With all content completed, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on not just the Tier but also Cataclysm as a whole. What worked well? What didn’t? What was your favorite?

High Level Post-Mortem

Overall I really enjoyed Dragon Soul– I might be an outlier with my enjoyment of Dragon Soul, but I am trying to look at it exclusively from a Heroic 25-man perspective. A number of the fights had some really interesting mechanics that we hadn’t  seen quite this way before and were enjoyable. (Strategic Barrel Rolls, Ball Bouncing, Strategic Ooze Killing, NPC buffs to manage, etc). I liked it! Perhaps the most dynamic (as a result, my favorite) was Yor’sahj. YJ’s wave of Oozes was random… one pull was never the same as the next and forced you to become a dynamic raider.

Dragon Soul itself wasn’t all peaches and cream and sunshine. With Dragon Soul, also came LFR. I do think Looking For Raid was damaging to raid groups, and was counter to what they wanted to accomplish by introducing it. Set bonuses being the biggest culprit of this folly. You had raid groups, particularly HM Progression Raid groups, feeling ‘obligated’ to run LFR to get those 4-piece bonuses for their tanks and DPS. (Perfectly illustrated by the drama of the LFR Exploits early in the Tier). Having people raid content out of obligation is a dangerous line to dance on.

Perhaps the most damage LFR introduced was apathy. “Its just LFR!” is something you heard in nearly every LFR group you queued into. (I will admit, my Alts loved LFR and the loot pinata it became…) However, the fact that LFR had no ‘Failure Mechanic’ is something I hope Blizzard corrects in the next tier of content. You should not be able to simply ignore Ultraxion’s  Hour of Twilight every time it was cast, or the ability to ignore Shrapnel on Madness. It fosters poor play– and in turn created this “gimme loot” and “its just LFR” mentality.

LFR should have been the introduction to raiding. LFR should have been the content to whet the appetites of those who might not have raided in the past. LFR should have been the tool to expose more people to my favorite aspect of the game:  learning dynamic encounters and raiding! Lengthening the cast time on the previously mentioned abilities (even more) to give people more time to click that button is a potential solution.

I think that, for those “who LFR is for” (whatever that means!)– they would agree. LFR isn’t meant to be something you have to pour hours and hours of attempts in. It is meant for the more casual approach to raiding and should be tuned as such…  however having it tuned down so much that core mechanics can be ignored is likely something that should be addressed. The player-base will ultimately improve as a result.

Immersion

I will admit, I entered this final tier not caring who Deathwing was. Yeah, he made Stormwind’s front gates crumble, and the structures between the Mage Quarter and the Docks are in cinders… but I didn’t care. I only chased him down at the launch of 4.0 to get my Achievement Points for being killed by him– Guild chat being spammed by “Deathwing is in Hyjal! Get to the zone if you need the Achievement!”. (Ironically, this was unnecessary as you got the achievement if you died to him during one of his encounters in DS). Blizzard, in my eyes, really fell short at making us feel engaged with Deathwing early on in 4.0. They should have made us want to kill him. Want to right the wrongs. Want to reset the balance with the other Dragon Aspects…

I thought that…

Until I actually encountered the Aspects in Dragon Soul… Ysera, Kalecgos, Alexstraza, and Nozdormu really saved the story. The last 5 bosses of Dragon Soul you really got to see the Aspects and if you had your sound turned on, you could really hear them stressing the importance of our success. I could feel them pushing us along. They were there will us… not just as some NPC tangentially associated with the fight, but crucial to it.

With the prelude to going into the Eye of Eternity and engaging Hagara, you had great dialogue between Thrall and Kalecgos trying to figure out a way to harness the Dragon Soul. With Ultraxion you had each of the Aspects granting you a portion of their power to save you from this ultimate darkness. (Not to mention, it incorporated a very interesting strategy component that each raid team and healer make-up had to handle for this fight– what healer is to get which buff?) Moving all the way through some great cutscenes and into the final encounter: The Madness of Deathwing.

While, some people dislike the voice actors hired for the Aspects. I think they each did a great job really rallying you to the defence of Azeroth. You could hear (and feel) the importance– the urgency in their voices.

“Deathwing is conjuring the final Cataclysm; even the Emerald Dream trembles! If we are to stop this, we must attack him—- TOGETHER!!!”

“Hurry Heroes, in mere moments Deathwing’s Cataclysm will complete what he’s begun and end the world! Join me in the attack– NOW!”

“I will cleanse whatever corruption I can My fire will not harm you!… NO! Such power! Deathwing’s summoning of the final cataclysm will destroy all of Azeroth. Quickly we must interrupt him!”

“Together we can’t fail!”

“Press the attack, Heroes!”

“Avenge the fallen! Continue the fight!!”

“Attack him now!!! We must stop the final Cataclysm!”

