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Spiritual Guidance: How to become a better priest, starting with your UI
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen spawn camps poor, defenseless gnomes. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com, produces the Circle of Healing Podcast, and plays white knight to those loveable gnomes. When I first started raiding a few years ago, I was an obnoxiously overconfident priest determined to prove to the world that I was the best discipline priest who ever lived. Fast forward two years, and I'm still trying to get comfortable with the reality check that resulted from meeting amazing priests like Kinaesthesia or Kras. I realized I wasn't competitive enough, dedicated enough, and that my growing ability to self-critique every tiny aspect of my play was holding back me back more than it was pushing me forward. How I wish I could be that overconfident idiot again. On the bright side, the whole thing has left me quite good at helping other priests identify what they need to do to get to the next stage of their development as players (without becoming overly paranoid from self-awareness). So when I recently met someone who was up against a massive wall in his development, I decided I ought to tap into that ability in a more formal way by writing an article about it. Bob (we're going to call him Bob) wrote me and described various problems he was having as a healer, explaining that raid damage was unmanageable and that he couldn't keep up. I thought for a while he might have been going OOM, but as we talked more and more, I realized certain things he said just didn't making sense. Eventually, I asked him for a picture of his UI and was immediately horrified by what he sent me. Thus today, we're going to talk about addons and setting up your first healing priest UI.
Spiritual Guidance: The mechanics of shadow priest haste
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Every Wednesday, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen rains sheer purple destruction down on all who oppose him. Proceeds from this week's Spiritual Guidance will be donated to Li'l Sebastian's favorite charity, The Afghan Institute for Learning. Haste. It's a really easy to understand concept, right? It makes spells get cast more quickly. The end. Except that's not quite the end. Haste reduces the casting time of our spells, sure, but there's a limit to how much it can do so. Haste also make our DOTs tick more quickly, meaning there are certain levels of haste where our DOT spells gain an "extra tick." These factors give different weights to each point of haste, creating weird, nebulous concepts such as haste soft caps and haste plateaus. With a little bit of math, we can pinpoint the exact value of haste where these caps and plateaus are said to exist. But how much weight should we give these numbers? And how should these numbers affect how we gear?
Spiritual Guidance: Will patch 4.2 redefine what it means to be a shadow priest?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Every Wednesday, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen rains sheer purple destruction down on the growing list of WoW Insider columnists who oppose him (and sometimes, even on those who don't). I am Fox, thy columnist, who hath brought thee out of the land of the Light, out of the house of Dawn Moore. For thee, my loyal followers, I offer the 10 commandments of the house of shadow (subsequently edited down to five by his cruel editorial overseers): Thou shalt have no other columnists before me. Thou shalt not lie with Tyler as one lies with Fox; Tyler is detestable. Thou shalt kill. With high DPS. Thou shalt covet the hell out of thy neighbor's Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest, because that thing is sweet. Thou shalt not freak the hell out over patch notes, even when they involve slashing the damage caused by our DOTs. Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Guide [Updated 5/13] Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%. Mind Blast damage done has been increased by 12%. Shadow Word: Death damage done has been increased by 12%. Shadow Word: Pain damage done has been decreased by 12%. Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%. Vampiric Touch damage done has been decreased by 12%. source The above patch notes, which detail a 12%, across-the-board cut to DOTs (and an accompanying 12% across-the-board buff to direct damage spells), represents the first major change for shadow priests to come out of the PTR. But what exactly does the change mean, and why was it done? Are shadow priests going to lag behind in patch 4.2? Are shadow priests being pushed away from a DOT-heavy model and toward something else?
Spiritual Guidance: Further changes on Patch 4.2 PTR to consider
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen tries to go back to the future -- or the past, or something. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. It's been another exciting week for healing priests who have their sight focused on patch 4.2 and the next raiding tier. First, Blizzard announced that it was going to go ahead with its plan to change how critical heals worked. Previously, Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) explained that the developers were looking to increase the value of crit for healers, since most classes were ignoring it in favor of other stats. Now that they've gone ahead with their plans, we'll need to examine the impact this will have on discipline and holy priests. But before we do that, we have to look at the most exciting news for priests this past week: Our set bonuses got changed! If you missed it, last Thursday Zarhym hopped on the forums and announced that the developers had made some changes to the set bonuses of several classes. Priests were, of course, on that list.
