08-10-2005, 03:47 PM
I think the reason why Greater Heal has an advantage over Flash Heal (besides somewhat higher efficiency) is because of the way the new Spirit system works. This is especially noticeable in Molten Core and Raid situations.
A lot of people in raids use CT_Raid or similar mods, so they have the auto-cancel on heals if the target is above certain health %. So often what will end up happening if several people are healing the same target is that it might take 2-3 casts for the priest to get their Greater Heal to actually cast. 2-3 attempts of those is 7-10.5 seconds, so given the new spirit rule, this will give those priests 2-5.5 seconds of spirit regeneration (since they haven't actually cast a spell). This might not seem like much, but that's 150-300 mana back right there on a spell that costs 820 or so mana with talents. That's a LOT of mana saved.
Meanwhile, with the Flash Heal, it will probably take you similarly 2-3 casts to land it. That's 3-4.5 seconds, which is not enough time for spirit regen to kick in. So while in theory they are similar in efficiency, because of the spirit bonus Greater Heal will come out on top.
A lot of people in raids use CT_Raid or similar mods, so they have the auto-cancel on heals if the target is above certain health %. So often what will end up happening if several people are healing the same target is that it might take 2-3 casts for the priest to get their Greater Heal to actually cast. 2-3 attempts of those is 7-10.5 seconds, so given the new spirit rule, this will give those priests 2-5.5 seconds of spirit regeneration (since they haven't actually cast a spell). This might not seem like much, but that's 150-300 mana back right there on a spell that costs 820 or so mana with talents. That's a LOT of mana saved.
Meanwhile, with the Flash Heal, it will probably take you similarly 2-3 casts to land it. That's 3-4.5 seconds, which is not enough time for spirit regen to kick in. So while in theory they are similar in efficiency, because of the spirit bonus Greater Heal will come out on top.