Penance Priest

EDIT: This article is a bit dated. There are at least two addons that were created after I built these macros that you should check out. Both Announce and GuardianSpirited do what I'm trying to do in these macros, only more elegantly and more reliably. The macros are still fine, and certainly more lightweight, but they're no longer your best choice.

At some point you realize that you can do more than just

/cast Power Infusion

Here are some upgrades to your PI macro, culminating in what I think is just about the best you can do in the limited space of a macro.

Round One: Adding a whisper

Before any raid, I’ll usually alert my intended victim of what’s about to happen. Getting PI’d is fantastic, but if you’re not ready for it, it can be a bit jarring. So I just let them know that they’ll be getting hit with it when it’s up.

Then, when I cast PI, I’ll send an automatic whisper to the target so they know what just happened. Of course, they can see the animation and feel the haste, but the whisper is generally appreciated.

/cast [target=mouseover] Power Infusion
/run SendChatMessage("You just got Power Infusion...haste it up!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName("mouseover"))

Round Two: Linking the spell, and adding a Quartz timer

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. But I like to anyway :)  Here’s the same macro, but this time the spell is linked, rather than just named. Also, I’ve added a line that tells Quartz to put up a custom timer bar (enable the “mirror” function within Quartz, then play around with it). If you’re using other methods for managing your cooldowns, the Quartz timer can certainly be removed.

/cast [target=mouseover] Power Infusion
/run SendChatMessage("You just got "..GetSpellLink("Power Infusion").."...haste it up!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName("mouseover"))
/quartztimer 96 Power Infusion

Round Three: Error checking

I used the above macro for a long time. Unfortunately, it does no error checking. So if my target is out of range, they of course won’t get hit with PI, but they’ll still get the whisper. Same if the spell is on cooldown; they get a message but no buff.

The two LUA functions we’re adding here are IsSpellInRange and GetSpellCooldown. I’ve removed the Quartz timer, because I can’t include it within the error check. (I.e., the timer will display when I click, even if the spell fails.)

This uses some handy programming shortcuts in order to minimize the number of characters in the macro. Still, it’s about as sophisticated as you can get within the 255 character limit. (This is 217 characters, so there’s a little wiggle room.)

/script local u,pi="mouseover","Power Infusion";if IsSpellInRange(pi,u)==1 and GetSpellCooldown(pi)==0 then SendChatMessage("You just got "..GetSpellLink(pi).."!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName(u)) end
/cast [target=mouseover] Power Infusion

Briefly, what’s happening is this. In the first line, we’re sending the recipient a whisper, but only if the spell will land. To test if the spell will land, we’re checking to see if the target is in range and if the spell is off cooldown. (We’re not checking for line of sight, though that could probably be built in as well.)

Another difference with this version is that the spell itself is cast after the whisper. If we cast it before the whisper, the cooldown will of course be in effect and the whisper won’t be sent.

If you have any additions, corrections, or anything to improve upon in this macro, please send them along!

Addons

There are two addons that I know of that can be used for this sort of thing. CastYeller is made to order – it’s designed to let people know when a spell is cast successfully. It can whisper the target, post to a custom chat channel, or to the entire raid. I haven’t quite gotten it to do what I want, but YMMV of course. Definitely worth a look.

Aftercast is another option. It looks like it’s no longer in development, so I haven’t even downloaded it to try. I’d be curious if anyone has this working, or if there are other addons that are useful for spell announcements.

Bonus macro: Pain Suppression

What’s different here? Not much, to be honest. The only thing is that we’re no longer interested in sending a whisper to the target, but to the raid in general. This lets everyone know you’ve blown your cooldown to save the tank (most likely) or dps (shame on them!).

/script local u,ps,c="mouseover","Pain Suppression",GetNumRaidMembers()>0 and "RAID" or "PARTY";if IsSpellInRange(ps,u)==1 and GetSpellCooldown(ps)==0 then SendChatMessage(ps.." on "..UnitName(u),c) end
/cast [target=mouseover] Pain Suppression

The chat channel will be set dynamically based on whether you're in a raid or a party; if you’re testing it out solo you’ll get an error message saying that you’re not in a party.

Facebook

Right after I wrote the other two posts on information management, I picked up the delicious Illustration of the Dragon Soul. I knew I needed some way to keep an eye on it, and using the main display of raid buffs was just not gonna cut it. Finding its icon in all that chaos is not my idea of a user-friendly interface.

