I'm in ur Outlands, holyin' my Priest
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 26th 2007 at 5:56PM
The Priests in my guild are falling off to the dark side, one by one. The most die-hard Holy one went Shadow today, after hitting level 64. However, I've refrained, instead having taken the advice of our guild's shadowiest Shadow Priest and specced into dps-focused Holy. As of level 62, I was 14/32/7:Discipline (14 points)And as a matter of fact, I'm now level 64 and haven't figured out where to spend my two more TP.
5/5 Wand Specialization
3/5 Silent Resolve
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Meditation
Holy (32 points)
2/2 Healing Focus
3/3 Improved Renew
5/5 Holy Specialization
5/5 Divine Fury
1/1 Holy Nova
3/3 Inspiration
3/3 Improved Healing
2/2 Searing Light
1/1 Spirit of Redemption
5/5 Spiritual Guidance
2/2 Surge of Light
Shadow (7 points)
5/5 Spirit Tap
2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
I'm particularly proud of this build since I managed to pick up Inspiration while still keeping all the solo stuff I wanted. The way to do this, of course, is to skip the gimmicky, PvP-focused anti-crit talents (Blessed Recovery, Blessed Resilience, and Martyrdom). I've used it for two levels so far, mostly in Zangarmarsh, and it's done great. My usual casting order is Holy Fire, SW:P, PW:Shield, 2xSmite, and then wand till death. If Surge of Light procs off the last smite, I throw an extra one on if I'm not running low on mana. Now at this point, you may ask: why only if you're low on mana? Aren't SoL smites free?
Well, no, actually. That's my biggest annoyance with this build: Surge of Light is bugged. Here's the talent's description:
- Surge of Light - Rank 2/2
Your spell criticals have a 50% chance to cause your next Smite spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.
In my soloing gear at the moment, I've got +399 damage/healing, 18.35% holy crit chance, 6.5k max mana, and 203 regen. I can solo with the above casting order for usually 10-20 minutes before I have to drink, which is pretty sweet. And the best part is that I haven't had to sacrifice very much healing ability to do it. I keep a separate healing set (+584 heal, 16% holy crit, 6.7k max mana, 250 regen), and with that gear on I've been healing just fine in Blood Furnace and Underbog. So if you're a Priest and looking for a compromise build, you might want to give something like this a shot. Respeccing is very cheap now since gold comes so fast in Outlands.
My question for you: Where should my next points go? If you do the math, Spiritual Healing comes out to be an immensely powerful talent, at +2% to all heals per talent point, and even more so post-2.0.1 because it's now applied after your +healing gear. (My "gold standard" for talents is 1%: if it adds 1% to your output or takes away 1% from incoming damage, it's probably a pretty good talent.) On the other hand, I've been using Prayer of Healing tons more than I thought I would, so making such a costly spell significantly cheaper with Healing Prayers is attractive. Where do you think I should go from here? Also, are there any unusual builds that you've been enjoying for your escapades above level 60?
P.S. When I talk about "regen" in my different gear sets above, I'm referring to the "Mana Regen" stat that appears under "Spell" in your character sheet. Just in case anyone was confused.
Filed under: Priest, The Burning Crusade, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rayze Jan 26th 2007 6:25PM
Eliah, what's your gear look like?
Clementure Jan 26th 2007 6:28PM
I hope 990 ain't a crit!
Dominick DiGregorio Jan 26th 2007 6:48PM
Do you ever opt for rank 1 Psychic Scream instead of PW: Shield to try and conserve mana? In areas where your target won't bring back adds this saves you a few hundred mana per mob. This will add several minutes to your grinding between drinks.
Go team HOLY!
-D
Surtr Jan 26th 2007 6:47PM
Silent Resolve, if you're doing lots of PUG instances. I tried going full-shadow on my priest, and found that each incremental point in there is palpable in bad groups :-)
But as to where the next *eight* go, I couldn't tell you.
Eliah Hecht Jan 26th 2007 6:58PM
No, 990's just a regular Holy Fire hit, not crit.
What does my gear look like? I'm assuming since I gave a stat overview in the post, you want a screenshot. I'm happy to oblige, though I've got to warn you, it's not pretty.
http://www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/01/zz2832c0c7.jpg
What with the constant gear upgrades in Outlands, it's not exactly the same stuff I had when writing the post, but close enough.
Dirtyboy Jan 26th 2007 7:29PM
That's pretty close to the build I am using, and it's a great hybrid combo that works great for solo play. It may take a bit longer to kill mobs, but if you suddenly get adds on you, you'll live to tell about it. Gives you many options with healing, shield, mini-AoE, ranged attack with wand (+25% dmg), DoT with shadow word, and emergency buttons such as fear and desperate prayer.
BartmanDK Jan 27th 2007 12:20AM
I say its great that they're doing it.. they have just as much right to solo'ing the stuff in Outland as the rest of us and not to be bound down by a Talent choice.. let them do what they want for now.. In the end (lvl 70) most of them will go back to a healing spec for raiding anyways!!
