pocketmage

Actually, you should go for [Luminous Ametrine] and [Purified Dreadstone] gems, you end up with a combined 24 SP, instead of 23 from using a [Runed Cardinal Ruby] and [Seer's Eye of Zul].

 

Redly

My understanding: Shadow priests commonly wait until they have certain buffs and trinkets up, before tossing up their single Shadow Word: Pain, which will continue to refresh with the spellpower and buffs it was originally cast with, thanks to the Mind Flay procs from Pain and Suffering.

Question: Would using Inner Focus give this Shadow Word: Pain a permanent 25% chance to crit?

 

Starfire

I believe Inner Focus only affects spells which can crit without the aid of talents. So the short answer is no.

 

Enreekay

Also, spellpower continues to update when SW:P is refreshed with mind flay.

 

c4tuna

I'd like to add that there are no WotLK caster trinkets which give crit rating on use or proc, so all you wait for are target debuffs and Shadow Weaving, plus certain encounter-specific self-buffs like Loatheb, Thaddius, and Malygos gimmicks.

 

Elimbras

Finally, you can always recast it manually at one point or another, if you gained a huge buff. So don't wait for a long time expecting a rare buff / proc, just recast it at that time.

 

Scriblet

I've done a few searches and haven't found anything on this topic.
I'm a refurbished priest that just hit 80. (I was a hardcore raider in vanilla, benediction and all). There are a few things I've observed/read about.

Spirit vs Mp5
According to the healing compendium "That is, every point of spirit is worth ~ 0.36 Mp5 (factoring in Blessing of Kings and Enlightenment)."
but
Mp5 is not valued itemization wise as 1/2 of spirit from what I've seen. Being super under geared (4th 80, hit 80 4 days ago) Regen is what I've been after the most. As holy, even with the spell power conversion from spirit, Mp5 items seem better then better then spirit items. Especially because Mp5 items seem to have crit rather then haste which, for an under geared priest at least, seems better (more heals per mana, more holy concentration = more mana efficiency). So, should i go for Mp5 items if Mp5 x2 = equal or more then spirit? I should mention, I don't know how Holy Concentration specifically applies to this situation, but i think it's 1.5 x 0.36 = 0.54 Mp5 per spirit during holy concentration procs - which i don't know how to evaluate uptime or if this formula is accurate.
Example of my dilema these two rings:
[Heartmender Circle]>[Band of the Invoker]
Crit > haste for mana efficiency
25 Mp5 > 50 Spirit for regen and stuff?
Mp5 gems > spirit gems?

Here's a link to what I have right now. I don't think I'll be getting that ring ASAP, more likely 232 t9 shoulders. I just thought it was a good example
The World of Warcraft Armory
Note: I'm 2 days away from sons of hodir exalted, so I don't have shoulder enchant
Note: I forgot about wyrmrest head enchant, and got kirin tor revered first. Waiting for 7 more heroics to get my wyrmrest enchant
Note: my green trinket I think is worth something like 40 mp5 due to it's very fast proc rate after cooldown (it can proc off each renew TICK and probably every PoH target)
Note: Next emblem upgrade will be conquest chest
Note: trying out lolwell before I dis it. It's saved me in 2 heroics so far.

Darn it, I've spent 20 minutes on my post and have to run. Another quick question I have about my healing style. From what I've seen of raids (only done lotheb, saph, kt, voa 10, OS 25) and what I've guessed, PoH + CoH + PoM = crazy good mana efficency (something like: PoG 8.2 heals per Mana on 3 targets, Gheal = 6.2, Fheal = 5.3) and PoH is useful all the time. Should I expect some major changes to how effective PoH is? am I failing at math?

I was #2 healing on sapphiron, #2 OS 25, #2 VoA 10 with 3 healers.

 

pocketmage

Looking at your armory, you're fairly low in all stats (SP, Mana Pool, Int/Spi, Crit, and Haste).
Gear for SP, and then Int/Spit, and the Crit/Haste for now, imo.

The issue with the mana regen model is that there is no fixed value of worth for 1 Int and 1 Spi, unlike Mana/5. Load up your toon into rawr and see how much it's worth as you go.

