Priest Talent Build

[Tal]

My Krystian has cracked 40 (well 43 as of last night) and with the exception of letting Kandrathe's warlock die during AoE I'm really enjoying playing a healer. Some of the most fun I've had in the game has been playing a priest on Krystian. I have decided to buck the trend of investing in Shadow talents for the rise to 60 and then respecing for holy/discipline and will be a Holy/Discipline priestess from level 1 through 60. I've even decided to roleplay her as a priestess deeply interested in helping her fellow travellers of Azeroth. (Though this last bit has caused some inconvenience as I have stopped to save someone in danger of dying only to find myself facing all of that person's mobs while the person makes their getaway - thank god for psychic scream.) With that in mind I wanted to throw my talent build out there for advice.

Minimum Required Level: 60
Required Talent Points: 51

Discipline Talents - 15 points

Unbreakable Will - rank 5/5 - I needed five points to get to the next tier of talents. Chance to resist fears, silence and stuns seemed more useful than reducing the threat of my damage spells. With a good tank and smart casting I shouldn't draw aggro from damage...

Wand Specialization - rank 5/5 - Picked up because I will probably be soloing even in my capped days. Mo' damage without mana = better yes?

Improved Power Word: Shield - rank 3/3 - Shields are like crack for me. I just can't resist dropping one before big fights and as my "Oh sh..." moment when I need time to get a heal off. Having a reduced time til I can cast again just seems like a wise thing to have available.

Improved Power Word: Fortitude - rank 2/2 - Stamina is gud.

Holy Talents - 31 points

Improved Renew - rank 5/5 - More often than not I tend to drop renews early in battle or to certain rogues who draw aggro - you know who you are lady! Efficiency would demand picking this talent up. :)

Spiritual Healing - rank 5/5 - Another "duh" talent. More healing with the same mana. ;)

Holy Fire - rank 1/1 - I love this talent. If I could I would hold him and hug him and pet him and call him George!

Inspiration - rank 1/5 - I needed one more point to get to 25. :P

Subtlety - rank 5/5 - Less threat from healing is good. ;)

Improved Healing - rank 5/5 - My mana is precious to me. PRECIOUS.

Improved Prayer of Healing - rank 2/2 - See above.

Spirit of Redemption - rank 1/1 - Because sometimes things go wrong™.

Master Healer - rank 5/5 - Sometimes I'm a monkey and don't pay enough attention. Less casting time = good. ;)

Holy Nova - rank 1/1 - Sometimes I'm a monkey...

Shadow Talents - 5 points

Spirit Tap - rank 5/5 - I have this because Bolty told me it was invaluable for any kind of soloing. And you know what? He was RIGHT! :D

So what do my fellow priests think?

[Drasca]

with the exception of letting Kandrathe's warlock die during AoE [right][snapback]91975[/snapback][/right]

Enjoy that moment, as warlock aoe deaths generally don't reduce durability. Better to die from hellfire and lose no durability, than via a monster hit!

[vor_lord]

Looks good from my point of view, as a former shadow priest current tri-spec.

I do have one suggestion -- you do not have any good way to cast a heal (other than renew) while being hit except with a shield on. The shield is a huge mana sink, especially without Mental Agility. Keeping up your renew all the time will also be annoying due to universal cooldown from the wand, so I find that having a more usable flash heal around is nice.

There are two ways to counter this: martyrdom + focused casting, or improved flash heal. Either one is possible, as you are plenty deep in holy. I'd probably go with improved flash heal as you already have one junk point in holy. Could steal a point from a number of places for the second one (including wand spec or spirit tap, 4/5 on those isn't too bad).

This will help you soloing and while grouping. I know you like to do some PvP and improved flash heal is a very good talent for that (darn hunter pets!). I think the ability to reliably get off heals while being smacked around helps you when Bad Things Happen.

