I did mean it when I used "PoM" and "abuse" in the same sentence. Basically on a fight like VR, or on Hyjal trash, or Teron or somesuch, you want to aim to maximise its cooldown by bouncing it off tanks - will help their aggro and will make the bounces guaranteed/faster and bigger.

Comparing your spell usage pattern with my own (WWS) from a similar stage in progression, it looks reasonable except I think you need to use high/top ranks of GHeal considerably more often.
And perhaps keep renew up a bit more solidly and/or on more targets.

To boost your own ego a bit, get Recount
It seems to credit PoM bounces to the priest at least :P
Anyone else hoping that the promised 2.4 combat log overhaul will enable WWS to track ES/LB/PoM correctly, hm?

I'm not sure if you caught it or not so I'll post it: Loading...

I died 4 times the entire evening, while kacerin died 11. I actually died the least amount of all the priests the entire evening when including the shadow priests. My problem was when I did die, I died relatively early, kinda like how kacerin died relatively early on the VR kill.

yeah, I am still trying to get back into the groove of spammming the hell out of it again. We were having weird situations with the electric balls on VR all night where they were exploding on the ground before the ball got halfway and then sometimes explode again, so there was a lot of moving going on. I was trying to save my shields and prayer of mendings for the movements so I was somewhat timid on the use because I wanted to make sure there was a fresh one everytime I was having to move.

You're probably right that I should probably use more higher ranked gheals. I'm just not sure where to put them on my toolbar. I currently only use gheal2 and max level at the moment. Maybe this calls for a revamp of my toolbars, but then that'll probably put me behind while I get used to the buttons again.

2 and max is perfectly fine. Just don't forget to use that max one where appropriate
Constantius's right in talking about knowing the fights and having a good feel for queing up those pre-emptive heals - these things are key for using slow heals efficiently.

Using max rank of GHeal appropriately, knowing when to use Flash, abusing PoM or having speculative renews running - it's all about the same thing really: do everything you can to maximise your effective healing-per-second.
It'll normally improve your usefulness to the raid as a healer, and also by definition improve your location on the meters.

I think I wasn't entirely awake when I looked, I guess I skipped to Brightblades uptime. Sorry.

One thing I noticed while checking: have a look at the healing details for Al'ar try 3. You do 51 Greater Heals total, Kacerin does 72. In both cases 75% overheal on Greater Heal. At the same time, Kacerin shows a much greater variance in ranks used (max. vs. average). If he does so while both healing more and with the same overheal ratio, this looks like he is able to adjust his heals better to incoming damage. If he where just letting more heals land, we would see more overheal compared to you. Whether that's due to his assigned role or he's just adjusted better to the encounter is for you to find out.

Should definately be using recount to monitor your healing. Only a terrible raid leader is going to hound you about having low healing done when compared to paladins, they probably don't even know that PoM isn't credited to you. If someone does get on your back, just link them recount data. Depending on the fight (and how much you use it, I use mine whenever it's off cooldown) it can add in excess of 50k healing to your total.

Thanks a lot for all the feedback, I really do appreciate it.

I think I am going to run the Regen mod to track my time out of FSR, but honestly I agree that probably the s3 is just a better choice. And I very well may switch some of my gems around to squeeze out some more mana regen or spirit since i feel I have too many 18 healing gems, many of which I bought and socketed when I was relatively a healing noob and just trying to stack heal. Again, thanks very much!

As posted a bit back, one thing that might help is using renew more than you do currently. For instance I'm CoH spec but my 2nd most used spell is renew. It is so amazingly effective when done right.

Typically, I renew the tanks and try to refresh it ASAP, then some of the melee and the warlocks. My mainstay renews are max rank and 2 ranks down from it. I also keep a renew on the shadowpriests (usually a much lower ranked, R7 I think) as they tend not to run VE much but do obviously take self-inflicted damage. Renew and heal the rest of the raid accordingly of course as well - you know in your own raids who takes periodic damage...keep renews flowing on them.

What may help also is to make your renew a mouse-over macro, so if you're healing a specific target, you can keep them targeted while refreshing your renews on them or other people in the raid simultaneously (same for dispel/ab disease). Make sure your raid bars have the ability to see that you have a renew on someone and/or have a mod to see your hots/dots (like chronometer).