If you have not seen the Method vs Dragon Soul – The Movie, I urge you to watch it. For the Aspect dialogue I am referring to, watch from this time stamp. (Starts with the Hagara Prelude)

 Looking forward…

I hope we see more encounters with NPC involvement. It really does drive the encounters forward, and makes you feel like you are part of the story and not like you are simply going into a dungeon, killing bads, and getting loots. We’ve seen allusions to this in the past with the Watchers on Yogg-Saron, Maiev Shadowsong and her traps when you battled Illidan in Black Temple, and even less-so with Jaina’s vapid “All I ever wanted to do was study!” in the Battle of Mount Hyjal back in Burning Crusade.

Give us more NPCs that interact with us during the fights. NPCs that contribute to the fight. NPCs that make us feel like we are making a difference!

What did you think about Dragon Soul, LFR, and the immersion of the tier?

Dragon Soul: Post-Mortem and Immersion is a post from: Tales of a Priest

The general gist of what we need to keep in mind with Zero-Sum Mana is: Unless you hit 100% mana at any point of the fight your cooldown usage should generally be as soon as possible.Try to think of your mana pool in terms of the whole length of the fight, not just as the number that shows on your character pane. Ask yourself, “how much mana is available to me cumulatively throughout the fight?”.  Using your restorative cooldowns will increase your fight-duration mana pool… not just your current total available mana.

As Priests we have 2 Types of Mana Cooldowns: Potions and Non-Potions.  Potions, of course, are the easiest to understand- you can use ONE Mythical Mana Potion or Potion of Concentration per encounter (assuming you don’t die and are battle rezzed).

Non-Potions are a bit more complicated:
- Hymn of Hope (HoH)
- Mana Tide Totem (MTT)
- Shadowfiend
- Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf racial)
- Innervate (if you are being fed one, and is dramatically different if from a Resto/Boom/Feral)

Rule #1 – Know Your Cooldown Durations
All of these non-potion abilities have a cooldown and can be used multiple times in an encounter. So the question is when do I use these abilities to get the most out of them? You first need find out how long you expect the fight to be. If you have done the fight before, you should have a rough idea of how long the fight is for your raid team. Alternatively, you can look on World of Logs and see what the average time for “Fight Duration”. (Here is a link to WoL’s Spine of Deathwing and you’ll see the Median and Average duration for Kills and Wipes). You know now, that an average Heroic 25-man kill is 725 seconds, which is a good starting point to know how many Shadowfiends, Torrents, etc you can get off during that time.  The sooner you use the ability the sooner it comes back off cooldown.

I hate watching a video and seeing something short, like Arcane Torrent, sitting off cooldown for more than a few seconds. Or a shadowfiend sitting there for 2-3 minutes into a fight. If they were used when available, they’d be nearly off cooldown already!

Rule #2- Know How Much Mana You Gain
You need to know how much each of these abilities will grant you (even if its roughly). Abilities like MTT can vary based on spirit levels of the shaman, your int levels (Remember the spirit regen formula takes that into account), and if you are out of range of the Totem. Hymn of Hope is complex as it can increase your mana pool, and you are never guaranteed to be given a single tick from HoH. Abilities like Arcane Torrent and Shadowfiend are predictable, and you should know what amounts of mana you’ll be getting back. For example: Shadowfiend will, under normal circumstances, provide you with 30% of your mana pool back. (inclusive of temporary int bonuses from enchants or procs) Additionally, Shadowfiends provide additional melee swings (and thus more mana restoration) when under the benefits of Heroism/Bloodlust.

Rule #3 – Never Waste Restoration
Now that you know how much mana you get back from these cooldowns. You don’t want to use one and then have part of it go to waste! You do not want to use Shadowfiend if you will cap out at 100% mana as any extra melee swings after 100% are wasted. (Same for Replenishment ticks, or even Rapture restoration) Me? I tend to use my Fiend as soon as I hit 65%-70% mana as to ensure I don’t hit 100% mana and waste a 3% restoration swing. As soon as you know that your restorative ability will not be wasted- use it.  (see rule #1)

I personally CRINGE when I watch videos with someone sitting at 50% mana and they have both Fiend and Torrent off CD. USE IT! Its not going to waste! Use it!

Rule #4 – Timing Around Other Raider’s CDs
If you know your Shaman is about to place down Mana Tide, and you are sitting at 70% mana, you might want to hold off on Shadowfiend until after MTT goes out and you can use fiend at a later time. (or perhaps you could have used it earlier in the fight?)  Keeping an eye on when MTT is coming off CD from your neighboorhood Shaman is important – there is a DBM plug in that works for this as well as ORA3. If you have multiple priests in your raid, you might want to stagger (or stack,depending on the fight) Hymn of Hope. Most fights in DS you’ll be lucky to get 2 off… coordinating with your fellow Priests is important.

 Rule #5 – Timing Around Fight Mechanics
You do not want to be caught with your pants down using a cooldown that puts you out of commission for a few seconds. (ie. Hymn of Hope, Concenration Potions) This was the context in which my RL brought up “Zero Sum” in the raid.  You do not want to use Concentration Potions towards a latter part of a fight since it puts you out of commission potentially during a high healing period. Those mana potions should have been used earlier, provided you would not have hit 100% mana. Remember…. the only two points in time that your mana levels are important are at 0% and 100%; anywhere in between there your mana is a resource that is available to you to use.

