Single-Target Priestly Healing in “Echoes of Doom”

Priest, Raiding 9 comments.

Friday night the fine people of the Drunken Badgers decided it was time to return to Black Temple and get our progression on.  In prior weeks, we managed to get to get up to Teron Gorefiend, but had never progressed beyond that point.  As many other people have noted, Patch 3.0.2 changed everything.  We trounced Teron Gorefiend.  We ganked Gurtogg Bloodboil.  We mauled Mother Shahraz.  We ran into a little bit of problems with the Council of the Illidari, but it was still impressive for a raid full of people who had never even seen the fights, much less participated in them.

While I might lament how our sense of accomplishment has been minimized by the nerfs applied in “Echoes of Doom,” it really wasn’t that that made the evening so unenjoyable.  It was more how ineffective I was as a healer.

As I’ve noted many times before, I’m a Spirit-obsessed priestaphiliac.  While many other healing priests gleefully opted to learn the forty-one point talent Circle of Healing, I clung tenaciously to my Improved Divine Spirit, lavishly sharing my Spirit bounty with friends, party members, and fellow raiders alike.   It meant that I not only brought my healing prowess to a raid but also some added utility that the other Holy priests were unable to do.  Despite lacking a group heal that was capable of being used on the raid, I was often near the top of the healing meters or even the top healer.  It ascertained that I was in fact a viable and contributing member of the raid.

Patch 3.0.2 has changed all that — especially in regards to Circle of Healing, which now heals the five people within range who have the lowest health.  I decided to stick with a variation of my 23/38/0 build that allowed me to remain mana efficient with decent heals while retaining my beloved Improved Divine Spirit; the two other Holy priests in our raid went a full sixty-one points into the Holy tree.  The disparity between our performance was so ridiculously enormous that I found myself disappointed by the changes.  Between two Circle of Healing priests and a Restoration shaman with Chain Heal, single-target healers such as people with my build or Holy paladins just couldn’t contribute in the raid.  By the time we managed to get a single heal off, some three so-called brain heals had managed to top off everyone who needed a heal.

I had effectively become superfluous.

I think what disappoints me most is not that I wasn’t beneficial to the raid, but how I felt that our priests were being pigeonholed into using a single spell for most of the instance.  While I’ve jokingly made derisive comments in the past regarding healers that only spam Circle of Healing¹, it seems like this is the only spell of use for the Holy priest.  And this saddens me because I love healing as a priest so much because I have so many spells within my arsenal, ranging from single-target healing, group healing, a preemptive heal, a spell that prevents damage, and more.  I was proud that I had a variety of spells at my disposal and knew which ones to use at the right time for the most effective and beneficial results.

Honestly, I chose to heal as a priest because pre-expansion I had grown tired of casting only one or two spells on both my Holy paladin and Restoration shaman.

While intellectually I realize that these talents are intended for upwards to level 80 instances and that I will be acquiring ten more talent points within the upcoming months, it still pains me that for the remaining weeks until the Wrath of the Lich King expansion a single target Holy healing priest who chooses to pick up the Improved Divine Spirit buff will be unable to contribute effectively or efficiently in a raid.  And I refuse to pick up a single talent so that I can mindlessly spam that heal and feel like I’m contributing.  So, rather than mope or decry how Blizzard has ruined me personally², I decided to take an entirely different approach.

Perky priestess Csilla Kovács — who has become my priestly pride and joy, standing well above my bevvy of other priests³ — has forsaken her Holy ways and gone Discipline!  And I’m loving it!

I’ve long wanted to try raiding as a Discipline priest, but had chosen not to because I was typically relied on heavily by my raid leaders to bring unadulterated healing power.  However, Discipline has found further utility in raids due to a number of changes made to the tree and the new talents that have appeared there since “Echoes of Doom.”  I’ve chosen a 59/2/0 Discipline build that lets me pick the talents that I think would make an effective single-target healer while bringing a lot of utility to the raid.  This build will morph into a 59/12/0 Discipline build once Csilla reaches the new level cap.

There are a couple of things of note with my new build.  The current lack of Holy Specialization means that my critical effect chance with Holy spells is pretty low at the moment, especially for what seems like a very crit-heavy tree.  By not having Divine Fury, the vast majority of my heals are currently ponderous and slow, but that is easily rectified with both Borrowed Time and the vast amount of Haste that I’ve collected on other pieces in the past.  In fact, I was amazed when Borrowed Time and a proc on the Scarab of the Infinite Cycle⁴ allowed me to cast a Greater Heal in under 1.5 seconds.  With Divine Fury, I could very well be casting Greater Heals in under a second!

