Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Johannah the smite priest!

If you’re still trying to get The Hallowed or learn more about the WoW Halloween event, try out these links:

• OverAchiever’s Guide to Hallow’s End from WoW Insider
• World of Warcraft’s official Hallow’s End page
• WoWWiki Hallow’s End page

Do you use light or lightning?

I compared smite priests to elemental shamans before thanks to Elowyn the Master Bear’s theory crafting. This post is going to look more at the spells and rotations available, similar to the previous healing priest versus restoration shaman article.

If you’re willing to forgo flat numbers—because, as discussed earlier with smite priests and shadow priests, it’s just inevitable these standard DPS specs are going to do more DPS than an underdog spec—the smite priest still has some unique things that the elemental shaman does not.

For starters, let’s say your smite priest is the only priest in the raid. I know this is not as likely as your shaman being the only shaman in the raid, but work with me in a 10-man scenario here. These are some things an elemental shaman will bring to the raid, and then there’s the things the smite priest will bring:

• Heroism versus Power Infusion. Heroism (or Bloodlust) has a 10-minute debuff that makes it useful only once per encounter. Power Infusion, on the other hand, may be used multiple times per boss encounter, and also grants reduction to mana costs in addition to haste. Power Infusion’s drawback is that it does not affect the entire raid–only one lucky individual. (Which, when you’re smiting, is usually you.)
• Priest Buffs versus Totems. Does Divine Spirit, Power Word: Fortitude, Shadow Protection, and Fear Ward stack up to shaman totems, especially in situations like Onyxia where Tremor Totem just seems to crush Fear Ward into the ground? It’s hard to say. Most guilds thrive off the universal benefit of having more Spirit and Stamina throughout a raid, while the totems give the versatility of switch-up fight-to-fight. In terms of resistance, the shaman can cover everything except shadow, which is ironically found in the Shadow Protection of the priest (or in a paladin’s aura.)
• Elemental Oath versus Renewed Hope. It’s a question of whether you want destruction or survival. Renewed Hope is going to reduce the damage the raid is taking by 3%, while Elemental Oath is going to grant 5% spell crit to your casting classes. In a raid that is mostly energy and rage based, it’s obvious which one wins; otherwise, the situation is subjective. A boomkin is also going to neutralize Elemental Oath, while a fellow Discipline priest is going to neutralize Renewed Hope.

What about the rotation?

Rotation-speaking, both classes can potentially have a “mash” button. As you can see from the Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide though, it’s about as smart to mash Smite with a smite priest as it is to mash Lightning Bolt with an elemental shaman. Ideal DPS just doesn’t output from it.

Smite priests also have a harder time getting a grasp on a “rotation” than elemental shamans because they blow their GCD a random whenever Surge of Light procs and gives them a free Smite. This is different from the elemental shaman’s Lightning Overload, which throws the Lightning Bolt out free of charge and free of GCD. The elemental shaman can make a macro, adjusted based on their haste, that rotates through their spells with ease; the smite priest’s macro, on the other hand, is going to be totally squandered by GCD’s being thrown off.

Ultimately though, the only “win button” the smite priest has over the elemental shaman is this: you find yourself in a predicament where your 10-man raid can’t do a boss with two healers, but only needs that third healer on certain phases. Or, alternatively, you’re smiting and a healer dies. Smite priest heals always win over elemental shaman heals, and this is where your place in the raid will shine.

Thanks to wvs’ Creative Commons photography for this post.

Restoration shaman in Ahn'kahet.

First, a little background.

Last time we looked at shadow priests versus smite priests. If you’re interested in playing a smite priest though, chances are you aren’t a hardcore DPS’er. You found out about this spec because you were playing with your Holy tree and a lightbulb turned on–or because you were trying to figure out how many Smites you could squeeze into that window where you weren’t healing before your raid leader asked what you were doing. Since one of the reasons you’re playing a smite priest is because you also fill healing roles, why not look at how your healing role pars up to the other “raid healing class” that comes with Lightning Bolts instead of Smites?

At least half the time, I’m healing raids. I actually discovered smite priest spec with Johannah as a raid utility in Burning Crusade because we kept having healers show up for a raid here and there, and without dual specs and with a craving to keep my gold, I designed a spec that could fill both roles in a pinch.

When Johannah was moved from smite priest to the primary raid healer role though, I became frustrated. During Burning Crusade, the shaman Chain Heal was astronomically better than anything I felt Johannah could do. Burning Crusade priests were the slush second place of all healing roles; overshadowed by the paladin on tanks, overshadowed by the druids on HoTs, overshadowed by the shaman on raid heals.

So I went for a class that wasn’t second place and ended up with Kourtnie the Restoration Shaman NINJA.

Side note: In vent, NINJA is pronounced “Neeeeenja,” not just “Ninja.” Ninjas, lowercase, are people that take gear. NINJAS, uppercase, are just awesome.

Restoration shamans versus priests in Wrath of the Lich King.

I was doing great healing with Kourtnie the NINJA until WotLK came out. At first, I had respect for the fact that priests could once again resume a real place among WoW healing society; if a holy priest could raid heal efficiently, that was great. When Prayer of Healing whooped Chain Heal into the ground though pre-3.2 though, my tolerance started to grow thin.

Here are some charts on the spells I used for the bosses in the Tournament of Crusaders raid, with the play style I was accustomed to before the Chain Heal fixes:

Bad LHW habits are bad...

...but are encouraged by Chain Heal's setbacks.

Notice that Chain Heal is, sadly, on the bottom of the list. Since then, Chain Heal has been bolstered by a couple things:

• Inclusion into Improved Water Shield’s proc, increasing mana efficiency.
• Changes to Tidal Waves so that Lesser Healing Wave (Chain Heal’s previous WotLK replacement) no longer gains any haste and Healing Wave (and therefore Healing Way) actually become useful additions to the rotation.

There are still two fundamental flaws though:

1. Being in a raid where the raid members will not stick together. This is not a case for larger, organized guilds, but many guilds that are not as accustomed to strategy will encounter this frustration [that is often shortened as N00bism]. Prayer of Healing has 30 yards, so it’s more prone to cover the raid-tards.
2. Casting time. Prayer of Healing is going to have this problem too, but then there’s several other spells besides Lesser Healing Wave and Riptide that a priest can rely on when you’re in that speedy crunch, such as Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending. And trust me, when someone’s about to die and one second feels like a hundred years, the shaman goes with the Lesser Healing Wave over Chain Heal.
   1. First argued caveat: “The Tier 9 set bonus further bolsters of Chain Heal.” The priest’s Tier 9 set bonus, however–at two pieces instead of four–bolsters one of their unique raid healing spells, Prayer of Mending.
   2. Second argued caveat: “Chain Heal is a ’smart heal’ and will only target those that need healing; therefore, it is the superior raid healing spell.” Priests have a smart heal as well, Circle of Healing. You might have to spec for it, but then again, if you’re specced as a Discipline priest, aren’t you more interested in tank healing than raid healing?

Thus, priests are more reliable healers than restoration shamans. (If you’d like to see my totally borked counter-argument for shamans, visit the “Forget Priests!: Seven Reasons to Play Another Healing Class” post at Kourtnie the Shaman.)

Smite the world away, priests! On those days when your guild has too many healers on, why play elemental when you could be doing something really cool like HOLY SPELLS? And when you could heal with two different specs, no less? Priest healing wins.