The Holy Guide will be updated in the next 24-48 hours, although it has minimal changes from 5.1! (Grrrr….that irritates me on a number of levels. Holy’s shortcomings being overlooked).

Hope everyone is enjoying the Throne of Thunder, stay tuned for the Holy update, as well as a State of the Union 5.2 in the next week.

Keep calm, and keep healing.

5.2 Discipline Guide – Thunderstruck! is a post from: Tales of a Priest

But before I dive into the meat and potatoes of the post, I will provide a brief update on myself: it has been a chaotic January for me.  Work has been quite busy with a lot of travel, my SO and I are on the property hunt here in Boston (Rant: SO EXPENSIVE), and I am prepping to go away on vacation on a cruise at the end of the month with some friends.  Progression has been pretty solid, as of today we are working on Heroic Sha of Fear 25-Man, everything else is on farm. I expect a kill in the next few nights… It seems like one of those fights that just clicks and you make leaps and bounds forward. (Dear Huddle in Fear, why you love me so much?)

For this “Best Practices” I am going to split it into two sections, one for Holy and one for Discipline. Now I know a vast majority of us priests are playing Disc over holy simply because Disc is that much stronger at the moment— but for better or for worse, that will change in 5.2. While I personally feel that Holy will still be underpowered, despite GC’s “holy only seems underpowered because Disc is so overpowered…” we’ll see a lot more opportunities to play and shine as Holy than we do now in 5.1.

##Discipline##

Best Practice #1 – Smite, You Fools! (Diagram)

Atonement healing is nothing short of amazing. First, its exceptionally mana efficient… particularly if you have 5 stacks of Evangelism.  Secondly, the healing it provides its smart. So on many fights, which have periods of low raid damage, you can contribute easily to raid DPS, while triaging (smartly) and tank healing direct with Atonement heals. Penance, until 5.2, is often best used OFFENSIVELY unless you are stacking Grace on a target.  (Sidenote: Amazing with 4pc)

Additionally, on fights that have +damage taken on the boss. (eg. Heroic Lei Shi) It is not uncommon to see 100+k heals smartly healing your Scary Fog soakers. Delicious.

Perhaps most importantly, Smite/Atonement Healing is necessary to gain your Evangelism stacks to be able to use Archangel— and consequently other Best Practices.

Some fights, Atonement healing is NOT the best choice, and you should only be stacking Evangelism via Instant Holy Fire’s or while Weaving a smite/penance in between your POH’s since your raid is just taking Constant raid damage. (eg. Heroic: Garalon)

Best Practice #2 – Use Archangel With Spirit Shell

In a build earlier this year, we gained the ability to couple Archangel and Spirit Shell. (Previous TOAP Post). Archangel can increase your healing by up to 25%, and in turn adds a 1.25 multiplier to the Spirit Shell calculation… so a substantial increase. Spirit Shell is generally used to prepare you raid for incoming damage, which means you have specific times where you are going to be using it— why not prepare yourself by aligning this powerful cooldown to further augment Spirit Shell.

I have a Spirit Shell keybind with AA already built in. Since both SS and AA are off the GCD, macroing them together works perfectly to use them in tandem. Remember, AA lasts a few seconds longer than SS so even after SS expires, you still have a few seconds left with your heals empowered.

Best Practice #3 – Use Archangel Off Spirit Shell

Yes I know this is (intentionally) counter to my previous best practice, however the cooldown for Archangel is short enough that it allows you use it with Spirit Shell, and once without Spirit Shell before SS’s cooldown is complete. So many Disc Priests forget to use AA, even in periods of low damage and they are simply smiting away. There is no good reason to not have AA running, if it will be back off CD when you will need it (or if you will be casting Spirit Shell) before big damage hits.

A great way to do this is to monitor its cooldown, its duration, and your stacks of Evangelism. I suggest using a tracking mod, or simply import the Weak Auras I’ve created here.

Bonus Disc Tip: Use Inner Focus with Spirit Shell

This effectively gives your Spirit Shell target(s) a double shell, as Inner Focus will “crit” that cast of GHeal, Flash Heal, or POH. Nothing says raid mitigation, like a 200k+ shield on 5 targets!