The build focuses on single target healing prowess with added utility, especially with Power Infusion and Pain Suppression.  The goal isn’t to get the large heals of the Holy tree⁵, but rather reduce the amount of healing that is required.  This is accomplished by making heavy use of Power Word: Shield and talents such as Divine Aegis and Grace.  The build also has a very different emphasis for gearing.  In the past I would select gear, gems, and enchants that increased both my Bonus Healing and my Spirit; instead, I’ll be stacking for Bonus Healing, Intellect, and Haste — a combination of stats that will supposedly be very common in Wrath of the Lich King where much of the gear appears to be Haste-heavy.  The lack of Spiritual Guidance and the changes done to Improved Divine Spirit that grant a flat increase to Spell Power as oppposed to a number based on a percentage of the player’s Spirit stat means that Spirit is significantly less important to me now.

At the moment, I’m trying to decide if it would be best to select gems with the Critical Strike Rating such as the Potent Pyrestone or Intellect like the Luminous Pyrestone.  While five Critical Strike Rating is near 0.23% crit, five Intellect is both a little over 0.06% crit and 75 mana.  Though I will have less mana regen due to the reduction of Spirit on my gear, Rapture seems to be very effective in keeping my mana pool mostly full.  Furthermore, as a human Discipline priest I have both The Human Spirit⁶ and Enlightenment, both of which are likely to increase my Spirit so that I still have some semblence of Spirit-based mana regeneration.  As a result, I’m not sure if I really need to increase my mana pool further.

Oh, and Penance is a simply amazing spell!  I was using this both in grouping with people and on the battlefield and it’s just an incredibly versatile spell.  If I chose to use a Power Word: Shield prior to casting Penance, I was able to quickly top off a player or strike my enemies.  It’s the priestly version of the paladin spell Holy Shock, but so much more fun!  Plus each hit of the channeled spell has the opportunity to give a Grace buff, which means that in two seconds a Dicipline priest could both reduce the damage taken by his target by 3% while increasing the healing she does by 6%.  Some basic theorycrafting shows that this spell may have both a higher Health Per Mana and Health Per Second than the staple priestly healing spell Greater Heal.

Discipline truly is love.

Related Posts

1. Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!
2. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!
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Why Has the Light Forsaken Me?

Priest 5 comments.

I don’t understand it.  I just don’t understand it.  Over the years, I’ve formed a connection with the priest class, coddling my girls, learning how the class was played, and then adapting when those rules changed.  I’ve studied, applied, practiced, and learned to love my class of preference.  My adoration of this class has gone far enough that I have over the years leveled some five priests to sixty and beyond.  On the Feathermoon US roleplaying server I have three priests alone, each with a different tree specialization so that I can further better understand the class.

And yet, I feel as if I haven’t done enough for the Light.

The Eye of Divinity: used with both The Eye of Shadow and the Splinter of Nordrassil to forge the Balance of Shadow and Light, the epic priest staff Benediction.¹  I’ve long since called this my “white whale” since I have never managed to acquire this item.  In the time when Molten Core was end-game raiding, The Eye was promised to other priests within the raid.  When I was in a later raid, we never saw it drop.  And recently, my luck with rolls on this item has been nothing short of abysmal.

This evening I had the opportunity to return to Molten Core yet again in my quest to acquire The Eye.  We originally started out with two priests: myself and one other, a Shadow priest.  Within the hour and a half it took to down bosses and douse the appropriate runes, she had left and no other priest had filled her place.  I found out later that this was intentional, because the raid leader had learned of my plight and was eager to aid me in my quest to acquire my heart’s desire.

We battled Majordomo Executus and his cohorts, using all of the powers we possessed.  Afterward, we stood over their bodies and eagerly eyed the cache that Ragnaros’s minion had left behind in his harried flight.  And what, when we open the chest, do our eyes feast upon?

The Ancient Petrified Leaf.

Seriously.

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Embracin de Shadow

Priest 3 comments.

