Thread Tools Display Modes
12-08-10, 09:29 PM   #1
MoonWitch
A Firelord
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 455
Unhappy Disc priest utterly lost

I've been happily healing as disc for a year or more. Never had issues. But now in cata, I can't seem to keep a party alive, I'm constantly oom!

Old ways :
Renew + pom + bubble on tank.
Keep pws and renew up. Pom when its off CD.
Use Penance when needed, flash heal as filler.

Now that leaves me dead on mana. So I switched to Heal as filler. Result is that I can barely keep my tank alive, let alone the party.
I've tried atonement smite healing, even more fail.

Every other priest in my guild even dropped healing, so now I have to heal or we can't raid at all anymore. I feel like I am a worthless healer now because I am having such an insanely hard time keeping ppl alive, the shadowpriest usually has to coheal in a normal dungeon.

Does anyone have any pointers because I am going mental over this!
  Reply With Quote
12-08-10, 09:31 PM   #2
Ferous
Sheer Sense of Doom
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 863
Disc never involved Renew unless you had the gear for it. Keep PoM on CD, Penance on CD, Flash Heal, Heal.

Though, I kind of agree with you in terms of 85 healing, Disc kind of is more geared towards PvP Again like in BC, and Holy is the PVE healing again.
  Reply With Quote
12-08-10, 09:57 PM   #3
MoonWitch
A Firelord
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 455
The thing is, I never liked Holy as spec, I don't know why - I just never got into it. I tried Disc and fell in love. Now I'm feeling like Disc is cheating on me with a newer younger and better looking woman, ya know?

I am starving for mana, if I don't have Divine Hymn during boss fights, it's a wipe. I haven't a clue what the hell Blizzard was thinking when they decided Heal should be THE spell, I mean 5k heals when you have 60k?? (Then the mana cost would exceed that of 1 Flash Heal, which generally got my tank to full.)

I was so intensely happy with Disc as tree for PvE healing, so long talk shorter -- I am now completely forced to play a spec I've always disliked... Holy. Because we do need a 2nd healer
  Reply With Quote
12-08-10, 11:55 PM   #4
Petrah
A Pyroguard Emberseer
 
Petrah's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,988
I just did one of the new 5 mans, and felt like a complete newb... "mana break", few trash, "mana break", few trash, "mana break omg sorry!". I felt way out of my element, and like such a newb. Luckily no one in the group were jerks about the deaths.

I'm perusing the latest fresh (Dec 3rd) Disc Priest thread on EJ, and there's some good info (the comments mostly). Perhaps you can find something there to help you, too.

http://elitistjerks.com/f77/t110244-...st_compendium/

On another note... there's some ok gear dropping for us, but are you worried about giving up the set bonuses? Half way through that instance, I put all of my tier/icc gear back on. I swear it felt like my heals weren't doing **** to the tanks health (tank is my boyfriend, so I'm extremely familiar with his health and how much my heals hit him for).

Any input?
__________________
♪~ ( ) I My Sonos!
AddOn Authors: If your addon spams the chat box with "Addon v8.3.4.5.3 now loaded!", please add an option to disable it!
  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 12:23 AM   #5
MidgetMage55
Grinch!
 
MidgetMage55's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,498
I didn't have too much trouble with Blackrock caverns last night though my mana use was notably higher. Ill have to keep an eye on what I do tonight and see if I can add some info from personal experience. I tend to just go on autopilot most of the time hehe.
__________________

I think Hong Kong Phooey was a ninja AND a pirate. That was just too much awesome. - Yhor
  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 12:34 AM   #6
Katae
A Cobalt Mageweaver
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 208
Disc had this same exact problem while leveling in wrath. I remember having a lot of difficulty keeping up with the group in UK and beyond. It became a ton better after gearing up.

It'll pass
  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 12:34 AM   #7
MoonWitch
A Firelord
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 455
You may want to skip the auto pilot... I guess I needed to vent and hear I wasn't all alone . Thanks.

I will keep on trying, though for now I will not pug.
  Reply With Quote
12-15-10, 06:21 AM   #8
Marthisdil
An Onyxian Warder
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 363
Originally Posted by Ferous View Post
Disc never involved Renew unless you had the gear for it. Keep PoM on CD, Penance on CD, Flash Heal, Heal.

