So, you've decided to jump into Cataclysm healing with bubbles, or you're tired of getting trounced on the meters. Either way, welcome to the bubbling side, we have Power Infusion but sadly, no cookies.
First off, disc healing is no longer about spamming PW:S. You do not have the mana pool to support it, trust me. So, here's your spells and when you might wish to use them. Keep in mind that there is no healing rotation, and this is just one way to heal. Also, I'm raid healing, so I talk about spells more from that perspective.
Power Word: Shield-> still important, still useful, but now costs more. In raids I try to keep this up on the tanks, and throw it on dpsers or healers in immediate danger. Try to avoid having shields fall off, you really do want damage to break them for the mana return.
Flash Heal-> Honestly, the only time I use this spell any more is when I hit it by accident. It's expensive, and if I need a fast heal, I have other spells.
Penance->Your fast heal. Also the "crap, about to die" heal and the "yay I can stagger the tank" heal.
Greater Heal-> best used with the borrowed time buff from a pw:s cast. When I need a heal and penance is on cooldown, this is my go-to.
Prayer of Mending-> Keep this Frisbee of healing goodness bouncing. It's cheap and a smart heal.
Prayer of Healing->This is your group heal. It's best used with Inner Focus, and remember it's a group heal, not a raid heal. You need to cast it on someone in the group you want to heal.
Renew->useful as an extra tank cushion or a on-the-move heal for someone who needs to be topped off but isn't going to die immediately
Power Infusion->If you're down to the wire on an enrage, throw on a dps (mage preferably). Otherwise, keep it for yourself for a little extra healing oomph
Pain Suppression-> Your tank-saving cooldown. You could possibly also use it to mess with your tanks, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Leap of Faith-> a way to pull people out of bad stuff, or a way to mess with fellow raiders. You can also use it to help kiters.
Inner Focus->Try to use before as many prayer of healing casts as possible if you're raid-healing
Power Word: Barrier-> great for incoming heavy raid damage, just keep in mind the long cooldown and that people have to stand in it
Inner Fire vs Inner Will->Inner Fire's best used for tank healing, where you need more power to your heals. Inner Will's great for raid healing, as it lets you throw more shields about without going oom and yay faster movement.
Now to the specs and glyphs. Disc priests have a choice to make, spec into Archangel and smite-healing, or not. Archangel does not return enough mana to make up for the mana you used smiting, and you don't have control over who gets healed with the smite. It automatically heals the lowest target within 15 yards, including temporary targets and pets. I'm currently spec'd into archangel, but I'm going to redo that, as I'm really not using it. I like the idea, and I'd say try it both ways, and see which works better for you.
Disc spec without smite and archangel
Disc spec with Archangel
There's some optional points in there, especially in the shadow tree. Personally I'd pick up the spell haste, but that's optional.
Glyphs->
Primes: Penance, PW:Barrier, PW: Shield, and/or Prayer of Healing
Majors: Divine Accuracy (for smite builds), Prayer of Mending, and whatever else you'd like to take
Minors: Shadowfiend, Levitate, and whichever other one sounds appealing
Next up, updating the gearing post!
Showing posts with label how to disc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to disc. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Disc in 4.0: A FAQ for this brave new world and for confused raid leaders...
1. WTF is my disc priest on the dps meters?
Blizz, in their infinite wisdom, gave disc a few new tools. Among these new tools are Atonement, Evangelism, and Archangel. Atonement heals people when we smite, and damaging stuff gives us levels in Evangelism. We can use these Evangelism levels with Archangel, which gives us mana and increases our healing power for 18 secs. So your priest is smiting to heal people, make their heals more powerful, and get mana back.
2. What role is the disc priest suited for?
A disc priest still has the shields of awesome we have come to know and love. Our tank healing is still quite strong as well, and our group heals not quite so strong. In a 10 man, I'd bring a disc priest in as a tank healer, or as a supplementary healer. Personally, I act as a supplementary healer with a holy pally and a resto shaman. My strong tank heals help keep the tanks up (and wow, do tanks get hurt more now), and my bubbles help prevent damage. I've also got that frisbee of healing goodness bouncing around the raid, and in a pinch I can group heal.
3. Why should I bring a disc priest to raids instead of a shadow priest if they're going to be dpsing anyway?
Well, a disc priest is not going to be dpsing all the time. It's an occasional thing. Also, while a shadow priest does do much more dps, their healing is dumb. A disc priest can smite, turn around and save that mage standing in the bad stuff with penance, throw a few flash heals on people who are getting low, then smite again. Yes, the disc priest is not going to be high on the dps meters, nor should we be. We heal, with a side order of dps when possible. A shadowpriest hurts, with a side order of unintelligent healing.
