New healer heading towards heroics and onwards: a few questions.

[Phobia253 1]

So i've been playing MMOs for a good decade mostly DPS but have made the jump to tank main this last year and been moving in to healer alts. I really like disc play style so I have a few questions about it.

 

Largely I know it comes down to gear that keeps people up and of course using the right spells for the situation. 

 

After having read some of the threads around here and the Icy guide. I'm a little confused on atonement. If I read it correctly the guide says to ignore atonement since it's not the same as it was in MoP. But I just read a thread here that was talking about using AA, so i'm a little confused on if we do use it and what is the correct way to build the stacks for AA? Right now just running though my head you get 3 HF every 30 seconds for 3 stacks. Is 3 stacks enough? or am I suppose to throw in a smite/penance to 5 stack it.

 

A follow up question to the above. I realize it's all situational, but for the most part if at all possible should I be saving AA for AoE healing? It seems large party damage is a weak suit for disc.

 

Next i'm curious about what stats to aim for? It's very conflicted at least from what i've read on icy. I'm seeing crit>mastery mastery>crit. 

 

 

Also do remember these questions are mostly geared for heroics and soon LFR, I don't really have plans to join a guild for normals at this moment.

[Espiee 161]

The most desirable thing about AA at the moment is the 100% crit chance it gives you for your next PoH and FH. That can constitute an incredibly source of burst healing when used correctly. It's however still important to note it's a potential 25% increase to your heals for the next 18 seconds and making sure you have 5 stacks is also preferable to using it with less stacks. Whether to use smite/penance to stack it to 5 is however a situational choice since it shouldn't come at the cost of someone dying.

 

The guide is wrong when it comes to stats.

 

Spirit > mastery > multistrike = crit > versatility > haste.

 

You're casting more shields than actual heals making mastery the better stat. MS and crit are both roughly equal, but you gain more crit naturally by having 5% base crit and another 5% from buffs, whereas you only gain 5% multistrike from buffs and have no inherent multistrike. You essentially want to balance them so that you have the same amount of rating from both.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Espiee

[Defib 2]

Would you vary that stat priority at all for CMs? For raiding, I stack mastery but am building a CM set now and thought a better balance with more crit/MS would be preferred because we aren't strictly bubble machines in challenge mode healing.

Usually just a lurker, appreciate all the helpful info here. Keep it up!

[Espiee 161]

Mastery is still king in CMs as absorbs and EAA will do a majority of your healing(and it also increases the healing of your direct heals albeit less). I haven't personally collected gear for CMs, but haste may be better for those to help speed up the run and it offers a similar HPS increase when mana isn't a factor, in terms of healing. it's unlikely to make a major difference.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Espiee

[Gwenymph 414]

Welcome, both of ya!

 

@Phobia: Exactly what Espiee is offering in terms of stat priority and the use of Atonement.  Build it in down time and use it when you need it to protect or recover from Encounter Abilities.  It does not necessarily have to be at max stacks since you are using it for the guaranteed Crit effect but if you can work in max stacks w/o pushing back the ideal time to proc AA the better off you are.

 

 

@Defib:  I ran my Silver and Bronze runs with Crit>Mastery>MS.  Sadly I have not gone back for Gold yet but can speak to the fact that both Mastery heavy and Crit Heavy builds will work in CMs.

[Phobia253 1]

Thank you for all the replys and tips!

 

I do however have another question.

 

Is Prayer of mending used at all? I heard it's very sub par and it's a waste to use.

 

 

(This is on normal)

Also I just got though with a rather frustrating upper block rock spire run. You know i'm not gonna say i'm the best healer this is new to me, but I understand most of the mechanics behind disc it's just actually doing it when it counts, if that makes sense.

 

Anyway honestly I think I healed every boss just fine but this tank was just getting tossed around like he was made of paper. I had to couch everyone in that dungeon, telling them to dodge crap and all that. But the biggest issue I ran in to with that dungeon was the final boss. Before the add phase everything was fine aside from a few times DPS got hit by her spinning axe ability. Once the adds came out, crap hit the fan and fast. I did what I could and made sure to have AA ready for the phase. Now is the issue. More or less I had to spam flash heal to keep this tank above half health and at any moment when I stopped to toss a heal else where, including aoe healing, his health dissapeared. Both of my damage reduce CDs were used doing that phase. 

 

When we finally got past that phase i was below half mana and I was struggling beyond anything I have ever done before to keep everyone up including the tank. Any time I would let off the tank to toss a quick heal on a DPS to get them above 25% the tank would drop and I would have to spam flash heal. We beat it with a DPS down and everyone at 25% or lower except the tank that was maybe half.

 

So my question is, did I just have a really bad tank and I was struggling to make up for it? Or was I just not doing AoE healing correctly? Cause it really felt like I just couldn't keep everyone up, the moment I switched to prayer of healing the tank started dipping. There was just no medium for me, I was playing catch up almost that whole fight.

 

I healed the train dungeon perfectly and then I ran in to that dungeon and it's completely destroyed my morale.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Phobia253

[Gwenymph 414]

Prayer of Mending is rarely casts anymore as Disc.  It's output is very poor.  As for your UBRS run.  I'm always quick to blame any tank! lol   They may have been undergeared, or not using their own personal survivability CDs.  Spamming flash heal sometimes is a necessary when you are w/ unknown tanks.  You never know the level of skill that person brings w/ that particular tanks when you get randomly assigned together.  It's those times where you have to let poor fire standing DPS die first, which it sounds like you made the right "tough" call.

[Ichigaki 13]

Prayer of Mending is rarely casts anymore as Disc.  It's output is very poor.

Such a shame :( such a fun spell to use.

[Espiee 161]

The spell hasn't been cast a lot for a long time now. It was hardly worth the cast back in SoO as well.

[Defib 2]

And if you want to use it pre pull, don't do it on tank that you prestacked CoW on, will expire without proccing if you are keeping CoW up.