Post from the WoW forums

[gaymer77]

I posted this on the official WoW ptr forums and was hoping it would spark some feedback/support from fellow priests on here

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2227682754

There are so many nerfs & buffs coming to priests with 4.1 and some things need to be addressed.

First and foremost is the change to Chakra into a "stance" of sorts. Believe it or not this is not a QQ about that as I like the change. What needs to be addressed is the fact that Chakra (and Inner Focus) play that god aweful sound while its active. This has never made sense to me as other spells that have the same effect have no sound when activated. Nature's Swiftness (both from shaman and druids) only have a sound when activated that only lasts a faction of a second. Presence of Mind only plays a sound when activated that lasts only a fraction of a second. All of these spells have their special animations that go along with their respective spells while Chakra and Inner Focus have a constant humming spell while they are active. The sound played from Inner Focus has always been an annoyance to me since I first started playing my priest in vanilla. When holy became the only effective healing spec for priests in Cata (until disc got the much needed buff last patch) I made my priests healing offspec into holy instead of disc and had to deal with that same humming sound that Inner Focus had. As a player who actually enjoys the game with sound on (something that as game designers you should be able to appreciate utalizing your game fully the way it was made) you are forcing me and others to turn our sound off or put up with what is a huge headache. Basically what this all boils down to is saying that the sound attached with Chakra and Inner Focus needs to be removed or made similar to the other spells where it only plays a sound when activated not the entire time its active.

Balance druids can remove curses and poisons while in moonkin form. Shaman & pallies don't have forms to knock them out of when they remove curses. With the release of the 4.0 patch, priests get knocked out of shadow form when they remove diseases. In pve this is a mild annoyance and most priests don't even bother removing diseases (if any) in pve and just leave it up to the healers (or any pally since they also can remove diseases). In pvp removing diseases for a shadow priest means A LOT as we lose our 15% mitigation (the same 15% mitigation that druids have and keep when they remove curses and poisons) and have to spend a great amount of mana just to go back into our dps form. Shadow priests already have major mana issues in pvp and this unjustified tax just compounds those issues. The fix to this is to either make cure disease not knock shadow priests out of form (the best & smartest balance/fix) or to make all dispels knock the caster out of form (ie balance druids get kicked out of moonkin form when they remove poisons and curses which is a bad idea overall).

Finally we get to priests losing their ability to dispel friendly targets of magic effects. This PVP BASED CHANGE has major implications in pve. In situations where the healer is silenced, charmed, or sheeped the only person who can remove it off of them is another healer. In a 5 man setting that means nobody else is going to remove those magic effects off the healer which means the possibility of a wipe (or death of a dps or the tank) is much higher because of this unnecessary nerf. Yes I understand that a warlock with their imp out can remove magic effects but the majority of warlocks do not use their imp for dps. The nerf to priest defensive dispelling came about because of pvp reasons because shadow priests were a viable choice for arena because of that utility. Taking away that utility will mean that again priests will only have one viable spec for arena and that spec will be disc (a healer) instead of being able to go into arena as a healer or a damage dealer. You are essentially killing the viability of one spec in pvp. This change does not need to be implimented in the game.

Ok just because I may have the eyes of a Blizzard employee I'm going to suggest a change to the joke that is known as "priest crowd control". No this is not saying to buff our fears or give us something like hex/sheep (eventhough priests all across WoW would love you deeply if you were to finally give us some sort of spammable CC). What I'm suggesting is to make our Mind Control work just like engineering's mind control does & give us the target as a pet like it happens with engineering. Our only spammable CC takes the priest out of comission completely. In a pve setting its a powerful tool as we gain the majority of the mob's spells. In a pvp setting we can do nothing but auto attack (contray to Ghostcrawler's statement not too long ago that the priest gains all of the other player's spells which he later recanted) and move somebody....very weak.

[volescue]

the sound attached with Chakra and Inner Focus needs to be removed or made similar to the other spells where it only plays a sound when activated not the entire time its active.

If I recall correctly, the annoying humming noise only plays when you cast chakra, and don't use a heal, much like inner focus. As soon as you enter a stance it goes away.

[spiralout]

If I recall correctly, the annoying humming noise only plays when you cast chakra, and don't use a heal, much like inner focus. As soon as you enter a stance it goes away.

