disc-priest-spiritual-guidance
Latest
Spiritual Guidance: Preparing disc and holy priests for patch 4.0.1
Every Sunday at WoW Insider, you'll find Spiritual Guidance, a guide to healing as a discipline or holy priest. Priestess Dawn Moore will bring you the latest in news, discussion and advice for priests in the World of Warcraft while simultaneously battling her shadow priest rival, Fox Van Allen. This week, after contracting a team of gnomish engineers, Dawn has gone inside Fox's mind to plant an idea deep in his subconscious. The idea? Healing > DPS. Things are crazy for priests lately. New and dramatically different talent builds are appearing each week like cannonballs, mercilessly destroying everything from the previous week. This week, I was hoping to get everyone ready for the upcoming patch 4.0.1, but that's easier said than done, since build 12984 was just cannibalized by build 13033 on Thursday evening, before mutating into build 13066 on Saturday afternoon. All the same, I'm going to do my best to achieve my original goal James Stewart style, and if this all becomes irrelevant six ways before next Thursday, then it does -- and I hope you'll be patient with me while I reconstruct everything before the next storm. Cutting to the chase, I've got a talent by talent write-up to get everyone caught up on what's possibly going to go live in the next week (or three), some recommendations for talent trees, and details on glyphs.
Spiritual Guidance: Priest changes in build 12984 and Life Grip video
Every Sunday at WoW Insider, you'll find Spiritual Guidance, a guide to healing as a discipline or holy priest. Priestess Dawn Moore will bring you the latest in news, discussion and advice for priests in the World of Warcraft while simultaneously battling her shadow priest rival, Fox Van Allen. This week, Dawn has been training an infantry of super-perceptive aerial assault sheep to counter the Dark Shrine she spotted Fox warping into WoW Insider HQ earlier. The latest build for the Cataclysm beta was the big news yesterday, thanks to ol' B at MMO-Champion. The news hit sometime in the night while most priests were nestled all snug in their beds, but High Priest Matticus and I were up late drinking chocolate malts and playing wall ball, so we got a head start on the information ... which we promptly used to write about pets and shaman. Last week, I said I'd be finishing my Cataclysm roundup this weekend, but since there were quite a few changes in this latest beta build (which I'm guessing will affect the release of patch 4.0.1), I think it's better if we discuss the details of the changes before we try to summarize them. There was also a super-exciting (though entirely superficial) change with this patch as well ... Leap of Faith, also known as "Life Grip," got a brand new animation! Check out the video after the jump.
Spiritual Guidance: Cataclysm beta roundup for priests, pt. 1
Everyone knows that each Sunday they can expect the healing priest edition of Spiritual Guidance from Dawn Moore. What you probably don't know is that on Mondays, Dawn and her shadowy nemesis, Fox Van Allen, put aside their differences and hog-pool to the Orgrimmar Shadowfiend Shelter, a home for displaced shadowfiends. Each year, thousands of shadowfiends are orphaned, but some survive because of players like you. These shadowfiends need you today; reroll now! Information about what's going on in the Cataclysm beta has been a little bit dodgy for priests here at Spiritual Guidance the past couple of months. That's largely in part to the fact that I haven't had access to the beta. Now, thanks to my new favorite people at NowGamer, I have a beta key. This means no more guesses and speculations on how things work. The timing couldn't have been better either, since as of yesterday evening, the PTR for patch 4.0 became available for players to download. This means before long we'll be seeing the 31-point talent trees on live realms, and that means Cataclysm can't be too far off either. Exciting, don't you think? So now, because discussion of beta has been going on for 6 months and changing every week, now seems like the best time to get everyone up to date and clarify any information that was unclear, mistaken, or just plain forgotten from the past few months. I have compiled a big, two part list of changes for healing priests that look like they're going to go live, so if you've been avoiding reading up on what's going on in the beta, the next two weeks of Spiritual Guidance are going to be articles you want to read. I've also got some video for you guys at the end! Let's go!
