WoD lvl 100 Priest Talents

[stenbumling89]

the 5 orb change is much more interesting and will have a bigger impact on gameplay than those bland talents

I can't grasp why blizzard tries so hard to tie everything to shadowy apperitions? They are barely noticable at all and not a cool mechanic

[Mandible]

Would say the shadow seems decent, and interesting - but the healing ones need to be changed. Removing greater heal for another shield seem rather stupid considering why they nerfed our shielding abilities before, and changed mastery and the others are abilities I would never ever choose due to the negative effect - I´m allready not using void shift due to not knowing if it will be wasted of not (others healing over, and lfr ftl).

[Blachshma]

Because (I know this will sound unbelieveable, but bear with me) some people actually gave them good feedback about it. I can't remember the exact timing, but they did ask for feedback from every class on forums. And it wasn't all bad; some people including the priests in top guilds (I think I remember one of the priests from Ensidia especially liking it, but I might be wrong on the guild name) thought it was working fine. Not all of course... And things change, especially with damage patterns...

The only people who might "like" Chakra are the ones that never switch and are fine with using just half of their toolkit, making gameplay extremely boring as well as serving only one purpose - AoE healers, and I'm talking about some 25m priests. I can't imagine any 10m priest liking Chakra, because these guys cannot afford ignoring the tank and cannot afford ignoring spot healing. What some do is staying in Serenity and using a Renew-build, again ignoring half their toolkit, as well as being forced to take Cascade for Renew refreshing instead of DS/Halo which prove to be superior in many cases.

I'm sure many 25m priests are tired of being at the filler healer spot, never helping with tank healing unless with GS/VS, never ever touching GH, FH or Renew, having that useless shiny floor heal called Sanctuary that sucks even with the 4-set bonus. The spec is just a mess atm...

- - - Updated - - -

"Relax, this is only a placeholer", "This is just Beta", "This... is.. just... PT.... oh damn, its live"

THIS scenario I know too well. If anything, I know you are never too early to point out mistakes or fight for changes you believe in or really need to be able to play your class and specc.

I just wish I could participate in the US forums since EU is pretty much dead when it comes to healing discussions.

Drena, if I were you I'd prepare for another disc oriented expansion. Absorbs will stay the same, Chakra wills tay the same. Holy brings nothing but overhealing and a crippled toolkit, disc brings utility, absorbs, and bigger HPS.

[Deleted]

What? Warlocks know nothing of Darkness - spare perhaps a brief introduction at a party once. Warlocks draw their power from demonic magic and chaos - they are sorcerers and necromancers - but darkness? Darkness is the antithesis of Light - as in Shadow Priests - it is power drawn from the Void: name me one warlock spell which uses void in either the name or description (hint: none). If Light is symbolic of willpower, Shadow is the sapping of that will - it is a power of the mind over the mind, not silly fireballs and demons from theTwisting Nether - our power, true power, is drawn from The Great Dark Beyond!

This was so beautifully described, I didn't think it was possible to fall in love with my Shadow Priest even more :') I hope the devs to hire you to write out our lore :P

[deviantcultist]

If warlocks got power of the void, I'd quit - that's absurd - they know nothing of the void. They are but mewling babes, oblivious to the sea of shadows in which our worlds swim.

You've got that the other way around and you totally ignore all of my points. First of all, I'm not biased towards any class. Secondly, Warlocks are the ones who should quit if Shadow Priests were to get those things, since Shadowpriests did not even "exist" as of Vanilla. Anyone who would be interested in Dark Magic was to pick Warlock, not Priest. Have you even considered looking at any WoW card? Nope. You conveniently skipped that point, of course.

Regarding Entropy, I think you really try to squeeze the whole thing. Entropy is about thermodynamics and is primarily related to either alterations such as the Big Bang Theory or the social evolution leading to uniformity. In other words, it is a product of chaos. Why don't you just admit that developers want to give the "Void direction" to Priests and have Warlocks stay focused on other things like "Fel"?

"Downgrading" means that Warlocks in this case will feel worse as a class compared to Shadow Priests. That is partially subjective and totally related to roleplaying. My whole set of arguments stems from comparing and playing with both of those classes ever since TBC. My assumptions were, are and probably will be that Warlocks were intended to be Dark Casters and Shadow Priests are the guinea pigs that turn out to form an identity of their own that is partially snatched from Warlocks. Hell, even the fact that Shadowform was intended to be a Warlock skill has been listed in past-vanilla trivia.

