I did a GKP run last night. Got a token and new set of bracers for just over 10k. 7 bosses, one on heroic. 3 hours. Not too bad but not the best run ever.
I took my priest because he actually needs more gear - so I have more chance to contribute to the pot than taking Puraa who just needs DBW. Of course Deathbringer's Will dropped. Went cheaply as well - 20k is a snap.
At the start of the raid I realised that there were three pally heals. 'We have it covered' they said - and for the most part they did (lets not talk about the tanked being pally bubbled in phase three of Prof Putricide - and definately dont mention that the same thing happened on the second wipe as well!).
So Sard was put onto raid heals.
To be honest I wasn't comfortable - I've never raid healed a 25 man before.
Now before I get jumped on in the comments (as I was jumped on last night when I mentioned it) - yes I know disc priests are meant to be some of the best raid heals in the game currently. Bubble spam FTW
Lets take Lady Deathwhisper as an example. 272 PWS cast. 272!!!!
I have to ask but do you know how boring primarily casting one spell for 3 hours is? Sure you throw out PoM on cooldown and flash heal and penance when someone stands in D+D or cant run from Malleable Goo - but with 22 people to cover you basically bubble them one by one and then go back to the first person and start all over.
My recount doesn't have the estimated mitigation tool - but I did a rough calculation at the end of the run. Nearly 900 shields cast - each one doing 12k mitigation. That's over 10 million non heals which when added to the 7 million real heals means I was near identical with the druid and the shaman who topped the healing tables at 17 million heals done. So yes disc are great raid healers but are they as effective as the holy priest and their Circle of Healing or another shammy with chain heal?
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As I do in these moments of confusion, I turned to the internet:
According to Constantius' guide on EJ:
Predictable damage can be healed, assuming the group is setup properly, with PoH, Flash Heal, and PW:S. If you can cast PW:S on people you know will take the full amount of absorption soon, it's actually close to mana-free. This can be an effective way to help with raid healing, although the internal cooldown on PW:S limits the practicality.
More from EJ
Contrary to early Ulduar opinions, discipline is not really a tank healing spec. Holy paladins are - by far - the best for this. Not only that, shamans and druids are better at this now, too. This even applies when you factor in all of the stuff a priest has to offer.
Let this sink in: you are not a tank healing spec.
Now that you are fully awake (and are possibly starting to protest), let's explain. Why? Well, some of the benefits of a priest are available whether the priest heals the raid or the tank. To apply pain suppression, you don't have to be the tank healer. To provide 3% absorb overall, you don't have to be the tank healer. To provide emergency support, you can offer your shield and penance even if you are not the tank healer. So, if we assume you can do all this as raid healer, too, there's little reason why you should be healing the tank, as your sustained HPS is lower. We haven't even started talking about a paladin's beacon.
That of course does not mean you cannot heal tanks. You can. And as long as tank damage isn't too high, you will do well. But you are not particularly good at this, and you should to what you are particularly good at, and that is raid healing py providing absorbtion.
There is an aspect of tank healing that you are very good at, though. I call this "tank healing support", and it's described further below.
Raid Healing:
Discipline priests are a very strong raid healing spec today, mostly due to GCD-based PW:S. The easiest way of raid healing is, well, easy: spam shields on the whole raid (giving targets actively taking damage priority), keep PoM on cooldown, use Divine Hymn in a good moment. This is how many people do it, and it works.
And from MMO Champion from just a couple of weeks ago there is a three page thread on just this subject. Its well worth a read.
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Of course there will be times a disc priest will struggle. A classic example is Precious. Shield gives no protection against decimate. PoM does nothing because following decimate there is little AoE damage. Prayer of Healing heals you and four others and has a huge cast time - so you randomly bubble/penance hoping to predict which person might take some damage - leaving you reliant on the other raid heals to do their job. In 25 mans you have this backup - but in 10 mans?
Of course I guess I always knew Disc priests were part raid healers - Infect on the Lich King is a example of where our spammed bubbles are priceless - but its sad that people no longer even consider the disc priest as a tank healer anymore - with shamans being ranked higher than them by many.
Has Disc really once again become a spec which limps along with little to contribute compared to the other healers? Hopefully Cataclysm will bring disc priests more glory days as we experienced in Ulduar.
2 comments:
*sigh* Well, I spent like twenty minutes writing a thoughtful response, but Blogger ate it, so if you'd like more help just drop me a line.
Here's another try at it....
As a disc priest, it can be hard to find the right niche. While some classes have obvious roles, we're often misunderstood by healers and raid leaders, and don't have an obvious place. But we can still do some stuff that kicks ass. Here are a few tips to make things a little more interesting and be more effective:
- We can do one thing no other class can (excepting cooldowns) - keep people from being one shot. Did someone miss a spore on Festergut? Are they about to get hit by a ghost on H LDW? Did they just accept a battle res at an awkward time? Is anyone at less than 10% health? You have a "you will not die" button in the form of a Shield. Keeping key people from dying is the *point* of healing.
- We have kick ass single target burst healing. The combination of Shield + PoM + Penance can heal up just about anything. Use this on anyone about to die...but also consider your tank healers. Palladins and Shaman just aren't mobile. Keep track of when they need to move or are disabled, and pick of the tank healing in those moments.
- Don't always use PoM on the tanks. Sure that's often the best way to get it moving around...but anyone taking aggro, targeted by a special ability, or taking damage and about to die is a good target too. On DBS, I almost always use it on the Marked players, because they're more squishy than the tanks and can use a little extra help staying up.
- Mitigation is more effective if you think in advance. Who's most likely to take damage? Who has aggro? Who's about to die or take a ton of damage?
- Most "amazing" raid healing classes have skills leaning towards people stacked up. Chain Heal, Wild Growth, and Circle of Healing are great examples. PoH is one of the few party oriented spells. But really keep an eye out for people who are not in range of traditional AOEs like hunters or casters/healers who are spread out.
- Don't discount Borrowed Time. A hasted Greater Heal or POM has excellent throughput. Try casting a Shield when Decimate starts casting, and pre-cast a PoH to hit the caster or healer group just when it lands.
- If you try these ideas, and feel like there's nothing you can do but Bubble Spam, you're probably running with too many healers.
I applaud you for thinking about how to play your class with more versatility and seeing our weaknesses as a challenge. Let me know if I can point you towards more resources or answer any specific questions.
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