I’ve been a bit busy as of late, between my mother’s current health dilemma and my own continued problems with my right arm. As a result I’ve been a bit out of touch with anything outside the circle of my family — which has worked well, since I haven’t really been up to dealing with peoples. You know how it can be sometimes. Part of that was not logging into the game for a couple of days, except once or twice when I decided that I’d been neglecting Irenke the troll Shadow priestess on the Scarlet Crusade US roleplaying server¹ for far too long.

It’s been a very, very, very long time since I’ve played a Shadow priest. The original Csilla — affectionately referred to as Csilla 1.0 — was Shadow. However, that was pre-The Burning Crusade, when I realized how much I really enjoyed healing more than serving as a mana battery. As you may recall, the role of the Shadow priest pre-expansion was pretty hazy, since the class offered little synergy and had less sustained damage than other casting classes. Being the self-proclaimed priestaphiliac that I am, I decided that it was high time that I climb back into the saddle and level a Shadow priest again.

If anything, trying to remember that I’m in a group to do damage as opposed to heal will bring hours of amusement to my friends and guildmates.

There are a couple of things that I noted since deciding to forsake Holy and Discipline to return to my Shadowy roots:

• Shadow priest is for damage. I’m having a hell of a time remembering that I’m in a group to kill stuff and not to keep things alive. I spend a lot of time watching people’s health in case I need to step in to heal. I keep hoping that it’ll be easier once I pick up Shadowform — and I’m no longer physically capable of healing.
• Smite is for Holy or Discipline priests. It’s a bad habit, but I rely heavily on Smite to do damage as opposed to utilizing the appropriate Shadow spells, making me a poor Shadow priest. It’s one part habit and partially due to the fact that I’ve put the spell in a readily accessible location for keybindings.
• Spirit Tap is love. It’s absolutely wonderful to have Spirit Tap in a build again and to not feel guilty for having it. As I’ve noted many, many times before² that I adore Spirit with every fiber of my being and anything that can increase my Spirit by a full 100% gets all sorts of thumbs up from me.
• Shadow priest is not mage. Specifically a Frost mage. I miss Frost Nova. And Frostbolt. And Counterspell. And, hell, I just miss playing my mage. It’s hard to play a damage-dealing caster class and not have those spells to fall back on.
• Aggro is a pain. I miss the good old days when Silent Resolve was applicable to Shadow damage in addition to Holy and Discipline threat. It’s not so bad now, but I’m frightened of when I start doing some mediocre damage that doesn’t rely on Smite-spam.
• Centaur aren’t de obligin sort. Three times now I’ve gotten stuck or interrupted by centaurs, whether it’s on my way to get into an instance or to meet up with some others. All of the hassle makes me want to come back when I hit 70 and murderlize some tribes. I’ll personally help the tauren in their war against the centaur — and enjoy every moment of it.

Related Posts

1. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!
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3. Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!

I Think That I May be in Love

Priest, Theorycrafting 1 comment.

I think that I’ve made it abundantly clear that I not only enjoy playing priests but I have no qualms in proclaiming my love of priests. I’m an unabashed priestaphiliac, having leveled numerous priests to 60 and one to 70. On the Feathermoon US roleplaying server I have three priests, one of each major tree. And I originally created this site in part to post information regarding my preferred class of World of Warcraft.

This all-consuming love extends beyond Vent, my raid’s and guild’s websites, and even this website; when people pose questions regarding priests on the server’s Trade channels, I’m usually one of the first priests to respond. This evening, following yet another foray to Mount Hyjal, that exact scenario occurred. A neophyte priestling was curious which stat favored priests more: Spirit or Intellect. In the twenty minutes that followed, me and two others discussed the benefits of both stats, why they were important, how to optimize the benefit from those stats, and our preferences regarding gear, gems, and enchants.

My joy of the evening, however, was further increased when not one, not two, but three other priestaphiles whispered me to thank me for my thoughts and share some of their own. For your benefit, I’ll post a short portion of one of those discussions.

Meet Mitsuomi, who enjoys longs walks along the Stranglethorn Vale beaches, the Forsaken, and priests. Furthermore, he has opened the discussion by mentioning my favorite priestly stat: Spirit. I exclaim my immediate delight in finding a kindred spirit.¹ However, I prove my geekiness by admitting that I not only have a blog, but it’s about World of Warcraft and I actually ramble about Spirit and priests on a regular basis.

We continue discussing our love of Spirit and its importance in a post-2.4 mana regeneration system — until I am interrupted. Of course, this cannot stand. Priests are infinitely more important! The discussion must continue! And so, I blow him off to continue our talk and tying in my second favorite class: hunters.

