After the thunderous succes of my "Cataclysm beta mage thread" (19 views, no replies and me rambling), I've decided to put up a similar 'project' here; one consolidated thread for the beta testers to post their experiences in for all of us to discuss. Once again, diggory, Pigtails and whoever else might be around, you're free to chime in.
I'll mostly be posting my experiences with the class at level 80+ here, and am not too bothered with the leveling part of the class. I can tell you however, that grabbing Evangelism and Attonement will probably make for an excellent leveling spec; the healing form Attonement is enough to keep you full, and Evangelism effectively turns your rotation into smite.
So far, my experiences are fairly limited; I logged in and had to spend an hour or such to get all my spells and hotkeys set up (can live without the addons, can't live without my friendly/hostile target macros), which I just finished. I've specced into disc and holy and will be able to try out both specs in instances as well as 80-85 leveling once I get going, which will be tomorrow.
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Mozared wrote:
the healing form Attonement is enough to keep you full
I am excited about this talent to a degree I normally reserve only for Halloween and cheesecake.
I'm sure you'll get replies here, Moz.
At least, you'll get replies from me. But they may be about cheesecake. You just never know. Seriously, I'm excited to hear about any experiences you and the other beta testers care to share.
What I did for a rotation with Disc and the Smite glyph was I would open with Holy Fire and then spam Smite until it wore off, then finish off with Penance, if that helps at all Moz. It worked pretty well for me, but I'm not one to crunch numbers to figure out what rotation is the best dps. Plus things will most likely change at level 80 so there might be other spells you can throw into the rotation at that point too.
New beta build;
http://www.mmo-champion.com/
Pretty much nothing new for disc. For holy, a crapload of changes. The new talent calculator isn't up yet, but I'm thinking we'll need to see that to get a clearer image in our heads; it looks like they shuffled half the tree around, which may or may not have killed the bloat that it suffered from. Shadow got a number of small revamps, mainly PvP centered.
I was going to level my priest today and make a post here, but I got stuck in the jaws of beta infinity - there is a quest that sends you to Moonglade first if you want to level in Hyjal. The problem is that Moonglade is bugged, and anyone who at any point has to face a loading screen to get there (which I did after my teleport) will get stuck at ~60% and have his game crashed. So instead I logged my rogue.
What I *can* share now is that Vashj'ir is a seriously awesome zone. There's really good lore, a couple of memes/cultural references, and the quests are awesome - relatively seen, there's very few "Kill X this" ones. Will give more info on Hyjal once my priest gets fixed.
Quote:
Discipline
* Focused Will now reduces all damage taken by 3/4% (up from 2/3%) and increases healing on you by 4/5% (up from 3/4%) after taking a critical hit. Can now stack with Blessed Resilience.
* Grace now also affects Heal.
* Archangel now also increases your frost damage when used as Dark Archangel (Shadowform).
* Twin Disciplines now increases damage and healing done by instant spells and the damage absorbed by Power Word: Shield by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%)
Holy
* Chakra is now a Tier 5 (Down from Tier 6) and 2 Ranks (Down from 3 Ranks) talent. Revamped - When activated, your next Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell will put you into a corresponding Chakra state. Lasts for 30 sec. Heal - Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 10%, and your Heal refreshes the duration of your Renew on the target. Renew - Increases the healing done by your Renew spell by 10%, and reduces the global cooldown of your Renew spell by .5 sec. Prayer of Healing - Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells by 10% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 sec. Smite - Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%. 6% of base mana, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown
* Test of Faith is now a Tier 6 talent, up from Tier 5.
* Lightwell is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 5.
* Spirit of Redemption is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. No longer increases total Spirit by 5%.
* Holy Concentration is now a 2 Ranks talent (down from 3 Ranks) and now increases mana regeneration from spirit by 10/20%. (Up from 5/10/15%)
* Divine Touch is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks.
* Deliverance (Tier 3) is now named Serendipity (Tier 4). When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12% (Up from 3/6/9%). Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
* Improved Holy Nova is gone.
* Improved Healing is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks.
* Inspiration is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks. Now reduces your target's physical damage taken by 5/10%. (Up from 3/7/10%)
* Divine Fury now reduces cast time by 0.15/0.35/0.5 sec. (Up from 0.1/0.2/0.3 sec)
* State of Mind *New* (Tier 6) - Your successful Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell casts increase the duration of your corresponding Chakra state by 4 sec. Passive.
* Heavenly Voice added as a Tier 5 Talent. Your Divine Hymn also heals you for 12/20% of your total health during its duration, and the channel time of your Hymn of Hope is reduced by 10/20%.
* Blessed Resilience added as a Tier 5 Talent. Critical hits made against you have a 30/60% chance to prevent you from being critically hit again for 6 sec.
* Desperate Prayer is no longer a skill and is back as a Tier 2 talent.
Shadow
* Mind Spike revamped - Blasts the target for 1082.81 to 1144.05 Shadowfrost damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times.
* Shadow Word: Death cooldown changed to 10 sec, down from 12 sec. Damage increased by 10%.
* Mind Flay now deals damage over 3 sec, down from 5 sec.