##Holy##

Best Practice #1 – Pre-Cast Lightwell/Spring

You should have your Lightwell out before the tank pulls (or before damage goes out that you’ll need it)… I tend to prefer to have it out a good 30+ seconds early. Lightwell’s cooldown is your standard 3 minute cooldown. Some fights, like Tsulong, start the fight with large amounts of damage –sometimes consuming your entire Lightwell before the 3 minute cooldown is up.  IF you have pre-cast Lightwell, your CD will be up sooner, providing a shorter total downtime of the Lightwell for your raid to access.

Best Practice #2 – Stance Dance; When Appropriate

Evaluate when you should be in Serenity or Sanctuary. Look at your logs, are you casting POH/COH more than you are casting Single Target heals while you are in Serenity? Perhaps it is better to be in Sanctuary. A very easy fight to know when to stance-dance is Tsulong. You almost always want to be in Sanctuary during Night Phase, and almost always Serenity for Day Phase. This is a great fight to get used to going in and out of difference Chakra states.

Sometimes you ARE single target healing, before you start AOE healing… you need to look at the fight and determine if the 30 second Chakra cooldown is short enough to swap stances, and be able to swap back to the appropriate stance when the time is right.

Best Practice #3 – Use Your Words…

Yes… I said USE them. Our Holy Words may be flawed, but they are still a part of our toolkit. I rarely use HW: Serenity in 25 man, since I primarily am Sanctuary, but when I am in Serenity I use HW: Serenity on cooldown. Why? Because its mana efficient, instant, and provides a buff. Amazing? No… but something we should be using on CD when in that Stance. HW: Sanctuary, on the other hand, is something I use sparingly. It is expensive, hits like a wet noodle, but is not useless.

Do I think HW: Sanctuary needs developer love? Yes. However, if you have the mana to spare, your raid is camped in a given area, and constant raid damage is going out… any extra healing is helpful, so why not cast it? Don’t dismiss the spell as “useless” and refuse to cast it… sometimes, even though it is a bad spell in its current form, does not mean it doesn’t provide healing that is helpful.

Bonus Tip: Use Renew Effectively

A lot of people gear specific haste levels and glyph for Renew— but never cast it. Why are you gearing for a Renew breakpoint but cast it so infrequently? You’ll likely get more bang for your buck with Mastery. Your mileage may vary… but take a look at your logs: How often are you casting renew? How much are you overhealing with it? Would increasing your Echo of Light be a better option and provide you with more raw output? (most cases, probably yes)

Need more?

I would be remiss not to suggest that everyone visit www.HowToPriest.com and register there for more good priest ‘best practice’ discussion Healing and otherwise. Its where I spend most of my Priest forum time. Lately, I’ve found the official forums, EJ, MMOC I find woefully lacking in discussion beyond QQ. Besides all sorts of awesome people hang out there… myself included!

Holy and Disc Best Practices is a post from: Tales of a Priest

First let me just say…

In all seriousness, people need to KEEP CALM. The state of the priest is not as dire as some of the forum posts I have seen might suggest. Perhaps the biggest question I am seeing all over forums (official forums, H2P, and otherwise): Why are priests so under-powered and horrible right now?

This. Is. A. Fallacy.

I am sick of seeing all that garbage. Are priests in need of a slight buff here and there– sure. Do I think it is as dire as the forums would let you believe? No.  Did Discipline need a buff to its output to compensate for Holy’s Chakra Scaling on our Level 90 abilities, and larger raid healing toolkit? Yes.  Does Holy need the throughput increase (coming in 5.1) to compensate for the lack of utility? Sure.

Holy is doing well when played well, use Lightspring, find the correct places to use your Hymn, when and where should you be using Cascade/Halo/Star? Are you playing too cautiously? Could you be healing more aggressively? Do you have the opportunity to swap Chakra stances for certain fight mechanics/phases? (e.g. Serenity for Day Phase Tsulong, Sanctuary for Night Phase). Figuring out which Chakra stance, and when will be even more critical come 5.1 when Chakra stances are buffed 10%.

