Advanced Topics in Priest Play

[MongoJerry]

I made a small addition to this guide by adding in first aid bandages to the list of healing spells and abilities at a priest's disposal. The change was too small to make a new thread about it, so I edited this post.

ADVANCED TOPICS IN PRIEST PLAY: GROUP HEALING TACTICS

Most priest guides will describe what the priests spells and talents do. This is not one of those guides. Anyone can regurgitate the manual, but only a player who has played a level capped World of Warcraft priest for months can tell you which spells are the best to use in different situations. The assumption in this guide is that at any moment, there is a specific "best" action one should take. One could use the second or third best action available and survive just fine, but if one desires to be the best possible priest player, then one should always be looking to improve one's play and should always be willing to consider if an alternative tactic would have been better.

For today, we will consider only the healing tactics used by priests in PvE group play. Basically, we're focusing on 5-player and larger groups, where a priest's role is primarily, but not exclusively, one of healing.

HEALING SPELLS

There are five primary healing spells at a high level priest's disposal: Renew, Shield, Prayer of Healing, Flash Heal, and Greater Heal. In addition, there is the often overlooked First Aid option. Learning when to use which of the healing spells/skills should be of primary concern to all priests. The advantages and disadvantages of each kind of healing spell/skill become clear in the following table.

NOTE: The following table will make the assumption of a minimum 10 talent point investment in the Holy tree -- 5 points spent in Improved Renew and 5 points spent in Spiritual Healing. It's a rare high level priest who enters an instance dungeon who doesn't have points spent in those two talents.

Code:

                          Level 60 Priest Healing Spells
 (Assuming a 5 point talent investment in each of Improved Renew and Spiritual Healing)

                           CT  |  ME         | Heal/sec     | Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Renew                      1.0 | 3.00        | 72.9         | ME= 3.33 with maxed Mental Agility
Shield                     1.0 | 1.88        |              | ME= 2.08 with maxed Mental Agility
Prayer of Healing          3.0 | 1.03/player | 353.8/player | ME= 1.22/player with Improved PoH
Flash Heal                 1.5 | 2.56        | 649          |
Greater Heal               4.0 | 2.90        | 697          | ME= 3.41 with Improved Healing
Heavy Runecloth Bandage    1.0 | Infinite    | 250/sec      |

CT= Cast Time in seconds.  Renew and Shield are "instant cast," but they each have been assigned a cast time of 1 second, since it takes one second after each is cast before the priest can cast another spell.
ME= Mana Efficiency -- Health healed / Mana points spent
Heal/sec= How much health is healed per second if one were to spam cast the spell.

Renew: Renew heals over the span of 15 seconds and is by far the most mana efficient and most convenient healing spell in a priest's healing arsenal. It's the most mana efficient not only because of the raw numbers you see in the table above but also because one is unlikely to over heal with Renew. It's convenient because of its short cast time. It's the first healing spell I cast on a person when they get hit, and it's also the spell I cast on people who have been hurt but are safe for the moment. For example, if a rogue in the party pulls aggro onto himself but flashes to get out of trouble, I'll cast renew on him and then go back to healing the party's tank.

The main disadvantage to Renew is the fact that it takes 15 seconds for all of its healing to take effect, making it wholly ineffective in saving someone who is in immediate danger of dying.

Note: Sometimes people will say that Renew is a good healing spell, because it causes the least amount of aggro. This is not true. It only appears that way, because its aggro is generated slowly over time while it slowly heals over time. The aggro generated per point of health healed is the same for all healing spells, however. So, after Renew's 15 seconds are up, it will have generated as much aggro on the target as a similar strength Flash Heal. It is true, however, that Renew is an effective way to gently heal one's tank during the crucial few moments while the tank is still building up aggro.

Shield: The yin to Renew's yang, Shield goes into full effect immediately but is by far the most mana inefficient healing spell. There are two primary purposes for Shield. The first is to preshield a character who you know is about to take a pounding. For example, one might preshield the tank right before he or shield charges toward a boss. (You can drink or use your spirit mana regeneration to retrieve the lost mana before the fight commences). Or, one can preshield a mage or warlock right before they start casting area-of-effect spells to kill off a swarm of small mobs.

The second purpose for Shield is to protect someone who is in immediate danger of dying. That is, you're not sure if the person could survive waiting the 1.5 seconds it would take to cast a Flash Heal. If you are forced to cast a Shield for this reason, it means that something in the group broke down that should get fixed. If you are finding yourself casting emergency Shields often while playing with different parties, then you should examine your own play and see if there are things you could be doing differently. Emergency Shields are for emergencies only and should not be considered a normal part of a priest's healing regimen.