Spiritual Guidance: Breaking down the shadow priest tier 12 bonuses
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Every Wednesday, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen rains sheer purple destruction down on all who oppose him. In stereo, where available. Historically, tier bonuses for shadow priests have been pretty boring. From tier 4 onward, we've had very little to look forward to beyond mana cost reductions, spell-specific damage increases, and extended spell durations. These bonuses were valuable, to be sure -- we could all benefit from an extra DOT tick -- but nothing was game-changing. Towards the end of Wrath of the Lich King, though, things began to change. The tier 10 four-piece shadow priest bonus, a .5-second reduction to the Mind Flay channel, was a literal game-changer. It put Mind Blast on the back burner. Some shadow priests only cast it to refresh Replenishment; others dropped it from their rotations entirely. Whether or not the tier 10 bonus was a positive thing from a gameplay perspective is debatable, but there's no debating what a powerful force it was. Now, after a relatively tame set of tier 11 bonuses to start off Cataclysm (damage increases -- oh boy!), game developers are dropping a pair of nuclear bombs on us. The tier 12 bonuses for shadow priests are compelling, controversial, and game-changing -- all at the same time.
Spiritual Guidance: Holy and discipline tier 12 set bonuses
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen fraternizes with cultists and buys Justin Bieber albums. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Information about patch 4.2 has been coming in nonstop this past week, and our favorite dataminers at Wowhead and MMO-Champion have dug up a first look at the class set bonuses for tier 12 gear. As usual, the community has been chatting up a storm since the release, especially the priests. Today I'll be joining that discussion to examine what holy and discipline priests have to look forward to in the next content tier -- or not look forward to, depending on your perspective. Either way, let's take a look.
Spiritual Guidance: Shadow priests react to patch 4.1, look forward to 4.2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Every Wednesday, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen takes you down the only road he's ever been down. You know, the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah. Shortly after patch 4.1 went live last Tuesday, I got the chance to raid Bastion of Twilight. I tried out Mind Sear on the first pull, and the numbers were absolutely luscious. Instead of weak, ugly, sub-2,000 ticks, I was seeing ticks twice that size. Before long, I was gaming my trash rotations, trying to proc Empowered Shadow and keep it up through the pulls. It was terrific practice for Cho'gall -- I finally felt like my AoE was making an impact on that encounter. Overall, I got praise for the improved numbers I was putting out (thanks, Mind Sear!). But that praise got me thinking -- how is the rest of the shadow priest community faring in the post-4.1 world? And with patch 4.2 around the corner ... is there anything about shadow priests that Blizzard still needs to fix?
Spiritual Guidance: The aftermath of patch 4.1 for holy and discipline priests
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen loiters around the drugstore, drinking chocolate malted Falcons and giving away free high school. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Patch 4.1 went live last week, and with a long list of buffs and nerfs in the patch notes, it looked like it was going to be a big event for priests of all specs. Now, almost a week later now, Fox Van Allen still appears to be alive the impact of the changes seems to have varied. Have you acclimated to the changes yet? Are you wondering why hunter pets are acting like they've been chomping on mood stabilizers even when you heal them? Do you want a cookie? Then let me direct you to all the important things you need to know in a post-4.1 patch world.
Spiritual Guidance: The shadow priest's guide to patch 4.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Each Wednesday, the priestly Fox Van Allen takes on all topics shadow. If you'd like to see Spiritual Guidance in person, send your request along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to TICKETS, "Spiritual Guidance," CBS Television City, 7800 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90036. New patches almost always mean changes to classes, specs, and abilities. In this respect, patch 4.1 is no different. For shadow priests, patch 4.1 brings huge nerfs. It also brings huge buffs. There's an awful lot to keep straight. Thankfully, you don't need to go it alone. Spiritual Guidance is here to help.
