WoW - High Level Priest Question

[warcrow]

Ok, I'm currently a Shadow spec'd Priest. My guild and I did our first MC run and I've finally accepted the fact that I would preffer to raid instead of PvP (well, for now). I am going to respec to Holy for healing <GuLp!>.

I know the devout set is suppose to be the set to go for...atleast I think it is, right? I'm currently wearing some dreadmist stuff.

Devout Stuff here: http://thottbot.com/?set=182

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Ok, first thing. The holy tree is mostly worthless. A heavy discipline specced priest is going to be much more efficient in healing. My priest was 31 / 20 / 0. Remember, in Molten Core you aren't going to be using greater heal, heal, or prayer of healing (sometimes on trash mobs) so all the talent bonuses to that are garbage. Nova is worthless, as is Spirit Of Redemption.


Also, Devout is not even worth the time to collect. All of the +healing gear out of Dire Maul and other instances trumps Devout. They're easier to get then certain pieces. Compare Devout Mantle with Burial Shawl. The only bonus with Devout is the 55 to +healing you get at 8 pieces. Which 8 pieces of healing gear will net you much larger returns.

 

[zzzz]

^^ look up dire maul healing gear. Get "Hide of the wild" made. There should other good +healing items around.

 

[Jeff7181]

Here's my current Priest.

I haven't had any problems healing... but I haven't done the bigger instances like ZG or MC yet. Largest I've done was a 15 man raid in UBRS.

 

[Malladine]

I have a priest on Gilneas. When buffed with fort I have 3300 hp and 5400 mana. I am wearing two pieces of Devout (1 from UBRS, 1 from Stratholme). I haven't encountered any problems healing tanks yet, but ubrs is as high as i've been.

I wish I knew how to add my profile to a site like that! IIRC my int is roughly the same as my spirit, both around 290-300.

15/25/11 spec 🙂

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Malladine
I have a priest on Gilneas. When buffed with fort I have 3300 hp and 5400 mana. I am wearing two pieces of Devout (1 from UBRS, 1 from Stratholme). I haven't encountered any problems healing tanks yet, but ubrs is as high as i've been.

I wish I knew how to add my profile to a site like that! IIRC my int is roughly the same as my spirit, both around 290-300.

15/25/11 spec 🙂

I'm too lazy to look... is that a PVP server? I'm assuming it is since it looks like you chose stamina gear over intellect or healing gear.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Malladine
I have a priest on Gilneas. When buffed with fort I have 3300 hp and 5400 mana. I am wearing two pieces of Devout (1 from UBRS, 1 from Stratholme). I haven't encountered any problems healing tanks yet, but ubrs is as high as i've been.

I wish I knew how to add my profile to a site like that! IIRC my int is roughly the same as my spirit, both around 290-300.

15/25/11 spec 🙂

I'm too lazy to look... is that a PVP server? I'm assuming it is since it looks like you chose stamina gear over intellect or healing gear.

Nah, pve. I haven't seriously played him since early Feb. though, so I can't tell you why I have the loot I have 🙂

I didn't do the high end instances much really, brd half a dozen times, ubrs once, strat once, that's bout it. I do recall I enjoyed having high spirit, maybe stamina just came along with that. I also grouped 100% of the time with my wife, a hunter, so some damage came my way more often than normal probably.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Malladine

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Malladine
I have a priest on Gilneas. When buffed with fort I have 3300 hp and 5400 mana. I am wearing two pieces of Devout (1 from UBRS, 1 from Stratholme). I haven't encountered any problems healing tanks yet, but ubrs is as high as i've been.

I wish I knew how to add my profile to a site like that! IIRC my int is roughly the same as my spirit, both around 290-300.

15/25/11 spec 🙂

I'm too lazy to look... is that a PVP server? I'm assuming it is since it looks like you chose stamina gear over intellect or healing gear.

Nah, pve. I haven't seriously played him since early Feb. though, so I can't tell you why I have the loot I have 🙂

I didn't do the high end instances much really, brd half a dozen times, ubrs once, strat once, that's bout it. I do recall I enjoyed having high spirit, maybe stamina just came along with that. I also grouped 100% of the time with my wife, a hunter, so some damage came my way more often than normal probably.

