10m SoO healing

[Failhard 2]

Hello Icy Veins! Long time lurker first time poster.  My weekend raid team is short on heals and I'm going to gear up my priest and fill in.

 

At this time I will link to my armory so that you can have a laugh.http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/ysera/Hardnox/simple

 

My plan for my priest: I am going to spec like this http://www.wowhead.com/talent#p!UJ|pbuV

 

With a heavy lean towards spirit and mindbender because my regen will be lacking during the gearing process.  Since I have played disc before though not much in raids as the armory shows, and 5.4 changed many things; I have some questions:

 

I don't understand what you do after you cast Spirit Shell.  Do you just spam Prayer of Healing?

With all the emphasis on mobility when is it most efficient to use Power Word: Barrier

 

My plan for this thread: After some gearing and experience I'm going to play around with crit/haste/mastery and post logs from fights as well as my conclusions based on my experience with the different gearing set ups.  I suspect as many have stated that crit/haste will be better raid healing and mastery centered will be better for the tanks.

 

Thanks for reading, and for your advice while i bust the rust off my healing.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Failhard

[Mord 1]

Welcome to the wonderful world of healing! Yeouch, yes, with that gear you are going to hurt in SoO flex or normal, but hopefully that shouldn't last long. Absolutely max your spirit, and possibly consider mainly using Inner Will until you have enough spirit not to keep running dry with Inner Fire.

 

Spirit Shell you use for pretty much 2 things:

1. To stack shields on a group prior to AoE - as you've said, by spamming PoH (don't forget to use Inner Focus, Archangel and ideally Power Infusion to maximise what you get out of spirit shell) - do this when you're anticipating large incoming AoE damage. SoO examples: Sha of Pride's predictable Swelling Pride ability; Galakras' Flames of Galakrond ability; General Nazgrim's War Song ability.
   This addon can help you select the best person to be casting PoH on, if you use Grid.
    
2. To buffer 1-2 targets from anticipated damage - usually tank(s) or people with ongoing DoTs or soakers - you'll usually have a feeling for roughly how long you can move your healing attention away from a target before they'll die, pop SS and stack single-target Greater/Flash heals on them if you want to be able to look away and focus on something else for a while (usually either spamming heals on another target to get them up, or channeling Hymn of Hope) or because you KNOW they're going to soak a large amount of damage and you'll reduce the healing after. Note that I say 1-2 targets- you can do it on more (you could get 6 flash heals on individual targets if you wanted to) but due to Grace you're going to get far more shield benefit if you're casting on a target (usually tank) that already has 3 stacks from the Penance you just used it on. Obviously Archangel and Power Infusion help too. SoO attention examples: Pretty much every fight, but especially ones that are harsh on tank damage/DoTs (Kor'Kron Dark Shaman and General Nazgrim come to mind). SoO soak examples: Iron Juggernaut mine soakers.

 

Use Power Word: Barrier during any stack-up with raid AoE damage (e.g. Sun's purple bubble during Fallen Protectors, Swelling Pride on Sha of Pride) or if everyone has to stay spread/there is no mega AoE, use it as a tank-saving CD (like you would Pain Suppression) for an emergency, or to save mana if you can get tanks + melee under it for a bit.

 

I've tried all the stat-priority strategies, and as much as I hate the fact, haste just isn't that great for us- with Bloodlust, Power Infusion and the haste you'll get passively from gear, most of your spells will be so close to 1-sec capping anyway, the haste benefit is minimal.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Mord

[Omnae 8]

What mord said is good so i wont repost more on spirit shell(SS). I will add that macroing archangels(AA), inner focus(IF) and spirit shell together works great, since AA and IF are off the gcd and try to use SS on cd, unless you need to hold off for incoming dmg like sha's swell.

 

I would advise you not to use cascade as disc in 10m, its just not worth it. Divine Star rules if the group is stacked and Halo is better when people are spread than cascade.

 

If you plan on atonement healing but don't want to oom fast crit/mastery works very well in my experience. Twisted Fate is also a good talent for atonement, good for burn phases too just throw up a SW:P on the boss and boom 15% healing with a 35% uptime.

 

If you dont plan to atonement much then haste/crit is nice for burst healing.

 

Using inner will, will help with mana return its about a 2k return with rapture. (i miss the pre 5.4 one)

 

The only addon(s) i would recommend for disc is ingelas rapture or set up weak auras to monitor rapture.

[Mord 1]

If you use Twist of Fate as Omnae suggests (not sure if it still double-dip +dmg AND +healing for atonement? I think so), definitely consider Divine Star or Halo over Cascade- on any fight with adds, both of those two have a chance to hit a low-hp add and proc Twist of Fate when you're using them to heal, whereas Cascade doesn't hit any enemies unless you cast it on one, and then you miss out on the healing from it.

[Adhemar 3]

Cascade has it's uses (decent on Fallen Protectors, for example) but since the halo buff, halo is usually the better option for spread out fights.

Twist of Fate absolutely double dips for atonement and almost every fight has adds you can use to get multiple procs out of it during the encounter. I prefer Power Infusion for Malkorok, and it would probably be better for Iron Juggernaut, too.

[Omnae 8]

Yeah atonement still double dips, which is really fun on Nuroshen when purified ^_^. 

 

As disc, cascade should never be touched it is really hard to maximize since everyone needs to be 15yd+ away from each other plus you can't use it to dmg anything if you want to use it for healing. DS and Halo will give you better numbers.