Over the past few months, I've been enjoying the hell out of my main class, the priest. And while it seems that everything that can be learned in this game has already been figured out, I've also noticed that a lot of people make things harder than they need to be. So, in this post, I thought I'd share a few tips about playing a healing priest that you might not be aware of.
Let's get started, shall we?
Tip #1 - Mouseover Macros
In the world of addons and clicky keybinds, it seems that many people forget that mouseover macros exist. These types of macros, which can be written for any spell you want to cast in Classic, allow you to simply mouse over a target taking damage and press the appropriate keybind: no addon required!
The mouseover macro is as follows:
/cast [@mouseover,exists]Spell
This is good for raids, dungeons, or even PVP. Best of all, you can choose which ranks of spells are cast by simply adding it in parentheses:
/cast [@mouseover,exists]Spell(Rank x)
Note that there's no spaces between the brackets or parentheses!
So, a rank 4 Heal spell would look like this:
/cast [@mouseover,exists]Heal(Rank 4)
Tip #2 - Downranking - Which ranks for what?
So, everyone knows about Downranking at this point, but one of the hardest things for many priests seems to be figuring out exactly which ranks to use. So, to keep it simple...
- Heal (Rank 2) for low, consistent damage.
- Heal (Rank 4) to keep the tank up.
- Flash Heal (Rank 4) for bursty raid healing.
- Flash Heal (Rank 7) for those "Oh shit" moments in tank healing.
- Renew (Rank 6) for raid healing (rarely used)
- Renew (Rank 9) for tank healing (if you're specced for Imp Renew)
- Power Word: Shield (Rank 10) for tanks OR other damage prevention (because if you need to prevent it, it's probably a lot).
- Greater Heal (Rank 4) for when the tank needs a HUGE heal. Use Inner Focus first to save mana (if needed)!!!
Make some mouseover macros for each of these and bind them to your preferred keys. Easy-peasy. Also, you can play with different ranks based on your mana pool and +healing, but these ones have been the ones I've found most consistently effective throughout my gearing process.
Tip #3 - Go for Power Infusion (if your guild doesn't have a PI priest yet)
In the current era of min-maxing everything, many priests go deep holy in order to be the best healers they can possibly be. But there's another super-viable healing spec that can really benefit your raid that you should consider if you haven't already: the Power Infusion spec!
Power Infusion is an insanely powerful buff for casters and healers alike. Boosting damage and healing by 20% for 15 seconds can really give your raid the edge it needs in MC, BWL, and beyond. Your casters will love you, and you can be sure that you'll keep your raid spot so long as you are the sole proprietor of this amazing buff. Sure, your healing won't be as strong, but with enough other deep-holy priests, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
For good measure, here's the mouseover macro that I currently use when casting Power Infusion. Feel free to copy+paste it into a macro for yourself:
/cast [@mouseover,exists]Power Infusion
/run SendChatMessage(format("Power Infusion on %s!!!",select(1,UnitName("mouseover"))),"WHISPER",nil,select(1,UnitName("mouseover")));
Enjoy being an even more valued member of your raid team!
Tip #4 - Pre-Raid BiS Is NOT Always Best!
Again in this age of min-maxing, it seems that everything is constantly "all about that BiS". And while pre-raid best in slot items are undoubtedly very powerful, people seem to forget a very important aspect of best in SLOT - it's the best item for a slot, not always the best combination of gear to have overall.
A couple of weeks ago, I happened to pick up the Robes of Prophecy, a big downgrade compared with my Robes of the Exalted from Strat Undead. My healing went down by 46 from that swap alone. The stats, however, more than made up for it. I was able to heal for longer without going out of mana, looked cooler, and am one piece closer to my 5piece bonus.
Many Pre-Raid BiS items, like Gloves of the Exalted Herald or The Hammer of Grace, are simply big pools of +healing. In my experience, however, a balance of the high stam/int/spirit set pieces and high +healing items is vastly superior overall simply due to the sustained healing that results. So mix and match pieces. Keep some of those high-stat items and swap as needed!
Tip #5 - Keep Fade Handy (so you don't need to spec for reduced threat)
I can't count the times I've seen a priest in a raid get healing aggro from a Lava Giant when a tank mysteriously dies and gets eaten alive. The ones that don't are typically specced into the reduced threat talent in the discipline tree, sacrificing things like improved Power Word: Shield or stun resistance. There's a better way, priests: keep Fade handy!
I'm sure this is common sense to many of you, but sometimes common knowledge isn't all that common. So, just a reminder that we have an awesome threat reduction tool at our disposal! Use it!
Personally, I always keep it bound to my 'Q' key, just in case! ;)
Tip #6 - Flash Heal is Your Friend
Ok, last tip for today! We all know that mana conservation is important and that Heal ranks 2 and 4 are among the most efficient heals we can use. However, as many of the fights in Classic, at least in Molten Core, end fairly quickly, you should definitely make use of Flash Heal to keep people up.
This is something that I only recently realized myself - as I was always trying to keep my mana sustained throughout fights. As my guild improved its speed in downing bosses, though, I noticed that I could typically heal better, and obviously faster, by using Flash Heal. Sure, it somewhat snipes the other healers, but it ensures that those who need heals get them in time. And it looks a lot better on parses, so...yeah.
Obviously keep an eye on your mana pool, but don't be afraid to use a few quick Flash Heals to recover from bursty damage!
Conclusion
So, there you have it: 6 tips for playing your holy priest that you might not have though about. Obviously, there's a lot more you could do if you're willing to research all the nit and gritty, but I think these are some of the more important ones that all healy priests can make use of. As always, if you have any tips for playing this magnificent class, feel free to leave a comment down below, as we can always learn from each other. I'm by no means perfect at the class, and love learning new things as I play this fun, 15 year old video game.
But yeah, that's it for today. If you liked these tips or found them useful, feel free to add yourself to my mailing list down below for more posts like this in the future. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for updates on content, and check out my videos over on YouTube if you prefer that form of content, as I turn all of my posts into videos shortly after writing them here. Thanks for reading, have an awesome day, and as always...
Take it easy!
