The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
Binding Heal
by Vonya
Today, my gentle snowflakes*, we are going to discuss the priest spell Binding Heal.
Unfortunately I don’t have a clever renaming for this puppy. It’s not that I call it “Binding Heal” in my head whenever I need to use it. Far from it. I think my brain would explode if I used the correct nominative for any spell. Rather than “Oh, crap, I need to use Binding Heal!” my brain will say “Oh, crap, I need to use the Heal-myself-and-someone-else-thingy!”
Which…well, it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it?
So we’ll avoid awkward acronyms and just call it Binding Heal. HMASET is too long. You can call it whatever you like.
So what are the vital stats on this spell?
It’s holy, so obviously isn’t intended for shadowform synergy. Cast time is 1.5 seconds. Range is 40 yards. So far, I may as well be describing a Flash Heal, right?
We don’t get it till level 64. And if you’re anything like me, you wrinkled your nose and snorted as soon as you trained it. What kind of lame excuse for a shiny new BC talent is this, any way?
Well, let’s take a look at the tooltip text.
Heals a friendly target and the caster for XX to XX. Low threat.
Not terribly complex, is it? Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty to say (as if there was ever any doubt. I could turn a fortune cookie into a novel).
What the spell DOES
Heals a friendly target and the caster for XX
Read that again, because it’s key to the use of this spell. Heals a friendly target AND the caster. Two people, one of whom is ALWAYS you.
Always.
You can’t just snag two random group members and heal them. It’s always YOU and someone else.
But what’s this? “Friendly target”? Well, that means they don’t have to be in your group. They don’t even have to be in your raid. All they have to be is “friendly”. THAT is very cool. It’s a multiple-person heal that knows no boundaries beyond “don’t cast this on the guy trying to fricassee your spleen.”
Fair enough. I’d say that’s more than reasonable.
I blanked out the numbers there and added XX instead. I do that because I’m too lazy to find out if there are multiple ranks, and I can’t see the future. Right now, you can basically assume that each player gets a beefy Flash Heal. Flash Heal’s not the most impressive heal we’ve got, but then again…Binding Heal always heals US. And we aren’t exactly stacking the Stamina gear, are we? (well, we should be to a POINT. But we’re not warlocks. We have low health pools by necessity, our gear requires it).
So if we need a heal, usually a Flash Heal patch us right up. If Binding Heal had the power of a Greater Heal, we’d be overhealing ourselves all the time. (I’d be okay with that if it didn’t cost more mana, mind you. Not gonna happen, keep dreaming)
Onward!
Low threat.
/dance
Every time you see those words, you should be getting down on your knees and kissing the feet of the dev who added them. (Okay, not that one dev, he’s got athlete’s foot. But the other ones should be pretty safe).
Here you have a spell that heals TWO people. And it has reduced threat. REDUCED threat. Gah, I get a delicious little quiver down in my stomach every time I type that.
*shiver* Low Threat. *shiver*
Bad news though…no word on what “Low Threat” means. Does it mean halved threat? Quartered? Or just a tiny sliver taken off the top?
I have no idea, and neither does anyone else from what I can tell. I’m not gonna look this gift horse in the mouth. I will say that I’ve never stolen aggro with a Binding Heal. And given the way I use the heal, that’s pretty significant. More on that later, though.
The Downside to Binding Heal
It’s not mana efficient. It’s not supposed to be mana efficient, but you have to KNOW that it’s not mana efficient so that you treat it like the panic button it is.
This will not be a spell that you cast as part of your general healing strategy. It’s a waste of mana unless it’s TRULY needed. This heal should be protected with a “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” sticker.
Don’t be afraid of using the spell, but don’t drag it out every time you stub your toe, either.
Nice thing is that it gets a hefty coefficient from your plus to heal gear. It’s treated as two different Flash Heals. So each heal gets roundabout 40mumble percent of your plus heal. So the entire Binding Heal gets 80mumble percent of your plus heal.
