So I'm a noob Kara Holy Priest, and I want to maximize my mana usage during long fights. I've had some success using CasterWeaponSwapper, and I'm wondering how other priests have itemized their different sets.

1) Do I ultimately want to hold onto 4 different healing weapons and put different enchants on each one (int, +heal, spellsurge, spirit)? Any recommendations on weapons to use for each of these at my gear level? Right now I have [Hammer of the Penitent], but I hope to acquire the Sha'tar exalted hammer soon, as well as the healing weapon drops from Maiden and Prince.

2) As far as I can tell the [Staff of Divine Infusion] has much more spirit than any combination of 1H and offhand weapons, so I'm pretty sure that's going to be my spirit set until I get the one off of Nightbane.

3) Right now I can get the [Seer's Cane], which like the Staff above, seems to have much more Int than any other combination. Would that be worth using as my Int set right now, despite the hit on the +healing?

Any general tips from Holy priests who are using CasterWeaponSwapper? What gear and settings are you using?

Does all this work really make a difference in the end?

Right the main appeal for me with Spellsurge is how CasterWeaponSwapper will swap it out when the proc is on the hidden cooldown.

I'm such a dork, but I live for weird optimizations like that.

So if I do that, what stats should I look for in a Spellsurge weapon, and should I just get the most +healing I can on my +81 weapon?

Also, what percentages do you set the sliders to?

Looks like you snuck in a reply while I was editing. As I said I'd personally look for rough equivalents, or even two of the same MH if available (such as double Sha'tar gavel once it becomes unique-equipped in 2.3) for surge and 81h, they're essentially both "casting enchants" whereas spirit is strongest on a regen weapon.

I've not used CWS but I swap +spirit in with a hotkey usually around 50%. Definitely will use the mod though if I get an appropriate weapon to try out Spellsurge, that proc would be a pain to keep track of.

Here's some things to realize:

1) Spellsurge is a 50% proc on a 50 second internal cooldown. It doesn't matter if you have it enchanted on a GREY weapon ... it's only active for the 5 seconds it takes to proc, then CWS switches your main weapon back in. Just use your previous generation 1H weapon.

2) Having a spirit weapon is absolutely necessary, unless you actually use one as your primary weapon. Being able to hit a button, put on [Nightstaff of the Everliving]+20 spirit enchant (side note: WTB +30 spirit enchant, PST), switch in my spirit wand ([Soul-Wand of the Aldor]), and proc the Use Effect on my [Earring of Soulful Meditation] makes an innervate worth precisely 12,000 mana for me. Without those, it is worth just under 9k. Huge difference for one click of a button.

3) Having an "int weapon" is rather worthless, and takes more handing than is really necessary, since the mechanics for switching in CWS aren't precise enough, and it'll be switching all the time unless you really tweak it. All you really need is the same set in High and Regular, and your Spirit set in Low, and then a Spellsurge MH/OH Enabled.

I use:
[Nightstaff of the Everliving] +20 (spirit)
[Gavel of Pure Light] +Spellsurge
[Crystalheart Pulse-Staff] +81 (main healing weapon)

If you're stuck for raid drops, buy 2 [Gavel of Pure Light].

As with almost all rep rewards, it's Unique.

Pre-TBC I did a int/healing/spirit swap for a while, but ditched the int part around when we got to Naxx. It just stops being worth the annoyance after a while -- automatic int swaps don't work very well, and even [Apostle of Argus] + 30 int is only 1335 mana.

Dealing with +healing/spellsurge/spirit is well worth the effort, though. Spellsurge is 42 mp5 in exchange for 100-200 healing on two spells per minute, and as constantius pointed out, the effects of a spirit weapon swap on innervate are huge (as is just swapping any time you know you have some time where you don't have to cast).

Hi, I am the author of CWS, I hope I can answer a few questions.

CWS does not distinguish between items with the same name, but this is the biggest feature I'd like to add in the near future. Someone told me they had modded it to include this feature, but then they disappeared.

I understand that some people don't like how the mod swaps to your "high mana" and "low mana" sets, so I will probably make them optional for those who just want to swap between healing/damage and spellsurge sets. The high mana set isn't handled super well due to hysteresis (you swap in a weapon with more int, suddenly your max mana is higher, your mana percentage is lower, so the mod wants to swap in your casting weapon, etc).

Personally I do keep 4 sets of weapons/wands, since I am micromanagement nut. I use a Staff of the Redeemer (45 int) enchanted with 30 int for my high mana set, but the Seer's Cane is nice too. I believe that having 700-1000 extra mana from starting the fight with the extra int is worth it.