Also, on haste. Mana efficiency alone doesn't paint a complete picture for the benefit of some haste. It counteracts any high latency you may or may not have, and it also reduces the cast time on your spells which alleviates the pressure to react quicker to any dmg anyone takes. That sort of wiggle room I can not help but find extremely useful in WotLK healing as a lot of encounters are balanced around the benefit of hasted healing spells. That extra .1 second cast time can mean the difference between a toon in the raid dying or not, which is the end all point of you being there and trumps all else.



For raid wide dmg, prioritize CoH and PoM over PoH. PoH is only truely powerful after you've stacked up Serendipity, and it only affects a single party. Both those factors make it quite a bit more situational. Then again, unless you can guarantee PoM bouncing at least three times, it lags behind as well. Finally, PoH is a huge mana sink. You can't real spam it in your gear. Hell, in my gear, I can oom myself too quickly if I get too PoH happy.

 

MalaclypseTY

Is anyone seeing any problems in RAWR with T9 for Shadow? I just for the first time started plugging in some T9 gear to see how big of a boost I could get from the 2 piece to decide if I want to start getting those pieces now that my disc gear is pretty good to go for an alt.

It was telling me that even after equipping 1 piece (still keeping T8 2 piece) that the Healing shoulders were actually better than the shadow ones by 20 dps for the 2nd piece. This is after moving in a bunch of BIS off pieces to lower my hit down to the cap since I was way over.

I would almost think maybe the names of the pieces got mixed up so the dps diff was due to that, but is the 2 piece really only 20 dps?

Going to play around some more to see if I can make sense of this but thought I would check with people who use this regularly. This is rawr 2.25 and 2.27 both showing me this.

 

pocketmage

Has there been an analysis done on the worth of the ICC set bonuses for healing priests yet?

 

Scriblet

I thought about this, and I'm not sure about it. In the 7 raid bosses I've done, I've found PoH to be worth casting before CoH in many situations even though it's less HpS and HpM. If you cast a PoH before a CoH, your much more likely to catch a group that just took a lot of damage, before chain heal goes off. you might heal the group from 50% to 80%. then the chain heal might heal one of them to full and then bounce to other raid members, outside of that group, that need the healing (like that one or to people in melee range not in the party). Simultaneously, your next CoH is even more smart as it will pick more people that need healing that are at 50% then healing the party you just healed, topping them off.

Example:
25 man
Melee just took 8k damage.
There are 7 melee (including tanks)
Party one has 5 melee
Party two has 2 melee
Priest (me) raid healing
Shaman Raid healing

I don't fail at reaction speed and I'm faster then the shaman (~1.5 second PoH with serendipity). My PoH goes to full use on all 5 targets healing 3,600 (damn i have low spell power) with one crit for 5,400 so 20,400 healed. Chain heal hits someone in party one topping them off then bouncing two the two others not in party one before bouncing back to heal one of the people in party one a small amount. CoH goes off, healing 2100 on 5 targets plus 1 crit for 3150 so 13,650 healed. Prayer of healing tick one occures 360 healed on 3 targets + 540 from the crit PoH, 1,620 healed. Chain heal 2 goes off healing 4 targets topping 2 off healing 2 for a good amount. Priest does something else (throws a renew on the tank, flash heals someone else not in melee) or sits there and regens. PoH glyph tick 2 for 360 hits 2 targets healed for 360 + one healed for 540 = 1,260. Chain heal 3 goes off, topping everyone left off, priest does something else or sits there and regens.

Total amount healed with 2 casts = : 20,400 + 13,650 + 1,620 + 1,260 = 36,930 out of 56,000 damage taken

Lets say we do this in reverse
CoH heals 5 targets for 2,100 + one crit for 3150 healed, 13,650 healed. Shaman Chain heal hits 2 healing them for a bunch, topping one off. PoH goes off healing 3 targets for 3,600, over heals 1 completly, and hits someone for like 2k healing for 12,800. Chain heal 2 goes off hitting 3 party 1 members, topping one off and healing one for a bunch. PoH ticks for 360 on 3 targets 1.080 healed. Priest does something else/regens. Chain heal 3 goes off, healing two for a bunch, not healing one. PoH ticks on 2 targets for 360 or 720 healed. CoH 3 goes off 2 people in group 1 are not topped off, one in group 2 is not topped off.

Total amount healed with 2 priest casts = 13,650 + 12,800 + 1,080 + 720 = 28,250 healed out of 56,000 damage taken
36,930 - 28,250 = 8680 Wasted heals that have to be made up.

