The SMIEST

[Mem]

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The intention of this thread is to continue discussion and theory originated here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ng-trees/page2
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THE SMIEST AND YOU

With the onset of Cataclysm, a new breed of DPS may arise: the Smiest. That's right, the Smite-Priest might be a viable option for Priests once again.

Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to the Smiest. Consider the Smiest a holy-based Mage with about the same utility but with a little less DPS and a lot more efficiency. Only time will tell whether or not the Smiest will be a more prominent DPS option for Priests in Cataclysm, but for now this thread will only discuss the ramifications of the tremendous leveling capabilities of the build.

The Glyphs
Major

• Glyph of Smite
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield
• Glyph of Holy Nova

Minor

• Glyph of Fading
• Glyph of Shadowfiend
• Glyph of Fortitude

The Talent Build By Level
Talent Points and Specialization

• Level 80: (36/32/03)
• Level 81: (37/32/03)
• Level 82: (38/32/03)
• Level 83: (39/32/03)
• Level 84: (40/32/03)
• Level 85: (44/32/00)

LEVEL 80 (36/32/03)
Tier 1: (D) Unbreakable Will 1/5, (D) Twin Disciplines 5/5, (H) Holy Focus 2/2, (H) Searing Light 3/3, (H) Divine Fury 5/5, (S) Spirit Tap 3/3.
Tier 2: (D) Penitence 3/3, (D) Improved Inner Fire 3/3, (H) Divine Accuracy 2/2, (H) Spell Warding 3/5.
Tier 3: (D) Inner Focus 1/1, (D) Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3, (H) Improved Renew 3/3, (H) Inspiration 3/3.
Tier 4: (D) Evangelism 2/2, (D) Mental Agility 3/3, (H) Blessed Recovery 3/3.
Tier 5: (D) Archangel 1/1, (D) Enlightenment 3/3, (D) Power Word: Barrier 1/1, (H) Holy Reach 2/2, (H) Spirit of Redemption 1/1.
Tier 6: (D) Reflective Shield 2/2, (D) Soul Warding 3/3, (H) Surge of Light 2/2.
Tier 7: (D) Divine Aegis 3/3, (D) Power Infusion 1/1, (H) Improved Holy Nova 2/2.
Tier 8: (D) Aspiration 1/2.

LEVEL 81 (37/32/03)
Tier 8: (D) Aspiration 2/2.

LEVEL 82 (38/32/03)
Tier 1: (D) Unbreakable Will 2/5 or whatever suits you.

LEVEL 83 (39/32/03)
Tier 1: (D) Unbreakable Will 3/5 or whatever suits you.

LEVEL 84 (40/32/03)
Tier 1: (D) Unbreakable Will 4/5 or whatever suits you.

LEVEL 85 (44/32/00)
Tier 1: (D) Unbreakable Will 5/5, (S) Spirit Tap -3/3.
Tier 2: (D) Martyrdom 2/2.
Tier 9: (D) Pain Suppression 1/1.

Leveling and Spell Usage

For the most part, a Smiest will either pull a large group of mobs, or will be killing them individually while leveling to 85. Regardless of mob composition, a good Smiest will always have Fear Ward, Power Word: Fortitude, Inner Fire, Shadow Protection, a food buff, a flask buff, and any quest or appropriate zone or group buffs that are available at all times without exception.

A good Smiest also never forgets that they can cast Dispel Magic and Cure Disease to remove unwanted debuffs.

Large Mob Pulls

A Smiest might want to level or do a quest easier by mounting, rounding up a group of the same mob, and then burn them down. This is a practical option for green or yellow mobs, but not advised with higher level mobs. To start the pull the Smiest should put up an active set of defensive buffs known as the "Triage", these spells are: Renew, Prayer of Mending, and Power Word: Shield. The Smiest then mounts and paths around to gather up the desired amount of mobs (usually 4-8), then dismounts, remains in one place and casts Holy Nova repeatedly until the mobs are dead. Depending on the health of the mobs, the Smiest might need to reapply the Triage. Note that pulling large groups of mobs is extremely mana-intensive, can get you killed easier, and requires more down-time between pulls and might slow your questing down depending on the situation.

Individual Pulls

What makes the Smiest so attractive is its superior efficiency when it comes to killing individual mobs. A Smiest starts out by casting his Triage, then chooses a target, casts Power Infusion, Inner Focus, Holy Fire, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite...until the mob is dead. The Smiest will have less down time, be granted active buffs while in combat and between pulls that will increase haste, spell power, critical strike chance, damage absorption amount, and mana regeneration.