[Concillian]

  I think the ability to reliably get off heals while being smacked around helps you when Bad Things Happen.
[right][snapback]91983[/snapback][/right]

It's also about the only way you have any hope of soloing equal level elites.

I started out thinking I would be full holy, but after time I bent to the tri build. Heal/Greater heal utility is basically limited to healing a warrior in a few situations. Using it on yourself is almost always a colossal waste of mana because you never have enough HP to cast it reliably to not overheal (unless you like having razor thin margin for error). Same in the situations where you're healing AoEers.

It's do-able in theory, but adds difficulty in practice.

Also mana efficiency of the holy tree looks great in principle, except that one talent point in discipline equals 10-12 points in holy for mana efficiency. I usually burn inner focus for a prayer of healing or a greater heal, which is ~1000 mana. It's hard to make up that kind of mana on 15% off greater and 20% off PoH, which are somewhat specialized in their usage... especially when you spend the extra points on talents in discipline that get you a 10% larger mana pool (another ~500 mana or so at lvl 60). I've found the 10 minute cooldown of inner focus to be negligible, as I'm not really casting greater heals and PoH on trash mobs, only bosses.

Like I said, I once thought that holy was the way to go, but in practice I (and many other priests) found that discipline was a better place to put points for a healer. I'm currently even questioning having points in subtlety. At 60, there are two roles for a priest: raiding and PvP. In neither case is threat generated from a healer really a major issue. The +5% crit looks more appealing to me, especially when my PvP experiences frequently have me chain casting flash on an AoEing mage or charging warrior, a situation where a crit heal would often be a very good thing.

[Icebird]

Your Holy talents are very focused on the healing side of the equation. That may be by design, but would it go against your plan to spec as an offensive Holy priest?

The talents I am thinking of here are:

Holy Specialization 5/5 - Increases your chance of critical strike with Holy spells by 5%

Improved Smite 5/5 - Increases your Smite damage by 10%

Divine Fury 5/5 - Reduces the casting time of your Holy Fire and Smite spells by 0.5 seconds.

Smite does less damage than Mind Blast, but doesn't have cooldown. You might not melt faces, but it might be faster than wanding things to death.

Chris

[Treesh]

Holy Specialization 5/5 - Increases your chance of critical strike with Holy spells by 5%
[right][snapback]92000[/snapback][/right]

That crit chance also affects your healing spells. :)

[Warlock]

My own musings in this direction (Now that Unity is full feral, I don't have a high healer anymore... alt time!) are to go 31 Holy, but to avoid Heal/Greater heal improvements as much as possible. Basically I've finally accepted the power of flash heal and want Holy Nova - I know it gets a lot of flak but it it sounds pretty good to me. Instant cast, AE, does damage, zero threat.... sweet.

[savaughn]

This looks very good. Great even, up until you get into a healing rotation. Once you're past 40, you end up behind tanks with 4000+hps and greater heal becomes easier to use as your mainstay.

Personally, I'm NOT quite as big a greater heal fan. I'd rather be able to use the smaller heals more flexibly and only drop into greater heals when things are going right and I have lots of time or when things go wrong and I know I'm going to run out of mana. ;) That said, there's a lot of criticism of greater heal and it's unjustified. Have I had people die on me while casting greater heal? Yes. Why was I casting greater heal? I was out of mana and if I only had 450 mana to throw at someone I was going to go with a greater heal to get the most out of it. Mage caught aggro? Renew. Rogue ... well ... being a rogue? Renew. Mob gets untanked and drifts back and takes a few smacks at me before getting pulled off? Renew. Life has gone to hell in a handbasket and I'm going to be getting tight on mana (and I'm healing someone with 3k+ hps)? Greater heal. No question.

I'm doing a Disc/Holy build on my latest priest (my third - just hit 40 last night). LOVE the play style. So much more "me" than the shadow priests I've played before. A shadow priest can't hold a candle to a disc or holy priest when it comes to healing instances. I proved that to myself a week and a half ago when I was the sole healer in a party that did Z'F - and my priest was lvl 36! There's NO WAY I would have pulled that off with a shadow priest!