I guess a lot has changed since then. Lots of new loot. I've only been playing 2-3 months.

 

[bcterps]

Mana regen, high spirit, and +healing items are going to be what you want. Dire Maul is your friend, do tribute runs for Mindsurge Robe, get 2 Mindtap Talismans from DM West, Emerald Flame Ring from DM West, get a Hide of the Wild made, etc. That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are other good things out there as well.

A lot of people do not farm DM enough, the loot there is ridiculous.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: benchiu
Mana regen, high spirit, and +healing items are going to be what you want. Dire Maul is your friend, do tribute runs for Mindsurge Robe, get 2 Mindtap Talismans from DM West, Emerald Flame Ring from DM West, get a Hide of the Wild made, etc. That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are other good things out there as well.

A lot of people do not farm DM enough, the loot there is ridiculous.

Same with Stratholme. A lot of good gear in Lstrath and Ustrat. I have a L60 Priest who is decked out in some decent gear. I also have a L60 Warrior who is in some so-so gear. I am now working on a Mage. But I plan to twink him out and just run the 20-29 BGs and stuff. Who knows, that usually lasts for one week and then I get an itch to level another 60.

The thing I hate about my priest is that my current guild, who raids ZG every night will not give me any "+Damage and Healing" gear. They will only allow me to have "+Healing" which really turned me off. So, I am not going to most of the raids anymore. I know healing is my primary focus, but why do I want to waste 4 hours a night in ZG when I have no opportunity to gain any solo or PVP gear? Why do I want to run a 20 man instance just to get loot that will only serve me in another 20 man instance?

Anyway, more of a rant than anything. I am shadow specced and I can heal just fine in ZG... Never been to MC, but I doubt I would stay shadow if we got to that level.

 

[abaez]

Right now going for DM stuff is a good idea. For me, the focus is to be as efficient as possible. Constantly using renew, using pw:shield in emergency situations only (as it is extremely mana inefficient), and of course using greater heal. (I hate flash heal unless I'm healing MT.)

Granted greater heal isn't something you would use on a main tank tanking golemagg, but say for a tank on golemagg's adds, dropping a renew (to mitigate damage) and greater healing will lend you to be much more efficient than just spamming flash heal. I'm talking greater heal rank 2, probably the best spell in healing time and time to wait to cast (start casting when a tank is -1500 hp and since gh2 heals for about 2000, by the time it's finished casting he should have -2000 hp and you won't over heal).

As you get higher level the more +healing you get the better it is. I have about 520 +healing I have become extremely efficient. I drop renew (300 a tick) and spam heal rank 2 (3.5 cast time but it receives the full +healing benefit). Heal 2 is 285 mana, 1/3 of the cost of flash heal and I can regen the mana faster than I can use it. As you go along the fights get longer and longer - Majordomo with 6 adds and healing all 6 offtanks is a good test of efficiency.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa...w-priest&t=410222&p=1&tmp=1#post410222

for more info.

 

[Concillian]

Yes, generally heavy discipline is preferrable over heavy holy, at least for me. Inner Focus is key because it allows one large heal without interrupting mana regen. In most fights the mana saved from inner focus is enough to complensate from the mana saved from the bonuses to greater heal in the holy tree.

As has been mentioned, generally piecing together blues is better than your class specific set. You need to have around 3000 HP to keep from getting one shotted and a reasonable mana pool (~5000-6000) then focus on spirit and + healing. With a lot of +healing gear you can drop down a few ranks of flash heal or greater heal to be more mana efficient. Lower ranks get the same bonus from + healing (which is 43% of the bonus listed on gear for flash heal), so they gain efficiency quicker than the highest rank. You will do lower healing rate, but healing rate generally isn't a huge issue as you won't be the only person healing your tank in most cases.

