AA or not?

[LikeToWin 0]

im a little confused at the contradicting advice, i have used mindbender (only recently switchedback to playing my disc priest as my main is reaching the max point i can level it too , im not in a mythic raiding guild)

 

ive always used minderbender and try to pop it on cooldown unless at 100% mana or very close. i use penance as often as i can see a player that could benefit from healing, (maybe i should just cast it on tanks every chance i get instead).

 

Iin the guide on icyveins its states not to bother trying to keep evangalisim up. but here your clearly saying to focus on this route of plays style.

 

i havent practised much using PW:S and when i try at the moment its a definte mana loss with my inablity to maximise the Evangelism stacks from it. should i be practising this?

i am fine when there is moderate healing but as soon as there is a heavy period of healing needed i dont seem to use it at all.

 

is the healing benefit that much higher on most fights having constant AA up?

 

currently i use mindbender an/or power infusion when i know there is a serious healing burst needed. should i be using this on cooldown aswell?

 

here is a log of my healing. any feedback would be welcomed

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/GbgadnF8LrpB4DmY#fight=56&type=healing

 

all the best

[Pandacho 286]

I'm a bit confused about what you've write in your post jumping between Mindbender, Archangel, PW:s and other things.

 

I didn't understand either where did you read not to keep up Evangelism - the only thing in IV Disc guide that is somehow close to it says that it's not necessary to stack Evangelism if you are not preparing to heal heavy damage. Than means: don't try force 5 stacks, you can push AA on 1, 2, 3 stacks whenever it's needed.

 

You might have a serious problem with gaining Evangelism stacks for two reasons:

1. You shouldn't use Mindbender - it's a Holy talent, Disc should use PW:Solace on CD:

- It returns mana constantly through the fight.

- It builds Evangelism stacks.

2. You should use Penance on CD. You have 2-p T17 that makes your healing Penance to generate a stack of Evangelism.

 

Not using Solace and Penance on CD, you are losing most of Evangelism: normally you should have 4-5 stacks every time when AA is off CD and hit it immediately.

 

I looked into your logs:

1. You are not using PoH with EAA - this is a mistake. It should be always used with EAA to get a 100% PoH crit. PoH without crit is much worse in terms of hps vs mana spent than just PW:S injured people.

In addition there are fights in your log when you didn't use PoH even once or only a couple of times. If there was literally nothing to heal, maybe you are running with too many healers? 

2. You barely use Cascade. It should be casted more or less on CD.

3. You are using Holy Nova every now and then. What's the reason to spend mana and GCD for 19K AoE heal instead of shielding a couple of people? For example here you healed only one person with Holy Nova while 100% overhealed 6 people, here 2 people healed for 13 and 8K while 3 people are 100% overhealed. 

4. You are hard casting Prayer of Mending. You shouldn't. It's a Holy priest cast. Disc use WoM talent for rolling PoM.

 

You wrote: "i havent practised much using PW:S and when i try at the moment its a definte mana loss with my inablity to maximise the Evangelism stacks from it. should i be practising this?"

You lose mana because of wrong talent (Mindbender), with Solace your mana spent on PW:S will come back in more or less same pace you lose it.

You are unable  to max Evangelism stacks with PW:S because it has nothing to do with Evangelism. You can gain E stacks from Penance, Smite and Holy Fire (Solace) only.

 

You wrote: "is the healing benefit that much higher on most fights having constant AA up". Yes, it is higher. Every stack of Evangelism transferred to AA buffs your healing for 5%. Maintaining Evangelism right will constantly buff your healing for 15-25%. I think that it's a lot.

 

You wrote: "currently i use mindbender an/or power infusion when i know there is a serious healing burst needed". 

Why do you consider Mindbender as a healing burst? And yes, you should use PI on CD even in times without heavy damage. Just count 2 mins. back from the time you definitely need PI as a CD and use it.

 

Hope it helps

[Brewmonksta 157]

Hi,

 

Definitely use Archangel on Cooldown and preferably at 5 stacks. The only time i dont use it at 5 stacks is if i have been bad and im in need of the EAA PoH buff quickly.