* Vampiric Touch no longer deals damage if dispelled.
* Twisted Faith is now a Tier 2 (Down from Tier 5) 2-Ranks (Down from 3 Ranks) Talent. Revamped - Increases your chance to hit with shadow spells by 1/2%, and grants you spell hit rating equal to 50/100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
* Mind Melt now stacks up to 2 Times. (Down from 3)
* Empowered Shadow Orbs is now named Harnessed Shadows.
* Improved Mind Blast now gives your Mind Blast a 33/66/100% (up from 20/40/60%) chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 sec.
* Improved Devouring Plague is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks. Revamped - Your Devouring Plague instantly deals damage equal to 15/30% of its total periodic effect.
* Paralysis *New* (Tier 5) - When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 2/4 sec.
* Focused Will now reduces all damage taken by 3/4% (up from 2/3%) and increases healing on you by 4/5% (up from 3/4%) after taking a critical hit. Can now stack with Blessed Resilience.
* Grace now also affects Heal.
* Archangel now also increases your frost damage when used as Dark Archangel (Shadowform).
* Twin Disciplines now increases damage and healing done by instant spells and the damage absorbed by Power Word: Shield by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%)
Holy
* Chakra is now a Tier 5 (Down from Tier 6) and 2 Ranks (Down from 3 Ranks) talent. Revamped - When activated, your next Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell will put you into a corresponding Chakra state. Lasts for 30 sec. Heal - Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 10%, and your Heal refreshes the duration of your Renew on the target. Renew - Increases the healing done by your Renew spell by 10%, and reduces the global cooldown of your Renew spell by .5 sec. Prayer of Healing - Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells by 10% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 sec. Smite - Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%. 6% of base mana, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown
* Test of Faith is now a Tier 6 talent, up from Tier 5.
* Lightwell is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 5.
* Spirit of Redemption is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. No longer increases total Spirit by 5%.
* Holy Concentration is now a 2 Ranks talent (down from 3 Ranks) and now increases mana regeneration from spirit by 10/20%. (Up from 5/10/15%)
* Divine Touch is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks.
* Deliverance (Tier 3) is now named Serendipity (Tier 4). When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12% (Up from 3/6/9%). Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
* Improved Holy Nova is gone.
* Improved Healing is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks.
* Inspiration is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks. Now reduces your target's physical damage taken by 5/10%. (Up from 3/7/10%)
* Divine Fury now reduces cast time by 0.15/0.35/0.5 sec. (Up from 0.1/0.2/0.3 sec)
* State of Mind *New* (Tier 6) - Your successful Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell casts increase the duration of your corresponding Chakra state by 4 sec. Passive.
* Heavenly Voice added as a Tier 5 Talent. Your Divine Hymn also heals you for 12/20% of your total health during its duration, and the channel time of your Hymn of Hope is reduced by 10/20%.
* Blessed Resilience added as a Tier 5 Talent. Critical hits made against you have a 30/60% chance to prevent you from being critically hit again for 6 sec.
* Desperate Prayer is no longer a skill and is back as a Tier 2 talent.
Shadow
* Mind Spike revamped - Blasts the target for 1082.81 to 1144.05 Shadowfrost damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times.
* Shadow Word: Death cooldown changed to 10 sec, down from 12 sec. Damage increased by 10%.
* Mind Flay now deals damage over 3 sec, down from 5 sec.
* Vampiric Touch no longer deals damage if dispelled.
* Twisted Faith is now a Tier 2 (Down from Tier 5) 2-Ranks (Down from 3 Ranks) Talent. Revamped - Increases your chance to hit with shadow spells by 1/2%, and grants you spell hit rating equal to 50/100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
* Mind Melt now stacks up to 2 Times. (Down from 3)
* Empowered Shadow Orbs is now named Harnessed Shadows.
* Improved Mind Blast now gives your Mind Blast a 33/66/100% (up from 20/40/60%) chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 sec.
* Improved Devouring Plague is now a 2 Ranks talent, down from 3 Ranks. Revamped - Your Devouring Plague instantly deals damage equal to 15/30% of its total periodic effect.
* Paralysis *New* (Tier 5) - When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 2/4 sec.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/
Pretty much nothing new for disc. For holy, a crapload of changes. The new talent calculator isn't up yet, but I'm thinking we'll need to see that to get a clearer image in our heads; it looks like they shuffled half the tree around, which may or may not have killed the bloat that it suffered from. Shadow got a number of small revamps, mainly PvP centered.
I was going to level my priest today and make a post here, but I got stuck in the jaws of beta infinity - there is a quest that sends you to Moonglade first if you want to level in Hyjal. The problem is that Moonglade is bugged, and anyone who at any point has to face a loading screen to get there (which I did after my teleport) will get stuck at ~60% and have his game crashed. So instead I logged my rogue.
What I *can* share now is that Vashj'ir is a seriously awesome zone. There's really good lore, a couple of memes/cultural references, and the quests are awesome - relatively seen, there's very few "Kill X this" ones. Will give more info on Hyjal once my priest gets fixed.
I mostly like the changes to shadow, but it seems weird that they added a hit talent when they said they were trying to get rid of those types of talents for cata.