Disc now can blanket a raid (10 and 25) with Spirit Shells in preparation for incoming damage– this playstyle is exceptionally powerful. (Perhaps too much so?) In fact, you are already starting to see Guilds stack multiple Disc Priests to stagger/chain DA and Spirit Shells to “STOP DAMAGE NOW”. (I’m looking at you Force and Verve!)

Simply because these buffs just came out/are coming, does that mean Priests are in a bad spot right now? No.  Our output is pretty solid, heck, the image in the masthead has myself and my priest-partner in guild holding our own in one of our first Heart of Fear kills. (Disc/Holy combo) Not once have I thought, “Man, I should sit out of this fight there is nothing I can bring to the table of value.” And that includes 4 healing fights on 25 man.

I do think a lot of the doomsaying about priests is directly related to the perceived FOTM-Status of Mistweaver Monks. Are Mistweavers powerful healers? Yes. Are they being nerfed in 5.1? Yes. Is a lot of Mistweaver healing overstated and overhyped? Yes.  Are Mistweavers great additions to your healing team? Yes. However it does not mean that “reroll MW or GTFO” is what we should be thinking here— quite the contrary. With Monks as the new class, you’ll be damn sure that Blizzard has all eyes on Monk performance and balance. Priests have ALWAYS been well rounded healers, not once in my long tenure healing in WOW have I felt that Priests wouldn’t land on our feet. We always have.

My guild, Something Wicked, is doing a great job our Heroic 25 man progress (as of this post we are Realm 1, and in the US top 50) and we have ZERO Mistweavers in our healing team. Yep…. zero. Mistweavers are by no means “required”. Play your priest well, and leverage your abilities… you’ll be fine!

Keep Calm, Keep Healing, and Keep Learning.

Post Publication Edit:

In a twitter conversation with Chase, a rather good point was made. A lot of this priests suck/reroll or GTFO mindset is infecting the community as a result of people only looking at WoL/RaidBots for data. What we all need to keep in mind Healing Meters on WoL/RaidBots does NOT account for differences in raid comp, strategy, healing role, skill, or healing style. These all can dramatically affect the Parse results. Healing logs/parses simply do NOT paint the whole picture and we should NOT live and die by them— regardless of what people are yelling about on the forums or trade chat.

Keep Calm and Keep Healing is a post from: Tales of a Priest

1. Am I spec’d into the most appropriate regen model for this fight? Are you struggling to find gaps to fit your PW: Solace in? Are you getting fewer than (in aggregate) 8 Solaces per minute? Would Mindbender work better for you? What about FDCL?

2. Are you using your potions at an opportune time? Are there a section of the fight where a Potion of Focus would fit? (eg. Phase Transitions with Elegon)

3. Hymn of Hope – is there a place where you can cast it, maximizing the number of healers who will benefit?

… and perhaps the most important question:

4. Am I getting spirit from the most appropriate sources and sacrificing throughput stats appropriately to do so?

Hamlet, of EJ Druid fame, wrote an interesting post on this topic (here). While I don’t agree with 100% of the finer details on his post, the fundamental point and the spirit of the post is true:  Just because you think you need more spirit doesn’t mean that really is the case; you could just need to play better. I think that Hamlet, in very much his fashion (and is why I like him), is very matter of fact and delivers this important message in a manner that could be expanded upon and discussed. So let’s do that…

What Hamlet briefly touches upon, but I think needs more expanding and really is the crux of the argument we should be understanding is “itemization budgeting”. Gems now have an itemization budget with a 1:2 ratio of Primary Stats to Secondary Stats. This means that a gem with 160 Intellect, could be budgeted at 320 Spirit. (ie. Brilliant Primordial Ruby vs Sparkling River’s Heart). There is, at least, some reward for using a secondary stat over a primary stat: double the stat. Does that mean this is inherently superior? No. This can make the decision to gem one way over another a bit clearer– or, perhaps more explicitly, whether or not you want to break or match a socket bonus. Weigh your options.

