Read that again… Critical Effect, not Critical Damage. This means heals are included in the 3% increased critical effect. Prior to this change, the only meta that had a +critical heal bonus was the Revitalizing Shadowspirit Diamond. (Which, for the most part, was dismissed as not worth it due to the increased value of Intellect over Spirit on the diamond as a basic stat– for both Holy and Disc)

Now, before you go swapping out your meta gems… evaluate the change. What does this mean for you? Well, obviously, the evaluation is going to be purely debating throughput vs regen.

On one hand you have the Ember Shadowspirit Diamond, this provides provides an increased mana pool, which in turn affects “total mana” based regen. (Replenishment, Rapture, Hymn of Hope, Shadowfiend, etc…) Additionally, you start the fight with more mana, which is mana you wouldn’t have had without the meta gem.

On the other hand you have the Burning Shadowspirit Diamond which provides you with 3% increased critical effects… pure throughput increases to your critical heals. (Disc Priests: Dont forget that this, in turn, provides increased Divine Aegis). Now the amount of the HPS increase from the meta gem is a bit tricky to evaluate, given innately different crit chances for Disc and Holy and different stat weights based on role. So for now, I’m evaluating it from a more practical sense.

I would also be remiss not to at least awknowledge the activation difference between these 2 gems. Burning requires 3 red gems, while Ember requires 2 yellow. Of course, this is a bit easier (and arguable irrelevant) given the sheer number of gem sockets on T13 gear. However, it still is something to potentially consider given the gear options you have at your disposal and how heavy you might value Intellect over Haste or Mastery (Orange gems).

The question is:  what is the give up? Let’s take a look at what the loss of mp5 of dropping the Ember for the Burning Shadowspirit Diamond. Of course, the loss of mana will be different person to person based on +% mana buffs. (Arcane Intellect, Expansive Mind,  etc…) For simplicity’s sake, lets evaluate this only assuming Rapture, 5 Min CD Shadowfiend, and Replenishment.

 Rapture assumes a 100% proc rate at the 12 second ICD. 100% uptime of Replenishment. 30% Mana Restore on a 5 Minute CD (300 Sec) Shadowfiend. 

Holy Priests would obviously ignore Rapture, making the net loss substantially less as a bulk of their mana restoration is Spirit based (Holy Concentration). Of course you could layer in Veiled Shadows, Arcane Torrent, Hymn of Hope, or even an imperfect 12 second Rapture timing… but it complicates the basic illustration being made.

We then would need to compare the loss of MP5 to the gain– is the tradeoff worth it? For simplicity’s sake, I’d rather not dive into the specific math and numbers of crit chance and its relative HPS. I’d rather evaluate this in theory and more of a practical approach:  If you are currently having mana issues, starting with the extra 2% mana and having a higher MP5 suggests that the Ember might work better for you. If you arent, you could squeeze out some additional throughput by swapping to the Burning Shadowspirit. Bigger is better! Right? … right? Maybe…

There is no “right” answer. It really depends on your playstyle and preference. Perhaps you’d rather the added cushion of the regen, or perhaps you’d rather the raw throughput increases from the critical effect. The ball is in your court. However, take a good hard look at the actual regen you are giving up by switching… think at how little that is; how little spirit that “lost mp5″ represents. Particularly if you reforged away from spirit on any gear– could you get some of that spirit back through other methods? I bet you that the HPS increase, regardless of you value crit in your spec, is going to outweigh such a small amount of regen.

Me? I’ve swapped to the Burning Shadowspirit and enjoy the increased crits. What’s your plan?

4.3 Meta Gem Changes is a post from: Tales of a Priest

At the moment, you really have a “all or nothing” for sounds. Yes there is some minor mixing capabilities in game for Music, Ambient, and Sound Effects, however if you are in a fight where you are grouped up you’ll hear a lot of spell effects, Power Aura notifications, your iTunes/Pandora playlist, as well as Vent/Mumble calls, there is a good chance your boss mod announces will be drowned out.

I recently have been using a in-game modification, Muted Sounds, that mutes combat sounds, enabling me to easily hear vent, boss mods sounds, and boss emotes. Before you say “Emotes are so RP!” The emotes are often very valuable, and key alerts to boss abilities… in fact, I didn’t truly appreciate how helpful those boss emotes were until I installed this Mod/Pack; many of the emotes provide really good predictive notice. (Not to mention the potential impact to ‘quality of gaming life’ to gamers who might have visual or hearing impairments) 

I use these boss cues as well as spell alert sounds (off cooldown) to be another source of information that lets me respond to the game and boss mechanics— Muted Sounds simply filters out the unnecessary sounds and leaves me with the important ones.

