Priest Preview

Funky

Taken from here.

As has been stated many times in recent posts, a number of improvements are being made to several priest talents and core abilities for the next content patch. Several of these changes are still in the testing process, and in some cases, under discussion - especially those relating to talents. What this means to the players is, the following details pertaining to upcoming change is not comprehensive, and intended primarily to serve as a sneak preview, and in a perfect world, satisfy some of your curiosity.

Too bad this world isn't perfect...

Greater Heal (and Heal starting from rank2) will receive a reduction to its casting time. Currently the spell is a 4 second cast. However, once patch 1.10 releases, the spell, from start to finish will cast in 3 seconds - (2.5 with talent improvement). This spell, along with the Druid's Healing Touch and the Shaman's Healing Wave will all receive an approximate 10% improvement to mana efficiency.

Holy Fire will no longer be a talent required ability. All priests, upon reaching the appropriate level will receive this spell as a core ability. In addition, this spell's casting time has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3.5. The appropriate talent improvement would bring this spell to a 3 second cast. This spell will also be considered holy damage, meaning, effects which improve holy damage will increase the damage of this spell.

Inner Fire is another core ability we're reworking. With the prevalence of wand-use amongst casters, we're not very pleased with the increase of attack power this spell provides and are looking to change Inner Fire so that it is more in line with the original concept behind the ability, i.e. a defensive/soloing spell.

Power Word: Shield is still undergoing testing. Basically, we're running the numbers of the final spell ranks and will likely make changes to its damage mitigation scaling.

Talents are where we're making the most significant changes, however, until the changes have been finalized there is little I'm going to be able to reveal. What I will state is that we're reorganizing and streamlining all three trees, with a particular emphasis on Holy and Discipline. Each tree will have anywhere from 1 to 4 brand new talents available. The focus of Holy will be in providing throughput improvement, such as offering benefits to healing and spell damage. Discipline will focus on staying-power, such as what you see from abilities that improve mana and mana regeneration. Shadow of course, will focus primarily on damage.

Priest class racial improvements are for the most part, complete yet undergoing testing. Until all of them are ready to be unveiled, I'm going to avoid providing specifics. I will try very hard to push out concrete details late next week, if possible.

A number of minor improvements and tweaks continue to be made as well, such as the increase we're making to Prayer of Fortitude's range and radius, the overall reduction to Smite's mana cost, the addition of group buff versions for Divine Spirit and Shadow Protection, and much more. In addition, I can promise that I'll push for the talents to go live on the talent calculator the moment that they've been finalized, which hopefully won't be long now.

Other notable things that have come up in numerous threads:
- Dwarves will not be losing Fear Ward, nor will other races be gaining it.
- Possibility of Inner Fire becoming a short term 'powerful' protection buff.

Discuss.

Dustaz

saw it last night on the general forum. Looks nice enough (if a LITTLE underwhelming). I guess the talents and racials will have to make or break it.

So far, its not the OMFGIZ BIG NEWS SOON that i was hoping for,

BKtje

How much more short term can inner fire become? Its already only 3 mins long

Its all about the talent chages really tho the greater heals mana effeciency and shorter cast times are nice.

Funky

Yea I didn't think it was anything big either, very vague with little real info. I'm pretty much reserving my judgement till they release the talent info, then its time to decide whether my priest'll be retired or not =(

DRakE

I'm happy that no one else gets fear ward

dlofnep

Who needs fear ward when you have the almighty insignia of alliance! Anyways, if everyone had fear ward, it would render fear useless. And nonobdy would make these faces :eek:

kayos

DRakE wrote:

I'm happy that no one else gets fear ward

You mean Allience PvE easy mode?

Kiith

well all horde priests and rogues have a small version of it...since all horde rogues and priests are undead, and have wotf (still the most imba racial)

BKtje

resist fear (vs ony anyway) = no loss of agro. Being feared and breaking it = loss of agro.

Having your MT immune to fear makes it very easy to control ony phase 3 while those who dont have fear ward gotta work on it. That said horde get totems etc for razor so i personally dont care much about the big fear ward debate. Its not like its undoable one way or the other.

Funky

If your main tank can't stance dance you suck anyway, so fear ward is a moot point.

BKtje

umm stance dancing is all well and good but you loose rage (unless ya got the talents) and while your "dancing" you cant do other things. Stance dancing can be misstimed either by lag or whatever so its not a sure fire method.
I didnt say it was impossible but its not easier.

Caliden

cry more noob

Dustaz

dlofnep wrote:

Anyways, if everyone had fear ward, it would render fear useless.

Fear is useful?

DRakE

also onyxia's easy anyway ;D

Dustaz

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general&T=7041929&P=1

Racials improvment.

Summary: UD and Dorf still kings. Blizz hate mages.

BKtje

Ah yeah Drake i know she is..now but while we were learning, phase 3 was very hit and miss cos our tanks were all over the place due to loosing aggro with fear.
Just makes a lesser learning curve.