Other items, such as food, do not enjoy that 1:2 budget. Mogu Fish Stew vs Steamed Crab Surprise are 300 to 300. In situations where it is a flat trade off, the answer is less clear. Is a 1:1 trade off worth the lost intellect?

Hamlet makes a good point and boils down his flask choices to additional mana over the course of the fight. Lets look at that example in another way: A 300 spirit food, grants you ~170mp5. Over the course of a 10 minute fight, that is an additional 20,400 mana. Which is about 3 more Renews over the course of the fight. Or 300 intellect impacting every single one of your spells— more importantly your efficient  and low overheal spells.

Of course, little spirit gains (from foods or flasks) here and there can add up,and over the course of a fight can result in thousands and thousands of additional mana… but at what cost? A lot of the answer revolves around gameplay. Are you playing your priest as well as you can? Are you overhealing a lot? Can you be more efficient? Can you improve your overhealing? Those answers alone could mean you could gain raw throughput (via Int or even Haste/Mastery in some situations), improve the spells effective healing, and actually heal for more per cast allowing you to use the existing mana you have more effectively.

The answer is even less clear for Discipline Priests since Rapture’s impact on PW: Shield’s HPM is directly correlated to the amount of spirit you have. One PW:S per Rapture is incredibly mana efficient… that is clear, even with very little spirit.  The real question is, what happens to your HPM if you cast a 2nd or 3rd PW:S within that Rapture CD?  This answer does vary depending on the fight (if the Shields will be fully absorbed) as well as your Mastery and Intellect levels since that too, affects the HPM by increasing the amount the shield absorbs for.

Now, by no means am I saying to NOT gem and gear for Spirit– this is where Hamlet and I diverge in opinion. Keep an eye on the budgeting and the throughput that the spirit costs you.  Know when and where to pull back from spirit. Know what the COST for using a spirit gem/food/flask is. Me? I am still using my Spirit Flask, however, now that I am Pandaren I have started using 300 intellect food. (Epicurean also grants me an additional 300 intellect from that… so I am comparing 600 spirit to 600 intellect). Why? Because the gained throughput, is outweighed by the regen from that 600 spirit.

Are you starting to feel comfortable with your regen or perhaps are you feeling like you need more oomph in your output? That is when you should be pulling out of low item budget spirit sources such as your food and flask– and, likely, before that point.

It is a fine line to walk… and this has always been our trade off as healers: Regen vs Throughput. I urge you to read the post Hamlet put up however please keep perspective when gemming, buffing, and gearing your priest. There is a certain amount of “gear your priest to preference and playstyle” involved here—- but that perhaps begs the biggest questions in this post:  Could you be playing better?  Are you working the best you can with the resources at your disposal?

“It’s not the size of your mana pool that matters.  It’s how you use it.” – @HamletEJ

Mana Regen vs Throughput is a post from: Tales of a Priest

I have to really stand up and applaud Blizzard for Mists of Pandaria; it really is probably one of their most polished expansions to date. Visually its really impressive, the story-line is fun to follow, the graphical improvements are nice, the mob polygons have been increased, and there is really SO MUCH to do…. this is where I have mixed emotions: There is almost too much to do.  I know a number of people have shared similar concerns with the plethora of things to do. Beru summed up some of the concerns with the dailies nicely (here).

Aside from the few of the quests having some bugs, which will hopefully be fixed with today’s maintenance, my issue with the hubs and hubs of dailies is that, as a pretty well progressed raider (We finished 52nd US in T13) I feel obligated to do all these dailies every day, since getting access to those VP items sooner than later will be critical in staying in the top. Not starting Heroic Raids “on time” puts us off pace for the whole tier. What also needs to be underscored is that these dailies not only provide access to the VP items, but the profession patterns as well. Yes, VP is throttled so it isn’t QUITE as much of a big ordeal… you can’t buy anything with 1,000 VP (Week 1′s cap)… but you can in week 2.