Prayer of Healing: The priest's group heal, Prayer of Healing is the most mana efficient and fastest way to heal when three or more party members need healing. Basically, if you look at the health bars of your party and find that you want to provide Flash Heals to three or more people, and yet no one is in danger of dying immediately, then use Prayer of Healing. I use it most often when fighting a boss who has a powerful area-of-effect attack. Generally in such situations, I alternate casts of PoH on the group and Flash Heals on the tank. By the way, PoH also heals warlock and hunter pets, so PoH becomes even more effective when the party has warlocks and hunters in it.

First Aid Bandages: The use of bandages is often overlooked by priest players (including the author of this guide who forgot to include it in his first writeup). However, in a long boss fight where every ounce of mana needs to be conserved, bandages can play an important role. The limitations on bandages are that the bandager (the priest) must stand still and that the bandaging will stop if either the bandager or the target get damaged. After an person has been bandaged even a little, they cannot be bandaged again for a minute. These limitations give many people the mistaken impression that first aide is useless in a battle. That impression couldn't be more wrong.

For one thing, often someone will get hit but then manage to get away from whatever hurt them. A rogue might Vanish, a mage might Frost Nova, a warlock might fear a mob, or the tank might taunt a mob off a person. In these cases, the person was hurt but isn't being hurt now, so a priest can use a bandage to heal that person without using mana. In fact, the priest will gain mana during the bandaging process through spirit regeneration. I find it particularly useful to bandage myself in a battle, because I know when I am or am not going to be in danger for several seconds.

Second, bandaging can even be useful as an emergency measure to heal partymembers who are actively taking damage. It's true that a party's tank or a partymember who's taking periodic aoe damage isn't going to be able to go eight seconds without taking damage. However, bandaging heals over time, and even a partial brief bandage heal in an emergency can sometimes keep a target partymember alive long enough for the priest to regen enough mana to get another Flash Heal off.

Flash Heal vs Greater Heal: I've come across many priests who say that Greater Heal's four second cast time makes it worthless and also many other priests who say that Greater Heal's mana efficiency makes it the only healing spell a priest should ever use. The zealotry in the arguments surrounding the Flash Heal vs Greater Heal debate astonish me, considering the fact that the only real conclusion one can make after studying the topic are that both extremes are wrong.

Falacy of the "Flash Heal Only" argument: I use Flash Heal a lot, too, but come on, guys, the numbers don't lie. Greater Heal is naturally 13% more mana efficient than Flash Heal and a whopping 33% more mana efficient than Flash Heal if one spends the talent points in Improved Healing. One can develop a sense for knowing when one can safely cast a 4-second heal and take advantage of that extra mana efficiency. This doesn't mean that one should dump Flash Heal altogether. It simply means that if one wants to be the best priest possible that one should work Greater Heal into one's repertoire.

Falacy of the "Greater Heal Only" argument: It's the arguments of the "Greater Heal Only" crowd that astound me the most, however. The gist of their arguments tend to be that in a "good" group, all of the damage will strike the tank and that a "good" priest can always perfectly time his or her Greater Heals to provide maximum effectiveness. GHO crowd members tend to live in ivory towers where all plans work perfectly. They are like a baseball player who says that he "owns" a certain pitcher. When you point out that he has hit .250 off the pitcher, excuses come out about how the wind wasn't right on this or that day, how the umpire called balls and strikes wrong, or how some fielder got a lucky break. Look, I don't care what the excuses are. The end result is that it's not effective to have a tactic that only works in the cases when everything works according to plan.

Advantages of Greater Heal: Raw numberswise, Greater Heal is more mana efficient.

Advantages of Flash Heal: Flash Heal allows for greater flexibility. If one starts a heal on the party's tank and then the situation suddenly shifts -- a rogue or mage pulls aggro, an add comes in, a mob wakes up from sap or sheep early, whatever -- one has more options available. With Flash Heal, one can choose to cancel the heal, let the Flash Heal finish and then move on, or continue to focus on the tank and let the rest of the party handle the new situation. With Greater Heal, there are only two options: Cancel the heal or let the full four-second cast run its course. There is no option to "half heal" someone.

In addition, Greater Heal isn't as mana efficient in the real world as the "Greater Heal Only" crowd thinks. It is easy to over heal with Greater Heal, and any portion of the healing above a player's maximum health is wasted. This waste is particularly harsh when one gets a critical heal, which occur 10-15% of the time at high levels, depending on the priest's intelligence. The critical portions of Greater Heals are almost always wasted, while priests who cast Flash Heal can often take advantage of critical heals. This is why I often call Holy Specialization, the talent that increases the chance to get critical heals, the "Real Improved Flash Heal."

Conclusion: Through most of the beta, I was firmly entrenched in the 90%-to-10% Flash Heal-to-Greater Heal ratio crowd. That is, Flash Heal was my primary healing spell, and I only switched to Greater Heal in special cases like during a long boss fight where eking out every ounce of mana efficiency was required. A theoretical 13% boost to mana efficiency wasn't enough to convince me to give up the flexibility Flash Heal provided, especially when I knew that in the real world the increased mana efficiency was far less than 13%.

