Sorry, a bit of a newbish question. Thanks in advance:

I want to figure out whether my usage of renew is worth it. I have read quite a bit and I realize that many, many people do not like renew as much as I do. I would like to check my efficiency with renew versus my efficiency with other spells... Perhaps even my efficiency against other priests.

Unfortunately I do not know how to do this.

I have Recount, and am freshly new to WWS. How can I determine my efficiency of renew, I guess in terms of uptime and heal-per-mana (assuming that's a viable statistic?)

Anyone have any recommendations? Thanks again.

I noticed that Big Red Kitty has a starter Power Aura set for Survival Hunters new to using Power Auras. Are the owners of the Disc and Holy threads interested in creating a template to download as a starter set up.

I would be willing to export mine that includes
*Can I shield my target
*Can I penance
*Can I ProM
*Is my inner fire up.

Are there more things that people track from the disc side?

From the holy side, I track Holy Concentration, Surge of Light, Inner Fire, and Serendipity stacks using Power Auras. From the Disc side, just Penance and Inner Fire.

I also track things with a medium range CD (1-3min) such as Power Infusion, Pain Suppression, and Inner Focus. Pain Suppression and Inner Focus might be a bit overkill, but I find tracking Power Infusion particularly helpful, even if I usually usually pass it off to one of the mages every CD.

This might just be a personal thing, but I find that tracking even these things is the difference between using it once or twice more a fight (PI) or even using a spell at all (IF). Whatever helps, right?

When you get a chance can you PM your export of your Power Auras?

General Vezax: does it make sense to NOT cast Mind Blast if you are in a Shadow Crash? Mind Blast cast time is below 1.0 seconds so there is some empty time while I wait for the 1.0 global cooldown.

So, having read a rather thorough portion of this section on priests (healers in particular), I have one question.

I have played Holy Priest from lvl 1-80; I did not even add any addons until recently, and even then I have only downloaded DBM, Omen, and recount for raiding. I heal 10 and 25 man Nax and OS with comfort... yet, I have no healing addons.

I was picked up in the middle of an Uldar raid last night, as they had lost a player; We made it through one boss, only to get to Ignis and wipe... during the ensuing conversation afterwards, the fact that I do not use healing addons such as HealBot or Grid was brought to the group's attention; I was told by another healer in the group that it was mandatory, and, though not mandated by that group to get it, it was rather implicit in the conversation that I obtain a healing addon.

My question is this - Is it neccessary for a skilled healer to use addons within Uldar? While I have every intention of downloading these addons with alacrity, simply to test them out myself, I am currently of the opinion that a skilled player should be able to play any class in any role with only what the game gives you initially, with no addons. However, I am also quite realistic in knowing that Uldar is large step up from Nax, even on 10 man.

Am I completely off base here?

Blizzard's default raiding UI is fine as long as you pull it out, as long as you can see everyone that's fine. Do they help? Yeah they help a lot but you can still do your job with Blizzard's raid ui.

You are not completely off base, but you are in a distinct minority. Many end-game guilds I know of require a healing add-on, and most of those require Grid (because Healbot has some latency issues). If you feel strongly about using "what the game gives you initially", then don't use a healing addon. Just be aware that you may be kicked from raids if they find out. However, I have a feeling that if you try Healbot or Grid, you will quickly realize the advantages they bring.

My theory is that you shouldn't be casting anything if you're not in a Shadow Crash, except for one Mind Flay every 14 seconds to maintain your Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Weaving stack. As long as you cast your initial pain while in a shadow crash, you should be able to get the increased damage effect for the whole fight.

Of course that's assuming you will run out of mana on this fight, meaning maximizing your mana efficiency is the most important thing. Or are people not mana bound on this fight?

Basically what I try to do as well. A shadow priest really should not be mana bound on this fight if they make sure to only dps while in Shadow Crash and should at most need one Saronite Vapor if you're killing Vezax in the 8-10 minute range (just before enrage) since you can survive a 7 stack vapor by hitting Dispersion right as the sixth tick hits, then start moving out of Vapor. The seventh tick should go happen as you do this and you instantly restore a full mana bar, with dispersion reducing the damage.

Hope this is the right place for this, I couldn't find anything expressly forbidding it:

I was hoping someone could take a look at our WWS/WMO reports for U25 and see if you can spot anything glaring....Specifically the priests, more generally the healer crew.

Personally, since I have switched to Disc, I have been dissapointed in breaking out at the bottom all the time. I know that Disc isn't supposed to break out high, and I know for Disc anyway, alot of what I bring isn't measured accurately.

Since going Disc and reading the forums, I have improved on my shielding usage at least.

Side Note: I had heard/read that WMO supposedly accounts for Disc's damage reduction as healing, or the shielding at least, has anyone else heard that?

Anyway, from last night:
Wow Web Stats
WoW Meter Online - Combatlog Replay in Engrish

My Character:
The World of Warcraft Armory

The problem "seems" to be not enough healing. We brought 7 tonight, usually we run with 6. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Meters don't mean anything. No one should ever think that a disc priest is inferior because they show up low on the meters. And if my opinion, if you're having problems with people dying, you should be analyzing how they died and if it was due to their error (standing in something, etc.) or due to lack of healer response. If it was the latter, then adjust your healing assignments so that it doesn't happen again.