Spiritual Guidance: Shield spam and Divine Aegis, a theorycrafting story
In the beginning there were priests. Then Blizzard said "Let there be other classes!" Things have been a lot more complicated ever since. Fortunately, there is Spiritual Guidance, WoW.com's bi-weekly guide for priests. On Sundays you can enjoy discussion on discipline, holy, and healing in the company of Dawn Moore. We don't have cookies here, but only because we call them biscuits, and serve them with tea, sandwiches, and scones. Did you want one lump, or two? A couple of months ago I found myself talking to a non-priest about the gems I had slotted on my character. He was of the understanding that disc priests wanted nothing but crit, and thought it was strange that I had gemmed straight spellpower on all my gear. Figuring he was behind on the times, I happily explained to him that I was using the standard gem set up for shield spamming disc priests, which works around the premise that if the majority of what we do is cast shields, then we should stack as much spellpower as possible in order to make our most used spell (Power Word: Shield) absorb more. This is the standard practice advised to shield spammers throughout the priest community, and I've advised it here on Spiritual Guidance before as well. The non-priest still didn't understand though. He kept insisting "but crit ..." which inclined me to gently stroke back his hair and say "there there, poor little confused non-priest, it's all right." I allowed him his dignity though, and instead went on with my explanation. I told him that alternative stats like crit and haste didn't do much for shield spamming since Power Word: Shield can't crit, and Borrowed Time removes the necessity for haste since the talent carries us down to the 1 second GCD soft cap whenever we cast Power Word: Shield. The non-priest still didn't understand, so I explained to him that a disc priest's primary interest in crit was Divine Aegis, a talent which applies a second shield whenever one of your spells crits. "But shields don't crit," I reiterated. "The heal from the Glyph of Power Word: Shield can, but that would only add say ... 500 extra absorption from Divine Aegis. The spellpower is still better." As I typed out those last words, they boomeranged back and hit me square in the face. Startled, I peeled the sans serif off my nose and and reexamined the limp letters in my hands. Suddenly I wondered, "is that really true?"
Spiritual Guidance: Priest PSA
On most Sundays, Spiritual Guidance by Dawn Moore is a semi-respectable guide for priests who want the latest news and thoughts on healing as a discipline or holy priest. However, due to decreased interest in priests, WoW.com has decided that starting next week Spiritual Guidance will be replaced by a new column, "One Less Lonely Elf," by Justin Bieber. The new column will cover role playing in Silvermoon City. Dawn has declined to comment. PSA stands for public service announcement (e.g. Dawn smiled with satisfaction as she stepped back to admire one of the many flyers she had spent the afternoon hanging around her guild hall. The words "Don't drink and DPS" were spelled out cheerfully across a large piece of parchment. Below, a photograph of a staggeringly uneven damage meter was pictured, followed by some informative text and statistical data.) It shouldn't be confused with PDA, which stands for public display of affection (e.g. Thanks to a heady blend of Kungaloosh and port, Fox unabashedly pushed his warlock lover against the mailbox at the south bank and moved in for a kiss. Before their lips could touch though, Fox abruptly exploded into a cloud of luminescent, purple dust. His companion glowed red with discomfort as several bystanders turned to stare. "Perhaps I shouldn't have had so much to drink," Fox considered.)
Spiritual Guidance: Back to the beta
In 2015, while testing out the latest Keepers of Time expansion, Blizzard Executive Fox Van Allen accidentally ganks his past self, undoing his own existence by causing himself to reroll paladin. Now, stuck in the year 2008, Fox must find a way to undo his mistake or risk losing everything. To do this, he tracks down the only person he knows: Dawn Moore. Unfortunately, she's never heard of him, WoW.com or Spiritual Guidance, and would much rather PvP than heal. I've come to think of the Cataclysm beta as a disease. Each week it spreads further among the general populace while simultaneously mutating into a newer, stronger version of its former self. As the resident healer, it's my duty to try to control and contain the situation by applying my latest analysis, but overall the beta is a very resistant infection and my normal approaches are continually being overtaken. Still, I stand vigilant and celebrate my small victories; I will not leave you ill-informed, my fellow priests! The sound of crickets fill the silence. Yes, well then ... Shall we get started?