However, late changes to the priest Holy Talent tree have made me take a longer look at Greater Heal. Maxing Improved Healing now only requires a 20 talent point investment in the Holy tree, and doing so makes Greater Heal have a whopping 33% higher mana efficiency over Flash Heal. Even the staunchest members of the "Flash Heal Only" crowd have to admit that that is significant. Once my new priestess gets to a high enough level to get Improved Healing, I predict a shift in my own healing tactics to a more 50%-50% Flash Heal-to-Greater Heal ratio. That is, I predict using Greater Heal as my primary spell for healing tanks and Flash Heal as my primary spell for healing other members of my parties as needed.

[Pantalaimon]

Hey nice guide :D I've only gotten to level 20 and just got flash, but so far I'm loving it as my only alternatives are renew and normal heal (and shield of course for emergencies).

My question, though, is do you keep renew active on anyone who's taking damage? I try to keep renew up at all times since if I just flash healed everyone when they dropped below, say, half health, my mana'd be gone pretty quickly. Is the renew insignificant later on?

[MongoJerry]

My question, though, is do you keep renew active on anyone who's taking damage? I try to keep renew up at all times since if I just flash healed everyone when they dropped below, say, half health, my mana'd be gone pretty quickly.  Is the renew insignificant later on?

No, it's not insignificant, as I said directly in the guide:

[Renew]'s the first healing spell I cast on a person when they get hit, and it's also the spell I cast on people who have been hurt but are safe for the moment.

But, if a person is getting hit a lot, Renew by itself isn't going to cover all the healing and one will have to use Flash Heal and/or Greater Heal to provide additional healing.

[Lissa]

Couple of addendums to throw in here and there.

This is the first part of what I'm envisioning to be a small series titled "Advanced Topics in Priest Play," discussing the practical use of different priest spells, tactics, and abilities.  Future topics I envision include, "Mind Control is Not Just a Toy," and perhaps some suggestions on solo, small group, and PvP play.  All suggestions and comments are welcome.
ADVANCED TOPICS IN PRIEST PLAY: GROUP HEALING TACTICS

Most priest guides will describe what the priests spells and talents do.  This is not one of those guides.  Anyone can regurgitate the manual, but only a player who has played a level capped World of Warcraft priest for months can tell you which spells are the best to use in different situations.  The assumption in this guide is that at any moment, there is a specific "best" action one should take.  One could use the second or third best action available and survive just fine, but if one desires to be the best possible priest player, then one should always be looking to improve one's play and should always be willing to consider if an alternative tactic would have been better.

For today, we will consider only the healing tactics used by priests in PvE group play.  Basically, we're focusing on 5-player and larger groups, where a priest's role is primarily, but not exclusively, one of healing.

HEALING SPELLS

There are five primary healing spells at a high level priest's disposal: Renew, Shield, Prayer of Healing, Flash Heal, and Greater Heal.  Learning when to use which of the healing spells should be  of primary concern to all priests.  The advantages and disadvantages of each kind of healing spell become clear in the following table.

NOTE: The following table will make the assumption of a minimum 10 talent point investment in the Holy tree -- 5 points spent in Improved Renew and 5 points spent in Spiritual Healing.  It's a rare high level priest who enters an instance dungeon who doesn't have points spent in those two talents.

Code:

                          Level 60 Priest Healing Spells
 (Assuming a 5 point talent investment in each of Improved Renew and Spiritual Healing)

                     CT  |  ME         | Heal/sec     | Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Renew                1.0 | 3.00        | 72.9         | ME= 3.33 with maxed Mental Agility
Shield               1.0 | 1.88        |              | ME= 2.08 with maxed Mental Agility
Prayer of Healing    3.0 | 1.03/player | 353.8/player | ME= 1.22/player with Improved PoH
Flash Heal           1.5 | 2.56        | 649          |
Greater Heal         4.0 | 2.90        | 697          | ME= 3.41 with Improved Healing

CT= Cast Time in seconds.  Renew and Shield are "instant cast," but they each have been assigned a cast time of 1 second, since it takes one second after each is cast before the priest can cast another spell.
ME= Mana Efficiency -- Health healed / Mana points spent
Heal/sec= How much health is healed per second if one were to spam cast the spell.

Renew: Renew heals over the span of 15 seconds and is by far the most mana efficient and most convenient healing spell in a priest's healing arsenal.  It's the most mana efficient not only because of the raw numbers you see in the table above but also because one is unlikely to over heal with Renew.  It's convenient because of its short cast time.  It's the first healing spell I cast on a person when they get hit, and it's also the spell I cast on people who have been hurt but are safe for the moment.  For example, if a rogue in the party pulls aggro onto himself but flashes to get out of trouble, I'll cast renew on him and then go back to healing the party's tank.

