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#1 Jun 15 2010 at 4:29 PM Rating: Good
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Sorry for the stupid title. Alternatives, like 'Hello, good people' and 'Greetings, citizens' went through my mind, but figured I'd keep it less formal and less Civil War-ish.

So, basically, I've been secretly leveling up a Priest since, um, oh yeah, 2005. She's now level 69 and I'm finding the healing pretty fun. I know that Disco is the hottest flavor of super green to you Priests right now, but I never really got into it. Found it to be too mana inefficient. Holy is pretty fun, though, plus I can solo stuff with a few points moved around.

But enough about how awesome it all is, because I'm sure you already know.

My question is: What the hell do I do with Prayer of Mending?

So, I'm healing dungeons and all is well, but suddenly my RankWatch informs me that I should go train Prayer of Mending (rank 1). Oh, new spell! I port to the nearest trainer and pick up the spell. The tooltip gives me a general idea of what the thing can do. You put it on someone and it provides a buff, with charges. Kind of like Earth Shield (I've got a level 80 Shaman), but this Earth Shield has less charges, less duration and will jump to nearby friendlies.

Okay, neato, I think. It has a pretty loltastic mana cost (as in: low), and in TBC dungeons, everyone take damage like crazy. I could toss this on the tank and watch it bounce from one person to another, healing them all while I sit back and enjoy my gin and tonic.

Or so I thought. Well, it works... sometimes. Sometimes it bounces back and forth between the tank and the nearest melee people, making my healing quite redundant. Other times, it bounces from the tank to a ranged DPS who got too close. Now, I can make it bounce back again with SW:Death, but everyone else can't, unless they run in and pull aggro or get hit by AOE.

Basically, the spell is very inconsistent. Sometimes it will be awesome and full of win, other times it will heal the tank and then become completely useless. Now, I noticed the short cooldown on it and EJ mentions tossing PoM whenever possible.

Does the mana cost on it really justify it being used as a single target heal? Should I toss it on the tank every time the cooldown is up, provided the tank doesn't have PoM on already? Or should I let it sit on some other players in the hope it will bounce around some more? I can easily heal without it, so it's more of a toy for me. Circle of Healing and Holy Nova spam with Surge of Light is enough to heal most stuff pre-70.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 12:30am by Mazra
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#2 Jun 15 2010 at 4:40 PM Rating: Decent
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There's actually a thin line between "I'll let it stick on that guy for now" and "I'd better recast it on the tank". It's really up to you to find that line. For me, in raids, I generally only non-stop-refresh it when everybody's actually taking damage. On fights like Festergut or Sindragosa, it's just plain wicked. Which means that if it gets stuck on a DPS, it generally runs out its time. This is because in a raid, the chance that a random person takes any kind of damage in the next thirty seconds is rather large on most encounters.

Ocassionaly I do a little what I like to call "Refreshing preparation" on the tank. Say, during a phase change on... virtually any fight, I throw ProM, PW:S and Renew on the tank so he's all ready to go once the next phase hits. This tends to make up for the times where it would just sit around doing nothing.

The thing with it is, though, that, especially as holy, it's HPM is so obscenely good (it can be up to three times Penances HPM, which in turn is twice Gheal's HPM - go figure) that even if you would just throw it on the tank every cooldown regardless of whether it actually jumps or not, you'll probably still get mileage out of it.

So to conclude my little story: it's really completely up to you. The spell *is* actually so good that you can use it as a raw single-target heal if you feel like it, though I'd suggest you'd experiment and see what feels well - even with the knowledge that it's probably worth it, just refreshing it every CD for an entire instance long while it never really gets jumping does start to feel a bit boring.

Edit: Oh, and - holy more mana efficient? O_o How the hell have you come to this conclusion? Disc is more efficient at 80, but even moreso pre-80 (read: pre-good gear) because you'll have Meditation ánd Rapture up to holy's... pretty much nothing. It's not that I can't understand the point of view, it's just that I'm absolutely clueless as to how one would come to it.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 12:45am by Mozared
#3 Jun 15 2010 at 6:31 PM Rating: Good
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It's probably because, having played a Shaman, Paladin and Druid healer, I wasn't used to shielding people. Throwing shields on everyone is good and all, though I don't know if Rapture actually works if the shield fades and isn't removed. It's just that even when I threw shields up, people would take damage and the shield doesn't heal, it just prevents damage taken for some time.

So I'd find myself shielding and healing at the same time, which costs a lot of mana, even with Soul Warding and all that jazz. With Holy, I have plenty of time to sit around while the mp5 kicks in.