So the more plus heal gear you have, the more mana efficient it becomes.
The Upside to Binding Heal
LOW THREAT. *shiver*
Aside from that, it’s FAST. It’s really fast. Sure, it’s expensive, but how many times have you needed to heal and needed to heal NOW? Raise your hands, don’t be ashamed.
For what it’s primary use is, this spell is unparalleled. It’s beautiful, a shining monument to being exactly what it needs to be.
It’s perfect.
When should you use Binding Heal?
- You should use Binding Heal when you need a heal and so does someone else in the group.
- You should use Binding Heal when yourself and PlayerA both need at least a Flash Heal’s worth of health.
- You should use Binding Heal when you’re worried about stealing aggro on a mob.
- You should use Binding Heal when speed is an issue.
You’ll want to use it whenever you can take the first line and pair it with at least two of the other lines.
There’s one situation that healers find themselves in which is so suited to Binding Heal that there’s no doubt but that it is precisely why the Developers made it.
You’ve pulled aggro. Maybe the tank got gouged or feared or rooted. Maybe you got some unexpected adds late in the fight and the tank didn’t have time to nail down aggro before he needed a heal.
Whatever the reason, you’ve pulled aggro. You’re getting beaten on. You need a heal. The tank was just getting beaten on, and HE needs a heal, too. He’s coming to save you, but you need a heal NOW, or you’re going to be toast. You’ve already faded and bubbled, but you’ve still got the mobs.
THIS is where Binding Heal shines.
You and another player (the tank) need a heal. The Flash Heal is enough to get your health back to acceptable levels. Your tank is in the process of trying to get aggro back on the mobs hitting you (or he JUST did, which means you’re still high on their threat lists and you need to treat your threat levels like a tiny glass unicorn held in an ogre’s calloused and unsteady grip). Aggro matters, and you don’t want to cast a Greater Heal, because that might just be enough to tip the mobs back to you. You want the heal to go FAST. If you’re still getting beaten on, then a shorter cast time means less opportunity for the mobs to interrupt you to death. Even if you aren’t getting eaten, the tank probably needs that heal. Speed is an issue.
Use Binding Heal.
THIS is what it was made for. How comforting, how lovely, to know exactly what something was made for, and to know exactly when to use it. We humans aren’t offered the comfort of knowing why we are here, but we know why Binding Heal exists.
Let Binding Heal fulfill its purpose.
Summary
Binding Heal is one of those situational heals that is actually kinda lame if it’s used improperly. Kinda like trying to use a hammer to insert a screw. Sure, it’ll get the job done but it’s messy, painful, and you look pretty silly doing it. Use a screwdriver for screws, and keep the hammer handy for when you’ve got nails.
*and still nobody’s gotten the reference. This makes me a sad panda.
September 11th, 2007
I would suggest egoheal aka “selfheal” as name
Nothing more to add, excellent as usual…
September 11th, 2007
“And we aren’t exactly stacking the Stamina gear, are we? (well, we should be to a POINT. But we’re not warlocks. We have low health pools by necessity, our gear requires it).”
*shakes fist angrily at all of the primal-mooncloth-set-wearing-priests in his guild*
This is a great healing set but please, for the love of Elune, have another set that actually has some stamina on it. Otherwise you are going to be toasted on fights like Shade of Aran and Netherspite, to give a few examples - and it doesn’t matter how much +healing you have when you’re dead in the first minute.
September 11th, 2007
Isn’t “my gentle snowflakes” from Lewis Black? I can’t name from where but my mind keeps telling me its him…
September 11th, 2007
@Lehm
Hmm, that would work if it was a self-only heal. But since it heals someone else too, I just can’t wrangle it in my brain.
@Esoth
Or at the very least, weigh stamina more heavily on the non-set pieces. I’ve recommended to my guild that priests should have a minimum of 6k health before being allowed to set foot in Kara. And by the end of Kara, they should be nearing 7k, easily. You’re absolutely right, some of these bosses (and trash mobs too) delight in one-shotting priests.
