Spiritual Guidance: 30 If statements that Priests should adhere to
by Matt Low 
May 7th 2008 at 9:00AM
Our Priest column is back! Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus, and this week he's written different "If" statements to follow.
Yeah, I'm late this week, I know. Technical issues were the problem for me on Sunday. But alas! The other night I had the pleasure of participating in a pickup Serpentshrine Cavern raid consisting of members from several prominent guilds on my server. It was one of the most costliest runs I've ever been in on. I did learn a lot about Priests by observing the other ones in my party.
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."
-Maya Angelou
If you're a programmer, then you are familiar with what the If statement represents. It symbolizes a condition that has to occur and the effect that results from it. As a Priest, I frequently have my own set of rules that I internalize and follow whether I'm raiding, questing, or PvPing.
Here's my list:
- If you don't understand your role in a boss fight, ask until you do. It's better to learn as much as you can before going into a fight. On the other hand, wiping and experience does go a long way.
- If you don't get a buff, ask once if it's on trash pulls before carrying on anyway. You don't need Blessing of Wisdom or a Mark of the Wild to do trash pulls. It's just trash. Wasting 1 minute translates to wasting 25 minutes.
- If you don't get a buff at a boss, do ask , kick, plead, beg, threaten or do whatever you need to do until you get your cocktail of buffs. It's always the encounters where your Priest need to be maxed out.
- If you hate your class or role, then find a new guild that will accept the role that you want to play.
- If you're late to a raid, expect your spot to be taken. Stick around as you never know when someone might disconnect for the evening.
- If you have no confidence to heal a boss fight, you will be replaced for someone who does have confidence. How would you feel if your doctor wasn't sure if he was giving you the right treatment? Your guild wants to know that you'll heal them to the best of your ability and that is all anyone can ever ask for.
- If you threaten to leave your guild over an important issue, you better be ready to get kicked.
- If you're making the same mistakes more than once, then you're not learning.
- If you screw up, it's okay. At the end of the day, you'll look back at it and laugh.
- If you're sleepy, drink coffee. Tea helps, too. This also goes for food. No one can raid on an empty stomach. It's virtually impossible! I recommend Wheaties.
- If you're out of potions, ask for some but be sure to offer to compensate.
- If you're rude, expect the same treatment from other players.
- If you can't handle the raiding environment, then you have two choices: change the environment or change your expectations.
- If you're not willing to help other players, expect the favour to be returned.
- If you're too fired up, get away from the game for a while.
- If you're not enchanting your gear, you're not being the best player you can be. Pre-patch 2.4, it used to be pricey and expensive. The plethora of daily quests nullifies that argument.
- If you're not gemming your gear, you're not being the best player you can be.
- If you're not being the best player you can be, raiding and PvPing might not be for you.
- If you're entire party is taking damage, use your AoE heals.
- If you can't trust your tanks, who can you trust?
- If you don't have activated trinkets on your bars and bound, you might want to consider going it. Looking for Tears of the Goddess among your inventory is not fun.
- If you're down 3000 mana, light up a potion.
- If you give your account information out, don't act surprise if you get hustled in the future.
- If an enemy Paladin bubbles, Mass Dispel should be your first reaction.
- If you feel something is not right with what you're healing, speak up about it.
- If you don't need to use expensive consumables, save it for the fights that you do need them on.
- If something is working, don't try to change it. The inverse also applies.
- If your target is low on health, drop a Power Word: Shield on them.
- If all else fails, Psychic Scream. But don't do it in Leotheras' room.
- If you don't agree with any of the above, good on you. Critical thinking helps in raids to fix problems. Disagreements, when constructive, can help troubleshoot the healing in your raid. But once a strategy is decided upon, the objections should stop until the next wipe.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered -- before the long hiatus, we talked about class concerns and an overview of grouping with Priests. 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, Enchants, Buffs, Classes, Bosses, Raiding, Features, Tricks, Tips, Analysis / Opinion, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
recrudesce May 7th 2008 9:26AM
good work. a couple of these really apply to everyone, however - like the buffs, and the pushing for changes if you dont like something.
one thing i hate is priests, specifically holy ones, that only pot when they go OOM (almost as if pots can only be used when you have no mana) or priests that forget, even while they're holy, that you can regen mana with Shadowfiend. i've frequently handled situations when i've been borderline OOM, with pots and such on CD, only to keep healing through to the boss kill because of that wonderous 11 second regeneration period.
fun tip - if you're just doing Kara, pop him when Curator is in evocation - mana galore especially if you hit Bangle of Endless Blessings at the same time :P
zach May 7th 2008 9:37AM
28. If your target is low on health, drop a Power Word: Shield on them.
Not it the target is a prot spec warrior.
no rage means:
no attacks means:
no tank means:
wipe.
moink May 7th 2008 9:46AM
Even if it's a prot spec warrior. A dead warrior has no rage, either. And the times I've shielded a tank just long enough for the other healers to have their heals land, it's had barely any effect on rage. Tanks have so much rage on boss fights they don't know how to spend it all.