Farmville - 

Ok I joke when I call it Farmville… but I kinda like it. Food mats are VERY expensive since many Heroic Raiders will not settle for below 300 stat level food, which requires grinding to max level cooking in your preferred stat to craft.  (For me, at least at the start of the tier,  it will be Spirit, Spirit, Spirit!) The items to cook these foods will be heavily farmed, and very expensive on the AH, so being able to grow some of them on my farm has been handy. (I just hit Revered with the Tillers today, and now have 12 plots on my Priest to till). I have gone so far as moved 4 of my alts out to Halfhill to just tend their 4 plots of soil. That is 16 additional plots a day for me to farm my extra food mats.

I am camping the rare spawn location (waiting for it to rain, since that apparently is the cue for the spawn) to hopefully get the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm to hopefully make getting the fish I need a bit easier.

Raiding and Gearing -

Starts tomorrow (Wednesday) for us (we raid Wed/Thurs/Sun)… so I am very excited to get to see the final changes to the raids I did lots of testing on in Beta. My priest is pretty well set for the raid tomorrow, I need to finish a few minor tweaks… and hope for a couple of dungeon drops that SIMPLY DON’T EXIST, and perhaps grab a BOE or two from the AH/BMAH.

I will probably run the first week as Holy, since that is what I had spent the most time in dungeons running… and see how the raid does with only one Disc priest. (SPIRIT. SHELL. IS. THAT. AMAZING… don’t let people tell you otherwise. It really is.)

I have my Cranes deck all set to go for the Faire this weekend and will have my Relic of Chi Ji in time for Heroic Raids, which with that much spirit should hopefully make my regen concerns a moot point.

Gearing has been fun, running dungeons with my guildies… I’ve even been doing a good deal of DPSing in my shadow spec! (Lots of overlap between my Holy and Shadow Gear). Now I doubt I’ll be doing that in many (if any raids), but it is possible— and I do like the new ‘rotation’ for shadow, it is a lot more fun than the old one from Cata.

Favorite Moment -

Aside from the Realm First! spam and whispers… probably a tie between entering a Heroic Dungeon for the first time in the x-pac and my guild assembling to take down the two world bosses. What was yours?

What have YOU been doing? What do you like? What did you not like? 

Don’t forget to check out the Resources section as well as the Holy and Disc Guides!

Mists of Pandaria: Initial Impressions is a post from: Tales of a Priest

What is most important if you are staying up late (or as the case may be: early) to grind to 90 is to take care of yourself! Expansion launches are often a time when people toss caution to the wind, eat crappy food, guzzle down Red Bull, coffee, and stay awake until their eyes are red and sore from staring at your screen. I came across this blog post at The Healthy Gamer which outlines a lot of key things when pushing yourself for a long play-session at a MMO Launch. While the blog is mostly GuildWars 2 focused, the fundementals discussed there are really important.

I am a bit of a health nut myself, so I did want to share this with everyone. Now, by no means is eating healthy one day going to change your life forever… but its still a smart move, and clearly better alternative to chugging Red Bull and Pizza on launch day. Here are some key tips that I urge everyone to do in the long gaming sessions ahead of us for the MoP Release in just over a week!

1. Food – Try to NOT have too much sugary stuff. Nuts, cheese, sandwiches, anything high protein is best. “Slow” Carbohydrates are also beneficial as they do not cause your blood sugar to spike quite as much as simple sugars. If you are pushing for Realm First!  you might want to go so far as prepping your snacks… those precious minutes it takes you to make a sandwich or scramble an egg could mean the difference between first and second. I regularly take a multivitamin, as it helps me insure I am getting all of what my body needs, that my diet might not be providing me. If you’re not taking one now, you should consider one.

2. Drink – stay hydrated. Guzzling caffeinated drinks (which are usually sugary) actually can hurt you in the long term. You’ll likely crash shortly after your surge of caffeinated energy. Also caffeine is a natural diuretic which could mean you’ll need more bio-breaks… but more importantly it can dehydrate you in excess. Drinking water, keeps you hydrated and less likely to become fatigued. (Wikipedia)

3. Get Moving! – If you want to work out before your big session (if your gym is open that late) it can help improve your mental acuity. If not, be sure to move around periodically. I’ll say it again, move around: During quest/NPC RP, flightpaths, any break you take… Do a couple of push ups, squats, crunches… literally, do them. It keeps your blood moving, and can help release endorphins. Moreover, I am familiar with this because I fly so much– Deep Vein Thrombosis can be a very real danger. (Mayo Clinic)

4. Be Like a Pandaren: Feng Shui – ORGANIZE YOUR DESK and clean your immediate surroundings…. clutter can actually make you less efficient and distracted.

