We’ve discussed triage healing in the past, DPS using Lightwells, and using the right spells in the right situations.  Does this mean, “Do X people, in the same group, have a health deficit that would be reversed by a well placed Prayer of Healing?” Yes, it does.  In many Heroic Encounters, you will see your entire raid take massive amounts of damage and casting Prayer of Healing followed by a snap of COH can quickly top many folks off…  but healing and knowing your priority is much more than that. … 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 …

There has been a lot of talk in the community about Shamans and Druids getting a cooldown… a lot of talk. First, want to be very clear that this article is not intended to play into this whole one class being superior to another debacle that many forums (I’m looking at you Blizzard Forums) gets into. Nor it is about saying that one class does or does not need something. One thing that we all need to remember, and I think is often forgotten when class balances/revamps occur, is that we are a healing team; and it ultimately is about working together as a unit not about one person being the hero of the fight. The Shaman cooldown seems to be a  raid-wide “reset”; with a minor (10%) damage mitigation …

I know we all get an alarming amount of amusement out of using Leap of Faith in those “for fun” situations. Read: Engineers using Rocket Boosts and a Parachute Cloak to make it from the BWD Elevator all the way to Atramedes’ room… YOINK get back here! For purposes of this discussion, let’s put those uses aside… for now. *cackle* Today, I’d like to get into a bit more of the social theory behind Leap of Faith and what happens (beyond just moving the player) when the spell is cast. The original idea of this post was through a casual conversation between myself and Dawn of WoWInsider and LearnToRaid. There are some great and very strategic uses for Leap of Faith: Kiting during Atramedes Kiting Constructs in Phase 3 Nefarian …

Bonus points for those who like the Billy Joel reference! With 4.0.6 finally dropped, and subsequently all of the (many) hotfixes, it is time to revisit our spec descisions! 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. …

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 …

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.

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 …

As Ava alluded to in her State of Disc post, Rapture isn’t the same as it was back in ICC. Even if your shields all break at the same time you are only going to get one tick of Rapture equal to 6% of your total mana and then trigger it’s 12 second internal cooldown.  Discipline Priests need to be certain they are getting the most out of this talent, and maximizing its restore. When compared to Holy Priests, Disc gets far less mana back from Spirit, and relies more heavily on Intellect Based Mana Restores– with Rapture being our largest source. 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, …

We’ve talked about Lightwell a little bit in the past, and by now we’ve all come to love and respect Lightwell. Lightwell is our friend. Lightwell has come a long way from the, “Why did you waste a talent point on this spell?”. Lightwell is a raid cooldown. What do I mean by that? While, yes, Lightwell is a great tool to plop down and enable your raid to heal themselves, it is more than just that. Lightwell can be used as a raid cooldown– Much like Divine Hymn, Tranquility, Power Word: Barrier, and Divine Sacrifice. Lightwell isn’t the same as these aforementioned spells in every sense, however it is a cooldown that smart holy priests (and by proxy their raid members) can use to add to the survivability of …

Just a quick note to point out what I’m seeing as a very overlooked potion: Potion of Concentration. 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 …