Game-Changing New Powers

[Bolty]

Chopped up your post to point out a couple of things. First, I've noticed that lifebloom's direct heal after 6 seconds does the same thing, with the target healing themselves in the combat log instead of the druid healing them--I assume the target takes the aggro, too.

True. I just can't expect this to last. Blizzard will find a way to move the mechanic back to aggro on the healer. Either that, or they really wanted to change the entire game strategy to allow healers to dump aggro on their tank directly. That's a huge change. Being able to throw aggro right onto my tank against every mob he's facing before I start whipping out Greater Heals works wonders for my survivability rate, and I'm going to milk that for all it's worth.

Thinking of that, I can't imagine how much easier Razorgore phase 1 would be with that spell now. If you use the kiting strategy, just have all the Priests cast Prayer of Mending and Druids abuse Lifebloom to dump healing aggro right onto your kiting tanks while keeping them alive at the same time. Absolute cakewalk. That's a blazing example of how big a game mechanic change it is.

Second, more experienced Rogues may disagree with me, but if PoM dumps aggro on the target...why would you use it to heal someone that just pulled aggro? Rogues might have vanish available, but no other melee DPS does (warriors, druids, etc.).

Well, I'm by no means an experienced Rogue having never taken one all the way to 60/raids, but from my viewpoint and experience with Rogues and evasion tanking, it's...difficult to heal. As a healer, you're watching their health bar like a hawk the moment you see they're evasion tanking, and they either take *zero* damage (dodging) or they take *OMGWTFBBQ* damage (get hit). What I will typically do is throw a PW:S on an evasion tanking Rogue to give them a bit of a buffer and help prevent a one-shot.

I remember a Twin Emps run once when our intrepid Lurker Quark evasion-tanked Vek'nilash for about 5-8 seconds (probably felt like 30 to him), and I'm standing there watching. I throw a PW:S on him and then said to myself, "what the hell did you do that for?" Instincts. :) I mean, if he gets hit, he's dead, and no 1,200-point PW:S is going to change that...

So back to the 5-man situation. Especially if we're talking Heroic Mode, any Rogue getting aggro and going into evasion-tank mode could easily take 5000-8000 damage when they get hit. Getting 3000 of that damage mitigated could go a long way towards either letting him get off that Vanish in time or else deciding to risk buying the tank/healer a couple more seconds before Vanishing. I was purely referring to Rogues in that example, who could dump all their aggro so that the Prayer of Mending aggro would be irrelevant. Hunters fall under that scenario as well, but Hunters ain't tanking squat for very long. :)

Consider that if the Rogue has aggro and has to Vanish, the next target is usually...me. Prayer of Mending at least won't bump MY aggro higher. It'll go to the Rogue, who can Vanish it off. I can only hit Fade and pray. In Heroic mode, from what I hear elsewhere, if I get aggro at all - I'm dead. Period. (I see a respec to get Silent Resolve in my future.)

-Bolty