One of the things that Avalonna and myself have always said is that we are not “Disc Priests” or “Holy Priests” we are “Healing Priests”. What this means is, of course, we both play both specs regularly. However, the biggest part of this is that we have the flexibility to play both at will, when the fight commands it. Certain fights have components that will ‘favor’ one spec over the other; lets discuss what you need to keep in mind when deciding when you’ll want one over the other. Many priests have both specs, and play both specs- what I aim to discuss here is the questions and considerations you should be making when you decide to play one spec over the other for certain encounters. Healing vs Mitigation Healing and Mitigation …

So many classes have tank and raid saving cooldowns, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when you see these cooldowns overwritten or unintentionally stacked. This simply is not the best use of the cooldown– generally, it is far superior to have cooldowns one after another, not in tandem. (Of course, there are certain mechanics that can require simultaneous cooldowns). Nothing drives me more crazy when I cast a cooldown on a tank, to then see (moment’s later) a 2nd cooldown used, only because the person didn’t realize a cooldown was used— so wasteful.  DON’T DO IT!! Spells like Guardian Spirit, simply cannot be stacked– they just overwrite each other. Meaning, if I cast a Guardian Spirit on a tank and 3 seconds later someone else casts GS on …

First off, I know what you’re going to say. Just stop right there and wipe that smug look off your face. I blame all of you for me being here. That’s right – YOU.  All your chitter chatter on twitter and facebook. The emails. The previews. That fiendish asshole Derevka singing how amazing I am, & bribing me with a baby boomkin pet. IT’S SO FUCKING CUTE HOW CAN I RESIST???!!! Add in the fact that once I left, he tried “classing” the site up by adding doilies & curtains everywhere, and now it looks like this – enough is enough. Don’t expect me to match him post for post -I’m simply back to bring the trash to his class, so get the “I told you so’s” out of your …

4.0.1 has been out for a couple weeks now, and by now you’ve all had a chance to play with the new toys and spells we now have available. Then add in that we’ve all suffered through the “ZOMG MY ADDONS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!”… I wanted to take a moment to sit back and really download what we’ve experienced as well as share some tips and tricks I’ve found handy from raiding as Holy in the 4.0.1 environment. Originally, I was planning on covering both spec’s in a single post… but there simply was too much information to cover! So, Avalonna will be covering the Disc point of view in the next couple of weeks.

Power Infusion can be a baffling spell to one who doesn’t understand it. Even to those who play priests, understanding how it works, when to use it, who to use it on & who NOT to use it on, is a daunting task. It becomes even more difficult for raid leaders who don’t play priests to make sure their raid is set up for it’s optimal usage. With so many new priests, priest alts, & new Raid leaders riding out the expansion, I think a Power Infusion Re-revisited is in order. Let’s look at the spell: Power Infusion (Remember that 1% haste = 32.79 haste rating, so Power Infusion grants 655.8) Some of the confusion comes from the fact the spell didn’t always work this way – it used to …

I apologize for the gaps in my posts – I wasn’t kidding when I said my RL work obligations& health issues were consuming my time. We have all these great ideas for posts, but the past few weeks, all I’ve had time for is discussions with Derevka, and he ends up piecing together all the ideas in the final posts. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not feeling bad he actually has to do some ACTUAL work during his daily latte routine, but I do feel bad that I haven’t been contributing as much as I want. That being said, we DO have some great posts coming in the next 2 weeks – Renews & You, Holy Nova How to, Grid For Dummies, PI guide for non healers, Heroic LK25 …

This weeks post is a guest post by Suzushiiro, from BigCrits. (see my Previous post about Stoneybaby’s project, BigCrits). Stoney warned me about this one… perhaps, too little too late! HALP! And remember to enter our Curse Premium Client Contest here! You could win a Year of Curse Premium! This is Suzushiiro, resident pro Holy/Disc Priest and comic relief character of the guild/show about the guild Big Crits, gracing this blog with my presence to teach you nubs a thing or two about Priest-ing. Today’s discussion topic is how to handle a Holy and Disc dual spec, so those of you who run shadow for their second spec might want to change the channel for the next few minutes. You real healers still with me? Good.

Bigger is better right? Bigger heals means it is better— just like Gearscore, brah!! Not necessarily. The key with bigger heals is to be using them effectively… just because you CAN cast a GHeal that will crit for 30K doesn’t mean you should. The same goes for Flash Heal, Renew, COH, POM, Penance, etc. Wait, what? Overheal, at its core, isn’t going to wipe your raid, but if you aren’t overhealing it can be indicative that you are healing more effectively. Bigger isn’t always better! Blizzard has introduced Strength of Wrynn (SoW) and Hellscream’s Warsong (HW). This mechanic is something moderately new. We haven’t seen much similar to this before: a scaling buff over time. What does this mean? Does it mean that when it gets increased that you are …

Some self promotion here, but Ava and I’s guild has been able to bring the bastard down on Heroic 10 Man. (25 Man to follow!) Remember – Full HD Versions are available at YouTube.

I am diverging from my usual posting style to talk about a project that  I have been following. I’ve been following this project from the preliminary talks and buzz on Twitter, to the latest episode: Big Crits. Big Crits is something that Stoneybaby has been working on for the last several months. Many of you know Stoney from the Totem Talk column at WoW.com, Big Hit Box, and his Starbucks Foursquare updates on Twitter. This project is really somewhere between a documentary and “Real World: Azeroth”…complete with the “Confession Booth” like interviews — and I love it.