What I’m using now is an addon called NeedToKnow. It was designed for tracking the time left on buffs and debuffs, which is exactly what’s needed here. In fact, it also tracks the count of stackable buffs, like rogue poisons, so it fits Dragon Soul just perfectly.

Below is a screenshot of NeedToKnow in action. The top bar shows Dragon Soul’s stack count (10) and time remaining (9s, but the “s” is a bit hard to see under the white spark). The bottom bar is for Renewed Hope, taken off the 3.1 PTR, which if you hadn’t heard yet, will be doing some of the heavy lifting that Grace used to do:

Renewed Hope now also give you a 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 3% for 20 sec to all friendly party and raid targets when you Power Word: Shield a friendly target.

This is a raid-wide buff, so I’ll be tracking it using NeedToKnow. In practice, I doubt it will be something to be concerned about, as it will likely be up 100% of the time without trying.

One other buff I’d like to track this way is Heroism. Because Power Infusion doesn’t stack with Heroism (well, at least the haste component doesn’t), I want to know when Heroism is about to end. As soon as it does I’ll be able to pop PI on my friendly caster and be assured they’ll get the full benefits. Here again, hunting for the Heroism icon in the chaotic and ever-shifting list of raid buffs is the wrong way to do this; having a bright timer bar in a fixed position on your screen is the right way.

Oops! I hacked your code

So, yeah. NeedToKnow is great. The only problem is that this wunder-trinket has a reaaalllly loooonnnggg naammme. And the way NeedToKnow is coded puts the stack count to the right of the buff’s name. Without the hack, the purple bar would say “Illustration of the Dragon Soul [10]”. This would be fine except for the fact that I don’t want my bar to be wide enough to show all that text. And once you shrink the bar, the stack count gets hidden behind ellipses.

The minor hack job I did was to move the display of the stack count to the left of the buff name, as you see in the screenshot above. If you want to do this yourself, you can edit the LUA directly. About 25 lines from the end is a line that says “if (count > 1) then”. The line that immediately follows is where the bar’s text gets set up when a stack size needs to be displayed. I’ve changed mine to read

text:SetText(count.." - "..bar.auraName);

Um, please don’t ask me for programming help! If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, make backup copies, and go slowly, or just skip this bit. You’ll still love NeedToKnow.

Facebook

I have never once survived a Frost Blast.

The reason is that there are three ways to heal Frost Blast, and most healers I've met use one of the two wrong ways. Yes, of course there were other factors involved, and some bad luck too. But most of those times I was the only FB target, and there’s no good reason anyone should die to this when it doesn’t chain to other folks.

Method 1: “Help me I'm ice-blocked!”

Someone yells out on vent. Either they're smart and give you their name, or you know their voice and spend a few brain cycles connecting voice to name. You then hunt for the name in your raid frames and do your healy thing.

You're subject to several types of delay, the first being how long it takes someone to shout, after they recognize they've been ice blocked.

Method 2: DBM

DBM will put up a raid warning indicating who's been Frost Blasted. You then follow the same thread as above: you hunt for their name on your raid frames and heal.

Hopefully you can find the DBM announcement very easily in what is likely to be a cluttered screen.

But that's not the main problem, really. The issue with both of these methods is the time it takes to find someone in your raid frames. When you have 25 people, you probably know exactly where to look for about 5 of them. All the rest? You're gonna be hunting. With a hunting system, you have maybe a 50/50 chance to save somebody, maybe a little more. But two Frost Blast targets at once? No chance.

Method 3: Now with preparation!

After we killed Sapph in our last 25, I asked in vent if healers had set up their interface to show Frost Blast.

“What!?” Our tree-druid officer practically exploded with indignation that I would be telling her how to do her job. Whoops!

This is a reaction-time fight for sure. And if you're waiting for DBM to tell you who to heal, you've gimped yourself severely, and people will die. If you're waiting to hear someone say it on vent, the total time between Frost Blast and your heal is even greater. Sure, you might still save them, skin of their teeth, but  you're still not performing your job at peak capacity. You should be able to easily heal two people through it.

Before I set foot in KT's chamber I read up on the fight and realized I needed to prepare in order to succeed.

What I did is simple, but helps a ton. I’m almost always the first to get off a heal, and I’m working on being able to reliably save three targets. (I’m not there yet.)