Also, I've never been good with 'on use' procs and having to juggle Pain Suppression, Power Infusion and Inner Focus to make the most of it just wasn't me during heated situations. It's so much easier with Circle of Healing (which, coincidently also reminds me of Wild Growth) and Surge of Light. I took Serendipity, but I've hardly used it. With Holy Nova, Circle of Healing, Renew and Prayer of Mending, I've got more than enough tools to deal with anything TBC level.

Surge of Light is my god, by the way. Holy Nova spam procs it like crazy, which gives me some free (though non-crit) Flash Heals. Sexy.

In short: I prefer reactive healing to proactive healing, which is why I prefer Holy.
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#4 Jun 15 2010 at 7:21 PM Rating: Good
I think ProM and PW:S actually sort of have the same key.

Determining when to recast ProM comes down to predicting damage, and so does casting shields. If you're really good at it, you can time Rapture procs to the point where you effectively get 1.5k mp5 or more through Rapture alone, in some raid encounters. It does not work if the shield just fades.

Plus, if you glyph PW:S it provides a small instant-cast direct heal, as well. I've actually made a game out of making my Recount line up in heroics - trying to get as close as possible to having the same amount of healing done by Penance, ProM and Glyph of PW:S by the end of the instance.

Anyway... as Moz said, ProM is a good spell to use no matter how good you are with it. Even if it's not all that mana efficient at one charge, it still provides great HPS and that's more important in Northrend.


I've also always thought that Druid (and to some degree) shaman healing were still kind of proactive. Paladin healing totally isn't and Holy isn't all that much, but HoTs are essentially more complicated shields, right?

#5 Jun 15 2010 at 7:51 PM Rating: Good
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Get PoM tracker to um... Help track PoM. Lets you know if it ends up on a bad target, like a pet or something.

Inner Focus I tend to use early and often, typically with a shield on a tank so I get free mana back from Rapture.

PI I tend to use early and often as well. The mana savings are great, the haste is just excessive and great for PoH spam.

PS I tend to save, either for a scripted event or a serious 'O $hit' moment.

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#6 Jun 15 2010 at 8:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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Everyone else answered you already. I just wanted to sai hai.

Quote:
In short: I prefer reactive healing to proactive healing, which is why I prefer Holy.


You've grasped the difference between the two. You're already well ahead of a large percentage of the WoW population. Disc is trendy because it's newer than Holy, but I wouldn't call one better than the other (though one may be better at specific things). It's just a matter of which healing style you like.

P.S. I don't raid (I preface many comments this way, lest people think I know what I'm talking about), but I refresh PoM pretty much on cooldown. If nothing else, having it floating around out there is great insurance against anything unexpected. Also, keep your sound up and hearing it bounce can be a good awareness tool if you happen to be, I dunno, drinking wine and not looking at your screen. Not that I do this.

Edited, Jun 15th 2010 10:19pm by teacake
#7 Jun 15 2010 at 8:40 PM Rating: Good
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After creating the thread, I spent some more time doing TBC dungeons (because I currently fail at healing people in UK/Nexus). I think I've got the hang of PoM. During one run in Underbog, I noticed that the melee group took pretty heavy AOE damage, so I tossed PoM on the tank and stepped out of range so the bounce wouldn't reach me. It was fun watching the PoM procs light up my MSBT as it bounced through five targets almost instantly.

Kali, healing on a Druid is reactive in the proactive way. Confused? I am, so I'll clarify, if only to explain it to myself. You apply HoTs and HoTs usually don't heal after damage has been dealt, hence the reactive healing. However, you apply said HoTs before damage is being taken, to soften the spikes, hence the proactive healing. You apply it before it happens, much like PW:Shield and Prayer of Mending, but instead of preventing damage taken, it balances it out.

Okay, that really didn't clarify much, I guess. The thing is, where Paladins work solely on reactive healing, Disco Priests seem to work solely on proactive healing, with the occasional PoM and PoH tossed in there, right? Holy, like Resto Druids and Shaman, use both reactive and proactive healing, but instead of preventing damage, they heal damage done, which is more reactive than proactive (or preemptive, I really don't know which is the correct word here).

Anyway, Holy is excellent if a lot of people are taking little damage. I failed big time when I went into UK, mainly because the tank was geared head to toe in DPS gear and I lacked proper tank healing capabilities. Didn't have time to cast Greater Heal and Flash Heal wasn't enough to keep him up for Serendipity to kick in.

Now I plan on questing and out-gearing/-leveling the instance before going in there again. If I can't win through skill, at least I can win it like the rest of the boys in ICC - by out-gearing the crap.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 4:41am by Mazra
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#8 Jun 15 2010 at 9:25 PM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
IThe tank failed big time when I went into UK, mainly because the tank was geared head to toe in DPS gear and I lacked proper tank healing capabilities can't be expected to heal that crap. Didn't have time to cast Greater Heal and Flash Heal wasn't enough to keep him up for Serendipity to kick in.


