BlizzCon Chakra: what's been said.

[zito]

What happened to removing the base 25% bonus and giving it more spells?

Thanks GC.... for forgetting... and then giving it a 15 sec CD which ya know... could of done.... a year ago?

I feel like the reduced CD is a cop out of stance dancing. Its not exactly stance dancing but its still close to it which I guess is enough gratification since they don't like stance dancing for some reason.

[kenn9530]

all you need is yellow chakra and occasionally the dps one, the blue one sucks, when played correctly the yellow has much more healing potential than aoe heals in blue

[zito]

all you need is yellow chakra and occasionally the dps one, the blue one sucks, when played correctly the yellow has much more healing potential than aoe heals in blue

considering that the blue one increases ST heals I should hope yellow is better for aoe...

[Deleted]

considering that the blue one increases ST heals I should hope yellow is better for aoe...

Actually YELLOW increases single target heals and BLUE increases AoE.

And kenn, blue IS better for AoE throughput. There is no denying the power of the PoH,CoH,PoM(DI) spam in blue chakra, or the Glyphed BH,BH,PoH rotations. The thing is that serenity provides greater flexibility and control. Blue is a blanket AoE power, serenity can provide multiple target healing and tools to better deal with spikes. I rarely go sanctuary if I can help it. I much prefer serenity. For predictable large AoE damage spikes I try to "Bank" serendipity in the form of 2xSerendipity with Devout Faith and 2 Flash Heal procs at the ready from FDCL. As soon as the damage hits, you get a massive PoH, 2 instant cast spike equalisers and another massive PoH. Possibly even with a PoM proc or two going on too. That generally is more than sufficient for most burst damage situations. Tie this in with a few renews on most vulnerable party members already placed and a cascade JUST as the damage happens, you're good as gold.

If there is a moment where you need to go Sanctuary for whatever reason (Bonecrushers on Galakras, Thok P1) you should be mindful of when you can afford to go back and do so as soon as possible.

[Venaliter]

GC never answers to me on Twitter anymore. Seems like not enough people care. Granted, there are like 14 holy priests worldwide or something...

Me either. I wonder if Holinka and GC blocked me due to occasional sarcasm ;-)

What happened to removing the base 25% bonus and giving it more spells?

That's the plan. They've kinda been hinting at going like that for a year now. They've said changes like this are best done in an expansion.

If Blizzard will still ignore the problem with Chakra I'm up for signing any petition you'd like.

I'm telling you. Change.org. "Priests for equal WoD design treatment!" :P

[zito]

Actually YELLOW increases single target heals and BLUE increases AoE.

I never payed attention to the colors tbh. I thought the blue was purple till I actually looked at it

That's the plan. They've kinda been hinting at going like that for a year now. They've said changes like this are best done in an expansion.

Right now though it seems like they scrapped that plan

[Deleted]

The last thing holy needs is MORE spells.

[zito]

The last thing holy needs is MORE spells.

Agreed

What I don't get is why they are against stance dancing aka chakra dancing. Holy is balanced according to the 25% bonus so they will be on par with other healers, other healers don't have to go into a specific stance to be competitive in whatever they are doing. Switching between effective aoe and ST healing is just switching spells for other healers. Yet for holy priests you need to swap a chakra first before you pull competitive numbers in that role.

And chakra dancing gives it something unique compared to other healers, but for some reason its looked down on...

[kenn9530]

Actually YELLOW increases single target heals and BLUE increases AoE.

And kenn, blue IS better for AoE throughput. There is no denying the power of the PoH,CoH,PoM(DI) spam in blue chakra, or the Glyphed BH,BH,PoH rotations. The thing is that serenity provides greater flexibility and control. Blue is a blanket AoE power, serenity can provide multiple target healing and tools to better deal with spikes. I rarely go sanctuary if I can help it. I much prefer serenity. For predictable large AoE damage spikes I try to "Bank" serendipity in the form of 2xSerendipity with Devout Faith and 2 Flash Heal procs at the ready from FDCL. As soon as the damage hits, you get a massive PoH, 2 instant cast spike equalisers and another massive PoH. Possibly even with a PoM proc or two going on too. That generally is more than sufficient for most burst damage situations. Tie this in with a few renews on most vulnerable party members already placed and a cascade JUST as the damage happens, you're good as gold.

If there is a moment where you need to go Sanctuary for whatever reason (Bonecrushers on Galakras, Thok P1) you should be mindful of when you can afford to go back and do so as soon as possible.

Yellow is better in every situation, as in blue most of the time that extra bit of healing you get from aoe heals is wasted in overhealing, as where in yellow you use the instants on whoever needs them the most, renew blanketing and refreshing with cascade and your other instants is a much better way to heal, not to mention the amount of mobility you gain.

basically all healers need something to store up overhealing in some way to use it later on.

