Priest Sandbox

[Brewmonksta 157]

nerf buff nerf buff nerf buff..... wait where where we up to?

[Espiee 161]

The part that infuriates me about this is not the nerf itself(that was much warranted), but that they're keeping us essentially a one-button class.

 

Despite the nerf, PWS is still our strongest heal. It could actually take quite a beating and it'd still be our number one heal since we have no viable alternatives to cast.

 

Take a look at Midwinter's log from the live raid they did at Blizzcon, notice the big difference in healing use? No single spell did half or more of our healing, it was much more balanced, it was also before the nov 14 41% nerf to HN and 20% buff to PWS.

[TheRaidBoss 11]

Guess nothing lasts forever. Still I'm surprised they're nerfing PWS by 15%(thereby almost making up for the buff), but keeping the holy nova nerfs in place.

I never understood why they would want to nerf Holy Nova? is there something that I'm missing with that?

[Nuadria 20]

Is it still viable to gem for mastery/prioritize mastery for my gear?

[Gwenymph 414]

Is it still viable to gem for mastery/prioritize mastery for my gear?

 

This is probably a better question for Espiee.  He can break down the nerf as it relates to Coefficients and they're effect on output.

 

Here is my attempt until he comes around:

 

IMO and play style yes.  Lets say on the worst abuses of one button healing, PWS makes up 70% of your total.  A 15% nerf to that would be a 10% total nerf to your output.  Not only that, if you look at your next spell after PWS and just took 15% off, PWS is still more than 15% ahead.

 

70% is an extreme example but I see it more and more.  So the lower your total output from PWS was the less effect you will see on your total output.

 

TLDR:  Stick w/ Mastery

Edited January 13, 2015 by Gwenymph

[Maplefire 37]

so, I'm nothing if not right on-the-ball with timing and observing and stuff, but...

 

watching Gwen's vids in prep for raids, just for review, and I notice in a few of them, there is a Rodgers 12 jersey in the background! Are you a Packers fan, Gwen? YA BUDDY!!!!!

[Gwenymph 414]

so, I'm nothing if not right on-the-ball with timing and observing and stuff, but...

 

watching Gwen's vids in prep for raids, just for review, and I notice in a few of them, there is a Rodgers 12 jersey in the background! Are you a Packers fan, Gwen? YA BUDDY!!!!!

 

Haha! Yes, been a Packers fan since they were in the old Black and Blue Division!  Been switching up the Jersey's in the background since Week 17.  Even wore my Cheesehead during stream once... albeit briefly before my wife had friends over. LOL

 

And I raid w/ 2 Bears fans... it gets ugly in chat.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Gwenymph

[Maplefire 37]

Haha! Yes, been a Packers fan since they were in the old Black and Blue Division!  Been switching up the Jersey's in the background since Week 17.  Even wore my Cheesehead during stream once... albeit briefly before my wife had friends over. LOL

 

And I raid w/ 2 Bears fans... it gets ugly in chat.

HAHAHAHA.....that's GREAT!

 

I've been a Packers fan since the early 80s. I raid with a Vikings and a Bears fan, so ya - I hear ya. :)

Edited January 13, 2015 by Maplefire

[soonjung 3]

Just wanted to post a quick introduction/hello!

 

I've only been playing since September, so I'm one of those "instant 90's who ruin the game." ;) I started with a resto shaman, but did not enjoy raiding on her as much as I had hoped. I rolled a Priest and it instantly felt right. I know that sounds really touchy-feely, but there is something in the healing mechanics that is intuitive for me while nothing ever came easily on the shaman. Luckily I received permission to switch mains and will be jumping in with my Disc this week on Margok! (The RL's decision was helped by the fact that we do not have any other healing priests at all, so it wasn't just a favor to me.)