That said.. yea, it's easier to do Z'F at 40. :P

[Lissa]

Enjoy that moment, as warlock aoe deaths generally don't reduce durability. Better to die from hellfire and lose no durability, than via a monster hit!
[right][snapback]91977[/snapback][/right]

Because it's considered a PvP kill, not a PvE kill. I love when I die due to my own HF cause it means I only lose buffs, not money too.

[Tuftears]

That explains why when a paladin uses Divine Intervention on someone, he doesn't suffer a durability decrease...

[Tal]

This looks very good.  Great even, up until you get into a healing rotation.  Once you're past 40, you end up behind tanks with 4000+hps and greater heal becomes easier to use as your mainstay.

Personally, I'm NOT quite as big a greater heal fan.  I'd rather be able to use the smaller heals more flexibly and only drop into greater heals when things are going right and I have lots of time or when things go wrong and I know I'm going to run out of mana.  ;)  That said, there's a lot of criticism of greater heal and it's unjustified.  Have I had people die on me while casting greater heal?  Yes.  Why was I casting greater heal?  I was out of mana and if I only had 450 mana to throw at someone I was going to go with a greater heal to get the most out of it.  Mage caught aggro?  Renew.  Rogue ... well ... being a rogue?  Renew.  Mob gets untanked and drifts back and takes a few smacks at me before getting pulled off?  Renew.  Life has gone to hell in a handbasket and I'm going to be getting tight on mana (and I'm healing someone with 3k+ hps)?  Greater heal.  No question.

I'm doing a Disc/Holy build on my latest priest (my third - just hit 40 last night).  LOVE the play style.  So much more "me" than the shadow priests I've played before.  A shadow priest can't hold a candle to a disc or holy priest when it comes to healing instances.  I proved that to myself a week and a half ago when I was the sole healer in a party that did Z'F - and my priest was lvl 36!  There's NO WAY I would have pulled that off with a shadow priest!

That said.. yea, it's easier to do Z'F at 40.  :P
[right][snapback]92016[/snapback][/right]

I have to admit that your post puzzles me. I deliberately chose talents that maxmized my heals both greater and renew. I frequently will drop a renew at the beginning of fights or in the manner that you detailed and switch to greater heal on the main tank for mana efficiency.

[vor_lord]

I have to admit that your post puzzles me. I deliberately chose talents that maxmized my heals both greater and renew. I frequently will drop a renew at the beginning of fights or in the manner that you detailed and switch to greater heal on the main tank for mana efficiency.
[right][snapback]92022[/snapback][/right]

Your renew is not maximized without Mental Agility. With Improved Renew, Spiritual Healing, and Mental Agility, the only thing better mana efficiency-wise is a fully talented Greater Heal (which you have, but often can't make use of).

[savaughn]

Your renew is not maximized without Mental Agility.  With Improved Renew, Spiritual Healing, and Mental Agility, the only thing better mana efficiency-wise is a fully talented Greater Heal (which you have, but often can't make use of).
[right][snapback]92036[/snapback][/right]

Bingo.

With your build, Tal, I'm pretty sure you want to be using Flash Heal instead of Renew for efficiency. It takes both Mental Agility and Imp. Renew to pull Renew out in front for efficiency. That said, MA's improvement to all of the other instant abilities - especially Shield and SW:P - make it hands down my favorite talent in the entire priest list.

[vor_lord]

That said, MA's improvement to all of the other instant abilities - especially Shield and SW:P - make it hands down my favorite talent in the entire priest list.
[right][snapback]92054[/snapback][/right]

:wub: Mental Agility

That said, on my spreadsheet improved renew with spiritual healing beats out flash heal with spiritual healing:

Renew with Improved Renew and Spiritual Healing (no MA): 2.77 health per mana
Flash Heal with Spiritual Healing: 2.56 health per mana


Add MA to renew and you get a whopping 3.08 health per mana. Add +120 to healing and you get 3.45.

