Making a healing decision

[Fuzzyboy]

hmm, good to have a priests point of view, as my opinion is heavily shaman based,

2 things, I completely forgot about Desperate Prayer, and that is a talent now. the last time I played a priest, it was a racial, so please forgive my ignorance. DP is a great instant heal, even if its mana cost is high, it is effectively an instant flash heal? about the same healing on it? confirm/deny

Also, I forgot about the heal that heals the priest as well as the target, which would help on some fights i suppose, another tool in the arsenal of a priest to use for times when.. you're getting beat on i suppose? Ideally this spell should never have to be used outside PvP, but you can't say ideal is the standard in the game :P Making sure your healer is always getting heals in an "o-shit" moment can't be bad.

One other thing, and I know this feels like a post leaning towards priests a little, and that may be the case.

When you are gearing your toons, badge gear aside, having some diversity in your team's requirements for gear is useful, as the cloth drops wouldn't be sharded anymore, and that results in a net benefit to your gearing time.

I have 4 priests on their way to 80, and I would definitely try one out as a healer when it gets enough gear to be useful in heroics. I have no doubt it would be a good addition to my group, but there is also one problem.

1. I have found, that when I tried to include a Boomkin in my group, I found I missed my shaman, which is my team, and what I enjoy playing. My DPS was sacrificied a bit by the loss of a Boomkin, but my heals went up because I have the extra chain heal again, and more totems as well as chain lightning and synergy of all casts.

I enjoy a 4 elemental and 1 prot pally setup with a button to just heal my paladin 4x at once, and one to chain heal my entire group, and it works great. I see no real reason to incororporate a healer at all, but the new dungeons are sure pressing my ability to box them, and I am glad, a challenge might just be what I need to try and incorporate a priest and a boomkin to my group again =)

Afterall, it's what we like to play, but also what works =)

Actually I play paladin + 4 shamans at the moment. I still feel that priest is a better healer, but I like the PvP option and the synergy of the shamans :-)

If you have the option, you may want to think about including a lock instead of a boomkin. Anyway, as far as gearing goes, I find myself having almost exclusively badge and crafted gear, so that has never really been an issue. Sure, you'll prbably save a few runs, but in the end it's not something I'd weigh as a part of my decision. Like you're suggesting, even though the spell dmg debuff is nice, it's not necessarily worth the sacrifice of playing 4 of the same class. Anyway, that's my (very subjective) perspective - but I've done both and I find the 4-shaman setup more enjoyable. In the end it's a matter of preference I guess :-)

Like you, I'm looking forward to seeing how the 4-shaman setup works in the new dungeons, but I'm fairly confident they'll be doable once the current gear is upgraded. While a dedicated healer is a significant benefit in some encounters (Black Knight phase 3 for example), the spread healing is also sometimes beneficial. The Brann encounter was a walk in the park with my shammie team - also doable on my mixed team (they're equally geared except for a few Triumph pieces), but easier with the shamen.

As for desperate prayer - I've never used it while boxing.

[Mokoi]

Yeah, I am lvling my priest/warlock team now and I am considering the following setup when i am finished

Prot Pally
Elemental Shaman
Destro Warlock
Shadow Priest
Resto Druid

I know that people are opposed to shadow priests atm, but with their new buffs and a class I really enjoy, I find it a good addition.

Now, the plan is to use the druid and priest as dualspec dps/heal so if needed I can go holy priest / boomkin.

I'm not convinced that a resto druid will heal as well as a holy priest, but I do know it will be easy to macro and my druid already has tons of gear. Plus like I said if resto/shadow doesn't work I can still go Boomkin/holy.

SO, I end up playing 5 of my favorite classes and playing the game the way I want. Maybe not perfect, but check out raidcomp, its got all the buffs and debuffs you want in the game, spell power+ maxxed, haste, HP, Kings, Spirit, spell hit debuff, CoE to replace earth and moon, the only thing its missing is a BM hunter 3% flat dmg increase.

[SideWays]

I succesfully switched my resto shaman with a disc priest and all i can say is: WTF

Honestly my priest heals a lot better and even though hes in pvp gear he never runs oom.. The downside is that my paladin has to drink after every group in a heroic cause he never gets hurt

Tried a few heroics now and it went like a charm in ToC hero (no toon had under 80% of his hps).. I usually rush through ToC but I was having more problems when I was using my shaman healer.. Brb gotta farm PvE gear ^^

[Mokoi]

wow, thats good to hear =)