The main disadvantage to Renew is the fact that it takes 15 seconds for all of its healing to take effect, making it wholly ineffective in saving someone who is in immediate danger of dying.

Note: Sometimes people will say that Renew is a good healing spell, because it causes the least amount of aggro.  This is not true.  It only appears that way, because its aggro is generated slowly over time while it slowly heals over time.  The aggro generated per point of health healed is the same for all healing spells, however.  So, after Renew's 15 seconds are up, it will have generated as much aggro on the target as a similar strength Flash Heal.  It is true, however, that Renew is an effective way to gently heal one's tank during the crucial few moments while the tank is still building up aggro.

Ah, but you forget something here. When dealing with Renew, the reason people say it is the least agro causing is while it is in effect, other members of your party are generating agro as well. So while you will generate the agro eventually from Renew, by the time you fully generate it your party members will have counter balanced some of that agro, this is part of the reason why people say it is the least agro causing spell.

Shield: The yin to Renew's yang, Shield goes into full effect immediately but is by far the most mana inefficient healing spell.  There are two primary purposes for Shield.  The first is to preshield a character who you know is about to take a pounding.  For example, one might preshield the tank right before he or shield charges toward a boss.  (You can drink or use your spirit mana regeneration to retrieve the lost mana before the fight commences).  Or, one can preshield a mage or warlock right before they start casting area-of-effect spells to kill off a swarm of small mobs.

The second purpose for Shield is to protect someone who is in immediate danger of dying.  That is, you're not sure if the person could survive waiting the 1.5 seconds it would take to cast a Flash Heal.  If you are forced to cast a Shield for this reason, it means that something in the group broke down that should get fixed.  If you are finding yourself casting emergency Shields often while playing with different parties, then you should examine your own play and see if there are ways to improve your own play.  Emergency Shields are for emergencies only and should not be considered a normal part of a priest's healing regimen.

The problem with shield to save someone is if they went from full health to practically no health in less than 2.5 seconds, a shield is not going to save them as it will take you 2.5 seconds to cast a Flash if you cast a Shield first (.5 second cooldown on any spell + .5 second animation that instant spells have). Some people are going to die when they gain agro and there is nothing that you can do as a Priest, no matter how good you are it's just a fact of the game. If someone is about to die, you don't think they can last 1.5 seconds, but you do think they could last 2.5 seconds, then Shield works followed by a Flash.

Prayer of Healing:  The priest's group heal, Prayer of Healing is the most mana efficient and the fastest way to heal when three or more party members need healing.  Basically, if you look at the health bars of your party and find that you want to provide Flash Heals to three or more people, and yet no one is in danger of dying immediately, then use Prayer of Healing.  I use it most often when fighting a boss who has a powerful area-of-effect attack.  Generally in such situations, I alternate casts of PoH on the group and Flash Heals on the tank.  By the way, PoH also heals warlock and hunter pets, so PoH becomes even more effective when the party has warlocks and hunters in it.

One thing to remember about PoH though is that, like you pointed out above, it is very situational. It also is the one spell that garners the most agro of all the Priest's healing spells (since over heal is still just as much agro as if you underheal, ie, the full 2.5k+ health you heal is still going to come down on you).

Flash Heal vs Greater Heal:  I've come across many priests who say that Greater Heal's four second cast time makes it worthless and also many other priests who say that Greater Heal's mana efficiency makes it the only healing spell a priest should ever use.  The zealotry in the arguments surrounding the Flash Heal vs Greater Heal debate astonish me, considering the fact that the only real conclusion one can make after studying the topic are that both extremes are wrong.Falacy of the "Flash Heal Only" argument:  I use Flash Heal a lot, too, but come on, guys, the numbers don't lie.  Greater Heal is naturally 13% more mana efficient than Flash Heal and a whopping 33% more mana efficient than Flash Heal if one spends the talent points in Improved Healing.  One can develop a sense for knowing when one can safely cast a 4-second heal and take advantage of that extra mana efficiency.  This doesn't mean that one should dump Flash Heal altogether.  It simply means that if one wants to be the best priest possible that one should work Greater Heal into one's repertoire.

Falacy of the "Greater Heal Only" argument: It's the arguments of the "Greater Heal Only" crowd that astound me the most, however.  The gist of their arguments tend to be that in a "good" group, all of the damage will strike the tank and that a "good" priest can always perfectly time his or her Greater Heals to provide maximum effectiveness.  GHO crowd members tend to live in ivory towers where all plans work perfectly.  They are like a baseball player who says that he "owns" a certain pitcher.  When you point out that he has hit .250 off the pitcher, excuses come out about how the wind wasn't right on this or that day, how the umpire called balls and strikes wrong, or how some fielder got a lucky break.  Look, I don't care what the excuses are.  The end result is that it's not effective to have a tactic that only works in the cases when everything works according to plan.

