Ok I have respeced my priest enought times that it will cost me 30g next time. I love being the healer in a group but in the mid 50s it is getting harder to find a decent group with the instances getting harder. Last night I was in 3 different groups for BRD all pugs they were a sad disaster.
My guild is all 70 they help me out alot but they suck the exp out of the instance air.
I just want to lvl so I went back to shadow spec since it is easier to solo but at the same time I dont want to stop doing instances. Unfortunatly it is alot harder to heal as a shadow priest it is not mana efficient at all!
Ive tried a hybrid build shadow/holy but think it makes me weaker in the long run.
The holy build rocks when you have a good group that works well together.
The shadow build is great for solo and PVP but being the healer is alot harder.
Im sure we all go through this Priestly dilema any input would be appreciated.
Here is my build as of today
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/?#character-sheet.xml?r=Norgannon&n=Pipa
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ive been shadow all my lvls, and didnt have much of a problem through instances as long as the group isnt a complete POS. just gotta learn to conserve mana, and drink up all the time if need be. i only started getting troubles with instances prolly from 65+. at 70, doing instances and being a MH as shadow just is too aggrivating. at 70, i finally sold all my +healing gear, and am staying just dps/offheal. and trust me. it works great ;). but you cant have your cake and eat it to in the end. do what you wanna do. whether you wanna heal, or be a dps'er. if you wanna be shadow, but find MH'ing to hard, LFG as a dps and not a MH. otherwise, spec holy, and stick it out in instances
You can have half your cake and eat the other half, however. If you want to retain some of the core healing talents while maintaining inferior-to-shadow, superior-to-healbot damage, try something like this. Work your way towards at least 3/5 Force of Will and Power Infusion. Might want to trade a little from Discipline and put it into Spirit Tap for faster leveling.
That said, shadow should still be decent at healing (provided you haven't learned to rely on the holy talents), especially once you get some good +healing gear in addition to your primary +dmg set. Try and get a backup healer for every Outland instance, though, just in case.
I wouldn't throw away your healing set :P I keep a primary dps set, with items I trade in for raid bosses (+hit) or stamina fights, and a decent healing set.
That said, shadow should still be decent at healing (provided you haven't learned to rely on the holy talents), especially once you get some good +healing gear in addition to your primary +dmg set. Try and get a backup healer for every Outland instance, though, just in case.
I wouldn't throw away your healing set :P I keep a primary dps set, with items I trade in for raid bosses (+hit) or stamina fights, and a decent healing set.
yeah i held my +healing gear up till the end. but i found parties more stable (especially PUGs) if i just said that i would dps/offheal. it makes things a WHOLE lot safer to leave the MH up to someone actually DEDICATED to healing. the best combination for healing is me(shadowpriest) and a holy pally. omG is it awesome. even better, for BM for instance, shadowpriest,prot war, holy pally, lock, hunter. RAWR
Edited, Apr 16th 2007 6:09pm by JoJoMeXi
Edited, Apr 16th 2007 6:09pm by JoJoMeXi
At the mid 50's healing while shadow spec'ed is still pretty easy. I think you just got too comfortable with your holy spec. I'm at 65 and I've main healed every instance since lvl 15 using a pure shadow spec. I will admit, that it is getting a little harder now with fights lasting alot longer (more mobs, chain pulls etc.)
Yea, once I started getting post-60 and especially now at 70 I'm regularly running oom on the harder trash pulls.
And I can certainly see how switching holy to shadow would be hard to get used to. After playing shadow for the last 2 years I've gotten used to the downfalls of healing shadow and do a pretty decent job at it (but god did the first auch crypts boss throw me off...)
EDIT: I agree with JoJo. With a good group shadow priests are pure awesome. I usually run with an affliction lock, a holy priest, and a mage, and whatever we can find to tank. Dear god tanks hate us, the lock, mage, and I usually go all-out on trash, 3.5k blast/death rotations, 5k shadowbolts... :D BM is also incredibly easier with a shadow priest as primary DPS on the main portal guys.
Completely offtopic, but /poke to my fellow Iowan :D
Edited, Apr 16th 2007 8:29pm by lsfreak
And I can certainly see how switching holy to shadow would be hard to get used to. After playing shadow for the last 2 years I've gotten used to the downfalls of healing shadow and do a pretty decent job at it (but god did the first auch crypts boss throw me off...)
EDIT: I agree with JoJo. With a good group shadow priests are pure awesome. I usually run with an affliction lock, a holy priest, and a mage, and whatever we can find to tank. Dear god tanks hate us, the lock, mage, and I usually go all-out on trash, 3.5k blast/death rotations, 5k shadowbolts... :D BM is also incredibly easier with a shadow priest as primary DPS on the main portal guys.
Completely offtopic, but /poke to my fellow Iowan :D
Edited, Apr 16th 2007 8:29pm by lsfreak
haha /poke-back. located in des moines. haha but yeah. back on topic, i kind of wish i hadnt sold all my healing gear now haha. i was in heroic slave pens last night, no wipes, great group, wiped 3 times at the end boss, i had to drop shadow because 1 healer just wasnt cutting it.. GAH curse me. o well heh i got 2 badges out of the deal
Just saying "Hi" to the other folks from Iowa! Posting from Des Moines as well.
