Because this decision was a bit spur-of-the-moment, I didn’t really have any in-game footage ready to include in the video. (I know, bad.) But, indulge me for a moment and pretend that I did include some in-game footage illustrating the points discussed in the video (displayed as cut scenes illustrating the points made, in between the walls of text that crit your face off)–would this, then, be something you’d like to see more of? I have to admit that I did have fun cutting the whole thing together.

Anyway, without further ado, Inner Fire’s Video Introduction to Shadow DPS:

If you think video guides of this nature (presumably with actual in-game footage included when I’m not being a complete tard) would be a good addition to this site and the other THM Network sites, let me know. Or heck, if you think it’s a terrible idea and a waste of my time, let me know that too.

Also, if you have any comments or questions pertaining to the content of the video itself (you know, that whole Shadow DPS thing), well, yeah, you could probably leave a comment about that too.

Update: It’s been brought to my attention that there’s a problem with viewing the video via RSS. I’m working on trying to sort that out now.

Any healer who’s ever set foot in a battleground will tell you: the unwary will get roflstomped with extreme prejudice. Regardless of what class or faction you play, regardless of what battleground you’re in or what strategy you’re using, the first thing people tell you to do is: “Kill their healers!” Why? Because the enemy will keep coming at you for as long as they have someone to keep them going. Take out their healer, and you’ll quickly thin the ranks and push them back. This paints a mighty big target on our backs.

Part of your job as a battleground healer is to keep your allies alive. This part is a no-brainer. However, the other part of your job is making sure that you can stay alive for as long as possible. Ideally, you want to spend as little time healing yourself as possible, because while you’re busy healing yourself, your enemies are thinning the ranks around you, making you even more vulnerable. Making smart choices about how you heal in battlegrounds will make a huge difference in your personal survivability, allowing you to more frequently turn the tide of battle in your team’s favor.

Talents

First, if you’re serious about healing battlegrounds, give yourself a talent spec that’s devoted purely to PvP healing. There are some specific talents that PvE builds ignore that really make a difference in PvP healing. Reflective Shield, for example, is fairly useless in PvE but has a big impact on your effectiveness in PvP. Most Priests who enjoy PvP healing go with a Discipline build. This is the build I use, and you’re free to use it or adapt it however you like.

While having a solid talent build is extremely important, this is an aspect of PvP that many players don’t have much of a problem with. It’s easy to look up the proper talent spec with just a simple Google search these days, so I’m not going to focus too heavily on this today. Instead, I’d like to move on to the things you don’t really hear many people talk about–the things you typically only learn through experience.

Positioning

Being aware of where you are on the battlefield and what’s going on around you plays a major role in your chances of survival. This cannot be understated. Tunnel vision will get you killed.

Large Battles

If you’re in a big battleground like Alterac Valley where you’ll mostly be focusing on supporting large rushes of players as they make their way across the field, you need to place yourself in a support position. Placing yourself in the thick of battle is handing the opposing faction an invitation to kill you. While being in a large mass of players may seem attractive because it makes you a harder target to pick out of the fray, you have to remember: in situations like that, AoE damage is rampant. You may be able to Shield and heal yourself out of all that AoE damage, but you shouldn’t be spending that much time healing yourself. There are better places to stand where you won’t be a big target, you won’t be taking much damage, and you can focus on healing others.

You might think this means you should stand way in the back, instead. Well, that’s a better option, but it’s not the best option. Standing way in the back, apart from the main fray, is a great way to paint a target on your back. Players that are paying attention look in the back ranks of a massive charge for the healers keeping the front lines alive, and go after them. It’s extremely easy to spot a solitary target waving their arms and identify them as a healer, a primary objective.

Your best option is to take a moderate approach. Don’t stand way up front or way in the back. Pick a position that is on the fringe of battle, and keep an eye out for any stray AoE damage.

Small Battles

In smaller battlegrounds like Warsong Gulch or battlegrounds where your forces are a lot more spread out, positioning is just as important but in different ways. In smaller battles, you are always a giant target. You are always exposed and vulnerable. This is a big part of where your defensive talent choices come into play. Aside from that, you need to learn to use terrain intelligently.

In smaller battles, you don’t have large masses of players to act as distractions to keep the enemy’s attention off you. You’ll need to use the terrain for that end now. In Arathi Basin, many healers like to hide in bushes. You’d be surprised how effective this can be. It won’t stop some of the more serious players from seeking you out for destruction, but it will fool the majority of the more casual players that are only focused on attacking what’s immediately obvious. (These casual players make up the majority of what you’ll find in battlegrounds.)

Another approach can be to use buildings or other terrain objects (like hills) to hide behind. You need to be wary of this approach, because it can break line of sight on the players you’re trying to heal as well, rendering your presence there pointless. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try this approach, though. Do it intelligently. Hide around the corner of a building and then strafe out from the corner so that it can still be difficult for enemies coming around it to see you, but you’re still within line of sight of your allies.

