Rajh, Siamat as Discipline (actually make that most HC bosses)

Post by KevinHawkins

Hello everyone,
so I scoured the forums for a bit but didn't find much I wouldn't know already, so I'm asking for help by myself.

See, I've been a healer throughout TBC and WotLK (for what it counts) and would like to remain being one for Cata as well. Problem is, I'm struggling. Very badly. I got to 85, got the 329ilvl for heroics but didn't dare stepping in them. Couple more normal runs and one or two guild-runs of some heroics brought me to 334ilvl and I'd like to start doing heroics with randoms as well, but it's just not working out. I think I must be doing something wrong, it can't be THIS impossible. I pride myself in being a rather skilled player, but no matter my triage skills and priest knowledge people are dying and groups are wiping. I hate it when people are dying, it makes me sad :( Plus, near hour and half per heroic just doesnt fit into my daily schedule.

Now, information:

Angelic on armory
Discipline (healspam spec)
Enchants and stuff - I know my gear sucks, but staying in normals anymore just feels totally, totally lame when everyone else is doing heroics

In particular, I'm having problems with AoE fights (unsurprisingly, for Disc). Rajh comes to mind. Also Siamat, we wiped on him 4 times the other day and again once today before I had to go. I use PoM, I use PoH, even DH when it comes to it...I even tried swapping into Inner Will and throwing shields around. Didn't work... I use IF on every cooldown (even have ToT), keep Penance cooldowned, tend to try and keep dpses up by Renews to not lose Grace on tank (but obviously on AoE this doesn't work so I have to direct heal everyone).

I also feel it's stupid that so much of our healing is dependant on Grace, which we can't keep on multiple people, and that shields have become so expensive nowadys and don't really mitigate that much damage (11.3k I think last time I checked).

I can see this post has lost consistency. Sorry. I just feel sad that healing is so very, very hard and that I can't do it anymore. I want a challenge, but this increase in difficulty has turned the game I want to play to relax and have some fun into something that brings me frustration and lots, lots of tension. My tanking character is uncomparably easier to play and more "fun" also, same with me in Shadow...but I WANT to heal!

Thanks for help,
Angelic

Post by abulurd

One thing, you have the glyph for circle of healing, shouldn't really need that.

Also, are you having any of your dps cc targets?

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Post by Patty

Are your DPS generally acting intelligently? Are they interrupting harmful, interruptable spells such as heavy AoE, are they using appropriate CC on trash? How well geared have the tanks been? Is there any chance of running with your guild, and thus having a more coordinated group with less likelihood of failure?

As for your character, the first thing that struck me was how low your spirit is, and how hardly any of your gear is enchanted. I know that you've reforged most of your gear to spirit where it's lacking spirit, but that's only a short term solution. You should have spirit on every item by default (except perhaps trinkets), as you'll have far more spirit on that type of item than a reforged item. You're also using the wrong leg enchant - you should really use int/spirit instead of int/stamina. Edit: You may also want to switch your meta to this. :)

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Post by KevinHawkins

you have damage reduction cooldowns but as i found unless you are well geared you lack the throughput to heal wellYeah throughput is really the problem, I can USUALLY juggle mana cooldowns somehow to last the fight...

One thing, you have the glyph for circle of healing, shouldn't really need that.True, that's a left-over from when I was Holy back pre-3.0.3. I didn't realize it was still there and I'll swap it for something more useful. Thanks :)

Also, are you having any of your dps cc targets?I was talking about bossfights here, trash if quite alright. I have people use CC when the boss fight requires it, but Rajh and Siamat as prime examples don't.

As for your character, the first thing that struck me was how low your spirit is, and how hardly any of your gear is enchanted. I know that you've reforged most of your gear to spirit where it's lacking spirit, but that's only a short term solution. You should have spirit on every item by default (except perhaps trinkets), as you'll have far more spirit on that type of item than a reforged item. You're also using the wrong leg enchant - you should really use int/spirit instead of int/stamina. Edit: You may also want to switch your meta to this. :)Indeed, my spirit is extremely low, isn't it! I'm grabbing the best gear I can, but I've been rather unlucky with drops in both normal and heroic dungeons, so that may be the cause. I'd obviously prefer a spirit piece to a non-spirit one - hence the reforging. But with no luck on drops and failing to do many heroics for the justice points... The situation is dire :)
Enchants in general I tend to put on 333ilvl gear and higher (as you can see). I wonder if I should stop being a cheapskate?
The leg-enchant is probably this because I didn't want to get the epic one for those legs I hope to replace in foreseeable future and because the rare one with spirit wasn't on AH. Still, thanks for the reminder, I'll see to fixing it.
Also, spirit gives me sustenance but not throughput - which is what I'm mostly struggling with...

Thank you everyone, keep it coming!

EDIT: Another two heroic runs (and one SFK, even, where I need the wrists and boots), not a single drop. I have never had SUCH bad luck... Makes the whole game really unrewarding and the lack of progression towars it all not being so stupidly difficult is just frustrating.

Post by Patty

In that case, you may want to move the points you have in SoL into Darkness for more haste, which will substantially speed up your heals, but might leave you wanting more regen.