Advantages of Greater Heal: Raw numberswise, Greater Heal is more mana efficient.

Advantages of Flash Heal: Flash Heal allows for greater flexibility.  If one starts a heal on the party's tank and then the situation suddenly shifts -- a rogue or mage pulls aggro, an add comes in, a mob wakes up from sap or sheep early, whatever -- one has more options available.  With Flash Heal, one can choose to cancel the heal, let the Flash Heal finish and then move on, or continue to focus on the tank and let the rest of the party handle the new situation.  With Greater Heal, there are only two options: Cancel the heal or let the full four-second cast run its course.  There is no option to "half heal" someone.

In addition, Greater Heal isn't as mana efficient in the real world as the "Greater Heal Only" crowd thinks.  It is easy to over heal with Greater Heal, and any portion of the healing above a player's maximum health is wasted.  This waste is particularly harsh when one gets a critical heal, which occur 10-15% of the time at high levels, depending on the priest's intelligence. The critical portions of Greater Heals are almost always wasted, while priests who cast Flash Heal can often take advantage of critical heals.  This is why I often call Holy Specialization, the talent that increases the chance to get critical heals, the "Real Improved Flash Heal."

Conclusion: Through most of the beta, I was firmly entrenched in the 90%-to-10% Flash Heal-to-Greater Heal ratio crowd.  That is, Flash Heal was my primary healing spell, and I only switched to Greater Heal in special cases like during a long boss fight where eking out every ounce of mana efficiency was required.  A theoretical 13% boost to mana efficiency wasn't enough to convince me to give up the flexibility Flash Heal provided, especially when I knew that in the real world the increased mana efficiency was far less than 13%.

Totally and complete agree. Both spells have their usage, it's really a matter of realizing when each is to be used. This is the most difficult aspect of learning how to be truly healing and mana efficient while running instances, when to use the big heal and when the flash heal is enough.

However, late changes to the priest Holy Talent tree have made me take a longer look at Greater Heal.  Maxing Improved Healing now only requires a 20 talent point investment in the Holy tree, and doing so makes Greater Heal have a whopping 33% higher mana efficiency over Flash Heal.  Even the staunchest members of the "Flash Heal Only" crowd have to admit that that is significant.  Once my new priestess gets to a high enough level to get Improved Healing, I predict a shift in my own healing tactics to a more 50%-50% Flash Heal-to-Greater Heal ratio.  That is, I predict using Greater Heal as my primary spell for healing tanks and Flash Heal as my primary spell for healing other members of my parties as needed.
[right][snapback]61679[/snapback][/right]

To be honest, the half second savings that Master Healer gives isn't as good as it seems. If Master Healer dropped the cast time of all Healing spells or gave a higher percentage drop to casting times, it would be a great talent. As it stands right now, Master Healer is really so-so and you can easily do without it.

[MongoJerry]

Couple of addendums to throw in here and there.
Ah, but you forget something here.  When dealing with Renew, the reason people say it is the least agro causing is while it is in effect, other members of your party are generating agro as well.  So while you will generate the agro eventually from Renew, by the time you fully generate it your party members will have counter balanced some of that agro, this is part of the reason why people say it is the least agro causing spell.

Thanks for the comments, Lissa. It's interesting that you made this comment, though, since the writer in me says, "Um, didn't I just say that?" But then the editor in me says, "Well, obviously, you didn't." I'll see if there's a way I can make that more clear.

The problem with shield to save someone is if they went from full health to practically no health in less than 2.5 seconds, a shield is not going to save them as it will take you 2.5 seconds to cast a Flash if you cast a Shield first (.5 second cooldown on any spell + .5 second animation that instant spells have).  Some people are going to die when they gain agro and there is nothing that you can do as a Priest, no matter how good you are it's just a fact of the game.  If someone is about to die, you don't think they can last 1.5 seconds, but you do think they could last 2.5 seconds, then Shield works followed by a Flash.

Damage doesn't get dealt in a vacuum. There can be the situation where multiple people are getting hurt and by the time you work your way down to a given person, they're almost dead. Again, this is likely due to some kind of tactical breakdown, but it doesn't necessarily mean that a given person has gone from full health to practically no health in 2.5 seconds. It could have taken 5-8 seconds, but you had to also cast flash heals on other members of the party, too.

One thing to remember about PoH though is that, like you pointed out above, it is very situational.  It also is the one spell that garners the most agro of all the Priest's healing spells (since over heal is still just as much agro as if you underheal, ie, the full 2.5k+ health you heal is still going to come down on you).

It's strange. PoH seems to generate more expressions of jitters about aggro than any other healing spell and yet the only times that I have problems with PoH pulling aggro is when I pull mobs who have not been previously locked down by the tank. That is, I only pull those mobs who would have been pulled if I had used any other healing spell instead . My experience is that aggro only seems to be generated in WoW by the amount you heal the person who is currently being attacked by the mob -- and not, as some people think, by the amount healed on all of the players on a mob's hate list. I think some people are thinking of other games and assuming WoW works the same way, because my experience of WoW tells me a very different story from what some other people say.