4. Should disc priests be able to roll main spec on gear with to hit on it?
Honestly, I'm torn on this one. Yes, to hit now has some value for disc priests, but I think it has much more value for the dps casters, and given the amount of competition for cloth, I'd say no. Even if I do want those stupid bracers that drop every week and every week a dps gets them. Grr...
5. Why did my priest suddenly sprout wings?
We drink too much Red Bull now.
Seriously, your priest has wings because they popped Archangel, which increases healing power and mana regen for 18 seconds. The wings are just a lovely side effect.
6. What's that big golden dome thing?
Power Word: Barrier. It's your friend and a group shield. Stand in the dome, please.
7. How has disc healing changed since this new patch?
Well, it depends on the priest. It is currently possible to heal as we've been doing, but given the changes to our class and Blizz's stated intent, many of us are trying this new smite-heal thing. We still bubble, we still penance, we just smite stuff and pop wings occasionally. Think of it like a holy pally dpsing to get haste or mana or whatever the heck they get when they dps. For well-geared priests, PW:S, Penance, and Flash Heal are still the winners, with Prayer of Mending (whee frisbee!) and the occasional Renew making an appearance. Less well-geared priests may have switched to Heal. And, of course, everyone tends to heal slightly differently, so one disc priest may Renew every chance they get, and another may Penance, and a third may flash heal.
8. How can I help my priest come to terms with these changes?
Normally I'd suggest running older content, but since I saw two ICC-geared tanks get two-shotted in Ulduar this week, older content might not be so good. Give your priest time to come to terms with their new healing. Don't immediately throw them into the deep end, and give them the freedom to screw up. Switching back and forth between dpsing and healing's a BIG shift in our thinking and the way we do things, and it's going to take some time to become comfortable with it. Give then that time, and be thankful we're trying to learn this new style now, rather than when Cat hits and you want to get into that shiny new raid content.
Blizz, in their infinite wisdom, gave disc a few new tools. Among these new tools are Atonement, Evangelism, and Archangel. Atonement heals people when we smite, and damaging stuff gives us levels in Evangelism. We can use these Evangelism levels with Archangel, which gives us mana and increases our healing power for 18 secs. So your priest is smiting to heal people, make their heals more powerful, and get mana back.
2. What role is the disc priest suited for?
A disc priest still has the shields of awesome we have come to know and love. Our tank healing is still quite strong as well, and our group heals not quite so strong. In a 10 man, I'd bring a disc priest in as a tank healer, or as a supplementary healer. Personally, I act as a supplementary healer with a holy pally and a resto shaman. My strong tank heals help keep the tanks up (and wow, do tanks get hurt more now), and my bubbles help prevent damage. I've also got that frisbee of healing goodness bouncing around the raid, and in a pinch I can group heal.
3. Why should I bring a disc priest to raids instead of a shadow priest if they're going to be dpsing anyway?
Well, a disc priest is not going to be dpsing all the time. It's an occasional thing. Also, while a shadow priest does do much more dps, their healing is dumb. A disc priest can smite, turn around and save that mage standing in the bad stuff with penance, throw a few flash heals on people who are getting low, then smite again. Yes, the disc priest is not going to be high on the dps meters, nor should we be. We heal, with a side order of dps when possible. A shadowpriest hurts, with a side order of unintelligent healing.
4. Should disc priests be able to roll main spec on gear with to hit on it?
Honestly, I'm torn on this one. Yes, to hit now has some value for disc priests, but I think it has much more value for the dps casters, and given the amount of competition for cloth, I'd say no. Even if I do want those stupid bracers that drop every week and every week a dps gets them. Grr...
5. Why did my priest suddenly sprout wings?
We drink too much Red Bull now.
Seriously, your priest has wings because they popped Archangel, which increases healing power and mana regen for 18 seconds. The wings are just a lovely side effect.
6. What's that big golden dome thing?
Power Word: Barrier. It's your friend and a group shield. Stand in the dome, please.
7. How has disc healing changed since this new patch?
Well, it depends on the priest. It is currently possible to heal as we've been doing, but given the changes to our class and Blizz's stated intent, many of us are trying this new smite-heal thing. We still bubble, we still penance, we just smite stuff and pop wings occasionally. Think of it like a holy pally dpsing to get haste or mana or whatever the heck they get when they dps. For well-geared priests, PW:S, Penance, and Flash Heal are still the winners, with Prayer of Mending (whee frisbee!) and the occasional Renew making an appearance. Less well-geared priests may have switched to Heal. And, of course, everyone tends to heal slightly differently, so one disc priest may Renew every chance they get, and another may Penance, and a third may flash heal.
