I was toying around with healer specs and stumbled into something that I can't quite figure out on my own.

Is Inner Focus better than Circle of Healing?

Inner Focus is awesome for any spec, but as I have never used Circle of Healing, I don't know whether or not it is worth the point, unlike Lightwell, which, while very fun and cool to use in WSG (Put it right in front of the flag and watch the alliance spend 5 min trying to figure out what it is :P) is pretty useless in instances, let alone raids.

My opinion, and only my opinion...

I played around with my priest's spec, giving up Imp Divine spirit to get CoH for a Kara run, just to try it out.  When I did use CoH I wasted precious time trying to arrange the circle to include the most people... and then was disappointed when it was a weaker heal than PoH (though I'd get better at placing it in a hurry with practice, I'm sure...).  Not that PoH is very useful at all in raids either, but as the other AoE heal it was all I had a comparison too. There are some fights when you can get nearly the entire raid in CoH (like Illhoof) but how often is the entire raid needing heals - and as often as not SOMEONE is needing WAY more heals than CoH is going to give you.  Granted the other healer(s) may well have that person, and if you are using CoH you are probably not the one assigned to MT, but I just was not impressed.

In the Prince fight it was nice to CoH the caster group (we were all huddled near the door and had all taken a bit of damage from an infernal drop), but I could have PoHinged the 4 in my group anyway - and for the axes renew/bubble seems a better option.

It did work well during Maiden to grab the five or so right around her (two healers in consecrate and three melee on that particular night).  I also used it twice on the Nightbane fight (we just put everyone on one side instead of spreading out, so I could get pretty much all ranged in the circle for when the scorched earth had us dancing around.

PoM gives more healing per jump (though I wish it would jump when someone needs it instead of jumping on use.  It is so wasteful when it jumps to someone who may not take any damage...)

In any case, after the experimental Kara run I respecced back to IMD 23/38/0.  I just missed imp divine spirit.  I missed the mana regen, and the +heal, and just having the buff in my buff bar (I leveled with it).  It is useful in every fight - even for regen when not fighting! - where CoH is very situational, maybe not as situational as the lightwell, but... *shrug*

Basically look at your typical raid makeup.  Do you have any other holy priests (with very high attendance) that have a 23/38/0 spec.  If yes, then take CoH (it is useful every other fight in SSC/TK - especially if you are healing melee dps).  If no, then you have to take 23/38/0 to give you raid the buff and let the chain healers take the healing on the melee group.

I was too scared to play with her spec in SSC - which is where my priest is currently in progression (much of the team is just learning those battles, and any raider knows what that is like) - but there are several fights there where the meleers are all taking consistent AoE/environmental damage (Burning Crusade instances just are not melee friendly...), so I can definetly see a use there.  Still, I am the only healing priest we have (most nights), so IDS is better choice for me.

You know.... CoH would be great in a few bosses in ZA too, where you could heal the entire 10-man with it.  (Eagle boss especially comes to mind).  But not at the cost of IDS for everyone.  You should also look at your role in the healing team.  Are you MHing the tank(s)?  If so CoH is pretty much useless since you need to be focused on just the MT/OT and may not wish to waste time/mana with CoH. 

And this is all assuming you are doing more raiding than five mans.  For five-mans I'd take IDS.  You don't need CoH since you have PoH, and IDS is too awesome to give up for another AoE heal. 

IMO, of course :)  I have a friend who is 100% holy specced (other than wand specialization and the points in shadow to improve SW:P) and LOVES it, no matter what she is giving up in discipline.  She wants to be able to solo easily as well, so uses the points most raid healing priests use in displine to get Surge of Light, etc.  And healing 5-mans she does great (drops more mana pots, of course, since she doesn't have meditation) and spends almost as much mana fighting as healing.  The style suits her - and that is what the game is about. :) 

IDS is absolutely necessary IFF (that's short hand for "if and only if", not a typo, thank you) you're the first holy priest or only holy priest in the raid.  If you're the only one, chances are you have additional resto shamans or druids to help make up for the lack of raid healing.

The more Holy Priests in your raid, the more the value of speccing for IDS drops.  If you're the second, it may still be worth having, depending on the attendance of the first.  But by the third or, God Forbid, fourth, you pretty much have to have CoH to be worth bringing.  There's two reasons for this:  FOA, you get two more points in Empowered Healing which cannot be overlooked (an additional 8% over 2k+ healing is definitely noticeable).  Second, CoH is enormously powerful for healing melee groups, or massive raid-wide damage, even moreso than Chain Heal.

Of course, I'm the "second" Holy Priest in the raid, being that there's another who has 100% attendance since BC (I dunno how she does it), but considering I still run heroics (especially now with the new badge loot announced in 2.4), ZA, and the occassional Kara (again, gonna have to start that up for badges again), I still find IDS worth having.  Further, we tend to run with 2 Resto Shamans and a Tree, which means CoH would probably result in a lot of over healing for little gain, and my raid healing can consist mostly of renews, PoM, and the occasional Flash Heal on a mage or what-not.