Therefore, Priest is a spiritual individual, while Warlocks are about Chaotic magics. Why would the latter be ignorant to the Void aka space or dark beyond and the first be a naturally fit? Because that is what developers want to do with the whole thing, not prime lore fact at all. Next thing is, let's give Priest a "Black Hole" spell or a spell that obliterates towns using the power of darkness. Yea right and let's have the mind-theme as well so that there is no aspect of "Darkness" left to Warlocks. Ah and don't forget a fourth priest spec called "Affliction" as in "Depression", given that Priests can manipulate emotions! Yay!

My conclusion as of my current observations is that the whole Fel-obsession by the majority of the fans (not me) tends to ruin the dark aspect of Warlocks and I will most likely stick solely to my Priest from now on. What I find ridiculous to accept though, is that Priests were intended to be that way from the very beginning. If you really want to tackle this proposition, you better not be biased and have some decent Warlock-lore knowledge. Like I do on both these classes and lack bias on top of it.

[Drye]

The concept for these shouldn't change but they don't work the same way anymore. (They're like 5 patches ahead of what was tested)

[tachycardias]

With a 50% instant heal or a Void Shift without a CD I don't see how a tank could ever die with extreme spikes in damage. Obviously these will be changed but if they can manage to balance them they would be interesting.

[Deleted]

since Shadowpriests did not even "exist" as of Vanilla. Anyone who would be interested in Dark Magic was to pick Warlock, not Priest

Please elaborate.
I rolled a Shadow Priest at the Launch of Vanilla and never played her as a healer ever. We had Shadow Form and we had our iconic spells like Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Vampiric Embrace etc.

http://i.imgur.com/CYJCJWN.png

Yes, it was merely a talent tree, but the flavour was definitely there - and even back then there were a lot of people who roleplayed their priests as dark casters.

[deviantcultist]

Please elaborate.
I rolled a Shadow Priest at the Launch of Vanilla and never played her as a healer ever. We had Shadow Form and we had our iconic spells like Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Vampiric Embrace etc.

http://i.imgur.com/CYJCJWN.png

Yes, it was merely a talent tree, but the flavour was definitely there - and even back then there were a lot of people who roleplayed their priests as dark casters.

1) Priest has not been a viable DPS until Wotlk
2) All spells had to do with mind and shadows under the context of spiritual magic
3) Had no lore through trainers to back up any hypothesis related to the spec, apart from the Forsaken
4) Warlocks had tons of references about the Void and being true masters of the arcane and darkness.

There is the past-vanilla Shadowform Warlock statement for you to check out as well.

[nobodysbaby]

What an odd discussion. Druids and Samans both use nature, both Priests and Paladins use Holy magic. There are a ton of similar comparisons so why so ego about something like this?

[deviantcultist]

What an odd discussion. Druids and Samans both use nature, both Priests and Paladins use Holy magic. There are a ton of similar comparisons so why so ego about something like this?

Let's see how Shamans would react if Druids get lightning spells under the excuse of being nature spells.

[Volitar]

Let's see how Shamans would react if Druids get lightning spells under the excuse of being nature spells.

You mean Hurricane?

All those years when Shaman didn't even have an AOE and we would just look over to Druid and think "THAT SHOULD BE MINE"

[Cerbz]

I wish they'd just get rid of Shadow Orbs.

[Noradin]

When you get things like double beacon, 5 second clear-casting, etc. I just feel like this is mage 90's 2.0. I know right now, I almost don't want to spec a lvl 100 talent, because each has some disadvantage. Most the others (a few do like the swiftmend one) have 0 loss, just straight buff.

Chain Heal affect Riptide People, Double Beacon, Archangel 2.0, all buffs with no drawback. While I give up Greater Heal, Void Shift Heal/Freedom, or 10% healing a stack thingy.

MY thougths exactly.

[Yvaelle]

You've got that the other way around and you totally ignore all of my points. First of all, I'm not biased towards any class. Secondly, Warlocks are the ones who should quit if Shadow Priests were to get those things, since Shadowpriests did not even "exist" as of Vanilla. Anyone who would be interested in Dark Magic was to pick Warlock, not Priest. Have you even considered looking at any WoW card? Nope. You conveniently skipped that point, of course.

