RE HEALING PRIEST SPELL ROTATION


I assume you mean Holy more than Disc as single target MT healer does lend itself to a near rotation.
The question really is - Is Holy raid healing now getting to the point on some fights where we are using a rotation?

Thats actually the reason I checked this forum now - I was beginning to wonder the same thing.
As a long term Holy Priest this was never the case we heal the damage when and where it occurs - we used to have downranking, we didnt have serendipity stacks, PoM and its Cool downs, CoH and its CD's, hasted and Group targetable PoH, and Ulduar raid damage levels.

PoM is so good we need that on its CD, CoH is more often than not worth casting on its CD, Flash healing (or binding) inbetween to get that PoH prepared is probably our main rota. Maybe Hotting MT when you have a moment and a Hasted PoH in the pipeline already - this is somewhere i feel we lack atm, Id really like a mana neutral (IE raid regen covers it) very small instant or inside GCD single target heal. Just something to throw in when I've stacked my PoH and maybe have nothing else to heal but prefer not to spend mana on a too big FH now the OFSR isnt the issue.

There are times when it seems like the constant raid damage is close to requiring a set rotation.

Anyone actually using a set rotation on any non MT healing roles in any individual Uldaur fight yet?

Nid's 3.1 compendium suggests a basic one for high raid damage time

Enter every burst phase with a 3-stack of Serendipity up, start with two hasted PoHs (note that it's currently "bugged", and you can get the haste effect on two casts in a row), and then CoH. Two FH, then a final PoH+CoH, and the raid damage should be topped up. Regen a bit, then restack Serendipity and get ready for the next one.

As has been reported that bug has been removed so a double PoH starter is less definite,. I'm also not sure we should PoH -> CoH following automatically though. With 2 points in SoL (not 1 :P) its makes PoH Sol FH CoH SoL FH PoH a regular possibility - basically the SoL FHs are used for PoH haste charging this way.
There's a trade off with 2 GCD's which could be vital but you can at least get the instant FH's on the most critical places.

I think doing two Prayers of Healing in a row is still a worthwhile thing to do to heal things like flame jet damage. You can save two groups, and then cast a circle of healing to help top people off if necessary. Trying to stack serendipity back up with surge of light procs is somewhat pointless, as by the time you've done fh->coh->fh, it's likely that the second prayer of healing won't be needed anymore. Serendipity is pretty much something that you stack in advance, before the aoe damage comes, by healing the tank or slag pot damage or whatever. It's not time efficient to try to heal aoe damage with single target heals in an effort to make your aoe heals faster.

Using Borrowed Time to haste penance + GHeal is the closest thing disc has to a rotation, but I still wouldn't call it a rotation. It's just another means to an end. "Rotation" to me suggests a certain order of spells you cast to maximize your output, and getting a high HPS isn't what healing is about. In your example, you'd have to take into account the tank and offtank's current health, combined with who else is likely to be healing them, and what damage they're likely to take. If the tank wasn't down enough health to warrant a hasted penance + GH, then doing that would most likely be wasted mana.

I was under the impression that for most of 3.0, priests were supposed to be stacking sp, spirit(/int) and crit but recently I've been looking into haste rather than crit. I'm currently basically in 3.0.2 best in the slot. Last night, another priest with half T's and other purples topped the healing meters by a long shot, almost doubling the holy pallies and a good 35% more healing than me. We were all like wtf because no one could explain why. After scrutinizing his casts and gear, the only conclusion I can come up with is that he had about 400 haste and used a lot of CoH and PoH and PoM. I am almost at a loss at what happened last night and how to improve because a semi naxx geared priest outhealed all the best in the slot 3.0.2 healers in the raid.

It is true that he might have been raid healing most of the time and the rest of us were more situationaly healing tanks and people who were low. I realize that healing meters aren't what determines if you are a good healer or a bad one but my question if it is that much better to stack haste over crit to get that much more throughput?

PS. What exactly did they change in recount so that everyone is down in the 2k hps while they used to be in the 5-6k range? Wasn't recount originally effective heal already?

Nids full example was -

two hasted PoHs (note that it's currently "bugged", and you can get the haste effect on two casts in a row), and then CoH. Two FH, then a final PoH+CoH, and the raid damage should be topped up

I said 'less definite' for a reason 2 haste PoH's while no longer a no brainer, I agree are still situationally the right choice.
The suggestion was just trying to make Nid's cast sequence a little bit more sustainable in a more controlled long term spammage by using any free and fast SoL procs.
Nids full cast sequence has 2 FH's (one very likely SoL'd even with 1 point) before the final PoH+CoH combo so similarily in many cases Nid's second PoH+CoH combo are too delayed on the burst and not going to be needed unless the AoE is sustained.

There is no one solution but if there is the need for us to maintain a spam over a longer term its better to use those SoL's fully if we possibly can - then again if its a longer term sequence I want PoM in there and I'll binding rather than FH the non SoL's on occasion.

Conclusion -
Nah we havent got a definitive cast sequence, we have too many good spells to use at the right time - got to love Holy priest healing

I'd just like to add that this has been fixed per Blizzard in the latest hotfixes:

"The Priest ability Serendipity is now properly consumed when a spell finishes casting and does not affect a second spell."

