Short answer: Do both.

Got duel spec? Okay, good. Now make one spec Holy and the other Discipline. You can get your 50g back doing your random daily later. (Need to have a DPS spec for switching roles because you have too many healers? I’d suggest switching roles per raid instead of per fight; it’ll simplify the dilemma.) Now I’ll go over the details why.

There are several bosses where you can play whatever floats your boat. Some say it’s great to have the damage reduction and bubbles in a raid for all fights, others say the impact Holy priests make on the charts is astronomical. If you want to be a winnar though, you’ll need Discipline for Saurfang and Holy for Festergut (some call him Sporeface.)

For Saurfang: Your bubbles are going to slow down how fast he gets runic power, and therefore how quickly he starts to mark people into a pit of utter doom. You’ll be amazed at the difference you make in this fight when you’re Discipline; no other healer comes close. (They might think they do if they’re chart whores though. )

For Festergut: Raid damage EVERYWHAR. Holy has an advantage here, letting you run around and CoH, not to mention the Serendipity build-up for your huge PoH spells. Plus, I’m a Holy fan, so… of course I’m going to recommend it for something. :p

Of course, if you don’t have dual spec–or you’re just unwilling to spec Holy and Discipline because the concept seems asinine (it used to seem stupid to me, too)–then you can play whatever fits comfortably with your playstyle. I personally stand by my theory that Discipline is more useful and Holy is more fun, but this is an opinion that can be supported or diverted with endless amounts of subjective numbers and theorycraft. In the end, you should do what’s right for you, and what’s right for your raid based on the other healer you’re paired with.

I switched to Discipline almost right away because one of the Holy priests just didn’t play nice.

Then it occurred to me, in my brief belief in the better side of humanity, that the Holy priest might not have known what “playing nice” with his fellow Holymates meant. I continued along my Discipline way, thinking it a mere misunderstand.

And found a bubble on the tank that’d never received a bubble before.

That cinched the deal that he had a vendetta to rub people the wrong way and saw my Penance as an obvious sign of weakness. If this is you, this post isn’t talking to you; you clearly have no intention to play well with others. But let’s assume you’re not this individual for a moment and you’d like to make friends with the other priests in your raid. What are some helpful pointers to make sure you’re not stepping on each others toes?

When there are two Holy priests in a raid, PoM sharing is caring

Remember that your Prayer of Mending can override the Prayer of Mending of other priests. As Holy priests, we get our PoM at lightning Divine Providence speed, so it’s easy to accidentally override a PoM out of knee-jerk reflex. To steer clear of this overlap (which is obviously wasting the mana of one of the priests present), take a backseat and watch what target your priest friend is PoMing. More than likely, it’s the main tank. Now find another target–off tank, I’m guessing–and start PoMing him/her.

When there are two Discipline priests in a raid, Power Word: Shield sharing is caring

Same principle as Holy priests, but watch your Power Word: Shield. Remember that PW:S is going to give Borrowed Time, so while you may want to argue that any bubble is a good bubble (it’s not like someone’s wasting mana when the target cannot be bubbled again), you’re jipping your other priest’s haste by not giving them the opportunity to bubble effectively. The answer? Just let the other Discipline priest do the MT bubbles, or ask him which targets you should each focus on. You can always PW:S a reckless DPS to get your haste if necessary.

When there is a Holy priest and a Discipline priest in a raid, stop ruining each other’s trademarks

Discipline priest, want to PoM? Do it on the OT or the suicidal DPS. Holy priest, don’t bubble. It wastes mana.

Have fun priesting together in harmony!

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.

All of this gear linked here is obtainable in 10-mans or in the new ICC dungeons. There are 25-man equivalents if you’re in a larger guild.

Head: Thaumaturge’s Crackling Cowl drops from Saurfang in ICC-10. The Spirit and Haste on this helm is ideal for Holy heals, though it does conflict with your four-piece bonus.