8. How can I help my priest come to terms with these changes?
Normally I'd suggest running older content, but since I saw two ICC-geared tanks get two-shotted in Ulduar this week, older content might not be so good. Give your priest time to come to terms with their new healing. Don't immediately throw them into the deep end, and give them the freedom to screw up. Switching back and forth between dpsing and healing's a BIG shift in our thinking and the way we do things, and it's going to take some time to become comfortable with it. Give then that time, and be thankful we're trying to learn this new style now, rather than when Cat hits and you want to get into that shiny new raid content.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
How to Disc, a Simple Guide. Part 3, leveling disc and the disc ui.
First off, leveling disc.
It's not bad. Really. I leveled as disc from 60 to 75ish, and still am far more likely to do dailies and pvp as disc. Your damage is nowhere near as good as shadow, but your survivability is, well, kinda ridiculous for a clothie. If you don't want to dualspec, and still want to be viable in both questing and dungeon healing, disc is the way to go.
I followed this guide which I found on the forums. It's a nice leveling build with decent damage potential and you can still heal in dungeons without any trouble. Now, if you're wanting to just level in dungeons as a healer, you're better off going for the standard disc build, and glyphing flash heal and power word: shield. Either build will give you some pvp survivability, and combined with heirlooms you should have no problems at all.
Now, the disc ui.
There isn't much in here that's specific to disc, it's more of a general healer ui thing.
First you want a good set of raid/healing unit frames. I really would not recommend the default ui for this. Get Vuhdo or Grid or pitbull or shadowed unit frames or Xperl or something. I heart Vuhdo and it's what I would recommend for healers, but try different ones out, see what you like. Some have click-casting, like Vuhdo, and some don't, and honestly I'd hit the plus heal forums ui section and look at what different healers use.
Second, you need to be able to see certain buffs and debuffs very clearly. Your unitframes should be able to do this for you with some configuring, but it's also helpful to know things like "Borrowed Time is active" or "You're been silenced/locked out". For that, I recommend the awesome that is Power Auras Classic. You might also want a good set of buff frames, but that's more optional. Just make sure that Weakened Soul and PW:S are really obvious. Trust me.
Third, a good set of bars. I use LunarSphere on my priest, because it doesn't switch bars when I switch specs, only when I switch forms (aka go into Shadowform). This is nice cause it means I have all my healing spells easily available in shadow for when extra healing is needed, but I hate it for most of my other toons and use Bartender exclusively instead. You can also set bars to fade out in combat or unless you mouseover them, which is a good way to have spells you need once in a while available but not in your face. Dominoes is also a nice option for bars, but I've never used it.
Fourth, your standard ui stuff, aka Omen, Recount (with Recount Guessed Absorbs), and DeadlyBossMobs. You know, the addons pretty much every guild expects you to have to raid with.
Things to consider with a disc ui...
You're going to need to keep track of a lot of information, so minimize unnecessary info. For example, do you really need to see your minimap in raids? Why not set it to fade out unless you mouseover it? Why not put your chat windows somewhere where they won't distract you? Do you need to see combat text? Do you need to see how long your buffs have left or just when you need to reapply? Think about things like this.
Put your raid frames near your toon. This is some of the best advice I can give. If your eyes are glued to your raid frames and your raid frames are all the way over to the left edge of your screen, it's really really easy to stand in fire. If your raid frames are near your toon (mine generally go under my toon) you can see when you're in ick. Also, having your raid frames and bars right near each other means your eyes have to move less and it's easier on them.
Building the UI
Sit down with some paper. Make a list of what you feel you need, then draw out where you want things to be. The below is an example. That's actually a combination of my pally and my priest's uis, but it gives you an idea. And that took me no time at all in paint.
As you can see, I have my raid frames, my two main bars and my casting bar all right together and all right under my toon. Things I occasionally need to glance at (chat, omen, hot tracker) are off to the sides, and stuff I only need to check once in a while (buffs) are at the top. I use a Sunn Viewport Art panel at the bottom to arrange all this stuff on (you can see it in the left corner though it does extend all the way across the screen), and I use Align liberally to make everything line up.
