Holy Priest Crit Build

[Lichdom 18]

Hi fellow priesties, I have a question regarding how crit affects holy priest healing.

 

I've recently moved away from a spirit/haste build to a full crit build. I'm using crit in pretty much every slot, as well as the burning meta gem and double amp trinkets. I felt that holy priest healing was pretty lackluster at the moment, so I made these changes to experiment with holy dps. Incidentally, I did some healing without regemming back to haste and was surprised to find my healing much improved. I've since gone back to full time healing with the crit build and I'm very satisfied with the results.

 

My question is, why has the crit dramatically changed my healing output? I'm running with approx 13k spirit, 3k ish haste and mastery, and 11.5k crit. I do not employ a renew-centric style of healing and instead prefer cycling through all of my spells, mostly focusing on aoe, while staying in Chakra Sanctuary.

 

I'd have thought that with double amp trinkets, stacking either of the boosted stats would be more beneficial. Yet there is no denying the improvement I see in my performance. I'm not complaining, but I'm just wondering why crit is so much better?

[Gwenymph 414]

I run with the same build (minus the Meta).  I also recommend it to those wanting to try Holy coming from Disc.  You can keep all the same reforges and gems, so cost for trying it out is small.  You are noticing all the things that others and I would bring up when recommending the build too:

 

1) Bury Haste to the floor

2) Stay in Sanctuary

3) Limit your Renews

3) Get as much Crit as possible then Mastery.  (Most of our gear has Mastery so keeping them close is not an issue)

 

This build will increase the output of your Echo of Light significantly.  Crit hits in Holy translate into more powerful EoLs.  Using PoH alternating the target group lets you build you EoL instead of resetting it.  So instead of a single PoH cast on the tank group, giving you a 7k EoL tic, hit that group again before the buff wears off and the EoL will stack.  Mix in a crit to that rotation during a fight like Malkorok or Thok w/ Devo/HoP and your output will increase significantly.

 

There are more supporters of the the Crit build that I've run into and even on this site than there are of the Haste/Renew/Cascade build.  On the other side, the best solo heal Holy priests in the world can min/max the Haste build and make others feel inferior b/c we are not using it. LOL   Ultimately, it is not "why is crit so much better?" , it's which build fits your playstyle.  For the latter part of this xpac the masses are getting better numbers out of the Crit build then someone comes along and tells them they are doing it wrong because they saw or heard of a meter topping Haste build.  Clearly it sounds like this build works better for you and I'm happy you happened across it!   

Edited May 6, 2014 by Gwenymph

[Espiee 161]

With a crit build you're likely to see more effective healing since critical strikes will heal for double the amount of normal heals and 'cap' people faster. In that line of thought it does make sense to prioritise crit over mastery. In my opinion though you'd want to keep crit and mastery about equal even with a crit build.

 

Mastery greatly increases the value of your crits by baking a larger portion of it into the EoL hot, making it a lot more reliable.

 

Like Gwen said though, you'll end up with loads of mastery through gear no matter what you do and actively going for crit doesn't hurt(terms of total throughput Mastery does come out ahead, albeit marginally).

 

.

Edited May 7, 2014 by steve

[Gwenymph 414]

Its crazy that every time I forget to mention that Mastery comes on gear so just go try and build crit (in Holy and Disc replies) there is always someone who cant wait to jump on and post to point out that they should be w/i x%.  To prevent the bottom feeders unhelpful Capt. Obvious replies I do my absolute best to make sure I add the Mastery gear portion of those kinds of posts.   I do miss them from time to time and man do they flock.  Thanks for clearing it up Steve I'm sure there was someone itching, hoping a poster would not point it out! lol

Edited May 7, 2014 by Gwenymph

[Espiee 161]

When I say keep them close within each other it's more of a guideline. There are diminishing returns on both and the more crit you have, the more mastery will become useful and similarly the other way around.

 

Theoretically speaking Mastery edges out in front of crit talking in terms of total throughput, but the difference is marginal, especially at higher ilvls.

 

Mastery is still nice to stack since it will make your healing more reliable. Without much haste your heals will be slow, making you prone to overheal since most other healers will start to heal the party up with smart-heals before you get your heal off. Leaving a strong dot on the target afterwards means if they take damage again you'll help through that rather than purely overheal.

