opinion of a Holy Priest I have in my raid...

[druideena 14]

Here is her Armory and her logs, any and all comments are welcome.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/turalyon/Taldryx/advanced

http://worldoflogs.com/reports/30c8mf9jsn2d301b/details/9/

[Tickledancer 3]

Well geared, overall healing output is low obviously. A number of things stood out from the logs, like:

- Flash heal as #1 spell? It's a mana-inefficient single-target healing spell.

- Prayer of Mending at #2 - this is one of the few correct things, PoM should be used on CD.

- Prayer of Healing at #4 - this is one of the least mana-efficient group heals, you have to use it when better things are on CD & the raid is damaged, but you want to minimize it.

- Circle of Healing way down - this is the #1 spell for raid healing, because it automatically heals the lowest health targets and has excellent mana-efficiency, so it should be used on CD (8 sec). This change alone will make a big difference.

- Divine Hymn looks like it was only used once (17 tick/players, so maybe 3-4 ticks). This is a very strong raid heal, with both incredible throughput and mana-efficiency. It has a long CD (3 minutes), but you should be looking to use it a number of times throughout a raid.

- PW:S. This is for Disc priests to use in raids, not Holy. It has occasional uses, but it isn't in the rotation.

Just have them read the Icy Veins holy priest guide, and their healing output will at least double if not triple.

[Peelyon 416]

Does she know you are posting?

Pretty much as above. Flash heal as a top heal is very very mana inefficient! Cascade is hardly being used (I almost use this off cooldown as well).

If you are unhappy with her healing etc, then please be constructive. The gear and gemming / reforging seems to be fine (theres a bit of debate even atm about haste and mastery options and this is all about playstyle).

A link to the holy priest guide or ask her to sign up to the forums and ask herself if she doesnt understand any of the guide etc.

I'm not brilliant at reading World of Logs but it seems to me she is struggling to understand some of the basics so having a good read through the guide should make a lot more sense!

Hope that helps and like I said be constructive. If it makes sense there seems to be a lot of "mistakes" which is actually good as it shows there is chance for improvement.

[Damien 1,514]

Vlad has just added a few more tips to the Holy Priest rotation, so that's a good moment to go and re-read it ;)

[Taldryx 13]

http://worldoflogs.com/guilds/262514/ I am the person Druideena is trying to help and this is my latest log. Any input would be greatly appreciated

I am still working hard on my "playstyle" if u will - I actually ditched completely my former way of healing because it wasn't working anymore. I don't know why. I had been a very good or better healer previously then, kinda - POOF! Gone.

Thank you to anyone who will help

Edited April 5, 2013 by Taldryx

[Krazyito 521]

Wow.... That Lei Shi kill. I'm sorry, but you definitely are probably doing something wrong or you didn't know the fight very well.

I see 50 greater heals. Are you running out of mana? thats one fix. Don't use it exclusively.. Use it depending on tank damage.

It looks like you used divine hymn once and you stopped it mid cast. You must have used it at a bad time. It should NOT be that low.

Prayer of mending seems fine. Though it should be one of your top, just not all your healing. You should probably PoH more for AoE and Flash/Heal for more single target healing. Serendipity is a good spell! make use of it, but don't overheal or waste mana because of it.

Another reason could have been because the shamans took all the healing, but I find that hard to believe

[Taldryx 13]

Thank you for your input, Krazyito - I appreciate it! We have been realizing a few things, such as PW: Serenity keybinding going wonky on me, remembering to use DH, MB etc and actually getting off that pesky Void Shift before the tank dies. You all have been so kind to offer suggestions, I am going to work on this some more and then post another (hopefully on the mark) log.

It's very hard when you have been doing things a certain way then chose to change it completely, but that is on me. I love the Holy Priest and hope I won't have to give it up because this is extremely frustrating.

[Taldryx 13]

OMG! Just realized this log is not the one I thought I was being given! Did awesome on Thursday (the day after this log) cuz I worked so hard and I don't see the log there on that date! Damn! I could have dazzled you (and more importantly myself) with my progress. Oh well. It's gotta stick to work anyways, so ......

Still gonna post another log soon for those willing to so generously help the Priest who won't give up

[MoacaBogdan 23]

. I had been a very good or better healer previously then, kinda - POOF! Gone.

Can you be more specific as to when was this "previously" ? Might be at a time when some Holy Priest changes happened, that will have no doubt an impact on the playstyle.

[Taldryx 13]

Started declining endish of Cata and couldn't heal well at all from the beginning of MoP, no matter how hard I studied the changes and no matter how many changes to reforge/gem/enchant I made. I moved to a definite preference for Spirit over Int, and have gone back and forth between which was more important: Mastery or Haste? I settled on Haste, got it up to a little bit higher than 4721, end put whatever else was left to be had into Mastery.

I have for years used Healbot and been a Mouser as opposed to a button-masher. This is probably a whole other argument lol. I have gone to using a G13 (gamepad to the left with kind of a replica of a portion of the keyboard) with it's buttons assigned to mouseovers of keybindings. I confess that while I am an intelligent person, it commonly takes me a while to become accustomed to these kinds of changes, added to which we keep tweaking which button goes where lol.

[Scook999 8]

I play a disc priest, so I won't comment on what spells to use and when, but I can help give you a process to retrain your brain.