Neck: I hate this slot. You’re either stuck with the Evoker’s Charm, or you need to swindle yourself into a 25-ICC for Bone Sentinel’s Amulet. Since this guide isn’t for 25-mans, you get to keep your i226. Trienish said that the PvP one will be available without a minimum rating in a couple weeks though, so you could also hold your breath for that (or try Iron Council hardmode in Ulduar-10.)

Shoulders: Bloodstained Surgeon’s Shoulderguards. Festergut in ICC-10 is holding your Spirit and Critical Strike shoulders.

Chest: I am saving my 95 painstaking emblems of frost for the Crimson Acolyte Robe tier piece for this gear slot. If that doesn’t sound like a great idea to you though, consider Mord’rethar Robes or the crafted Royal Moonshroud Robe. If you’re on Kalecgos, you can even gather the mats, whisper me and mention my blog and I’ll craft the robe for you for free.

Wrist: Bracers of Dark Blessings. Lady Deathwhisper in ICC-10 has these beautiful Critical Strike and Spirit wrists.

Weapon: Everyone is after the hilt these days, right? Unfortunately, the mace doesn’t give you Spirit, but who can say no?

Off-hand: The best Spirit offhand is still the Antique Cornerstone Grimoire from Onyxia 10. There is, however, another offhand without Spirit, the Shriveled Heart, if you’re looking something to compliment your hilt.

Trinkets: I mentioned the Darkmoon Card earlier, but what about the other slot? If you’re after Spirit, you’re after mana regeneration, so I would suggest the Ephemeral Snowflake I wrote about in a previous post.

Rings: Stick with the triumph emblem ring and a ring from Onyxia’s head for these two slots. They’re both wonderful Spirit rings.

Boots: Prelate’s Snowshoes from heroic Pit of Saron took me weeks to get, but they’re well worth the runs. The Spirit on these boots go nicely with a Spirit enchant.

Belt: The Cord of the Patronizing Practitioner from Marrowgar in ICC-10 comes with ample amounts of Haste and Spirit. The Haste and Critical Strike items sprinkled across Spirit compliment each other nicely in a spec that benefits from the “Haste saves lives” theory and the Critical Strike for Surge of Light.

Gloves: For 60 emblems of frost, you can pick yourself up a beautiful set of Crimson Acolyte Gloves, Spirit gloves that will push you towards your amazing 2-piece and even more amazing 4-piece set bonus. This also applies to all the other tier categories for the aforementioned items, at 95 or 60 emblems of frost a piece. Don’t have the emblems? Consider these Suspiciously Soft Gloves instead.

There are standard uses forPower Infusion, like when you’re chucking out your Smite spells or trying to get a fast ninja heal in. I’m not going to go over those. Instead, I thought I would point out four uncommon and yet beneficial uses of Power Infusion:

1. Mana Burn. Let Power Infusion speed up your Mana Burn rate in PvP.
2. Another DPS. Unless I’m in an epeen war while smiting, I find that dropping Power Infusion on another DPS caster is the best way to go. It’s saved me before from close-call enrage timers.
3. Another healer. Paladin healers that are cranking out the single target heals on a tank benefit from Power Infusion and will love you forever. Sometimes it’s best to hand it to them if you’re HoTing.
4. With Divine Hymn. Divine Hymn does a great job by itself, but if you throw Power Infusion on it, the healing rate is nothing short of ridiculous. You’ll be awed at your HPS during that time.

What are some of your favorite situations for Power Infusion? A couple weeks ago, we had a mage that two Discipline priests were alternating Power Infusion on — along with Heroism — and he doubled DPS in comparison to the rest of the raid. Score!

Enjoy your Power Infusion!