Of course, certain fight mechanics will have you waiting to use certain cooldowns (ie. Yor’sahj and his Blue Slime) to work within the mechanics of the fight. Play smart!

Common Misconceptions
-But Derevka, I was holding onto my Shadowfiend/Torrent/Potion so I could get mana back when I really needed it! — No, no, no! Again, remember how Zero Sum works. So long as you have more than 0% and less than 100% mana your restoration shouldn’t be squandered.  Use it…

-I didn’t need the mana back, I’m ending the fight with surplus mana! Again, no. You could be trading off that extra mana for high HPS/low efficiency heals. (Maybe PWS spam a bit more? Or stack Serendipity via Flash Heal?) Alternatively you could reforge away from spirit for more throughput. Getting off multiple Shadowfiends also can assist your raid by increasing Raid-DPS. (perhaps on a difficult Burning Tendon DPS check?). Or perhaps get off multiple Hymn of Hopes to assist your fellow healers mana levels (or arcane mages).

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your mana pool is dynamic. Remember to view your available mana dynamically: view it as Fight-Duration mana… not just a static “How much do I have right now?”. Be forward thinking and predictive. Zero-Sum!!

Zero-Sum Mana is a post from: Tales of a Priest

On the coattails of Edge’s 5-year anniversary, Edge officially retired as a 25-Man Raiding Guild.

Edge slew Heroic Ultraxion, and capstoned an amazing run with 3 years of being top 100 US and 2 years of being in the Top 50 US.  I would be remiss not to personally thank all those in Edge, past and present, for an amazing place to call home on Garona. The officers have done an amazing job, and welcomed me into their midst as an unknown Priest and made my way to officer myself a few of months ago.

Meloree, our Main Tank, Raid Leader, and really backbone of the guild should be commended on his stalwart loyalty and drive to push the guild to do what he knew we could. Mel is more than just a great RL, he also is a great friend. Thank you, sir… you should be proud of what you’ve helped Edge do.

While I am sad to see <Edge> retire after an amazing 5 years of raiding, I am glad that I was lucky to make some great friends there… thank goodness for Real ID!

But wait… there’s more.

This post does more than memorialize Edge, it also highlights a new chapter in my raiding life.  As of Wednesday, I am officially an Applicant with Something Wicked on the US-Whisperwind server.  I am excited at this new opprtunity, the folks there so far seem like a great group. I am really excited to get the chance to raid with some existing friends I’ve met through the WoW Blogging/Twitter Community as well as a former guildmate from my first-ever Raiding Guild.

My first raid was last night, and things seem to be off to a good start. I’m learning how the other healers heal, how the tanks take damage, and how the guild formulates strats. We made quick work of Heroic Ultraxion and fast repeat kill of Heroic Blackhorn… and now onto Heroic Spine. I welcome the challenges of working with a new team during my trial, figuring out how to gel in the healing core as a unit, and hopefully move onto Pandaria as a strong healing core.

Here we go!

An Update and a Word for Posterity is a post from: Tales of a Priest

I’ve seen a number of these forum threads fighting over this question, and have seen some– frankly, horrible answers. I’ve also gotten a number of emails asking me what I think… so, lets take a look.

In my usual fashion, I am going to dive into some of the numbers, but not so many that we drown in pages of formulas and charts. Let’s first, however, recap what each of the core secondary throughput stats do for us.

Haste – Increases the speed at which we can cast spells, increases the number of ticks certain spells have (see previous post), as well as reduces the length of our Global Cooldown (GCD). To gain 1% haste, it would require 128 haste rating from gear or gems.

Critical Strike – Increases your chance to critically heal. Critical heals heal the target for 200% and apply Divine Aegis buff on the target. To gain 1% critical strike chance, it would require 179 crit rating.

Mastery – For Discipline, Sheild Mastery increases the amount your sheilds (Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Shield) absorb. For each point of mastery, you gain 2.5% additional absorption. All Disc Priests have a baseline of  mastery based added absorption.  To gain 1 point of mastery, it would would require 179 mastery rating.

Help!! What stats do I use?

Haste > Crit > Mastery

Haste -
Haste is a direct HPS improvement, and is the cheapest stat to increase (128 rating per 1%) compared to the other two options. Further, haste scales well… haste gains are multiplicative. Adding in the Shadowpriest or Moonkin arura isn’t simply adding an extra 5%, its multiplicative. This means if you have 15% Haste, you’re casting at 115% speed… if you then add in the Shadowpriest aura, you are casting at 120.75% (note: not 120%)

Regardless if you are casting POH, or nuking the tank with GHeals and Penance… faster casting speed is a direct HPS increase. Even if you are spec’d into SoS, you’ll be resetting Weakened Soul faster by nature to the fact that you are casting GH/Heal faster. If you are Atonement Healing or even just weaving in Smite/HFire for AA throughput, you’re able to get those smites off faster— direct output increases.