No, PW:shield is not a routine spell to cast on the tank. But it can save the day every once in a while.
Kaphik May 7th 2008 12:10PM
I play both a 70 prot warrior and 70 priest who is holy for raids, shadow for fun.
You absolutely DO drop a PW:Shield on your tank if he is at low health and you're not going to get that heal off in time. You don't want to START the fight with a shield, but during it, oh yes, it helps a lot.
A properly timed shield saves the life of your tank.
Ariyah May 7th 2008 10:08AM
Ask a tank and they will definitely say to shield them if they're about to die. Tank dead = wipe. No rage can be recovered from.
Daimon May 7th 2008 10:41AM
That is true, but don't let the tank die pls.
One thing I hate is to see a priest bubbling me when I'm low, which in the 80% of the cases means that no preventive healing was done, therefore we had a nub priest case in our hands.
OneMHz May 7th 2008 11:13AM
Shield good. No rage gen on a hit or two isn't going to mean much if the tank 1) has a full rage bar anyway 2) dies 3) is more than a couple % from losing the boss' focus. But it may mean the difference between someone getting a big heal off and "oh man, you died right as I casted!"
zach May 7th 2008 11:09AM
after some more deliberation and reading you guys' comments, i suppose you are right. it's easier to recover rage than a dead tank.
i guess what i was getting at is that PW:S isn't a substitute for good healing. if the healing is good, PW:S shouldn't be needed.
Starie May 7th 2008 12:05PM
That qualification doesn't apply to Protection warriors anymore. Deep protection specs are highly rage efficient. In a heroic mode or raiding environment, there is hardly ever a situation that is cause for rage starvation. Shield away.
SOber May 7th 2008 1:54PM
If I'm at low health, I probably have plenty of rage. Just dont put a PWS on at the beginning. And one other thing, dont EVER put Pain Suppression on a tank unless I have a significant lead in threat, warlocks dont like it when SS is on CD and the mob peels off me... (that priest had to respec before we allowed him back in the raid)....
arcady0 May 7th 2008 2:58PM
Don't -ever- drop power word shield on a tankadin either.
I'd rather my toon die than go OOM... but frankly, I have things to keep me up in that last bit of health, like Ardent Defender.
Putting shield on my gimps my mana recovery and endangers the entire group if I can't keep my rotations going as a result.
At the point where I really need it, doing it won't help anyway - and we'll still wipe. Save it for the DPS that manages to steal aggro, or for when you solo grind your dailies.
Manatank May 7th 2008 3:20PM
As a tankadin, please disregard the comments of the previous poster. Shield at all possible moments please.
Manatank May 7th 2008 3:27PM
I actually think I need to be more clear... Arcady0's comment is just completely wrong in so many ways. Who cares about a paladin's mana pool if they die? If Arcady0 is so close to OOM that a few seconds of shielding makes a big difference in mana regen, then they need to respec or regear.
I can not think of any time when having a shield as a tankadin wouldn't be a good thing.
superfrank May 8th 2008 5:56AM
what zach really means is - don't pre-shield a prot warrior before the pull as it nerfs rage at the most critical time. Apart from that shields whenever you (the priest) judge they're required please!
Keebler May 7th 2008 9:46AM
You forgot a rule:
31: Go Shadow or go home.
Silverrealm May 7th 2008 10:02AM
Oh WHY can't they do this for resto druids. :S
Genoce May 7th 2008 10:46AM
19. If you're entire party is taking damage, use your AoE heals.
Change this to:
19. If your entire party is taking damage, HoT them all up.
24. If an enemy Paladin bubbles, Mass Dispel should be your first reaction.
Change this to:
24. If an enemy Paladin bubbles, run away to get out of combat and drink. Usually it'll be worse for the paladin than before the bubble.
28. If your target is low on health, drop a Power Word: Shield on them.
Change this to:
28. If your target is low on health, use Swiftmend.
29. If all else fails, Psychic Scream. But don't do it in Leotheras' room.
Change this to:
29. If all else fails, Nature's Swiftness and Healing Touch usually saves the world. And don't forget that even as you're resto, you have Barkskin and Bearform.
There you go, there's the druid version.
turkeyspit May 7th 2008 10:12AM
"If you're not enchanting your gear, you're not being the best player you can be. Pre-patch 2.4, it used to be pricey and expensive. The plethora of daily quests nullifies that argument."
It costs the same to enchant now as it did 2.4. Everyone has extra gold, but all the mats in the AH have risen at least 50%.
I'm selling Primal Earths at 7-10g per, when they used to sell for 1g. Inflation much?
Hellbena May 7th 2008 10:47AM
I don't know what server you're on, but on Greymane, Arcane Dust is down to 60 silver each and Greater Planar Essence is 4 - 5g each. That's a huge drop in value.
Ahoni May 7th 2008 11:06AM
You also have lots and lots of greens to DE from all the daily quests. I am swimming in enchanting mats, and I'm not an enchanter. I just save up several days worth of greens, and ask a friend to DE them for me.