Post by Magnerz
Well, Cata sure has brought a load of changes, and I was a bit overwhelmed when I started today after a break of a few months and I just wanted to check if i'm on the right lines.
I'm familiar with all three specs, but I find I usually shine with Holy Spec (or at least did in wotlk).
Currently level 81 and fast replacing all of my raiding gear in favour of blue dungeon drops.
Talent spec working towards @ 85:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bchZfuMrRorkcdoh:aoz0Ro0VmHaving healed for PuG's throughout the day, I must say i'm loving the changes, chakra (+revelations) is genius and makes for a much more interesting healing style.
In terms of spell usage: Load the tank with PW:S (Body and Soul speed), PoM and a renew just before the pull.
From here, it gets tricky to describe as I generally try to be a reactive/pro-active healer rather than having a set routine. Safe to say I use every single one of my heals; Heal, GHeal, FHeal, BHeal, Hymn, PoM, PoH, CoH, Lightwell, Renew, Prayer and the two Holy Word heals.
I'll also regularly use fade, (glyphed) scream, and mana pool allowing, a range of offensive spells.
I use Chakra every fight, on smite if its easy trash, on PoM if its gonna be a general/AoE heavy fight, and on Heal if its gonna be spikey on ze tank.
The couple of deaths i've experienced so far have been from 2 tank spikes, and 2x DPS deaths.
The main gameplay problem I have is being unfamiliar with new fight mechanics, both trash and boss, but that'll come in time
Aside from the spec, I was really after a bit of detail on the new Intellect/Spirit scenario. As well as the haste/crit/mastery set-up. I gather stacking spirit is the order of the day, and that mastery > haste > crit in terms fo the secondary stats.
Are there any mana pool/HP/Spellpower/regen/haste/crit soft-caps or guidelines out there to follow before stepping into heroics?
Cheers in advance for any input.
Post by donnymurph
Link to a thread where I described the haste situationNever, EVER drop Test of Faith, people drop below 50% all the time, particularly when the healer is a holy priest. Trust me, Blizzard has designed the healers in a manner that holy priests generally output slightly lower HPS than the other healers, but once the target is below 50%, we really shine. It is a pretty massive boost.
Looking at your spec and where you can trim a point for SoR, I'd say take it out of State of Mind. Why? Chakra is a 30 second effect with a 30 second cooldown, so the extension from State of Mind is more of just a preference thing and can easily be worked around with very simple macros.
Stats and gearing:
Choose gear that is either Int/Spirit/Haste or Int/Spirit/Mastery. If you get a piece that doesn't reflect those stats, reforge it so it does.
Shadowslide's gemming suggestion is correct, with the exception of if you haven't reached 12.5% haste raid buffed, in which case you would use Int/Haste gems rather than Int/Mastery gems.