Presto. In my raid frames I’ve colored the Frost Blocked target purple. There is no mistaking who needs a heal. There is no need to correlate a name with a raid frame. The purple color is like a magnet; the only delay is the eye-hand reaction time of standard whack-a-mole healing.

You can easily set up this sort of custom coloring in just about any unit frame addon, from XPerl to Healbot. Just do it! It saves lives!

Oh by the way, what spells to use?

Very simple. If you have one target Frost Blasted, hit them with Penance. This is the only fight I can think of where I reserve my best spell for someone other than the tank. I'll use Penance on the tank maybe once or twice after a Frost Blast, but after that, I'm saving it for the ice-blocked victim.

There are good arguments for shield+Flash Heal, and that’s totally fine. Basically anything except Greater Heal will work.

If you have two targets, Shield A, Penance B, Flash Heal A. You can even cut off the third tick of Penance if necessary. Heck I don’t know – if you’ve set up your raid frames for visual notification, you should have plenty of time to save two targets using just about any combination of spells, assuming they were topped off before Frost Blast.

For three targets...just hope you get lucky and your other healer(s) pick the target that you skipped. You can start playing around with using Prayer of Mending / Shield / Penance to try to save three targets, but like I said, I haven’t quite found the best rotation for three yet.

Facebook

A few weeks ago in Nax25, Serene Echoes dropped off Heigan. It’s the sort of thing that turns an intelligent player into a drooling puddle of desire. Gimmegimmegimme. It also is arguably best in slot for a disc priest, especially if you’re not after the hasty boots that drop off Maly25.

One of the three GMs of the guild I was in, Qban, was running the raid. He invited all casters to roll, and in fact, I think every clothy was drooling about as much as I was. I protested rather loudly. As much as a warlock might enjoy all that crit, the mp5 is wasted itemization (wtb Lifetap), the same way +hit would be wasted on a healer. As far as I’m concerned, those are for healing priests and healing priests only. (They’re really itemized for disc, but I would have few qualms rolling against a holy for those boots. However, I might ever so gently point them to Forlorn Wishes that drop off Razuvious…far better for a holy priest.)

Qban was in his “let’s get this shit done” mode, which means any discussion was seen as stalling. Roll roll roll, and as luck would have it, Qban won the boots. (He’s a mage.) Grats.

Ten minutes later, Lof, one of the other GMs, got online. He saw me ranting in guild chat about the insanity of what just happened. He looked at the boots, did 10 seconds of research, then started yelling at Qban for taking them. Turns out the Wyrmrest boots Qban was wearing are far better for a mage than the Heigan boots. Qban withdrew into himself, and didn’t utter a single word for the next hour (which is kind of lame for a raid leader).

All three GMs quit WoW a couple of days later, so there wasn’t a chance to rectify the policy before the guild dissolved. Qban vendored the boots after the raid though. Truly a shame.

And lest you think this is just my outlet for QQing about loot that I should have gotten if justice had prevailed, it ain’t so. Another heal-priest outrolled me anyway. I’m more interested — much more interested — in loot policy than I am in loot.

Individual vs group perspective

Qban was a very good player, creative, alert, knowledgeable. So what went wrong? Well that’s easy: the loot policy was too soft and undefined, and relied on a priority scheme that works for individuals, not groups.

The existing loot policy was simple: roll if the item is an upgrade for your main spec. Armor class was taken into account, so holy pallies weren’t rolling on the cloth healing boots. This type of policy is probably the most common I’ve seen in raids that don’t use a “harder” system like DKP. It works for guild runs as wells as pugs.

In a system like this, it is left to the individual to recognize a main-spec upgrade. And how do individuals make that call? Most likely, they use a ranking site.

There are all sorts of loot ranking sites that people use to create wish lists (Maxdps, Wowhead, Lootrank, etc). And of course, many experts have created customized wish lists for us (Dwarfpriest, Matticus, Shadowpriest.com). The very significant problem is that every one of these sites looks at loot from the perspective of the individual, not the raid. Serene Echoes might show up very high on a warlock’s wish list in Lootrank. And with a soft system that allows the individual to determine their own loot upgrades, that warlock will surely roll. (Grr.) However, it’s the raid leader’s job to take the perspective of the raid, not the individual.