[Tal]

:wub: Mental Agility

That said, on my spreadsheet improved renew with spiritual healing beats out flash heal with spiritual healing:

Renew with Improved Renew and Spiritual Healing (no MA): 2.77 health per mana
Flash Heal with Spiritual Healing:                                        2.56 health per mana
Add MA to renew and you get a whopping 3.08 health per mana.  Add +120 to healing and you get 3.45.
[right][snapback]92055[/snapback][/right]

In light of your feedback how does this build look?

Minimum Required Level: 60
Required Talent Points: 51

Discipline Talents - 17 points

Unbreakable Will - rank 5/5
Wand Specialization - rank 2/5
Improved Power Word: Shield - rank 3/3
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - rank 2/2
Mental Agility - rank 5/5

Holy Talents - 30 points

Improved Renew - rank 5/5
Spiritual Healing - rank 5/5
Holy Fire - rank 1/1
Subtlety - rank 4/5
Improved Healing - rank 5/5
Improved Flash Heal - rank 2/2
Improved Prayer of Healing - rank 2/2
Spirit of Redemption - rank 1/1
Master Healer - rank 5/5

Shadow Talents - 4 points

Spirit Tap - rank 4/5

I'm still not certain if this girl will ever be utilized in end game raiding with the exception of Onyxia but in looking over the Discipline tree it appears that it might be the better tree for a healer focused on end game raiding with minor investments in the Holy tree most notably Improved Renew, Improved flash heal, etc.

[vor_lord]

In light of your feedback how does this build look?
[right][snapback]92076[/snapback][/right]

My personal opinion is that if you're going to forgo Inner Focus yet be 30 points deep in Holy, you should get Holy Nova. I think it fits well with your theme, and it sounds fun.

If your points in wand spec are soloing related and not theme related, and holy nova isn't critical for you, another consideration might be getting 7 points in shadow over wand spec. 33% better mana/damage efficiency on Pain (as a non-shadow priest you'll use all of that 24 seconds :P). But you won't get maxed Master Healer and that might not be appropriate for your theme either.

I'm taking some advice from Treesh and trying out some Crystal Forces to simulate the Divine Spirit buff. Since I'll be aiming for a shadow-free build once I finally hit 60, it's now a choice between a full 31 points in Discipline, or a near even split between Disc and Holy. I'll be shooting for capacity (which means mana efficiency), and skipping Master Healer. Greater Heal rocks for when you can use it. I just don't think .5 seconds off the cast time shifts the line of when you can use it to make it more usable very much. Nicer to use, but not usable in more situations.

There's no question I miss being shadow when soloing. My DPS is cut in half. But I love the Disc/Holy talents for healing and I don't regret my respec at all (I'm going to need all that capacity in ST tonight ;) )

[Artega]

My priest (which how I refer, since she prefers me to our guild's other tanks, and I prefer her over our guild's other priests) is running a Disc/Holy build. I can't say for certain what her exact spec is, but I know she's at least 31 Disc, because she has Divine Spirit. Just using a minimum 31 point investment in Discipline as a base, this is what I came up with for what I'd think would be a solid soloing build:

Discipline Talents

5/5 Unbreakable Will
3/5 Wand Specialization
2/2 Martyrdom
3/3 Improved Power Word: Shield
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
1/1 Focused Casting
5/5 Mental Agility
3/5 Mental Strength
3/3 Improved Inner Fire
5/5 Meditation
1/1 Inner Focus
1/1 Divine Spirit