Exactly, and now with it lasting until canceled, means that we won't have to hear the most annoying sound in game for 1 minute at a time, but indefinitely. We use three holys in our 25 mans and it's almost unbearable as is.

[Kelesti]

Exactly, and now with it lasting until canceled, means that we won't have to hear the most annoying sound in game for 1 minute at a time, but indefinitely. We use three holys in our 25 mans and it's almost unbearable as is.

That is incorrect. Both spells stop making their noise the second you cast a spell it affects.

For example, you "pre-cast" Inner Focus, you'll hear the sound effect until you cast a spell that costs mana. The same thing with Chakra, the sound effect disappears the second you cast a spell it affects (Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal, Prayer of Mending, Prayer of Healing, Mind Spike, or Smite).

There is no lingering sound effect unless you're afk in town after pushing Chakra and nothing else.

---------- Post added 2011-03-10 at 06:53 PM ----------

The Dispel change does need to be implemented into the game. It really does, and I'm sorry gaymer that you can't see that.

The only point here that I can really throw my support behind is the Cure Disease be castable in Shadowform, nothing else.

[spiralout]

What did I say that was incorrect? Of course the Chakra/Inner Focus sound goes away when the priest enters whichever state, but when it was a 1 minute thing, you only had to hear a holy priest stand around with Chakra charged up for 1 minute at a time, until they noticed it wore off and used it again. Now, they can stand around with it on constantly. I've never noticed it's sound in combat, there's too much other stuff going on, it's when they are just standing around sounding like a summoning portal that bothers me.

[Kelesti]

You don't notice the sound in combat, because the sound doesn't exist.

The sound only exists when you are inbetween states, where you activate Chakra, but haven't actually triggered a state.

It going from 1 minute duration to unlimited effectively means this doesn't exist unless you're switching, instead of every minute or so.

But the uptime of the sound effect was only for a split second, or when they're sitting idling in Orgrimmar doing shit all, which already doesn't have a duration anyways.

[Azidonis]

Just find/develop an addon that cancels that sound.

[spiralout]

Ok, I think I got it, when a holy activates Chakra, its already stays activated indefinitely until whichever state is entered and that state now lasts until changed, instead of 1 minute?

edited to make more sense

[volescue]

Ok, I think I got it, when a holy activates Chakra, its already stays activated indefinitely until whichever state is entered and that state now lasts until changed, instead of 1 minute?

edited to make more sense

How it works currently -> You cast Chakra and hear the humming noise. As soon as you cast a heal that enters you into a Chakra state, the humming goes away. Could you cast Chakra and stand around not casting a heal for the noise to continue playing constantly? Sure, but you have to intentionally try to be annoying, it is not a part of the actual mechanic. Once you enter a chakra state, the noise goes away and the aura effect starts flashing under your character.

[Tumble]

Welcome tot he world of the rest of the healer hybrids. If any other class wants to be the best they can be in arena, they have to heal, boomkins, ferals, rets, and elemental shamans are the big ones that come to mind. And its not like you wont be viable, you still have alot of useful shit in pvp, fear, disarm, silence, disperse, and if you need to turtle quick fast you can pop out of form and thorw done some healing, oh and you can MC the other teams healer in conjuction with other cc's to get a kill. Your class isnt getting screwed, they are getting brought into line. Times are chainging my friend and every other caster hybrid has had to deal with it, its your turn now.

[Kaysha]

In situations where the healer is silenced, charmed, or sheeped the only person who can remove it off of them is another healer.

How is this much different from now? In my groups, I am the only healer, so whenever I am silenced, charmed or sheeped, exactly who is going to set me free? I don't usually group with a Shadow Priest, but you make it sound like if a group doesn't have a Shadow Priest, then having your healer CC'ed by the mobs means death of one or more people, or even a group wipe. That's hardly the case.

I won't comment on the Chakra noise, other than that I noticed it as well. Others already explained the mechanic better, though.

In general, though, I am getting sick and tired of seeing nerfs due to PvP issues, which then also have a consequence for PvE - while from a PvE point of view, the change is either senseless or unneeded. Yes, I don't PvP at all and avoid it like the plague, but I do get affected by the spillover from it.