Priests & Haste

[Pandariah 6]

Hello gang!

Today, I'd like to discuss healing with a Priest. My Priest is Holy, but haste rating still applies in general. I want to see what you all think about the use of haste. To me, through experience and review, haste is pretty wasteful for Holy. Let's go over what you get...

Here's where I say that nine times out of ten, I don't have the haste buff. So I must then stack haste even further, but that's really irrelevant. So at 4721 buffed, or 7082, you get three ticks of Holy Word: Sanctuary that nobody will stand in, one tick of glyphed Renew, and one tick of Lightwell... For so much haste, that's really not too beneficial. So, now what? (Roll a Druid!) < - - - Workin' on it!

Anyway, Mastery: Echo of Light is... Lackluster, to say the least. It will end up being over healing in most situations. This being as such, mastery really isn't a viable route unless I were Discipline. So should I go straight throughput with her? Or... What? My Mushi (Xiongmushi, Feathermoon, US) has been neglected these past couple of weeks, because I just don't enjoy playing her.

So, what say you, guys and gals? Am I failing? Or is there yet hope? Get back to me with your opinions. Thank you!

[Peelyon 416]

I've been holy for a few years now (never enjoyed disc so cant comment) but I've been going for 12.5% buffed haste and stacking mastery. I am permanently in Serenity Chakra mode and generally 2 heal so although Echo gives a lot of overhealing I find its more useful than haste (for whatever reason my playstyle means I rarely do many "casts" like PoH and Heal etc).

I seem to cope with healing, 2 healing bosses like Garajal etc quite early in the expac but I'm not sure if what I am doing is right either as I cant really compare to many other because my play style is a little weird!

It just seems to feel "right" for my situation though.

[Krazyito 521]

I agree with Peelyon. The best think I think for holy priests is to either stack haste, or stack haste to a "point" where you feel your cast time should be (in cata i wanted a 2.1s PoH.) and then stack mastery.

Mastery is a little dull,but haste is a very good stat to go for since it gives you more control over your healing. A straight haste build does how ever call for a more spirit heavy build unless you can get extra raid Mana CDs (Hymn of hope from other priests, mana tide, innervates) that can help you along and make practice of using most of them once per fight.

In 25 mans, I think mastery is a decent stat since most of the raid can be covered in it especially when there is pulsing AoE damage.

IMO, I would find a threshold where you get the ticks you want, then decide "Is the cast time fast enough?" and go up from there, then stack mastery.

Of course, if you have low levels of gear, and you want a lower cast time, you will be sacrificing some mana. So you may have to suck it up with a higher cast time until you acquire more spirit.

On the complete opposite side: Disciple. I don't know for sure how much more viable they are in 10 man. in 25 man they are the leading healers because of spirit shell and their infinite mana when played correctly. In a 25 man a disc preist has many more options to mana CD's (especially one and maybe two mana tides) which they can proc off rapture including trinkets. In 5.2 they are nerfing rapture and spirit shell, but it is for the better. IMO, I enjoy disc much more, its a pretty different style of healing with requires you to keep up with rapture gains actively and have that "I'm amazing" feeling when you predict damage correctly or that "Wow, i just wasted all those absorbs" feeling when the damage did not come out. Or the "HOLY SHIT THERES A LOT OF DAMAGE AND I HAVE NO BUBBLES" *pop Spirit shell + power infusion, spam PoH*

That is at least how I feel when playing disc and dealing with more absorbs. You have to be a lot less reactive and more proactive. I have yet to play holy in MoP.. Not because I don't like it, but i do prefer disc much more. I enjoy every single healing class, but priest is special since it has 2 different types. When I feel the need to have to switch between disc and holy on a fight by fight basis, I will do it, because it probably will happen, which is why I love the class.

For disc, I have a very low gear set, so I am going full spirit > mastery > crit > haste, and when I do acquire much better gear I will probably do the same as I said above. Go for the cast time that feels "right" then stack mastery.

Hope this helped.

[Pandariah 6]

Thank you both very much for replying. :) I'll have to try it out for myself, I think. I am always hesitant to blow gold on pointless reforging, because I'm not like a few of my guildmates who hate almost two million gold each... Ridiculous. Anywho! XD It does sound good in theory, but I suppose the cast time is really all I'm losing. My main is a Healadin (if you couldn't tell), so slower cast times don't bother me. When I see Holy Paladins stacking haste and crit, I could smack a hoe! Hahaha. However, that's just my opinion. Anywho, thanks again! :D

[Krazyito 521]

Well, it depends for paladins. Haste, mastery, or crit builds are all equally as viable. (which I'd another reason why I said I thought paladins were the most balanced healers in a previous post) it depends on people's play styles, group comp, or preference.

Sorry. That can be left for another topic. =P

For gold, you can use ask Mr. Robot and change the reformed you want to see how it affects your stats. Really, I feel like I'm poor on gold too. I usually stay around 10k-5k... And I've easily wasted 500+ on reforges when I mess up or am playing around with it.

What professions do you have? Keeping up with simple daily cool down can help you make some money over time.. (living steel with alch, and if you have BS convert that to belt buckles to sell... Sha crystal CD for enchant. Scroll of wisdom for inscription and make DMF cards.) etc.