PTR Patchnotes

[Kelesti]

So where's my fixed Penance? Why the heck isn't that in my patch notes?

[Danner]

Ummm, the ability to manipulate the FSR, GS, SoR, lower CD on ProM, the ability to get more points out of spirit itemization, the fact that you're still a good AoE healer just not in the spamtastic sense as before, ummm ... pancakes.

Pick one.

Holy is still a perfectly fine spec, Disc is a more interesting paladin healer, Holy is what holy has always been, the gap filler.

The ability to manipulate the FSR
Which we agree is what the holy tree is all about. But now I have to spam flash heal five times to achieve what 2x CoH could have achieved. This change will give me way less time outside of the FSR. Also, this point is countered by holy priests being the least mana efficient healers in the game. It's not like you could get away with not exploiting the five second rule. You have to. It's fun though. But with the amount of spamfights in WoTLK, catching some downtime doesn't happen too often.

GS
I admit it, GS is great if slightly hard to use efficiently. It is the only reason to go deep holy at the moment. I'm just questioning whether it is enough. Penance is great too, you know.

SoR
Improved death is a main reason for going deep holy?
Why didn't you mention lightwell while you were at it?
I hope you mean the 5% extra spirit. the spirit is good, but it doesn't help you if all your spells just cost 5% extra to counter it.

lower CD on ProM
7 second cooldown Prayer of Mending - i like it. I really really do. But after this nerf, I will not spend talent points on that talents when I can spend it on Empowered Healing. Prayer of Mending is a very fun toy for priests. But we can live without that 3 second less cooldown it if we have to. Doesn't make ProM less fun. If I am to spam flash heal instead of CoH, I will go for empowered healing. That easy.

the ability to get more points out of spirit itemization
Strong heals is one of the reasons for going deep holy. But a paladin have just as strong heals. And mana efficiency to boot. A disipline priest can heal just fine, without the stronger heals. And while I think that spirit should be the priest main stat, int is just that much better these days.

the fact that you're still a good AoE healer
If you are referring to CoH.. then no. It was cut down by 75%. That's decimation. It was a stability heal. You cast it once or twice, and it helped the lowest raiders survive until the shaman Chain Heal went off. Or you cast it five-eight times and it topped people off, but at the expense of your manabar. Blizzard didn't like the latter. I can understand that. But for stability, I can now cast it once. That's not raidhealing. That's raid stabilization, and typically not enough at that. Holy priests are raidhealers if you count flash heal. But a discipline priest can do that too, and more efficient.
If you are referring to PoH, I can still cast that as discipline, and unlike holy, I might even have the mana to sustain it.

So... pancakes, I guess. It's a good reason for going deep holy.

--

Give me back by partywide CoH. Lower its output. Give it the arcane blast treatment. Make it uncastable in the malygos vortex. Whatever. Just not a cooldown.

[cptrugged]

Ok, so let me get this straight. Because they nerfed the spell that no one... and I mean no one used unless spamming during SoR untill it was buffed 4 times, we can no longer be considered AoE healers? This spell used to be considered the new lolwell when it was delivered. So what did you do all throughout most of BC?

I think people are getting alittle ahead of themselves on denouncing holy as a wasted spec. Hell, I'm just happy that now Disc can do SOMETHING other than just be the "fill in spec" It used to be that people were holy for healing and shadow for damange and disc... well people were a few points into disc.

Personally, I'm just waiting for the post that says "Lightwell breaks Arthas encounter! NERF NOW!"

[mutantboy]

Give me back by partywide CoH. Lower its output. Give it the arcane blast treatment. Make it uncastable in the malygos vortex. Whatever. Just not a cooldown.

This

There is NO reason to go full holy now. You really really want to put 7 points into a spell with that long a cooldown? wow a better CoH that you can use every 6 secs - No. Just No. And then to top it off you get GS - which 90% of any given fight will be un used or mistimed and consequently wasted. .

If you really want the crap collection of meh nonsense that are ToF, Holy Conc/Imp Holy conc, serendipity then you go for it. I wouldn't touch that load of BS with a 100ft pole. The ONLY reason for getting that crap was CoH.

Welcome to 2 years ago when 95% of priests were hybrid. Only now the top end of Disc has something to offer. gratz Blizz. You made another Survival tree. Worse actually - I think they made holy priests into lolret

[Arduroc]

CoH spam is not what holy was about, and the fact that people decided to abuse holy spec for that purpose is why we are seeing it nerfed now.

And as far as "why would anyone ever spec holy?" How about when your partner in 10s is a pally and pally/disc is redundant?

I've been playing Disc for a while now as well, neither spec is the end-all raid spec. If you have more single-target spammers in your raid spec Holy; if you have more druids and shaman in your raid spec Disc.

If you can't see the use of one spec or the other, then don't spec it and tell your RL to go to hell when he/she needs an x spec priest. Because your spec is obviously the only spec for priests.

[AetherMcLoud]

Glyph of Dispel Magic -- Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 3% of maximum health.

WTF. As if 6% was imba...

[Viscis]

CoH was probably the only spell I used during guild BT runs because of its incredible power. Mana wasn't a problem as after the HP nerf fights went so quickly and every fight as a big AoE race.

6 seconds is a good balance of the possible nerfs was it ever mentioned that it could have a massive threat component? I know Blizzard are trying to abolish over emphasis on threat but lets say for example CoH generates threat at 4 times the rate. I know not everybody is 100% clued up about their class or raiding content but even casual players would learn that hitting CoH for the whole fight gets you a nice repair bill. Thoughts?

No more sleeping in raids hitting "E" for me (which lets face it isn't what healing is about... *cough*)

--Edit

Novice question but was mana burn a nerf or a buff?

[Danner]

Novice question but was mana burn a nerf or a buff?

Both, to be honest. The change was introduced to help retripaladins. They are very weak against manaburn, as their limited manapool is well, relatively easy to burn away. With this change, they are a lot more resistant to manaburn.

On the flipside of the coin, manaburn is now better against opponent with excessive manapools. But don't forget; manaburn is still resisted by resilience and shadow resistance. Spamming manaburn is not really a way to win in PVP anymore; the only really useful encounter is when hordies gang up on Tyrande

So, if you ask me, the only real reason this was introduced was to help retripaladins out against a spell which was weak against anything except them. And as such, it's a nerf.

[Nezoia]

Like ret paladins ever had a problem with us Mana Burning them after 3.0 -.-

*sigh* at clueless developers.