Not that it'll really help your healing much but your tanks will love you for it, so as others have said, try to use PoMend on your tanks every time the cool down is up if you have the ability to do so. On VR toss it out right before pounding if you don't do that already. Spam it on them during trash- they'll love the extra threat.

If doing some of the changes suggested not only by me but others here require more buttons to use, move some stuff around and/or create some new key binds, then go mess around in a BG healing and getting used to it all. The people there will appreciate some heals, you may get some honor and you can test out how the new layout works

Another word on CoH/iDS... I came on here a little while ago bummed because the CoH priests's output was far more than I could manage as iDS spec (even on non-AoE fights). Recently one of the CoH priests wanted to go iDS for a while, so I switched, and well -- the difference in output WAS totally due to spec, and on the jobs we were assigned to do based on our spec. When you look at our meters before and after on the same bosses, this person and I are essentially swapped in how much we put out. So I now fully understand that this is normal. Trying to compare people across specs is apples and oranges...

I also agree the Eye of Gruul is great for CoH spam fights. I regretted taking it as iDS spec, at least now I'm getting some use from it.

Oh. My. God. I love you! Wow. This is an amazing change. I imagine this is also pretty amazing for dps casters who use this meta.

Now, if only I could get an epic +heal/spirit gem.

I've been planning to switch to the Bracing Earthstorm, but I'd only do it once I had an entirely new set of gear for my new socket arrangements (was planning to go heavy red, so I wouldn't need to offset the blues with many yellows).

Do you know if any other requirements changed? I mean for other gems.

I have an ilvl question regarding our Tier gear ... wtf is Blizzard on? That's my serious question.

Compare:
[Cowl of the Avatar] (ilvl 133)
[Cowl of Absolution] (ilvl 146)

Somehow, 13 ilvls is equivalent to:
+4 intellect
+2 spirit
-4 stamina
+14 healing S&E
Yellow Socket -> Blue Socket
2 Mp5 -> 9 Healing (socket bonus)

Since we know that 9 healing < 2 Mp5 in ilvls (see gems for perfect expression of this, the actual conversion appears to be 11 heal = 2 Mp5), basically 13 ilvls is a tiny smattering of stats and 14 healing. Which, ok, if this were consistent, I'd go /shrug. But ... compare:

[Mantle of the Avatar] (ilvl 133)
[Mantle of Absolution] (ilvl 146)

This time, 13 ilvls is equivalent to:
+4 stamina
+4 intellect
-1 spirit
+9 healing S&E
+8 Mp5

So somehow 7 Mp5 is roughly equivalent to the conversion from a yellow to a blue socket (assuming the 5 healing differential is approx 1 Mp5).

Does anyone know ilvls and the derived formula well enough to tell me why Blizzard's itemization team appears to be on some serious crack? The cost of Mp5 on gear is high enough that there's no way the shoulder upgrade from T5 to T6 is equivalent to the helm upgrade. The same holds true for the chest upgrade, where you lose a little spirit, gain a ton of stamina, and again gain some healing and 8 Mp5.

I heal VR in melee too. It's especially nice as a CoH priest or resto shaman spamming the melee groups, but it worked well as an iDS tank healer too. The only tricky bit is you're not in the groups you're healing. I keep a renew on myself and start off each Prayer of Mending on myself.

Regen and stamina will help. You can't ever stop healing or leave melee once you're in. Trying to run in and out will train orbs on the melee and kill them.

Another funny thing... You can pull aggro healing the fight this way. Your threat generation is higher in melee range, and the tanks are always faltering due to the de-aggro knockback. Get Salv or watch Omen if you don't usually.

What I remember about people talking about itemization, I heard somewhere that sockets in itemization are balanced around green gems.

Second, I heard a blizzard CM saying at some point that "item stats where in limits" or something on lines of that. What I'm trying to say is that there seems to be a variance in items value even when they are equal. In example: let's say items should get 90 to 110% of amount of stats from itembudget of X, which is scaled to item according to its item level and value (grey/white/green/blue/purple/orange). So in theory (pulling example out of a hat!), iten in T5 level could get, lets say, 109% from standard baseline budget and item in T6 level gets 92%. Thus the difference between those seems a bigger than between itsems that got ~90% at t5 and ~110% at t6? I remember some cm saying it allowed item designers some creativety, or something.