5. Breathe – Open your windows: fresh (and cool air) can help you stay awake and alert.

6. Music- As you get later into the afternoon and start to get tired… non-rhythmic music is key. Stuff that has too predictable of a pattern can lull your brain off.

7. IRL Rested Bonus- Pre-Launch Napping: If you are going to take a nap before hand… if you can’t get at least 4 hours, only take a true “nap”: 20-30 minutes tops. Your brain doesnt fully enter Stage III, IV, or REM, and only really is in Stage I or II sleep. Any longer, you can enter Stage III, which is the beginnings of deep sleep… waking up mid sleep cycle can really cause more harm than good by messing with your circadian rhythm. For an average person it takes about 45-90 minutes to enter Sage III, this is why for an effective nap you should keep your nap down to a max of 45 minutes, or else you risk going into Stage III. Even 45 minutes is sometimes too much. (Wikipedia)

Have fun during the launch! But more importantly stay healthy! See you at 90!

Chicken, Oats, Protein, Cheese, Yogurt, Apples, Trail Mix, and Water. (and yes, my backup laptop in case my desktop dies)

Stay Healthy During Mists of Pandaria is a post from: Tales of a Priest

 ”Sanctuary should scale with haste like Efflorescence. It just adds more ticks.” 

Well, I must say I was pretty darn excited! It didn’t make sense that it didn’t scale from haste previously.  I quickly logged into the beta to test out the breakpoints I had previously calculated and to see these additional ticks at work…

But wait… they added Haste scaling, but took away mastery’s scaling from HW: Sanctuary. Noooooo!  I then broke out our handy-dandy spreadsheet and started to crunch the numbers trying to answer the questiosn: What does this change mean? Is it a net buff or a net nerf? How does this impact our gearing choices? 

First I looked at 3 breakpoints assuming NO raid haste buff:  and that worked out to a net healing loss of ~25.58% at the first gained tick. It wasn’t until the second additional tick of Sanctuary where having Haste Only scaling work out about neutral to Mastery Only scaling, and it wasn’t until the third tick where haste started to creep ahead. (note: Haste breakpoints are available under Resources Menu: here)

Now, since most of us here are raiders, we can probably assume we’ll be running with a raidwide Haste Buff (provided by Shadow Priests, Moonkin,  and Elemental Shaman), which tilts the numbers slightly making haste better than mastery, but only specifically at certain breakpoints, before or after a break you fall behind what we .

Below is a chart illustrating the scaling of Haste Only and Mastery Only for HW: Sanctuary. I used a 2,000/tick healing point, but because these numbers scale linearly, the scaling is the same regardless if you used 1,000/tick or 50,000/tick. Each tick is capable of critically healing, but for purposes of analysis, and the fact that Holy will not be stacking crit analyzing crit’s RNG impact will not be done.

Now, of course if we look at JUST HW: Sanctuary, Haste seems devalued between breakpoints. The argument is moot, however, since Haste (and crit)  is  the combat stat that scales HW: Sanctuary. The biggest thing to look at is the trend line in these charts. It scales pretty similarly, and works out about the same…  So overall its a nerf at the interim points. However, interim haste ratings, will increase the HPS of Sanctuary by increasing the speed in which it ticks, but not adding additional ticks and thusly not affecting HPM.

At the end of the day, the change really won’t be a huge change to the HPM of the spell, and works out pretty close to nuetral. (ie. At the 4,717 haste breakpoint, the difference is under 2%) It does mean we will be looking at Haste a bit differently since we’ve now “lost” a spell that is affected by Mastery and gained one now affected by Haste….  Breakpoints are important to know, particularly if it means that a simple gem swap or reforging into haste to hit that breakpoint. (Of course, providing you are using the spell that is reaching that breakpoint).

