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holy priest in trouble...Follow

#1 Aug 04 2011 at 11:18 AM Rating: Good
28 posts
(Long version)
Hello fellow priests,
I am struggling a lot with my holy priest; when it comes to 'raiding' (simple FL trash), my HPS is far lower than similarly geared healers of other classes.

Led by curiosity, I took the dust off my old main, a druid, leveled to 85, respecced resto, started collecting gear etc. etc. and I noticed that even though half of my gear is far worse than the priest's, my HPS is already higher.
In fact, I can push an average of 8-10k with the priest, in either heroics or FL trash, and 10-14k with the druid (heroics only).

The priest is correctly (or so I think) geared, all items are i353+ except one trinket, enchanted everywhere, gemmed, glyphed etc. I value spirit over intellect because otherwise I go OOM too fast; I've used also int or spi/int gems, but I haven't noticed any real difference.
The druid is half in greens and blues (the belt is i289...) and only i353+ gear is gemmed and enchanted. The head is still an heirloom, too, since the last boss in ZA simply refuses to drop the leather head.

The 'rotation' (though there is no real rotation as a healer) of the priest is PWS / Prayer of Mending when I feel like, keep Renew up everywhere, Prayer of Healing / Circle of Healing, Chakra up, with Serenity or Sanctuary depending on the raid needs. Then Heal, GHeal, Binding Heal, Flash Heal, WhateveroHeal as needed. I also place a Lightwell which is regularly ignored by 90% of the party.

Finally, here is the priest:
Almarose
I am playing a bit with the holy spec, so what you can see in the Armory (talents, glyphs, gems) may vary slightly.

And here is the druid:
Listenup

I would find it strange that priests are so broken, and if it's not the character it's the player, which happens to be me.
Hence my questions: what am I doing wrong?

I am not an hardcore player, EJ ha simply too much information for me to understand completely - I'm more of a cookie cutter spec kind of guy.
I also know that since I don't really raid, as long as people are alive I should be happy, and I am.
Still, when I do something, I try to do it good, and when I fail miserably I come here seeking advice.

thanks!

(TL:DR)
I suck. Help!

--EDIT: forgot to add I've read the healing guide sticky and I, uhm, try to stick to it (no pun intended).

Edited, Aug 4th 2011 1:47pm by lostraniero
#2 Aug 04 2011 at 1:22 PM Rating: Good
I don't agree that priests are broken. Each healing class plays differently. That's why having different healing classes in a group tend to compliment each other. Topping the healing meters isn't the only thing that matters. You could probably push more HPS by just spamming PoH constantly, but that wouldn't necessarily be smart.

Be more concerned with what works best, rather than what pushes out the most HPS on a meter. Sometimes you will be concentrating on the tank, sometimes the group, sometimes both. Each may require a little different strategy. Also, I know you are holy, but we do have another healing spec you could try. Use what works best for you.

At the end of the day, you may like Druid healing better. Only you can answer that. If Priest healing needs a bit of a boost, I'm sure Blizzard will make an adjustment.
#3 Aug 04 2011 at 1:48 PM Rating: Good
28 posts
Thanks for your answer, Dadanox.
I didn't say priests are broken: quite the opposite, I said that probably I am broken.

I agree that HPS isn't the most important thing; but the average pug, that does FL trash or BH or any other easy 10man stuff lying around, doesn't care about it and tends to kick healers with low HPS after the first wipe (or dps with low dps, etc. - you got the idea).
It doesn't matter if I know my class inside out, if there's a wipe I can tell by experience that the only thing that pugs see is the numbers.

I don't have the time to dedicate myself to a guild, and stick to their schedule; thus when I see a pug, I jump on it - it's something I have to live with, and stick to the pug rules. At this point, I better adapt and give pugs what they want to see.

Of course, everything I said is related to my experience, and is valid for the server I play in with the random pugs I play with.
#4 Aug 04 2011 at 2:13 PM Rating: Good
I tend to think it's the pugs that are failing, not you. I personally haven't had the issue, since I don't pug much, and I'm the guild master.

FL trash can hit hard and be a problem if people don't crowd control and play smart. Multiple mobs running amuck through the group may require more than simply yelling "more heals". Some actually require the proper strategy.

Do your best, and try not to let the pugs get you down.

edit: Who knows, you may even want to give disc a try Smiley: wink

Edited, Aug 4th 2011 4:21pm by dadanox
#5 Aug 04 2011 at 2:35 PM Rating: Good
28 posts
The Honorable dadanox wrote:
pugs
The Honorable dadanox wrote:
proper strategy

I see the problem here.

