Monday, October 4, 2010

Discipline in 4.0.1

While I decided to ditch the Holy paladin part of the blog, I decided to pick up the Discipline part of being a priest.  Discipline and Holy priests are similar, but yet are so different in play style.  Today we'll talk about the Discipline changes coming in Cataclysm and with patch 4.0.1.

Test of Faith

I've renamed the blog "Test of Faith" since I will be exclusively talking about priests only.  Sorry Holy paladins, you can find some great insight about the changes with Holy paladins at Kurn's Corner, a great Holy paladin blogger.

-Lunar

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Glyphs for 4.0

Along with Cataclysm, we are seeing a greatly revised glyph system.  Currently on live servers, we have Major and Minor glyphs.  Cataclysm will add another type of glyph called Prime glyphs.  Blizzards intention with these paticular glyphs is to make your character more unique.  Alot of these glyphs have special pve or pvp benefits and aren't mandatory to make your character shine in a pve or pvp environment.  Here's a look at the glyphs offered for priests.  As this is the Beta, they are subject to change.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Life on the Beta and PTR

While I don't have a beta key, I did get a chance to play on the PTR yesterday to test out the new talents and spells.  I was able to copy Lunarsoul over (with no trouble, go figure) to test out the new Holy and Discipline talent trees.

I have to say, I was a bit overwhelmed, with the Holy tree in paticular.

Blizzard's definition of a Holy priest:

"A versatile healer who can reverse damage on individuals or groups and even heal from beyond the grave."

I have to say we fullfill this definition extremely well now.

Chakra is awesome.  Combined with Revelations and State of Mind, it completely defines the Holy tree and fixes any previous deficiencies we had (tank healing in paticular).  I believe priests are truly unique again, and I forsee quite a few priests moving to Holy for its uniqueness, practicality, and extreme versatility.

Build 12984 has just hit the Beta realms, and while I can't test them for myself, there are a few interesting new talents for Holy priests.

-Leap of Faith now costs 13% of base mana, down from 32%. Now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.

All I have to say is thank God.  The previous mana cost made this ability extremely unattractive, especially in an environment where Blizzard has been putting stress on mana.

-Holy Nova now affects friendly targets (Old - all party and raid members). Base healing increased by 33% but the healing is now divided among the number of targets healed.

This was bound to happen.  Holy Nova was due for a nerf (a small one) to put it more in line with other AoE spells.

-Heal base healing value reduced by 25%.

I noticed this change for all healers across the board.  Currently on the PTR, it takes about 3 Heal/2 Crit Heal spells to heal a player from death.  My cast time for Heal is currently a little over 2 sec.  With the increased health pools, I don't see why this was necessary.  Clearly Blizzard thought Heal/Nourish/Healing Wave/Holy Light were healing for too much.  I still don't know how bad the damage spikes will be for tanks, but if it's anything like H Festergut, it is going to get ugly.

-Holy Focus (Passive) *New* - Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any Holy or Discipline spell by 70%.

An expected update.  All casting classes are seeing some type of passive pushback ability.

-Revelations (Holy Word: Aspire (Renew)) base healing value reduced by 5%.

Our Renew spam ability with Revelations has already taken a hit.  It's not much, but it still stings.

-Blessed Resilience revamped - Whenever you are victim of an attack equal to damage greater than 10% of your total health, you gain Blessed Resilience increasing all healing received by 5/10% lasting for 10 sec.

Holy priests have never been very popular in pvp.  Blizzard is doing it's best to rectify this and make them more valuable.  I definitely like it more than the old talent.  Question is, does this ability stack?  If it does, sign me up!

Twirling Light is now a Rank 3 talent, down from Rank 4 and is now named Surge of Light and revamped - You have a 3/6% chance when you Smite or Heal to cause your next Flash Heal to be instant cast and cost no mana but incapable of a critical hit.