 

I've spent the most time in healing as that is what I prefer, but since our raid team has too many healers we are all required to have a DPS off-spec. (No Disc/Holy; I tried, but do see that it's unfair to the other healers who *also* don't like to DPS.) This forum has been invaluable to me in learning how to excel at Disc and be at least okay in Shadow when I have to be. Thanks to all who participate and I look forward to jumping in!

 

(And, speaking to the more recent posts here, I grew up in CT and now live in Boston. So, yeah, lifelong Pats fan.)

[Maplefire 37]

Just wanted to post a quick introduction/hello!

 

I've only been playing since September, so I'm one of those "instant 90's who ruin the game." I started with a resto shaman, but did not enjoy raiding on her as much as I had hoped. I rolled a Priest and it instantly felt right. I know that sounds really touchy-feely, but there is something in the healing mechanics that is intuitive for me while nothing ever came easily on the shaman. Luckily I received permission to switch mains and will be jumping in with my Disc this week on Margok! (The RL's decision was helped by the fact that we do not have any other healing priests at all, so it wasn't just a favor to me.)

 

I've spent the most time in healing as that is what I prefer, but since our raid team has too many healers we are all required to have a DPS off-spec. (No Disc/Holy; I tried, but do see that it's unfair to the other healers who *also* don't like to DPS.) This forum has been invaluable to me in learning how to excel at Disc and be at least okay in Shadow when I have to be. Thanks to all who participate and I look forward to jumping in!

 

(And, speaking to the more recent posts here, I grew up in CT and now live in Boston. So, yeah, lifelong Pats fan.)

Like.....except for that last sentence.... >.<  

[Espiee 161]

Is it still viable to gem for mastery/prioritize mastery for my gear?

In terms of play style and stat strategy, nothing has (substantially) changed.

 

PWS remains your strongest spammable heal since no other heal has been changed to compensate for the nerf.

 

If anything it puts multistrike slightly more in favor of crit than before since PoH+EAA will be a proportionally bigger part of your healing, as well as puts a focus on using EAA properly.

 

I never understood why they would want to nerf Holy Nova? is there something that I'm missing with that?

 

Holy nova from a design point can be troublesome.

 

Look at the efficient AE heals of other classes. They are either bound by a CD(CoH, HR) or limit of use(Mushroom). Holy nova is neither. Granted its healing is adjusted for it, but it has some very useful attributes the others don't in that you can use HN for as long as you need the healing it grants(unlike CoH), giving you more flexibility(the mana cost is per use and not calculated for the entire duration) and it's mobile(unlike mushroom and HR).

 

It's hard to balance compared to the others. CoH can be balanced around a use roughly every 8 second(or another number), HR and Mushroom can be balanced around its duration(since you can only have one out at a time), Renewing Mists can be balanced around its cd(and potentially the healing of uplift when we get to higher levels of MS) etc.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Espiee

[Brutalpriest 60]

I dunno about the rest of you, but as a shadow priest I'm angry about the shield nerf.  I use Reflective Shield!  This is a dps nerf for me!  Damnit bliz! XD

[Espiee 161]

I dunno about the rest of you, but as a shadow priest I'm angry about the shield nerf.  I use Reflective Shield!  This is a dps nerf for me!  Damnit bliz! XD

I'm sure all the disc priests are happy to be nerfed by roughly 10%

 

At least this means I won't have to run back and forth on butcher anymore \o/

[Nazahah 2]

I've been lurking a while too, so I figure no time like the present to introduce myself!

 

I've been playing since vanilla myself (wasn't yet 60 when the AQ event began on our server). Took a short break during late Cata/early MoP (when my daughter was born I suddenly found myself without time to play!).  My priest has always been my main, and holy is my true love, although I did play disc during MoP and I'm still trying to find my way now in WoD.  I've recently found the love for my hunter as well so I've been doing some work on her. :)

 

I've learned a lot from reading here and looking forward to learning even more and getting better!

