WoD Alpha Priest notes

[Gwenymph 414]

Here are some of the Priest highlights from yesterdays blue post:

Full article here

 

Priest

• Binding Heal is no longer available to Shadow Priests.
• Hymn of Hope has been removed.
• Heal has been removed.
• Greater Heal has been renamed Heal.
• Inner Focus no longer provides any mana cost reduction.
• Rapture has been removed.
• Renew is now available only to Holy Priests.
• Shadow Word: Death is now available only to Shadow Priests.
• Void Shift has been removed.
• Inner Fire has been removed.
• Inner Will has been removed.

 

We've made a few significant changes to Priests as well, focused mostly on reining in Discipline absorbs, improving quality of life for both healing Priest specializations, and solving single-target damage issues for Shadow.

Atonement was the original damage-to-healing conversion ability, but grew out of control during Mists of Pandaria. We decided to reduce its effectiveness, to bring it more in line with our goal of it being an option to trade significant healing for significant damage (ending up somewhere between a full healer and a full damage dealer). Another place where Discipline's absorbs were too strong was in their interaction with the level-90 Talents, especially in large Raids. Near the end of Mists of Pandaria, we uncapped the AoE healing of that Talent row; that has proven to be a mistake in Discipline's case, not because it caused the level-90 Talents themselves to heal for too much, but rather because the gigantic overhealing that that produced translated into gigantic Divine Aegis absorbs. To get back to a balanced place, we've reapplied the AoE caps to the level-90 Talents, making them consistent with all other AoE heals.

• Atonement now heals for 25% less than before.
• Halo and Divine Star now follow standard AoE capping rules.

For Holy Priests, our biggest concern is with the Chakras. We think that Chakras are the defining abilities of Holy Priests, but that they haven't lived up to their potential. We decided to move more of their effectiveness from their raw throughput buff (which felt like a penalty for being in the wrong chakra, rather than a bonus for being in the right Chakra) into the Holy Word spells that they grant. We also returned Renew to a normal 1.5-second global cooldown (GCD), so that Renew blanketing is still possible, but less ideal without Haste.

• Chakra: Serenity now increases healing of single-target spells by 10% (down from 25%).
• Holy Word: Serenity now heals for 40% more than before.
• Chakra: Sanctuary now increases healing of area-of-effect spells by 10% (down from 25%).
• Holy Word: Sanctuary now heals for 60% more than before.
• Rapid Renewal no longer reduces the global cooldown of Renew.

Shadow Priests had one large problem toward the end of Mists of Pandaria: single-target damage. Their AoE and multi-DoT damage was some of the best around, so they still ended up competitive on most fights. But, in any fight that was mostly single-target, they felt lacking. Additionally, one of the new stats we're adding in Warlords of Draenor, Multistrike, is almost exactly what their current Mastery, Shadowy Recall, does for DoTs. So, we took these two problems and came up with a change that we think will solve both of them. The result is a new Mastery, which primarily increases single-target damage. Shadow Priests who want to focus on single-target damage can aim for Mastery in their gearing; or, when multi-dotting is more valuable, prefer other secondary stats over Mastery.

• Shadow Priest’s Mastery (Shadowy Recall) has been replaced with a new Mastery: Mental Anguish.
  • Mastery: Mental Anguish: Increases the damage of Mind Blast, Mind Spike, Mind Flay, and Mind Sear by 20%.

There are a few other miscellaneous changes. One is a quality-of-life change for healing Priests. The other is a fix for a problem with Void Tendrils, where it lasts its full duration against creatures that had no way to attack it (such as in certain Raid encounters). Note that the health reduction is to keep it where it was in health, compared to player health doubling. The third is an efficient AoE healing spell for Discipline Priests.

• Prayer of Mending from multiple Priests can now be on the same target, and can be on multiple targets from the same Priest.
• Void Tendrils now have 10% of the Priest’s health (down from 20%), and damage dealt to the rooted target is now also dealt to the Void Tendril itself.
• Angelic Feathers, if cast on players, will always prefer the casting priest over others, then pick the player closest to the targeted location. If there are no players where it is targeted, it will still create a feather that can be picked up, as before. Additionally, when collecting multiple feathers, the duration will be extended, instead of replaced.
• Holy Nova is no longer available via a Major Glyph, and is instead a Discipline specialization spell. Its mana cost has been lowered and its healing increased. It is intended as the efficient area-of-effect (AoE) healing spell for Discipline Priests.
• Cascade, Divine Star, and Halo no longer heal allies but are instant cast for Shadow Priests, or damage enemies for Discipline or Holy Priests.

[ClaytonMcKown 4]

so long story short.disc priest will go down to the lower end of the healing totem. holy priest well go up to #2 or
# 3 spot. in the healing totem. and shadow will go up from the bottom to the middle or the upper 1/2 for the damage dealer

[Kuroxoro 0]

I'm not going to lie, I am very concerned with the changes, some of which seem very radical.

 

 

Rapture has been removed.
Hymn of Hope has been removed.
Inner Focus no longer provides any mana cost reduction.

 

We will have to go out and get more Spirit

 

 

Atonement now heals for 25% less than before.
Halo and Divine Star now follow standard AoE capping rules.

 

It was fun while it lasted.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Epoxi

[Phake 8]

I don't think that we'll need that much more spirit, keep in mind that most things around mana regen will be changed aswell. [i.e having a higher base regen]

 

And yes, Atonement will be 'nerfed' by 25%, BUT according to our new level perks [http://wowhead.com/talent-wod#p!], we'll have the damage of Smite/Penance buffed by 20%. If atonement will work the same way in 6.0 as now this will end in a net nerf of our atonement healing, but not as worse as 25% may sound.

 

Smite does 100 dmg now. Atonement does 90 healing.
The atonement change, 25% less, means Atonement (should) now do 67.5% of the dmg done as healing.
If Smite is buffed by 20%, then our Smite cast now does 120 dmg, and 120 * 0.675 = 81 healing

 

It's a nerf to 'pure' atonement healing, but if healers can't top of everyones health instantly I'll think direct heals will become more important. [i.e defensive penance, reworked holy nova]

 

I'm curious though how the change to the effectivity of our shields/absorbs will change our playstyle, as shielding incoming damage is one of the greatest benefits from having a disc priest as your healer.

[Espiee 161]

They are increasing our base mana regen and limiting spirit to jewellery and weapons. Just like they adjusted druids' mana regen when removing innervate they will likely do the same for disc priests. As such you won't be stacking spirit more than any healer would and our throughput will be balanced around this. Honestly I am looking forward to getting past gimmicky mechanics like the legendary meta gem and rapture. Now we can just use whatever dam spell is necessary rather than worrying about using rapture every LMG proc or every 12 seconds

 

IF and IW make sense to be remove, you defaulted to IF all the time anyway rarely using IW.

 

Heal was similarly used only seldom by both disc and holy. Making Renew holy means one less button for me. I wonder why they let holy keep PWS though, it's hardly of any use for them as a normal heal currently would heal for more.

 

I'm indifferent towards HoH and VS. HoH wasn't a strong mana cooldown either way and you usually combined it with SF and had to remain stationary for 8 seconds. If they buff everyone's mana regen to compensate for mana cooldowns being gone I couldn't give a rat's ass. VS similarly has limited use. The travelling time on the projectile means you couldn't use it to save someone's ass instantly.

[kitsu 55]

does VS wipe purgatory's value? it seems like it does. its pretty op with a dk tank