1) Set up your hot bars with the Single Heal rotation (medium and heavy), the AE healing, and cooldowns. DO NOT put on any emergency healing, ie: Flash Heal, etc. You will be working on just getting the basic rotations down, and there will be no emergencies. Practice your rotations a bit on yourself or a friend in a non-live exercise, about 10-20 minutes a day, no more. But do it every day if you can. This will create muscle memory and better eye-hand coordination. Your eventual goal is for you to use your hotkeys without looking down at the keyboard, and getting used to moving the mouse to the right spot to click with minimal effort. Add-ons make it much easier, but that isn't the point yet.

2) Turn off all add-ons except for Recount and DBM. Reason being: You are doing boot camp for your brain! We will makes things tougher now, so later on you can respond without a long thought process. These will be tools to use, and are actually the only ones I use. Time considerations keep me at the LFR level. If I were to do 10 or 25 mans, then I would look more into using other tools, but I don't, so I won't (atm)

3) Fights, Mechanics, and Tools: LFR is a good playground, and it looks like that is where you are playing. Just start with the basics here, and don't sweat the small stuff. 25 LFR has enough redundancy build in to let you use the basics and not worry too much about wiping. DBM is great here, as it lets you work on the timing of spike damage, and who might get hit with what. Great time to work on when to use cooldowns.

Recount: this is a tool that lets you see how you are doing, and can compare to see what other healers are doing. If you get lucky and have another Holy Healer, you can see what they are doing, and what you are doing. What is this person doing better, or worse? What spells do they use to bring their heal per second up so high? Are they massively overhealing? Temper what you see with some thought process, and take some notes. You will quickly be able to spot people who run 10 and 25 mans, as they will generally be heads and shoulders more efficient than most people in LFR. Really look at what spells they use and how often. Directly compare yourself line by line. Use this as a nudge to be more efficient. This is how I know on my mage I need more Frost Bomb uptime, for example. This is a good use of recount, and it's like giving you a pop quiz every run you go on.

Once you look at the data, and you start thinking, "If only I had spell XXX to use here in this situation, this could have been smoother", THEN add that spell to your tool bar. By this time, your panic button, Flash Heal, should safely have been moved from the forefront of your brain. Add the tools slowly, and not all at once.

4) Understanding the other healers: I am guessing, you think you don't have time to land a bigger heal, so you default to a quicker heal to land something. You are a Holy, you bring the real heals. I will give you what I do as Discipline, which is not exactly the same as the rotations listed on this wonderful site, but it works well. My job is to buy time for the real heals, I can drop a PW:Shield on that character that barely has any life left, or the tank that just took a spike. I am dropping 100K of shield protection, along with 20K of healing, so you will have time to pop off that massive heal, or AE heal. My job is to anticipate spikes, and try to cover as many people with shields so the healing won't have to be too outrageous.

Look at who else heals, read in a general sense of what they do. That will give you a good idea of all the roles in a raid, and hopefully will put your mind at more ease knowing you have time. You will also notice your better dps generally will have good survival mechanics to help buy you time too.

I am sure there is more, but this is the basics that you probably already know, but it helps to be reminded. Thanks for your above post, as it does help look into your mind somewhat. Keep on rocking!

[Taldryx 13]

Thank you so much Scook for your well thought out and concisely presented advice. I really appreciate it! And it does make a lot of sense. In your opinion, how long would using such a method take to "re-program" myself? I am doing better already, having done 50k HPS in my last 10 man raid, and I am very fortunate to have a caring and patient Raid Leader and entire raid team tolerating my current inadequacies. They have expressed noticing a significant improvement in my healing!

And, oddly enough, my Raid Leader, just prior to that last raid was thinking he should maybe ask me to try Disc instead of Holy. I played Disc all through LK, until Cata brought in changes I wasn't comfortable with. I did, however, change my OS back from Shadow to Disc as it had originally been. So I will be learning Disc all over and therefore you have inadvertently helped me with that too!

Again, many thanks for your time

Edited April 7, 2013 by Taldryx

[Peelyon 416]

It's great you have a patient raid leader / team. The main thing is that you are willing to learn and wanting to change so you improve :)

Good luck!

[Scook999 8]

It varies for eveyone how long these things take. In reality, you are opening up more neural pathways in your brain, which results in quicker eye/hand coordination. I march to my own drummer (which means I am stubborn, and have a hard time adapting), so I am doing the above at least every several weeks with one of my mains. I would generally say 3-4 weeks is a good time frame. You know when you have arrived when you do most things without too much extraneous thought.

I will make it clear I am not a great healer! Or nuker, or tank type. I just have high standards, and even though it is just a game, I will contiually push myself to be better. That may be why I can't stand most guilds, they look at the wrong things, like Recount dps and hps. They can be useful, but I know when I purposely do things to bump up the numbers that are completely meaningless, and they tell me that's great, I just drop out. My standard is doing an encounter in one take, bonus points for no one dying, and extra credit for completing raid achievments. If I ever had anyone call me on doing extraneous numbers, I would be impressed and probably hand around.

Kudos for adapting and changing, and even looking at Discipline. Nice to have a patient raid/guild leader too! Depending on the situation though, 50k hps isn't anything to sneeze at, depending on overheals. Oh, and relax, it will all come together nicely!