That one makes sense, tbh - most other classes have talents like that, that low in the tree. They allow you to A) become a healer and turn your spirit into hit so your healing/damage synergy is better and B) allow you to focus less and less on hit as your gear upgrades.
It's just not a flat "blah 5% hit" talent anymore that you simply 'spec out of' at a specific level.
It's just not a flat "blah 5% hit" talent anymore that you simply 'spec out of' at a specific level.
The revised Chakras sounds awesome. I’ve always liked the model of the priest as the flex healer in PvE--that is, the healer who can switch healing styles in the middle of a fight to fit the needs of the moment. Chakras looks to fit that bill exactly, letting holy priests choose to be a single-target heal spammer, a HoT geyser, a AoE heal powerhouse, or even DPS.
Shadow’s looking really strong for PVP--double Mind Spike into an instant, +60% crit Mind Blast looks pretty awesome, and a shorter Mind Flay also appeals. I’ve got a lock and shaman who are after me to try 3s with them, and shadow would be the way to go there.
I’m currently dual-specced into PVE discipline and PVP discipline, and I didn’t think anything could convince me to move away from that. Now I’m not so sure.
Jeez, maybe I need a second priest.
Shadow’s looking really strong for PVP--double Mind Spike into an instant, +60% crit Mind Blast looks pretty awesome, and a shorter Mind Flay also appeals. I’ve got a lock and shaman who are after me to try 3s with them, and shadow would be the way to go there.
I’m currently dual-specced into PVE discipline and PVP discipline, and I didn’t think anything could convince me to move away from that. Now I’m not so sure.
Jeez, maybe I need a second priest.
Here is a video of the new Chakra in action. It has a super shiny spell effect. Or effects, as the case may be.
Alright, they fixed the crash problem this build, and there's loads of new and interesting stuff for holy. I'll start off for disc, though.
Power Word: Barrier still sucks. 30K absorption, 0.5 a second cast, 2500 mana and 3 minute cooldown. It's basically an underpowered, expansive cooldown as it is now. On the other hand, I played around with Evangelism and Archangel, and... holy crap! Literally!
Get this;
Archangel is off the GCD. It has a 15 second cooldown and returns 15% of your mana at full stacks. In my gear, that's ~6300 mana. Smite costs 579. Five Smites cost ~2900. Meaning that after 7.5 seconds, I'll have gained ~3450 mana. Let me turn that into more readable terms. 7.5 * 0.666666~ = 5... 3450 * 0.666666~ = 2300. That's right - casting five smites and then throwing down Archangel gets you a netto 2300mp5. With the way it looks right now, a disc priest will be wanting to cast Smite pretty much every second he doesn't have to heal. The mana gain is so large, it's an extremely attractive alternative to standing around and waiting for incoming dmaage. Not to mention Smite scales with haste.
Aside from that, not much new stuff for disc. Moving on to holy.
Holy batman explosion. The talent tree has been changed quite a lot. For one, you no longer have to grab Lightwell. On the other hand, if you don't grab it you get stuck at a point where you need to spend one point to get a tier up and you can't really put it anywhere, so I grabbed it anyway in my holy build (last 5 points go into Imp. PW:S and Imp. Inner Fire or Evangelism/Archangel). The new Chakra is awesome, and holy as it is right now is actually more fun than disc as it is. So holy priests - rejoice! Let me try and explain how it works.
Basically, the new 'ability' you get when you spec holy is Holy Word: Chastise. This is an instant spell that deals some damage and roots the target in place for 2 seconds - it's obviously mostly a PvP ability. The thing is, it changes depending on the Chakra state you're in. If you cast Chakra and then cast Heal, you go into 'tank healer mode', and Holy Word: Chastise becomes Holy Word: Serenity, which is basically an instant heal that gives you +25% crit chance on the target. Aka you throw it on the tank you're healing, and suddenly you're critting all over the place. For Renew Chakra, it turns into Holy Word: Aspire, which is basically a modified Renew - a large instant heal, then a small DOT that lasts for about 10 seconds. For Prayer of Healing, it turns into holy's own Power Word: Barrier, aka Holy Word: Sanctuary - you turn the ground... icy, at the moment (the effect is hopefully placeholder), and people in it will get a small heal every two seconds for fifteen seconds. Which in turn works great with the raid healing function you're taking at that moment.
Twirling Light seems to be a nerf from Surge of Light (especially because you don't always need your Flash Heal to be instant, especially not if that means it's gonna suck), but it seems to be NYI as it doesn't work at all, so I can't say.
Last but not least, it seems obvious that right now the best way to level is go disc first for Archangel, then respec to holy as soon as you can get Chakra. State of Mind allows you to keep the Smite Chakra up indefinitely as long as you pull enough mobs, and it's pretty nifty for leveling, even if it makes your rotation somewhat boring. That said, Chakra still seems a bit bugged - I can currently have an infinite number of Chakra's up if I have the GCDs to support it (there is still a maximum of 30 seconds on each respective Chakra buff, though).
Now that I know all my spells and have them bound, I'll report back later after I get some questing done.
