Some priest changes 1.10

[Deceneu]

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.

[Herm]

Darn, was just going to post this. :)
But it looks nice and really hope the priest revamp ends well.

(Btw, thread URL is http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-priest&T=577886&P=1 for those who are interested in reading responses from the US players)

[Lyara]

*fingers crossed*

-Lyara

[Hoth]

looks rather nice. Who knows, holy might be worth speccing for when theyre done. Im glad were getting looked at.
But the most joyfull thing is the groupbuffs really :D

[Talya]

ooooh less casting time on g.heal, maybe ill re-specc to holy....nah, who am i kidding, shadow ftw ^^

looks rather nice though, and cool with the group buffs. im also curious on what innerfire will be, maybe some stat increase, or +spell damage (since they said it would be used mainly for solo playing)?

[Radendi]

ooooh less casting time on g.heal, maybe ill re-specc to holy....nah, who am i kidding, shadow ftw ^^

looks rather nice though, and cool with the group buffs. im also curious on what innerfire will be, maybe some stat increase, or +spell damage (since they said it would be used mainly for solo playing)?

It pisses me of that priests get a faster big heal than druids :X Its our main heal while priests will probably keep spamming FH anyway :/ Such a waste.

[garnie]

Also they up healing done by every healers spell . . (unless paladins ofc)

Also eyonix him self is pushing to get a talent calculator up, but when the paladin changes were in . . they did'nt even bother to put up a talent calculator .. really shows what classes they care about (IMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


Back on topic :)

The changes look nice .. finally some use of greater heal.

And group buff of Devine Spirit and Shadow Protection, really needed IMO.

[Tiller]

I just want to be ahead of the rest here, for a change. Nerf!

Thank you :)

[Panther]

This post (http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-priest-en&T=93703&P=1) quotes the changes to priest racials next patch as posted on the US-boards (US-boards are down atm):

I've gathered information regarding upcoming design changes for the Priest racial specific abilities, and as I had hoped am able to share with each of you the specifics. Other changes to the Priest class have been outlined in the sticky thread entitled "Priests, it's Friday!", and we're hoping to unveil the changes to the talents through the interactive calculator soon.

These changes will go live upon the release of patch 1.10.

When using Feedback, the human priest will surround himself with anti-magical energy. Any successful spell cast against the priest will burn mana from the attacker and deal Shadow damage.

The Night Elf will notice that Starshards has been redesigned to work similar to Curse of Agony, dealing lower initial damage which increases as the duration continues. The mana cost will drop substantially for all ranks, and the spell damage will be increased .

All ranks of this spell will have a 6 second channeling duration.

The ranged damage reduction from Elune's Grace will be increased, both its duration and mana cost will decrease, and the spell will also increases the priest's chance to dodge.

This spell now has a cooldown.

The Troll's Shadowguard will become an instant cast ability. The tooltip will also be updated to reflect that damage caused by the spell causes no threat. Such is already the case, however, is not currently documented.

Hex of Weakness will apply a -20% healing modifier in addition to its normal effect. The healing debuff does not stack with the warrior's Mortal Strike ability, although the damage penalty will stack with either Touch or Curse of Weakness.

The Undead's Touch of Weakness will become a 10 minute self buff which is triggered when the caster become struck by a melee attack. The effect will otherwise remain the same.

Fear Ward, Desperate Prayer and Devouring Plague will remain unchanged.

Confirmed by blue on EU-boards (http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-priest-en&t=90473&p=1&tmp=1#post90473):

[update] - 09/02

We have received some additional information about the upcomming changes to the Priest racial spells:


* Feedback - The priest surrounds himself with anti-magic energy. Any successful spell cast against the priest will burn mana from the attacker and cause Shadow damage.

* Elune's Grace - Now also increases chance to dodge. Ranged damage reduction increased, duration decreased, mana cost decreased, now has a cooldown.

* Shadowguard - Is now instant cast. Updated tooltip to reflect that damage caused by Shadowguard causes no threat. This was previously the case, but was undocumented.

* Touch of Weakness is now a 10 min. buff on the caster that is triggered when they are struck in melee. The effect is otherwise the same.

* Starshards: This spell now works like Curse of Agony, with lower initial damage which increases as the duration continues. Mana cost dropped approximately 30% on all ranks. Ranks 1 and 2 increased to 6 second duration. Damage increased approximately 17%.

* Hex of Weakness now also applies a -20% healing modifier in addition to its normal effect. The healing debuff does not stack with the warrior's Mortal Strike ability, although the damage penalty now stacks with either Touch of Weakness or Curse of Weakness.

[Deadwish]

I just hope the holy tree makes solo play possible and that you get more protection abilities in PvP...now all priest go shadow to be able to grind/PvP while soloing.

