Add-Ons/MOds for Priests?

[nobbie]

So, I have a Priest now, too. Which add-ons/mods do you recommend for a Priest for faster/better group/raid/instance healing?

[MongoJerry]

I currently use CTRaidAssist with the MT Target's Target window turned on and Decursive. I'm told that Spellalert is amazing, though, so I might get that. I try not to have too many add-ons, though, because my computer doesn't handle the game as well as it should as it is.

[Jarulf]

I currently use CTRaidAssist with the MT Target's Target window turned on and Decursive.  I'm told that Spellalert is amazing, though, so I might get that.  I try not to have too many add-ons, though, because my computer doesn't handle the game as well as it should as it is.
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Do CTRaidAssist works with non raid as well?

[Flymo]

Do CTRaidAssist works with non raid as well?
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Some of its features - debuff removal and mana conservation - work outside raids.

I use an add-on I wrote myself to cast the minimum necessary rank and type of healing spell to heal the target, and also autocast Blessed Prayer Beads whenever it's out of cooldown.

[Yurup]

Decursive is realy realy good. Especialy if you bind it to a key. Defrogs things in no time!

[Xanthix]

I find using a click-caster to be tremendously helpful (CastParty, WatchDog, etc). This lets me, say, left click a party member's health bar to heal them and right click to shield them, instead of doing "select party member, push heal button, select other member, press shield button..." WatchDog will even integrate with CTRaid to extend this functionality to the CTRaid windows.

I like using TargetOfTarget to see who is targetting who, and warn me if I get aggro.

I also use the AddOn vAssist to duplicate the main tank windows of CTRaid when in a 5-man group.

[Sword_of_Doom]

I have played my level 60 Priest for a year now and the only mods i use is CTRaid Assist and Decursive. There are mods that will will target and heal for you etc. but that would cheapen the fun of playing a Priest. I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to gaming (mods are evil, lol) and when it comes to WoW it has not harmed me one bit. I have done all of MC, BWL and now up to the 6th boss in AQ40, the Twin Emperors. The mods that target for you mean that you don't have to watch life bars all night long and some people find that fun. I like the challenge of healing and want the pressure of keeping up people so we beat encounters. So my recommendation is to use as few mods as possible.

[castille]

I like CastParty, and using CTRA's debuffing .. there are a lot of nice mods out there, like Discord Action Bars, for setting up various button assortments, and for changing them depending on certain circumstances. Most of my other mods are for information or look..

[Flymo]

Does Decursive do anything that CTRA doesn't? I've never tried Decursive, but the current version of CTRA allows you to prioritse debuff removal by type of debuff and character class and remove them 1 click at a time, which was what I thought Decursive did.

[Xanthix]

Does Decursive do anything that CTRA doesn't?
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Decursive is simpler - no UI, just a keybinding. CTRaid is more customizable (as you mention) but can be more complicated to set up.

[Zarathustra]

As someone who's not used CTRaid at all, I've got a question for you guys.

If I were to install it, would I be able to turn off the majority of the features that seem to automate the game? I'm likely to need it in order to keep track of raids, loot, etc., but don't much care for the "easy mode" feel of some of its features. Just how customizable is it?

[castille]

As someone who's not used CTRaid at all, I've got a question for you guys.

If I were to install it, would I be able to turn off the majority of the features that seem to automate the game?  I'm likely to need it in order to keep track of raids, loot, etc., but don't much care for the "easy mode" feel of some of its features.  Just how customizable is it?
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So far, every option I've run into in CTRA other than the raid display and the pop-up buttons, you have to turn /on/. And they can easily be turned /off/.

The keybound decursing, for instance.. stuff like that has to be set by you, the user. So, if you don't, it just .. doesn't do anything.

[Treesh]

As someone who's not used CTRaid at all, I've got a question for you guys.