All this analysis is done with the point of showing the change, not that Mastery is better— why? Well because Mastery does not affect HW: Sanctuary any longer… haste does. We have no choice, this is the stat that scales the spell and this is how the stat interacts with it.

From my raid testing, Mastery is still a potent stat for us, and will be the go-to stat for Healers in between attainable Haste Breakpoints.

Commentary and Concerns About HW: Sanctuary’s Scalability -

If you compare HW: Sanctuary to the current Live version, it has scaled the least of our spells from 85 to 90, has regained its 6 Target+ DR, and has lost its CD reduction from Tome of Light– I would much rather see its mana cost increase, and output increase as well… since right now there is little incentive to use Sanctuary unless you have surplus mana to burn.

UPDATED -
This chart and post has been updated as of Beta Build 16004, and includes the changes to HW: Sanctuary extending to 30 second duration. You’ll notice that this affects and makes early haste breakpoints easier to hit.

Holy Word: Sanctuary – Scaling in Mists of Pandaria is a post from: Tales of a Priest

However, it doesn’t mean I love every change that they make… and sometimes, its important for us to point out changes that could be missed… and I do think that Blizzard is missing the mark when it comes to Chakra.

Chakra was introduced in the 4.0 build and during Cataclysm’s beta we saw a number of changes to the spell as it rolled out. Chakra was released as a way for priests to “feel in the zone” and so we can maximize our output. It was introduced to give us flexibility and opportunity to be fluid in our healing and to align ourselves with the role we’re playing in our raid. However, with the current incarnation… and the current beta build it actually is doing the opposite It has become restrictive, punitive, and disadvantages priests.

First let’s understand where the spell is CURRENTLY ON LIVE. Chakra provides PVE Healing Priests really two ‘stances’ to be in, one specialized for AOE Healing and the other for Single Target Healing. (Let’s ignore Chakra: Smite as that really is a questing/psuedo-DPS stance— if you can call it that!) Additionally, each Chakra stance, through Revelations,  gives us access to one Holy Word: Sanctuary and Serenity for our AOE healing, and single target healing respectively.

The current incarnation of Chakra is pretty poor considering the fact that in a PVE situation, very rarely are you ever going to use Chakra: Serenity over Sanctuary; something which  GC acknowledged earlier. (here) The benefits of Sanctuary greatly outweigh the benefits (and cost) of Serenity.

The latest beta build (15799) introduced these changes:

• Chakra: Sanctuary: Increases the healing done by your area of effect healing spells by 15%, reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing spell by 2 sec, and transforms your Holy Word: Chastise spell into Holy Word: Sanctuary.
• Chakra: Serenity: Increases the healing done by your single-target healing spells by 15%, causes them to refresh the duration of your Renew on the target, and transforms your Holy Word: Chastise spell into Holy Word: Serenity.

You’ll notice that Serenity received a huge buff over the previous incarnation and Sanctuary lost the 15% buff to Renew (sidenote: making renew very weak overall, hopefully we’ll see it buffed to be more in line with the mana cost required). This is great news, right? No, actually it causes and exacerbates some really complicated problems when you consider how class-balance is benchmarked…

Benchmarking

The development team does a good deal of testing and benchmarking. This includes being certain that no one class’s potential output is meaningfully weaker or stronger than another. This means, when Blizzard is bechmarking our AOE healing they are weighing in the 15% AOE Bonus that Chakra: Sanctuary provides us and when benchmarking our single target healing they are weighing in the bonuses that Chakra: Serenity provides us. Good, right? No… The concept of Chakra immediately puts us at a disadvantage should we heal “oustide our stance”. Why’s that? Because we are benchmarked assuming we are in the ‘buffed’ stance.