Spiritual Guidance: The shadow priest's patch 4.1 gear shopping list
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Each Wednesday, the priestly Fox Van Allen takes on all topics shadow. If you'd like to see Spiritual Guidance in person, send your request along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to TICKETS, "Spiritual Guidance," CBS Television City, 7800 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90036. Sept. 26, 1986, marks a dark day in television history. It's the date the CBS game show Press Your Luck disappeared from the airwaves. To the uninitiated, this fact has absolutely nothing to do with shadow priests. But you're not the uninitiated -- you're Spiritual Guidance readers. You know all about the sheer face-melting prowess of the "Whammy." In 1986, it was unharnessed. Wild. It'd steal money and the occasional trip to Curaçao. In 2011, that power has been combined, distilled, and ... placed into a bag -- specifically, the Lost Bag of Whammies. Were the last two paragraphs a sloppy attempt to justify using a YouTube clip of Press Your Luck as my contractually required 580-pixel length header image? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that the Lost Bag of Whammies is a kickass epic shadow priest off-hand. It's brand new for patch 4.1, and it's found in the new five-man heroic version of Zul'Gurub. If you don't have a lot of ilevel 359 gear from raiding (or from the auction house, or from reputation rewards), patch 4.1 is a godsend. A ton of great gear drops for shadow priests are about to be added to the game, winnable by anyone with the skill to take on the new heroics. There are some things you won't find in the new heroics, and some things not worth grabbing though, so it's a good idea to get your shopping list ready now.
Spiritual Guidance: Macros for healing priests
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Some time last year on Spiritual Guidance, I wrote an article on macros for healing priests. Overall, it was a simple approach to the topic, touching on some basics like binding consolidation, communication, and a couple of utility macros. The article generated a lot of discussion, and several readers submitted some quality macros for their fellow priests. Since a few of those macros are now outdated and I've added a few new macros to my spellbook in the interim, I thought now would be a good time to revisit the topic and look at what I've dug up in the past few months. Since these were accumulated over time, I haven't kept track of all the original authors of these macros, so if you see something in here you wrote, feel free to shake your fist at me.
Spiritual Guidance: A bitter priest's guide to Lightwell
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. There are few absolute truths in the World of Warcraft. Sure, everyone knows that gnomes are the master race and that all rogues have deep-seated abandonment issues -- but it amazes me how few people know that Lightwell is the best healing spell in the game. Don't agree? "LOLwell," you say? Well then, hater, I've got a post for you.
Spiritual Guidance: Raiding Blackwing Descent as a shadow priest, part 3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Each Wednesday, Fox Van Allen brings you the answers to all the burning questions: Is it Tyler Caraway that he's better than, or is it Dawn Moore? The answers, my friends, is simple; when you're a shadow priest, you're better than everybody. Normally, my friends, I fill this space with pleasantries, pop culture references, and slams at other WoW Insider writers. But I just can't do that this week. Not when Nefarian runs free, flitting about his lair, overloaded with treasure. Shadow priest treasure. Over the last two weeks, we've been sharing shadow priest strategies for taking down Magmaw and Omnotron, as well as Chimaeron and Maloriak. But they were just child's play for what's ahead. This week, we're concluding our three-part series with tips, strategies, and loot information for the most challenging encounters Blackwing Descent has to offer: Atramedes and Nefarian.
Spiritual Guidance: Priest healing strategies for Cho'gall in The Bastion of Twilight
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. I've had this idea for a social experiment in my head for the past few weeks, where you lock five priests together in a room with nothing but Highland Spirits and force them to have a round table discussion about Lightwell. While I work on my hypothesis and proposal -- and find a way to bait Fox Van Allen into this possum trap -- you guys can finish reading up on the finer points of healing Cho'gall as a holy or discipline priest. Seeing as this is the last boss of The Bastion of Twilight, this will be the final installment of Spiritual Guidance's priest healing guides for this tier.
Spiritual Guidance: Raiding Blackwing Descent as a shadow priest, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Fighting evil (and riding Sandbox Tigers) by moonlight, winning love by daylight ... Your shadow-specced host for the Wednesday edition of Spiritual Guidance never runs from a real fight -- for, you see, he is the one named Fox Van Allen. Ladies and gentlemen, do not be distracted by the ridiculously adorable Sandbox Tiger -- we've got serious business ahead of us. You see, the evil Queen Beryl dragon Nefarian (sorry, I get them mixed up all the time) has filled Blackwing Descent will all sorts of treasure-filled minions. And you, as duly deputized Van Allen Scouts, are tasked with taking them all down. Last week, I charged you with defeating the relatively easy Magmaw and Omnotron Defense System. I gave you some basic strategies, and you dispatched them with haste. This week, though, our marks are more difficult: Chimaeron and Maloriak. With great risk comes great reward, however ...