 

You can PW:S as much as your mana can handle.

 

Using penance on cd is also a great idea to maintain your t17 or t18 set bonus buffs.

 

Mindbender on cd and PI when you can benefit from the lower GCD and mana costs.

[LikeToWin 0]

hi guys thanks for the great feedback, i will definitely be working towards maximising the gains from archangel from now onwards.

 

in my OP i meant PW:S as solace, so i end up forgetting to cast it quite often. this is mainly during intense periods like during feast of souls for example.

 

With mindbender and burst healing, i simply meant if my mana was high and i knew that there was an intense phase coming up id pop it then to counter act the faster mana usage. just to cofirm if i suspected that using mindbender earlier would not cap mana then i use it as early as possible.

 

i had a couple fights last night before my guild raid and tried solace but quickly found myself starved for mana through poor solace usage. so during the guild raid i used mindbender but tried to use smite where possible to max the evangilism stacks ready for archangel.

 

i have a question around PoH, i understand how much of a powerful a spell it is and how it works. i often find myself torn when only 3 out of the 5 people in the group require any sort of healing and end up turning to shields etc instead. i tried to use EAA for PoH or if only an indivdual required healing using it with flash heal.

 

can you help me with rules of thumbs about when i should and should use PoH? when its effiicient etc?

 

sorry about the OP i sometimes struggle to get my point across and i forget the specifc names of spells which doesnt help either. i would happily post a link to last nights raid for further criticism towards helping me be the best i can.

 

with holy nova usage i think it was purely to do with me being moving or bored and messing about. we were doing NM and didnt have that much to do at times.

 

just to confirm that i have only returned to healing over the last week- although now i will be maining my disc for the guild raid so i am focusing on getting as effective as possible with it

Edited September 10, 2015 by LikeToWin

[LikeToWin 0]

also i have another question relating to gear -

currently i have the following brf tier pieces - head 691, chest and hands 685, and legs and shoulders at 670.

i have dropped the 4 piece in favour of much larger pieces of gear. 721 legs (crit haste),705 shoulders (haste mastery) , 700 hands (mastery,vers)., and kept head and chest 2piece .

 

is there much merit in my farming the two non 685 items for transitioning into hfc tier pieces? so i can keep brf 2 piece with the hfc 2 piece untill i get the 4 pieces.

 

i.e if (hfc)head and legs dropped first, then id equip (brf)chest and hands.

but

if (hfc)head and chest dropped first, would it be better to have the 685 shoulders and to go with the hands i already have and trying to maintan the brf 2 piece for as long as possible

Edited September 10, 2015 by LikeToWin

[Pandacho 286]

You should get a tracking addon: WeakAura or TMW to track your Solace usage. Make it a big icon glowing and shouting at you when off CD.

 

If you are not doing Mythics or heavily underhealing (like using 2 healers for 18-man HC raid), there's no way for a disc to be low on mana maintaining Solace more or less on CD and using right spells. Mindbender is not the best talent for a disc - it's better for you to have a constant mana returning through the fight, not it spikes because your mana is constantly is drained by PW:Shields.

 

Do not use Smite to gain Evangelism stacks - it's a waste of cast time without any reasonable healing being done. AA has a 30 sec CD, Solace has a 10 sec. CD, Penance has 9 sec. CD - maintaining these 2 spells is enough to cap your Evangelism stacks most of time before AA is off CD.
You can use Smite on the start of the fight when most of time there's a 30 sec. gap without raid damage to help with dps but it is not a spell that should be used to gain Evangelism stacks.

Regarding PoH: the first rule is to ask your RL to put tanks and / or melee in one group. Melee and tanks always take damage so you can PoH them every time when EAA is up and you don't have some raid wide AoE damage going off. When there's a raid wide damage like Pounding or Feast of Souls, cast PoH with EAA on the the most injured group.

 

Regarding gear: 2-p T17 + 2-p T18 are nice bonuses, I would advice to keep them until you'll have 4-p T18 and then switch.