03-28-2006, 07:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2006, 07:33 AM by MongoJerry.)
After many iterations, I've decided to try out this build to start off with:
Neriad's Holy/Disc 1.10 Patch Spec
It's designed for maximum healing power, and assuming that Greater Heal becomes the standard healing spell in raids, it should have good mana staying power with Meditation and Improved Healing. Also, for PvP and farming, it has Searing Light and Holy Reach to increase Holy Smite and Holy Fire damage and range.
What I don't like about this build is that it doesn't use any of the surviveability talents like Improved Inner Fire, Spell Warding, or Blessed Recovery. In effect, I'm counting on my extra healing power to make up for it. I figure this build is a good hybrid build that gives me excellent strength in PvE with enough PvP talents to get by. We'll see how it works out.
I'd like to contrast it (or perhaps my ideal PvE build) with Bolty's build, because I think the two builds give an excellent contrast with one another in talent philosophies. Bolty's build has a philosophy of maximizing mana, mana regeneration, and mana efficiency. In fact, he has every mana generation and mana efficiency talent available selected and casts aside all healing boosts except Holy Specialization. With this build, Cleoboltra will never run out of mana and will be able to keep healing his parties long after other priests are running on fumes.
On the other hand, my philosophy is this: If you're not running out of mana, further mana efficiency is unnecessary. I am assuming at this point that Greater Heal will become the dominant means by which priests heal in raids from now on. Currently, most raids use the Flash Heal spam method to heal their tanks even though Greater Heal is currently (theoretically) 10% more mana efficient than Flash Heal. But GH's efficiency is getting another natural 10% mana efficiency boost in the next patch. Plus, Improved Healing will make it another 15% more mana efficient on top of that. Putting it all together, that will make the new Greater Heal healing method 31% more mana efficient than the Flash Heal spam method most raids currently employ.
But that's not all. Mediation is now available early in the Discipline tree. Back when I was holy/disc spec'd and had Meditation plus 3-piece transcendence (a combined 30% mana regeneration while casting), I basically never ran out of mana. Toss in an Inner Focus when you need to cast an expensive spell like Prayer of Healing, and spending the talent points to get Mental Agility and Mental Strength seem overkill.
It seems to me that after spending the minimum amount of points in Discipline to get Meditation and Inner Focus, one should blow the rest of the points in Holy to power up one's heals to their maximum potential. Bolty explained already that priest healing talents only boost one's base healing and don't multiply one's +healing stats. This is a stupid design flaw on Blizzard's part. However, while having +600ish healing sounds like a big number, in the end that's still only a boost of around +30% to one's base healing. Tacking on another 10% with Spiritual Healing does make a difference. In the case of one's Renew, tacking on another +25% healing plus some nominal amount from the benefit of Spirital Guidance will show a big difference between what Neriad will be able to do with her Renews and what Cleoboltra will be able to do with her Renews. It helps a raid tremendously to have those big hot's running on the main tank all the time. Plus, yeah, I hate casting a Renew on somebody only to have the game tell me that a "more powerful" renew is already active.
But also keep in mind that powering up one's healing simultaneously increases one's mana efficiency. Neriad's Greater Heals will be about 11% stronger than Cleoboltra's heals for the same mana spent, so they will cost about 90% of the mana/heal that Cleoboltra's GH's will. Since Cleoboltra will have 10% more mana due to Mental Strength, these two things are a wash. Cleoboltra will have more mana efficiency with instant cast spells due to Mental Agility, but the most important instant cast spell is Renew and Neriad's points in Improved Renew, Spiritual Guidance, and Spiritual Healing will actually make her Renews more mana efficient than Cleoboltra's. Cleoboltra's PW:Shields will cost less, but again Neriad's points in improved PW:Shield will make her shields more mana efficient.
But what if Neriad really needs that extra staying power in a really long fight? The solution is simple: Drop down a rank in one's healing spells. By dropping down a rank, Neriad will have heals that are just as strong as Cleoboltra's and her mana efficiency will be such that she could actually cast more Greater Heals before she runs out of mana than Cleoboltra will be able to, despite Cleoboltra's advantage in having an extra 10% mana. Meanwhile, Cleoboltra will never have the option to go the other way. That is, if Cleoboltra ever finds herself in a situation where she needs to heal very quickly, she can never "rank up" her healing spells and match Neriad's healing strength.
Maybe. Then again, if the talent said, "Spend 5 talent points and get a 2.5% improvement to your healing spells -- and maybe less since those crits might overheal" then people might be less enthusiastic about it. I like it for Inspiration and also the *wow* factor when a crit goes off in PvP, but for PvE healing power, I'm not that excited about it.
I really badly want Lightwells to work. If only they increased how long they last and decreased the cooldown on them, I could see them being a very mana efficient source of healing. But so far, I don't see the advantage of them over, say, bandaging oneself, either.
Power Infusion is fun, but that's another build discussion entirely.
Two more comments:
1. I no longer see the need for threat reducers like Silent Resolve to reduce threat from healing. Neriad already has Fade for those "Uh, oh" moments. If she needs any more than that, it's not time to respec. It's time to get a new tank.
2. It's interesting that you as a PvE person choose to go with Unbreakable Will instead of Wand Specialization. I've always thought of Unbreakable Will as a PvP talent. If I didn't PvP, I would choose Wand Specialization, since I use my wand so much in parties, raids, and when farming alone.
Neriad's Holy/Disc 1.10 Patch Spec
It's designed for maximum healing power, and assuming that Greater Heal becomes the standard healing spell in raids, it should have good mana staying power with Meditation and Improved Healing. Also, for PvP and farming, it has Searing Light and Holy Reach to increase Holy Smite and Holy Fire damage and range.