Power Word: Barrier still sucks. 30K absorption, 0.5 a second cast, 2500 mana and 3 minute cooldown. It's basically an underpowered, expansive cooldown as it is now. On the other hand, I played around with Evangelism and Archangel, and... holy crap! Literally!
Get this;
Archangel is off the GCD. It has a 15 second cooldown and returns 15% of your mana at full stacks. In my gear, that's ~6300 mana. Smite costs 579. Five Smites cost ~2900. Meaning that after 7.5 seconds, I'll have gained ~3450 mana. Let me turn that into more readable terms. 7.5 * 0.666666~ = 5... 3450 * 0.666666~ = 2300. That's right - casting five smites and then throwing down Archangel gets you a netto 2300mp5. With the way it looks right now, a disc priest will be wanting to cast Smite pretty much every second he doesn't have to heal. The mana gain is so large, it's an extremely attractive alternative to standing around and waiting for incoming dmaage. Not to mention Smite scales with haste.
Aside from that, not much new stuff for disc. Moving on to holy.
Holy batman explosion. The talent tree has been changed quite a lot. For one, you no longer have to grab Lightwell. On the other hand, if you don't grab it you get stuck at a point where you need to spend one point to get a tier up and you can't really put it anywhere, so I grabbed it anyway in my holy build (last 5 points go into Imp. PW:S and Imp. Inner Fire or Evangelism/Archangel). The new Chakra is awesome, and holy as it is right now is actually more fun than disc as it is. So holy priests - rejoice! Let me try and explain how it works.
Basically, the new 'ability' you get when you spec holy is Holy Word: Chastise. This is an instant spell that deals some damage and roots the target in place for 2 seconds - it's obviously mostly a PvP ability. The thing is, it changes depending on the Chakra state you're in. If you cast Chakra and then cast Heal, you go into 'tank healer mode', and Holy Word: Chastise becomes Holy Word: Serenity, which is basically an instant heal that gives you +25% crit chance on the target. Aka you throw it on the tank you're healing, and suddenly you're critting all over the place. For Renew Chakra, it turns into Holy Word: Aspire, which is basically a modified Renew - a large instant heal, then a small DOT that lasts for about 10 seconds. For Prayer of Healing, it turns into holy's own Power Word: Barrier, aka Holy Word: Sanctuary - you turn the ground... icy, at the moment (the effect is hopefully placeholder), and people in it will get a small heal every two seconds for fifteen seconds. Which in turn works great with the raid healing function you're taking at that moment.
Twirling Light seems to be a nerf from Surge of Light (especially because you don't always need your Flash Heal to be instant, especially not if that means it's gonna suck), but it seems to be NYI as it doesn't work at all, so I can't say.
Last but not least, it seems obvious that right now the best way to level is go disc first for Archangel, then respec to holy as soon as you can get Chakra. State of Mind allows you to keep the Smite Chakra up indefinitely as long as you pull enough mobs, and it's pretty nifty for leveling, even if it makes your rotation somewhat boring. That said, Chakra still seems a bit bugged - I can currently have an infinite number of Chakra's up if I have the GCDs to support it (there is still a maximum of 30 seconds on each respective Chakra buff, though).
Now that I know all my spells and have them bound, I'll report back later after I get some questing done.
Mozared wrote:
Archangel is off the GCD. It has a 15 second cooldown and returns 15% of your mana at full stacks. In my gear, that's ~6300 mana. Smite costs 579. Five Smites cost ~2900. Meaning that after 7.5 seconds, I'll have gained ~3450 mana. Let me turn that into more readable terms. 7.5 * 0.666666~ = 5... 3450 * 0.666666~ = 2300. That's right - casting five smites and then throwing down Archangel gets you a netto 2300mp5. With the way it looks right now, a disc priest will be wanting to cast Smite pretty much every second he doesn't have to heal. The mana gain is so large, it's an extremely attractive alternative to standing around and waiting for incoming dmaage. Not to mention Smite scales with haste.
I think I just peed my pants a little bit.
Edit: although by and large I've been very happy with priests this whole expansion, it does occur to me that Holy deserves all this love it's getting. Differing/situational roles aside, so many people went Disc in Lich King. It was new and exciting, and Holy was a bit stale in comparison. It'll be nice to see Holy become fresh and exciting for people.
Not me though, because I'll still be Disc. I still prefer the absorption playstyle and also ZOMG SMITE IS HEAL!
Edited, Aug 23rd 2010 9:11am by teacake
You say that now, but in before the respec =P. Holy is becoming great fun to play, it's getting PvP viability, and heck...
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/26560537380/lightwell-changes-build-12803/
Questing through Hyjal now, will update when I find something interesting to blabber about. Also, Inner Will in about half a level.
Quote:
Lightwell
How to make lightwell work: Change clicking range to 15y, Make clicking it not change target
As I have said previously, this is the plan. We just haven't been able to test it yet, and the talent has enough baggage that it's hard to get players to even try it.
How to make lightwell work: Change clicking range to 15y, Make clicking it not change target
As I have said previously, this is the plan. We just haven't been able to test it yet, and the talent has enough baggage that it's hard to get players to even try it.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/26560537380/lightwell-changes-build-12803/
Questing through Hyjal now, will update when I find something interesting to blabber about. Also, Inner Will in about half a level.