Surge of Light is back in a different form.  Oh how I've missed Surge of Light!  I'm excited its back in our talent tree.  It has an interesting mechanic that works with the whole "Smite spam/Evangelism" ability that Blizzard is trying to get us to do.  I'm also extremely pleased that Blizzard decided to attach Heal to the ability as well.  We will be able to weave in the occastional free, instant cast Flash Heal with our Chakra Revelations (Heal) abilities, plus this adds another HoT with our Echo of Light mastery.  The 6% chance means it won't be available nearly as much as the old talent, but a nice, free Flash Heal will always be welcome in my book.

-Lightwell now restores {((2878.1+(SpellPower*.308))*3)*1.25} health over 6 sec.

A buff or a nerf?  I'm not really sure, the talent is still underwhelming.

-Improved Healing is gone.

I'll be honest.  I was expecting this.  When I was on the PTR last night, I could literally spam Heal forever, even in Chakra-Revelations (Heal).  It was super cheap (a little over 200 mana at level 80).  Blizzard wants healing to be fun, and wants us to think about what spells to cast.

-Trinity (Tier 2) *New* - When you Smite three times in a row, your spell haste will be increased by 5/10% for 12 sec.

Blizzard is doing everything to make us Smite.  Literally EVERYTHING.  Between Evangelism/Archangel, Trinity, and Surge of Light, you reap quite a few rewards from smiting when no healing is required.  The spell haste is absolutely tasty and can quickly save a tank with a nice quick Heal or Flash Heal.

This is the current build I would utilize with Build 12984.

Holy Build 12984

You have a choice to put a talent point in Spirit of Redemption, Lightwell, or Desperate Prayer.  I personally never use Desperate Prayer, and Lightwell.... well I think we all know how we feel about Lightwell.  So Spirit of Redemption is my personal choice.

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Holy Paladin Synopsis

Last night while doing a H ICC run, I got an extremely nice pair of bracers.  Our group decided to take a 10 minute break and I jumped for joy as I could quickly gem and enchant them.  While enchanting and socketing them I noticed a huge glare in my gear setup.  My Heroic Corrupted Silverplate Leggings weren't even enchanted.  AND I'VE HAD THEM FOR OVER 2 WEEKS.  Lunarsoul <----- noob.  I kinda felt like a hunter that uses Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets.

Holy paladins fill one of the most important roles in a raid.  They are usually deemed a "tank healer" because they have the highest single target hps in the game through their signature spell, Holy Light, but they lack the powerful AoE healing abilities that druids, shamans, and priests have available to them.  They also have extremely powerful "oh-****" abilities when specc'd appropriately.  The difference between a good or bad Holy paladin can really make or break a raid, especially with hard modes.

Like Holy priests, Holy paladins have 2 specializations in WotLK that specifically revolve around 2 spells.

Flash of Light Build

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sxA0gM0sVu0tgdxZVf0x:ibIMcV

Just like the name implies, this build revolves around spamming Flash of Light.  It is currently one of the most mana-efficient single target spells in the game.  Flash of Light has a wonderful synergy with Sacred Shield and Holy Shock via Infusion of Light by keeping a rolling HoT on the tank and making your Holy Shock critical hits reward an instant cast Flash of Light.  By going into the retribution tree, you pick up an extra 5% crit rating which is crucial to this build.  Glyph of Flash of Light is also required.  This spec is recommended for paladins who have just hit level 80 and don't have a large mana pool.

Holy Light Build

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sxA0gM0sVu0tgdxGzmbh:dwIMcV

This build is currently the poster child build of Wrath Holy paladins.  Flash of Light will still be used, but for larger incoming damage, Holy Light will be your go-to spell.  Once your mana pool is over 30k unbuffed, this build is very viable and is currently preferred over FoL builds because of the amazing throughput that Holy Light provides.  By utilizing the Protection tree, your Sacred Shield duration increases to 1 min and the amount it absorbs is increased by 20% through Divine Guardian.  If you don't run with a Protection paladin, the raid wide healing buff that Improved Devotion Aura provides is a 6% healing increase to all friendly party/raid members that are affected by your auras.  Glyph of Holy Light and Glyph of Seal of Wisdom are mandatory.