You're confused, and clearly didn't play in Vanilla. So actually - Shadow was one of the higher single target specs in Vanilla - the issue was that we were so gear dependent that nobody was willing to carry a spriest to full BiS in Naxx to see them leap up the meter (we were pretty terrible damage at lower gear levels). Shadow was also a very very potent PvP spec in Vanilla, one of the best PvP specs in the game if played right. I don't think the argument that because Shadow wasn't perceived as being competitive for MC and BWL, that it wasn't a spec - it certainly was and people played it. Link me to whatever WoW card you think proves conclusively that Warlocks hold a patent on "dark" magic, that Shadow is somehow infringing upon. Lots of the older WoW cards aren't even canon anymore, but I don't think even they suggested that warlocks have some sort of monopoly on all things 'dark'.

Regarding Entropy, I think you really try to squeeze the whole thing. Entropy is about thermodynamics and is primarily related to either alterations such as the Big Bang Theory or the social evolution leading to uniformity.

Entropy insofar as it refers to thermodynamics, is only measurable when particles decay - whether its fruit, or atoms, or quarks, or quanta. Within a true physical void, there exists Nothing, this is why when people ask what was before the universe - it cannot be answered to their satisfaction usually. Before the universe, there was a void, absent of all things, in which Nothing was - not even Entropy - not even Time. Entropy is just our description for the result of the second law of thermodynamics that you brought up - it is a metric of time, like seconds or minutes. I don't know what kind of social entropy you're talking about - but it sounds like some misappropriation of terms by humanities majors.

In other words, it is a product of chaos. Why don't you just admit that developers want to give the "Void direction" to Priests and have Warlocks stay focused on other things like "Fel"?

They don't "want to", they always have - you originally said that warlocks were giving void to us (you meant devs I suspect) - void is shadow, fel is warlocks - I said that, I am more than happy to admit that

"Downgrading" means that Warlocks in this case will feel worse as a class compared to Shadow Priests. That is partially subjective and totally related to roleplaying. My whole set of arguments stems from comparing and playing with both of those classes ever since TBC.

I'm confused why you think that Warlocks have some claim to knowledge of darkness and the void, which could be possibly superior to a living shadow. Put what you are saying in context here, warlocks are mortal beings - they have flesh and blood, they decay with age - they are from a material plane. Warlocks command demons, who also have flesh and blood, who also grow and decay with age - they may come from the Abyssal Plane - but it too is a material plane.

I am a living, conscious, absence of light. I have no flesh, no blood. I do not grow. I do not decay. The parameters of my form are defined by where light is not. I am not a material being - I am darkness itself - made manifest - imbued with a conscious will - the last vestige of a priest's pure soul lost to the pursuit of power over the Light. No part of that priest remains, no phylactery or horcrux, this is not a parlour trick.

Just as I am shaped by the non-existence of light, my very soul - the words I speak - are a mock fascimile of a once conscious mind. Perhaps this voice, these words - belonged to a priest you once met - and you contextualize the overwhelming oddity of encountering such a malevolent shadowy non-thing - by anthropomorphising this Shadow with the kind words and soft voice of that priest you once met. For how else does a warlock, who knows so much of the commonly forbidden magic - come to understand the grim visage before them. I am not a demon, nor a priest - you perceive me to be the form of a night elf, to have her soft voice - but you know also that I am not the priest you once knew: I cannot be, for she is long dead. I am the void incarnate, and I am toying with your memories.

My assumptions were, are and probably will be that Warlocks were intended to be Dark Casters and Shadow Priests are the guinea pigs that turn out to form an identity of their own that is partially snatched from Warlocks. Hell, even the fact that Shadowform was intended to be a Warlock skill has been listed in past-vanilla trivia.

If you start with bad assumptions, the conclusion is often bad as well. We aren't guinea pigs for warlocks, our identity is not snatched from warlocks - warlocks have plenty of Hot Topic identity with their demons and their fire and their blood sacrificing. Warlocks are Metal - they're straight from a Dio soundtrack or more like a Tenacious D song:



Shadowpriests are more like Moonlight Sonata, we're a different character entirely. Also, please source the Shadowform originally being a Warlock spell bit - I've never heard that before (especcially since Shadowform was in WoW Beta, and there are Shadowpriests in the original warcraft games).

