Priest discussion

[Jhazrun]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints described below reflect the personal thoughts of Yours Truly, and in no shape or form attempt to masquerade as those of the Priesthood.


Hiya there, Novaspray,

The style of mine is one I call Durable Readiness for Utility and Initiative Dexterity — or D.R.U.I.D. for short — and taps into the potential of the class' instant spells.


By this point in the game the Holy Priest's Flash Heal, Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing have become hopelessly antiquated and all but futile in face of the superior mechanics, synergy and scaling of the other healers.

As such, we play to the strengths that remain unique to us; the surgical precision of Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending, and the unprecedented — if narrow — raid utility of Body and Soul.

Renew, thankfully, is backed up by a critical mass of talents for it to remain in a reasonable state of competitiveness against the monolithic Rejuvenation.


Your basic toolkit should consist of the following:

Circle of Healing as the first wave of reactionary damage control.
Prayer of Mending for predictable clusters of rapid damage, or as a tank health buffer. Recast as soon as viable upon cessation of jumping.
Renew as non-stop filler between main cooldowns to maintain healing output and uptime of Holy Concentration.
Flash Heal via Surge of Light against infrequent damage spikes, or woven in between Renews in scenarios of necessary mana conservation.
Power Word: Shield as a multi-purpose mobility tool whenever appropriate, ranging from swift post-Bone Storm regrouping to shuttling Infection carriers to a dozen ways with the Blood Princes.


Glyph-wise, Holy Priests are in a position where not enough relevant ones exist to fill even the current three slots. Glyph of Guardian Spirit lands between Glyph of Circle of Healing and Glyph of Renew in power.

[Mauer]

Hello, i play a shadow priest and have for some time. recently i have heard that if you have 4 piece t10, it is no longer optimal to cast MB at all, just stick with MF, whats your opinion of this?

[xenophics]

Hello Mauer. My best source of information as a shadow priest is definitely http://www.shadowpriest.com . Your question about mind blast versus mind flay has been debated there for some time already and the math has taken people back and forth on this issue.

This thread: http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 40&start=0 states that with great playing skills (and gear) you will gain dps from dropping mind blast. On the other hand I've seen math saying that mind flay can never be better than mind blast. Where I haven't run the numbers myself I can't be sure if all the math is correct, but the general consesus on this seems to be that it's up to you what you want to do. The dps difference isn't always that big, you should know your own playstyle and go for what suits you the best (there are gear limitations tho).

For me the choice was easy as I'm the second replenishment in the raid. I specced out of Improved Mind Blast and now use my mind blast pretty much when it comes off cooldown. (There are some sweet spots in your "rotation" where mind blast fits very well, you can see them later in the thread).

Edit: http://elitistjerks.com/attachments/f77 ... remove.xls here is a spreadsheet from Elitistjerks to get you started on your own character.

[Proudjaena]

Curious as to which priest was Disc for your LK 25 Heroic kill this week.

[kriist]

So my questions are for jhazrun. I am assuming that you mostly bubble roll the raid considering your stacking of spell power. is this true? do you often tank heal as well?
i find it strange that you dont use 4pc/have haste robes offset/use the crit helm when t10 is crit. what haste should i be aiming for in my disc set?
currently i am debating changing my meta from IED to the INT meta you are using, why do you think it's better?
do you raid most often as disc or as holy? is this you disc gear or holy gear?

sorry for all the questions, you are just the most successful disc priest in the world and wanted to pick your brain. Also, grats on Arthas 25 and way to go 5 healing it.

[Jhazrun]

Hello, kriist and Proudjaena,

I am at the time being indeed the primary Power Word: Shield blanketer, and the SP-laden set you're observing is my tool of the trade. However, us healing Priests regularly fluctuate our roles in farm-mode content.

The simultaneous presence of both the iLevel 277 off-set hood and the robe is quite simply an aesthetic preference for the skin of the item, and when raiding I naturally make the swap for the Crimson Acolyte headpiece. The off-set robe sports superior socket use, and is as such optimal for the fifth slot.