The real problem, as you can see, is that any item that qualifies as best-in-slot for one class will surely be an upgrade for other classes. Naturally, this doesn’t apply only to the absolute best gear, but any item. So we need a raid-oriented policy that takes into account the needs of the individual. Sounds complicated, but it’s actually not.

Defining a policy

There are three ways we can arrive at a solid policy here. One is easy, the other is nearly impossible, and one is riddled with problems.

The easy way is to rely on an outside authority to determine what spec each piece of gear is designed for. That way when something drops, the raid is not in danger of the sort of thing that happened to our group.  Consult the “oracle” to determine who is eligible to roll on an item for their main spec, and if no one of that class/spec is in the raid (or wants the item), check to see what class can roll for offspec.

This frees the raid leader from having to be an expert on all the subtleties of class design. Is that a rogue item, hunter item, or enhancement shammy? Damn…all I know is that they like sharp sticks. But between the different stats and weapon speeds, forget about it. I could always ask the resident sharp-stick-users, but what if there were any disagreement? Who should resolve it, and how? We’d be back in deep water.

If we had an outside authority, it would minimize arguments in the moment. Any challenges would have to be taken up either before or after the raid. Because the raid leader is not making the call, the outside oracle is, so the challenge would be: “we should not be using that oracle!”

The second way to get a solid foolproof policy is to rely on all the individuals in the raid to have two qualities: first, to be high-level authorities on their classes, and second, to place the best interests of the group above their own. So everyone in raid would have to be an unassailable expert on their class, and they would be able to look at any item and determine if it was itemized for their spec. They would know if an item isn’t a bulls-eye (even if it’s an upgrade), and they would have the integrity and courage to pass to the person for whom it is a bulls-eye. They would probably also need to be knowledgeable on all classes and specs in order to know who the bulls-eye actually hits for any given piece of loot. In theory raid members could pool knowledge and discuss (rationally!) when an item dropped.

See why one is easy and one is nearly impossible? I thought so. I don’t mean to imply that it can’t happen ever. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s beautiful and exciting to participate in. But to rely on it as a policy? Are you serious?

In an excellent guild, you could certainly have some amount of those qualities: deep class knowledge, or team-oriented play. However, even in the best of all worlds, having both qualities firmly in place just does not happen. And to be honest, that’s not a problem: all we need is a little structure to hold it together.

The third way is to use a loot council. A loot council is excellent for answering the question “who deserves this gear most?” based on whatever factors you want to include. Typically a loot council would weigh things like: raid attendance, performance, the level of gear being replaced, overall benefit to the raid, etc. It is certainly a group-oriented loot policy, but addresses issues I don’t feel should be addressed during loot rolls. If someone is not participating in enough raids to further the guild’s progress, that should be addressed offline, not in the form of loot lockout. You are also relying on the integrity of the loot council, which is where power lies, and therefore where corruption is seeded. It could work, potentially, but is delicate beyond belief. Again, I’ve seen it in action when it’s working well, but as a policy, we’re in a danger zone.

Enter the Oracle

The Oracle’s name is Kaliban. All rise for the Great Kaliban!

Kaliban’s loot tables have been around since classic raids. They have been used by raid leaders for years. His page explaining the rationale behind his choices is extremely thorough. In other words, he is a well-respected authority.

Each item is ranked into three tiers: first rollers, second rollers, and third rollers. In some cases, the breakdown is simply by armor class. So Belt of False Dignity, for example, is offered first to clothies (mages, locks, and all priest specs), second to leather casters, and third to mail casters. Ruthlessness, as a more typical example, is rated based on which class/spec is most appropriate for those particular stats.

So now, when an item drops, all the raid leader needs to do is look it up on Kaliban and invite the primary classes to roll. A resto druid might have the Belt of False Dignity on their list of potential upgrades, but first roll goes to clothies. A prot warrior might see Ruthlessness as an upgrade, but first roll goes to other specs.

And as I mentioned above, if anyone has issues with Kaliban’s recommendations, the raid leader should say that the Oracle’s authority is final for now, and if it needs to be discussed whether or not we use Kaliban in the future, that can be addressed in a guild meeting.

The Oracle is INSIDE YOUR WOW

That’s right. There is a plugin that embeds all of the information on Kaliban’s site right into your game. So a raid leader doesn’t even need to leave their window to get Kaliban’s loot list. The addon is called ClassLoot.

