[MoP] Spirit Shell DISCussion

[ensamme]

Hi, most of you have already seen the new changes to priests in the -Mists of Pandaria - Beta Build 15668-. But for those of you that haven't:
Spirit Shell has been reworked - For the next 15 sec, your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing no longer heal but instead create absorption shields that last 15 sec. Instant. 60 sec cooldown.
(We also get Greater Heal back!) .
This is (in my opinion) a good change and a good direction for the Discipline spec. Though, what if they were to take away the CD from Spirit Shell, and make it a toggle. Do you think this would be good, bad, overpowered, or something else?
This is just an idea/discussion thread, please keep the flaming to a minimum. Thanks.

[Tarot]

Imo, making it a toggle would be OP for PvP reasons, unless there were a cap on it, that's why, i think, it'll stay how it is currently. Before a battle, you could pre-bubble the tank (or anyone) and w/o a cap, you could make an absorb of up to 400k in 15secs (If 100% of healing turns into absorbs plus crit). If that is the case, I think the duration will get sorten or there will be a cap if there is not already. In a fight, it's purpose (imo) would be to stack absorbs before predictable damage. You could also use it to heal, but why not just cast a heal for health.

Then again it would be an interesting mechanic to not heal and just cast absorbs (ex. if Spirit Shell was just the mechanic of Disc, that you couldn't heal or only use one or two healing spells and the game play was that you try to avoid all damage on you & party/raid) So instead of playing "heal up" your basically micro managing your absorbs so that they are up at all times through SoS and other Talents. But, would that be too extreme? I think it would be fun though.

[RumpleFugly]

Hi, most of you have already seen the new changes to priests in the -Mists of Pandaria - Beta Build 15668-. But for those of you that haven't:
Spirit Shell has been reworked - For the next 15 sec, your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing no longer heal but instead create absorption shields that last 15 sec. Instant. 60 sec cooldown.
(We also get Greater Heal back!) .
This is (in my opinion) a good change and a good direction for the Discipline spec. Though, what if they were to take away the CD from Spirit Shell, and make it a toggle. Do you think this would be good, bad, overpowered, or something else?
This is just an idea/discussion thread, please keep the flaming to a minimum. Thanks.

I said this like a month ago. If it's too OP, the solution is simple: increased mana cost when in this "stance". Balancing it is as simple as increasing/decreasing the mana cost.

Edit: I agree it would need a cap. Also, our mastery should be worked into it very directly:
Spirit Shell (or rename it) - While in SS, your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing no longer heal but instead create absorption shields for <mastery>% of the healing done for a maximum of 40% of your health that last 15 sec.

[dethlyhallows]

I HATE IT. As a disc priest I want to be able to bubble the group w/o running short on mana. I like ABSORPTION. But sacrificing one thing for the other - nono! I want to heal and bubble at the same time. This has amost NO purpose in PvE unless its a fight w phases and boss stops atking like the profesor in ICC but in heroic mode where you dont get stunned while he drinks up.

[RumpleFugly]

I HATE IT. As a disc priest I want to be able to bubble the group w/o running short on mana. I like ABSORPTION. But sacrificing one thing for the other - nono! I want to heal and bubble at the same time. This has amost NO purpose in PvE unless its a fight w phases and boss stops atking like the profesor in ICC but in heroic mode where you dont get stunned while he drinks up.

Umm:
Morchok- prebubble during black phase
zonozz- prebubble before black phases
yorsahj- prebubble before phases
ultraxion- manage most uptime while not going oom at end
do I need to go on?

If the concept of disc is to be able to pre-shield the raid before damage spikes, why would you be against a toggle ability that allows us to pre-shield a raid before damage spikes?

[laplacedemon]

I HATE IT. As a disc priest I want to be able to bubble the group w/o running short on mana. I like ABSORPTION. But sacrificing one thing for the other - nono! I want to heal and bubble at the same time. This has amost NO purpose in PvE unless its a fight w phases and boss stops atking like the profesor in ICC but in heroic mode where you dont get stunned while he drinks up.

Isn't that what this is?

Every minute, for 15 seconds you can "bubble" the group and then go back to healing as usual. And almost all the bosses have some low-damage phase which can be used for SS&pre-PoHing.

Anyways, I think this could provide some interesting game-play for disc. To be fair, this is pretty much what most of the disc priest have been doing anyway. Stack DA during a low-damage phase to "buffer" the high-damage phase or stack DA on tank so s/he won't die on Impale for example. Instead of wasting mana on overheals, now we can cast SS and do the same thing.

Need to try and see the numbers though...

[Tarot]

I HATE IT. As a disc priest I want to be able to bubble the group w/o running short on mana. I like ABSORPTION. But sacrificing one thing for the other - nono! I want to heal and bubble at the same time. This has amost NO purpose in PvE unless its a fight w phases and boss stops atking like the profesor in ICC but in heroic mode where you dont get stunned while he drinks up.

I disagree, bubble is health. Even, when everyone is topped off and PW:S, you would still benefit on stacking absorbs w/*new SS, especially when there is predictable damage, like a tank.

[zito]

I dislike it, it makes shields once again an after effect instead of what the spec is about.

