Patch 5.3 PTR. Attonement Nerf

[Rivellana]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I really think Blizzard still fails to know what they're doing with discipline priests. They have yet to reach any sort of balance between our spells. They didn't want bubbles spammed so they nerfed them...then ended up having to buff disc priests a couple months into this expansion when we were so bad that no one wanted to play the spec. Then they ended up just making PoH to proc DA too powerful and nerfed that...now atonement has been too powerful so they nerf it. Is it really that hard to find a happy medium?

[Mazi]

To put it simply if they put the 20% nerf in they need to compensate us elsewhere. Its poor game design that we are spamming atonement but Blizzard never seems to be able to make up their mind with us.

Why do you need to be buffed elsewhere? Absorbs are already powerful enough.

[HPLathus]

20% nerf is not 20% overall nerf; it will average out to like a 5% nerf.

Disc isn't potent because of atonment it's potent because of SS DA and all other absorbs including barrier. Atonement is simply a tool that helps us in raw healing and utility, but if you think disc is defined by atonement you have a very skewed perception on the spec in raids.

[Callipygian]

Is anyone on the PTR to see if this actually happened? It's not in the official patch notes.

[Deleted]

i dont really get this rant :/
you can spam only atonement in lfr and be fine. but you can also afk in lfr and be fine if noone notices, how is lfr relevant?



recently, iron qon hc, gl completing it without any :/

in heroic modes, in 10man, discipline priests use a lot more then just atonement. and to be clear - atonement comes from 3 different spells, so actually its 3 kinds of heals. just named the same.

compare to monks - 40% of healing done by ranking monk is renewing mist - noone cries.
or to ranking paladins, 30% of healing is their mastery - noone has a problem with it.

why the whole drama has to be always about disc priests? :/
im not against a reasonable nerf, but i believe that 20% to whole mechanic is too much and i also believe that the whole war-against-atonement is very extravagated.

Monks hate Renewing Mists. It's a stupid mechanic.

Paladins are well aware of the power of their mastery, and are well aware it's getting nerfed.

[Deleted]

I'd take a 20% nerfed atonement over eminence any day of the week.

[Deleted]

I'd take a 20% nerfed atonement over eminence any day of the week.

Big comment. 100% agree. I truly do not think Priests realise just how awesome Atonement is.

[Deleted]

I'm not exactly sure this is enough. If they're going to normalize both fistweaving and atonement, atonement is going to need a pretty big nerf in damage, another .3 off it's healing modifier, the removal of archangel, a 20 yard range, and a huge hike in mana cost. I could only imagine

[Mazi]

Monks hate Renewing Mists. It's a stupid mechanic.

Really? Because RM is pretty powerful in a spread out environment, which is most fights this tier. I have never heard a Monk say they hate RM.

Paladins are well aware of the power of their mastery, and are well aware it's getting nerfed.

Really? Where did Bliz ever say anything about nerfing this?

[Irielle]

Honestly, I just wish Blizz could find a happy medium. Some things are really out of place...like POH being restricted to groups imo. Thats such an annoyance in 10m.

[Mazi]

Honestly, I just wish Blizz could find a happy medium. Some things are really out of place...like POH being restricted to groups imo. Thats such an annoyance in 10m.

They are aware of this outdated mechanic, but stated that it won't be changed this expansion. It will next.

[Iannis]

Well according to official non-mined ptr patch notes, nothing about the nerf is in them =)

[Irielle]

They are aware of this outdated mechanic, but stated that it won't be changed this expansion. It will next.

Seems a bit much to make it have to be the next EXPANSION. Its been outdated for a long, long time.

[Mazi]

Seems a bit much to make it have to be the next EXPANSION. Its been outdated for a long, long time.

When has blizzard ever done anything that makes sense? lol

[Deleted]

When has blizzard ever done anything that makes sense? lol

This change was a good start

[Yuma8244]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I really think Blizzard still fails to know what they're doing with discipline priests. They have yet to reach any sort of balance between our spells. They didn't want bubbles spammed so they nerfed them...then ended up having to buff disc priests a couple months into this expansion when we were so bad that no one wanted to play the spec. Then they ended up just making PoH to proc DA too powerful and nerfed that...now atonement has been too powerful so they nerf it. Is it really that hard to find a happy medium?

This is really my frustration with disc this expansion, and probably why I'm shelving my priest for the foreseeable future. Watching Blizz fumble in the dark every patch trying to balance disc has been very annoying, and I would rather be playing a class with some level of stability.

[Altariaz]

If anything you should be glad that the most brainless form of healing known as atonement got nerfed, this change was actually long overdue considering how much atonement heals for and how little mana it costs. Now you might actually have to use healing spells instead of dpsing for 70-80% of a fight!

I could not agree more. The atonement buff promoted a brainless playstyle, facerolling dmg on some boss with a smart heal hitting some raid member. It takes little timing or anticipation to atonement heal, just mashing some keys. Blizzard promoting atonement healing in 5.2 seems to me to signal that they simply don't know what they want disc priests to do in raids, or how to balance disc's dmg absorption ability with other healing classes. At least PoH+100% DA procs had some timing and skill involved, with hitting SS at the best moments, along with Archangel and PI, but as we know some of the spells worked too well. The answer I think was to nerf the absorptive ability of the spells, and increase PoH's mana cost. But Blizzard picked a bad option, which was to semi-redesign disc's healing methods and fit this around a smart heal, atonement. It's simply not good at all. (Remember CoH smart heal spam with no cd in TBC, and how amazingly boring that was?)

[h3lladvocate]

Don't like one of my few AoE on the move healing spells being nerfed 20% (Offensive Penance + Glyph). Also don't like the solo implications... Once again the wrong nerf for the true problem...

[Mazi]

Don't like one of my few AoE on the move healing spells being nerfed 20% (Offensive Penance + Glyph). Also don't like the solo implications... Once again the wrong nerf for the true problem...

What solo implication? There is absolutely no change to soloing. Also, PWS on the move?

[blargh312]

Don't like one of my few AoE on the move healing spells being nerfed 20% (Offensive Penance + Glyph). Also don't like the solo implications... Once again the wrong nerf for the true problem...

Penance was just buffed 20%, now Atonement gets nerfed 20% and offensive Penance healing is right where it was in 5.1.

I think this change is fine, Atonement is too strong right now considering it's a smart heal and it's incredibly mana efficient. Especially on fights with damage buffs.