Spiritual Guidance: Priest healing Ascendant Council
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. During the past couple of months, Spiritual Guidance has tackled priest healing in Blackwing Descent and taken a peak inside The Bastion of Twilight at Halfus Wyrmbreaker and the twin dragons, Valiona and Theralion. This week, we'll be heading back into The Bastion to take a look at how to heal your way through the next encounter, Ascendant Council. This encounter is extremely chaotic and will be sure to keep discipline and holy priests busy.
Spiritual Guidance: Raiding Blackwing Descent as a shadow priest, part 1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, the shadowier-than-thou Fox Van Allen takes over, trying to undo the damage caused by Dawn Moore's healing-oriented Monday edition. I've been pleasantly surprised with raiding in Cataclysm. It's pretty well-balanced -- raids like Blackwing Descent have a good mix of bosses with varying levels of difficulty. The statistics speak for themselves: While about 94% of raiding guilds have downed Magmaw (or so says WoW Progress), only 20% have made it to and beat Nefarion. That's a pretty wide gap. My discipline-oriented nemesis Dawn Moore has been spending her last few columns covering Blackwing Descent raiding strategies for Maloriak and Nefarion and for Chimaeron and Atramedes. All the while, you poor raiding shadow priests have been on your own while I laid out the law in Shadow 101. Well, no more -- it's time to talk raiding. We have to start at the beginning, though -- and that means taking on Magmaw and Omnotron Defense System. (Hey, everyone needs a couple of easy wins now and then to build confidence, right?) They're pretty easy for experienced raiders, but for those just cutting their teeth on Cataclysm raiding, they can still pose a real challenge. Over the next few weeks, we'll build our way up to the exceptionally challenging Nefarion and even dabble in some serious heroic mode strategies. For now, though it's time to smash some loot piñatas right in their ugly little (Mag)maws.
Spiritual Guidance: Priest healing strategies for Maloriak and Nefarian
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow and runs a counterfeit penny operation out of his basement. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. It's a very special occasion on Spiritual Guidance today; spring has come, which means for the first time in months, you get to read about priest healing while simultaneously anticipating that the weather is going to be nice soon. What? That isn't exciting? Okay, fine, whatever ... I tried. I'm just going to go use the last of my Blossoming Branches on Fox right before the tank pulls so I can screw up his DPS rotation then. No! Okay, seriously, today on Spiritual Guidance we'll be finishing up Blackwing Descent with the last two bosses in the raid instance, Maloriak and Nefarian. As you know, we've been steadily working through all the tier 11 raid bosses and examining how to heal for them as a holy or discipline priest. After you've read this, you'll be able to heal your raid to victory and finally stop dealing with that damn elevator.
Spiritual Guidance: Mind Sear in patch 4.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. The first time you read Fox Van Allen's shadow-specced Wednesday version of Spiritual Guidance, it might make you mad; the next time you read it, it might make you sad. But you'll be glad, baby, once you've found shadow is the power that makes the world go 'round. What's the most tragically under used part of the shadow priest arsenal? Mind Sear, hands down. Mind Sear, you see, is an old friend. It was a regular part of our rotation in Wrath heroics. When Cataclysm came, though, it suffered a significant nerf in power. You could argue the nerf was needed -- the game was changing, and the developers wanted us to approach heroics in a different way. Arguably, Mind Sear was a bit too powerful. It seems that Blizzard may have nerfed Mind Sear just a little too much, however. It just received a buff in patch 4.0.6, and it's slated for another in patch 4.1. Did Blizzard go too far this time, though? Not far enough? And what does the buff mean for the way we approach heroics?
Spiritual Guidance: Patch 4.1 to usher in big Chakra and Atonement healing changes
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow and karaoke at PAX East. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. It's been two weeks since we first examined the upcoming priest changes for patch 4.1, and in that time, many more changes have piled up. To keep things interesting around here, I figured we'd talk about the changes over a plate of cookies. Previously, we discussed the changes to the duration of Power Word: Shield, the tiny buff to Divine Aegis, and the huge change to Dispel Magic, so check back a couple weeks if you want to read about those changes. This week I'll be looking at a huge change to the mechanics of Chakra, the sort of return of Atonement healing, the nerf to Power Word: Barrier, and the tweak to our four-piece raid set bonus.