You are not healing with shields instead your shields are just a CD. The healing style is pretty much the same as holy minus a few circle of healings or two.

In the end it ended up being false promises (spirit shell is now a cd instead of what they promised it would do, prayer of healing is back because they gave up on holy nova..)

[scandore8472]

Yes, I freaking love it. I actually suggested something very similar to this over on the official forums last week. I can't wait to try it out.

[Ossi]

I like it since it make disc go back to the bubble creating class! and, if you don't like it, don't use it. No one forces you with a knife to pop that button every minute.

This actually make Disc SO MUCH MORE interesting!

[scandore8472]

I dislike it, it makes shields once again an after effect instead of what the spec is about.

You are not healing with shields instead your shields are just a CD. The healing style is pretty much the same as holy minus a few circle of healings or two.

In the end it ended up being false promises (spirit shell is now a cd instead of what they promised it would do, prayer of healing is back because they gave up on holy nova..)

So you would rather them implement a spell that didn't work? You can't fault them, they tried to make it work, but it was just one of those things that sounded cool in theory, but didn't work out well in practice.

[Deleted]

It's a good idea, I hope they stick with it. That being said, it still doesn't solve any of our problems. I still think they need to stop inventing spells that solve nothing, and actually think what disc lacks.

[Ossi]

I am thinking they should add some glyph for disc to increae their ability to AOE heal, maybe something like this
Glyph of greater heal: when you cast greater heal on a target with weakened soul, you copy the remaining amount of shield on the target and paste it out to raid members within 15 yards, last 3sec, internal CD 20 sec. when this shield expire, a renew is apply on them.

so if this is cast on tank, you won't get too much of a shield on them when the heal arrived -> not op
if cast on melee, you have the risk of wasting a PW: S CD and a GH cast time & overheal to get a group AOE heal -> which is fair

now only problem is monitoring the CD, maybe make it a button instead of glyph?

[Ridesdel]

Then again it would be an interesting mechanic to not heal and just cast absorbs (ex. if Spirit Shell was just the mechanic of Disc, that you couldn't heal or only use one or two healing spells and the game play was that you try to avoid all damage on you & party/raid) So instead of playing "heal up" your basically micro managing your absorbs so that they are up at all times through SoS and other Talents. But, would that be too extreme? I think it would be fun though.

This is about how I imagined the disc spec when I first heard that it was absorb based.
OT:
If SS was made a toggle, it would need to be the next 5 casts, with a 15 sec CD that comes on when all the charges have been used

[Mandible]

Tbh I liked the old spirit shell more instead of having heal. The only thing people asked for was greater heal back for tank healing, so I dont see the need in changing so much back to how it looks like on live now. The changes they made now isn´t making anything new, just slightly changed from current things and makes it abit dull to me.

[Kirse]

I love it. This was the spirit shell I asked for (although I didn't think that it would be tied to multiple heals, just prayer of healing). I am so excited about trying it out.

Now we can be useful during down phases, without worrying about overhealing. Prayer of Healing absorbs followed by Prayer of Healing would be awesome for high damage aoe phases/fights. Casting absorbs in PVP...especially arena. Yummy!

I hope that it works as well as I imagine it will.

[Tarot]

This is about how I imagined the disc spec when I first heard that it was absorb based.
OT:
If SS was made a toggle, it would need to be the next 5 casts, with a 15 sec CD that comes on when all the charges have been used

There are five other healing styles (Monk, Paladin, Druid, Shaman, Priest Holy), I really wouldn't mind having Disc be a completely unique take on what a healing class is/does.

[Kalliope]

That's fine and all but you have to remember that they have to make the class viable in any setting, and relying so much on absorbs can hurt when you are the only healer and have no real throughput healing. Not everyone raids or PvPs and being forced to go holy to play in smaller setting probably isn't something anyone wants. Each healing class has to be viable in any kind of setting and that's the trouble they ran into with these new spells.

[Swingthang]

It's a good idea, I hope they stick with it. That being said, it still doesn't solve any of our problems. I still think they need to stop inventing spells that solve nothing, and actually think what disc lacks.

I've only been playing disc the last 4 months or so, and I've not touched the beta at all.

Pray tell, what does disc lack?

[Kirse]

That's fine and all but you have to remember that they have to make the class viable in any setting, and relying so much on absorbs can hurt when you are the only healer and have no real throughput healing. Not everyone raids or PvPs and being forced to go holy to play in smaller setting probably isn't something anyone wants. Each healing class has to be viable in any kind of setting and that's the trouble they ran into with these new spells.

If you are in a situation in which you don't want to use absorbs, you simply don't use spirit shell. You are not losing any abilities in order to have spirit shell either. You have your Greater Heal, Shield, everything that you need. Just act like you usually would have.

But...when you are in a raid and people are not taking a lot of damage, pop absorbs on them. Before the boss fight starts, pop absorbs on your group. A Healer in your raid is using a massive heal and you're not as needed, pop aoe absorbs instead. On battlegrounds, throw absorbs all over the place, stack them on you + a shield. Use them on yourself before fighting a dude you need to kill for a quest.

If Blizz implements this correctly, and they won't at first, it will be a great ability for disc, and one that really defines us. Just be patient. It'll suck for a while since they seem to have released it very quickly after listening to prior feedback