Just thought I'd start a list of wrong ideas I see crop up on these forums from time to time.

Misconception: "Priests should spam Fade to keep threat down."
Fade is a temporary threat reducer. You cast Fade, your threat is reduced by 1500. Fifteen seconds later, Fade wears off and you get 1500 threat back. Only cast Fade when you pull aggro, or when you know you're about to pull aggro.

Misconception: "You should re-shackle every few seconds to make sure it doesn't break."
The best way to to make sure a shackle doesn't break early is to get +3% spellhit. Don't re-shackle until your shackle is almost up (<10 seconds left in its duration) or if you know you're about to heal a bunch and don't want to re-shackle in the middle of it.

Misconception: "I came in third on the healing meter to a Druid and a Paladin, therefore they are better healing classes."
First, if you are abusing Prayer of Mending like you should be, then a bunch of your healing isn't credited to you. Doesn't anyone wonder why the Main Tank has 10% healing? Second, healing as a Priest isn't about healing the most, it's about putting the right heal on the right character at the right time.

Misconception: "Overhealing causes aggro."
False --Jood

Misconception: "You should get out of the FSR before killing a mob to get full use out of Spirit Tap."
For the most part, this only affects normal FSR-related regen which can and should be considered independent of Spirit Tap's own bonus. There is a slight reduction of the Spirit Tap bonus for Priests without Meditation due to pre-stat Spirit regen which doesn't get doubled. However, for any Priest with Meditation you actually get more mana from Spirit Tap itself by continuing to cast. --Nightshroud

Misconception: "I have 12,000 mana! I'll never run out during that long boss fight. What's mp5 for again?"
The math bears out that mana regen is much better than maximum mana during longer encounters. It's almost always a better idea to choose spirit and mp5 over int. --suggested by Killeric

Misconception: "Blessed Recovery heals 25% of all crit damage."
It only heals 25% of all PHYSICAL crit dmg (or physical normal dmg that is considered to proc crit-based talents because of resilience) –Narcoleptic

Misconception: "You should always pre-shield a tank on a pull."
Shielding a bear or warrior tank keeps them from generating the rage associated with taking damage and could limit the threat that they can generate. In general, it is best not to pre-shield the tank, unless there is a chance of a killing blow before the tank can be stabilized by HOTs and direct heals. –Niimue

Misconception: "You should never pre-shield a tank on a pull."
On boss fights where the boss has a 5k melee, the difference on rage when shielded by a Priest with 2000 healing will be 46 rage for the full 5k damage, against 29 rage for the 3200 damage done after the 1800ish absorbed by the shield.
It takes 26 rage for a Protection Warrior to use Shield Slam, and Devastate, which are likely the first two attacks made by the Warrior. That takes two global cooldowns to complete, which means on most bosses they'll already be hit again before being able to perform another Devastate.
So the 18ish rage difference at the start of the fight means 1 less Heroic Strike then as it fires off the global cooldown. --Lavimdida

Misconception: "Lightwell is a glorified bandage."
Lightwell used to be a channeled spell like a bandage, but now it is an instantly spell that can be self-applied while casting other spells. However, like a bandage it breaks upon damage. Lightwell now benefits from a priest's healing gear and can return much more health than a bandage. --Niimue

Misconception: “Shadowpriests do not ever want spellcrit.”
In PvP, Spriests have lost a lot of luster, but I still think it's crucial to maintain 27-30% crit(5 talent points for 15% + your spell crit). I say this because without SW:D and Mindblast critting, you are losing a lot of damage(mindflay can't be spammed in PvP like PvE).
In PvE, I've always cycled mindblast And SW:D into the mix, and especially when I'm going into "overdrive" to return mana(ie blowing everything I got, and pots etc to keep my mana up). Those crits, as long as you are watching your threat, are extremely helpful to return mana. --Cabalist and Arres

Misconception: "A renew cast before combat won't cause any threat in combat."
Not true, once that renew ticks and doesn't overheal, the Priest will have generated threat if the Priest is in combat. This means that for most fights, casting a renew before combat could mean trouble for you when renew heals your target. Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending are still fine as long as they are cast before you are in combat. --Kiora and Lavimdida