Things to Come

Blizzard is completely overhauling the paladin way of healing.  Gone are the infinite mana and massive single target througput.  We are being more streamlined with other healers.  The good thing is that we are getting a few new spells to add to our collection, cause lets face it, we really only have 3 healing abilities in game right now.  Light of Dawn and Holy Radiance will hopefully rectify our lack of AoE heals.  Also, the Holy Power mechanic gives Holy Paladins a unique resource other than mana.  I'm hoping this will make us think more before we cast.  Blizzard has had us mindlessly casting the same spells for quite some time, and they want to break us of this habit.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

An Intro to Holy Priests

The jack-of-all trades, master of none.  The ugly duckling of WoW.  The red-headed stepchild of healers.  Yes, ladies and gentleman I am talking about the WoTLK Holy priest.

The Holy priest has changed quite a bit since vanilla.  Blizzard's definition of a Holy priest is to be a versatile healer who can both tank and raid heal when needed.  In current content, the tank healing aspect is lacking quite a bit.  Currently, Holy priests are preferred for raid healing because through talents, they are one of the most powerful and versatile raid healers in the game.

The issue with this is the current Holy talent tree.  Some talents specialize in your direct heals, while others specialize in your HoT and AoE abilites.  We simply don't have enough talent points to spare to specialize in both types of healing.

There are currently 2 types of Wrath Holy priests:

Flash Heal/Prayer of Healing Build:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuZbxxcfMqih0ekAo:0mdVzc

This build emphasizes the synergy that Flash Heal has with Prayer of Healing and Greater Heal via Serendipity.  With one spare point used for Empowered Renew, you still have a chance to proc Surge of Light by casting Renew, which gives you a chance to proc a free, instant cast Flash Heal.  If you were to try and tank heal as a Holy priest, this spec is the current preferred spec.

Renew Spammer Build:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuZfxxcb0qih0euAo:0fdVzc

This build emphasizes Druid-like HoT spamming via Renew.  It is currently more mana efficient than the FH/PoH build and because of the high scaling of Renew via Empowered Renew, in current ICC content it makes Flash Heal redundant.  Glyph of Renew is mandatory for this build.

My current build on Lunarsoul is the Renew build, and I really like it.  During fights like Blood Queen or Festergut where there is constant raid damage, I'm always near or at the top of the healing charts.  My Renew (fully-buffed) ticks for around 4600 with the 30% buff in ICC.

Cataclysm

I've seen the Beta talent trees and I have to say, I'm quite impressed with what Blizzard has done with the Holy tree.  Derevka has a wonderful overview of the Holy tree over at Tales of a Priest.  Chakra looks absolutely amazing and it finally fixes our lack of tank healing abilities, while giving us a unique mechanic from the other healing classes.  Leap of Faith?  Cool mechanic.  Death Knights aren't so special anymore.

Introductions

Hello all!  My name is Lunarsoul (Lunar for short) and I play a Holy priest and Holy paladin on the server Caelestrasz.  There is just something about these 2 specific class spec's that I just love.  No offense to restoration shamans and druids cause I've played them as well, and they have their own niches to fill.  Maybe I'm just a sucker for the Light.

As I was saying before, I play on the Oceanic server of Caelestrasz.  It is a PVE realm and isn't considered hardcore by PVE standards.  I'm in an Alliance progression raiding guild that raids a few nights a week together.  The rest of the time is spent pvping on my priest, paladin, or my new Horde mage (that I absolutely have fallen in love with).

As far as progression goes, my guild has been much more successful at 10-man's than 25-man's.  We have 3 raiding teams and 2 of those teams have downed the LK normal mode.  Team 1 (my team) is currently working on H modes of ICC and we are currently 6/12 (Blood Council is on notice).

In my next post, I would like to go over Holy priests, what they are strong at, what they are lacking, and what is yet to come for Cataclysm.