And now that you have a layout for your ui, it's much easier to make it both look nice and be functional. So that's how to build a disc ui (or really any ui), and we have now reached the end of the How to Disc series! I hope you found this informative and useful, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me or bug me in game or on twitter.
It's not bad. Really. I leveled as disc from 60 to 75ish, and still am far more likely to do dailies and pvp as disc. Your damage is nowhere near as good as shadow, but your survivability is, well, kinda ridiculous for a clothie. If you don't want to dualspec, and still want to be viable in both questing and dungeon healing, disc is the way to go.
I followed this guide which I found on the forums. It's a nice leveling build with decent damage potential and you can still heal in dungeons without any trouble. Now, if you're wanting to just level in dungeons as a healer, you're better off going for the standard disc build, and glyphing flash heal and power word: shield. Either build will give you some pvp survivability, and combined with heirlooms you should have no problems at all.
Now, the disc ui.
There isn't much in here that's specific to disc, it's more of a general healer ui thing.
First you want a good set of raid/healing unit frames. I really would not recommend the default ui for this. Get Vuhdo or Grid or pitbull or shadowed unit frames or Xperl or something. I heart Vuhdo and it's what I would recommend for healers, but try different ones out, see what you like. Some have click-casting, like Vuhdo, and some don't, and honestly I'd hit the plus heal forums ui section and look at what different healers use.
Second, you need to be able to see certain buffs and debuffs very clearly. Your unitframes should be able to do this for you with some configuring, but it's also helpful to know things like "Borrowed Time is active" or "You're been silenced/locked out". For that, I recommend the awesome that is Power Auras Classic. You might also want a good set of buff frames, but that's more optional. Just make sure that Weakened Soul and PW:S are really obvious. Trust me.
Third, a good set of bars. I use LunarSphere on my priest, because it doesn't switch bars when I switch specs, only when I switch forms (aka go into Shadowform). This is nice cause it means I have all my healing spells easily available in shadow for when extra healing is needed, but I hate it for most of my other toons and use Bartender exclusively instead. You can also set bars to fade out in combat or unless you mouseover them, which is a good way to have spells you need once in a while available but not in your face. Dominoes is also a nice option for bars, but I've never used it.
Fourth, your standard ui stuff, aka Omen, Recount (with Recount Guessed Absorbs), and DeadlyBossMobs. You know, the addons pretty much every guild expects you to have to raid with.
Things to consider with a disc ui...
You're going to need to keep track of a lot of information, so minimize unnecessary info. For example, do you really need to see your minimap in raids? Why not set it to fade out unless you mouseover it? Why not put your chat windows somewhere where they won't distract you? Do you need to see combat text? Do you need to see how long your buffs have left or just when you need to reapply? Think about things like this.
Put your raid frames near your toon. This is some of the best advice I can give. If your eyes are glued to your raid frames and your raid frames are all the way over to the left edge of your screen, it's really really easy to stand in fire. If your raid frames are near your toon (mine generally go under my toon) you can see when you're in ick. Also, having your raid frames and bars right near each other means your eyes have to move less and it's easier on them.
Building the UI
Sit down with some paper. Make a list of what you feel you need, then draw out where you want things to be. The below is an example. That's actually a combination of my pally and my priest's uis, but it gives you an idea. And that took me no time at all in paint.
As you can see, I have my raid frames, my two main bars and my casting bar all right together and all right under my toon. Things I occasionally need to glance at (chat, omen, hot tracker) are off to the sides, and stuff I only need to check once in a while (buffs) are at the top. I use a Sunn Viewport Art panel at the bottom to arrange all this stuff on (you can see it in the left corner though it does extend all the way across the screen), and I use Align liberally to make everything line up.
And now that you have a layout for your ui, it's much easier to make it both look nice and be functional. So that's how to build a disc ui (or really any ui), and we have now reached the end of the How to Disc series! I hope you found this informative and useful, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me or bug me in game or on twitter.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
How to Disc, a Simple Guide. Part 2, stats, gear, and gemming.
Now disc stat weights, like those of most healing specs, are not set completely in stone. Some stats are better than others, some are pretty much useless (spirit, I'm looking at you, get the gorram heck off my healing tier), but how you weigh them does depend at least somewhat on your personal style and preference.
So instead of just rewording what Elitist Jerks has to say on the subject, I figured I'd tell you a) what all the various casting stats do for you, and b) what I do . That way you can make a more informed decision.
First, stats you don't want if possible...