[Deleted]

Yellow is better in every situation, as in blue most of the time that extra bit of healing you get from aoe heals is wasted in overhealing, as where in yellow you use the instants on whoever needs them the most, renew blanketing and refreshing with cascade and your other instants is a much better way to heal, not to mention the amount of mobility you gain.

basically all healers need something to store up overhealing in some way to use it later on.

So you would use Yellow Chakra during Jinrokh Thunderstorm, Megaera Rampage, Norushen, Malkorok and Thok then?

- - - Updated - - -

Agreed

What I don't get is why they are against stance dancing aka chakra dancing. Holy is balanced according to the 25% bonus so they will be on par with other healers, other healers don't have to go into a specific stance to be competitive in whatever they are doing. Switching between effective aoe and ST healing is just switching spells for other healers. Yet for holy priests you need to swap a chakra first before you pull competitive numbers in that role.

And chakra dancing gives it something unique compared to other healers, but for some reason its looked down on...

I think chakra dancing is necessary, but I think it mustn't be without any penalty. The PvP chakra cooldown of 5 seconds would be sufficient. A holy priest able to throw off a Serenity-FH-FH-GH for single target burst then instantly put down a useful Sanctuary (I live in hope) then be PoH,CoH,PoM spamming for AoE, then able to output obscene burst dps instantly afterwards would be frankly TOO versatile in my opinion.

[kenn9530]

So you would use Yellow Chakra during Jinrokh Thunderstorm, Megaera Rampage, Norushen, Malkorok and Thok then?

Yes i would and have done it many times on hc, the paragon priest only switched between red and yellow while solo healing hc garosh, on thok healing like this is even better due to pretty much everything being instant, and the aoe heals even in yellow are still strong, malkarok is more about managing shields than aoe healing, norushen is just a steady stream of damage thats ideal for instants and 2sett16 PoHs, it would be a very rare situation where blue would be better. when i get a proper holy set instead of regemming/reforging from disc i will use this much more often 2 healing hcs

[zito]

I think chakra dancing is necessary, but I think it mustn't be without any penalty. The PvP chakra cooldown of 5 seconds would be sufficient. A holy priest able to throw off a Serenity-FH-FH-GH for single target burst then instantly put down a useful Sanctuary (I live in hope) then be PoH,CoH,PoM spamming for AoE, then able to output obscene burst dps instantly afterwards would be frankly TOO versatile in my opinion.

No? Like I said other healers don't have to stance changing like Holy priests to be effective in that certain role (ST or aoe healing) they just do it. While Holys is limited to a long ass CD.

[Venaliter]

I think chakra dancing is necessary, but I think it mustn't be without any penalty.

This would only be applicable if Chakra was a straight up buff; meaning a Holy Priest in the correct Chakra would have to be unmatched at AE/ST healing while in the correct Chakra. Queue the other healers screaming in rage.

No? Like I said other healers don't have to stance changing like Holy priests to be effective in that certain role (ST or aoe healing) they just do it. While Holys is limited to a long ass CD.

Yeah. Chakra +healing modifers must go. That's the big one.

I must say, Deleze, defending PotV AND Chakra will not put you on my Christmas card list - or any other priest - but it might get you a job working for Blizzard :P How do you feel about Lightwell?

[Deleted]

I must say, Deleze, defending PotV AND Chakra will not put you on my Christmas card list - or any other priest - but it might get you a job working for Blizzard :P How do you feel about Lightwell?

By disagreeing I am not saying that you don't have a point, or that you are not in any way correct; I am simply sharing how *I* feel about the talents in a subjective manner. I am in not any way defending them in saying that they're the *best* option, but trying to look on the brightside and enjoy using what I have, which to me is fundamental in enjoying the game. I don't particularly like QQing about what could be better and hating on mechanics or spells (though my rants about proving grounds are infamous) but looking at what *can* be enjoyed by them. I like having some major weaknesses in a class, because it presents a nice challenge in attempting to work around them and improve my performance regardless of any barrier. But at the end of the day, this is a game; getting frustrated over the CD of chakra or the uselessness of Lightwell is absolutely counterproductive to what one does in a game. You have fun. There's no point getting bogged down in what Holy currently is or isn't: current holy is what current holy is and next expac, holy will be what holy is going to be, and I will enjoy it all the same.

Edit: For the record, I think that Lightwell is disgracefully bad, but lightspring is good.

[Blachshma]

Sry to throw a bone, but i like chakra. But the main problem is that it is feels now not as a bonus, but instead of a malus if you are in the wrong stance. Blizzard should make 20% of the 25% heal baseline, and make chakra increase our heal st/aoe by 10% (and make the holy word spells more powerful). In Chastise the healing should be reduced by 25%. Chakra can have 30 second cd, but like already said up to 2 charges.