FTFY
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#9 Jun 15 2010 at 11:04 PM Rating: Good
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Horsemouth wrote:
Mazra wrote:
IThe tank failed big time when I went into UK, mainly because the tank was geared head to toe in DPS gear and I lacked proper tank healing capabilities can't be expected to heal that crap. Didn't have time to cast Greater Heal and Flash Heal wasn't enough to keep him up for Serendipity to kick in.


FTFY


Yeah, Horse, I know, but it's the norm around those levels. One tank in Sethekk Halls was a Fury Warrior. You can't expect them to level up to 70 in two days and learn anything on the way.
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#10 Jun 16 2010 at 12:28 AM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
SI know that Disco is the hottest flavor of super green to you Priests right now, but I never really got into it. Found it to be too mana inefficient.
You are doinitrong.

And definitely in 5 mans, disc is much stronger than holy.
Disc is a pretty good tank healer, and excels at healing damage spikes, which is the sort of damage people tend to take in 5 mans and any small AoE type stuff is absorbed by shields.
#11 Jun 16 2010 at 12:44 AM Rating: Good
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I know it's the hot stuff, Aeth, hence why I wrote that it was the hot stuff.

I just can't do proactive healing. And this is at level 69 for those T10 freaks who think throwing a 20k shield is the bomb. My PW:Shield absorbs barely 2k damage, which is the damage the tank took in UK between each Flash Heal. Unless I can spam PW:Shield on the same target every GCD, I need something bigger.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 8:46am by Mazra
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#12 Jun 16 2010 at 1:26 AM Rating: Good
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How much spellpower do you have?
#13 Jun 16 2010 at 1:38 AM Rating: Good
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700.

Only heirloom item is the mace. All my other characters are on a different server, as you might know. Smiley: grin
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#14 Jun 16 2010 at 1:46 AM Rating: Good
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Do you have imp. Inner fire?

edit: nvm, doesn't start helping until level 71.

Level 68 disc spec

And the PW:Shield formula, from WoWwiki.
(base_absorb+(0.8068+0.08*BT)*sp)*(1+0.05*IMP)*(1+ 0.02*FP)*(1+0.01*TD) 
 
    * base_absorb is the base absorb given the PW:S which is 2230 at the moment 
    * BT is your Borrowed Time level 
    * SP is your Spell Power 
    * IMP is your Improved Power Word: Shield level 
    * FP is your Focused Power level 
    * TD is your Twin Disciplines level


(1265+(0.8068+0.08*5)*700)*(1+0.05*3)*(1+0.02*2)*(1+0.01*5) = (1265+(1.2068*700)*1.15*1.04*1.05 = 2109.76*1.15*1.04*1.05 = 2649.436608 damage absorbed per shield.

And add a (2649.436608*0.2)= 529.8873216 heal with the glyph.

It adds up to over 3k healing/absorbs from an instant cast.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 9:58am by Aethien
#15 Jun 16 2010 at 2:03 AM Rating: Good
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Plus at 68 you can has Penance. Penance is good. Is very good.
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#16 Jun 16 2010 at 2:09 AM Rating: Good
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And 12% extra penance crit on players with the weakened soul debuff.
Yay for more Divine Aegis procs and more absorbing and even less spiky damage.

Shield > PoM > Renew and your tank isn't going to die very quickly.
Shield > Penance keeps just about anyone alive.
#17 Jun 16 2010 at 2:58 AM Rating: Good
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Meh, I just don't like the style of absorption healing. Too used to making sure the health meters go back up to put my entire healing style into the hands of making sure the health meters never go down in the first place.

What I remember from my Disc healing times, PW:Shield would break really fast and then I'd be forced to either Flash Heal the tank or Penance. Penance, having great HPM, overhealed a lot. Tanks have 10k health my level and Penance back then would easily heal 4-5k, which is a health level I don't like seeing my tank at. Too used to topping off.

I just remember I was busy casting shields on everyone with the tank needing a Penance all the time, resulting in less than impressive mana gains. 2.5% of 7k mana is 175 mana or so, which is barely half the cost of PW:Shield, and that's one out of maybe five shields that would return that much. The others were wasted since DPS rarely took enough damage to break it, costing me a lot of mana. This often resulted in me slacking on the DPS shielding to save some mana, which again caused the DPS to slowly lose health over the duration of a fight, forcing me to use Prayer of Healing which sucks my mana bar dry like you wouldn't believe it.