[Eulanna]

It pisses me of that priests get a faster big heal than druids :X Its our main heal while priests will probably keep spamming FH anyway :/ Such a waste.

Do you know how annoying it is to be outhealed by a druid by .5 or sometimes 1 second? :P And if they do decrease the casting time of greater heal you can be sure I would use it more often. Stop looking at how it will affect you personally and look at the benefit a priest will add to a group or the raid with these new changes :P Groups are still going to need both of us, hun.

[Tiberian]

Eulanna you talk about druids out healing you when from my experience, the best priests will always out heal the best druids. turin being one of our best druids i think is normally in the top spot for healing, along with Helaios. That’s without over healing too. Helaios, even when shadow spec, was still imo the best priest in our raid. Hes amazing, and we are truly lucky having him with us in our raids. I have so much respect for him as a priest.

You must look at it one way though. Each class has benefits in the healing department. Druids had the faster healing. Paladins had the more mana efficient healing. Priests were the best healers.

Now suddenly your more mana efficient and got faster heals... .Now don't get me wrong. I love and I’m sure everyone loves the fact priests are getting a boost in a spell they'd normally not use. However this has had an impacted on other classes.

As a paladin who is already lowest of the low on all healing. I'd like to be the most mana efficient healer. Since I have nothing else to bring to the table, apart from the best cleanse. keke. Sure, i won't go oom before you, but my heals arent life saving. So at the end of the day, it would be fair to say, you are a more efficent healer.

@ Garnie.

As you said Garnie... I'm more than a bit angry that blizzard are showing priests class respect, giving them sneak peaks and everything....wtf paladins never got that at all. Haha your so right that they care about priests


Anyways to sum up, i'm happy about the changes. My priest may even be played again. And of course the group will still need both priests and druids. Since this game isn't full on healers, but anyway, yeah jsut my opinion:p.


Heres one final question for you. You are a raid leader, you're raid is low on healers.You have 3 people to fill the last spot in the raid. 1 is a Paladin, 1 is a Druid and lasty, one is a Priest. Who do you take? I can bet it won't be the paladin, thats for sure.

[Hallian]

As you said Garnie... I'm more than a bit angry that blizzard are showing priests class respect, giving them sneak peaks and everything....wtf paladins never got that at all. Haha your so right that they care about priests
Didn't you just get your abilities and talents re-done?

/edit: I can recall the Paladins get a sneak preview with a talent build calculator even.

[garnie]

Didn't you just get your abilities and talents re-done?

/edit: I can recall the Paladins get a sneak preview with a talent build calculator even.

You are wrong ... even when the Test server came up they still did'nt "manage" to make it . . only towards the end of testing phase.

[Panther]

Well i'm just hoping they don't fuck up the holy dmg talents. Because if they stay similar to how they are now you can spend 11 points in shadow to get mindflay and be FAR better off than spending 10 pts in improved smite and divine fury. That makes these talents completely useless even if we do have holy fire for free now....
So hopefully they'll either improve these talents, make them cheaper or lump them into talents that are worth taking (e.g. combining improved smite and spiritual healing or divine fury and master healer or something like that)
I really want to drop my 11 pts in shadow but right now there's no way to make up for the loss of mindflay. And i'd be giving up more than just mindflay: 5/5 blackout; 2/2 imp. SW:P and 3/5 shadow focus :S

[Lyara]

And this staff!

http://wow.blupp.net/item.php?id=112209

-Lyara

[Panther]

And this staff!

http://wow.blupp.net/item.php?id=112209

-Lyara

i think you meant:http://wow.blupp.net/item.php?id=120039 :grin:

[Meno]

just my thoughts on priest review:

being able to solo while holy would be nice but tbh if you go heal spec, expect to heal, damage should be nerfed. at the centre of the priest class is this dichotomy between 2 great styles, damage and healing. for damage go shadow, thats pretty simple, and then for healing holy/disc disc/holy (a disc/holy man myself ... sick and tired of buffing whole raid with DS!). if anything i would like to see the healing talents upped in holy tree, and i dont mind if they remove the damage talents from holy totally, no one goes holy to do damage.

Though being able to solo would be nice i agree. i suppose thats why they are changing inner fire, and making holy fire a skill rather than a talent. My only fear is that they sacrifice healing talents for damage talents in the holy tree to make it more balanced. I like my trees imbalanced towards either damage or healing, thats the whole point of having trees in the first place.

[Eulanna]

Eulanna you talk about druids out healing you when from my experience, the best priests will always out heal the best druids. turin being one of our best druids i think is normally in the top spot for healing, along with Helaios. That’s without over healing too. Helaios, even when shadow spec, was still imo the best priest in our raid. Hes amazing, and we are truly lucky having him with us in our raids. I have so much respect for him as a priest.

