Yesterday, I talked about how Serendipity brought the fun to Holy heals. The game’s fun isn’t just derived from strategic healing though; it’s also taken from pegging your role. And your role as a Holy priest is to raid heal, backed by your good ol’ pals Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing.

“But wait! Holy priests tank heal just fine,” you say. If this is you, I recommend checking out iPud: Discipline versus Holy in 3.3. Discipline priests fit the tank heal mold and are arguably stronger in 3.3, so there’s no need to stress yourself with Holy tank heals.

Back to raid healing… Serendipity gives you a 36% hasted Prayer of Healing to save a group in a pinch, but Circle of Healing is your smart heal. What makes it worthy of your 41-point talent?

1. It gives healing to the people that need it, rather than being group dependent like Prayer of Healing; think Chain Heal, but free of the range issue
2. It’s an insta-cast every six seconds (and you really shouldn’t need it more than six seconds; more on this later)
3. It usually procs Surge of Light for a quick Flash Heal for Serendipity, thereby fueling its Prayer of Healing cousin
4. It glyphs up nicely

Despite these merits, most non-priest players have never heard of CoH. Shadow and Discipline priests even give it a head cock now and again. Let’s get a quick history lesson on this spell so we’re all on the same page, then look at when to cast Circle of Healing and when to cast its Prayer of Healing friend.

The history behind Circle of Healing

Back in the cobwebs of 2008, patch 3.0.8, Circle of Healing got the nerf bat. Prior to that, Holy priests were treated like mana pits that spammed the insta-cast CoH relentlessly and received every Innervate known to man (remember Zul’aman days?). Holy priests were so enraged by the supposed nerf of CoH that the Discipline priest population skyrocketed; I played my Restoration shaman in those days and literally couldn’t find a Holy priest in all of Kalecgos.

Eventually the QQs died down though and priests accepted the 6-second cooldown on CoH as a way of life. Strategy and intelligence set in where the 1-button spam once sat. And the glyphed, 6-target smart heal that occupied Holy priest’s 41-point talent slot integrated itself cleanly into the strategy of Holy priest raid heals serverwide.

When to cast Circle of Healing

First and foremost, I use CoH as my stepping stone to Serendipity 3. I can rely on the fact that CoH will proc Surge of Light (and if it doesn’t, I writhe about like I have ants in my pants), which means I get an insta-cast, mana-free Flash Heal right after it goes off.

That doesn’t mean to cast Circle of Healing just to get SoL, though! Splash/raid damage in most of these Icecrown raid fights is inevitable. (And other WotLK raids, for that matter.) Use Circle of Healing the moment 3-6 people are hurt and the smart heal will find them over however many XYZ groups your raid has and allot the healing accordingly. It will then give you that quick FH that you can use for whatever leftover damage there is, even if that’s just a tank.

What if your raid is taking damage constantly?–should you use CoH every time it’s off cooldown? The short answer is yes, but the strategic answer is “consider if Prayer of Healing is better.”

Let’s look at when to use Prayer of Healing and hold your breath on that next CoH.

When to cast Prayer of Healing

While the knee-jerk response to when to cast PoH is, “Whenever Circle of Healing is on cooldown,” that isn’t the mentality I always follow. PoH has a bigger oomph to it than CoH, so a raid that has sustained considerable damage should receive the PoH if you have a lingering Serendipity 3 (regardless of if the six second cooldown’s over). Also, if CoH is on cooldown and the raid hasn’t taken enough damage to warrant the PoH, consider dropping some Renews or the FH needed to get to Serendipity 3 instead. You can even use Binding Heal to get yourself and another target and gain a Serendipity boost.

If the raid damage is slow and steady and you have Serendipity 3, it’s a good idea to hold out until PoH won’t overheal [considerably]. That way, you can immediately follow with CoH to get another SoL/Serendipity 1 and save some mana with the free Flash Heal.

When to NOT cast Circle of Healing and Prayer of Healing

A Discipline priest said once, “I can’t raid heal.” I made the mistake of saying, “You have Prayer of Healing, don’t you?”

Suddenly this priest did raid heal; unfortunately, she also clocked 75% of the raid’s overheals and had over 60% of her heals dedicated exclusively to PoH.

Trigger-happy healing priests are easy to identify. Your CoH or PoH is taking the overheal charts by storm, and you show a 40%+ use of just one spell on the healing meters. Now, I’m not saying to turn into a meter whore; I’m suggesting that everyone download a meter to watch the percentages of spells they use, and to make sure that Circle of Healing and/or Prayer of Healing is not vastly different from Flash Heal and Renew.

If any spell is doing more than 30% of your heals as a Holy priest, you’re doing it wrong. The purpose behind priests, especially Holy, is versatility. Circle of Healing is amazing, but it should not be used on every cooldown without hesitation; and Prayer of Healing rocks, but if there are only two (or even three, depending on the speed of the damage in the fight) people injured, a Renew or FH would’ve sufficed. Healing Prayers won’t save you either, only slow down the PoH mana-piss problem by 20%.

