So Sayeth EJ for Holy Priest gearing:
1. Get as much Intellect as you can through higher item level gear.
2. Make sure every item has Spirit as a secondary stat, and gem/enchant/reforge for enough spirit to feel comfortable.
3. Get enough Haste to have 12.5% raid buffed.
4. Stack Mastery.
5. Avoid Crit, which has the worst conversion factors, and is devalued further by our talents to increase it.
Enough spirit to feel comfortable? What the EFF does that mean? Elitist Jerks is supposed to hand over the maths, not this new-age touchy-feely crap.
Rhii was easily keeping up with tons o’ mana. Clearly, she had enough spirit to be “comfortable.” I was floundering with OOM. I was decidedly uncomfortable – but thought that it was just the way cataclysm IS.
Then husband cut me 3 (+40) spirit gems. Holy. Shit.
With that small bump, I went from perma-oom, to being COMFORTABLE. Sure, I conserved mana still, but I no longer worried about pulling out the big guns when I needed them. I didn’t have to drink-to-full after every pull.
I don’t know what the magic number is. I only know that there is a tipping point, and it may not take THAT much gemming or reforging to reach it. One minute, you’re definitely NOT comfortable with your regen, and then not-too-much spirit later, you can hit the “magic” threshold, and suddenly feel closer to “normal” again.
For me it was very close to 2400. At 2500 I am comfortable.
Hmmmm I’ve just redone my gems and enchants away from spirit. I hope I’ll still be comfortable, raid on monday… I got my fingerscrossed, to be above the magic tippingpoint.
Being comfo in heroics is a whole different story from being comfo in raids. Dont be shy about getting spirits, you’ll need it in raid.
I think EJ and you are saying the same thing, in a different way. Once they nail down where the tipping point is, “be comfortable, whatevaaar!” will go away in favor of “this is what you need, and no less.”
Why 12,5% haste? Considering Renew sucks and most priests don’t even want to talent it beyond bare minimum (1 tp into Imp renew or you can’t advance down the tree) do we really care about that extra tick? It seems like haste is another stat we can stack to “comfortable” amounts without caring about any special caps. I realize EJ might have their reasons, just throwing the question out here to see what other people think about it
Honestly, I don’t have CLOSE to 12% haste. More like 5-6%. I suck. However, I’m not finding it “too slow.” I’m not “always casting” and I’m OK with that. I also try to use and abuse serendipity prior to a prayer of healing burst. And if prayer of healing becomes a raid staple, I’m likely to start feeling “slow” with my current haste.
Hey there Zel,
I was going for the 12.5% as well and then I realized that my PoH, which I use a lot in raids, was coming out really slowly and I felt I could improve on that. So I shaved off some of the mastery that I was stacking and went for more haste and now I feel better about that.
I have never been one for gemming pure anything, since I started playing a priest. I always go for int and something – either haste, spirit or mastery. I feel like I get more all around benefits from doing it that way.
The trinkets you use can also make a difference. Right now, I’m using Darkmoon Card: Tsunami and the Jar from Maloriak and I’m dripping in mana. Seriously, I don’t even need Mana Tide. It’s pretty gross.
To go back to your Renew statement, there is talk of Renew spamming making a comeback after 4.0.6 with the reduced mana cost. So that may make 12.5% more appealing. I’m not sure.
I know exactly what you mean. I don’t know when my magic tipping point was, but it’s there, and it’s sudden. One day I’m in mana hell, I get one gear upgrade and I’m perfectly fine, thank you and could you please start pulling faster? It’s quite strange.
Exactly. It doesn’t take much once you reach the magic number. Where’s that number? No idea. I do know that my mana regen is somewhere around 3k, whatever that means.
Well, I think there is so much more to mana issues than just that. It depends on how your group is at avoiding effects that cause them more damage, it depends on how much your other healers are putting into the fight, etc. It’s not just about you and yours.
People are really quick to say “I need work” and that’s great that they’re modest enough to say that and willing to look at themselves first. But there could be other variables at play that some people don’t consider or would never have imagined could be the cause of their mana problems.
That’s why I don’t like the term “comfortable.” My comfort level may be way out of whack with what is reasonable expectations of mana regeneration. I would like a number, a real number, so I can go and test out how that number feels. If it still feels off, then I know it’s a sign that I need to L2P or get over my mana preconceptions or neuroses, not necessarily stack more spirit. (Or tell my group to L2P)
I don’t know. I kind of like that some things are left to personal preference. I can’t tell you how many times I have been told or encouraged to take a talent “because it works” and I didn’t feel the same. For example, I love Body & Soul and I know other holy priests will say it’s neglible and I can put the points elsewhere. I also put points in Darkness. Some holy priests don’t. I don’t feel it should be as black/white to say “If you do/do not have these things, then you are win/fail.” It should be whatever works for you.
If you are seeing results and you are keeping people alive and it’s working, you can show that it is, then more power to you. Again, with so many factors that come into play, I would expect no two priests to heal the same. By the same, I mean the same quality of tanks, class of tanks, raid makeups, assignments, etc.
TL; DR: We’re all OK!
It may be different for me since I play disc, but the “comfortable” spot for heroics seemed to be around 2200-2300 mp5. Then again, I’m also much better at watching for Rapture and AA which can return a significant amount of mana in 30sec (10-12% of your mana poll every 30 secs).
EJ info on secondary stats for disc priests is also insubstantial. I find that haste comes up big for disc since we lack the AoE healing strength of holy. Mastery is next for the upcoming juicy bubbles we’ll be casting on the tank and DA procs from PoH. Crit brings up the rear…not that it’s bad, it’s just unpredictable.