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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSpiritual Guidance: Don't be that priest
by Matt Low 
Oct 20th 2009 at 6:00PM
Every week (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a UI and addons blog for WoW. Ever wonder what separates good priests and thoughtful priests to downright annoying priests and careless priests?
This week's post is inspired by a post about shamans I read the other week from Healing Way. It was about typical things that shamans sometimes do which they should not do. Just for kicks, I felt like compiling a similar list for priests.So without further adieu, don't be that priest:
...Who blows Hymn of Hope when everyone's mana is topped (or is too far away). Your raid frames are up aren't they? My frames are set to display the mana bars of everyone in the raid. Browse through it and check once in a while to determine if it really is needed. If the mana's still full, there's no sense in using it.
...Who is way off on Pain Suppression or Guardian Spirit cooldowns. I admit, coordinating cooldowns with big attacks can be tough to do. You're too worried about healing the raid and sometimes you might be off from dropping a defensive cooldown on the player who needs it the most. This used to be me.
...Who never dispels on a fight like Hodir. When I play on my alts, it continuously pains me to see players stuck in Frost Nova or in a constant state of fear when such effects can be easily removed. Priests have an AoE dispel at their disposal. It's not difficult to point and use it. Sometimes a simple Dispel Magic can be more important than a heal.
...Who Power Infuses melee. I saw a priest cast Power Infusion on a ret paladin once. Please don't do it. There's other casters who will benefit more from it.
...Who Pain Suppresses a tank with an extremely minor threat lead. This is frustrating. I understand that some tanks take a huge beating and you can't bite back the urge to drop a cooldown on them. It's even worse when they have such a colossal time generating threat. Keep an eye on your threat meter for this one. If there's a DPS that's just under the tank, a simple Pain Suppression could tip that DPS player over and cause a bunch of problems.
...Who drops the Psychic Scream fear bomb on trash when there is no need to do so. There is absolutely no need to fear on trash. Raid groups should have plenty of crowd control already without a priestly need to fear. By screaming, who knows where the feared mobs will run to, right? They could pick up even more trash mobs. Or worse, they could yank the boss over. Do yourself a favor and don't voluntarily fear unless your raid leader green lights you to do so.
...Who comes into the raid completely devoid of candles in their bags to buff. I make an effort to keep a stack of 60 candles on my priest at all times. There are times when I've run out mid raid and it's embarrassing. It also sucks when you have to cast 50 individual buffs (between Fortitude and Spirit).
...Who just stands there. Do something! Heal! Dispel! Look productive! Don't stand there and look AFK! Run around and keep players alive!
...Who forgets to Fade when new mobs crop up. Whoops! I pulled threat once on an incoming mob. Fade is your friend. In fact, keep hitting fade every chance it becomes available. Watch as your survivability increases.
...Who forgets to activate Inner Fire. It's an extra spell power buff. Have it keybound to something handy and convenient. For me, I like to use Shift C. Don't ask why. It just happens to work out.
...Who loves to jump into melee range of trash mobs and Holy Nova spam. Don't be like me. I once ran into a group of trash after the tank gained aggro on them all thinking I would be safe. I figured I could keep shelling out Holy Nova and do some damage as well as heal right? Well 3 seconds later, I found myself face planted on the ground. Turns out those mobs like to whirlwind. I learned my lesson and kept my DPS to a distance.
...Who like to chain Levitate people especially when triggering Anub'arak. This is actually really annoying. And yes the debuff is removable by clicking it. Still, it does irritate people especially those who can't click it off if their UI doesn't display it. There's no real reason to levitate the entire raid. Doing it to run across the ocean is one thing. But don't do this crap during raids.
...Who don't remember to buff Fortitude after someone gets back up during mid combat. When players are dead, their buffs are wiped. When they get resurrected mid combat, they're going to be weak. It causes me to lose precious time when I try to look for them on my frames. I just slam Prayer of Fortitude and rebuff everyone in the raid to guarantee they've been hit.