 

Does that mean if you have to keep them exactly the same? No. But it does mean a spirit/mastery item from flex is better than a spirit/crit item from LFR and that you want whichever has the highest number of points regardless of whether it's crit or mastery.

[Lichdom 18]

Thanks for the input. It makes more sense now. After having read Gwen's post, I figured I should probably keep mastery high if I can, since the extra healing from crit is coming via our mastery anyway. I've since readjusted my gear and have gotten to the more comfortable raid buffed figures of 10.5k crit and 8.5k mastery.

 

More importantly, since I now know exactly where the additional throughput is coming from, I can cater my healing to boost it. I've been doing that by constantly cycling my heals to keep a high uptime on EoL throughout a boss fight, rather than just cast when needed. I've found that a well positioned Halo to start EoL rolling on the raid, followed by controlled and well distributed PoH spam has been giving me the best results. While on the move, I still have a chance to keep EoL up with CoH, Divine Insight'd PoM, and of course Halo.

 

I've also drawn a more abstract conclusion to the current state of Holy Priests:

 

In the current state of healing, having to deal with healing large bursts of raid damage quickly, targeted heals fall far behind smart heals and blanket heals. Holy Priests don't have any sustainable smart healing, with Circle of Healing being on a cooldown and Glyphed Binding Heal being so expensive and not smart enough. As such, Holy has to resort to blanket healing, using either its mastery or renew cascading, to be competitive. Since the healing comes in the form of a variable strength HoT, the meters will not be kind to Holy Priests when the incoming damage is low. When the incoming damage is high, Holy Priests can pair their blanket healing with their powerful targeted AoE spells, allowing Holy to be competitive.

 

Holy Priest's signature strength in days of old was in being a versatile reactive healer. In the current raiding environment, the smaller spread of damage between tanks and other raid members has all but demolished the old tank healer versus raid healer divide, leaving Holy's versatility unneeded. Additionally, the mounting bursts of damage being mete out to challenge healers have gone beyond the scope of healer reactions and into the territory of automation via smart heals and/or preset spell rotations, leaving reactive healers always feeling one step behind.

 

I'm glad I can salvage my Holy Priest with a spell rotation for some blanket healing to remain useful, but I do mourn the days when Holy's versatility and having the right spell for any occasion was a boon to any raid. 

[Gwenymph 414]

Ignore me, See below   >.<

Edited May 8, 2014 by Gwenymph

[Espiee 161]

EoL from different abilities does stack. It simply refreshes the EoL hot taking what healing remained on the old dot and add it to the value the new hot has, this includes CoH and PoH.

 

Just to test this out, I flew out to a remote place in Krasarang Wilds with no friendly target within 40 yards of me. I then used PoH and right after CoH. CoH healed me for 33180, PoH for 59993. I have 43.66% mastery.

 

If the EoLs didn't stack, I should be healed for 14486(43.66% of CoH's 33180), if they stacked I should be healed for 40683(43.66% of 33180+59993)

 

The EoL ticks after this healed me for 3 times 13561, totalling 40679.

 

Here's an image showing the in-game combat log: http://imgur.com/TCpqRMV

 

This indicates if anything that the two heals stacked.

Edited May 9, 2014 by steve

[Gwenymph 414]

Thanks!  I always just looked at the combat log proc after casting PoH w/o paying any mind to the type of spell cast next.  I just know the EoL was less.  Unaware that it adjusted the remaining amount!  I had to go google the patch notes and reread this line: "there is no lost healing when reapplying a heal to a target w/ an existing EoL"  Totally missed it.  Going to delete my previous post now.    lol  thank you again... 3x in as many days.

[Espiee 161]

Haha :D..

 

I must admit I didn't know if it was the case for AE heals. I knew it to be true for single-target heals because I've noticed EoL ticking for 200k+ a tick when you do the HW:Serenity-->FH-->FH-->GH combo on malkorok for the tanks soaking. I just assumed it to be true for AE spells as well but had to go check it. Luckily it's consistent and interacts with every heal but our hots.