Spirit Shell

[thigan]

Is going to be nerfed, I'm calling right now, people will start to use in CD (for the sake of numbers) instead of using it when a big chunk of damage needs the mitigation, making druids feels overwhelmed. Right now is a amazing 1m CD, what number-hungry healers see is a I heal-you-dont 1minute CD.

[Kirse]

SS was my #2 heal in Heroic DS yesterday, behind DA. I used it sparingly due to mana constraints, and it was amazing. SS caused Morchok's stomps to do NO DAMAGE AT ALL when at 3 stacks; it was pretty sweet. I just had to time it well, because the buff does wear off pretty fast (deadly boss mods helps with this)

SS tips
-SS is better than DA for pre-shielding with PoH. Mouse over the icon in your raid frame to show how much it absorbs. This number is based on your gear, so it will be consistent. Figure out what the number is and you'll know what your cap is. 3 casts cap it, 2 for single target heals
-SS isn't that efficient as a single target absorb. Unless you have the mana to spare (i.e., overgeared and not raiding or doing pvp) it's best to use PW: shield, followed by penance and Heal or Greater Heal to top up someone in trouble. SS is still awesome single target, it's just not as worth the time or mana a lot of the time
-To maximize SS during high AOE phases, cast Power infusion > followed be SS (PoH x 3)> PoH normal until raid is healthy. Throw in a penance for the lowest health players. SS pretty much stops the Aoe damage for long enough to rescue the raid with regular PoH spam
-SS stacks with DA and PW: shield, so using all 3 is very powerful (but overkill most of the time)
-Inner focus causes crits, but crits don't happen when SS is active. Therefore save Inner focus for when SS is not in use

When to use it (best use often if you have the mana)
-When aoe damage is being taken, even if players are 30% health
-Before a pull if you can afford the mana
-In PVP - on flag carriers in at risk of attack, yourself if at risk, AoE if you have the time and you're not near a player who can interrupt your cast (be very careful in PVP for this reason, otherwise you'll die pretty quick)

---------- Post added 2012-09-01 at 11:40 AM ----------

Is going to be nerfed, I'm calling right now, people will start to use in CD (for the sake of numbers) instead of using it when a big chunk of damage needs the mitigation, making druids feels overwhelmed. Right now is a amazing 1m CD, what number-hungry healers see is a I heal-you-dont 1minute CD.

It's amazing, but if you have seen the spreadsheets and played high level PVE you'll discover that we're still falling behind other healers. Watching the druid in my heroic DS raid was jaw dropping; he didn't have to think about his heals for the most part, and relied on very few spells. He outhealed me by a significant margin, when we're usually neck to neck and have been for 7 months. Everyone is really OP right now because it's scaled for level 90. Don't get me wrong, SS was my best spell, but if SS was nerfed we'd be extremely under powered and our other abilities would all have to be buffed. I'm ok with having the awesome SS instead, it suits my playstyle well.

[Janerussell]

it is pretty nice to avoid dmg vs heal it

[derevka]

Spirit shell is amazing, and frankly overpowered. I mathed out the secondary stat scaling for it.... o.O mother of crap....

I give it a matter of a reset or two before its nerfed after launch.

[Holygrail]

Firstly, the most important thing - How to get Recount to track Spirit Shell.

In your Recount folder (in /Interface/Addons) there is a file called Tracker.lua
Open this and line 253 should read "-- Priest" - This is where all the Spell ID's of absorbs that Priests can do are noted.
Simply add "[114908] = 15," on a new line under the "-- Priest" line.
Save & Close. Recount should now track Spirit Shell. (Provided you reloaded the UI or (re)started WoW since you made the change.)



A few notes of importance about Spirit Shell itself:

Scales with Mastery: Shield Discipline
Scales with Grace
Scales with your crit chance

However:

Is NOT affected by Inner Focus, so don't use it while having the Spirit Shell buff
Is NOT affected by Archangel, again don't waste AA while in Spirit Shell

[derevka]

Is NOT affected by Inner Focus, so don't use it while having the Spirit Shell buff

It shouldnt... since its already taking in Crit chance into the calculation. Back into the calc: crit is a linear scaling stat for Shell... granted less than half than mastery per point, but still... linear stat scaling.