The points in holy are somewhat debatable. Generally if a healer gets aggro it's because something went very wrong. So subtlety is even a questionable place to put points. My experience is that a healer gets aggro in one of three cases:
1) The MT dies, in which your guild should have a contingency.
- In this case every healer has tons of aggro built up anyway, but the boss will likely go after damage dealers first.
2) A banish or sheep pops and the assigned warlock/mage is too slow in re-applications
- This is unavoidable from the standpoint of the priest... subtlety won't help this one
3) The boss has a special ability that punts the warrior out of aggro range, or wipes aggro or something similar
- These cases are part of the encounter and are to be planned around. For example, Majordomo can teleport the tank and this wipes his entire aggro table. Subtlety won't help here, you need people to bring domo back to the tank... Requires planning around.

I actually feel that inspiration and holy spec are decent raid level skills despite that they are not the most popular picks. With priests having inspiration, and the amount of heals the MT receives, it procs on a regular basis. For example, if the tank is receiving 10 heals per 15 seconds from priests with a 13% crit rate, he will have +25% armor 75% of the time. I know one guild that has an overabundance of healers that designates one priest to chain cast Rank 1 flash heal for the inspiration proc and a shaman casts a low rank lesser healing wave for the similar armor buff that they get. These points are wasted on those that do pure fire damage however, as armor is pretty useless against those bosses.
If your guild is not organized enough to plan for some priests having inspiration, I wouldn't spec that way, but go with a more standard healing spec.

Obviously spiritual healing is a must. Beyond that, there is quite a bit of debate as to what's best.

 

[Glavinsolo]

Warcrow, If you are going to respecc go 31disc 20holy.

It is the only way to go for efficient healing until they redo priest talents. For gear wise there is the following i can remember off the top of my head. Spend a Day in DM with a good 5man group and you are sure to get.

Mindsurge Robe - DM Tribute - Chest
Emerald Flame ring - DM West - Prince (Get 1)
DM Priest trinket book - Random drop off the bosses in DM
Mindtap Talisman - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Padres Trousers - DM West - Hunter chick upstairs with the bear
Ring of demonic Guile - DM East - Last boss there
Boots of the full moon - DM North - Kromkrush i think
Immolthar in DM West drops a really nice cloak for a healer
Elder Magus pendant - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Brightly Glowing stone - DM North - King (Its an offhand if you have a good mainhand)
Rod of the ogre magi - DM North - Tribute chest (2h Staff)
Sublime Wristguards - DM North - It is able to drop off of 2 guards there

Do AV and get honored. You will get a nice cloak and a nice belt.


Just take this list with you and try and get everything on it.

For your class you want Mana regen, spirit, stamina, int. Mix devout pieces with magister if you have them.

If you are going to be doing MC then there is no reason to fulfill your Devout set. That in itself is a time sink.

 

[Glavinsolo]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Warcrow, If you are going to respecc go 31disc 20holy.

It is the only way to go for efficient healing until they redo priest talents. For gear wise there is the following i can remember off the top of my head. Spend a Day in DM with a good 5man group and you are sure to get.

Mindsurge Robe - DM Tribute - Chest
Emerald Flame ring - DM West - Prince (Get 1)
DM Priest trinket book - Random drop off the bosses in DM
Mindtap Talisman - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Padres Trousers - DM West - Hunter chick upstairs with the bear
Ring of demonic Guile - DM East - Last boss there
Boots of the full moon - DM North - Kromkrush i think
Immolthar in DM West drops a really nice cloak for a healer
Elder Magus pendant - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Brightly Glowing stone - DM North - King (Its an offhand if you have a good mainhand)
Rod of the ogre magi - DM North - Tribute chest (2h Staff)
Sublime Wristguards - DM North - It is able to drop off of 2 guards there

Do AV and get honored. You will get a nice cloak and a nice belt and a Godly Neck.


Just take this list with you and try and get everything on it.

For your class you want Mana regen, spirit, stamina, int. Mix devout pieces with magister if you have them.

If you are going to be doing MC then there is no reason to fulfill your Devout set. That in itself is a time sink.

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Warcrow, If you are going to respecc go 31disc 20holy.

It is the only way to go for efficient healing until they redo priest talents. For gear wise there is the following i can remember off the top of my head. Spend a Day in DM with a good 5man group and you are sure to get.