Mozared wrote:
You say that now, but in before the respec =P.
You never know, I guess. Holy does look like a lot of fun to play, but I love the Disc play style and it looks to be getting even better. I'm not sure I can be tempted away. I make no promises, however, as to my second spec. 
Just chiming in to say, I'm enjoying the thread and please continue. I wish someone were doing something like this for restoration shamans.
Just thought I should say something.
Now returning to our regular programming/posting.
Just thought I should say something.
Now returning to our regular programming/posting.
I was wrong about Inner Will - that's level 83. 81 gave me Mind Spike, which frankly fills a hole we always missed as (healing) priests. If you want a big nuke, you throw Smite. If you want a quick big nuke, you use Mind Blast. If you want to take a mob from 5% to 1% hp and take some damage yourself, you use Shadow Word: Death. Now, for when Mind Blast and SW:D are on cooldown (and they will be when questing), you just use one or two Mind Spikes, followed by a possible Mind Blast, to finish up a mob that's on low health. You no longer need to spend hours casting Smite, or waiting for Mind Blast or Holy Fire to come off cooldown. Even as holy or disc, MS>MS>MS>MB is a pretty powerful 'rotation'/'combination', though I'm thinking that maths are going to prove MS>MS>MB to be more effective than 3 MS's.
Hope to get some more leveling done this evening.
Edit: Oh, something funny I figured you folks might find interesting - paladin auras are bugged at the moment. They give 100 times as much effect as they should be giving. Retribution aura currently adds 200% damage rather than 2%, it's rather hilarious. My pall-adin did a 7 minute bossfight in 1 minute yesterday. In the same instance run, a shadow priest one-shot himself with a 56K Shadow Word: Death =P
Edited, Aug 25th 2010 4:04pm by Mozared
Hope to get some more leveling done this evening.
Edit: Oh, something funny I figured you folks might find interesting - paladin auras are bugged at the moment. They give 100 times as much effect as they should be giving. Retribution aura currently adds 200% damage rather than 2%, it's rather hilarious. My pall-adin did a 7 minute bossfight in 1 minute yesterday. In the same instance run, a shadow priest one-shot himself with a 56K Shadow Word: Death =P
Edited, Aug 25th 2010 4:04pm by Mozared
Hey what's up with Life Grip? Haven't heard anything about it since they first mentioned it. Is it still there?
I'm still imagining countless ways to have fun with it. Pulling back people about to cap nodes I want to cap instead. Yanking my husband away every time he tries to cap a flag in WSG, or pulling him out of fights and stealing the killing blow. The possibilities are endless.
I'm still imagining countless ways to have fun with it. Pulling back people about to cap nodes I want to cap instead. Yanking my husband away every time he tries to cap a flag in WSG, or pulling him out of fights and stealing the killing blow. The possibilities are endless.
That's one of those things that are straightforward once you get in and you completely forget mentioning ever again; Life Grip isn't trainable until level 85, and the level cap is currently at 83. Hence why you've not heard anything at all about it. It's the same for numerous other 'promised' spells, like the 'Angel companion' Paladins were supposed to get. Most of that stuff isn't removed, but just not accessible yet.
On Life grip; it still seems kind of sucky at the moment - it seems to cost as much mana as a PoH and it's on a 2 minute-ish cooldown. The idea is still fun, but the spell currently is so restrictive there's not a lot of 'yanking around' fun going on and a lot more of 'oh, I can use it this one time in the fight'.
On Life grip; it still seems kind of sucky at the moment - it seems to cost as much mana as a PoH and it's on a 2 minute-ish cooldown. The idea is still fun, but the spell currently is so restrictive there's not a lot of 'yanking around' fun going on and a lot more of 'oh, I can use it this one time in the fight'.
Mozared wrote:
On Life grip; it still seems kind of sucky at the moment - it seems to cost as much mana as a PoH and it's on a 2 minute-ish cooldown. The idea is still fun, but the spell currently is so restrictive there's not a lot of 'yanking around' fun going on and a lot more of 'oh, I can use it this one time in the fight'.
Thanks for the info. I shall use it to do something obnoxious every 2 minutes and never have it off cooldown when it would actually be useful.
teacake wrote:
Mozared wrote:
On Life grip; it still seems kind of sucky at the moment - it seems to cost as much mana as a PoH and it's on a 2 minute-ish cooldown. The idea is still fun, but the spell currently is so restrictive there's not a lot of 'yanking around' fun going on and a lot more of 'oh, I can use it this one time in the fight'.
Thanks for the info. I shall use it to do something obnoxious every 2 minutes and never have it off cooldown when it would actually be useful.
Hey Moz, what kind of rotation are you running for Shadow with Mind Spike? I've been doing Mind Spike x3, DP, SWP, MB and then MF and I run out of mana really fast. Like, in four mobs. I'm probably just doing something wrong but since you've been playing priest much longer I wondered if you had any suggestions for a better rotation.
