Holy Priest build advice

Dcully

Hi guys,im more than likely going to resub after a few months away.
I thought id ask here for advice on healing builds for raiding.
Im Naxx geared more or less,heres the spec i had when i quit a while back, is it still a good build?
http://eu.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=5&tal=0503203110500010000000000000035051030300152530005321030000000000000000000000000000

Xyo

If you like pw:s why not spec disc ?

you should have healing prayers imo
I'm also not too pushed on surge of light
I'd also get rid of the PW:S talents and invest in test of faith talents

havent played in a while but here's my old build:
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=The+Sha'tar&cn=Leili&gn=Sanctuary

Mr. CooL ICE

I'm gonna assume you want to go deep holy and PvE here. If doing Ulduar, I would highly recommend keeping holy as theres a lot of raid damage.

If you haven't read the patch notes, then since you left, there have been significant changes to the priest talents. Most notable is the omission of divine spirit from disc (now trainable), the change to holy concentration, the omission of improved holy concentration (and subsequent replacement with empowered renew) and the changes to serendipity.

I really would advise against having more than 14 points in disc as youre only going for mana reduction talents, and since 3.1 I really haven't had problems keeping mana up. Improved renew along with empowered renew gives you a little druid-like powah, and combined with the renew glyph means renew ticks are now more imba. I was annoyed with the change to serendipity at first as I thought it would kill priest mana management (the new holy conc rectifies this) but much prefer it now as with 3 stacks, your gheals have roughly the same cast time as fheals.

At the end of the day, it is up to you. I would use this as a template. Personally, I use that along with 2/2 surge of light and 2/2 holy reach, but if your raid actually knows how to use lightwell properly, then you could use that, and maybe desperate prayer as a personal 'oh sh1111t' button


Please post up your spec when you decide as I really want opinions

nix

Heres one of my priest friends build, hardcore raider in top alli guild on my realm.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Laughing+Skull&n=Osiana&group=1

no healing focus, not sure what its like without it as ive always put points into it. But yeah PoH is ment to be the **** in wotlk, always used in raids.

Anti

you didnt like the look of the last 4 points eh LC

This is the setup i use on my newly dinged priest, i find it pretty good for naxx25 and the likes, no mana issues at all even on long fights. I'm sure its not the best spec but i quite like it

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Moonglade&cn=Florenc%C3%A9&gn=Cataclysm

I will say this spec is only used for raid healing, and its probably pretty crappy for MT healing.

Dcully

Thanks a lot guys, im just wondering if inner focus is essential?
Also how are those without healing focus doing?
I think ill start off with the spec linked by Nix above.
Ill see how it goes without healing focus.

Anti

tbh i think its a wasted point, as you only get to use it once every 3 mins.

magicianz

Anti wrote: »

tbh i think its a wasted point, as you only get to use it once every 3 mins.

It is good as another 'oh sh111t' button imo. I have no problems with mana or anything (22k mana, 500+ mp5 raid buffed) but there are times when u get those really really bad DPS on bosses like emalon where they do little dmg to emalon or tanks take a lot more damage where a free cast can be a matter of life or death. And managing it is important :-) using it on a GH near the start is best i find.

Splinter

you can try www.talentchic.com and it will show you some good talent builds

innerfocus is very handy. i tend to pop it when i use divine hymh (the healing one? could have got the name wrong) so i get insta crits raid wide for a great oh sh1t button

Blowfish

Anti wrote: »

tbh i think its a wasted point, as you only get to use it once every 3 mins.

On a 6 minute fight, using it for Divine Hymn and 2 x PoH will save you about 4.9k mana, which works out at about 69mp5. That's pretty good for a single talent point and doesn't even take into account the extra healing it does.

Anti

Blowfish wrote: »

On a 6 minute fight, using it for Divine Hymn and 2 x PoH will save you about 4.9k mana, which works out at about 69mp5. That's pretty good for a single talent point and doesn't even take into account the extra healing it does.

