Priestly Diversions

[MongoJerry]

As to a couple of those additions, if half a second is that much that you need, then you're not timing your spells right.

It's the difference between having Greater Heal being worthless and being somewhat useful. That half-second really does make a difference. Now, if they would just make it a full second reduction, then I'd use greater heal all the time.

Also, if Spirit of Redemption kicks off, you're party is already in more trouble than they realize and once you die, the party is likely going to follow you.

How many times have you been in a battle where your group is *almost* able to win it but not quite? After all, if it was a hopeless battle, you or your paladin/shaman would have run long before you got in trouble. But in this case, you *thought* you could make it but that extra add came in or you figured just a little wrong. So, your group is taking a pounding and you die and can't quite give the group that additional heal they need. But wait! What if you could send off a last ditch Prayer of Healing and cast Renew on everyone before you die? Yes, Spirit of Redemption can save so many party wipes that way.

Improved PoH is nice, but you definitely don't need it to be successful (in truth, I have rarely needed to use it in instances and the only one I haven't ran are the raids and scholo).

You don't need it to be successful, but it's extremely nice, and considering the other Holy talents have now become useful, it's no longer a waste of talents to go get it anymore.

If a Shadow Priest can effectively heal while having no Holy talents (and just healing in an instance, not slipping into damage mode), they can be just as effective as a Holy Priest, slightly less efficient (which I did in Stratholme).

Yes, but since a Shadow Priest can't effectively heal while having no Holy Talents in an instance, that point is moot. You must've always had at least one secondary healer with you and maybe more covering for you. Like I said, for me it's boolean. If you're soloing and/or PvPing, then you should go shadow/discipline. If you're running instances and raids, you should go holy/discipline. If you're PvPing as a holy priest, you're not as effective as a PvPer as you should be. If you're running instances or raids as a shadow priest, you're hampering your party. It only costs a little bit of gold to switch between the two, so there's no reason to hamper yourself in any situation by spreading out the talent points.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. The original discussion was whether Holy Tree was useful or not, and the fact that we're talking about it as a place where *some* people could reasonably choose to put talent points means that it is indeed useful now. Some people might prefer shadow over holy and some might like holy over shadow, but holy is no longer the ridiculous tree it once was.