Surtr Jan 27th 2007 8:58AM
Oh, I'm also surprised you didn't take two points in Holy Reach yet. Pulling from 36 yards instead of 30 is a huge win when grinding mobs - one extra SW:P tick before it gets to you, extra smite land during a panic fear before it goes out of range, or even just being further from adds.
Thomas Jan 27th 2007 9:02AM
I'm sticking with my Holy/Disc build and boring down into the Holy tree as far as I can. I actually have zero Shadow TP, but then my wife plays a warrior - we make a good team. :) I do like your specs though.
Theresa Jan 27th 2007 4:40PM
I am a 28/25/0 specd priest and don't plan on going shadow at any point. Several of the priests in my last guild are all going shadow till they hit 70. I do a lot of soloing and have found this spec works the best for me. My husband plays a druid so we also make a great team working on quests.
chris poloncic Jan 27th 2007 4:42PM
Definetly holy reach.
Dan Bradley Jan 27th 2007 5:36PM
I'm curious why you do "Holy Fire, SW:P, PW:Shield, 2xSmite, and then wand till death" as opposed to doing Shield first, then the rest, as is my habit. By casting it first you avoid one more global cooldown wait during battle, and hasten the time when Weakened Soul expires and you will be able to cast it again.
Eliah Hecht Jan 27th 2007 7:25PM
I posted some answers, but they seem to have gotten eaten; trying again.
I respecced last night to include Holy Reach and 5/5 Silent Resolve; loving the extra range. Haven't been in an instance yet.
As far as why not PW:S first, it's a five second rule thing. PW:S, because it's an instant spell, trips the 5SR instantly, whereas Holy Fire doesn't set it off until the end of its cast time. The total time in 5SR with my casting order is 10s; it would be 13.5s if I cast PW:S first.
Gargyboy Jan 28th 2007 10:58PM
Go you! I get tired of hearing people say that you should spec. this or spec that for leveling and then respec to do the job you want to do. You lose out on learning how to do the job your ccharacter was meant to do when you made them.
BTW
Prot. NE Warrior, leveled Prot.
Frosty Gnome Mage, leveled Frosty
Holy/Retro (A lot more holy than retro)Human Pally, Also leveled that way.
Teut Jan 29th 2007 4:57AM
I am level 70 holy priest with some points in disciplin. I have the proc skilled (sorry I dont know the englisch words, I run a german client), an not holy range. Its rarely used and the mob comes to you anyway. Shield is way more important as is Matyrism (?) where oyu can cast spells without interruption.
I got a +600 damage gear which also specs +680 heal, 22% holy crit. I dont do shadow word pain at all and crit for 1600-1900 and the proc comes pretty often.
Shadowword Death is another fine instant damage cast which does 1200 crits. I use it even if I get damage as I can heal myself up very nicely.
There is a lot of damage gear around you can get for quest for free easily in BC.
Meerlin Jan 29th 2007 7:03AM
I leveled my priest 1-60 as shadows (well at 10 it started i guess), for 2 weeks until TBC I tried 41 holy, but having been shadow for show long i could not cope with the "no damage" concept when i got to outlands, leveling without damage was just not fun. So i went back to shadow. However being in Outlands out being able to do instances prober was no fun eighter. I have now respecced to 32 holy, 21 disc and it seems to be a good combination. I dont have spirit tap atm but instead i have Prayer of Spirit which is much more handy in instances (getting a spirit tab proc in instance is a rare thing). I might spent some of the following points in Spirit Tab, which will give me both prayer of spirit and spirit tab, which should make mana regen as good as it gets.
Zka Jan 29th 2007 7:25AM
My priest is 63 atm and specced for healing (25/28).
Some insights:
- Healing prayers IS a core talent in current 5 mans.
- The build this article shows looks pretty good, the best healer talents are included, it should work just as well as my 25/28, I'd only really miss the healing prayers and the spirit buff.
- Soloing with healer spec using dmg gear is possible, but very inefficient, especially that I go OOM after 2-3 mobs. I'll level my mage to 70 first, then I decide if I really want to solo or just heal in instances and heart back to inns when done :)
Brim Jan 29th 2007 7:37AM
We no Priest here, but a Resto Druid.... Trust me it didn't work.
So I respecced to OOMkin. Working like a charm now.
Lvl 64 now and taking it slow :D
Kankles Jan 29th 2007 10:29AM
I am disc/holy currently 28/25, my damage gear is getting better but imp d/s makes up a lot for gear. I currently get +414 to damage with the damage set and +816 to healing spells with that set. I'm working towards power infusion and plan on my final build being either 36/25 or 34/27. I'm critting around 1300 atm and plan on the jumping significantly in 2 levels with the 31 pt disc talent. I'm finding solo'ing is becoming easier and easier and I can still monster heal with 422 renew ticks and 4.5k crit heals. My mana regen is sick and I'm having fun. I wouldn't trade my healing ability for a shadow spec ever.
Todd Jan 29th 2007 1:27PM
Your mana problems will get worse until you get Shadow Fiend (aka Shadow Buddy) - then you will have reasonably long legs. (I'm mostly Disc over Holy with 5 in Spirit Tap and can solo 7-8 mobs before I have to drink thanks to Shadow Buddy)
Shadow Buddy has also given me the confidence to solo some yellow elites and whitened my teeth!