Spiritual Guidance: 3 Priest specs your raid should not leave Shattrath without
by Matt Low 
Apr 27th 2008 at 7:00PM
Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the overlord of World of Matticus, and this week he takes a look at 3 different raid specs for the new priest to consider.
A priest by nature is a class that serves to heal. Unless you walk the path of shadow, then you play a class devoted to healing your raid. Far be it from me to tell me how you should spec or what you should spec. I believe that everyone is free to invest their points down whatever talent tree they see fit. On the other side of the coin, I have been called upon to counsel my raid leaders. In a raid group where 24 of 25 spots have been filled and the last vacancy is reserved for a healer, raid leaders often make the tough call of deciding who gets benched and who gets on the starting roster.
I'm going to go out on a limb and do something no blogger should ever do.
I'm going to make an assumption.
I'm going to assume that you want to raid and experience end game.
If your guild is a highly competitive one where healers are abundant and plentiful, then you need to make yourself stand out from the rest. When your raid leader is in the hard position of deciding who stays and who goes, there is only one question that they ask themselves.
What can this priest bring to the raid?
A typical raid group consists of 7 healers. That number gets changed depending on the difficulty of the fight you are about to go in as. But do you understand the point I'm trying to make here? Your raid leaders want you! Your guild loves you! So why not give them a reason to take you?
There are 3 impact abilities that priests can support a raid with:
Let's examine the 3 most common holy specs for priests and underline why we would want them, shall we?
The Hybrid (23/38/0)
What is it: This is the Holy and Discipline hybrid spec. It used to be fairly common back before Burning Crusade as the spec of choice. The main goal here is to get improved divine spirit.
Why: An increase in spell damage and healing by an amount equal to 10% of their total spirit can never be a bad thing. Casters and healers will love this. Raid leaders should seriously consider bringing an Improved DS priest. All that juicy surplus spell damage will add up.
Notes: I have no points invested in Silent Resolve. I picked up the 3 in Improved Power Word: Shield instead. I almost never have any aggro problems at all. But if your tank has problems with threat, investing a point or 2 into threat reduction might keep you alive a bit longer.
Don't forget! A dead priest is a useless priest!
The Holiness (20/41/0)
What is it: Circle of Healing is the name of the game. Your goal is to heal groups under fire fast and hard.
Why: Personally, I've never truly realized how awesome the power of Circle of Healing was until I entered Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. With the raid sustaining an overall higher amount of damage from bosses such as High Warlord Naj'entus and Gurtogg Bloodboil, AoE healing has never been more important.
Notes: Again, this is a matter of personal preference. Since we're going for an AoE healing build, it would make sense to increase the range of Circle of Healing with Holy Reach. I tend to skip over Spirit of Redemption. I can't think of a single raid where I've ever made good use of that talent. On the other hand, if your spirit is high enough it might be worthwhile to get. Mental Agility under the discipline tree is a must have. Get 1 free Circle of Healing for every 10 bursts you cast! What a deal!
The Pain Suppressor (41/20/0)
What is it: Also known as the PvP spec of choice, I find raiding discipline priests to be quite rare. It's not that discipline priests are bad. Most guilds have other options.
Why: Pain Suppression and Power Infusion can be excellent in certain situations. Dropping Pain Suppression on an intense fight such as Bloodboil can make life easier for everyone. Unfortunately, those certain situations don't occur nearly enough to completely justify it.
Notes: This is where you come in. I have never touched Pain Suppression but I have seen it in action several times. I'm absolutely positive that there are active raiding Discipline Priests out there. Are there any must have talents that need to be invested in? Are the above 2 specs drastically different? What encounters do they shine the best on and who should they be healing most of the time?
Maybe a better title should have been two Priest specs instead of three.
Which Begs The Question:
What's the best raid spec?
There isn't one. It all depends on what boss your guild is working on.
As my uncle Chef Eatticus used to say, variety is the spice of life! If you plan on bringing multiple holy priests to a raid, check out their talent configuration to help make your choice easier. It can't hurt to maximize raid healing utility. However, if I was your only holy priest in the raid, I would pick up Improved Divine Spirit. It provides a buff that will always be useful. The other two spells are dependant on the situation.
"As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given."
