I got my invite over the weekend, so, I’ve been testing the classes that I play the most and I’ll be covering those in the next few postings. I’ll include some screen shots and such. The first up for coverage is the priest.
There have been some exciting changes to the priest class. Some I hope stick, and some I’m sort of “meh” about.
One of the first things that should be said about beta is that Blizzard has cleaned up a lot of the excess baggage with the new talent trees. Instead of having a lot of useless crap on our bars, they see more streamlined to me. That’s a welcome change in a time when bar space is a hot commodity.
I copied two priests over for this because right now you can’t unlearn your specs, so I needed one for shadow, and one for disc and holy.
Here is what you get when you choose the shadow specialization.
A couple of very interesting changes that should be noted by dedicated shadows everywhere is that Shadowy Apparitions are now an instant castable by the priest, meaning we can control where and how they’re used. This comes with good and bad issues as one would imagine. First, they’re currently the only spell we have that uses shadow orbs, reminds me of an orb dump and makes me curious why even keep the stupid mechanic. Second, and thankfully, it means we no longer have apparitions standing next to us just idle because the mob died already.
Another thing that’s changed is Vampiric Embrace. It’s no longer a castable buff and is now a castable instant buff that lasts 15 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown. Situational at best.
We get Silence right out of the gate which makes LJ a happy, happy little priest. I get sick and tired of people asking me if I have silence in stances, knowing that the number of shadow priests who have it outside of PvP is staggeringly low.
Mind Soothe is gone……thank the Gods. No one ever used it that I have ever met, so I’m glad it’s gone off the bar. Mind Control is also gone. We also lose a good many of the healing spells, cutting down on our “save the day” affectiveness if the healer dies. Shadow Orbs don’t decay right now. I hope that stays.
Here is the talent tree, alone with my present choices for the shadow spec.
Void tendrils seems to be the only one I’d choose outside of pvp. I don’t want anything that fears targets because in instances this is a huge no no. I also am not really wanting to Mind Control any targets, particularly, although it’s situationally useful. Dominate Mind replaces Mind Control.
Phantasm is the only I would choose from tier 2 in any of the 3 specs. Archangel is a no brainer for shadow and disc, although it no longer does anything for your mana. I’m not very happy with that.
I chose Voidshift, here, but Angelic Bulwark would also be useful for a shadow spec. I haven’t had to use it, yet. I see Desperate Prayer as an extra “Oh shit” button, but I wouldn’t choose it in any spec but holy, if even then.
Divine Insight makes the most sense here for shadows for Shadow Word: Death, although PI gives you a 20% mana reduction for 15 seconds.
The glyphs I chose were pretty standard for a shadow from where I sit. Dispersion for the CD reduction, Mind Blast for the stun. The only one I find iffy is Mind Spike. The problem here is that Mind Spike cancels your debuffs on your target if you casting it without it being proced. This is a big deal, especially when mana is a hot commodity and you don’t want to be wasting it on recasting debuffs.
The Minors are negligible. Nothing new or fun. Booooo.
Here, you can see that I’m in holy spec. Quite a lot of the heal spells, as well as circle of healing, and a new spell Guardian Spirit that prevents a target from dying and then heals it for 50% of it’s damage upon sacrificing itself. Lightwell is also standard. Chakras now have a nice little pop out menu.
The talents I chose for Holy Spec are really straight forward. Void Tendrils for CC, Phantasm for freedom of movement. This time I chose From Darkness Comes light for the 15% chance for a free, instant Flash Heal. It procs a lot from my tests. Next is Angelic Bulwark for shit hit the fan situations and Divine Insight because with FDCL, that free, instant Flash Heal just earned me a 20% cast time reduced Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal, for 10% less mana!
Here’s where it gets really interesting and people will be going “huh?!” and it brings into focus some other very interesting changes.
Atonement is now a glyph. That glyph now works with Holy Spec. So, if you’re a disc priest and really want to try Holy Spec and still keep Atonement healing, you can.
Proof that Atonement works in Holy Spec. I hope they keep this because that means I can have two healing spec and max level with only a couple of differences. Coupled with Holy Fire glyph that makes HF instant cast and you have epic Atonement healing for Holys. SOME Holys will scoff at this, but I know some who are crying tears of joy into their wheaties.
The rest of the Glyphs for Holy are standard, Renew because….well Renew….. This could probably work for Disc, too since the talents for it aren’t in the Holy tree anymore. Mass dispel and Fade are still good choices for those that want to grab those.
I’m not actually IN Disc Spec, here, but this is what you get. Inner Focus, Pain Suppression and a new heal, Spirit Shell. Spirit Shell seems to be the new spamable heal for Disc priests. It puts a shield on the target that blocks 10k damage for 8 seconds and then heals the target for 80% of what’s remaining when it drops. Sort of like Lifebloom for priests except in shield form?
Both Holy and Disc get Evangelism as a passive.
For Disc Spec, my choices on talents would be the same as for Holy Spec, except for I would choose Archangel instead of FDCL. This would come at a price. No free, instant cast Flash Heals so I can see how some Disc priests might find Archangel negligible.
Mana seems to be an issue in beta. I don’t if that’s purposely or if it’s because they don’t have the mana costs tweaked yet, but I plan to revisit priests more down the line of the beta and I’ll post when I know more. The Shadow spec is very mana efficient from what I’m seeing right now, but Disc and Holy have some issues.
I really like the new talent trees, they are very liberating and allow people to bring different things to the table for raiding and pvp. I’m hoping we see less cookie cutters!
Shockanlawl 