Critical Strike -
With 200% crits introduced, this was a an additional 30% increase to our Divine Aegis creation.  This was discussed in my previous post regarding Tank Healing and the importance of crit, but it also applies to raid healing and our biggest, and best raid healing spell: Prayer of Healing. (Keep in mind, both on 10 and 25s POH represents most of our healing) (Don’t forget, with the new crit meta discussed in my previous post we gain even more! (And atonement double dips))

Due to the fact that Prayer of Healing has a guaranteed DA, POH double dips DA when you critically heal.  Non-Critical POHs will likely hit for  approx 7,000 and create 2,500-3,000  DA (assuming baseline and certain amounts of unavoidable mastery). A Critical POH would hit for  approx 14,000 and provide a 11,000- 12,000 DA. No amount of mastery stacking is going to match that…

Of course, crit is an RNG stat… so in theory you could go on a crit drought. However, over the course of a full fight, the added crit will outweigh mastery. There are plenty of places to simcraft this such as the EJ SS  and other Simcraft sheets if you want to plug in your toon’s numbers.

Crit is fairly easy to acquire from either reforging or through gaining additional Intellect. Remember Dragon Soul gear is dripping with Intellect and red gem sockets! With this in mind, getting crit to healthy levels is very easy. With minimal effort you’ll probably land yourself in the unbuffed 15-20% crit range. (not to mention Inner Focus’s contribution).

Critical heals increases the HPS/HPM of every heal we have by doubling it; while mastery only affects PW: S and DA.

Mastery -
Do not stack mastery as your primary stat! Stacking mastery is best for PW: Shield spam. PW:S spam died with Arthas– don’t do it. There are niche situations during certain fights where spamming PW: Shield is an option, but it should not be your main spell.

• Morchock: Pre-Stomp; particularly when you have have shard soakers eating Stomps in quick succession.
• Heroic Yor’sahj:  when you have a Mana Void coming out, and you’ll have the Healing Debuff out. You can pre-spam the raid before the drain and buff’s application.
• Heroic Warmaster Blackhorn:  Quickly getting PW:S on folks who are eating Twilight Barrage

Tuning yourself for these niche situations, is a waste of the stat and really undertunes yourself for the rest of the encounters.

PW: Shield is a good spell; I am not saying otherwise. It has its uses… however for the most part it will primarily be used for Rapture Regen, the above noted niche fight mechanics, as well as those emergency “instant protection” on a target. I think it is easy to agree, you’d not want to stack a stat to improve a spell you’re using in mostly in those situations.

You also have people in the camp of: “Well it works for me!”. Be that as it may, it doesn’t mean it is the most optimal for you to use– 10 or 25 man. Yes, you may be casting more PW:S in 10′s than you  would in 25′s, but you really are selling yourself (and your stat’s short).

Mastery, in fact, is not a bad stat. It just doesn’t increase our output as well as the other stats we have.  There will be items that are direct upgrades for you (eg. Valor Point Ring), or tier certain items that have mastery. You will always have some innate amounts of mastery that will increase your rating… look at this as just a free bonus on your DA/PWS, and not a stat to chase.

Alternatives and Commentary

There is of course some art in healing, and often requires some removal of the science and math. Healing, unlike DPS, is truly an art… it isn’t a pure “If you do rotation A B C D A B C D, you will do max DPS.” (or HPS in this case) Could you prioritize Haste > Crit=Mastery, yes of course you can… and I know a number of priests who do. However, ultimately the game is a numbers game, and the math will provide you with the ability to put out those bigger numbers and people who have an ‘opinion’ doesn’t mean the math works out to make it into fact.

Some people hate Elitist Jerks because they ‘do too much math’ and that isn’t how you heal… I will agree with that statement to a point, however, there is a reason that the EJ forums have been around for so long and are so active: math doesn’t lie and optimization is often critical in this game. (especially in heroics)

Discipline Secondary Stats and Priority is a post from: Tales of a Priest

The purpose of this guide is to provide insight to the Healer Perspective and point out specific points of strategy that healers will want to keep in mind while battling Heroic Hagara. This guide assumes you already have at least an understanding of the basic boss mechanics and abilities– consider this the “Healer Addendum” to a standard Boss Guide.

Good luck!!

Healer’s Addendum – Healing Hagara the Stormbinder (Heroic) is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Every Dragon Soul fight has substantial raid damage — especially the  Heroics. This means we’ll need to be putting out a good deal of raid healing, but it also means we need to do what we can to stay alive as long as we possibly can to heal through that damage.

Both Holy and Discipline offer some great spec choices as far as survivability talents. Keeping that in mind, lets take a look at these options– some of which are often overlooked simply because we ‘forget about them’ as well as the fact that they do not provide any direct throughput. One could argue that these talents DO provide indirect-throughput as they either keep you alive longer, or mitigate damage on yourself — in turn, this enables you to continue to heal the other members of your raid.