Spiritual Guidance: Let's talk about mana, baby
While Mr. Van Allen is getting his waistcoat pressed, Dawn Moore presents her weekly book club Spiritual Guidance, a healing guide for priests. Here you can expect some optimism, some cynicism and absolutely no Regency period clothing. So, supposedly mana is going to be an issue for healers in Cataclysm. It's the word on the street, ya know? Everyone is talking about how we're not going to be able to spam this or that, and that we'll need to make better decisions with our spell selection. "Triage" is this year's vocabulary word. That old, busted spam style of healing is out, and the new "do damage, get mana" mechanic is supposed to be the new hotness. Of course, we priests are bound to be the superstars* of the next expansion; it's all pretty exciting, don't you think? Well, maybe not everyone feels that way, but that's why we have cake and counseling. Dawn motions to the door behind her. So, in the short time I've written for WoW.com, I've noticed that the mana question is one that continually comes up. Is mana a problem? Is it not a problem? It seems like there isn't a single satisfactory answer I can give to everyone, but knowing mana might be a hurdle in the future for all of us, I figured now would be a good time to look back and ahead. So, let's talk about mana.
Spiritual Guidance: Latest beta talent builds for priests
Each Sunday, Dawn Moore combines a bitterness for canned meat, the occasional groovy beat, and massacred references to classic literature into Spiritual Guidance, a healing guide for priests. These days everybody is in the beta. Let me just tell you who. My mother is in the beta. My father is in the beta. My auntie is in the beta. My best friend is in the beta. My cat is in the beta. My goldfish is in the beta. My neighbor is in the beta. My postman is in the beta. I just wanna be -- Oh! Hi. Dawn turns down her music and folds her hands in her lap, Alistair Cooke style. Another beta build is upon us, my friends. With it comes my obligatory recount and reflection for priests, paired with my even more obligatory, jading references to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest, part 4, levels 41-70
Two class specs, both alike in dignity, in fair Azeroth, where we lay our scene, from ancient expansion to ICC, here circles, bubbles, mischief all convene. Spiritual Guidance updates each Sunday with all the essentials on healing as a priest. You would think that a priest could dispel bleeds. We can restore people from death and protect them from incoming attacks, yet we can't plug up one gushing wound? Seems a bit strange, doesn't it? Are we not masters of healing? Anyway, today's column actually has nothing to do with dispelling or bleed effects (other than the author writing today's column while under the effects of a non-dispellable bleed debuff). It has to do with leveling a priest from levels 40 to 70. Hit the jump and we'll get to it.
Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest, part 3, levels 1-40
Spiritual Guidance is a fickle being that simply cannot be won over with chocolates and a reservation to the fanciest restaurant in town. Though Fox Van Allen might sport a silk (snap-on) tie and offer a second glass of corky but rather impressive claret, it is Dawn Moore's singing compulsion that makes the column coo its priestly secrets. With all the preliminary work laid out, this week we'll be finally be getting started on the actual leveling aspect of my multi-part leveling guide. This week we'll be covering abilities, rotations, talent builds, and gear upgrades for the first 40 levels of the priest class. So if you dream of smiting your enemies with divine fire, and giving yourself a small tan in the process, hit the jump!
Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest, part 2
The word priest is derived from the Greek work presbyteros, meaning "elder." While Dawn Moore is neither Greek nor an elder, she has 300 days played between her various priests (two-thirds of which was probably spent AFK) and will do her best to relay the information learned in those days each week in Spiritual Guidance. This week instead of one of my typical, eloquent (ha!) introductions, I am going to tell you a story. A story about a machine. The machine was an ancient treasure, crafted by the titans and unearthed by a young priestess. The machine was very powerful and was said to hold the answers to all questions, even the ultimate ones. The priestess honored this machine with her life and wished only to do good with it. One day, while traversing the icy northern valleys of the Storm Peaks, the priestess crossed paths with a leopard. A snow leopard. The priestess slowly took guard, not wishing to agitate the beast. It seemed to be of no matter, however, as the beast was furious with hunger, and it leapt at her without hesitation. The priestess scrambled to her right, calling up a protective shield as the leopard came at her. It seemed she would have to do combat; she began to recite the words to a holy prayer aloud. Unfortunately, before she could finish her prayer, the beast broke her barrier and tackled her to the ground. As she fell, she panicked, thinking of the machine tucked carefully in her satchel. The sound of metal crunching and contorting split through the sounds of the leopard's growls. Or maybe it was just the sound of the priestess' heart? Whatever it was, the priestess screeched in anger, frightening the animal off of her as she called forth the shadows. A protodrake later dined on the leopard's broken corpse. The priestess hurried to Mimiron, master tinkerer and watcher of the titans. She begged him to repair the machine but he shook his head sadly. The machine was ruined, and only the absent titans themselves could restore it. The priestess lowered her head solemnly. Don't understand what that story is about? Don't worry about it. It's time for the second installment of my holy and discipline healing guide. Let's get started.
Spiritual Guidance: Healing Halion and the Ruby Sanctum
Every weekend, Dawn Moore enjoys drinking her tea English style and writing Spiritual Guidance to the pleasant sound of birds (this is quite fortunate, since she lives in an aviary.) This weekend however, Dawn's soundtrack is being interrupted by the sound of explosives. What could be the root of this?! Fox Van Allen must have finally teamed up with goblin engineers to foil Dawn's Sunday column. How will she write for healing priests with that incessant racket?! This week I'll be writing about how to traverse the Ruby Sanctum as a healing priest. I know, I know, I promised you all a leveling guide, but for the sake of being timely we'll have to push it back a week. Forgive me, please? In the guide I'll be covering Halion, as well as the three mini-bosses you'll have to defeat before you can face him. I will also examine priest appropriate loot in the instance and compare it to a few pieces we've seen in Icecrown Citadel. Hit the jump and we'll get started.
Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest
The final week of June has been declared a week of vigil for Fox Van Allen, the once great shadow priest who vanished after his expeditions in Borean Tundra. His dream to tame 300 thousand penguins with Critter Bites was a great one. Spiritual Guidance, Dawn Moore, and all holy and discipline priests honor his memory. Spriest on, comrade, spriest on! You've seen them basking in that heavenly golden light while effortlessly dishing out heals left and right. You've seen those magnificent white wings stretch out over your fallen allies, just when it seemed all hope was lost, and in the longest 15 seconds of your life, carry your comrades to victory. They are priests, arguably the healer of the World of Warcraft. Today I am writing for the players out there who don't have a priest of their own, but have long watched from afar with longing. Does the priest class intrigue you? Perhaps you have been thinking of venturing into the light but have yet to do so? Well, today I will be laying out what you need to know before you get started.
Spiritual Guidance: Do's and don't's of priest healing
Another Sunday is upon us, and while a certain priest who shall remain nameless (his name might start with a "F" and end with an "ox Van Allen") lies about in a post-Warlock-soiree-stupor somewhere, Spiritual Guidance and Dawn Moore are here to cater to all your priest and healing needs. Dawn Moore won't forget to pick you up from the airport, and she definitely doesn't watch Jersey Shore. I have this notebook; it's nothing special in design, just a composition book, but after using it for several months it has become quite an impressive little catalog of messy handwriting (though, I was recently told I make a nice lowercase "G.") What makes this notebook worth mentioning today is that I've used this notebook every week since I started writing for WoW.com six months ago. In it are all my thoughts, notes, questions and more about playing a priest and healer in the World of Warcraft. There are also some random drawings where I illustrate my raid leader's unusual commentary. As each week passes I tend to cross out things that I've covered in articles, and make a notation of the date on which I published it. Many articles are born in this little book. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stray notes in it as well. What I mean by that are there are lots of scribbles of ideas that don't quite constitute a full feature article, but still make for a worthwhile discussion. Today, I've decided to compile those stray thoughts into a list of "do's and don't's" for my fellow healing priests.
