Priest Simple Questions/Simple Answers: Cataclysm

• Snowy · 12/06/10, 3:59 PM

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Genzen · 12/08/10, 4:51 PM

Heya,

I'm gonna take a guess that this is the right place for this question; please don't eat me if it's not.

Anyway, for a Discipline Priest whose main focus will be tank-healing, and who hasn't taken the Evangelism/Atonement route, what will be more useful between Divine Fury and Darkness?

Divine Fury reduces the cast-time of Heal and Greater Heal by .15 seconds per talent, whereas Darkness gives me a flat 1% haste.

So I'm wondering, how much would the 1% haste reduce the cast-time of Heal and Greater heal? If it's close, it seems like Darkness would be better since it will also effect the rest of my spells, but if the .15 is far greater than the reduction that 1% haste brings, then, since Heal and Greater Heal will be my bread and butter spells, Divine Fury would seem better.

I've put 3/3 in Empowered Healing and 2/2 in Inspiration, and I plan on putting 3/3 in either Divine Fury or Darkness, with 2/3 in the other one; does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions on this?

Again, sorry if this isn't the right place.

Thanks in advance.

flo-joe86 · 12/09/10, 8:03 AM

This depends on your play style. If you often use Greater Heal and Heal (and I think you will), then 3 points in Divine Fury act like 20% haste on these spells without having any haste rating on your gear, which is enormous.
So I would recommend 3/3 Divine Fury and 2/3 Darkness.

Ingela · 12/09/10, 10:13 PM

Related to discussion here what do you guys think of skipping darkness? I don't have any clear numbers but 2% doesn't seem really too much for me. Mana problems seems way worse then anything else nowadays (which may change later on, thus darkness being better). I am going Surge of Light instead (6% chance when heal is casted to get a free flash heal) which really seems to be working out great for that free extra heal. A flash heal is really expensive now and this is a instant free one.

So what do you think about going Surge of Light instead of Darkness? (Don't forget we want to bring out the light, not the darkness!)

Ellyh · 12/10/10, 8:35 AM

Darkness is not worth taking untill well into raiding in full epics. Even then the value of 2% haste vs mana efficiency is debatable. Haste totals will never get to where they were in Wrath and the new healing model emphasises efficiency over throughput so until you are geared to the max always take efficiency talents.

However divine fury is worth taking as you will need to cast a lot of heals and greater heals and 3 points in divine fury is the equivalent of nearly 20% haste on those spells and makes a huge difference in the usability of the spells.

Sugarcake · 12/11/10, 8:59 AM

After browsing the Shadowpriest 4.0 Thread, I was unable to find a direct (or even vague) answer to the posed question in the OP's post:"What's my spell casting/priority system now?"

Its been a few weeks since the OP said he would update (and no doubt he has been crazy busy this time of year), are there any tips on what my priority cycle should look like? I'm a forever disc priest trying to give the new Shadow some attention.

Balkoth · 12/11/10, 12:50 PM

Generally speaking?

Something like VT > DP > Mind Blast with orbs > Mind Flay. SW:D under 25% and to gain mana back, SW:P should be refreshed through Mind Flay. Keep Empowered Shadow and Dark Evangelism up. Use Dark Archangel when you'll have time to Mind Flay twice before recasting VT or DP. Use Shadowfiend on cooldown.

Cadfael · 12/11/10, 6:54 PM

Generally use SW:D on cooldown, don't keep it back specifically for sub 25%, it will give you back lots of mana and basically solve the mana issue for shadows.

Balkoth · 12/11/10, 11:35 PM

Well...that's going a bit far.

First of all, yes, you will likely need to use SW:D prior to 25% for mana. The cost with 3/3 Mental Agility is about 2300. If you had 80k mana, that's 8k returned, or a gain of 5700 mana per cast. The exact gain will depend upon your mana pool.

However, you will still want to be using Shadowfiend and Dark Archangel as close to on cooldown as possible. Gaining 5700 mana per 11.5 seconds is helpful but it won't allow extended DoT spam on everything for extended periods of time. And, of course, it is a DPS loss whenever you need to use it prior to 25%. Use it only as much as you need to in order to last the fight.

Kittyashley · 12/12/10, 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by Balkoth

Generally speaking?

Something like VT > DP > Mind Blast with orbs > Mind Flay. SW:D under 25% and to gain mana back, SW:P should be refreshed through Mind Flay. Keep Empowered Shadow and Dark Evangelism up. Use Dark Archangel when you'll have time to Mind Flay twice before recasting VT or DP. Use Shadowfiend on cooldown.

I've been finding two things, depending on what you're killing and if a mana break afterwards is possible:

The long fight; mobs with more than 200k health, or a flight against many mobs/boss:

SW:P, DP, VT, MF (repeat as required until you get 3 orbs), Dark Archangel, MB (with the 3 orbs), refresh VT and DP if required, repeat at MF.

The short fight; mobs under 200k health with a mana break possible:

MS x3, MB, then either SW:D twice (if mob has ~30k HP left and that's under 25%), else repeat. Either target will die halfway through the second run, or the SW:D of the repeat will kill it.

I'm unsure if MS with two stacks is "better" than MS with three, in the sense that casting MB with two stacks makes the MB insta-cast and a crit-chance of 60%, where as, if I recall correctly, 3 stacks makes it a 100% crit chance. I guess that's one for the theory crafters?

Demøn · 12/14/10, 9:15 AM

I'm sorry but can someone tell me where I should be looking to gain a basic understanding of the math of all this theorycrafting? There are great discussions here at EJ and a lot of information to cover but as someone brand new to the actual theorycrafting side (rather than the user-side that just does whatever they read) I'm not sure where/how to start. Thanks and sorry if this question is out of place, there isn't really anywhere better to put it on these forums.

Zorat · 12/14/10, 12:30 PM

I find that trying to end every trash fight with at least one orb available is highly desirable since it lets you open with MB to get the mastery damage bonus from the get go.

papaldecree · 12/14/10, 4:07 PM

Originally Posted by Kittyashley

I'm unsure if MS with two stacks is "better" than MS with three, in the sense that casting MB with two stacks makes the MB insta-cast and a crit-chance of 60%, where as, if I recall correctly, 3 stacks makes it a 100% crit chance. I guess that's one for the theory crafters?

The crit chance at 3 stacks is only 90%. Not sure how that interacts with your crit stat but I seem to recall some MB with 3 stacks that didn't critical. Could be remembering wrong though.

My question is, when you're in you're full DoT rotation, is it ok to cut off a Mind Flay if you can/need to for some reason, such as getting a 3rd shadow orb, or needing to catch a DoT before it falls off. I remember somewhere before 4.0 that it was said to never do this, but not that Mind Flay seems to do little damage is it ok?

pocketmage · 12/16/10, 12:21 PM

Is there an addon that tracks lightwell efficiency? Specifically, I'm looking for an easy way to track who is clicking on my Lightwell constantly at full health and overhealing themselves excessively.

tedv · 12/16/10, 12:55 PM

Skada will do this I think, if you sort healing by source. You can definitely get the information from a World of Logs parse though.