The problem I am running into with trying to come up with a build now is that I haven't done any testing on the PTR so I'm really unsure how my healing is going to change.
If I base my spec on my current play style, then it would look something like this:
14/57 - points in emp renew
Reasoning behind this build:
- I currently almost never cast Greater Heal. I also very rarely use Prayer of Healing. My top spells used are CoH, Flash Heal, PoM and Renew.
- I'm almost always assigned to raid healing.
- I chose Improved Renew because of my heavy use of it.
- Skipping Divine Fury because I rarely use GHeal, and increased cast time on Smite and Holy Fire doesn't help me in a raid.
- I chose Spell Warding because I needed the points to advance, and I figure reduced spell damage might help with raid-wide aoe effects and less of a need to heal myself.
- Inspiration - no brainer.
- Desperate Prayer - I've gotten used to having it and it's a life saver for me.
- Holy Reach - I don't have this in my build now and would really like to see the impact of a wider range on aoe spells. Plus I'm not yet sure how awesome Divine Hymn will be.
- Improved Healing - Needed this to advance, its usefulness would really depend on how much I'll cast Divine Hymn and Gheal. Really more of a Disc priest talent.
- Spiritual Guidance and Spirit of Redemption - no brainer.
- Healing Prayers - Another one I don't have in my current build, but PoH could be used more in 3.1 because I can cast on other groups, so I thought it might be a good investment.
- Surge of Light, Spiritual Healing, and Holy Concentration - all no brainers in my opinion.
- Empowered Healing - It was the Flash Heal throughput increase that mattered more to me than the GHeal effects.
- Serendipity - This is where I began to struggle. Considering I don't use GHeal much now, is it really worth dumping 3 points here for hasted GHeals? What about the hasted PoH effect, will I use PoH enough?
- Empowered Renew - This new talent causes Renew to frontload an instant heal on the target, making Renew even more useful. If I don't max out Serendipity I can put all 3 points here to maximize the throughput.
I put the last point in Serendipity, thinking I could at least get some of the hasted effect which also stacks up to 3 times, giving me a total 12% cast time reduction on GHeal and PoH.
Theoretically, I could put only 1 point in Empowered Renew. I'd still get the benefit of the initial instant heal with could also proc Holy Concentration. Then I could fill out Serendipity for a total 36% cast time reduction on GHeal and PoH.
Then I started to really look at Test of Faith.
It doesn't seem to be quite as good as the former version because they took away the increased critical effect chance of heals by 6%. Now it only increases healing done by 12% on targets with 50% or less health. As a raid healer and not a tank healer, how often will I really be focusing on one target anyway?
If I put only one point in Test of Faith, I'm now free to max out both Serendipity and Empowered Renew, making the final build look like this. Would that be a crazy move?
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If you're going to forgo Divine Fury altogether, I'd recommend the healing focus talent with maybe just one in spell warding to advance. If you're raid is taking a lot of AoE damage, it becomes important to get your flash heals off quickly or even binding heal if you're taking oodles of damage yourself.
ReplyDeleteAs for Serendipity, I would argue that since PoH is now able to be cast on other groups, this talent becomes a little more attractive. Your argument of GHeal not being cast too often is an intelligent one, but PoH might see a little more use in your rotation.
As for Test of Faith, well, it's good for oh shit moments, especially in 10 man raids, but you'll also see benefits at just random times or when there's crazy AoE damage hitting the raid. Blessed Resilience I just see as a 3% healing boost, so it might be worthwhile because of that.
Interesting build, let us know how it works out.
Actually, I like the new Test of Faith. As a Holy priest you may not be regularly healing people who are low on health, but put another way, it's during those times that you most need a healing boost. And it could be very handy to have your CoH and PoM ticks hit for 12% more when a large volley of raid damage goes out. But I do think it's hard to pick up Test of Faith and also get the other goodies in the tree, like Serendipity (for PoH) and the Renew talents.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd go for Serendipity and Divine Fury, I don't use GH that often but with those 2 in the picture GH could become a bit usefull... I'm just gonna try that out and see how it fits my play style -and the Ulduar fights-. + PoH and serendipity fit nicely as well.
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