Spiritual Guidance: Going to the dark side
Silvermoon City records show that Dawn Moore was born and raised by a loving fire mage and holy priest. Fox Van Allen? He crawled out of an ethereal sludge and was raised by warlock cultists. Dawn once saved some puppies and bunnies from a burning zeppelin while simultaneously defeating Undermine drug lords. Fox? He tried to eat those same bunnies. Each Sunday in Spiritual Guidance, Dawn brings you information on how to walk, talk, and dance like a holy or discipline priest. Fox brings you trollish recipes for gnome genocide. Dawn Moore: the choice is clear. [Paid for by priests for Dawn Moore - nsfw] It's about that time in a major content patch when things start to slow down. We've run all the 5-mans we can stomach, and in Icecrown Citadel we're starting to really close in on our goals as the 20% buff and our accumulated gear help to fill in the gaps of what we need to succeed. As this happens, your wish list of equipment is undoubtedly getting smaller; maybe you're done gearing up, or are just waiting for a few more pieces to drop. Maybe you're cursing my name for reminding you that you've had the most terrible luck at getting that wand, cloak, or whatever to drop. But regardless of where you are, I'm certain you've found yourself thinking, "hmm, I could use that for offspec." Like most classes, priests are starting to think about where to go next. Do I gear out an alternative healing set? Should I collect more spirit items for Cataclysm? Do I spend my extra badges on PvP gear? (Dawn says yes! But that's another article.) How about honing out skills in that other healing spec we don't like quite as much as our favorite? Oh, and then of course, there is always the sweet seduction of the shadows. Today, I've put together a little guide for healing priests who want to dabble in the darkness of the shadow tree. While there are notable differences between the styles of playing holy or discipline, the switch to shadow is more than just tossing on some hit gear and taking a trip to the trainer. But before we get started though, I have a small task for everyone.
Spiritual Guidance: Spells we forget
This Sunday, Dawn Moore has called a temporary truce with Fox Van Allen so the two of them can take Spiritual Guidance on a group trip to Disneyland. They almost made it through the entire Space Mountain line without a fight on what was better, healing or damage. Later, Fox got a stomach ache and dispersed while riding the tea cups, and Dawn had to go back to the hotel to lie down before the Hannah Montana concert. Once upon a time, an off-tank coughed. At the time, the off-tank was zoned into Trial of the Crusader and thoroughly engaged in a battle against Anub'arak. His raid was just transitioning out of the first phase 2, and he was moving to his position to pick up adds. Unfortunately, as the off-tank coughed, he shifted ever so slightly, causing a poorly placed cup of cherry Kool Aid to upturn. Not a second later, the off-tank's raid was audience to a colorful soliloquy about a different type of penetrating cold. As the above events transpired, a disco priestess noticed that she had suddenly acquired threat from a newly spawned bug add. She strafed momentarily before hitting the key for her Fade spell and in doing so, saved herself from unknown peril. The bug, having lost its focus, immediately turned its attention to another priest in the raid named Calvin. Calvin, it turned out, was specced holy. Before things could get worse, the off-tank managed to pull himself together and resumed his tanking duties; he taunted the large bug and the panic in the raid subsided. Surprisingly, the battle continued without incident, and in the end the nerubian king was slain.
Spiritual Guidance: A priest's guide to tanks
It was just another Sunday when Fox Van Allen woke to the mid morning sun on his face. He sat up groggily and looked around his quiet apartment. A moment passed before he realized something was wrong -- it wasn't here. "Not again ..." he muttered, his brows pressed in frustration. It must have gone back to her again. "Dawn Moore ..." he sneered while pulling himself out of bed. He didn't know what it saw in her. "Priest healing ... Bah! Who would want to do that?" Still, Fox sighed, his doubts gnawing at him. Why was Spiritual Guidance so fickle? I love tanks. Likewise, there have been many tanks who have loved me. There is nothing more beautiful than the love between a tank and a healer. It's actually a little known fact that every great love song ever written was written about a tank and healer. Every little thing she does is magic? Totally sung by a tank. Don't leave me this way: sung by a healer. Still don't believe me? Check out Heroes by David Bowie; it was actually originally written as a tank x healer duet. Just look at the lyrics: "And you, you can be mean, And I, I'll drink all the time." See? So, if you want to find your great tank love, if you want a tank that knows how and when to blow each and every one of his cooldowns to maximize every lasting second of your epic encounters together, then you are going to have to rise up and meet him. You need to be the healer his healer could heal like (if she stopped playing hybrid-spec player classes.) Luckily, you're already a priest, the most alluring of healing classes, but don't think that's enough. You need to be more than just some healer who heals him -- you need to understand him. That is today's goal.