-Mary Lou Retton
Remember that spec isn't everything. No guild will take you raiding if your performance isn't up to par. It's all about putting in the hard work and the effort to propel yourself past everyone else. Only you can make yourself valuable.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered -- before the long hiatus, we checked out the arsenal of heals available to priests and discussed priest racials. And don't forget to check the WoW Insider Directory for more priestly info -- there's lots of guides, writeups and discussions over there as well.Filed under: Priest, How-tos, Raiding, Classes, Talents, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, (Raiding) Raiding 101
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nic Apr 27th 2008 7:12PM
Good post
Personally, i have seen 2 of these in 25 mans. Gonna ask a priest to try the pain suppresor one
Anna Apr 27th 2008 8:14PM
My raid's priest lineup is usually 2 CoH priests and 1 ImpDS priest - but we have a fantastic pain suppression priest on our alt roster. And she *NEVER* runs out of mana.
Makes me sick.
Good stuff Matt.
anonymoose Apr 27th 2008 11:35PM
"I'm absolutely positive that there are active raiding Discipline Priests out there."
Why are you so positive of this? I'll be honest, I've known of one, but this person was already dead last on healing output so the change wasn't a noticeable one (they continued dead last on healing output)--however the PS spec brought nothing to the raid and the spec has since been abandoned after the experiment was concluded. I know another amazing CoH heal priest who conducted a different kind of experiment and raided PS. He went from being top in healing to near dead last. Honestly, it's the priest PvP spec and gimps your raid just like raiding in PvP gear gimps your raid.
To the person noting the Disc priest on their alt roster--please note your use of the term "alt roster". There is a reason the Disc priest is there.
I have a priest and a resto shaman, and as much as I would love to be able to be PvP specced and still raid (like healing priests were mostly able to do preTBC) I have to wonder if someone did that, who is picking up their slack? With the loss of healing talents you gain efficiency, however it's like having a shadow priest with better longevity heal. Why not put a real healer in their place or bring more dps?
nav Apr 28th 2008 4:26AM
What anonymoose says needs to be balanced by the fact that healing meters are, as we all know, not as useful as one might at first think. I can easily go from top of the healing meters to bottom myself, and not by changing spec but by having a different assignment in a fight.
Also, the strengths of a DS priest do not end up on the healing meter (and this applies to some extent to other priests too). Power infusion doesn't, pain suppression doesn't, power word: shield doesn't and prayer of mending doesn't.
Anna Apr 28th 2008 9:48AM
As it were, said priest is on the alt-roster because she lives in Australia and can't make half of our raid times.
Jess Apr 27th 2008 8:18PM
great read:) My original spec (Before I betrayed the light) was 23/38/0, and I really enjoyed it. It's the spec I'd go back to if I were to redeem myself. I agree that spiritual redemtion talent isn't great, i refer to it as improved repair bill:)
VSUReaper Apr 30th 2008 12:30AM
Sorry, but your so wrong. SoR is great for stacking the spirit and that last 15 seconds after you die is really beneficial cause it lets other healers know to shift and take up your slack while you do your best to top your people off.
Iloria Apr 27th 2008 8:20PM
Skipping Spirit of Redemption is a terrible idea, especially since patch 2.4 and the associated spirit changes.
Jill Apr 27th 2008 8:24PM
Agreed. Just one talent point for a 5% boost to my primary stat? Yes, please!
mind Apr 27th 2008 9:48PM
Agreed. Not only is the extra spirit really nice but that 15 second free healing can really make a difference. Of course this is rare but it does happed!
Cynra Apr 28th 2008 6:52AM
I advocate that all priests spend that single point in the Holy tree for Spirit of Redemption. Even if, by some lucky chance of fate or the kindness of some benevolent WoW-god, you never die, that 5% increase to Spirit is absolutely significant. Between Improved Divine Spirit and Spiritual Guidance, you're looking at an increase of 35% of your Spirit to Bonus Healing. But more importantly, that 5% increase to your Spirit means a helluvalot of mana regen. Between that bonus and the 10% Spirit bonus from being human, I'm sitting happily at almost 700 Spirit unbuffed. That's absolutely delicious. With my Earring of Soulful Meditation and full raid buffs, I'm hitting 1,500 mana regen OO5SR -- every two minutes.
THen again, I've a self-avowed Spirit junkie.
My problem with Power Word: Shield is the HPM ratio between it and a heal (usually rank 1 Greater Heal, if we're going to assume that the heal does as much health as the shield absorbs). My experience is that priests who spam Power Word: Shield a lot -- say any time anyone loses any bit of health -- tend to run out of mana very quickly. I've VERY minimal when it comes to that spell and actually advocate it more for PvP than PvE.
SpiritHeals May 1st 2008 7:53PM
In those few times I've fallen in battle, Spirit of Redemption has been fantastic for my group. In battlegrounds, 15 secs is enough to pop a Prayer of Mending, a couple of Renews, Flash Heals and a second Prayer of Mending. So when I finally leave the battle, my heals are ongoing and gives me time to rez, rebuff on the go, mount and get back into the fray.
