Spiritual Guidance: Top healing trinkets for priests
by Dawn Moore 
Jan 10th 2012 at 8:00PM
There were five potential healer trinkets added in patch 4.3, some of which have their pluses and their minuses. If you're a holy or a disc priest and you're not quite sure what trinket you should be taking this tier, let me help you narrow it down. I'll give you a hint, though -- they're the trinkets that everyone else will try to kill you for. Watch your back!
- Windward Heart As far as healing throughput goes, this is currently the best trinket in the game. Many healers are reporting its doing up to 5% of their healing in a fight, and since the heal is a smart heal that will target the most injured member of your party, you know it's never going to overheal anyone. The internal cooldown is 20 seconds, meaning you'll see the proc going off constantly as long as you keep healing. There is some debate on whether holy or disc will benefit from this trinket more, since holy priests are typically healing more targets and thus more likely to get a critical heal, while disc priests are known to have more crit because of talents like Renewed Hope. First off, it doesn't really matter who benefits from the trinket more, because it's best in slot for both specs. Second, who it benefits more has to do with your raid role, not your spec. It's true that a holy priest is more than likely going to be acting as a raid healer, but disc priests will occasionally fill that role too, just like holy priests may occasionally tank heal. Because raid roles change from fight to fight, I would encourage you to not be that jerk who tries to make a case for it by waving his spec around.
- Heart of the Unliving This is the regen trinket every healer is going to want for the rest of the expansion. It's the direct upgrade to Darkmoon Card: Tsunami, which you may have noticed most people were still wearing throughout tier 12. The trinket is most ideal for holy priests, who get 30% additional spirit regen from Holy Concentration, but that doesn't mean disc priests need to back off. Disc priests are still able to utilize the spirit through Meditation (even if Rapture will only benefit from the intellect side of the trinket), which means this is the best regen trinket a disc priest can get. Both priests specs should keep in mind, however, that the healer who will benefit from this trinket the most is the one who has the most mana problems. If you raid with the same group of people week after week, you may want to distribute this particular trinket based on need.
- Seal of the Seven Signs The problem with a random haste proc is that there is no real way of knowing whether or not you'll be able to utilize it when it goes off. That's the main problem with this trinket from a healer's perspective. Healing is not a job that requires you to produce the most HPS possible at all times. It is a job that requires you to respond appropriately to the flow of damage in a fight. Damage is not always high, nor is it always continuous, so having a trinket that will randomly increase your HPS by increasing your casting speed is of debatable benefit. Using this trinket, there is even a risk that you might not be able to use the proc at times, since there are phases of fights that require little to no healing at all. I don't want to make it sound like this trinket is bad however ... It's quite good, just not as good as it could be if it were say, an on use haste trinket. (I should also note for the sake of novelty, though, that the proc on this trinket can get you the mythical sixth Renew tick, provided you have enough static haste rating to begin with, about 1,800, but with the proc being random, there is really no way to make it effective.)
Patch 4.3 added two ilevel 397 caster trinkets that can be purchased from your faction's valor quartermaster for 1,650 valor points. Both of the trinkets are decent if you're looking for a quick fix, but neither one holds a candle to what you'd find if you did a little raiding. Between your normal mode lockout and the Raid Finder, you have a lot of chances to pick up a trinket this tier, so you may want to save your valor points for something better. The Woundlicker Cover, for example, is one valor item you will absolutely want to pick up because there aren't any cloak upgrades in Dragon Soul. From there, there are plenty of items like the Splinterfoot Sandals, which you'll only find one rival upgrade for in Dragon Soul (Janglespur Jackboots).
- Bottled Wishes Though this trinket was probably designed with damage classes in mind, a priest may still be able to utilize this baby. The spellpower proc is about on par with what you'd receive from the flat intellect found on most Dragon Soul trinkets, though a proc does means you would lose out on the mana pool boost that you'd get from an intellect trinket. That said, the haste on Bottled Wishes is so considerable that I could see myself swapping to this trinket for certain fights where producing raw healing numbers is important (Ultraxion, for example). If you recall from my stat weight articles, haste does increase raw HPS more than any other secondary stat for both discipline and holy priests, so if numbers matter, a static haste upgrade for the duration of the fight is definitely useful. Keep in mind, Seal of the Seven Signs does offer better numbers over time, so don't go using Bottled Wishes over that if you happen to have the seal in your bags.
- Reflection of the Light This is essentially the "my gear is awful and I'll take any spirit I can get" trinket. It's barely better than a Darkmoon Card: Tsunami, and it's half as good as Heart of the Unliving. The spellpower proc is the same as Bottled Wishes, but I don't really recommend taking this trinket unless you're desperate for regen and you've taken all the other possible upgrades you can get from the valor quartermaster.
You may have picked up on it already, but your best-in-slot trinkets for this tier are the first two trinkets we looked at, Windward Heart and Heart of the Unliving. (I guess Dragon Soul has a lot of heart, huh?) I should warn you that I'm pretty sure that these trinkets are also the best-in-slot trinkets for every other healer, so it make take you some time to get both of them for your priest. However long it takes, I wish you the best of luck in getting them (and all the grace in the world when you do get it and that angry paladin, shaman, or druid whispers you about it).