Misconception: "Drinking a potion causes no threat."
Mana boosts that you perform do cause threat, so drinking a potion, gaining 300 mana from an insightful earthstorm diamond proc, will give you some threat. When in a situation where your tank has been reduced to zero threat, drinking a potions is a bad idea, i.e., during an aggro reset phase or just after adds spawn during boss encounters. --Lavimdida and Nightshroud

Misconception: "Mp5 is better than spirit."
The fact is that either could be better completely depending on your playstyle (and race). If you have Meditation, 1 mp5 is equal to ~2.5 Spirit if you spend 50% of your time i5sr -- this is the itemization ratio by Blizzard for Spirit and mp5. (The exact ratio is 1 mp5 to 2 6/13 Spirit). SoR and Blessing of Kings will improve the +Spi on an item by 15.5%, allowing a standard raiding Holy Priest the opportunity to spend 62.5% of their time inside the 5 second rule for the same Spirit to mp5 ratio. On top of that, being Human would allow the standard raiding Priest the opportunity to spend 69.8% (~70%) of their time inside the 5 second rule for the same Spirit to mp5 ratio as itemized by Blizzard. --Planeshaper

Misconception: "You must be facing your target to cast a heal spell on him or her."
Heals don't follow the same rules as damage spells. You can be facing in any direction you like to heal your target, but you must still be in line-of-sight. Knowing this can help with keeping shackled targets locked down because you can face your shackled NPC instead of the tank. This will give you a visual cue for when your shackle breaks early. --Ariakasz


Thanks for all the great suggestions, guys! Some of the topics are still under debate, so I'll wait and see where the arguments go before making a final decision on whether to modify the misconception's description.

Reserved for future use.

Reserved for future use, part II. (The sequel is never as good as the original)

Overhealing causes aggro (false)
Spells cast before combat don't cause threat (not sure about this one, it appears to have changed)

All "on crit" effects still work with resilience, but Blizzard says they can't tell when a crit was prevented by resilience. So they randomly(based on your resilience) activate these talents on regular hits, as well as, they continue to activate on crits.

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Q u o t e:
Just thought I'd start a list of wrong ideas I see crop up on these forums from time to time.

"Priests should spam Fade to keep threat down." Wrongo! Fade is a temporary threat reducer. You cast Fade, your threat is reduced by 1500. Fifteen seconds later, Fade wears off and you get 1500 threat back. Only cast Fade when you pull aggro, or when you know you're about to pull aggro. Better yet, download a threat meter and don't pull aggro.

"You should re-shackle every few seconds to make sure it doesn't break." NO NO NO! The best way to to make sure a shackle doesn't break early is to get +3% spellhit. Don't re-shackle until your shackle is almost up (<10 seconds left in its duration) or if you know you're about to heal a bunch and don't want to re-shackle in the middle of it.

Post yours here and maybe we can compile a good list.

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i use fade when needed. i still get yelled at for dot on the leo fight even though i have only pulled once and that was like on the first night of attempts. fade makes my dps op for this fight.

for a healing priest with little to no hit you will want to watch your shackle it has a chance to break every 3 or ten seconds. if you are having it break early go with a 3 spell rotation shackle heal heal shackle. our mages don't dps until their sheep is dead better safe than sorry, same is true for any cc that can be spammed. i don't heal i am there for cc.

rememeber most of our spells are situational use then in the right time and they are great, otherwise you just wasted it and are probably the reason for the wipe.

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Q u o t e:
Spells cast before combat don't cause threat (not sure about this one, it appears to have changed)

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PW:S before combat generates no threat, but *does* generate threat in-combat.

PoM generates threat *for the person healed*, not the caster (whether cast in-combat or out-of-combat). This may lead to some of the confusion.

Almost anything that ticks in combat (like Renew) will generate threat even if cast before combat.

Max mana pool = mana available throughout a fight.

False for both shadow and holy.


People using fade incorrectly is the one that really annoys me though....

"You should get out of the FSR before killing a mob to get full use out of Spirit Tap."