I never thought about it like that to be honest, i think i will certainly be taking it now.

smellslikeshoes

Blowfish wrote: »

On a 6 minute fight, using it for Divine Hymn and 2 x PoH will save you about 4.9k mana, which works out at about 69mp5. That's pretty good for a single talent point and doesn't even take into account the extra healing it does.

That's in the absolute ideal situation though, its rarely going to be anywhere near that.

Anti wrote: »

you didnt like the look of the last 4 points eh LC

This is the setup i use on my newly dinged priest, i find it pretty good for naxx25 and the likes, no mana issues at all even on long fights. I'm sure its not the best spec but i quite like it

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Moonglade&cn=Florenc%C3%A9&gn=Cataclysm

I will say this spec is only used for raid healing, and its probably pretty crappy for MT healing.

Since 3.1 with the addition of dual spec, changes to serendipity and the addition of targeted prayer of healing, if a holy priest is healing the tank there is definitely something wrong, regardless of type of holy spec you take.

Holy spec is unstoppable raid healing right now and it is a waste having a holy spec priest healing a tank, if its really needed you can have disc as your off spec to tank heal but there really should be other classes in the raid who can do it to leave you to raid heal. Right now really is Holy's moment in the sun and we should make the best of it.


To answer the original question-

As far as the best holy spec goes, there is no definite right build anymore.
There is a huge amount of personal preference involved that wasn't there pre 3.1. There has been 4 different builds already posted in this thread and I don't agree with any of them, that just shows how many different specs are going around.

Here is my personal build at the moment. I could maybe take out one point in empowered renew for inner focus but I find that just me personally I don't use it very often. The instant heal part of empowered renew can crit and proc SOL and Holy concentration so warrants at least one point in there unless you never ever use renew.

I completely ignore improved healing since greater heal just doesn't get much use anymore and you are usually only going to get to use divine hymn once in a fight.

With crit getting to insane heights for holy priests, Holy concentration and Surge of light are essentials for any holy build, inspiration should also definitely be taken, there really is no situation where you shouldn't have it.

magicianz

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Here is my personal build at the moment. I could maybe take out one point in empowered renew for inner focus but I find that just me personally I don't use it very often. The instant heal part of empowered renew can crit and proc SOL and Holy concentration so warrants at least one point in there unless you never ever use renew.

I completely ignore improved healing since greater heal just doesn't get much use anymore and you are usually only going to get to use divine hymn once in a fight.

Whats your rotations for healing? like whats your most used spells? The current spec. i use is a bit wacky and i have gotten agro from people saying my spec is stupid (just cause it aint a "cookie cutter" spec like theirs) and i use the FH/GH combo a lot for healing VoA 25 and the likes.

Davaeo09

magicianz wrote: »

Whats your rotations for healing? like whats your most used spells? The current spec. i use is a bit wacky and i have gotten agro from people saying my spec is stupid (just cause it aint a "cookie cutter" spec like theirs) and i use the FH/GH combo a lot for healing VoA 25 and the likes.

Well quite simply, if your doing well on healing meters AND people in the raid are not dying, AND assuming your not way out top on over healing, tell them they might as well become a robot and play the way other people play.
Spec's are about the only thing you can personalise about your character in WoW.. and I am hating this "you must have ??/??/?? build or your not raiding with us" crap.

I play a paladin and was one of the only people who never bothered with beacon of light, and went for the crit talents in ret... and I used to be 1st or 2nd on most boss fights. Thrash was not my speciality tho, damn shammies!

smellslikeshoes

magicianz wrote: »

Whats your rotations for healing? like whats your most used spells? The current spec. i use is a bit wacky and i have gotten agro from people saying my spec is stupid (just cause it aint a "cookie cutter" spec like theirs) and i use the FH/GH combo a lot for healing VoA 25 and the likes.