I wish I could help you, I don't play shadow at all - I think I've been shadow for a grand total of 1 hour /played or such. I'm actually leveling as disc and holy in the beta.
Of the top of my head though, try putting up DP and SW:P first, MS x2, MB and then Mind Flay. Even with the high HP mobs, the DOTs should tick longer that way. Reason for 2X MS is because with the innate crit you'll have, 3X MS might be a waste - you'll have to check EJ if you want bullet proof mats on that though. Also, don't forget to Shadowfiend whenever it's off cooldown. Extra DPS is good and you've got the fiend on low cooldown as shadow anyway. Also, I'm gonna go ahead and say your regeneration will improve as you get better gear. 81-82 items are slight upgrades for me, and I'm in IcC 25 / 25-heroic gear myself. As a goblin, you'll still be clad in WOTLK greenies and everything Hyjal and Vashj'ir are going to give you will be a huge upgrade.
Edit: Also, when looking at the shadow talents, I'm noticing Masochism. If you start running low on mana, try replacing that MB with a SW:D and see what happens.
Edit2: Additionally, subspec into disc and grab Evangelism and Archangel. By the time you reach 83 you'll have both and should be cool on mana regardless.
On another note, a new beta build is up - I think it has been for some time, but I haven't had a chance to play lately. For the people who aren't in the beta and just want to keep track;
Discipline got shuffled around. At first I lacked points to grab everything I want, but then I realized that the spellpower increment from Imp. Inner Fire was removed, basically making that talent a PvP one and working out the kinks in the disc spec. My only problem right now is that I don't have a point for Power Infusion.
Holy is still pretty much the same in that if you're willing to skip the slight throughput from Test of Faith, you can pick up everything you want and have points left. The last three points go in either Evangelism+Archangel or Soul Warding (CDless PW:S means CDless B&S) - we'll have to see how raids play out before we can judge which one is truly better. For now, I put my points in Soul Warding as I already have the Smite Trick in my discipline spec.
The main difference between Discipline and Holy right now in terms of leveling is that with holy you grab Chakra and put it up with Smite (if you can be ****** I still go with Holy Fire>DP>PW:S>Mind Spike>Mind Spike>Mind Blast atm) while as disc you use Archangel to basically not drop below 90% mana, ever. Tomorrow, when I'll finally get around to actual leveling (assuming the servers don't go down again, or I unlearn my flying skills and can't relearn them anywehre but in Dalaran, or my talents randomly reset), I'll have a lot more info and might finally get into a dungeon on my priest as well to experience 'the new healing'.
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 3:43am by Mozared
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 3:47am by Mozared
Of the top of my head though, try putting up DP and SW:P first, MS x2, MB and then Mind Flay. Even with the high HP mobs, the DOTs should tick longer that way. Reason for 2X MS is because with the innate crit you'll have, 3X MS might be a waste - you'll have to check EJ if you want bullet proof mats on that though. Also, don't forget to Shadowfiend whenever it's off cooldown. Extra DPS is good and you've got the fiend on low cooldown as shadow anyway. Also, I'm gonna go ahead and say your regeneration will improve as you get better gear. 81-82 items are slight upgrades for me, and I'm in IcC 25 / 25-heroic gear myself. As a goblin, you'll still be clad in WOTLK greenies and everything Hyjal and Vashj'ir are going to give you will be a huge upgrade.
Edit: Also, when looking at the shadow talents, I'm noticing Masochism. If you start running low on mana, try replacing that MB with a SW:D and see what happens.
Edit2: Additionally, subspec into disc and grab Evangelism and Archangel. By the time you reach 83 you'll have both and should be cool on mana regardless.
On another note, a new beta build is up - I think it has been for some time, but I haven't had a chance to play lately. For the people who aren't in the beta and just want to keep track;
Discipline got shuffled around. At first I lacked points to grab everything I want, but then I realized that the spellpower increment from Imp. Inner Fire was removed, basically making that talent a PvP one and working out the kinks in the disc spec. My only problem right now is that I don't have a point for Power Infusion.
Holy is still pretty much the same in that if you're willing to skip the slight throughput from Test of Faith, you can pick up everything you want and have points left. The last three points go in either Evangelism+Archangel or Soul Warding (CDless PW:S means CDless B&S) - we'll have to see how raids play out before we can judge which one is truly better. For now, I put my points in Soul Warding as I already have the Smite Trick in my discipline spec.
The main difference between Discipline and Holy right now in terms of leveling is that with holy you grab Chakra and put it up with Smite (if you can be ****** I still go with Holy Fire>DP>PW:S>Mind Spike>Mind Spike>Mind Blast atm) while as disc you use Archangel to basically not drop below 90% mana, ever. Tomorrow, when I'll finally get around to actual leveling (assuming the servers don't go down again, or I unlearn my flying skills and can't relearn them anywehre but in Dalaran, or my talents randomly reset), I'll have a lot more info and might finally get into a dungeon on my priest as well to experience 'the new healing'.