If I were to install it, would I be able to turn off the majority of the features that seem to automate the game?  I'm likely to need it in order to keep track of raids, loot, etc., but don't much care for the "easy mode" feel of some of its features.  Just how customizable is it?
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Yes, you can shut off just about all of the automated features. My priest ran without CTRA for most of her raiding career, but finally broke down and got it when my rogue had to have it so I could use the /rs command. Right now the only thing different between her using the default raid UI (and you can still bring out the default raid groups instead of the CTRA raid groups) and CTRA is the /raready command actually popping up on her screen and the /rs messages. She still uses the default raid UI windows, none of the mana conserve, resurrection monitor, emergency monitor, dispelling nor any of the other automatic stuff. I've been told that I'm not living up to my healing duties by choosing to do them by hand (that's a paraphrase of course), but actually, I'm still a better healer than some of those who choose to automate everything they can. You'll have to look around a bit if you really want to tweak things to go completely minimalist with it, but most of the stuff is shut off by default anyway.

[Jarulf]

Nice thread with lots of info. I will check out what the RaidAssist can do for non raid groups.

What I want as a Priest, or at least think I want and have used so far, is some "easy" way to help me out with healing and other spells. I realise that I might not go for or learn the complete and optimal healing like one would do with no add-on, but then, I will never invest time to learn the game that much, nor will I ever end up in the final raid and instances of the game, simply because I don't have the time to invest. Hence I will chose games, instances and such were I can go without worrying if I spent 30 extra mana on a too powerfull heal. Sure, might mean I won't do some instances, no idea, but then, so be it.

What I used so far and although it was simple, it worked well was an old add-on called Benecast. I am sure there are other mods with the same and perhaps better implementation but what it did was that for each character in the party (and any pets of them) put the various spells on seperate buttons beside them. So I never had to worry about first picking the character and then the spell since I had each spell on a seperate button for each party member. I liked that. Together with a mod that showed damage taken of each character (instead of health) it was relatively easy to see when healing was needed since I new roughly how much healing my spells do One can go with life left and subtract current life or something but I liked seeing damage taken for each one as a number.

Now, the main problem with that mod/situation is that I had basically just two possible levels of healing to cast. One, cast the highest/lowest level needed to heal the character with its current life (that is, it prevented overhealing), or go for maximum rank, typically doing on a tank that will have taken more damage when the spell is finally finnished. It worked well, although I am sure it is not optimal healing, but so far, good enough.

The mod had some problems and erorrs and perhaps lacked some more advanced functionallity, hence why I looked at other add-ons. I recall seeing one that was highly configurable for various situations and such, however, it needed quite a bit of my own customization and I just didn't know what to do or what I needed. Actually, I really don't know what functionality exists in various mods and hence can't know if I miss it :)

Since I don't do PvP, I guess a mod that decurse might be good (no worry about other player spamming low level curses to drain my mana). Otherwise, not sure. My mod showing damage taken had some bug so that it only worked for the top three characters in the party and if the tank was in lower two spots, I had problems for example :)

I will check out mods sugested here and see what I find works.

[nobbie]

Thanks for the info so far. Are the same Priest mods good for a Healing Druid, too, or are there special Druid mods out there?

[Flymo]

What I want as a Priest, or at least think I want and have used so far, is some "easy" way to help me out with healing and other spells. I realise that I might not go for or learn the complete and optimal healing like one would do with no add-on, but then, I will never invest time to learn the game that much, nor will I ever end up in the final raid and instances of the game, simply because I don't have the time to invest. Hence I will chose games, instances and such were I can go without worrying if I spent 30 extra mana on a too powerfull heal. Sure, might mean I won't do some instances, no idea, but then, so be it.[right][snapback]103257[/snapback][/right]

You could have a look at Priest Plus. It checks which member of your party needs healing the most and chooses the most appropriate spell. It doesn't work in raids and is still a work in progress so probably has some bugs.

[kershner]

One that I cannot recommend enough is CastOptions. *Unfortunately* it is bundled with Cosmos, but I basically just disable everything else.

It has the ability to self-cast by Right-Clicking.

This is a *huge* boon during raiding and PvP when deselecting your target or even just hitting a key modifier is too much.

One caveat: Mana Conserve in CTRA doesn't understand that this is a self-cast and will use your *target* at the time of casting to determine if the spell should be cancelled. This is rarely a problem in PvP as my target is hostile, but often comes up when I attempt to Greater Heal myself.

-kersh

Dehmien | 60 Undead Priest | Stonemaul