| Arondar | #311445 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 07:26 | |
< hi > |
Hey folks :) Upon my recent return to WoW, I've become fully aware of the lack of healers across LO. As such, I have finally brought my priest, Valmonte, to lvl 70 and hope to help fill the current void in the healing corps, along with Arondar(long live ret!) where needed. My question to you is, what type of Priest is most lacking? Do you need the deep holy priests, the hybrid Disc/Holy, the full Disc? Since I brought him up shadow, I'm really open to whatever we feel is needed most. I'm not worried about my playstyle or what I enjoy...I heal like a paladin. I guess, what I'm getting at is with my lack of priest experience and lack of gear, would my utility to a raid as disc or disc/holy outweigh a main healer role, or do you feel there are enough support priests and need some straight up take it like a man holy lovin? It's probably different from charter to charter, but I'm just thinking in general terms while finding a role im comfortable with. Thanks, and good to see you all again! |
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| Alisia | #311447 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 07:34 | |
Ready for Winter |
While I can't speak for LO, I have to say... Most of the raids I'm on anymore the primary healers end up being paladins and priests are used for AOE healing and druids for top-ups.
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Ghostcrawler: "Rogue talents are hard because the class is ultimately very mathy." Ghostcrawler is secretly Barbie? |
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| Maegrette | #311518 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 12:30 | |
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Makes the rockin' world go round |
Any of the priest specs you listed can fill a "main healer role." But if you "heal like a paladin" you might prefer the playstyle of the disc/holy hybrid to the deep holy CoH build. In my experience, CoH priests usually get put on raid healing duty, but disc/holy priests usually get single target assignments, and do very well in that role. Plus priests with the IDS buff are getting a little scarce, and everyone loves that buff! Deep disc is more of a PvP build. Disc priests are strong on the battlefield, but they can be effective raid healers as well - maybe not topping the healing charts, but bringing a lot of utility (and hey, if you can keep people alive, it's all good). As someone who plays both holy and shadow, I'd advise (once you respec) getting a good amount of experience healing 5-mans before you start raiding. You'll get your gear up to raid spec, but more importantly, you'll become more comfortable with your spells before you have to use them in a high-stress environment. Priests may well be the most complicated of the healing classes: on my bars I have Flash Heal, multiple ranks of Greater Heal, Prayer of Mending, Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Renew, Power Word: Shield, and my racial (Desperate Prayer), and must decide constantly, on-the-fly, which ones to use and on whom and in what order. Until that becomes second nature to you, you're likely to be a frustrated, stressed out healer who's not reaching his full potential. But it does come, with practice. My experience in the charters I've run with is that LO is priest-heavy in the healer department. But with us being so versatile, there's definitely room for more. Welcome aboard! --
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| Kahlil | #311524 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 12:38 | |
Old Man |
Depends on what you enjoy; I'm no expert (I don't play a priest) but I've been on my share of raids, and done way more than my share of leading/reading/discussion on it, and this quote from elitist jerks sums it up pretty nicely: "First priest in the raid should (most of the time) go 23/38/0, with 2/2 Imp DS and then up the Holy tree as you see fit. Every subsequent priest should be 1x/4x/0." Once you have a priest with DS, it's overall better to have more CoH around than otherwise (Gurtogg being the exception that makes the rule, pain suppression for the win on that fight.), If you want to heal like a paladin... play your paladin. :) Each healing classes has their bonuses, abilities, and synergies. But if you're looking to raid on your priest in 25 mans, chances are that there is already one DS priest present/available most of the time so your best bet and way you can contribute most to the success of the group would be to have access to that group healing spell of doom and cheese, CoH. --
Korinth, Dwarven Tnak Kahlil, Jumping Mage (Caster Lead v1.0, Lead Emeritus, BR Tank Lead Emeritus, Easterners Charter Lead) "It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding." - Kahlil Gibran |
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| Jnxie | #311542 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 13:26 | |
AP Healy Lead |
I will reinnerate what others have said CoH is most valuable, especially once you reach BT. DS is nice but Circle is invaluable. I also agre with Mae in that you should try and be comfortable with your new spec before entering into a situation where your spells should be second nature to you. BC has created a world where you use all of your spells at some point or another. Also a world where you have to be able to decide which type of heal is necessary at any given moment, only practice can give you that insite. --
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| Maegrette | #311552 Thursday July 10, 2008 at 13:50 | |
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Makes the rockin' world go round |
The number crunchers say that CoH doesn't start to become powerful until about 1800 +heal, and a beginning raider is nowhere near that. However, it is a FUN spec! :) (especially for us weirdos who actually enjoy the chaos that is priest healing) and there's nothing wrong with taking it earlier than that. Or you can do what I did - start out with IDS holy/disc spec, then respec to CoH once you get better gear and more comfortable in your role.
