Tier 3 sets and bonuses

[Bolty]

Vestments of Faith (Priest)
2 piece - Reduces the mana cost of your renew spell by 12%.
4 piece - On Greater Heal critical hits your target will gain Armor of Faith, absorbing up to 500 damage.
6 piece - Reduces the threat from your healing spells.
8 piece - Each spell you cast can trigger an epiphany, increasing your mana regeneration by 24 for 30 seconds.[right][snapback]109582[/snapback][/right]

Priest forums are abuzz about this.

The general consensus is: we don't really know what the 8-piece bonus means yet. And that really comes into play because the 3-piece Transcendence bonus, 15% additional mana regen while casting, is considered the most valuable bonus in the game for a raid healer Priest.

If the 8-piece Faith bonus triggers a 24 mana / 5 sec bonus for 30 seconds, that means it regenerates 144 mana over the span of 30 seconds.
If it triggers a 24 mana / 1 sec bonus for 30 seconds, it regenerates an obscene 720 mana over the span of 30 seconds (pretty unlikely, that's crazy).
If it triggers a 24 mana / 2 sec (a.k.a. one "tick") bonus for 30 seconds, it regenerates 360 mana over the span of 30 seconds.

If it's the first option, 24 mana / 5 sec, then it's really only going to be good if it procs a lot. The catch is that the 3-piece Transcendence bonus only comes into play while casting, while the 8-piece Faith bonus would also be good while you're not casting. One can play a lot of number crunching, saying "if you cast this often then this bonus is better," but it's all theoretical until we know how often the proc occurs. Why does Blizzard always try to hide numbers?

The 4-piece bonus is a bit disappointing. The reason is that, with this set, you're going to be racking up so much +heal that Greater Heal won't be used that often - even Rank 1. My Heal Rank 2 spell currently hits for a smidgeon over 1,000. Greater Heal Rank 1 is overkill for non-tank healing, and it will become moreso as I gather yet more +heal gear. We'll see.

Also, it would be nice to know *how much* threat we're losing on the 6-piece set bonus. Transcendence's chance-to-Fade-when-hit 5-piece bonus is pretty nice.

Finally, the Priest Legendary staff is starting to look better. The initial reports about it made me react with a "that's not Legendary; one hand + off hand combos could just about beat that." Not like I'd ever get one.

-Bolty