Therefore, Priest is a spiritual individual, while Warlocks are about Chaotic magics. Why would the latter be ignorant to the Void aka space or dark beyond and the first be a naturally fit? Because that is what developers want to do with the whole thing, not prime lore fact at all. Next thing is, let's give Priest a "Black Hole" spell or a spell that obliterates towns using the power of darkness. Yea right and let's have the mind-theme as well so that there is no aspect of "Darkness" left to Warlocks. Ah and don't forget a fourth priest spec called "Affliction" as in "Depression", given that Priests can manipulate emotions! Yay!

I don't even really know how to respond to this - warlocks are way over-represented in lore - everyone is a warlock in WoW history. By contrast, Shadowpriests are unseen and unheard of - but that's how we roll. Warlocks have tons of conceptual room in the lore to be sorcerers and demon-summoners and mages-gone-bad - they make Faustian bargains and perform blood sacrifices. Darkness and the Void really aren't all that much a warlock thing - that's Shadow's territory. Shadowpriests for example, wouldn't summon a black hole to consume a town - that kind of showboating is for warlocks.

We might subvert the will of the township to our desires or push them into a spiral of depression whereupon they all find themselves hiking the winding mountain path to the Lumber Mill above town - and then walking off one by one in a fit of hysteric sorrow. When SI:7 comes to investigate they do not find a crater of devastation - but merely an unanswerable mystery of mass suicide: that is the difference between us.

My conclusion as of my current observations is that the whole Fel-obsession by the majority of the fans (not me) tends to ruin the dark aspect of Warlocks and I will most likely stick solely to my Priest from now on. What I find ridiculous to accept though, is that Priests were intended to be that way from the very beginning. If you really want to tackle this proposition, you better not be biased and have some decent Warlock-lore knowledge. Like I do on both these classes and lack bias on top of it.

We were intended to be that way - bust out some of your lore that says we were not please. The Warlock community is not obsessed with Fel Magic - that is the defining obsession of Warlocks - it is what separates them from the Mages who eschew such magic. You seem to just have Spriest-envy, I think? Join us young warlock, give up your mortality - find solace in dark places

[Venaliter]

"QUICK, Greg, we need two more Priest talents to preview for our WoD powerpoint tomorrow! We only have Divine Clarity ready!"

"Hell, just throw two more talents together. They'll never know the difference!" -Blizzcon 2013

[Oneirophobia]

Does Power of the Void replace Devouring plague? Hmmm

I'm confused and not sure I am fond of any of them really. None of them look particularly cool. Useful maybe, buuut. I'm thinking my DK or Druid may be my WOD toon.

[Yvaelle]

Does Power of the Void replace Devouring plague? Hmmm

I'm confused and not sure I am fond of any of them really. None of them look particularly cool. Useful maybe, buuut. I'm thinking my DK or Druid may be my WOD toon.

No it would be in addition to DP - if you are familiar with rogues at all - it would akin to keeping up Rupture and then using additional combo points to Eviscerate ideally - although that's not how it would work out in practice. In reality we'd only take it for Council fights where we could multidot Void Entropy if it were better than DP - and then use a different talent the rest of the fights where DP would be a better choice.

[Vilbu]

I don't want to spoil but I think it is safe to say that the talents might go over some changes. What happened with our talent tiers between blizzcon 2011 and mop launch?

[Alanar]

No it would be in addition to DP - if you are familiar with rogues at all - it would akin to keeping up Rupture and then using additional combo points to Eviscerate ideally - although that's not how it would work out in practice. In reality we'd only take it for Council fights where we could multidot Void Entropy if it were better than DP - and then use a different talent the rest of the fights where DP would be a better choice.

Obviously this is just speculation and we don't know yet if any of these will alter any of your existing abilities.
Maybe it does replace DP or maybe it doesn't. (It was hinted they will alter or give extras to your existing spells)

I think the first talent looks allot more promising altering the actual gameplay by using mindspike and even change your mastery. People saying this is just for adds is blinded. Why would you pick a talent just for adds as the final tier..?
I fer sure see something here where we eventually change our core gameplay.

The 1 who gives you orbs with ur Apparitions is just flat out boring. This should either be a passive you get allong the way or completely remove it.
Why all this RNG stuff for us? I always hated FDCL cus of that. Now we get another thing where we don't really have control over.

People just stacking critt to non stop use Dp doesn't really seem interesting or fun in my eyes.

I am still really skeptical about all this.. I see issues with the first talent for us to use Mindspike more.. means more easy lockouts?

idk.. hope we get more info on this soon.