Spirit. This does very little for you. Seriously. It's on healing tier cause holy likes it and because Blizzard seems to like pushing it. It's like intellect's much more annoying little brother whose mom is determined to convince everyone is cute, not annoying. Or something. Not sure where I was going with that, but spirit, not worth it. What it does for you is 0.365 mp5 per point. Mp5 is shorthand for restores X mana every 5 seconds. Other stats give you much much more. Heck, straight mp5 is better imho.
To hit. To hit is for dps. Your heals will hit friendly targets, period. Sometimes good upgrades will have to hit on them because well, dps casters like the same stats we do. This may lead to headed arguments, which often include gems like "Healers like spirit, not to hit!" You don't like to hit, but heck trees don't like crit and yet they often end up with gear with crit on it. Occasionally you have to put up with a stat you don't like or don't care about to get more of the stats you do care about.
Second, stats that are awesome and shiny...
Intellect. You love this stat. Trust me. Intellect gives you 0.817 mp5 per point, ~0.0076 crit per point, and increases the size of your mana pool. Since most disc priests don't tend to run with the regen holy priests do, a large mana pool is a must. As a new 80, I'd even suggest gemming for int to begin with, and switching to other gems as you gain more intellect on your gear. Basically as you stop running out of mana, start switching over. Currently I run with roughly 30k buffed, and that is more than enough unless I'm shielding like there is no tomorrow, in a long fight, while constantly casting. How big you want your mana pool to be is a personal thing, so kinda feel it out. If you have a regen trinket like Solace, you need less int, and if you're constantly casting and dealing with high-damage fights, you need more. It really does depend on what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Spellpower. This is your favorite stat after intellect, or possibly before intellect. Spellpower makes your heals more powerful, and thus makes you more powerful. Power Word:Shield's absorption also becomes better the more spellpower you have. Best stat ever! Yes, I'm biased.
Crit. This is a nice stat, but how much of it you want does depend on what you're doing. Crit makes your spells more likely to critically hit, which means they hit with extra power. If you're raid healing with PW:S and Prayer of Mending, crits are only possible with the heal from the glyph of PW:S and Mending. But if you're tank healing, or throwing flash heals around like there's no tomorrow, well crits start looking much better. Divine Aegis depends on us critting though, so I certainly never say no to this stat. EJ recommends stacking crit once you've reached your haste cap, and while I personally don't do that (mmm, yummy spellpower), it's probably not a bad idea.
Haste. Haste makes you cast faster. It decreases your global cooldown as well, which makes even instant casts faster. Your minimum global cooldown is 1 sec, so once you hit a certain point of haste it's not doing you as much good as some of the other stats could be. Assuming the following raid buffs (Wraith of Air totem for 5% haste, and moonkin aura/Swift Retribution for another 3%) and our own talent Enlightment for 6% haste, and you really don't need much more to reach the hard haste cap for PW:S casting. Basically, if you want all your PW:S casts to be as fast as possible, you need another 154 haste (or roughly 11% haste). Haste can still speed up your longer casts even after it's no longer any good for PW:S, and the answer of when you stop wanting it is really complicated. So complicated, in fact, that if you're really interested, I suggest you go read the value of haste on EJ. I personally am quite happy with my current haste stat (451, way over cap) and would not go out of my way to increase it.
So those are the stats you're likely to see. There's a minor one you might run into, straight mp5, and I'd say take that over spirit. But otherwise, yup those are your stats. Now, the idea here is for you to read this and figure out what you think you need, but just in case you want a simple this is what you should do, I give you...
How I gear, stats and gems...
Spellpower trumps everything else. Spellpower is shiny awesomesauce as far as I am concerned.
More intellect is yummy too.
Haste and crit are nice, but I don't fret about them.
So my stat weighing looks like SP>int>haste+crit>>spirit and to hit.
I gem mostly for spellpower (runed cardinal rubies and whatever the sp dragon's eyes are called) with some other colors for meta activation. I use the 21 int+ mana regen meta, and I ignore socket bonuses unless a) I need one for my meta or b) the socket gives me more spellpower than I lose by not gemming straight spellpower. In fact, my gemming is kinda messy right now, and I should clean that up. I know why I have an int/sp gem, but why one sp/spirit and one sp/mp5 is beyond me. (looks more closely...)
Okay, the sp/mp5 was apparently for a spellpower socket bonus, and the other two are for meta activation. Nice to know there was some logic there.