While the changes to shadow priests in 3.3 are catastrophically orgasmic, we smite priests still aren’t wiped entirely away from the picture. (Not any more than they were already wiped since the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King, anyway.) There are priests that, regardless of the differences in DPS, will always prefer the play mechanics of smiting over shadowing; if you stuck us in pure DPS classes, you’d have an epic mage vs. warlock showdown. Because of this, while I strongly recommend any priest that wants to do l33t DPS should switch shadow, I also advise that the priests that love smite stick with the spec that’s faithful to them and deal with the ridicule. After all, you’ve already listened to it for years; for expansions.

And to really understand just how much you’ve screwed yourself, I’d like to turn to the the bread and butter of smite spec: Surge of Light.

Why is Surge of Light screwing me?

Surge of Light is located in the dead center of the Holy tree, deep enough that Penance is not possible but early enough that Power Infusion is capable of taunting you. It’s strategic placement in the Holy tree (along with Power Infusion’s placement in the Discipline tree) forces the real smite priest to abandon the notion that they can just “cast Smite while healing” and design a real Holy DPS spec that falls short of the pure Discipline and pure Holy healing counterparts. Surge of Light is your lifesaver and your doomsday bringer.

I REPEAT:

There are priests that have tried to Holy DPS with Penance; forget it. You need Surge of Light and it needs you.

There are priests that have tried to Holy DPS with the Holy tree alone; forget that, too. Surge of Light leaves you room for critical things like Power Infusion and Focused Power.

Surge of Light makes sure that you design a smite spec that gimps your healing, but still makes you a better healer than the shadow priest. You’re a schmuck middle man. But it gives you free Smite procs, so you can’t judge it too terribly!

Does Surge of Light have an internal cooldown?

According to Sinespe on WoWHead, yes. Granted, it’s mighty difficult to test something that only procs 50% of the time to begin with, but he managed to grab a piece of his combat log over 7.28 seconds that showed the internal cooldown:

0.00: Sinetest gains Sinetest's Surge of Light.
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Holy Concentration.
      Sinetest's Inspiration is refreshed on Sinetest.
      Sinetest's Flash Heal heals Sinetest for 0.(4985 Overhealed)
1.38: Sinetest's Surge of Light fades from Sinetest.
      Sinetest's Serendipity is refreshed on Sinetest.
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Inner Focus.
3.14: Sinetest's Prayer of Healing heals Sinetest for 0.(6381 Overhealed) (Critical)
      Sinetest's Serendipity fades from Sinetest.
      Sinetest's Inner Focus fades from Sinetest.
      Sinetest's Inspiration is refreshed on Sinetest.
4.52: Sinetest's Flash Heal heals Sinetest for 0.(7644 Overhealed) (Critical)
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Serendipity.
      Sinetest's Holy Concentration is refreshed on Sinetest.
      Sinetest's Inspiration is refreshed on Sinetest.
5.90: Sinetest's Flash Heal heals Sinetest for 0.(5032 Overhealed)
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Serendipity (2).
7.28: Sinetest's Flash Heal heals Sinetest for 0.(7306 Overhealed) (Critical)
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Serendipity (3).
      Sinetest gains Sinetest's Surge of Light.

Sinepse believed, from this data, that Surge of Light has a roundabouts ICD of 5 seconds. Pretty fast, but still there. You’re more than likely not going to push it unless your critical strike rating is out of hand. (And if that’s the case, I recommend Haste to get an extra Smite in during Holy Fire; see my Lvl 80 Smite Priest Guide for more tips there.)

How much mp5 does Surge of Light generate?

If you get a Surge of Light proc every 8 seconds (which is feasible with around 25% crit rating), you’re looking at 390.625 Mp5. This is also derived by Sinepse from the above combat log. One of the flaws to his research is that it’s taking Circle of Healing into account (which has the chance to proc on multiple targets), but I do not feel this should differ much given the fast-paced casting time of Smite with the appropriate Haste gear. I, for one, have no problems getting a Surge of Light every 8 seconds.

And what with mana being one of the key issues of smiting, you once again see how Surge of Light has destroyed your chance for Penance and yet taken over your smiting world.