Funky

Interesting racial changes, providing the numbers are decent I'd probably even prefer that new feedback to fear ward...

The new troll racial is excellent too imo.

Ivan

Yay!, a lightning shield for Troll priests, yippy!

Still doesnt beat WoTF, Cannabalize and Devouring Plague, imho.

Granted not all class racial but in any case...

DRakE

We have received some feedback from the developers regarding the upcoming Priest changes in the 1.10 patch and we thought that we would like to share this information with you.


* Greater Heal (and Heal rank2 and up) will have their casting time reduced to 3 seconds. (2.5 with talents)

* Smite: mana cost reduced

* Greater Heal/Healing Wave/Healing Touch will be approximately 10% more mana efficient

* Holy Fire will be a core ability with a casting time of 3.5 seconds (3.0 with talents) This means that this is no longer an ability that requires talent points, but a spell all priests will get at a certain level.

* Prayer of Fortitude: Range and Radius increased


In addition to these changes, you should expect further changes such as improvement to Power Word: Shield and Inner Fire. Power Word: Shield will be improved so that it will be more efficient at higher ranks in regards to damage mitigation scaling, and Inner Fire is going to be reworked so that it will fit better with the original concepts of this spell, which is for defensive and soloing purposes.

Furthermore the developers are looking at the Priest racial spells, along with all three talent trees, with an emphasis on Discipline and Holy. Not much info is available yet regarding the revamped talent trees, but what can be said is that they will be reorganized and streamlined. The developers will primarily focus on the holy and discipline tree, but there will be some changes in the shadow tree as well. The holy tree will focus on improved healing and spell damage; the discipline tree will focus on improving the Priests staying-power, which means abilities such as improved mana and mana regeneration. The shadow tree will of course focus primarily on damage. What may interest many is that all talent trees will receive 1 to 4 completely new talents.

The revamped Priest racial spells is still undergoing testing, and unfortunately there is not any information available on this yet. Hopefully we will have more information about this soon.

Finally we have received information about a number of minor improvements and tweaks. Prayer of Fortitude's range and radius will be increased, Smite will have reduced mana cost and there will be additional group buff versions of Divine Spirit and Shadow Protection.

- Group Divine Spi and Shadow Prot <o/
- Smite still rubbish as you'll get pounded as soon as other players see you cast a holy spell. and it's still too long as a cast time
- Holy Fire is too long at 3 secs
- It's fire dmg, hello to resists.
- it's an OMGLOOKATME spell

Here's hoping for the talents :-o

BKtje

reduced smite time is nice for soloing for those of us that aint shadow specced.

Ivan

Yeah, all 2 of ye

Why do I get the impression they are going to completely nerf the shadow spec priests amongst us, under the guise of "balancing the class"

The only reason I started a dumb priest is to be a mage that can heal

BKtje

Yeah, all 2 of ye

2?
Quite a few more than 2 in my guild. Think theres 3 shadow priests outta 8 or 9.

Funky

DRakE wrote:

-
- Holy Fire is too long at 3 secs
- It's fire dmg, hello to resists.
- it's an OMGLOOKATME spell

Holy Fire will be holy damage in 1.10

Still sucks as anything other than a solo PvE opener though.

Ivan

Correct me if I'm wrong but isnt holy fire an AoE spell? Now, can someone explain to me how you are expected to get an AoE spell off with a casting time of 3 seconds with (presumably) 2+ mobs attacking you. Oh, thats right, you can use your shield, cast it once no problems. Then be unable to cast it again and not be able to shield again so basically die. Who designs these things?

Oh and B-K-DzR, I was being incredibly sarcastic while at the same time making a subtle point. L2p noob

Oh wow, I did it again!

BKtje

sorry ivan

Regarding holy fire... just stick on focussed casting first

Caliden

holy nova is the AoE spell isnt it?

Funky

Holy Nova is an insta cast AE spell.

Holy Fire is a DD spell with a DOT, it's weak as hell though and cause it has the dot +dmg gear is messed up with it like pyroblast used to be.

Ivan

Oh, my bad. Shows how much I know about the Holy Tree

On a completely unrelated topic. Silence or Vampiric aura first?
For PvP, for PvE and for both? Which do you think or just go straight for Shadow form?

DRakE

Mindflay, Silence, Vampiric Embrace then Shadowform

Horsefumbler

least youz priests donthave to rely on wrath and starfire as your dd spellz :eek:

Ivan

I still have to laugh at druids using wrath and moonfire as DD spells.

Wrath is there to get you to level 10 when you get bear form and moonfire is woefully mana-efficient but ridiculously high dps. I.e. for finishing people off.

Personally, with my druid, I take it that I am a melee class with no damage spells what-so-ever. Works better that way, imho.

That said, at least druids can actually do melee damage, not to mention ambush, backstab, feral charge, stealth, track humanoids, feral regeneration, swipe, maul, etc. etc.