Holy

Desperate Prayer – (Available to Discipline and Holy Priests) This spell comes in handy for those “Oh shit” moments. 30% of your total HP (capable of critically healing) with a 2 minute CD. This spell is handy for those situations where you know a surge of damage is about to hit, and you immediately need to get your health back up. (For example: Morchock’s Stomp ability, or perhaps your HP is low and you’re about to be targeted by Hagara’s Frost Tomb? )

Bessed Resilience –  (Available to Holy Priests only) With points into this talent you gain15%/30% bonus healing done on yourself for 10 seconds after being hit by non periodic damage for 10% (or more) of your total health. So many of these fights you’ll have the buff uptime for a good chunk of the fight. This is a fairly decent option for Holy Priests to help keep themselves alive during periods of high damage, as it makes all heals on you that much more potent.

Discipline

Inner Sanctum – (Available to Discipline and Holy Priests). With points spec’d into this ability, we can gain 2/4/6% static spell damage mitigation when we have Inner Fire active. Since all the unavoidable damage we take is magic damage, Inner Sanctum can be a huge lifesaver, particularly since some of the damage we take is deemed “periodic” and doesn’t trigger Blessed Resilience or Focused Will.

Focused Will – (Available to Discipline Priests only) This talent provides you with 5%/10% mitigation of all damage after you suffer non-periodic damage equal (or greater to) 10% of your health, and it stacks 2 times for 8 seconds. This means you can have up to 20% damage mitigation when it is fully stacked… that is a huge amount of mitigation.

Choices

Of course you have to make choices to gain some of these talents. With the exception of Holy Priests who seek out Blessed Resilience, who arguably have no better options to pick out, these choices could be difficult. For me, as a Disc priest first on the chopping block was Mental Agility– keep in mind as Disc losing points in MA, directly affects the net cost of your PWS and thusly the “cost” for Rapture. Certain priests may also want to consider dropping Inspiration for survivability. Depending on raid make up (Another Priest? Shaman?), Healing Assignments (are you not casting Inspiration eligible heals often?), and role you simply might not be applying the buff often enough to merit those 2 talent points.

It is important to understand the differences in each of these survivability talents, and what each bring to the table as they are notably different from each other … and some do not work on certain Dragon Soul encounters. Blessed Resilience and Focused Will do not proc on periodic damage… this works extremely well for soaking Hagara’s Ice Lance, as well as proccing during her lightning storm. Unfortunately, Ultraxion’s damage is considered periodic (for whatever reason) and does not proc BR/FW.

It ultimately boils down to survivability and how necessary it becomes for your raid.  The need for survivability talents is inversely related to your raid’s skill level and its familiarity with the encounter. The more your raid improves on a given encounter, and the more your raid gears up, the less necessary these talents become.  In progression raiding, the longer you survive, the longer your raid and tanks survive. Each one of us has to decide where that tipping point is, and when we start valuing one over the other.

How many first kills did you stumble across the finish line with the boss picking off the raid one by one by one… leaving only a bubble’d paladin alive as he fell over? (or a Dispersed Shadow Priest!) These talents can help you extend that survivability and should be strongly considered on certain fights in Dragon Soul… particularly a number of the Heroic Encounters.

Survivability and Progression Raiding is a post from: Tales of a Priest

The trick is to leverage Archangel to your advantage and not just use it haphazardly. Fully stacked, Archangel provides you with an additional 15% throughput for 18 seconds with a mere 30 second cooldown.  Despite it having a short cooldown, making it readily available throughout most of the fight, the best way for a Disc Priest to use Archangel is to know when the raid/tank damage is going to increase and demand for more throughput.

I know, I know… I sound like a broken record regarding this point. But the single best thing you can do to improve your healing is to KNOW THE FIGHT. Know the damage patterns. Know when a bosses ability is going to hit. Know when your raid needs you to pull out all the stops and find a miracle.

You’ll want to be sure you are using the Glyph of Divine Accuracy and Glyph of Smite in your Atonement builds. You will also want to be certain you are using the Burning Shadowspirit Meta Gem (See my earlier post regarding Meta Gems in 4.3) And yes, you will want to value Crit more in 4.3 and Dragon Soul. I don’t want to re-create the wheel and derail this post regarding Disc Stat Weights in 4.3- but generally for raid healing, and how much we have devalued PW: Shield (generally only used for emergencies and Rapture), you’ll generally want to value Haste > Crit > Mastery.

You will also need a method of tracking your stacks, duration on Archangel, as well as when those spells are available/off cooldown. I use my Power Auras — available here. I also prefer mouseover and assist macro’s to be certain I am smiting appropriate targets.

I need to point out the fact that Atonement Healing allows for Atonement Disc Priests to contribute to Raid DPS. With so many of these fights as rough DPS checks (yes, you HM Ultraxion), any added Raid DPS will be a welcomed addition.