[TheRaidBoss 11]

I'm sure all the disc priests are happy to be nerfed by roughly 10%

 

At least this means I won't have to run back and forth on butcher anymore \o/

Last night I volunteered to trigger for butcher in normal.

It's a bit crazy to watch your debuffs, time your stacks right, and move in and out while shielding the groups at the right time and to build evangelism to get my heals up. 

Such a shame too, as the only "heal" I did for kargath was attonement. Otherwise CoW+PW:S and some DA from attonement crits?

 

Also, welcome back Nazahah.

Edited January 18, 2015 by TheRaidBoss

[Espiee 161]

Finally got around to doing PG in WoD.

 

I noticed a few differences. Waves doesn't overlap as much anymore and if you're keen to atone when there is little damage, you often end up with 10+ seconds left to regen mana with no mobs up. Most noticeable is how wave 9 and 10 no longer overlaps.

 

In warlords, you're no longer scaled down. Instead the npcs are scaled to your item level. I've heard some talk of a lower limit to this, but I did not test it. The scaling is a bit off, I barely made it the third round with my usual gear. Changing to the Communal gear(610 ilevel) with some other stuff I got my ilevel to 635 and got to wave 46 in that try before a chomp + fireball combo killed Kavan in a split second.

 

I went with Solace, PI, Halo and CoW. Solace for no other reason than decent mana regeneration. Though if I'm going to try to get higher I may opt for Shadowfiend to help kill off some of the pesky mobs quicker(looking at you wave 9!). PI is nice for a healing boost and neither of the other options are really worth talking about. Some waves you'll have to let the dps drop low and PI helps bring them up through PoH spam. I chose Halo since it was a decent heal(25k per target) and easier to aim than DS. CoW was nice for the tank-intensive fights(eg wave 4), where damage isn't concentrated to a few seconds.

 

Gear priorities aren't much different from what you would usually wear. Intellect and mastery are your biggest priority, The other stats are less important, but if you do have a choice go for reliable output over RNG stats, use the candle or other trinkets that are strongly overbudget, eg the 615 or 630 mission trinkets.

 

I used my traditional glyphs of Penance, Fade and Weakened Soul. WS is incredibly good for tank healing since Oto will take the lion's share of the damage. Fade is a decent damage reduction cooldown with a 30s cooldown you can use if you get targeted by chomp, aqua bomb or a fireball. Penance is just convenience, though not strictly needed, I couldn't think of a decent alternative to it however.

 

I used Barrier on the 4th, 7th and 10th wave for Oto, reserving PS for when he got low and his own shield barrier was on CD, though it could probably be used better. I used PI on 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th wave. Popping Shadowfiend under PI is a fairly decent dps boost(nice to get the npcs to target the hive-singer on wave 9 before the aqualyte).
 

A couple of links.

This was written back before warlords, but PG hasn't drastically changed.

Guide from Wowhead by Hamlet on each wave: http://www.wowhead.com/news=219282/wowheads-guide-to-proving-grounds-strategies-bestiary-and-rewards#healerstrats-endless

 

Hamlet's own blog about PG, supplemental to his Wowhead guide:

http://iam.yellingontheinternet.com/2014/03/24/the-proven-healer-advanced-guide-for-all-classes/

 

Dayani and her experience(take note that disc has been drastically changed since then, but some good insights for cooldowns):

http://healiocentric.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/my-endless-journey/

Edited January 19, 2015 by Espiee

[Nuadria 20]

Yesterday, I was able to get my poundfist kill, after trying to get a kill on him for a month and a half. Finally!

[Bobbyjensen6000 17]

I've been around for a month or two now, guess I should introduce myself too, heh.

 

I started playing World of Warcraft when I was 13 and from the very beginning of Vanilla, back then I was just a kid and I played rogue. Back in Vanilla I was actually in a very decent guild and we managed to get top 50 world kills on both C'thun and Kel'Thuzad, I think Kelly was top 20. I ended up with 200 days played in the first year of Vanilla. It was pretty crazy, but I was young and had loads of time. I managed to get Gladiator in season 1 too, heh. I then got burned out with the game in Black Temple and quit after the first few bosses.