Aye that's your experience. You're also coming from a guild which has been raiding for a lot longer with a core league of player I'm guessing, and so they are not only better outfitted than say me and my troupe, but they are also very accustomed to working with each other (emphasis on 'with'). We are still struggling on some nights to get into that comfortable rhythm, other nights it goes smoother than a baby's bum.

Hey, I'd rather we as a guild try to get more people experienced for things like MC but we certainly do not always have a raid full of 'regulars.' That probably makes a large difference as we discovered last night when we wiped at Luci two times. It happens.

It's not about being on the top for me in terms of healing. I honestly don't care where I fall in the meter (and if you even mention meters or start spamming them I get a bit turned off). What I was trying to say was that we (healers, druids, and yes paladin's, too) all have a role and an importance. When druids got buffed I didn't take it personally. When pallies got buffed I found that working with a paladin was even better than it ever had been before. I try to view changes to a different class with a dose of optimism rather than jealousy or rivalry. We're just different and have different strengths and weaknesses.

I wouldn't admit to the pallies being the primary healers, however I am very used to working with Amrahil as main tank in Scholomance and Strat - he excells there as a MT by far in comparrison to some warriors. He tries to be a great all-rounder. Some pallies enjoy being the best healadin they can. I know there are some shadow priests who are amazing healers. Kudos to them for doing exactly what they want - playing the class as they desire.

My desire as a priest is to have the most utility given my spec. Right now I'm the strong Disc spec (31 disc, 20 holy). I've loved this spec forever, but I'm open to some drastic change with the new patch of course.


You must look at it one way though. Each class has benefits in the healing department. Druids had the faster healing. Paladins had the more mana efficient healing. Priests were the best healers.

Now suddenly your more mana efficient and got faster heals... .Now don't get me wrong. I love and I’m sure everyone loves the fact priests are getting a boost in a spell they'd normally not use. However this has had an impacted on other classes.

As a paladin who is already lowest of the low on all healing. I'd like to be the most mana efficient healer. Since I have nothing else to bring to the table, apart from the best cleanse. keke. Sure, i won't go oom before you, but my heals arent life saving. So at the end of the day, it would be fair to say, you are a more efficent healer.

I don't play a 60 paladin (although I'm interested) and haven't formed my own opinion of what it feels like to play the healer as that class, so I'm taking your word for it. I don't agree though when you say your heals aren't life saving. It's usually the Pallies who look out for me first in the raid before the priests, since they are most likely busy healing tanks. I rather depend on you, if I can be honest, so yes your heals have in fact saved me on more than one occassion. <3 That goes for druids, too.


Heres one final question for you. You are a raid leader, you're raid is low on healers.You have 3 people to fill the last spot in the raid. 1 is a Paladin, 1 is a Druid and lasty, one is a Priest. Who do you take? I can bet it won't be the paladin, thats for sure.

It depends on what we're raiding first of all. If we had no resto specced druids, I would take the druid, for great healing and innervate, which may have to be used on one of the priests given the situation. I would think in terms of balanced support, and there are some things a priest just can't do. :)

Oh well Tiberian, you may think you get no love or appreciation from people for what you try to do, but I at least depend on ya and my druid friends and am elated when we can work together well. I'm not trying to be the best or smoosh it in anyone's face, but I'm just trying to make the most with what I have, which at the moment, makes being a priest feel like a one-way street for me. Maybe new paths will open up after the patch.

I remember reading on one of the official forums a post: 'Why did you make a priest?' and out of all the answers I was shocked that so few said it was because they enjoyed healing and being support. It was usually 'my guild needed a priest because we were low on them' or 'I heard shadow priest did insane dps and were good in pvp.' My favourite: 'I knew I'd get a guaranteed spot in guild raids and therefore easy epics.' I don't know where this post has gone now, but anyway...

I guess we'll see what happens after the patch.

Now... group hug? :)

(Bleh I said too much... it's too early for my brain to be thinking. Move along, nothing intelligent to see here :rolleyes:)

[Malsolle]

Disc and especially Holy priests had a raw deal from the start and an improvement has been too slow in the coming if you ask me. Even a 0.5 reduced casting time etc is paltry but beggars cant be choosers ;-)


As for druid casting times = Natures Swiftness etc They dont do too badly from healing casting times as Druids and mana efficiency? = Innervate. Pallies? Basically Plate wearing Priests (and just as great in healing if you ask me as druids and Priests in many cases, Ive trusted and not been let down by Amrahils and Lochys healing powers plenty of times! ). Holy and Disc Priests really needed a bit of a boost and anyone suggesting that now theyre overpowered in the healing department seems completely ridiculous to me. :redface:

