Healing as Holy; the joy of pigeon-holes & Binding Heal

[Mnemosyn]

Greetings frequenters of the healing forums, and especially to my fellow Holy Priests.

I have been healing as Holy for a long time, and honestly would have it no other way. I've loved Holy Priesting for the many years I've been playing, and have yet to fall out of love with it. Yet I've recently been a bit irked by the concept of being "pigeon-holed" by your average other as "just a raid healer". I've always thought of Holy Priests as being exceptional raid healers of course, but more so the proverbial "jack of all trades" when the situation demanded it, even so far as to believe a skilled Holy Priest can turn the tide of an encounter (for a non-exaggerated example, something like using PW:S on an Iceblock target on Sindragosa P2 to ensure they reach the opposite side quickly [assuming Body and Soul]). I could gab about healing as Holy forever, but instead I'll move on with the important/question part of this post.

I've been accosted once or twice about my use of Binding Heal in any - any - given encounter regardless of what has occurred. Regardless, to this day Binding Heal is faithfully set as an easy-access keybind to use as I see fit, and use it I do. My question is what the rest of you think of it. I understand that, if used irresponsibly the spell could OOM a careless Priest quickly, but when should it be used, and what amount of over-healing (between both targets) is acceptable with it, assuming you think it should be used at all. I originally started using it in PvP, because it's really, really handy in a 2v2 Arena setting. Ever since though I've always found places for it in raids; what about you?

To give a few examples of when I like to use it, say on Saurfang (when I don't go Shadow) if I get Mark of the Fallen Champion and I'm already keeping another target up, I can safely use the spell knowing that two targets are being healed at the same time and save another healer to focus on tanks or get a new mark (speaking in terms of Heroic Saurfang, since I've not seen more than 1 mark on normal 25-man in a long time). Or on the Putricide transition if I get focused by one ooze I can heal myself and the other target simultaneously, etc etc. Those are very specific and random occurances, but they happen and when they do I'm glad I have the spell handy. I use it frequently enough on Blood Queen and Heroic Marrowgar as well.

I'll cut my post off there; if I post something else I'll try to keep it to essay length instead of novelette length. I hope to hear I'm not the only Priest who thinks this nifty heal still has a place on my bars.

`Syn

[CoolNitro]

Binding heal is very handy for some situations but I have to admit I very rarely use it, one of the only encounters that makes me over use it is sindra 10 normal in P3 I will never los ice blocks and just spam BH on the tanks till she dies normally I end the fight with around 50 stacks of mystic buffet, if by chance I do get targeted for an ice block a pre shield PoM will prevent instant death.

The thing about binding heal is because it's very situational and rarely used by myself it never enters my head to use it when myself and another target need healing unless it's a situation where me and another target are constantly taking damage such as sindra or saurfang.


I have started doing 2v2's for the first time last week and binding heal never crossed my mind but now that you pointed it out this would be the idea use for the spell.

[Nicki]

it's a fine spell to use when you need healing yourself however if you don't it is just a waste of mana. I used it in moderation more then anything else.

By this stage in the expansion pidgeon holes are very well defined; its not like you want to go tank healing sindragosa hard now is it? cataclysm will probably provide more flexible roles but we will see.

[Eressëa]

I am surprised that you've been approached for using Binding Heal. It's a pretty good spell to use as long as you know when to use it and you can manage your mana properly. But of course that applies to everything. I typically run as discipline so I have fewer mana problems than when I am holy, however. A couple days ago I was discipline for H10 Saurfang and I was healing both tanks and the second mark. Of course I ended up getting a mark so I used Binding Heal quite a bit for that. It was pretty handy.

[Mnemosyn]

I used to frequent the Priest and Healing forums of the Warcraft website. Many a time there would be a critical analyzing of healing parses and it was a pretty general consensus that Binding Heal = bad Priest. Obviously I never agreed, but they sure poisoned a lot of minds as far as I am concerned. It can be a very useful spell if applied correctly and wisely, if sparingly. Definitely not one to be spammed when unnecessary.

@Cool: Yeah, I started this game in PvP, and that's about all I did for a good year and a half as Shadow and Discipline, then went Holy when I started raiding. I have to say that most every PvPer that I've ever met has been able to PvE better and adapt quickly to encounters, moreso than your average player who has not. Many of the things you learn and deal with in PvP can help immensely in any given PvE encounter, such as playing with game sound on (to hear Rogues in stealth) or learning to use spells in different ways for different things (using Shadow Word: Death to anticipate and break yourself out of a Mage's Sheep, or in my personal favorite, a Rogue's Blind).

In short, PvP can help you learn some things that will be useful in PvE settings. =P

[Miriai]

Binding Heal? it has two benefits, versus Flash Heal, both situational, for which you pay with a higher base mana cost:

a) It heals YOU and your target. If you do not need that healing, it is a waste. On the other hand, dead is no healing, right?

b) your taunt generation, given the healing, is lower (I'd ballpark it at approx 1/3, based on personal experience). Unless you have loose mobs in camp, this is irrelevant. I.E. maybe during bad trash pulls.

