Straight from Shadow Weaving and QFT!:
I feel like a broken record in raids sometimes: ”Please don’t shield the tanks.” ”Please don’t shield the tanks.” ”Please don’t shield the tanks.” ”Please don’t shield the tanks.” I’ve long struggled to get my fellow priests to cease-and-desist, but with the priests’ 4-piece bonus now offering +250 spellpower for 5 seconds after shielding, it’s even more of a battle.
Hey, Holy Priests: if you raid with a Discipline Priest, don’t shield, ok? Please? If you have the 4-piece bonus and want to take advantage of the spellpower boost, shield yourself. Your job as a Holy Priest is to heal, not to shield. While the boost to your throughput is nice, I agree, the bonus wasn’t designed for you (I know. Startling concept: a poorly designed set bonus.) PW:S hasn’t been part of your rotation, and this set bonus shouldn’t change things. It’s not what you should be using your GCDs or mana (~900 mana for you, and I know you don’t have much to spare) to cast.
I had several shields last night absorb 10K damage; most of the time, they absorb at least 8K. A Holy Priest’s shield absorbs less than half that.
And that’s not remotely strong enough to absorb my fury when I see your Weakened Soul debuff on the tanks.
I’m put in mind of an Emalon pug I was in. I was whispering the holy priest, asking them to not shield the tanks.
“Would you mind not bubbling the tanks? I’m disc.”
“But my shields also heal! :D :D :D :D”
“Yeah but I get greater be-oh, nevermind.”
This was, actually, the first time I’d run into the issue. Most holy priests I run with seldom bubble anyone but themselves these days-but perhaps I’ve been very spoiled with very good holy priests. Wait, no, who am I kidding? The holy priests I ran with probably had their bubble bound to the same key as their cleanse, which they’d managed to somehow lose track of.
Anyway. As the t8 bonus becomes more common, I’m afraid this will become more of an issue.
Don’t make me bust out my beating stick, guys.
And no, no, I didn’t have any writing ideas today, why do you ask? I need to fix that. Ohai, planning!
I Like Bubbles 
#1 by euripidesoutdps on May 22, 2009 - 2:42 pm
Posts like this remind me why I enjoy being a simple hunter. Kill order be damned, all volley all the time everywhere!
#2 by HP on May 22, 2009 - 8:41 pm
The problem is that usually most priests are concerned about the charts (like most other healers it seems). Unless they really know what they are doing, then they will do what is right for the raid instead of trying to maximize their own throughput since Naxx easy mode taught healers in general to think that their impinging on other healers (heal sniping, etc) will not cause the raid to fail.
#3 by SuicidalPriest on May 23, 2009 - 9:00 am
I’m just not going for the 4set bonus as a holy priest. I think it’s useless because I do not use shields, only as disc I do. It is indeed very annoying if a holy priest shields the tank while you as disc have more absorbs, etc etc. Some people just, don’t know the game very well I guess? :/
#4 by AllianceGirl on May 24, 2009 - 3:25 pm
Great post. Thanks, I got a good laugh out of it…I’ve had the same conversation about shielding more times than I can recall, lol.
#5 by Kestrel on May 25, 2009 - 4:34 pm
Wait…what? You mean there ARE Holy Priests who use their shield other than on themselves? There is NEVER, EVER a good time to use a Holy Priest’s shield (I won’t even call it a “bubble.” which implies something useful) on ANYONE other than the priest himself (or herself).
If you find yourself, as a holy priest, wanting to shield another player, then you have already screwed the pooch. You do have Guardian Spirit, no? CD isn’t up? Then figure out something useful, but please don’t shield.
Uhmm…nice soapbox you have here, Amber. *sheepish grin*
#6 by Faunn on May 26, 2009 - 7:42 pm
Feel free to shield my DK or druid any day. that is all.
#7 by OIK2 on June 15, 2009 - 5:46 pm
I am a raiding Shadow Priest, and made sure I got the OK from our resident Disc Priest/Priest Leader to shield myself whenever I am taking or about to take damage, because I knew it would lock him out of shielding me. It is my reflex ohshit key(bound right next to fade) and it has saved me more times in Ulduar than I can count and made me survive long enough to get heals.