10 posts
Actually healing with the shadow spec was easy. At first I wanted to dps but was the only healer so just took all but mind flay off my spell bar as to not tempt myself.
Actually that in itself can be a bad idea. Not in the Outland instances so much, but in some of the level 60 instances (assuming you run them) Mind Flay and Silence have saved wipes more times than I can count (especially in Scholo back when I was 60).
Being the off-healer with a holy PLD is golden. Able to drop shadow form when you need to backup is the way to go. The biggest problem that I foudn with this is that when I would drop out of shadow to cast greater heal, the PLD had already targetted and healed the player. Damn Greater Heal and it's forever cast time....
i have a level 42 priest specced all shadow it's great for soloing and recently i started to run some instances (SM, ZF) with higher levels (48-50). I didn't find it difficult to heal, the problem is that the groups i've been in so far were not organized at all and would get me killed from the healing aggro (for example, nobody would cover me when a mob would attack, even though that was the understaning at the beginning) or they just would jump on a bunch of mobs and get us all killed from being overwhelmed. every time i would outline a strategy, tell them about healing and aggro, designate a main tank, but in the heat of the fight many times they forgot and just act chaotically. I also was once in a group (me the only healer and 4 others) and we ran SM and it was just sweet, everybody was disciplined and we didn't die at all. so, i guess it all depends on the group. if the group is organized, i even find time and mana to throw in a 500 damage mind blast on the main tank target and not get the aggro. i always use Pain and VE combined with mind flay (and sometimes m-blast on the tank target) to get some health back to the group, and i think this is a great plus that a shadow priest brings to a group. to me being holy means being too dependent on a group to level and i don't like that.
2.5 seconds isn't all that long... /tease
I play on both sides of the fence. I have a 70 draenei holy/disc priest and a 66 night elf shadow priest. So I have the best of both worlds.
With my draenei, I was shadow up until my mid 40s (shadowform blocks gift of the naaru. I love gift of the naaru when soloing. It doesn't trigger the 5 sec rule during spririt tap. So I wasn't impressed. I understand why it does, but that doesn't mean I like it). I respecced to a disc with a dash of holy and a smidge of shadow build. At 55 my build was http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050230113050212050000235050000320130000000500100000000000000000 and I found I was killing things as fast as my shadow priest did at that level, with even less downtime (mind you at that level I was wearing robes of insight and I had symbol of hope).
Personally at 55, if I was going to go shadow, I'd go for a talent build like http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050230012000000000000000000000000000000000500232210051123051000 or http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050000000000000000000000000000000000000000500232410051123051051. (Yes I know my links are messy but I'm lazy)
Oh and you really need a better wand. Your current one is level 40. Your wand is your best friend. It's mana free dps. Buy one off the AH that's closer to your level. Doesn't matter if it's uncommon or rare. You'll get a free one in one of the first hellfire peninsular quests that'll replace it in a couple of levels. :)
[wowsig]2315043[/wowsig]
I play on both sides of the fence. I have a 70 draenei holy/disc priest and a 66 night elf shadow priest. So I have the best of both worlds.
With my draenei, I was shadow up until my mid 40s (shadowform blocks gift of the naaru. I love gift of the naaru when soloing. It doesn't trigger the 5 sec rule during spririt tap. So I wasn't impressed. I understand why it does, but that doesn't mean I like it). I respecced to a disc with a dash of holy and a smidge of shadow build. At 55 my build was http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050230113050212050000235050000320130000000500100000000000000000 and I found I was killing things as fast as my shadow priest did at that level, with even less downtime (mind you at that level I was wearing robes of insight and I had symbol of hope).
Personally at 55, if I was going to go shadow, I'd go for a talent build like http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050230012000000000000000000000000000000000500232210051123051000 or http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?050000000000000000000000000000000000000000500232410051123051051. (Yes I know my links are messy but I'm lazy)
Oh and you really need a better wand. Your current one is level 40. Your wand is your best friend. It's mana free dps. Buy one off the AH that's closer to your level. Doesn't matter if it's uncommon or rare. You'll get a free one in one of the first hellfire peninsular quests that'll replace it in a couple of levels. :)
[wowsig]2315043[/wowsig]
10 posts
It really does depend on the grp in instances. At 55 im in mostly pug grps for BRD. With all the adds there I find it safer not to nuke but Mind Flay when they start running (always main healer). This way my mana is ok to keep moving along and Im not out in mid fight. As electricwizard said I was just comfortable with a holy build but healing with the shadow build just took alittle adjusting and isnt bad at all.
Since I have BRD burn out and just want to get 60 at this point shadow spec has been sweet for soloing. Things I wouldnt even try to kill as a holy priest Im killing with no problems....and PvP is way more fun.
Since I have BRD burn out and just want to get 60 at this point shadow spec has been sweet for soloing. Things I wouldnt even try to kill as a holy priest Im killing with no problems....and PvP is way more fun.
PvP'ing will change as you get deeper (no matter your spec, priests get comparatively worse).
Solo'ing 3-man group quests in Netherstorm is certainly fun though :D
Solo'ing 3-man group quests in Netherstorm is certainly fun though :D
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