Now if you want a list of gear you should get, exactly what enchants, gems, ect, well, see the first link? There's a really good place to start. Heck, they even suggest buff foods. Granted, they don't lay out exactly what gear a new priest might want, but honestly, run dungeons, run heroics, go by the stat weighings, and you'll end up decently geared. Might even want to get your hands on full tier 9. I had it for a while, before I replaced it with other stuff with better stats, but I 've still got the two piece bonus. And I'm still rocking a badge trinket (all that int is not really useful to me anymore but as much as I want a heroic Solace I'm unlikely to see one any time soon), with Nevermelting Ice Crystal in my bags for when I'm tank healing and want more crit.
And if you're still completely at sea, you can always email me to ask questions, hit the plus heal forums, or hit wowladies over on livejournal. There's a ton of resources out there, and I am really just scratching the surface of this entire subject.
So instead of just rewording what Elitist Jerks has to say on the subject, I figured I'd tell you a) what all the various casting stats do for you, and b) what I do . That way you can make a more informed decision.
First, stats you don't want if possible...
Spirit. This does very little for you. Seriously. It's on healing tier cause holy likes it and because Blizzard seems to like pushing it. It's like intellect's much more annoying little brother whose mom is determined to convince everyone is cute, not annoying. Or something. Not sure where I was going with that, but spirit, not worth it. What it does for you is 0.365 mp5 per point. Mp5 is shorthand for restores X mana every 5 seconds. Other stats give you much much more. Heck, straight mp5 is better imho.
To hit. To hit is for dps. Your heals will hit friendly targets, period. Sometimes good upgrades will have to hit on them because well, dps casters like the same stats we do. This may lead to headed arguments, which often include gems like "Healers like spirit, not to hit!" You don't like to hit, but heck trees don't like crit and yet they often end up with gear with crit on it. Occasionally you have to put up with a stat you don't like or don't care about to get more of the stats you do care about.
Second, stats that are awesome and shiny...
Intellect. You love this stat. Trust me. Intellect gives you 0.817 mp5 per point, ~0.0076 crit per point, and increases the size of your mana pool. Since most disc priests don't tend to run with the regen holy priests do, a large mana pool is a must. As a new 80, I'd even suggest gemming for int to begin with, and switching to other gems as you gain more intellect on your gear. Basically as you stop running out of mana, start switching over. Currently I run with roughly 30k buffed, and that is more than enough unless I'm shielding like there is no tomorrow, in a long fight, while constantly casting. How big you want your mana pool to be is a personal thing, so kinda feel it out. If you have a regen trinket like Solace, you need less int, and if you're constantly casting and dealing with high-damage fights, you need more. It really does depend on what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Spellpower. This is your favorite stat after intellect, or possibly before intellect. Spellpower makes your heals more powerful, and thus makes you more powerful. Power Word:Shield's absorption also becomes better the more spellpower you have. Best stat ever! Yes, I'm biased.
Crit. This is a nice stat, but how much of it you want does depend on what you're doing. Crit makes your spells more likely to critically hit, which means they hit with extra power. If you're raid healing with PW:S and Prayer of Mending, crits are only possible with the heal from the glyph of PW:S and Mending. But if you're tank healing, or throwing flash heals around like there's no tomorrow, well crits start looking much better. Divine Aegis depends on us critting though, so I certainly never say no to this stat. EJ recommends stacking crit once you've reached your haste cap, and while I personally don't do that (mmm, yummy spellpower), it's probably not a bad idea.
Haste. Haste makes you cast faster. It decreases your global cooldown as well, which makes even instant casts faster. Your minimum global cooldown is 1 sec, so once you hit a certain point of haste it's not doing you as much good as some of the other stats could be. Assuming the following raid buffs (Wraith of Air totem for 5% haste, and moonkin aura/Swift Retribution for another 3%) and our own talent Enlightment for 6% haste, and you really don't need much more to reach the hard haste cap for PW:S casting. Basically, if you want all your PW:S casts to be as fast as possible, you need another 154 haste (or roughly 11% haste). Haste can still speed up your longer casts even after it's no longer any good for PW:S, and the answer of when you stop wanting it is really complicated. So complicated, in fact, that if you're really interested, I suggest you go read the value of haste on EJ. I personally am quite happy with my current haste stat (451, way over cap) and would not go out of my way to increase it.
So those are the stats you're likely to see. There's a minor one you might run into, straight mp5, and I'd say take that over spirit. But otherwise, yup those are your stats. Now, the idea here is for you to read this and figure out what you think you need, but just in case you want a simple this is what you should do, I give you...
How I gear, stats and gems...
Spellpower trumps everything else. Spellpower is shiny awesomesauce as far as I am concerned.
