Rayray

THIS IS OLD, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS ADVICE. I will keep this up because I put an amazing amount of effort into writing about the addons.

This is just some info of how I heal in raids using a Priest.

Now, I've never actually done a guide or anything along those lines so don't be too harsh. I'm basically going to list how I heal in raids, as holy and as disc, and what addons I use along with what stats I generally go for.

I've never read up any guide for priests so maybe best to not go by what I say, but It's worked for me and well my guild don't complain. Of course advice is welcome.

Lemme put on music one sec!

Let's start with addons I use for healing, which isn't many.. lag = slow reactions! The ones I use:

• Healbot,
• Instant Health,
• Decursive.

Healbot
The most godly addon created. I've used this since I was a level 20 priest, eagerly waiting for my first stockades instance to heal. If you're not used to this type of addon it may take awhile to adjust, but it makes for quick reactions. I'm actually quite suprised that Healbot isn't more popular, it has everything a healer needs - Bars (hp/mana), buffs/debuffs, decurse, who has aggro, inc heals, how much your heal will heal the person for, who's in range/out of range, buffs tracking and it's easily adjustable for raids/instances/pvp/questing.

What's it do?
This addon creates raid bars, these bars can then be customized to heal the raid member (who's ever bar it is) with different heals depending on what clicks they are assigned to. For an example, I right click on Jerry's bar, I've assigned the right click of my mouse to be Greater Heal, Jerry will get healed with Greater Heal.

(who the hell is Jerry?)

Here is how I have my Healbot setup:

• Left Mouse Button - Renew,
• Middle Mouse Button - Flash Heal,
• Right Mouse Button - Greater Heal.

These are the basic heals, I have them arranged like this so that my quickest heal is on the left and my longest is on the right. Having heals setup in an order helped me remember what I had to click, this isn't something you have to do.

• Shift + Left Mouse Button - Shield,
• Shift + Middle Mouse Button - Binding Heal,
• Shift + Right Mouse Button - Penance.

This is where you can start to use Shift/Ctrl to assign different heals. The good thing about using Shift/Ctrl is that it is near your WASD keys, so you can easily move around while healing. I've also binded my disc spells to Healbot aswell as I sometimes have to switch specs quickly.

• Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button - Prayer of Mending,
• Ctrl + Right Mouse Button - Prayer of Healing.

If you havent noticed, I havent set up Circle of Healing/Pain Suppression/Guardian Spirit. Although I could set these up, I've decided not to. One thing as a healer you can often find yourself staring at bars too much, while this is good for healing, it's bad for boss fights where you need to be aware of your surroundings. Having some spells not set to my Healbot means that I have to look around. It's just something simple that works for me, not something you need to do.

Decurse
Healbot can also work like decursive. Now, personally I dont use the decurse part of Healbot as I find the addon Decursive to be easier to use.

When someone gets a magic effect/disease their bar will turn a different colour. I had problems with this as I couldnt see their health then, but if you set to a light colour it should work fine. Depending on how you setup Healbot, you can set up a key combination to remove the debuff like Ctrl + LM or you can have it setup that whenever someone has a debuff that you can dispell all you have to click is one mouse button. For example, my LM button is set to Renew but whenever someone has a debuff it will dispell them instead. While setting it up this way allows you to quickly remove debuffs, it may also cause you to be unable to heal the target when they really need it.

Buffs Tracking
There is also options to track buffs with Healbot. This is the reason I use Healbot on most of my characters, whether they are healing or not. You can choose which buffs to track, eg. Prayer of Fortitude and then select who'd you'd like to track it on, eg. Raid. So if someone doesnt have the buff their bar will appear white.

The way I have my Healbot setup is that, if someone doesn't have a buff and we're not in combat clicking my LM button on their bar will buff them. You can have it set to in combat aswell, but this interferes with healing.

Advantages
The best advantage with Healbot is that you don't have to manually click on the person you wish to heal and then click on your heal. This addon allows you to do it all in one click. This is very good for quick reaction fights. Healbot can also work as a decursive and tracks buffs, i'll add some info maybe later.

Disadvantages
The disadvantage of using Healbot would be that it takes some time to remember what you've assigned your heals to. Also if you happen to dc during a fight and log back on while you're still in combat, Healbot won't load. So you'll be stuck healing.. the old fashioned way!

Alternatives
Myself having only used Healbot, I'm not 100% sure how these addons work. But by their description they work in the same way.

• Clique,
• X-Perl UnitFrames,
• Grid.
  