Also, we've been given Greater Heal, a wonderful healing spell but the casting took so long that the one youre healing would have died and corpse run back and claimed their body by the time it actually finished casting :eek: I found myself mostly spamming Flash Heal because of this and rarely using Greater Heal except to heal the newly ressed peeps. Finally, any decreased casting time benefits the arses we heal, doesnt benefit us! 8)

[Majerai]

Agreed Mal...priests have been given a truly awesome Greater Heal at their disposal, which unfortunatly never sees the light of day due to its ridiculously long casting time :mad: /wastage.
Its a shame that we priests have had to rely on our FH's and Renew spells in raids..knowing that we have the ablity to make ours..and therefore, your jobs easier :cry:

./cheer to druids, as i think them to be an awesome class, in many ways..but as Eu said...not only are they able to heal as well as a priest, they have a quicker casting time, as do Paladins, which is why I can't see where ur coming from Tiberian when you claim that ur heals aren't 'life saving'. I was under the impression that all heals are life saving :shock: But wat ur saying is..u'd like to have the quickest and most mana proficient 'life saving' healing spells :tongue:

Think that priests are justified in having this beneficial (for all) up-grade..I'm all for it! :razz:

And..ggorp huuugggz Eu!! :wink:

[Xeroc]

Yea, what I don't get is why there's so much whining. Why don't all the people accept/enjoy this priest up-grade as a great benefit to the raid, but more go like: "WTF, we got pwned by Blizz' devs team, cause they favour priests and gib them BBQ healing spellz..."
Imo, every heal is lifesaving, and also every class is very much required for a raid, so why go whine if raiding might get much easier with this change.
Both Druids and Pallies should accept that, cause being a priest just simply means to be a(/the best) healing class in game, since that is their main role in raids, whereas druids and pallies have other special abilities and they needn't also be best healers. Balance ftw!

[Luminis]

Heres one final question for you. You are a raid leader, you're raid is low on healers.You have 3 people to fill the last spot in the raid. 1 is a Paladin, 1 is a Druid and lasty, one is a Priest. Who do you take? I can bet it won't be the paladin, thats for sure.
I would take the paladin, way better healers then priests and druids :D

[garnie]

I would take the paladin, way better healers then priests and druids :D

l2p... (:D)


Paladins are very mana easy healers . . but lack big heals .. you never see a boss fight where all priests and druids are down and with 1 paladin up and people say "We can do it we got a paladin" since boss hits you for 1xxx damage Fol heals "Target" for 550, going the wrong way quick -.-

Different with shaman though .... "FROSTSHOCK" i think :P

[Swanvesta]

Paladins Shaman and Druids are hybrid classes. Priests don't get stealth.bubbles windfury, plate armour, 2-handed maces, 40k armour and least of all Priests dont get a real choice in playstyle. They are healers. Thats it. Druids and Paladins can off-tank even with a heal spec and Shaman and Druids can DPS if required. A raiding priest is well at the bottom of the list on these 2 counts. For the last 6 months patches and content and revamps have been coming out. From a blue scolo dagger on a rogue say to an easy epic from MC has places priests at a loss for a long time. Revamps of hybrid trees means priests are buff and debuff-bots. Read the manual , the entry about priests, and then define the role of a priest in your opinion. If that definition includes the words 'support' , 'enhancement' or 'secondary', you have missed the point entirely.

[McDark]

I would take the paladin, way better healers then priests and druids :D

Instant 7.5K heals? omg imba! :tongue:

[Sprog]

I have to agree with Swanvesta, Priests are primarily healers, where as Shammies, Druids and Paladins can do do all sorts of la-de-da stuff :)

[Maska]

I have to agree with Swanvesta, Priests are primarily healers, where as Shammies, Druids and Paladins can do do all sorts of la-de-da stuff :)
So.....a resto druid is good at what else exactly? :roll:

[Zygorian]

Has still got cat form stealth, bear armour and HP and travel form.

[Malsolle]

Resto druids rock at healing FTW! :tongue:


/salutes Healing Shapeshifting Gods

[Adriel]

I dunno about that i've seen a resto druid fight in cat form - not a pretty sight! :-P

[Maska]

Has still got cat form stealth, bear armour and HP and travel form.

and we are useless at it :P apart from the travel form+running ;)

And yes, adriel has seen me take on lvl 49-51 elites in cat...its not pretty :roll:

[Sprog]

Ok Maska, i didn't mean that they cant heal... my bad, i know what i meant in my head... and thats what counts :P

[Maska]

Ok Maska, i didn't mean that they cant heal... my bad, i know what i meant in my head... and thats what counts :P

/pat :roll: