Converting from Shadow to Holy

[infused]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a bit of guidance as I'm stepping in to a healing role for the first time in a while. First things first, armory and WoL.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... sed/simple

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/qpe13ajjfin0c84t/

A bit of background: I'm a long time priest, but have been predominately shadow since BC. I've consistently been one of the strongest DPS in the guild, but I'm having a bit of trouble transitioning that to healing (probably because I'm used to a set rotation).

I healed as Disc for pvp for a short while, but have little experience with holy. I'm relatively geared, as you can see in my armory, but many of those pieces are just shadow pieces I've recommissioned for my Holy set. I chose holy over disc, because I've read it can be much more versatile. We recently lost our 3rd healer (we're a 10m guild that's 10/12N), so I've been stepping in as a healer for the past couple of weeks.

Here are my issues surrounding the transition. Our heal comp was Hpally, myself as holy, and another Hpriest, and I can not seem to come close to the numbers that the Hpally puts out. I realize that healing isn't about HPS, but about keeping targets alive, which I do fairly well, but there are times where I need to be able to put out much more burst healing, and I don't really know how to.

As a tank healer, am I forced to be Disc? I like holy's flexibility, as I've never had the regen to be a good raid healing (shielding, lol) disc priest.

What can I do to push more HPS? Again, not for the e-peen stroke, but to make sure I can burst heal if the fight warrants it.

What kind of numbers are holy priests putting out as tank healers? Will I ever be able to compare with a holy pally?

Are there issues with my spec? Please let me know if you guys see anything that warrants a change, because if I'm going to have to heal for any length of time, I want to be damn good at it.

Thanks for the help!

[Ashleycakez]

Your spec is fine except for 2 points that really MUST be changed. The 2 points in State of Mind should be placed in Divine Touch. If you are tank healing as Holy, you are in Chakra: Serenity, and you aren't leaving it. There really is no reason to spec 2/2 State of Mind, at least I can't think of an encounter that would warrant it.

The one point I would suggest moving, but is entirely up to you, is the point in Spirit of Redepemtion. If you are having mana problems, you could place it in Veiled Shadows. If you end up finding that you are raid healing (and you have excess mana to spend), you could put it in Rapid Renewal so you can blanket a few raid members with Renew. Or if you find that you need just a bit more survivability you could put it in Blessid Resilience.

Now, in terms of Holy being a tank healer: due to on going circumstances with the healing situation in my guild, myself and a Resto Druid have been forced to 2 heal many encounters. Its not terrible but I've found that Holy can shine as a "tank healer" on Heroic Chimaeron (http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/t24n0wywjxfze6c4/sum/healingDone/?s=9143&e=9448). I sat in Serenity and used the Holy Word to my advantage. Yes, its sloppy and so hard on mana to Flash Heal but it gets the job done.

However, on a different fight, Heroic Magmaw, I don't think there is any way I could successfully 2 heal it as Holy. I specced Disc to be the tank healer and damage preventer. It works well.

During the start of Cata raiding I found myself hanging out in Chakra: Serenity quite often, being the "backup" tank healer. In reality, this isn't necessary. All other classes are really more suitable for tank healing than a Holy Priest is, even in Serenity.

I guess one of the better examples of how I set up my healers would be Normal Nefarian. For our first few kills it was myself as Holy, a Resto Druid and a Resto Shaman. It looks like all raid healers, right? What the hell do you do without a H Pally/D Priest? Well, I placed the Resto Shaman on the Ony tank and the Resto Druid on the Nef tank. It worked well. In your case you could sit in Serenity and keep up the Ony tank, since he takes light damage. The H Pally may be better suited to heal the Nefarian tank, while your second H Priest focuses on keeping the raid up.

I really don't think you NEED 2 tank Healers on each fight. You can sufficiently get by with one strong tank healer (H Pally), and 2 raid healers. Make sure in this case you are always in Sanctuary.

Looking at your logs I hardly see any lightwell usage. That could be a big chunk of your healing right there. Train your raid to use it. Pick a spot to routinely place it for each boss and macro in something like "LIGHTWELL IS DOWN!" Mash the macro if you don't see Lightwell Renew popping up in Grid (assuming you track it via Grid of course).

Holy Word: Sanctuary is a mana drain. Most likely you are dropping it and the raid is easily getting topped off anyways. The only time I would really suggest dropping it is on Chimearon during Feud when everyone is stacked and keeps getting hit by aoe stuff. Otherwise don't touch it!

Glyph of Guardian Spirit and/or Lightwell (if your raid learns to use it), is waaaaay better than Glyph of Flash Heal. I actually use PoH, Lightwell and GS as my glyphs, switching out Lightwell for Renew when the fight lends itself to Lightwell disappearing (Ex. Conclave if you switch platforms).

