I haven't posted in a while, but right now I feel like getting out my magic crystal sphere and gaze into the future. And I see priest changes!
1) Raid-wide Prayer of Healing
Prayer of Healing will become a smart heal that is now longer restricted to your group. Instead it will work like Circle of Healing, healing the 5 players with the highest health-deficit in your raid. Indicators that this change is in the pipeline are the general trend to make spells and buffs raid-wide. Basically it will become Circle of Healing with a casting time but no cooldown.
2) Divine Spirit and Fortitude will become auras
With the coming dual-spec feature the talents for group-wide buffs are tricky. With dual-specs you could have one spec to buff other players (the buff spec) and then switch to your raid spec without these talent points "wasted".
When you switch specs the buff on yourself could be removed. But it is basically impossible to remove the buffs on all players that you previously cast it on. Just believe me on this - the WoW-engine can't do that right now and Blizzard will not go to the endless pain to implement buff-erasing and have it work for people not in your raid or outside the instance. So the buffs would stay on everyone, even after you switch specs. And that would be bad since this would basically force the raiders to have a spec with all the buffs and one spec with all the non-buff raiding talents. You end up with being forced into what is basically one big spec split into one raid-spec and a buff-spec where you have to spend a certain amount of points to get all the buffs that can be cast before the fight starts.
Instead the spells will change into an aura that you cast on yourself. The basic single-person version of the buff will become "self only", while the group-wise one will affect your whole group/raid and has a huge range. If you switch specs then the aura is cancelled and you have to recast it (if you still have the required talent). The single-person version will be self only since otherwise you could still one-by-one buff every single player in your raid with the buff-spec. And that would be an even bigger torment than just being forced to have a "buff spec".
This might also affect Shadow Protection, even though there is no talent to improve that one (yet). And if my prediction comes true then this will also affect other talented buffs for other classes such as Druid's Improved Mark of the Wild.
3) ?
More visions of the future will hopefully come to me real soon. :)
Showing posts with label priest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label priest. Show all posts
January 20, 2009
February 29, 2008
Warlocks and Shadow Priests - guilty until proven innocent
No, this post is not about demonic sacrifices of baby orcs...
... just about my reactions to self-mutilations by casters of the shadowy persuasion.
Lifetapping warlocks can scare the shit out of me with the self inflicted health deficits they use to regenerate mana. And the backlash from a shadowpriest critting Shadow Word: Death can be even worse.
The aggro indicators in Grid or other raid-frames just aren't fast or accurate enough to distinguish between such self-inflicted damage that can be healed at leisure and "zomg that noob pulled aggro again - spam heals and pray"!
For safety reasons I assume the person in question is a noob and about to be mashed into a bloody pulp. In 5-mans I might notice in time that the mobs are still firmly attached to the tank and just throw a single Renew for topping them up. But in the chaos of a raid everyone is 'guilty of overaggroing until proven innocent' and causes me to prepare for a full-blown healing spam while I mutter curses under my breath.
Not that it matters in most end game encounters where random attacks outside of the good old aggro table seem to be the norm instead of the exception. There everyone is 'considered dead unless immediately healed to full'. And my curses in such encounters often go way beyond the "under my breath" threshold. ;)
... just about my reactions to self-mutilations by casters of the shadowy persuasion.
Lifetapping warlocks can scare the shit out of me with the self inflicted health deficits they use to regenerate mana. And the backlash from a shadowpriest critting Shadow Word: Death can be even worse.
The aggro indicators in Grid or other raid-frames just aren't fast or accurate enough to distinguish between such self-inflicted damage that can be healed at leisure and "zomg that noob pulled aggro again - spam heals and pray"!
For safety reasons I assume the person in question is a noob and about to be mashed into a bloody pulp. In 5-mans I might notice in time that the mobs are still firmly attached to the tank and just throw a single Renew for topping them up. But in the chaos of a raid everyone is 'guilty of overaggroing until proven innocent' and causes me to prepare for a full-blown healing spam while I mutter curses under my breath.
