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.

Smite spec comes in a variety of builds. The bread and butter is Surge of Light and Power Infusion, but beyond dipping that far into the Discipline and Holy trees, the path your talent points take may vary. The Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide is a great place to start.

On whether to place talent points into the shadow tree

The Wrath of the Lich King priest build that you’ll hear about the most in this blog is the raid viability build, which focuses on talents that not only benefit your holy DPS, but benefit the raid as a whole. This is Johannah’s spec. There is also, however, the maximum DPS build, which takes into consideration that shadow is part of the rotation.

We’ll go into the spec I don’t use first so it makes it easier to explain the raid viability build later.

Maximum DPS build

I’d like to thank Holy Fire Spec in advance for making me aware of this talent setup commonly used among the smite priest community. Though the Holy Fire Spec blog isn’t updated as much as I wish it was these days (and partly inspired the incarnation of this blog), I highly recommend visiting it for information on the WotLK smite priest.

Your spec is going to look like this: (37/27/7)

Discipline Tree: Twin Disciplines 5/5; Improved Inner Fire 3/3; Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2; Meditation 3/3; Inner Focus 1/1; Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3; Mental Agility 3/3; Mental Strength 5/5; Soul Warding 1/1; Focused Power 2/2; Enlightenment 3/3; Focused Will 3/3; Power Word: Infusion 1/1; Aspiration 2/2

Holy Tree: Holy Specialization 5/5; Divine Fury 5/5; Spell Warding 5/5; Desperate Prayer 1/1; Holy Reach 2/2; Searing Light 2/2; Spiritual Guidance 5/5; Surge of Light 2/2

Shadow Tree: Darkness 5/5; Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2/2

For a thorough explanation behind each of these talents, consult the Holy Fire Spec: Holy DPS Guide, where this was taken from.

Raid viability build

If you’re going for maximum DPS, I should break the sad truth to you right now: play a shadow priest. If, however, you are interested in bringing a unique smite priest into a raid that can provide your fellow comrades with some benefits for your inferior estranged presence, I recommend this build: (43/28/0)

Discipline: Twin Disciplines 5/5; Improved Inner Fire 3/3; Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2; Meditation 3/3; Inner Focus 1/1; Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3; Mental Agility 3/3; Mental Strength 5/5; Soul Warding 1/1; Focused Power 2/2; Enlightenment 3/3; Focused Will 3/3; Power Word: Infusion 1/1; Aspiration 2/2; Renewed Hope 2/2; Rapture 3/3; Pain Suppression 1/1

Holy Tree: Holy Specialization 5/5; Improved Renew 3/3; Healing Focus 2/2; Divine Fury 5/5; Spell Warding 5/5; Desperate Prayer 1/1; Holy Reach 2/2; Searing Light 2/2; Spirit of Redemption 1/1; Spiritual Guidance 5/5; Surge of Light 2/2

Here’s the explanation as to why this build is more beneficial than the maximum DPS build:

DISCIPLINE TREE

Renewed Hope. This talent is going to give the raid a consistent 3% damage decrease so long as you keep your Power Word: Shield up. This will always be useful to the raid dynamic, even if the tank is the only one being spanked; the counter argument to this is that another Discipline priest in your raid will neutralize this utility. You’ll need to keep a shield up too, but see the next explanation for that.

Rapture. In a fight with some kind of splash damage, keep yourself shielded. Not only are you going to help the healers, you’re going to proc Renewed Hope and get yourself extra mana. In a fight where you won’t take damage, shield your tank. He’ll appreciate the rage. Like Renewed Hope, this will be large-in-part neutralized by another Discipline priest.

Pain Suppression. There are fights where this is useful and your tanks will love you for it.

HOLY TREE

Spell Warding. I’m not sure why this was taken in the maximum DPS build and I would be wary to take this even if you decided to forfeit Discipline talents in the name of Shadow. This talent is geared for PvP; your smite priest should be just fine with a bubble and not need spell damage reduction.

Improved Renew. There are fights where an extra HoT on the tank will be vastly appreciated. Since you need to take a minimum amount of Holy talents to reach Surge of Light, this has much more utility than Spell Warding, it’s counterpart.

Holy Specialization. This will hardly ever get used, but is still more beneficial than Spell Warding and pushes you towards your Surge of Light goal. This will unfortunately be used the most when you’re doing your dailies.

Spirit of Redemption. Beyond the meager Spirit this is going to generate you, being able to heal after death gives you a tiny extra bang for your one-point talent buck. You could theoretically move this talent into Darkness, but it seemed like a moot investment to me to put one talent point in your Shadow tree now that you’ve gone after Pain Suppression. The added hilarity to Spirit of Redemption is that the druids will be aware there’s a BR target in 3… 2… 1…

Of course, with the raid viability spec, you’re looking at a 16% damage reduction to the Shadow Word: Pain in your rotation. Ouch! Trienish the Shadow Priest friend thinks this is such a detriment that shadow spells should be removed from the rotation entirely, which is the case in the smite priest simulator.

Interested in what other bloggers have to say about this spec? Read about that next time!