Chakra Beta 12759 - Video included

[derevka]

I did a post with video included at my blog here: http://wp.me/pMOBq-g8

I really am a fan of the new Chakra, it is something that I think really makes Holy's Tree worthwhile and 'signature'. There are a few tweaks I'd like to see... (and its a bit buggy... you can keep more than one Chakra State up by Extending it over and over until the CD for Chakra is up again). THAT i am sure will change.

[Kelesti]

Yay awesome. I'm a little sad that you can't just flow from one to the other, but overall I do very much like the new implementation. Is it on the Global Cooldown, though?

[derevka]

Yay awesome. I'm a little sad that you can't just flow from one to the other, but overall I do very much like the new implementation. Is it on the Global Cooldown, though?

It's off GCD. In the video you can see it doesn't trigger GCD.

[Lord Lichfury]

Chakra looks rather pretty indeed

[Kelesti]

It's off GCD. In the video you can see it doesn't trigger GCD.

Ah, yes. Well, this weekend is a weekend I am posting from an iTouch, so I can't really see that :P 20/10 vision is only as good as the resolution on this tiny screen :P

[derevka]

Ah, yes. Well, this weekend is a weekend I am posting from an iTouch, so I can't really see that :P 20/10 vision is only as good as the resolution on this tiny screen :P

No sarcasm intended on my part. Just was saying the video showed it so people knew where to see it w/o gcd. :-)

[nevermore]

I'm a happy Holy Priest right now.

[Deleted]

This new Chackra makes up for the past 5 years with lightwell. God I can't believe I just said that...

[Fenixdown]

More and more discipline is looking like it's going to be washed away in Cataclysm and healing priests will be back to "holy or gtfo".

I do like this new Chakra. Still, though...sigh. I'm still waiting on my discipline love.

*knits more sweaters waiting*

[Pantelija]

More and more discipline is looking like it's going to be washed away in Cataclysm and healing priests will be back to "holy or gtfo".

I do like this new Chakra. Still, though...sigh. I'm still waiting on my discipline love.

*knits more sweaters waiting*

Disc is still strong (stronger than holy in PvP atm in beta) i dont know what "love" are u waiting ?

[fabian]

More and more discipline is looking like it's going to be washed away in Cataclysm and healing priests will be back to "holy or gtfo".

I do like this new Chakra. Still, though...sigh. I'm still waiting on my discipline love.

*knits more sweaters waiting*

Disc and Holy are aimed to be as strong as each other, but considering it is Beta and numbers are not final, I'd say wait. But remember, PW:B has awesome visuals, and Penance is just awesome.

[Repo123]

Disc is still strong (stronger than holy in PvP atm in beta) i dont know what "love" are u waiting ?

I've seen changes in how the disc's shields have been reduced (bause they want you to cast more heals, but I have yet to see compensation on the heal side of things to balance things out.

PW:B is pretty weak, based on the numbers I've seen. Unless the damage absorbed by barrier is significantly increased, it will have very little use.

I would prefer functionality over awesome visuals any day )

[nevermore]

I just hope Holy works out well enough so I can ditch Disc as my secondary specc.

[Jigawatts]

Chakra looks so much better than before, priest are finally getting a lot of love. Let's hope we still get sanctuary some how

[Xelaeno]

Chakra animation looks very nice. It's great that you can still maintain your current chakra state when you cast other spells, although that portion might be either left alone or nerfed in the future.

[exquisite]

Now if they would just lift the Lightwell requirement, I'd be a happy Holy camper.

[Neichus]

More and more discipline is looking like it's going to be washed away in Cataclysm and healing priests will be back to "holy or gtfo".

I do like this new Chakra. Still, though...sigh. I'm still waiting on my discipline love.

*knits more sweaters waiting*

Discipline was one of the best healer specs in WotLK from a design perspective. People just really liked playing it and it fulfills a niche that no other healer can replicate. Once Disc overcame its PvP stigma at the start of the expansion it flourished. I know it's kinda boring to not see as many changes in your preferred tree, but I think it's a case where Disc just has to "tread water" as it were to remain appealing while Holy needs to get that extra kick that makes it more attractive again.