At level 85, your Smiest will be almost unstoppable every 3 minutes with 45% damage absorption reflection, -40% damage taken, +65% dispel resistance, -30% chance to be stunned, feared or silenced, -20% interrupt duration, -8% spell damage taken, a critical hit taken will grant a heal for 6 seconds, a spell critical on an enemy will grant a chance to cast a free non-critable Smite or Holy Nova, a critical heal on the Smiest will also grant an additional -10% physical damage buff as well as a divine aegis bubble to absorb more damage.

Reference
Cataclysm Priest Thread

---------- Post added 2010-07-02 at 04:25 AM ----------

* Reserved for Future Use *

---------- Post added 2010-07-02 at 04:26 AM ----------

* Reserved for Future Use *

[D34ThWi5h]

You know that Disc is already a DPSing healing priest spec and you dont need to make some random hybrid that would prolly be worse then a normal disc priest.

[Rivene]

Yeah... not sure what the OP is thinking.

Love playing disc right now as is (minus mobility issues; and my main source of 'healing' is dispellable)

My favorite new ability is probably PW: Barrier. Thank god we have something to stop tunnelers.


Edit: Smiest will never stick. Disc > Smiest. Didn't I see somewhere we would be able to cast penance on the run?

Double Edit: And they have a word already for Triage. It's called VE.

[Vellaunus]

I am a little curious on how much better smite will be come the expansion.

DT2: Penitence: +15% Crit Chance
DT3: Atonement: You get healed for 45% of your Smite Damage (as long as you are close)
DT4: Evangelism: +20% Damage, -24% Mana at 5 stacks (Stacking 4% Damage/6% Mana cost reduction)
HT1: Searing Light: +12% Damage
HT1: Divine Fury: -0.5 Sec Cast Time
HT2: Divine Accuracy: +10% Hit Chance
HT6: Surge of Light: 50% chance that smite Crits give you a free instant Smite.
HT8: Chakra: +15% Damage

That adds up to Smite having +47% Damage, -24% Mana, -0.5 Cast Time, +10% Hit Chance, 50% chance on crit for a free instant Smite, and Heals you for 45% of the damage it inflicts
All this not to mention full access to your heals unlike shadow.

A big disadvantage I can see however is that to take a full smite build you essentially need to be holy. You could also give up Chakra and Surge of Light to go Disc/Smite. Either way, your mastery points will not increase your DPS unlike all other DPS spellcasters and mana will likely be a big problem unless you take gear with spirit on it (which takes away itemization that could have went to DPS) or delve into shadow (Spirit Tap or even Veiled Shadows). Because of these problems, I believe it is still best to go shadow for leveling. The smite improvements can be great for PvP and adding a little DPS to your heals for content you are over geared for though (Heck, I bet once your outgear content you may even be able to heal the tank just by smiting).

Regardless, I hope I can get into the beta to test out some new specs with some smite mixed in. Maybe even a shadow priest that smites! (Likely to suck, but I still want to play with it.)

Shadow and Smite: Basically a shadow spec that does not use mind flay or shadow form. Keep SWP and DP up, Cast Mind Blast when off cooldown, smite at all other times
http://www.wowtal.com/#k=d0e6-lK8NPgNu.9i7.priest

[Martsus]

For levelling I'm considering a Deep Disc/early holy/shadow tap build again, should work great.

[Varaben]

As mentioned and underlined in the OP he is just posting this to show how well this build will level. And I agree for leveling it will probably be crazy good. Of course it wont be as competitive as shadow for dps. I think people are taking it way too literally. Mastery will be the main reason this spec does not do as well.

BUT the main intent of this thread currently is leveling with this spec.

[fabian]

Unless there is a talent that increases the crit damage of holy spells by 100%, smite dps will not be viable compared to shadow, not to mention it will not get any damage increasing mastery stats. Smite dps is dead.

[cruxxy]

Of course there are changes to come, but the OP's concept will only be a 5man novelty. There is no way a build without full mastery in either tree will ever be raid-viable. Even though you lose the "running Penance", I still think a full Holy build with PWB + Archangel is the strongest so far for both healing and DPS.

[Xelaeno]

Am I the only one who facepalmed at the name? lol Smite Priest is pretty short to type, Smiest's very awkward.

[Cjeska]

What is it Doctor? A boy, a girl?
No sir, it is............. a SMIEST! /puts sunglasses on

[Cataclysmpriest]

Smiting is going to be all over the place... If you want to see a recent video search youtube for "Chakra Renew" and you will see archangel boost healing with a holy spec renew/chakra spam quite nicely.

