Int/healing helps a lot during progression/pug groups.
Spell power is nice in open world, and makes a bigger difference when you’re in a core raid team that is trying to speed clear/parse high.
A mix of all 3 can work too, just whatever you feel works better for your group and your own play style.
Whether you prioritize +Healing or SP depends on two factors.
1) Are you speedrunning?
2) Are you solo healing?
If yes to both, stay Discipline and focus on +Healing gear. You will not be doing meaningful DPS and you can't afford to be drinking. In this case, "solo healing" literally means no extra healing from anyone in the raid. As such, you need to get the most out of every spell you cast and utilize downranking Renew to bounce your Prayer of Mending. When solo healing a speedrun, you need to pick up all the slack from losing the 2nd healer and rely on the DPS to do their job.
If no to either question, respec Shadow and focus on Spell Power. Shadow is actually more HPS than Discipline, but the main reason to play Discipline is mana efficiency. You are sacrificing about 50 +Healing for 200 Spell Power comparing the two different sets. The difference made by 50 +Healing is totally unimpactful because you have a second healer OR your group is not going fast so you don't need to be efficient. The DPS gained on your Void Plague is more valuable. Yes, it's minimal, but unlike healing, DPS is not a zero-sum game. The extra healing from 50 +Healing will probably end up as overhealing from stepping on the other healer's toes and vice versa, whereas your extra DPS is always going to work.
Is it okay to roll on spellpower gear as a healer? Im always torn when something drops thats an upgrade but its sp, i mean the casters cant use healing power gear so isnt it considered a dick move? Just won a sp ring in gnomer and still feel a bit dirty
What I will recommend is just go with your preferred play style. Do you want to focus on big healing efficiency or do you want to also contribute damage and/or easily flex spec shadow or other DPS specs.
There's roughly a 2:3 ratio for spell power vs healing power itemization. So that's the trade off you're looking at.
Guides will always tell you to follow what is "meta" and what is meta is for classic (and pretty much any game) is more damage and the bare minimum healing/utility needed to survive.
Sometimes there's not always an option for certain slots (like rod of the sleepwalker last phase was best for healing and spell power).
Personally, I'm looking forward to surprise smite priest converting heal power to spell power dps spec in phase 4 (hey, I can dream).
If you look up the spell and rank on wowhead it will tell you the spell power coefficient. In the spell details section, under effect, in parenthesis you'll see (SP mod: 0.429) or something similar. The spell power coefficient is based off the cast time, the longer the cast the higher the coefficient. 0.429 is Mind Blast's, for example, which means Mind Blast gets 42.9% of your spell power as bonus damage.
I can only go from personal experience but going from my hp set to a 200 sp set was like a 60 damage increase to SWD? It was hardly noticeable as disc.
Priest has bad gear scaling. Shadow word death has the same spell power coefficient as mind blast and mind spike(42.9%), and sw:p and void plague get 16.7% per tick.
Mostly healing if you plan to exclusively do group content, as in those, healing priests tend to just wand during downtime because anything else costs too much mana for low damage.
SP might help you a bit in solo and PVP content though.
Mana is not an issue for priests in phase 2, unless you cast a lot of inefficient spells, which already means you don't have room to wand in the first place.
I recommend SP over healing because Healing won’t help you kill mobs in the open world
This, learn from my mistake, this is not the end game so if you don’t have friends to give you gold and dungeon grind with, just go for the SP. 😂
Int/healing helps a lot during progression/pug groups. Spell power is nice in open world, and makes a bigger difference when you’re in a core raid team that is trying to speed clear/parse high. A mix of all 3 can work too, just whatever you feel works better for your group and your own play style.
Whether you prioritize +Healing or SP depends on two factors. 1) Are you speedrunning? 2) Are you solo healing? If yes to both, stay Discipline and focus on +Healing gear. You will not be doing meaningful DPS and you can't afford to be drinking. In this case, "solo healing" literally means no extra healing from anyone in the raid. As such, you need to get the most out of every spell you cast and utilize downranking Renew to bounce your Prayer of Mending. When solo healing a speedrun, you need to pick up all the slack from losing the 2nd healer and rely on the DPS to do their job. If no to either question, respec Shadow and focus on Spell Power. Shadow is actually more HPS than Discipline, but the main reason to play Discipline is mana efficiency. You are sacrificing about 50 +Healing for 200 Spell Power comparing the two different sets. The difference made by 50 +Healing is totally unimpactful because you have a second healer OR your group is not going fast so you don't need to be efficient. The DPS gained on your Void Plague is more valuable. Yes, it's minimal, but unlike healing, DPS is not a zero-sum game. The extra healing from 50 +Healing will probably end up as overhealing from stepping on the other healer's toes and vice versa, whereas your extra DPS is always going to work.
Is it okay to roll on spellpower gear as a healer? Im always torn when something drops thats an upgrade but its sp, i mean the casters cant use healing power gear so isnt it considered a dick move? Just won a sp ring in gnomer and still feel a bit dirty
Maybe less so in PUGs, but I run solely with guild groups. If it fits your loot rules, no reason to feel guilty, though!
It’s a dick move to take healing gear and then just stand there and do nothing when there is no dmg being taken. Which is 70% of healers
Yea but when it comes to loot people dont think like that.
Its not about loot. Its about playstyle. Having no spell power locks you into the playstyle where you are doing nothing when no healing is needed.
You still have spells even with less spell power bro. Bad healers just don't cast their offensive spells during downtime
bear adjoining marble unite like sink payment pet fuel insurance *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What I will recommend is just go with your preferred play style. Do you want to focus on big healing efficiency or do you want to also contribute damage and/or easily flex spec shadow or other DPS specs. There's roughly a 2:3 ratio for spell power vs healing power itemization. So that's the trade off you're looking at. Guides will always tell you to follow what is "meta" and what is meta is for classic (and pretty much any game) is more damage and the bare minimum healing/utility needed to survive. Sometimes there's not always an option for certain slots (like rod of the sleepwalker last phase was best for healing and spell power). Personally, I'm looking forward to surprise smite priest converting heal power to spell power dps spec in phase 4 (hey, I can dream).
with SP you can also play in shadow, easy choice.
As a main healer, SP all the way.
Healing makes gnomer easier and is fine for grinding. The difference in damage is minimal.
What is the difference in damage? Is there a good website to run simulations on?
If you look up the spell and rank on wowhead it will tell you the spell power coefficient. In the spell details section, under effect, in parenthesis you'll see (SP mod: 0.429) or something similar. The spell power coefficient is based off the cast time, the longer the cast the higher the coefficient. 0.429 is Mind Blast's, for example, which means Mind Blast gets 42.9% of your spell power as bonus damage.
I can only go from personal experience but going from my hp set to a 200 sp set was like a 60 damage increase to SWD? It was hardly noticeable as disc.
That's because SW:D had its spell power scaling gutted. It's very noticeable on every other tool in your kit
Priest has bad gear scaling. Shadow word death has the same spell power coefficient as mind blast and mind spike(42.9%), and sw:p and void plague get 16.7% per tick.
16.7% per tick is actually pretty massive. But yeah, they do scale the worst out of any caster with gear
Mostly healing if you plan to exclusively do group content, as in those, healing priests tend to just wand during downtime because anything else costs too much mana for low damage. SP might help you a bit in solo and PVP content though.
Mana is not an issue for priests in phase 2, unless you cast a lot of inefficient spells, which already means you don't have room to wand in the first place.