Help as a Priest

Dubhdara

Sorry if this is a bit much, but I have recently rolled a Priest, having previously played a lvl 80 shammy & healading (in Wotlk).

I have a shadow spec, which I use for levelling but I have done very little healing despite having a Disc spec.

I have just hit level 70, and have started to heal LK dungeons, to get some practice before I hit Cata material.

However I am having mana problems as a priest, I have looked at a few theorycraft websites, but am stuck with how Priest Mana-regen. I use evanegelism (to restore a little), and shadowfiend and Shadow Word: Death, but is there something else I missing?

Einstein

If you're having trouble with with the mana in LK dungeons it's gonna get worse for cata...
Seems the trick these days is not to keep everyone at full health...which can be hard to get used to...

I haven't healed since ICC, been playin my lock and pally...but thinking about going healing again, I always enjoyed it!

eyfm5

i have an 81 holy priest atm. had no problem heaing in lk but my first cata dungeon was a total disaster. from a few peices iv read the developers want you to have probs with mana in cata. the problems u have in lk dungeons could be down to gear. iv tried both disc and holy and i have to say i found holy easier purely because of the amount of heals available. once u get pom and can manage it with chakra u should have no problem heaing in holy. i never healed as disc at top level so i cant comment on it and personally iv taken a complete disliking to shadow. are u having problems with mana when ur healing or when ur shadow?

Dubhdara

As you say, it may be down to gear... as I still have mostly BC gear.

To answer your question, it's only when I'm Disc that I'm having mana issues, as a shadow priest, I'm okay.

I'm wondering if my issues are down the the difference in Priest Mana regen... I'm sorta guessing that Priest dont have a mana regen ability like Water Shield/Totems or Divine Plea that I'm used to on the Shammy & Pally, and instead gain small amounts through secondary buffs and abilities eg the evangalism & SWD... would this be correct?

Cos if this is the case, it seems more likely that I may just need to get better gear and adapt to the Disc healer mindset

witless1

First off link your character or your characters build to see what talents you are picking up and to see what glyphs you are using. Reforging to spirit is a god send when levelling.

The mana return from using Shadow Word: Death is for shadowpriests only so if you are doing that as a Disc priest it's pointless. The only time I used to SWD as Disc was to make PoM bounce back to someone else. I had no problems with mana as Disc, if you are shield spamming the group you are going to have mana problems. Levelling in dungeons you should be just shielding the tank and popping a shield on a DPS that is about to die. Your main spells for LK dungeons will be:

Shield
Renew
PoM on cooldown
*Penance
Heal / Gheal

A lot of people will say not to use renew but I always found it a nice spell to use.

Benefit from the haste buff of using a shield and pop out a Gheal on occasion. Take Flash Heal off of your bars now to get into the mindset for Cata dungeons, spamming that will make you go OOM it's really just an emergency heal now.

If you are having mana issues on trash just ask the tank to give you a mana break, people are still in the LK mindset of zerging an instance and pulling more then they are able for. Healers going oom after a trashpack is not rare with impatient tanks! On a boss you shouldn't be having mana issues, fiend at 50-60%, archangel if you can around the same point. Hymn of Hope (unsure of the level you get that at) is great to give you a temp mana boost, even better if you can get in a full duration. Also you have Power Infusion which you should use on yourself. The only time you should be having trouble with mana is AoE healing but PoM bouncing and a few glyphed PoHs sort that out. Mana also comes with gear in the form of crit which helps with Divine Aegis procs. When you crit and place this extra shield on the tank you get regen breathing space. That's why I loved Disc healing you get breathing space with shields, it's not really whack a mole healing at that point allowing you take in a lot more.

As shadow you will never have problems. If you are under-geared weave SWD into your rotation (once talented!), minimal DPS loss in dungeons and will keep you propped up. Fiend, archangel and when you get it Dispersion mean you should never go oom. When you are geared Dispersion goes back to being a defensive cooldown, I'd only ever use it for mana after prolonged multi-dotting really.

Mr. CooL ICE

Penance needs to be used regularly is it has decent mana to healing output ratio. If the fight is going smoothly, its great for keeping the tank at high health due to having 3x times the chance to crit (giving a small divine aegis).

But it is also a great "oh sh1t" spell. If a dps suddenly drops, throw a shield on them, Penance (benefits from Borrowed Time haste buff, but does not consume is) and a FHeal, Heal or GHeal is a sure way of getting them back to health quickly. Remember, the last heal mentioned will benefit from the Borrowed Time haste buff and 12% extra healing received from the Penance applying 3 stacks of Grace.

StinkyMunkey

Ive been lvling a priest lately. He is shadow spec, its been all about the bg's.

When you hit 77, start collecting your cata gear. When i got my priest to lvl 79, i had him totally pimped out, echants and everything. Ive not laughed so much in years. Having 3-4 guys beat down at once and still lose is amusing.

As for mana, its the bane of my life, it gets even harder to manage when u hit the cata content.

Priest for me is the most fun in bg's. EotS + mind control =

nix

StinkyMunkey wrote: »

Ive been lvling a priest lately. He is shadow spec, its been all about the bg's.

When you hit 77, start collecting your cata gear. When i got my priest to lvl 79, i had him totally pimped out, echants and everything. Ive not laughed so much in years. Having 3-4 guys beat down at once and still lose is amusing.

As for mana, its the bane of my life, it gets even harder to manage when u hit the cata content.

Priest for me is the most fun in bg's. EotS + mind control =

Were these 3-4 guys a few levels lower than you and naked with their monitor off? Have trouble believing your kickin that much ass in pvp with a spriest on your own >_<

I'm just coming to my end of heroic grinding on my healing priest, out of the two healing speccs, holy was alot more kind to me in healing 5 man heroics. Just some bosses require decent aoe healing, as alot of dps tend to be retarded and incapeable of evading damage. The stone giant in stonecore stood out, i physically couldnt keep the group topped off with the **** aoe healing from disc. Went back in with holy and it was sooo much easier

eyfm5

just wondering nix did u go hold/disc from level 30. which did u use more often in the lower instances?

im thinking of goin holy/disc aswel. dont have much experience with disc tho

nix

Hey mate, I'm playing my priest a good few years now, so my only recent leveling experience i have on the priest is level 80-85. I generally leveled as shadow doing quests but decided i wanted to gear up earlier and healed instances from about level 82 onwards.

My advice for the level 30 mark is to not worry too much about which specc is best as they will both be viable as the fun/useful talent spells wont be obtainable till level 50 or so.

So i myself would go disc specc as penance is such a fun spell to heal with, when you can pick up chakara on the holy tree id change specc and give that a whirl.

Either way you cant really go wrong, instances wont be hard until you can get into the new cata instances from around level 78 onwards.