Surge of Light (BC Classic)

Surge of Light
	Surge of Light (2 ranks); Tier 6 Holy priest talent; Passive; Your spell criticals have a 25/50% chance to cause your next Smite spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.;
Properties
Class	Priest
Other information
Affects	[Smite]
Related buff
	Magic ; Surge of Light ; Your next Smite spell is instant cast, costs no mana but is incapable of a critical hit. ; Duration: 10 seconds ;

For other uses, see Surge of Light (disambiguation).

Surge of Light is a priest talent that grants a 3/6% chance when casting [Smite], [Heal], [Flash Heal], [Binding Heal] or [Greater Heal] to cause your next [Flash Heal] to be instant cast and cost no mana.

Tips and tactics

In situations where mana is tight, Surge of Light can be used as often as possible, conserving mana that would otherwise have been spent on healing. By reducing mana consumption, SoL can reduce the priest's (and often therefore the group's) downtime, due to a reduced need for mana breaks. When soloing – provided [Smite] is being regularly used – Surge of Light can often provide all healing required by the priest, so conserving mana for offensive spells, as well as reducing downtime.

In PvP, Surge of Light can be very useful due to its instant cast capability, offering emergency burst healing and preventing interrupt effects.

However, as Surge of Light doesn't increase Flash Heal's healing per second (HPS), it is not always advisable to consume the buff immediately. Particularly in high-pressure situations where healing throughput is more important than efficiency, it may be better to prioritize abilities with higher HPS over SoL-boosted Flash Heal. This is most apparent in situations where multi-target healing is desired, as [Flash Heal] can only heal a single target, but can also affect single-target healing. Its 10 sec duration allows for a few heals to be cast in-between without losing the buff entirely.

Those concerned with their overall HPS may wish to examine the contribution of these free heals and balance them against their other options.

Patch changes

Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Removed.
Hotfix (2011-07-01): The [Flash Heal] from Surge of Light will now correctly activate [Chakra].
Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Can now also trigger from [Binding Heal].
Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Can now also proc from [Flash Heal] and [Greater Heal], and can now also critically hit.
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Redesigned. You have a 3/6% chance when you Smite, Heal, Flash Heal, Binding Heal or Greater Heal to cause your next Flash Heal to be instant cast and cost no mana. Moved to tier 2 (was tier 6).
Old: Your spell criticals have a 25/50% chance to cause your next Smite or Flash Heal spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.
Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Now makes your next Smite or Flash Heal instant cast (was only Smite).
Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): [Smite] spells triggered by this talent will no longer sometimes critically strike. In addition, the free Smite granted will not consume the effect of [Inner Focus]. [Holy Nova] heals can now trigger Surge of Light as well.
Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): Surge of Light can no longer be triggered by using items.
Patch 2.0.1 (2006-12-05): Added.