As far as I’m concerned, it is an absolute must-have for any raid leader. I mean that. Absolute.

Here is how the item card looks for my beloved boots. Kaliban has not yet drawn any distinction between holy and discipline priests. Perhaps someday, but even without it, it’s a tremendous improvement over the “soft” systems most raid leaders use.

I currently know of no other authority that compares or competes with Kaliban. If you know of any, I’d love to hear!
 

Facebook

Disc priests are defined by great spells that have cooldowns. Holy priests are free to cast most of their bread & butter spells as they like (oops! CoH got the nerf). But we are limited (if you like to think of it that way) by spam-preventing cooldowns.

Penance without a cooldown? Lol, way overpowered. Power Word Shield? Also, it’s just too good. Power Infusion? Please.

So let’s not think of cooldowns as limitations, but as inherent parts of the spells themselves. Blizzard could have slashed Penance’s healing coefficient and let us cast it as we please. Instead they kept it powerful, but ensured that we cast it less often.

These interlocking cooldowns form a rhythm. The disc rhythm involves juggling our abilities and using them when they’re up.

We are like drummers, the true kings of polyrhythm. In honor of us, the Disc Drummer Kings, I offer you this set of solos by three of the true masters. Off-topic but killer.

Ok, so maybe we’re not quite Steve Gadd. But we are defined by the inherent rhythm of our skills, and we are only as skilled as our ability to manage those rhythms.

(And yes, I have played both a shadow priest and an affliction lock. Disc has no monopoly on spell juggling. Perhaps affliction is the Dave Weckl, and shadow the Vinnie Colauita of time management?)

Most of us have developed a strong sense of the “pulse” of the GCD. That 1.5-second tick has been driven into our fingers. But the longer pulses — 8 seconds on Penance, 15 seconds on Weakened Soul, etc. — do not come naturally. Steve Gadd might have the ability to “feel” the multiple pulses happening simultaneously, across multiple targets, while the world is crashing around him. Not me. I need to see them on the screen.

Key cooldowns

The most important cooldowns you need to manage are:

• Penance (8 seconds)
• PW:Shield (4 seconds)
• Prayer of Mending (10 seconds)
• Power Infusion (96 seconds)
• Weakened Soul (15 sec)

And other cooldowns you need to have in mind:

• Pain Suppression (2 min, 24 sec)
• Inner Focus (2 min, 24 sec)
• Fade (30 seconds)
• Shadowfiend (5 minutes)
• Inner Fire (10 minutes)

How important is managing your cooldowns? Well, just look at the first four spells above. If you don’t get fired up just thinking about using them, you probably haven’t played discipline for very long. Those four spells are powerhouses in your arsenal. Using them wisely is the key to success.

Seeing the pulse

I use three separate tools to ensure that I’m always aware of when my abilities are up. That’s right, three.

• Text, in your face. Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text (MSBT) is a full-featured combat text addon. It shows everything: incoming damage, outgoing heals, experience & reputation gains, the works. I have mine set to splash a message when key abilities are off cooldown. BAM: “Power Infusion is Ready!” Displayed just under my toon in the center of the screen, information goes straight into the brain.
  
  
  
  
• Icon, also in your face. GhostPulse will put up an icon to show you when an ability comes off cooldown. I have the icon shifted to the side a bit, near my raid frames. My eyes are darting back and forth between the screen center and my raid frames, so the pulse icon will assault me if I’m looking in that direction. This is totally identical to the information and timing of the shouts from MSBT, just in a different position on the screen, and in icon form instead of text. If you’re interested in a lean & mean user interface, skipping either GhostPulse or MSBT is certainly a good option. (MSBT, for better or for worse, is far more than a cooldown management tool; GhostPulse is a one-trick pony.)
  
  
  
  
• Always-available list of cooldowns. I will often be too busy or distracted to register the flash of information from #1 or #2. If I ever need to know the status of a cooldown, I have a list of the key abilities that is always on screen, provided by CooldownWatch. Did I miss the notice about Power Infusion coming back up? No problem…quick glance to the CW list to see if it’s up, and if it’s not, how long until it comes back up. When an ability is ready, it doesn’t drop off the list; that wouldn’t be as easy to read in the heat of the moment. (“Negative information” — or the absence of an item in a list — takes more brain cycles to parse than the presence of an item with “zero” as its cooldown time remaining.)
  