Here are some numbers (from my holy gear [fully geared ICC-25 normal] via rawr 2.3.20):

Flash Heal: HpS = 6,849, HpM = 12.68
Binding Heal: HpS = 13,463, HpM = 14.93

Summary: vs flash heal, its both more throughput and more efficient than flash, ASSUMING YOU NEED THE HEALING. I find it to be an invaluable, although situationally specific, healing spell. It is one of the reasons why I LOVE my priest.


PS: I have a simple response to folks, that are not healers, telling me how to heal on raids: Unless you are prepared to use bandages, shut up.

PPS: Mana is only a concern if you run out before the end of the fight, right?

[Matthras]

I would seriously only think about reconsidering using Binding Heal if mana management was a problem. Since it isn't I use it for spot raid healing (I'm a Disc Priest) when I've taken damage myself as well.

It's very convenient, and look at it this way: In one spell you can achieve the same effect as using two Flash Heals, putting it roughly. Of course, like Miriai said, assuming you need the healing.

[Knighterrant81]

Binding is only good when both targets require a flash heal or more's worth of healing. Otherwise, you're wasting mana.

Binding *is* a slight HPS increase over flash in terms of pure throughput, but its not worth the mana, and you are foregoing your 2pc t10 bonus. If you have 2pc t10, flash is out and out better throughput too.

In 25s, tank damage is based around the assumption you have a Holy Paladin. They're just better at it than everyone else, by a long shot. That means speccing for tank healing for 25 mans as a Holy Priest (or as a Priest in general) is pretty silly.

In 10 mans, especially if you don't have a Holy Paladin, it can be helpful to pick up some of those gheal talents and do some tank healing, but Shaman are better at it, and even a Druid with a healing touch spec (!) will be better throughput. Disc is also a better tank healer than Holy so it really makes no sense to try it as Holy unless you don't want to dual spec. Just go Disc.

When they took away our old improved Holy Concentration, they pretty much gutted Holy Priest healing. We are still jack of all trades. We're just...jack of all trades, but happen to be just about the worst at healing tanks. Compare that to Holy Paladins, who heal tanks great but can't heal raids at all.

Bad at healing tanks > impossible to heal raid.

[CoolNitro]

Binding *is* a slight HPS increase over flash in terms of pure throughput, but its not worth the mana, and you are foregoing your 2pc t10 bonus. If you have 2pc t10, flash is out and out better throughput too.

The 2pc t10 set is junk for healing it heals 0.8% of my healing with Althor's Abacus after it at 3.3% after a 3 hour run, HPS is useless for both Disc and holy priests since we mainly deal with spike damage so you can't or shouldn't measure a spells usefulness by it's raw HPS. Well unless you are a renew spammer then HPS for that style of game play counts.

Bad at healing tanks > impossible to heal raid.

If this is in relation to binding heal then you have it all wrong Binding heal is not supposed to be used to tank or raid heal it's a situational heal created to be used at times when the priest and another target need healing with only 1 global cooldown to spare. There are very few instances where you should need to spam it but as I have said in the case of sindra P3 normal mode I can pretty much solo heal the tank with binding heal while keeping my self alive with 50 stacks of mystic buffet, so in cases where the priest and another target are taking constant damage then it is justified to spam away, but spamming it on every fight just to up HPS is baaad.

[Suriell]

Compare that to Holy Paladins, who heal tanks great but can't heal raids at all.

Bad at healing tanks > impossible to heal raid.

This isn't entirely true - Holy paladins are capable of raid healing, especially with beacon of light... though they lack group heals. Particularly FoL paladins are pretty darn good at it honestly, so long as they're quick (assuming, of course, they aren't on tank duty).

I don't think that people were arguing whether or not Binding Heal was a 'spammable' heal or not -- because it isn't, for almost all raid situations, given the mana cost vs the heal. I think OP was wondering if he/she should forgo it altogether, after being criticized for using it.

Personally, I use it on my holy priest but, as others have pointed out, only when myself and someone else need a heal. It's a time saver, and I know I would have died on many occasions if I hadn't used it, both in raids and 5 mans.

OP - continue to use binding heal when you feel it's necessary. The main thing to worry about is your mana, and if you're not going oom, and you're not casting binding heal when a prayer of healing was necessary (resulting in other party members dying)... why does anyone else care?

[Mnemosyn]

On the contrary, I think I put somewhere up there that I use it correctly and will continue using it when necessary. =P The post was more to express a curiosity towards opinions of others, since the harsh opinion from other healers put me off a bit.

On a related note, I recently solo-healed the entirety of ICC10 (short of Valithria and Lich King, though I plan to try Lich King next week as Disc). Even with a well geared and experienced group that can blow through it in an hour or two, it makes the instance a whole lot more entertaining on normal. I recommend any healer looking for a moderate challenge to give it a go, and you're almost guaranteed to pick up a few WoL records along the way. Binding Heal came in much more use than normal on most of the fights. (I recommend not taking horribly geared alts in blues that pull 3-4k DPS, as the fights take considerably longer even with 7-8 DPS . . . x.x; )

Any response to my PvP query, or should I start a new thread for that? :O

[Rift]

Binding heal has an extra use for disc priests -- it allows you to heal 2 targets without moving your grace stack on a tank. So that's an additional variable to consider.

Also, please please don't use serif fonts for your posts, it makes my eyes bleed x.x;

Serif fonts are ok for paper, sans-serif should be used for electronic publishing.