Crit already provides guaranteed scaling to Spirit Shell; and adding in a 100% crit mechanic actually would be redundant.

[nobodysbaby]

Spirit Shell is very, very, very good. Perhaps a little too good considering the CD is failry short. I was saving my Hymn (I play Holy) for the Bolt on Madness 25hc, 4th platform, and popped it as it hit. But wait a minute... There was zero damage. Just nothing. I thought this was a bug or nerf at first, then I heard our Disc laughing on vent

170k hp Shields (+Aegis) anyone?;D

[Noradin]

It shouldnt... since its already taking in Crit chance into the calculation. Back into the calc: crit is a linear scaling stat for Shell... granted less than half than mastery per point, but still... linear stat scaling.

Crit already provides guaranteed scaling to Spirit Shell; and adding in a 100% crit mechanic actually would be redundant.

Why? There is no logical connection between the facts you state and the conclusion you get from them.
From the way you stated it one could also agrue that Spirit Shell should not scale with crit at all, since that would be a guaranteed scaling with crit as well.

The scaling of Spirit Shell with crit works by increasing the absorb of Spirit Shell depending on the crit chance the spells used would have had without Spirit Shell. So you would expect Inner Focus to grant the maximum increase possible with crit for one spell. It's not like Inner Focus increased the amount spells heal by an amount equal to the chance they had to crit otherwise and called the result a 'crit'. No, it increases the chance to crit to 100%.

[derevka]

You're missing the point, it already is granting it to shell... and in the calc for SShell it does do exactly what youre stating in your final paragraph. "It's not like Inner Focus increased the amount spells heal by an amount equal to the chance they had to crit otherwise"

Thats exactly how it handles crit in the SShell calc. Crunch it out. It increases the shell /flat/ by the amount of crit.

SShell removes the RNG aspect of Crit, and views it as an aggregate stat-- and scales linearly off of that.



---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 11:15 AM ----------

...moreover youd easily be over Shell's cap on GHeal with it and any modest amount of MST, since you'd be scaling it by 2, with IF interacting the manner you suggest it should; which wastes stats

[DiscoGhost]

i tried this for an hour or so in bgs and i feel like im not getting much out of it for a 1min cd. then again it only gets better the more targets your have so for a 25man raid it probably is op. but for single target healing its nothing special.

[Noradin]

Ah so you do understand the difference (as is apparent from your edit).

Yes it would 'waste' some stat - Inner Focus always 'wastes' some statpoints from gear when used (all critrating). I don't see the problem.

[derevka]

Ah so you do understand the difference (as is apparent from your edit).

Yes it would 'waste' some stat - Inner Focus always 'wastes' some statpoints from gear when used (all critrating). I don't see the problem.

Inner focus doesnt 'waste' stats in practice... however with Shell's Hardcap it does.

That all said, the debate is moot... that is not how Shell operates with IF. (Granting an additional 100% linear (and multiplicative with mastery rating) scaling...)

[Junnia]

Ok So I just switched Recount for Skada and did an LFR in disc ....... Holy crap is all I can say ... speechless at the amount of healing spirit shell does!!

[Noradin]

Inner focus doesnt 'waste' stats in practice... however with Shell's Hardcap it does.

That all said, the debate is moot... that is not how Shell operates with IF. (Granting an additional 100% linear (and multiplicative with mastery rating) scaling...)

Of course it does. It gives you 100% crit chance for one spell regardless of the crit chance you got from gear. So if you had 0% otherwise you get 100%, if you had 25% you get 75% -> 100%-75%=25% 'waste'.

That being said, the debate was about whether it "should" (<- this is a quote) ignore IF (and AA) but not other short time buffs, because your argument isn't logical sound. You give no other reason for why it scales with all other critbuffs and almost all short time buffs concerning the healoutput of the spells it uses but "should" not with IF - which is just another short time (as in for one spell) critbuff. Why does the amount it gives matter unless there was a cap on critscaling for Spirit Shell somewhere (then it should still matter up to the cap), thats unintuitive.