  There are many addons like CooldownWatch. I think it’s a masterpiece.
  
  
  
  

Bonus tool: tracking Prayer of Mending

PoM is a unique beast. It has three separate internal counters, forming its own jagged multi-rhythmic heartbeat:

• The number of bounces remaining
• Time left on the 10-second casting cooldown
• Time left on the 30-second maximum wait time before the buff fades

As I mentioned in my previous post on tracking buffs & debuffs, I have an indicator in my Grid frame to show who’s holding the bouncing band-aid. However, tracking the three counters falls under the banner of cooldown management; far more that I would ask Grid to handle.

The addon I use for PoM is called Broker_PoM. It’s a data broker, which means you can use any of the data broker display addons as a host. I use ButtonBin and wholeheartedly recommend it as a broker display. Here I’ve set up the PoM broker in its own Bin, and placed it adjacent to the CooldownWatch pane.

It shows who has the buff, but also how many bounces are left (4), how many seconds are left (proportional to the number of dots after the name, from one to five), and when PoM can be re-cast (the text turns white when PoM is off cooldown). The bounce counter is most important, but all of the information is displayed incredibly well. Kudos for a fantastic display.

Wrapping it up

Here’s a full screenshot of my UI in action during Naxx10. I’m not submitting it to the design committee for awards. And as with many things in this game, it’s a work in progress. (Click for enlarged version.)

All of these cooldown-tracking addons amount to a lot of redundancy. A lot of redundancy. But I can’t imagine a more important part of game play, especially for disc. You must be aware of the status of your cooldowns at all times. This is a “whatever it takes” type of situation. In my case, having the information shown in three places is what it takes.

For me, this is one time where I must defend my assertion that addons make me a better player. Of course one can heal as disc without them, but I just can’t imagine being as efficient. We’re talking about using your best abilities…to the best of your ability. And knowledge is power, baby.

Meanwhile, can someone convert my WWS parse into a drum solo please?

Facebook

As a healer, you need to be aware of a tremendous amount of information. I’d like to show you how I get at that information. In particular, this post will look at how I use Grid to display the status of buffs & debuffs on party members. This isn’t a post that will try to convince you that Grid is better than Healbot, or that addons are better than no addons. I’m just here to show you how I get mission-critical information. If you can get it another way, fantastic.

But just to be clear though, Grid is better than Healbot, and addons are better than no addons.

Grid is tricky to set up; it took me a few weeks to adjust once I moved over from Healbot. There’s a thread on EJ that can help you with that (read: don’t ask me for help!), but the best way to learn Grid is just to play around. I had Healbot and Grid running side-by-side until I felt totally comfortable with Grid.

And by the way, if you do use Healbot, you can do at least 80% of what I’m about to describe, and it will be much easier to configure than Grid.

Sample raid frame: Tank

Here’s what a tank might look like:

1. Aggro
2. Renew timer (only for my own renew)
3. Power word shield active, Weakened soul debuff active
4. Grace (# stacks)
5. Inspiration

Other than Inspiration, those are all immensely useful when it comes to making snap decisions. I just like to know when Inspiration is up. Divine Aegis? Not shown because it also doesn’t affect my decision making. Of course I like to know when it’s up, but those shiny balls are kind of hard to miss. Don’t need raid frames for that.

Aggro: If this little dot ever moves to another raid frame, you can bet they’ve got a shield coming as fast as I can pop one. Followed by a scold. (Hmm…nice macro idea… /cast Power Word: Shield, followed by /y Aggro monger! Stop taking what isn’t yours!)

Renew: If the fight is tough, or has periods of silence (Maexxna), my awareness of this little ticker is paramount. I don’t have much interest (for now) in seeing others’ hots, but that could be arranged if it becomes important.

PWS: Seeing PWS and Weakened Soul is top priority. I can see when another priest has shielded their target as well. In fact, depending on the situation, I might ask them to leave the shielding to me. During the time span of the Weakened Soul debuff, I’m locked out from using my own shields, which are likely to be much stronger. In a two-tank fight, I’m often able to main-heal one tank while still putting shields on the second tank.

Grace: Like renew, if the fight is tough, I’m trying to keep up Grace at all times. There’s a Grid plugin just for this, by the way. It’s able to show not only the number of stacks, but the time remaining on the buff. I’m not showing this at the moment; I just don’t need to get that granular.