For the most part, this only affects normal FSR-related regen which can and should be considered independent of Spirit Tap's own bonus. There is a slight reduction of the Spirit Tap bonus for Priests without Meditation due to pre-stat Spirit regen which doesn't get doubled. However, for any Priest with Meditation you actually get more mana from Spirit Tap itself by continuing to cast.

Many otherwise intelligent Priests just can't understand this.

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Q u o t e:

Even with capped spell hit (3% for a lvl 70 mob), Moroes adds will regularly break prematurely. That's not a misconception. This can easily be seen by anyone with a Scryers gem and assorted spellhit gear. While spell hit does help with Moroes adds, I would be very cautious about trying to get full duration from your shackles.

In regards to normal trash pulls, you are correct.

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Do people not know one of them dispels the shackles?

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Q u o t e:

Even with capped spell hit (3% for a lvl 70 mob), Moroes adds will regularly break prematurely. That's not a misconception. This can easily be seen by anyone with a Scryers gem and assorted spellhit gear. While spell hit does help with Moroes adds, I would be very cautious about trying to get full duration from your shackles.

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While true Moroes shackles can break early (some of the adds dispel others), it still isn't true that "refreshing" a Shackle makes it any less likely to break.

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Q u o t e:


Do people not know one of them dispels the shackles?

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only one, i seem to alway get 2 that can dispel. i don't really remember.

I never have problems with my shackles on moroes consistently breaking early, yes, I've got a scryer's Gem for my +hit for that fight.

Granted, I still recast it probably more often than necessary cause I do it whenever I get a lull in healing as I don't know if I'll get another one in 30 seconds.

Note: Some adds on moroes will dispel the shackle. So that might be why you're seeing it break early even with good +hit.

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Q u o t e:

Even with capped spell hit (3% for a lvl 70 mob), Moroes adds will regularly break prematurely. That's not a misconception. This can easily be seen by anyone with a Scryers gem and assorted spellhit gear. While spell hit does help with Moroes adds, I would be very cautious about trying to get full duration from your shackles.

In regards to normal trash pulls, you are correct.

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Primary cause for this is that there is a dispelling mob in the encounter, like the holy priest or paladin. Clearly your shackle will break early if it gets dispelled. Once unshackled adds are down it's much easier to control.

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Q u o t e:
Granted, I still recast it probably more often than necessary cause I do it whenever I get a lull in healing as I don't know if I'll get another one in 30 seconds.

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This would be a good reason to refresh a Shackle.

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Q u o t e:


While true Moroes shackles can break early (some of the adds dispel others), it still isn't true that "refreshing" a Shackle makes it any less likely to break.

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not true you have a heart beat check every ten seconds. if you cast it again before that heart beat check the only time it will break is if you get a resist and then it breaks on heart beat. i have held a mob in place in front of kara while dueling a holy pally for over an hour with it never breaking.(stupid ok i won't mana burn you.)

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Q u o t e:
Even with capped spell hit (3% for a lvl 70 mob), Moroes adds will regularly break prematurely. That's not a misconception. This can easily be seen by anyone with a Scryers gem and assorted spellhit gear. While spell hit does help with Moroes adds, I would be very cautious about trying to get full duration from your shackles.

In regards to normal trash pulls, you are correct.

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It's been my experience that on Moroes with +3% spellhit, my shackles usually last the full duration. The chance of a break on heartbeat resist is 1% with capped spellhit, unless I'm mistaken. That's extremely low and doesn't warrant regularly refreshing or pausing casting, in my opinion. We normally drop a freeze trap under the feet of a shackler and call it good enough.

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Q u o t e:

Even with capped spell hit (3% for a lvl 70 mob), Moroes adds will regularly break prematurely. That's not a misconception. This can easily be seen by anyone with a Scryers gem and assorted spellhit gear. While spell hit does help with Moroes adds, I would be very cautious about trying to get full duration from your shackles.

In regards to normal trash pulls, you are correct.

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The moroes ads break shackles early because of cleanse, and other abilities that they have. That may be a reason for this phenomenon