Raid wise; I've prevented wipes, and dropped nuke heals along with HoTs and Prayer of Mending.
I consider this all as FREE heals, and can shift the fight greatly.
Matticus Apr 27th 2008 8:42PM
Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm a spirit lover. I've started ripping off Nightseyes and slotting in Empyrean Sapphires.
I just can't see myself in that... weird form. It's a matter of personal preference, right? ;)
anonymoose Apr 27th 2008 11:42PM
Not to be rude--you can cry personal preference, but again your are gimping the holy build.
I don't mean to be rude, but I find the recommendations here for priests who want to be end game are not necessarily the best. Do not try to raid PvP specced--and passing up the little angel form is like saying "I want to be a less powerful healer and I want less regen." Why would you voluntarily do that out of a misguided sense of vanity?
Most guys I know who play priests don't have an issue with this talent. And especially in end game where more resto shamans and resto druids are being brought along for the ride, why would you recommend to priests who really want to learn this stuff that a raiding guild would allow them to raid with less than optimal spec as a matter of "personal preference"? Holy nova is about personal preference--angel wings are about a desirable build. Pain Supression is about personal preference--Imp Spirit is about a desirable raid build.
Daveti Apr 28th 2008 1:01AM
Ever notice how every time someone says "I don't mean to be rude" the thing following it is usually pretty rude?
I personally have begun interrupting people who begin their phrases "I don't mean to be rude" and interjecting my own "then stop talking now."
I both agree and disagree with the sentiment of your post.
Being a good priest is like being a good... Well, anything in this game. It's maybe 20% spec, 20% gear, and 60% knowing what you're doing. Of course gear and spec matters, you just aren't as effective in AH greens as you are in full T6, and a shadow priest just can't (and should never try to) heal like any of the builds above. And yes, gear and spec alone CAN keep you from being effective and successful in your raid. I fully admit all of the above, and recognize the brick wall under-geared members often present to a raid.
The point at which you lost me, the point at which you "didn't mean to be rude" and yet very much were - is when you berated someone for their choice not to take a talent which really is of debatable utility.
Every class, and each of their talent trees, has some talents which draw the ire of their respective communities - as well as many which receive mixed reviews at best. Any priest talent commonly nicknamed "Improved Death/Repair Bill" (see also "LOLwell" and "Circle of Useless") obviously has a reputation for being lackluster at best. Furthermore, simply because it may be important to your play style, does not make it vital to everyone who plays your class. Finally, nothing you do in life EVER earns you the right to treat others badly, berate them, dismiss their preferences and choices simply because your choices differ.
Admittedly, you have a better grasp on the English language than many obnoxious posters I've seen. This does not, however, give you any excuse to consider yourself superior to anyone else. Let others play their game in their style, let their effectiveness be a far more accurate metric than meters can ever provide, and most of all, never speak ill of others without a very just cause - especially those you don't even know.
Daveti Apr 28th 2008 1:06AM
*note: I am fully aware that "Circle of Useless" is an outdated reference and that CoH is now of much greater utility. It probably should not have been placed alongside "Improved Death" and "LOLwell" quite so casually. Much respect and love to those CoH priests, I know quite well many of my characters are alive today because of your talent choices.
Gerik Apr 28th 2008 1:24AM
As a fellow dwarf priest, I'll admit it's demasculating when I die. It's sad to go from being such a proud, stout dwarf and transform into a giant, floating angel lady.
That said, Spirit of Redemption isn't of debatable utility. 5% extra spirit makes it one of the best talents in our holy tree.
Matticus Apr 28th 2008 1:29AM
No one is stopping anyone from getting Spirit of Redemption. In fact, I specifically mentioned that it is a worthwhile talent to pick up.
I simply chose not to. Any guild that wants to get rid of an active, dedicated, and skilled priest because he passed on angel wings in favor of something more useless like inspiration probably made the right decision. Then again, my guild's quite the basketcase.
Still 5% of 500 spirit does sound tasty. If it weren't for the fact that all the other priests had it, I might've considered snapping it up as well. But I like standing out.
Moketronics Apr 28th 2008 3:14PM
I'm a raiding dwarf priest, most of the way through SSC/TK and I'm gonna put my vote in that SoR is not an option. Sure, often being a big angel lady is totally useless - but sometimes it makes up the difference between downing a boss or wiping @ 1%...
That being said, that aspect of it is nothing compared to the 5% spirit boost for one point - no matter which way you slice it, skipping this is purposely nerfing yourself.
Khanmora Apr 27th 2008 11:20PM
With the splash damage common in current raids the reach is really helpful, the farther you can be from the commotion the better.