The lowdown on Power Word: ShieldFollow

Yes, sadly, Reflective Shield is just for you.
Damn pity, if you ask me.


RE: PW:S Threat mechanics

It's not too much threat, in the grand scheme of things. Basically take how much damage PW:S can absorb and chop it in half, pretend your healing someone for that amount, and that's how much threat it generates. Why this can be a monkey wrench is because PW:S is a preventative measure, meaning the threat is being generated before the damage is delt. A heal is a reactive measure, meaning the threat is being generated after the damage is delt (and your tank has had some time to establish threat). So you don't have to worry too much about making sure the tank has it before the pull, just avoid throwing it on during that precarious 3 second window when a freshly pulled pack of mobs is crawling across the room towards your tank.


RE: PW:S Rage Mechanics

You are correct. In patch 3.1 they changed Rage so that it's generated through PW:S. If tanks are cringing it's largely the result of either misinformation or pure oldschool reflex. If anything, throwing PW:S on them gives them more rage through Rapture.


RE: PW:S Paladin Mana Regen Mechanics

Paladins have more mana regen tricks than Spiritual Attunement.
For example Blessings of Sanctuary gives them back 2% of their mana pool everytime they block, parry, or dodge. Or Divine Plea, which gives back 25% of their mana pool. Paladins don't mind being bubbled, because it doesn't present enough of a mana loss through Spiritual Attunement to justify keeping you from casting it and taking advantage of your own mana regen through Rapture. Especially since Rapture grants them mana.


Edited, May 20th 2009 3:20am by Zemzelette

Zemzelette said it all.

That's a bit of an understatement. The thing is that even if your tank wóuld mind being bubbled, the benefits to the whole group by you using bubble simply vastly outweigh any negative impact the bubble has. If you're disc specced, you're going to use it, and tanks have to live with that. It seems like you met one of the old-school not up-to-date tanks who has yet to realize that disc is now a viable healing spec.

Also - have any of you actually tried the threat mechanics out? I tested it about a month ago and back then I remember pretty clearly that neither Power Word: Shield nor Prayer of Mending gave ANY threat at all. I might be mistaken of course, but I'm fairly sure about this.

Edited, May 20th 2009 12:51pm by Mozared

I saw about 100 threat generated, when I watched for it Omen. It's not significant, whatever it may be for anyone else.

Smoopie - I love when people act like this... I had the same thing combined with I should only ever use Flash Heal as Greater heal is a waste. The tank told me to stop casting Greater Heal, so I did... I also stopped casting flash heal on him or any other heals... keeping the off tank up and dps up. He died twice, flamed me some more, so prior to the next boss pull I whispered everyone but him that I am bailing from the group. I gave everyone fair notice, and it was nice to see the tank pull, and then watch as people began to hearth out of the instance. I waited until he was 1/3rd dead and then hearthed myself. 5 minutes of being whispered by him and what an a$$ I was... I finally had to ignore to complete a new run with the other 3 people.

Nothing ruins good gaming then someone who feels they know more, but cannot prove that they know more.

Thanks for the info folks. Yes Horsemouth, I do have PW:S glyphed :). A few more Qs...

Do chars still block, dodge, and parry normally, even when shielded? Zemzelette's post idicates that, but I just want to make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN about these mechanics. I hope to use this thread as a retort for future arguments. If this is so, then I would feel much more relaxed about shielding my pallies.

Is the heal effect from the PW:S glyph affected by grace and/or other healing buffs?

Is the renewed hope damage reduction factored before damage is applied to the shield? Are other buffs like it (I think druid bears have something similar) factored as well? Does the armor of the shielded target matter in shields absorption?

Does anyone have some rough idea of the mana efficiency for PW:S vs true healing spells? At high levels and good gear the amount of damage absorbed/healed per mana must be outstanding.

I'm a paly tank and will somewhat agree with this, but my advice is to ASK us first.

First - B.Sanc gives 3% if I'm remembering right
Second - B.Sanc = Better Mana regen on large packs (Cause we are dodging/blocking more) 1 mob = Bad Regen generally.
Third - D.Plea is good, but not able to really keep us going. Incoming heals = most mana
Finally - My advice is to ask your tank. If a paly is running low on mana - they can not get agro. This will be a huge problem. Wait till the tank has engaged a few mobs - then toss on the shield... If you choose to shield - watch the TANK'S mana bar - as well as your own. It's all about efficiency - if the tank is OOM you must slow down - we are a team - the goal is quick safe kills....



*Shield is a very helpful thing in raids. Sometimes it's just too much in 5mans. So - it is situational...

and





Look if we're in Ulduar and your shield doesn't mean a damn thing - Spam it. That shield's gonna get 1-shot and you'll be healing like normal - it's just a buffer... That's probably to be expected in places like that and a sign of a good healer.


However - I've also walked into H.UK wearing a mixed bag of Naxx10/25/Ulduar10/25 gear and had the healer open up with a shield. Like literally there's still a mage table floating there, the Warlock's Stone summon - and I'm charging up the the steps into a massive "2-Pull" with a shield on... That's unnecessary is a sign that my healer either doesn't understand the mechanics or he might just be lazy.

Paly tanks aren't going OOM on Boss fights in Ulduar. They are going /oom as the OT, they are going /oom when running instances with 29k base HP and block capped.... I love Disc Priests - Until I'm doing a timed run for a guildie in CoS....


I'll put it this way:

If the job can be done with minimal risk through normal healing (Big, Small, HoT, AoE) do that.

If the job requires you to shield me (Jacka$$ DPS needs your attention, Lag, Tough boss mechanic) then throw the shield on.



If you read the posts by Bohdi about Mana and how we have infinite mana as healers - the current problem isn't a healer going /oom. However - My tank does go /oom and rather quickly. (Got Glyph) Thus when it comes to the party's survival Paly tank Mana > Important than Healer Mana. (Again - this is because it is generally accepted that healers are not going /oom at all...)

Also - This should be taken with a grain of salt. H.UK has a hard hitting boss at the end. Shields are fine there. Toss it on. All I'm saying is to watch it. If I'm getting beat up - put one on. If I'm fine - leave it be....

The thing is, I'm not just using PW:S because it's mana conservative for me. It procs Borrowed Time and Renewed Hope as well. Like you're saying, if it's obviously not needed you might as well not use it - then again, if a shield is obviously not needed then heals are probably not really needed either. If you want to do the job properly as a disc priest, you will be shielding a lot.



That's normal. The reason for this is that shield doesn't become an effective spell until you put in all the disc talent points.

What is your spell rotation?

I'd rather level as Disc so I am ready if I get an instance invite, but Shadow is so much more efficient.

As Disc I use HF, penance, SW: P then wand until penance is back (maybe).

PW: S as necessary.

I would definitely take into account what Borsuk stated... sometimes you do not need PW:S. I decided to go Disc after reading Mozared's post after being Shadow forever, and now I am Dual Specced that way. (Shameless plug for Mozared... read his post... it is awesome and makes me enjoy playing so much more.)

When I first started Heroics, I was dropping sheilds on everyone, but that is because I was not paying attention to inspect gear or even easier... asking the tank if they are defense capped. This makes such a huge difference in the way you play. If the tank is not capped, then shielding is worthwhile as a safety buffer for those huge hits. Your shield plus a tanks mitigation should avoid instant death on a crushing blow, thus allowing you the recovery time to use a larger heal to bring them back up while potentially waiting for Penance to cycle.

I have found now that I am in all Epics and that most of the time I am running with like others, shield is wasted unless it is on boss fights with lots of AOE and the dps is getting hit. It is my "oh crap" button more than anything else.