Heal as little as you need to, as full as the bar can go. This is the best way to enjoy your awe-inspiring, Chain-Heal-crushing Circle of Healing spell.

I’m going to go into a huge 3.3 Discipline versus Holy priest healing war again, this time in regards to talent mechanics.

I’m sure if you’re a Wrath of the Lich King priest veteran, you’ve heard of Serendipity; it’s that Holy talent located near the end of the tree. Through its 3-point splendor, priests can lower the casting time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing by up to 36%. This is the equivalent to the Discipline Borrowed Time, which grants 25% spell haste to the next spell cast after Power Word: Shield.

Why Holy is a more enjoyable and strategic experience versus Discipline

I call Serendipity “the fun of Holy” because it requires priests to strategically rotate between Flash Heal/Binding Heal and Greater Heal/Prayer of Healing. It adds an extra dynamic to Holy healing that Discipline priests don’t have. Consider the two haste options:

• In the case of Borrowed Time, the priest can get 25% haste through one casting of one spell (Power Word: Shield) and may then apply the haste to any spell.
• In the case of Serendipity, the priest can get 12% haste through the one casting of two spells (Flash Heal or Binding Heal) and may then apply the haste to two spells (Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing.) Eww compared to the Discipline version! But then, the priest can get 24% haste through two castings of two spells or 36% haste through the three castings of two spells. Sounds cooler.

Discipline priest? No brainer, black-and-white rotation mechanism. Holy priest? Decisions, decisions, decisions, and a whole lot of strategy.

How to effectively execute Serendipity 3

When I try to explain to Holy priests how to use Serendipity, first I go over how to get Serendipity 3, or 36% haste. You’re going to want to get 3 Flash Heals as fast as possible, which is easier than you think thanks to Surge of Light (SoL also drastically helps the mana efficiency of three Flash Heal casts.) This is the rotation I use when raid healing and trying to get Serendipity 3:

1. Prayer of Mending, insta-cast
2. Circle of Healing, insta-cast, usually crits at least one of the five targets (CoH glyph FTW)
3. SoL Flash Heal, insta-cast
4. Another Flash Heal, at regular casting time and mana expenditure
5. Prayer of Mending crits, another insta-cast
6. Serendipity 3!

Of course, it’s not always that ideal, but you’d be surprised how often this magic flows. I call it the “music effect” because you develop a GCD beat, with a longer note / slightly more time spent on that regular casting time Flash Heal. After you reach Serendipity 3, you can choose to Greater Heal the tank or further beef your raid heals with a Prayer of Healing. You can also squat on Serendipity 3 if you think big damage is coming soon and you want to react fast. Keep in mind that Borrowed Time does not let you squat on its effects for nearly as long as Serendipity.

To make this even more complicated (and therefore fun), let’s go back to how Serendipity is proc’d with Binding Heal. I’d venture to say a good 50% of healing priests space on the fact they have Binding Heal; before Serendipity, I hardly cast it. There really is no excuse in wasting mana healing yourself though when you can use it to heal yourself and someone else; so whenever you take splash damage (or PvP ouchies), turn to your Binding Heal to get yourself to full–someone else to full!–and get your Serendipity proc. It’ll make you feel like the l33tsauce.

When to use Serendipity 1 and Serendipity 2

Now that you know how to strategically Flash Heal and/or Binding Heal yourself to Serendipity 3, let’s go back to Serendipity 1 and 2. Remember that Serendipity 1 gets you 12% haste and Serendipity 2 gets you 24% haste.

Serendipity 2 is dangerously close to the same effect as Borrowed Time, except it only applies to two spells. (When I healed Discipline, I strangely found myself Borrowed Timing my way through Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing 90% of the time anyway, so what’s the huge difference?) You can get yourself to Serendipity 1 in a flash simply through the Circle of Healing / crit! / SoL Flash Heal trick. Serendipity 2 doesn’t take much more, at a casting bar Flash Heal or an SoL Flash Heal from your bouncing Prayer of Mending.

And then you got to figure out whether Serendipity 1 or Serendipity 2 is worth casting.

In high-stress battles, the FH / FH / GH / FH / FH / GH rotation works like a charm. It could be because 24% from Serendipity 2 is so similar to 25% from Borrowed Time that I feel cozy with that method. When the raid is taking continuous, mind-throbbing damage, that’s when Serendipity 1 comes in; something as simple as a quick CoH / crit! / SoL Flash Heal on tank / Serendipity 1 PoH can do the trick.

There are situations for all stages of Serendipity and that is part of why the strategy is so much greater than the static Discipline counterpart. GG, Borrowed Time.

I missed the NaBloPoMo post yesterday (whoops!), but hopefully the Serendipity guide was well worth it. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments with your own Serendipity pointers.