Edit: to be clear I'm not saying that Discipline is in perfect shape as it stands. Just that I think most of Discipline's work will be centered on refining the talent tree rather than coming up with new ideas (such as Chakra).

[Cloud92684]

I have to say I'm really elated with the change. The old chakra seemed usable but getting to the chakra state seemed tricky, especially PoH. This solves that problem and even makes the skill better. I'm quite happy with desperate prayer being removed as our spec spell and am very curious to the replacement. Sanctuary is obviously too good to be true in the current incarnation. I still wish they would do something with serendipity as I don't see it being very attractive for cataclysm except maybe in pvp. The removal of the upper bloat of our tree is nice as so many 3pt talents were frustrating.

More so I'm happy Blizzard is still focusing their design attention on priests. I thought after the changes, priest changes would be on the back burner for a while but they are definitely listening to our suggestions and making me excited for cataclysm. Now if only they would put me in the beta >.>

[Fenixdown]

The problem as it stands now and as it is still standing in the beta with discipline over holy is that, while holy is getting fun talents to both make healing more interesting and more effective, discipline is getting neither. True, as a unique healing role, discipline is that. However, as a healing role in the sense of healing, it is not. We gain no benefit whatsoever to AoE healing and little benefit to single target. Live, we stand as follows.

All spells : 9% (Grace, requires Penance to activate or three consecutive direct healing spells) + 4% (Focused Power)
Renew : 15% (Improved Renew) + 5% (Twin Disciplines)
Penance : 5% (Twin Disciplines)
Inner Fire : 45% increase to spellpower bonus (Improved Inner Fire)

We also gain some added haste. Given that my haste total right now is considered too high at 506, Borrowed Time almost seems useless given all other circumstances.

Holy gets the following live, however.

All spells : 10% (Spiritual Healing) + 3% (Blessed Resilience)
Renew : 15% (Improved Renew) + 5% (Twin Disciplines) + 15% (Empowered Renew, also adds additional healing effect)
Greater Heal : 40% (Empowered healing)
Flash Heal : 20% (Empowered Healing)
Binding Heal : 20% (Empowered Healing) + 10% (Divine Providence)
Circle of Healing, Prayer of Healing, Prayer of Mending, Divine Hymn : 10% (Divine Providence)
Inner Fire : 45% (Improoved Inner Fire)
Spirit : 25% converted to bonus healing (Spiritual Guidance)

Also added to this the haste benefit from Serendipity (which at 632 haste reduces the cast time of my Greater Heal to 1.32 seconds).

Now, looking at the current changes, discipline actually loses (yes, loses) healing capacity.

-Improved Renew : -5%
-Twin Disciplines : -4%
-Grace : -1%
-Focused Power (removed) : -4%
-Improved Inner Fire (removed) : -45% spellpower bonus

We gain only Empowered Healing currently, +15% to Greater Heal, Heal, Flash Heal, and Binding Heal.

So, our single target healing is boosted only by 10%, and our best healing spell is actually nerfed by 4%. We still gain no AoE utility.

Holy, on the other hand, gains Chakra and possibly Sanctuary at the expense of Spiritual Guidance, 25% and 5% on Empowered Healing, 20% on Renew, 13% on Spiritual Healing, and your 5% spirit bonus from SoR. Once Chakra is factored in, you only lose 14% on Renew and even less on your AoE healing.

Kel, myself, and others on these forums have to deal with daily people who misinterpret discipline as "lolbubblespamlol", and the biggest reason that most people have this misconception is because our bonus to actual healing is so small that shielding seems like the only logical thing to do in many circumstances. Even our mastery bonus deals with shielding, while holy's deals with healing. Mastery in terms of a PvE statistic for discipline looks like it will fall the way of haste and spirit currently, the stat you use just to fill space when you don't need anything else.

There are only three things I would like to see changed to give discipline the oomph it needs as a healing spec.