The only thing I really noticed from glancing at the WWS was that one holy priest had fairly low numbers from PoM, and the other one had *extremely* low numbers from Flash Heal, compared to what I think the most common spell breakdown should look like. The one that didn't use Flash Heal much looks like a renew spammer, which potentially could lead to someone dying if they only got a renew and weren't topped off fast enough. /shrug

Can anyone write/link the best pre-raid gear for Holy Priests?
Obtainable from 5man HC's, reputation and AH. (not to expensive, between 500-2000g.)

Thanks in advance.

@Xaphania,

Thanks for the reply, I willl read the boards some more to get a more stable understanding of prioty/rotations for the priests so I can spot that from now on.

As for response times, I personally have everything Mouse Over Macroed and I must say has helpped me considerably getting on target and a heal thrown. I don't suppose it is possible to see that in the reports? I mean, I will just have to watch how long it takes someone to receive a heal? I think that was the RL's biggest issue were people sitting at half health for several seconds.

Thanks again for the look, I will keep reading and learning!

Meters don't matter much. Just look at what the problem is. Is the tank dying? Are the gripped people on Kologarn dying? Isn't the raid getting healed up fast enough for the next AOE wave? Then just assign healers accordingly.

I have a question for you macro gurus, and I figure I'd post under the the simple forum questions because the answer is simple, if I only had it.
I'm trying to make a macro that will do this:
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/cast [harm] Smite; [target=targettarget, harm] Smite

/focus on either the target's target or target [harm]

/cast [harm] Berserking(Racial)
/cast [harm] inner focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")
First off, I don't know how to get it to blow my inner focus and berserking when casting smite, not sure how to write that in one line. Second of all, I want it to focus on the either the enemy target or target of target's enemy. Anyone know how to get this to work?

Also another question, how do I get a macro like
/cast [target=target, help] renew; [target=target, harm]
to not only integrate into the above macro, but also act like the an actual renew spell when I am not targeting anything at all (like when you click on a renew you can then click the target you want to renew)? Mouseover isn't what I want because I want to be able cast smite when I'm hovering over a friendly. I don't know, am I asking too much of a macro?

@Dewy:

When looking at WWS parses, it's not as easy to identify what's going wrong as what each individual's role was on the encounter. When you say "Not enough healing" this is a blanket statement that isn't really effective. Granted, if I had the choice, I wouldn't want to roll into ulduar with 3 priests, 3 druids and one Paladin, but you should have had the tools to effectively heal either the burst from Auriaya or Kologarn, it just requires that people are more aware. With 2 COH's and 3 Wildgrowths, there's little reason anyone should have died from Grip. Keep in mind, a lot of damage on Kologarn is mitigated by people moving and reacting appropriately to situational conditions like rubble and eyebeam. Effective communication on healing assignments is also integral to succeeding on these encounters.

Pre-3.1, I was in the holy camp that really didn't want to consider raiding as Disc. Post 3.1, I decided to give disc a try and recognize that my role in raiding has drastically changed. In most cases, I'm not utilized as a tank healer but have embraced my new role in raids as "Preventer of Death." Don't underestimate the role preventative damage comes in using PWS reactively and proactively. In 10 man Ulduar, I found myself casting PWS 15-30 times a minute depending on reacting to damage that was incoming to the raid. It's not your role to end up as number 1 on the meters; each time you global cooldown for a shield, you're giving other healers an opportunity to heal the rest of the group. In the event anyone is going to take consistent damage, your shielding gives the other healers that much more time to react.

Don't take this as a "PWS is the only spell you should now have on your bar" post because that's not the point. The disc toolkit now fills a role that wasn't available pre 3.1 ie Massive damage prevention. Don't pretend to be a holy priest with a disc spec, it just doesn't work. I've gone from a chart-topping holy AoE healing juggernaut to a "Middle of the road" effective healing damage preventing priest. I can honestly say I wouldn't want to run t8 content without a competent Disc priest.

To add in to the discipline on meters discussion -- I've done some independent testing which is actually more conservative (doesn't consider partial absorbs) but seems to corroborate well with the absorb mod for recount. While I wouldn't take it as gospel it gives you a good general ballpark of your effectiveness, if you're curious and/or need to show somebody what is going on. In fairness for raid leaders and such, it is hard to see, and disc priests require a fairly significant level of 'trust' from their raid leader.

Attached is a screenshot of a recent Mimiron kill, where fairly constant raid damage is regular and predictable.

Edit: #7 is not actually another healer -- that is a ret paladin.

A shadow question!

I've recently switched the toon I raid with and I'm a little bit out of the loop having not played shadow since BC. As a non-JC, I'm wondering if the 25SP & 2% int gem would be better than a Chaotic Skyflare?

No, use Chaotic.

How's this for a simple question... Should I get more haste at the expense of crit? Check my armory link to the left. I've heard the general recommendation for disc is 11% haste, is that correct? I've already given up some crit to get haste and I'm starting to feel I'm getting low on crit... I just don't see the huge deal with haste for us.