Inspiration: As I said, it’s not really essential. It just gives me a warm feeling to know it’s up.

Sample raid frame: Everyone else

Here is another frame, just me this time, to show a few other pieces of useful information:

Prayer of Mending: This is an interesting one. Knowing who’s currently holding the bouncing ball of healing is useful, and that’s as much as I’ve asked Grid to display. But there’s more to know as well. I use a data broker called Broker_PoM for that. It shows four things in a compact and easy-to-read frame: who’s got the ball, how many bounces are left, how many seconds are left, and indicates when the cooldown is up and it can be recast. (Managing cooldowns will be the subject of Part Two of this post.)

All this other PoM detail could be embedded within the Grid frame, but I like to have only the most immediate and essential information shown there.

Power Infusion and Pain Suppression: These two buffs share a location in the layout. That’s fine, because I haven’t yet put them on the same target except myself (typically during emergency procedures when I’m the last man standing). But I don’t need the raid frame to tell me when it’s an emergency.

Frame colors for emergencies

My raid frame (above) is colored orange. This is an emergency medical condition requiring immediate attention. In particular, it means my Inner Fire buff is down.

Yes, I consider this an emergency, which is why the frame turns such a vivid shade, one that will grab my eye even during heated combat. It’s on a class filter, so I can see when the buff fades off any priest. (And given how significant a spellpower boost it is, I will not hesitate to ask priests to refresh Inner Fire if it does go down.)

I also use colors for other emergency conditions. The entire frame turns blue for a dispellable magic debuff; brown for a disease; and purple for specific custom debuffs.

Knowing when Inner Fire goes down is a terrific addition to the interface. The spellpower bonus represents a significant portion of my overall throughput, which is why I use a vivid color that will grab my eye even during heated combat. I have it on a class filter, so I can see when the buff fades off any priest. It’s not exactly my job as a healer to remind other priests that their buff is down, but I do like to ensure that everyone is running their A-game at all times. They generally appreciate it, because they know that I’m a team player, and I’m not calling them on it to tell them how bad they are, but to make sure our team is running at full capacity.

Links

Grid
Also used: GridIndicatorCornerIcons, GridIndicatorCornerText, GridIndicatorSideIcons, GridSideIndicators, GridStatusGrace, GridStatusHots, GridStatusMissingBuffs
Grid thread on EJ
Broker_PoM (and ButtonBin, my favorite data broker display)

Facebook

Paolo: I need a gem please.

JC: Sure, what kind? We got red, blue, green, you name it. Attack power, intellect, what do you need?

Paolo: Um, this. (Reaches under his Bauble-Woven gown, into his back pocket, sorts thru several crumpled pieces of scrap to find the one he wants, and hands it to the JC.)

JC: (Tilting his head, trying to read what’s on the paper.) Say what?

Paolo: I need a gem.

JC: This isn’t a gem, noob. This is a profile of how you might look someday when you shed your noobish skin a few times. Not today though. Today you can have one gem, which means one stat, two if you ask nicely. But you cannot have “0.3 spellpower, 0.25 intellect, 0.25 crit, 0.1 haste, and 0.1 spirit.”

No, I’m not going to try to convince you that I have better numbers for you to plug into Lootrank. Theorycrafters will do much better than I will at producing stat ratios on the optimal end-game gearset.

And I’m also not trying to compare buying a single gem with designing a plan for your end-game gearset. I was just having fun.

No, this is a little more real-world. When the theorycrafters tell you to weigh crit by 0.25 and haste by 0.15, that doesn’t mean that the next piece of gear you should get must have those stats in that ratio. You meander. The next piece of gear might be all crit. Then the next might be all haste. Etc.

The stats behind the stats, and Disc’s strengths & weaknesses

All of the stats you find on equipment end up translating into one of two fundamental healing abilities:

• Throughput: the ability to pump out more heals per second (HPS). Aka “hit harder.”
• Longevity: the ability to heal for longer fights without going out of mana. Aka “last longer.”

That’s pretty much it. Some stats translate in an obvious way: more spellpower, for example, will make you hit harder, while more mp5 will let you last longer. Other stats have a more complex response: crit, for example, gives you more throughput, and some extra longevity as well (via Rapture procs on Divine Aegis). In fact, most stats have some crossover — even spellpower will increase your longevity a bit via its impact on Rapture regen.