Third, different slots have different budgets. Noticed how chest slot items give different amounts stats compared to bracers? So I don't think items from different slots can be compared really with each other.

I may be wrong (since I can't give) any actual sources to, but from what I quickly counted, the procentual (%) change is roughly equal on both T5->T6 comparinsons of yours (around 10% increase in total stats?). The main problem in analyzing itemization seems to be that Blizzard seems to have given their designers no exact formula to design items with. Or, they have but have made room in the formula for "human creativity". So, it's pretty obvious why items are inconsistent with no logic?

He compared 2 head slots and 2 shoulder slots. While what you say is true, his main problem is that a ZA head slot is nearly equal to t6 while there is a rather large ilvl gap. (I'm not going to make statements about this myself, itemisation has always been abit.. funky.)

edit: got confused myself, I should have said 'tier 5' instead of 'ZA'. Apologies.

[Hood of the Third Eye] (ilvl 133 by the way..)
[Cowl of Absolution]

Difference:
+18 armor
+0 Stamina
-8 intellect
+33 spirit
+2mp5 -> +9healing (socket bonus)
red + yellow socket -> Metagem socket
+27 healing
-5mp5

The comparison of these two items can be pretty tough. 33 spirit is 21mp5 while NOT casting (and 6mp5 while casting), not to mention its 11,55 +healing with spiritual guidance and improved ds. So the actual +healing difference between these items is +38,55.

The metagem<->red+yellow-socket comparison is very hard since around all metagems have added effects like "-2% threath" or "chance to restore mana on spellcast". I don't know how to turn these into "item budget points". When looking at itemlevels, "hood of the third eye" is equal to T5 level items (?), so the difference between Third eye & cowl of absolution seem to be bigger than with "real tier items":

Part of this is because the 2mp5 should of been 1.5 mp5, but since they don't do fractional mp5, they round up. 1mp5 = 7 healing, this is correct, but then again notice 2mp5/9 healing AND 2mp5/11 healing? Then lets go to 4mp5 vs. 22 healing and 3mp5 vs 18 healing.

We'll see in the blue gems its 3mp5 = 18 healing, which would theorethically work out to 1mp5 = 6 healing. Now, this also implies that the previous statement of 1mp5 = 7 healing as being flawed, because they are rounding up. Simply put, it would be impossible for them to do .9 mp5 or .7 mp5 or something.

Second, there is an exponential cost. The more of one thing you stack, the more costlier every additional point becomes. This becomes very evident when it comes to +heal because of its very nature. The other stat that gets crippled by this exponential cost would be armor, but we don't have to worry about that. Or I guess, the best example of this is: an item could have 15 spirit OR it could have 10 intellect AND 10 spirit OR 7 intellect, 7 spirit AND 7 stamina.

Hope that explains it.

Edit: Damn, hella active thread today. So, I got beaten on parts of it, but I think other parts are still relevant!

I still find it troubling that a T6 item with 13 more ilvls has *less* stats in order to ... raise the +heal on the item by a tiny amount? Their system needs a bit of a revamp if this is the way it works. Archimonde loot should be significantly better than Vashj loot, not a marginal sidegrade.

As much as I favor plus healing on my own gear I can't really recommend [Bracing Earthstorm Diamond] for a priest raiding seriously.

Consider the following factors.

A) almost no priests take 5/5 silent resolve and most only take 3+ because there are no better options for PvE, thus its safe to say that while 2% threat is not causing any harm its almost never having any appreciable benefit in a raid enviroment ( possible exception for a CoH spec @ bloodboil)

B) If you were to socket for + healing excepting the meta gem requirements for [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] you'd only lose a marginal amount of + healing and the regen gains from IED would far outshadow anything you'd gain from gem options. Consider the follow pieces of gear that imo almost any priest in the t5/early BT range would be wearing.