If you've already got them, let me know how they're working out for you. Is there something you prefer more? Shard of Woe, perhaps?
Spiritual Guidance has the inside line on healing priests in patch 4.3. Check out the 4.3 raid gear guide to plan your next upgrade, or leveling a healing priest if you're just getting started.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
r.furrer91 Jan 10th 2012 8:10PM
I've got the Seal of the Seven Signs on my Holy Pally and I can say it's definitely worth it, maybe a bit moreso for a Holy Priest over Disc. But if you're casting up all the time you'll see this proc up almost all the time.
Frank-potato Jan 10th 2012 9:06PM
I hate to be this guy....but i really have to point this out...
@r.furrer91
Seal of the Seven Signs is one of THE WORST trinket in game right now. First off, Holy Pallys don't stack haste anymore, is not efficient and does not increase throughput meaningfully. Second, the internal cool down of this trinket is a Whooping 2 Minutes, so I really doubt you are seeing this proc all the time. That's centuries in healer terms for a random proc that you can't time with heavy damage phases. I have tested countless times all these trinkets as I was fortunate enough to have them drop early on between raid finder versions, normal, and one of them heroic, and I tell you by far Seal of 7 Signs is garbage. The other two, as presented in this article are THE trinkets to have. Even more so with the high AoE damage trend that DS fights have.
PS. Im not dissing you out or trying to be a jerk, just needed to present my findings.
Mario Tarandek Jan 11th 2012 12:49AM
Not really sure what you are reading but the highest logs of Holy Paladins all stack haste. I've looked at dozens of the highest parses in the world and its the same order.
Int>Spirit>Haste>Crit=Mastery
Arapally@US-Uther
r.furrer91 Jan 11th 2012 1:16AM
Yeah most pallies still stack haste, I'm one of the ones that don't, so having the haste boost keeps my spell cast time short. And I beg to differ, I see it proc more often that every 2 minutes otherwise I would NOT use it.
Armory link for reference: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tortheldrin/Furger/simple
^^No stacking haste, me likey haste proc
And if you're doubting my healing skill from that first post don't. I know what I'm doing and I know how to play my class(es).
Heather Jan 11th 2012 7:07AM
@r.furrer91:
The ICD is 2 minutes. This has been established by multiple people. Feel free to head to Wowhead if you don't believe me - there are breakdowns of the testing done to establish the ICD.
Because of the 2 minute ICD, this trinket is basically worthless to most classes. You would be better off going with a Heroic Jaws of the Defeated, or a Windward Heart.
Frank-potato Jan 11th 2012 8:04AM
@Mario Tarandek
Yes high end parses dictate haste is stacked because ONLY and ONLY in full heroic gear can you reach the "haste cap" and ONLY then is worth stacking for it. For us humans that aren't yet full BiS, it's completely stupid and worthless to stack haste, the reduction of maybe 0.2 - 0.3 secs on cast bar is NOTHING in comparison with the benefits from Mastery or even Crit.
Please learn to distinguish the difference in priority between people that hard-core raid (eg. are 8/8 H already) and normal people.
And as @Heather pointed out, again my main point, Seal of the 7 Seals is a worthless Trinket.
karatesmashunhurt Jan 11th 2012 9:01AM
This is from a parse of a particularly long fight parse here
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/cj52bazviwlb28s9/details/8/?s=9817&e=10369
You can see the Velocity buff has an uptime of about 16.6% - that corresponds to the buff proccing every 2 minutes. The Druid in the same group has an uptime that is slightly less, of 18%.
If you looked at more of the logs from that upload (or logs of your own) you could check whether it really does proc every 2 mins. But from those data points I find it quite believable that the ICD is 2 mins.
However I'm unconvinced that that makes this a worthless trinket.
Mario Tarandek Jan 11th 2012 12:06PM
There are a few issues with people not stacking Haste but rather stacking either Crit or Mastery.
The problem with Crit. Its great. IF your target is low enough in health that the crit is not wasted. IF your crit overheals, its useless. Paladins with large single target heals do not benefit as much from crit due to overhealing. I have personally seen my logs sometimes with 65% overhealing due to Divine Light critting but being wasted.
Mastery is great also if your target is expected to take damage withing the next 12? seconds. However if they do not, once again that potential heal is wasted. Tank healing Paladins are awesome at stacking master for that very reason. There is probably not a fight currently that the tank will not take damage in a consecutive 15 second period.
Haste is the ultimate stat because it reduces your spell casting time, therefore allowing you to cast more spells / fight. Even in a 6 minute fight, reducing your spellcasting time by .3 seconds is huge. The POTENTIAL to heal is increased as you can cast more spells within a certain amount of time. However higher haste and more spells cast will also increase your spirit requirements since you will be using more mana. Spamming Divine Light will make you go OOM very fast if you do not use mana regenerating techniques. Having a high haste is useless if you are out of mana.