Further, come 2.4, with the massive buff for spirit, I think CoH will lose some more ground because having the Shadow Priest with the Holy Priests won't be such a gimme anymore, meaning the Holy Priests can be spread out to allow for PoH for raid-wide damage instead of CoH.



Now, of course, back to the OP.  Inner Focus is an ABSOLUTE MUST for a Holy Priest.  Not only is it in a spot where any spec (Holy, Disc, or Shadow) can get it, but it's instrumental to controlling the OO5SR to maximize mana-regen.  Here's how I tend to use it:  Chain Cast/Cancel (C/C) Greater Healing as the tank I'm healing needs it.  When I see Holy Concentration Proc, I pop my Earring of Soulful Meditation, and C/C again until needed (or the 15s runs out, at which point I let the heal go even if not needed), then I hit Inner Focus and C/C again until needed, and finally I can C/C again for a third GH at which point I finally re-enter I5SR.

IOW, an effective use of Inner Focus will guarantee me a good 15-20 seconds (sometimes as much as 25-30) of OO5SR mana regen with 300 additional spirit (worth about 3-4k mana pre 2.4 and about 5-6k after 2.4) every 3 minutes while STILL landing 3 max-rank GH.  Combine this with a Shadow Fiend every 5 minutes, and usually a Shadow Priest and I almost never have to blow a single mana pot. In fact, if I blow my Shadow Fiend at the same time as I start the HC/IF pattern, I can regen upwards of 10k mana in about 25-30s.  If you STILL have mana problems, you can also use the Bangle of Endless Blessings for another 130 spirit and an additional chance for more I5SR mana regen.

Bottom line, Inner Focus is an integral part of a Holy Priest's arsenal for regenerating mana.  Do NOT pass it over, the one point IS worth it in virtually EVERY 25-man boss, unless he's been on farm for a while.

Thanks for the opinions.

On the IDS, I was iffy about taking it before I saw the patch 2.4 notes. Frankly, I can't stand spirit, even when I was a healer, I'd rather have MP5 gear. Then again, I'm speaking from inexperience (only lvl 56).

Now that intellect affects how much regen you gain from spirit (patch 2.4), spirit is looking much nicer.

Chances are I'd be the third holy priest in the guild, maybe the fourth, depending on how fast it takes for me to hit 70.

With 3-4 holy priests, 2 resto druids, a resto shaman and 3 holy pallies, I think our guild has enough healers. Attendance may be the reason they are always asking for healers...

Whatever, when I hit 70 I'll see whether to respec holy or stay shadow.

You're only 56, so it's understandable you don't see the value of spirit, but by level 70 it is THE stat to Holy Priests.  You get 35% bonus damage and healing from it (between IDS and Spiritual guidance) and 30% OO5SR MP5 from it from Meditation (or 35% if you have the PMC set).  The other benefit of spirit is that it scales with buffs and talents: IDS, Kings, Spirit of Redemption, Human Spirit.  Even pre 2.4, spirit is great, particularly once you master the Five Second Rule.

Patch 2.4 makes spirit even more valuable, and makes MP5 almost useless.  Not only does the MP5 value of spirit almost double (at my gear level, it goes from the previous flat 0.625 OO5SR MP5 to 1.16 raid buffed, and that DOESN'T include the resocketting I'm going to do).  IOW, 1 spirit is worth 1.16 MP5 OO5SR and 0.348 I5SR.  At 80% I5SR (generously high), that's 0.51 MP5.  That means, not counting any other benefits of spirit, 1 MP5 will be worth 2 spirit.  Spirit ALSO adds 0.35 Healing and benefits from Innervate where MP5 does not.

Also, if you look at itemization, spirit is a LOT cheaper than MP5.  For instance, compare some gems:

8 Spirit vs 3 MP5  -> 2.67 spirit per MP5
10 Spirit vs 4 MP5 -> 2.5 Spirit per MP5
9 Healing and 4 Spirit vs 9 Healing and 2 MP5 -> 2 Spirit per MP5 (over budgetted for MP5, which is why the latter is one of the best gems in the game right now)

Bottom line, in 2.4, for each MP5 you can get 2-3 spirit, so for 1 MP5 you get at least 1 MP5 AND 0.7 Healing on the conservative side.

IOW, currently the best gem for priests is the 9 Healing and 2 MP5, but come 2.4, 9 Healing and 4 Spirit will really be worth about 10.4 Healing and 2 MP5 (plus added benefit from Innervate and OO5SR tricks).

When 2.4 comes out, I'm going to do everything I can to replace the MP5 gear I have with Spirit gear.  It will put a little more emphasis on really focusing on the OO5SR tricks, but it will ultimately result in more healing and more mana.

Any level 70 Priest (or Druid, or possibly Mage) should be creaming his pants waiting for this MASSIVE buff to spirit.