Priest Changes Coming!

[nobbie]

For those inclined to heal:

So Eyonix, how about those priest changes?

After a long discussion with the class designers concerning Priests, yesterday, as a Blizzard employee whose function is to provide news, I smiled at the information I was provided. As a Priest player, I giggled to myself for hours. The changes are impressive, although like any change to the game, specifically a class, the outcome of such is most often times subjective.

The changes are being tested, and finalized.

My goal, if possible, is to provide an update, as comprehensive as possible concerning the upcoming Priest changes, by this Friday. Please note, this may not be possible due to a number of variables, however, it's at least a reasonable possibility.

[castille]

For those inclined to heal:

So Eyonix, how about those priest changes?
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Pleasefixholyanddisciplinebutleaveshadowalone
Pleasefixholyanddisciplinebutleaveshadowalone
pleasepleaseplease ;)

[Shriek]

The changes that were revealed to me yesterday focused primarily on the Holy and Discipline trees, however, some minor improvements to Shadow are being explored as well. Beyond the talent changes, we're making some improvements to certain core spells/abilities, some of which were especially exciting.

(Emphasis mine)

[MongoJerry]

Please please please be more than improving Greater Heal.

[Drasca]

For those inclined to heal:

So Eyonix, how about those priest changes?
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I have zero faith in Eyonix. Expletive rarely gives dustfuls of empty promises, if that.

[Xanthix]

I have zero faith in Eyonix.[right][snapback]100803[/snapback][/right]

Hey, he's better than Fangtooth!

[Lissa]

Hey, he's better than Fangtooth!
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Not much...anyone that's played a Warlock or Mage knows this...

[ima_nerd]

Fangtooth made a total of three posts within something like a 6-8 month period in the Priest forums. One of these was the infamous "tough cookie" quote ...

/sigh

[Raelynn]

Not much...anyone that's played a Warlock or Mage knows this...
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"I'll get you more information soon" from Eyonix turned into warlocks noticing that shard bags were on the PTR.

[castille]

It's Friday .. *twitch* *twitch*

[Quark]

It's Friday .. *twitch* *twitch*
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I can't wait until he follows through with the "Please note, this may not be possible due to a number of variables" threat ;)

[vor_lord]

I can't wait until he follows through with the "Please note, this may not be possible due to a number of variables" threat ;)
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Ok, here you go:

Priest change summary for 1.10 from Eyonix

And I'll quote it:

Priests, are you done melting faces yet? - Eyonix

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.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...s=new&tmp=1#new

[vor_lord]

So -- Greater Heal will not be channeled. It will go from 4(3.5 w/talents) to 3(2.5 w/talents), as well as be about 10% more mana efficient.

I wonder if the amount healed will be reduced?

[savaughn]

So -- Greater Heal will not be channeled.  It will go from 4(3.5 w/talents) to 3(2.5 w/talents), as well as be about 10% more mana efficient.

I wonder if the amount healed will be reduced?
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It would have to be, or else it would be significantly more than 10% more efficient.

[Legedi]

Without talents and gear GH now is:
4s cast, 1005 mana, average heal of 2553.

If it heals for the same HP/s and is 10% more efficient it will be:
3s cast, about 680 mana, average heal of 1914.

Now if you spec into reducing GH down to a 2.5 second cast, adding a lot of +healing gear is going to cause the HP/s for GH to go through the roof.

Old GH with 3.5 second cast and +600 healing = 901 HP/s

New GH with 2.5 second cast and +600 healing (3/3.5 modifier) = 971 HP/s

The change is going from a 4-3.5 second cast didn't bost HP/s from healing gear before. Now going from 3-2.5 second cast you get the bonus of a 3 second cast modifier, but it's a 2.5 second cast.

[MongoJerry]

Without talents and gear GH now is:
4s cast, 1005 mana, average heal of 2553.

If it heals for the same HP/s and is 10% more efficient it will be:
3s cast, about 680 mana, average heal of 1914.

He said the mana efficiency was increasing by 10%, not the heal/time. We don't know how that's changing, yet.

Now if you spec into reducing GH down to a 2.5 second cast, adding a lot of +healing gear is going to cause the HP/s for GH to go through the roof.

Old GH with 3.5 second cast and +600 healing = 901 HP/s

New GH with 2.5 second cast and +600 healing (3/3.5 modifier) = 971 HP/s

The change is going from a 4-3.5 second cast didn't bost HP/s from healing gear before. Now going from 3-2.5 second cast you get the bonus of a 3 second cast modifier, but it's a 2.5 second cast.

It's all speculation until we see the talents and see how the heal/time changes. We don't know how deep in holy the possible reduced cast time on GH will be. We don't know if yet again Discipline will be a better route for mana efficiency than holy. So basically, we just need to wait a few weeks until the talent information is released.

I'm looking forward to casting Holy Fire on stuff, though. :lol:

[vor_lord]

It would have to be, or else it would be significantly more than 10% more efficient.
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I believe he is talking about mana efficiency, which is independent of cast time.

[vor_lord]

I'm looking forward to casting Holy Fire on stuff, though.  :lol:
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I miss Holy Fire. It's only value is humor and looks, but I miss it so I'll be glad to get it back :D

[MongoJerry]

I miss Holy Fire.  It's only value is humor and looks, but I miss it so I'll be glad to get it back  :D

Yeah, although it can be a decent openner on a mob or an unsuspecting player, if you're not in shadowform. I always laugh when I see a priest use Holy Fire in a battleground. I'm like, "You go girl!" It'll be nice to have it be holy damage, so that it benefits from +crit% and +damage holy talents.

[Treesh]

Yeah, although it can be a decent openner on a mob or an unsuspecting player, if you're not in shadowform.  I always laugh when I see a priest use Holy Fire in a battleground.  I'm like, "You go girl!"  It'll be nice to have it be holy damage, so that it benefits from +crit% and +damage holy talents.
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Although it is much fun if there was a warlock around and you happen to crit with it when curse of elements is up. :) I still use it frequently with Aleri at the beginnings of fights because 1. I've got the time so may as well cast away until I need to heal and 2. It just looks pretty. ;) I'm pretty much "meh" about allowing all priests to get it. They damned well better make something else really tasty in the holy tree if they're giving away my holy fire!

Edit: But yes, I'll be glad to have it go back to holy damage instead of fire damage. Yeah, that only gives me two types of damage that I can cast, but oh well. Get a wand that isn't shadow damage and you're fine. :)