This pack has already been updated for the 4.3 PTR, and I raided on the PTR with it installed. Give it a spin!

(Special thanks to Alas for getting me the mixer screenshot on the fly)

Flash Heal articles are a short, quick, and easy to understand posts. Flash Heal posts are meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal posts are posts post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic. Got a suggestion for a Flash Heal post? Send us an email!

Flash Heal: Healing and Sound is a post from: Tales of a Priest

… even for “Raid Healers”.

Is keeping your whole raid alive a bad thing? No, of course not.  Healing up your raid-mates is a huge part of your job as a Raid Healer. You need to be certain that all (or most!) of your raid survives until the end of the encounter. That is arguably the biggest part of being a Raid Healer. HOWEVER— The most important thing for all healers (Raid Healers, or otherwise) is the livelihood of the tanks. If the meat-shields die, the raid (in all likelihood) will fail. This means, even the Raid Healers need to be sure they are assisting the Tank Healers. This can mean more than just “keeping a renew” or “bouncing your Prayer of Mending” off of the tank. This could very well mean casting a Greater Heal on one of the tanks after a big surge of damage.

A great example is just after an Electrocute (aka “Crackle”) goes off on Nefarian: being sure that ALL of the Raid Healers were healing up the tanks after Electrocute was pivotal in my guild’s success in our recent Heroic Nef kill. Your raid should not be taking massive amounts of damage just after Electrocute hits, and you should have more than enough time to heal them back up— AFTER you insure that the tanks are topped off.  Sure, you could queue a POH to land just after Eletrocute strikes, but queuing a GHeal to land bringing your tank to safety before managing the rest of your raids HP is likely a much better use of your time.  (Remember there are likely “active” 2 tanks, one on Nef and the other on the Bone Constructs).

Of course, there will be exceptions to this rule; when the tanks will be safe (Word of Glory, ahem Meloree) and/or the raid will be constantly taking damage and clearly defined “Tank Healing” and “Raid Healing” roles will be defined– but ultimately, your tank is your raids lifeline.  Chasing those “big numbers” on the meters can often be very easy for a Raid Healer to do, especially when there is lots of damage going out– taking a split second to heal the tank can mean the difference between the raid wiping and the boss going down.

Do you remember to heal your tanks or do you just rely on your designated “Tank Healers” to do that? Do you have any other examples of when your tank should have priority over the raid for heals from your “Raid Healers”?

Flash Heal articles are a short, quick, and easy to understand posts. Flash Heal posts are meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal posts are posts post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic. Got a suggestion for a Flash Heal post? Send us an email!

Flash Heal: Raid Healers, Know Your Priority is a post from: Tales of a Priest

For Holy Priests, one of the biggest changes 4.0.6 brought was the change to Chakra. Chakra now lasts a full 60 seconds when activated, and has a 30 second cooldown; on top of that change we also saw a change to State of Mind. State of Mind now will reduce the cooldown on Chakra by 6 seconds (with 2 points).

This does change a couple of things for us, and let’s review those:

1. Chakra Maintenance – this means we can cast Chakra once and know we’ll be in our corresponding Chakra state for 60 seconds beforing needing to cast Chakra again. Previously, via State of Mind we were able to extend Chakra and stay in one state without having to recast it; now we will have to manage our State a bit more carefully.  I keep an eye on my Chakra cooldown with Power Auras, and have a visual notification when I am in combat and NOT in  a Chakra state— I should ALWAYS be in a Chakra state. (especially with a 4-piece bonus)

2. Added Flexibility – With State of Mind now reducing the Chakra Cooldown by a maximum of 6 seconds, you can more readily bounce in between your Chakra states.

Wait a second here… 2 points for a whole 6 second decrease in our ability to swap stances? Sounds good on paper doesn’t it? Let’s think about this…

How often are you really changing from one Chakra state to another? Most 25 man (and 10 man) Holy Priests are nearly always in Chakra: Sanctuary… the added benefit of swapping stances might seem great; but in reality we really aren’t changing often enough (if at all) to warrant 2 points for a measly 6 second reduction.

If you aren’t finding a need for that 6 second improvement in your flexibility, you might want to consider spending those 2 points elsewhere. Perhaps you skipped Desperate Prayer (also buffed this patch), or perhaps you didn’t spec into Rapid Renewal or Surge of Light… if you find that those 2 points are better used elsewhere: move them.

For my Holy Spec, I moved my talent points around, skipping State of Mind, and capped off the Renew Talents (Divine Touch, Rapid Renewal) and Desperate Prayer. (I also gave up Spirit of Redemption, due to previous discussions and not wanting to use points on “improved death” since I shouldn’t be dying).