This issue seems ripe for a formal Lurker Lounge investigation.

To be honest, the half second savings that Master Healer gives isn't as good as it seems.  If Master Healer dropped the cast time of all Healing spells or gave a higher percentage drop to casting times, it would be a great talent.  As it stands right now, Master Healer is really so-so and you can easily do without it.

I didn't mention Master Healer, since it didn't seem worth mentioning to me, either. I did discuss Improved Healing, however, which is in contrast very significant.

[Lissa]

PoH seems to generate more expressions of jitters about aggro than any other healing spell and yet the only times that I have problems with PoH pulling aggro is when I pull mobs who have not been previously locked down by the tank.  That is, I only pull those mobs who would have been pulled if I had used any other healing spell instead .  My experience is that aggro only seems to be generated in WoW by the amount you heal the person who is currently being attacked by the mob -- and not, as some people think, by the amount healed on all of the players on a mob's hate list.  I think some people are thinking of other games and assuming WoW works the same way, because my experience of WoW tells me a very different story from what some other people say.
[right][snapback]61705[/snapback][/right]

The problem isn't so much that PoH itself generates more agro, it that overheal seems to generate the additional agro and with PoH, you're more likely to hit an overheal than with other Healing spells (overheal is when you heal more health than the person has damage). A number of Priests did some tests on this during Beta on the Priest board and found that overheal is probably the worst thing that you can do in the game, one of the minor reasons a few Priests were up in arms over critical heals in general. From what they were able to surmise from testing was that if you overhealed, you generated more agro than if you underhealed. How much additional agro was generated was unknown, but it some cases, the closer the person was to full health with an overheal occuring, the worse the agro attained was. Thus if you used a PoH where you were untouched while members of your group were in various states of damage, you would overheal on yourself and possibly other group members and the agro generated was greater than it would have been through using the other burst spells (Flash and Greater Heal).

While Overheal can happen with any healing spell, even Renew, it can be far more dangerous with PoH if people aren't down much health and the PoH overheals them garnering the Priest more agro than they were expecting.

[MongoJerry]

Interesting. Like I said, it doesn't match with my experience and I started using PoH more and more over the last couple of months. I wonder if the forumlae changed.

[Pantalaimon]

*Bump* hey, mages get their guide, and this is an excellent post for new priests ;)

[crowley]

Good stuff. Your #s seem a little bit off from the official forums, but the general gist is there.

Regarding PW:S, i feel it's important to talk about it further since it's one of the tools that define a Priest vs any other healer.

1. It's the most aggro efficient "heal" possible, for any class. PW:S preloaded onto your tank generate 0 aggro
2. PW:S cast during fights generates 50% of the aggro per point vs all other Healing spells.
3. When the tank is afflicted by MS or other healing debuffs, PW:S retains full effectiveness

PW:S
mana efficiency: worst
speed: best
aggro: best

Also take into account that mana is something under a Priest's control, with better equipment you can have a larger mana pool.

Aggro per point generated is fixed, equipment doesn't ever change that (well maybe there are a few), and only 1 talent helps .

There's a reason why the balance team slapped a significant 30 sec lockout timer on this spell that's really absent from any other spell type found in the game...it's extremely useful.

[MongoJerry]

Good stuff. Your #s seem a little bit off from the official forums, but the general gist is there.

Keep in mind the assumption of 10 points spent in the holy tree. That's probably the difference in the numbers. A priest without at least that minimum investment in the holy tree at level 60 should be immediately booted from any instance or raid party.

Regarding PW:S, i feel it's important to talk about it further since it's one of the tools that define a Priest vs any other healer.

I view it oppositely in that I think people, especially non-priests, put too much emphasis on PW:Shield, because of its visibility rather than its actual usefulness. It is my contention that the better a priest is, the less often he or she will cast PW:Shield, because the better the priest is, the less often emergency situations will come up where casting such a mana-inefficient spell becomes necessary.

In regard to the writeup, I give PW:Shield two paragraphs -- one describing pre-shielding and one describing its use as an emergency form of healing. That seems sufficient for the spell. If people really want to know the healing spells that define the priest class over other healers, they should look to Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing.

There's a reason why the balance team slapped a significant 30 sec lockout timer on this spell that's really absent from any other spell type found in the game...it's extremely useful.

They added it for PvP reasons where PW:Shield definitely was overpowered. This guide is focused on group PvE, however.

[Artega]

I don't think Flash Heal would be a class-defining heal; pretty much every class that has healing has a quick-heal, or some variant of it. Druids get Regrowth (which isn't really the same, but it's the closest), Shaman get Lesser Healing Wave, Paladins get Flash of Light...