Its hard to say exactly since it does differ from one fight to another but I usually end up having FH/COH//POM as my top three in changing amounts depending on fight but usually quite close together. After that it's usually prayer of healing -> Renew -> Greater heal. That is ignoring divine hymn of course. Renew and greater heal depends a lot on how the tank healers are doing, I'd usually throw a few renews on tanks in lulls in raid damage anyway but if tank healers seem to be struggling a bit and its not going to effect my raid healing too much I help them out with serendipity hasted GH's.

As far as spec's go I'm all for people exploring and seeing what they like but it really does make me groan seeing half baked hybrid specs. I was asked by a guildie to heal a Sarth pug he was in on his alt recently. The other healer there was a priest specced something like 31/40. I could kind of see where he was going with it, lots of quick powerful flash heals with a decent mana pool and regen but he wasn't far enough in either spec to get anything good (one short of COH ffs) and was basically a waste of space. All was made clear when he died to a lava wave and I had to solo heal the rest of it :pac:

Since my last post I've found a new found love for Inner focus and its 25% extra crit and have taken it instead of the second point in empowered renew. I have a macro set up to cast inner focus and divine hymn in one key, the extra crit does add quite a bit extra. I only ever use inner focus for my divine hymn since mana isn't too much of a problem.

Davaeo09 wrote: »

Spec's are about the only thing you can personalise about your character in WoW.. and I am hating this "you must have ??/??/?? build or your not raiding with us" crap.

I play a paladin and was one of the only people who never bothered with beacon of light, and went for the crit talents in ret... and I used to be 1st or 2nd on most boss fights. Thrash was not my speciality tho, damn shammies!

There is something to be said for personal play style but a lot of people who go for weird specs don't do it because it suits their play style, they do it in a vain attempt to be individuals. There generally is a reason why cookie cutter specs are common and that's because they take strong talents and they work.

I'm the lead healer in my guild and I have the responsibility of making sure healers are pulling their weight and have the power to get onto people about their specs if I think they are flawed. Normally I would let them to their own devices specwise as long as they were performing but if a pally didn't at least have beacon of light in their second spec I would give them a clip around the ear. It is such a good spell. A beacon of light can make the difference between needing one healer on that target or two and for some fights having the freedom to move a healer around is invaluable, not to mention hard modes where being able to squeeze in an extra dps is godly.

tobi

My two raid specs

Holy for raid healing
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuZfEd0bMqihhcuAo

Disc for tank healing
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuhhVRhsffktbyzcc

smellslikeshoes

tobi wrote: »

My two raid specs

Holy for raid healing
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuZfEd0bMqihhcuAo

Disc for tank healing
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuhhVRhsffktbyzcc

I'm honestly not sure what you are trying to do with that Holy spec.
5/5 spell warding? only 2/5 in divine fury? No empowered healing or inspiration?

The disc spec isn't much better.
No divine fury whatsoever? And again 5/5 spell warding?

Drop Spell warding altogether, its honestly such an insane waste of 5 talent points.

Honestly they are both terrible specs.

tobi

Ok, let me explain then.

Spell warding vs divine fury
You already answered this in you own post when you listed you most used spells when raid healing. Greater heal has rapidly become the weakest spell in a priests arsenal. Why take half a second off a heal you rarely use. With 3 stacks of serendipity my greater heal is 1.4 secs. That’s good enough for me. As I’m sure you know the raid damage in uluar is very high therefore in my opinion its well worth the talent points. Don’t underestimate survivability!

Why take inspiration when raid healing?
An armor bonus is little use to random raid members. Any raid boss will one shot dps who managed to pull aggro, an armor bonus won’t save them. Taking it on the off chance that you crit heal one of the tanks is a waste. I use my disc spec when healing tanks and inspiration uptime isn’t a problem between 1.1 sec flash heals and penance its up nearly 100%.

Dropping empowered healing is a tough choice because of the benefit to flash heal but taking blessed resilience give you 3% across all you heals. Overall I didn’t lose too much off my flash heal. This really comes down to personal choice. The 2 points left over i put in inner focus and holy reach

Anyway the holy tree is quite interesting now with lots of potentially good builds. These 2 builds work well for me.