 

I returned for Cataclysm again and completed Blackwing Descent and some other jazz, but I've forgotten most of that. I quit cause we ended up merging with a bad guild.

 

Anyways, I've once again dwelved into the realm of World of Warcraft, but this time im 23(its been 10 years lol) and wanted to play a healer, so I decided Priest was the shizzle. I got tired of all the Sinister Strike spamming I guess. Somehow I ended up playing Holy and thats what i've stuck with throughout Highmaul. The Holy priest playstyle is great, and I hope I can stick with it in Blackrock Foundry too.

 

Guild wise I started out in a casual guild in which we managed to kill heroic Imperator, but the guild then went into shambles so I was a bit confused about what to do. However, me and friend got in contact with some of our friends from wayback in Vanilla and ended up joining their guild. Now i'm sitting at 6/7 Mythic and I think we're going to kill Mar'Gok in the following week.. hopefully! Currently at +140 wipes lol

Edited January 20, 2015 by Bobbyjensen6000

[Nuadria 20]

I kept on wiping on PG gold on my disc priest. It was always at round 9. I'll link my armory, incase anyone has any tips in how my stat priority/talents are concerned.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/Ysera/Glorynymph/advanced

[Espiee 161]

I kept on wiping on PG gold on my disc priest. It was always at round 9. I'll link my armory, incase anyone has any tips in how my stat priority/talents are concerned.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/Ysera/Glorynymph/advanced

 

I posted a couple of things that helped me through endless a couple of posts above, but to recapitulate:

 

Learn the damage patterns and plan CDs accordingly. Discipline is tremendously bad at getting people back to full health, spam shields or PoH before or as big damage hits. It's essential to coordinate everything. The wowhead link in my post above has the list of what spawns on each wave.

 

Use your interrupt. A interrupted hive-singer is a dead hive-singer.

 

Use Shadowfiend/mindbender to aid nuke important targets.

 

Use CoW to get ahead of tank-heavy waves

 

Your stat priority doesn't really change, go for int and mastery over everything else.

[Bobbyjensen6000 17]

We managed to kill Mythic Mar'gok tonight! Realm first too! It took 180 wipes though, but god damnit it is a rough fight to progress on. I think the worst part is that you have these really amazing tries that are followed by 10 tries off people taking excess Force Nova damage/missing interrupts/hitting a mine/taking an orb/fucking up moving with the brand etc.

 

I was completely oom at the end from healing up Infinite Darkness. Very happy that we managed to get it down before Blackrock Foundry though :)

[Nuadria 20]

I posted a couple of things that helped me through endless a couple of posts above, but to recapitulate:

 

Learn the damage patterns and plan CDs accordingly. Discipline is tremendously bad at getting people back to full health, spam shields or PoH before or as big damage hits. It's essential to coordinate everything. The wowhead link in my post above has the list of what spawns on each wave.

 

Use your interrupt. A interrupted hive-singer is a dead hive-singer.

 

Use Shadowfiend/mindbender to aid nuke important targets.

 

Use CoW to get ahead of tank-heavy waves

 

Your stat priority doesn't really change, go for int and mastery over everything else.

What interrupt are you talking about? I was unable to find it.

[Espiee 161]

Discipline gained access to Silence with 6.0.1.

[soonjung 3]

Trinkets question:

 

Stone of Fire is now going to have versatility instead of mastery. I'm assuming this is now fairly useless for disc priests in comparison to something like a 4/4 Hourglass and a Shards (plus Ironspike Chew Toy in BRF)?

[Espiee 161]

It was pretty neat before, but it wasn't going to be better than some heroic and a lot of mythic trinkets. The change to versatility made it completely irrelevant.