For priest, it's also a lot about what spells you use, and what role you fills.
Spamming COH on cd is likely to shine on meters, as well a good use of POM (if the fight allows it).
POH can be godly with meters also. But as you said, healing is not topping the meters, and you may have less hps and do a better job, using heals that saves the people.

Now, this being said, yes, haste is one of the best throughput stats available. As for every class and every stats, you need to balance it, but for pure throughput, haste is definitely not to be ignored.

You can easily cast the sequence I mentioned for something like Tantrum (XT), where the damage actually continues to come in for a period of time. It's wasted on something like Flame jets, where basically Blizzard has nerfed the damage into the ground, and 1 PoH + 1 CoH is enough to cover it.

I use something like that rotation on things like Mimiron P2: constant incoming damage to *someone*, typically by group. PoH if enough people have taken damage, use CoH and PoM on cooldown, and if you have nothing else to do, use Flash Heal to re-stack Serendipity in preparation for the next PoH you will have to cast. It's a lot of damage, so you can justify it.

Something like Kologarn's AoE when both arms are down is also a good example of when you might want to do this. Or Steelbreaker-only (approximately "Phase 3") Iron Council hard-mode. There are examples out there where you might want to do this. Just don't try to make it a one-fight-fits-all mantra. Be more flexible than that.

Do these stat scale values seem about right for a holy priest in 3.1.1 (with roughly pre-naxx & T7 gear)?? If not, could someone suggest a good way for me to calculate and come up with my own stat scales so I can make wise decisions on gear upgrades?

Intellect=0.74
CritRating=0.15
HasteRating=0.4
Spirit=0.54
Stamina=0.125
SpellPower=0.6
Mp5=1

This has been explained over and over again but, there are two fundamental problems with this setup.

1.) priests are not a dps class where there are clear and clean-cut formulas for increasing damage. Several examples of different styles are illustrated in the above posts on this page. I can tell you right now using your "weights" you're going to end up with items having nothing but sta/int/sp/spi/haste. But the problem with that is, we still need crit. Think of it this way, at a certain point of combined crit/spirit/mp5 we have enough regeneration to which we look to increase throughput. However, the more we increase our haste the faster we are going to drain our mana as well. So it's important to continually upgrade both haste and crit and be somewhat balanced.

2.) Putting item weight on things like stamina and intellect is kind of moot since the choice is never between stamina or intellect. Choices on items are always between spi/crit vs. spi/haste vs. crit/haste (and very, very rarely vs mp5/spi).

Yeh sorry, I have no idea why I had stam on that list (I didn't make it).

And I understand your point about throughput vs. mana regen as well, but for my gear level (not good, like pre T7 with some T7) should I be more focused on mana regen or throughput? For example, would I better off (generally speaking) going for the T7 set with +haste or the set with +spirit?

Thanks for your time

Is Reflective Shield still activated only when a priest puts a bubble on his/her self? The wording of the talent says it is, but I've had quite a few people tell me otherwise and I'm wondering if they're grossly misinformed or if I'm the one that's behind the times.

[e] clarified the question.

You are correct. The mechanic for this spell changed with wrath and Bliz chose to have it apply only shields cast on the priest.

as per my last post:
this is a quote from my guild forums :
i guess I'll be looking for another guild.

Your guild is right. You really don't need 2 Discipline priests in a raid. Paladins fill the role in the same way, and don't have the issues of overlapping Weakened Soul to deal with. If you run two priests, the second one should be a strong AoE healer: read, Holy.

Being told that you second spec has to be Holy isn't a reason to quit your guild. Being unfairly singled out might be. Both Wreath and I run with Disc/Holy dual-specs (dual, btw, not duel), and we switch back and forth all the time.

Can anyone confirm, or deny, that Eye of the Broodmother gets stacks from casting PW:S?


thanks

Does anyone know the range, if any, of the 3% less damage buff from Renewed Hope?

Wowhead says 100 yards, although I haven't really been checking to be honest.

So what is a "healthy" dose of haste? I'm currently sitting at 310 and I think I want to start dumping more into that stat. Normally raid buffed, lets assume that you're sitting at:

sp: 3000+
crit: ~25%
Regen: ~1000/550mp5
Haste 310
mana: 21,500

Am i correct to assume that I could probably scale back on the spell power and funnel that into haste? Also, what kind of holy crit are you guys running?

Recall that stacking more haste will make you run out of mana faster, so you should only stack more haste if you have mana to spare. Obviously if that's the case, you should be cutting mana regeneration stats like spirit and int. If you don't have enough mana though, then cutting either spell power or regeneration will reduce the total healing you can do. And in that case you should instead cut haste for spell power and regen.

This is true in theory, if you're chain casting as fast as possible. However, I find that in many cases haste just means that you cast the same number of spells, but they land sooner. I view haste more as decreased reaction time than as a concrete throughput increase (though it is both).

Remember that to gain that haste you said you were losing spellpower, so your spells will heal for less, and sometimes you will in fact need to cast more (or more expensive) heals to make up for this.