Morchock -
On both Heroic and Normal modes you can use the downtime between Stomps and crystal  spawns to stack Evangelism. You can pop Archangel to burst heal after Stomp or when your tanks have high stacks of Crush Armor. On Heroic, this added throughput is exceptionally important to top your half of the raid off during those Stomp/Crystal combinations that are very close to each other.  Additionally, you can easily stack 5 stacks if you can stay within range during Black Blood of the Earth. (not to mention: assist in DPS)

Zon’ozz -
Archangel is a pivotal part of a Disc Priests toolbox on this fight, and even more-so when you are healing Heroic Zon’ozz.  Since the damage going out during Phase 1 is fairly easy to heal through, it also provides you ample time to Smite and use Archangel at least once, and also time to re-stack and prepare for Phase 2.  When you enter Phase 2 (Black Phase) you’ll want to pop Archangel for that added 15% to your POH output. On Heroic difficulty, the damage output is even more substantial since there are additional adds your raid needs to burn down. Big, bursty, and sustainable output is critical during this phase… work it! A Disc priest running AA should be able to easily maintain themselves plus a group– solo. Liberal use of POH and POM, using PWS only for dire situations on a single target (or Rapture) should be more than adequate.

Lest we forget, Zon’ozz also has a +damage modifier making Smite hit harder and subsequently heal for more.

Yor’sahj-
This fight is probably one of the more dynamic healing fights and has notable changes when going from Normal to Heroic. Firstly, on Normal and Heroic, you (usually) can easily stack Evangelism by assisting DPS on the slimes. This allows you to help push the slime down sooner (and consequently get DPS back on YJ quicker), but you also gain your stacks. Using Archangel on phases that have increased damage (Black, Yellow, Red combinations) are the obvious answers.

One commonly forgotten part of Archangel is the fact that you gain 5% of your mana when you activate AA.  Generally speaking we do not use AA to be a “mana restoration” talent. On Yor’sahj, however, we can. This can be critical to use after the Mana Void drains all your mana… Gaining back that 5% can often mean the difference between having the mana to put down PW: Barrier or Divine Hymn. Prepare for it.

On Heroic, most strategies result in many rounds of slimes having the Purple/Healing debuff up. In situations like this you want to be extra careful to not have Holy Fire ticks running on YJ when the debuff goes up. This can quickly (and deadly!) stack Deep Corruption on a single target and then blow up on the raid. You also may want to have AA running on phases where you have to heal through Green Damage and have the Purple Healing Debuff, making your selective heals more potent. The key to healing with the debuff up, is to make each heal matter… and that added 15% does just that.

Hagara the Stormbinder -
With predictable damage spikes from either Focused Attacks, Ice Lance’s debuff, or to heal through her AOEs during her two immunity phases; the timing for AA is fairly obvious  (That is, if your raid selects to heal through her AOEs on both Lightning and Frost Phases; it is possible to heal through the 15% HP DoT albeit challenging.) You should be able to weave those Smites in fairly easily not to mention assist on DPS when she’s debuffed after her shields break… mmm +damage modifiers!!

Ultraxion -
This fight Archangel and Atonement are a bit tricky. At the very least you should be able to weave in Holy Fire on cooldown and use the added 15% Healing from Archangel when needed… Especially towards the end, and on Heroic when you have 5 people soaking and need fast (and big) heals after you return from the alternate realm. (not to mention, first kills you’ll need to squeak out as much hidden DPS as you possibly can)

Additionally on Heroic, you will likely be HF/Smite spamming at least until the Red Buff goes out. You’ll need the added Raid DPS.

Warmaster Blackhorn (aka Gunship) -
Large void zones to pre-DA and clean up after. Shout. On Heroic the amount of damage that Twilight Onslaught and Twilight Barrage deal is substantial so being ready to use AA and burst heal (and pre-DA Onslaught damage will be critical). Once Warmaster Blackhorn lands, he’ll start to ramp up damage as he gains more and more Vengeance. You’ll want to be certain you have Archangel running (and possibly chaining cooldowns) as much as possible sub 20%.

Spine of Deathwing-
This fight has an interesting ebb and flow of damage. You have plenty of time to stack Evangelism on the adds, and then pop and burst AOE heal when the Amalgamations gain Superheated. Further, you can Holy Fire/Smite the Tendons to assist with DPS as well as heal up the straggling HP on melee who will be within range of the Tendon. Also, if your raid does run into trouble with the Searing Blood debuff, healing off the debuff with 15% boosted heals can help clean up the raid.

Spine can be tricky to maintain your Evangelism stacks, especially if your raid’s DPS gets too far ahead of the Bloods and the Amalgamations aren’t at 9 stacks yet. (you don’t want to be the one who accidentally killed the Amalgamation early because you wanted to keep Evangelism!) Be prepared to maintain your stacks by smiting less-than-optimal targets. (or better yet, assist in breaking the stuns on the Tendrils!)

Madness of Deathwing-
Obviously since this is the longest fight of the Tier, you will be able to use Archangel a number of times throughout the encounter. When you first land on each platform, damage will be light. You can easily assist in DPS by stacking your Evangelism stacks; which is something you’ll want to do anyway. I usually pop AA multiple times per platform, being certain I have AA running when Blistering Heat is being applied by the Blistering Tentacles. (75%, 50%, and 25% HP of the Claw/Wing).