Also,
The Honorable dadanox wrote:
you may even want to give disc a try Smiley: wink


I've been disc for a long while (almost all LK).
Switched to holy come Cata because, errr, it seemed easier to keep people up this way Smiley: nod
Now that my gear is better I could give it another try I guess, I got some free time anyway.
#6 Aug 04 2011 at 5:21 PM Rating: Decent
Priest are the hardest healers to play as.

Priest are the hardest healers to play as.

Priest are the hardest healers to play as.

As Cata dropped this became a small problem, as despite them being harder they still pushed good numbers. Disc was, beside Shammy Heals, the best bet for 5s, and in 25s Holy was way up there.

But everyone else has been fixed. Priest hasn't, yet they're still the hardest to play. What does that mean? It means the legitimate and important spells we must use and keep track of in conjuction with the constant throttling (read pre-cognition) required in order to keep mana up so that heals can continue outweighs any of our competition. And I'm not talking about playing like a numbskull - I mean playing well you're still going to run into issues.

Within this class, Holy beats the crud out of Disc in the mana concern department because out of all the classes in the game, I don't think any legitimate rotation has the ability to drain any class of their energy/mana/etc so quickly as Holy Priest.

What this all really boils down to is play style. Where Discs are pro-active healers in every sense of the term, Holy is completely a retro-active heal type. Bonuses for lower HP players and Rolling DoTs that are wasted on full healths are the cornerstones of the class. In most raid healing slow burn situations, you're going to be relying 90% on Renew+PoM. That's where 50% of your mana's gonna go and 80% of your healing is going to come from. For burn stages, other than Druids, nobody can match you - but nobody can burn up their mana like you either.

It's VERY important to stay casting but always be casting the smallest amount needed. This is going to mean you are not going to be top HPS... ever. With the exception of fights like Chimeron or maybe Ryolith, you don't have a sliver of a chance. That doesn't mean you're class is bad, though.

Rolling out Renews - in 25s especially - is a HUGE asset to overall heals and an easy way to at least stay competitive. Guardian Spirit is probably the best targeted defensive cool down in the game. Hymn of Hope, if used correctly, is one of the most powerful mana manipulation tools in the game. Lightwell is INSANELY powerful on a select few fights (read AoE stuns and silences.)
#7 Aug 16 2011 at 3:05 AM Rating: Decent
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60 posts
Its true holy priests aren't healing for as much as druids (or palas) in general, or so the world of logs data suggests. My other half was playing resto druid till recently and he'd say 'yeah but, we have no damage reduction cooldown', which is true, but I reckon druids will be hit with the nerf bat sometime! I'm not too worried if I don't top healing meters, they're fairly meaningless, all that matters is keeping everyone alive.

With the 200% crit change, I've noticed we're better at tank healing than we used to be, we get a lot of crit from serenity and although we're not supposed to like the rng nature of crit, it does help with tank healing. I believe holy priests do well in 25-man as raid healers, but I only play 10s, where all the switching between single-target and raid healing doesn't perfectly suit the holy style of choosing chakras - half the time its anyone's guess which is best.

Just play what you like the best.

#8 Aug 20 2011 at 9:03 PM Rating: Good
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If they nerf Druid healing then they seriously need to buff their single target healing. Our Regrowth (Flash Heal equivalent) is pathetic and absolutely useless in 5-mans. If Tranquility isn't up and sh*t hits the fan, you have two options:

1) Yell at people to stand in the green stuff on the ground that isn't poison.

2) Stop, drop and roll towards the exit portal.

I know that 5-mans are serious business, but healing heroics on a meh geared Druid is painful. Meanwhile, my Priest just finished a Blackrock Caverns run where the only healing spell used was Atonement. I kid you not, I was 3rd on the DPS meter.

Edited, Aug 21st 2011 5:04am by Mazra
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#9 Aug 22 2011 at 8:28 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
I value spirit over intellect because otherwise I go OOM too fast


1. Not saying you are wrong, but aren't we supposed to go INT > SPR?
2. Are other healers doing/seeing the same thing as the OP?
#10 Aug 22 2011 at 10:35 AM Rating: Good
Borsuk wrote:
Quote:
I value spirit over intellect because otherwise I go OOM too fast


1. Not saying you are wrong, but aren't we supposed to go INT > SPR?
2. Are other healers doing/seeing the same thing as the OP?


It's not like you are regularly going to see gear with spirit and no intel. You need both. If you are lacking on regen, it's not a bad thing to focus on it until you are comfortable.

The question is one of balance. If you take it too far, you lose spellpower and max mana.

The armory says the op has 89k mana and 6.3k spellpower. I don't have as much regen as he does, but start with 109k mana and 7.7k spellpower. It is possible that he needs to focus on a bit more intel to raise those stats. Regen is fine, and you should have enough, but it takes minutes to realize the mana you would have already had at the start with more intel.
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