I'd say that Prayer of Healing is the only class-defining heal they have (Shaman have Healing totems, but they heal a negligible amount of damage at best), but I'm interested in why you think Flash Heal is class-defining.

[MongoJerry]

I don't think Flash Heal would be a class-defining heal; pretty much every class that has healing has a quick-heal, or some variant of it.  Druids get Regrowth (which isn't really the same, but it's the closest), Shaman get Lesser Healing Wave, Paladins get Flash of Light...

...I'm interested in why you think Flash Heal is class-defining.

Fine, fine, Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing, and PW:Shield. Anyway, Regrowth is definitely *not* the same, as any Druid who tried to use it the way Priests use Flash Heal would run out of mana in a heartbeat. Lesser Healing Wave, however, I'll grant is effectively the same -- provided that the shaman has the mana pool that a priest has to use it consistently. Regarding Flash of Light, I must admit some confusion based on the fact that I've never played a paladin and I haven't played Alliance in four months. I just looked up the stats, and they say that the highest level FoL only heals 343-383 damage. Unless there's a talent or ability that boosts that by like 150%, that seems like a pretty worthless spell to a level 60 player.

Flash Heal combined with the large mana pool that priests tend to have gives the priest the ability to effectively heal an entire party in a chaotic battle. It is what allows the priest to provide healing exactly at the spot it's needed most. A three second or longer casting healing spell just doesn't cut it when you're healing the tank and then all of a sudden your mage pulls aggro and is getting pounded on. For most priests, Flash Heal is their primary healing spell, and other classes either don't have as effective of a fast healing spell that they can use in a rapid fire fashion -- or else (shamans), they don't have the mana pool to sustain a chain casting of their spell the way priests can.

[Artega]

Our priest must be lazy or we're just risk-takers. He preshields our mages while I go charge headlong into battle and get everyone riled up. He tosses a renew on me, and the mages go to town with various AoE attacks (generally IAE combined with Frost Nova and the occasional Blizzard.) I use rage accrued to snare the mobs, the mages nuke them, and we move on. Just seems much more efficient than having me tank each and every mob and forcing the mages to use a quarter of their attack power so that I can maintain aggro.

As for quick-heals... I honestly prefer Druids to Priests. I just find that Regrowth and Rejuvenation are much better at healing than Flash Heals and the uber-slow Greater Heals. Everyone knows Gift of the Wild pwns Prayer of Fortitude, anyway :)

[Tal]

Regarding Flash of Light, I must admit some confusion based on the fact that I've never played a paladin and I haven't played Alliance in four months.  I just looked up the stats, and they say that the highest level FoL only heals 343-383 damage.  Unless there's a talent or ability that boosts that by like 150%, that seems like a pretty worthless spell to a level 60 player.
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Right in one. Unless you invest in the healing talents its only worth is in chain casting with another paladin. I use it for quick heals of squishies while someone else has a mob's attention. Other than that I only use it to heal lowbies as I pass through areas.

[Professor Frink]

1. It's the most aggro efficient "heal" possible, for any class. PW:S preloaded onto your tank generate 0 aggro
2. PW:S cast during fights generates 50% of the aggro per point vs all other Healing spells.
3. When the tank is afflicted by MS or other healing debuffs, PW:S retains full effectiveness
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Are you sure PW:S generaltes half aggro vs other heals? It seems like throwing a shield on something regularly causes its attackers to switch to me, even in groups/situations where heavily healing doesn't usually shake anything loose. Maybe shielding something reduces the shieldee's threat?

As for point 3, does PW:S get any benefit from the protected one's armor, dodge, parry, block, etc? If not, then it's even less mana efficient than the raw numbers suggest, whenever the target isn't so debuffed that it's taking more than raw damage.

I rarely use shields, even for emergency heals, as at least for the low (20s) priests i've played it doesn't usually won't absorbe enough damage to prevent death, and i'm usually in a mana-crisis situation before anybody could use it. Dropping my fastest conventional heal on the target and hoping it can potion or pull off some other stunt to save itself seems to work better, even in near-death situations. (I try to have a consistent enough healing regimen that the other party members know when something went wrong and they'll need to save themselves)

Pretty much the only use I make of PW:S is to prevent the daze and spell interruption effects of being hit. It's great for running away from stuff or through areas, or ensuring that the weak mob bothering you doesn't stop you from getting the heal off on the guy fighting the boss (IMHO, "improved PW:S" is a better focused casting than focused casting, for the same 3 talent points)

-- frink

[Treesh]

