Really struggling in certain heroics

[Nazahah 2]

I'm not currently in a raiding guild (no time right now) so my healing opportunities are limited to heroics and LFR right now, sadly. I've been doing ok in LFR as holy, although not as high on the meters as I'd like, but have had a really tough time in a few of the heroics keeping people up. Grimrail Depot is particularly challenging for me. Are there good strategies to successfully complete this heroic as holy, or would swapping to disc be better? I vastly prefer the holy play style but it's very frustrating seeing groups wipe because you can't keep up as well. It is not typically a mana issue, and I've read suggested rotations/spells and something just isn't sinking in. Help?

[Hellscythe 2]

Keep renew on every party member. and use CoH when its necessary

 

Cast Prayer of Mending whenever its up.

 

Change your stance to Chakra: serenity

and cast serenity on the tank or the one with the lowest health

 

Single targets would be Flash heal then Heal right after

Flash Heal -> Heal (Serendipity passive)

 

if you find some boss dealing lots of aoe you wanna change back to raid Chakra: sanctuary.

Spam renew or flash heal -> heal combo to reset CoH.

 

You wanna use Power Word: Solace talent if you're having mana issues. (Raids)

Or just use Surge of light for free flash heals which are good for dungeons.

Edited February 9, 2015 by kiz9yup

[namja23 3]

I honestly had a struggle with keeping up in Heroics until about 630 ilevel.

 

Under 630, the group has to work together to survive.  They have to stand out of ground effects and such.

There will be large damage spikes, but the DPS should be keeping themselves alive until they get a heal.

 

Outside of that, as the posted above pointed out, Renew/Coh playstyle works very well.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/argent-dawn/Preistly/simple 

My general rotation is keep Renew up, CoH on Cooldown if more than 2 people need healing.  This will generally be enough to keep the party alive.

I'll use Binding heal once or twice if a target and I need heals, or if more than 2 people need heals, to generate serendipity.

If more than 2 people still need healing, I'll throw in a PoH and use up the buff.  If there is only 1 target or tank that needs heal, I'll use Heal to use up the buff.  Taking advantage of serendipity will help with mana issues, especially at lower ilevels.

[Este 0]

Since we are talking about heroics - I'm a disci priest in raids but I always switch to holy in 5 mans. I feel like holy has way better tools to react to critical situations (read: players failing ^^). While I tend to struggle as disci to get players back up if things start to go really sour. 

 

As discipline priests, we heal proactively - so I guess I just don't know the 5mans good enough. 

 

How do you do it? Do you simply know where damage is likely to happen? Or do you just shield the whole group all the time, just to be save?

 

Granted, I haven't played a 5 man as disci in quite some time. I had rather bad gear back then. Maybe it's a non-issue by now.

[Gwenymph 414]

Since we are talking about heroics - I'm a disci priest in raids but I always switch to holy in 5 mans. I feel like holy has way better tools to react to critical situations (read: players failing ^^). While I tend to struggle as disci to get players back up if things start to go really sour. 

 

As discipline priests, we heal proactively - so I guess I just don't know the 5mans good enough. 

 

How do you do it? Do you simply know where damage is likely to happen? Or do you just shield the whole group all the time, just to be save?

 

Granted, I haven't played a 5 man as disci in quite some time. I had rather bad gear back then. Maybe it's a non-issue by now.

You have the outlook correct. Holy will offer quicker reaction to refilling health bars and Disc will require you know the 5man encounters; to know when to have shields up on everyone. PI as Disc in 5mans is a tool to help u get caught up, even on trash. Most often though, you should be using EAA PoH to provide a big burst heal and some space to catch up on poor mechanic handling. If you are running with friends that are accustomed to the instance the gap between the two specs, when it comes to crunch time healing, becomes increasingly smaller.

[Este 0]

You have the outlook correct. Holy will offer quicker reaction to refilling health bars and Disc will require you know the 5man encounters; to know when to have shields up on everyone. PI as Disc in 5mans is a tool to help u get caught up, even on trash. Most often though, you should be using EAA PoH to provide a big burst heal and some space to catch up on poor mechanic handling. If you are running with friends that are accustomed to the instance the gap between the two specs, when it comes to crunch time healing, becomes increasingly smaller.

 

 

That's just what I thought. Makes perfect sense.

 

The easiest answer would be to always play 5 mans as holy - but that would be too easy! It's not that we wipe or anything, even as disci I can get my job done sufficiently. It just seems to be a lot more work.

 

Thanks for the input in any case :)