Have you been using State of Mind? Where did you move those points if you haven’t been?

Flash Heal articles are a short, quick, and easy to understand posts. Flash Heal posts are meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal posts are posts post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic. Got a suggestion for a Flash Heal post? Send us an email!

Flash Heal: An Azerothian State of Mind is a post from: Tales of a Priest

We’ve discussed many consumables and professions as they relate to healing and raiding, so here’s a few more. While I considered these non performance tips, they still come in handy and can help you reach your raiding goals.

Leveling crafting professions is usually a painful & expensive endeavor. Doing it at the beginning of an expansion can cost you your first born pixel baby, or an insane amount of time and patience. But you NEED that crafted gear or crafting bonus to give you that edge or push you into raid readiness. If you have an alchemist with access to Transmute: Living Elements, gathering those mats might be a little less painful.

While the tooltip says ‘the exact result is not known ahead of time“, that’s a tad misleading, because if you do this transmute in certain Cata zones, you know exactly what you’ll get.

Mount Hyjal –> Volatile Fire

Vashj’ir –> Volatile Water

Deepholm –> Volatile Earth

Uldum –> Volatile Air

While the amount you transmute is random (between 14-16 Volatiles), if you also happen to be Transmutation spec, you can also create X amount of any Volatiles. For example, if transmuting Life to Air in Uldum, you could also proc several Fire/earth/Water volatiles on top of the Air transmutes.

Trinketssssss…..Pretty Trinketsssssss

The original alchemy trinket is rather lackluster. It has some uses beyond boosting your ilevel for heroics, but not much else once you had other options. 4.06 ushers in a batch of new alchemy trinkets, including Vibrant Alchemist Stone which easily becomes your best pre-raid option (and arguably for certain situations, the best option during the first tier of 85 raiding).

Potion Chug-a-lug

Anyone who thought free action potions during the last phase of Heroic Halfus were a great idea was pretty pissed when realizing we were too high a level to use them. 4.06 removes the brickwall level limit, and adds in a diminishing return as your level increases. At level 85, the effect will last roughly 6 seconds. Timed right, this may get you through all or most of his furious roar, saving the need for a Hand of Protection to keep healing. This might be extremely viable for smiting disc priests, since mana is not a concern. I’ll attempt to try these potions again after the patch, and see if it’s viable.

Leaf me Alone!

This has nothing to do with raiding, since they can’t be used in combat, but Lifegiving Seeds return 3200 health/sec and 2400 mana/sec for 30 seconds – it might come in handy while farming or leveling. But honestly, the only reason I brought these up is I wanted to mention my new favortie macro:

/Use Lifegiving Seed

/Yell “BRING ME A SHRUBBERY!!!”

Tailoring Cloak ‘Chants

I mentioned before the Lightweave enchant currently grants Intellect, not Spell Power, as the tooltip incorrectly states. The tooltip is finally being fixed in 4.06, but also Darkglow is being retooled to now increases your Spirit by 580 for 15 sec instead of restoring 800 Mana – much better, so adjust accordingly if needed!

Annnnnd AFK – beer bong.

Flash Heal articles are a short, quick, and easy to understand posts. Flash Heal posts are meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal posts are posts post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic. Got a suggestion for a Flash Heal post? Send us an email!

Flash Heal: Alchemy & Tailoring Quick Tips is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Rapture is a game all Disc priests must play. Assuming Non-Heroic T11 Mana pools, Rapture should be restoring ~7,000 mana per Rapture. (+/- a few hundred varying by gear, gems, chants and raid make-up). You should be using Rapture every time it comes off cooldown– by doing this, it will enable you to maximize the amount of mana you get back from it. The first thing you need to do is track your Rapture cooldown. From there, you’ll be able to recast your PW:S and start the Rapture cycle over again.  One way this can be done is by using an addon that will do it for you. Ava’s post pointed to Ingela’s Rapture Tracker, while I have been using a very simple Power Aura to track Rapture for me. Both are excellent ways to manage your Rapture CD.

Version:4.9; g:0.9686; icon:Spell_Holy_Rapture; buffname:Rapture; r:0.9843; Extra:true; x:1; bufftype:13; stacks:1; texture:16; alpha:0.7; owntex:true; isResting:0; duration:12; soundend:23; size:0.18; y:-224; texmode:2; finish:3; timer.b:0; timer.g:0.8824; timer.h:1.22; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.y:-224; timer.Transparent:true; timer.UseOwnColor:true; timer.ShowActivation:true

This aura will have the Rapture icon appear when you proc it, and the 12 second ICD timer begins, once that 12 seconds expires, I am notified with an audio cue and the icon fades away. At that point, I am free to recast Power Word: Shield on a target (ideally a Main Tank for a rapid Rapture proc) to regain another 6% mana from Rapture. With most fights having large amounts of AOE damage, even if the Tank(s) has Weakend Soul, I will nearly always have a target for PW: Sheild as they’ll quickly take enough damage to break the shield and proc Rapture.

