Unusual Holy Priest spec?

faust

faust

New Member
I am considering not speccing into divine spirit with my priest. Since it seems that the majority of our current priests already have this talent, and if I am ever grouped with them the talents are wasted.

Instead I am thinking of taking circle of healing, which I believe could be a solid aoe heal for the melee group in raids. This build would also give me the strongest gheals possible (from a talent point of view).

14/47/0 Holy/Disc build

What do you think? Am I making a mistake for not going with the more traditional 23/38 build?
 
I think you should play your toon however you want. If you want to go CoH instead of DS, that's fine. There are valid points to either build. I think you've made a good point about multiple priests and DS.
 
I'm with you on that build Faust, you gain a lot of bonuses with very little if any downside. Honestly Spirit isnt all that great until after the fight is over anyway. I'd focus on more mp5 during battle.
 
Spirit is one of those "eh...ok" stats. With spiritual attunement, Imp DS, etc... it can be hugely beneficial... but you can easily get the same bonuses to regen, healing by picking up extra +MP5 and +healing.

Divine Spirit is one of those things that is actually more for the rest of the group than it is for the caster. Imp DS gives bonuses to regen and spell damage for the entire group. It's nothing that's life-shattering...be-all, end-all... but it's a nice little bonus.
 
Durruck said:
Spirit is one of those "eh...ok" stats. With spiritual attunement, Imp DS, etc... it can be hugely beneficial... but you can easily get the same bonuses to regen, healing by picking up extra +MP5 and +healing.

Divine Spirit is one of those things that is actually more for the rest of the group than it is for the caster. Imp DS gives bonuses to regen and spell damage for the entire group. It's nothing that's life-shattering...be-all, end-all... but it's a nice little bonus.
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Perhaps for classes like mages, who stack more spirit in their gear, it would be a greater benefit. For Gnownage the IDS buff provides me an additional 20 or so spell damage.... however considering that self buffed I have around 1.1k dmg, it's nice but not incredible.
 
I have been thinking about this some more with respect to healing in 5 mans, since I will be spending some time there before I am well geared enough to contribute in Kara.

Short Version:
It appears that if you have a choice between having no priests with IDS, and at least one priest with IDS. Having IDS is more useful overall than having more talent points in empowered healing.


Long Version:
For purposes of discussion I will assume that there are only two possible builds:

Build 1: The CoH build: 5/5 empowered healing
Build 2: The IDS build: 3/5 empowered healing

Most of the talents are largely the same between the two, and the differences I don't think make a huge difference as to which is better than another, other than DS/IDS vs more points in empowered healing.

To help with some number crunching let's go with rounded off numbers of my current spirit and +healing:

325 spirit
1000 healing

The bonus healing I would get from spirit with and w/o IDS are calculated below:

(325 + 50) * 0.35 = 131.25 w/ IDS
(325) * 0.25 = 81.25 w/o DS/IDS

That is to say, with IDS I would get an additional +50 healing to all spells.

The CoH build has a 20% bonus to healing for GHeal, or a +200 healing bonus to GHeal.

The IDS build has a 12% bonus to healing for GHeal, or a +120 healing bonus to GHeal.

The CoH build would effectively gain only +30 healing on GHeal over the IDS build. However the IDS build would gain an additional +50 healing on all other heals (I am not considering flash here, since I have found I rarely use the spell).

Since I believe that I would still use Renew and Prayer of mending regularly, I beleive I would get greater benefit from having IDS while running 5 mans.


Once I get my +healing up to around 1500, and my spirit around 400 (I have heard people say that for Kara I should have around 1400-1600 +healing), the numbers will change a bit. Assuming I am the only priest in the group, the numbers would be:

(400 + 50) * 0.35 = 157.5 w/ IDS
(400) * 0.25 = 100.0 w/o DS/IDS


Gheal bonus would be:

1500 * 0.20 = 300 w/ 5/5 in Empowered Healing
1500 * 0.12 = 180 w/ 3/5 in Empowered Healing

Bonus to GHeal w/o IDS and with 5/5 Empowered Healing = 400
Bonus to GHeal w/ IDS and with 3/5 Empowered Healing = 337.5

Difference in +healing is now 62.5

Again I believe having IDS is a better story here, as you gain an additional 57.5 +healing to all spells. If all you do is spam gheal, then the COH build is stronger.
 
I like it, My build is just crazy on Valk, it's what she came up with through lvl 70 I've never respeced her. It's pretty much a spec how you like thing. No one in TF really end games enough to make that huge of a differene from their spec. It's just one of those things.
 
Speaking of the originally posted build:

1) Maybe somebody can explain to me the usefulness of SoR or Lightwell. I found those 2 talents relatively useless except for maybe PVP. In raids or 5 mans they don't get used much.

2) Holy Nova, I don't use this a whole lot even though I have it. This seems more useful for low level 5 man dungeons than for anything at 70.