More intellect is yummy too.
Haste and crit are nice, but I don't fret about them.
So my stat weighing looks like SP>int>haste+crit>>spirit and to hit.
I gem mostly for spellpower (runed cardinal rubies and whatever the sp dragon's eyes are called) with some other colors for meta activation. I use the 21 int+ mana regen meta, and I ignore socket bonuses unless a) I need one for my meta or b) the socket gives me more spellpower than I lose by not gemming straight spellpower. In fact, my gemming is kinda messy right now, and I should clean that up. I know why I have an int/sp gem, but why one sp/spirit and one sp/mp5 is beyond me. (looks more closely...)
Okay, the sp/mp5 was apparently for a spellpower socket bonus, and the other two are for meta activation. Nice to know there was some logic there.
Now if you want a list of gear you should get, exactly what enchants, gems, ect, well, see the first link? There's a really good place to start. Heck, they even suggest buff foods. Granted, they don't lay out exactly what gear a new priest might want, but honestly, run dungeons, run heroics, go by the stat weighings, and you'll end up decently geared. Might even want to get your hands on full tier 9. I had it for a while, before I replaced it with other stuff with better stats, but I 've still got the two piece bonus. And I'm still rocking a badge trinket (all that int is not really useful to me anymore but as much as I want a heroic Solace I'm unlikely to see one any time soon), with Nevermelting Ice Crystal in my bags for when I'm tank healing and want more crit.
And if you're still completely at sea, you can always email me to ask questions, hit the plus heal forums, or hit wowladies over on livejournal. There's a ton of resources out there, and I am really just scratching the surface of this entire subject.
Friday, May 14, 2010
How to Disc, a Simple Guide. Part 1: the tools, speccing, and glyphs (Out of date!)
So, you're a new level 80 priest, and you've decided to go disc. Or you're building a offset for your guild's Lich King attempt. Either way, you're lost in a sea of bubbles and need some help. Well, don't fret, I'm here to explain the basics.
Healing, as we all well know, is not a rotation or a priority. It's a set of tools and successful healing depends on knowing what your tools are, when to use them, and gearing to increase these strengths. First off, what are disc's tools? When should you use them? And where the heck do all these talent points go?
Spec-wise, you've got a few choices. Wow Popular's Disc Build List is a nice place to start. The top two disc builds are a bit different. This one is what I think of as the standard disc spec, and this one makes your Renews a bit more powerful at the expense of your Greater Heal cast times.
Glyph wise, your standard majors are PW:S, Flash Heal, and Penance. If you're using Renew over Flash Heal (I know some healers do, though I'm not sure why) you might want to switch in Renew for the Flash Heal glyph. Minors are Shadowfiend, Levitate, Fading, and Shadow Protection. You've got a bit more flexibility in the minors, but I do recommend Levitate and Shadowfiend.
Your Tools!
Power Word:Shield. Bubbles. If you're raid healing, this spell is your best friend ever. If you're tank healing, this is still your best friend ever. Bubble to prevent or decrease incoming damage, to buy time to get someone back up to full, or just cause you like putting dwarves in bubbles. For tank healing, bubble to get Borrowed Time, a haste buff to get your next heal (Greater Heal perhaps?) off faster. If you're a click-caster like me, bind this to something really convenient and obvious (like left mouse click) cause you'll be using it more than any other spell.
Penance. This is the other iconic spell of the disc priest. Healing with lasers, what's not to like? This is a great spell for NEED HEALS NOW as well as for tank healing and it's also a damage spell. If there's any sort of aoe damage going on, I'd shield myself first, since this spell can be interrupted which means you won't get all three shots off.
Power Infusion. This is a great throw on a spell dps and watch their damage go up spell. I tend to use it when I hear a call for Heroism. This isn't really a healing tool persay, but you can throw it on yourself for extra oomph when needed.
Pain Suppression. This is a great tank healing tool, just keep an eye on the threat meter. Since this spell decreases threat, it's also a nice "oh crap that dps pulled aggro" button.
Prayer of Mending. Start it on a melee, and just make sure it keeps bouncing. I use a hot meter to keep track of it.
Flash Heal. This is my go-to heal. Really. It's not much good on tanks (unless the tank is undergeared) but it's great for topping off dps. My whack-a-mole style of raid healing is a combo of this and PW:S with the occasional penance.
Renew. I mostly use it for an extra tank cushion. Otherwise I don't use it at all.
Greater Heal. Use with the Borrowed Time buff for tank healing.
