I think we all were. I know on our Nef kill the other night, 45% of my healing was PW:S (the one and only time I beat our Holy Pally/RL on the meters, except for Halfus of course).
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Since I am just now trying out disc as a spec is there any feedback into how the changes to PW:Shield will hurt disc priests? I assume it will cost more mana and I get that. But is the mind set now that we will rarely cast it and follow it with penance?
When I have a chance, I'll be updating the math on the power word: shield efficiency.
My best guess is that by increasing the base mana cost by 9%, power word: shield will still remain one of our best single-target spells, but it will be less attractive to spam for AoE healing compared to prayer of healing.
I'll let you know when I have the time to log in and crunch a few numbers.
Alright - the tooltip for power word: shield hasn't been properly updated, but we were told the mana cost has been increased from 25% of base mana to 34% of base mana. This means that the cost has been increased by 27.78%.
The tooltip still reads 4632 mana, so a 27.78% increase to 4632 is 5919 with inner fire up. Inner will should reduce that by 15%, so with inner will up, the cost is 5031.
Using 5041 int and 1010 mastery (I had to do some reforging to get back to the numbers I used to update the guide initially, so I have 6 more mastery rating than the last time - a negligible difference), power word shield thus has the following efficiencies:
With inner fire: 3.94
With inner will: 4.48
I'll go update these numbers into my guide, then I'll come back and edit this post to let you guys know how that changes your priority for shield.
EDIT: Numbers have been updated in the guide. For single-target healing rotations, little has changed - penance is still the most efficient healing spell, but power word: shield ranks in second. The big change this extra mana cost brings is bumping bubble spam down to the least-effective method of AoE healing, at least assuming that you have 5 targets to heal with prayer of healing.
This effectively means that for full-group AoE, don't ever bubble spam, as prayer of healing will be a better use of your mana. Bubbles are still quite efficient for small-group AoE, though - 2 or 3 targets instead of the full 5.
I do not understand all those guys that are making these guides. You should do some research and actually check what people are using before posting a guide. If you look at top 10 disc priests raiding heroic content, you will find you that only stat they are taking is Mastery. yes nothing else. There are some ppl with haste as low as 1% and mastery as high as 20%. After mastery you go crit as other stat.
Do not agree there entirely.
First of all, this guide is meant for disc priests starting raids in Cataclysm. It is deadon imo for what concerning stats too.
Comparing fully tiergeared hc clearing topplayers with a starting guide is a no go...never was. Simply because the topgear comes with a lot more intellect that carries disc's best stat (we all know that INT brings Crit as a bonus too).
Reading logs however is always good as to look at where you want to head for ultimately, if thats 100% mastery then thats cool. Yet, we know that overtime Blizz will change this over and over and maybe at the end of cata we may end up as hastebunnies even.
Maybe it be good to make a 2-lid raidguide, a starting and endlevel one ;)
The effectiveness of stats from gear (especially from hc blues to epic on our mainstat INT) is quite huge, and therefor a higher intpool might whiteout crit as a way to go. But on starting with hc blues, Crit is a nice way to go, and even then it just depends as well on the healingrole in either a 10 or 25set.
@Zevia,
Nice guide m8, I'd defo would recommend this on starting discpriests, as its a nice, easy to understand guide into dischealing in cataclysm.
Looking forward to the vid ;)
This is by far one of the most helpful guides I've come across. I've often tended to stay away from the heavy number-crunching/theory-crafting guides that just all seem to be a little more than I care to know. This, though, is well thought out and detailed without an abundance of unnecessary information.
Thanks a bunch Zevia!
Since I had started to play disc I really like the spec. I wanted to revisit this advice and ask a question regarding changing betwen inner will/inner fire. Am I supposed to use inner will when casting bubbles/renew and use inner fire for casting penance/greater heal? If so is there some recommended way to swap back and forth constantly?
I am also going to post a link to my armory. I am going to start healing 10 mans tomorrow night and I would like any advice anyone can give about my gearing/reforges/spec that looks totally out of place. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ghtlive/simple yea I have bracers with +hit on them, because the only other bracers I have gotten so far are ilvl 312 and these bracers are superior in every other way except for the fact I lost 79 spirit. I intend to reforge them when I get online tomorrow.
Due to various in-game and out-of-game circumstances, I'm currently on vacation from WoW to work on other hobbies and interests for a bit. This unfortunately means my video update for 4.0.6 is on hold indefinitely.
However, I can still answer most questions people will have about disc healing in general.
As to Pruke's mention of swapping between inner fire and inner will: if you're going for nothing but straight efficiency (healing per mana), then yes, casting power word: shield with inner will up, then using the haste from borrowed time to put renew up, then changing back to inner fire to use penance and greater heal would be your most efficient route.
However, if time is a concern (and it usually is), you'll probably get the most mileage out of simply keeping inner fire up.
TBH I as disc do not even have renew on my cast bar, with no talents in it and glyph I think it is useless spell. Also shield spam seems a bit to crazy. unless you want to go oom quickly or have a lot of time to regen then. In heroic mode bosses you can not offer shield spam, you would go oom in first minute of fight. the only problem with priests that I see are hymns... really disappointing cds...
Hello everyone (First time poster here)
I´ve a question about Borrowed Time (in PvE), when I´m healing I use a smite spec -> http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfGorRs0fRMochM. As you can see I do not use Borrowed Time in it. As the guide states, Borrowed time is something that is pretty much needed, and I´ve had a couple of discussion about it with my priest friends about it. Do you think it is really needed? Considering that you will need to skip a couple of "munchy" talents for taking it. From my personal exp (I do not raid any HC encounters, nor am I top end priest healer in PvE, only do 10 mans) I find that Borrowed Time is not up often enough for it to be that important, I shield people only when they are about to take damage, once they ate that punch in their face I never use the shield, I just heal them up instead, and shield when I know they are gonna get punched in the face again.