Regarding which attributes to look for in the casting and spellsurge sets, it's more open to personal preference. Obviously int and spirit are less important, so healing and mp5 are great. In my experience, I spend from 10% of 40% of a fight with the spellsurge set equipped (the mod reports this now). In theory the spellsurge set should proc quickly and then swap out, but sometimes it is stubborn, and sometimes it swaps in just as I am about to take a regen break. So I wouldn't just throw spellsurge on a grey. The Essence Focuser is a great cheap BOE for this though.

Belenos, ty for the clarification on the items with different enchants, and the details on the logic for mana switching.

I think I will work +int into my rotation as I already have the Seer's Cane, and I can do +30 int myself.

As it stands now with my current gear, I think I'm going to going to go for:
Int - [Seer's Cane] with +Int
Healing - [Shard of the Virtuous] with +81 healing
Spellsurge - [Gavel of Pure Light] with Spellsurge
Spirit - [Staff of Divine Infusion] with Mighty Spirit

Anyway, Keep up the good work Belenos!

There's only 5 wands you should be considering seriously:

[Soul-Wand of the Aldor]
[Blue Diamond Witchwand]
[Luminescent Rod of the Naaru]
[Naaru-Blessed Life Rod]
[Vengeful Gladiator's Baton of Light]

Pre-Kara: [Soul-Wand of the Aldor] (Shadow Labs)
Pre-Morogrim: [Blue Diamond Witchwand] or previous
Pre-BT: [Luminescent Rod of the Naaru]
Mid-BT to Illidan: [Naaru-Blessed Life Rod]

with

[Vengeful Gladiator's Baton of Light] for Arenas and stamina situations.

Well, with the ability to hot-swap wands, you have a few other options. For example I had a good old Dragon Finger of Healing in my WoW 1.0 set, since it had the best healing available for a long time, even though other wands were better for regen.

What I use now is the Witchwand for my high and low mana sets, and a Rejuvenating Scepter (quest reward, 31 healing 2 mp5) for casting. When casting, I prefer the 2 mp5 to other wands' stats. I don't have access to the other wands listed yet, but they're clearly all great choices.

Just to throw my two cents worth into the mix...
I have been a holy/disc priest since i started playing pre-BC. I have always stressed +int over +spirit. Now of course, all the priest/caster specific items with +heal generally tend to come with at least some spirit, so i do have about 490 spirit. but my Int is at 590, well over 600 when raid buffed and potioned etc. THis gives me a total of about 14.8k mana.
The reason i would rather have +int over +spirit anyday is this: Why run out of mana and have to rely on mana regen, when you could pump as much +enchants and gems to give you not only a massive mana pool, but also a %crit increase. Im sorry to say, that i hate spirit, and i think its worthless in both pvp and pve. Just consider the fact that you always have mana oil (for a price on the AH), if you are raiding then chances are you have a paladin with the +regen buff, hopefully you have a shaman with a mana spring totem, and not only that, but you have mana potions and your shadow pet that regens mana for you. There are also some foods out there that give a +30 spirit buff as well.
So in conclusion, go with +int. In the long drawn out raid battles, i do run out of mana, but %99.9 of the time i have at least one innervate and sometimes even get a second round of cooldowns with my mana pet. the +crit chance is nice, and spirit is worthless.
Thanks and have a great day

P.S. I have every purple drop possible for healers from kara putting me at about +1600 healing when buffed, 1496 base. I also have the Gruul trinket which when procs gives me a -450 mana cost on my next spell. helpful i hope.

So you are seriously trying to convince people to use something like +30 int on weapon over +81 healing, +12 int on bracers over 30 healing, etc..?

edit: Sorry, but I have to mention this: you are using +17str/int on your headpiece.. Melee alot?

I'm not sure if you can be saved at this point, but I'll do a general comparison of how much mp5 you need in a ~6 minute fight to match +100 int:
100 int = 1500 mana
1500/(6*12)= 20.8 mp5

Now, add to this that if you do run out of mana, your intellect is doing absolutly nothing for you.

Yes, there are tons of ways to regen mana, but in what way is stacking intellect (you know, bigger mana pool, barely affects your total healing done with all those mana regen methods) better then stacking regen/+heal?

edit2: small example of what you'd have to give up for mp5 in your case:
Head enchant: -16 int, +35 healing, +7 mp5
Bracers enchant: -12 int, +6 mp5
Chest enchant: -6 int, +6 mp5 (you'll loose 6 spirit though, which will be ~2 mp5 when spending 30% outside FSR and 1 +heal)

Thats 17 mp5 and 34 healing for 34 intellect. See where this is going?

Now we have had the whole 'intellect' thing, can you please enlighten us on your spec?