10-17-2005, 10:35 PM
savaughn,Oct 10 2005, 02:35 PM Wrote:I don't know. I think Spirit has a really radical effect on the game, but not quite the same way most people think it does. Spirit makes the instance take less time. That's why I like spirit more than anything else.
My first priest was a shadow build which was all fun and good, but the one I play now is a disc/holy build and is really much more focused on instance play than anything else. You can actually level all the way from 18-60 doing nothing but instances in WoW and being a priest means you're always needed for them.
When you get into instances, there's generally just one or two battles that are really interesting. Depending on the instance, the class mix, and the skill of the group, there might not even be that. The vast majority of encounters are trash mobs that are picked apart with CC and focused fire. Even most mini-bosses aren't all that interesting.
In these encounters, the one thing that limits if you move on or not is the healer's mana pool. With a decent disc/holy build you toss out a renew or two and flip over to wanding mode and start regenning mana. If you're smart about it, cluster your heals, and make the most of your HoT's, you can chew through most of an instance with very little gaps. Sure, the mage is gonna be drinking for the first half of a lot of the fights and if you need him for AoE you'll have to wait. But the rest of the party just keeps moving and pulling and moving and pulling.
How do you get to Darkmaster Gandling inside of an hour? Spirit.
Now, on boss fights do you want every drop of int you can squeeze in? Sure. In MC/BWL/ZG - you're throwing out heals from the start and you don't stop until you go out of rotation or run out of mana. If you're 5-manning the Baron in blues and greens you aren't going to regen much of anything in that whole fight.
So, spirit is really situational. Doing UBRS with a pick up group? Spirit isn't going to do squat for you. Want to get through 5 UD Strat runs in a short period of time? Spirit'll get you there. 5-manning someone for an attunement run? Sprit's good to go. Soloing? Spirit rocks. Trying to save a party from a potential wipe? Well... that one last heal might have gotten you there and int is the way to go for that.
I like spirit gear. It's not better than Int gear. It's not worse, really, either, though depending on where you're playing at.
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yeah the point about grinding (whether through instances or solo) is well-taken. I've always been looking at it in terms of raw power, not time efficiency.