Disc’s strength is its longevity. Rapture rocks, and our other mana-saving talents are wonderful as well. Our weakness is throughput. Holy priests hit harder, that’s just the way it is. Both the low throughput and high longevity are inherent properties of the spec.

And as you’ll find when you start playing at 80, you desperately need to address your weaknesses more than you need to advance your strengths.

More on the individual stats

Here are how the stats affect your throughput & longevity. Green is a positive effect, red negative, and the stronger the color, the stronger the effect.

	Throughput	Longevity
Spellpower
Crit
Int
Haste
Spirit
Mp5

Look at that…only one red cell. Keep that in mind: haste is great for throughput (more heals in a shorter amount of time), but bad for longevity.

The three phases of Disc gearup

Enough chitchat. Here’s the point.

As you gear up, you will go through three phases during which your priorities, and the resulting gear choices, will shift.

Phase One: You just hit 80, and are rocking maybe 1300 spellpower. You simply cannot keep a tank alive through heroic anything, and Patchwerk is your worst nightmare. You need help.

Stack spellpower until it hurts. Regen (either intellect or mp5/spirit will work) is a close second, but gem and enchant for pure spellpower, because throughput is your biggest weakness. Avoid haste at all costs. Take crit any time you can, but do not trade any spellpower options for crit. You will be getting int along the way without particularly trying.

TLDR: Spellpower >> Intellect > MP5/Spirit > Crit

Phase Two: Oddly enough, even though you’ve been focusing on throughput, it’s your longevity that has benefited the most. And you now are feeling confident with longer fights, even if you’re still having difficulty with spike damage.

Start backing off regen items. Continue to stack spellpower, and focus on building up a solid base of crit, aiming for 25-30%. Continue to treat haste like a disease.

TDLR: Spellpower > Crit

Phase Three: Stack haste. Get rid of regen items to the degree that you can. Now you can, if you like, gem for intellect.

TLDR: Haste > Spellpower >> Int

A final note on throughput & longevity

The reason you should focus so aggressively on throughput is because of the huge number of third-party support options for longevity. In other words, here are some buffs that you can get from various classes:

Strong longevity buffs: Pally, Shammy, Mage, Shadow Priest (or ret pally)

Weak longevity buffs: Pally, Druid, Warlock (in the absence of a mage)

 

Strong throughput buffs: Shammy, Druid

Weak throughput buffs: (none)

Hence you must take care of your own throughput.

Example: Glyphs

You of course have Glyph of PWS and Glyph of Flash Heal. If not, please return your disc membership card as you exit the building. But what of your third glyph?

During phase one, it’s an easy call. Renew. Yes, the evil HoT, the anti-disc spell that procs of none of our delicious cookies. Well, the glyph turns your renew into an HPS machine. It will now hit for harder each tick, and you have it up on the tank at all times anyway (don’t you?). Yes, you’ll have to cast it more often. But we’re interested in HPS right now, and the tradeoff we’re making (wasting a GCD more often) is easily worth it.

During phase two and phase three, playstyle choices are more relevant. You can glyph for dispel magic (there’s a ton of it needed in Northrend) or for Holy Nova (another formerly-hated spell, now finding its uses), Prayer of Healing. Your choice.

Example: Cloak

On the assumption that you are willing to dump 800g or so into an epic you won’t replace anytime soon, get a Wispcloak made the day you hit 80. It has as much spellpower as you could hope for, and 20mp5 is crazy for a cloak. If you’re a tailor, put on Darkglow for extra regen.

By the time you hit phase three, you should seriously consider spending another 800g or so to get Deathchill made. The loss of stats, including the regen, is perfectly acceptable at this level. And haste is now something you are seeking, because regen is no longer an urgent issue. And instead of putting on Darkglow, get it hasted.

Talents

At this point you should understand this philosophy well enough to navigate the talent choices you have. How should you relate to Enlightenment? Improved Renew? Improved Divine Spirit? Absolution? Those are a few of your negotiable talents, and based on what we’ve been talking about, they are the ones that will shift around as you gear up. Play around with them as you progress.

Paolo: I need a gem please.

JC: Sure, what kind? We got red, blue, green, you name it. Stamina, defense rating, spirit, what do you need?

Paolo: I just hit 80 bro. What’s the fattest spellpower gem you have?

JC: Excellent choice my friend. Wanna heal H.VH?

Facebook