What I don't like about this build is that it doesn't use any of the surviveability talents like Improved Inner Fire, Spell Warding, or Blessed Recovery. In effect, I'm counting on my extra healing power to make up for it. I figure this build is a good hybrid build that gives me excellent strength in PvE with enough PvP talents to get by. We'll see how it works out.
I'd like to contrast it (or perhaps my ideal PvE build) with Bolty's build, because I think the two builds give an excellent contrast with one another in talent philosophies. Bolty's build has a philosophy of maximizing mana, mana regeneration, and mana efficiency. In fact, he has every mana generation and mana efficiency talent available selected and casts aside all healing boosts except Holy Specialization. With this build, Cleoboltra will never run out of mana and will be able to keep healing his parties long after other priests are running on fumes.
On the other hand, my philosophy is this: If you're not running out of mana, further mana efficiency is unnecessary. I am assuming at this point that Greater Heal will become the dominant means by which priests heal in raids from now on. Currently, most raids use the Flash Heal spam method to heal their tanks even though Greater Heal is currently (theoretically) 10% more mana efficient than Flash Heal. But GH's efficiency is getting another natural 10% mana efficiency boost in the next patch. Plus, Improved Healing will make it another 15% more mana efficient on top of that. Putting it all together, that will make the new Greater Heal healing method 31% more mana efficient than the Flash Heal spam method most raids currently employ.
But that's not all. Mediation is now available early in the Discipline tree. Back when I was holy/disc spec'd and had Meditation plus 3-piece transcendence (a combined 30% mana regeneration while casting), I basically never ran out of mana. Toss in an Inner Focus when you need to cast an expensive spell like Prayer of Healing, and spending the talent points to get Mental Agility and Mental Strength seem overkill.
It seems to me that after spending the minimum amount of points in Discipline to get Meditation and Inner Focus, one should blow the rest of the points in Holy to power up one's heals to their maximum potential. Bolty explained already that priest healing talents only boost one's base healing and don't multiply one's +healing stats. This is a stupid design flaw on Blizzard's part. However, while having +600ish healing sounds like a big number, in the end that's still only a boost of around +30% to one's base healing. Tacking on another 10% with Spiritual Healing does make a difference. In the case of one's Renew, tacking on another +25% healing plus some nominal amount from the benefit of Spirital Guidance will show a big difference between what Neriad will be able to do with her Renews and what Cleoboltra will be able to do with her Renews. It helps a raid tremendously to have those big hot's running on the main tank all the time. Plus, yeah, I hate casting a Renew on somebody only to have the game tell me that a "more powerful" renew is already active.
But also keep in mind that powering up one's healing simultaneously increases one's mana efficiency. Neriad's Greater Heals will be about 11% stronger than Cleoboltra's heals for the same mana spent, so they will cost about 90% of the mana/heal that Cleoboltra's GH's will. Since Cleoboltra will have 10% more mana due to Mental Strength, these two things are a wash. Cleoboltra will have more mana efficiency with instant cast spells due to Mental Agility, but the most important instant cast spell is Renew and Neriad's points in Improved Renew, Spiritual Guidance, and Spiritual Healing will actually make her Renews more mana efficient than Cleoboltra's. Cleoboltra's PW:Shields will cost less, but again Neriad's points in improved PW:Shield will make her shields more mana efficient.
But what if Neriad really needs that extra staying power in a really long fight? The solution is simple: Drop down a rank in one's healing spells. By dropping down a rank, Neriad will have heals that are just as strong as Cleoboltra's and her mana efficiency will be such that she could actually cast more Greater Heals before she runs out of mana than Cleoboltra will be able to, despite Cleoboltra's advantage in having an extra 10% mana. Meanwhile, Cleoboltra will never have the option to go the other way. That is, if Cleoboltra ever finds herself in a situation where she needs to heal very quickly, she can never "rank up" her healing spells and match Neriad's healing strength.
Bolty,Mar 7 2006, 06:41 AM Wrote:Crits are huge. It's not just the coolness that is Inspiration. People think about crits the wrong way, really. Sometimes it's overhealing, but if you're especially raining down heals on tanks (think BWL), it's often not. Crits are really "free" 50% extra healing. If there were a talent that said "chance of healing your target for 50% more for free," I think more healers would consider it seriously. That's what a crit is - it's free healing. Tack Inspiration on top of it and you've got a big bonus.
Maybe. Then again, if the talent said, "Spend 5 talent points and get a 2.5% improvement to your healing spells -- and maybe less since those crits might overheal" then people might be less enthusiastic about it. I like it for Inspiration and also the *wow* factor when a crit goes off in PvP, but for PvE healing power, I'm not that excited about it.
Quote:I'm also just not impressed by Lightwell at all (on paper); nor does Power Infusion excite me (sorry Mages).
I really badly want Lightwells to work. If only they increased how long they last and decreased the cooldown on them, I could see them being a very mana efficient source of healing. But so far, I don't see the advantage of them over, say, bandaging oneself, either.
Power Infusion is fun, but that's another build discussion entirely.
Two more comments:
1. I no longer see the need for threat reducers like Silent Resolve to reduce threat from healing. Neriad already has Fade for those "Uh, oh" moments. If she needs any more than that, it's not time to respec. It's time to get a new tank.
2. It's interesting that you as a PvE person choose to go with Unbreakable Will instead of Wand Specialization. I've always thought of Unbreakable Will as a PvP talent. If I didn't PvP, I would choose Wand Specialization, since I use my wand so much in parties, raids, and when farming alone.