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Although for PVP at least I'd entertain the idea of not taking Revelations at all so I could have the 3 sec disorient available at all times regardless of state. Emmit, what are you doing with that?
Yeah, this will definitely become a viable option at 85, and might already be one. I'm just not sure to what extend it'll be good, as I literally haven't a clue what Cata PvP healing is going to be like. I think I can safely say you won't be hanging in PoH Chakra, but then - Renew's Holy Word: Aspire is pretty damn good for PvP. We might get to hang in Heal Chakra too, though I somewhat doubt that, I don't think PvP will slow down *that* much. Either way, I can imagine the real pros will start to look into "/cancelaura Chakra: Renew, /cast Holy Word: Chastise" macros.
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But dang, Holy is fun for PVP right now. I forgot what a blast B&S can be in WSG. :D I'm not good at using Chakra yet after an hour of practice, but I found myself using the Renew state a lot in the battlegrounds I did, if for no other reason than it's the only one I can get into without stopping to cast something. At least Renew is useful in that context, but I have a feeling working with Chakra would take me a while to get good at.
To be fair, yeah, right now a healing priests' only option is to use instants and never stop moving. I reckon it might be less worse with the resilience buff coming up, though - we still won't be using Heal and holy will probably still stick to Renew Chakra, but we'll get a little bit of a breather, and disc priests will probably function again as well.
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You know... I'm basking in this. The healers across my entire realm are sitting in the shattered wrecks of what they once were, unable to come to terms with their new reality. I go to slaughter myself something in WG or I go to kill me some bosses... and the healers cry, rage or are just dumbstruck by how things are now.
This isn't... completely how I've found it to be, though it definitely works to an extend. Our resident holy paladin pro was whining about him being nerfed yesterday, but to be fair, holydins did get a pretty harsh nerfbat in their face - basically everything they have got nerfed, and what didn't get nerfed isn't completely working correctly. At least in AoE situations, their healing will sink down to dispicable levels. Some of my better healers already finding their way out of it though, even though I think Cata will be a bit of a backlash to them too.
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Well, the problem with this is that Smiting with a holy spec would lead to a lot of resists, since we're nowhere near being hit capped without the glyph, right? So, smiting with that spec would seem as a bit of a waste, and would certainly not be viable at 85 because of the mana waste this would entail.
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I have the glyph in both specs. I do a lot of PVP. I need offensive capability. Min-maxing raiders won't have room for the glpyh, but Holy raiders have no reason to Smite anyway. Their priorities are different.
To be honest, I don't know. There's a lot to say for Archangel, though I do literally feel completely on the edge of grabbing it as holy atm - I think spec both with and without Archangel could both literally be viable in pretty much every situation. I don't think the min/maxers will completely discard Smite, to be fair, especially not if it can give them mana back. Also keep in mind that glyphs can be changed on the fly now (I went quick Mass Dispel instead of Imp. Holy Nova yesterday so I could keep my holy spec for Blood Princes). On another note, I personally ended up grabbing that glyph of Smite as well - I'm not sure about Cata, but right now it's too much damage to pass up on, and I honestly feel it's just about as good a glyph as all our other choices (with the possible exception of CoH, which is a must, period).
On a last note - I suspect Holy will be nerfed. To what extend, I'm not sure. I can definitely see them fixing the PoH-giving-you-20-seconds-of-Chakra bug, at the least, but I'm also curious about whether they'll simplify the tree right now. Really, I like holy's versatility, but... get this: we have 14 regularly used different healing spells, 4 cooldowns (and an additional 2 mana regeneration cooldown), 4 different attack spells of which 2 have synergy with our healing spells, 3 types of dispels/cleanse (of which one serves two functions) and then 3 utility spells - 4 in Cataclysm. We actively use
ALL OF THOSE 27 spells (I'm counting PW:S twice, as heal and as B&S utility) basically
on any given fight.
Lets take a freaking Mutilate rogue to put next to that - they use Mutilate, Stealth, Vanish, Garrote, Sprint, Feint, Envenom, Slice & Dice, Rupture, Fan of Knives, Kick, Cloak of Shadows and possibly Recuperate. That's 13 abillities TOPS, and that's including all their cooldowns, utility and all that fancy stuff.
Rogues have less abilities they use in combat than we have even just heals, excluding cooldowns, dispels and utility spells.
And then I haven't even begun talking about triage, which plays and will play a
HUGE role in what ability you use - a Rogue can react to his environment, use Sprint when he needs to get out of fire, that's it. We can use CoH when there's-global-raid-damage (as part of a CoH-PoH-ProM-HW:Sanc-Renew rotation), or when we quickly-need-to-put-instant-healing-on-someone-who's-near-dead-while-not-in-Heal-Chakra-If-Renew-Chakra's-Aspire-won't-be-enough, or when we just-want-to-top-off-a-group-but-don't-want-to-use-PoH-due-to-mana, or if-we're-out-of-mana-and-need-to-do-the-most-efficient-heal-with-the-1K-mana-we-have, etc. There's literally about eight different situations for every healing spell we have. As it is now, holy priests are probably the most complicated class/spec to ever have existed in the game, really.
@RedPhoenixxx: Streetlight Manifesto? On Allakhazam? Hoozah, have a cookie my friend!