1. Add Penance (healing) to Empowered Healing.
2. Change Grace to the following.
-Your Weakened Soul effect has a 50/100% chance to add Grace to the target. Grace increases all healing received by the priest by 5% (a 1% nerf, but far easier to apply and ties in to the spec better)

3. Chakra for discipline, in a different form. Here's my idea.

-Remove Borrowed Time. Replace with the following.

Follow Through passive 10 second cooldown

After casting Power Word : Shield, you have a 33/66/100% chance to gain Follow Through. Follow Through's effect varies based on the next spell you cast.

Renew : Increases the haste and healing of your Renew by 5%

Prayer of Mending : Your Prayer of Mending has a 15% chance when a charge is used of gaining one additional charge.

Penance : Your next direct healing spell cast has it's healing and haste increased by 10%.

Prayer of Healing : The cooldown of your Power Word : Barrier is reduced by 10 seconds.

This ability would make perfect sense and have complete synergy with discipline, as well as make it more fun to use different spells in conjunction with Power Word : Shield. In the grand scheme of cooldowns, it would have less power overall than Chakra (which with State of Mind can remain for it's full duration) since it will both require the use of a global cooldown and have a maximum of 6 charges every minute. This would also allow discipline to use mastery a bit more (since shield will tie in to the rest of our abilities, so why not make shields better to boot?).

Three changes that I think fit perfectly with discipline, make it less of the presumed "bubblespam" spec that it's thought to be today, and add more healing utility to a tree that is sorely lacking it. Which is all I'm hoping for, asking for, and wanting to see delivered.

However, given that Aspiration still ties in to Inner Focus (which is not in discipline at present) and not Power Word : Barrier, I see the tree is still a work in progress. So, as stated before, I'm simply sitting and waiting and keeping my fingers crossed. Unlike everyone else, I'm not ready to jump off a bridge and QQ just yet.

[Pozz]

There are only three things I would like to see changed to give discipline the oomph it needs as a healing spec.

1. Add Penance (healing) to Empowered Healing.
2. Change Grace to the following.
-Your Weakened Soul effect has a 50/100% chance to add Grace to the target. Grace increases all healing received by the priest by 5% (a 1% nerf, but far easier to apply and ties in to the spec better)

3. Chakra for discipline, in a different form. Here's my idea.

-Remove Borrowed Time. Replace with the following.

Follow Through passive 10 second cooldown

After casting Power Word : Shield, you have a 33/66/100% chance to gain Follow Through. Follow Through's effect varies based on the next spell you cast.

Renew : Increases the haste and healing of your Renew by 5%

Prayer of Mending : Your Prayer of Mending has a 15% chance when a charge is used of gaining one additional charge.

Penance : Your next direct healing spell cast has it's healing and haste increased by 10%.

Prayer of Healing : The cooldown of your Power Word : Barrier is reduced by 10 seconds.

This ability would make perfect sense and have complete synergy with discipline, as well as make it more fun to use different spells in conjunction with Power Word : Shield. In the grand scheme of cooldowns, it would have less power overall than Chakra (which with State of Mind can remain for it's full duration) since it will both require the use of a global cooldown and have a maximum of 6 charges every minute. This would also allow discipline to use mastery a bit more (since shield will tie in to the rest of our abilities, so why not make shields better to boot?).

Three changes that I think fit perfectly with discipline, make it less of the presumed "bubblespam" spec that it's thought to be today, and add more healing utility to a tree that is sorely lacking it. Which is all I'm hoping for, asking for, and wanting to see delivered.

However, given that Aspiration still ties in to Inner Focus (which is not in discipline at present) and not Power Word : Barrier, I see the tree is still a work in progress. So, as stated before, I'm simply sitting and waiting and keeping my fingers crossed. Unlike everyone else, I'm not ready to jump off a bridge and QQ just yet.

While I do agree with disc needing something for it to keep up, and something new to keep interest, but making a copy would seem a bit cheap, though it may prove as a fix.

It would however be nice to get some increase in healing capabilities, to make people focus on actually healing as well, because I do as well see a lot of "lolbubblespam" people.