layde

Just a preface: I recently got back into wow having not played since BC and have been pouring over these forums trying to catch up on all the changes for priest healing. I pretty much skipped naxx and uld healing going straight from heroic gear into toc (our server is in need of tanks/heals). I know my gear is hap-hazard but all the raids that I am in are pugs, also leading towards the conclusion that I am shooting for more versitility than a specialized role.

I see the debate currently is about regen over output (spr+crit) and that most people are all in one or the other. For most raids after most fights I'm finding myself wishing my s-fiend CD was 5 seconds faster due to teh fact that my healing style is hardly ever os5sr. One question I have is that its suggested in the origional post to be at about 1200/1200 int spirit. I cannot fathom how to get that much spirit. I'm sitting almost comfortably around 900 spirit ub and its working out just fine. I have 2 pieces that i can interchange depending on which fight i'm looking for.

Now that the new T.9 gear is so easily accessable by just pugging, has anyone crunched the numbers with the set bonuses? Spell power and int would become more important with a direct 10/20% increase in the healing done by PoM/ renew. Also, I almost don't see the value in the 4set bonus holy if you don't spec for it.

Also, is disc aoe healing a valid idea? I'm thinking spamming HN in your group to proc aegis for short burst aoe may compare with holy CoH, PoH at least in the short term but I haven't checked any numbers on that yet.

 

Finkum

Last I heard regarding the 4t9 bonus was that it's a relative rather than an absolute percentage boost i.e. your Divine Aegis shield goes from 30% to 33% and the emp. Renew instant heal from 15% -> 16.5% (in other words, it sucks). They may have fixed it in one of the recent mini-patches or on the 3.3 PTR, but if so I haven't seen the report.

When glyphed, Holy Nova should give better HPS and HPM than PoH, especially as Discipline, but obviously the additional positioning and self-group-only limitations are a big factor for many fights. Depending on the encounter mechanics you can do a lot of pseudo-AoE healing with preemptive shielding, but there aren't any fights in ToC that particularly favour this strategy.

 

Dravorak

I think you are incorrect here.
Northrend Beasts you have very predictable aoe damage. You can easily shield up all the melee prior to a stomp.
Jaraxxus you can shield up the melee right before the volcano spawns.
Twins you know when the next special is comming and can easily be throwing shields up on a group or two to help mitigate if the wrong vortex happens.

 

Finkum

I'm not saying that preemptive PW:S shielding has no utility in ToC, just that there aren't attacks like Freya's Ground Tremor or (back when it was challenging) Ignis' Flame Jets, where it really shines. In ToC raid damage tends to be localised (Gormok stomp/Jaraxxus infernals), which affects 8 - 10 people typically, RSTS, or DoT effects (Penetrating Cold, Twins aura ticks).

 

pocketmage

I'm usually given free reign to heal the raid however I want, and I tend to only bother going Disc for Faction Champs, and the principle driver in that fight is a much faster cast time on Mass Dispel for the Bloodlust. Usually it misses 1 or 2, due to the lack of hit on my healing gear, and I can easily afford the second cast without batting an eyelash.

PW:S spamming does well on that fight. It also does well on Twins.

There isn't enough AoE dmg going on in Northern Beasts to be particularly useful as a prebubbler on that fight, imo.


My biggest beef with Disc is that ToC relies on multi target healing a lot more than Ulduar and Naxx did, even for tank healing, and losing your Grace stack hurts too much.

 

The Not So Evil

This is my biggest beef too. I have ended up using Binding Heal a lot of the times where I cannot afford to lose Grace but must have a heal out on a raid member.

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moowalk

PW:S isn't bad for faction champs, but it has one big drawback. The NPCs aggro based on hp, so when you shield a low health target they will still have aggro. If you'd healed them for 8k instead of shielding for 8k, the NPCs would probably switch and run off to someone else.

 

Tainter

The beauty of the shield is that it often allows your other healers to finish their casts before the low health target dies. As Holy it has happened to me a number of times that players have died because our Pala's Holy Shock was on cooldown and nobody else had any instants ready. Of course Disc has Penance too, which is great for upping people's health quickly.

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