Not that it matters in most end game encounters where random attacks outside of the good old aggro table seem to be the norm instead of the exception. There everyone is 'considered dead unless immediately healed to full'. And my curses in such encounters often go way beyond the "under my breath" threshold. ;)
February 27, 2008
Spirit Tap misconceptions
The priest talent Spirit Tap is one of the best talents for soloing. After you land a killing blow on a mob you get a buff for 15 seconds that doubles your spirit and allows 50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting. The effect only procs if the killed mob or player would have given you experience or honor, but that usually is the case anyway.
A common recommendation among priests is to wand the mob for the last few seconds before the killing blow, so that you are out of the 5-second-rule for the full duration of the Spirit Tap buff. I used to blindly follow that advise to maximise the amount of mana that I regenerate, but luckily some priests pointed out that this is a misconception.
It sounds surprising at first, but being in or out of the 5-second rule (FSR) when Spirit Tap procs has no influence on the extra mana regenerated from it!
Without taking into account other talents Spirit Tap gives the following:
If you are out of the FSR while Spirit Tap is running then you get the full 100% mana regeneration rate at double your normal spirit. Instead of 100% regeneration you will get 200%. So Spirit Tap gives you extra mana equivalent to 15 seconds at 100% mana regeneration.
If you keep casting instead and stay inside the FSR for the proc then you get 50% mana regeneration at double your spirit. Instead of 0% regeneration you will have 100%. In this case Spirit Tap gives you extra mana equivalent to 15 seconds at 100% mana regeneration.
So being in or out of the FSR for Spirit Tap makes no difference for mana regeneration. Spirit tap adds a flat 100% extra on top of your usual mana regeneration. Please note that time spent out of the FSR is still a good thing. You just don't have to worry about Spirit Tap with regard to it. Take a regeneration break whenever you need and don't be a slave to Spirit Tap.
Taking into account talents like 'Improved Divine Spirit', 'Spiritual Guidance', and 'Meditation' makes casting while Spirit Tap is running actually better than wanding. Improved Divine Spirit and Spiritual Guidance benefit from the doubled spirit and give you extra +damage/healing. If you keep casting then you can use this benefit, but if you are wanding instead you are wasting the +damage. Meditation also benefits from the extra spirit, but only while you are *in* the FSR.
A common recommendation among priests is to wand the mob for the last few seconds before the killing blow, so that you are out of the 5-second-rule for the full duration of the Spirit Tap buff. I used to blindly follow that advise to maximise the amount of mana that I regenerate, but luckily some priests pointed out that this is a misconception.
It sounds surprising at first, but being in or out of the 5-second rule (FSR) when Spirit Tap procs has no influence on the extra mana regenerated from it!
Without taking into account other talents Spirit Tap gives the following:
If you are out of the FSR while Spirit Tap is running then you get the full 100% mana regeneration rate at double your normal spirit. Instead of 100% regeneration you will get 200%. So Spirit Tap gives you extra mana equivalent to 15 seconds at 100% mana regeneration.
If you keep casting instead and stay inside the FSR for the proc then you get 50% mana regeneration at double your spirit. Instead of 0% regeneration you will have 100%. In this case Spirit Tap gives you extra mana equivalent to 15 seconds at 100% mana regeneration.
So being in or out of the FSR for Spirit Tap makes no difference for mana regeneration. Spirit tap adds a flat 100% extra on top of your usual mana regeneration. Please note that time spent out of the FSR is still a good thing. You just don't have to worry about Spirit Tap with regard to it. Take a regeneration break whenever you need and don't be a slave to Spirit Tap.
Taking into account talents like 'Improved Divine Spirit', 'Spiritual Guidance', and 'Meditation' makes casting while Spirit Tap is running actually better than wanding. Improved Divine Spirit and Spiritual Guidance benefit from the doubled spirit and give you extra +damage/healing. If you keep casting then you can use this benefit, but if you are wanding instead you are wasting the +damage. Meditation also benefits from the extra spirit, but only while you are *in* the FSR.
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