But it’s a tradeoff game, always. If you gain 18 stamina, you usually use 50 heal, or 5 MP5, or both.
@Zasp
WE HAVE A WINNAR! *glee*
September 11th, 2007
Bah, was going to say it but Zasp beat me to it.
I’ve got his book and all his performances.
September 11th, 2007
This works in nearly all cases because this is the heal I use to heal *ME*. Any other heal seldom fit (only renew but it is a hot).
When selfheal then binding heal (beside the other cases you pointed out).
low aggro and self healing makes this heal spell very special and I use it very often.
September 11th, 2007
“Gentle Snowflake” is a euphemism for the mentally or physically handicapped, though I’m not sure of it’s origin. Sad panda is from Southpark though, “Sexual Harassment …. Panda!”
September 11th, 2007
@Thuenderman
I was using it in the context of Lewis Black - talking about how everyone is special and different, not as a way of trying to insult my readers. I found your definition in the urban dictionary after doing a google search, but I’m apparently not urban enough to have come across that particular usage.
If I thought someone was (and I quote), a “window-licking ‘tard” I would just call them that.
@lehm
Verra true, and I’ve definitely gotten to the point where I get irritable if I have to heal myself but nobody else needs a heal. *grins*
September 11th, 2007
Great post. To continue on Esoth’s tangent, stamina gets more and more important as you progress further. Like was said, if you can’t stay alive, you can’t heal anyone. We’re working on Gruul the Dragonkiller right now. We got him down to about 17% last night. If we could have kept a few more healers alive, we could have kept the tanks alive, and we could have gotten the job done. With all the new +stam gear available with the release of TBC, there’s not really any excuse to have a low health pool. Do some questing, get some enchants, get out in the arena and do your 10 matches per week.
September 11th, 2007
Lei
But what do you consider to be a “low” health pool? Give some numbers, some examples of what’s needed for various goals.
Without those, most priests (myself included) can only go off of the gear that’s available to them. And we could stack up on the stamina, but we have to TRADEOFF to get it. Where do we draw the line? If we’re looking at gear with a significant healing ability drop, but with more stamina, how do we make that call?
Also, I refuse to set foot in an arena match. If it’s not possible for me to gear up without it, then Blizz did something wrong. Not only do I not enjoy pvp, I’m a HOLY PRIEST. I might as well hold a sign over my head that says “free HK”.
September 11th, 2007
ok, you you nobody have to heal (sometime the case) I pickup the tank heal macro because then the second ability of this spell (low aggro) is > all. The tank maybe get not healed because he already has full health but you can heal yourself.
This is then a true “egoheal” because nobody else benefit from it. Even then, egoheal > flashheal because of low aggro.
When I’m forced to heal myself with a greater heal, 9 out of 10 cases this means: WIPE so I don’t bother with it. If egoheal is not enough, well then the shit WILL hit the fan and other problems were bigger and not solvable by using greater heal to the priest.
September 11th, 2007
6k is probably a good minimum for entry into Kara, but by the time you get out you can easily have over 7k. For fights like the ones I mentioned, you should probably try to have 7500 health buffed - use stamina food, whatever. I know one of our priests (a non-tailor) has something like 7500 health and 1800 +heal unbuffed, from Kara gear.
My guild is also working on Gruul still, after we breezed past High King. Everyone gets hit by the shatters (and the occasional cave-in), and all of his damage is physical. Meaning it can be mitigated by armor. Meaning clothies are vulnerable. The priests tend to be some of the first to die.
September 11th, 2007
Hmm… excellent question, Ego. The main thing is to stay alive. So, in a lot of fights it’s simply the question of can you take one hit before the tank gets agro again or you Fade. But that’s more of a “traditional” fight; most of the bosses in TBC are non-traditional. I’m assuming that your numbers for Kara health are raid buffed. I don’t recall what we require going in, but you’re probably a bit on the low side. You’re gonna want a minimum of probably about 8.5k for Gruul’s Lair. You can get away with less for the High King Maulgar fight, but with Shatter… you’re gonna want that much for Gruul himself.