Post by DerrHans

im disc healer and tbh i havent got any problem at all..
Sure a bit of a struggle at start, a few wipes here and than.

But after u drop HEAL spam and replace it with Gheal spam.
U find ur self to have alot less troubles to keep tank up, specially when u get ur crit up to a bit respectable value and combine it with mastery. A good balance between these 2 stats will do alot.

The occasional 40k to 41k Gheal crits (have the +3% Crith heal meta) turns out to be real nice bubbles this way.

Im Archangel/Smite spec, Build up Evangalsim stacks and pop Archangel. If u know a fight Archangel + PW:Barrier (ghlyp) is very nice.

DH i use on the first big aoe incoming damage, keep pom rolling. If u dont want to lose Grace and u took damage ur self, cast binding heal, binding heal doesnt consume Grace stacks.

Time PoH with PI cast it if u feel like it or just cast these hasted Gheals on the group. Works nicely with PW:Barrier glyph as well.

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Post by Pachuca

I've also been priest healing since TBC. Was Holy for a long time then went Disc for Wrath. I've been using a unique variation on an Archangel/Atonement build and have been having some success in heroics. There are still occasional wipes when people aren't moving out of avoidable damage or making dumb mistakes.

As you can see in my spec, I've chosen to avoid Soul Warding because shield-spamming is no longer viable. Only 1 point in Strength of Soul means even if I'm chain casting Heal on the tank, Weakened Soul shouldn't be reduced to the point where my Rapture is still on internal cooldown when I cast my next shield. With just this 1 point in SoS I'm getting slightly more frequent returns from Rapture.

Basically I keep WS on the tank and pump out some Smites on the tank's target (and Smiting adds if/when they spawn definitely helps during a tough encounter). I'm specced into ToT, so I can get in about 3 Smites between each Penance, and just about every 5th or 6th Greater Heal costs no mana since it's macro'd to Inner Focus. I try and keep Evangelism at 5 stacks for as long as I can, as it makes my Smites hit/heal harder and cost less, making it much higher HPS than Heal with comparable HPM. The "smart heals" of Atonement tend to top off injured group members without the penalty of losing Grace on the tank.

Greater Heal has made a huge comeback in my healing repetoire. I am not afraid to use it on everyone in the group, even if that person is not the tank. A quick PW:S and Penance will reset the Grace stack on the tank with little penalty.

The stats I've been going for are firstly getting my crit to a decent base amount. ~12% base crit from gear means another 5% from group buffs and another 10% on whomever has Weakened Soul. That's a safe amount of base crit to start, at this low gear level. I will build it up more in the future but for now I'm concentrating more on Haste, followed by Mastery. Every piece of gear should start with Spirit on it, but I have a couple of pieces which don't. When I start loading up on more gear, I'll try and get 3-5% more crit, which will also make Mastery more attractive. But for now, I'm favouring Haste.

Use Barrier when you know people will be taking huge amounts of damage. Pop Archangel and Power Infusion before chain-casting Prayer of Healing, you will also be able to throw out some quick, massive Greater Heals, or use this opportunity for some regular Heals with the fast cast speed and reduced mana cost and you have the chance to save a LOT of mana. Before Power Infusion ends, cast your Shadowfiend, shield yourself and cast Hymn of Hope. The cast speed buff from Power Infusion and Borrowed Time will speed up your HoH, while your Shadowfiend will be returning even more mana than usual due to your raised mana pool.

Don't be afraid to blow your cooldowns. Use Power Infusion on yourself frequently. Cast Pain Suppression on the tank if (s)he's taking a lot of damage. Archangel should be saved for when you need to cast big heals (i.e. Prayer of Healing and Greater Heal spam). Use Leap of Faith on people who are about to get killed by something, and plan when to use Power Word: Barrier on each encounter. Divine Hymn is your biggest AOE heal but can only really be used once per encounter.

Hope this helps somewhat.

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Post by DerrHans

im reforging mastery to crit.
Im pretty much reforging all to crit cept spirit.

Without crit mastery is useless as PW:s just doesnt cut it.

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Post by BrokenHip

I was in the same seat as you for a while, scared to death of healing my first heroic, what I did was reforge any haste to spirit, mastery or crit, in that order and just had to bite down and take the occasionally impossible groups. First few heroics were a catastrophy, but that was mostly in the early early parts when people were still very wrathspoiled so not sure who was to blame there. As time went on though and i scraped up some gear i finally managed to complete heroics on a regular basis. The easier heroics for me to heal was deadmines, blackrock caverns and (assuming people knew tactics) stonecore. Right now I'm sitting on 344 ilvl and the only heroic i have issues with is lost city of the tol'vir, haven't gotten grim batol yet though.

It may not feel like it would get easier with some more scraps of gear, but it really does, with decent groups i can go without drinking more than once or twice.

Post by Proteja

If it makes you feel better, even having full heroic gear/some epics people still die in my groups, granted it's their fault 99% of the time, there is so much unnecessary damage taken in heroics it's unreal. If you are with a group who are aware, CC 3 mobs per pack (when available, when you're better geared, you can just pop cool-downs and don't CC), heroics are really a joke.

Rajh, Siamat as Discipline (actually make that most HC bosses)

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