...Who forgets they have anti-disease spells. So we've got two dispels. One removes magic and another removes disease. Keep it bound on your bars. I like to have Dispel as my E key, Mass Dispel as my Ctrl E key, and Abolish Disease as my Shift E key.
...Who continues to heal after a wipe has been called. You're slowing the raid down! Your leader just called for everyone to die! Stop healing and wasting time! Run to the nearest fire and die!
...Who doesn't realize they have mana potions and flasks for tough encounters. Unprepared raiders who are tackling bosses without the necessary consumables? What's up with that? Get some flasks when you're working on progression stuff. You might not need mana potions now, but it's better to have it just in case you do.
...Who never heals hunter pets. Want to really stand out from the rest? Have some pet frames shown. Watch as hunters lovingly gaze at you as Spot The Wolf manages to live.
...Who doesn't DPS during burn phases. If it's a straight up max DPS phase, don't simply stand there twiddling your thumbs waiting for someone to take damage. Be proactive and start healing. Chances are, your raid is alive. Take the time to pile on some DPS.
...Who DPS's when they shouldn't. Know when is not a good time to DPS. Stop tossing Holy Fires when the raid is taking massive AoE damage.
...Who fails to use Fear Ward when it is known there are mobs that fear. This is me. I sometimes forget to use Fear Ward. I'm a Dwarf too! I've had access to this spell since forever! Don't be like me! Make notes on which bosses fear and use it then. Faction Champions is a great time to use it.
...Who rolls on hit gear with no intent on ever DPSing. Don't rob another player in your raid of gear that they will use. If you're a healer for life, stay that way.
...Who rolls on PvP gear without future plans of setting foot into battlegrounds or arena. Again, same thing as above. Give it to the players who intend to PvP.
What else would you add to this list?
(Thanks for your help, Wyn!)
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries! Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Snowfeather Oct 20th 2009 7:25PM
As to the Levitate thing - personally, I love being chain levitated. I think most of my guild does. Especially since we have a lot of druids [like myself] which all just got new levitate animations.
shatto.a Oct 20th 2009 8:14PM
Personally, I don't care about being Levitated... Unless I'm eating buff food. Levitate interrupts that and costs me money. If you're going to spam Levitate, be conscientious about people eating.
Amak Oct 20th 2009 10:23PM
Gaining levitate does not break eating.
Spamming levitate on Gormok the Impaler prevents fire bombs from being created.
Gorgoroth Oct 21st 2009 1:12AM
At least it's better than DK's using Path of Frost when the floor collapses before Anub xD
Muse Oct 21st 2009 3:44AM
"Still, it does irritate people especially those who can't click it off if their UI doesn't display it."
This is a flaw in their UI that requires fixing, and they should be on their knees thanking the priest in question for pointing it out to them BEFORE they wipe the raid because their health is too high in phase 3 and there are several HOTs on them that just keep ticking because they lack the ability to remove them.
Similar for every resser ever DIed who have to let the duration run out instead of removing it while the boss is despawned and moving away. No excuse.
Sakirsha Oct 21st 2009 6:35AM
Don't break my evocation (Grrrrrr), and I'll be a happy floating soul =D
Tyrnas Oct 20th 2009 6:52PM
...Who Pain Suppresses a tank with an extremely minor threat lead.
Pain Supp removes 5% of threat generated during its duration. So if a tank was putting out 5k tps, and started with say, 100k threat, the tank would be putting out 4.95k tps for the next 8sec to end with 139.6k threat, instead of the 140k threat he normally would have.
A run on sentence, yes, but if you have a tank with THAT minor of a threat lead that 5% reduced tps for 8sec is going to make the difference between a dps pulling or not... you need a better tank.
Tyrnas Oct 20th 2009 6:57PM
Math was a bit off in my example: Tank would be doing 4.75k tps with Pain Supp applied, to end with 138k threat.
Jabadabadana Oct 20th 2009 6:58PM
That's not how pain suppression works.
It's 5% instant, not 5% for duration.
Thus, 100k becomes 95k instantly.
The point is to drop that DPS off the top of the agro chart, or else to not have too much effect on the tank (except when they don't have much lead).