Prayer of Healing. Again, this is a spell I use with Borrowed Time, mostly when I'm raid healing in a ten man. I don't use it that much, but I have it on my bars.
As far as the other healing spells go (Divine Hymn, Holy Nova, Binding Heal) I just don't use those much. I have seen people use Shadowfiend in combo with Divine Hymn in heavy aoe damage situations, and I keep meaning to try it. Unfortunately, when I'm in that situation I'm generally too busy going "ACK, MUST SHIELD EVERYONE!" to think about it.
Now, it must be said that healing is not like dps, where there is generally one right way to do things for max dps. Healing is wildly situational, and given the depth and breadth of a priest's toolbox, it can be very confusing at first. But there isn't really a right way to heal, and different people have different styles. If you're doing your job, keeping the raid (or the tank) up, not running oom, and not just sitting back and watching the fight, you're doing okay.
Next time: gemming and enchanting, or what do you mean there's no right gem? And why am I fighting with the caster dps for gear without spirit?
Healing, as we all well know, is not a rotation or a priority. It's a set of tools and successful healing depends on knowing what your tools are, when to use them, and gearing to increase these strengths. First off, what are disc's tools? When should you use them? And where the heck do all these talent points go?
Spec-wise, you've got a few choices. Wow Popular's Disc Build List is a nice place to start. The top two disc builds are a bit different. This one is what I think of as the standard disc spec, and this one makes your Renews a bit more powerful at the expense of your Greater Heal cast times.
Glyph wise, your standard majors are PW:S, Flash Heal, and Penance. If you're using Renew over Flash Heal (I know some healers do, though I'm not sure why) you might want to switch in Renew for the Flash Heal glyph. Minors are Shadowfiend, Levitate, Fading, and Shadow Protection. You've got a bit more flexibility in the minors, but I do recommend Levitate and Shadowfiend.
Your Tools!
Power Word:Shield. Bubbles. If you're raid healing, this spell is your best friend ever. If you're tank healing, this is still your best friend ever. Bubble to prevent or decrease incoming damage, to buy time to get someone back up to full, or just cause you like putting dwarves in bubbles. For tank healing, bubble to get Borrowed Time, a haste buff to get your next heal (Greater Heal perhaps?) off faster. If you're a click-caster like me, bind this to something really convenient and obvious (like left mouse click) cause you'll be using it more than any other spell.
Penance. This is the other iconic spell of the disc priest. Healing with lasers, what's not to like? This is a great spell for NEED HEALS NOW as well as for tank healing and it's also a damage spell. If there's any sort of aoe damage going on, I'd shield myself first, since this spell can be interrupted which means you won't get all three shots off.
Power Infusion. This is a great throw on a spell dps and watch their damage go up spell. I tend to use it when I hear a call for Heroism. This isn't really a healing tool persay, but you can throw it on yourself for extra oomph when needed.
Pain Suppression. This is a great tank healing tool, just keep an eye on the threat meter. Since this spell decreases threat, it's also a nice "oh crap that dps pulled aggro" button.
Prayer of Mending. Start it on a melee, and just make sure it keeps bouncing. I use a hot meter to keep track of it.
Flash Heal. This is my go-to heal. Really. It's not much good on tanks (unless the tank is undergeared) but it's great for topping off dps. My whack-a-mole style of raid healing is a combo of this and PW:S with the occasional penance.
Renew. I mostly use it for an extra tank cushion. Otherwise I don't use it at all.
Greater Heal. Use with the Borrowed Time buff for tank healing.
Prayer of Healing. Again, this is a spell I use with Borrowed Time, mostly when I'm raid healing in a ten man. I don't use it that much, but I have it on my bars.
As far as the other healing spells go (Divine Hymn, Holy Nova, Binding Heal) I just don't use those much. I have seen people use Shadowfiend in combo with Divine Hymn in heavy aoe damage situations, and I keep meaning to try it. Unfortunately, when I'm in that situation I'm generally too busy going "ACK, MUST SHIELD EVERYONE!" to think about it.
Now, it must be said that healing is not like dps, where there is generally one right way to do things for max dps. Healing is wildly situational, and given the depth and breadth of a priest's toolbox, it can be very confusing at first. But there isn't really a right way to heal, and different people have different styles. If you're doing your job, keeping the raid (or the tank) up, not running oom, and not just sitting back and watching the fight, you're doing okay.
Next time: gemming and enchanting, or what do you mean there's no right gem? And why am I fighting with the caster dps for gear without spirit?
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