The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
Back to Basics
by Vonya
In trying to pick my topics to blog about this week, I’ve decided to go back to the basics.
I’ve promised a few times to do blog entries on things like the Five Second Rule and proper aggro management - I need to write these.
I know a goodly few of you are probably so familiar with both of these rules as to be sick at the thought of reading about them again — but I also know I’ve got a few newbies out there, and I’d like to be able to move on to more complex topics without having to apologize for not explaining the basics first.
So, to you priesting gurus - you may find me boring for the next few entries. To everyone else, this next stuff is really important.
Also, by unanimous agreement, the item mouseover linking is staying. Thank you for giving me your opinions!
July 30th, 2007
Give it a shot. I like your writing and am looking forward to a write-up on the 5 Second Rule. I’m no newbie by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve never played casters till now.
Keep it up. You have some good talent and a way with words!
July 30th, 2007
@Chris
Thanks! I’ll try to keep the posts interesting enough that even old hands might look at the topics in a new light.
After all, I never use five words where ten will do! *winks*
July 31st, 2007
I think basics are always necessary. There are so many intricacies to being a priest– whether you are a raid healer, a heroic healer, a party healer, or main caster dps. There is always a use for a priest if that priest is done “right” so to speak. Some topics I would like to see your opinions of:
Healing Over Time
Shadow Restoration
Priest CC (MC/Shackle)
Focus Casting
Yay Blog!
-Father Thespa / Suramar
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Suramar&n=Thespa
July 31st, 2007
If you want to know about HoTs, you simply MUST talk to a druid. Hey, what a coincidence: i’ve spent time healing as a druid!
Bear with me as i take a trip down memory lane, because healing is my first love and i had many wonderful weeks in ZG tossing out green numbers. Sadly, the demands of outland and a lack of tanks in the guild forced me into a full feral build months ago, which is why i finally started a priest. Big Yellow Numbers are fun, but i want to make Green Numbers, damn it!
Druids get 3 HoTs: Lifebloom (a hilariously efficient heal at high +healing levels — 220 mana, 95% +heal coefficient for a single-stack application, i believe), Rejuvenation (like Renew), and Regrowth (2 second cast with an immediate heal with a +50% chance to crit with talents and a slow HoT — not as mana efficient as the others unless it crits, but it often does). Swiftmend can consume a dying HoT to produce an instant heal, as well. On top of that, you have Healing Touch (if you’re not in tree form), which is a very slow, very large heal.
Lifebloom is the star of the show. Not only does it receive about 95% of your +healing if you apply it a single time and let it bloom, but also the bloom can crit. Isn’t that nice? However, take a look at this: “It is also interesting to note that the crit rate of the final Lifebloom tick tends to be based on the spell crit rate of the target rather than the caster. In personal tests on a rogue who just insisted to have it cast on her, it has not crited once in over 300 samples.”. It probably won’t be critting on your tank very often.
There were a few methods for healing:
You can rely entirely on Healing Touch. This requires either slow damage to the tank OR a good eye for predicting when you should start casting, because it’s going to be 3 seconds before the heal hits, and it’s a big one. This method is favored if you’re a balance/resto hybrid, because balance talents tend to improve HT (rather than the HoTs) and improve your mana regen inside the 5sr.
You can rely entirely on HoTs. If your tank isn’t taking much damage, you can apply a couple of HoTs, wait for them to expire, then do it again. Your mana should stay at full. If you are a tree, well, you only CAN cast the HoTs, so i guess you’d better get used to using them. They cost 20% less mana, so YAY!
You can mix the two. This would probably be how a priest would do it; wait until the tank’s health approaches the point where healing him with a big HT would fill him back up, then cast HT, then cast a couple of HoTs, then stand around and wait until the tank is back down to that point again. This should keep you out of the 5sr as long as possible, so this is a good method for people with high spirit who aren’t trees.
Some people like to keep a running stack of 3xLifebloom on the target, never letting the bloom hit. That never sparked my imagination. The efficiency is much lower than letting it bloom, although it’s still not exactly terrible.
Boy, that was a fun little romp through the memories. Oh, well. Priests only get one HoT, which makes me weep, but at least you’re not paladins. Also, renew has a 100% +healing coefficient, i think.
July 31st, 2007
@Mel
Druids are indeed the undisputed rulers of the HoT world. As a priest, I want VERY badly to have an AoE HoT but I know in my heart of hearts that if anyone was going to be awarded such a spell, it’d be my bushy brethren.
You can mix the two. This would probably be how a priest would do it; wait until the tank’s health approaches the point where healing him with a big HT would fill him back up, then cast HT, then cast a couple of HoTs, then stand around and wait until the tank is back down to that point again. This should keep you out of the 5sr as long as possible, so this is a good method for people with high spirit who aren’t trees.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Do you write a blog?
July 31st, 2007
I don’t, and i don’t intend to. That’s not to say i don’t like some of these blogs, but i’m not the writing sort of person, that wall of text notwithstanding.
Actually, i swear i saw that method recommended on some blog recently, but i couldn’t tell you which, or even if it wasn’t this one. I’d have still typed about it had i not seen it mentioned, though, as i learned about it by experimentation, back when i was healing.