Spiritual Guidance: Priesting the Lich King
Every Sunday, while Fox Van Allen is still passed out in a cloud of his own Dispersion, Dawn Moore picks up Spiritual Guidance and gives it a warm bath to wash off all the residue from Wednesday. After a hot meal, a glass of apple cider and a cookie, the column is back to its old self. Joint custody allowing, Spiritual Guidance will help healing priests master discipline and holy. I feel like such an elitist jerk this week. You see, the other day I made my weekly trip over to WoW Progress to scope out the growing list of guilds that have killed the Lich King on 25-man heroic mode. At the time, I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I had no clue what to write for this week's Spiritual Guidance. With that in my mind, as I looked over the list of guilds that just barely spanned two pages, a thought popped into my mind: I wonder how many guilds have killed Lich King on any difficulty? I hopped over to look at 10-man progression and found only about 30% of the guilds listed on the site had defeated Arthas. The percentages surprised me; that meant the majority of raiders haven't defeated the Lich King yet. So suddenly I felt like a jerk. For weeks now, I had disregarded writing a priest guide to healing the Lich King because I thought no one would want one. Maybe I'm just oblivious? Whatever it is, I guess my perception was off; probably has something to do with the cancer I'm getting from bubble spam. (Everything causes cancer these days, after all.) Anyway, now that I'm remembering that some people don't rush through the game like I do, I figured I'd better get to it. So ahem ... This week I will be talking about how to heal the Lich King as a priest!
Spiritual Guidance: Don't panic
In many of the more relaxed servers on the list of US and Oceanic reams, Spiritual Guidance by Dawn Moore has already supplanted the great PlusHeal.com as the standard repository of all healing priest knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly easier to access; and second, it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. Last week when I entered the inner sanctum of WoW.com, his holiness, High Priest Matticus approached me hurriedly. Before I could say a word in greeting he asked me "Dawn! Have you seen the priest changes?" I stared at him curiously for a long moment, waiting for his words to make sense. "Priest changes?" I wondered; I had been in the field all day and was unaware of any official announcements regarding our shared class. A short and confusing exchange followed before I was finally provided with a link to the leaked Cataclysm talent build currently being used on alpha. If you're not interested in seeing anything unofficial you shouldn't click the link. Not long after this conversation with the high priest, I found there were also two e-mails in my inbox regarding the leaked talents. Both requested my opinion on the talents, so that is what I've decided to discuss this week.
Spiritual Guidance: Gear guide for fresh 80 healing priests
Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance and Dawn Moore lead priests into the light by studying the fine art of healing. Priests who walk into the light have a longer life expectancy* than those who follow the teachings of Fox Van Allen. Recent studies show that the 51-point talent Dispersion is actually an unexpected side effect of drinking spiked Honeymint Tea, partying with warlocks and cannibalizing gnomes. Well, the day has come: I finally decided to put together a gear guide for fresh level 80 healing priests. Many readers have been requesting this, and I figured I ought to stop teasing everyone with promises of it. I hope that this list, combined with the 101 guides we published in the past few months, will be enough to help my fellow fledgling priests find themselves somewhere in Azeroth. I can't have you all getting lost before you have a chance to dive into that new, shiny Cataclysm water. Before I get started, let it be known that this is not a list of any and all healing upgrades you can get after you hit 80. Instead it is a list of gear I would recommend to a healing priest who is trying to get the best gear he or she can without raiding or is trying to get enough gear to start healing in the current raiding content (Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel.) Since this is not a complete list, feel free to deviate from it when you find upgrades that work for you. A lot of items you find in heroics will be be better than the gear you are wearing from questing. Now, let's get started.