Zamn10210 Oct 20th 2009 7:19PM
That is in fact not how Pain Suppression works. It's a instant 5% hit to your total threat.
Alkatraz Oct 21st 2009 4:14PM
Dead tanks put out 0 tps. I'll take the PS please, they have a taunt button for a reason.
thebitterfig Oct 20th 2009 11:33PM
threat can be spiky at times on some fights, particularly gimmicky ones where dps get stray buffs for major damage. by and large, the TBC threat game is gone in wrath - tanks usually have the threat to stay ahead, but there are exceptions, and it is good to keep an eye on that.
likewise, even if you do get another tank, you can't replace mid fight, and better not to cause a wipe or maybe just kill a few dps by suppressing the tank at the wrong time before you replace your tank.
jbodar Oct 21st 2009 1:22AM
Yeah, it can't be worded any more straightforward than "Instantly reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%..."
brownyboi Oct 21st 2009 5:03AM
If a dps was running their threat that high, I'd be rather concerned about their judgement in this matter. Yes, I know that sometimes things happen and threat spikes from time to time, but a good dps should make allowances for this. If the deeps are riding so high on the meters that a 5% change is going to cause trouble then they might want to back off a bit.
This is coming from a ret pally that is way to familiar with his threat warning sirens going off constantly...
Clearbrook Oct 20th 2009 6:54PM
definitely agree with the idea that if you are holy, and you are in a raid with a disc, please please please, refrain from popping PW:S on someone, especially the tanks. The raid as a whole benefits much more from disc bubbles than holy.
also, for removing magic and disease, Decursive is a small but amazing addon that makes it facerolling easy to chain dispel people.
healing pets sounds like its not important, but think of all the buffs you get from them! warlocks themselves can give us health, int and the sp increase. Hunter pets help with melee. Yes, they are lower priority, but if everyone is topped up, but the pet is going down, throw it some heals, and if you are disc, just bubble. Its something that takes literally a second and but makes a big difference.
obarthelemy Oct 20th 2009 6:55PM
I plead guilty: I sometimes Power Infuse melee. And Pain Supress casters. damn shortcuts :-p
Since it is absent from your list, I take it that auctioning off Power Infusion is OK. At last, an end to our celibate lifestyle, all those cute gnomes....
LJ Oct 20th 2009 7:00PM
personally, i sometimes save PI for myself.
As disc, I am lacking in the benefits holy gets as far as haste and mana cost reduction for spells like Prayer of Healing.
So in times like on Anub, during 3rd phase, I pop PI on myself and rotate PoH on the groups. It works wonders. It is also good for Hodir and another bit of a haste buff, helps with that mana cost as well.
alpha5099 Oct 20th 2009 6:56PM
Some good advice for healers in general too. As a shaman, several of the problems mentioned here I suffer from:
1) Cooldowns. I never remember to cast Heroism when I'm resto. Every other cooldown I blow as Enh is Enh only, so I frequently forget I even have Heroism when resto. I also always forget Tidal Force exists. I should really just throw it into my NS macros, because those are the only things I remember in Oh Shit situations.
2) DPS. I really need to learn to DPS as resto. I don't think I even have any offensive abilities on my resto bars. I was healing the Horseman yesterday, and bored to tears by how little was need of me. So when I decided to DPS, all I really could do with my bars as they are is run in and melee. Gotta get Lightning Bolt and some shocks onto those bars.
3) Like Fear Ward, I usually don't remember to drop Tremor Totem or Cleansing Totem until someone's already feared or poisoned. Need to remember to drop those more proactively.
t0xic Oct 20th 2009 7:08PM
"2) DPS. I really need to learn to DPS as resto. I don't think I even have any offensive abilities on my resto bars."
I healed HH on my resto druid last night, and I got a few good tree punches in. Not much can be done in the way of druid DPS unless I'm mistaken. Dropping out of ToL form is hardly worth it. Maybe someone with PvP experience could give some DPS tips for a resto druid. I'm sure it's amusing reading for everyone else.
Amak Oct 20th 2009 10:28PM
Who let these shammies and trees in here? :)