You will most definitely want to time Archangel in the final phase as well. As the fight concludes, your healers will be gasping for mana and the Corrupted Blood damage will be ramping up on your raid. Raid Cooldowns, and Archangel will be your best friend in these final seconds. Find time to weave in a couple of Holy Fire’s or Smites, in preparation for this final push.

The key with Archangel and Atonement Healing is to know the fight’s damage patterns. If you need to consume your stacks for added throughput, be sure you do so at a meaningful time. Don’t just mindless spam Smite, know when you need to switch to direct (and targeted) heals.  Sometimes that means you need to FIND a time to Smite to ensure that your stacks will be available to be consumed when needed.  Be precise. Be deliberate.

… and enjoy looking sexy in screenshots with wings!

Discipline & Archangel in Dragon Soul is a post from: Tales of a Priest

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

For those who haven’t made your way over to the official preview and calculator, as you level up you get certain spells and bonuses unlocked with specific paths and bones for both Holy and Disc (and Shadow too).

However, upon a closer inspection there are substantial gaps in the Specialization spells… and by gaps, I mean spells and key traits are completely missing. While, yes, Blizzard did they they were going to be pruning our spellbooks down; some of these missing tools seem to be clear oversights. Others, however might not be oversights and just will be changes into the way we play. Before we all go screaming that the sky is falling, lets remember to keep ourselves in check… this is just PREVIEW and is still under development. Therefore, by no means any of this is final. (and with some of the gaps, it obviously isnt final)

Shared  Potential Gaps and Commentary:

• Prayer of Healing is currently not anywhere to be seen. This seems to be an error as there are talents that specifically augment this.  (Serendipity/Chakra: Sanctuary)
• Holy Nova is gone, which is something I am not overly worried about. (Though I did like using it on HM Ragnaros during World in Flames or when Seed Kiting) The part that is quite curious is the fact that at Blizzcon they said they wanted to try to incorporate Holy Nova into the Disc Tree. (Possibly another omission)
• Meditation is gone… this could be a huge change in how we handle regen in Mists. However it is present for Druids and Shaman. (Pallies currently don’t have it) Remember, they said they were changing how mana was going to work for us. Perhaps losing our in-combat regen is just the first step.
• A number of our throughput/mana saving abilities are missing. (eg. Divine Fury, Mental Agility, Twin Disciplines) These could be explained away as part of the overarching changes in MoP, but still surprising to see them gone… especially Divine Fury given the cast times of our Heals.
• Inspiration is gone, as well as its Shaman counterpart, Ancestral Fortitude– perhaps this very ‘high mantenence’ spell is time to retire.

Discipline Potential Gaps and Commentary:

• No specialization, aside from Mastery, that increases PW: Shield size or augments it. Especially interesting since PW: Shield is a shared spell between Disc and Holy.
• Divine Aegis is missing; another clear accidental omission.
• Heal is currently Holy only. This could mean they want us to use Smite as our Heal, however Atonement is missing– so there are still some questions up in the air.  Further, if Heal  is going to be less important, we should also consider potential oversight of Strength of Soul. (Heroic Baleroc anyone?) Additionally, this only leaves Disc with GHeal, Flash, and Penance as our targeted single target heal. However, in one of the class Q&A’s we did learn about Spirit Shell, which is a cast time shield that doesn’t have a Weakened Soul component– perhaps this is the quid pro quo.
• Perhaps they want us to use PW:S more; but we still don’t have Soul Warding in the current preview.
• Renewed Hope is a huge player in the Disc Tank Healing arsena but is currently MIA; unless they decide to merge it into Grace
• No innately higher intellect from Enlightenment to offset Holy Concentration via Rapture.
• Hymn of Hope is Disc only. I kind of like the opposing hymns for each of the two Specializations it gives them a certain flair (accidental or not). That said, I’d argue that HoH could use a slight buff if that is the case; and Holy’s regen would need to be adjusted for the lack of it.

Holy Potential Gaps and Commentary: 

• Holy is actually looking pretty solid; only really some shared gaps and some potential throughput concerns. It makes me wonder if Blizzard looked at Holy first and will be coming back to Discipline.
• I do find it interesting they are doling out Lightwell and Spirit of Redemption. (Improved Death) since these spells were very “choices” in current content. (I still dislike Spirit of Redemption. It is just a talent that keeps you alive just a little longer after you messed up— just seems wrong to me)
• Currently Binding Heal is Holy Only; could be interesting to tie this spell just to Holy; but what would the trade off for Disc be? Nova?
•  Divine Hymn is currently Holy Only; though without Heavenly Voice we could be back to ground zero with it.

Talent Trees
There have been a number of bloggers out there who have commented on the talent trees and the choices we have at 15, 20, 45, 60, 75, and 90. While, I have been working on a post analyzing those choices… the talent system is less of a ‘choice’ than it ever was. With the ability to change our talents like Glyphs we will have the flexibility to customize our Tree to the boss encounter itself.  Further, we still don’t know exactly how a number of these abilities will work… and I really don’t like speculating.  I even hesitated to write this post as it is mired in speculation. There is simply TOO MUCH UNKNOWN and existing 4.0 talents could be merged into existing 5.0 ones. Until I can get my hands on concrete information about how these new abilities actually work in practice(eg. Void Shift), I think we are just speculating for speculations sake. Let’s see them in action before we make snap judgements.  Of course I DO have some preliminary opinions and gut reactions to a number of the new Talents… I just need to figure out how I want to communicate that on the blog.

