I've just started doing arena's on my priest and I am really have a lot of fun. Although I try and keep myself up to date on information with the game I am extremely inexperienced when it comes to PvP and I am looking for some help =)

At first I went the obvious route and stacked up stamina and resilience everywhere I could but it has gotten to the point where I am having a lot of mana issues. I am trying to get more mana but I am not sure how much hp I can afford to sacrifice in the process.

Currently my stats are as follows (Self buffed ... since alli sucks and doesnt buff me!)

HP: 11251
Mana: 8465
Mp5: 83
+Heal: +972 (With my spec my heals really suck)
Resilience: 186

I am thinking of switching out some of my gems for +8 Intellect gems (I get a HUGE return from intellect, +5% total intellect + another 10% mana awarded from all intellect - My spec is 41/20/0) and this would put me 1 red gem away, on each piece of gear, from the socket bonus which is +resilience, something I am also rather light on.

The two pieces of gear I am focusing on atm are

Merciless Gladiator's Mooncloth Mantle:
(Red Socket)
(Yellow Socket)
(Socket Bonus: +3 Resilience)

Merciless Gladiator's Mooncloth Robe:

(Red Socket)
(Yellow Socket)
(Yellow Socket)
(Socket Bonus)

If I were to replace all yellow sockets with +8 Intellect and all red sockets with +9 Healing +4 Intellect then it would leave me with the following stats:

HP: 10811 (-440)
Mana: 9026 (+561)
+heal: +990 (+18)
Mp5: 83 (Unchanged)
Resilience: 193 (+7)

Is the loss of hp worth the increase in mana? Mana is very crucial for me but so are hp ... its forcing me to compare apples to oranges and I dont know how :P

The other question is what would be the best red gem? The following are my choices:

+9 Healing +4 Intellect
+9 Healing +2 Mp5
+18 Healing

I am assuming +9 healing +4 Intellect is the best but if I were to pass up the socket bonus is +12 stamina > +9 healing +4 Intellect +4 resilience? Is +8 Intellect > +9 Healing +4 Intellect +4 Resilience?


Finally I am curious about my spec. I was kind of rushed into trying it out and wasnt able to put forth a lot of time and research on it but I am current using: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMrzhgtMzyofVLhc

A few questions about the build:

My 2v2 is Rogue + Priest (I never really use PI in 2v2)
My 3v3 is Hunter + Mage + Priest

I originally picked PI because I thought the benefit it would provide in 3v3 would outperform the uselessness it provides in 2v2. Is PI a better choice then maxing out reflective shield which would deal an additional 160 dmg each shield?

Improved Inner Fire, Is this talent a must have? I usually dont have the GCD to recast Inner Fire and it goes away so fast so I decided to pass it up for better mana efficiency. Anyone have a comment on this?

Another point in Improved PWS would allow me to do another 35 damage every shield, as well as prevent additional damage. Would spending an additional point in imp PWS be more benefitial then 1 point in Mental Agility?

Absolution/Silent Resolve: I wasnt really able to find any points to throw in either of these talents, are either of them must haves that I need to find room for?

I dont know why it would but if it helps my 2v2 rating is 1644, 3v3 rating is 1582, I play on a carebear server, and armory is: http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ch...ilneas&n=Athen

Any help would be greatly appreciated =)

Shadowed, I read all of those links you posted. Thanks.

Unforutnately, they did not answer my specific questions. In particular, they talk about the uncontested nature of the 28/33 spec, but not a single example was cited. Obviously the 33 points in holy are relatively easy to figure out, I'd still like to see some example builds of highly rated priests though. However, the points in disc seem much more difficult to figure out. In particular, whether I should be getting mental strength, focused power, and absolution.

My original reason for coming to this post is because while ive had blessed resilience for some time now, and agree it is incredibly powerful, I recently started playing in a 3v3 with Mage, Mage, Priest. In this group, I'm wondering whether there would be any value in reflective shield, power infusion and/or pain supression. I'm also wondering if I should be speccing into divine spirit and improved divine spirit because of the benefits to my mage partners.

