Thursday 7 April 2011

Lecture Mode: Spec and Spells for 10 mans.

There is a lot of leeway for choice in specs these days, but this is the spec that I have currently and have liked the most out of all the specs that I've tried:  http://www.wowhead.com/talent#brrorRsbcRMoMur:cmVdqrzVM.  I've put in the glyphs I currently have up - I logged off after doing Maloriak heroic and Nefarion normal so the glyphs may seem a little strange.

Talents:

Discipline:
If you have to ask why, Discipline is probably not the tree for you.
These 4 points you can pretty much assign as you like.  I've put 2 in Twin Disciplines because I use a lot of spells other than Power Word:  Shield and 2 in Mental Agility because I still use a lot of shields and the mana decrease affects Renew (which I pretty much only use running back but still - it costs less!), Prayer of Mending (which I don't use as much as I should - time to make my Power Aura more annoying I think), Dispel Magic, Cure Disease etc.
If you have to ask why, Discipline is probably not the tree for you.
Evangelism:  2/2
Archangel:  1/1
Atonement:  2/2
These may seem like an odd choice for anything other than Halfus Wyrmbreaker, but the regen and healing from Atonement is extremely useful for pretty much any boss you could care to name.  I find that AtonementSmite is around the same as for Flash Heal, but for just over half of the mana cost (28% of base mana for Flash Heal and 15% of base mana for Smite), as well as the reduced cooldown on Penance from Train of Thought makes it a lot better than it sounds.
Make the world's most annoying Power Aura ever and use it on cooldown.
This is a particularly sexy spell.  On mana-intensive fights, use it on yourself every cooldown.  It's great for a bit of burst healing as well.  On more laid-back fights, use it on a caster dps.
+10% crit on Weakened Soul and Grace Targets.  If that's not enough for you, have another look at Divine Aegis.
Rapture:  3/3
Free mana that scales with how much you have - no-brainer much?
14% spell haste on demand - another no-brainer.
Free healing from all crits!  And also from every hit of Prayer of Healing, which is a very-abused spell in 10mans.
Emergency Button!
Decreased cooldown on Inner Focus or Penance, depending on what you're using.  Very yummy.
Grace:  2/2
8-24% increased healing on multiple targets.  Yet another no-brainer.
Not as awesome as it first appears, it's still a very nice situational raid cooldown.

Holy:
I mostly have this for the reduced cast time on Smite, but the reductions on Heal and Greater Heal are also useful.
These are basically filler talents for me.  The extra healing on Flash Heal is a nice bonus in conjunction with Surge of Light, but you could easily go for 2/2 Improved Renew if you ever use Renew (I don't).
10% reduced damage on everyone you critically heal with pretty much any direct heal.  NOMNOMNOM!
Free Flash Heal from Smite spam that can proc another free Flash Heal that can proc another free Flash Heal that can... Ok you probably won't get that many procs in a row, but still, very sexy.
Self-emergency button.  I'd tell you how many times this has saved my life but I'm not sure I can count that high for a start and also I promised I'd try not to embarass myself in this blog.

Glyphs:

Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Power Word: Shield:  Adds an extra little heal to every use of Power Word: Shield (around 5k for me).
Glyph of Prayer of Healing:  Adds an extra little heal to every hit of Prayer of Healing (around 3k for me).
Glyph of Power Word: Barrier:  Adds some nice oomph to this raid cooldown, but not useful for every fight.  I usually swap it out for Glyph of Penance depending on the fight.
Glyph of Penance:  Reduced cooldown on Penance means an extra use of it (6 instead of 5) every minute if used on cooldown, not factoring in Smite spam and Train of Thought.  When you have T11 4set, this will help you maintain the Indulgence of the Penitent buff when not using Smite.

Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Divine Accuracy:  Non-negotiable for Atonement.
Glyph of Prayer of Mending:  Really nice boost to healing.
Glyph of Desperation:  Once again, this is a situational glyph.  It may seem a little silly to have in a PvE spec, but get back to me when your Nefarion tank takes 2 hits in a row positioning him when you've been Tail Lashed by Onyxia.
Glyph of Dispel Magic:  For dispell-heavy fights, this is a must-have.

Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Shadowfiend:  Unlikely that your Shadowfiend will die, but just in case!
Glyph of Levitate:  Not useful in pretty much all fights, but saves you from having to keep a stack of reagents with you.
Glyph of Fortitude:  Good for an in-fight buff for someone who has been combat-ressed or who ankhed, but you can't really afford deaths in 10s, so not as useful as for 25s.
Glyph of Fading:  Nice glyph for heavy add fights, but still nothing really special.

Spells:

I'm not going to cover the spells I use in raids and how and when I use them in-depth here.  I plan to put up all our strats for all fights and cover the healing strats I use in detail there.  This is just a basic breakdown of spells I use in raids.

Power Word: Shield:  Gone are the days where all your Disc priest ever did was spam this spell.  It is, however, still very useful.  I mostly use this on the tanks and on dps who are in trouble and dropping fast to buy a little bit of extra time for a cast-time spell.
Prayer of Healing:  Guaranteed Divine Aegis on every hit, guaranteed hot on every hit if glyphed and no upper limit on the number of hits.  No upper limit?  What the hell does that have to do with anything?  Pets are part of the party.  Imagine a group full of hunters and warlocks.  That's 10 hits, with 10 Divine Aegis and 10 hots  (/wipes drool from chin).
Prayer of Mending:  Use it often, but not necessarily on cooldown.  I have mine tracked on Grid so that I can see if it's still going and who it's on.  If it's on someone likely to take damage soon, let it bounce.  If it's not, cast a new one on someone who's likely to take damage soon.  Usually I cast it on the tank, but for an emergency situation (melee toon gets 3 Vile Swills dropped on him and has to run through another 4 to get clear for example), drop this on him after you've shielded.
Penance:  A very cheap big heal.  Use it as often as you can, especially if you have T11 4set.  If nobody is particularly low, then drop it on the tank, otherwise it is best served on the aforementioned melee after PW:S and PoM.
Smite:  Give this a prominent and easy to hit place on your bars.  Use it as often as possible.  Keep a 5 stack of Evangelism as much as you are able.  Learn when heavy healing periods are and save up Evangelism for the healing buff from Archangel for the right moments.
Archangel:  On most fights, you want to use this whenever it's available and you have a 5 stack of Evangelism.  Don't be shy to use it with less than a 5 stack if it's about to wear off and you don't have time to squeeze off the extra Smite or 2 to build it up to full, some mana back and a bit of extra healing is better than a dropped stack, which is just useless.
Divine Hymn:  Delicious raid cooldown, usually ours are scheduled well in advance, but on every fight that it's not, use it at your discretion.  If you don't end a fight with this on cooldown, chances are high that you've failed.
Hymn of Hope:  Raid wide mana cooldown.  Use any maximum mana-based cooldowns after using this, like Arcane Torrent and Shadowfiend.  Announce it to the raid so that other healers can look after you if something nasty lands on you while you're channeling as well as use their own maximum mana-based cooldowns when they have the buff.
Shadowfiend:  Not the best mana cooldown ever, but still quite a useful little thing.  Make sure  you have it glyphed.
Flash Heal:  Very expensive, generally I only use this with a Surge of Light proc or on Chimaeron heroic for Caustic Slime targets when Penance is on cooldown.
Binding Heal:  Same mana cost and heal as Flash Heal, except on 2 people at once.  Very mana-inefficient, use only if you and someone else are in dire straits (or on Chimaeron if you get hit by Caustic Slime).
Greater Heal:  Useful in tank healing if there are too many targets low on health in range of Atonement.
Heal:  Small, efficient spell.  I rarely use this, even in 5mans.
Renew:  Your basic hot.  I rarely use this except running back from wipes.
Inner Fire:  Yummy spell power increase, I keep it up at all times.
Inner Will:  Mana reduction on instants, consider using this with a shield spam spec (not recommended for 10s unless the rest of your raid consists of 2 resto druids and 5 moonkins who are willing to innervate you on cooldown).
Fade:  Useful for getting that pesky Resto druid that keeps beating you on the heal meters out of the fight right at the beginning.  Simply wait for the tank to be in aggro radius of the boss and shield him, then hit Fade immediately.  The hots that the druid has stacked up on the tank will put him at second highest aggro and he'll be dead before the tank even realises that the boss didn't go straight to him.
Arcane Torrent:  So...  Much...  Regen...  If you don't have this spell I can only see one good reason:  You have a Troll or Gnome priest that is Shadow mainspec.  Any other excuse (Blood elves are horrible, I'm alliance /spit, etc) just means you suck.
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