Chakra is not bad itself, but it should feel like a bonus if you are in the right stance rather than being a malus when you are in the wrong stance. Yes in the wrong one it should have an small penalty, but not as big as it is now.

Chakra doesn't have a bad name and it doesn't have a bad graphical effect, that's pretty much the only positive things I can say about it. I disagree with your whole post, Chakra is a penality and there's no other way to look at it. If you're in the AoE Chakra, you're not doing superior AoE healing to other healers, you are just in line with them, and at the same time your ST heals are vastly inferior, so I fail to see the versatility or fun factor here. Those stances are a curse and have been big part to what makes hpriests pretty much not exist in recent raid tiers.

Now, Blizz wants to give us decision making, fine, I'm down with that. But NOT a decision between heals we need now and...heals we also need now. Keeping the cd and giving charges won't solve anything, reducing the cd to 15 seconds won't solve anything, Chakra is the curse of any 10m raiding priest and also for 25m priest who want to feel a bit more useful and use their whole toolkit. The current Chakra lets you choose which foot to shoot, that's it, and it doesn't enhance the foot you still have by anything.

[Danner]

The current Chakra lets you choose which foot to shoot, that's it, and it doesn't enhance the foot you still have by anything.

Magnificently said! <3

[HDPriest]

I played Holy exclusively (my Priest was always my main character) from the end of Vanilla when I started playing until the Arthas fight where I was ordered to bubble bot. I even refused to level as Shadow until dual-spec was available in case I got a dungeon group. Cata hit, and I launched up my Holy all ready to heal the broken world! Then they kept messing with Chakra. Each itineration was worse. Yes, I'd rather have the "cast certain spells to get a buff" than this stance-with-a-CD crap. They broke Holy for me. I've tried to go back, but it just feels so wrong in 10mans now.

Being fair, I love what they've done with Disc - I really do. I love being able to do moderate DPS in low healing phases, good tank healing, excellent mitigation (I like getting better as I learn the fights and making my Druid cohealer cry because I didn't leave her anything to heal), and solid raid healing. All the flexibility that I loved as Holy and then some. I don't want them to fix Holy because I don't have a healing spec I enjoy in the class. I want them to fix Holy because we are the only class with 2 healing options, and they shouldn't make one of them so bad that no one wants to play them. Blach's statement about Chakra just letting you choose which foot to shoot is right on imo. I don't feel flexible or buffed by being in the right Chakra - I feel handicapped any time there's unpredictable or spiky damage going on.

[ramennoodleking]

Surprise, the panel of "ideas for improved abilities between 91-100" included an 'amped up' Chakra. And of course by amped up we mean here's a 15 second cooldown which addresses absolutely shit-all about the problems with the ability itself.

During the Q&A session, Ghostcrawler was asked about it as sort of a P.S. of another question and while I don't have a transcript, he said something to the effects of "We've always sort of liked the idea of you're really awesome at one thing like this, and awesome at another thing but that doesn't seem to work out for us"

Which is a horrible bastardizarion, forgive me for having a shoddy memory, feel free to post a real transcript if you'd like. But it's at least comforting to know that even Greg acknowledges their pet project of enforcing stances as something that isn't really working out and needs fixing.

Also did anyone hear if they answered my state of mana question? I was too busy trying not to lock up completely to dedicate it to memory.

Kel <3 Sorry had to get that out.

Honestly, I was too pissed about 20 mythic to pay attention to anything else.

[Viridis]

While I never PvE, I adore chakras in PvP, with the 4-set bonus. Swapping in and out of chakras regularly to chastise, throw a quick circle of healing, etc. feels really fun, and I hope they don't change it dramatically. It seems rather annoying with the cooldown in PvE, though, I definitely get that complaint. If it was a 30 second CD in PvP I would never switch, except maybe in a well organized kill-setup to chastise someone into a fear.

[Deleted]

I've played all three priest specs to varying degrees over the years, and I want to love Holy as much as the other two. The main reason I play Holy MS at the moment is because we have two disc priests already , and there's no room for a third. My guild insist on keeping me as a healer with a dps offspec. I did enjoy Holy pre all this chakra crap, and I want to enjoy it again.

The problem I have with it is, as other people have mentioned, it's NOT a bonus to be in the right chakra at the right time, and it's too punishing if you get it wrong. It shouldn't be the thing that brings us up to par with other healers, it should be a bonus. If GC wants it to feel like a resource, then make it a resource. How to do that without it being just another Holy Power type mechanic, I don't know (my brain is thinking along the lines of a holy version of shadow orbs for megaheelz but that's too Holy Power esque)- but it just feels like a chain around my ankle holding me back, not a button I want to press to unleash the awesomeness of my spec.