Given the number of holes and unknowns, doing too much fretting over these trees is like tilting at windmills. The most we can do is keep our concerns in the back of our minds, and see what future Mists of Pandaria previews have in store. As of now there are too many obvious errors to really get too worked up. Is it possible that this is the final Priest Specialization/Talent Tree… sure; though it seems HIGHLY unlikely. So, calm down… pour yourself a glass of wine and relax; more information will be coming…. soon™.

Mists of Pandaria: Official Priest Talent Preview (Take 1) is a post from: Tales of a Priest

The Burning Crusade came and so did our introduction to the Tier Token System. It was simple.  A token type would drop, of either Vanquisher, Conqueror, or Protector and each token type had 3 classes that were a associated with it–easy! Nice and even distribution. This method simply made loot systems easier to manage. Can you imagine doing a loot council with 25 people all interested in a single Chest Token?  BC also introduced us to the Badge/Point system. This system allowed raiders to purchase raid quality gear for a number of item slots–Tier Gear was not available in this manner.

Then we had Wrath of the Lich King, where we moved from Badges/Points not buying Tier Gear to becoming a huge part of gear progression.  Additionally, WOTLK included the introduction of Death Knights. DK added an interesting complication to Tier distribution as we no longer had 3 classes per Tier Token, since we had one Token with 4 classes associated with it. This caused a change in the RNG aspect of loot drops because one of the tokens was meant for 4 classes and affected the weighted average of the drop rate.

Fast Forward to 4.3. The Tier System is getting turned on its head… again. The ONLY way to get Tier 13 gear will be through raid boss drops – no Valor Point Tier purchases. Further, in a statement that Bashiok posted, we learned that the VP drop rate was being throttled to 100 per raid boss kill. This means, for purposes of Tier Gear progression, the only way to upgrade Tier 12 to Tier 13 is to hope for good RNG from the Token Gods. Additionally, off-set VP gear would be more difficult to save up for as the VP accumulation rate is being slowed. Bashiok stated that the purpose of this  VP change was to put greater emphasis on killing a boss to get the gear, not just saving your points.

This “new” method of acquiring Tier Gear is anything but new…we’ve seen it before, as discussed, in The Burning Crusade. This method will likely slow down progression and artificially gate content by throttling how fast raids can gear up.

A number of people in the WOW community had a knee jerk reaction regarding the VP change: “Big Deal! I’m a raider! I’ll be getting my token drops and VP gear isn’t even good!” You even saw some people go so far as suggesting the VP gear was “welfare” and “scrub loot”.

I believe that these statements are exceptionally short sighted and really off-base. Arguably, VP gear is important to everybody; especially to the hardcores. “Hardcore raiders”  use every strategy possible to min/max their character. Compounding this is the fact that there are a lot more options available from the Valor Point vendors this go around… not just rings and the occasional trinket.

Why is the VP gear important? I make these suggestions because these VP items, coupled with Tier Token RNG, really affect how gear progression will work in 4.3.  Depending on the importance of set bonuses, the increased stats from these VP items, boss strategy and mechanics, they could be superior– especially if you have all 5 Tier items from T12, and have the flexibility to pivot and  maintain your set bonus while still upgrading offset items via the VP upgrades. (Protip: if you can get all 5, do it… just for this reason alone)

Lets pretend your raid has been having a Conqueror Token drought… this means Priests, Paladins, and Warlocks likely have not been able to upgrade much of their T12 Gear to T13 Gear yet. Keeping that in mind, and progressing through content, you’ll eventually reach a boss that has a critical healing or DPS check (ie. Ultraxion). Doing this in lower Item Level gear, while possible, could be easier with the pure stat increases from the new Valor Items. These items are iLvl 397, which is on par with Heroic Ragnaros loot — nothing to scoff at.

Personally, I dislike the current Token System based solely on the method of distribution.  In theory, they should be equally distributed via RNG, but that is drastically dependent on your raid composition.  Throughout T12, my raid was typically represented by over half of our raiding core residing on the Conqueror token. This can provide a artificial gear gate when high demand tokens don’t drop. Is the simple answer to this problem to have one universal token? Perhaps… but that isn’t the point of this article.

Play smartly. Plan your upgrades. Make a loot list. Evaluate your loot options through the Valor Point vendors. You’ll need to figure out which items will be your biggest upgrades, while trying to not not affect your set bonuses… THEN move to items that require either a Tier Upgrade or a Pivot from 5/5 T12. Obviously, if you are raiding, you might be upgrading non-tier items through boss drops as well— but this is nothing new, its the gear progression we’ve always known.

Gearing in 4.3 – Valor Points and the Token System is a post from: Tales of a Priest