I'm sure the problem is the coding; IF is most likely hard coded to grant a crit, not critchance. The lack of interaction with Spirit Shell might be an oversight they might or might not come back to one day - unless they think nobody noticed.

[captnamazing]

How are you guys using it in PvP? As a preparatory thing I see its usefulness, but I never remember to use it until the heat of the battle, when I don't see much reason to use it.

[Kirse]

Spirit shell is amazing, and frankly overpowered. I mathed out the secondary stat scaling for it.... o.O mother of crap....

I give it a matter of a reset or two before its nerfed after launch.

It is OP when you consider it as a stand-alone ability, but if SS was nerfed they would have to buff everything else in order to compensate for its loss. As is stands, I'm already doing 15% less HpS than my Druid healing partner (heroic DS), when before we were within 1% of each other and competing for top spot every time. All of the data that theorycrafters have posted also seem so suggest that Disc is at the bottom. SS is the only thing that comes close to making up for that, and to be frank, it's nice to actually have an ability that feels comparatively powerful.

Yes I know we're balanced for 90, and when I say SS feels powerful I mean functionally and compared with other healers, not for the current content (all healers are clearly very OP for the content atm, and our heals are massive)

[Deleted]

For those who used it on beta in raids at 90, did it still feel as powerful?

[Kirse]

How are you guys using it in PvP? As a preparatory thing I see its usefulness, but I never remember to use it until the heat of the battle, when I don't see much reason to use it.

You just have to think ahead like Disc always does. As I'm running towards a PVP battle and am just about there I cast it AOE by hitting SS then PoH x 3, making sure to select each group separately (group 1, group 2 etc). It's just like PoH, it will only heal players in the group you have selected

-I do it just before I'm in the flag room when protecting the flag carrier. I make sure that no one is on me, so that I don't get interrupted.
-I do it on the roof or flag room with I'm with the flag carrier, and we're not engaged in combat to prepare for an incoming attack or stealthies (my mana regens fast so I can pretty much cast it on cd)
-I cast it as the boat pulls up in Isle of conquest, and just before everyone gets to each wall
-I stand back (away from enemy players) can cast it in the central field in WSG
Any time I want it and I'm being attacked, I can void tendril, fear, psyfiend to get some space to do it
-I cast it on myself at the beginning of a duel (that really confuses people lol. People keep telling me that they have a bug before I explain)
Use it during bosses in Alterac Valley
It's great during heavy AoE to stop damage for long enough to heal up again, providing that you won't get interrupted.
-In PVP I cast PoH> SS> PoH(SS), PoH(SS), PoH(SS)> AA or PI > PoH > PoH etc.. I'll use flash heal or other abilities in place of PoH if I'm going to get interrupted (watch for classes that can interrupt). This heals for an insane amount

-In PVE I watch the deadly boss mods cast timers. Every time the enemy cast bar is near full I cast it.

[Junnia]

I hope SpShell isn't nerfed since they took away DH and gave lots of love to Holy. I'm loving both specs at the moment!

[Deleted]

That being said, the debate was about whether it "should" (<- this is a quote) ignore IF (and AA) but not other short time buffs, because your argument isn't logical sound. You give no other reason for why it scales with all other critbuffs and almost all short time buffs concerning the healoutput of the spells it uses but "should" not with IF - which is just another short time (as in for one spell) critbuff. Why does the amount it gives matter unless there was a cap on critscaling for Spirit Shell somewhere (then it should still matter up to the cap), thats unintuitive.

I'm sure the problem is the coding; IF is most likely hard coded to grant a crit, not critchance. The lack of interaction with Spirit Shell might be an oversight they might or might not come back to one day - unless they think nobody noticed.

I think you're missing the fact that as Derevka has stated before Inner Focus doesn't actually increase your crit chance which is what Spirit Shell scales off of. It gives you a certain crit for selected abilities, yes, but if you look at your character sheet you do not gain any crit.
To reiterate in case I was mumbling; Spirit Shell scales off of your character sheet crit chance which includes short term buffs/elixirs etc. but not the 100% crit on selected spell from Inner Focus.
I'm pretty sure this is why it "shouldn't" interact with IF