Not to mention it is FUN which is what i think are shooting for!

[Mem]

What is it Doctor? A boy, a girl?
No sir, it is............. a SMIEST! /puts sunglasses on

I actually lol'd at this one. But most of you have the concept right: the intention was to show just how much better this spec will be for leveling during Cataclysm.

[Direshadow]

You will never see a disc specc'd priest DPSing in an end game raid.

Ever.

[Zoros]

So if I want to improve my DPS I have to renounce to my shadow spells, OUCH.

Somebody can tell a reason for holy priest with no shadow dual spec to train Mind Spike in Cataclysm?

[Kelesti]

A reason, Zoros, is Mind Spike scales with itself. It already is the "burst down" spell on targets soon to die (especially ones you can't AoE), and it is not a Shadow talent that makes it so; this is an innate feature of the spell itself.

If you're in a burn phase of a fight, and need to drop boss (or adds) X% within 15 seconds, you would unload with Mind Spike, no matter what spec you are.

[Zoros]

A reason, Zoros, is Mind Spike scales with itself. It already is the "burst down" spell on targets soon to die (especially ones you can't AoE), and it is not a Shadow talent that makes it so; this is an innate feature of the spell itself.

If you're in a burn phase of a fight, and need to drop boss (or adds) X% within 15 seconds, you would unload with Mind Spike, no matter what spec you are.

Its niche seems really restricted from my pov. First we must spam 3 times smite to get Chakra (horrible talent :S), and then we could spam Mind Spike. However Mind Spike doesn't proc Evangelism or Attonement. So its niche would something like:

-Burn phase after casting 3 smites (Chakra), without risk of going oom (Evangelism), and nobody taking damage (Attonement), a for a short period of time before we must cast again 3 smite in a row (Chakra).

Sorry, I know that I exagerated a bit and probably Mind Spike niche will be wider. But seriously, with all that talents improving smite spam, Mind Blast and Mind Spike niches seem too situational.

[cruxxy]

Mind Spike is a niche spell, even for shadow. Blizz described it that way from the start. They didn't intend it to be part of the standard shadow single target rotation. It's a burst spell. I think you're expecting too much from it.

[Kelesti]

Mind Spike is a niche spell, even for shadow. Blizz described it that way from the start. They didn't intend it to be part of the standard shadow single target rotation. It's a burst spell. I think you're expecting too much from it.

This is true. What happens Pain, Plague, Death, and Blast in the "smite" rotation will remain to be seen, but we'll figure it out.

[Zoros]

I don't care too much if I lose my Mind Blast button. My action bars and keybinds are full and Mind Blast doesn't feel different from other offensive spells. However:

-I would like to still cast Shadow Word: Death as a finisher or to keep mending jumping.
-I'm afraid that Mind Sear niche will be reduced too much with all this new stacking talents for Holy Nova. I love both spells, and I don't want to lose one of them.
-Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague danger is low. But I still don't like the idea that it's requiered to spam 3 times Smite to get Chakra, and to cast offensive shadow spells don't restore mana and don't heal through Attonement.
-I want to use Mind Spike spell because is new and its mechanic seems fun.

As I have already said, it's just a bad omen. But the possibility to lose our shadow offensive spells to improve our DPS exist.

[Kelesti]

Mind Sear you can do from Ranged. If you're in the middle of a bunch of mobs when they drop, sure it's good to Holy Nova them. Time spent running (even dashing) up to them to start Holy Nova is time lost when you could be using Mind Sear. Mind Sear also would seem to be better for things that will live longer, as its channeling pulse is likely to outweigh Nova's surges (simply because if a target dies, Nova doesn't really lose much. Sear has to be balanced higher DPS because of this).

Nothing's stated for Shadow Word: Death. I don't think that it'll change too much from your role as a finisher (or Mending jump).

If you're worried about possible mana drain, or lack of healing through attonement then one issue comes up immediately: You shouldn't be DPS'ing. If things are risky, and someone might die because Attonement doesn't cut it (or a lost GCD because of a DoT) then you should be healing, period.

If you're worried about not having mana from Archangel because of DoTs, then you shouldn't be wasting it from Smite spam anyways. Smite + Mana Restore is still spending more mana than you're gaining, no matter how you slice it.

And Mind Spike's niche will be there. I'd really love it to tie into Death (not just Blast), for its Freeze component. But hey, that's just me. :P