Okay, so my math for situation two is crap. And for that matter, situation one is crap. I have no idea how much chain heal heals for. Also, this assumes from what I understand, Chain heal and CoH always heal the lowest HP target in range/in range of the bounce. While the numbers aren't perfect, there will be a noticeable difference between casting PoH first then CoH first. If anyone can give me numbers on how much chain heal heals per bounce, it may be worth making a example where PoH first is better then CoH.

Variables to keep in mind
Maybe it's 7 ranged taking damage then 7 melee, same rules apply.
I didn't factor in more then 2 healers.
This situation could happen in a 10 man, if it included ranged and and melee taking damage.
In both situations, I assumed that the Shaman wouldn't do the optimal thing and he would heal someone in group one on his first cast.

Quick other Idea not fully thought out:
10 man raid gets hit to amound X hp where X is something like 60% hp. PoH hits group one, then CoH will pick group 2 to heal. Chain heal will hit most of group 2 as they have less HP. Chain heal 2 will be cast on group 2 again as someone there will be lowest on hp, and will bounce mostly to people in group two not healed by the first two bounces of chain heal. PoH ticks on group one, PoH is cast again on group one hitting say, 4 of them with maximum efficency. Chain heal then smart heals all the gaps in between. The raid is now mostly topped off, and waiting for a second to CoH again wouldn't hurt, or another chain heal could top the rest off.

Oh and sorry, my math is usually not THIS horrendously sloppy.

 

Kashir

General consensus;

T10-2P = Decent for Disc tank healing (as long as the proc stacks rather than resetting), Meh for Holy or Disc raid duty
T10-4P = Meh for Disc tank healing, Horrible for Holy or Disc raid duty

 

angelamaria

Not entirely sure if this is the most appropriate spot for this question, but here goes. My priest is nearly 80, and as such I've been tinkering with Rawr to see what the best gear to shoot for pre-raid. As my main is a mage, I'm used to using Rawr as, well, my mage. I'm not sure if I'm using Rawr correctly as a (incoming) Disc Priest -- what sort of settings I'd need to use, and how best to interpret/look at results.

If anyone can give a quick overview of the common things to set/look for in Rawr for (disc) priests, or a link to a guide (or even a thread here where I can ask at length), would be very helpful. Thanks!

 

siegfried

Why does it seem that "new" or newly leveled priests want to be disc?

To answer your question, though, is in my personal opinion, I don't think using a program to look for stats that are good is, while seemingly the best route, tends to be not very flexible. Healing gear can vary widely depending on how you as a priest see different stats. Are you finding that your heals are too slow? Get some gear with haste. Are you running oom? Well first, examine your healing style, then if you think that your technique is OK, then start to gem for a regen stat.

Now for Discipline, Int is definately the only regen stat you should be looking for; you get a bonus mana pool that is multiplied by Mental Strength, you get more mana from Rapture absorption, and you get bonus regen from Replenishment.

So I guess in conclusion, I would not advocate using a program like Rawr to do calculations for theoretical HPS, or anything of that nature. It is my belief that healing is more feel-as-you-go than DPS which is "If I put this gem in this slot, I will gain approx. 1.7 DPS." Or something like that.

Feel free to continue on your quest though.

 

angelamaria

Thanks for replying. To answer your question though, I was running with a Holy secondary spec while leveling my priest, but noticed that when healing in dungeons I end up shielding people a lot over heals/renew/etc. Hence the decision to go primary disc heals over holy heals. Is the assumption I made somewhat flawed? I will admit to being new at healing--this is only my second toon.

I had the feeling that the answer would be somewhere along those lines actually, but having seen no pre-raiding gearing lists or anything of that sort I wanted to use something to get me started. Your mention of int being the regen stat is interesting though, because from the first post in the disc priest healing thread mp5 is listed as also important. (I should probably try to get through the whole thread quicker...)

 

Carnathagia

Healer Gear Quick Reference

The thread is buried, but still relevant.

 

pocketmage

There are specific times when PoH+CoH combo is your best tactic, and that is when you know the AoE dmg is coming and you know a whole party will be getting hit. Like during ToC's Northern Beasts: Gormok's Slam. Even without stacking up Serendpity, you can easily time PoH to land just after he does slam. In this case, you are best suited to Renew a couple of the squishier melee and then PoM one of them. Then time PoH to land right after the stomp and then follow that by a CoH for maximum HPS. At which point you can either fheal the remaining melee or fire up another PoH on the other melee group depending on what your other healers are doing.