As for arena… in a 5v5 battle, if you bring two healers it can have amazing effects. If they see you as the free HK, then you’ve got somebody else healing you, keeping you alive, while your 3 DPS’ers kick the crap out of their healer.
September 11th, 2007
If I might continue to hijack your blog entry here: having a holy priest and a holy paladin in a 5v5 team is really, really nice. Even if all you did is cast a few hots and mass dispel, you would be an incredible help to your team - mass dispel removes pally bubbles, making your class extremely valuable if not critical when fighting a team with paladins.
September 11th, 2007
I use it alot when I somehow steal aggro… tank is CCed… tank isn’t an aggro magnet >.
September 11th, 2007
I use it alot when I somehow steal aggro… tank is CCed… tank isn’t an aggro magnet… someone decides to dump aggro on the squishie for some squishie juice…
for MP consumption… it is cheaper than two FHeals…
in arena… if you’re a crit smitebot… it gives you an extra chance to crit and proc Surge of Light (the insta smite thinggy… just in case i got the talent name wrong…)
Side note: Is there any way that i could benchmark myself to see if i’m ready (stat, gear and talent wise) for heroics and kara?
Note: sorry abt the double post… part of my message got lost on the 1st one…
September 12th, 2007
@ Lill
As far as Heroics go I would consider it the same prereq’s as kara. In heroics you have no one to fall back on and help you out with catch heals. I have done Kara and not a Heroic yet because of this reason.
September 12th, 2007
@Ego
Let’s see if this comment goes through, or gets stuck in your spam filter again. =P
On Karazhan, I think about 6 000- 6 500 HP is required to go in. Having low HP on encounters that have AoE damage can be a problem, though most of those encounters tend to be deeper in Karazhan. (Shade of Aran, Netherspite, Nightbane.) Once you get past Karazhan and go into places like Gruul’s Lair, you are probably going to want higher HP. Like Leiandra recommends, 8k HP buffed is probably a good guideline, because shatter can kill you, especially while you’re learning the encounter. I’ve taken up to 8-9k damage in there easily just because of shatters and by being tossed randomly into the healer camp.
I think the key here is to have multiple pieces of gear that you can switch in and switch out depending on the encounter. For instance, a holy priest I know switches in a couple pieces of stam-heavy gear for Shade of Aran, precisely because she knows of the amount of damage she needs to be able to take in that encounter. I generally carry around 2 full 18 slot bags of gear with me (7 trinkets, rings, heads, necks… you name it, I have ‘em) and switch pieces depending on what is required. I probably take this a little too far for most people, gear-wise, but it’s a good idea to have a few extra pieces to switch in and out. It can only help.
As for arena, before I transferred servers, I was in a halfway decent 5v5 team with a holy priest as our only healer. It is completely doable, and holy priests are not necessarily free honor kills all the time. She started out in straight up PvE gear (mostly blues and some purples from Kara and Gruul) and did just fine. The thing is that PvE gear is less about stam and resilience, but more +healing, so while she took more damage, she also put out a lot more healing, and remember, this is a 5v5, so our team was running interference for her and helping her out so she could keep us alive. Just having one Frisbee flying around in an arena match is reason enough to bring a holy priest in.
I firmly feel that doing arenas or BGs of some kind has actually helped me in my PvE game. I’m a lot more aware of my surroundings, and I’m better able to adapt to fluid situations. I am more flexible with my skills as a priest (and yes, depending on the group make up, I might switch into heal gear and heal instead of melt faces). It’s let me be more creative with what I can do, and I’m also more aware of the abilities of other classes. =) So I do strongly advocate some PvP (not just for the gear, although that’s pretty awesome too), though I do understand that people may not like it.