Mindsurge Robe - DM Tribute - Chest
Emerald Flame ring - DM West - Prince (Get 1)
DM Priest trinket book - Random drop off the bosses in DM
Mindtap Talisman - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Padres Trousers - DM West - Hunter chick upstairs with the bear
Ring of demonic Guile - DM East - Last boss there
Boots of the full moon - DM North - Kromkrush i think
Immolthar in DM West drops a really nice cloak for a healer
Elder Magus pendant - DM West - Magister (Shadow priest to the left in DM west)
Brightly Glowing stone - DM North - King (Its an offhand if you have a good mainhand)
Rod of the ogre magi - DM North - Tribute chest (2h Staff)
Sublime Wristguards - DM North - It is able to drop off of 2 guards there

Do AV and get honored. You will get a nice cloak and a nice belt.


Just take this list with you and try and get everything on it.

For your class you want Mana regen, spirit, stamina, int. Mix devout pieces with magister if you have them.

If you are going to be doing MC then there is no reason to fulfill your Devout set. That in itself is a time sink.

Try and get Truefaith Vestments instead of Mindsurge. Or, if you don't want to spend the time farming Balnazzar for the pattern and then the massive time to collect the materials you could use Robes Of The Exalted or Robes Of Everlasting Night. Whichever way you go, Mindsurge just isn't that special.

Also, any +critical to spell gear is completely useless for a healbot. Healing criticals may look nice, but you can'y rely on them to actually go off. So, most healing criticals end up being overheals.

 

[sparkyclarky]

26/25 disc/holy is the best healer build (IMO). It is helpful to have one person in the guild spec 31/20 for divine spirit, but you don't need more than one person with it (assuming they raid regularly). 26/25 gets you improved FH and improved POH, which are VERY useful in a variety of situations (the improved POH saves a ton of mana, and makes running 5 man dead and scholo quite a bit more bearable at points, as POH is the most mana efficient heal priests have when multiple people are getting hit). Devout is a decent set, particularly if you can get all 8 pieces. However, you'll most likely be decked out in some purple before that can happen, as it's a royal PITA getting a full set of tier 0. My suggestion is to string together some random blues from DM/UBRS/scholo/strat, and collect your tier 0 as an afterthought/hobby. Also, don't forget to finish quests in EPL that give some decent staves/wands.

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
26/25 disc/holy is the best healer build (IMO). It is helpful to have one person in the guild spec 31/20 for divine spirit, but you don't need more than one person with it (assuming they raid regularly). 26/25 gets you improved FH and improved POH, which are VERY useful in a variety of situations (the improved POH saves a ton of mana, and makes running 5 man dead and scholo quite a bit more bearable at points, as POH is the most mana efficient heal priests have when multiple people are getting hit). Devout is a decent set, particularly if you can get all 8 pieces. However, you'll most likely be decked out in some purple before that can happen, as it's a royal PITA getting a full set of tier 0. My suggestion is to string together some random blues from DM/UBRS/scholo/strat, and collect your tier 0 as an afterthought/hobby. Also, don't forget to finish quests in EPL that give some decent staves/wands.

The whole point of respeccing would be for endgame instances. Otherwise he could keep his shadow spec and heal just fine for any instance outside of Molten Core, Zul Gurrub, and Blackwing Lair. So the talents for Prayer Of Healing is really a waste, besides with it's limited use you can always pop an Inner Focus and then use PoH for free.

Also, having more than one priest with Divine Spirit is suggested. Buffing 40 people one at a time with a buff that only lasts half an hour is tiring.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: TheNoblePlatypus

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
26/25 disc/holy is the best healer build (IMO). It is helpful to have one person in the guild spec 31/20 for divine spirit, but you don't need more than one person with it (assuming they raid regularly). 26/25 gets you improved FH and improved POH, which are VERY useful in a variety of situations (the improved POH saves a ton of mana, and makes running 5 man dead and scholo quite a bit more bearable at points, as POH is the most mana efficient heal priests have when multiple people are getting hit). Devout is a decent set, particularly if you can get all 8 pieces. However, you'll most likely be decked out in some purple before that can happen, as it's a royal PITA getting a full set of tier 0. My suggestion is to string together some random blues from DM/UBRS/scholo/strat, and collect your tier 0 as an afterthought/hobby. Also, don't forget to finish quests in EPL that give some decent staves/wands.

