How long do you think my 4x Priest 1x Pally will be able to AOE instances?

[Tim]

Hey all!

So my new 4x Priest 1x Pally team hit level 60 today, yay! So far our leveling has been an amazing cluster tossup BREEZE, whereas we can do 20+ elites (that are +1 to +3 our level) AOE'd in a single pull. We are talking crazy AOE damage.

But how long do you think this will last, at what point do you think instances are going to wtfpwn our team to the point where we have to do non-AOE mega onslaughts? When will this run of ours end?

Any guesses?

Or do you think I can AOE my way straight to 80? Or even heroics?

I'm excited to find out!

[Ualaa]

I would think with a Paladin tank, you might go quite a ways.

On the other site, 5x Discipline Priests (no tank) were able to do the majority of the Burning Crusade dungeons, at level or perhaps 1-2 levels above level. IE, the mobs were still worth experience and had not greened out yet.

The mobs in the Wrath dungeons hit a lot harder, not sure if the priests would have the mana pools to down these mobs using AoE (Holy Nova) spam, unless you took a lot of breaks and cleared very slowly. Then again, if the Pally outgears the instance, a lot of the time they need no heals.

I would guess with that team, you'd be able to do just about any instance, heroic or not, but that you wouldn't have the option to purely AoE everything down. But SW:Pain, Devouring Plague, maybe Mind Flay or Smite/Holy Fire... x4 of each, with Blessing of Wisdom... would be a lot more damage per mana.

I'd guess you'll AoE most of the BC normal dungeons, but need to switch to higher DPS single target spells sometime early into Wrath.

[Tim]

Good answer!

Right now I'm in ramparts at level 60, but my gear average is around level 25/30, and I'm able to do it. I'm excited to get my gear up and I think I'm going to tear through Ramparts and Blood furnance, but we will see!

Utgarde Keep though is going to be a fun lil test.

[Heartspark]

Tim do you have to use priest heals on pally much when you play? I'm starting the same team because I want a pally for my mages latter on.

[TheMuffinMan]

Originally Posted by Heartspark

Tim do you have to use priest heals on pally much when you play? I'm starting the same team because I want a pally for my mages latter on.

I believe most if not all of the healing he dishes out is from the Holy Nova spam he generates with 4xPriests.

[Tim]

Yup right now at level 60 I'm doing something like 12k heal/sec to my party, and with holy nova and renew alone, I can heal my pally for about 3500 heal/sec ish, which is badass.

HOWEVER!

I just got Penance, and holy crap this spell is the PWN! With 1 button press I can heal 12k damage to any party member, pretty damn OP!

I also just put Pain Suppression on round-robin for my pally, so he can now run 40% less damage pretty much every single pull. Pain Suppression + PW:S + 4x Renew = invulnerable Pally.

[Ualaa]

I love Discipline Priests, who are in my opinion the best healer option for a boxer. Not saying others don't have strengths too -- a resto shaman, on a team without shaman toons brings heroism/bloodlust, which probably makes them the best choice by far. Or a Druid with HOTs and Wild Growth is as strong as a Discipline, just with a different style.

I like that Penance has three ticks, instant (as the spell is clicked), one second later and two seconds later. This is the most mana efficient direct heal any healer gets, and even if you lose the last tick from something beating on the priest, it is more mana efficient then Greater Heal. It gets you "twitch/reactive healing" superior to any other healer.

Combine that with very strong instant cast heals, amazing mana efficiency and regeneration, and massive haste after a PW:Shield cast, and you have a very strong reaction based healer. Prayer of Healing, is a fairly fast cast... right after PW:Shield, which grants the Priest 40% additional haste for their next spell.

But you also get PW: Shield, which with talents protects against a large amount of damage... and Pain Suppression, which can prevent far more burst damage then any healer can heal for, anytime you know a lot of burst is coming.

[Tim]

So far the team is doing amazingly well.

At level 61, I was able to pull 18 elites in Blood Furnance in a single pull and pound them all down, ending the fight with 100% hp on all 5 guys and approx. 34% mana left.

This group has utterly amazing AOE power, and the Paladin tank with his castsequence macro is absorbing all the beating, and so far, things are going absolutely amazing.

Interestingly enough, my biggest challenge so far is with single target DPS. I really don't have a good way for my Priests to single target DPS with the typical extreme multiboxing efficiency. Sure, I can take down bosses and the like, but it doesn't feel as easy as with my other teams. Perhaps it is because I really don't know the Priest class that well.

Suggestions on single target DPS on Disc. Priests?

[Ualaa]

I like that Holy Nova generates no threat, and that a Pally is easily the best tank at threat on secondary targets.

Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague are both strong dots.
Beyond that, you have Mind Blast, Smite and Holy Nova as primary nukes.

Mind Sear is very good AoE damage, once you get it.

At lower levels, and anytime mana is an issue, you can just shoot the wands, which will be something.

I generally save Penance for heals, but it is an attack option too.. just with a shorter range.

If you go deep enough in Shadow for Mind Flay, that will probably be your primary DPS tool.

[Tim]

Okay so I've done Slavepens, Underbog, and Mana Tombs now with the team.

I've found that wanding helps out a LOT! Here is basically my rotate on the Priests.

Shadow word Pain
Devoring Plague
Holy Fire
Penance
Wand for a few seconds

That rotation gives me a long while to DPS without going OOM nearly at all. I'm sure I will improve that, but I am using that macro for attacking bosses for the first time that I'm not 100% sure about. For bosses that I am comfortable with, I replace wanding with smite spams.