Though, I kind of agree with you in terms of 85 healing, Disc kind of is more geared towards PvP Again like in BC, and Holy is the PVE healing again.
Did an instance at 85 the other night with a Disc priest as healer. No issues, no one died. She had mana problems a couple of times, but that's due to not having the gear maxed out yet..
__________________

Marth



  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 08:22 AM   #9
Simulo
A Fallenroot Satyr
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by MoonWitch View Post
I've been happily healing as disc for a year or more. Never had issues. But now in cata, I can't seem to keep a party alive, I'm constantly oom!

Old ways :
Renew + pom + bubble on tank.
Keep pws and renew up. Pom when its off CD.
Use Penance when needed, flash heal as filler.

Now that leaves me dead on mana. So I switched to Heal as filler. Result is that I can barely keep my tank alive, let alone the party.
I've tried atonement smite healing, even more fail.

Every other priest in my guild even dropped healing, so now I have to heal or we can't raid at all anymore. I feel like I am a worthless healer now because I am having such an insanely hard time keeping ppl alive, the shadowpriest usually has to coheal in a normal dungeon.

Does anyone have any pointers because I am going mental over this!
Smite is your friend. With the talent you'll be healing for 100% of the damage. Plus with Archangel you'll regain a bit of mana and increase your healing (which seems to affect the healing done with smite). And with the +18% hit to smite glyph you'll always be hitting with it. It's healing effectiveness should be on par with Healing (the spell). So instead of casting Heal; cast smite.
  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 10:03 AM   #10
Petrah
A Pyroguard Emberseer
 
Petrah's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,988
Originally Posted by Simulo View Post
Smite is your friend. With the talent you'll be healing for 100% of the damage. Plus with Archangel you'll regain a bit of mana and increase your healing (which seems to affect the healing done with smite). And with the +18% hit to smite glyph you'll always be hitting with it. It's healing effectiveness should be on par with Healing (the spell). So instead of casting Heal; cast smite.
You won't (or shouldn't) be using smite unless it's during low damage fights and you can afford to not be focusing too much on the tank. What we're mostly having issues with is going oom during high damage fights. I do, however, honestly believe we just need to re-adjust how we are healing and use smarter heals for more effective mana conservation (edit: while also taking advantage of PI, IF, Shadowfiend, and HoH when avail).
__________________
♪~ ( ) I My Sonos!
AddOn Authors: If your addon spams the chat box with "Addon v8.3.4.5.3 now loaded!", please add an option to disable it!

Last edited by Petrah : 12-09-10 at 10:06 AM.
  Reply With Quote
12-09-10, 11:46 AM   #11
Dawn
A Molten Giant
 
Dawn's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 918
The key is getting used to use your spells right. You need to use mana efficient spells, now.

1. Keep PoM on CD and Penance on CD, like Ferous said
2. Greater Heal heals for substantially more than heal, sure it costs more mana, but it buys you time to mess with...
3. Evangelism + Archangel, which in turn reduce the mana cost, give you mana and increase your healing output
4. Borrowed Time into slow (Greater) Heals ...
5. 3 points in Divine Fury help a lot (-0.5sec cast time for H, GH and smite! - evangelism stacks ^^)

I really don't recommend using Flash Heal at all, except for emergency situations.

I'm pretty sure this will calm down with better gear, like it always does. It's just some struggling early on. I personally preferred Disc over Holy, too. But maybe Holy is "easier" to handle with bad/leveling gear.
__________________
Rock: "We're sub-standard DPS. Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine."
Paper: "OMG, WTF, Scissors!"
Scissors: "Rock is OP and Paper are QQers. We need PvP buffs."

"neeh the game wont be remembered as the game who made blizz the most money, it will be remembered as the game who had the most QQ'ers that just couldnt quit the game for some reason..."

  Reply With Quote
12-14-10, 11:06 PM   #12
projecthate
A Deviate Faerie Dragon
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 19
While I don't have a Cata-level priest at the moment (he's still 76 because I was too bored of wrath to finish leveling) I would just like to say I completely know where you're coming from as an 85 resto druid. After nearly every pull, even with great CC and a well geared tank I need to drink because I don't have enough mana for the next pull (or I'm completely out, which is sadly more often the case). I've tried all the strategies I've heard/read about and none seem to be notably better on mana efficiency.