Grouping

One of the smartest things you can do, especially in smaller battlegrounds, is make yourself what we call a “pocket healer”. A pocket healer is someone who picks one or two DPS (or tank) players to follow around the zone and heal. (This often isn’t necessary in larger battlegrounds where you’re not as vulnerable.) Don’t pick these players at random at the start of the battleground! More often than not, you’ll be greatly disappointed.

As a pocket healer, you’re placing a lot of faith in your target’s ability to protect you from assault and random players are often not up to the task. You want to wait a bit and watch how the battle unfolds and how players react to changing situations. Look for players that are aware of your presence and attempt to protect you, like Warriors charging targets that have focused on you. Any class is capable of protecting you, but not every player is. Watch for the players that make an obvious effort to take the heat off you, and select them as your pocket target.

The combination of a smart DPS/tank player and a good pocket healer can turn the tide of a battle. If you’re smart about choosing objectives to attack and concentrate on supporting each other, people will rally around you quickly. The strength of this approach and the effect it can have on smaller battlegrounds is massive.

Smart Healing

Finally, you have to be smart about your use of healing spells. This is a no-brainer as well, but also bears mentioning. You should have a Shield up on yourself at all times. This is especially important because Rogues love Priests, and you almost never see them coming. Most other classes, we can defend against even if they get the drop on us. Rogues, however, are a different story. They’ll open with a stun and keep you stunned until you’re dead. The best way to avoid this is just to keep a Shield up on yourself at all times. They may still get the stun off, but if they do, you’re protected from it for long enough to either get some help or get a Renew and a new Shield up to keep yourself alive.

If you’re taking damage, don’t just heal yourself. Use Binding Heal. Unless you’ve been caught all alone somewhere (perhaps en route to a skirmish), there’s bound to be someone else around you that also needs healing. If you only heal yourself, chances are good that the damage players around you will be taken out while you’re occupied, and you’ll eventually find yourself all alone–bad juju. Use Prayer of Mending as well, but only if you’re taking light damage or none at all. That global cooldown will get you killed before you can switch back to a larger heal if you’re taking heavy damage.

Your bread and butter healing spell in battlegrounds will be Flash Heal. Unless you’ve managed to stack a buttload of Haste, your Greater Heal will be way too slow to cover big damage spikes, so you’ll need to rely mostly on Flash Heal for keeping people up. Only use Greater Heal when there’s a lull in the action and you have the time to spare for that longer cast. Greater Heal is more mana efficient, so do use it when you have the luxury.

Flash Heal spam can be extremely mana intensive, so make sure you’re using your Shadowfiend whenever possible. Hymn of Hope should also be used whenever possible. (Wait for a lull in the action for that as well, because you don’t want to be caught channeling that when you should be healing.) Keep your Power Infusion on cooldown at all times. Use it on yourself if you need to, but it’s usually better spent on a DPS caster.

Also, don’t forget to use your Pain Suppression! Unless you’ve got a boatload of Resilience, you’ll almost always want to save your Pain Suppression for yourself. You’ll frequently encounter times where you’ve got multiple targets all gunning for you, and your Pain Suppression can mean the difference between surviving the onslaught until your allies clear the field, or leaving your allies high and dry and finding your forces have been pushed back while you were at the Spirit Healer.

If you can master these aspects of healing battlegrounds, you’ll find your survivability and the overall impact you have on the outcome of matches greatly increased. There is no replacement for practice and experience, though, so get out there and start healing!

Whether you choose to heal or deal damage, it’s important to know what stats on gear are important to you and to understand how and why these stats make a difference in order to get the most out of your character. Today we’ll be taking a look at the most important stats for Priests of all three specs and how they interact with your spells and talents in an attempt to provide greater insight into Priest performance.

We’re going to assume that you’re familiar with primary and secondary stats and what they do for the purposes of this article. If you’re not familiar with what stats do, I suggest you refer to this article on WoW Wiki.

Discipline Priests

There are several different philosophies behind Discipline Priest healing, all of them are equally valid–they just offer a different flavor or approach to the same ultimate goal: keeping other players alive.

Spell Power

Because Disc Priests see very few increases to Spell Power through talent choices and attribute conversion, you’ll want to set a priority on increasing your Spell Power through itemization choices. Remember: Spell Power is the “oomph” behind your healing. As such, it should be of the utmost concern. Given a choice, you should almost never sacrifice Spell Power in order to increase another stat.

Mana Regeneration

One of the many ways Disc Priests differ from Holy Priests in their approach to healing is that Disc Priests are almost always casting. This puts Disc Priests at a disadvantage when it comes to mana regeneration. While this is slightly mitigated by a significantly larger mana pool and talents such as Meditation, it’s still a matter that needs to be addressed through gear choices.

Because Disc Priests are spending more time casting, Spirit-based regeneration in combat (that is, regeneration that is subject to the Five Second Rule) is less valuable–MP5-based regeneration is vastly preferable. Additionally, unlike Holy Priests, Disc Priests receive no healing throughput from Spirit, making it an even less worthwhile stat. If you’re experiencing mana efficiency issues, assuming your spell use is appropriate, you’ll want to consider increasing your MP5 regeneration or your Intellect to help compensate.

