Weapon/Trinket Combos for the Contemporary Smiter

[ThrIronMustache 8]

If you really want to have some fun with your attonement priest you can start playing around with your trinkets and weapons. Insignia of the Corrupted Mind, and Seal of the Seven Signs both have chances to increase haste by 2904 BUT DO NOT share internal cooldowns so there have been times where I have had that extra haste for 40sec strait out of the 120sec worth of ICDs. Seeing as how we attonement priests are the only class that effectively raid/tank heal as well as spell dps we are the only ones who can actually utilize this combo and I do have to say it is fantastic. With either trinket activated and PI my haste hits 68%. Also on that note I have noticed that my healing and dps had a fairly drastic increase when I reforged all pure haste. My current stat priority is Int>Haste>Spirit>Crit=Mastery. Obviously I am content with my mana regen to put it below haste but you get the point.

Also just picked up Rathrak from Regular DS and noticed about a 900-1200dps increase single target (with an extra dummy getting the weapon DoT). Being able to switch between Maw and Rathrak during combat also adds a fun element to mechanics.

There seems to be a lot of information out on the interwebs right now regarding this spec so i am very curious to see how others are utilizing this ability.

[Alierya 94]

I've not been playing a priest for very long but I take it from this that there is no soft haste cap?

[ThrIronMustache 8]

Oh no, i'm about 3% above. I have just noticed that mastery was not nearly as effective for me seeing as how mastery only effects my absorbs whereas haste effects all spells as well as my GCD. As far as I know the only cap for priests is the soft haste cap which is just for renew, and obviously hit but that's taken care of with divine accuracy. I haven't been playing a priest but about 4 months but I do have to say this spec is probably my favorite to raid with game wide.

**EDIT** I read that wrong. I thought you were asking if i was haste capped lol... No there technically is a soft haste cap at 12.5% just to get an extra tick from renew but with this spec i find it very minute anyways.

Edited June 27, 2012 by ThrIronMustache

[Morideth 6]

Most of my perspective on smiting is from the heroic raiding angle, so I'll be focusing on that. This late into the expansion with all the gear and debuffs I sometimes can go an entire fight just Holy Fire/Smiting with Will of Unbinding. Even before then Atonement healing has had some very good uses in progression. Any fight that increases the damage from your spells will increase the Atonement heal (Cataclysm on Madness), and any fight that increases your heals, will also (Ultraxion healer buffs). Some fights even increase both (Heroic Majordomo) and it DOES double dip. Even if Atonement healing isn't for you, it's very worthwhile to look into using Holy Fire on every CD to keep Archangel ready for a heavier healing phase. I was very satisfied with Atonement healing in Cata, and look forward to it in the next expansion.

When using Will of Unbinding, It's always good to keep an eye on the duration of your 10 stack, since it does take some time to restore when just Holy Fire/Smiting. I really only notice this in Ultraxion, but landing a Smite right before an Hour of Twilight and then taking Heroic Will works great.

The other trinket I use is Heroic Seal of the Seven Signs, mostly for the high-proc chance so that when I need to switch over to more throughput healing, I can pick it up quick. I do not have access to a Windward Heart, unfortunately. Supposedly it does proc off of Atonement crits, though I can't say how much it would heal for. However, if I did have a Windward Heart, I would likely use it over Seal of the Seven Signs.

As for weapons, I did a dummy test using Heroic Maw and using Heroic Vagaries of Time(+50 intellect gem in socket), and the difference was pretty negligible (both within 100 dps of 11500 without raid buffs, likely due to roughly 200 more SP on Maw), however Atonement DOES proc Cleansing Flames from the Maw, which in my opinion makes it much more worthwhile.

I do have a Heroic Rathrak, but it is unenchanted, and wouldn't be viable for me to test in that condition. Undoubtedly this will pull more DPS for the Smite spec, but at the cost of more healing in raid encounters.

Obligatory disclaimer: Do NOT use Atonement healing on Yorsahj if a Purple blood is currently absorbed. It WILL give stacks. I've drifted off a few too many times during our heroic kills...

EDIT: Thought I'd add in my 'Lazy Man's Smite Macro'.

Macro is as follows:

#showtooltip Holy Fire

/cast Smite

/cast Holy Fire

Aaaand that's it. You'd think it'd make more sense to put Holy Fire up in the priority, but WoW makes each click go only one ability down in the macro, if possible. So if you do Holy Fire first, then Smite, after the second Smite you'll get messages saying Holy Fire is not off cooldown for every click until Holy Fire refreshes. If you do Smite first, your first cast WILL be smite each time you go into a Smite/Holy Fire chain, but the second will be Holy Fire, and the macro will try to go one cast line down if possible each click (In this case, Holy Fire if it is off cooldown otherwise Smite).

By no means is this the highest output-generating rotation.. but sometimes Netflix garners more attention from me than watching my Holy Fire CD

Second Edit: After a couple tests, I determined I was incorrect about Seal of the Seven Signs not proccing off of Atonement. I could have sworn I did a test a few months before, but I must've been wrong. Apologies.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Morideth