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 3:43am by Mozared
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 3:47am by Mozared
SWD seems bugged at the moment. In addition to Masochism, they've also implemented all the new glyphs, and one of the Major Glyphs is now Spirit Tap, but unfortunately only works if a mob dies from SWD. I'm actually doing okay as far as gear is concerned. They implemented a new feature in the patch from yesterday so that you can change race and appearance, so I changed a premade 80 to a female goblin, so she was decked out in ICC 10 gear when I started leveling her. Most of it has been replaced at this point though.
My understanding about the new priest glyphs is that Psychic Scream can now be glyphed to keep the target in place instead of running off to bring back friends and whatnot. That side effect has kept Psychic Scream off of a lot of toolbars for a long time from what I can tell.
That =seems= to me to be a really big change. A lot of spriests have coveted the talent for Silence but, alas, they have coveted it from afar due to having to take two points in Improved Psychic Scream to get to it.
Since Psychic Scream has a terrible rep for causing more issues than it solves when used, glyphing to keep the target basically snared seems like a big deal to me. I haven't seen a lot of chatter about it yet with any real comparison to the other glyphs available.
Hope this isn't too OT. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Fixed a dropped word.
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 7:09pm by Moanique
That =seems= to me to be a really big change. A lot of spriests have coveted the talent for Silence but, alas, they have coveted it from afar due to having to take two points in Improved Psychic Scream to get to it.
Since Psychic Scream has a terrible rep for causing more issues than it solves when used, glyphing to keep the target basically snared seems like a big deal to me. I haven't seen a lot of chatter about it yet with any real comparison to the other glyphs available.
Hope this isn't too OT. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Fixed a dropped word.
Edited, Sep 11th 2010 7:09pm by Moanique
To be fair, it doesn't change that much. It allows us to use fear in 5-mans, basically. Raid mobs will still be immune (and you shouldn't have to use it there anyway). PvPers will probably still want to go without the glyph, as you'll want distance between you and your target as much as you can get it.
It's not like Psychic Scream is the new Penance, but it's pretty nifty.
On another note, I levelled to 82 today and am about 90% done in Hyjal with my priest now. I did 80-82 as holy, but I'm going to do 82-83 as disc.
Holy for DPS (leveling) is... pretty nice, but it feels a tad, I don't know, unrefined? Maybe it's just me, but my rogue's leveling spec causes him to reset his 'cool buffs' when a mob dies, which is really straightforward. When grinding, there's pressure to keep going, but it's fairly easy to get an 'optimal rotation' going. Holy priests get Chakra, but it's just plain annoying to keep up. If the Smite Chakra only increased Smite damage, the choice of what to cast would be easy and you'd just chain-cast smite (along with some Holy Fire, DoTs and the ocassional SW:D), but since it also increases the damage of all your other spells, it becomes a bit of a jugglefest of whether to use DoTs, Smite to keep the Chakra going, Mind Spike/Mind Blast for quick burst or Holy Fire. And in that whole jugglefest you need to keep in mind what the distance until your next mob is, when/if Chakra is going to run out and when the Chakra spell leaves its 1 minute cooldown so you can manually refresh it. It just gets confusing and feels like I'm trying to perfect a DPS rotation on two different characters at the same time.
If you go Chakra/Evangelism, it gets pretty straightforward though, as your Smites will start critting for up to 8K and none of your other spells can even get close to that. I will say that my experience as holy has shown me that a perfect holy healing 'rotation' will be even harder to keep going in Cataclysm that it is now in WOTLK. Chakra allows for a LOT of possibilities, but to really master that skill will be pretty tough, and that's coming from someone who'se already spent about 12 hours playing with it.
Disc is easier. Atonement and Evangelism basically ensure you go Holy Fire > Smite Smite Smite with the ocassional Penance, if you feel like it. Archangel when finishing up a quest keeps you above 90% mana.
It's not like Psychic Scream is the new Penance, but it's pretty nifty.
On another note, I levelled to 82 today and am about 90% done in Hyjal with my priest now. I did 80-82 as holy, but I'm going to do 82-83 as disc.
Holy for DPS (leveling) is... pretty nice, but it feels a tad, I don't know, unrefined? Maybe it's just me, but my rogue's leveling spec causes him to reset his 'cool buffs' when a mob dies, which is really straightforward. When grinding, there's pressure to keep going, but it's fairly easy to get an 'optimal rotation' going. Holy priests get Chakra, but it's just plain annoying to keep up. If the Smite Chakra only increased Smite damage, the choice of what to cast would be easy and you'd just chain-cast smite (along with some Holy Fire, DoTs and the ocassional SW:D), but since it also increases the damage of all your other spells, it becomes a bit of a jugglefest of whether to use DoTs, Smite to keep the Chakra going, Mind Spike/Mind Blast for quick burst or Holy Fire. And in that whole jugglefest you need to keep in mind what the distance until your next mob is, when/if Chakra is going to run out and when the Chakra spell leaves its 1 minute cooldown so you can manually refresh it. It just gets confusing and feels like I'm trying to perfect a DPS rotation on two different characters at the same time.
If you go Chakra/Evangelism, it gets pretty straightforward though, as your Smites will start critting for up to 8K and none of your other spells can even get close to that. I will say that my experience as holy has shown me that a perfect holy healing 'rotation' will be even harder to keep going in Cataclysm that it is now in WOTLK. Chakra allows for a LOT of possibilities, but to really master that skill will be pretty tough, and that's coming from someone who'se already spent about 12 hours playing with it.