Yes, yes, tell me more. Whisper more sweet nothin’s into my ear, baby. You know I love it when you talk about Spirit. I have no shame when it comes to you.

Unfortunately, our discussion had to end shortly thereafter since I did promise to play on the Horde. However, Mitsuomi’s words linger in my heart even now. I’ve got that nice warm and fuzzy feeling still!

Related Posts

1. Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!
2. Blizzard Stole My Spirit!
3. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!

Blizzard Stole My Spirit!

Priest, Theorycrafting 4 comments.

Tuesday evening following our somewhat successful raid on Mount Hyjal, I spent quite a while discussing with a fellow healing priest in my raid my recommendations on socketing his gear.¹ While I may have convinced him — and my beloved raid leader — the overwhelming benefits of Spirit in a post-2.4 mana regeneration system, a question came up while I was describing the talents and racial I possess that help bolster my Spirit stat.

As I outlined in my post Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!, there are a number of ways to increase your Spirit. Two of the ways represent what I considered the more dedicated end of the spectrum. The first merely required spending a single point in the Holy tree to acquire the fifth-tier talent Spirit of Redemption, which increases a priest’s Spirit by 5%. The second was by far the most obsessed way of increasing Spirit: it required rolling a human priest in order to take advantage of the human racial, The Human Spirit. This previously mocked racial prior to patch 2.4 actually increases a human’s Spirit stat by a full 10%. Between the two, that is a hefty chunk of Spirit that can be applied towards Bonus Healing and mana regeneration.

My raid leader’s question related directly to this talent and racial. He asked,

Does Spirit of Redemption and The Human Spirit stack with the Spirit acquired from gear?

Now, I blithely assumed that the answer was a resounding yes; I mean, Blizzard loves Spirit, right? Why else would they have put this previously neglected stat in the game only to give it that huge buff in patch 2.4? However, reconsidering my answer yesterday morning, I had to wonder if that was in fact correct. Do the two combine for a full 15% increase to all of the Spirit found on my gear? Or is there some other shenanigans going on that I just wasn’t aware of?

So yesterday afternoon, I logged into the game intending to discover this answer. After finding a quiet and isolated corner of the Mage District in the human capital New Stormwind², I removed all of the armor, equipment, weapons, and other items on my character to get a base reading of her Spirit. From the image below, we see that Csilla has a mighty 174 Spirit unbuffed.

Pretty impressive, no?

The next step was to start adding gear and buffs in order to get a variety of numbers for comparison. I jotted down quite a few combinations of gear to acquire Spirit numbers; I recorded:

• The amount of Spirit that I had on the gear, gems, and socketing bonuses;
• The number of Spirit that the tooltip claimed was added to my Spirit; and
• The total Spirit according to my stats.

An hour afterwards looking at the numbers I had recorded, I was confused. I had two theoretical scenarios. In the first, the racial and talent bonuses were added up and then multiplied to the Spirit found on my gear, resulting in a 15% increase. In the second, the two shared a multiplicative relationship; in this case, I should have seen a 15.5% increase in Spirit.³. However, I wasn’t seeing any of these.

Could I be that wrong? Or was I getting wires crossed somewhere? Maybe there were just too many things to factor in. So, to make sure that I wasn’t crazy, I hit my local trainer and dropped all of my talents. Yes, my beloved Spirit of Redemption — and its 5% increase to Spirit! — was gone, but now I could see for myself how The Human Spirit applied to my gear. In the table are just a few of the numbers I recorded:

In other words, I was getting more or less what I expected: a 10% increase to Spirit on the gear I equipped — just as the tooltip for The Human Spirit read. However, I started to notice something and started comparing the Expected Spirit from gear with the Actual Spirit displayed on my character sheet. And then I got cranky. You see, I had expected the calculations to round up as necessary, favoring the player. Instead, the equations seem to truncate the number to the ones place. In other words, in many of the examples I was losing up to 0.8 Spirit.

As I told a friend⁴, this cannot stand! Blizzard’s callous disregard for my Spirit stat saddens me immensely! By truncating the number, they’re taking Spirit from me. As I told my raid leader, there will be buckets of blood and bones shall litter the streets of Azeroth until this is rectified.

Blizzard stole my Spirit; I want it back.

Related Posts

1. Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!
2. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!
3. We’ve Got Spirit — How ‘Bout You?