Avesther
New Member
I've been playing a preist for over a year now. I've grinded her up to 60, ranked her to rank 9 for PvP, MT\OT\DPS healed in all raid instances upto BWL.
So, how does a priest set up the action bar to do everything?
This simple answer in my opinion is that you can't. You can't have a single action bar to properly follow through on a good raiding healing strategy and to follow through on PvP or grinding.
To combat this, blizzard gave us 6 action bars in the default GUI. You can show 5 of them on your UI at any time. There is a hidden 6th one. The default action bar is considered ActionBar1. The hidden bar is considered ActionBar2. You can toggle any action bar to the main bar area (the bar that on which pressing the keys 1 through = activates the skill) by pressing and holding the shift key down with any number 1 thorugh 6. The number corresponds to the actionbar number. So to toggle between actionbar1 (AB1) and actionbar2 (AB2) (the hidden bar) its Shift1 and Shift2.
I use AB1 for PvP and grinding and AB2 for raid healing. When I set up these two bars, I used a strategy of setting up the same skills that I would use regardless of PvP or PvE to be on the same ActionBar keys. So it wouldn't matter if I was PvPing or PvEing, pressing 1 will activate the same skill.
My default (AB1) action bar is set up like this (assume the skill is the highest level available unless otherwise posted).
1. Flash heal
2. Smite
3. Mindblast
4. Renew
5. Holy Nova
6. Holy Fire
7. Mana Burn
8. Starshards
9. Power Word:Sheild
0. Dispell
-. Wand
=. Shadow Word
ain
This set up puts 4 damage spells and 2 healing spells at the finger tips of my left hand, keeping my right hand free to move my character. The right hands buttons (7 and up) has 3 instant casts, 2 channel spells and wand. Which means, I only have to lift my right hand, press a button and then go back to moving my toon. There is no "main" attack under the control of the right hand.
I suppose I should mention that after 19 months of playing WoW, I have become very adept at using my mouse to control my toons movements. I have autorun mapped to the 4th mouse button. So when I want to move forward, I press the 4th mouse button, when I want to stop, I press it again or press the left mouse button. I press and hold the right mouse button to control the left and right direction of my toon. If I need to go backwards, I activate autorun, press and hold the right mouse button and quickly turn my toon 180' and run back to a safe spot instead of backing up. This is an advanced movement skill that many players would probably benefit from learning.
My PvE Healing (AB2) action bar is set up like this (assume the skill is the highest level available unless otherwise posted).
1. Flash heal
2. Flash heal (rank 5)
3. Heal (rank 3)
4. Renew
5. Holy Nova
6. Greater Heal (rank 1)
7. Greater Heal
8. Prayer of Healing
9. Power Word:Sheild
0. Dispell
-. Wand
=. Shadow Wordain
I'll discuss healing strategies and different rank healings later. But first, I'd like you to notice that the buttons 1, 4, 5, 9, 0, - and = share the same skills between the two action bars. IMO, its easier to remember 7 common buttons and 10 exceptions then it is to remember 24 different buttons on two action bars. Plus, the skills that are shared are also the most useful to a priest regardless of what they are doing. The absolute worse case scenerio is that you try and flash heal rank 5 a mob when you think you are smiting them.
You'll also notice that the only spells on the AB1 and AB2 that have a cool down is Mindblast and PW:S. And there are no buffing skills on either of these two action bars. IMO of the role priests play, 90% of their funciton is sitting right here on these bars. Fear, buffings, consumables etc, that are only used once in awhile during a down time, or that have lengthy cooldowns are located on the other bars on the UI with like skills. So you will find on my UI all the foods\drinks beside each other, all the mana\health potions beside each other, bandages with other bandages, darkrunes\demonic runes together.
So, how does a priest set up the action bar to do everything?
This simple answer in my opinion is that you can't. You can't have a single action bar to properly follow through on a good raiding healing strategy and to follow through on PvP or grinding.
To combat this, blizzard gave us 6 action bars in the default GUI. You can show 5 of them on your UI at any time. There is a hidden 6th one. The default action bar is considered ActionBar1. The hidden bar is considered ActionBar2. You can toggle any action bar to the main bar area (the bar that on which pressing the keys 1 through = activates the skill) by pressing and holding the shift key down with any number 1 thorugh 6. The number corresponds to the actionbar number. So to toggle between actionbar1 (AB1) and actionbar2 (AB2) (the hidden bar) its Shift1 and Shift2.
I use AB1 for PvP and grinding and AB2 for raid healing. When I set up these two bars, I used a strategy of setting up the same skills that I would use regardless of PvP or PvE to be on the same ActionBar keys. So it wouldn't matter if I was PvPing or PvEing, pressing 1 will activate the same skill.
My default (AB1) action bar is set up like this (assume the skill is the highest level available unless otherwise posted).
1. Flash heal
2. Smite
3. Mindblast
4. Renew
5. Holy Nova
6. Holy Fire
7. Mana Burn
8. Starshards
9. Power Word:Sheild
0. Dispell
-. Wand
=. Shadow Word
ainThis set up puts 4 damage spells and 2 healing spells at the finger tips of my left hand, keeping my right hand free to move my character. The right hands buttons (7 and up) has 3 instant casts, 2 channel spells and wand. Which means, I only have to lift my right hand, press a button and then go back to moving my toon. There is no "main" attack under the control of the right hand.
I suppose I should mention that after 19 months of playing WoW, I have become very adept at using my mouse to control my toons movements. I have autorun mapped to the 4th mouse button. So when I want to move forward, I press the 4th mouse button, when I want to stop, I press it again or press the left mouse button. I press and hold the right mouse button to control the left and right direction of my toon. If I need to go backwards, I activate autorun, press and hold the right mouse button and quickly turn my toon 180' and run back to a safe spot instead of backing up. This is an advanced movement skill that many players would probably benefit from learning.
My PvE Healing (AB2) action bar is set up like this (assume the skill is the highest level available unless otherwise posted).
1. Flash heal
2. Flash heal (rank 5)
3. Heal (rank 3)
4. Renew
5. Holy Nova
6. Greater Heal (rank 1)
7. Greater Heal
8. Prayer of Healing
9. Power Word:Sheild
0. Dispell
-. Wand
=. Shadow Word
ainI'll discuss healing strategies and different rank healings later. But first, I'd like you to notice that the buttons 1, 4, 5, 9, 0, - and = share the same skills between the two action bars. IMO, its easier to remember 7 common buttons and 10 exceptions then it is to remember 24 different buttons on two action bars. Plus, the skills that are shared are also the most useful to a priest regardless of what they are doing. The absolute worse case scenerio is that you try and flash heal rank 5 a mob when you think you are smiting them.
You'll also notice that the only spells on the AB1 and AB2 that have a cool down is Mindblast and PW:S. And there are no buffing skills on either of these two action bars. IMO of the role priests play, 90% of their funciton is sitting right here on these bars. Fear, buffings, consumables etc, that are only used once in awhile during a down time, or that have lengthy cooldowns are located on the other bars on the UI with like skills. So you will find on my UI all the foods\drinks beside each other, all the mana\health potions beside each other, bandages with other bandages, darkrunes\demonic runes together.
.