Disc is easier. Atonement and Evangelism basically ensure you go Holy Fire > Smite Smite Smite with the ocassional Penance, if you feel like it. Archangel when finishing up a quest keeps you above 90% mana.
Not a huge lot to report yet, but I finished up Vashj'ir and a bit of Deepholm, dinging me 83. Picked up Inner Will. It sucks. 10% movement speed is barely noticeable, and even when talented, as it is now, Inner Fire is going to be your armor of choice - Inner Will is only better in some rare PvP cases when you intend on kiting someone around for a bit. If they upped the speed bonus to, say, 30%, then I might consider using it more often, but right now, it's pretty terribad. There is some PvP synergy between the new Holy tree and an Improved Inner Will, though.
Leveling as disc is a lot more comfortable than holy, as disc still has that 'sturdy PvPer' feeling that holy lacks a bit. If you're dying, you throw Penance and PW:S and are out of the danger zone. As holy you've got Desperate Prayer, but that's about it. The effectiveness of Archangel has decreased a lot as I've gained these few levels, and right now chain-casting Smite and using Archangel everytime it's off CD is just about enough to break me even mana-wise. If I'm at 8K mana, cast 5 Smites and use Archangel, I'll end up with about 12K mana. That 4K mana difference is just about what I would have regenerated if I hadn't cast any spells in those 7.5 seconds.
I do at one point want to try out the Holy+Archangel spec, because 10K Smites will be lovely, but need to somehow free up enough hotkeys for that spec.
I've explored the Throne of the Tides and the Stonecore instances, and I hope to be able to PUG them tomorrow, if the instance server isn't still down.
Leveling as disc is a lot more comfortable than holy, as disc still has that 'sturdy PvPer' feeling that holy lacks a bit. If you're dying, you throw Penance and PW:S and are out of the danger zone. As holy you've got Desperate Prayer, but that's about it. The effectiveness of Archangel has decreased a lot as I've gained these few levels, and right now chain-casting Smite and using Archangel everytime it's off CD is just about enough to break me even mana-wise. If I'm at 8K mana, cast 5 Smites and use Archangel, I'll end up with about 12K mana. That 4K mana difference is just about what I would have regenerated if I hadn't cast any spells in those 7.5 seconds.
I do at one point want to try out the Holy+Archangel spec, because 10K Smites will be lovely, but need to somehow free up enough hotkeys for that spec.
I've explored the Throne of the Tides and the Stonecore instances, and I hope to be able to PUG them tomorrow, if the instance server isn't still down.
Mozared wrote:
Not a huge lot to report yet, but I finished up Vashj'ir and a bit of Deepholm, dinging me 83. Picked up Inner Will. It sucks. 10% movement speed is barely noticeable, and even when talented, as it is now, Inner Fire is going to be your armor of choice - Inner Will is only better in some rare PvP cases when you intend on kiting someone around for a bit. If they upped the speed bonus to, say, 30%, then I might consider using it more often, but right now, it's pretty terribad. There is some PvP synergy between the new Holy tree and an Improved Inner Will, though.
I really see it more of a PvP and endgame PvE kinda thing. Think about the Tuskarr's Vitality enchant. Barely noticeable? Yes. But practically required because it gets you out of the fire 6% or whatever faster? Yes.
And with Inner Will stacking (either additively or multiplicatively, don't know) with the speed enchants for boots, it has some serious potential.
Hell no, it's not a leveling ability, but I don't think it sucks, either.
Then again, this is all theory, I haven't had a chance to try it out. Not being in the beta and all.
Well, your point is very valid, but the problem really is that you have to choose between that or Inner Fire. Inner Fire just gives you a steady 400ish spellpower, and that's going to win out in 99.9% of the cases. Using your example - think about Tuskarr's Vitality. Now imagine having to choose between Tuskarr's Vitality on your boots or the spellpower from your Inner Fire. Yeah.
Inner Will isn't bad per se, it's just that Inner Fire is better in pretty much all situations. What they should do it throw the stats around - make Inner Will give you movement speed, armour, and -15% magic damage taken when talented and make Inner Fire give you spellpower and -15% mana cost on instant spells, and possibly the movement speed from Inner Will when talented. That would make Inner Will a conscious PvP skill and Inner Fire a conscious PvE skill. I know that's what they're trying to prevent, but the reality is that spellpower/throughput is simply so good you're not going to ever give it up for any kind of other bonus in PvE.
Inner Will isn't bad per se, it's just that Inner Fire is better in pretty much all situations. What they should do it throw the stats around - make Inner Will give you movement speed, armour, and -15% magic damage taken when talented and make Inner Fire give you spellpower and -15% mana cost on instant spells, and possibly the movement speed from Inner Will when talented. That would make Inner Will a conscious PvP skill and Inner Fire a conscious PvE skill. I know that's what they're trying to prevent, but the reality is that spellpower/throughput is simply so good you're not going to ever give it up for any kind of other bonus in PvE.
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