Sunday, April 24, 2011

Loot Wars and Raider Alts

It's really hard to explain things in a blog post. So many things can be misread or misinterpreted. I'm going to try to be as coherent as possible while trying to sound objective and fair. I have been mulling over this particular post for a while and I feel enough time has passed to explain my feelings about the situation. No names will be mentioned except for myself.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Holy Word: Sanctuary in 4.1

Holy Word: Sanctuary recently got a buff on the PTR.
  • Holy Word: Sanctuary healing done has been increased by 35%. In addition, it has a new spell effect.
This is a welcome buff for a spell that before was fairly unattractive to use.  In addition, it got a much needed graphic upgrade.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Mana Regen and You: Maximizing Your Mana for Raids

My last post made me want to expand on the ideals of maximizing our mana efficiency.  I admit that my last post was a bit garbled with druid and shaman information, so today I will be focusing on priests with ways to maximize the efficiency of your precious blue bar.

Holy Priests

Holy Concentration- Increases the amount of mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by an additional 15/30%

Holy Concentration is the staple mana regeneration talent for Holy priests and is absolutely mandatory to take in any Holy build. It causes Holy priests to benefit from 80% of mana regeneration that is provided by Spirit which is 30% more than other healers.  This causes Spirit to be the most favorable regen stat available.  Spirit-based gear/trinkets (Mandala of Stirring Patterns or Jar of Ancient Remedies) will be more favorable for Holy priests compared to other healers.

Discipline Priests

Rapture- When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled you are instantly energized with 5/7% of your total mana. This effect can only occur once every 12 sec.

Rapture is an important part of a Disc priests rotation.  It causes you to regain 7% of your total mana every 12 seconds, which is a significant amount and can be further increased through Intellect.  And because of Rapture and the passive ability Enlightenment work so well together, Intellect scaling for Disc priests is unparalleled by any other healer and makes Intellect the primary regen stat.  Utilizing Power Auras or another mod to track your Rapture proc is highly recommended. Gear/Trinkets that focus on Intellect are highly preferred over Spirit-based ones.  While Spirit is still a good regen stat, Disc priests will always benefit more from Intellect.

Derevka over at Tales of a Priest has a nice Rapture tracking mod for Power Auras that I use.  I modified it a bit to my preference and you can do the same.

The Synergy Between Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend

Hymn of Hope- Restores 2% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 sec for 8 sec, and increases their total maximum mana by 15% for 8 sec.

Shadowfiend- Creates a shadowy fiend to attack the target. Caster receives 3% mana when the Shadowfiend attacks. Damage taken by area of effect attacks is reduced. Lasts 15 sec.

Dawn Moore over at Spiritual Guidance did a fantastic writeup about the synergy between these 2 abilities and the way to maximize both of them.  It is mainly because Shadowfiend's mana restore is based off of the priest's maximum mana that makes it so valuable with Hymn of Hope.  Hymn of Hope temporarily boosts your maximum mana pool by 15% for the duration and your Shadowfiend scales extremely well with that boost.  So for maximum mana regen benefit, cast your Shadowfiend FIRST, then cast Hymn of Hope SECOND.  You will recieve the mana ticks from HoH while your Shadowfiend restores your maximum mana at the same time.  Even if your HoH is interrupted, as long as you get off one tick you will still benefit from the temporary mana pool boost.

Warning!  Make sure you are LOWER on mana than your fellow healers and DPS!  Hymn of Hope only benefits the 3 raid members with the lowest mana at the time it was cast.  If you aren't the lowest, you may be giving your HoH benefit to a Mage or Warlock by mistake!