I'm biased, so there's really no point in discussing it. I'm sure Discipline is better in all kinds of ways, but it just doesn't suit my style.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 11:01am by Mazra
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#18 Jun 16 2010 at 3:59 AM Rating: Good
I guess I know we won't really convince you, but you seem to be approaching it from the wrong direction.

Shield spam is the shiz right now, yeah, but actually shield spam is something that only works in certain situations, some better than others.

What Disc was pre-ICC was a tank healing spec. You could effectively put out more HPS than Delinja for a short amount of time and save the day with that.


As for DPS, if you don't think they'll take enough damage to break the shield and proc Rapture, Renew is the cheaper alternative, plus it's better to not have DPS shielded sometimes because that can prevent ProM jumping. If I don't play silly games in heroics, Renew can be pretty high up on the healing meters. Then again, I sometimes just spam PoH out of spite.
#19 Jun 16 2010 at 4:41 AM Rating: Good
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Kalivha wrote:
more HPS than Delinja


Unable to compute.
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#20 Jun 16 2010 at 5:04 AM Rating: Good
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(2230+(1.2068)*3200)*1.15*1.04*1.05 = 7092.25608 absorbed plus a 1418.451216 heal
Or 7446.868884 absorbed with 4pc T10.

And spellpower probably reaches 3.5k with flask, food and totem.
#21 Jun 16 2010 at 5:47 AM Rating: Good
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So, let's say I went with Discipline instead of Holy.

Would I be shielding everyone in the party, or only the tank while Renew/Mending takes care of the others? I really love being able to Holy Nova on trash and get free, instant Flash Heals out of it, but if Discipline is the shiz like you're trying to tell me it is, perhaps it's improved since I was level 65.

I'll have to try it out now, if only to prove you guys wrong. But I'm curious, how do you effective solo with that build? Is Penance that good for offense as well? Right now, Surge of Light, in addition to free Flash Heals, also gives me free, instant Smites when soloing. And I easily switched around talents to pick up Spirit Tap. Seems like Discipline is a lot more interwoven and pulling three points from any talent would break the system.
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#22 Jun 16 2010 at 5:51 AM Rating: Good
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Shield anyone who will be taking enough damage to use most of/all of the shield.
So in 5 mans generally only people with aggro.

As for soloing: Holy Fire > Mind Blast > Smitespam.
#23 Jun 16 2010 at 5:52 AM Rating: Good
His Excellency Aethien wrote:
Shield anyone who will be taking enough damage to use most of/all of the shield.
So in 5 mans generally only people with aggro.


Mind you, this may include that warrior who runs in every pull and goes LOLSTORMLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Or retanoob. I'm sure you know the type.

@#%^ers.

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 7:53am by Norellicus
#24 Jun 16 2010 at 5:55 AM Rating: Good
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Without the Smite glyph? Heresy!

What do I do when I shield someone at medium/high health? They stop taking damage, but their health doesn't go up, so I need to heal them. The damage is less than a Flash Heal and using Holy Nova would be a waste of mana. Do I just let people sit there with ~1k damage taken (~80% health left)? I imagine if I both have to shield and heal people whenever they take damage, my mana efficiency will easily go out the window compared to my Holy build where I just toss Empowered Renews and Prayer of Mending with free Flash Heals for the near-death cases.
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#25 Jun 16 2010 at 5:59 AM Rating: Good
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Glyph of shield+renew takes care of any random damage they got.
If they've taken more damage, shield > Penance.

And always try to shield+PoM(+renew) the tank before a pull.
#26 Jun 16 2010 at 6:32 AM Rating: Excellent
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Don't try to make the man be Disc if he doesn't wanna. There is nothing wrong with Holy FFS.

Re: not having time to cast Gheal: Three stacks of Serendipity. Always or at least whenever possible. When that's not possible, are you winding it up early? Good old fashioned cancel-casting can still be helpful for Holy. Even talented the cast time on Gheal is often too long to start it only after you see you need it. Much like your druid though, much of the awesomeness of your spells lies in how well they take care of each other. Never slacking on keeping Renew, PoM, and Shield in the mix can buy you time on a Gheal cast. Plus Serendipity, did I mention Serendipity? None of this will help you if the tank is simply too undergeared or the wrong spec, though.

Re: how you solo with a Disc build: Keep Searing Light and the Smite glyph. You can't raid that way but you can certainly heal 5 mans. You can't do that until 77 though because Disc needs Penance or don't bother. I fully support you in playing whichever spec you like best, but I will forewarn you, once you start healing with Penance, there is a chance you'll never go back. Smiley: wink It is hands down the best healing spell in the game, and not just because of the cool animation and sound.


Edited, Jun 16th 2010 8:35am by teacake
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