Instant Health
I'm not sure if this addon is even working anymore so I'm not going to say much. What it used to do was decrease the amount of time that your bars take to update.

Decursive
Decursive is probably one of the most well known addons out there. It sets up boxes that will appear red once someone has a debuff, clicking this will then dispell the debuff. Theres alot of different settings that can be applied but personally I use the default settings.


Holy

For me:

Int > SP > Spirit> Haste > Crit > Mp5 (my personal opinion for my gear/healing)

As a main spec holy priest I personally am in love with spirit. I've put spirit quite high up on the stats here, though it really does depend on your gear. As I've got quite alot of SP, I go for more spirit for the mp5 aswell.

Now you may have noticed I've put Mp5 last, the reason behind this is mainly down to how I heal and how I time Shadow Fiend/Hymn of Hope/Innervate/Pots. Now this doesnt mean to say that you dont need mp5, I've currently got mine at a steady 320 and aslong as I dont go below 300 I should be fine. My general way of thinking is that if its a long boss fight I want to use my shadow fiend as soon as necessary so that I will be able to use it again during the fight. Doing this method allows me to usually have my shadow fiend for the first phase and the last phase, this is good because in most cases the last phase is the hardest. If I am in need of mana during the middle of the fight I will use Hymn of Hope and/or pot. If it is a short fight I would save my shadow fiend until the middle of the fight to get the full benefit from it.


Disc

For me:

Int > SP > Crit > Mp5 > Haste

Disc is my dual spec and I havent had as much experience with it as holy. Int is the obvious choice for disc as it provides crit, which is yummy for disc healing as it generates shields/armor. As you'll most probably be healing a tank as disc SP is also a good choice as it boosts your shields absorb amount.

As disc you wont be using Greater Heal, instead you will be using flash heal/penance so while haste does add something, it benefits holy more.

Am I ready for heroics?
Remember, not everything is about gear. If you've had experience healing before then this can sometimes overwrite gear. The base stats I would say for heroics is 1500 Sp/14.5k mana/200mp5. This should be easily achieveable at level 80.

What heroics?
Here I will list the gear obtainable from heroics to get you geared for raiding. I havent looked into quest rewards, this is purely heroic instancing alone.

Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom

• Skirt of the Old Kingdom
• Wand of Ahn'kahet
• Elder Headpiece
• Flame Sphere Binding
• Silken Bridge Handwraps
• Subterranean Waterfall Shroud
• Staff of Sinister Claws

Azjol-Nerub

• Rod of the Fallen Monarch
• Sash of the Servant
• Egg Sac Robes
• Ring of the Traitor King
• Stone-Worn Footwraps

Culling of Stratholme

• Band of Guile
• Forgotten Shadow Hood
• Gravel of the Fleshcrafter
• Gloves of Distorted Time
• Mantle of Deceit
• Necromancer's Amulet

Drak'Tharon Keep

• Overlook Handguards
• Cowl of the Dire Troll
• Spectral Seal of the Prophet
• Talisman of Troll Divinity
• Temple Crystal Fragment

Gundrak

• Arcane Flame Altar-Garb
• Leggings of the Ruins Dweller
• Living Mojo Belt
• Shroud of the Moorabi
• Slithering Slippers
• Wand of Sseratus

Halls of Stone

• Forge Ember
• Mantle of the Tribunal
• Spark of Life

Halls of Lightning

• Woven Brace Leggings
• Giant-Hair Woven Gloves
• Ornate Woolen Stola
• Traditionally Dyed Handguards
• Winged Talisman

The Nexus

• Gloves of Glistening Runes
• War Mace of Unrequited Love
• Amulet of Dazzling Light
• Cleric's Linen Shoes
• Gloves of the Crystal Gardener
• Opposed Stasis Leggings

The Oculus

• Cuffs of Winged Levitation
• Staff of Draconic Combat
• Band of Enchanted Growth
• Crown of the Unbridled Magic
• Drakewing Raiments
• Sash of Phantasmal Images

The Violet Hold

• Azure Cloth Bindings
• Cyanigosa's Leggings
• Footwraps of Teleportation
• Globule Signet
• Solitaire of Reflecting Beams
• Zuramat's Necklace

Utguard Keep

• Annhylde's Ring
• Breeches of the Caller
  

Utguard Pinnacle

• Cuffs of the Trussed Hall
• Netherbreath Spellblade
• Staff of the Wayward Princples
• Ring of the Frienzied Wolvar
• Sorrowgrave's Breeches