How do I get the most out of Starshards?

[Skullmiser]

I was playing with builds, and was avoiding increasing damage just for holy spells or shadow spells, because I like Starshards because they are cool and want them to be useful, even though there are better options.

I thought having both divine spirit and spiritual guidance would be best. Starshards makes use of Spiritual Guidance, right?

I know force of will gives 5%, but I can't make use of its critical bonus with Starshards, because it can't have critical strikes as far as I know.

Power infusion might be okay, but I prefer more consistent damage, and would prefer passive things.

Thoughts?

[Leythia]

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[Ana]

I like Starshards because they are cool and want them to be useful

You're quite unlikely to succeed. They're awful. There just aren't enough talents / outside influence (heck you get no curse from warlocks, even) to improve on the very low base damage of the spell.

[Skullmiser]

I'll rephrase... I am going to use starshards no matter what, and wonder how to maximize their damage in terms of talents.

[Fisher]

If you're wanting to do damage as a priest, you want to play Shadow. None of the Shadow talents are going to increase the damage of your Starshards. The only talents available (the ones you listed) require so many points in Holy or Discipline that you might as well just heal and never bother casting Starshards anyway. The only thing you can do is get Spellpower on your gear, but that also affects the already more useful spells you should have like Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Flay.

Starshards is a great, mana efficient alternative to Mind Flay. It is without a doubt worth casting if you are trying to be efficient. However, it doesn't benefit from Shadow Form, Shadow Weaving, or Improved Shadow Bolt.

[Cohacq]

If you insist on using a bad spell, say good bye to doing good damage.

[Armilus]

I was playing with builds, and was avoiding increasing damage just for holy spells or shadow spells, because I like Starshards because they are cool and want them to be useful, even though there are better options.

I thought having both divine spirit and spiritual guidance would be best. Starshards makes use of Spiritual Guidance, right?

Yes.

I know force of will gives 5%, but I can't make use of its critical bonus with Starshards, because it can't have critical strikes as far as I know.

Power infusion might be okay, but I prefer more consistent damage, and would prefer passive things.

Thoughts?

You already listed the ONLY 3 talents that will do anything for star shards.

You can't get Force of Will AND Spiritual Guidance. One requires 30 points in the discipline tree, the other requires 25 in holy. That means you need 55 talent points and you only get 51.

So, do you want Force of Will and Power Infusion or do you want Spiritual Guidance?

If you want Power Infusion and Force of Will, then the standard Power infusion healing build has that. If you want spiritual guidance, then the standard disc/holy build has that.

Really the answer to "How do I get the most out of Starshards?" is "use starshards".

[Leythia]

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