Interested in reading about priests trying to find their way to smite spec? Then check out Surge of Light on WoWHead. You’d be amazed how many people know, either from reading or simple deduction, that this is the backbone of Holy DPS; the discussion of smite spec is always centered around these 2 talent points in the middle of the Holy tree bedlam.

PvE gear results

Non-crit Smite: ~2471

Crit Smite: ~3579

Crit chance: 40%

I did this in my healing gear–lackluster Critical and lower spellpower in exchange for Spirit and Haste–so the numbers are a bit fudgy, but they still illustrate well enough what my healing gear would pew as in a PvE situation. Now we look at the same target in his PvP gear…

1000+ Resilience results

Non-crit Smite: ~2213

Crit Smite: ~2533

Crit chance: 9%

Huge difference, especially in the Crit chance! It might have increased a little with a larger sampling of Smite casts, but it wasn’t going to come close to the numbers derived from the same target without the Resilience.

This means that Smite priests suffer an extraordinary setback in PvP situations; not so much in the reduction of damage, but in the lowered Crit chance, translating into less Surge of Light procs. Lower damage is always a minus, but if you take away Critical strike, you’ve taken away the bread-and-butter of smite spec; Penance does more damage than Smite when Surge of Light and other Holy DPS talents are yanked from the picture.

But don’t despair! Even if the damage is thwarted significantly, a PvP smite spec still has the advantage of Blessed Resilience. Read more about how to PvP with smite spec, whether Resilience is thwarting you or not!–or check out a deeper Holy tree PvP build!

Your PvP dual spec might benefit from holy damage

Holy damage is considered useful for a wide variety of reasons, and yet is only available to smite priests and paladins. Here’s eight reasons you might’ve heard why Holy damage is considered a great asset in any DPS situation–and whether it’s true or not!

1. There’s no resistance to Holy damage. This is true. Races and classes reliant on resistance as part of their makeup will find no solace against Holy damage, making it ideal in PvP.
2. Holy damage bypasses resistance. I’ve yet to be able to confirm this, but rumors still float around about how Holy is unaffected by Resilience. I intend on testing this tomorrow. I know for quite some time in Burning Crusade, this rumor had a ring of truth to it.
3. Holy damage hits undead  creatures harder. While some paladin Holy spells are designed specifically to thwart demons and undead, it’s not a general rule that Holy hits an undead mob any harder than anything else. You’re thinking too much like Final Fantasy here.
4. A Retribution paladin can boost a Holy priest’s damage. In Burning Crusade, Retribution paladins could use Seal of Righteousness to improve Holy damage. Unfortunately, this mechanic was changed in Wrath of the Lich King and no longer benefits Holy priests.
5. There are no abilities that reduce Holy damage. Mages have the means to reduce/absorb Fire and Frost damage; mobs everywhere can avoid Nature and Shadow. But are there any that spite Holy? Believe it or not, a few mobs in World of Warcraft have Damage Reduction: Holy; check out which ones are able to thwart your spells!
6. There are mobs that are vulnerable to Holy damage. Just like how there are a few random mobs that reduce Holy damage, there’s a few that take increased Holy damage–and they’re not necessarily undead! A good example is Vek’nilash. Nice and random.
7. There will be a Holy form released some day that benefits Holy as much as Shadow benefits from Shadowform. In Sunwell Plateau, there were priests that could use Holyform and started a speculation pre-WotLK. Talk about the new expansion seems to stir this up here-and-there again. Unfortunately, even if Holyform was released, it would more than likely only affect healing spells. Holy damage isn’t going to see anything useful here.
8. There’s only one wand in the game that does Holy damage. In vanilla WoW, this was true, and it was the Wand of Eternal Light specifically. You can find all kinds of random forum posts from the ancient days about it. Now, there are six of them, including Nurturing Touch from 10M Auriaya and Fading Glow from 25M Loatheb.

Do you know any random trivia that may be a real benefit–or a debunked myth?–to Holy damage? Feel free to share!