Hopefully all of this helps @.@ Feel free to browse my WoL. I know its mostly heroic content but it will still give you a feel of what your top heals should be.

Good luck :)

[infused]

Thanks for the quick reply, Ashley.

I'll def. change up those two points in State of Mind, and pimp out my renew a bit more. I think I initially picked them up because I thought that I might need to swap chakras more than I do, and I hadn't re-evaluated them since, so thanks.

I'm fond of Improved Death because there have been a couple times where it's allowed us to push through a final phase, but I can see your point. If i'm needing it to finish bosses, we're doin' it wrong. I'll switch up those glyphs as well.

Do you use find that you use disc frequently? Or does holy give you enough flexibility to heal most things? I'm considering dropping my Shadow spec to pick up Disc for the time being. We typically 2 heal Cho'gall though, so I fill the extra DPS role there, which makes me understandably hesitant, but if it'll make the other fights easier, I can switch it up.

We honestly outgear the current content, so we should be 2 healing more fights, but having gone through some attrition, we've been vetting our new players, which usually requires more healing. When you guys were doing normal modes, which fights did you 2 heal once you reached a solid gear level (357+)? Some fights are pretty tough for us to 2 heal, but I feel like we could def. handle fights like ODS N. with 2 heals.

We currently 2 heal magmaw (if we have a solid 2nd healer), Atra, and Cho. Cho is obviously 2 healed so we can get more dps to make p1 shorter.

I will have to teach our raid to use the lightwell. Or other Hpriest isn't specced into (which I will be discussing with her today :D ), so they're not used to seeing it.

These are some great steps to get that HPS up so I can contribute a bit more. We typically run with the same heal squad, save for the other Hpriest and a Rshaman alternate because of work schedules. Our Rshaman has quite a bit more gear, so I'd like to solidify myself in that 3rd healer role.

Thanks again for the help.

Anyone else have anything to add?

[Ashleycakez]

There really is no reason to be disc for 2 healing normal content. The only fight I would suggest it for is normal chogall but it can be done as holy. I've been messing with disc lately but I typically only heal as holy.

I've 2 healed normal ods, atramedes, v&t, ascendant council and chogall as holy. Probably magmaw and maloriak as well but I just can't remember now.

Apologies for any weird typos. Im out and posting from my phone >.<

An additional note: I have really not found it necessary to play disc when 3 healing content unless I need to overcompensate for someone's alt stepping in for the third healer position. Disc can help with a new or undergeared healer. But I would stress: play the healing spec you are best at. If you try pve disc and you are amazing, play it.

[infused]

Good to know about disc. I switched up my glyphs/spec last night, and we one shotted Chimaeron with me as holy.

We put some attempts in on Nef, more to learn the fight than anything else, and I was able to put out some stronger numbers. (or so I think, I forgot to upload logs :/)

While we're talking Nef., I've got a question about your healing assignments for that fight. I saw your youtube vid of your Nef normal kill. Who's assigned to healing who in that? Particularly p3.

Being unfamiliar with the fight, I let one of our other healers call healing assignments last night (I'm the raid leader). We had a resto sham on the ony tank, a holy pally on the nef tank, and me healing the raid. I spent a lot of my time spamming bubbles on our add kiter (fury war with sword and board out), and i think that worked alright. I was able to keep most people up without issue. However, for p3 (which we didn't see last night) I was told that a holy pally would not be as strong for raid healing, and that I would need to switch places with the resto sham, swap chaks, and heal the tank. What are you thoughts about that?

Also, can you give me a break down on how you guys handle adds in p1? It doesn't look like you kite them at all, is it all cc? Thanks.

EDIT: I'll post logs when I upload them later tonight.

[Ashleycakez]

For nef p1 our fury warrior holds 2-4 of the adds with a shield on. I shackle one add, resto driud roots one. If we have a ret he uses repentance. If there is another priest/druid we get more cc. Basically our spot to hold all adds in p1 is in the middle, and nef is tanked on the side in p3.

There is no reason for you to feel like you can't tank heal in p3. Remain in sancutary, place lightwell for your tank and let the shaman do the brunt of the single target healing. You can use heal/flash heal just fine to help with the tank, and your aoe will be powerful enough to top off your raid quickly.

I've been killing nef with 2x resto druid lately. I have them on the nef tank and the raid in p3 while I sit in serenity and heal the kiting tank. Either task is managable, just use you mana wisely in the first two parts :)


Edit: I'll add that in that video I have posted, myself and our Resto Druid are on the nef tank/raid during p3, while our Resto Shaman is out following the kiting tank at that point.