@lill
I agree with Nobs in that use Karazhan as a benchmark for pre-reqs for heroics, with the understanding that not all heroics are created equal. Mechanar is E-Z mode. So are Slave Pens and Steamvaults. Shattered Halls or Shadow Labs in heroic? Not so much. I hear that Mana Tombs and Auchenai Crypts are absolute monsters in heroic, but I can’t confirm that since I’ve never done them. I will say though, when you start thinking about doing heroics, is to do the easy ones first, and if you’re unsure if you can solo heal them, bring along somebody who can off heal. Bring along a shaman or a shadow priest or maybe a druid, so you have somebody to help support you should you need it.
September 12th, 2007
Knothide Armor Kit, +8 Stam to Chest, Hands, Feet
Clefthoof Leg Armor, +30 Stam and +10 Agil to Legs
Not a giant amount, but +540 life is +540 life.
September 12th, 2007
Oops…Nethercleft is even better!
September 12th, 2007
Stamina, an overlooked stat for Priests?…
This one’s going to be a short and quick post because I daresay the point that I’m trying to drive home will not take long to figure out. Several days ago, a prominent Guild on Ner’Zhul disbanded due to lack of attendance and other fa…
September 12th, 2007
A lot of people were talking about Stamina. Figure I’d throw in my 2 cents worth.
You know guys, sometimes I wonder if there’s not some sort of psychic connection between all of us. It’s as if everytime one of us blogs about a topic, another also posts something similar. Well, if not post in a blog then at least in comments.
*scratches head*
September 13th, 2007
@Nobs
thanks… but i’ve yet to go kara (i doubt i’ll have the chance as i’m not in a raiding guild)… so i was wondering how i’ll be able to know… e.g. +heal of a certain amount?
the reason why i’m asking is because i’m a holy/disc hybrid… and i’m usually the main healer…
September 13th, 2007
I think our healing druid, shaman, and paladins are near or above 9k health when fully buffed now. In cat form with my cat gear i exceed 10k and output high damage (partly due, i suppose, to the damn squid staff which doesn’t look like it has any upgrades, even through BT). Why can’t the priests match that, when any hits they take are, if anything, likely to do even more damage than they would to the paladins? Is this a developer oversight?
September 17th, 2007
It may be a question of gear, but after they improved the mana efficiency of Binding Heal in a recent patch, it now has about the same heal per mana ratio as max rank Greater Heal (at least last time I checked around +1600 heal with DrDamage). This means that if you have no overhealing in neither of the two heals, it is just as efficient as Greater Heal, but faster (flash heal speed) and less threath. This imo makes the spell superb and I use it all the time.
PS: Great blog btw
September 21st, 2007
I’ve just been referring to it in my head as a “bindi” — I guess that’s kind of a phonetic way of saying the words together. It seemed to make sense to me because the traditional bindi (”red dot on forehead”) is placed between the two brows, which in their culture signifies the sixth Chakra, the place for “concealed wisdom“–works for me when I’m on my healing priest!
September 24th, 2007
@Teni
Hmm, I like the sound of that…
Also, I need to look up the mana efficiency thing! Gah, I may be using outdated information.
Stop being lazy, Ego!!
October 4th, 2007
As for arena… in a 5v5 battle, if you bring two healers it can have amazing effects. If they see you as the free HK, then you’ve got somebody else healing you, keeping you alive, while your 3 DPS’ers kick the crap out of their healer
Yes, that’s exactly what my 5v5 team does - basically I’m the holy spec’d priest everyone like’s to target first - little does my arena opponents know that the hidden kitty nearby is actually a 51 point resto druid, as soon as I get hit - I’m getting healed like crazy by our druid. By the time the other team figures it out - they are already down 1 or 2 guys in the fight. I just got my 1st piece of EQ this week - loving the mercilist gladiator mooncloth helm with +66 stam (+660 health = huge in Karazhan) to say the least.
October 11th, 2007
[...] one is fairly straightforward, but it’s a good spell and therefore worth reviewing! Here is Ego’s post on this spell, good info there [...]