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| Prysm | #311685 Friday July 11, 2008 at 06:43 | |
Healz 4 Sparklz |
My main is a holy priest (with some points in disc as well to keep it real, hehe) Yeah, i'll echo what's been said re: CoH. Once you get more +healing and start raiding ZA, SSC and beyond, this is a great way to raid heal groups at the speed of light. It's still great in BT, and hopefully will be in SW too. One request, If you ever spec CoH, for the LOVE of god, please do not use it to heal one person in a group. *twitch* I think some priests get a bit too excited over the *WhOOOm* noise -.- DS priests are lovely too, and Disc priests have some fun tricks up their sleeves as well. I used to be Imp DS until my raid group started running SSC - I tried it as an experiment, and never went back....kinda like.....nevermind >:o) Someone in this thread mentioned running 5-mans first...You should definitely do this. Run some with friends at first, and tell them to be patient. THEN when you start to think you rock, PuG it. Then heal something a bit more intense, like Shattered Halls. It'll humble you, and help you learn to heal :) Good luck! --
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| Maegrette | #311695 Friday July 11, 2008 at 09:08 | |
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Makes the rockin' world go round |
quote: Originally posted by Prysm: I think some priests get a bit too excited over the *WhOOOm* noise -.- Yeah, when I first respecced, I was like a kid with a new toy. "Look at this! I can heal a whole group at the same time! And it's not even my group! And I can do it instantly! Wheee! And again! And again! This is fun!.... Hey, where did all my mana go?!" --
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| Alaunt | #311710 Friday July 11, 2008 at 10:14 | |
Member |
I generally subscribe to the Elitist Jerks advice of 1 disc priest then the rest holy, but lately I've been seeing some utility for pain suppression , particularly in Black Temple on fights like Bloodboil and Reliquary and I can imagine other situations (high growth Gruul, 3% Vashj enrage, etc.) where it could come in handy. Oh and the cd for CoH that is in the Wrath alpha might break people of their habit of only using that spell to heal. ^_~ |
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| Roberth | #311727 Friday July 11, 2008 at 11:43 | |
Holy "Diver!" Priest |
I know I'm going 54 points into the Holy tree I still want to keep most of my current Disc but the new Holy talents are WTFOMGOP!
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Its time to put down the pipe and pick up the PWN!  |
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| Auraylva | #311987 Saturday July 12, 2008 at 18:02 | |
New Vogue Child |
In endgame, there are really only two builds that can be used. Both have been mentioned here, one being IDS and the other CoH. Each fulfills a slightly different role in a raid setting, with CoH having the most flexibility. Our raids generally take 2-3 healing priests, one IDS and two CoH, as there's no need for more than one IDS priest in a raid. Some have mentioned deep disc, but in my experience there's not really a place for that in raids. You lose far too much healing power for a haste buff and pain suppression. The abilities are nice, and you can heal somewhat, but you lose a lot of throughput and HPS for little utility. It's not worth it. Starting out, do some normal and heroic 5-mans. I actually would recommend a 21/40 build for that, giving yourself an extra 50 spirit while maintaining full empowered healing. IDS isn't worth those 2 points until you have enough casters around to benefit from it, which typically means a 25 man raid. CoH has little use in 5-mans- it's nice because it's instant, but PoH will serve you just fine in AoE situations like that. It isn't until TK/ZA (not so much SSC, murloc packs maybe?) that CoH really shines, and by then your gear should be much improved so you can support the CoH playstyle. Tier 6+ content has so many places to spam CoH that it's almost necessary to have at least 2 per raid. As for 'playing like a paladin,' I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. If you're talking about spamming flash heals, well, there's a whole thread on that you can read. You'll learn proper spell choice and timing (hopefully) through doing normal instancing. Best way to learn is by doing! |
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