In the overwhelming majority of scenarios my contribution to tank healing ranges from an Inspiring Penance to a more-often-than-not Pain Suppression.
As the number of true heals approaches zero, the relative value ratio of SP-to-Haste-or-Crit borders on infinity, with the exception of the Haste hard cap (the amount of Haste required to bring your GCD to 1.0 with Borrowed Time), that lands around 350 with Wrath of Air, or 450 without. Under NO circumstances should one ever find themselves under said amount, but do move on to other stats once safely capped.

Mana consumption is often a non-issue, so I use Ember Skyflare Diamond, for it carries the greatest increase to Power Word: Shield absorption. Outside infinite SP value Insightful rarely falls from sovereignty.

NOTE that the above is speaking strictly from a bubble-bot point-of-view. Stat prioritization shifts to a more natural balance when dealing with other tasks or ten-man raids.

[Colaisgoodlol]

Hello, I just had some quick questions about priest healing in ICC 10/25's.

For what bosses would you prefer disc or holy?

Like I know Saurfang you should go disc.

I just wanted to know your opinion on what fights you should switch to.

Our healing setup is - Priest/Pally/Shammy.

[Ashylol]

Hi there!


I have a question concerning Zhinn's and Jhazrun's specs and choice of gems. Why do you have two priests, one of which is 14/57 [Zhinn] and one that is 17/54 [Jhazrun] and why have you Zhinn opted to invest in gem bonuses while Jhazrun has chosen to go full SP, even how your rotation is.

I have chosen to go all out haste in order to maximize as many renews in between POM and COH whilst the CD are ticking out on those two abilities.


Would be grateful for response, I am creditable curious :-)

/Ashy

[Sukotto]

Hello Mauer. My best source of information as a shadow priest is definitely http://www.shadowpriest.com . Your question about mind blast versus mind flay has been debated there for some time already and the math has taken people back and forth on this issue.

This thread: http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 40&start=0 states that with great playing skills (and gear) you will gain dps from dropping mind blast. On the other hand I've seen math saying that mind flay can never be better than mind blast. Where I haven't run the numbers myself I can't be sure if all the math is correct, but the general consesus on this seems to be that it's up to you what you want to do. The dps difference isn't always that big, you should know your own playstyle and go for what suits you the best (there are gear limitations tho).

For me the choice was easy as I'm the second replenishment in the raid. I specced out of Improved Mind Blast and now use my mind blast pretty much when it comes off cooldown. (There are some sweet spots in your "rotation" where mind blast fits very well, you can see them later in the thread).

Ok, rather than using your MB on CD wouldn't you want to be using it like every 9-12 seconds after VT, typically I just cast VT/MB, or if there is point when I see MF 1.8 seconds vs a 1.3 MB gap for a DP at 1.5 second duration you would cast MB/DP, rather than clipping MF early to get DP back up. However it's understandable if the raid is in need of replenishment to use on CD.

EDIT : Also note Mauer im assuming your the troll in Anomaly, Bronan is terrible so you should'nt be taking advice from him, having MB in rotation is always useful and the fact that the dps between the MB and MF/T4PCE is so close it doesn't matter.

[xenophics]

Ok, rather than using your MB on CD wouldn't you want to be using it like every 9-12 seconds after VT, typically I just cast VT/MB, or if there is point when I see MF 1.8 seconds vs a 1.3 MB gap for a DP at 1.5 second duration you would cast MB/DP, rather than clipping MF early to get DP back up.

Without the talent mind blast's cooldown is 8 seconds. I do so that when my mind blast comes off cooldown I use it when I won't clip mind flay and won't delay any other spell. That pretty much falls inside that 9-12 seconds window you mentioned. Of course there are optimal spots for mind blast but all the movement in Icecrown fights makes it a bit more complicated to execute.