Rapture is your best friend when it comes to mana restoration… use it!

Flash Heal articles are a short, quick, and easy to understand posts. Flash Heal posts are meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal posts are posts post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic. Got a suggestion for a Flash Heal post? Send us an email!

Flash Heal: Rapture Mana Restoration is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Like many of the tools at our disposal, these can be extremely powerful when used properly. The possible 22,000 mana return is much more than a mythical mana potion, but unlike the mana potion, the return is not an instant gain: Mana is restored over ten seconds, during which you are “channeling”. You can interrupt the effect at anytime, but not letting it tick for the full duration obviously will not net you a maximum return.

Because of this mechanic, this is not a “use it anytime” potion. Rather, understanding your encounters will let you identify when you can use this. Periods of light healing or down time are perfect, such as when Magmaw’s head is exposed or the P1->2 Transition of Twilight Council. Just like coordinating Hymns of Hope, knowing when to use this will bring the maximum gain, and the most bang for your buck. If you need to communicate with your fellow healers, it could be helpful to make a quick macro; letting other healers know you are using this. Nothing fancy is needed:

/Say Using Potion of Concentration, Napping for Ten seconds!

/Use Potion of Concentration

It’s also worth noting that these DO work with your Alchemist’s Stone (If you’re an Alchemist), netting you a 40% increase and a possible return of 30,800 mana. This concoction is ALMOST as good as Grey Goose Vodka. Almost.

Flash Heal: Concentration Potions is a post from: Tales of a Priest

First, I want to introduce everyone to a new article type here at Tales of a Priest: Flash Heal.

Flash Heal is a short, quick, and easy to understand post. Flash Heal is something you can easily read on a flight path. Flash Heal is meant to be less involved and detailed than a full article you are used to seeing here at Tales. Flash Heal will be a post that will give you some form of tip, trick, or gem of insight on anything from a spell to a boss mechanic.

Leap of Faith, (aka. Lifegrip) I will admit, really wasn’t something I was looking forward to when first announced. Why is it MY job to pull YOU out of your own stupidity? Someone standing in Valiona’s flame breath? Use Leap of Faith. However, after using it in many raid applications for reasons beyond saving your stupid ass, I love it.

There are situations where Leap of Faith is a much quicker and faster way to manage fight mechanics. You can use LoF to quickly get a tank away from one of Cho’gall’s Corrupting Adherent’s pool of blood. When kiting Atramedes’ Roaring Flame Breath use Leap of Faith to increase that kiting distance– Those examples aside, here are many other great, and strong applications of Leap of Faith that may be forgotten.

Dodging Enrage Mechanics:

The 1% wipe. We’ve all seen it. “If we only had a few more seconds, he would have died!!”. Enter Leap of Faith. Usually as a healer, you have a pretty good idea when the fight is starting to fall apart. Many of the fights in T11 content have some form enrage (soft or hard). When you see this coming, start to position yourself in a place where you know you’ll provide the maximum distance from the boss and the tank– you’ll have the tank out of melee range, as well as provide some valuable DPS time when the boss lumbers after the tank in those final moments. The most obvious boss encounter this works well on is Chimaeron, in his burn phase- but the logic can be applied to anything from Halfus’ to Maloriak . (Just don’t pull him into a pack of adds)

Emergency Tank Cooldown:

If you can use Leap of Faith to buy time during an enrage, why can’t you use it as an Emergency Tank Cooldown? Provided you are in a safe position, (and not on a boss with a “cleave” or “cone” mechanic) you can LoF your tank out of the melee range of the boss, providing the valuable few seconds for heals to get off, defensive cooldowns to reset, and your raid to be saved. You should use LoF as a “last resort” and use Pain Suppression or Guardian Spirit when available. Warning: this can be dangerous if you pull the tank out of range of other healers, (remember your tank’s back will also be turned- but if your tank understands LoF, they should know to turn) or will completely screw up your positioning of your strategy– but with a discerning eye and quick reflexes, a repositioned raid is better than a wipe.

Leap of Faith is a great spell in our toolbox… and can be a lot of fun to use on corpse runs, and downtime during raids… to ping-pong your local Boomkin… across the room… 4 times.

Flash Heal: Leap of Faith is a post from: Tales of a Priest