I appreciate a challenge, but this is ridiculous. Hopefully Blizzard will come to realize that they're probably alienating many of their healers. with such extreme changes and will scale them back.

As to the responses citing that gear levels will affect healing abilities/mana efficiencies, I believe this is wrong. Several other resto druids that have higher average item levels than me have told me that their heals cost more mana than mine and say that the costs continue to scale with increased item levels. There may be a point at which stats on the gear start scaling more than the increased mana cost, but who knows.
  Reply With Quote
12-15-10, 01:18 AM   #13
tuangd
A Kobold Labourer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1
I am having the same problem on mana issue,
but this is how I deal with it, have to pull out all the tricks

I speced into this
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfhzrosbfRMochMZb:qmc

- even though evangelism helps cut mana usage, but in the process you use more mana to get that stack up to 5, so until I get more mana regen
I'll just cut down evangelism

- eat spirit food, and drink spirit elixir, helps a ton

- Power Infusion yourself

- Inner focus and use Greater Heal, will most likely crit and buy you more time to heal

- Barrier(glyped) + Pain Sup in tight situation (if you can, PI yourself, Inner focus and GH galore)

- Hymm of Hope before using your shadowfiend to get more mana back

- I know mana potion is sky rocket high price right now but 10K mana is not something to look over, use it if you can.

- run normal to gear yourself up if you can, running heroics in green is kinda painful

finally you will in the end feel better when you have more gears.

hope it helps
  Reply With Quote
12-15-10, 06:24 AM   #14
Marthisdil
An Onyxian Warder
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 363
Originally Posted by projecthate View Post
I appreciate a challenge, but this is ridiculous. Hopefully Blizzard will come to realize that they're probably alienating many of their healers. with such extreme changes and will scale them back.
Healers had it too easy the past few years. Any healer that doesn't admit that, well, I dunno what to tell ya.

Cata is a challenge for everyone - aggro is harder to keep up, healing is harder to keep up. The game is more enjoyable knowing that you have a chance to die if you don't play BETTER than you have before.

If you don't like the challenge, then perhaps you need to quit playing WoW now and find another game. WOTLK became a joke, Blizzard saw this, decided to make it hard again to force people to pay attention, play better, etc, and so it is what it is.
__________________

Marth



  Reply With Quote
12-26-10, 03:45 PM   #15
WickedJinx
A Defias Bandit
 
WickedJinx's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by MoonWitch View Post
I've been happily healing as disc for a year or more. Never had issues. But now in cata, I can't seem to keep a party alive, I'm constantly oom!

Old ways :
Renew + pom + bubble on tank.
Keep pws and renew up. Pom when its off CD.
Use Penance when needed, flash heal as filler.

Now that leaves me dead on mana. So I switched to Heal as filler. Result is that I can barely keep my tank alive, let alone the party.
I've tried atonement smite healing, even more fail.

Every other priest in my guild even dropped healing, so now I have to heal or we can't raid at all anymore. I feel like I am a worthless healer now because I am having such an insanely hard time keeping ppl alive, the shadowpriest usually has to coheal in a normal dungeon.

Does anyone have any pointers because I am going mental over this!
I know what you mean. After now gearing up running 5 mans with ONLY guildies, getting the 346 gear has really helped out. Now I have epics it is even better on mana! You just have to bear with it and then it's smooth sailing from there

-However, for spell rotations, Inner Focus is your VERY best friend, use it everytime it's off CD, it counts toward a free PoH (make sure to glyph it) and a free Greater heal.

-Like others said, use heal when he's at or above 75%, then greater heal/Flash heal for anything lower. Stack lots of spirit and int, once gear is getting better, you can stack more int rather than spirit.
As long as there is a lot of CC going out, your mana should be ok.

Disc heals are some of the best healers right now for raiding, pulling more than 10k hps/absorbs, we're very useful and important for raids, keep your priest!!
__________________
  Reply With Quote

WoWInterface » General Discussion » Class Discussions » Disc priest utterly lost

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off