On top of that, 14% is not something I notice in my raid setup, what so ever, with the current ilvl I seem to not be able to hit a nice haste % for haste to be something I would want to stack or have talented.
What is your thoughts on that? Or do I think this way because I do something really wrong when I heal?
This is very true I have check over world of logs rankings to see stat priority, talents and over all spell usage for top disc priests and they are indeed stacking mastery and doing basically bubble/DA spamming but I think they are just doing it for the rankings.
Ranking by HPS is pretty much the only way a log site can rank healing but I personally do not like the idea of rating healers by their HPS for me healing isn't as simple as that.
I use almost the same talent spec except I dropped two points in mental agility for BT I found the extra 6% reduced mana cost on Shield and mending were not worth the extra talents.
BT's usefulness is gained mainly through it not being used up by some spells, you can cast a renew and a penance before casting a greater heal and they all gain the 14% buff from BT.
HoT's and DoT's (at least spells, I have no clue about stuff like Rend) refresh themselves with each tick. So while your Renew will tick faster while you have the BT buff on you, it will not once it expires.
You're totally correct about Penance though, and that's the main reason that BT is pretty much mandatory.
I don't suggest dropping points in Mental Agility though. PW:S is freakin' expensive, and reducing that cost as much as possible is in your best interest. Although maybe I'm biased because my 25 frequently has no Resto Shaman and only one or two Druids.
100% agreed. Sure, give me twelve Innervates and Tides and I can spam bubbles all day long for ten million HPS. Is that what's best for the raid? Typically not.Quote:
This is very true I have check over world of logs rankings to see stat priority, talents and over all spell usage for top disc priests and they are indeed stacking mastery and doing basically bubble/DA spamming but I think they are just doing it for the rankings.
You could take the points from Divine Fury and put them in Borrowed Time and Darkness.
This would give you 1% haste all the time and an on demand 15% to all spells instead of just a few.
A good example is TOFW where you have several people low after the switch and have to get them up quickly. Cast PWS on the lowest one, then using the haste buff cast POH. ;)
PWS saves the low one and increases the amount of healing they will recieve, POH gets everyone back into the "safe zone", and the haste increases the number of ticks they will get form the POH glyph. :cool:
I´m afraid I can not take out talent points from Divine Fury, mainly because when I´m healing, I´m doing tank(s) healing, or multi tasking (I dislike that, I´m a man... I´ve hard time with that!) i.e healing tank(s) and the raid when needed to. When I´m healing tank(s) I´m using greater heal and smite, so 1 sec off greater heal/smite is needed for me and 2/2 in inspirtation.
I do know that you can do Shield->BT->Penance and greater heal(Or w/e you want to cast) is nice burst healing, I use it in PvP very often. However in PvE I find myself in a place where I just dont need it. But I´ll try and reforge all my gear into haste, spec darkness and BT and hit them healthbars and see how much my healing will improve of that. The ilvl is so low at the moment thou, so I feel like I need like 20% haste to actually notice a difference because; Haste is good, however haste gets anihilated by latency, thus I feel like I need higher ilvl to be able benefit from haste.
But yea, as said, I´ll reforge and respec and see if I do somewhat better :)
Duck! Nerf Bat.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2356431
The only real nerf for disc priest there is to PWB reducing it's effectiveness and increasing the CD by 1 minute. = NERF :eek:
This was done because "It was too OP in PVP", people were using it to cap flags. :rolleyes:
PWS reduction to 15 seconds ,if it lasted that long they didn't need it anyway. :rolleyes:
They increased the duration of Aegis! = BUFF :)
No expiration time for divine will or inner fire! = BUFF :D
Both holy fire and smite proc evangelism! = BUFF :cool:
I view the shortend duration to PW:S as a nerf; especially if it's being used on dps or other healers as a defensive measure; just have to use more mana to keep it up. Shorter duration + increased mana cost = Nerf.
If Aegis is a Buff becuase of increased duration then redcution in duration of shield must be a nerf; same principle.
No expiration for Divine Will or Inner Fire is kind of a non event; so I don't have to remember to refresh every 30 min, meh;
I don't use an Evangelism spec so kind of another non-event.
The nerf to Barrier is really bothersome, especially since it's a PvP driven nerf.
Of course it's a nerf. The problem with a 30 sec duration is that a Disc priest can bubble an entire raid by themselves. Gets a little out of hand.Quote:
I view the shortend duration to PW:S as a nerf; especially if it's being used on dps or other healers as a defensive measure; just have to use more mana to keep it up. Shorter duration + increased mana cost = Nerf.
Quote:
The only real nerf for disc priest there is to PWB reducing it's effectiveness and increasing the CD by 1 minute. = NERF :eek:
This was done because "It was too OP in PVP", people were using it to cap flags. :rolleyes:
PvP nerf? Or maybe it was nerfed because it was insanely powerful in pretty much any context, don't start playing the "Oh no, PvP nerf" card on this. (Worth noting that Divine Guardian is still 20% and also had its CD increased to 3 min. Rallying Cry and Spirit Link totem are also 3 min CD's. I'm seeing a theme here.)Quote:
The nerf to Barrier is really bothersome, especially since it's a PvP driven nerf.