Lodrazon
Moderator
Posts: 80
Karma: 3
|
Re:Building a party healer - 2005/07/16 06:33
Goodkin:
(Sorry for being sorta AWOL there, guys! :S)
There's a couple of things you want to keep in mind here. The first and foremost is, you have a guaranteed party. You aren't going to need to worry about versatility in hopping from combat to healing and back nearly as much. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be a consideration, though.
You want to set yourself up to compliment your party members, and to highlight your class strengths. Your biggest assets as a priest are obviously your heals and your crowd control abilities (Psychic Scream, Mind Control, Mind Soothe, Shackle Undead), as well as your buffs and your ability to remove debuffs (Dispel Magic!).
In a situation like yours, I would suggest focusing strongly on the Holy tree early in the game. You'll benefit from the Holy tree up until about level 26, at which point you can have maxed Improved Flash Heal. At this point, you have to decide how you prefer to play.
When I tried speccing myself out to be a really well-rounded party priest, I split myself between heavy Discipline and some Holy. My goal was to get the basic healing improvement (+10%), and then to really build up my utility. I ended up going all the way down the Discipline tree, including picking up Force of Will, then dropped points into Improved Smite and Holy Specialization. People thought I was insane... 
What you end up getting, though, is huge options. You obviously have improved heals, which is a bonus. You have Divine Spirit, which all casters will figure out is a welcome addition. You have Focused Casting and Inner Focus, two abilities I consider invaluable (the former moreso than the latter, but they each have their place...). Then, when you have a group situation in which you can deal damage, you can chain Smite (no cooldown), and you have - and I love this part - a 15% base critical rate.
Your natural critical chance in almost every RPG in existence is 1/20, or 5%. That holds true in WoW. You then get 5% from Force of Will, and 5% from Holy Specialization. With a couple of pieces of spell crit gear, several of which you will adore when you find them, you can end up running around as a thoroughly effective healer with welcome buffs, and this crazy ability to chain off Smite after Smite (which gives off almost no threat, and there is NO Holy resist!) with a high chance for it to kick some mob butt.
The downside to this build, having played it, is that you can't PvP to save your soul (at least, not in anything except maybe a 1v1 situation). You don't have the range, and your cast times are too long (2.5s hurts in PvP...). That being said, you are a powerhouse in PvE and group anything. When I first took this build for a test drive, my UBRS group nearly wiped - all of our Mages and Rogues got killed. I drank a mana potion, switched to DPS, and brought Drak down from about 25% while a Paladin tried to hold aggro for me. One of my friends was on Ventrilo, and literally asked me, "How the HELL did you do that?!"
I enjoy when that happens.
Let me know if you want build specifics, or other suggestions!
The world will sing
When I am king
|
Forums