The argument on whether Blessed Resilience or Empowered Healing is more beneficial came up recently and I thought it was really time to familiarize myself with Empowered Healing better.

How does Empowered Healing work?

Elitist Jerks describes it as:

Empowered Healing reads Your Greater Heal spell gains an additional 40% of your bonus healing effects. This means 40% of your spellpower is applied to the healing of GHeal (and 20% to Flash Heal, as a secondary benefit).

The final formula for computing benefit to a Greater Heal from Empowered Healing with Cast Time coefficients:

[ Base_Healing_Range + HSE * 3.0/3.5 + 0.40 * spellpower]

This means that, at 3000 spellpower raid buffed (which you should be around for ICC), you’re looking at an additional 1200 healed per Greater Heal (and 600 for Flash Heal.) This is a significant amount of healing difference that obviously scales with gear.

Is it better to take Empowered Healing or Blessed Resilience?

To compare the two, we’ll have to look at Empowered Healing at 3 ranks, since Blessed Resilience is only a 3-point talent. Empowered Healing is only giving Greater Heal 24% bonus spellpower at 3 talent points, for a total of 720 additional healing at 3000 spellpower. Blessed Resilience, by contrast, is going to give 3% overall heals; for my 3000 spellpower Holy priest that is walking around 0/5 in Empowered Renew, a crit Greater Heal of 16000 could be getting 480 bonus healing from that Blessed Resilience.

720 > 480, so in terms of raw healing, Empowered Healing wins.

However, Blessed Resilience also has added PvP benefits that sets it apart from Empowered Healing. Since I PvP as a Holy priest, I am attracted to this additional benefit. This means that Blessed Resilience still slips its way into my spec despite Empowered Healing’s obvious benefit.

Looking for some more nitty-gritty math on this subject? Here is the Elitist Jerks theorycrafting on the matter, from frequent poster Sindaga:

“Empowered Healing vs. Blessed Resilience (yes, the PvP talent)

Taking two examples for empowered healing (Flash Heal & Binding Heal); this is due to the very low amount of greater heal casting, personally, done in Ulduar 25 and 10-man. Each heal will be looked at with empowered healing or with blessed resilience. Calculations will be done with 3000 spell power (a very attainable goal with even just a couple ulduar upgrades). The formula used will be as follows:

Spell = [Average + (Spellpower * coefficient)]*(talent modifiers)

i) Calculations with Empowered Healing (w/ spiritual healing modifier)
Flash Heal = [2049.5 + (3000 * 0.9668)]*1.1
Flash Heal = 5445 healing average
Binding Heal = [2237.5 + (3000 *0.9668)]*1.1
Binding Heal = 5652 healing average
Greater Heal = [4300.5 + (3000 * 2.2256)]*1.1
Greater Heal = 12075 healing average

ii) Calculations with Blessed Resilience (w/ spiritual healing modifier)
Flash Heal = [2049.5 + (3000 * 0.8057)]*1.13
Flash Heal = 5047 healing average
Binding Heal = [2237.5 + (3000 *0.8057)]*1.13
Binding Heal = 4969 healing average
Greater Heal = [4300.5 + (3000 * 1.6111)]*1.13
Greater Heal = 10321 healing average

iii) Calculations with Blessed Resilience & Test of Faith (w/ spiritual healing modifier) – I found something interesting testing with Renew. If the spell is cast below 50%, the ticks (even if the health goes higher than 50%) stay with the 12% increased effectiveness.
Flash Heal = [2049.5 + (3000 * 0.8057)]*1.25
Flash Heal = 5583 healing average
Binding Heal = [2237.5 + (3000 *0.8057)]*1.25
Binding Heal = 5818 healing average
Greater Heal = [4300.5 + (3000 * 1.6111)]*1.25
Greater Heal = 11417 healing average

So those are some pretty plain numbers. If you find yourself casting greater heal more than once in a blue moon, perhaps stick with Empowered Healing. If you regularly find yourself not casting it at all during fights then a spec for better output would first put the 5 points from empowered healing to 3/3 blessed resilience and then 2/3 Test of Faith.

Justification for taking test of faith is it provides more healing to those targets who need more health.” — Sindaga

The bottom line here is that putting 3 points in Blessed Resilience along with 2 in Test of Faith increases the amount healed on targets below 50% by a significant amount. If you’re looking to take advantage of Test of Faith in the next layer of the tree, it’s a good idea to pair it with Blessed Resilience – and you can easily take the points from Empowered Healing to make that happen. It’s entirely a play-style dependent call, and I personally prefer the constant levels of healing provided by Empowered Healing to the low-health dependent benefits of Test of Faith.

I take Body and Soul over Test of Faith–again, mostly a PvP decision–and I must say those speed bubbles are saving myself and other raid members from otherwise tragic deaths.

World of Matticus has an excellent post about Holy priest specing that covers this topic as well.