Shadow Talents

5/5 Spirit Tap
2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain

Holy Talents

5/5 Improved Renew
5/5 Spiritual Healing

This nets you the Focused Casting ability (essentially another Power Word: Shield every time you're critted and/or once every minute), Improved Inner Fire (Bringing it to +159 AP and +1348 Armor) and the ability to increase the crit chance of any spell by 25% in addition to making it mana-free once every 5 minutes. The addition of Divine Spirit will jive well with Spirit Tap and Meditation, and Improved Shadow Word: Pain will aid your mana efficiency. Improved Renew and Spiritual Healing serve to significantly bolster Renew, as well as Flash Heal and Greater Heal. Once at 60, dropping five points somewhere in exchange for Subletly may be a good move, unless you're confident that you'll have a good tank every time you visit an instance :)

[KiloVictor]

My personal opinion is that if you're going to forgo Inner Focus yet be 30 points deep in Holy, you should get Holy Nova.  I think it fits well with your theme, and it sounds fun.
[right][snapback]92084[/snapback][/right]

I've never tried a full Holy build, so I can't speak to Holy Nova. But I have decided after all my respecs that my happy point in Discipline is 21 points, just for IF. If I was going to change anything for raiding, I might go to a full Disc/Holy build. I'm currently 21/21/9 Disc/Shadow/Holy - Shadow for Imp. Fade and Silence, Discipline through IF, and dribbles in Holy to make up the rest.

With IF and decent SPR, you can go an amazingly long time on a relatively small mana pool. IF allows you to get one free cast without interrupting your regen, so you can combine IF + decent SPR + understanding the five-second rule = energizer bunny priest. You keep going, and going, and going... plus you get MA and Focused Casting along the way, which are also great talents.

If you haven't played with it, I'd suggest trying it out. Maybe get a few SPR enchants too, and see how you like the Discipline goodies.

Kv

[Lissa]

In light of your feedback how does this build look?

Minimum Required Level: 60
Required Talent Points: 51

Discipline Talents -  17 points

Unbreakable Will - rank 5/5
Wand Specialization - rank 2/5
Improved Power Word: Shield - rank 3/3
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - rank 2/2
Mental Agility - rank 5/5

Holy Talents -  30 points

Improved Renew - rank 5/5
Spiritual Healing - rank 5/5
Holy Fire - rank 1/1
Subtlety - rank 4/5
Improved Healing - rank 5/5
Improved Flash Heal - rank 2/2
Improved Prayer of Healing - rank 2/2
Spirit of Redemption - rank 1/1
Master Healer - rank 5/5

Shadow Talents -  4 points

Spirit Tap - rank 4/5

I'm still not certain if this girl will ever be utilized in end game raiding with the exception of Onyxia but in looking over the Discipline tree it appears that it might be the better tree for a healer focused on end game raiding with minor investments in the Holy tree most notably Improved Renew, Improved flash heal, etc.
[right][snapback]92076[/snapback][/right]

Personally, I would drop the 2 points from Wand Specilization (either go 5 or go nothing) and put those 2 points into Spirit Tap (5/5) and Holy Nova.

[Lissa]

I'm doing a Disc/Holy build on my latest priest (my third - just hit 40 last night).  LOVE the play style.  So much more "me" than the shadow priests I've played before.  A shadow priest can't hold a candle to a disc or holy priest when it comes to healing instances.  I proved that to myself a week and a half ago when I was the sole healer in a party that did Z'F - and my priest was lvl 36!  There's NO WAY I would have pulled that off with a shadow priest!

That said.. yea, it's easier to do Z'F at 40.  :P
[right][snapback]92016[/snapback][/right]

While Disc/Holy and Holy/Disc can be more efficient than Shadow/Disc or Shadow/Holy (now there's a variant build for you), that doesn't detract from a Shadowpriest being able to heal. To be a good Healer while being a Shadowpriest just takes knowing your spells in and out and which spells to use and when. With Disc/Holy or Holy/Disc, you can be a little more sloppy in your play and get a way with it, but Shadowpriest allows for little to no room for error.

While a Shadowpriest can't pull off what you did at 36 in Zul'Farrak, a Shadowpriest can still act as primary healer in endgame instances and raids and be just as effective (not as efficient however) as Disc/Holy or Holy/Disc priests.