3) You maxed out Healing Focus, not sure how useful this is to a healer. Speaking for 5 mans, which is primarily what I run, I never find an occasion where this is necessary. If you are getting tagged by enemies enough to need this, then perhaps the points are better spent in Silent Resolve, which you already have. Again this seems like a leveling or solo healing talent (probably why it's at the beginning of the tree so you can combine it with shadow or disc).

I guess it depends on what you do the most, 5 mans, raids, or PVP. Not all talents are made for every play style.

Here is my current build:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Terenas&n=Zebidiah

My last 3 levels I plan on putting one more point in absolution, then one point in Mental Agility, then one in DS. It's possible that I might go Circle of Healing as well, however, only if I plan on raiding. If I continue to do 5 mans, then I will go DS.
 
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Angus_Og said:
This is one holy build I have been looking at. This is another.
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Huh!?! The first one has a few problems. If I am a healer, then what in the world would I need 5 talent points in wand specialization for? I like the rest though, I would just move the first 5 on the disc tree to unbreakable will. I also don't understand the whole healing focus talent, why?
 
 
for the record...mages aren't huge fans of spirit...none of our crafted gear, or even our mana-etched set has any. =D We're always casting, so no regen ooc, and no talents to improve spirit regen while casting, unless you count arcane mages...which they need the talent just so their mana costs don't make them useless. I would be just fine without the imp spirit buff. I can eat some serpents and get about the same benefit. =D
 
Well here's where I'm coming from. First TF does not raid enough to go a build straight for raiding. The 5 mans I run in guild are a blast but even then most of them don't cause me to stress about healing anymore. I have lightwell because there are a few fights where it's easier to save teh mana and click the lightwell (which was prefight cast) then it is to cast a renew. Now for impDS, I have that for a selfish reason, I get close to 70 + to healing when I buff myself with it. I don't see a point to circle of Healing because prayer of healing is more mana effient and I've never had a reason to need an instant cast group heal. and if I do, I just use Holy nova, probably a waste of a talent point, but causes the most fun. Granted I'm one of the better geared priests in the guild, but I got that way as the spec I am. I say go the way you want and don't let anyone but you change your mind.

P.S. Here's Valk's spec since you all want to see it http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Terenas&n=Valkridie (and yes I have wasted points, and no I don't care =)
 
First TF does not raid enough to go a build straight for raiding.
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That's why why are part of SGA. I've only done a few raids, mostly a 5 man player myself. I will be going DS build, and if I ever get into more raiding I will respec to CoH build.

I have lightwell because there are a few fights where it's easier to save teh mana and click the lightwell (which was prefight cast) then it is to cast a renew.
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You don't use Prayer of Mending? It does about the same amount of healing and it is instant rather than heal over time. Also, PoM is less than 200 mana to cast and does not require any talent point.

I don't see a point to circle of Healing because prayer of healing is more mana effient and I've never had a reason to need an instant cast group heal.
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This is purely a raid talent, there is no reason outside of a raid to have this talent. You would be even more mana efficient with Healing Prayers talent (reduces mana cost of PoH and PoM by 10%). :) However it looks as if you've opted to increase your smite and holy fire damage by 10% instead.

(and yes I have wasted points, and no I don't care =)
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I see that (1 point in blessed recovery, 2 points in searing light, SoR, Lightwell). :O
 
3-dEMON said:
Speaking of the originally posted build:

1) Maybe somebody can explain to me the usefulness of SoR or Lightwell. I found those 2 talents relatively useless except for maybe PVP. In raids or 5 mans they don't get used much.
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SoR is useful if for no other reason than you get a 5% boost in spirit for one talent point. In pvp, and pve when you die it gives you a last chance to help the run survive the encounter. I have had it already save a number of wipes. Priests are squishy, so death isn't as uncommon as with other healing classes (namely paladins).

I like lolwell because it's a way for me to heal myself effectively mana free mid-fight. If I recall it doesn't proc a global cooldown to use a charge either.

3-dEMON said:
2) Holy Nova, I don't use this a whole lot even though I have it. This seems more useful for low level 5 man dungeons than for anything at 70.
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This is a mixed bag, it can be helpful in some aoe situations, especially in 5-man. I can't comment about raids, but I suspect it might be less useful there.

3-dEMON said:
3) You maxed out Healing Focus, not sure how useful this is to a healer. Speaking for 5 mans, which is primarily what I run, I never find an occasion where this is necessary. If you are getting tagged by enemies enough to need this, then perhaps the points are better spent in Silent Resolve, which you already have. Again this seems like a leveling or solo healing talent (probably why it's at the beginning of the tree so you can combine it with shadow or disc).
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For two points I think it's worth it. In any encounter where there is aoe dmg, you often times have greater demands on your healing. This helps reduce, or eliminate (with conc aura from a paladin) any slow downs to healing in those situations.

It is also useful in pvp.

It is a situational talent, but I think worthy of consideration. Maybe I am wrong though, I am open minded.
 
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