[Pattern: Belt of the Long Road]
[Boots of the Divine Light]
[Cowl of the Avatar]
[Light-Blessed Bonds]
[Pattern: Primal Mooncloth Belt]
[Pattern: Primal Mooncloth Robe]
[Vestments of the Avatar]

I don't think that its at all unreasonable that a priest in the given gear range ( and in any really) would be wearing at least 2 of the above mentioned pieces. This means any yellow gems you use ( and its a given any blue since everything has blue sockets) will be used towards socket bonuses. This basically means the difference between a 44 healing item and a 22 healing 5 int 2mp5 item is not 22 healing but 15 ( 7 if not using BT gems) which for most priests is a fairly good tradeoff.

so worst case you lose 56 healing Vs the proc of IED and the 22 int and 4 mp5 from the meta and other gems you used. Unfortunately its notoriously difficult to compare healing to regen, and the proc rate on IED is largely dependent on style. Still even if you only got 4 procs every 10 minutes ( 6mp/5) that alone would make them equal in terms of itemization of gems cost and you'd still gain 22 int ( a not completely insignificant gain in mp/5 in terms of total mana pool), and in most cases you would gain more procs than that ( in my experience and review of WWS but ultimately based on your number of casts) If someone has a more accurate representative estimation for IED I'd love to here it but iirc 6 mp/5 is representative of 1 cast per 5 seconds

Anyway long story short unless you can put red BT gems in almost every slot you really have no business using BED, since IED is simply far more bang for the buck, and even when you can it is very very close even in the worst case for IED, and for most players IED is more obtainable ( Hi crimson Spinel demand) and helps progression through more mana regen when you cast more. Even with a full set of Crimson Spinels you do give up a great deal of mp/5 and "free" itemization by focusing exclusively on healing and ignoring socket bonuses and the like, so its important to be aware of those drawbacks for about 50 more healing.

The final option is to still socket for set bonuses but just use 26 healing over 12 int and mana regen, I think it would be significantly cheaper itemization wise to get 26 healing from sockets than it would be to get 6+ mp/5.seconds.

Just a second to Vurrin's post; I highly recommend *against* using BED. It's a crap-tastic gem when compared to the alternatives. And I have to concur with his point about not socketing with all +heal -- unless your guild is literally rolling in Spinels, it's not worth taking them from people for whom they genuinely are the absolute best option, no question or quibbling allowed (examples: survival hunters, shadow priests, any warlock with 4+ T6, and mage with 4+ T6, and to a lesser extent, fury warriors and enh shamans for as many sockets as they can afford while keeping the metagem active).

When I finish gearing up from BT/HS, I'll have around 2200 +heal self-buffed, +/- 50. I see the odd priest with just a smidge over 2400, but most who socket for +heal still end up running 2350-2400.

I'm more than happy to trade 150 +heal for 50 Mp5 and the knowledge that I'm helping out the rest of my guild with their gem requirements. It also lets me socket for spirit, which increases OO5SR regen, and helps promote an intelligent cast style.

Side note for Vurrin: no matter your play-style, you will get a minimum of 1 proc every 90 seconds off the IED, unless you're literally standing around doing nothing for a period greater than that. The proc rate is over 20% with an internal 45 second cooldown, which basically means that if you come back into casting after a few seconds OO5SR, you're almost guaranteed to get a proc in the first 3 casts. I can't count the number of times I've chained Clearcasting -> Inner Focus -> stand around -> real cast (PROC).

Edit: just did some base computations, and my completely finished gear, no Memento, will run 2194 +heal self-buffed, with 225/512 Mp5. Just a hair under 800 spirit raid-buffed.

Honestly I "messed up" when geming my own gear. I wanted to use IED, but I had forgotten that t6 switched from yellow gem to blue, and I had long since put spinels in my boots. Long story short I couldn't use IED without replacing a Crimson Spinel which is like a crime in my eyes, and furthermore if I were to wear haste gear (Belt bracers cloak ring, and neck if I ever see it) the meta bonus would be lost anyway. Currently I am considering getting a second pair of Divine Light and T6 helm to socket with yellow gems and IED respectively, but we keep getting people who want those drops so I wait since the issue is not pressing.

And for my final + healing if I were to replace everything with +22 heal I would be at 2423 healing before IDS so about 50 more healing for 8 crimson spinels. personally I'm pretty happy where I am if I want more + healing its going to come from using a MH/OH combo over apostle rather than changing a slew of gems.

my final regen is 210/411 unbuffed, DS alone jumps it up to 220/444 without seeing your gear plan I can't comment on any specifics but it sounds like you're giving up a fair bit for a lot of spirits. Which is fine if your OOFSR time or rate of innervates supports it.

After reading your post, I've reconsidered. I still think I am better off with 3 crimson's in my chest and legs, but the blue/red is worth it in head/wrist and red/yellow in boots/belt.