Haste and Crit

Once your Spell Power and mana regeneration are where they should be, your next focus should be on Haste and Crit. Note that Divine Aegis procs off critical strikes, which will increase the amount of mitigation you provide. Additionally, by increasing your Haste, you increase the amount of heals you’re able to cast in the same amount of time, which will result in more frequent crits and more overall healing. The drawback to increasing haste, however, is that you tend to burn through mana more quickly, so it’s important to make sure that your regen is where it should be before you start stacking haste.

A note on Hit: Hit is a useless stat for all healers, as spells cast on friendly targets can never miss. As Priests go, this is a stat that is reserved solely for Shadow Priests. A good indication of whether or not an item is intended for you is whether or not it has Hit on it. If it does, that item is better off in the hands of someone else. (Unless you’re building a Shadow set for your off-spec.)

Holy Priests

Holy Priests itemize a bit differently than Disc Priests because of talent mechanics. While the basics of Spell Power and mana regeneration are roughly the same, how these things are accomplished through gear differs.

Spirit

While it’s important to increase your Spell Power directly through gear choices with a focus on that particular stat, it’s also important to remember that several standard Holy talents will affect your Spell Power as well in different ways. For example, Spiritual Guidance will increase your Spell Power by 25% of your total Spirit. Because Spirit is also important for mana regeneration, this makes the acquisition of Spirit preferable to straight Spell Power. Spirit of Redemption also increases your total Spirit, giving this stat even more oomph for you. Holy Concentration also plays a part here, improving your Spirit-based regen after you critically heal with specific spells that you will frequently use.

Critical Strike Chance

Surge of Light helps to make crit a very desirable stat for you. When you crit (something you were going to be doing regardless), this talent reduces the mana cost and cast time of Flash Heal–a spell you were likely to cast anyway–which helps improve your longevity. Also, remember Holy Concentration? It’s based off criticals as well.

Because so many of your talents are based around Spirit and Critical Strikes for both the power behind your healing and the mana regeneration you get, these two stats are the most important ones you can pick up–even preferable to Spell Power. Other stats such as MP5, Intellect and Haste, you’ll want to pick up as they become available, but your focus should always be on Spirit and Critical Strike.

Shadow Priests

Hit

Unlike the other two specs, your spell casts are directed at unfriendly targets and as such are capable of missing. Missed spell casts waste mana and reduce your damage output. As such, reaching the Hit cap should be your number one priority. The Hit cap is 8% with points in Shadow Focus and Misery.

Spell Power

Predictably, once you reach the Hit cap, Spell Power becomes your number one priority, for obvious reasons.

Spirit

Next in your list of prioritized stats is, perhaps surprisingly, Spirit. You may have assumed that Spirit was reserved for the healy-types, but you’d be mistaken. You see, Twisted Faith increases your Spell Power by 20% of your total Spirit. You may recognize that this effect is similar in nature to a Holy Priest’s Spiritual Guidance talent. When we discussed Spiritual Guidance, we concluded that Spirit was in fact more valuable than Spell Power because it directly contributed to your Spell Power. You may be wondering, then, why the same is not true for Shadow Priests. The short answer is that Spirit contributes in other ways for Holy Priests, whereas for Shadow Priests the only real benefit of Spirit is additional Spell Power. That’s not to say that the regen you get from Spirit isn’t important, it is. That’s why Spirit is a secondary concern to Spell Power, but still a concern, if you see the differentiation.

Haste and Crit

Like Disc Priests, your next concern will become crit and haste. You’ll want to balance the emphasis you place on these two stats. They’re both valuable, so you won’t want to place emphasis on one at the expense of the other. You see, more crit will (duh) provide more frequent critical strikes; more haste will allow you to cast more spells in the same amount of time. You want to balance the two so that you’re casting more spells and more of those spell casts are criticals. Not one or the other.

Wrap-Up

I’d like to note that this has been a drastically over-simplified explanation of stat weights for the three Priest specs. To truly get into the “nitty-gritty” of each would have warranted a separate article in and of itself, which, indeed, I’m planning for the future. However, for now the goal was simply to provide a jumping-off point for new Priests that gives a brief overview of what to look for from gear. That said, let’s do a quick recap:

Discipline Priests

1. Spell Power
2. MP5
3. Haste and Crit

Holy Priests

1. Spirit
2. Spell Power
3. Critical Strike

Shadow Priests

1. Hit
2. Spell Power
3. Spirit
4. Haste and Crit

I would also highly recommend that you test any changes in gear via spreadsheets or target-dummy testing before making a commitment to any intended change. All the advice in the world is not a viable replacement for personal experience, and depending on your personal rotations, hardware restrictions and the other myriad variables involved in game-play, your results may vary. In short: take any advice (mine or anyone else’s) with a grain of salt and always do your own testing before taking anything you hear or read as gospel.

Good luck!

Also, the ramblings previously found here regarding WordPress have been nuked from the face of the earth and will, eventually, have their own home elsewhere.

Now, as for this site and its future: it will revert back to what it was always intended to be from the start, a place to discuss the Priest class.