Originally Posted by
Aimeez
Probably because we seem to be looking for similar things in the class! It doesn't look like we will be losing the Atonement, Evangelism and Archangel interplay so we will still need to Smite or use offensive Penance it will just be happening much less.
I'm beginning to think that the introduction of Active Mana Regeneration is to foster different play styles. For example, a Holy Priest could potentially stack spirit and then fall into a cycle of renew and CoH or could use throughput stats, rest in Chakra: Chastise when mana is needed and switch to higher throughput heals like Clarity of Purpose when needed. An active regeneration Holy Priest would still give you some of the DPS to heal gameplay so long as FDCL is chosen.
For Discipline I feel it is less clear. I guess if you wanted to orientate towards active mana regeneration you would use Penance offensively and then switch to direct heals / shields so that the mana you cast on Smite isn't wasted by unintelligent Atonement heals. Gearing towards passive regeneration might allow you to Smite more often but then you would likely need to hold Penance for more targeted heals when Atonement RNG is bad.
If Atonement counts towards Words of Mending, it might work well. Similarly, if Clarity of Will offers a long lasting shield, there might be the opportunity of pre-healing vulnerable targets with this and then switching to Atonement. Limiting Atonement only to Smite once more might have made the DPS rotation even simpler (which is kind of crazy - it was already one of the simplest things) but it does mean that the method of healing can now be balanced around Smite damage, the individual healing of Smite can be higher and it forces more single target healing.
Lots of things to consider. I love the current variant of Discipline (still slowly progressing through 10 man) since in the environment I currently play in it really does feel like DPS to Heal is your filler with shielding, SS, direct Penance and L90 being used as needed. If we can keep the DPSing as a filler, supplementing with Holy Nova and direct Penance and maybe the occasional Heal during low damage that'd be nice. I just don't want to see Discipline only using Atonement to build Evangelism and then returning to Heal.
That seems to be the intent. Instead of using offensive Penance as a ghetto AoE heal, we'll need to use HN a few times.