There has never really been much to discuss when it comes to priest specs, generally in a lower bracket Power Infusion is a handy skill, but the overall survivability is greater from 28/33, as as your out put as the healer role you would primarily play in those brackets.

As for sockets, I still socket everything I have with +12 stamina, and the only exception to this would be a 10 resilience gem in my neck piece once I am able to obtain one.

As for your mana issues, this is something that has always existed for PVP priests since day 1, in order for you to do your job while PVP'ing you have to choose your spells very carefully, and not waste the very limited (in comparison to what you would have in your PVE gear) mana pool you are forcing on yourself.

As for your spec issues, I really don't care for Reflective Shield because of how deeply you have put points in Disc, how often it lasts, and the mediocre damage output it has. 28/33 is, and probably always will be the cookie-cutter build in terms of numbers, but you will notice that nearly every priest has slight difference in their point Allocation, there are no real rights or wrongs for what you choose to pick up after you have the crucial abilities.

You can find my character on the EU armory, if you have any questions after these points I brought up then feel free to ask, but I imagine this thread may be closed :p

For 2vs2, reflective shield is somewhat handy when you're going on a healer and your Priest is being attacked since it forces them to heal which is hard when your Priest is running around pillars and such, but overall you just get (as was said) far better survivability from 28/33.

Currently for pvp I spec the cookie cutter 28/33 build. But recently I have been thinking of maybe going the shieldwall/reflective shield Disc build. What I would like to know is if after a certain amount of resil it is better to go disc then blessed resil. Currently at 330 resil but with a couple more upgrades(2 rings, chest, belt) I could easily go over the 400 threashold. Is this too much? For priests should there be a cap to how much resil we go for?

Silent Resolve never worked properly, the mechanic was bugged so it didn't reach the value it wasn't meant to, and when you're being assist trained the odds are you're being spammed purged / dispelled regardless, so it's a bit of a waste in my opinion.

As for absolution, considering when I'm being assist trained the only spells I get to do are instants, it's a killer talent for me :p

I only do 2v2 and 3v3 because we're waiting on a friend to hit 70 on his warrior before we 5v5 (the warrior in our teams is also the shaman). In 2v2 and 3v3 double healers is pretty rare so the dispeller often has better things to do than get rid of my buffs if they're the one healer. If they're a non-resto shaman or shadow priest (or holy priest in a 2 healer setup, mana burn must be stopped :P) chances are they're being focussed and have bigger worries than dispelling me. If I get caught out in LOS they'll get maybe 1 or 2 dispells off and that's it, resisting one of those would be a good deal if I can hold onto a useful buff because of it. But yeah if the talent is not getting the full 20% I won't bother because 20% is low enough as it is.

As for only getting instants in when focussed again it's different for me in 2v2. If their warrior pummels my flash heal that's a good thing because then he's getting mind controlled, and on blades edge that means getting thrown off the bridge and losing. Even when not on blades edge that gives me time to get my cooldowns back and renew is ticking away for the duration. If I can get them out of LOS I can even land a flash heal without MS. I will stick with it though because it's still the best spot to put points if silent resolve is broken.

Now to decide if rank 1 holy nova instead of 1 holy specialization is worth a 50g respec. I'm thinking not.

This is actually something I have considered doing on my druid as well, to help mitigate some of the cyclone and root resists. When you throw in socket bonuses on some pieces, it certainly can't hurt to minimize your chances of getting an unlucky resist at a bad time.

I don't gem any +hit, but I do have the +hit to gloves enchant, which is a great place to get hit. The ring from spirit shards also has some +hit on it, or you can get the dps honor ring which has spell penetration which is also helpful.

Holy does not count as a resist, therefore spell penetration is absolutely useless for a holy priest.

Do any priests PvP and PvE with the same spec? I understand some talents, such as silence, are a real waste for PvE, however I am veryx curious if anyone has found a very competetive PvE spec that also works for PvP.

My fiancee just started to work her tailoring up yesterday (got her priest FSW piece today too!) and has decided to go shadow for both raids and PvP. Now we dont play with a warlock, so I know its a poor setup, however I just want a spec that will do great in PvE and not be crippled for PvP. Anyone else int his situation?