The whole point of respeccing would be for endgame instances. Otherwise he could keep his shadow spec and heal just fine for any instance outside of Molten Core, Zul Gurrub, and Blackwing Lair. So the talents for Prayer Of Healing is really a waste, besides with it's limited use you can always pop an Inner Focus and then use PoH for free.

Also, having more than one priest with Divine Spirit is suggested. Buffing 40 people one at a time with a buff that only lasts half an hour is tiring.

26/25 is the best overall end game build. Strat, Scholo, DM, UBRS, and the raid instances are all endgame, and there is a fair amount of AOE in some of those dungeons. Plus, improved FH is a godsend in any PVP encounter. Your point about divine spirit fails when you consider that maybe half of the people in the raid actually have any amount of actuall use for it, thus making buffing a fairly trivial matter (not to mention the debated merits of 35 extra spirit for a 31 point talent).

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Those instances are not endgame as equipment you get from them are needed for Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Zul Gurrub. Plus, look at the suggested level requirements Blizzard put down for them.


Divine spirit is a better investment in talent points if your only focus is actual endgame content. Your build is well-rounded though, but you shouldn't be speccing a character based upon those instances you listed.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: TheNoblePlatypus
Those instances are not endgame as equipment you get from them are needed for Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Zul Gurrub. Plus, look at the suggested level requirements Blizzard put down for them.


Divine spirit is a better investment in talent points if your only focus is actual endgame content. Your build is well-rounded though, but you shouldn't be speccing a character based upon those instances you listed.

Those are endgame. When 60, I'll put money down that more people are spending more time doing instances that drop tier 0 and other random blues than the 20+ man raids. If your definition of endgame is content that is only accessible once you hit 60, and only accessible when you have 20+ people, then fine, those aren't endgame. But that is one hell of a limited definition. Not to mention that if he is still a 'new' 60, he'll want to work on getting a solid base of blues before he tackles epics (that is unless his guild is willing to bring along an underequipped character to the raids and get them geared out quickly, irrespective of dkp). A divine spirit build is a build suited solely for the highest end raids, and really is fairly gimped compared to 26/25 for 5 man endgame/random farming that composes much of life post-60. The difference isn't earthshattering though, but you will notice that 200 mana saved/PoH, and the utility of less interrupted flash heals (the most widely used endgame heal outside of renew).

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: TheNoblePlatypus
Those instances are not endgame as equipment you get from them are needed for Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Zul Gurrub. Plus, look at the suggested level requirements Blizzard put down for them.


Divine spirit is a better investment in talent points if your only focus is actual endgame content. Your build is well-rounded though, but you shouldn't be speccing a character based upon those instances you listed.

Those are endgame. When 60, I'll put money down that more people are spending more time doing instances that drop tier 0 and other random blues than the 20+ man raids. If your definition of endgame is content that is only accessible once you hit 60, and only accessible when you have 20+ people, then fine, those aren't endgame. But that is one hell of a limited definition. Not to mention that if he is still a 'new' 60, he'll want to work on getting a solid base of blues before he tackles epics (that is unless his guild is willing to bring along an underequipped character to the raids and get them geared out quickly, irrespective of dkp). A divine spirit build is a build suited solely for the highest end raids, and really is fairly gimped compared to 26/25 for 5 man endgame/random farming that composes much of life post-60. The difference isn't earthshattering though, but you will notice that 200 mana saved/PoH, and the utility of less interrupted flash heals (the most widely used endgame heal outside of renew).

Which is why alliance have such a huge advantage... Paldin + Priest = Uninteruptable heals... They both have 70% chance to not lose casting time with damage, then the Paladin's Aura for any addition 35%... There you have it, free heals, anytime and anywhere. Doesn't stop silence and stuff, but still...