I am not sure what Haste "cap" you are referring to since the only spell I have seen get close to the GCD is Flash of Light which is not a preferred spell to use in more fights. Divine Light and Holy Light share the same cast time and reducing both of those. Getting either one down to the GCD I dont think is possible except maybe during a Haste/Time Warp phase.
Haste is the only secondary stat which is not dependent on fight and timing mechanics like Crit or Mastery. The more haste you have the more benefit you will see if you play properly.
good luck. Any comments are appreciated if I am wrong. Always trying to get better.
Frank-potato Jan 11th 2012 8:19PM
@Mario Tarandek
"IF your crit overheals, its useless. Paladins with large single target heals do not benefit as much from crit due to overhealing. I have personally seen my logs sometimes with 65% overhealing due to Divine Light critting but being wasted."
Paladins turn over healing into Absorb Shields through Mastery, so it doesn't go wasted, also there is no reason to use Divine Light in DS unless the person your healing is well below 30% health which will not go into over heal, that's just management of your spells.
"Mastery is great also if your target is expected to take damage withing the next 12? seconds. However if they do not, once again that potential heal is wasted."
Why is wasted? Our bubbles stack, which means if the target doesn't take damage during that period, you can continue over healing to increase the amount of absorb the shield will take until damage starts again. Illuminated Healing (our mastery) is heavily underrated.
"I am not sure what Haste "cap" you are referring to since the only spell I have seen get close to the GCD is Flash of Light which is not a preferred spell to use in more fights. "
The accepted "haste cap" is the mythical 6th tick from holy radiance, the same for priest with their 6th renew. Is the point where no matter how much more haste you won't affect you ticks which are the considerable increase in throughput. It has nothing to do with lowering you GCD. That's just a plus, but again not that much of a plus we you sacrifice mana regen for it.
Again, sorry for bashing bout pallys in a priest column, but AGAIN my main point STILL IS that the trinket Seal of the Seven Seals is very bad because of how it works, because of it's randomness, because it goes against the play style of every healer which needs good cd's or buffs in the precise moment not whenever the damn trinket wants. that's all.
XD
SmokeTheBear Jan 10th 2012 8:22PM
With regard to the Seal of the Seven Signs, why would damage dealers get better use of an effect that procs off healing? I'm having a hard time figuring out if you meant something different or misread the proc effect.
Dawn Moore Jan 10th 2012 8:27PM
hm... probably because I can't read. Sec and I'll fix it.
ziggler Jan 11th 2012 12:24AM
Will a shadow priest get the proc from this trinket off vampiric embrace?
DancePuppets Jan 10th 2012 8:24PM
Sorry to point this out Dawn, but the Seal of Seven Signs only procs off healing spells so it's not really all that much use to a damage class.
Nadia Jan 10th 2012 9:31PM
It procs form Atonement heals. It's useful for Atonement Discipline specs.
Omnii Jan 10th 2012 9:40PM
Not a Priest healer but really enjoyed the breakdown of these trinkets. I’d love to see this attention to detail for the Trees.
Caylynn Jan 10th 2012 10:37PM
My holy paladin was lucky enough to win the LFR version of Heart of the Unliving today, and it is great for her regen, as she just made the ilvl required for LFR, so the spirit is very, very useful. Sadly, my shadow/disc priest still hasn't won any DS trinkets. I hope my dice will be luckier next week!
Jim Griffin Jan 11th 2012 12:22AM
I would add Will of Unbinding to the mix for Atonement Priests, especially since Heart of Unliving would give me more spirit that I would ever need. Add a few extra Smites at the beginning of a pull. Then Holy Fire as normal to keep up both Evangelism and the Int buff.
markgodber Jan 11th 2012 11:01AM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this will work, since Holy Fire has a 10sec cd, and the Will of Unbinding buff drops after 10secs. Instead you will have to carry on throwing in Smites to keep the buff stacks up between Holy Fires, which is starting to look very unoptimal.
HDPriest Jan 11th 2012 12:30AM
I have the normal version of Windward Heart and looove it. It procs all the time and the static Intel on it is yummy (I replaced Tsunami with it, so it's noticeable). For longer, mana-intensive fights I'm looking forward to Heart of the Unliving. For now I have WH paired with Fiery Quintessance from Avengers of Hyjal rep. I reforged the Spirit to Haste and am loving the extra Intel boost for heavy damage phases and more bang for my Shadowfiend buck. I wasn't as crazy about that trinket last tier, but it lines up nicely with several "healing burn phases" in DS.
matthias2479 Jan 11th 2012 12:43AM
So now I am confused healer Dawn. This is the first I have seen of a priest gear list outside askmrrobot and their trinket choices are Heart of the Unliving, then everything BUT the new 4.3 trinkets, listing Avenger's of Hyjal trinkets as BiS behind the above mentioned Heart of the Unliving. I haven't had the luck to experiment with anything else yet, but if mrrobot is off, could you point me in a better direction
P.S. Please update Priest healing 101 articles, they were great but are a touch outdated.