Aleri never shields a warrior unless it's absolutely certain that the warrior is going to die right then and there if I don't. I'm much freer about shielding warlocks and mages - they take damage, they get shielded until someone pulls the critters off (usually GG's warrior since Aleri never plays without Gnolack and it's so easy to just speak and say "critter on the mage" the second I shield him). Most of the time though I don't really even have to do that since GG gets the critters off quickly enough and if I'm playing with Lurkers it's even less of a worry since most of them know how to not pull aggro with their squishies anyway, but I like to be safe. Hunters, rogues, pallies, druids generally don't get shielded either because there's no need to most of the time. Maybe I'm just really spoiled because there's always a good tank around with Gnolack, but there aren't that many fights where I have to use much more than the occasional renew on folks with maybe a flash heal thrown in now and then. My priest has a rather boring life most of the time. Maybe I need to random group with her more so she gets some serious healing action going on most of the time. ;)

[crowley]

Here's a list of some very good healing & aggro information tested under controlled circumstances. It's been verified by numerous priests on the board, and does fly against "common knowledge" out there...proving that most people don't know what they're talking about (i met a level 30 mage the other day who insisted he got leather armor at 40).

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...est&T=68148&P=1

PW:S does cause half the aggro, per point. However that's still ~500 points of aggro instantaneously.

Damage is taken away from PW:S after armor calculations. So PW:S lasts much longer on armored warriors than on cloth casters.

[Xanthix]

Are you sure PW:S generaltes half aggro vs other heals?  It seems like throwing a shield on something regularly causes its attackers to switch to me, even in groups/situations where heavily healing doesn't usually shake anything loose.  Maybe shielding something reduces the shieldee's threat?

As for point 3, does PW:S get any benefit from the protected one's armor, dodge, parry, block, etc?  If not, then it's even less mana efficient than the raw numbers suggest, whenever the target isn't so debuffed that it's taking more than raw damage.
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It sounds like this information came from this WoW forum thread about healing and aggro. A priest has been doing lots of testing to determine actual aggro rates. She includes her testing methods as well.

Some of the conclusions regarding PW:S:
- PW:S generates half the aggro per point of damage prevented compared to heals
- PW:S does take armor into account
- PW:S does allow warriors to generate rage when being hit

Some of the other very interesting findings:
- Healing X HP generates about half the aggro of doing X damage
- Aggro does not decay over time
- Overhealing causes no additional threat, only actual healing done does
- Fade works by removing X threat, then returning it when it expires. It does not affect the threat of heals cast while Faded
- Healing someone does not necessarily cause aggro on all mobs

This last point is very interesting to me - supposedly healing person X will only cause aggro for mobs who have X on their hate list. So if a warrior is tanking 3 mobs and a rogue is tanking one, healing the rogue should only cause aggro with their mob, not the other three (assuming that the mobs were pulled seperately). Also, self-healing should only cause aggro for mobs that the priest has made himself known to (it, the mobs whose targets the priest has healed, and the mobs the priest has attacked).

This has some very interesting ramifications for priest play, and group play in general. Not all of the findings may be 100% correct, but I think it is a good start for testing.

[Treesh]

- PW:S does allow warriors to generate rage when being hit

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Interesting. If it does allow it, does it reduce the amount of rage generated or does it not affect the amount at all?

[crowley]

Ah ok, 10 points in holy sorry i missed that...that's why your #s were in between the base & talent specs.

Class Defining for Priest...ok i'll state the opinions of myself and friendly guild members here...these are pretty much opposite of what most people think.

#1 class for efficient healing: Druid.
The Druid heals the best per mana point. OOC is dependable once per encounter, and on multi pulls etc can proc far more than that. Equip a level 1 weapon and your melee generates no aggro. Innervate speaks for itself. Lucky druids with OOC have ended a pull with full mana. OOC was one of the talents that finally pushed Devs in beta to re-engineer how procs worked it was so efficient, it still retains very good utility post-beta proc mechanics.

#1 class for healing tough encounters: Priest
Priests heal in the tougher situations. Tank loses aggro, priest has PW:S and Disc Talents to keep casting through it. Priests heals are better for emergencies, FH usually being the choice. Priests can Fade when generating too much aggro or just a bad pull, in addition to their aggro-reduction talent. When party members die, the Priest is obviously the better choice due to Rez vs Druid Rez.

Class Defining Spells for Priest IMHO: Dispel Magic, PW:S, Fade, Fortitude, Rez

Flash Heal/Greater Heal/Renew: Druids, Paladins, Shamans all have a 1.5/2.0 sec heal fast heal, all have a 3.0+ big heal. Druids have an instacast HOT. They can all make one of the ~70% uninterrupted by damage via talents. I know Priests praise FH as an "emergency heal", but Druids can drop a 2.2k base heal as instacast with NS, just every 3minutes. If a group needs something faster than every 3min, it's not really an "emergency" at that point it's every pull.
POH: i don't have enough experience with AE Healing, so i defer to your experience that AE Healing is a Priest job.

I'm not saying Priest heals are inferior, not at all. But frequency of use does not denote class defining to me, if that was the case auto-attack would be class defining for my shaman. IMHO class defining are unique abilities that other classes do not mimic.