My issues with PoH:
1) On non-predictable spikey dmg, PoH takes to long to cast. It is very possible for the melee person you have targeted to die while you are casting it, which results in the cast not going off at all, which ends up gibbing at least another 2-3 melee.
2) You can't ignore mana. When I said prioritize CoH and PoM over PoH, I mean in the context of general raid spamming. PoH having a higher priority really does drain your mana. On Twins, when I get very PoH trigger happy, I can drain my mana and CDs within the first 2 mins. It isn't sustainable.
3) Regarding your napkin math, you are ignoring glyphs. Nearly all holy priests who have CoH will have the glyph, so it hits 6 people, not 5. The PoH glyph tends to be over heal, though I do like having it.
4) In 25 man, you are not only competing with Chain Heal, but Wild Growth and Paladin splash glyph heals. It usually takes the whole raid taking dmg, both melee and ranged, for PoH to become practical in cases of unpredictable raid dmg. And even then, you need Serendipity to make it shine.

Highly situational, imo.

CoH and PoM on the other hand, are dirt cheap and instant. You can spam them, and have no real worries for mana. And with 2 set tier 9, PoM is insanely good even for a single target one time heal.


That's my take.

 

spathos

I have tried this spec and found it helpful as a sort of crutch for a few Yogg+1 keeper attempts. I found having cheaper dispels and being able to shield multiple people was much more useful than guardian spirit. While it was nice to be able to sprint multiple people, the main reason I went for B&S was so that I could dispel poisons off of myself. The main weakness with the spec you linked, however, was the lack of serendipity, which is very important for pretty much any holy spec.

That being said, I don't think I'd use it on a regular basis as you pretty much need either Pain Suppression or Guardian Spirit for the majority of boss fights.

 

Parnage

Hey guys, I need some help creating a marco. What i want it to do is..
/cast Power Infusion
/w %t You have PI, use it well, pewpew!

but after i enter it, it says that player "%t" does not exist. What other ways are there to do /w target?

Thank you in advance.

 

Gofa

That's the macro I use:

#showtooltip Power Infusion
/cast [target=mouseover] Power infusion
/script SendChatMessage("Power Infusion on you!! Pew Pew! ", "WHISPER", nil, UnitName("mouseover"));


You can of course change the text and instead of using it as mouseover, just enter "target" in the end of the macro.

 

Zungate

To further improve this, i've got this, which checks for cooldown and range to remove spammage

/script local u,pi="mouseover","Power Infusion";if IsSpellInRange(pi,u)==1 and GetSpellCooldown(pi)==0 then SendChatMessage("You just got "..GetSpellLink(pi).."!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName(u)) end
/cast [target=mouseover] Power Infusion

 

Gooch

Try this addon, it does exactly what you want, along with all of the other priest timers.

Guardian Spirited - Addons - Curse

 

Scriblet

Thanks for the advice Pocketmage, I'm always looking for useful information. Any other advice is always appreciated.

And now for another question: For someone who doesn't suck, what's the minimum gear requirment to be useful in ToC 10 or 25 as another raid healer?

Where I'm coming from (TLDR, Skip this):
I Hit 80 a week ago and have a 2k gear score. I've been #1 heals in VoA 10, Ony 10, Sapphiron 25 (went in just for sapph/KT 25 man), #1 heals in the only 2 wings I've done in naxx 10, #2 healing on a lot of other fights. And I've been getting a ton of upgrades.

 

pocketmage

It's extremely dependant on the quality of the other healers. A certain amount of raid HPS and tank HPS is required for any zone, once those are met, the pressure is far less. As an example, 4 very well geared(2800+ GS) and well played healers can handle TogC25 Northern Beasts.

In general though, if you can heal well on Ony 10, you can do ToC10 decently well.
ToC25 is bit rougher, but not by much. You would need to rely on better geared healers.

 

droiby

I've noticed that there's a post on the "Shadowpriest Theory Craft -- 3.2.2 Edition!" thread that compares and outlines the benefits of the different professions for shadow priests. However, I haven't found a recent post on the healing threads that's been updated with info about the different professions.

I'm currently looking at rolling a shadow/holy priest and given that I'll likely be using both specs roughly 50% of the time, has anyone crunched the numbers to determine how the different professions fare in a dps/heal environment?