 

[oogabooga]

warcrow : the best piece of advice i think anyone can give you in terms of your priest is

1) spec according to how you play. If you can heal in shadow fine. Realize disc/holy is probally the -optimal- build, but then again you dont need to be this build to survive mc.
2) your gear is just that.. gear. Your timing (which is basically our equivilent of skill) will matter more in the long run.

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Those are endgame. When 60, I'll put money down that more people are spending more time doing instances that drop tier 0 and other random blues than the 20+ man raids. If your definition of endgame is content that is only accessible once you hit 60, and only accessible when you have 20+ people, then fine, those aren't endgame. But that is one hell of a limited definition. Not to mention that if he is still a 'new' 60, he'll want to work on getting a solid base of blues before he tackles epics (that is unless his guild is willing to bring along an underequipped character to the raids and get them geared out quickly, irrespective of dkp). A divine spirit build is a build suited solely for the highest end raids, and really is fairly gimped compared to 26/25 for 5 man endgame/random farming that composes much of life post-60. The difference isn't earthshattering though, but you will notice that 200 mana saved/PoH, and the utility of less interrupted flash heals (the most widely used endgame heal outside of renew).

The whole point though, is if he was doing the non-endgame instances he could keep his shadow spec and keep up with healing just fine. If you have a competent group, you don't need to respec to heal effectively in anything under MC/ZG/BWL.

If your priest is getting hit, someone isn't holding up their end (MT). If you're using PoH constantly then someone isn't holding up their end (MA). There is not that much AoE in the lower end instances to warrant putting points into PoH. Except for PvP, there is no real reason why your priest should be tanking. Granted, I've done my fair share of cloth tanking in PUGs.


Also, he did say he was doing Molten Core so I gave him the spec I and most other priests used on my server for that.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: oogabooga
warcrow : the best piece of advice i think anyone can give you in terms of your priest is

1) spec according to how you play. If you can heal in shadow fine. Realize disc/holy is probally the -optimal- build, but then again you dont need to be this build to survive mc.
2) your gear is just that.. gear. Your timing (which is basically our equivilent of skill) will matter more in the long run.

Strategy helps too. Just tonight in ZG I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off while I healed to avoid the fireballs from that troll/bat bitch.

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: TheNoblePlatypus

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Those are endgame. When 60, I'll put money down that more people are spending more time doing instances that drop tier 0 and other random blues than the 20+ man raids. If your definition of endgame is content that is only accessible once you hit 60, and only accessible when you have 20+ people, then fine, those aren't endgame. But that is one hell of a limited definition. Not to mention that if he is still a 'new' 60, he'll want to work on getting a solid base of blues before he tackles epics (that is unless his guild is willing to bring along an underequipped character to the raids and get them geared out quickly, irrespective of dkp). A divine spirit build is a build suited solely for the highest end raids, and really is fairly gimped compared to 26/25 for 5 man endgame/random farming that composes much of life post-60. The difference isn't earthshattering though, but you will notice that 200 mana saved/PoH, and the utility of less interrupted flash heals (the most widely used endgame heal outside of renew).

The whole point though, is if he was doing the non-endgame instances he could keep his shadow spec and keep up with healing just fine. If you have a competent group, you don't need to respec to heal effectively in anything under MC/ZG/BWL.

I agree completely. Having a set of healing gear is a must though ( that +200 shadow damage and no int really doesn't help), and that's what the OP was asking about as well I think.

If your priest is getting hit, someone isn't holding up their end (MT).

Not necessarily, it may also mean that the priest is doing something stupid, such as dumping huge heals after pull but before the mob reaches the group, or standing next to a mob that uses sweeping strikes or cleave.

If you're using PoH constantly then someone isn't holding up their end (MA). There is not that much AoE in the lower end instances to warrant putting points into PoH.

Pretty much true, although there are notable exceptions, such as the venom belchers in strat dead side, and the thrice cursed flamecrack casters in lower spire. I'd be surprised if improved PoH actually saved anyone there though.

Except for PvP, there is no real reason why your priest should be tanking. Granted, I've done my fair share of cloth tanking in PUGs.

Yeah ;p. There are probably more restoration specced druids than there are competent tanks about, makes it hard for priests in PUGs.