If I am in Chakra: Sanctuary my AOE heals are healing for what I am balanced around other class AOE heals. Now, if I were to assist healing the tank with my Single Target heals… my single target heals are now healing without the 15% throughput bonus that the other classes are balanced around.  No other healer is disadvantaged when this occurs… is a HPally hindered when he casts Radiance or Light of Dawn? No. Is Wild Growth nerfed if a druid is rolling LB’s on a tank? No. The fact that we have to ‘give up’ a static buff (ie. each stance’s respective 15% bonus) should we decide to enter our ‘single target’ stance is punitive.

Even if I compare Holy to Disc, Holy is disadvanted by nature of how Chakra works. Let’s compare single target healing:  Discipline has Grace, which provides added throughput (up to 30%) to single target heals. To match a Greater Heal as Holy, I would have to be in Chakra: Serenity (15% buff)… if that same Disc Priest, who just was healing the tank, casts Prayer of Healing…. he is guaranteed his added throughput since Divine Aegis is Guaranteed on POH. The Holy priest would need to be in Chakra: Sanctuary to stay in lockstep. The BASE healing  of these spells are the same, its the Chakra/Grace/Divine Aegis interaction that brings it up to the benchmark.

We are not advantaged when in a Chakra state, we are balanced around that state. If Chakra stances gave a meaningful benefit over other healers, as the  opportunity cost of having “oustside of stance” heals inferior… then I might be Ok with it. However, that then brings up even more balancing issues… if Chakra: Sanctuary priests could inherently be the ‘strongest AOE’ healer, while giving up either single target throughput; you’d simply have raids stacking priests and have them specialize for their roles. Not what we want to accomplish here.

Further, this seems to be extra punitive to 10 mans, when cross-healing is the name of the game, while in 25′s you sometimes can have the luxury of ‘exclusively’ tank or raid healing. Cross-healing immediately is wounded by the disparity between stances.

Stance Dancing Doesn’t Correct the Problem

Chakra has a 30 second cooldown. So even if I were to swap back and forth, I am locked into the corresponding Chakra buff for 30 seconds; disadvantaging any ‘outside of stance’ heals. Even if Blizzard were to remove the CD on Chakra, it then would become painfully maintenance-y. You’d be swapping in and out every time you wanted to cast a different heal.

A great example of why this doesn’t work was when I was Raid Testing Imperial Vizier Zor’lok the other day: he mind controlled me, and immediately put me in Chakra: Chastise. This then left my heals (BOTH single and AOE) disadvantaged for 30 seconds. If another healer was MC’d, even if the MC used a cooldown… their subsequent heals stayed just as potent as they were prior to the mind control.

No other healer has to give up their throughput in one form of healing to be equal in another.

Potential Solutions

Scrap the current form of Chakra. It is inflexible, complicated to balance, and frankly does the opposite of what it is trying to do. Balance our AOE and single target throughput baseline. In the interest of full disclosure and due diligence, this would require a passive Holy-only buff, as Disc has POH/DAs guaranteed and Grace.

Then, have all the Holy Words share a cooldown. If you cast Sanctuary, you can’t cast Serenity until Sanctuary is off CD (and visa versa). This still gives us access to the benefits of the two spells, and situational usage of them both, but doesn’t allow us to use them any more frequently than we could have before.

I would much rather have Chakra be the Holy counterpoint to Disc’s Archangel. Simply put: make Chakra a throughput cooldown… “Align Chakra”, or something. Allow US to DECIDE when we need the improved throughput in AOE or Single Target… don’t balance around it as some mutually exclusive stance.

I am curious to understand how Blizzard balances around Chakra’s stances, and the give up we have to take when doing this. It is materially different than what the other healers have to do if they want to AOE or Single Target heal… and its materially different enough, and in a substantive way that it is punitive.

Maybe we’re all missing something here… I don’t see it and I would love to be enlightened. I don’t want to be overpowered or over-advantaged. I only want to be able to do my job well, and not worry about impairing my ability to be flexible. Afterall, isn’t that supposed to be the new mantra in the healing world? That all healers should be able to do every job effectively?

Note: I have updated the Mana Regen Talent post to reflect the buff in Beta Build 15799 to Mindbender (here).

Chakra and Why You Should Be Concerned is a post from: Tales of a Priest