I’ve done that for most aspects of my druid, doing serious research (more than just looking up +healing coefficients) only when it came time to tank (armor caps, agility/dodge conversion, specific threat mechanics of each ability), because that stuff is not as easy to figure out by observation. For the hunter, mage, and now priest, i’m doing my research -before- i spend every 10 levels respeccing.
August 1st, 2007
Well, it’s the blogosphere’s loss, and I’ll leave it at that.
I want to do a series of interviews with other class healers - if you’re still hanging about, I may try to get your input for that. =]
because that stuff is not as easy to figure out by observation
Which is why we blog, I think. Everyone was a newb, and it takes a lot of work to get past that stage, and then there’s always SOMETHING new to learn.
Reminds me of when I was playing Jade Cocoon 2 and I finally found some online guides to explain how the merging process worked. It was like a light turned on. The game certainly didn’t explain it, and I’d been missing more than half the game by not knowing it.
Love that game. <3
August 1st, 2007
Well, i quit main healing when the expansion came out (actually going balance/resto so i could keep healing a little, then later feral at 70 because we needed another tank), and i took a vacation from WoW to play other games for about 2 months just before the expansion, so it’s been ages since i’ve done a lot of healing. I occasionally have to off-heal for something, but overall i’d say my experience is solidly pre-BC (before we even had trees) and not of much use these days. I know only two druid healers in my guild, and i don’t want to slight them, but i don’t think they have enough experience at it either to go committing knowledge to the web.
If it sounds like i’m trying to weasel out of being committed to something, i probably am.
And you have reminded me that there are so many other games i want to play besides WoW! I need a WoW patch for my arm so i can go play other games sometimes.
August 1st, 2007
Haha, you ain’t kiddin’.
Sometimes I wish I could split so I could raid and do other things at the same time.
And druid healing definitely took a shift after BC - my hubby healed as a tree for a while, but is currently warlocking it up. I want to make sure that my sources seem as valid as they are - I know that there may be someone out there who plays a rogue that knows more about priesting than me, but that doesn’t mean most people are going to accept the word of someone who doesn’t actively priest when looking for advice. =]
August 1st, 2007
I just made a post on the suggestion forum about why blood elves (and humans) get the shaft — especially compared to draenei — for race-specific priest abilities. You should see this nonsense. Draenei can restore 1000 mana to the entire party every 5 minutes, while blood elves have to remove two priest buffs to restore 930 mana to themselves only, every 4 minutes (two uses of the ability). It’s -almost- enough to make me want to abandon my level 30 blood elf and switch to an undead priest.
So… you might talk about race-specific abilities in a future post. I haven’t played a priest long, so i couldn’t be sure about my analyses of all the abilities.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=712473095
I may have made myself look like an uninformed jackass, but it wouldn’t be the first time, and i can take it.
August 1st, 2007
@Mel
That’s actually on my to-write list.
I was going to do it this week, but the WoW Insider priest blog just covered it, and I don’t wanna look like a Johnny-come-lately.
=]
Incidentally, I totally agree - Drae priest abilities are by far the best of the bunch, and after the first few groups where new members verbally flailed at the Symbol of Hope animation and sound, I get much love every time I use it.
And Fear Ward is nearly required for so many fights it’s just insane.
August 1st, 2007
@Thespa
I would be very curious to know why gmail considered your comment spam.
Looks like I need to go through there a bit more carefully. Gah, stupid viagra advertisements.
Anyrate, as you’ve said :
Healing Over Time
I’ve not done this one yet. Since priests only have one HoT spell, what sort of topic did you have in mind?
Shadow Restoration
…as in, how vampiric embrace works?
Priest CC (MC/Shackle)
Done ->> http://egotisticalpriest.omen-guild.net/?p=13#more-13
Focus Casting
What is Focus Casting?
August 1st, 2007
Focus Casting refers to setting a focus and the use of the macro condition [target=focus] to cast a spell on the focus instead of the target. I used Clique to set control+shift+click_on_a_unit_frame to set my focus (and x-perl gives me a unit frame for my focus, just like for target and for party members), and i use macros like this one. Please forgive me if i get it a little wrong, as i’m at work and can’t check what my macros at home actually look like.
#showtooltip
/target [notarget,target=player]
/cast [target=focus,exists] Shackle Undead; Shackle Undead
Or something like that, anyway. The purpose of the /target line is that i can’t cast Hibernate or Roots if i have nobody targetted, even if i have [target=focus] and i do have a focus target, so it targets myself if i don’t have any current target, so i can cast the spell. The second line then casts it on my focus if i have one, but otherwise casts it normally if i don’t.
You could use enemies as your focus, or could use friends. I know BRK makes his tank the focus and uses a nice macro to cast Misdirect on him while he’s targetting an enemy.
August 1st, 2007
Oops. I said “…and i do have a focus target”. That’s confusing. I should have just said “focus”, and i can’t go edit it, now.
August 1st, 2007
#showtooltip Hibernate
/target [noexists] player
/cast [modifier:alt] Nature’s Swiftness
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus,exists,harm] Hibernate
/stopmacro [target=focus,exists,harm]
/cast Hibernate
August 2nd, 2007
Aha - I’ve got something of a writeup on Focus Casting already in my Shackle Undead post - but it wouldn’t hurt to have a whole post dedicated to it.
I just didn’t realize there was an official term for it.
=]